Editor’s note: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the writer, and do not reflect Shoryuken.com as a whole.
At Absolute Battle 7, the finals for King of Fighters XIV were tacked to the trail end of Saturday. The spectators in this darkened room were divided between two massive projectors: on one side of the room ran Street Fighter V’s scheduled exhibition matches. On the other side, another audience crowded around the last eight players in the first post-release KOFXIV major on US soil.
Even as a fan of SNK’s latest entry, it was hard to be salty about its time slot. The game was technically only three days old, which was easy to forget when you saw the level of play already being demonstrated. Many of the top 8 were familiar faces; dominate Texas-based KOFXIII players bringing their sharpened skills to a new game.
Wars waged, players dropped. The final two competitors standing were, perhaps, not a surprise to anyone there. There was accomplished FGC vet NerdJosh, who recently earned the affectionate moniker “BirdJosh” for playing the bird-wielding Nakoruru. His opponent was a name possibly less familiar to the FGC as a whole, but not to the KOF community: Benjamin “Vicio” Martinez. Prior to this tournament, Vicio had already started working on building his KOFXIV credentials by finishing 2nd at Summer Jam’s pre-release event.
But let’s go back a bit: it was not the first time these two had met in this tournament. Up until their match in winners, NerdJosh looked indestructible, his finger seemingly on the pulse of KOFXIV’s early meta. But his ability to find “the good stuff” early in a game’s lifespan wasn’t enough to conquer an Orochinagi boy.
You really should see the set. If you don’t have time, at least consider this single moment. In their first encounter in the winner’s bracket, the very opening second of Round 3 said everything you needed to know about how dominate and brave Vicio’s play-style is.
I sat down with Ben on Sunday morning. While others were battling out to be crowned in other games, Ben was working on getting as many casual stations in the second game room converted to King Of Fighters as he could. He actually left at one point to get more monitors.
It wasn’t long until we were talking about that super. For me, it was the weekend-defining play, and I had to know what led him to risking a character like that.
Vicio: I saw her crouch. The moment I saw a little spark, I thought “That’s a special. My super’s invincible. I’m going to do it.”
[I could see him reliving the play with his fingers against the table.]
Crow_Spaceboy: [stammered] So… you were reacting to the QCF+C?
VI: Exactly.
CS: Wow. Really. So it wasn’t just a read, you just saw the move?
VI: I saw the move. I actually had already buffered it, saw her do the move, then just pressed the button. That’s all I needed to do.
The night before, his super placement looked like the sickest of reads to everyone in that room. Just now, when he claimed it was a reaction, I was stunned.
CS: Do you think that part of that was because you had been playing KOF at Summer Jam before the game came out? Or was it just your KOF experience overall?
VI: It’s a mixture of both, actually. At Summer Jam I also played against a Nakoruru. I think… I did it to that player too.
[He said this with the smallest smile.]
VI: It wasn’t round opening, but yeah. I look for that move thinking “If he does it right now, I’m going to super.”
I wanted to know what he thought about how people would react to KOF now that it was finally in people’s hands. Everyone knows the troubled start KOF had when it was first announced. But Vicio and I both know we didn’t drive to AB7 because of graphics.
VI: I think the more people see the game, the more people will get used to how it looks. It’s not animated poorly. It’s a scaffold, I guess you could say. They are not using the Unreal Engine or anything like that. They are using their own thing. Of course, right now, it’s not going to look as pristine like many other triple-A titles. We all know that graphics, yes, are important, but gameplay is king. And that’s what this game is all about.
I wanted to get his take on Nakoruru. NerdJosh’s most associated character got lots of people talking with her (seemingly) safe specials and her (very) invincible reversal. Despite how overwhelmingly strong she seemed, hers was not the tech that won. Is she just smoke and mirrors?
VI: Everyone’s been asking for her for a long time in the KOF series. They finally got her, and she’s good. She’s a great character. She’s only going to get better. I think right now everyone is looking at the big picture when they play as her. She’s going to have a lot of people playing her, and the more people that do, the better the tech will be with her. And that’s every character, not just her.
CS: So you actually think her stock will raise?
VI: Yes.
He answered confidently. There was something about how definitively he dismissed what we already knew about the character, that really showed the level he is already playing on. What made everyone else afraid, he saw as just simple early meta. And perhaps, rightfully so.
And what about his own bird-killing team? It was a team comprised not from the most popular characters, but made up almost entirely of his KOFXIII veterans. Almost. I had to know: are we going to see Vicio select Vice again? Vicio is–if you were curious–Vice in spanish. The absence of his namesake was surprising.
VI: Leona will never change. Mature, I’m feeling she’s really strong. They happen to be really good in this system. I feel pretty inclined to keep playing them for sure. I might pick up Vice on the way, but I don’t feel at home with her yet. I’d like to go back to my original team. If I don’t pick up Vice, I will probably go to Angel.
The inspiration may have been from one of his Top 8 matches:
VI: This weekend I played against Alekxkash. He has a terrific Angel. I can tell she can do some really nice mixups. She’ll probably be a character that will be easy to reset people. She has a guard break with one of her EX starters! I’m going to study her some more and see if I pick her up. And if I do, it’ll be Leona, Mature, and Angel… tentatively.
By now I knew he was probably eager to get back to playing casuals in XIV. Not wanting to keep him, I figured I’d ask one more question:
CS: Why KOF? What brought you to this series, and kept you here in the competitive scene?
VI: You have to realize, I used to play Fatal Fury… when it came out.
[I laughed. We were going way back.]
CS: Whoa, This is really a part of you.
VI: Exactly. Back in the early 90s. When I was a kid, you know, I’m reaching up and over the cabinet to get to the sticks. And then KOF 94 came out and it blew me away. “Oh my god! The Art of Fighting Characters!” As I was playing the game, I was just really hype. I remember the intro. I remember everything about the very first time I saw it. Nothing can replace it.
CS: Maybe we’ll see a KOF 94 cabinet someday at UFO?
VI: That would be incredible!
CS: A whole new KOF 94 scene.
VI: KOF 94 has so much more to offer. Even now people are finding new combos, incredible combos. Like, how can you pull off stuff like that with systems from back in those days?!
[He pulled himself out of his nostalgia for a bit. He nodded, paused, then revealed the real role Arcade UFO had in his life.]
VI: That’s what brought me in personally, though. The competitive side is.. I got to Austin. I felt I was good at KOF. I felt like, if anyone was going to challenge me, I was going to beat them because I used to train in Mexico a whole bunch. That wasn’t the case! There were good players here. And I saw that they were really, really serious about the game… especially KOFXIII.
[He paused for a bit, nodding to himself. ]
VI: It was insane the level some of the players had. Fubarduck, for example. And I saw I was lacking in a lot of things. I went to a local tournament and got bopped really bad. I was like “Okay… I better start grinding, training, going to the lab.” And I HATE that. I don’t like doing that. I hate the lab. I just want to play people and get experience playing. I don’t want to just sit in a room by myself.
While Vicio explained his “upbringing” in the FGC, I thought about how there are so many different types of players in the world. There is not really a one size fits all solution to fighting games. No P90X for execution. And I think the reason why is because everyone has to find out what their best is. Ben is never going to play a slow, methodical grind, and I don’t think most tutorial videos are going to tell you ‘you know, just got nuts. Try throwing supers at crouch animations.’
Ben beamed the entire time he played, talked, and thought about KOF. You can’t learn any of that. That sort of love for the game is in your heart. In my time, I have heard players say there’s a difference between playing competitively and playing for fun. After talking with him that Sunday, I can say confidently: They haven’t met Vicio. That man has found a way to do both.
Image Source: Salty Mayhem
