Category: Interviews

Sean “Imstilldadaddy” Dench of Team Invictus has seen his stock rise lately. Having become a staple of the UK’s Gfinity series, he has seen himself traveling more and making waves within the FGC. After his top 8 finish at Canada’s Northern Arena Knockout event, he has shown he has a bright future on the circuit.

While he was in Toronto for Northern Arena, I sat down with Dench to talk about his play as well as his goals within the scene.

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Corey “Missing Person” Lanier: It was great seeing you here. How did you enjoy your time in Toronto?

Sean “Imstilldadaddy” Dench: It was wonderful. Toronto is a lovely city. It’s one of the best cities I’ve been to.

Missing Person: You had an amazing run to the Winners side of top 8 at Northern Arena, but it was cut short by Momochi. What are your thoughts on the match?

Imstilldadaddy: At first, I wasn’t playing too well against him. After the first game, I sort of realized what I was doing wrong. The key was that I was using Guile’s back knuckle — forward fierce punch — as an anti-air. I use it a lot against people who empty jump. He saw that and got me with that knowledge early on in the game. When I recognized it, I started to get the upper hand.

I feel like that match-up’s in Guile’s favor. I could see that he was struggling against the Sonic Booms, and I noticed a pattern with him. I started to feel really comfortable in the match, but at the end of the set, I made a crucial mistake. I feel like I could have held back, but I did the wrong anti-air. But I feel like I played well outside of that.

Missing Person: Following that up, you were eliminated by Smug. How about that match for you?

Imstilldadaddy: Despite losing to him, I was very fortunate. I could’ve had to play him in the second round, to get into top 8. But because Orangeman — the good Canadian Rashid player — beat him, the bracket shifted in my favor.

At the start, I was weighing whether to go Guile or Laura, because that’s a better match-up. I also used to use her a lot, but I was a little rusty. When I switched to Guile, I was able to get a game off of him, but it’s an uphill battle the entire time. If I could go back to it now, I would have ran Guile the whole way through. But he played very well, so I have to give it up to him.

Missing Person: You got to play a lot of the Toronto players, not only at Northern Arena but at Raiders Esports Centre the night before. Who impressed you the most?

Imstilldadaddy: First of all, Toronto is really good at this game. But I would have to say that L.E.S — the M. Bison player — is one of the best in the city. Drae “Yomi” Games and Orangeman were both in my hotel room the night before the event, and they are really solid. Drae was able to beat NuckleDu today, and he also gave me trouble as well in casuals. I feel like Laura is one of my easiest match-ups, but he plays a different style of Laura that was giving me trouble.

Missing Person: What was Drae doing that was giving you trouble?

Imstilldadaddy: He was doing a lot of light command grabs from a distance, and he was closing space very aggressively. I had to adapt and use more normals against him. I don’t really like to use them against Laura.

Missing Person: You have a lot of things happening lately. You recently joined Invictus. What’s next for you?

Imstilldadaddy: Well, we have the Gfinity series returning at the beginning of October. We placed third last year, we got pretty unlucky with that. But it should be fun. A lot of teams got new players this season, so it’ll be interesting.

Missing Person: With the Gfinity series, how do you feel it’s shaping the way the public in the United Kingdom thinks about esports?

Imstilldadaddy: I think it’s incredible. We’ve never had anything like this before. It’s sort of how Northern Arena was set up here. It’s been good in getting a lot of other players to shine through. There are more people picking up the games now. They’re signing more players to this. The players are getting stronger.

Missing Person: I also noticed that they host online qualifiers for players to get scouted through. Do you feel like this helps build up the scene within Europe?

Imstilldadaddy: Absolutely. I see more players coming up already because of this. It’s definitely a good thing.

Missing Person: We’re definitely seeing more corporate entities entering the FGC. It’s starting to happen in England as well as Canada. Do you feel like this is the way we should be heading?

Imstilldadaddy: I 100% believe we’re heading in the right direction.

Missing Person: Do you feel like there’s any shift between playing in grassroots events versus playing in these larger production events?

Imstilldadaddy: Things like Northern Arena are definitely more professional. There’s definitely a change, but it’s more well-organized with things like this. I actually prefer it this way, where it’s more professional.

Missing Person: One thing that’s went viral as of late is your biographical video, where you discuss your past time in jail. Do you feel like this has helped you reach out to people going through the same struggles?

Imstilldadaddy: Yes, actually. People have been reaching out to me — a lot of parents actually — about how I’m a good role model. I feel like if gaming had evolved like this many years ago, it’s possible I wouldn’t have gone down the path I did. Gaming did change my life. I’ve been able to travel and meet nice people like you, and it’s amazing that I’m sitting here now.

The documentary was kind of small, but the main message was there. I want to help people to use gaming to stay away from other activities that would get them into trouble. Gaming is a good way to prevent things like what I went through.

Missing Person: That’s definitely something I’ve noticed about gaming — especially fighting games — is your background is less important than your passion for it.

Imstilldadaddy: Exactly. Everyone comes together, and it’s a worldwide thing now. I stream and I have people I talk to from all over the world through it. Everyone is equal in life; that’s how I see it. With gaming, people forget about the world and all of its barriers and come together. You find that people can come together on the same sort of level and relate to the same sort of things.

Missing Person: I actually want to touch back on Evo, because at the end of Round 2 pools, you had a tough match against Snake Eyez to get out. What was going through your mind in that match?

Imstilldadaddy: I feel like Zangief vs. Guile at a high level can be an even match-up, but I was expecting him to pick Akuma. I was more prepared for that. I do think Akuma beats Guile, but if he picked Akuma, I was more comfortable at that moment. But instead, he chose Zangief, and I beat him in the first game easily. I think he actually thought about changing, but opted to stick with Zangief. He brought it back in game 2. At the end, he had me backed into the corner, and I had sort of a lucky jump, sort of a good read. He did a command grab, and I won. If I had stood still, he would’ve won the game.

I had to face him in losers as well. I did have trouble against a Karin player I was unfamiliar with. But it was good to beat him.

Missing Person: I was watching prior to Northern Arena, and you were labbing it up with a lot of different characters. Are there any characters that you’re looking at for pocket characters?

Imstilldadaddy: I’ve been using the DLC characters a bit as they’ve came out. I do play other characters, and I mainly use Guile because of loyalty. Guile is good, but he does have some tough match-ups. As I sit today, I’m a bit stubborn. I’ve stuck with Laura as a pocket because she was my first main in this game. She still does well against some match-ups like Balrog. I think I’m going to go back and play her a bit more because I was rusty with her. I also use Ed a lot. I use him for Dhalsim.

As I’ve been labbing up a lot of characters, I’ve been playing Guile a bit less. Now that I’m playing him more again, I’ve seen myself doing better. In Gfinity, I’ve had to face a lot of tough players. As the team captain, I planned it so I would have to play the harder matches. But ultimately my statistics were bad. It’s hard to take the stats seriously, since it is first to one. But this season, I don’t want to be caught with unfamiliarity, so I’ve been training harder because we want to win it.

I know I won’t make it to Capcom Cup this year, but there’s still money to be had on the circuit, so I do still plan to travel and play hard. All of this has made me want to train a lot harder.

Missing Person: You, along with many other European players, have shown the strength of the continent lately. How do you feel this season has changed the competitive landscape?

Imstilldadaddy: Well, first thing to note is that Phenom’s been in the US a lot. When I’ve seen him play, he’s really improved. The balance has definitely shifted between Street Fighter V and Street Fighter IV. You can’t really make as many mistakes as you could before. This has made the game more even-ish. Now that I’ve played this game more, I actually do prefer it more than the old one. I can’t go back to Street Fighter IV now. I feel like the developers did get it right, with more people being able to compete. There’s a lot more 3-2 matches now. It can be one guess situation that will cause you to lose, and reading is something you have to be comfortable with. In Street Fighter IV, you could dominate players more and do it more consistently if you were a good player. In this game, it focuses more on hard reads. You have to be more wise with the choices you make.

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If you haven’t already seen it, you should definitely check out the documentary where he talks about his previous struggles. You can also find him streaming on Twitch as he grinds up his play.

Brian_F opens up about option selects, and playing for real Fight Money.

Well-known for his solid Balrog play in Street Fighter V, heavy-hitting Boxer main Brian_F took some time to answer some questions for an interview article with Fighter 101. They discuss his favorite games (which include Super Mario Sunshine and The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker), compare the degree of execution needed between games like Street Fighter IV (which started Brian_F’s Street Fighter career) and older titles like Super Turbo and the Alpha series, and discuss aspects of his SFV Balrog play between annotated match highlights. They also chat about Brain_F’s fightstick preferences, and his outlook on the business aspects of competitive fighting games.

You can read the full interview here. And check out Brian_F’s setplay strategy against 3-frame jabs here!

Source: Fighter 101

Bryant “Smug” Huggins has been a people’s champion of sorts, since his emergence onto the scene as the premier Dudley player in North America in the Street Fighter IV series. Come 2017, not much has changed, as his Balrog gameplay in Street Fighter V has wowed spectators almost as much as his antics in front of the camera.

At Northern Arena Knockout, we sat down with Smug about his season to date, as well as his preparations for Capcom Cup 2017.

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Corey “Missing Person” Lanier: How have you enjoyed your time in Canada?

Bryant “Smug” Huggins: Yeah, I’ve enjoyed it. This is my third time here. The first time was in Calgary, then the last two times were in Toronto.

Missing Person: You finished fourth at Northern Arena Knockout. Let’s go over a few of your matches. Your first match was against Orangeman, who put you into losers bracket.

Smug: I underestimated him. I definitely came out with a bad start. I snapped out of it, but talking about the Orangeman set, he definitely learned the match-up. The last time we faced, I beat him casuals and tournament. I actually beat him at Brooklyn Beatdown last year. The first time we played, he beat me at East Coast Throwdown last year. That was the first time he became known. I then learned the Rashid matchup, and played him at Brooklyn Beatdown and beat him.

This tournament, he got the best of me. He really did pretty well. So now I have to go back to the lab on the match-up.

Missing Person: Let’s talk about the match with you and Marn. He took the end of the set particularly hard, where you EX uppercutted through his buttons.

Smug: When I’ve played Marn, I noticed he likes to push a lot of buttons. So I took that into consideration. Since he liked to push a lot of buttons, I decided to start doing a lot of moves with armor. It’s unsafe, yes, but I know that if you’re pressing buttons that it’ll absorb one attack and it’ll hit you. I simply knew it was going to work against him.

Missing Person: There was a lot of trash talk post-match, but no hard feelings on your end?

Smug: I’m still cool with him. I get that a lot of it is the character I use. But on the same token, he plays a cheap character as well, and his pocket character is R. Mika. It was in the heat of the moment, and his head wasn’t in the right space. I’m pretty sure he’s cool now.

Missing Person: Your final match was against BX3|Phenom, and it was a really close match. You have said that you struggle with Necalli, so walk us through how you brought it close.

Smug: With Phenom, he’s one of my demons. The first time I played him in Street Fighter V was at Next Level before Brooklyn Beatdown. We played an exhibition and he beat me 5-0. It was bad. I think I only won the first round of the set. It was just like after that, he said, “Alright, Smug. I know how you play. It’s time for me to win.” The next time I played him was at South by Southwest in casuals. He was bodying me there, but it was a long set so eventually I started to catch on and get games. Now it’s kind of a back-and-forth thing.

This time, I was a little more comfortable but not as confident as I usually am. I’m catching on, but he’s still always a threat to me.

Missing Person: One other match I’d like to touch on was your match with L.E.S to get into top 8. There were a few times where you got reset off of low strong where you were caught jumping. Was that something you did intentionally to throw him off?

Smug: Yes, because with M. Bison, that button, as well as low forward — whether it hits or blocks — they’re going to do something afterward, usually scissor kick. Once they’re under pressure in the corner, they’ll start to ask themselves if it’s their turn yet, and push buttons. So jumping is the setup for it.

Missing Person: You’ve been known to cheese up for the cameras quite a bit at tournaments. Do you feel like your streaming has helped you be comfortable on camera?

Smug: Yeah. Actually the first time I was in front of a TV camera was at ELEAGUE. At first, I was so nervous. I had told my parents I was going to be on TV. It was live, so if you mess up, your parents are watching live and it’s so embarrassing.

But after that, I decided to not let it get to me. So it doesn’t affect my gameplay, and when the camera is pointed on me, I like to send messages. I like looking at the camera to tell people that they saw how I out-fundamentaled my opponent. Take notes.

Missing Person: You’ve been known for playing boxer archetype characters — Dudley in Street Fighter IV and Balrog in Street Fighter V. Were there any fundamentals beyond the archetype that you found?

Smug: Well first, most people know I started with Karin when they game first released, and there were no DLC characters yet. I was in a character crisis due to Dudley not being in the game, but I still wanted to play. I saw a future with me in this game. I actually had a late start, because I dropped the game due to having to focus on school. I wasn’t doing to well due to trying to focus on improving my game. After I got my grades back up, I entered CEO last year. I didn’t do too well due to picking the game back up. When Balrog came out, and I saw the trailer, he just looked so much fun. I knew I was going to have a good time playing him. He was just too hype for me not to play this dude.

When I started to play him, I realized he had some very Dudley things. At first, I just wanted Dudley, and I still want him. But people keep saying that he is just like Dudley in this game because he has target combos, deals massive amounts of damage, and has high/low mixups, he goes through projectiles. He’s a very intimidating character, plus he’s a boxer. I love taking people to Duff City.

Missing Person: It’s definitely paying off for you — you’re currently in the running for Capcom Cup.

Smug: Yeah, I’m glad. I honestly didn’t expect to do well at a major. I never expected to win. I always thought, “As long as I get top 8, or just see myself on Twitch, I’m cool.” But then eventually I saw myself doing better and better in tournaments. So now people have started looking at me as a threat, which I feel honored.

Missing Person: How do you feel about your chances at Capcom Cup?

Smug: I feel like I’m prepared for everybody, because I play everybody. I’m starting to travel now. My sponsorship allows me to travel. Before, my travels came out of pocket. Because I can go to more tournaments, I can learn match-ups from international players. That’s why I like losing. I don’t like winning. If I win, I beat you, but then we’re eventually going to have to run it back, and then I’m going to forget how I beat you. I could watch my match but now you’ve probably found something new. I like losing more because I learn more when I lose than when I win.

Missing Person: So you definitely feel like winning is paramount to titles?

Smug: Yeah, because when I lose, I have something to work on in the match-up. There’s certain times that I’ll be playing and lose to the same thing. Then I think, “OK, I’ve gotta work on that.” Then when I go back home in my free time, I go in the training mode and ask my friends for example, “Hey, can you pick Ryu? There was something I was losing to in tournament.”

Missing Person: Since you mentioned Ryu, I want to go back to Evo. You had a double jeopardy moment against China’s Abao at Evo 2017. Take us back on that. It’s not often that you hear of players struggling with Ryu these days.

Smug: Right. At the end of the day, I got outplayed the first time we met. No one’s really played Ryu since Season 2, but that’s not a huge excuse on my part. I was a little rusty on the matchup, but at the same time, he is the best Ryu in the world. If I lose to him, that’s alright. I could tell he definitely studied the match-up. I was doing certain things that only people who have studied the match-up would know to look out for. He was definitely fully prepared. I definitely respect him a lot for it.

Missing Person: He’s known more for his defensive approach. Did that throw you off?

Smug: Yes. Both his defensive options and his neutral game was amazing. It made me slow down. By the time I did, it was too late, as it was the last round of the first set.

Missing Person: But then you had made all the adjustments you needed in the runback, correct?

Smug: Yeah, but the thing was this was my first match at Evo. Then I had to run through losers all the way to top 64. But I was more prepared in loser’s bracket for Abao. That night I went into training mode and practiced against his play, and I was able to take it from him in losers bracket.

Missing Person: You did mention that Rise is sending you out more. What other events will we see you at before Capcom Cup?

Smug: I don’t want to date this article too much, but I’ll be at Canada Cup. There’s not too many tournaments left, and I’m just focusing and studying for Capcom Cup right now.