Back by popular demand (thank you to all those who are voting in the poll), Frank brings to you part 2 in the “Seattle History Lessons” series. In part 2, Frank goes into detail about one of competitive fighting gaming’s most famous title: Marvel VS Capcom 2. From game mechanics to rivalries at the time (back in 2000), Frank exposes exactly what the game was like in it’s heyday. Aside from MvC2, Frank also goes on to talk about the people he met during the time. So without further delay, here it is, “Seattle History Lessons: Part 2!”

Part 2:  Gonna Take You For a Ride…. “

Hey!  Why don’t you step over and play a real man’s game!  Marvel SUCKS!” – Paris

16 characters and 36 “?” boxes.  Delayed hyper combos (DHC), team hyper combos (THC), 3v3 teams…  MvC2 was MvC1 but 100 times better.  The line of quarters that would sit on (and many times off) the cabinet showed that this game was something else.  Slowly my time playing Tekken Tag came to a halt (Paris wasn’t pleased by this), but I had become obsessed with MvC2. I would learn DHC’s, strats for my teams, and anytime a new character would be unlocked, I’d test them out and see if they would be a benefit to my team (that’s how my first competitive team of Psylocke/Tron/Storm came about).  Super Joe had gotten a job at Orange Julius up at Southcenter Mall, and would frequent the legendary arcade “Silver Coin.” He would let us know which secret character would be unlocked next, followed with how he would beast on all of us with characters like Cammy, Magneto and Bone Wolverine.  A lot of times it was all talk and my team of Psylocke/Jill/Tron would demoralize these new characters he’d bring to the table. There were rivalries in the south end.   “Ricky Martin” would come in and dominate with his cheap ‘gun,gun,gun,gun, viper beam’ strategies.  I thought it was stupid that Cable was so buff, and I refused to pick Cable to win.  There were the “Lakewood scrubs” and players from South Hill mall as well.  They got dominated on by the Tacoma Crew.  Every now and then, Lee “mastermind,” Francis “Awesome Jones,” and Sherwin would come over from Silverdale and give us a run for our money.  I would actually pick up a lot of tricks and ideas from Sherwin’s Tron, which would lead to many Tron comebacks in my marvel career.  It wasn’t until I went 2 and out at my first tournament at the Sea-Tac Tilt did I realize I had a lot to learn about being competitive in this game.  But one fateful day lead me to find the perfect training partner…

“Sweet mary mother jahoseph!  Sentinel is CHEEEEAP!” – Frankdadank

I got to know more and more people around Tacoma that would play MvC2.  I was pretty stunned to find some friends from highs school that played too.  The first click that I befriended was of course “the shit talking crew”: myself, KrazyKoreanFrank, Mr. Whitefolks and Guarddog, along with Paris and Super Joe.   I would go over to Ed’s (Mr. Whitefolks) house and we’d just smoke cigarettes and play marvel till the wee hours of the morning.  I finally picked up a Dreamcast mysel, and a copy of Marvel, but playing on the DC pad just wasn’t cutting it.  I missed my chance for the rare “Green Stick,” but I heard from Guarddog that they had some “CvS1 ASCII” sticks at his workplace.  I decided I’d go in and test it out, and if I liked it, I’d go ahead and buy one.

Gamer’s Edge to those outside of Tacoma would be just another random videogame store trying to compete with Gamestop.  But to those in Tacoma, it was THE place to go for any new games available here or from Japan.  They had employees that knew their shit, and would even let you try out games, or in this case sticks.  So I walk in and see Guarddog at the counter, bored (as always), and asked him to let me test that stick out.  I made my way over to the TV with the Dreamcast and Marvel already in there, and past this young guy with the Japanese copy of MvC2 in his hands.  I assumed his parents bought him the wrong copy and he was trying to get the American one but I didn’t pay no mind to it.

Guarddog tells the kid he’d be with him in a moment as he made his way towards me.  I told him about this sick combo I came up with for my team “Psylocke/Tron/Storm” and that he HAD to check it out.  Forgetting about the kid at the counter, he just stayed and watched as I started a combo exhibition on the training dummy.  This piqued the kid’s attention, and he started making his way over towards us.  Seeing as the show off I was, I started pulling of all the combos Mr. Whitefolks and I were working on for “pimptown vol. 1.”  As this was going on, we began to start conversing and the kid mentioned he’d seen me at the arcade a few times (ego booster, more flashy combos).  Now normally I don’t really like talking to people that I don’t know, but it seemed like we already knew each other.  He didn’t piss me off with stupid questions, and he grasped everything I was talking about so I didn’t have to repeat myself.  Guarddog came to break it up and asked if I’d buy the stick (which was working great).  I told him I would and asked when he was off, and if he was going to Mr. Whitefolk’s house tonight.  On a whim I asked the kid if he wanted to go too.  He said he would
but had to catch the bus.

F:  ”Hey man, I can give you a ride home.”
?:  ” Really? Tight!”
F:  ” No problem.  The name’s Frank.  What’s yours?”
?:  ”The name’s Mandel.”
F:  “So what were you doing with your copy of MvC2?”
M:  ”Actually I was about to sell it, but after seeing the shit you pulled, Ima’ hold onto mine for a bit hahahahaha.”

The rest of 2000 was spent, with us playing MvC2, dabbling into CvS1, and playing TTT after it came out on PS2.  Ed went ahead and got the Battle at the Bay 4 (B4) tape (yes, VHS tape) and we would watch some of Cali’s finest like, Jason Cole, Alex Valle, John Choi, Viscant, Clockw0rk, play their hearts out to such games as MvC2, Alpha 2 and 3, Super Turbo and Third Strike, (little known fact, Wenzel was the only person to go down to represent Seattle). But it was Duc Do, and his unorthodox team (at the time) of Spiral/Cable/Sent that really opened people’s eyes and brought forth the “trap era” of Marvel. Many top teams had a mix of Cable, Sentinel, Cyclops, Blackheart, Spiral, and Strider/Doom.  B4 came and went and Cali was THE place to go to test your game against the best. However two teenagers, one in NY one in Seattle, were quietly getting their own games up to speed.  Over the next two years each would step up and not only dominate on their own scenes, but would also clean up shop in Cali, and other parts of the US, that would lead to one of the first big rivalries in MvC2.  Their names are Rowtron, and Justin Wong.