Author: Corey "Missing Person" Lanier

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.

Leah “Gllty” Hayes is one of the midwest’s best fighting game players. She has consistently made her way to events across the world last year, showing off her patented Dhalsim to the masses. And it looks like she plans to do even more of that this year. At Frosty Faustings IX, I sat down with her to talk about her journey last year, and what she learned across her travels.

Corey “Missing Person” Lanier: So, to start things off, you had difficulty making it out of pools this time at Frosty. You lost to NuckleDu on stream, then lost losers finals off stream. What happened?

Leah “Gllty” Hayes: Well, with NuckleDu, I was able to focus and commit to a game plan that actively moved around R. Mika, which allowed me to get the first game. Sadly, I was unable to sustain my mental focus on maintaining that game plan, and he was able to beat me the next two games.

Since the latter half of last year, I’ve been trying to develop a stable style of play rather than being aggressive the whole time. I’m trying to find where everything fits together. I’m heading in the right direction, but there’s obviously going to be some hiccups for the time being.

Missing Person: How do you feel Dhalsim has held up in Season 2?

Gllty: I don’t know how it’s going to end up. Even in Season 1, we initially thought Dhalsim was really good, then he fell down the tier lists. With Season 2, there’s a lot of characters that people think will be broken. But you never really know. We’ll see what happens. I don’t think everything is played out yet. DLC characters may also affect things. Dhalsim could be found to be a natural counter to a strong DLC character, and suddenly he’s useful.

Missing Person: You hail from St. Louis, which hasn’t really adopted Street Fighter V. How do you stay sharp playing in a region with a “dead scene” for your game?

Gllty: I’ve actually been going the extra mile to rebuild the community there. When I was younger, I didn’t really make the best decisions in thinking about the community. As I’ve gotten older, I try to reach do things differently and reach out to people. I feel like people aren’t going to be that interested in a community-based phenomenon like Street Fighter unless you make it readily available and tangible to them.

Instead of just playing online with a bunch of buddies, I buy pizza for people, get drinks, and am building a stream setup. I don’t see myself as an effective streamer, but I’m moving towards that. It’s just difficult finding the balance between streaming, community, and my own personal practice for competitive play.

Missing Person: On top of all that, you traveled quite a bit in the past year. 2016 saw you in Korea, Japan, Singapore, and Canada. Has traveling outside of the US helped your play?

Gllty: I think so. But here’s the thing: Japanese players play a certain way. Korean players play a certain way. And even Americans play completely differently. When you go to Asia, they have this strong neutral game overall. They look for consistent and reliable strategies. Then you come to America where everyone just says, “Screw it, I want to go in! I’m feeling like going ham!” You have to have an understanding on how to play players from different geographical locations.

Missing Person: Do you feel like the West could do to learn a bit from the Japanese playbook?

Gllty: If you look at the most successful players–it doesn’t matter who it is–they’ve traveled everywhere. They have the different pieces of the puzzle. I think that’s what it amounts to. If you go to Asia, there’s a different piece of the puzzle than you get in America. Finding a middle ground between the two is paramount and a trial by fire.

Missing Person: There’s been a history of you being considered sort of a “troll” player. Do you think that affects people when they play against you?

Gllty: I can’t speak to it. There’s going to be people that are going to be tilted playing me by virtue of playing me. But I feel like more people are unaffected by me than there are people who are. Some people you cannot troll. But I would probably try to troll Daigo.

Missing Person: Is there anyone else on your troll play hit list?

Gllty: Well, I teabagged NuckleDu at Frosty Faustings. He ultimately returned the favor, but it was a mutual exchange.

Missing Person: Do you feel like there’s going to come a point where this behavior is taken out of competitive play, or do you feel like everyone just needs to get used to it as a part of gamesmanship?

Gllty: Do you remember the video of Justin Wong playing Mortal Kombat against that little kid? That’s just a part of gamesmanship. You can’t completely scrub and sanitize esports. The FGC is still going to stay the way it is.

Taunting is in other esports and if someone is so weak that you can mentally tilt them by taunting them, then it is what it is. If that’s the card you have in your hand to play against them, play it. If you’re taunting, then there’s actually more mental pressure for you to back it up. When I teabagged NuckleDu, I felt like there was a chance that I could get blown up for it. But I know he’s not going to take it personally, and people would be entertained by it.

It’s not so much about the destination as it is the journey. You’re going to these events repeatedly. There’s an element of repetition. You’re trying to improve over its iterations throughout the decades. You have to keep it fresh somehow, but you still have to pay homage to the old-school mindset as well. It’s something that you can take seriously while still not fully taking it seriously. It’s also a part of maintaining your own character, because whenever you play, your personality shows. Whenever you fight someone, you’re communicating parts of your personality to them. If part of your narrative in the game that you’re going to use appeals to emotion as part of your tools, then that’s that.

I know by doing this stuff that it will get visited upon me. But I’ve already come to terms with the fact that I’ve already purchased my own karmic check for it, so I’m at peace with that.

Missing Person: Have you already determined some of your travel schedule yet?

Gllty: I’m just going to do everything over again and then some. I feel like there’s more purpose at this point than there would have been last year. Last year created a situation for this year to go well, more so than last year was about last year itself.

Since Frosty Faustings is a celebration of all things Guilty Gear, my journey to Chicago wouldn’t have been complete without talking with the Guilty Gear scene; one name popped up that needs no introduction to the American Guilty Gear community.

Panda Global’s Kyohei “MarlinPie” Lehr is one of America’s best players, finding his way into both Evo Top 8 and ArcRevo in 2016–finishing 7th in the former, and bowing out early in the latter, a victim of the single game syndrome of Japanese tournaments. He is an amazingly creative and hype player to watch. While at Frosty Faustings IX, Shoryuken sat down with him to talk about his experience with the game.

Corey “Missing Person” Lanier: First off, you had a great year last year, with you becoming the sole American representative at Evo 2016 in Guilty Gear Xrd -REVELATOR- Top 8. How was the experience for you?

Kyohei “MarlinPie” Lehr”: I feel like my career in Guilty Gear finally paid off. I hadn’t played against most of the Japanese players in the tournament before. I had been to Japan and played at Mikado and A-Cho, but I hadn’t encountered those players yet. To be honest, I was really nervous playing against them. I didn’t think I had a chance, but I decided to just go ham, and managed to beat around eight or nine of them on the way to top 8. I couldn’t beat Ogawa, but I’m starting to feel like America is getting there in Guilty Gear. We have to keep our momentum up.

Missing Person: And you not only made Top 8 at Evo, but you made it into ArcRevo. How was the experience there?

MarlinPie: First to one is the scariest tournament format ever. I can play anything but first to one. It just can’t happen anymore! When I’m going to Japan to play an international event, to lose two rounds and have it all be done is just a bummer. I enjoyed the thrill of it though. I couldn’t play all the top Japanese players at Evo, so going over there was a chance to get that experience.

Missing Person: How long did you stay in Japan to train?

MarlinPie: I spent three weeks over there. There is a fundamental difference between how American and Japanese players play. There has to be a resource where everyone is getting their information from. Very few places outside of Dustloop and Reddit go over strategies. If you go anywhere to play in Japan, they are killers. It’s crazy how good they are.

Missing Person: With Dogura and Go1 out for Frosty, how do you feel about your chances?

MarlinPie: I feel good. I always think that I’m going to win, but anything can happen. Sin was nerfed and Dogura has picked up Raven. I have a lot of experience in Japan against Raven, so I feel pretty confident if I face Dogura. We’ll see what happens. [MarlinPie went on to place 5th in the event.]

Missing Person: Do you feel like the fact that Japan received the game a year before America did has any factor in North America’s struggle to becoming relevant in Guilty Gear?

MarlinPie: I don’t think it’s that caliber of a problem now. The players that are doing well in Guilty Gear have been playing for over 20 years now. I don’t think any American has been playing the game for over 20 years at this point. The only new school player that I can think of is Machaboo–the Evo 2016 winner–and he started with Guilty Gear XX#Reload. So that’s still over a decade of experience under his belt.

American players haven’t been playing for that long. The top players in the States aren’t very old school. The experience gap really shows when the old school and new school players play against each other. They don’t know what to do in certain situations and scrambles. When they have that, on top of getting the game earlier, and having lagless online play even with Korea, they have a very fortunate recipe for success.

Missing Person: Out of the American scene–other than yourself–who would you list as the top 3 players?

MarlinPie: LostSoul has got to be my favorite. Even though he hasn’t been able to travel much, I still feel like he’s one of the best. I want to say BjornSonofBears for the top three, but his performance has been somewhat inconsistent at times. [BjornSonofBears went on to finish second at Frosty Faustings IX.] The rest is a definite tossup between GCYoshi, Lord Knight and Elvenshadow. Elvenshadow is one of the only players in America that I know of that has more experience than me in this game.

Missing Person: How long have you been involved with the series, just for comparison?

MarlinPie: I have been playing Guilty Gear for 16 years now. Elvenshadow started just a little bit before me. He was already a top player when I started the game.

Missing Person: What has driven you to keep playing Guilty Gear out of all the possible titles?

MarlinPie: Because it’s the best game in the world. No other fighter comes even remotely close to the level of creativity that Guilty Gear has. There’s no fighting game that’s similar to this. It’s very different, and I just happen to love this style of game.

Missing Person: Speaking of creativity, we saw you do a lot of creative stuff early on with Viper in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. With it coming to Evo, will we see you back playing Marvel?

MarlinPie: This has been a secret, but I have started playing Marvel again. I’m not confident with my play yet, and everyone that has kept up with the game has improved. I have taken off two or three years from the game. With Marvel getting a lot of attention with the rereleases and Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, I wanted to go back to my roots with this game before Infinite releases.

By popular demand, I’m definitely picking up Infinite. I’m not sure if I’ll keep with it though. There’s some doubts regarding the style of the game. It looks like a cross between Street Fighter X Tekken and Tatsunoko vs. Capcom to me. I might not like it, but I’ll try it at least.