At the last Killer Instinct World Cup, the top 16 was generally business as usual. However, there was one name that we weren’t used to seeing: Valoraxe. Finishing at 9th, this Cinder from the UK made sure that though his was a new name, it was one you won’t be forgetting any time soon.
Since returning from the World Cup, Valoraxe has continued to hammer home that he is one of the best players around, consistently doing well at events throughout Europe. SRK caught up to him at Hypespotting 6 in Scotland, where he had already taken victory in both the single and team Killer Instinct tournaments.
Keegan “Interrobang!?” Spindler: You were the main EU force at the KI World Cup. When you went out there, how did you feel Europe stacked up against everyone else?
Valoraxe: Well basically at the World Cup, the Europeans were the bottom of the pack. There was a feeling of “We’ll be polite to them, we’ll give them a chance.” There was much more excitement about the Japanese, with players like Domi and Rat, who were the guys expected to surprise people.
But we had Le Chat Noir, a French player, and Itamaster, an Italian online player. Itamaster unfortunately didn’t adapt to the offline environment, but Le Chat Noir did quite well. He took out a Canadian player, but that was about it. As for me, I just went in and did whatever I wanted. It worked out.
Interrobang!?: Apart from you, the European representatives didn’t do amazingly. How does Europe get up to the same level as the American players?
Valoraxe: What we need to do to get better? Honestly, it’s mostly because the Killer Instinct scene is quite shallow here. For the UK in particular, we are mostly online. There’s a couple of tournaments in the year where people are coming together and playing offline, but there aren’t enough. The main reason we’re not up there is that we don’t do big offline tournaments, our guys don’t travel. I am the only guy in the UK who really travels right now. Smash King used to travel around the country–not even to Europe and America. Nobody travels.
KI is underrepresented as well, so prize money is not up there. Lots of people think “if there’s no big prize money, why bother?”
Interrobang!?: Is that how you would get more people involved? Bigger prize pools?
Valoraxe: Prize pools would definitely be a start. You know, get more eyes turned in that direction and the bigger the prize money, the bigger the attention. But I think the game is in a different spot right now. It’s constantly changing, which is a good and a bad thing.
It’s good because it’s up to date and people are on top of it. It’s also bad though, because it can discourage people from getting involved. I know some people in the UK, Smash King included, who didn’t really like the change to Season 3, and it put people off playing.
Part of the problem is that it’s a coin toss, you know? Either your character gets lucky and gets buffed, or it gets nerfed, or there’s a mechanic that you don’t like or makes your character redundant–which makes you feel redundant. It’s just luck of the draw I guess.
Interrobang!?: Like you said, the game is changing all the time. How do you feel about your character, Cinder, after the changes to Potential Damage?
Valoraxe: Cinder is a lot stronger. People seem to think that Cinder is broken, at the moment, because the potential damage change means that Cinder can get a lot of white life on you and when you break, only half goes away. It’s still a sizable chunk if he burns you out properly. It means that you can go straight into a level 4 or massive damage combo. Or, if he wants, he can just reset the fire and keep you in white life for the whole round and afraid to push a button. So people are terrified about that, but they really shouldn’t be.
Cinder has very limited ways to open you up. His grab game is weak, he only has one grounded overhead–and it’s very slow and easy to counter. The only thing he can do to open you up on the ground is either frame trap you, throw or tick throw you, or try and go for a cheeky air combo. Cinder really struggles to open people up on the ground. He has to do crazy things, crazy setups, and have constant resets. He has to be constantly thinking ahead to get something started, and a lot of people don’t seem to realise that. A lot of people only see the full screen low infernos, the massive white life cashouts, the safe DPs–which is not safe, it’s actually minus six, people just don’t know how to counter it. That’s their problem, not mine.
I think the character is fine. He’s actually very well balanced. I do think the white life change is very strong on him though. At the end of the day, Killer Instinct is a funky game with a lot of funky characters. If you can’t adapt to it, that’s your problem.
Interrobang!?: Speaking of adaptation, what would you like to see going into Season 4 of Killer Instinct?
Valoraxe: Honestly, I don’t really want to see another Season of Killer Instinct. I’d really like to see a new KI, since I think that this one is getting a bit bloated. There’s too much going on, too many changes and glitches now. I really think that they need to hit the reset button with a new KI, get a big marketing push, throw some money behind the game and really show people that they should be playing Killer Instinct.
Having said that, I’d like to see a powerhouse grappler.
Interrobang!?: Because you play Zangief in Street Fighter V.
Valoraxe: Yeah, I play ‘Gief in SFV. I only do it because I can’t be bothered to learn combos, so I just SPD people. Because that’s easy. To be honest, I just say powerhouse grappler because I think its cool. I just think it would be cool to see a guy with a battleaxe who plays a bit like Astoroth, where he hits you with the axe and it turns into a command throw. I just think it would be badass. That’s just what is cool to me.
As for Cinder, what would I want to see? Personally, I’m happy with Cinder as he is. I think the only two changes I would recommend would be his shadow Trailblazer, which is the EX Flame Tornado forward, I would like to see it have the principle of Fulgore’s cyber dash, a fullscreen that hits five times. And the reason why is because you can’t do unbreakable Ultras then, since you will always do the five hits after the low inferno into it. Also, it will give Cinder options on the ground, especially against strong zoning characters. It may take him over the edge though, but then you could take a couple of things away from him. Make the DP more minus, maybe. Why not? Minus enough that you can always punish with crouching medium. I think that’s fair. Cinder is fine though. He’s fine as he is. He has clear weaknesses, but he’s fun to play.
Interrobang!?: Interestingly, over the last few months you’ve used a bunch of different characters in tournament. Have you settled down on Cinder now?
Valoraxe: Yeah, Cinder’s always been the one. I’ve been using other characters because I wasn’t confident in the mirror. ShadowKageNinja was the guy who made me change characters, because I was sort of like, oh okay, maybe I shouldn’t play the mirror. I should’ve though. I should’ve just played the mirror and got it over and done with. But now I’ve learned that lesson.
Having said that, I’m in the process of picking up a couple more characters properly. I’m thinking about Eyedol, because a fast, in-your-face character like Eyedol is seriously fun. I’m learning Tusk as well, because a Viking with a big sword. That’s awesome right? And then Raam too. Because, well, ‘Gief.
Interrobang!?: I love Raam, but there’s not many strong players for him.
Valoraxe: LetalisVenator. He went to the World Cup, picked Raam and did work. But it’s the same with Cinder, really. There’s only a couple of players who really know how to play Cinder. Properly. They see all the Trailblazers and all the air juggles and yeah, that’s one part of his play. But you’re not thinking about the mindgames involved, the frame traps. Cinder has so much kit, it’s just about finding different ways of opening it up. There aren’t many players who can do that at the moment.
But I think that’s true of nearly every character in the game. They have a lot of potential, but don’t have anyone making use of it and doing work.
Interrobang!?: Do you have any EU players we should keep an eye on this year?
Valoraxe: Coopstar. Coopstar is one of the best in the UK right now. He’s definitely got some chops on him. He won VSFighting last year. That tournament was a real learning experience for me, but Coopstar definitely earned the win.
Interrobang!?: So are you heading back to the USA for any events?
Valoraxe: Yes! The Killer Instinct World Cup is on again next year in San Antonio, I should be there for that. I’m also heading out to Combo Breaker in May to compete in KI, and CEO in June. Those are the two big majors that KI is announced for, with a nice prize pot, so I’ll be down there representing the UK. If anything else is announced for Europe or America, I’ll probably be attending. I’m just hoping to do us justice, to show off that the UK has really strong players.
I also want to prove that I’m the best Cinder in the world. There’s some argument about it, but I figure that as long as I keep beating people, no one will be able to argue for long.
Interrobang!?: Lastly, what about pineapples on pizzas?
Valoraxe: They can f**k off.
Sources: Ultra Arcade; Turbo Tuesdays. Feature image courtesy of Stephanie Lindgren