The first show is now officially in the can and all things considered, I think it went really well! We raised $134 over the course of about two hours and had a special surprise appearance from a mystery guest. There were some issues with lag and also with the logistics of getting the next players going, but overall, with 300 people in the chatroom at once, I’d say things went pretty well.
Thank you everyone for participating and donating, we are well on our way! Video after the jump…
[click to continue…]
Tagged as:
Mike Ross,
The Road to SBO
What is The Road To SBO?
As you may have heard me talk about on the Street Fighter Podcast last night, I’m starting a new show called The Road to SBO. The first goal of the show is to raise money for the SF4 and 3rd Strike teams that qualify for SBO at Denjin Arcade on June 6th. If you’re not familiar with SBO, it is the most prestigious fighting game tournament in the world and America only gets to send two teams out of the 32 teams total.
To raise the money, we’re going to have what will probably end up being something along the lines of a Street Fighter telethon. Myself and this week’s guest, Mike Ross, will be playing people over Xbox Live for donations and it’ll be streamed live on UFragTV tonight at 8PM 9PM PST. Tickets from Los Angeles to Japan are around $750-800 right now so between the five winners (three for 3rd Strike and two for SF4), that’s a total of approximately $4,000. Half of that is supposed to be paid for by Denjin Arcade, so our goal is $2,000. This is going to be a weekly show though and SBO isn’t till August so I believe it can be done. 
The Backstory
Last year I qualified for SBO in 3rd Strike with Justin Wong and kofiend at Midwest Championships in Northbrook, IL. They weren’t offering to cover part of the tickets and we were wondering how we were going to affoard the tickets. John Choi took it upon himself to raise money for us through the community to help us pay for the tickets. I wanted to give something back in return and started doing the Street Fighter Podcast in order to be proactive and also try to raise money.
SBO was pretty much the peak of my 3rd Strike career and what kicked off my success in the Street Fighter world and I am eternally grateful to my teammates Justin Wong and kofiend, John Choi and everyone else who donated to help get us there. It meant the world to me and now it’s my turn to try and make that happen for this year’s qualifiers because I believe I’m in a position to do so, so that is the motivation for doing this.
How can I participate?
We’re going to stream it on UFragTV tonight at 8PM PST so you know that the quality is going to be awesome and you can join us in the chat room when the show goes live.
We’re going to be taking donations through Paypal and all money will go to the winners. We’ll have someone organizing the next matches in the chat room so you’re going to need to make an account on UFragTV to participate.
How much do I need to donate?
Although all donations are accepted, the minimum donation to get a match with Mike and I on the show is:
- $5 for a single game of 2/3 rounds with either of us
- $10 for a two out of three set with either or both of us or some combination of us
- $20 for a three out of five set with either or both of us, e.g. two games with me, one with Mike if you win or vice versa
Remember, all the money goes to the teams who will represent America in Japan in August. These donation amounts may fluctuate though, depending on the interest generated.
Tagged as:
Mike Ross,
SBO 2009,
The Road to SBO
