Just watched episode 1 and it was utterly hilarious.
Hunting mode…beastcock…Renic with a K…and much more juicy goodness from the good Doctor. Gonna watch episode 2 tonight!
Rockefeller is so honest, and so naturally self-deprecating in his humour, that even though the subject matter may veer often into the wild side, it never feels forced. It always feels like it’s coming straight from the heart.
(Dave aka Bosslogic made this.)
STAY TORE!
Update:
For more video goodness, also be sure to check out the X-Report which recaps the latest Boxhill Beatdowns, and also features Hollywood Vitriol!
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.
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.
Been a long time since the last one, and it’s really good to see the series back. Some really great production quality here, I love all the photos of the top 8. Maybe some footage of match hype of people popping off would be awesome. And of course, the return of Pyro!
I finally gave in and played SFxTekken this Sunday at SNL.
I have been deliberately not playing this game even though I got it on Tuesday night last week. (Shoutouts to Chris Ho.)
While everybody was going crazy into the game, and I could see people swamping the Melbourne FG Facebook page with posts, I didn’t open the game until Thursday night. And I only spent a quick forty minutes in training mode, with the tutorial mode with Dan taking up most of my time.
Why am I being so reluctant about the game? Well, for one I was busy with Xian’s transcript, and I will be busy with Tom’s transcript in the near future. But the reason why I did not want to start playing the game is because of oversaturation.
I am currently playing AE every day at the arcades at lunchtime. I am only now starting to really enjoy and get competent in Marvel. I have been playing it a lot at every event I go to. I have also been putting a lot of time in training mode for the game, and even though I’m still shit I have seen a little bit of an improvement here and there.
For example, at SNL I was playing Gab and I snagged him with a forward throw with Doom to start the round. I got a full combo off that, and it surprised him a bit, even though he’s a former Doom player himself. It’s not very easy to combo off the forward throw, it’s not like the back throw, you have to do immediate forward dash cancel into tri-dash into a very fast OTG M, S. I can do it because it’s something I’ve been specifically practicing. And I have been practicing various specific things and situations for my Ammy and Spencer as well.
Marvel still feels new to me. My team is definitely new and I still feel I have a long way to go before I consider myself decent with my characters.
Not only that, I also picked up Soul Calibur V.
I picked up the game at first because I want to play it with Spoony and give him and the scene some support. And also to play with guys like Syntax, who’s focusing more on Soul Calibur at the moment. I have never played a 3D fighter properly, so I thought I might start with SC.
Spoony explained to me that SC is not necessarily a game where you have to spend hours and hours in training mode grinding out your combos. It’s a game more about mindgames, reading your opponent, footsies and hit confirming off counterhits. That appealed to me because I have less and less time to practice each game now, so the less lab time I need to spend on it, the better.
I played it a bit and I really enjoyed it. Like Spoony said, it’s not really a combo game. I like the simplicity of it, and how you win by making smart reads. I had a blast playing with Syntax at CCH, and despite everyone telling me not to play her, I decided to main Ivy.
(The reason why I picked Ivy is pretty simple. It’s a process of elimination. In SC4 I have Ivy, Taki, Sophitia, Setsuka etc.
Sophitia would’ve been my clear first choice. Relatively straightforward and linear character…and more importantly, busty. But she got downgraded into the more flat-chested Pyrrha in SCV. And the same for Taki as well! In SC4 I had a bevy of choices. But in SCV I pretty much only have one choice! I was not expecting to have this problem in Soul Calibur of all games.)
Them glory days.
So I’ve started playing in tournament and practicing Ivy. Getting that pesky 6B8 juggle motion down. Learning how to abuse that 1B BE. Discovering to my dismay that most of Ivy’s best combos only work on counterhit.
I’ve really enjoyed it. The feeling of a new game always gets my brain going, and I enjoy the feeling of endless possibilities.
And then SFxT came out. I really don’t have time to learn another game. And I already have three games that I enjoy and require training room time.
So this Friday at CCH we had eleven, twelve setups, and maybe seven or more SFxT setups? (Thanks to everybody who brought setups.) Everyone was busy playing the game, and only a few guys like me and JKwang were off playing AE on the side. I did not play a single game of SFxT the whole time I was there; I mainly played AE and SCV.
The guys were even playing scramble mode all night long. Lame asses like THK would sit in the opposite corner constantly throwing red fireballs with Akuma with his teammate valiantly fighting in front and being his meatshield. Every time I walked past the setup he would chortle with insane glee.
Even that Friday I had already decided I was gonna play Team Beartrap. Poison and Kuma.
We were lucky to have him down for OHN in Sydney and also to nab him for an interview. And he did extremely well for himself, winning AE and KOFXIII singles.
We talk to him about a multitude of topics, OHN, the Singapore fighting game scene, Cross Counter Asia, his new sponsorship by Team Desperation Move, his fighting game history and his long journey to become the international class player that he is.
Alright, that’s it. As always, you can listen to the podcast below or read the transcript of the entire thing if you prefer. Enjoy the interview guys!
Edit: I had Raymus and Jovian’s chinese names wrong. Their correct names are Shen Yuan and Shen Chan respectively, and have been changed accordingly in the transcript. Big thanks to Farpenoodle for the heads up.
Spidercarnage: Hello everyone, we are here at OHNX on Saturday night. And we have a very special guest with us, our international guest, our only one I believe. He’s also one half of Cross Counter Asia, and of course I am talking about Xian.
Muttons: How you doing Xian.
Xian: Yeah, I am doing well.
M: How you finding Sydney and OHN so far?
X: So far so good. They have been bringing me to a lot of places. And treating me really well.
M: Has James taught you anything about grooming…
X: Yeah! Straightener. He taught how to use a hair straightener. And I tried to straighten my hair. Yeah!
Xian and James (Muzztech)
1: M: Awesome. So yeah, let’s talk about the arcade scene in Singapore. You’ve told me a little bit about this before, but how many arcades do you guys have in Singapore?
X: Hmm…It’s definitely at least more than ten. I will not exaggerate the amount, it’s definitely more than twenty. But that includes you know…
M: All the little arcades…
X: Those… random arcades that have Street Fighter or fighting games, that have some toy games. But if say Street Fighter IV? At least thirteen outlets. With SFIV: AE 2012.
There have been great changes in my life recently.
In addition to getting back to my daily Bluehouse lunchtime regime, I now have a lot more time to practice almost every day, which I’m mostly devoting to Marvel practice. I get almost three or four hour after work to sit down by myself to work on things like this:
I have also been able to break my longstanding domestic rule: One Street Fighter event per week only.
How have I been able to do all this?
Well basically… my girlfriend got a job!
All I have to do is close down my console by 1030 and act innocent and pretend I was just sitting on the couch twiddling my thumbs. I even get free sushi for supper some nights.
I know, I’m an ass.
But I’m glad she got a job. And not just for those reasons!
It’s only a happy accident that I get to play…fine I’m sure no one believes me at this point.
At least I don’t have to kneel devoutly in the corner every night and pray that the new “silenced” sanwa buttons and JLFs will come out on the market soon!
And it’s kind of a good thing. I really feel my Ryu has become really shit after my short break from AE, so putting more training room and arcade time should get me feeling comfortable again soon.
In the meantime every Ryu in Melbourne has been salting me in the mirror. First Jkwang beat me in the Ryu mirror at CCH. Which I hate you with all my heart and soul for Jake. Then Chris Dang beat me up some more later on at CCH. And Alex and Kilok have beating me all day in the arcades. And then Phil at the GC ranbat…well I’ll get to that later.
It was made by Boomy, I thought it was godlike at the time he made it and immediately started using it.
And after I looked at the other site, I initially thought the coincidences were hilarious. I know, I’m a horrible person.
But I realised with the subject matter, and it being an official organisation… we should probably make a new banner.
So I was discussing with Mike (Toxy) and I was saying the new banner should be a big picture of the M.F. founder, aka Chris Dang.
Perhaps he would be all golden and bronze like a statue, with that big smile of his on his face. Then a rainbow will arch over his head, and the words Chris’ Club House would flutter happily over that. We could have doves flanking him and slogans like hope, empowerment, Melbourne Forever floating at the bottom…
I was having a discussion with my colleague on Muhammad Ali’s 70th birthday.
Now I love boxing. The idea of restricting yourself, limiting yourself to what part of the body you can strike, and what part of your body you may use to strike your opponent makes everything so unnatural, forced and difficult. To succeed, you really have to every aspect of it into a science. Herego, the common name for it; the sweet science.
But boxing, my colleague said. You mean, the most ancient and brutal and inane sport we have ever devised?
Punching people in the face? It’s so unnecessary.
Well, he is right in a way.
And then I read Edmunson’ piece and it made me think some more.
Quoted from the article:
“Sports are many things, and one of those things is an imitation of heroic culture. They mimic the martial world; they fabricate the condition of war. (Boxing doesn’t fabricate war; it is war, and, to my mind, not a sport. As Joyce Carol Oates says, you play football, baseball, and basketball, but no one “plays” boxing.)”
I have been a sports fan all my life. I have tried very hard to be good at some of them. But I realise that while some people have trouble keeping thymos in check, or they might take out their frustrations on others, my personality is that I tend to internalise agitation and frustration. Sometimes it drives to me go home and practice by myself for six hours. But in the long term, it’s self-destructive.
I know part of the reason I turned to fighting games is my fear of disappointment. More specifically, disappointment of my team mates. A missed shot instantly makes me think about percentages. It makes me think about sublimating myself to the team ethic. But sometimes, you just need to shoot the damn ball.
I could never summon the ego, or lack of conscience to do that.
Maybe that is I hate Kobe Bryant so much. Perhaps he represents the ego extreme, the gunner extraordinaire, the extreme (and deluded) self-belief that I can be never have.
What have I gained from fighting games these last few years? Have I grown or matured in anyway? Or have I regressed in any way?
I went to Bluehouse today for the first time in two weeks. I haven’t been going there like I used to because it hasn’t been updated to version 2012 yet. When I spoke to Edi a few weeks ago at CCH he told me the owner was probably not gonna spend the cash to update it, and I was really, really saddened by the news.
Because I realise that I’m not a talented player. I need to play nearly every day to maintain my level. And I probably need to up my daily playing time from 30-40 minutes a day to maybe something like four to six hours if I really want to see noticeable improvements in my game. When I stopping playing at Bluehouse, my Ryu execution went to shit immediately.
So I was thinking of finally playing online more to make up for the loss of arcade lunchtime.
But today when I went to Bluehouse, it was updated to AE 2012!! I was so happy. I was playing Aiden and I lost two rounds really quickly because I kept spamming fierce shoryu. I wanted to hit him with it to confirm that it was one hit only, like I couldn’t believe my eyes!
Yesss. Now I don’t to have to (horror!) actually play online. As I told Heavy, I finally get to press that medium kick every day with tears of joy flowing down my cheeks.
In the meantime I’ve been practicing a lot of Marvel.
Getting my Doom combos down, practicing hit confirming into full combos from all manner of heights and situations so I can get touch of death combos from any hit ala Clockwork. Actually learning advanced Spencer combos. Still have a long way to go…
I always find this part of Marvel really fun. The team building process, when you do a lot of theory fighter and start thinking of which assist would go with who, and what team order is best, optimal DHCs, things like that. Learning the characters and working on team synergy. When I’m starting out like that, it feels so fun, like there’s so much potential in my characters, so much stuff I can do! I have a blast in training mode just trying things out.
Then I play some matches against actual people and eat Wesker teleport + beam shenanigans repeatedly and get so salty and disgusted at the game all over again.
Having recently appeared on Cross Counter Live with Pyro we thought it would be a good time to catch up with him.
Hollywood X and Pyro!
We chat with him about the past year and the months and happenings in our scene since the last time we last talked to him. We also get the lowdown on Shadowloo Showdown 2012 and their international qualifiers. He also shares his thoughts on OHNX and OHNR, his recent Cross Counter appearance and how he feels towards UMVC3 and SFxTekken.
I’ve been hearing a lot about the arcade scene in Singapore in general and this Bugis arcade in particular, both from the Singaporean players that I’ve met and the Melbourne players that have visited Singapore over the last few years. I hear a lot about their high standard of play and abundance of cabinets, so I’ve been quite keen to check it out for quite a while now.
I haven’t been back for years now, so I figure that while I’m back for two weeks visiting family it would be a good opportunity to check the place out.
I get to Bugis around 4PM and try to find my way around. It’s the 21st of December, just a few days before Christmas and a Wednesday, so I wonder what the crowd will be like in the arcade.
Now I actually grew up in Malaysia, so I have no idea how to navigate Singapore’s geography. I can’t differentiate Wisma Atria from Takashimaya or from any other shopping mall on Orchard Road. But as my friend tells me, the Bugis train station feeds directly into the basement of Bugis Junction. And the arcade itself is in the basement or B1 floor of the mall. So how can I go wrong?
Apparently I still can.
I wander around the basement for nearly half an hour trying to find the damn arcade. I keep circling back to the store directory and checking the map out. The only thing that looks like an arcade on the list is something called Virtualand, and it’s in the corner of the map right there. How the hell do I get to it! Urrgh.
Apparently one of the few things that I am actually worse at than playing fighting games is simple navigation.
After walking past Cold Storage for the umpteenth time, I finally realize that I have to go outside the basement food court to find the arcade. I go out the door, and find myself in an outdoors corridor- a shopping arcade, much like a little street in between the feet of the buildings. I walk down the corridor and, finally! I spot an escalator leading downstairs with a large sign saying “Virtualand” on it.
I make my way down the escalator, and the first thought that comes to mind is; waitaminute, this place looks familiar…
I’ve been in this arcade before! Back when I was in the army, my buddy Daniel brought me to this very arcade to play some LAN games. (That must’ve been the first I ever played Left4Dead.) This must’ve been in late 2007 or 2008, so it was definitely before arcade SFIV came out and thus must be why this place never clicked in my memory.
So this is the SFIV hub that everyone has been talking about. I take a quick look around; the place looks the same as I remember, a large basement floor with multiple wings.
The major difference from the place that I remember is that one of those wings now features multiple SFIV: AE machines against the wall beneath a giant big screen with a direct feed from the cabs, and even more cabinets on the side.
I notice another wing with a similar Tekken setup, but I don’t look around too much further- I want to get some games in!
I make a beeline to the counter and ask about tokens. They tell me they use a card system, so I quickly whip out twenty bucks and get one made.
I quickly walk back over to the cabinets, feeling the dry thirst festering in my mouth from having not played in a while, pick a middle cab and sit down. I swipe my card and hammer at the start button. I don’t bother to check my credits- I figure I’ll just play until my card is depleted.
I feel a bit out of sync immediately. A Blanka jumps in on me and I do my dragon punch motion and hit the button- too late. I eat the jump in. This happens quite a few times, and it immediately feels like there’s a difference in timing between the Bugis cabs and the cabs I’m used to back home. Maybe it’s something mental, or just a byproduct of not having touched a stick in nearly two weeks. In any case, I quickly adjust after two or three games, and start hitting my links and anti-airs with no further problems. Continue reading →
It’s been a full year of running CCH (Chris’ Club House) for me now. I had a nice long walk through the park yesterday listening to one of my favourite albums- Niandra LaDes and Usually Just A T-Shirt, and having a long think about it.
I remember the day Chris came over to my house to talk about passing the responsibility over to me. I came down in my red marshmallow t-shirt and we had a serious talk about it. He chose me because a. I lived close to the Collingwood Library, b. I had Fridays off, and c. he felt that I had the passion to keep it going, and that he could trust me.
I remember thinking at that time that I had the utmost respect for Chris, that I was really sad to see him retire (he has since come back), that mostly I didn’t want to let Chris down, and that I can’t let this great community event that he founded fall by the wayside.
2011 was a year of growth for the community, and also for me personally. I learned a lot about being an organiser and participated way more in the organisational part of things than I did last year. Part of the reason why I volunteered to run Marvel at BAM was because every time at CCH when Ali would be running the tournament and have to put the brackets down because he had to go play a match, I would look at the thing and really want to pick it up and keep the ball going, but I couldn’t because I had no idea how to run brackets!
It’s not rocket science I know, but I’m the type of guy that won’t want to pick up something unless I know exactly what the hell I’m doing first. That’s why I’m also reluctant to play new games without first putting my training room time in too. Call me fussy or whatever.
But in any case now I feel that I can pick up the brackets whenever there is a lull, and I feel way more competent/actually useful now. I am bracket noob.
Now I don’t know why, but I’ve always tried to keep my CCH organisational stuff away from my blog. Not sure why. Maybe a business and pleasure don’t mix kind of thing?
So this is a first for me, talking about it here. So first I’ll try to recap my first year in charge, and then go into a new segment I’m trying out which is also borne from my tournament organisation experiences; What Grinds My Gears.
CCH 2011 Recap
So a year later, I would grade my overall performance a C+. For a variety of reasons.
One thing that I wanted to do right was to keep the scheduling as consistent as possible.
Come hell or high water, I always tried to keep CCH on the second and fourth Friday of the month. I always felt that having a consistent schedule is really necessary to build up a regular attendance. Especially this year with Melbourne’s crazy tournament schedule being all over the place, I wanted to keep CCH’s scheduling rock solid.
I always base it off Couchwarriors also being very consistently on the first weekend of the month (though this year they’ve have venue scheduling problems as well), and work off that. The other thing I try to do is post up the Ozhadou/Shadowloo thread on the same day- the Monday before CCH Friday, and have two months of advance dates posted on the threads, so people know the confirmed dates way in advance.
I’ve got my little calendar going and stuff, and trying to book next year’s dates…if only the library would be a little quicker in their response time.
So I think I’m kind of satisfied with my performance in that part of the job. But people still come up and ask me all the time if CCH is running! So if people would like things done differently, please let me know!
But I think I’ve done poorly in other areas. Especially in situations as Cartman would say; when I should really try to exert more of my authoritah.
But I believe CCH is and should be a community event. And it should be less of what one person or group wants, and more of what everybody wants. And when it comes to policy changes I will make it a point to talk to every CCH regular to get a general opinion before I make any changes.
This year thankfully opening up has not been a problem so far. The big problem for me was I started working full-time on Friday. Since I get off at 5:30, I really have to haul ass to get to the library before six to get the keys.
Even though generally if I make it to the train on time I get there 5:40ish, I know full well that any train delay or mishap (and they happen too damn often in Melbourne) can mean that I’m well and truly fucked.
Luckily, I’m blessed with two stalwart fail-safes: Burnout and Vitriol. Lord Vitriol (Andrew) doesn’t work on Fridays, so I can summon his reliable presence early to CCH if I sense any problems on my end early.
And Burnout, the Korean shampoo star, is always there like half an hour early. So many times I have run from the train station, my bag jumping all over my bag and panting like the out of shape asshole I am, all the way to the library- only to discover Burnout already calmly sitting under the tree doing something on his laptop and looking over serenely like an owl. Doh.
Should have just called Kevin.
But lockup has been a big problem. To the point where the library has complained several times about the condition the room has been left in.
I take full responsibility for that, because I have left early at times, and given the key to the other people that stayed late to lock up. Which was bad decision making on my part.
I am not blaming anybody, the key is my responsibility, and the name is booked under my name so I will make sure that from now on only members of the trusted Fellowship of the Key (Ali, Andrew, Syntax, Burnout) may be trusted to lock up CCH, and if the last remaining Key Holder may choose to leave at 1130 PM to catch the last train, then that’s when CCH will close shop.
To lose this venue over something so stupid would be a criminal waste, and would eternally dishonor the name of the Founder, Chris M.F. Dang.
The second thing is a little drama that happened recently.
I’m not going to talk about it too much, save to say that Andrew, myself, and ALI (you’re not going anywhere buddy) are going to sit down and discuss CCH policy for next year when I get back from Singapore. I’ve started talking to people and getting a general idea of people’s opinions and getting a lot of good ideas/suggestions to boot.
We’re going to work things through democratically and give the community the community event that they want.
One thing I will say; I personally have had problems before with how Ali does things. But that’s okay. I talk to him about it, and he talks to me about it if he has a problem with how I do things. Nobody’s perfect. God knows I’ve made so many mistakes myself. And communication is key to any collaboration.
But I always know that his and the Shadowloo guys’ hearts have always been in the right place. And you can question the way they do things. That’s all right. Have a rational discussion with them about it. But don’t question that their heart is in the wrong place, that they’re not doing it for the community.
That’s all I gotta say about it.
So about next year, come and talk to me if you have something to share or talk about.
It’s interesting how different people have different perspectives. For example I always talk to guys like Andrew and Spoony about CCH. And they know exactly who contributes what, bringing gear and setups and whatnot.
And I recently talked to Somniac, a top player. He generally comes late, and when I talked to him, he didn’t have a clear idea of who was bringing what. And that’s okay. He comes from a “top player” state of mind, and had other great ideas to contribute. It just made me realise I generally talk more about this kind of stuff with people with a more “community centred” state of mind. Again, sweeping, sweeping generalisations. But it’s interesting to see the different perspectives, and realize that I need to get more feedback from different kind of people.
What Grinds My Gears
This is a new segment I’m trying out. I have actually had this ready to go for quite some time now. But I was hesitant to post it because, well, my personal policy is to stay out of any drama, much less create it.
But as I’ve said before, part of the whole organizational experience I’ve had this year was to experience the bad side of things. The crappy side of things. The things Ali and Loki have to deal with long after all of us- the players, leave to go eat and have fun and talk shit.
This is not aimed at anyone specifically, but I just want to have a go at this and see if I make sense.
About what grinds my gears.
1. Not many sticks today hey mate?
Fighting game player rocks up to event in his car. Brings no gear of his own.
Looks around and says “Not many sticks/setups today hey mate?”
To which I have to say; bring your own fucking stick.
I understand that people come from work, come from social things or whatever, and don’t bring anything. That’s completely fine.
Just don’t have the big rusted brass balls to complain about it if you do.
2. The trash can is so far…so far….
How many times after CCH do I have to watch guys like Ali stoop over and throw away other people’s stinking trash? Like he was their mother or something?
Do you think Ali takes so much steroids and does so much gym time just so that he has the muscles to throw away your garbage??? That’s a pretty roided up Mom if you ask me.
Every time without fail after CCH I look outside to see pizza boxes, food wrappers and bottles on the bench outside underneath the tree. On the tables inside. Even in the fucking toilet.
Do you think the dingy Collingwood library has the dough to afford magical cleaning fairies that descend from the heavens to throw away your trash for you?
Dude, the trash can is literally two metres away. Clean up after yourself.
I sit there all the time and I’ve seen many, many people finish their food, and then go play. Leaving their trash there. Why can’t you take four steps to the right and simply dump your trash before you go on playing? Is the dude you’re FT5ing gonna pick up for you if he loses? Continue reading →
So I got home today and discovered that the patch is out.
So I played around a bit in training mode and here is what I found before I had to go to dinner.
Midscreen counter hit EX fireball with no FADC into Ultra 1 makes all the hits from the Ultra hit. Not sure if this was there before, but that does 408 damage.
Counter hit EX fireball into Ultra 2 does 516 damage.
With the +10 damage to HP DP and Solar Plexus Strike, the old classic f+HP, cHP, DP now does 318 damage, 460 stun.
Yes! I am so happy about this following thing.
My favourite combo in Super SFIV can now be done on Chun Li again. f+HP, cMP, cMP, cMK, tatsu. I used to love doing this to Chun Li in Super, and I’m really glad to see it back!
It does 322 damage, 470 stun.
Here comes a part I don’t understand. In AE I thought the cmk had less range, and so did a variety of top players. But when the hitbox data came out, a lot of people told me the range was exactly the same, but only the hurtbox changed. A lot of people on the SRK Ryu forums voiced as much.
So if the range didn’t change, and only the active frames got reduced, why did the f+HP, cMP, cMP, cMK tatsu combo not work in AE? Does it have something to do with the active frames? Hmm….
I played around with the air tatsu. Offensive air tatsu is back, and seems to be the same range with Super. Combos into Super midscreen, Ultra in the corner as per normal. The obvious downside is the short window you have to time it correctly. Do it too early or late and you get the hovercopter and eat big punish to face.
But that’s a great change. The offensive air tatsu and the +10 damage to fireballs meaning I don’t lose the fireball/Dhalsim stand fierce trade anymore really helps a lot in the Sim vs. Ryu matchup.
I screwed around with counterhit close stand roundhouse. I tried it on Chun and Ryu, and for the life of me I couldn’t connect sweep after the CH csHK. CH csHK cMP sweep worked on Chun though.
Interestingly enough, when I made the dummy crouch, CH csHK comboed into sweep really easily! Which might be useful since your counterhits generally catch people crouch teching anyway.
Anyway I gather that CH csHK followups will be highly character specific, and crouch/stand specific and will require much more testing from me.
HP DP. Feels good, can’t FADC or Super cancel or juggle in the corner after lk tatsu though.
clk clp MP/LP DP FADC works but clk clp clp LP DP FADC is a no go. cMP cHP MDP FADC seems to work on everybody but I don’t think cMP cHP LDP FADC is universal.
Again this means more character specific combos to really optimise your damage,and I definitely need some training room time to rework my muscle memory so I can do cLK cLP HP/MP DP depending on the situation automatically and naturally.
There was a rumour that the fireball speeds have changed. I cannot confirm this just with the naked eye, hopefully someone will have concrete evidence soon. If it’s true then I am very pleased with this change! (Assuming it’s a slower LP fireball and a faster HP fireball.)
I’ve been waiting for this essay by UltraDavid ever since he started mentioning it on stream.
To be totally honest; I know almost nothing about esports. I only play fighting games, and have little to no interest in other competitive games.
In short, I am ignorant.
So I find the whole esports discussion to be a bit mystifying but so, so interesting at the same time.
I watched Wednesday Nights Fights this week and saw AJ sit up there with Kelly. They were having a discussion about esports, and AJ was having the typical “the word esports is wack” discussion. She obviously was coming from some sort of role in esports, and I found it very interesting that she simply couldn’t understand why AJ would hate the word esports so much.
I was having this conversation with Spoony and Igor.
It’s like how the majority of my friends come up to me and say; “Why don’t you like… Iphones!”
It is a deep mystery to them that I do not feel the soul-consuming urge to purchase this phone. It’s an Iphone!
It’s esports!
Just because something is overwhelmingly popular doesn’t mean it’s the right fit for the individual. Or in this case, the community.
I find it interesting that people can’t wrap their heads around that fact. I guess they’re so used to it being the establishment or the norm that it seems ridiculous to them that people would choose otherwise.
So I found Kelly’s reaction to be quite fascinating. Because it’s the reaction from the other side that I seldom see- the reaction from the esports side, being the dumb, ignorant fighting game centric player that I am.
So while I’m too ignorant to be able to pick a side yet or have an useful opinion, when I find clear headed discussion about this issue, I read it immediately because I simply want to find out more.
And you probably can’t get a better primer about the whole situation than UltraDavid’s article:
P.S. I had a slow weekend, but I did enjoy a particular scoreline on the weekend that proved my rampant pessimism over the last two weeks to be completely unwarranted.
(Dave aka Bosslogic made this.)
It was made by Boomy, I thought it was godlike at the time he made it and immediately started using it.
Being a Scrub 