I'm drawing a blank for EVO. I'm excited for EVO and all, but I'm also very very very very very nervous too. The LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAST thing I want to do is not make it out of my pool and place low at the biggest MB event like...ever. I'd never be able to forgive myself for placing so low, knowing I'm capable of at least getting top 16...I dunno, maybe I'm just expecting way too much out of myself this time around. My friends keep telling me that I'll do just fine just like how I did at Final Round, but I keep having thoughts in my head about placing horribly or just choking during a critical moment in a match and losing because of it. I already did that at Final Round and I still got away with getting 3rd. I know that will not fly at Evolution so I have to make sure I'm at 110% at EVO.
I'm also having thoughts about switching off of F-Ciel and possibly picking up C-Ciel for EVO. Reason being is that sometimes whenever I play I get the feeling that F-Ciel is really holding me back in some match-ups. What people don't realize about my character is that despite how great her rushdown seems to be...the only thing you really have to be scared of is her guard crushing ability and that's ONLY if I have more than 200% meter. Outside of her rushdown...she really doesn't have anything else that makes her scary. Her rushdown loses mostly to down/back, her overheads are terrible. They're blockable on reaction, you can toss her out of them if she's close enough which is a problem because no matter how you space them out you ALWAYS have the threat of someone mashing you out of them. Also her mixup game is just plain pitiful. F-Ciel's biggest problem is that she has no way to make you afraid of her...no way to open people up their defense. Overall the only thing that F-Ciel has going for her is her rushdown and once you figure that out she's pretty easy to lame out and beat. A friend of mine was telling me that it would probably be better if I switched to C-Ciel if I truly felt that way and I may just have to do that. Now you ask why don't I just play the top tier and be done with it. Well...to answer that question...none of the top tier fits my playstyle at all and they don't interest me in anyway. Also I really don't feel as though I have to do that to myself. Even if I wanted to pick a top tier I don't think I'd have it in me to learn a top tier character in 5 weeks so I really don't have a choice except to stick to what I know which just so happens to be the character I hate sometimes...Ciel :\.
The only other thing I can really talk about is the comp that's going to be there. To be honest the only people and characters I'm worried about are Zar (F-Mech) and XAQshinor (C-W.Len). Everyone else I'm actually feeling pretty confident that I can beat. Yeah yeah I know what and what about Lordknight? To tell you the truth...I'm not really worried about losing to him and if I do happen to lose to him I can assure you that it'll be a closer game as opposed to what it was at Final Round. Everyone else in the country I honestly feel as though I'm either better than them (at best) or even with them (at worst). I really don't see anyone in the US completely dominating me even though I'm playing F-Ciel. I don't see myself as the best player in the country obviously, but I know how good I am and I proved multiple times that I can hang with the best and if ECT2 vids are anything to go by...well I can just say that I can rest a bit easier knowing that EC isn't as godlike as everyone makes them out to be. IMHO, EC as a whole isn't TOO far ahead from the top players from other regions. Mind you I've always thought of the EC players as just another group of players...nothing too special. Their players drop combos/setups just like everyone else. It just sort of bothers me that everyone else loves to make EC as the greatest thing since sliced bread for MB and IMO they're not that much better than everyone else. Hopefully at EVO everyone else will decide to step it up instead of constantly sucking off EC and their top players as if they're the only region to have top players...which couldn't be anymore wrong.