It’s interesting how the game looks from a different perspective. I think the top down view makes it feel, to me at least, more impressive and a lot more 3D.
On a side note I’m having a lot of fun with Marvel these days…dropping Tron and picking up Spencer has really brought back the X-factor comeback factor that I felt lacking with Tron and missed having with my week 1 Sentinel back in the day. It feels like I am finally fully utilising what is a big part of MVC3- ridiculous, gay X-factor level 3 comebacks.
I am liking the new top to down synergy of my team with DHCs and assists, and I am also liking the damage very much. I still can’t do the advanced Spencer combos yet…but that doesn’t matter too much when he’s X-factored.
…That also means I can X-copy Combofiend’s strats 😛
Totally unrelated picture. Based on Choi vs. Ed Ma Devastation 09.
Here is the second of my arcade battle logs. It is also going to be my last.
I have finally decided to put away the notebook. The major reason being that I simply have more fun at the arcade that way. Instead of scribbling away at my notebook and getting weird looks from people, I can forget all that and turn to the guy next to me and have a conversation like I normally do. I can live an care-free arcade life. So I’m glad to be not doing it anymore!
You can see the entire table after the jump. I was going to do it month by month- but since I decided to end the series I thought I may as well put all my remaining logs into one post.
I write my matches down chronologically, and the system I used interestingly enough, evolved over time.
I named every player I knew, and made an effort to ask the names of people I didn’t know.
Initially for players that I didn’t know, I labelled them as “unnamed’. Later on I realised I needed to differentiate between unnamed players who don’t really know how to play, and unnamed players who are actually competent and good.
So somehow I took to calling the unnamed mashers “Random” and unnamed good players “That (insert character here) guy”.
Not the most complimentary system, I know!
But it allows me to check my “real” win rate against people who actually know how to play.
Some quick stats:
Total games played/W/L: 189 games played/108 wins/81 losses or 57% winning percentage.
Hm, my win % is marginally up from 53.7 % the month before.
Subtracting “Randoms” from my log yields a win/loss record of 170 games played/89 wins/81 losses or 52W/L%.
That’s an significant increase from my previous “non-Random” win % of 43.9%! And probably what I should be most happy about. Maybe I am slightly improving…
Guys who beat my ass the most:
Baz: 0-6!
Kilok (Ryu): 4-9 (Improved slightly.)
Rory (Zangief): 1W 4L
That Bison guy: 8-16
That Yun guy: 4-7 (Surprising to me, feels much worse.) Continue reading →
It’s pretty cool that clips like this video and this one by Sean about the Melbourne scene have been surfacing everywhere. It’s really interesting to see things from a new perspective- from someone from outside the scene.
Good shit to Redrapper too lol, and that Doom cosplayer is by far my favourite character in the series.
Sometimes in conversations with my friends when someone makes a dirty joke, I crack into a “hidden missile” joke and I have to stop myself halfway because no one will know what the hell I’m talking about!
Behold the utter magnificence that is me eating repeated foot to face!
Well actually I’ve been meaning to put up the two Shadowloo Showdown videos for a while, but just haven’t gotten around to doing it. I’ll try to write down what I can remember about the matches.
Guess who put me into loser’s bracket at Shadowloo Showdown?
I remember something interesting about the match; when I heard I had to play Momochi next on the big screen I thought I would be petrified. Because the only other time I played on stream was against Genxa at BAM 2010, (I got bodied) and I was really nervous beforehand.
And this was Momofuckingchi. I thought I would be shaking with nervousness; quivering in my booties.
But it was totally different to what I was expecting. When I sat down I simply felt so excited! I was actually super hyped/looking forward to playing him. I kind of surprised myself that way.
However one thing that I did not like was a big bunch of my non-SF friends happened to pop into Shadowloo Showdown…just in time for my match with Momochi. When I saw them show up I was like; aww. Couldn’t you guys have come half an hour later?
At that time I was thinking that I didn’t need any additional pressure to screw me up. But again I surprised myself, and I didn’t even think of them at all during the match. Hm.
So I got called to the main stage, and the Melbourne players give me some vocal support. I tried not to flash… but I really appreciated it guys. On my way to the stage I caught Mike Ross’ eyes and gave him the “Oh shit. Time to get bodied.” eyebrow raise. He gave me a big smile, and gave me a reassuring handshake to send me off to my doom.
So I sat down, and started thinking about Yun.
Yun, Yun, Yun, Yun…wait what is Momochi doing?
He took a awful long time to choose his character and all this time I was rubbing my hands to keep them juicy (but I probably just ended up looking like a big pervert on the stream).
Then he chose Cody.
At first I was like…what? Is he sandbagging against me?
Then I thought about it some more; I’ve heard that Ryu does pretty well against Yun. Well I certainly haven’t had that experience before, but it was definitely interesting that Momochi might’ve been playing the character matchup he was more comfortable with.
I sat back and thought…Cody? Huh. Maybe he knows something I don’t. Continue reading →
I know Igor was really excited to get to talk to him, and while I personally am not the most studied Marvel 2 fan, I definitely appreciate the incredible hype that the Marvel legend brings to the mic, as well as the pure viciousness of his rushdown.
Yipes is now officially part of Team Broken Tier, so if you want to buy Yipes apparel, click here.
Igor and I also decided to do a intro segment for this episode featuring Bugsimus and PyroZeroX.
Bugsimus is one of the pillars of the Melbourne community; simply put he’s our Spooky, our stream expert. He did the stream for the last two Shadowloo Showdowns and BAMs and he contributes so much to the scene.
Bugs rollin’ them dice
Pyro is the handsome chief programmer behind Shadowloo.com. He’s one of the founding members of Shadowloo, and can also be seen on the X Report and making rap apology videos. He’s also one of our top Boxer players.
Since all of them (well, except me) went to EVO, we talk a little bit about their EVO experience, and things like Alex Valle’s tranvestite spotting eye, and cheap American beer.
And right after that, we dive in Igor’s interview with Yipes at EVO 2011. As usual we have the audio version of the interview right below, and the text transcript of it if you prefer.
Big thanks to Yipes for sitting down with me, and a special thanks to Bosslogic for another sick banner!
Spidercarnage: So this is EVO finals day on Sunday. And today we have a very, very special person who I’ve actually admired for quite a number of years. He’s one of the most prominent and well-known Marvel players- Marvel 2 and Marvel 3 players, and it’s Mr. IFC Yipes.
Yipes (Michael Mendoza): What’s going on man.
Welcome. I’m so glad, so glad that I could actually get to sit down and talk to you because I wanted to do this for such a long time.
My bad, my bad. Finally huh?
Yeah it took us a little while, but we finally got there in the end.
1- How did you first get into fighting games?
Pretty much the background on that- I used to play FPSs hardcore. So, long story short, I used to play Unreal Tournament ’99. I was actually world champion for two years.
Oh really?
It was…it was like a small community back then on SRK. SRK’s bigger now, but [this was] back in the day- so.
This is for the GMC. So shout outs to the GMC, if yall remember.
So yeah so one day my computer just fried up, it died.
I’ve always been a huge fan of the 3 Green Bars series, and the month before Shadowloo Showdown Ali had been talking about a “special guest” showing up to Box Hill. When I found out it was Cpt Munta, I was hella hype, and kind of kicking myself for not going to the Box Hill ranbat because I wanted to meet him so badly.
I got to meet him later at CCH, and he was an awesome guy. I was really interested in his unusual circumstances; 1- getting to travel so much and do Street Fighter things, and 2- having a wife who was all for it!
…Okay maybe only the second one is uniquely surprising to me. So now him and Kevin from sgfighter are my two biggest role models in this particular aspect 😛
He told so many riveting stories like meeting Seth Killian deep in the underground hidden Capcom base, and how he talked about the struggle that was convincing Capcom to make Street Fighter 4, the effects of the earthquake on the New Zealand scene, the European and the American scene and more.
Interestingly enough, when he started talking to Carnage and Naruga about Kaillera I really saw them open up to him. And I probably learned more about their fighting game history in that hour than actually knowing them for two, three years now! I was sitting there listening the whole time- it was extremely interesting for me. I know Ali must’ve felt the same way- an education for our ’09 asses.
Really interesting to see common threads from back then, be it throwing in Street Fighter II or the days of dial-up 56k Street Fighter unite people across the globe.
I always enjoy 3 Green Bars, but obviously it is really cool to see the Munta treatment on our own scene. I love the Mortal Kombat trollbit! Man… only in Austrollia.
Good shit sir, and I hope you come down for Shadowloo Showdown 2012! I wanna hear many more stories from you.
If you’re a fan of Bosslogic’s great artwork, and already use them as your wallpapers and stick art- what better place to put those images then right between your man boobs.
I’m loving a lot of these designs, check out the Shadowloo Store to place your order now.
Also I think they will be taking custom shirt design requests. I told Dave I would pay anything for an extremely slutty She-Hulk custom shirt. I cannot wait to see how that turns out!
So I finally got a chance to listen to episode 1 of ST (S*it Talk) yesterday, featuring Loki, Acedizl, KG and Spencer, and run by Igor/Spidercarnage.
Basically Igor and I had met up in the city a couple of weeks before to talk about business (Don’t be a Scrub podcasts), and his time at EVO.
After talking for a long time, we switched to talking about the community and all the things that have happened last year. As usual, I got really depressed after the conversation. I’m not sure who in our relationship is actually the optimist…hm.
But since Igor is going to Croatia really soon, which means we have to stop production again until he comes back, we started talking about Shit Talk. And I told him that it would be really good if he do a show before he left. It would great to get Loki on the show, with a Sydney equivalent (we were thinking Gamogo) and have a frank discussion about the kind of things Igor and I were talking about.
Over taro bubble tea.
So he did it last Thursday, and lo and behold I go to Ali’s house on Saturday and discover that the major organisers; Loki, Ali, Ziggy, Gamogo, SlapperJoe, JBHewitt etc had a big Skype meeting on Friday which I hear went quite well.
That makes me really, really happy.
And I was thinking that perhaps the organisers’ meeting might have made Shit Talk a bit redundant.
But I took the time to listen to it, and I think was quite a lot of good discussion, and a fair few good points. I think some of the things talked about in Shit Talk have been already resolved/cleared up in the organiser’ meeting, but I think it’s also good to have an open discussion on the players’ side.
So have a listen, you might like it, or you might not. In any case, leave feedback at the Ozhadou thread.
I think it’s worth listening to just for Loki’s low, sinuous voice. That takes me… to a higher ground.
I have only just recovered from this year’s event…but GET HYPE!
May 5th-6th! For those who missed out this year, don’t miss your chance to experience the hype firsthand.
I think it’s really good that the Shadowloo boys are announcing the dates so early. This year we had a few schedule clashes, and this way everyone gets that extra time to prepare and save up!
Our first guest is somebody that I’ve followed very closely for a very long time; both as a commentator and a podcast host. And it’s none other than Skisonic!
Ski’s sheer enthusiam and love for fighting games is incredibly evident to anyone who’s ever listened to him on the mic or watched the hype actually manifest itself as Ski’s bodily presence.
I personally find his passion, enthusiam and hype extremely infectious, and as the co-host of the Wakeup SRK podcast and Alphaism radio, you could argue that Ski has grown into the voice of the entire fighting game community.
So I was really excited to hear that Igor had managed to grab Ski for an interview. I’m actually kind of bummed out that I couldn’t get to meet the man in person!
I hope you guys enjoy the podcast, as usual we have the audio podcast available for download, or you can read the entire transcript below if you prefer.
Edit: I forgot to say a big thank you to Bosslogic/Dave for the banner. I think it’s an awesome picture and really fits the idea of Ski being a man of the community.
Don’t be a Scrub Podcast Episode 16: Skisonic
Igor/Spidercarnage: Hello everyone, this is EVO day 3…4? I’m counting from the day we actually arrived.
Skisonic: Ohh, okay.
I: And today I have a very special guest with me. You might know him from Alphaism radio. Also from the Wakeup SRK podcast. Which everyone should be listening to if you’re not. He is one half of that team. And he is Mr. Skisonic. Welcome.
S: Hey thanks. Glad to be here.
1- Can you just tell us the story behind your hat?
…Whoa!
It’s just uh…
Basically it was just the hat that…it was the only hat that fit me. Because I had all this hair!
And I was like; this is the coolest hat ever. So I just kind of started wearing it like my trademark and then…well not my trademark, just like- this is my only hat. So I wore it a lot. And you know how the stream gets and everything? They just kind of made it into this Pizza hat thing. So they just called it Pizza hat. And it kind of became a meme. So, you know. It’s just what became of it.
I actually lost the original Pizza hat. So I had to replace it with this. So this is the Pizza hat II.
Yeah, Mach II.
Yeah, [it] bears a striking resemblance. I also gave Floe a gift for this weekend. Because in his twitter picture he’s wearing my original Pizza hat. So I gave him the Pizza hat III. Because I had a third one!
Ah, nice!
Yeah. So now we are Pizza hat brothers. Yeah, that’s pretty cool.
I learned a lot from reading his blog. He goes into great technical detail about his matches, and also about his learning approach. He covers matchups and the players that he’s fought like Fuudo, Tokido, Filipino Champ, Mago etc.
I feel that more Ryus should check out his blog as it’s a great resource! I love all the anecdotes he has about facing all these great players, and I really identify with his grounded mindset about learning this game.
One of my favourite parts from his blog was this conversation he had with Mago:
“After I played Laugh I money matched Mago. The first set was first to 3 for $20. It was amazing playing him.
….
Afterward, Mago told me to not throw fireballs in certain situations, but you must throw fireballs. My buddies and I laughed but it made sense.
…
Before leaving Nekohashi gave me some words of wisdom. I believe it was mainly from Nekohashi but a bit from Mago. He said, “I like the way you play for I play Ryu too. I think it is like Super Turbo.” He then said, “You are missing something. Your heart is weak.” He then pointed to the wall while giving it a loud thump saying “Daigo…” and then lightly tapped the wall and said “You…” He was having trouble getting to his point but I believe he meant that I need to be solid in very specific situations. The rounds where I kept up with Mago came down to very specific solid situations. I failed to come through and lost the round.”
Wow. I feel the bolded line is the entire crux of AE Ryu.
At this range/situation, you must not throw fireballs.
But you must throw fireballs.
This makes so much sense.
I also felt this when I had a match with a Bluehouse Bison one day. His standing forward was beating my low forward and pokes. He was EX scissoring through my fireballs. He was doing random lk scissors to catch me pressing buttons. I was getting hit by stand roundhouse a lot.
In short, he was beating me on the ground. I was feeling very frustrated, and that all my tools were being beaten by Bison’s tools.
I started playing not like I wanted to apply my tools, but more like I was trying to not to get hit by Bison’s tools. In the end, I was too passive and let Bison walk all over me, and push me to the corner. I lost several games in a row like that.
The next match, even though I knew Bison on paper has all the tools to beat my tools, I threw my fireballs anyway, but mixed up my timing better, by throwing them in the “off-beats” of the match rhythmn. I worked much harder in my footsies and hit him with my low forward. I actually fought back.
And I won the match quite easily. With my “inferior” tools.
In short, maybe in situations where you might eat foot to face, you still have to throw that fireball. You have to make him respect it. You still have to walk forward and stick out your low forward.
Ryu has to control space and the match, to push your opponent back, to put fireballs just into the space when your opponent walks forward trying to poke you, and also to be brave enough to walk into the range of your opponent’s best and further-reaching poke and beat him with your low forward.
If you don’t do that, what’s the point of playing Ryu, of having a fireball? If you don’t do that, you lost already.
It’s funny. I have been thinking about this for a while.
At the last Couchwarriors, I had an interesting conversation with Bugs. He said that he was going to try to play as many fighting games as he could from now on. I asked him; why the change?
He replied that he didn’t want to be so serious about just one game to the point that he becomes an asshole! And then we shared a chuckle.
He said that last weekend, but I had been thinking earlier during the week that I should perhaps stop logging my matches at Bluehouse because of precisely that: I am turning into an asshole.
I notice I have been getting saltier and saltier after each loss. Sitting there with a black face. Being less warm with people and not talking to dudes.
I theorise it is partially because I have been meticulously logging every win and loss, that I am becoming such a salty asshole.
I now always have win/loss records floating around in the back of my head. When I lose now, I instantly think things like; oh now I am 0-8 to this Yun player the last two weeks, or shit, I am going to drop below 40% in the Ryu mirrormatch with this one. And I feel additional pressure, and I take the upcoming match very, very seriously. And become really tense and play worse as a result.
Why am I so stupid?
If I continue logging my matches I need to remember that playing at the arcades is about learning, and getting better. Not about my stupid win/loss record. I need to spend less time sitting there wasting time by feeling salty, and more time thinking about what I did wrong in the match.
If I play well and lose ten matches, I should feel better than playing crappy and fluking out a few wins. And I normally do. I need to remember that.
I need to take improving at the game as serious as I still do, but to take the actual act of winning and losing less seriously.
That is the whole point of training right? Lose; get better.
So I have to remember that I suck at this game, and so I don’t really have a right to get salty if I lose.
And in the last few years my main goal in SFIV has been to get my first top 8. Then and there walking back to work I decided I should be more realistic and not think about it too much until maybe like next year.
Then I went to Couchwarriors last weekend and got top 8. Continue reading →
Oh my goodness. When I first saw Shogo’s comment my first thought was; this can’t be real.
Then I watched an episode…and holy hell, the Ask Dr. Sub-Zero show is back!
It must be the upcoming release of Third Strike online, or whatever it is, I hope the show never goes away.
I was listening to the show at work and was laughing my ass off. I am also gonna download the video version of the podcast just to see if the pictures of Charlie’s ex-girlfriend are uncensored in that one.
Another thing that was interesting is that they were answering questions from back in 2008, this is like some time machine movie or some shit. Really interesting to see how time has changed so many things since the last Dr Sub-Zero show.
This just made my day, and I know it will make Igor’s day as well.
You guys have a lot of fans down here in Australia especially from the Third Strike players, so don’t stop putting out new shows!
Being a Scrub 
Don’t be a Scrub Podcast Episode 16: Skisonic
Our first guest is somebody that I’ve followed very closely for a very long time; both as a commentator and a podcast host. And it’s none other than Skisonic!
Ski’s sheer enthusiam and love for fighting games is incredibly evident to anyone who’s ever listened to him on the mic or watched the hype actually manifest itself as Ski’s bodily presence.
I personally find his passion, enthusiam and hype extremely infectious, and as the co-host of the Wakeup SRK podcast and Alphaism radio, you could argue that Ski has grown into the voice of the entire fighting game community.
So I was really excited to hear that Igor had managed to grab Ski for an interview. I’m actually kind of bummed out that I couldn’t get to meet the man in person!
Hit Ski up on his twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/skisonic
Or on his Facebook account.
I hope you guys enjoy the podcast, as usual we have the audio podcast available for download, or you can read the entire transcript below if you prefer.
On a more personal note, I’m glad we’re back!
Don’t be a Scrub Podcast Episode 16: Skisonic
(To download right click and “save as”)
DBASP16: Skisonic 96kps version
Edit: I forgot to say a big thank you to Bosslogic/Dave for the banner. I think it’s an awesome picture and really fits the idea of Ski being a man of the community.
Igor/Spidercarnage: Hello everyone, this is EVO day 3…4? I’m counting from the day we actually arrived.
Skisonic: Ohh, okay.
I: And today I have a very special guest with me. You might know him from Alphaism radio. Also from the Wakeup SRK podcast. Which everyone should be listening to if you’re not. He is one half of that team. And he is Mr. Skisonic. Welcome.
S: Hey thanks. Glad to be here.
1- Can you just tell us the story behind your hat?
…Whoa!
It’s just uh…
Basically it was just the hat that…it was the only hat that fit me. Because I had all this hair!
And I was like; this is the coolest hat ever. So I just kind of started wearing it like my trademark and then…well not my trademark, just like- this is my only hat. So I wore it a lot. And you know how the stream gets and everything? They just kind of made it into this Pizza hat thing. So they just called it Pizza hat. And it kind of became a meme. So, you know. It’s just what became of it.
I actually lost the original Pizza hat. So I had to replace it with this. So this is the Pizza hat II.
Yeah, Mach II.
Yeah, [it] bears a striking resemblance. I also gave Floe a gift for this weekend. Because in his twitter picture he’s wearing my original Pizza hat. So I gave him the Pizza hat III. Because I had a third one!
Ah, nice!
Yeah. So now we are Pizza hat brothers. Yeah, that’s pretty cool.