“I couldn’t get one game on Eddie Lee in Marvel vs. Capcom… that made me want to get better.”
If you haven’t heard the story of Justin Wong’s introduction to the FGC, then Team Spooky has an excellent interview for you.
“Some kid from New York”, as the bare ’90s internet knew him originally knew him, sat down with host Seth Killian at NYU Spring Fighter 2018 to talk ancient MvC1 lore. The legend of Eddie Lee, Chinatown Fair, Marvel vs. Capcom, and more are covered in this nearly hour-long history lesson on the roots of New York’s Prodigal Son.
Since the beginning of 2017, Victor “Punk” Woodley’s name has been on the tip of everyone’s tongue in the fighting game community. After going on a rampage throughout the course of the year, this amazing young player left sponsor Panda Global in search for a new home with the titanic team Echo Fox.
After his first event under the orange and blue jersey, Punk sat down to answer seven questions from his new employer. In this video, we learn his thoughts on his losses in tournaments to Abigail, as well as how he feels about the pressure to perform as a top player.
Cygames Beast’s Eduardo “PR Balrog” Perez has been missing-in-action in the fighting game community for the past few months. The last time we saw him compete was at the Capcom Cup 2017 Last Chance Qualifier, where he tied for 17th place. With his recent return to competing in Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition at NorCal Regionals 2018 last month, it’s almost safe to say we’ll probably be seeing and hearing more from the former Balrog specialist (he mains Akuma now!).
BornFree caught up with Eduardo at NCR 2018 to pick his brain on several current topics in the FGC. In this almost half-hour interview, Eduardo talks about the current status of SFVAE, why he mains Akuma, and his thoughts on Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite and Dragon Ball FighterZ. He also talks about the “Caba incident” that occurred during NCR 2018, and how it ties in with how esports has changed the FGC. You can check out the full interview, where he talks about all of this and more, in the video below.
For more of BornFree’s interviews, be sure to check out his YouTube channel!
Stupendous is now known as the last of the Red Cyclones. With Zangief’s substantial nerfs in Season 3 (and 3.5), people found it hard to stick with the character, with many opting to swerve to Abigail for their big-body needs. Stupendous, however, stayed the course.
In this interview with BornFree at NorCal Regionals, Stupendous talks about his career in fighting games — which only started as a result as friends making a pact with him to train four days a week, improving his results. He also talks about his frustrations with Zangief’s issues since the patch, and how Abigail has stolen away the talent from the character.
For a long time, Verloren was a name on no-one’s radar. Now — after two straight top 8 finishes at Capcom Pro Tour Premier events — he is slept on by no one. What few know is how long he actually has been involved in fighting games.
This is where BornFree steps in. Having sat down at NorCal Regionals to talk with the Korean Cammy player, we learned a lot about the player that few actually knew. He talks about his background with Street Fighter II, as well as his unique training regimen — which actually deals a lot with visualization techniques.
BornFree continues his series of interviews from NorCal Regionals 2018. We get to spend some quality-camera time with one of the most famous personalities in Street Fighter V, the Korean pro player Infiltration. Having recently joined Panda Global, he has once again sprung onto the world stage, especially because of his latest triumph at Final Round 2018.
The extended interview (conducted before the latest SFV patch landed) covers why PG|Infiltration decided to go with Menat. He mentions how her toolset is a unique asset in the game, and that she plays a little outside the lines. However, he notes that the character still has some bad match-ups and needs someone to cover those, so that’s why he still plays Juri, his favorite character. He extensively talks about character balance in the game — mentioning Sagat, Ed, and Abigail.
Unrelated to the game, Infiltration also talks a lot about staying fit and working out, to be a more appealing esports figure. He both wants to attract more female players to the genre, as well as be mentally and physically strong to handle the challenges as they come.
Very few in the American fighting game community have been around as long as NorCal’s legendary John Choi. Having played over the course of decades, the Korean Inferno has conquered the competition — and is doing likewise as a tournament organizer.
During NorCal Regionals, BornFree sat down with the legend to get some backstory on his time in the FGC. They talked about many things of lore in the community, including the team that went to Japan in Bang the Machine, his double-championship at Evo 2008, and what he thinks of the scene now.
Enter the mind of Supernoon in this video interview.
If you didn’t watch the Dragon Ball FighterZ tournament at the NorCal Regionals, you missed an amazing moment in fighting games. While it came as no shock to some that GO1 and Moke squared off in the Grand Finals, the run back with Chris G and Supernoon provided more than enough excitement for the crowd.
Fresh off his 3rd place finish during the event, Supernoon sat down with BornFree to talk about his history with fighting games — which reaches back to Marvel vs. Capcom 2 — how his name came from a typographical error, and how he feels about the balance of Dragon Ball FighterZ at this point.
Bonchan is a man of many hats in the FGC right now, but when his Red Bull hat is on, he’s all business at the joystick. But when he sits down with BornFree, we get to hear an interesting side of the player that we rarely get to hear!
In this interview conducted at NCR, Bonchan talks about his hopes for Sagat in Street Fighter V, as well as how he feels the balance is for the game (prior to the most recent patch), stating that he feels like the lower tier characters are more viable than before.
He also discusses Dragon Ball FighterZ and his hope to learn the game, as well as his road trips that aim to promote local play in Japan.
Here we are, the final installment of my interview series with top Dragon Ball FighterZ player Tatsunical!
To cap it off, I’m giving you all a double dose of 5-Minute Focus with a 10-minute episode on improving your defense in DBFZ. I’m doubling-down on this one for two reasons: First, defense-based content is highly requested for this game. Second, because Tatsu gave us such excellent content that I couldn’t bring myself to chop it down into a 5-minute segment! In this episode, Tatsu covers a variety of defensive tools as well as many applications of those tools, to help you get better grip on your defensive options and get you out of those tight situations. Enjoy this healthy helping of 5-Minute Focus, and I’ll see y’all next time!
You can check out more from Tatsunical on his Twitter and Twitch channel.
Subscribe to ShoryukenTube for more videos from Frabisaur in our 5-Minute Focus series! And make sure to check out Frabisaur’s original fighting game instructional series — providing helpful advice for beginners to advanced players — The Fighter’s Dojo!
