Don’t be a Scrub Podcast Episode 8: Skullator

Posted on January 23, 2011 by muttonhead

Hi guys, Spider Muttons Productions © 2010 is back with the eighth episode of the Don’t be a Scrub Podcast. This is the first of our last two Shadowloo Showdown interviews, and our focus in these two interviews will be our out-of-state visitors. Our aim here is to let our two guests talk about their local fighting game scenes and let more people know about their communities, not just Sydney/Melbourne in Australia.

Our guest today is Skullator, a top Chun Li player from New Zealand who made the trip over here to Melbourne for Shadowloo Showdown. Be sure to check out the New Zealand fighting game community over at NZism.

In this interview Skullator talks to Igor about his thoughts on Shadowloo Showdown, SSF4, the international guests, AE, the wonderful New Zealand community and Andre Agassi. The outro this time features “penpal”by Anamanaguchi and I hope you guys enjoy it!

Don’t be a Scrub Podcast Episode 8: Skullator

(Right click and “save as” to download)

DBAS Podcast Ep. 8 96 kb/s version

Don’t be a Scrub Podcast Episode 8 Intro

Spidercarnage: Hi everyone! This is episode 8 of the Don’t be a Scrub Podcast. My name is Spidercarnage aka Verbosemute on Xbox Live. My interviewing partner is Mutton, aka muttonhead01 on PSN.

We’re going to be doing a bit of an intro for episode 8. So these past couple of weeks…we’ve been away for a little while, after the big three Shadowloo Showdown interviews. And we’re continuing with that today. With Mr Skull..

Muttonhead: Skullator.

So Mutton, we’ve had a few weeks off. So what have you been up to?

What have I been up to? I have been…urgh. Haven’t been doing that much.

Being a bum. Typing up all those transcripts.

Watching West Coast Warzone. How did you find West Coast Warzone?

West Coast Warzone was really good. I really enjoyed it. Actually for the first big tournament of the year, I was actually very impressed. It was quite fun.

Although I would say that the team…Double Elimination team tournament? Continue reading →

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Bosslogic gets a fresh new look!

Posted on January 19, 2011 by muttonhead

 

Legacy In Me by Bosslogic

My good buddy Dave aka Just-S aka Bosslogic’s site has got a slinky, sexy, new look.

Everyone probably knows Bosslogic for his amazing Street Fighter work but he’s just a amazing graphics artist, period.

Go check it out. Now!

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Heavy Weapons gets sponsored by Stilowear- Retracted

Posted on January 15, 2011 by muttonhead

I apologise to everybody that read this article. I have to retract this post for reasons I have found out today.

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Double tapping with Vesper Arcade

Posted on January 13, 2011 by muttonhead

I’ve come to the conclusion that I need to learn double tapping specifically for Hakan’s new BnB: slp slp tlk hp slide.

SF4 is my first serious fighting game, and I have the funny syndrome that is somewhat common to my generation of SF players. We plink everything, but we don’t double tap. Whereas when you go to the arcade you see all the old-school players double tapping the crap out of everything.

However for Hakan’s bnb, I cannot plink any of the inputs. Because you can’t plink jab (unless you do it with the select button) and you can’t plink a standing short.

Also I believe the links in the combo are two frame links. So double tapping would be more beneficial for the combo than plinking anyway.

And once I learn double tapping I will have the delightful dilemma of doing combos like cmp cmp chk like this: cmp (double tap) cmp (double tap) chk (plink) which should be the most optimal input or cmp (plink) cmp (plink) chk (plink) which is my current method.

There are a ton of double tapping videos out there, but I thought I’d put up a video from Vesper Arcade’s excellent tutorial series.

I did some practice today with Sagat and his fake standing HK, but I’m having problems doing double tapping on the top three buttons, or at least having a hard time confirming that I’m doing it correctly on the top buttons.

Oh well, time to practice more.

Update: I have thought of a noob way to practice double tapping! Basically map all your buttons to hard kick and practice doing the fake kick with Sagat lol.

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Necroing…the Age? Meet Berzerk!

Posted on January 12, 2011 by muttonhead

With all this talk about Toxy getting sponsored, it’s time to get into the time machine and go all the way back to…2008?

Most of the scene probably know Berzerk, he of Madman Entertainment and the enthusiastic Virtua Fighter promotion.

He also has a mean Honda in SSF4 and was my teammate along with Spoony on team Legs, Lamb and Ham. (We got OCVed….twice. By Hyphen and Shaa.)

But did you know Berzerk once competed on a professional gaming circuit on behalf of Australia? Competing at the World Finals of the Championship Gaming Series in Los Angeles on team Sydney Underground.

He wrote an article for the Age, which you should read here:

Meet Berzerk! He’s gaming for Australia

Is it just me or does he look like Shane War...From The Age article.

I read anything about competitive gaming, and his article is both interesting and informative. Check it out!

Here’s an healthy excerpt:

“Pro gamer Daniel Chlebowczyk goes for the guts and the glory on the championship gaming circuit.

EVERY athlete faces the same challenge. The ultimate test is not just beating your opponent. It’s not just dealing with the roaring crowd or the clamouring hyperbole of the announcers. To face down defeat, the key is setting things right in your own mind. Focusing on the task you have practiced for – ignoring the glaring lights, the booming noise and the hyped-up crowd stomping, clapping and cheering.

The chaotic scene in which I find myself could be any major sports stage in the world. The difference is that the players are not on a court or a pitch but a stage with glowing monitor screens, consoles and computers. My fellow competitors and I are playing video games, battling for a million dollars in prizes.”

Update: Berzerk has been kind enough to send me more of his written work on e-sports, and various articles profiling him. You can find the links below.

Paid to Play– by Laura Parker Gamespot AU. August 5, 2008.

DOA4 Around the World: Destination Sydney– by Michael Antebi. January 06, 2008.

Dead or Alive Aust Champ– Podcast by Tektime. November 26, 2007

Australian DOA Champ– Podcast by Tektime. June 09, 2007.

Your Turn: Competitive play– by Berzerk (Daniel Chlebowczyk). July 11, 2008.

Update: Be sure to browse Berzerk’s favourites on his Youtube channel for some great DOA action.

And here is one of his favourite matches!

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Tales of Scrubdom: My first FADC Ultra

Posted on January 12, 2011 by muttonhead

Nowadays when I do a routine BnB and FADC it into Ultra, I sometimes think back to the days where every FADC Ultra was an occasion for me to celebrate and to weep tears of scrubby, scrubby joy. Then I think to myself; “Wow…I’ve come so far.

…Wait, didn’t I just get bodied?”

I still remember vividly my first time…do you?

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve practiced FADC Ultra already.

But the story begins back at the start of console Vanilla SF4…

Back then I was just starting to learn the game, and had just got a stick. And I was already practicing FADC Ultra 50-100 times a day. But I still screwed it up every time I tried it in a real match, even though I did it semi-consistently against the CPU. Which was my main competition back then!

So my goal was to hit it against a real human opponent.

Which back then for me was hard to find! I had not yet discovered Ozhadou, and had not yet added Australian SF players from Ozhadou onto my PSN friends list. Every time I went online I only saw red one bar connections. Zzz.

So my only form of human competition was over at my friend Eugene’s house. Now he doesn’t play much SF either, but I somehow persuaded him to get a stick. And sometimes another guy called Eric would come over to play with us as well…

Eric doesn’t play much SF too. That day however, he was playing a runaway Akuma that was giving Eugene and me a lot of problems.

I had already botched up my FADC Ultra like five times already that day. I was thinking that I would never get past that mental barrier.

So finally Eric knocked me down this one time.

And oddly enough, he hesitated and then did a really, really late jump in. By the time he had reached the apex of his jump, I had already stood up from the ground.

Time seemed to slow down.

My mouth opened. Drool came out.

Lightning flashed and dramatic music blared in the background.

I eyed his Akuma descending from an incredibly unsafe height, and I DPed him.My fingers scrabbled like spiders at the stick…I prayed inwardly to the Gods of Execution…

And I FADCed into Ultra… for the KO.

As the sunburst KO flashed on the screen, I turned to Eric and asked him; “Why did you jump?”

And he simply shrugged and said, “I dunno.”

Well I thank him for jumping that day. Because maybe if I had never gotten over that first hump, I might not be still playing Ryu today.

….I’d still be playing Balrog!

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Toxy gets sponsored!

Posted on January 12, 2011 by muttonhead

Check out the big news over at Shadowloo.com.

And leave a comment to congratulate Mike!

So this is the big news that the TEC guys have been keeping mum about. It just seems that every two, three weeks Shadowloo always has something big to announce. Keep them coming guys!

Ali posted a list of Toxy’s tournament placings on Shadowloo:

Credentials:
Ozhadou Nationals 5 – X-Men Vs Street Fighter – 1st
Heatwave – Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo – 1st
Heatwave – X-men Vs Street Fighter – 1st
Ozhadou Nationals 6 – X-Men Vs Street Fighter – 2nd
Ozhadou Nationals 6 – Street Fighter Alpha 2 – 3rd
Ozhadou Nationals 7 – Street Fighter 4 – 1st
Ozhadou Nationals 7 – Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo – 1st
Ozhadou Nationals 7 – X-Men Vs Street Fighter 1st
Ozhadou Nationals 7 – HD Remix – 2nd
Ozhadou Nationals 7 – Street Fighter Alpha 2 – 3rd
EVO 2008 – X-Men Vs Street Fighter – 2nd
Galactic Circus 2009 – Street Fighter 4 – 1st
Tek Time 2009 – Street Fighter 4 – 1st
Couch Warriors 2009 Ranbat – Street Fighter 4 – 1st
Couch Warrior 2009 Final Round – Street Fighter 4 – 1st
Simply Bread 2009 – Street Fighter 4 – 1st
B1G LEAGUE Invitational 2009 – Street Fighter 4 – 1st
E-Games 2009 – Street Fighter 4 – 1st
Battle Arena Melbourne 2009 – Street Fighter 4 Teams – 1st
Battle Arena Melbourne 2009 – SSF2 Teams – 1st
Ozhadou Nationals 8 – Street Fighter 4 – 2nd
Ozhadou Nationals 8 – HD Remix – 2nd
Ozhadou Nationals 8 – SF3 3rd Strike – 3rd
Ozhadou APAC Melbourne – Super Street Fighter 4 – 1st
EVO APAC – Super Street Fighter 4 – 3rd
Galactic Circus 2010 – Street Fighter 4 – 2nd
Simply Bread 2010 – Street Fighter 4 – 1st
Winter Smash 2010 – Super Street Fighter 4 – 1st
Couch Warriors 2010 Ranbat – Super Street Fighter 4 – 1st
Couch Warriors 2010 Final Round – Street Fighter 4 – 1st
Couch Warriors 2010 Final Round – SF3 3rd Strike – 1st
Battle Arena Melbourne 2010 – Super Street Fighter 4 – 2nd
Battle Arena Melbourne 2010 – SSF4 Teams – 2nd
Santa Smash 2010 – Super Street Fighter 4 – 1st
Shadowloo Showdown 2010 – Super Street Fighter 4 – 5th
Shadowloo Showdown 2010 – SSF4 Teams – 2nd

As you can see the man has been dominating Melbourne and Australia for years. He probably has the biggest profile out of any Australian player worldwide as well, being mentioned on the Dogface show, and having travelled to EVO multiple times and even placing 2nd for X-men vs. Street Fighter.

I’m not sure if Toxy is the first Australian fighting game player to ever get sponsored…I heard that Berzerk might have gotten something for DOA?

But he’s definitely the first Australian player to get sponsored in SF4.

It’s definitely a huge thing for the whole country’s profile in general, not just Melbourne, to have a player sponsored by a big company like Traveling Circus. And even sharing a stable with Mr. Murderface himself.

Congratulations Toxy!

And big props to Shadowloo for helping make it happen.

Update: Toxy makes official statement

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My hit list

Posted on January 12, 2011 by muttonhead

I played some AE at Box Hill recently, and I spent $30-$40…and I got one win.

So obviously it’s time to set some goals to work on, and to not get stale in my development.

I’m gonna make a small hit list of the Melbourne players and their specific characters who I have never beaten before or have a lot of trouble against. My objective is to hopefully try to work towards beating them just a single time in AE.

Baby steps.

I’m also gonna keep updating my notes here about their playstyles and things to look out for my own use.

Heavy Weapons – Sagat

­Don’t let him jump in so much. He knows my AA sucks and is not hesitant to make me pay for it.

Don’t be afraid to focus meaty fireballs, every chip damage and distance to the corner counts.

Get the safe jump for Sagat down.

Punish missed DPs with fhp cmp chp tatsu. Forgot to do that today.

Carnage – Adon

EX DP Jaguar kicks.

Autocorrect DP his crossups.

Try to focus through the last hit of his standing roundhouse.

Standing roundhouse against wall dives.

He sometimes backdashes my meaties. Must work option select sweep iny my meaty lights against him.

Just block when he does FADC anything.

DO NOT THROW A FIREBALL AND GET ULTRAED!!!!!!!!!! Continue reading →

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SBO 2010 GF Rematch: RF, Kindevu and Momochi vs. TKD, Bonchan and Umehara

Posted on January 10, 2011 by muttonhead

From Air’s blog:

I really enjoyed watching this. I always wondered what the outcome of a rematch would be in Super. It’s nice to watch the Japanese go at each other with smiles, laughter and trash talk. I just wish I could understand what they were saying though.

It reminds me of when Mago was in Australia. When Tokido would play casuals, he would talk to us during matches because he spoke English. But when I saw Mago play against us, he was quite reserved- pretty much just like the typical stereotype of a quiet Japanese player.

But I noticed when watching his 45-minute set against Gamerbee at Jeff’s house that he was talking quite a lot to Gamerbee in Japanese the whole time. Making loud exclamations, asking questions and pointing out things just like we would when we vs. our buddies.

I guess the stereotype of the robotic Japanese SF player is pretty much just that- a stereotype. Which is probably a unavoidable byproduct of the language barrier.

You can watch the Mago vs Gamerbee match below, courtesy of Shadowloo:

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AE in Melbourne and CCH 07-01-2011: Ted Danson edition

Posted on January 8, 2011 by muttonhead

I just was at CCH last night, and it was really nice to see such a good turnout. I guess all my pessimism about the two versions of the game splitting the scene was pretty much unfounded. And it was a lot of fun as usual.

I’ve been trying to play Arcade Edition (AE) whenever I can as well. Ali has started a thread on all the arcade locations in Australia so check that out if you wanna give AE a shot.

http://www.ozhadou.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=5647

I was there when Bluehouse first got AE, and I immediately tried Hakan out. I actually got a win on my first try, but it was pretty much downhill from there.

I discover (well I knew it was coming) that I cannot do combos without a ton of time in training room first. So currently I really struggle to do Hakan’s new BnB in AE; standing jab standing jab forward short xx fierce slide.

I’ve tried going early to the arcade to practice against the CPU but it’s still a slow process. I guess it’s a learning experience for me to learn things in an arcade environment as opposed to the comfort of my own home and the leisure of training room. I believe that it will help my game a lot to become more of an arcade player.

I still have problems with Hakan when the opponent is rushing me down. Theoretically speaking, with the new Oil stack buffs I should be able to stayed oiled for much longer and have much, much more defensive options. Such as backdash DNC low short and an EX SPD that actually has range.

But I find that I’m still a very poor AE Hakan player. I’m too used to playing Drykan in Super. I’m too used to getting rushed down 90% of the time, and when I actually get a knockdown or momentum I’m so eager to jump at the chance to apply some oki or mixup that any thought of oiling up goes out the window. I need to realise that this is AE, and Hakan can afford to sacrifice some oki occasionally to oil up and stay >F tier for the majority of the match.

There have been so many times that I put in my two dollars and try to wrestle some coherence into my Hakan game and some random Ryu/Boxer player comes in and mops the floor with me.

Then I switch back to Ryu which is really defeating the whole purpose of showing up early to an arcade! Continue reading →

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Don’t be a Scrub Podcast Episode 6: Gamerbee

Posted on January 5, 2011 by muttonhead

Hi everyone! Spider Muttons Productions © 2010 is back with the 6th episode of the Don’t be a Scrub Podcast. Our guest this time is Gamerbee from Taiwan.

This interview was conducted at the lobby of the Rydges, so please forgive us for the elevator music in the background.

Thanks to Dave for another great banner, and the Melbourne community for contributing questions. And thanks to Gamerbee for sitting down with us despite being very tired.

Don’t be a Scrub Podcast Episode 6: Gamerbee

(Right click and “save as” to download)

DBAS Podcast Ep. 6 96 kb/s version

Our guest for the introduction to the Gamerbee interview is EXC355UM of Shadowloo.com, the main man behind Shadowloo Showdown.

Ali and the guests. By Shadowloo.

Don’t be a Scrub Podcast Episode 6 Introduction- EXC355UM

Spidercarnage: Hi everyone, this is episode six of the Don’t be a Scrub Podcast. We are outside in the Box Hill area. And today we have one of the organisers of Shadowloo Showdown with us. It’s Ali (EXC355UM).

EXC355UM: Hey what’s up guys.

S: So we’re just doing a bit of an intro here. Just to see…So why don’t you tell a little bit about how Shadowloo Showdown started and what was your highlight of the weekend.

E: Well, my brothers (Sol and Just-S/Bosslogic) came up to me and they’re like; “Ai, let’s invite some international guests”.

But BAM just happened already. So when are you gonna invite them? And they’re like, “Let’s just start our own thing.” And at first I thought they were crazy but if they’re gonna do this they might as well do it with me. Since I’m the only sane one. Continue reading →

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Run It Back- Final Episode: For the Love of the game

Posted on January 5, 2011 by muttonhead

Redrapper has finished the Run It Back series, and it is a humdinger of an effort. I loved it, and you should watch it too.

Thank you very much Redrapper, I really appreciate the time you put into the series, especially after I read through your “Whatever happened” section!

It’s times like these that I get amazed at the dedication of content producers in our community. Hours and hours and hours put into a single project. Our form of specific insanity= Love.

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Don’t be a Scrub Podcast Episode 7: Mago 2D God

Posted on January 4, 2011 by muttonhead

Hi everyone! Spider Muttons Productions © 2010 is back with the 7th episode of the Don’t be a Scrub Podcast. Our guest this time is Mago 2D God!

(Disclaimer: Episode 6 of the DBASP featuring Gamerbee has been delayed due to technical difficulties. So we decided to put out Episode 7 first.)

This interview was conducted at Jeff’s house, so a big thanks to Jeff for letting us use his place.

For this interview, Akira was kind enough to translate for us. You can listen to the entire thing with Mago’s Japanese and Akira’s translated English in the podcast, or as always you can just read the transcript of the interview below.

Thank you very much Akira and Syntax for helping with the translation. Akira, you did a fantastic job. Thanks to Bosslogic for another splendid banner and Heavy and Naruga for helping us with the intro. And finally, thank you Mago-san for taking the time to sit down with us.

Don’t be a Scrub Podcast Episode 7: Mago 2D God

(Right click and click “save as” to download)

DBAS Podcast Ep. 7 96 kb/s version

Don’t be a Scrub Podcast Episode 7 Intro: Heavy Weapons and Naruga

Spidercarnage: Hi everyone, this is Episode 7 of the Don’t be a Scrub Podcast. We are once again in the night time-Box Hill area. My name is Spidercarnage aka Verbosemute on Xbox Live. As always, my interviewing partner is Mutton aka Muttonhead01 on PSN. Today we have two guests to actually help us along with the intro. We have Mr Heavy Weapons and Mr Naruga aka the Mole.

So what did you guys think of Shadowloo Showdown? This past weekend? Naruga, what was your favourite moment.

Naruga: The finals, probably. Gamerbee vs Tokido. When he dashed at the bottom of that [air] fireball. Epic, yeah.

Naruga vs Mago. By Shadowloo

Continue reading →

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Don’t be a Scrub Podcast Episode 5: Tokido

Posted on December 22, 2010 by muttonhead

Check out Ali’s incredible Shadowloo Showdown recap: http://www.shadowloo.com/?p=3543

Spider Muttons Productions © 2010 is back with the fifth episode of the Don’t be a Scrub Podcast. Our guest is none other than Tokido, Mr Murder Face himself. He put on a show at Shadowloo Showdown, and he was nice enough to let us pick his brains. Thank you Tokido-san!

This interview was conducted at CCH 10/12/2010. The outro once again features from the song “Karma” from the Singaporean band The Sexies.

Thanks to Akira for helping with translation, and Andre, Andrew and Tian for being our bodyguards. Thanks to Dave/Bosslogic for another great banner. And lastly, thank you to the Oz community for helping us to come up questions!

Don’t be a Scrub Podcast Episode 5: Tokido

(To download, right click and “Save As”)

DBAS Podcast Ep. 5 96 kb/s version

Introduction:

Spidercarnage/Igor: This is Episode 5 of the Don’t be a Scrub Podcast. My name is Spidercarnage aka Verbosemute on Xbox Live. My interviewing partner is Mutton, aka Muttonhead01 on PSN. Today we’re actually inside my car outside of Box Hill.

I thought it’d be good this episode, because we do have some special guests coming up for the interviews, I thought me and Mutton would actually do a bit of a recap of Shadowloo Showdown. Because I thought it was a big deal.

Muttonhead: It was humongous. Best…best weekend of my life. Continue reading →

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Life Lessons with Mike Ross Pt.II

Posted on December 19, 2010 by muttonhead

Don't hate the player, hate the...

When asked about the E. Honda AE nerfs on the Excellent Adventures of Mike “I Believe” Ross and Gootecks, Mike “Rosstradamus” Ross had this to say:

“You can nerf the character…..but you can’t nerf the player.”

Take those tierlists/changlists and stuff it where the sun don’t shine.

Seattle, Washington.

Life Lessons with Mike Ross Pt. 1

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