If you’re in the Northern California Bay Area and looking for a fight this weekend, you should head on down to the San Jose Bar and Grill on Sunday, September 5th, at for the public debut of the formerly private fightclub known as Keystone II.

Keystone II isn’t a traditional tournament, or even the world’s biggest gathering, but it’s always been very special to me because it feels like the kind of place I grew up playing games–in sketchy arcades. When I moved to California as a fresh-faced kid from the innocent meat-packing districts of Chicago to the mean streets of San Jose CA, “Keystone II” was the first place to make me feel like “Hrm, ok. Maybe these guys are cool after all.”

It was a magical place that really kept the rowdy, friendly, spirit, but also had real rivalries and hard-fought matches.

I haven’t posted invitations to Keystone on the blog before because, being just at Albert’s house, it’s already packed to the gills, and you can’t just invite everyone and their mom. Nevertheless, for years now, Albert has brought as many stray Street Fighters into the warmth of his private arcade as he could, but eventually his neighbors had had enough.

This Sunday, he’s embarking on a new experiment for Keystone II at the San Jose Bar & Grill. I’m up at PAX this weekend, but I’d encourage everyone nearby to go and check it out. It’s put together by some really great guys, and the Keystone competition includes truly world-class players like Ricky Ortiz, John Choi, and more. The action runs from 2pm til 10pm–plenty of time for some great matches and epic shenanigans–exactly as it should be.

If you’re not in NorCal this weekend, go forth and find your local equivalent. It’s events like this that make the Street Fightin’ world go round, so support your scene, have some fun, and make some friends. And then beat them senseless.

<3 Keystone II