Hi guys, Spider Muttons Productions © 2010 is back with the second part of our OHN special. Our guest is Queensland’s very own Tom Body aka NefeliousG!

Hailing from the land of Marvel overlords- Queensland, Tom has been dominating the Australian fighting game scene since Marvel vs. Capcom 3’s release, winning OHN9, and placing third at Shadowloo Showdown 2011 behind Tokido and Mago. He also gained a international profile when he placed equal-25th place at Evolution 2011, which is a massive accomplishment for Queensland and Australia. (Well, technically, Tom is from New Zealand.)

So with the release of UMVC3, Igor and I were really interested to see how everybody had leveled up their Marvel game since the last majors in 2011, and whether anybody could topple the Queensland Marvel hegemony. I think Marvel contributed so much hype to OHNX, with the crazy top 8, the Sydney vs Melbourne 5 on 5, and the incredibly intense Antman/Toxy vs. KG moneymatches. We’ve been wanting to catch up with Tom for a very long time ever since EVO 2011, and we figured OHNX would be a great time to catch with him and scour his brain for all things Marvel-related.

Tom has a lot to say about the history of Marvel in Queensland and Australia, and everything that happened at OHN, so we hope you guys enjoy our conversation with Brisbane’s master of Marvel as much as we did.

You can follow Tom on his Facebook account, or hit him up on Ozhadou.

You can find out more about Tom by reading the profile Kotaku AU did on him: Training With The Pros: NefeliousG

Check out the Lansmash site for quarterly Brisbane gaming events.

And of course, be sure to check out the OHNX stream and results/pictures/links if you haven’t already:

• OHNX Full Results
• Stream Archive
• Official OHN Photography Panda Photography
• Kotaka AU article: The OzHadou Nationals: Hype, Street Fighter, And A Boy Named Arnold
• Melbourne invades OHN! Photos by Shadowloo

As always, you can listen to the podcast below or read the transcript of the entire thing if you prefer. Enjoy the interview guys!

Don’t be a Scrub Podcast Episode 20: Tom

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Don’t be a Scrub Podcast Episode 20: Tom aka NefeliousG

S: Alright, so it’s day 3 of OHNX.

And we have a very special guest with us here today. From the Marvel overlords of Queensland.

We have Tom with us today.

Hello Tom.

T: Hey, how are you guys going.

S: Aka NefeliousG.

T: Yeah, that’s it. NefeliousG.

1-      S: Where did that name come from?

T: I used to play Virtua Fighter 4 years ago when it was out on PS2. And me and my friends came up with all these stupid names…because you…yeah you had to like, name all your characters or whatever.

And that was one of them. And that was the one that stuck.

And then I didn’t use it for years. And then I got sick of being called Tom at tournament. Because it’s really hard…

S: (Chuckles.)

T: To hear Tom, because…every word you think that you’ve been called up or something. So I thought, ah screw it. I’ll do a name that no one else uses. So I went back to using NefeliousG again.

S: Ah right.

T: It was really confusing for a lot of people, I think. Because they all knew me as Tom.

S: Yeah, exactly!

T: And no one knew who NefeliousG was. So yeah.

S: But then again actually it made more sense for EVO for the big screen. NefeliousG…and like Tom.

T: Yeah. Heh.

S: Who the fuck is Tom?

T: They called me everything man. Nefelious. Nefelicious.

M: (Laughs.)

Nefarious.

T: Nefarious yeah. That’s what DJHuoshen called me. NefariousG on Twitter.

M: (Laughs.) Nice, nice.

Now your last name is Body. Why can’t…

S: Really?!

M: Yeah he’s called…his name is Tom Body.

S: Ah that’s awesome!

M: Yeah! Doesn’t that write itself as a nickname?

T: Heheh. It’s actually pronounced Boh-dy. So every time someone says Body. Even though it’s spelled Body, it just sounds wrong.

M: Ahh.

Well another thing I noticed is that up in Queensland, you guys swap names…?

Or like in tournaments you all like…

T: Ah yeah that started…I don’t know when that started.

But we all just decided at one tournament we’d all enter as some person’s name or some slight variation.

T: Oh yeah that started…I don’t know when that started but we all just decided one tournament we would all enter as some person’s name with some slight variation of it.

We started with this guy called Vlad And then there was Vlade with an S and Vlad with a Z. Just to screw Slapper over.

S: (Laughs.)

T: Yeah because joining a tournament we always wanted to make it as hard as possible for him.

M: Oh my god.

I can tell you from the other side, for example Spoony was doing Marvel seeding for BAM. And we were seeding all you guys. And we were like…who the fuck is this???

S &T: (Laughs.)

M: It made it really hard for us to seed you guys!

T: We kinda retired…It was kinda funny for the first couple [of tournaments]. And then we kind of stopped it because they made it too hard. It was easy when there were less people entering, when there was only like eight or ten of us.

But then when SF4 and everything came out and then lots of people started to enter tournaments it became hard to kind of track everything.

We did for a while, but we kind of stopped now.

2-      S: What is it about Queensland and Marvel?

T: Well, we do play everything. It’s just that the people who travel interstate are just the Marvel players. So there’s like an SF4 scene and there are a couple of good players there. Like a Chinese guy called Dsmiles and another guy called Vinh.

Probably nowhere near the level of Sydney or Melbourne. But yeah, they just don’t really travel so the only scene that anyone gets to see is the Marvel scene.

S: Mm mm.

T: We got King of Fighters and all that as well. And they did okay this year. They got third and fourth in King of Fighters. And we got second.

But yeah, it’s just really we’re the only ones who travel. So.

S: Okay.

M: So what is the scene like, do you guys play mostly at somebody’s house or?

T: Yeah. Or, exclusively just at someone’s house. We don’t have any meetups or any…

Oh we do, we have the Lansmash meetups, which are quarterly.

But yeah we do consoles at different people’s houses. And that’s just kinda just how we play.

We don’t really have a Deakin University or a York Street. Or anything like that. So.

S: Why is that though?

T: Um. We had one thing for a little while, where we would meet up on Tuesdays. Once every Tuesday every week. But Tuesday was a hard day for a lot of people to come.

It was just a lack of a venue I think.

It was a really good venue that we had. It was central, the staff were real organized, and we had heaps of room and everything. It’s just sad- we probably needed it for a whole Saturday instead of just having it for a Tuesday night.

Because Tuesday- we all work. We’ve got to come after work. It’s only for a few hours. So you can barely get a few games in before you gotta go. But yeah. We have thought into having more meetups and, to be honest, the scene in Queensland is actually still quite small. It’s only about six or ten dedicated players that will turn up.

Whereas in Melbourne you guys probably have like twenty?

S: Around twenty or thirty.

T: Twenty to thirty. And Sydney have like with the York Street events about the same sort of numbers.

So we’re still much smaller in that respect.

S: But a much bigger state.

T: Yeah…a much…bigger state overall…

S: Exactly.

M: Still, that’s pretty impressive that you guys have like five or six regular players and produce Marvel players of such caliber.

T: Yeah. It’s all the old school Marvel 2 players. Plus a couple of newer guys. And we all just really like Marvel. So when Marvel 3 came out I was pretty hype about it because I’ve been playing Marvel 2 for so long and gave up all hope for Marvel 3 ever coming out. So it’s pretty good to see it.

3-      M: So when it first came out what was your impression of Marvel 3?

T: I thought it was a stupid game when it first came out. Just X-factor Sentinel at the beginning?

‘Cause in Marvel 2 it took me like two years to learn a combo that did like 50, 60%?

S: Hehe yeah.

T: And then within ten minutes I was doing a combo that killed a character. We all thought it was ridiculous and that Sentinel was too good. Then we found out that we just wrong. Sentinel was actually not that good. He was okay- but he’s not as broken as we all thought he was.

S: Yeah, those first two-week Sentinels…

T: Yeah. And we thought the game was only gonna last a few months before people thought it was ridiculous.

S: Actually you’re right. It lasted eight.

T: Yeah! Heheheh. It lasted eight months until Ultimate came out.

M: (Laughs.)

T: We thought that was ridiculous as well. It didn’t have time to breathe. But Ultimate’s a much better game than Vanilla. Vanilla was just a really broken game that was just based around Phoenix I think.

So it’s good that Phoenix is…gone, well she’s not gone but she’s toned down to the point that no one will use her anymore. So.

4-      S: So speaking about Ultimate then, you have a new team. So how do you go about picking a team in a Marvel game?

T: Ummm…generally I like just to rush down. So I just go for rushdown teams like Wolverine in Vanilla. But then I dropped him in Ultimate for a while and picked him back up. But then Sentinel…I mean Wesker seemed so good in Ultimate. So I picked him up.

Because I always pick top tier characters generally.

ACL Pro MvC3 – ToM (Wolverine/Tron/Phoenix) vs Deathwish (Wesker/Tron/Phoenix) Top 10

S: Oh okay.

T: But everyone in Brisbane, the general Marvel scene, kind of thinks the same way. And I think our problem at this OHN was our lack of character variety.

Um, we have Vergils but not on the level that Toxy and Antman were playing Vergil. So it took us a while to adjust to that.

And then Morrigan…I actually play Morrigan but playing her and then playing against her…

S: Is just too difficult.

T: Especially because Arnold’s Morrigan was a hundred times better than my Morrigan. And my team I don’t think deals very well with it, and if it does, I don’t know how to do it.

S: See, yeah. That’s something…I was speaking to Sol about it when I was watching the Melbourne vs. Sydney 5v5. And when I saw Arnold bust out Morrigan and the way he played her. I basically told him; Arnold could OCV Melbourne.

Because nobody plays runaway in Marvel 3 at all. Which is, kind of interesting because Marvel 2 was at the beginning at least…

T: It was purely keepaway in Marvel 2.

S: Exactly.

T: And then it turned into more rushdown as it went on. But Marvel 3 seems to be the opposite. It was all rushdown and then…

S: So how do you think you’re going to be dealing with Morrigan in the future?

T: I think I’m going to play a more well-rounded team. I don’t really like counter-picking that much.

Because you’re locked in your team once you’ve picked it. So if you counter-pick someone and then they switch their team you’ve given away a game if you don’t know how to play against the other team.

I prefer to play more of a more all-rounded team. So I think that’s what I’ll switch to. I think I’ll just switch to playing a team that’s a bit more rounded. Instead of just playing…my team is just purely rushdown, I think.

And I thought because in Vanilla it worked so well I could keep with it. But I got exposed a bit so…

(We get interrupted and move location.)

S: So the all-rounded team you say.

T: Ah yeah. So I’ve got a few options that I want to pick. Like Zero, I tried to pick up before. I’ve only played him for a few weeks but the combos seem too inconsistent. And I was thinking if I can’t do a combo 90% then I don’t want to try pulling it out in a match.

M: Yep, yep.

T: But then we’ve got a guy called Tri, who’s playing Team Sword. Which is Zero, Vergil, Dante.

And he does these ridiculous 90-100 hit combos and he gets them reasonably consistently. He’s up to, you know, 70%, 80% hit ratio now.

T: I was thinking if he can pull them out just from practicing, just doing the combos all the time. Then…you could do them in tournaments?

Maybe I’ll switch back.

Dormammu’s another good all-around character. Magneto. Storm. Those sort of characters. Not just purely Wolverine, Wesker which is one dimensional…

S: I think Doom is only one of those characters.

T: Oh yeah Doom as well!

S: I was thinking of how to beat Morrigan in general…I was thinking Hidden missiles assist with Dormammu could be…

T: Yeah that was one of my backups. I was practicing Dormammu on the day just in case nothing worked. My plan was- I was gonna pick my normal team. And if I lost with it in winners and I had to run into Arnold again, I was gonna go pick my other team. If I just went horrible with my other team.

But since I took the first match off Arnold. I felt confident enough that I could still win with that team. So if I ran into him again, I probably still would’ve picked the Wolverine Wesker team.

M: Yep.

S: I was saying that I thought…that you and Toxy were probably the only people which could probably take Arnold because this actually sort of brings us back to the conversation that we had at EVO was about how…

How you were saying that there’s a lot of people that can do combos in Marvel. But there’s a lot of people that don’t know how to approach a person in Marvel.

T: Toxy’s really good. Now his fundamentals are still really, really strong. That’s what I think the difference between him and Antman is.

I think Antman’s Vergil is harder to block…but Toxy’s fundamentals I think make him better, still.

Toxy’s blocking, his hit-confirming, his distancing, all that sort of stuff to come from experience, is still like A, S tier.

5-      S: So what would be your advice for say, an intermediate Marvel player? So they can do combos but…

T: If you can hit all the combos, you need to learn how to approach. I think that’s the key thing.

You need to learn when to wavedash. When to jump. Just how to get in on someone and get into the range that you need to be. But you also have to know where you want to be.

If you’re Wesker, Wolverine, it’s easy. You just want to be next to him.

But if you’re playing someone like…I don’t know. Trish.

It depends on what situation you’re in. If you’ve got the life lead then you run away. You’ve got to be full screen as much as you can. But if you’re not, you’ve gotta learn how to get in as well. So you need to know where you want to be. Distancing, that sort of stuff.

S: Especially in a game like Marvel, it’s actually quite difficult to do because there’s so many movement options.

T: Yeah it is. It can make it really hard to know all your options. Especially Trish. She’s got like fly, dive kick, dash, air-dash. She’s got basically every movement option you could have. And Arnold was using it…his Trish was…really good.

And she got nerfed as well. Except for her OTG Super. She got nerfed and he still made it look like she didn’t have anything happen to her.

S: Mm mm.

M: But that’s what they said they did to Zero. (Laughs.)

T: Yeah.

S: Yeah, oh Zero got a nerf. (Laughs.)

6-      M: Are you disappointed that the Melbourne vs. Queensland 5 on 5 didn’t happen?

T: Yeah. We were a bit disappointed about that. And they asked us on the day, on Sunday, if we wanted to have it first or last.

But I didn’t want to push any of the official tournaments or anything off the main screen. Because if we did the 5 vs. 5? Tekken Tag, Soul Calibur, there’s no way they could get them all done.

So we’ll put it last, and if it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen. It’s not as important as the major tournaments.

Like, everyone came to enter the top 8, not to watch the 5 on 5.

S: Yeah.

T: We’re disappointed but yeah.

S: Yeah, I mean actually a few of the exhibitions didn’t happen but.

But that’s what happens.

T: It’s always pushed for time.

S: Yeah every tournament is always pushed for time. Unless you’re Keits.

That man just knows the magic numbers!

7-      Last year you made top 32 at EVO. So what are your goals this year at EVO.

T: This year I don’t think I’m going to EVO.

S: Oh okay.

M: How come?

T: Because even though with all the donations I got last year, it was still like about 50-50 from the money I put in to the money that I received. But I’m going back to Uni this year and I’m going to be working part-time instead of working full-time now. So getting the cash together is going to be relatively impossible.

S: Damn.

T: And I’m also nowhere near as confident in Ultimate as I was in Vanilla. Last year I was full on confident that I could do well.

This year, not as much.

S: Why’s that.

T: Uhh…I think because I always to stupid broken characters, they always get nerfed in every edition. So I basically relearn a new team every time a new patch or revision comes out.

Because the characters I use are just useless. Like Tron.

S: Right, right.

T: So yeah I kinda had to start again. When Ultimate came out I went on a huge losing streak in Queensland. Because I had to learn Wesker. And I didn’t know how to use Wesker.

No one in Brisbane knew how to use Wesker because none of us used him even though he was stupid in Vanilla as well. So I had to learn him.

S: That’s real interesting. No Weskers in Queensland?

T: Yeah, we had a couple. But they just dropped them because we were all…Wolverine.

So I guess Wesker just kind of took a back seat. Even though Wesker is hindsight is…I still think he’s better in Vanilla even with the glasses.

S: Yeah, definitely.

T: Just stuff like…the standing gunshot.

S: Yeah, the juggle gun shot.

T: Although being able to mash that Super now is just…stupid…

S: Haha it’s good.

T: So much damage. And….random crossup to it and…

S: (Laughs.)

I remember you telling me a story about one of your friends from EVO. Mr P-Gorath.

T: Ohh. (Laughs.)

S: So what happened there?

T: So there’s me, Benson…were standing with one of the guys from Australia.

S: Was it Yo-man?

T: Ah Yo-guy! Yo-guy. That’s the…

S: Ah sorry. Still…keep getting his name wrong.

T: I don’t think he turned up to OHN this year.

S: Yeah, I didn’t see him.

T: Yeah anyway yeah. I was sitting there playing. Just in casuals. And I didn’t know it was him. And he was playing really terribly. So I thought it was just a random player.

And then I beat him 3-0. And then he got up and called me a Tokido whore and walked off.

S: (Laughs.)

T: And then we were just…oh just a random guy. Wait, I think that was P-gorath?

And then he was like what team is he using?

I was like, some Viewtiful Joe.

And he’s like, yeah that’s P-Gorath!

I was like, I thought that guy was supposed to be good man! (Laughs.)

S: (Laughs.)

T: And then I wasn’t even playing Tokido’s [team], I was playing Tron instead of Sentinel.

And he played Wolverine, Shuma, Phoenix. Which is basically the same thing, but with Shuma…(Laughs.)

S: Yeah with Shuma assist. Yeah.

T: Yeah we were just confused. We were just basically using the same team minus a different assist!

S: Heh. Because your pool was basically, almost a pool of death.

T: Yeah.

S: You had Crysis. Clockwork. You had Valle. There was one other one…

T: There was another dude…

S: You obviously but…

T: Yeah me in winners, but there’s another guy who got knocked out by Crysis. And I didn’t know who he was. But he looked good.

Crysis was the one…I didn’t know who he was before that.

S: Oh yeah that’s right, that’s right.

T: He had a crazy Viper. But because I had some Viper experience, that helped me. And he did one thing at the start of each match that I knew I could punish. And that I think kind of cost him. Because he lost his Viper at the start of two matches. And that’s where I got him.

S: Because you had to run [it back]…you beat him in winners…

T: And then Clock beat me. And then I had to run into him again. And I beat him 2-1 but it was really close.

S: Yeah I watched both of those matches.

T: Yeah.

M: So what was the thing that you were talking about? The thing that he was doing that was unsafe at the start of the match?

T: Oh, he started off doing jumping LK into burning kick.

But in between it you can air throw it.

M: Ah!

T:  So I just blocked it high. And then just jump in and mash on air throw. And I caught him with that and just…

M: And then just kill him with X-factor.

T: Yeah then I just X-factored and killed off his Viper. And his Viper was the big threat of the team.

S: Yes.

So now, as we were saying previously…

8-      What do you think of Phoenix in Ultimate?

T: I think it’s not so much the nerfs she got that made her bad. It was the meter build. When you got beat up in Vanilla if you lost your first two characters you come in with four meters so if you hit a combo you could get pretty close if not getting the five meters that you needed for Dark [Phoenix].

But now when you get beat up, you come in with two and half? So you don’t really have a back up plan.

Like before even if you got beat up you still had Phoenix. But now if you…they can just take you on straight. They don’t have to snap you in. If they kill you…then you basically will never get enough meter to get it. You’ll just have to do something crazy with normal Phoenix.

S: Right, right.

T: I think that’s where she really got hurt, so.

S: So how much bar can she actually build off her BnB?

T: Uhh…with no assists it’s pretty close to one.

If not one. But anything over that I think requires the huge…I don’t know, giant combos. Yeah.

S: Right, right.

M: So what do you think the future trend of Marvel 3 being like, with Ultimate.

T: I think it’s actually quite a balanced game. I’m not sleeping on any characters anymore.

Before if someone was like, I’m  playing Jill, I’d be like, don’t play Jill, she’s terrible.

S: Actually, Jill’s quite good.

T: Yeah I’m thinking like Jill’s got potential like with all the stuff she can do.

Firebrand, I wrote him off just because off damage. Strider, same deal.

I knew Strider was good, but I thought only with Ouroboros X-factor. But now I’m going to try out more stuff. Like Felicia. Watching DJHuoshen’s Skrull as well?

S: Oh yeah yeah.

T: And his Felicia/ He’s just…he’s just nuts.

So.

S: I think Vanilla Marvel sort of basically…it sort of continued the trend of Marvel 2. Everybody went for rushdown, everybody just went for a few select teams.

And I suppose the DHC glitch also killed off a lot of characters.

T: Yeah.

S: So now in Ultimate it sort of seems like we’re back to sort of the early days of Marvel 2 where we’re starting to explore every character.

T: There’s a lot more characters to explore.

S: Oh definitely.

T: I played Morrigan in Vanilla but I thought she was terrible. Just because she couldn’t dash properly over anything. But because Phoenix is kind of a non-issue now, you don’t have to worry about giving the other people meter.

Which is why I think keepaway is actually viable in Ultimate now.

S: It seems like more of a viable tactic.

T: Yeah, no Phoenix at the back. You don’t have to worry about opponent’s meter or anything like that.

9-      M: Well speaking of Phoenix, what do you think of Phoenix Wright. And what they did to Phoenix Wright?

T: Phoenix Wright…I don’t understand the nerf. I know he was a really stupid assist but I see that one in like every thousand matches that assist…where he gets into turnabout mode and gets that stupid assist.

Yeah it’s a really broken assist because it’s that good but you’ve really got to earn it.

S: Exactly.

T: So if you snap in Phoenix if you’re in turnabout mode, Phoenix Wright, um…you can still hit him. It’s not like Phoenix where she can kind of get away relatively for free.

S: Balls, balls in your face.

T: You airdash up back and throw a ball and by that point you’re safe.

M: Speaking of Phoenix Wright, like Furyblitz did so well in the 5 on 5…

T: Yeah we were all so surprised watching that. I think a lot of it was…

S: I think a lot of it was people not knowing the matchup.

T: People not knowing the matchup. Not knowing what the MODOK shield that brings out…people try to hit it and like…Phoenix Wright’s doing the standing heavy headshake move.

S: And his spacing for that was really, really good. Because basically as that hit him. He was standing just outside the actual box…so he gets one hit, and as most people do, they go into ABC launch.

T: Yeah, that’s the thing, they were doing ABC.  But the thing I was really surprised about was…when Vergil, he can’t whiff cancel his moves.

And I was watching it. And I saw Toxy doing crouching AB. And it chained. I thought it chained anyway. I’m not sure if it did. But then it seemed like it you hit the shield you can still chain your normals. Because normally if Vergil’s just sitting there and he whiffs his normal, he’s screwed.

But I want to see if that actually happened.

S: Yeah, that’s real interesting. I think I know exactly the point of what you’re talking about. Because he hit him with the low AB, and then basically Phoenix hit him. Because the beam was absorbed because…

T: Yeah the shield was out and then. So that was really good to watch.

His Phoenix Wright…in the first match he threw away good evidence, and I was like, I don’t know if this Phoenix Wright player knows what he’s doing. But then I think it was just a stuff up.

S: So with Marvel being such a quick and evolving game, how do you keep up with the technology? Especially from the U.S.

T: It’s so hard.

I mean…

S: You watch a lot of streams or?

T: Yeah yeah I do watch a lot of streams. But to keep up with everything you kinda have to play against it, so you need to have a large player base. To play all those characters.

And we’re all top-tier whores up in Queensland.

M: Heheh.

T: Lots of Weskers, lots of Wolverines.

S: Well I mean what, top eight in Marvel, every team had a Wesker minus Arnold?

M: Yeah, pretty much.

S: Yeah so in general I think in Australia everybody just plays…well Wesker and two other characters.

T: And the guy who won was the guy was the one didn’t!

S: There’s a lesson here to be learnt!

T: Yeah! Learn character matchups.

S: (Laughs.)

M: It can be done. I mean you showed it at EVO that it can be done even with a small player base.

T: Yeah.

S: Mm mm.

T: Yeah you can get there. It’s just that with a smaller player base, the harder it is.

10-   M: Are you playing less than you were before EVO?

T: Yeah I’d say so. I definitely played Ultimate a lot less than I played Vanilla. But in the lead-up to OHN we were all playing a lot, we were all playing hard. Um…but yeah the lead-up to EVO was way more intense for me.

And I know that when Vanilla Marvel came out, we were playing like 500 matches in like a session. Some ridiculous stuff like that.

S: Damn.

T: Yeah, some twelve hour sessions and stuff. And we never really got back to playing as hard as that.

M: I see.

S: Sounds like Viscant training.

T: Yeah, just playing stupid amounts of matches and stuff.

But yeah, not as much in Ultimate, I think.

S: So what do you think of the netcode in Ultimate?

T: I don’t think it’s any better than Vanilla. Everyone says it’s better but to me it’s just so bad, it’s unplayable. I don’t play online. My xbox Live account ran out in February. And I was like…

M: Fuck it.

T: ‘Cos you’ve gotta do stuff…if you’re playing Wesker. You’re just gonna do ABC launch. There’s no hit confirm.

And I don’t really like that because it makes me bad for offline where I actually have to hit confirm.

You can always tell an online player from…

S: From an offline player.

T: Yeah. Because they don’t hit confirm or anything. They just do…

With Wesker it’s fine because the launcher’s like negative 1 or something.

S: Yeah it’s something stupid…I still can’t believe it’s negative 1 after…even in Ultimate.

T: Um…but for other players doing unsafe launchers or whatever. You know they’re just doing the dial-up combos and not worrying whether it hits or not.

S: Mm mm.

11-   So have you had any time with SFxTekken?

T: Absolutely none.

Have not been to…I have not been to any event that had it. And this was gonna be the first one…(M’s note: THQ was supposed to have SFxT at OHN, but cancelled on them.) But it’s good, because I won a free copy in the raffle.

S: Oh right, yeah! What is it with you and winning stuff with raffles?

T: (Laughs.)

I only bought three tickets…it’s funny. Hai, he bought like fifty dollar’s worth of tickets and didn’t win anything!

(Laughs.)

I got three tickets and I won!

S: (Laughs.)

T: Queensland won the raffle. That’s all we won. Because Tyrone got the arcade stick as well.

S: Ah yeah that’s right.

T: And got another copy of SFxT for some reason.

S: That Jake won.

T: Low Blow won…something.

S: I’m pretty sure he won a copy of SFxT.

T: Ah yeah? I know another one of us won, besides me. We did good in the raffles.

S: Damn, that means that Melbourne’s the overall loser in everything!

M: (Laughs.)

S: We didn’t win anything.

M: We won Soul Calibur.

S: Did we?

T: Yeah you guys were like the DIY kings in a relative sense. Like you didn’t win King of Fighters but…

M: Second. To Xian.

T: Second to Xian is basically a win.

M: And it’s funny. Because that guy, Viper, he just recently appeared…well I guess he’s been known to some guys in the scene. But to the rest of us he just appeared; who is this guy?

Going toe to toe with Toxy [in the KOF grand finals].

S: He was bodying everybody.

M: And he comes to OHN and wins two games!

T: He’s like the DIY master. I remember he played Third Strike, and I beat him because I frauded it up with Chun.

S: (Laughs.)

T: He was playing every…I think he was good at every one of the DIY games. I think he played ST as well.

S: Uhh no I don’t think…

T: Ah he didn’t play ST?

S: I think ST was the only one he wasn’t in.

T: Maybe he was up there playing King of Fighters. Yeah.

M: To be honest there were a lot of players that are in Melbourne, even in SF4 right there’s Jeff and Vietcong. Really strong players that don’t really come to tournaments.

T: Yeah Vietcong is nuts.

M: Yeah.

T: Couldn’t believe that he was just a kid when I heard that.

M: Yeah!

T: Played him online and he used to hammer me in SF4. And even in Vanilla Marvel, I remember he played Team Street Fighter IV. And it was nuts.

And then I found out that he was 14 or something.

M: Yeah! He’s so good and he doesn’t come to tournaments.

Akira doesn’t come…

S: Yeah. Well Akira’s in Japan, I think at the moment still.

T: Akira yeah, he’s a real old school player.

12-   S: So why don’t you tell us a little bit about the [Queensland] scene in general and how it was before the SFIV revolution.

T: Oh man. It was so small.

I remember coming to OHN6 and there was like thirty to fifty players? And that was for every tournament. Third Strike was the main event back then.

S: Yeah. I think OHN6 still had X-men as well?

T: It did. Toxy played Justin Wong…[in the GFs]. That’s the first time I ever saw Toxy play anything. Because before I thought he was American. Because I used to watch combos videos, I used to download them from…direct…

S: So did I!

T: Yeah. Seeing Toxy, I thought he was American. Because there were no Australians doing anything like that.

S: Exactly.

T: I found out he was from Melbourne.

But yeah, it really small. There was not as much rivalry between teams. There was this rivalry in Third Strike between Sydney and Melbourne. But I mean, all the old Third Strike players, they were like really good friends and everything. Like there was none of this like…KG vs. Shadowfox and Antman sort of stuff now.

M: Speaking of that…did you watch the moneymatch?

T: I didn’t watch the KG one in the hotel. But I watched the Antman one and I was really surprised that KG could lose to Antman, and then beat Toxy.

M: Yeah!

What do you think about that. Was he holding something back for the big one?

T: No. He apparently learned some tech in between the matches that helped him. And also I think Toxy’s team order wasn’t as good for fighting the Wolverine team as Antman’s was. So that probably worked against him as well. But KG also had like the…what, sixteen matches to adapt that he got from Antman?

M: That’s true, yeah.

T: And yeah because they play exactly the same team…that might be…

M: Yeah. I mean, me and Igor noticed that he was playing a Dormammu team in the middle of the set right?

T: Yeah.

M: And he didn’t call beam assist with Magneto?

T: No, I think the problem with playing multiple teams is that; if you play a lot of teams but you don’t play them all completely exactly.

And KG’s MasterCJ team I don’t think is up to scratch yet.

S: Definitely not. Because he wasn’t calling the Magneto [beam], and that’s basically the entire mixup.

T: Yeah. The Magneto…get behind teleport. There’s so much stuff that you could do with that team that he didn’t do.

Because we’ve got like a dedicated MasterCJ player in Hai. And Hai was sitting there watching the match and like, there’s so much stuff that he could have done that he didn’t do. And even his Wolverine team, the same team I use, he was doing a Vanilla combo that didn’t work. Like after Akuma hits he did the normal BnB. But it causes too much hit stun at the end to get the full combo and he tried it. And that’s just a big Vanilla mistake to do that combo. And he did it. And I was like, I don’t think he’s sat down with each team to learn each one individually, completely.

Because it’s too hard to learn that many teams I think.

But I think his Wolverine team was definitely the best one.

S: I think that was his main team in general.

T: Yeah. I think he had backup teams as well that he was hoping to bring out to get some random wins in. But that Wolverine team was the best.

13-   S: So where’s Minh? I thought he was coming down.

T: Ahh. Goddamn Minh. (Laughs.)

S: Yeah, I want to see that crazy Viper! Also, I’ve never seen him play Marvel either.

T: Yeah he was all planning to come. Had everything booked, hotel paid for, flights. Then he had to go into work for the weekend. So he had to pull out. But instead he gave all his stuff to Tyrone. So we got Tyrone as a replacement for Minh.

But yeah. Stupid Minh.

S: Really wanted to see him play.

T: Was not happy with Minh when he said he was not going.

S: (Laughs.)

T: Because he was my moneymatch partner as well.

S: Ah that’s right. Yeah.

T: Shadowfox, Antman. Then he pulled out, and then suddenly all the stuff started happening with KG and Antman and Toxy and the like. So that basically became the moneymatch and no one wanted to moneymatch anything else anymore.

So still the only match I’ve had against an interstater was Isoroppia for $10 last year. I’ve never played another interstater for money before, so.

M: That’s really sad.

T: Yeah. But now that I’ve lost OHN and SS, people will moneymatch me again hopefully.

M: Ahh!

S: Right, right.

T: Maybe!

M: So that’s your secret strategy. Sandbag OHN so I can get a moneymatch…a $6000 moneymatch, yeah.

T: (Laughs.)

S: Yeah, wasn’t there also a bit of a thread on OHN about you being a fraud before EVO?

T: Umm…

S: Didn’t they have an interesting nickname for you?

T: Nefeliousfree?

S: Yeah…

T: I think I came up with that actually. No one was smart enough to come up with that name. But yeah no, it’s like with Toxy, as soon as you start winning anything, everyone starts to…

S: Going against you?

T: Well yes and no, all the guys in Queensland, we all trash talk each other so much. But like…

S: I think that’s the nature of Marvel in general.

T: Yeah it is. If you can’t handle big moneymatches and you can’t handle trash talk, you’re gonna hate Marvel.

S: Yeah.

T: You just kinda need to deal with it.

S: So speaking of that, what do you think that makes people so salty when they lose in Marvel?

T: I think it’s because it can be a really random game.

S: But it was the same in Marvel 2, and wasn’t that random?

T: Marvel 2 I think it much less…I think if you were good in Marvel 2, and you versus someone who’s not good, it’s a clear difference.

In Marvel 3, you got stuff like level 3 Wesker, and even if you’re playing someone who is worse than you, you can [get] level 3 Weskered by anyone.

S: Yeah and ABC’s enough to kill you.

T: And Vanilla Phoenix is the same sort of thing. So it’s like beating down someone. And all of sudden they make a huge comeback. And it’s not many games that have had that before.

Street Fighter IV had Ultras. Which is a comeback mechanic. And CVS2 had K-groove. But there’s not many comeback mechanics that would like…

M: X-factor.

T: X-factor where you could do what you’d normally do in any other fighting game, which is beat down the other characters.

But you’re doing the wrong thing by doing it?

Like in Vanilla you obviously have to snap in Phoenix or whatever.

I think that made people really salty but…I think it’s just also because of the hype that it brings, it’s such a crazy game. It brings in that sort of crowd, and people like to look at flashy things.

S: Damn straight.

T: And then, they put big money down.

14-   M: So are you like a Marvel comic fan? Do you like the [Marvel] universe?

T: No actually, I have no idea about anything Marvel.

M: Ah. Okay.

T: I watched X-Men the cartoon as a kid and I loved it.

But yeah no, with Marvel 3 especially, I didn’t know who any of these characters were. Like I knew the classic ones like Wolverine and stuff.

M: Yep yep.

T: But like Modok, who the hell is this Modok? He looked like Krang from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!

S: (Laughs.)

T: So we called him Krang for a while.

M: Nice.

T: And all the other characters as well. Like Nova, didn’t have any idea who he was. Taskmaster looked like Skeletor from He-Man.

They all just looked like characters from random cartoons that I’d seen as a kid. So I didn’t know who any of them were.

M: To be honest, I personally think some of the character selection for Marvel is a bit…like they chose kind of more obscure characters. Where’s like Venom. Carnage. All those characters.

S: Yeah. Yeah.

T: Yeah.

S: Carnage was never in it.

M: Yeah, yeah. But.

S: It was Red Venom.

T: Red Venom. The glitched Venom…well not the glitched..

S: Ahh my god. Marvel 1 Red Venom.

M: (Laughs.)

T: I love that character.

S: Marvel 1 Red Venom or Gold War Machine and War Machine.

T: That’s right. I used to play Gold War Machine, Red Venom.

S: Ahh.

Just doing the Red Venom infinite. He’s just so fast. You can just walk from one side of the screen to the other like almost instantly.

It’s just walking…like if you haven’t seen it you don’t really know how bad it is. But he was ridiculous.

15-   M: So what about Mega Man? What do you think about that?

T: Mega Man not being in Ultimate?

M: But being in SFxTekken?

The fat one?

S: (Laughs.)

T: Yeah I saw that! They must just really hate Mega Man! It’s like they want to kill the franchise or like…

Maybe the guy who invented Mega Man doesn’t work for Capcom anymore…

S: He doesn’t. That was actually a pretty big dispute about him leaving Capcom.

That’s why Mega Man Legends 3 got cancelled.

T: Yeah?

S: Yeah.

T: Oh wow.

M: But they have Zero in the game! Why not…

Mega Man?

T: Yeah they have Zero and Tron in there, but not…

Like, I was sure that Mega Man [was going to be in there], you don’t have like the two secondary characters and not have Mega Man.

But I’ve always hated Mega Man, personally. In fighting games. I like Mega Man the game…

S: Yeah, I agree.

T: But yeah like in Marvel 2…

M: Zero makes more sense.

T: Yeah. He’s got more stuff, he’s more fun. But Mega Man was just doing Buster shots all over the place.

S: Yeah Mega Man Steve’s team was really frustrating to deal with.

T: God. I hated…like, it was actually a proper counter to Magneto in Marvel 2, I think.

S: Blackheart. Um…Megaman….and I can’t remember the third. I think it was Sentinel.

T: Something like that. I think it was probably Commando or one of the assists…

S: Yeah actually I think that’s it.

T: Yeah.

16-   M: So actually who was your favourite player/players in Marvel 2 and Marvel 3?

T: Marvel 2 was… JMar. He’s an old Philadelphia player.

Justin Wong. He was my initial hero, watching Marvel 2. Chunksta

S: Ah Chunksta’s good.

T: Sanford. Yipes, after he kind of came into his own with Magneto.

M: Yep, yep.

T: And then Rowtron.  Rowtron’s another Philadelphia player. I used to watch a lot of the old Philadelphia scene players. Because they just had these crazy Sentinels and crazy Cables and stuff.

And they were like…they kinda created [those 2 characters]… I think in 2003, 2004 something really…

S: I thought Philly was the land of the Blackhearts.

T: I think they were at one stage. Because they had…I think the guy who used to run DCconnect. Called Preppy.  Like he played Mega Man, Cable. And keepaway teams.

And I think there were a lot of Blackhearts like Dasrik and Preppy who were there. I think that’s the other reason I watched a lot of Philadelphia players because he was like the main source…like I think everybody got their Marvel 2 videos from him. So yeah.

S: Yes.

Heheh. God. Getting videos back in those days. Haha.

T: It was difficult.

S: FTP for the win.

T: Yeah.

M: So that’s all East Coast guys. You don’t watch any West Coast [players]?

T: Uhh. West Coast Marvel 2…I think they weren’t even on the map for a long time. They were free to New York. Yeah.

S: Well, not really. Initially in the early 2001, 2002 was West Coast…well Valle, Choi, Viscant…

T: They were really good in the early days. But then when Wong kind of…

Wong was really good in Marvel 2 even from day 1. But it wasn’t until the tournaments started happening where he started dominating that New York just became insane and Philadelphia was still good. I think the first EVO was like a battle between…well maybe not the first EVO. But it was Philadelphia wanted to beat New York and they were saying Sentinel Rocket Punch assist was good. And New York was saying no, it’s crap. And drones is better.

All trash-talk from years ago.

S: Heheheh. Yeah.

I think that’s the basically at the start of that Yipes hype video. He says Baby Philly where you at. Because there was that big rivalry.

T: That was the Melbourne/ Sydney of Marvel 2. Of America at that time.

S: That went on.

So do you think Viscant’s a fraud for winning EVO last year?

T: No. I think Viscant’s really really good. But he suffers from the same problem that a lot of Phoenix players [have] in that he used a really broken character and now he needs a new team.

But no, Wesker’s basically…

Every Wesker plays like him. He invented almost all the Wesker stuff.

Every reset with Wesker is basically a Viscant variation.

S: Exactly.

T: You can’t be a fraud when you invent a whole character that the whole world plays.

S: See, oddly enough he had the same thing with his Storm Sentinel team if I remember correctly back in the day.

Because he was the pioneer of a lot of Storm Sentinel stuff.

T: And point Doom as well. He invented Doom. And he had so many stupid…his teams gave me grief for years.

He played a Morrigan Cyclops Gambit team, and there’s a guy called Steve in Brisbane who was one of the OG Marvel 2 players and he beat me down like really hard when I started playing. And he was using that team.

And I hated it. It had a one touch death. And back in those days one touch death was so rare.

S; Yeah, yeah.

M: Now it’s like a dime a dozen.

T: Now it’s just normal. If you burn X-factor it’s just standard. If you don’t kill and you’ve used X-factor you’ve done something wrong.

M: So what about Marvel 3. Who do you like in Marvel 3?

T: Marvel 3 I really like watching Wong. Because I like watching people who develop all the tech. Obviously Marlinpie is fun to watch.

S: Ah. I love watching Marlinpie.

Because of all those combos. Not that I ever use any of his stuff. Because he’s such a flashy player. But he’s really fun to watch.

S: I just love watching the ground pound Viper pressure in the corner.

T: Who else is there to watch.

There’s a lot of random Marvel players that I like to watch. Like I like watching Chris G matches. Because he’s a really inventive player.

S: I love Chris G’s style.

M: He’s so different from everybody else.

S: Mm.

T: He just uses random teams and makes them work. So, yeah.

Though I wish he didn’t show Morrigan to everyone.

S & M: (Laughs.)

T: Though Dieminion was the…

S: Dieminion was the first one.

Voomerang!

He’d voomerang you to death and then basically call in Strange and then finish you off with Morrigan.

T: Yeah. I remember Josh Wong playing a Viewtiful Joe team in Vanilla against Wong’s She-Hulk. And he did it really really well. But that was the last time I saw Viewtiful Joe until Dieminion basically.

S: Yeah, Flash Metroid had a Viewtiful Joe but then he just basically gave up on the game. And concentrated on the game and AE.

T: Oh that’s it. Clockwork.

That’s one of the big ones I like to watch actually. Because he, same thing, he always has something new. He knows his team inside and out.

I just wish he’d drop Ammy. Ammy’s such a boring character to watch. And there’s nothing new that you can really do [with her].

But like his Doom and his Strider, there’s so much he’s been doing with Doom and Strider. And then Ammy’s still basically the same.

He did do some new stuff but.

M: I’ve been waiting for new Ammy tech to come out but that character seems like…I dunno, what else can you do with her?

T: Yeah…I don’t think there’s a lot…

M: Even weapon change in the air, you can’t do much with it.

T: Yeah. There’s a couple of things. Like after air throw. You’ll see like Marlinpie just like weapon change now and then he’d dash across and weapon change. And he does like the dive kick.

M: But if you use the weapon change to ground bounce, you can’t get a…

T: Yeah you can’t get all…and it scales a lot as well and.

M: That character I think is…

T: Damage output is quite poor for Ammy.

I think a lot of people figured her out in Vanilla as well.

M: Yeah.

T: And they did nerf her. Her crouching B got nerfed. A tiny bit, not a lot.

M: Yeah. The air-dash. The multiple supers.

T: The air-dash is the big thing. Not being able to block.

S: I think that was a huge nerf for a lot of characters though.

T: Ammy I think got hit by it a lot. One of the worst characters to get hit by the air-dash [nerf]. Because she could just air-dash in. And if they got close you tech, and you get a heavy. And you can block the whole way.

S: You can’t tech against the dog.

T: Yeah.

S: It’s impossible!

The dog always wins.

M: But I mean who else can he put in place of Ammy? Like Sentinel is the only assist [I would consider].

T: Yeah he needs…He’s got a really specific team. So I don’t know if there’s anyone else but…knowing Clockwork…

S: He’ll come up with something.

T: He’ll come up with something, so.

But yeah. I dunno. I don’t really like watching Ammy. His Ammy hasn’t been doing that great either. I suppose, from a stream monster sense anyway. Because I only see a few matches. He could be going really good in casuals and in all the other non-stream stuff.

17-   S: So besides fighting games do you have any other hobbies?

T: I used to play guitar a lot. But that kind of took a backburner when I went to Uni the first time. And I don’t really play very much anymore.

And besides fighting games…I haven’t really been doing a lot outside. Just been working, and fighting gaming. Now that I’m going back to Uni, I’ll probably tone it down a little bit.

S: Right, right.

T: But I’ll still hope to get to the local majors. I’m already booked for SS. As in, I registered because I wanted to be one of the first hundred to win the stick.

S: Oh yeah, yeah.

T: Because I like to luck-box stuff and win free sticks, so.

S: You always win sticks anyway!

M: With your luck, yeah.

T: (Laughs.)

S: May as well just put the name Tom on it and ship it to you now.

T: (Laughs.)

So yeah, I’m still not 100%…I’m pretty sure that I will go, but I’m not 100% what will be going on around that time. Or if there’s uni exams on about the same time I obviously won’t be able to go. But that’ll be about the only thing that would stop me from going.

S: Yeah.

T: So hopefully it all works out fine. And I really want to go…because it’s disappointing obviously, after losing this OHN. So I want to get it back!

M: It was so close. That match with Toxy…

T: Yeah.

M: The gimlet…

T: I’ll have nightmares about that for a while.

M: Why wasn’t it 3 of 5? That was… loser’s semis right?

S: Uh…yeah yeah.

T: I think there’s time constraints.

M: Ah yeah.

S: In general I was surprised that they weren’t doing 3 out of 5 for winners and losers finals.

T: I think the problem is, even though it’s a really fast game for Marvel, if they do in Marvel , they’ve got  to do it for Street Fighter IV. And if they do it for Street Fighter IV. That just added on another half and hour at least.

Especially if they’ve got down back characters like Bison vs…. like a character’s that’s in the lead.

Though I really like watching Shang Tsung’s Bison.

S: Yes.

T: Because it’s…

M: Aggressive.

T: Aggressive. Relatively, for a Bison, anyway.

S: Mm mm.

M: Yeah. But I dunno. I think Marvel definitely needs…I think that Marvel should be 3 out of 5 every single match.

Because it’s so random.

T: Yeah, it would make it a lot better, I think.

M: Like KG went out early, Antman went out early. These two are really strong players.

And Afterdeath beat Toxy and…

T: Yeah George was …he was like the sleeper of the tournament for me.

S: Yeah definitely.

T: No one was talking about him.

S: I was watching him in casuals, he was blowing people up.

T: Yeah. That Strider was nuts. Tyrone learnt his lesson playing against him. He could beat his first two characters without too much trouble. But Strider came in…and if you don’t have the character knowledge and you’ve got to verse it…

I remember I blocked it for like seven seconds and it was still going.

S: Damn.

M: (Laughs.)

T: Then I finally got hit. He has so many mixups after that it just felt impossible to block the whole thing.

S: It just feels like time slows down when he gets down and the orbs starts hitting you.

T: Yep.

And X-factor keeps going on and…

S: Oh yeah.

18-   So this being 2012 and the world’s coming to an end, so what are you goals for the last ten months. What is one goal if you could achieve before the world ends.

T: Get my Marvel crown back! (Laughs.)

Hopefully.

S: Not win EVO, nothing like that.

T: Oh, I’d love to win EVO. But…I’d have to go.

S: (Laughs.)

M: Going is expensive right.

T: Yeah, it’s pretty expensive to get to. To get there, so.

And besides that…because I’m pretty sure the world won’t end…

S: (Laughs.) No way man!

T: I’m just going to keep on with my work and live my live normally.

M: If the world was going to end, would you stop playing Marvel and do other things? Or would you just drop everything and just keep playing more Marvel.

T: I’d still play Marvel. Marvel’s really fun, it’s just a fun pastime. All of my friends play Marvel. We do socially. And we don’t just play Marvel as well. We went go-karting the other time. It was hilarious, knocking Colin off the track. He’s the worst go-karter. (Laughs.)

And James, you guys know James?

S: I haven’t met him.

T: Ah. He’s just this guy…he plays turtle everything. Like turtle Marvel 2, turtle Blanka.

S: So he’s like Steve Harrison. Down-back!

T:  But yeah. When he was go-karting he was like slowly making his way around the track…

S & M: (Laughs.)

T: Braking to the corner…He would have indicated if he could!

M: That’s hilarious.

T: And we went paintballing…Jake ran in with his shirt off and came back just covered in blood…

M: Oh my god.

T: Bruises and everything. (Laughs.)

Tom vs Jake FT10 MM

19-   M: Who’s the most handsome Queensland player?

T: Me.

(Laughs.)

I always say that so if I lose in Marvel, at least I’m better looking than you.

S & M: (Laughs.)

T: Heheheh. Not that any of us care. But we look terrible when we go to concerts. But yeah it’s Marvel, like. There’s no good looking guys in Marvel. There’s no more Brad Pitts for Marvel.

M: I’m starting to think…

S: Combofiend for you?

T: Heheh. Combofiend.

M: Not since he cut his afro, no.

S: Oh yeah.

M: Miss the afro, heheh.

T: He’s not the same without the afro.

S: No.

20-   M: So are you a boob or an ass man?

T: Ass.

S: Definitely.

M: Because it’s so easy to be an ass man? Like you can be a lot less obvious with it.

T: It’s…so hard to look if you’re not an ass man.

M: Yeah.

T: If they’re not facing you…then…

M: Yeah!

S: You can speak up.

T: It’s just…hard. I don’t know how they do it.

S: (Laughs.)

Years of practice.

M: And sunglasses.

T: Yeah, sunglasses!

S: Why do you think I wear aviators?

M: Ah I see. I see.

So what do you think of the local wildlife in Sydney. The women, the Asian…

T:  (Very serious face.) Well, I’m going out with one.

So.

S & M: (Laughs.)

T: Heheheh.

M: Your girlfriend’s from Sydney?

T: Yeah, yeah!

M: You met her at the last…

T: I met her a few years ago, actually. She’s one of Colin’s friends, that’s kind of how I got to know to her.

But she’s moving to Brisbane on Wednesday.

S: Ah okay.

T: So she’s won’t be a Sydney girl for long. But she’s not happy about it. Because she doesn’t like Brisbane compared to Sydney.

Everyone from Sydney only likes Sydney. Everyone from Melbourne only likes Melbourne…

S: No I like Queensland.

T: Oh?

Even I don’t really like Queensland. (Laughs.)

S: No actually, I really like Queensland.

M: But he hates Sydney.

S: Yeah well…

It’s not that…

Yeah alright it’s true. I dislike Sydney…actually I really like the Sydney fighting game community, I just hate Sydney as a city.

M: But you like Brisbane as a city.

S: I like Brisbane as a city, except for one thing. People walk and then randomly stop in the middle of the street.

T: Yeah that’s what I don’t get.

In Sydney it’s like everyone just keeps walking and like you don’t hesitate otherwise people get really annoyed and push past you.

In Brisbane like, we’re slow.

S: I like that feel actually. Because it feels a lot more laidback and relaxed.

T: It’s not that big. Melbourne and Sydney are kind of hectic. When you’re walking through the city and stuff.

But I know I love Brisbane. I hate the Gold Coast with a passion.

S: I’ve never been to the Gold Coast, only been to Brisbane.

T: I hate it. Everyone seems to love it except me.

M: Why do you hate the Gold Coast?

T: Oh when I first moved to Australia that’s where I moved here.

And it’s so uncentralised, there’s no central point. The Gold Coast is so spread out from everywhere. And it’s like an hour almost to get to one side to the other.

And if you don’t have a car, like I was fourteen or fifteen without a car.

M: Ah, yeah.

T: Just getting anywhere was just stupid and yeah…

And I didn’t really like beaches that much. Like I like the beach. But I’m not a huge huge fan. That’s all they really have there.

M: Can’t play Marvel at the beach, right?

T: Yeah, just bring a console and…

S: Get sand in there.

M: Get sand into your sticks.

21-   S: So do you have any shoutouts you’d like to give out?

T: Uh, everyone but Minh. For not turning to OHN.

S: (Laughs.)

T: Arnold I think is a big one. Just for how good he played and bringing out…I just couldn’t believe how good he was.

I have to give something to KG. For bringing up…how much hype he had.

Even though personally me and him are not on the best terms I suppose.

S: Ah yeah? Tell us about that.

T: Oh I just don’t agree with the way that he does stuff. And he doesn’t agree with the way I do stuff.

He thinks I’m dumb for not getting money. I think he’s dumb for being an arse to everyone. Stuff like that.

But we don’t hate each other or anything.

Just yeah, we don’t see eye to eye on the way we do stuff.

S: Fair enough.

M: Cool, cool.

T: Um, Toxy for beating me in a tournament in Marvel finally. He got there. And just for being a nice guy, Toxy. Even though he cost me money.

S: (Laughs.)

T: (Laughs.)

Antman for not being a fraud. I thought, I didn’t know if Antman was gonna be good or not. And same with Shadowfox.

The other thing, tell Shadowfox I don’t think he should play Vergil.

S: Okay.

T: Because he wanted to play Vergil and…

S: Well you just told him.

T: Alright I’ll tell him now.

Don’t play Vergil.

Get character variety, play someone else. Because Melbourne has enough Vergils already, they don’t need more. They need more character variety as well. They’ve got the same problem Queensland does. We all use one character.

M: His Haggar’s pretty exciting right.

T: Yeah Haggar’s great to watch. I think he has the same problem with keepaway.

S: Yes. Morrigan. That’s 10-0, there’s nothing you can do.

M: Yes.

It gives me great pleasure to watch Haggar blow up Wolverine. Every drop kick…my heart just sings with joy!

(Laughs.)

T: That pipe is insane. One of the best normal, so.

M: The other thing is, don’t you think that before OHN this weekend, everybody was sleeping on everybody else.

Nobody knew how good Anthony was. We didn’t know how good KG or Arnold was…

T: Yeah it was so many sleepers. Especially compared to last year. I went to SS, and relatively compared to how good they are now, everyone was terrible except for basically Toxy. Burnout was pretty good as well, actually.

And there was a few players from different states that were good. Like Ace was good for a long time. And KG was good in Sydney as well. But really, there was this huge gap/level/difference from how we were playing in Queensland to everyone else.

S: Yeah definitely.

T: Stuff like, Melbourne didn’t know that Wolverine was good for a while. And we were just like, how can you not know that?

S: Well we had Carnage. But Carnage sort of dropped the game for a while and concentrated on SF4 a lot more.

T: But now everyone has sort of really learned the ins and outs [of the game.]

M: I think OHN really opened everybody’s eyes to how good everybody else is.

T: Yeah it definitely did. There’s so many people I didn’t rate that I rate now.

M: The bad thing about that is that moneymatches won’t be as hype as before. Like the KG Toxy thing was because we didn’t know how good he is…[kind of thing]

S: No I think there will be…Because actually  I think there’s a point I was gonna bring up.

Basically it seems when it comes to Australian Marvel, it seems like everybody sort of saves their stuff for nationals. In general. Whereas with Street Fighter 4 everybody sort of plays a lot more online, so you can sort of play against different people and they’ll show you tech.

M: Oh because you can’t really play Marvel online.

S: But because that is no online Marvel. It’s like, we all get our gatherings and everybody just shows off their new tech.

T: Yeah. Marvel’s been a bit like that. But I’m really anti-sandbagging in Queensland. Like every time someone sandbags I threaten them with expulsion from the meetup.

S: Ah definitely. And in the local scene everybody knows their own tech. But like Queensland, Melbourne, Sydney, we all sort of keep our own tech and then at the nationals we all…

M: It might not be that. It’s just that there’s no online play.

S: Yeah exactly.

T: We play like Toxy and stuff online, but it’s so horrible. It’s not even worth playing a lot of the time.

S: And you don’t know if he meant to do that, or if he didn’t mean to do that or he was lagging out or whatever.

T: You never really know so.

M: And you guys don’t have the meetups so we don’t get to see like Youtube videos of you guys playing week in and week out.

T: Yes. We’ve only got the Lansmash meetups and stuff.  Because we don’t really do any sort of streaming.

M: Yeah. And even York Street they don’t put out regular Youtube videos. So you don’t really get to see the evolution of how they’re playing.

But do you watch Melbourne streams at all?

T: Yeah. I watch the SNL stuff every once and while, I’ll hop on the stream chat and that.

But only the Marvel stuff really.

M: For a long time I’ve been wanting to watch stuff from the other states.

S: Yeah definitely.

T: We don’t…besides Lansmash we just don’t really have a lot of streams.

S: Any final words?

T: Just thanks to all the tournament organisers. Like Ziggy again. FAB for running everything. Shane I think did a lot of work this year.

M: Yeah, Gamogo man.

T: All the SA dudes for coming down. WA as well. I didn’t get to talk to them much this year actually. And you guys in Victoria. ACT, BeefyGoodness. Good seeing him.

S: Oh definitely, yeah it was good to see him.

T: I didn’t get to see him and play Breakers Revenge though. That’s disappointing.

S: Heheh. Damn that game.

T: And then yeah. Third Strike players, they were all really nice this year.

I did really well in Third Strike.

S: You did fairly well in ST as well.

T: Yeah, yeah. Ninth again. So I was happy about that.

S: Mm, mm.

T: First game I learned to play.

M: Who do you play in ST?

T: Balrog.

S: Boxer.

He’s a top tier whore. C’mon now.

M: (Laughs.)

T: I did play Blanka though.

S: Oh really.

T: Against Claw. Because I didn’t know how to beat him. So I just up-balled him. I just scrubbed him.

But I almost beat James who always beat me. So I counterpicked, but I didn’t even know if it was a counterpick. So I’ll just pick Blanka against Claw. See if that works, yeah.

M: Heheh. Blanka. That’s cool.

S: Thank you very much.

T: No problem. Thanks guys.

As a delightful after-podcast delight, please watch Kevin’s aka Burnout’s video journey through ONX.