Author: John "Zidiane" Silvia

Editor’s note: some responses have been slightly altered for the sake of clarity.

Combo Breaker is still fresh in everyone’s mind. The event was a blast for me personally, an experience I deeply and thoroughly enjoyed, and that’s a sentiment I’m sure many of the rest of the attendees would agree with. Unfortunately, not every member of the community was able to find the same level of enjoyment. I sat down with a cosplayer I met at the event, someone who was completely new to the fighting game community, and talked with her about her initial experiences and her takeaway from the event and the people she met.

John “Zidiane” Silvia: So, let’s start with who you are. Introduce yourself, for those unfamiliar.

Raven “Carbon” Grey: Hi, my name is Raven Grey, I sometimes go by Carbon online. I’ve been into gaming since I was a child, and even when in public I always have my nose in the most recent Nintendo hand held. I played League of Legends for 6 years. I’m new to the FGC, and just started with Skullgirls earlier this year. Outside of gaming, I work on small game-related art projects for friends, like Pokémon backpacks and DS cases, as well as some occasional cosplay.

JS: At Combo Breaker you were cosplaying as Valentine. Have you cosplayed before?

RG: I’ve done League of Legends and Pokémon cosplays before.

JS: How big are you into games in general? How seriously are you taking Skullgirls?

RG: Games are a huge part of my life. I’ve been playing on handhelds since I was young, and as soon as I had the money I built myself a decent desktop. I normally spend 5-15 hours per week playing, and I’m taking Skullgirls as seriously as I can. I work a lot and it’s incredibly exhausting, but I’m also super excited to start up a Skullgirls lobby when I get home from work. Because of making my cosplay I haven’t had as much time to play recently, but I’m excited to put in a bunch of lab time when I get home.

JS: How much time did you put into making your cosplay outfits?

RG: I think somewhere between 40-100 hours, depending on the costume.

JS: It sounds like you put a lot of work and time into them.

RG: I put my heart and soul into my cosplays. Valentine’s dress itself took a good 10-20 hours of work. I had a lot of altering to do to make it perfect. I had to make the entire thing several times in order to get it to fit right.

JS: What makes you want to put all that work into making a costume?

RG: Honestly part of it is therapeutic for me, but also she’s just super cool. The first real cosplay I did was Leona from League of Legends, and it’s because her lore really spoke to me on a personal level. Building the costume gives me clear goals to accomplish, lets me be creative at the same time, and at the end of all of it I have these really cool props that I get to hang up on my wall later.

JS: I can see how crafting these outfits is soothing. What’s the reason behind actually wearing them? You could probably simply make them and sell them online. What motivates you to take the extra step and wear them?

RG: It isn’t as simple as just making it and selling it online. Commission work is super exhausting and most people aren’t willing to pay what your time is worth. Don’t get me wrong, I still do commissions and I enjoy them, but it’s just too much for me. If I’m making them for me, though, I get to look super cool. I think I made a really good Valentine, and I’m incredibly proud of it. Besides, who doesn’t want to be a badass from their favorite video game? It’s just overall super fun. I’ve met most of my friends through cosplaying and we all build stuff together, it’s a huge community and a really unique experience that only cosplayers have.

JS: I’m imagining that actually crafting the outfit and wearing it, at that point it seems like a badge or a trophy. Would you say that that is a fair comparison?

RG: Yeah, actually it is. In a more literal sense, my props are trophies. I get them signed and then I mount them to my walls in my room. I have 5 of my smaller props on display in my room, like how you can hang up weapons in Skyrim, and it’s just so cool.

JS: You said you were new to the FGC. Was Combo Breaker 2016 was your first big FGC event?

RG: Yes, definitely.

JS: You said that the game you came for was Skullgirls. What got you into Skullgirls, and by extension the FGC?

RG: I was at a friend’s party, and one of my friends said, “Hey, come play this game with cute anime girls,” and I said, okay! He sandbagged the first few games while I learned the controls, but by the end of the night I was kicking his ass. I bought it the next night, went through the tutorials and started up a stream about a week later. I had about 25-30 people viewing the stream, so I made a lot of friends. Everyone was super nice, and they’ve been helping me learn combos and improve all my mechanics. Since then I started up my cosplay and attended CB, and I’ve loved about 90% of my experience.

JS: What made you decide to go to a big FGC event, or Combo Breaker specifically?

RG: I had already planned to be on vacation in Ohio around the same time, and I just really love going to events.

JS: Did you know anyone in the FGC going into Combo Breaker?

RG: Through streams. I’d been talking to about 4 people who attended, but I honestly mostly went alone, which was a little scary going in. I was rooming with people, but I hadn’t met them before. They weren’t people I knew very well or trusted a whole lot.

JS: How was the first day? You said it was scary.

RG: I was apprehensive for sure, the cosplay was kinda revealing and I didn’t really know anyone. I actually spend a lot of day 1 traveling. I was driving over from Ohio, which is about 6-7 hours. I didn’t get in town until about 6. After I got to the hotel and got settled we all went out to dinner, and we happened to go to the same restaurant as the Lab Zero devs, which was pretty cool. One of the devs even came over and asked if I would come by their booth for pictures the next day!

Taken with Mike Zaimont, one of the Developers of Skullgirls and Indivisible, this was just one of many pictures of Raven in Valentine cosplay at the event.

JS: I’m assuming you were hanging out primarily with the SG community, due to only playing Skullgirls. Is that true?

RG: Yeah. I didn’t interact with anyone else intentionally.

JS: What was your first impression of the community?

RG: In person? I was impressed. The turnout seemed really nice, and I was also super surprised by the number of fight sticks, haha!

JS: What did you do with the community Saturday?

RG: I walked around, watched people play. I honestly spent a lot of time taking pictures and meeting people. I don’t know many people in the SG community yet, and it was fun meeting everyone.

JS: What was your favorite part about the community at that point?

RG: There were a few really good people that were super nice and really welcoming, and they helped me have a good time.

JS: Was everyone nice and welcoming?

RG: No. I had some individual people cross some lines. Occasionally people would get a selfie with me and intentionally get a picture down my shirt. I had a man whisper something incredibly inappropriate in my ear and then walk away. Another man asked if I was there because my boyfriend was in the tournament, trying to find out if I’m single and also insinuating that I wouldn’t come just for the games. I had a few people take pictures of me without asking first, with one man even arguing that because I was in cosplay I should be fine with people taking pictures of me whenever. It was incredibly unnerving to hear him argue that he didn’t need my consent for any reason.

JS: How much of the time you spent in cosplay was met with similar situations?

RG: Well… I had 3 people following me over the weekend; they would hover within 5-10 feet of me, no matter where I went for 10-20 minutes at a time, and they did it several times over the day. Overall, I think I had about 20-30 times people made me feel uncomfortable.

JS: How many of these circumstances were by the same people?

RG: Probably close to half. One of the guys who was following me was actually invited into my room, and I didn’t know how to say anything that wasn’t incredibly rude or how to convince my roommates I didn’t feel safe. I needed help getting dressed and he was obscenely insistent on helping me, even after I told him no and asked for someone else by name multiple times.

JS: Did you talk to any of the Combo Breaker staff about what was happening?

RG: Honestly they were such quick incidents most of the time I didn’t know what to do. I did talk to Rick, the Tournament Organizer, after one particular event. So at night on Saturday after the pool party I was watching video games with friends. One guy was super drunk and kinda flirting. He picked me up and pulled me into his lap and held me there for about 10 seconds. I immediately told him to let go, and just repeated that over and over while trying to get him to let go.

JS: What happened next?

RG: I had a panic attack. After trying my best to calm down, I tried to find con security. It was 2 AM at that point, but I eventually was pointed to Rick and I talked to him and he gave me a place to decompress. After I was okay I went looking for the other girl I had met who I trusted in the Skullgirls community, but she was asleep and not answering her phone. I was considering sleeping in my car. Eventually I found one of the guys who was staying with that girl, so I pulled him aside and talked to him about staying in their room. He was really cool about it, so he walked me back to their room. We just talked about different stuff and it helped me calm down a little, and I eventually fell asleep.

JS: Was the next day any better?

RG: Yes, the day itself was much much better and I had a lot of community support.

JS: You had a lot of community support. Was it just from the Skullgirls crowd, or everyone in general?

RG: Skullgirls and Rick, but that’s most of who I personally hung out with. I’m not saying other communities wouldn’t have been supportive, but that’s just what I saw.

JS: What kinds of things did they do to help you calm down and feel comfortable?

RG: I had several people pull me aside and say things like, “Hey if you need help, find me, I’ll get you somewhere safe.” The girl I met stayed by my side most of the time and consistently checked on me to make sure I was still okay.

JS: Was that enough to help you enjoy the rest of the event?

RG: It was. I had a really good time day three.

JS: Do you think the incidents were enough to keep you from coming back to events in the future?

RG: Initially yes, but after day 3 and Rick really stepping up about this, I’m coming back for sure. I also think that after a few months I’ll be better known in the community, which will make a difference. I’ll be less of a rando and more of a person.

JS: By Rick stepping up, you mean how he helped you that night?

RG: Both by helping me in person and by making statements on Twitter. I’m watching him making an honest effort on making these events safe for women, and it’s comforting knowing that if something happens to me, I won’t be forced to leave because I feel unsafe.

JS: Do you have anything else specifically you want to say to people?

RG: I guess what I really want to come from this is the recognition that you don’t always see the ramifications. I try and handle my anxiety well and I feel like not many people knew what I was going through Saturday night. I’m not saying I’m super upset about most of what happened, but I just needed time away from people while dealing with things like this.

I know most of the people who made me feel comfortable didn’t mean it and most instances weren’t that big of a deal, so maybe it felt worse than it was. Still, that doesn’t change that people still experience flashbacks and anxiety attacks while dealing with these things, and it’s important to consider that when interacting with others. You don’t know their past experiences. I’ve been super lucky and haven’t been straight up attacked before, but I still have extreme reactions to people invading my personal space and I shouldn’t have to avoid the community because of that.

I’m not asking for anything extreme, I don’t want people bending over backwards to make me feel safe, I’m just asking to not be manhandled or touched. I don’t want to hear rape jokes, and I don’t want to be assumed to be at an event like CB for a boy. I’m there because SG is a great game, fighting games are awesome, and watching live events is hype as hell.

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After talking with Raven, it was clear that the environment of positive experience in the FGC is not universal. The experience I have at an event, at least currently, isn’t exactly welcome to any who wish to participate. Concerned by this, and also hopeful for the future of Combo Breaker and our community as a whole, I talked with Tournament Organizer Richard Thiher about some of the unfortunate events that took place this past weekend.

JS: A cosplayer came forward about being treated inappropriately at Combo Breaker. During the event, were any such instances brought to your attention?

Richard “TheHadou” Thiher: Unfortunately, yes. One of our attending cosplayers came to me directly looking for safety from aggressive attention. She was visibly distraught and looking to find a place to calm down. In response we provided her a lockable room for her to re-center in.

JS: The cosplayer claims a man physically held her down. Has this person been identified?

RT: No, and the event can only react to what is officially reported to us. We can’t help educate or remove attendees acting inappropriately if they aren’t pointed out (and in this case, unfortunately, they weren’t). I hope guests understand that if they reach out and let us know something is going on we’ll try to help them.

JS: Has this happening changed anything about the way you intend to run your event in the future? Will there be more considerations taken to ensure the safety of all members of our community?

RT: As an event we will need to find a way to increase staff dedicated to physical and emotional safety. If possible we’ll need to make the safe room we set up an official one as well. It also means we likely need to take a proactive effort in better educating floor staff and attendees alike on appropriate behavior. Cosplay is not consent.

JS: What’s the punishment for this kind of thing, for anyone caught sexually harassing others?

RT: Minimum 1 year ban. I try to avoid permanent bans, unless absolutely deserving, as I believe no one rehabilitates without aspirational options.

JS: The cosplayer I talked to told me that she initially wasn’t going to come to any more events after what happened. However, she also said after having you help her and seeing you advocating a safe environment for community members like herself, she is planning on coming out to more events. What does hearing that mean for you?

RT: As a TO it’s saddening to know anything at an event I helped develop contributed to her initial feeling. Its also maddening that it took my direct action to create an inviting environment that may overcome it. I want, and expect, our subculture to be better than that. What it means for me personally is that we still have work to do.

JS: Was there anything else you wanted to say about the situation?

RT: It’s unfortunate that a year of work on this event has turned into a conversation about safety. I’d like to stress that it’s okay that it has become one, though. The team at CB throws events for people to attend and have fun, and situations like this are the opposite of that intention. If us having a dialogue, however disappointing, helps with that in any way then we should all keep talking about it.

Sources: Carbon, feature image c/o Robert Paul

Footsies can be difficult for new fighting game players to grasp, but the importance of picking up and learning to implement this genre-spanning concept cannot be stressed enough.

To assist newcomers–and perhaps some not so new who have been struggling with the topic–Killer Instinct player FinchoMatic decided to use his game of choice to help break down the ins and outs of proper footsies. Borrowing an explanation from one of Eric “Juicebox” Albino’s videos, FinchoMatic proceeds to use Killer Instinct’s training mode to demonstrate the many factors that play into this all-important dance.

Source: FinchoMatic, with a tip from JINXHAND

Footsies can be difficult for new fighting game players to grasp, but the importance of picking up and learning to implement this genre-spanning concept cannot be stressed enough.

To assist newcomers–and perhaps some not so new who have been struggling with the topic–Killer Instinct player FinchoMatic decided to use his game of choice to help break down the ins and outs of proper footsies. Borrowing an explanation from one of Eric “Juicebox” Albino’s videos, FinchoMatic proceeds to use Killer Instinct’s training mode to demonstrate the many factors that play into this all-important dance.

Source: FinchoMatic, with a tip from JINXHAND

Editor’s note: Some responses have been slightly altered for clarity. The views expressed in this article are solely those of the interviewer and interviewee; they do not reflect Shoryuken as a whole.

I recently sat down with Jamie York. He’s the owner of a ‘Mom and Pop’ arcade, one that sells games and holds tournaments, including fighting game tournaments. I wanted to take a peek at what it was like behind the curtain to see what it’s like running regular locals and Majors. You can read what he had to say below.

John “Zidiane” Silvia: Tell me a bit about yourself and where we’re at.

Jamie York: Sure. My name’s Jamie York. I’m the owner of Game Underground, a store in the Natick Mall of Natick, Massachusettes. It’s the biggest Mall in New England, and we run fighting game events every Friday night for Fight Night. We also do Smash Brothers on Tuesday and Thursday for Smash 4, Project M, and Melee. We also run monthlies for all kinds of different fighting games. We play everything from Magic: The Gathering to Halo to Street Fighter–all kinds of games.

JS: When did you first decide to hold events for fighting games?

JY: Actually, I used to be the manager of a place called Game Universe. That started about 10 years ago with my friend Dave, and around the time SFIV came out the scene was picking up. We had always wanted to hold events and tournaments at the store, so that was one of the first ones we started with. So, we ran pretty big SFIV and MVC3 tournaments, and we just sorta grew with those games pretty much.

JS: How long did it take before you started running bigger events like GUTS?

JY: I’d say we started getting bigger about 6 years ago. GUTS1 was about five years ago. We skipped a year when we were moving our store from our old venue in Framingham to our current one in Natick, so it was too much to run GUTS at the same time as moving the store.

JS: That was right after GUTS3, right?

JY: Yeah. GUTS3 was on the Capcom Pro Tour. It was awesome. We had over 750 in attendance, and we had over 20,000 people watching online between Smash and Street Fighter. This year we’re hoping to break 1,000 players for GUTS4 across all games. My goal is over 1,200. I think we can do it, there are a lot more games we’re running now than before.

JS: What’s the drive behind the dedication needed to consistently make these locals and big tournaments happen?

JY: Well, our weekly events are what keeps us going as a store. We pretty much have four big things that keep us running: we sell video games, we have an arcade, Magic: The Gathering, and we have video game tournaments and nightly meet-ups. With everybody attending every week, we think it’s worth it for New England to have a big event like GUTS for all the guys that support us. You never know how big or successful an event is going to be, but I know it’s worth it for these guys to have a home game to go to instead of having to travel out to CEO and Evo, or Big E’s events. It’s nice for them to be able to do something that’s local and, once in a while, having people come to play on their turf.

JS: How much time does doing everything for fighting games take? How much free time do you have between all these events?

JY: Myself? Well… I try to be competitive in, like, SFV, but I literally work seven days a week at my store right now, and I have been for the last few months. It’s pretty much me, my wife, and a couple of our best friends running this place. Like, today I got here at 10 AM and I’m working until 2 AM, you know what I mean? Tomorrow I’ve got a big Melee tournament, I gotta come back at 10 AM and will probably leave past midnight again, but, you know, I take a lot of happiness in providing a place for people to come and make friends and have a place to compete and get better.

It means a lot to me when I watch a big event that like LuckyD travels to and they feature some of our MA friends on the stream. It means a lot to the players around here. I personally have made a lot of friends in the FGC; I can’t even express how much that means to me. People tell me stories all the time about, you know, maybe they didn’t have too many people to hang out with, but now they got their crew that they go to all the big events on the EC together. It’s become a really big group thing to be a part of. It’s really nice. I really love being a part of that and helping provide a scene.

This was the store we sat in while I interviewed him about his past and his hopes for the future.

JS: Tell me a bit about what it’s been like maintaining your local. How do you get people to come out and keep coming out?

JY: I think the hardest part is getting a solid venue to go to. Because we are the venue it really helps us, but I know there are a lot of other people that try in NE to do the best they can to hold events at like bars or Chinese restaurants or things like that. I respect those guys a lot because you have to go out there and find a place that’ll let you play. I just try to, as part of what we’re doing, be that place for people to go. When we started Game Underground, even before then when we were Game Universe, eSports was barely a thing that people were talking about. I always loved playing fighting games growing up, you know? I grew up playing Mortal Kombat II and Street Fighter II and all those old games with my friends and had the best times, so I understand what it’s like growing up and having that enviornment to go somewhere and play that. I used to go to the local arcade here in Natick Mall and play Tekken and Soul Calibur all the time. There was no arcade in this mall for 10 years, and now we have an arcade again and a place to go and play people and prove what you’re worth from all your training. It’s something to be said to be in the same room with people, that face to face competition. It’s amazing, it’s a lot of fun.

JS: Which communities are the most active in your locals?

JY: Oh man. Well, I have to say a combination of all the Smash Brothers games and SFV. Those are definitely the biggest followings we have here, but we definitely see people come here and they play Skullgirls, they play Marvel, they play KI, MK; KOFXIV is gonna be big here, Tekken 7 is gonna be HUGE. Right now there’s no Tekken presence at GU, but when Tekken 5: Dark Ressurection came out we got the arcade machine. We used to have a 20 person line because there was no console version of it, and now Tekken 7 hopefully one day will come out in America on consoles. People in Boston are dying to play this game, you know, we can’t get the arcade version, not easily, so we’re waiting; we’re ready for Tekken 7.

JS: For the people out there who are thinking of hosting locals like yours, how lucrative is it to keep holding these locals and Majors?

JY: I’m hoping one day that it will be? I mean, to be honest with you, I’m very lucky to have a job I get to go to every day that pays the bills, but I’m not GameStop, you know what I mean? We’re not millionaires here guys. I’m just happy to have a job I go to every day that I have fun at, and I make enough money to provide for my family and help a few other people in the community to be okay with their work, but you know… it’s a struggle. I mean… GUTS is something where I’m never sure if we’re even going to break even on, but I feel like we need to do it for this community. I hope that we can do well with it one day, maybe one day we can grow to be as big as CEO or something like that.

We gotta take it one step at a time, though. Going from GUTS1 we had like 350 people, GUTS2 had over 400, GUTS3 had 750 people show up. There are more games out now and more people in the scene, and we have friends helping us grow the Smash scene, so New England is starting to get really big. I don’t think that people realize across the country how good of a scene we have here. Even though no one here has made it to like Top 8 at Evo yet or anything, we have good players that love the game and the community and are willing to travel to big events, so it’s only a matter of time before one of these hungry guys is gonna do that. Like Marss, one of our Smash 4 players, started placing really high at Majors, and he plays a lot of games and comes for our weeklies. I’m really happy that the Smash 4 community here is starting to get a lot of attention. Some of these Street Fighter guys are starting to do really well and I’m excited that, you know, New England could be viewed at the same level as New York and the West Coast.

JS: What’s been the most memorable moment or experience so far in holding these events, either locals or Majors?

JY: Just having players come up to me and say, “Oh yeah, man, I drove 3 and a half hours to come here today.” That’s insane, like, I can’t even explain to you what it’s like… having the kind of reach that lets other people from other states know about my store. It’s very humbling, and just amazing, I can’t even describe it. I’d say that and also, probably, just… the hype of being able to work really hard on something like GUTS and have people turn out for it and the exciting matches we get to see there, it’s awesome, just that means a lot to me.

JS: If you could guarantee one thing to absolutely happen for prospective attendees at your upcoming Major, GUTS4, what would it be?

JY: Haha… uh… I’m just giving you dead silence, sorry. I don’t even know how to not just say “People play videos games”! You know what? What I can promise you is that we’ll put on a good event, to the best of our abilities. It will be fun, there will be a lot of good people to play games with. Also, no matter what game you play at GUTS, you’ll feel like we’re treating you as an equal, and we’re trying to do our best to feature everyone. That’s what I can guarentee.

JS: I saw a Killer Instinct setup in the back, there. I know you’ve mentioned KOF and SFV are the new games that are definitely getting a lot of hype, but is Killer Instinct going to have a presence there?

JY: Oh yeah, definitely, KI will be there. We’re having over 20 games at GUTS4. We’re holding obvious tournaments like SFV, as well as games like Super Turbo and Skullgirls, Guilty Gear, a lot of Anime fighters that people want us to feature. We’ll do our best to make sure that everyone has something featured that they want.

JS: If anyone wants to find out more information about GUTS or your locals, where can they do that?

JY: Our website is Game-Underground.com and our facebook is facebook.com/GameUnderground.

JS: Was there anything else you wanted to say?

JY: Just that if you’re in the NE area I would encourage you to come and check us out. I know a lot of people play online, and that’s awesome, but there’s really something to be said about meeting people face to face, and coming to play with people that have the same interests as you. There’s something to be said for making friends in places like this, you can make a lot of friends if you try to get out there and play.

Edge Guarding is a vital technique in the Super Smash Bros. series. This method of taking stocks is a cornerstone of any good Smash player’s approach to the game, so it’s only natural for players to come up with varying strategies to maintain their advantage after knocking an opponent off the stage.

Peach main Dark.Pch came up with some useful edge guarding tech that the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom can employ. This strategy involves dropping a turnip off of the stage while the opponent is recovering, then harassing them with Toad to ensure they can’t make it back on to the stage.

Dark.Pch has other useful Peach videos as well. Some are tutorials like a break down of how to pressure opponents, but some are analysis-based, like this Peach vs. Captain Falcon matchup breakdown.

Source: Dark.Pch

The King of Fighters XIV saw a lot of traffic at Stunfest thanks to eager folks wanting to get their hands on the game early. This also meant those not able to attend the event got a chance to experience the game vicariously through streamed footage.

For those who didn’t catch it live, there was plenty of impressive play from players like Frionel, Piccolo San, and Qanba|Xiaohai. You can see some of those replays below.

Despite the fact that the game isn’t out yet, Grave Lee was able to put together a quick combo video highlighting it. Granted, this combo video is simply comprised of cool combos from the play at Stunfest, but it’s still worth checking out. Roughly half of the characters available in the Stunfest demo are shown off here, so it’s a pretty good chance to take a peak at what characters are capable of in the upcoming title.

If you’d like to give the game a go before it releases, or if you just want to catch more early footage, be sure to keep your eyes on events like Combo Breaker and CEO.

Source: KOF Online, Felipe Moro, Grave Lee