Japanese tournaments and players

Hello people,

I'll be back after a prolonged absence due to not having internet at home.

I was wondering if somebody, especially those living in Japan, could give us a bit of an update regarding the arcade scene for VFR5. If I'm not mistaken the game didn't make it to SBO 2008 so I wonder if Sega held or some arcades held any tournaments.

I see Ogikage uploaded a video of what seems to be the Bay Area cup, with Homestay single handedly beating the other team (which included Gorgeous)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzNH8OmiVMk&feature=channel_page

Beat Tribe (another final):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cF_jcD42qBo&feature=channel_page

Anyways, Homestay seems back in the game, super-Kages Jin and Koedo are still there. Any other big names? I see that Akira seems to be a lot stronger than in VF5 (as per the last posts in Akai's topic).

 

i noticed they seemed to have reworked a lot of akira's animations. Looks a lot better IMO. Glad to see it.