One of the big buzzwords that has been bandied about in regards to Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite has been “creativity.” Throughout the week of E3, most players who got to try the game were indeed praising it for the creativity that it allows. That said, what exactly does “creativity” mean in the context of the Marvel vs. Capcom series?
At E3, Michael Martin asked that exact question to Splyce’s Ryan “Filipino Champ” Ramirez when he got the chance to interview him for Cross Counter TV.
According to Filipino Champ, “creativity” in the series refers to how players are allowed to create situations that are very favorable for them on offense or defense. So, when a player like FChamp talks about how Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite lets him be creative, it’s about how the game allows him “hundreds of options” to create these favorable situations. Of course, this shouldn’t be surprising, considering that players have discovered “4-corner” mix ups and option selects with the Story Demo alone.
In addition to talking about creativity, FChamp also shares some more impressions of the game, including characters that he’s liking so far, while also talking a bit about why he likes “villain” characters so much.
If there’s one player who’s become most-identified with the Marvel vs. Capcom series, it’s Michael “IFC Yipes” Mendoza. From getting himself known for his memetic, offhand commentary on some Marvel vs. Capcom 2 matches, Yipes has parlayed this into a successful career as a commentator, tournament organizer, and overall leader for the competitive Marvel vs. Capcom community.
With a new game — Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite,– on the horizon, IFC Yipes was naturally at E3 to try the demo. It’s here that Michael Martin got a chance to talk to Yipes for Cross Counter TV. Here, Yipes shares his thoughts on Capcom’s newest versus fighter, the current build shown at E3, as well as his thoughts on the public opinion of the game.
It’s an understatement at this point to say that Alex Valle has been around. Having been competitive in the FGC long before the competitive landscape we see today — or even the label of “FGC” existed — the man is a legend in every game he has picked up.
In this interview with BornFree at E3, Valle opened up about a lot, including his competitive history within the genre. They talk about his humble origins within Street Fighter, which involved getting destroyed early on in the game to learn that he needed to improve. They also discussed his 1998 encounter with a then-unknown in the West Daigo Umehara in Street Fighter Alpha 3 — an exhibition in which Valle now believes he wouldn’t have won, due to Daigo’s adaptability.
They also discuss the future of fighting games, in which Valle talks about Street Fighter V, and his hope that the Super Street Fighter V rumors are true. He also discusses his impressions of Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, stating that the graphics need to improve but the gameplay is fun, and has a great level of depth to it.
While the Guilty Gear scene has been growing in terms of the number of sponsored players, there are still many “undiscovered” — or unclaimed — talented warriors playing REV 2. One of those, named daymendou, has become notorious for his excellent Slayer, especially since triumphing at Anime Ascension earlier this year. daymendou continued to place high at many tournaments, including at Combo Breaker 2017, where SRK took the time to learn more about him.
We discuss why daymendou decided to play Slayer, what distinguishes him from many other competitors, and whether he ever thought about being sponsored by an esports team.
Luke “Woocash” Siuty: Could you briefly introduce yourself?
daymendou:My name is Peter, and my tag is “daymendou,” and I play Slayer in Guilty Gear Xrd. I live in Northern California, that’s my scene. We’re kind of the smaller and younger scenes compared to a lot of other GG ones maybe. I guess for the past six months or so, NorCal has been doing pretty well.
Woocash: What’s your fighting game resume?
daymendou:I actually haven’t played fighting games that much before. It was never really a thing that I would spend my free time on. I didn’t have a PlayStation or go to an arcade when I was younger. When Xrd -SIGN- came out, I got a PS4, so that’s when I started playing games competitively.
Woocash: What made you do that?
daymendou:I always liked watching fighting games, and Guilty Gear is one of my favorites for sure. When Xrd was announced, I just remembered the trailer, so cool. At the time, I had not really been watching or paying attention to Guilty Gear. But that trailer sort of just sparked something within me. I said: maybe this time, I’ll decide to start playing other people. I used to just play the computer.
Woocash: Why did you gravitate to Slayer?
daymendou:Since I was starting at fighting games, I wanted a character that was easy to play. Well, “supposedly,” he’s easy to play. He’s kind of easy execution, especially his combos in Xrd. So that was one major factor. Another major factor was the launch trailer for Xrd. When I started watching a bunch of Accent Core +R on Goldenrody. I really liked watching Slayer. Before, when I just played casually, I used Sol, but watching those videos I thought Slayer looked really cool to play.
Woocash: If Slayer wasn’t in the game, who do you think you would play in REV 2?
daymendou:It’s hard to say, really. I never thought about this. I do play a couple of characters on the side, but I wouldn’t say I would main them if Slayer wasn’t in. Our NorCal Slayer, the old-man Slayer, went to Sol in Xrd. Xrd Sol has more combo flexibility. For me, I wouldn’t play Sol. I can’t do DP inputs very well. So it had to be someone without a DP or without a heavy reliance on it. It could be Leo, to be honest.
Woocash: Tell us a little about your matches today.
daymendou: It was Kizzie Kay first, then dotNova. Lost to Bears, lost to Dogura. This morning, even though Kizzie Kay was first, I was preparing for dotNova in the room. Jack-O’ is a really underplayed character, for whatever reason. I haven’t played against her in so long. The day before, when I played dotNova in casuals, it was getting worse and worse the more we played. I felt like if I wanted to make it to Winners Finals, I really had to be able to beat dotNova. Kizzie Kay, we ended up playing on finals day. The other thing is, Sin is a new character. The way he plays the game, you don’t have to do too much to remember how to play against him, at least to me. I had beaten Kizzie Kay every time we met in tournament, so I wasn’t that worried. Me versus Kizzie Kay was my first match in the top 16.
Combo Breaker did everything up to top 16 on one day, then top 8. If you have such a long break between tournament games, you really need to spend your first tournament match wisely. Not just warming up for that game, but thinking about how to get ready to play in the tournament again. When I played Kizzie, I almost 2-0’d him, but I had some pretty bad input drops, and he managed to take a game back. I did end up beating him, so I kind of have to watch my inputs more.
Woocash: What about versus Xcel| BjornSonOfBear? You’ve beaten him before in Grand Finals.
daymendou: I’ve beaten him sometimes… It’s very strange how we do against each other. Even though we play each other at locals, there is kind of a thing where whether I play him before the tournament matters. If I get to play him before the tournament, I generally beat him really easily. If not, I lose to him. Today, I was thinking, well last week, we just had a local. I had to go home early, because I had to go home for finals, so we couldn’t play casuals after. I lost to him really badly in Grand Finals in that tournament. I think that I wasn’t surprised that I lost. If you watched it, I would get him very close to death, and then I would make a bad decision on pressure, and he would just start running things back and kill me. I wasn’t too surprised about that.
Woocash: Have you ever thought about whether you want to be sponsored? Would you like to?
daymendou:I’ve thought about the issue a lot of times before. I was actually given an offer after Anime Ascension, but I turned it down, because I didn’t feel ready for it, more or less. For Guilty Gear, it would be good to have more sponsored players. We are one of those fighting games where money is kind of small compared to all the others. Exposure is small too, so it would be good to have that outside support.
Woocash: Why weren’t you ready back then?
daymendou:I think even right now, I don’t feel ready. There is sort of a responsibility and a weight on your shoulders when you do carry that sponsor name. You are expected to perform well not only by your sponsor but the community and yourself. Personally, I didn’t actually start traveling to tournaments until this year. A lot of the times, it didn’t work out. I only went to Evo last year and NEC this past December. I don’t feel like I can travel that much, it’s just too tiring to me. For tournaments, you have to prepare as well. You’re not just traveling, preparing and playing the game is even more tiring. I don’t have the stamina to do it once a month or even once every two months, which is what I’ve been doing sort of recently.
Woocash: Any tips for people who are looking to start playing Guilty Gear?
daymendou:If you want to start playing Guilty Gear, the first thing I would do is, well, play the game of course. I think a lot of people worry about picking characters, and there is a lot of minute information you need to worry about in Guilty Gear. I wouldn’t worry about the big things, I would just worry about playing your character in the beginning. If you do want to be able to compete, you’re going to have to learn a lot of things, but if you’re just starting out, you should at least make sure you’re having fun with the game. As long as you keep playing and thinking about it, you should get better.
Woocash: Any other advice?
daymendou:If you’re plateauing and struggling to get better, I think it’s very important to learn to deal with the tournament setting. That’s extremely important. I think my main advantage is, I don’t feel that I’m actually that much better than other people, I keep things very well together in tournaments. I can stay focused, I don’t get tilted from single errors or mistakes that I think happened. You have to accept that you won’t always be right because it is a fighting game, there’s a lot of guessing on both sides. You can’t let one big error just ruin your thinking process. You have to stay sharp when you’re playing.
In case you missed them, check out our interviews with PG|SKD and Fable|KidViper from Combo Breaker 2017!
Rarely has a fighting game with as little build-up to E3 as Dragon Ball FighterZwowed the the floor (and the world!) so thoroughly. The more cynical among us might think this is because of the nostalgia factor — Arc System Works has married Dragon Ball’s art style beautifully with their Guilty Gear Xrd cell shading. Visuals are all well and good, but we’re FGC. What about the game play?
That’s why I find Joe “LI Joe” Ciaramelli’s first impression of the game so interesting. Joe is a renowned Street Fighter tournament specialist who didn’t grow up with the anime adaptation of Drgaon Ball Z. He is exactly the sort of person most likely to shrug at a cut-scene of two Super Saiyans screaming at each other — and yet, here we are: like nearly everyone else that got to play the game, Joe walked away impressed with the gameplay. He has some concerns about the similarity of gameplay of the six currently-available characters, but also notes: “It’s a tech demo at E3 … If it fleshes out, I think it’ll be a damn good game.”
Nether Realm Studio’s presentation at E3 was predictably focused on one of their most successful and well received fighting games to date, Injustice 2. If you happened to miss any of these interviews or matches and wanted to catch up on the DC Fighter, Body Count Fighting has released all their videos for your viewing entertainment.
The King of the Hill tournament provides us with 45 minutes of battles between Kitana Prime, Michaelangelo, and E3 patrons.
There was an interview Ed Boon and Tyler Lansdown on the way Injustice 2 is shaping up right now, both competitively and in it’s single player campaigns.
Interviews with SonicFox, Scar, and Echo Fox owner Rick Fox, followed by an exhibition with the two NRS pros.
Ed Boon and Tyler Lansdown discussing Injustice 2’s latest DLC characters: Red Hood and Sub Zero.
Comic book artist Jim Lee and Ed Boon talk character design for Injustice 2.
And lastly, here’s an interview with Kari Wahlgren, voice actress of Starfire.
Body Count Fighting regularly puts out great FGC interviews and game-play footage, and most recently provided us with the excellent documentary on Commander Jesse. Be sure to check out their channel!
Throughout the whole week of E3, one of the players who had been giving out a lot of information and footage of Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite at the show was Splyce’s Ryan “Filipino Champ” Ramirez. The Evo 2012 champion was talking enthusiastically about MvC:I over social media, sharing information, and footage from the game. However, this led to some negative accusations of him “shilling” the game from a number of folks critical of it.
Mark “BornFree” Sheridan was also at E3 and he caught up with Filipino Champ where they talked about Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite as well as the accusations of “shilling”. According to FChamp, his enthusiasm for the game comes mostly from relief about how good it plays. “I had a very negative cloud over my head. ” states Ramirez, who continues by listing some of the negative things that were being stated “This will be the worst game ever. I’m gonna switch to Dragon Ball. We wanted an upgrade from UMVC3, and we got it.” His overly excited tweets then were a “big sigh of relief.”
Indeed, the gameplay, the freedom and creativity that the new tag system allows is one of the things that many players who’ve tried either the E3 build or the story demo, have praised. FChamp and BornFree discuss this freedom and creativity as well as other aspects of Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite’s gameplay.
That said, FChamp is aware that the game in it’s current state has some aesthetic issues. He speaks specifically about the Capcom side of the roster and how some of the models (such as Dante and Chun-Li) “looks very ugly” compared to the Marvel side.
Of course, that’s just part of what they talk about. Check out the full interview below for more on Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, including FChamp’s character picks, as well as some of his thoughts on Dragon Ball FighterZ.
One of the hypest projects from Arc System Works right now is no longer part of the Guilty Gear or BlazBlue franchises — though both of those have their strong followings — but Dragon Ball FighterZ, announced seemingly out of nowhere, and now enjoying a limelight from its E3 showings. Take a break from watching the positively dizzying Dragon Ball FighterZ match footage, and read up on the latest interview with producer Tomoko Hiroki for some insight.
Game Informer asked the producer on approaching Arc System Works for producing the game; they worked together before on an older title, Dragon Ball Z: Extreme Butōden for the Nintendo 3DS. Guilty Gear comes into question, especially being a fairly complex title, but Hiroki doesn’t look at Dragon Ball FighterZ as a watered-down GG to make it easier to newcomers; she wants to create something new that appeals to both avid fighting game fans and Dragon Ball franchise enthusiasts. Hiroki also understands that the game’s status as an esports title is highly dependent on the community. She teases that the future characters added to the game are going to be “more unique.”
Korea has long been synonymous within the fighting game community for their prowess in Tekken, with players from the country being perennial favorites in international competition for the game. Two of the recent names that have stood out from the country’s elite players have been Echo Fox|JDCR — the Evo 2014 champion for Tekken Tag Tournament 2, who just recently won Tekken 7 titles at Combo Breaker and Rage Art — and Echo Fox|Saint–the reigning Evo champion for both Tekken 7 and The King of Iron Fist.
Recently, Gerald “mintcheerios” Lee of Core-A Gaming sat down with the two players for an interview featuring questions fielded by the community at large. These questions range from the zany (asking which Tekken character would be their “waifu”) to the technical (asking which Korean levers the players prefer). They also discussed the execution, and the necessity of Korean Backdashing — with JDCR saying that it’s less important given that much like Street Fighter, backdashing too often in Tekken can be easily punished — and whether the changes in Tekken 7 to make it more accessible to newcomers were necessary.
In the latest episode of FGC Philosophy, The Philocypher chats with YouTuber and Street Fighter V competitor RobTV about the “limiting mindset”: how players may place conscious — or subconscious — limitations on their own game by believing that they can’t improve.
They discuss “tilting” — and the importance of avoiding it — as well as how technique that is difficult to the beginner becomes second nature to the expert, freeing up mental resources; what seems impossible now can become automatic with practice. If you pay attention to your weak areas and work to strengthen your game there, you can always do better!
