Hi everybody! This is the final interview from Shadowloo Showdown by Spider Muttons Productions © 2010, and the second part of our focus on interstate players. Our guests are the WA crew; Mr Chowda, Guillotine Fist, Coolzinferno and Derrace. And we also have Ali (EXC355UM)  as a special (unexpected) guest.

Our guests go on to talk about Shadowloo Showdown, the WA scene, Kung Fu, chicken wings and their opinion on the AE changes. That wraps up all the interviews from Shadowloo Showdown, and we’re sorry it took so much time to get it all out.

Once again, big thanks to our guests for taking the time to sit down with us, and let’s not forget the tremendous effort that went into Shadowloo Showdown from the TEC guys and everyone who helped with the organisation. The next Shadowloo Showdown is in June, so book your tickets early!

Don’t be a Scrub Podcast Episode 9: WA Crew

(Right click and “Save As” to download.)

DBAS Podcast Ep. 9 96 kb/s version

This interview was conducted by Igor at Shadowloo Showdown on the 14th of December, 2010.

Also be sure to check out Sydney’s new podcast: Don’t be a Pro Ep 01

They have an excellent debut episode, so please leave some feedback and look out for more from them.

Spidercarnage: It’s Monday Morning, Shadowloo Showdown Day…5? Or 6, counting from Wednesday.

I have four very special guests with me today; it’s the WA crew.

Welcome, everyone.

Mr Chowda: Hellooo.

We have Mr Chowda, Mr Guillotine Fist, and Mr…I can’t remember [your name].

CoolzInferno: CoolzInferno!

CoolzInferno. Heh.

C: What the hell! Why you hating on me.

I’m not hating on you, I’m just tired.

Alright. So you guys have been here for how many days now?

M: I’ve been here for three days. Today’s my fourth day actually.

So why don’t you tell us a little bit of how you enjoyed the event, what happened, how’d you do in the tournament, so forth.

M: Um…

Compared to BAM, I had a much better flight time. Much more sleep. I did just as bad. So 2-0. Yeah…I don’t know why. But I slowly did better during Sunday, but Saturday was just a terrible day. I don’t why.

But it was still fun. Still fun, still enjoyed myself.

So, yeah. It was good. Good event.

Guillotine Fist: Uhh. It was alright for me. I don’t sleep on planes at all. I have trouble adjusting to timezones, I guess.

Yeah, ‘cause there’s a three hour time zone difference between WA and Victoria now?

G: Yeah, yeah. I don’t know. I was pretty much sleeping throughout the entire time.

First day…

M: You were nodding off in the friggin’…is it Bluehouse arcade?

Yeah. Bluehouse.

Little Chinese place.

C: Am I supposed to be going to sleep?

Heheh. Wake up with a scar in your back.

G: But uh, Derrace and Coolzinferno went out to lunches with the Sydney guys with like…they met up with Gamerbee and Mago and talking to them. I was asleep.

In the hotel.

M: He’s so salty about that!

G: They tried to wake me up apparently.

C: We were prodding you and…we nearly smacked you in the face. And you weren’t responding to anything.

G: Yeah…I was just dead.

C: You were face-flat on your bed, literally.

G: I literally did, yeah. Heh.

Cool. Sounds like you guys had a good time. So, Mr Chowda, you play Boxer. Is that your main?

M: Yes, I play Boxer.

So what would you say are Boxer’s toughest matchups?

M: Toughest matchup…one that comes straight to my head is Chun.

Bitch.

Yeah…Kikoken! And then fierce punch.

That just ruins my day.

And all of her other bullshit mixups like…

C: Flip kick.

M: No, flip kick’s not too bad.

Hazanshu.

M: Hazanshu. No not flip kick. More like when she knocks you down. I always think it’s a crossup when they hit me with the two fierce punches. Crouching fierce into that new Sako combo bullshit.

It’s like dizzy… [then] I’m like “Fuck!”

Yeah, then it’s over.

Um…I still haven’t played CrazyFreerider again. Because I was very free to him at EVO Apac. So I think that’s pretty tough. And Zangief. Zangief’s hard as well.

Guile. Guile’s annoying as well.

But I think everything else is fine.

Because Balrog has a fairly good set of normals and he can poke…

M: He does. He has an awesome set of normals.

I’ve learnt to use them. I think I use them too much, even.

Like when I played with Akira, and Akira was giving me advice afterwards.

He was saying that, (imitates Akira’s accent), “You are very solid. Too solid! You concentrate too much on footsies! Your footsies are so good! But you don’t use his specials.”

[I went] ohhh! Okay.

So then I kept that advice in mind when I did the Melbourne vs. The Rest exhibition. And going against Exis, and at the start of the round all I did was just use dash straight. And I got Exis down to like 50% just using straights.

Well you had the lead in both of those games…so what happened?

Yeah…I choked! Heh.

C: More down back! Son.

M: No…no. I just hate Blanka. Even though it’s a matchup in my favour.

It’s seems hugely [in your favour]…

C (whispering gravely): You have to hold down back. He doesn’t do anything!

M: The shenanigans just annoy me.

And Exis’ Blanka is actually extremely special. Because he doesn’t ball at all. Or very rarely.

M: No he doesn’t actually. No.

He’s basically all about hop electricity pressure.

M: Yeah, yeah.

I think guys back in Perth like Cpt. Matchbox and…can’t remember who else plays Blanka. The reason I can’t remember who else is because you’re all shit!

Compared to Exis.

So…

Hahaha. WA on blast!

Learn jab electricity, guys. Seriously.

C: That’s been the theme of your week. If anytime you lose to him, it’s everyone else’s fault for sucking. Oh.

M: Especially for Blanka. Against Phatkau with Honda, who I lost to in the singles tournament. That was fair enough, that was just me being shit.

I was just being salty afterwards and just trying…

I was just talking about the Formula One driver trying to make up excuses.

Hehehe.

Yeah…but for Exis. No one does this kind of stuff in Perth.

So Mr. Guillotine Fist, how did you do in the tournament? By the way, he also mains Gen. Which is a very low-tier character.

G: Yeah…I did surprisingly well. Because um…

M: He tier-whored and used Honda.

Guillotine Fist’s Honda.

…Ohh.

G: Oh yeah, I did use Honda in singles. Twice.

M: Did you use Gen as well?

G: I mostly used Gen, actually.

Because a fair few people said that there was this one really crazy Gen from WA who was tearing shit up!

So there were rumours floating around the hall, man.

G: I think there was a team tournament where I OCVed a team. I think that was it. That’s what probably did it.

M: And you landed an Ultra on Gamerbee.

G: Yeah! Heheh.

I gimmicked him. We both didn’t know the matchup. I was like, fuck, Adon, what the hell?

And he’s obviously thinking the exact same thing. Fuck, Gen. What the hell?

Hahaha.

M: You talked to him afterwards as well, wasn’t it?

G: Yeah. And that’s exactly what he said. “I don’t know what I’m doing.” Heheh.

So what do you think is Gen’s hardest matchup?

G: Uh…I don’t know. They’re all pretty hard.

Probably Chun Li I think.

Because of her normals or?

G: Um…Because of Gen’s new changes. When Super came out. Like throughout Vanilla I played pretty hardcore, actually. I played heaps. And when Super came out. I didn’t really like the changes to Gen. And I also got less time to play. So I pretty much became a bit of a casual player.

That’s why I started playing Honda. And also because Eric- DK from Sydney taught me how to play. So yeah.

Arhh. DK.

M: Disgusting…

G: Basically those changes…I didn’t adjust well to those changes…

Yeah…disgusting….Sorry.

G: Nah. [It’s okay].

So Gen lost his invincible Oga from Super.

G: Ah yeah. That didn’t really bother me too much because I didn’t use it too much. Even though I knew not many people could punish it. It was actually quite punishable.

For example, Bison.

If I do EX Oga, he can just slide and punish me.

There were also hands changes, I think? I think last time we spoke at BAM you said that affected your game quite a bit.

G: Yeah, yeah. Because I used to keep people at a certain range using hands.

With that, basically they couldn’t advance forward. So basically I tried to make people jump. By going, you can’t move forward. You gotta try and get in some other way. And then I just anti-air with moves like down fierce the whole time.

But because it pushes them back so far, like to the other side of the screen. It just makes them walk back forward and I just reset. Okay, play footsies again.

Yeah.

And also the range nerfs mean they can walk in closer as well. And I have to use different anti-airs rather the catch-all down fierce.

So how did you do in the tournament [CoolzInferno].

C: Surprisingly decently.

So who do you actually main?

C: I main Bison, and I just have this habit of trying to play  a different character every…

M: Every week. He comes to one of our meetups…(Laughs.)

C: Check this shit out! I’ve got this epic Blanka now! Or check this shit out, I’ve got an epic Dhalsim now! And usually I’ll fuck someone up for like a little while. And then it’ll all turn to shit after they realise what I’m doing. And then…yeah.

There was a period when Super first came out when I basically had new mains every two weeks. And I’ll still just beat down…Chowda. Just regardless of who I was using. Occasionally, you know for that week. And then he’ll adapt.

And I’d find a new main. And we’ll start all over again! (Chowda laughs.)

It was good shit.

Giving matchup knowledge. Top tier stuff.

M: What’s the sticker on your stick?

C: I put a sticker on my stick because I like to label my stuff because I was pissing around with it one day. And it says “Chun Tang for Life”. In reference to Chun Li. I now have not used Chun Li for ages and I never plan to ever again. But yeah good times.

Who’s your current…this week’s main? You said you played Dictator over the weekend?

C: Yeah, main of the week. Classic flavour. Dictator.

Disgusting top –tier…

C: Yes and no. Yes and no.

Even when I was speaking to Tokido and he basically said that no, Dictator isn’t top tier.

(Mutton’s note: Bear in mind that Tokido is the rare guy who says that his main is 6:4 against everything.)

He says that he’s solid mid-tier.

C: That’s the thing. The whole theory…there’s top tier but then there’s tournament winning characters. And arguably a tournament winning character can’t have a million bad matchups. And so. And if you’ve got someone like Dictator who’s got a million bad matchups like Chun Li, Guile. Honda. You go on down the list.

Even though they’re a solid character against a lot of the weaker characters, they’re kinda shit against the kind of characters that everyone else actually uses.

Uses in tournament. Mmm. So why don’t you guys tell me a little bit about the WA scene?

C: It’s awfully small.

So how small, and how do you have your meetups, your ranbats?

G: There are really a small handful of players. Six or so in our core group. And there’s about another seven or so that regularly turn up. Not like every time, but like…

C: Every other time.

G: We see them more than once a month.

So do you have weekly meetups where you all play?

M: Not sure if you follow the Ozhadou Perth thread, but it’s usually looking pretty bad. It’s either gonna be myself holding a meetup telling everyone to come every Sunday or every second Sunday to my apartment. Or it’s gonna be this guy named Johnny. Shoutouts to Johnny back in Perth back in Northridge. To his garage. We just gather in his garage on a Thursday night to play.

But compared to like Melbourne where you’ve got like CCH, you’ve got Deakin, and you’ve got Couchwarriors. There’s nothing that’s really scheduled and organised?

There’s not even like anything competitive like I know Couchwarriors is like 5 dollars a pop to be able to enter?

No, it’s 5 dollars for the whole, 2 dollars for the tournament. But anyway.

M: Something like that. Well yeah, we don’t even have something like that. So that’s where we’re probably lacking a bit compared to everyone on the East Coast in general.

So have you guys thought about trying to build up the community? Because you guys have a very similar problem to the New Zealand scene as well. Because they have a very similar thing where they only have one arcade in Auckland. And they sort of have small pockets of guys that sort of play around each other’s houses once a fortnight or so.

But one of those guys, you know the guy who’s doing 3 Green Bars? The documentary.

He’s actually started his own small community and it’s started to grow.

C: Cpt. Munta?

Cpt. Munta. Yeah. By the way, shoutouts to him. I really like 3 Green Bars. It’s really fascinating to see how…badly the European scene is. (Chuckles.)

Um, but yeah have you guys thought about trying to advertise or go to like a uni to see if there’s any potential…

M: Valkyran. Valkyran aka Andry (sorry if I spelled it wrong), is our valid scene guy. He’s more like the guy who kind of builds the community usually. He’s the one who has organised tournaments in the past.

C: Like Gootecks.

M: He’s like the Gootecks of Perth. He really is. So. Most things go though him. Even myself… I’ve tried. But I just don’t really have enough time to be able to organise more things. I do hold stuff at my house.

I’ve held one ranking battle so far?

It’s just that people just don’t turn up.

Ah, I see.

C: Commitments. Everyone’s not free at times…

M: Because people…like I said there’s kind of guys like us in the core group… I think there’s like another sector of people like Dominic’s crew, Facebook group…community?

The brothers, yeah.

We should probably have like, you know, TEC Brothers vs. your brothers.

M: Pretty much, yeah.

C: I think they would be quite…if they ever listen to this? You guys are free, TEC. I’m sorry.

M: Which is a good motivation for you guys to level up, so.

I’m assuming then since your scene is so small, do you guys have any inner rivalries and so forth?

M: Inner rivalries? Umm.

We always hate the Hongkee guys because they’re like, oh we just play KOF and we just stumbled onto Street Fighter and we become godlike at the game for no reason.

It’s because KOF games are a lot faster.

M: Yeah exactly.

And a little bit more execution heavy.

M: Yeah, so.

They just…

C (With fake Hong Kong Accent): One frame combo, this is every day for me.

This is my fried rice, not my bread and butter!

I see.

M: (Laughs.) Salty like that, yeah.

I mean…look last night was like one of the first times I’ve went to Bluehouse and actually decided to play KOF. And I just sucked.

The execution is so much more stricter. And because I’ve predominantly just playing Super. It’s like…oh no dragon punch for me. It’s just stand up heavy punch. What? This is awful.

I understand if you come from King of Fighters background. And you play it a lot and you play it seriously. Then I think Super Street Fighter IV is a lot easier to adapt to. Because the game is a lot slower.

If you pick a rushdown character, which what KOF predominantly is. Is rushdown. You can be…really good.

So, because your scene is so small, how do you guys then level up? Do you rely a lot more on frame data, SRK?

C: I watch videos. Then I go, check this out!

Do you guys do this as well?

M: Well, I try to watch as many videos as I can. Of all the best Boxers. And using Seth as my secondary now. I’m just seeing what setups they do. Trying to see what mindset they use.

Just watching how people use Boxer’s jab. And using that not just to pressure but as spacing tool. So. Good stuff like that.

And then I’ll obviously try to get some real time practice whenever the guys come over.

So how do you get other [character matchup experience] that these guys don’t play. Online?

M: If you’ve noticed, I’m quite free to any character that I’ve never come across.

Yeah, the Dee Jay matchup.

Remember at BAM? I came up against your Dee Jay. I’m thinking I could chip you with EX Headbutt for the win. And you just reversaled Ultra.

Yeah that was…

M: Fucked up… so.

That was an interesting match actually. I was so scared because Boxers dominate the crap out of me usually. Because that standing jab and crouching jab just destroys Dee Jay. Once you get in.

That was an interesting match actually. I was so scared because Boxers dominate the crap out of me usually. Because that standing jab and crouching jab just destroys Dee Jay. Once you get in.

G: I found it hard too against an El Fuerte I came up against though. We were damn free to him. Because we don’t have any El Fuerte in Perth.

M: Full stop.

G: And that was on stream wasn’t it! Free now.

C: This guy’s put the sting on me. Slide, hit, throw. Slide, hit, throw. Slide, hit throw.

It’s like…I’ma be doing something now.

M: Tech! I was just going…tech damnit tech!

Just tech after a slide, he can’t do shit afterwards.

By the way the slide is like -13 on block so…

M: I don’t think it is…

C: I think it is a meaty slide so it has to be…

There are two types, I think if he does the run slide it’s like -13. And if he does the normal slide its -6 or something. So you can still punish both.

(Mutton’s note: I believe slide from neutral stance is positive on block. Any fuerte players can confirm?)

So then how do you feel about Balrog’s changes for Arcade Edition?

M: I think Balrog’s changes are…

Someone: Dirty Bull!

M: Dirty Bull? What are the changes to that?

Motion change. But it’s still like 3 frame startup isn’t it? So you can just jump out of it.

M: It’s still ass.

I think some of the other changes were: standing jab won’t hit crouching opponents anymore?

M: That actually is…in my eyes it’s a huge nerf. Because in matchups like Abel, against Sagat. Even against any character that you need to be able to keep out? It’s huge. Because you can’t keep them at bay.

I think one of his other changes was…I think they’re doing something with headbutt Ultra. If I remember correctly.

C: They’re always saying they’re doing something to headbutt Ultra.

M: I don’t know. This is like confirmed on the blog so.

I think they said something about it being a one frame link? If I remember…

M: One frame link? That’s ass.

G: Maybe it doesn’t launch them as much.

Yeah. I think something like that.

M: I think one of the main ones I was looking at was the headbutt recovery was changed?

Yeah I think it’s gone up.

M: So I think… it doesn’t really matter that much in terms if they block it or not.

It’s more for the mixup I do afterwards.

Because I’ll do…there’s a mixup I do.

If I just do any headbutt, I’ll do a fierce punch headbutt. And I’ll do a medium punch headbutt? But I can either just do it straight after my headbutt or I can do…despite being a charge character do like a little walk forward and then do a headbutt?

And then it makes it like an ambiguous crossup.

If my recovery frames decreased or increased, it’s going to throw out the timing.

Basically you do another headbutt and it’s like an ambiguous landing, where you are.

M: Yeah, exactly. So you do a headbutt. And they get knocked down. And you’re basically on them, attacking their knockdown. And if I decide to not move or move forward, depending on fat the character is as well.

But yeah, you get an ambiguous mixup after that.

It’s a nice little trick, because I saw one of my friends, Julian who plays Boxer as well do that on me. And I’m like ah, fuck. I just lost my charge. Because I had to move to the other side.

M: Yeah.

So what do you think of Gen’s changes in Arcade Edition. Mr Guillotine Fist.

G: He got one buff, I think. Or two.

I heard he got lots of buffs, they changed a fair few things with both stances didn’t they?

G: From what I’ve read, the only real change is the increase in Ultra 2 in the air range. The dive kick. And increased range in his roundhouse.

I thought they buffed some of his normals as well so you can do like…crouching light punch, standing medium punch hands, that sort of stuff?

G: Oh okay. He can already do that. As a link.

If they added some target combos then it’s…

Someone: Two target combos.

G: Even if they did, that’s rather superficial I think. It’s like whoop de doo. You can do different combos. I mean. Wow.

M: …Gggreat.

But if your normals are a little bit better then it means that you can poke…

G: Yeah if they’re better then that’s good. But I didn’t read anything about that.

I’m pretty sure…because the first translation that came out for it was fairly small.

G: Oh, I think I only saw the first translation.

And the bigger one was almost a quarter of page. Filled with Gen’s changes.

G: I’m going to have to see that. I’m actually thinking of dropping Gen. In Arcade Edition. For Yun and Yang.

I’ll just like look at them. Look at them develop and just like, pick the one that’s top tier. (Laughs.)

Ooh. Speaking with Tokido and Mago, they basically said that Yang is going to be the stronger one. Because the Genei Jin’s not actually broken like it was in Third Strike. So yeah.

G: He has a more solid game. Apparently one of them said that Yang’s got like plus ten on everything on block or whatever.

M: That’s exaggerated. Heh.

I think he said it was plus 7 or plus 8. There was a double digit.

Ali: It was a decent amount. I dunno if it was eight or something.

By the way we also have Ali(EXC355UM). One of the Shadowloo Showdown organisers in the room with us. Patiently waiting. For you to finish.

A: What’s going on, peoples.

We also have Derrace in the room.

You main Rufus?

Derrace: Yep.

So why don’t you tell us a little bit about Rufus’s hardest matchup in Super.

A: Abel.

M: Sagat.

Mago’s Sagat makes him look free.

D: Yeah…Mago’s Sagat…speechless.

The hard matchups I have is probably Cammy?

Is that because of the dive kick pressure? Versus his wake up game?

D: Rufus has 950 stun. So Cammy has lots of mixups. So if I guess wrong, I’m stunned. So two resets, I’m stunned. And if there’s another one and I reset, it’s game over.

Um.

She hits hard. So um.

Who would you say is Rufus’ best matchup then. Excluding Dan, Hakan…

G: Gen.

A: Ali. Ali’s Akuma.

Put it this way, what do you think is your-when you’re playing Rufus, which character do you beat the most?

D: Uh. I don’t actually remember.

So you just dominate everyone?

M: (Laughs). Dominating…pressure.

D: I mean every time I think it’s an easy matchup and I go into the game and…

Something changes.

D: It changes. I mean, game play’s different. You can’t just…

Like for example, I played Vince’s Sim. He’s more offensive. And in yesterdays team battle. I played Cactus.

And Cactus plays more defensively…and I got lucky and managed to adapt and…

See, Cactus’s Dhalsim is more like I’d probably say Arturo Sanchez’s. He sort of holds back a bit more. Unlike…I think Vince’s Sim is lot more like Filipino Champ. Where he moves around a lot more and attacks with his longer ranged limbs.

D: You have to still get in for both…and I always thought it was an easy matchup. But then it feels like 5-5 because if I can’t get in, he’s winning you see.

Any area where I can’t get in…I pretty much can’t do anything.

So to answer the question…hehah.

Probably…I like the Honda matchup.

Okay, why would that be.

D: Pretty comfortable. Honda has a lot of strong normals and he has very strong defence as well. But if the Honda player doesn’t know the Rufus matchup, then he’s pretty easy. In a sense.

Because of your dive kick pressure.

D: Dive kick pressure, yeah. Because most of Honda’s…headbutt and [butt] smash, it can be countered by Rufus.

Oh with the dive kick?

D: Yep. Crossups and stuff. So he can’t really use the headbutt to anti-air me and stuff.

I guess Sakura. Probably Sakura would be one of the easier matchups as well. Because crouching heavy punch doesn’t work on Rufus.

Oh really? Is it because of the hitbox or because…

If I delay my dive kick and he presses crouching heavy punch too early, I’ll just beat it.

So if I time my jump properly, he can’t delay his heavy punch.

But yeah every character’s about the same. I mean, I look at it about the same. I mean there are harder matchups but the rest are just…normal?

Did you hear about the Dictator changes [Coolzinferno]?

C: Yes. Unfortunately. One, losing damage on standing heavy kick when it hits really far away…

Yeah so just the tip does actually a lot less damage.

C: Yeah, and the motion changed for Psycho Punisher. Yeah, you know ultimately just having it before meant you can’t just go in and fireball. Because I can just go through it.

Whereas now you kind of have to be more like…like characters like Chun Li and Balrog where you actually have to be charging back to punish fireballs?

It’s kinda more like that rather than just being able to twitch it out whenever. So probably lowered some of the deterrent factor a little bit.

But it also got a damage boost. On the actual Ultra it goes up to 450. So yes I agree with you that you can’t just do it at anytime. But I still think that Ultra 2 will probably be the better Ultra.

C: Probably…

Because you can still do medium punch, medium punch, Ultra.

D: I love it when Bison uses Ultra 2 against Rufus.

A: I think I know a lot of charge players…a lot of them will be happy with the charge Ultra. I know a lot of them have faster reaction to do the Ultra with charge than quarter circle.

I know Just-S is happy about it.

I’m fairly happy about it as well.

D: Somniac says it’s a buff. Because he can hold back…

A: He’s always holding back. (Everyone laughs.)

A: That’s what I’m saying, as soon as you see any kind of hadoken motion if you’re fast enough…look how fast Guile’s do their Ultra 2.

D: Yesterday when Vince was playing Mago and Somniac asked Mago to pick Bison. And during the game, I think Mago had the life lead with Bison?

And then he was turtling.

And then Vince said, “That’s Somniac.” (Laughs.)

So Mr Chowda as a player, what would you say are your greatest strengths and weaknesses.

M: My weaknesses…

Let’s go with weaknesses first. A lot of people usually tend to think that their weaknesses are a lot better than their strengths.

M: I think my weaknesses are a lack of ability to adapt. Even though I watch match videos back in Perth, I know what is going on and what’s the mindset and that kinda thing. But in terms of when I’m there in the tournament playing myself?

I’d be like…uhhh yeah. I just start drawing a bit of a blank. And then I find it hard to adapt. Even this tournament as well. After watching I reckon, Marn? When he played against Daigo. He lost a game.

And then he actually just sat down and thought about…oh you know. What just happened. So rather than just smacking on A to go to rematch, I tried to have a think about what just happened. Still didn’t help! So.

You’re talking about the match at Season’s Beatings when Marn beat Daigo?

M: Yeah, that one. So I was just trying to…have a think, should I just go straight back into it or should I have a think? So, yeah that’s probably something where I need to improve in general as a player, I’d say.

Yeah, I’m actually a bit guilty myself of just pressing rematch as quickly as possible.

M: Pretty much, yeah. It’s umm..if you have a think about it; oh what did I get hit with. Because you’ve got the time to think about as well. Because they win, they just think “Oh great.” Usually they just think “Oh great. I got a win. Hooray.” If you can take time, maybe a quick ten, twenty seconds to quickly dissect why they’ve won. And hopefully you’ll be able to figure out a counter.

If you know your character and you know the matchup well enough, yeah.

So what do you think your strengths are?

M: Strengths? (Starts imitating Akira again.) According to Akira; “You are very solid. You have such great footsies!”

(Laughs) I love the way you just do the accent as well.

A: I think every time someone quotes Akira…it’s always with an accent.

M: You have to. You have to.

So you’re a solid player, you have very good footsies.

M: Yeah, yeah. That’s what I’ve been told by the vast majority of people who saw me…who did see my serious games.

I think execution wise…on my own TV my execution’s quite godlike.

But I think I was talking to you this morning as well…when you come to a tournament or a different environment, you need to take that time to do the warmup to get used to whatever setup it is.

Because I think at the end of the day, if you’re complaining about the setup, that’s just [indecipherable] because I even brought my own stick this time as well.

You just have to…my suggestion just from experience now. Just go to a player, go to a casual station and just go…

Not even do practice matches but even where you just hit [buttons] almost like in training mode where you have one round for one player to practice all his combos. And then switch it up. That’s almost like how they do it in Godsgarden. The Japanese were doing something like that. Just to get used to the timing.

I got my punish opportunities and with Boxer I’d do jump roundhouse stand roundhouse and my strong link wouldn’t come out and my EX upper and they’d punish me.

A: That’s mainly why we decided to ask BenQ for the same screens so the tournament setups were all using the same screen. Because from tournament experience going from one screen to another is very hard to adapt.

Unless you’re really good and you can adapt really quick to different screens. I play on visual cues so it’s even worse for me.

But yeah, that’s why we decided to go all the same setups. Hopefully that helped out a few people so that they don’t have to keep switching.

What kind of setups do you guys have? Do you have specific monitors which you like to use or you just sort of [use] whatever’s available?

M: We…because the community’s so small usually it’s even pretty difficult to get a number of setups at meetups? Some people have setups, some people, they just don’t bring them and we just kind of hope for the best.

Sometimes we’ve have the case where we’ve got more players but we don’t have enough setups? But the setup I’ve got at my apartment is…Samsung plasma TV?

Ah. So lag city.

M: No it’s actually… I think it’s fine to be honest. Maybe it’s because I’ve gotten used to that…

See, I’ve got a Samsung LCD TV. And it lags like all…

M: Because I know one of our guys, K. He has this TV which is like lag city. And he plays on online as well so that’s added lag.

Yeah, he plays on PSN.

Then when he comes to our meetups, he’s likes “Oh my god! What is this lack of lag?!”

And he’s dropping his lags there.

Yeah on my TV if I do like headbutt Ultra with Balrog. I basically as soon as I do the headbutt, I have to do the motion for Ultra.

So when I actually moved to a CRT TV, I realised I actually have to delay this a little because the Ultra would come straight out as soon as he lands and I’d whiff.

A: That reminds me of Zerolance from Adelaide. He also prefers a laggy screen.

He actually prefers the lag.

M: Because he plays online all the time.

G: He plays Guile.

A: It’s a PSN thing, isn’t it. What’s wrong with all you PSN players?

D: Combomaniac’s on Xbox Live now.

Yeah he is. So Mr. Guillotine Fist what would you say are your greatest strengths and weaknesses are as a player.

G: Uh. Weakness is probably (indecipherable), lack of plan, like the matchups. Realistically, I think my main weakness is…I kind of treat the game kind of casually.

Especially since Super came out. Because I guess I was just really really really really salty about Gen changes. (Laughs.)

So yeah it was just me being a real casual player. That was my main weakness.

Other than that I can’t really say much about my strengths. Because I really think you require someone else to say that. You need a mirror to look at yourself, you know what I’m saying?

Think about your own sort of game and…

G: Yeah my own game and…lack of matchup knowledge, really. And as a part of that not knowing how to react to certain things as well.

M: So you need someone to tell you what were your strengths are?

I’ll tell you:

You’re free.

C: Yeah that’s correct.

M: You suck. You’re terrible.

I’m just gonna call you Mr Dictator because I forgot your name again.

C: That’s the third time!!

D: Well you guys got crazy wings?

His name’s Wing.

Alright, Wings. That’s easy enough to remember.

A: Wings is his real name?

C: Weng. W-E-N-G like weng with it.

A: I’d rather call you Wing. Sounds better.

Wings it is.

C: You know this one guy who works at KSA, I think, going I’ll have some chicken wangs.

I’m like shut up go…

A: Wang is like…penis.

D: Rachel…

C: It’s with a E not with a A.

Alright Mr Wings then. What would you say are your greatest strengths and weaknesses.

C: Okay. Weaknesses is definitely…I’m very sort of momentum heavy. Momentum heavy? That doesn’t make sense.

It’s actually [when] I’m on, I’m really on. You know, everything’s going perfectly. But then I’ll slip up one or twice and crack. And then everything will then turn to shit.

So your mental game is…

A little weak.

C: Yeah.

(WA guys laughing.)

M: I have SO many memories of like casuals or like tournaments where he’s got the life lead and I’ve got…

C: Ten percent life! Ridiculous life lead!

M: Maybe twenty seconds left on the clock…

C: Rush upper loop! Reset! Throw! Hit again!

Oh fuck, oh shit, dizzy.

D: That’s his weakness.

C: I try to bait something and I do it too late. Oh my god, it’s all turning to shit now. Yeah.

Haha. So what do you think are your greatest strengths are?

C: Um. I suppose it’s strength out of weakness but I try to do unorthodox stuff? Like sort of random setups, try something out to see what happens.

Throw (indecipherable) out just to do something that people wouldn’t expect in certain situations. What’s good and bad, sometimes.

So you’re relying more on like your gut feeling when you’re playing against someone.

C: Kind of, yeah.

Yeah. I think Dan at some stage just described me as playing very free form. And I just like…yeah, that’s great.

M: Did you just call me free!!

C: I said freeform not free!

Haha. Outside of Street Fighter, Mr Chowda, what do you like to do with your hobbies and other things like that?

M: I just like to go and hang out with my friends, my work crew that kind of thing, go for coffee, go for dinner. Go drinking, something like that.

Do Kung Fu as well. It helps with the discipline to a degree as well.

How long have you been doing Kung Fu?

M: I’ve been doing for twelve years now. Doing it since I was a little kid.

So does Kung Fu have a Dan system similar to Karate?

M:It’s not so much like Dans, it’s just like different colour belts. Yeah so.

So you’re a…

M: I am a green belt at the moment. I like how you assume black belt.

I know with karate, most of the Japanese martial arts you have like the original belts, then when you get to black then you have the dan system. Like dan 1 all the way up to grandmaster.

M: The reason…I rag on Tae Kwon Do a lot…

I mean the professional Tae Kwon Do people are really, really good.

But when you’re a little kid you have these like 17 year olds who are black belts.

And I think that black belts is a status that you should really reach when you’ve really got to the highest level.

But see, that’s when you get the black belt, then you have like dan 1 black belt. Dan 2 black belt. Then all the way up to twelve.

G: Because of the businesses.

They’re buying their belts. Black belt…

Yeah, you also have that aspect of it as well.

M: So our system goes yellow, red, green, blue and then black. So it’s like 5, so I’m like smack in the middle or something like that.

So how years does it usually take to get a black belt?

M: How long? I’m of the more senior guys at the school so it’s taken me twelve years. But we’ve had lots of system changes that kind of thing. So I think if you really kind of put your head down and dedicate yourself, I’d say probably about six years?

But it’s like…you kind of come and go and it’s like different changes and you learn those changes. So it’s…yeah. Just having to adapt to these changes.

So do you also do teaching at the school as well?

M: Yeah, yeah definitely. That’s a big part of it as well.

I’m like one of the senior guys there. So there’s like all the new guys, like even some of the seniors who are a level below me. I still help them out as well.

A: I’m glad I sat in on this interview because I plan on jumping Chowda.

Now I know about the twelve years of Kung Fu I’m thinking of just jumping Wing.

C: Yeah, I’m always the good option if you want someone…

He’s the fresh meat of the group.

So have you ever thought about introducing new players to Street Fighter from your…is it a dojo like in Karate?

M: We call it…’cos it’s Chinese, it’s like a gun 館, which is like training hall basically. Well actually one of the things was when Street Fighter 4 first came out, all of us got this bunch of guys that are into video games.

All of us were getting hype for Street Fighter 4. So I got the game and they all came over to my house to play. And my first ever actual tournament was actually one that I organised myself at my house when all the guys from Kung Fu came over.

But it came to the case where they were more casual players? Whereas myself, I just kept playing because it was a game that I really, really liked.

And I held another tournament and pretty much everyone was free to me.

And I had only learned basic shit as well.

So you basically just levelled up so much by playing…

M: Yeah, yeah. What I had…it’s like Final Fantasy…we’re all level 1. I levelled up to like level 10.

I understand. I actually have a similar problem at Geelong as well. Because most of the anime club that I was involved in…basically a few of the guys that liked playing Street Fighter were really hype for Street Fighter 4. Yeah. The game came out, we all sort of started playing…well actually they played it for about six months before I played it because I was living in NSW at the time. And I came back down and pretty much destroyed them. And I didn’t actually even play the game, I just used my ST knowledge to basically…yeah.

And unfortunately that sort of turned them off a little bit from playing. And now it’s like oh. No point in playing Igor, because we just lose all the time. Even when I use my alternative characters or characters I don’t even [play].

I think it’s also because it’s a little bit casual. I think it’s another issue with community organisers is; how do you turn a casual player into a hardcore player?

M: We’ve kind of discussed that as well. Because at our tournaments we get our usual core of people. Which is like 10-15 odd people?

And then there’ll be ones from the other group as well. There might be five or so people who are brand new. Who’ve just come in.

And have a…if you hold an event for example. As whoever’s organising or even as one of the more more respected guys in the scene, just go around and say, “Are you enjoying yourself?” That kind of thing. And make sure they feel welcome.

And even play some sets with them and see how responsive they are to [advice]. Don’t be afraid to go completely butt-balls-out and maul them.

But if they go like, “Oh my god. What was that?”

And you actually try to teach them, and how responsive they are to that? That’s where you can judge; is this guy willing to learn, to be able to level up.

Or is he just like; ah I just want to smash some guys up.

I think you guys need to get an Ali. Because he is basically one of the reasons I think the Melbourne community has grown so much.

Because when I first started going to Couch Warriors, he would just walk and say, “Oh, how are you enjoying yourself? Are you having fun? Come here, check this out.”

Really, really friendly. And I think he attracts a lot of people to come back. Even if they’re just pure casual players, they still just come out just to hang out and to talk about random stuff.

A: You got to make everyone feel comfortable. Like yesterday at Shadowloo Showdown, there’s a few people [too] intimidated to go into casuals because they’re thought it was a bit of a tight knit community. So you just pull them aside and just start introducing them to everyone.

And this one guy, Brian. Yesterday. He’s from Sydney, and it’s his first time at an event. And I just started introducing him to Sydney players so when he does go back as well he already knows a bunch of names.

And I got him to jump on casuals.

Same thing with Street Pussy. I mean, the guy who entered…I mean this was his first tournament and I was actually chatting to him. And he said “Yeah, first tournament ever”. And I said “How did you do?”

And started introducing him to Spoony and Mutton so forth.

And I told him that he should definitely start coming to other events.

I think building a community is really important because overall it’ll help everybody get better.

G: People playing more characters.

Yeah, exactly. We’ve really got to get more people [playing a greater variety of characters]. I think Australia in general needs to get off the top tier list.

We have so many Ryus, we have so many Bisons. We need more character diversity.

Yeah exactly. I mean what, we have like three Rufus players that actually main Rufus in Super.

You (to Derrace), and two others…I can’t actually remember [their names].

A: We used to have Wing in Melbourne but he went back to China or…I don’t know where he’s from.

And Toxy’s got a really solid Rufus.

Yeah, but Toxy doesn’t main Rufus. He mains Akuma.

I’m saying people who actually stick to a character. And that was one of the things that both Somniac, Toxy and Bomb said. That when they went to the States, everybody knew their character matchups. They knew how to punish everything accordingly.

You can’t have like Dee Jay vs. Gen with both players not knowing the matchup.

A: Yeah, but U.S. has a population of like 50 billion. So of course they’re gonna…

It’s actually 350 million, but yeah okay.

A: I’m close, I’m close.

But in general I think that’s something that we really need to do. We need to get a better diversity of players. More people seriously playing. And just sticking to…

I suppose you can’t force people into playing characters, and winning is nice I guess.

M: Just keep whispering into their ear: El Fuerte…

We actually have two serious Fuerte players in Melbourne…

M: We have no one.

A: We used to have Alvin also even back [then]. But one advantage I have, is that I live with Sol. And he uses basically the whole roster. So that helps.

Still free a little bit.

G: Well I’ve heard some players encourage newer players to use certain characters rather than whatever they want [to use].

A: Yeah, that’s harsh.

Well I suggested to Syntax, he’s one of the new players in Melbourne. By the way, shoutouts to Syntax.

A: What’s up Syn.

To actually use Abel.

Because he picked Akuma. Because his defence is so weak, you just cross him up and just destroy him in two combos in Super. And he said he wants to pick a rushdown character so I was thinking, well Abel will be probably be good for him to give it a try.

A: And he can take the hits.

And Abel can also take the hits.

G: According to their playstyle, like suggest a character based on how they play.

Yeah, exactly.

Or ask them how do you play the game, and then sort of [go] maybe you should try this guy. And give them a few reasons why.

Maybe Abel [wasn’t the best choice] because Abel is fairly execution heavy at certain points. Especially with the stepkick one frame link combos.

G: Yeah, that character’s pretty execution heavy.

A: You just gotta put in the time.

That’s all.

C: And also he has pretty bad defensive stuff as well.

A: Yeah he can be abused by a few characters. Option-selecting Akuma will mess him up hard.

Mm. Definitely.

G: Then again, in SF4 I think you just need to block a lot more and that’s about it.

Yeah actually I noticed a lot of people in SF4 love to jump and love to rush down.

G: Yeah they love to push buttons. Frame traps! Yeah, push buttons.

Yeah. And Gen’s actually got some nice frame traps.

M: Yeah but you never use them.

G: Until you told me about them! Heheh.

M: Exactly. I found that out, and I don’t even main Gen!

G: I know. I told you that’s because I’m too casual.

D: Who’s the best Gen in Japan.

G: Me. (Everybody laughs.)

I like it.

G: I have no idea. I don’t pay attention. I’m too casual.

A: There is a lot of them though, man. Seen some videos, really good Gens around.

G: Yeah, actually Jason showed me the Japanese Gen combos. So I learned some combos from there. I didn’t want to use them. Because I feel that you gotta stock up Super to punish certain things.

So do you guys follow the international community a bit?

M: Yeah. I pretty much check all the websites like SRK everyday.

The forums…not so much anymore. I mean I’ll check them like maybe once a week or so. Dare I say because a lot of the stuff posted up there I know it already.

But sometimes one of the really good guys from America is Javits. He posts up really good stuff. He just hits the lab all the time. And posts up all these awesome option selects and stuff. So.

Trying to implement those into my game more.

So much would you say that you practice a week. Training mode and playing actual matches.

M: Almost never go into training mode. Because I hate it with a passion.

I will go into training mode to practice stuff that I see Javits do. Option selects and stuff. I won’t go into training mode just to do combos.

http://shoryuken.com/f251/balrog-option-selects-how-apply-them-combat-222334/

Because I figure combos…I’ll just practice in the match. But it’s pretty much whenever my housemate Ricky is in, and I’m free as well. “Hey, let’s play. Let’s do it.”

And obviously when one of the guys is over or whenever I go somewhere else as well.

So, Mr. Guillotine Fist, how much do you practice?

G: About once or twice a month. Whenever they have a meetup…

So you don’t actually do training mode.

G: No I told you, I was being serious. I’m really casual. Since Super came out.

A: Can I ask a quick question?

Sure.

A: Alright. Next year, there’s a few fighters coming out. MK 9. MVC3. SFxT.

You guys planning on playing those?

I think those are the next big games coming out.

D: KOF 13.

A: KOF 13!

C: That’s not that big.

Not in Australia.

A: Well those will probably make the lineup for Shadowloo Showdown 2011. Hopefully June or July. So we’re giving you a heads up now.

Wanna play Marvel vs Capcom? There’s no versus…

Dude, they have like ten Super players. I doubt that they’re gonna have too many Marvel players.

A: Maybe this will…

Wake a sleeping beast, you reckon?

C: Maybe we’ll have Heavy say “It’s Mahvel baby!” on the mic.

G: I was actually thinking of picking up Marvel versus Capcom. Not because I particularly enjoy that sort of thing.

I don’t like being hit by some random infinite. From losing one bit in footsies or something. But I have the feeling that it might grab in a lot of new people into the fighting game community? So that’s my main reason for learning it. Or intending to learn it.

Mortal Kombat? Eh not so much. It’s hard to tell. The previous Mortal Kombats are basically a bunch of characters that look slightly different. All same movesets. But different special moves. And that was about it.

I have no idea whether Mortal Kombat will be like a legit game or not. You know?

Yeah they’re saying they’re aiming it towards the fighting game community. But I still have a feeling that they’re going to stuff it up.

A: I don’t know. I think they’re going with a nice approach to it. It kind of looks like SF4. I hope it plays just as good.

M: It certainly looks nice, but to give you an idea of how much I care about Mortal Kombat is: you’ll have the SRK news feed, and I’ll just scroll past the Mortal Kombat so.

Yep I’m in the same boat. Oh, MK9, new character. Ehh.

A: I think most people won’t give it the time of day until they give it a shot. And then maybe they’ll jump on it if they enjoy it.

G: I’ll be willing to give it a shot, but I’m not following it.

A: Yeah, yeah, that’s fair enough. I’m just saying that a few people might jump on the Mortal Kombat bandwagon when they actually play it.

I was speaking to Gamerbee actually, just coming back to the training room thing. And he told me, speaking to me yesterday while we were doing the stream. And he told me that he was speaking to Sako.

And apparently Sako practices, when he is preparing for a tournament and things. He says that he practices 13 hours a day. In training mode.

A: Jesus.

M: Can I say it?

Faaarrrrrrkkkkkkk!

Everyone: FARRKKKKK!!!!

A: When you say it you gotta do the thumbs down thing. Faarrrkkkk!

So I asked him, so does [Sako] work? And he goes basically…heh Gamerbee said that he’s a geek. And basically he goes to work, comes home, turns on Street Fighter. And thirteen hours later, turns off, goes to sleep, goes back to work.

M: My god.

A: So he is a robot. That just proves it.

But then again, speaking to Tokido and Mago? Mago played a hundred hours just the Dhalsim matchup just to be ready for YHC Mochi just for Godsgarden 2.5.

M: Sheeit.

Tokido used to practice ten hours a day.

A: No wonder they’re so high level man. Coming up to Shadowloo Showdown, the last month I played like…ten hours. That sucks.

Yeah exactly. I was in the same boat. I increased my playing time from 2-3 hours a week to 2-3 hours a day. And even then I was like…can’t be bothered.

So, I’d like to thank everybody for sitting here and answering questions.

Mr Wings, Guillotine-Fist, Derrace.

Sorry I have trouble pronouncing…

A: Derr-ACE. Is it Derrace?

D: I dunno.

I’ll just call you the Melbourne nickname, Derr-arse!

C: Deer-ass.

And Mr. Chowda, and Ali our special guest. Thank you for organising Shadowloo Showdown.

A: Thank you Igor. Thank you. Thanks everyone for coming.

D: Thanks for having us.

M: Cheers guys.