It's A Serious Business

Supposedly tadi pagi pukul 10 ada exam Instrumentasi Kimia 1. Tapi macam biasa, Prof Bo ni susah sikit nak predict. Dia bukan tipikal prof. Dengan selambanya dia masuk kuliah dan kata "Exam akan kita buat lepas cuti. Sini macam sempit sangat. Lagipun saya nak bagi sikit ulangkaji untuk kamu semua." 

Cool prof.

Habis kelas ulangkaji, terus gerak isi minyak motor. Alang2 dah kat luar...pecut motor ke Alamanda. Lama sudah tak ke sana. Tujuan cuma satu. Mahu lepas rindu pada Tekken.

Sampai dalam pukul 1 tengahari, memang tak ada orang pun. Main lah sorang2... Kemudian brader pekerja situ, Lee, challenge aku. Dia pakai 3 karekter tukar2. Aku cuma Steve saja. Niat nak polish skill Steve. Result?

Kalah. Tipis. 3. Kali. Berturut. Turut.

Then kitorang sembang2. Sembang perihal Tekken.

Banyak topik yang diutarakan. Mulanya dia tanya yang aku ni memang baru belajar pakai Steve ka? Yes memang kira baru jugak la. Dia kagum, sebab katanya Steve adalah karakter paling payah nak buat combo. Dia ada belajar sekerat jalan saja, fed up sebab susah sangat. Dia kagum aku boleh pakai Steve tahap boleh buat combo (walaupun kadang2 sangkut).

Kembang sikit hidung ni.

Then sembang2 lagi pasal watak favourite dan watak paling tak disukai masing2. Pasal speciality setiap watak. Apa kelebihan dan kelemahan masing2. Pastu sembang pasal special moves. How to do low parry, how to escape grabs, how to do launch...how to do some of Steve's combo moves. Then pasal how to do the back-dash cancel move (yang akan buatkan user tu 99% invincible kalau execute betul2). Then pasal top2 players around the world...

You see, i never thought he knew so much as that. Luckily I also have knowledge about Tekken and it's world. It started with a simple fight of 3 rounds, then we talked for about half an hour. Amazing isn't it?

He told me about the otai2 tekken in Malaysia. He said that if I want to see (if berani, challenge) the super otai2 tekken main, i should visit Mines arcade around 9-11 pm. He said that is the period where all the mahaguru-mahadewa Tekken sekitar Serdang-Bangi bertarung. 

Actually I was wondering on how the hell some people managed to master 4,5,6, sometimes all characters in Tekken. Just imagine, I played only Christie for 5 years and still got bullied at arcade machine. Lately I try to learn Steve (and of course lagi teruk kena belasah). That means I only know to use 2 characters. In 6 years, 2 characters are like a heaven task for me to master. So, how come to master all 40????

There are some people, who master all 40 characters.

Lee said that he knew one chinese ni who worked at a hair saloon. Work from 10 till 6pm. Finished, go straight back home. Have dinner, mandi then switch on his PS3. He got PSNetwork, he played online amongst the players all around the world. How many hours? From 8pm till 4-5 am. That means 8 or 9 hours per day. 8 HOURS PER DAY. Apa gila punya hardcore ni?

Oh yes, Malaysian also have a WORLD CLASS PLAYER. In world championship 2010 (not sure the full name of the tournament), one Eddy Gordo user from Malaysia went there and compete. Don't know about the result samada dia menang ke tidak, but one thing for sure that amongst the Tekken community he is regarded as the best Eddy user in the world. That one hell of a recognition bro. Korea have (as far i know) Steve and Bryan, America have Jack6, Japanese have Dragunov. Malaysia have Eddy!! 

Oh wonder how they pick someone to represent the country? I don't know whether this is done officially or just informal but it is said the best otai2 in Malaysia compete amongst them first. The champion got sent to the world tournament. So imagine, kalau brader cina biasa2 pun main 8 jam sehari, yang wakil Malaysia ni tahap mana training dia?

During the years of Tekken 4 and 5, i used to take Tekken as a simple-easygoing game just to hentam2 member/adik dalam game. But know my perception has changed. This Tekken game is a serious business. People willing to spend berpuluh2 ringgit untuk sekali main dekat arked. Tak tipu ni. For my previous visits to Times Square arcade center, there I found players ranging from schoolboys to uni students to white collar workers. Even anne standard muka anne cleaner lantai pun main pro habis. Ada sekali tu waktu kat sana, datang seorang brader cina umur dalam 30 an. Pakai baju kemeja company apa tah. Datang, duduk dan main. Kat atas board, dia letak seuncang token. Yes, seuncang. Sebijik macam dalam cerita P. Ramlee Abi Baba Bujang Lapuk. Dasyat....

Banyak lagi benda yang disembang2 dengan Lee. Tapi cukupla takat ni. Untuk skill tekken aku, i know that i will never reach the pro level unless i'm willing to dedicate my soul to 8 hours of Tekken daily. Gila. Aku pun ada kerja lain nak kena buat. But that's what i want to say. Tekken is a serious game. You are not likely to see budak2 sekolah rendah main Tekken kat pusat arked. Mostly adalah budak uni dan brader2 yang dah kerja. Why? Because the mechanism and system of the game is high-level. It needs dedication to understand and practice. It needs passion to stay in love with the game.

Seriously if there is a tournament at KLCC/ MidValley/ TimesSquare, i really want to go and see it. Want to get immersed in the world of Tekken. Tengok saja, tak join.