Spider Muttons Productions © 2010 is back with the second episode of the Don’t be a Scrub Podcast and our guest is none other than Melbourne’s own Heavy Weapons. He is one of Melbourne’s best players, and is very candid, outspoken, and always entertaining.

This time Igor/Spider Carnage is the one conducting the interview, which is good because I feel he has a stronger vocal presence than me. I have also transcribed this interview for you guys, hope you all enjoy it. Be warned, there’s a lot of NSFW language in this interview, but we simply couldn’t have an interview with Heavy Weapons any other way. Kick it off, Spider!

Don’t be a Scrub Podcast Episode 2: Heavy Weapons

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DBAS Podcast Ep. 2 96 kb/s version

Igor: Brief introduction:

Hi everyone we are here at Chris’s clubhouse. Today is the 23^rd [of October] and today I have with me a man who really needs no introduction for the Melbourne scene. He’s definitely one of the top players in Melbourne; he very regularly places in the top 8 at the monthly ranbats at Couch Warriors. (Melbourne’s monthly ranking battles). What more can I say; the man has a lot of passion for this game. He mains Sagat and Ryu and I am talking about Mr. Heavy Weapons.

Thank you for joining me this evening.

Heavy Weapons: Thank you for having me.

1. Ok every interview out there always starts off by asking a little bit about their past, so who am I to buck the trend. Why don’t you tell us a little about how you got into fighting games?

Basically just the original starting point for me, like a lot of people around my age, was Street Fighter II: World Warrior. [I] then got into the extensions of [Street Fighter II], [but I] kinda phased out [playing Street Fighter] once I got past fourteen or fifteen. Not for any reason actually in particular, yeah but it was SFII days and I keep making the mistake as if it was champion edition or tournament edition but that game was [what] I was heavily into at the time.  Back in those days I played mainly Ryu, and a bit of Sagat. But yeah, it was mainly Ryu, and Sagat was sort of my other character. But I used to like Ryu because I really liked the character.

Um then with SF4, I was randomly just walking past Bluehouse one time (a Melbourne Chinatown arcade). And at the time, I used to just get a kick out of playing Tekken, just mucking around, it wasn’t anything serious. ‘Cause me and my friends used to just muck around with Tekken, not at my house but at another friend’s house. Just mucking around, for the fuck of it. Nothing serious.

Then I actually stepped into the arcade, and I was playing Tekken. And then I noticed, fuck, new Street Fighter! And I think it was like two months maybe, or three [months] tops, after the game had come out. I saw the game and I go oh, what’s this? This looks way different.

And I played a little bit of Alpha, but fuckin’ hardly at all. I also played a bit of [Street Fighter] EX, but not serious again at all. Just dabbled into it, [a] tiny bit. So then I saw [SF4] in the arcade, played it. No one was actually there at the arcade at the time, except for Eddie, Ero_Oyaji. He saw me playing Tekken, and then he saw me playing SF, and then he would have been like “This guy’s a fucking king fimbler”. All I was doing was just fireball uppercut you know, because I hadn’t played in years, I was very, very, very bad, very rusty, very shit to say the least.

Played it, and I thought oh yeah, fuck, this game feels pretty fun, but it looked really technical. When I first played it I was like what the hell’s a focus attack. What’s this, what’s that.

Because back in the era when I used to play, I was just into the fireball uppercut technique. Pretty much like the old school cats.

When you look at the majority of Super Turbo and earlier Street Fighter games you did zone a lot with fireballs.

Yeah, that’s what my background’s from, those games. And probably the best thing about me was just that I could react to a jump in or a Blanka Ball or something I could uppercut it. That was my thing. And pretty much when I was young playing against friends, and again they weren’t very good, [and] neither was I. But out of my friends, I was always better than them, but these dudes didn’t play [that much].

So anyway, I played the game, I finished the computer [arcade mode] and I thought; fuck, this game’s pretty fun. And then I happened to walk past [Bluehouse] another night, it would’ve been Saturday or Friday or something. And there was these dudes just playing there. At the time I think it would’ve been Eddie in there, there would’ve been Khanh was in there and a few other Melbourne players. So [I] played a few games with those guys, got fuckin’ owned. I go fuck man, I’m not as good as I used to be, or these guys are better than me.

So I sort of came back a few days later, or a week later, and eventually I met Khanh, who I then became really good friends with. Eddie I got really good friends with. And very shortly after I met Toxy. And I saw Toxy, I was like fuck, this dude’s very good. At the time he actually wasn’t using Sagat when I first met him. He was using Sagat, but the few times I saw him he was just mucking around with Balrog, and getting fifteen[-win] win streaks, just slapping everybody. Pretty much he was just using bread and butters, very simple things, and everyone was just falling for it. I was like, this guy’s good. And I wanted to challenge him.

So I challenged him. And at the time I did a couple of things that even he at the time was like wow, what did you do there? I said I did x and x and whatever, and he was like, alright. Anyway, then I was known as the big guy Louie, who would go into the arcade and spend lots of money. So, basically I was the shittest, [and] would get fuckin’ raped by everyone. And I just put in so much money in and so much time in and I just got better and better. Got sort of the old reactions a bit back, and started learning about the game.

That’s how it started. That’s a long way of explaining it, but yeah.

That’s cool. And this was all about the time that SF4 came out around here, what was it 09?

I think it would have been 08. I think it was around November or December time, because at the time I was on the verge of quitting my job. And taking a bit of a break, I needed a break. And then I dunno, I went and got involved in SF, sort of chilled out because I saved a bit of money. And yeah, just [had] late nights at Bluehouse, met everyone there and then eventually [went to] Boxhill. And that’s how it started, for SF4 anyways.

And I was playing Ryu originally too. Here’s an interesting funny thing; I couldn’t uppercut cancel. Coming from a dude who did two hit combos, three hit combos tops, and just played a zoning game, how the fuck you gonna uppercut FADC Ultra you know?

So I picked Sagat because I thought he seems [like it was] a little bit easier to learn his combos. Back then I had no idea about the tier list, and then eventually in that game I seem to have made the right character choice!

2. You’re known in Melbourne as Heavy Weapons. I find that to be a bit of an interesting name. How did you get that nick/handle?

Basically what happened was; when I rocked up to a tournament for the first couple of times, I was known as Louie. There’s two reasons I’m called Heavy Weapons. One of them was that Mikey, on the forums his name is Mikey. Everyone calls him The Kid. He said, hey man, you look like this video game character called Heavy Weapons! I go, what do you mean? And he said, man you should see it! I didn’t look at the character for a while, but I liked the sound of it!

I was like, fuck, Heavy Weapons it’s sharp, you know, it’s a sick name. Sounds pretty tough. And then also back then…this is really embarrassing… but I wasn’t even using light attacks at all. For the first good part of [my time] at Box Hill, all I was doing was zoning with Sagat, stand heavy kick uppercut, or medium punch uppercut. Or, I made this real fimble combo, which now is actually comboable in Super, and it has some good uses. But everyone used to make fun of it; was crouch light kick crouch light kick crouch light kick stand heavy kick. And then everyone would go; oh too heavy! They called it the Too Heavy combo. That was like a bit of a joke, you know?

But anyway, Heavy Weapons came from that character from Team Fortress, the heavy guy. Because I’m a big dude, and I’ve got the beard, shaved head you know…I can see the slight resemblance and I had a bit of a chuckle about that. And everyone’s like, oh the Heavy Weapons’ here! And Toxy and all that, and Mole- Naruga everyone used to start buttering me up; going oh Heavy Weapon, Heavy Weapon. So I just thought, I’ll stick with Heavy Weapons.

3. You’ve answered a little bit of this following question but I’m going to ask it anyway. So you currently main Sagat, so what exactly attracted you to the character?

First of all, I didn’t know anything about the tier list. Again I used to like Sagat…for me SF, I don’t just get into the game I actually don’t mind the storyline a bit. Like, I really love the whole idea of this matchup between Sagat and Ryu.

It fuckin’…I love it. It’s fucking crazy. The anime, if you watch the original anime [of] Street Fighter II. How fucking sick was it. Ryu shoryukens him, he fucking cuts open his chest, and the dude wants to smash the shit out of him. It’s crazy, you know? It’s a sick idea, it’s so simple. Yeah, it’s stereotypical, but it’s great.

I remember watching that anime on SBS in ’96….

That’s taking it back. That’s taking it back. And for me, I couldn’t really sort of do the combos with Ryu. My friends said, hey man, my fimble friends who don’t really play the game. They go, your Ryu’s alright, why don’t you stick to Ryu? Why are you playing Sagat?

I just really liked his actual moves. Not because they did huge damage, I mean that was a fucking bonus, that was fantastic. Let’s not lie.

You get an advantage in the game…fuck…Sagat was OP, you know? He was very overpowered. You can even maybe say he was broken…my whole thing was [that] the character can be beaten. He is too strong, he needs nerfing, but he can be beaten. Otherwise players like Mago, sorry the way we call him in Melbourne is Mag-go but really it’s Mah-go, wouldn’t lose.

This guy knows how to use him perfectly, why does he lose? He’s not unbeatable, you know? Anyway, moving on to the point, I just really love his moves you know? I fuckin’ just feel that I’d power up during the games when someone would just jump into me- even if I didn’t have Ultra- forward heavy kick, forward heavy kick (smacks his palm). It just looked tough.

And because I actually knew his moves, same as Ryu’s? I used him. I’m not gonna go and use Viper, or… Ken, I never liked Ken from the early games. I mucked around with him, but I always like Sagat and Ryu. They were my favourite fireball uppercut characters. I mean the fact that I couldn’t do certain things with Ryu, with Sagat I could…Plus I just loved his stand heavy kick and just his normals…I just loved how they looked, and how they worked. So I’ve stuck with him…

The animation for the stand heavy kick is actually really interesting because it actually does looks like a Muay Thai kick.

Yeah. Look he looks tough, his moves look tough, and his damage was tough. That wasn’t the main reason I picked him, I just liked his moves, you know?

What kept me going with the character was learning the new things about him. Like at the start I thought there’s only so much Sagat can do, this is how you’re supposed to play…And then I started seeing all these things with the Kara that made me real interested. I’m like, fuck man; this character is really a zoning machine. And the whole way I play SF, I wasn’t a person who did super technical shit. I learned things bit by bit, and the Karas were just like…wow I can uppercut this guy at this range. So if I mindgame it, or he jumps, I can fucking punish him from that range. Awesome. So that made me keep going with Sagat, and I kept learning more and more. But I still kept playing Ryu a little bit; but I just liked Sagat the way he was. Felt right.

4. Unlike a lot of Vanilla Sagat players you have opted to stay with him in Super Street Fighter 4 despite his new nerfs. Why is that?

I love answering your questions partly before you get to them. Psychic. Look, [there was] a couple of questions. I’m sort of bouncing between the two; I might get one week where I’m really feeling Sagat, I’m playing Sagat, I really want to push it with Sagat. Then the next week I get a tiny bit…I want to play Ryu this week. Even if it can change from night to night playing online.

With Sagat what made me stick to him, the main, main reason I stuck to him apart from liking the character was I wanted to prove that, hey I’m not using this character because he’s fucking broken. Or he was overpowered. ‘Cause a lot of people- and I used to get into so many arguments- with people that were [saying], you’re only playing Sagat because he’s fucking broken. I often would feel from people that they’d look at me like, you’re shit, you just win or you’re only placing because of your character.

I took that and I realised that, yeah sure maybe some players are better than me in terms of technicality. But in terms of Eye of the Tiger, [it’s] part of the pun, Eye of the Tiger zoning, I felt that I was very fucking good at it.

And even certain people told me that that were top level players in Melbourne at the time. They said, dude, your Sagat’s zoning and your patience and this and that, you’re very good at it. You’re a clever player; you know how to exploit mistakes. The next step for me was to go a bit more technical, as I said [with the] Karas. The reason I stuck with it, was to say whoever thinks I’m playing Sagat because he’s broken, is mistaken. I will prove it to ya, I will stick with this character, and I will play him.

Then I got to a point, after APAC. ‘Cause I did well at APAC, I just missed out on qualifying. And it was a really great match with Vindk8. I got to give shoutouts to Vindk8 on that match. It was a fantastic match; it’s probably one of the highlights of my so far short SF tournament career. It was just fucking hype. It went down to the last match. It was really close. Sim Sagat. It was a fucking awesome match; [the] atmosphere was crazy.

But then after that, at a couple points [I was] struggling. We call in Melbourne reminiscing, you know? You’d be used to doing a Tiger Knee from this distance, and you’re like, oh why is it not working from there? Why? And you’d get angry at it, and you’d sort of…I fucking even hated on Capcom and still do at times, because…

(Toxy and Naruga cut in. “Live audience,” they say.)

Thanks Mole. That was the Twilight Princess. Anyway…

Basically, you can’t help but sort of…I’ll give you an example other than Sagat. Toxy’s Akuma right? Toxy’s so good he can deal with the nerfs, but even he would be like, fuck, they fucking ruined him. When a character gets nerfed so much, it’s like…I agree that Sagat and Akuma needed to be nerfed. They were top tier, let’s be honest. They were top tier characters and there were some matchups that were really unfair. But he wasn’t an automatic win button. None of them were. It’s just that…he had an extreme edge, and he didn’t have a bad matchup.

The worst matchup you could say was against Sim which was 5: 5, and Akuma which was 5: 5. And at a point it was actually in Akuma’s favour, with all the Tokido’s [tricks]. No one knew what to do [against] it, but eventually people figured it out, and it was a 50: 50 match again. And because there were so many Sagat users, you had to play Sagat mirrormatches a lot. That being said; Sagat had the edge over everyone. In tournament, he had the edge. Any Sagat user that says to me that they don’t  have an edge, I’d say to them, dude, you’re tripping. He does.

So at times, it was hard to stick with him, and still is. Certain things…they’re just not the way they used to be. And because the game’s not out on arcade, I find on console I’m nowhere near as good as [I am on] arcade. Yeah yeah, I feel that I can play very sharp at times, but I feel, no matter what anyone tells me, it just feels different. It is different, and that’s why the Japanese players take SBO so seriously. That’s why people like Akira does not play console, because it is different. I’m not trying to make out like people in Melbourne are on Japanese level or whatever, but the high level for Australia when you’re playing in that instant…for example tonight I lost to Carnage. Carnage is one of my good mates, he’s a great player. Probably not the reason I lost, but I was on like…pretty much if I uppercutted his jump-in, he would’ve died. In that situation, I’m not going to miss that uppercut, but on console, sometimes you can miss it. Not maybe it’s lagging, but or maybe it’s just console is console. It’s hard for me to explain, and I’m sure if people read this interview [or] hear it, the players that know what I’m talking about will know what I mean. Not making excuses, but I do feel that I am a better player on arcade, because that’s what I actually grew up playing.

I definitely agree, I basically spent the majority of my early life in an arcade.

Don’t get me wrong, Xbox and Playstation [are] excellent. But you can never recreate that arcade. And that’s why the arcade fuckin’ machine is there because it’s an arcade machine. I stuck to [Sagat] to prove that I’m not using him because he’s broken, and I stuck to him because I also wanted to prove that with what is he middle tier now? Top of middle tier? That I could still beat players using characters that are higher [tier] than me or 6-4 matchups against me. That’s what I wanted to prove, y’know?

I think you’ve definitely proven it throughout this year since Super’s come out.

To an extent. I haven’t proven it properly, but you know the thing is, it’s hard. If I’m playing someone who’s better than me and it’s a 6: 4 matchup, it makes it tough. I’m not going to beat Naruga in a 6: 4 matchup on a regular basis. Or Toxy, for that matter. Unless I then become a better player than they do. To beat someone in a 6: 4 matchup, it’s not unwinnable, but against a better player, it’s hard. Especially if they know the matchup.

Trust me, the Ryu vs. Dee Jay matchup drives me nuts.

Oh, Ryu drives a lot of people nuts I think.

4. So let’s talk about BAM for a second, what where your expectations/goals for the tournament?

BAM, alright. What a salt session that was. To be honest for BAM, I actually said to Toxy, I have to at least get top 16. And I really believe that I’m good enough to get top 8. I can not make it as well because there are good players out there. But I was very, very, very, very disappointed in myself. Because I feel like my execution was just horrible on the day. And part of me blames it on a few things. On the day, anyone can fuck up…

Hey I went 3-2. Which was a miracle.

Yeah. I just had a bad day, and as they say… I had a bad round. That’s a personal joke between the boys, they know. The other thing was… look I don’t know how much of a difference it makes. Even tonight, I was playing on one of the setups that was set up on the Xbox setting power 50. I didn’t fucking realise [until] three weeks after BAM, [that] my Xbox because I watched some sort of movie it changed the power settings to watch this movie. Something like that, and I totally forgot about it. And I was at home one time and I was talking to Toxy and I go; what’s power 50, power 60?

And he goes; man, what power [setting] do you have it on? And I go, power 50. And he goes, that’s fimble. You’re supposed to have it on 60. And I mentioned it to Geese, and he said that could be the reason why you’re fucking up. Because I didn’t play casuals on the day as well. So not to make any excuses, I think it was a mixture of really me fimbling mostly, but that could have been a part of it too.

I wanted to bring up one of the matches I watched; it was you versus Hoppa.

I knew this was going to be brought up!

I have to ask this because I watched the first match and it was fairly close, you won in winner’s [bracket] and you knocked Hoppa into loser’s?

I think the first match wasn’t that close, to be honest. It was at one point close, but I don’t think he won a match off me…that’s trying not to salt Hoppa by the way…

No no, we don’t mean to disrespect anybody…

Anyway… fuck Hoppa.

But in a friendly way. He knows I love him. It’s a beautiful game, Hoppa.

Look, what do you want to ask about it?

Well, you won the first one, and then you had double jeopardy…

Why did I pull double jeopardy? Is that what you want to ask? No problems answering that.

There was actually a few reasons for that. Number one is; pretty much in most of the brackets I played Melbourne players. I don’t want to take out Melbourne players. I play them week in week out. And at the end of the day, I want to take Sydney out, just like Sydney wants to take out Melbourne. Just like anyone would do. It’s rivalry, that’s what it’s about.

Sydney wants to beat Melbourne, Melbourne Sydney, Queensland wants to beat up whatever. It’s all friendly rivalry, right?

For me, it was okay, I’ve beaten this dude who is my friend. ‘Cause I am friends with Hoppa. Second of all, it’s a disgusting matchup for Sagat. It’s not unwinnable by no means. But if you suss out all the matches between the good Sagats and Guiles that are good, and you’ll see. The Sagats that are high PP and BP and you know that that player’s probably better, and they get slapped. You know?

The matchup has turned from 7: 3 in Sagat’s favour to Guile’s favour, with just a few minor tweaks, I guess. And it’s pretty interesting how a few things changed can do that. So it was one; I didn’t want to play the same guy twice, two; don’t want to knock out or get knocked out by my friend, and three; it’s a bad matchup.

And I mean for me, if the rule’s there, I’ll take it. Just like Benson did. He beat Akira and did the same thing. He knows that it’s a bad matchup for him, and he’s already played that player. I’m sure the whole Sydney Melbourne thing wasn’t an incentive [for him], because Akira’s from Melbourne. So, pretty much Benson maybe had the same reasons I did apart from the friend thing, and apart from Sydney rivalry. I think he would’ve just done it because it’s a bad matchup and he’d probably would rather not play Akira. And a lot of people probably wouldn’t. Because [Akira’s] a good player. So that’s how it is. If you want to qualify, you’ve gotta give yourself the best opportunity.

What are your thoughts on the 5 v 5 exhibition? If I remember right, you were in the round robin tournament to make it for the last slot of the Melbourne team.

We had a lot of discussions about it. We didn’t know how to figure out the last spot. Basically the last two spots were up for grabs at one stage, then we voted [for it]. People said, dictator’s a good character. Somniac’s doing good with him. Couple people voted for him, couple people voted for Carnage, couple people voted for me. It was like a bit of a split thing. And there were also other spots. And myself and a few other players said hey, Sol is one player that deserves a shot at this.

And he definitely did, and he fucking proved that he should be there. I feel with the 5 on 5, it’s just one of those things really. What can you do? Shoulda coulda woulda didn’t.

I feel for Akira. If anything. Because he hasn’t really put much time in this game. He went in there, and it’s hard coming up against someone like Humanbomb; he’s a great player and he’s using Ryu which is a 6:4 matchup against Sagat. Akira hasn’t been playing the game nowhere near the amount he played vanilla, and on top of that, he’s come in last on the team to play, he’s the last line of defence. And you’ve got this dude that’s just fuckin’ rampaged the team.

There was a couple of matches…was yours close with him Mole? (Directing the question at Naruga) No? But Toxy’s was, I think Toxy’s was. Sol’s was close with him too. At one stage I thought; Sol’s got him!

But a twist of events happened, Bomb held on, Bomb came through with the goods and he’s taken on Akira now. I knew when I was watching the match; I’m like shit man, this is hard for Akira. He’s not playing the game and he’s taking on for me, the equal number one [in Australia]. A lot of people have their opinions on who’s number one, who’s number two. For me there’s a group of players that are here at the number one section, [and other players] that are at the number two section. Not to bring up any politics or whatever, my opinion is, and it’s not got nothing to do with whatever apart from skill in the game, is I feel Toxy and Bomb are the two best players that I watch, and they’re on such a close level. And that’s how I see it. And for Akira to come in, and play the guy who took out the singles and took out the last OHN, and this guy he’s a fuckin’ good player man. Bomb’s a good player.

So basically you’re taking about the top 1% and you have the top 5% and then…

I wouldn’t say Akira is outside of the top 1% skill wise and talent, I would say Akira is in there, but he just hasn’t played the game enough. And he’s even admitted it. I mean it’s very hard for you to come into a game where the other guys are playing it continuously day in and day out. Something’s gotta give. If it was vanilla Sagat in this game, you know what? I’ll almost say- I guarantee Akira wins. I almost say it.

Because all it takes in vanilla, is one uppercut cancel, forward heavy kick Ultra, disgusting Sagat wins. (Naruga giggles by the side.)

And Akira, didn’t play the Sagat like Melbourne players played the Sagat which was basic and really, let’s look at it, was pretty fucking shitty in its way. I think I only properly started playing the game a bit more, after I learned certain things after watching match videos, after seeing Akira…Akira gave me some advice, Toxy gave me some advice, Naruga gave me [some advice]. I started taking things on board, started doing proper combos [and] this and that. That’s when I think I levelled up. But in terms of that, my thoughts were if Akira was more prepared, it could’ve been a difference. But again, it’s coulda shoulda woulda didn’t. I think Bomb played really well. I think, it just could have gone either way.

In two matches, it really could have gone either way. And the two matches were, the one versus Toxy and the one versus Sol. Akira got dominated, it happens. It happens. Flip of a coin sometimes, as well. But the fact of the matter is, I felt for Akira because it’s like he hasn’t been playing the game. That was the main thing for me, and the whole comment about Sagat’s too soft now. That was my thoughts, and I actually felt, before my fimbling weekend, that I genuinely felt out of Melbourne, I’m one of the guys that can get in there and fucking do damage. At the same time, I actually then removed myself from the team, because I wasn’t on my game, and I didn’t want to put what I want to do ahead of the team. And ahead of the city. If I was playing to my potential, then I probably would’ve wanted to be in it more. But then I was sort of discouraged; I’m fimbling this weekend, count me out guys, I’m not good enough this weekend.

That’s what my thoughts are. Look, congrats to Sydney, but we’ll get youse back.

5. The next question might be a bit controversial, so you don’t have to answer it if you don’t want to.

Ah, I am the man of controversy these days, you know!

As most people know, you had a fairly high level moneymatch at BAM…

High level, are you talking about high level skills, or high level bullshit?

It was a $300 moneymatch, or $150/$150?

Well it was a $300 moneymatch, because the winner takes it [all], but you’re putting in $150. So we’ll call it a $150 moneymatch, we won’t butter it too much.

So why don’t you tell us a little bit about how the moneymatch came about, and what were your thoughts about the results?

Jesus. I’m not gonna dress it up, I’m not gonna dress it down. This is what it was. Without giving [out] too much information, because I don’t want to sit there and tell people my life story and that dude’s life story- InfinityEX. It was as simple as this. One time he was on a forum I don’t even use, which was Whirlpool.

I honestly thought the only thing Whirlpool was for, and this is not dissing Whirlpool users, was to check your internet speeds.

Yeah, broadband, mobile phones…

Yeah that’s what I thought. What the fuck is Whirlpool with a Street Fighter forum? Why wouldn’t you go to Ozhadou or Shadowloo? When I first [heard about it] my instant reaction was: what’s this fimble forum? To be honest with you.

And no diss to the dudes on it, there’s actually some good players on it, there is. Punk54U is a good Cammy user, Ero_Oyaji’s on there, Zero’s on there, there are a few good players on there. But I get the consensus that certain people on there are a bit scared to jump on Ozhadou? Because I actually had someone physically message that me on the forum. And I’m like, dude what are you scared of? It’s fuckin’ people with an opinion. They’re not going to jump out of the screen and Tiger Uppercut you, for fuck’s sake.

It’s not gonna happen, y’know? So back to the point, I wasn’t even on that forum, wasn’t even aware of it. And, on my Facebook, Sol from the TEC clan, Mr Sol you know, sharpie. He’s messaged me a link and goes, hey dude, you might want to see what this InfinityEX is talking about ya. And I go, right, here we go. Here we go again. Fuckin’ dramas.

And that’s why I didn’t put my gamertag on Ozhadou because…sometimes you don’t feel like playing sharp you know? Sometimes you feel like fucking around you know? And sometimes some people will go- not that I’m the great player- but I just can’t be fucked with the dramas. Can’t be fucked with it. And I know there are a few players that are like that.

The players that need to know who I am knew [my gamertag] early. Because I let them know. I messaged them and go, hey it’s Heavy Weapons. Because I know these dudes are people I wanna play, and people I think won’t talk shit. Think being the keyword.

Anyway, so one night I was playing this kid on Xbox, and it was just when I got onto Xbox and I was using a really bad stick, the EX Hori 2. They’re very good when they’re working, but let’s face it, they’re not a TE. My down back wasn’t working, and all sorts of shit.

Anyway, he goes on [and] he beats me a couple of games. That’s cool you know, whatever. I don’t take online serious all the time, you know what I’m saying? So for me it’s an endless battle, for me it’s a fimble session. Then I find out from a certain player [that] he’s gone to them and said, I fuckin’ just owned this guy. Such and such gamertag.

So I got a bit fired up. As any competitive person would. I went into the room, slapped him silly. Then he left the room. So whatever, I did what I had to do.

I had a bit of a chuckle with the other person and said, okay cool. Whatever man. Online, who cares.

So then, back to the Whirlpool forums, someone guessed what my gamertag would be. They said it was Slidenafl. He’s a good Ryu player, I won’t drop his name. He’s a sharpie. Mr_Caesar from Sydney, I’ve met him before, he’s a good dude, he was like, I’ve guessed what Heavy Weapon’s gamertag is. It’s Slidenafl! He’s been using Ryu lately.

And everyone’s like nah nah that’s not him, Heavy Weapon’s Ryu…pretty much in a nutshell isn’t as good. Which I agree, it’s not as good as that dude’s. His main character’s Ryu, and he’s a very talented player, this person.

So anyway, he guessed that, and Infinity comes along and goes, no, this is his gamertag. And he’s free.

Now I know it’s a forum and maybe I shouldn’t have looked into it too much, but because he talked shit to my friend prior to that, I kind of took it a bit personal. And I was like, well okay. Anyway I didn’t respond. I think I was at Deakin (University). I think you were there. And I brought it up and I said, do you know who this guy is?

And they were like, yeah. Zero’s like, man don’t take it serious. He’s a kid and a lot of people don’t take him serious, blah blah blah. And I was like, cool man. But he doesn’t know me, he shouldn’t talk shit about me. What have I ever done to him. If anything I should have talked shit about him that time. But I didn’t!

Because man, I’ve got other things to do. Like practice option selects, for fuck’s sake. Whatever it may be. Work my job, do whatever, you know? So I let it go. So I think Zero’s obviously went and told him, hey man why’d you say that about Heavy? He got a bit salty about it or whatever, he didn’t like it.

So then [Infinity] sent me a message on Ozhadou, giving me an apology. Now maybe at the time I took it wrong, but when the apology came through, I almost felt like he was taking the piss out of me. Like saying, oh don’t take me seriously, because I just talk shit. Everyone knows I talk shit.

Where I’ve grown up, not to say I’ve fuckin’ grown up in the fuckin’ ghetto, not to say that but…

Well I’m from Geelong if there was ever a ghetto!

If you say something, say it to someone’s face. I feel for whatever you say, whatever words you use, I take it very serious, and you should be responsible for your words as well as your actions. So when you’re gonna come and say that this guy is free, back it up. He came and said, I didn’t mean it like that, I was out of place bla bla… It was almost like him saying sorry without saying sorry. I don’t want the dude to fuckin’ get down on his knees and beg for forgiveness, but if he just messaged me the fact of, hey man I said some shit I shouldn’t have said, I’m sorry, can we drop it? You know what I would’ve said? No worries dude, just don’t talk shit again.

But the way he…it was more like an excuse than an apology. Whatever dude. I sent him a message back, trying to school him, not on SF but on life in general. Because he’s obviously a kid, and I’m a bit older than him.

Yeah, he’s 18.

18, 19, whatever he is.

Today’s youth gone wrong…

Let’s not even say that, but I mean…

Just kidding.

Yeah I know. I feel like that sometimes, but probably dudes who are older than me think that about me sometimes, y’know? But the thing is, if you’re gonna apologise to someone, apologise. Don’t make an excuse. Apologise. If I’ve done something wrong to somebody, I would admit I’m wrong, or say sorry that I did it. Not make an excuse and go hey hey, it’s alright, just let it go.

If someone punches you in the face on the street and says, hey man, just let it go. Are you gonna let it go? I’m not gonna fuckin’ let it go man, I’ll drop the dude on the pavement. Or he’s gonna drop me on the pavement. You know what I’m saying?

So that’s what it was. I ignored it, yeah? Then he wrote me a message back, wow you’re salty or something. And I wrote    back, not salty but dealing with a kid. Trying to school a kid. If you had that situation, would you keep going back to a forum and keep talking shit?

Only if you were trying to piss the [other] person off, or you thought you were a better player, or you wanted to be a smart arse to him. Three reasons you’re gonna do that. All those three reasons deserve for me to…I ignored it, ignored it, he did like five, six, seven eight posts whatever it was. [I] kept ignoring it until the point he said: I’m going to moneymatch him.

So he was the one who actually initialised the moneymatch against you?

I did not say anything about a moneymatch. This is the whole funny thing; I did not call a moneymatch.

I’m a firm believer in the art of war; is you strike first, you wait for the opponent to strike first. I’ll wait, let you talk shit, keep talking keep talking. There’s gonna be a line where eventually you’re gonna talk so much shit that it’s gonna come back to you. So what I said to him was; alright, you want to moneymatch, you seriously want it?

I’m thinking in my head; does this dude want it? He wants it. Okay he really wants it. I’ve got people saying to me; hey man. Moneymatch him for 50 bucks.

Fuck that!

I had people saying, if you moneymatch him for 50 bucks, he’ll do it. I said, okay, what’s 50 dollars? Don’t get me wrong, 50 dollars is money right?

Yeah, money is money.

Money’s money. But this dude’s gone out of his way…look we’re all good now, I just want to mention that. We’re all good now, no problems. I know he’s a good kid, I know he’s a good dude, he just made a mistake. He had to learn the hard way, unfortunately. That’s fast forwarding it a bit.

What then I said was; I’m gonna moneymatch this guy for $150. People [were telling me] are you crazy man? This dude’s not gonna moneymatch you for a $150!

I said; well he’s either gonna lose a $150 and learn a big lesson or he’s gonna look like a bitch. Which is it gonna be?

So I let him talk his shit, I let him keep leaving himself open, keep making himself look silly in my eyes. Maybe other people thought I was silly, it’s cool, I don’t give a fuck. But he then…I know certain people hyped him up to moneymatch. I have a very, very strong feeling, and almost I’m certain that some people put in money for it. These people who put money in for it, I feel sorry for this kid. I felt sorry for him, and actually what happened was he said: I dunno, that’s out of my range, and I said, c’mon what are you, chickenshit?

Because I had to do that. What am I going to say, don’t worry about it, no money match? No! You’ve put yourself in this position, you’ve fucking sat there and said I’m shit, you’re better than me, I’m a salty cunt. I’m this, I’m that, I’m this, I’m that. Did I speak once on the forum? No.

Because I don’t need to publicise anything that’s going on. I can now, because I’m being asked about it. That’s a different story. And I’m the kind of person that doesn’t like to do the no comment situation. Sometimes it’s probably better, but I don’t want to do this. Let’s keep it raw. Let’s say what the fuck happened. Maybe certain people wanna know. He talked shit, I posted a nice little salty message for him, I hyped it up, I salted him, I called him a few things. And I said: put your money where your mouth is.

He was like, ahh I don’t know… and I was like, no, are you fuckin’ chickenshit? Let’s do it. So then obviously people said; we’ll put the money in. He accepted.

The result was?

10-2. In my favour. On a fimble day.

To be honest, I actually felt sorry for him because when we were playing, I could see that he was physically…his hands were shaking. And I knew that this would happen. I knew this…call me cocky, whatever, but I knew I’m not gonna lose man.

First to ten, how’s this dude that plays online and never rocks up to tournaments and the few times I played him online I dominate him, how’s he gonna beat me on the big screen in front of people for a $150.

I basically waited for him to keep going, and I put him into a position that he was not gonna get out of, and if he got out of it he was gonna lose 150. Or he shuts up and looks like a chump. And I respect him for stepping up and actually playing, I don’t know how much of the money…he said to me that all of the money was his.

Maybe that’s one of your questions actually, because some people have asked me what did I say to him after the match? Is that a question.

Actually it’s not, but would you like to answer it anyway?

I’ll answer it.

I actually offered him his money back. I said to him, has anyone funded you Infinity? And he said no. I said, are you sure? And he said yeah.

And I said: listen man. If someone is putting the majority [of the money], I will keep their money. Now some people will go, now why did you do that? Some people may be smarter and connect the dots. The reason being…whoever the fuck hyped this kid up to moneymatch pretty much is a fucking rat. They know he’s gonna lose. Don’t use someone else to laugh at him, d’you know what I’m saying?

Don’t use an 18 year old or 19 year old kid to laugh at him. And whoever paid that money; maybe they weren’t doing it for that purpose. But I think they are. I know someone was hyping him up, and that’s why I said, hey dude if someone’s paid for this, if someone’s hyped you up, don’t tell me who they are but I’ll keep their fucking money. And if they want it, they can come and fucking talk to me.

As simple as that. I felt bad for him, and I was this close to giving him it all back. But I said, hang on a minute, no. I haven’t done anything wrong. You asked for the moneymatch. And you’ve got to learn your lesson. And he learned his lesson, he admitted he learned his lesson. And I see potential in him to be a decent player in this game. I feel he’s got to drop pad though, and he’s got to pick up a stick.

And look, I’ve no problem with him [now], he knows that. I even gave him a lift to Crown in my car. I may be a salter at times, but I’m not a fucking prick man.

You’ve sort of with your yomi for the questions partially answered the next question. But I’m going to ask it.

So before the match how were you feeling? Is this the biggest money match you’ve ever played?

I don’t play many moneymatches. Before it…look it’s a 150 bucks. I was very confident, but you have a tiny bit of nerves. A tiny bit. Like you do before you enter a tournament. Not because I thought I’m gonna lose, but to be honest I wanted to pretty much come out and destroy him. And to me, anything less than 10-2, 10-3…I couldn’t let him get to 10-4. Anything less than that was not good enough on my behalf. I had to destroy him. And one of the actual matches that [I lose] was actually the first match. And for the first few matches I didn’t DP him at all. I didn’t do any reversals in between blockstrings. I actually did it on purpose, to be honest. I just wanted to feel how he played. Because online and offline are two different things. So I had to suss him out. Pretty much, not to be cocky, but I gave him the game.

So you know, its 10-2 for the record, but if we played more it would’ve been worse.

How did you feel about one of the matches I believed he picked Dan?

He did? Did he?

(EXC355UM: That was during singles against Naruga.)

He tried a few different options on me. He tried…he started out with Cammy. I have a little bit of experience against Cammy with Sagat. On a good day? I can fucking dispose of her. Australian standard. I’m not talking Japan, I’ll fucking get slapped silly alright?

But Australian Cammy? On my good days I can fucking smash the shit out of her. I know what she’s up to, I know what to do. Maybe there are some tricks some Cammys have out there that I’m not on to. But I feel confident about the matchup. Until proven else wise.

Then he used Rose. Again, I’m familiar with Rose because Toxy’s a very good Rose. He doesn’t even hardly use her but when he does he knows what the fuck he’s doing.

I remember you and Toxy played that match at Deakin quite a few times before BAM.

Yeah but that wasn’t nothing to do with preparation, it’s just that Toxy likes to play Rose at times and he’s good with her. In my opinion he’s good with her. And Melbourne know that, Melbourne players know…yeah he’s getting buttered (laughs).

(Toxy: Not really, no…)

He knows what he’s doing, and I find his Rose the toughest Rose I’ve had to play. So, again I had matchup experience. Then he tried to pull out Seth, which could’ve have been a good idea…but I then switched to Ryu ‘cause I felt really comfortable, and I just fuckin’ started combo videoing him you know? It just got to that point where you break someone, and they’re just…I’m just going to try anything at this point because I’m getting my arse kicked.

And the more I went on, the more confident I got, and the more my execution was coming together. Because the whole weekend my execution was really off at BAM. Fortunately, I didn’t fimble enough to lose. It would’ve taken a lot of fimbling but I didn’t, so it was okay.

But I still think I played bad in the moneymatch to be honest…but beggars can’t be choosers eh?

6. Did you enjoy doing the commentary at BAM? Have you thought about doing commentary on a more permanent basis at other events?

I definitely enjoyed commentating at BAM but it almost takes away from your game. And at some events, I guess I’ll do it sometimes. Maybe if I get knocked out I’ll do the top 8 or something. I really want to concentrate on playing. Some people I’m sure can commentate and play, but I don’t feel my level…maybe it’s just a coincidence I played bad at BAM. But I felt like not playing casuals and not staying warmed up and whatever, didn’t allow me to play as well. Again, I dunno this is gonna sound like excuses but I know I’m the sort of player for myself I can’t have hour gaps in between and not play.

I’m not like Toxy or Bomb, those dudes can just switch on like that or Naruga. They can just switch on. These dudes have been playing fighting games for at least 5 years straight. I haven’t done that, I haven’t had the luxury of having as good execution as these dudes. I’m working on it, constantly trying to get there. Maybe one day I will, who knows, but I’m not at that level yet. That’s why those dudes in one way I look up to them and say “these guys are fucking good players”, and I have the utmost respect for those dudes. And some of them are my friends, and I have respect for them as people as well as their skill level. So for me, commentating is excellent, it’s fun.

It’s something that’s not a total new thing for me. Because I come from a hip-hop MCing background. I’ve run events, hosted big events, MC battled at events. Me and a microphone are no stranger basically. We are well acquainted, if you can think of the mic as a person.

Definitely. Honestly, I really enjoyed your commentary. Me and Mutton were actually discussing; we wish to see you doing more commentary. The way you do your commentary is similar to James Chen; he does a lot of technical commentary but he does a lot of side commentary as well.

For me, let’s be honest. I don’t know every technical aspect of every character. I know the technical aspect of Sagat, Ryu, and probably a fair bit of Akuma. I wouldn’t say I know everything, but I feel I know enough about shotos to commentate pretty well. And some characters I know a bit about.

But for me to commentate I do feel that technically I’m not as good as some people. They know the game more than me. They know every character, they’re researched it more, they play more characters whatever. For me, I’m just good at I guess at working with what I’ve got. And even in my hip-hop career it was the same thing because pretty much sometimes you get put on the stage and they say to you you’ve got these five words. Rap about them. On the spot. So for me to talk about something I’m seeing happening is a fucking cakewalk.

For me the tough thing is actually to not get too caught up with the funny shit. Because I always feel like I got something a bit off-topic but on-topic at the same time to say. But sometimes you need to keep it a bit more relevant. And that’s why I enjoyed commentating with Pyro; because Pyro was there to assist me in doing that. We balanced. And I think Pyro to me is a good commentator. He’s not someone…when I first met him or even look at him now, he’s not someone I look at and go wow this guy looks like he can grab the microphone and talk to ten thousand people no problem.

But man, he gets up there and he’s very confident. He doesn’t strike you as that when you first meet him. Not to say he looks like a fucking loser or fimbler, but he looks like…when I think about Pyro I think of a dude that’s [a] nice guy, a little bit quiet. But knows what he’s talking about. Not a stupid person, you know what I mean?

He seems very shy to me, I don’t know him that well but from what I’ve spoken to him…

I don’t know if he’s shy, it could be that he’s more reserved. Maybe he doesn’t like to talk much. I think he’s a smart person and I think he’s very well spoken. And it was really good to commentate with him.

Someone I would like to see commentate more is two people. One of them is Carnage, which is H. Again, he’s a friend of mine.

Yeah, name-stealing bastard.

Yeah ohh! You should have a name match, I reckon.

Naw he’s been in the community for longer, it’s his name.

Look, Spider Carnage and Carnage, you’ve got a different word. I don’t think he cares, I don’t think you care…it is what it is…but anyway.

I would like to see him commentate because he was commentating on my moneymatch and he made me laugh a fair few times while I was playing. And he’s a confident person and he’s a very funny guy. But I don’t know how two comedys would work together. It might be too much.

But look man, I’m rattling on a bit now…[me commentating] takes away from [my] game possibly, so I don’t know. I enjoy, we’ll take it as it comes. I haven’t given it too much thought. And even on the day I didn’t give it too [much thought], just the mic was there and I felt like it!

Just spontaneously happened.

Yeah. And then you know, the first five minutes was me getting warmed up, and then you know, just warmed up and that was it. Just commentated and… Hopefully some people didn’t hate my commentating! I know a lot of people liked it, but it is what is. You can’t please everyone.

I just try my best to keep it light-hearted and not be too boring when you’re commentating. Because you can kind of fall into the category of going; Jab. Short. Fierce. Uppercut cancel FADC. Cool, you’re being super technical or you’re saying shit as it happens but I think being a commentator…even watching the footy man. You got to dress it up a bit. You got to make it exciting for people.

7. So you are quite an active member of the Melbourne community, if there was one thing that you could change/improve about the current community what would it be?

For me, there’s a few things. It’s tough because the community is good, but I feel that not enough people…again what can you say some people play the game for fun. But not taking it serious enough at times. I don’t want everyone to be a Toxy. Or Naruga or Humanbomb. But I feel since Super came out…Melbourne had the edge in Vanilla [in Australia]. That’s my honest opinion.

Because that game wasn’t as technical. Super came out, everyone started to counterhit, everyone started to option select. Doing all these new techniques that the Japanese were probably already doing anyway. They were doing it. But, the zoning and the positioning and the anti-airing and the basics of the game…Melbourne players, not everyone but the guys that are, are very good at it. I think that Melbourne is very good at [SF] foundations and I think it comes from SF2. I think it comes from dudes playing SF2. For me I came from playing at Bluehouse in the city, everyone there is a fucking zoner man. You go there and you didn’t know how to zone, you got fucked up big time. Because vanilla was that sort of a game.

Alex Valle is a prime example. That dude’s zoning is fucking nice man. He’s fucking good with zoning. He may not be the most flashy, and his execution may have let him down at times, I’ve seen it. But everyone fucks up. Even Daigo. And Daigo’s fucking Daigo, you know what I’m saying?

But what I would change in Melbourne if I could is I really feel that the arcade in Melbourne is essential. I may be wrong in saying this, but I feel Sydney, they get together in a different way from what we do. I dunno about the other states, but I feel like Sydney’s more technical than Melbourne. Definitely more technical. But our basics are good. And we’ve got a few players who’ve got the technicalities. And we got a few players who are working on the technicalities. I’m one of them, Carnage is another one, and there’s a few others. Sol, Wei is working on it, and we got some players working on that technical shit. Like counterhitting and all that sort of thing.

What I would change about Melbourne is let’s get more serious about it. We lost BAM, congratulations to Sydney on winning it. But at the end of the day, it’s competition.

When I play SF, I want to be better than you. And I’m not talking about you, the interviewer.

Hey you’re already better than me at the moment…

(Laughs.) I play the game more than you do. So don’t take it that way but…

So how often a week do you play?

Depends. Some weeks I’ll play every day, then I might not play for a few days. It just depends. But I do play it a lot. And I feel that…look I really can’t wait for arcade to come out. Because I hate console and I know Melbourne really thrives off arcade. We love it. And I’m sure Sydney does, but from what I’ve…I’ve been to Sydney once or twice, and from what other people have told me, Melbourne’s arcade scene is bigger.

We’ve got Bluehouse with 4 machines, we’ve got Crown with 6 machines, we’ve got Boxhill with 6 machines…We’ve got Highpoint, I don’t know how many setups we got at Highpoint but that’s a shit setup. So what I’ve been told. We’ve got other random spots where fimble setups are at. You know Xbox dodgy things?

But look, Boxhill really and Bluehouse, are essential to Melbourne. Those two arcades, are fucking essential. The minute we lost those arcades, we did lose a lot of players. Another thing too is we actually lost a few good players to overseas. We lost a guy called Aesop who plays a fucking awesome Chun Li and he’s actually one of the top Chun Lis apparently in Asia. I don’t know the extent of it, I don’t know how true it is, but I’ve seen matches where he’s beaten top Japanese players online. Again, online is online, but I know this guy is sharp in arcade because I’ve played him many times. And he was top 4 or top 6 in OHN. He had to leave. Chun Li is one of the strongest characters now.

She’s been one of the strongest characters for a while.

In vanilla she was top 6, top 7 definitely. She was there. She took damage like a bitch but she was a good character. So I want the arcade scene to be strong again, and I would love to see some of the players we’ve lost who know the technicalities of the game to get back involved. And there’s actually a lot of players we’ve lost because the arcade hasn’t been there. There’s William’s Ryu, one guy who used to be very decent with Ryu. And another guy Khanh, who was a real disgusting Sagat but he was good. That’s right. Kiss and hugs.

But we lost players. And we’re not taking it serious enough. And some people are, but I feel we need to bridge the gap between just being sharp at the basics and getting these technical things [down]. I’m fortunate enough to be good friends with Toxy and Naruga, and they’re helping me, teaching me things and guiding me. And I’m going home and taking that into account and doing these things. Delaying uppercuts to get a counterhit uppercut. Option selecting. I’m still getting a grasp of all these things properly. But I’ll get there eventually.

That’s what I want to see Melbourne do more. With our basics combined with those two things, then we’ll compete on a better level.

8. Are there any international players that you enjoy watching play/admire either from Japan/US etc?

Definitely. There is a few. I’ll rattle off a few and give you one sentence about them if you like. Mago is my favourite probably, Mago from Japan. It started because I used to love the way his Sagat played. He made Sagat look like a robot. So fucking good. Then he switched. Switched to a total different style of character, and I just see him…it just feels like Mago just keeps getting better, and better and better. It’s like this guy is using a character that’s not top-tier, it’s not bottom tier it’s pretty good, but fuck man. He lost a match to Mochi in Godsgarden I think it was. Bad matchup.

Dhalsim Fei Long, that’s a tough matchup for Fei Long. I don’t know what it is, 6:4? For the Japanese, 6:4 is an advantage because these guys know how to use it. Again it’s winnable, but Mago turned around the next Godsgarden and fucking slapped him 10-2. It was almost like a complete reverse. And when you play first to 10, it’s not luck. It can do with how good you are on the day, but I really don’t think it had anything to do with Mago [‘s result] anyway.

Daigo, he’s not my favourite player to watch…but he’s so fucking good. He’s so good. He actually reminds me of what Mago was doing with Sagat in vanilla but he’s actually doing…yeah shut up Mole I know it’s [supposed to be] one sentence. He’s making Ryu look like a robot. That’s what I like about him. He’s got an answer for everything, it’s like clockwork man. It’s just, bang bang bang, slap you silly, see you later, thanks for the cash, good night. He got slapped by Sako a little bit towards the end. But Cammy’s that sort of character and Sako is that kind of player.

[Sako’s] a great player to watch, but I can’t say he’s one of my favourite [players] because he uses female characters. For me, I’m an alpha male type of character, [but] I can appreciate how fucking good he is. He’s fucking excellent.

I love Gamerbee. Just watching him is so exciting. I must admit the way he lost to Justin Wong using Makoto at Season’s Beatings, and then he beats Justin Wong and gives him this look. Gives him  this flash like: you counterpicked me because I didn’t know the matchup. But I still beat you, motherfucker. I like that shit.

I liked watching Alex Valle versus Ricky Ortiz. Vale just…his normals with Ryu were just fucking amazing. He’s doing stand heavy punch and heavy kick, using it and just slapping him silly. He lost the match…

That was in Battle for the West Coast Crown.

Oh was it? Oh sorry, wrong one. My bad. (Mutton: I think he actually is talking about the Battle for the West Coast Crown GFs.)

And also I’ve got to butter him; this guy Sunset. Basically this guy, the boys make a little fun out me, they go; you love Sunset! But there’s this one Sagat, his name’s Sunset. If you’re on Xbox Live, he’s from Japan. Apparently it’s on some island Akira told me about; because I asked him which Vanilla player was Sunset.

And he told me it’s not HRM, it’s AFG or something. I’ve tried to look up matches and I couldn’t find him. I had suspicions it was Ojisan Boy, but then I got told no it’s not. It still could be, but who knows. This guy basically is one reason also, he’s helped me kind of keep faith in my character. He plays him in a complete different way to what any Vanilla Sagats did. Plays him in a rushdown way.

Which is actually interesting for Sagat because he normally tries to zone…

It is. And you can attack with Sagat. You definitely can, but I’m still trying to work out certain things with that Tiger Knee that I still can’t understand. It seems that you do a 2-hit Tiger Knee from pretty close, and it’s safe.

It’s negative ten [frames] on block isn’t it?

I don’t understand it, there’s something about it I can’t quite grasp yet and I haven’t figured it out. But sometimes it’s safe from a distance that feels unsafe. Anyway, what I’m trying to get at is with Sunset is, he’s just playing him in a different way. He’s still doing the fundamentals but he’s playing him different. And I feel that you can’t play Sagat like you did in Vanilla. Not gonna work. He’s completely different. And he plays him…look he’s probably not the best player, there’s probably dudes that will slap him. But from the matches I’ve seen [he’s a] great player. I’ve also fucking buttered him, and added him up on Xbox and played him once or twice in lag. Lag was pretty sort of delayed but it wasn’t too bad, and I had a couple of games, a bit of fun y’know? He doesn’t really speak English so we can’t really say much, but it’s fun. He’s probably ranked number three for Sagat on Xbox, and one stage he was number two. I’m number eleven but points don’t matter for shit, they’ve online.

Look I’ve said overseas players, but I will say some of the guys I like watching here [in Australia] if that’s okay?

Sure.

I like watching Robsux, excellent player, excellent player. I have some really, really fun matches with him, Viper Sagat. Viper is a character I love to watch.

Love to watch her! She’s just like…fuck. Crazy character. I love the way they built that character. Sometimes I think like, wow, if I was that style of player, I would use Viper. Doesn’t suit me, and I wouldn’t play that character because I need a character that’s shoto style, or Sagat style with the zoning. So Robsux is one I like to watch.

Obviously, Humanbomb’s Ryu is very solid.  I like to watch him play.

And the guys I like to watch from Melbourne are three players in particular. And again, they’re my mates, people can take it as I’m buttering my friends but it’s not I actually do like to watch them play. Carnage is one example.

Always entertaining.

He’s entertaining, man. He’s the type of guy that will walk up crouch medium [punch] delay uppercut you three times in a row. Somehow he does it.

I was actually watching him tonight against Toxy and he was using Adon. He did uppercut FADC uppercut FADC uppercut three times in a row.

Did Toxy eat it?

He did, he ate the last one.

A lot of the times Toxy won’t eat it because he knows. But Carnage he’s got no fear. No fear. Sometimes it’s a good thing, sometimes it’s a bad thing. But I really like watching him, and I love to play against him, we have some epic Ryu mirrors and Adon vs. Sagats.

Naruga’s a player I like to watch. Because he’s just sharp. You’ll see him playing one character one week, and another [character] another [week]. I love watching his Blanka, it’s disgusting. It’s just disgusting.

And look, another player I love to watch is obviously Toxy, for me. It’s kind of the way he plays is the way I’m trying to work towards. Because he does play defensive at times or he’s very careful. But you make one mistake and he’ll fucking open you up like nobody’s business. He’ll get a knockdown, and he will fucking come [at you]. And that is his character, Akuma. I think Toxy found his character. I love watching him play, and I love watching him play against Humanbomb. I love watching him play against Akira in Vanilla. Like those guys who are really close, I love those matches man. And there was a real good match between them at Galactic Circus.

That’s the first time I ever went out to a tournament in Melbourne.

Excellent match, Akira and Toxy, fucking excellent. Excellent match. Those guys I love to watch.

Look I don’t know too much about the Americans. Not to salt the Americans, they’ve got some great players, but I don’t think I’ve watched them enough to get a favourite that I like to watch. I like Valle because I appreciate his zoning.

9. Who do you think is your greatest rival in the community if you have one?

Oh wow okay. I don’t know. Have you got any ideas?

I’m still new to the community so…

I used to have rivals. Naruga used to be one of them. Because I started figuring out how broken is and figuring how to get him and upset him and win.

Rivals? I don’t know. People might say Hoppa? I don’t know. We’re good friends, he butters me he salts me, we have a laugh. Look, you know what I’ll say? Everyone in Melbourne is my rival. Everyone.

I like it.

Everyone in Melbourne is my rival because I’m trying to beat them. Pretty much I don’t like to accept defeat (laughs). I accept it, but you don’t like to lose. And whenever I lose, sometimes I’ll make an excuse, yeah I think a lot of people have been guilty of that. But when I lose I try to take something from it and go, why the fuck did I lose. Was it execution? Alright I gotta go back to the lab and practice that. I didn’t have option selects, fuck if I had option selected properly, or if I knew how to do it properly a 100% or at least competently to 90% 85% I would have won that match or I need to learn that matchup more.

Rivals…yeah everyone that plays this game is my rival. Even people I look up to.

10. Outside of street fighter do you have any other hobbies/activities that you like to spend your leisure time on?

At the moment my life really consists of working, playing the game and seeing my girlfriend.

She’s] in the states at the moment, she’ll be back soon, which is good. I was heavily into hip-hop, I’ve sort of taken a step back from it. Because I was taking it very, very seriously. How I’m taking SF now is similar, but I took this more serious, even. I wasn’t even working a job, just full-time rapping.

Were you writing , producing, or…

Rapping, writing my own lyrics. Not producing the music. Being a rapper, basically. Being a rapper, the commercial [ones] some of them those morons get their lyrics written. I’m not with that, I rap about what I do, not what someone looks at and says, oh you say this about me can you say…yeah.

So I mean I’ve done some really big things in rapping. I’ve been a battle MC. I’ve won Victorian titles, came very close to some Australian ones. Not to go too deep into it, but I kinda got a bit of the tough end a couple of times with some decisions. Basically in MC battles there’s no winner like in SF.  In SF there’s a winner like you KO. In rap battling, there are three judges that have an opinion. And even in rapping, I was a bit surrounded in controversy. ‘Cause in forums people came out and said why did Fevapres (Heavy’s rap name) lose this battle?

You’d have hundreds of people agreeing and saying [the same thing]. That didn’t count because [only] the judges’ opinion counts. So I got out of battling and started working on music. I got a couple of songs up, I haven’t really gone too hard with promoting them and I have a separate little page that has a few hundred plays or whatever. It’s probably due to the fact that I haven’t really pushed it, because I’ve stopped and gone quiet. And pretty much I don’t speak to many people from that scene anymore. I don’t know, sometimes you need to take a step back or you kinda get a bit sick of it. I picked SF and I haven’t really looked back.

I still listen to hip-hop every day and practice rapping, but yeah SF’s taken the time.

I like to play a bit of pool, snooker. I used to be good, for a nobody sort of dude, back in the day when me and my friend used to play a lot. I was really into graffiti as well.

So pretty much hip-hop culture, and as a young kid I used to be pretty good at soccer too. Before I fuckin’ became a Heavy Weapon. That was [when] I was young and I was fit, and hopefully I can drop some pounds. I’m not in the greatest hobby to do that, but yeah for me I like music, sports, I guess normal guy shit you know what I mean?

11. Well that’s just about does it for now, are there any shout outs that you would like to give out?

Shoutouts to you guys for putting this interview together. I appreciate you guys doing this, it’s a special kind of thing when someone says hey I want to talk to you and…so big respect for that.

By the way, the podcast is going to be called Don’t Be A Scrub. (Mutton: Igor came up with it, not me!)

Don’t be a scrub? Aww, that’s a bit mean.

The idea here is to try and level people up, and see how you guys train, think and so on so forth.

Look I just want to say this before I finish the shoutouts…well actually I’ll finish the shoutouts and say this.

Shoutouts to you guys for doing this, appreciate you guys taking the time out to interview me. And shoutouts to Toxy, to Naruga, to everyone in Melbourne, to Carnage, um, Wei, Hoppa, Geese, Khanh who hasn’t been playing the game for a while, The Greatest Ryu aka Bruce Harvey, he knows who he is, Nickerz, the TEC brothers especially the sharpie Sol. He’s come a long way I’m very proud of him.

Eddie, Ero_Oyaji. Looking for the solutions. Shoutouts to Gamogo, he’s one of my favourite people from Sydney, he’s a fucking good bloke and I have a laugh with him. Shoutouts to Baz and Gunslingermeeks, who else have I…I don’t want to leave people out, I feel bad when I leave people out.

Exis! Oh yes. How could I forget! He’s one of my rivals actually. He’s one of my favourite guys in SF. He’s a fucking good dude, and he’s actually in my opinion a good player. And I think very soon, he’s going to be doing some really good things. He’s very good, but I think he’s got more in the tank. I can see more potential with Exis.

Somniac, I forgot to mention Somniac. Somniac, you’re so disgusting it’s beautiful.

Jake, which is Stryfe, shouting him out because he’s been a very nice person to me from the moment I met him. My friend, Rice Cooker who has recently stepped into the scene, and has known me from hip-hop. Really beautiful thing to know someone from somewhere else, and they get interested into something [you share]. And we always got along in that. Rice Cooker, he’s a Bison player. He wants to take the game very serious and if he does, he’ll be very good. I got a feeling.

Tai and Aiden, the El Fuerte bastards as I call them. The El Fuerte brothers. Love playing those guys they’re a whole bunch of fun, and they are improving. At first I thought they were just doing random splashes but they’re getting much better.

Shoutouts to Vindk8 from Sydney as well, shoutouts to Jack from Sydney. Jackie boy, what’s cracking.

Weezer as well, and everyone I play on Xbox. Sorry if I forgot anyone, you know I love ya. I want to shoutout to Sydney and tell Sydney that we’re fucking coming. We’re fucking coming for ya. You’ve gotten us the last time or two, congrats, props. But we’re coming for ya.

And shoutouts to Madenka as well, he’s overseas at the moment. Just everyone man, I’ll shout out the entire scene. If I haven’t said your name, don’t take it personally, I’m just on the spot and there’s so many people.

But I wanted to say [earlier] was I don’t want players to ever think in their head; you’re not good enough to play somebody. To me, that’s straight bullshit. I started out shit, Toxy would’ve started out shit, Bomb started out…everyone starts out crap. With the exception of maybe a few people in this world, who maybe are naturally very gifted or they pick it up really quickly. Everyone starts out a scrub. If you want to get to a higher level, just train man. Just train, don’t try to do too many things at once. Don’t try and learn all the technical things before the basic things. My thing is, start from the beginning and learn your basics. Learn how to footsie, learn how to anti-air. Learn how to zone. Learn all these things. And then start building on top of that.

Sometimes it’s tough, you may go into a tournament and lose two matches. Don’t take it to heart, don’t think, oh I’m fucking shit. Fucking hell I’m not gonna…

The person who gives up is a person who will never make it. If you have ambition to be a top player, if you work hard at it, you’ll get close at least. If you then plateau to a level and you struggle to get past that?

I feel I got to that stage in my SF career at one point. I felt like for a little bit, fuck man what can I do. But there’s always stuff, there’s always something. Go talk to someone who you think is a better player than you. Play them.

I know Toxy is pretty open to people coming up to him. If you’re serious. If you’re just there to fucking talk shit…I can’t be fucked with people if they wanna…come ask for advice and not shit in your face, but if you want advice, be sincere. Dudes will give you advice. Naruga’s very friendly, Toxy’s very friendly. Sometimes people may be intimidated. Don’t be intimidated. Go up to somebody and say, hey man my name is such and such, I play this character, and I’ve seen you play. I think you’re a good player, can I have a match or can you watch me play, is there any tips you could give me.

Don’t hesitate man. That’s what the community is there for.

It’s not the 90s anymore. Back in the 90s, you sort of had your arcade scene. At least when I used to go to the arcades, you had the pro cabinets and then you sort of had the up-and-coming cabinets. It used to be very tough for the fun cabinets to go and play on the pro cabinets because people used to be a lot more open and verbal because they felt that they actually owned the cabinet and you had to beat them to be able to play on that cabinet. And I think times have changed a lot.

Like I said, if you’re a lower player or you’re just starting out…learn what you can, if you get to a certain level, ask people. If someone want to come up to me and asks about Sagat, I can give you Sagat whispering. Toxy’s a dude you can go up to, anyone, all those guys I mentioned before. Say what’s up. Don’t hesitate.

Ozhadou is there. Ask people. Don’t sit there in a shell, and go oh I suck at this game. Don’t sit there…basically do something about it. And I hope that people listening to this, if anyone takes anything away from this…maybe I come off as cocky, I talk too much, whatever. Everyone’s got their different opinion. If you are listening and you feel like you are a scrub or you are, you’re just starting out whatever. I don’t like to call people scrubs. I don’t like that word.

But if you are starting out, just go for it. Go for it man. It’s there to be had and players like myself and Toxy and everyone in the community discussed this; we want more players taking it serious. Because there is a group of players in Melbourne that are serious. Then there’s the next group who do take it serious but have only [recently] started taking it serious. And we want more people taking it serious because it’s going to level us up!

How am I going level up in my Sagat mirror match? I’ve got no Sagats to play man.

Tell me about it. I play Dee Jay.

I’ve got no Sagats to play. I used to be much better at the Sagat mirror and the basic things. I’ve gotten technical and whatever. But I fucking hate it. Like I used to hate playing Sagat mirrors, and as much as it kills me to say now, I miss playing Sagat mirrors. Because there’s no one to sharpen me up.

And yeah sure I’ll get salty when I lose, but in the long run, it’s better. Because then when I come up against some random Sagat, I’m gonna be prepared. Probably am already prepared because I’ve had so many [Sagat mirrors], but still. We need people like you to come up and play the game. We need you, you need us. Let’s do it. That’s what I say.

If anyone’s into hip-hop out there, I’ve sort of been a little bit…not down on it, but I need a bit of a pick-me-up. If you’re into hip-hop check out my Myspace page, hit me up! Even if you just want to hit me up for some SF tips or play some games or whatever.

My Myspace is http://www.myspace.com/fevapres84. So, if you’re into hip-hop, have a listen…you may like it, you may not. Bit of self-promo…or even if you’re not into hip-hop, have a listen. Or you don’t want to listen, you want to talk to me about games…that’s cool man. Hit me up, I’m always up for talking to people. It’s all about fun, let’s get together, let’s play the game, let’s get better.

Thank you for taking the time to sit down and talk to me this evening.

As a special treat, we have done a Heavy Weapons Glossary called Weaponisms, and explained by the man himself.

Weaponisms

By Heavy Weapons

I just want to clear this up before moving on. Most of these actual words came from Khanh (A vanilla Sagat player that a lot of people in Melbourne are especially familiar with) A group of players Toxy myself Eddy Jeffrey(Chun Li) and a few others would be at Bluehouse in the city every 2-3 nights late at night hanging out and we would just play eat and talk shit. We all got to be good friends. These words are more Melbourne SF-isms I didn’t make them up I really just identified them when Khanh would say them and myself and Toxy would make them popular I guess.

Fimble:
Basically came about one night when I was talking to Khanh and I was asking him why he stopped doing FADC ultra with Sagat instead he would simply heavy tiger knee as a punish lol. He totally didn’t mean it but said I dunno I just fimble there was a slight pause and then I was like dude did you just say fimble and meant to say fumble? He was like yea I think I did (hahaha) I immediately understood what he meant
Fimble is derived from Finger and fumble. Fingers fumbling = fimbling. This word has been around for quite some time just probably some people haven’t noticed it because it just seems right to say the word nowadays.

Disgusting:

Well disgusting is pretty straight up. Toxy and Naruga would refer to turtling or broken things as being disgusting. So disgusting really is just saying you are playing the game in a dirty way , using dirty tactics basically you don’t care to have fun with the game you just want to win anyway you can disgusting is good in tournaments but in casuals disgusting is even worse. For example Dhalsim and Guile are disgusting characters their simply there to turtle the match out. Somniac is often referred to as disgusting because he is more of a defensive player. I often say that he is so disgusting its beautiful haha.

Buttered:

This one is just from the word buttercup Khanh would often say where’s ya buttercup as in bumchum then I just one day said I’m buttering you up and then it came from there. So if two players were playing each other in tournament e.g. Naruga vs. Carnage we would say it’s a buttercup match. If someone would perform an awesome combo or something that is there favourite move they would be buttered.

Whispering:

When you’re watching your friend play and they make a mistake or could’ve done something different you would often tell them where they went wrong. One day I was trying to give Khanh advice while he was playing as playing against bison and he wouldn’t backdash or jump heavy punch it he didn’t know how to deal with it so I gave him advice which he didn’t take on board instead he got off the machine and was frustrated calling me the Sagat whisperer. So then we just said giving any tips or advice is whispering you’re in their telling them.

UPPPERCUUTTTT:

This is simple Khanh would just yell out the word uppercut when he would land it. However a lot of the vanilla Sagats would just spam uppercut all the time the funny part that came about was Khanh would even try to uppercut safe jumps and crossups that he couldn’t so we would just make fun of him. Basically Khanh’s advice to me at the time was “IF HE JUMPS, UPPERCUT” lol he’s a simple man.

Sith Lord:

Basically we call Toxy the sith lord cos he’s the master of darkness. He was the first person in Melbourne to get Akuma to a top level with all of Akumas nasty tricks the Sagats for the 1st time were no longer in control of the match. He enjoys salting people when playing the game not all the time but sometimes he enjoys watching you suffer when he beats you with a low tier or even your own character when he’s sithing he’s a bastard hahah jokes and I do believe he likes star wars. Actually we named the main guys that would play after star wars characters.
Naruga: was R2D2 Ero_Oyaji: was Darth Maul Khanh: Obi-wan Aesop Leia and I was Darth Vader.

Sharp:

Pretty simple if someone is on point they are sharp. You would someone sharp if their reactions are fast and just playing really well. But it’s mainly a reaction based term.

Beautiful Bay:

Well ummm to be honest both myself and Toxy like the stage. Its a few things. The colour of the stage is really good in my opinion it’s not too bright not too dark everything stands out well no matter which character is on the stage you can see them well Sagat and the shotos just look like they are meant to be there lol. Another thing also is when we were playing at Bluehouse most people used shotos and for some reason this stage would always come up in Ryu vs. Sagat, Sagat mirrors and Sagat vs. Akuma so it sorta came from there. It just became the shoto users’ stage. And I dunno I just really like the idea of a fight on a boat for SF its just cool love the background music lol it’s just got a ring to it “BEAUTIFUL BAY”