Month: February 2017

In October, I got a chance to sit down with Team Liquid’s Du “NuckleDu” Dang, fresh off his victory at Canada Cup. Little did we know at the time that Dang would go on to hoist the biggest Street Fighter V trophy of them all in Anaheim, in December.

When I found out he was going to be at Frosty Faustings IX, I thought it would be appropriate to follow up with him–given his recent catapult into the limelight after Canada Cup, and to see how he felt about the Season 2 changes that he had to overcome to stay competitive with R. Mika.

Corey “Missing Person” Lanier: Firstly Du, congratulations. You’ve been on the wildest ride of your life since I talked to you in Toronto. How has it been for you?

Du “NuckleDu” Dang: It’s an adjustment, because I’m not used to winning so many majors. I was always able to win local events in Florida. But now I just keep winning, and I’m not fully sure how to take it in yet.

Missing Person: When we talked at Canada Cup, one of the keywords of that interview was confidence. You had said that winning that event helped to boost your confidence. At what point did your confidence level increase to the point where you believed you could win Capcom Cup?

NuckleDu: I think it was after Canada Cup. When I beat Tokido at the Red Bull event in Seattle, it proved to me that it wasn’t just the character I was using. It might actually be a bit of my own skill.

Missing Person: Right, because you didn’t even use R. Mika in that set.

NuckleDu: Right, I had used Guile against him. It was a good confidence-builder. It’s easy to psyche yourself out going into Capcom Cup, which is the biggest tournament of the year. It was great that I was able to overcome that.

Missing Person: I remember seeing on Twitter, during Top 8, that you tweeted that your hands were shaking violently. Did your nerves ever come down during Grand Finals against Ricki?

NuckleDu: The reason they started shaking was because I made the mistake of looking out into the crowd. When I saw how many people were watching, it was like staring over the edge of a cliff. When you look down, you’re going to freak out, and it was the same thing for me when I looked out into the crowd. I just avoided that. Once I started looking at the screen, everything calmed down for me.

Missing Person: You’ve already done quite a bit with your money. I saw that you sent your mom on a trip to her native Vietnam. You also bought a couple of nice cars. How does it feel to have this amount of financial freedom at this point in your life?

NuckleDu: Financially, I’m at the best point of my life. I want to invest so I can have a future. But on the other hand, I’ve never had money before, so I also want to enjoy it. People have told me to put it into a time-locked account so that I can’t touch it until I’m 70. But when I’m 70, I won’t have the energy to do what I want to do!

So right now, I’m just enjoying it. But for people who are worried about my finances, they’re worried more about it than I am at this point. But for the record, I haven’t even touched the money I won at Capcom Cup. The money I’ve spent is from savings and my salary from Team Liquid.

Missing Person: You’ve heard it here first, guys. Du is not going bankrupt any time soon!

NuckleDu: No, not at all.

Missing Person: Let’s talk a bit about psychology in these games. During Winners finals of your pool at Frosty, you and Gllty both engaged in some teabagging. But some of the most notable teabags that people have talked about came at the expense of Xiaohai. Is there a reason that you go after Xiaohai like that?

NuckleDu: Truth be told, Xiaohai is my favorite player. The fact that I’m able to teabag him and still win is amusing to me. He’s also a really emotional player, so whenever I do so, I know I’m doing mental damage to him. I would never teabag a random player. But on Xiaohai, definitely.

Missing Person: It’s more gamesmanship than anything?

NuckleDu: Right. When Gllty teabagged me, people asked me on Twitter if I was offended. No. When people do it back to me, I feel honored. They’re acknowledging my work. I would never be a poor sport about it. I like seeing it.

Missing Person: With the Xiaohai matchup, you’re well ahead of him.

NuckleDu: Yes, but in China, he did very well against me, and it was close. This was after the Season 2 changes saw R. Mika get nerfed and Cammy received some buffs. It was an uphill battle, plus I had an accidental pause. But I was still able to clutch it out.

Missing Person: Do you feel like Xiaohai is starting to adapt to the match, or do you feel like the Season 2 changes has aided him?

NuckleDu: The meta in the matchup definitely changed in Season 2. I wasn’t surprised that it was so close due to Cammy getting stronger and Mika getting weaker. I just had to adapt and learn how to play Mika differently. I’m still figuring it out.

Missing Person: We know that Nash received nerfs based off his performance at Evo, and they ultimately proved to be inconsequential. Do you feel like the changes to Mika were warranted, especially with the Irish Whip nerf?

NuckleDu: I think they nerfed the speed of it, as well as the frame advantage, and that was fair. I don’t think that they should’ve changed the wall bounce properties. The problem was how fast the move was and how safe it was on block. But people suffered a year of R. Mika, so I understand Capcom’s decision. She’s still good, you just have to think a little bit harder.

Missing Person: You most notably said that you had a fear of flying, yet 2016 saw you finally take a flight to Canada. This year, you made a bigger trip to China. How was the country for you?

NuckleDu: The people organizing the event in China flew me there first class, so it was an amazing experience flying there. It made me forget I was on an airplane. The food there was great. Xiaohai took me out to dinner. He’s an extremely nice guy. He even pulled out my chair for me, poured water. The scene was really nice, and made me want to travel more.

Missing Person: Were the players welcoming, given the fact that you have been wrecking their national fighting game hero as of late?

NuckleDu: Yeah, he’s definitely the poster boy for the scene there, and when I played against him, they were naturally going to root hard for him. Aside from that, they were super polite and friendly.

Missing Person: Do you feel like China has difficulties dealing with other nation’s players, given the state of their internet and access to data?

NuckleDu: China’s internet is simply awful. Given that and the fact that country is huge, they can’t really practice with each other save for offline. There’s inherent disadvantages in that for China vs. the world, but Xiaohai is the exception when he squares off against everyone else.

Missing Person: You’ve done extremely well with Street Fighter V. Are you looking into other games as well?

NuckleDu: Street Fighter V will always be my main priority. I might also play Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, the 2 vs. 2 format doesn’t look as crazy as Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. SonicFox has also offered to teach me Injustice 2, so I may take him up on that–since he is the best at NetherRealm Studios titles.