The CPT Interview Series’ camera focuses on another fighter at Battle Arena Melbourne 9: post the event, the Capcom Fighters team spoke to Verloren, who’s the runner-up in Street Fighter V. Verloren opens up about his matches, explaining that a few small mistakes held him back in his matches against RB|Bonchan. Also, Verloren talks about how he got into fighting games. When he was 18 years old, he started with The King of Fighters, before discovering the Street Fighter scene. Verloren makes a confident promise to everybody: that if he loses to someone, he’ll do whatever it takes to win. Also, there’s that one character he hates…
Check out the full conversation with Verloren below to learn more about what it was like to play at Battle Arena Melbourne 9.
Selfless Gaming|Lucky has come a long way from being “The Bat of Norwalk” to being one of the SoCal Melee community’s most respected players. Even after sustaining an injury that rendered him unable to travel to tournaments late last year, he was still able to maintain the status of a high ranking competitor in the midst of his recovery.
Daniel Lee (a.k.a. Tafokints) of Yahoo! Esports recently had an conversation with Lucky, in which they discussed his new strategic angle for playing Super Smash Bros. Melee, his esports success, and teaming up with Mang0, who he notes is one of his childhood friends (something that makes their team dynamic quite unique.) They also cover Lucky’s love for craft beers, something that he would consider making a career out of should he ever lay his GameCube controller down for good.
Check out the full insightful interview right here:
Capcom Fighters continues to showcase the local talent from this year’s Battle Arena Melbourne.
In this entry of the CPT Interview Series, Capcom’s Matt Edwards talks to MiM from Owly Six at Battle Arena Melbourne 9; they start by chatting a little about the Laura matchup. Next, they discuss the game that drew MiM into serious competition–Mortal Kombat X–and how MiM finds more inspiration playing Street Fighter V, because the SFV scene is so much bigger in Australia than the MKXL community is.
They also discuss MiM’s picks for Australia’s top players, what it’s like rubbing shoulders with Street Fighter legends at tournaments, why MiM prefers to play on a Hit Box, and much more–including whether or not another women-only invitational event at Evo would be a good idea. Check out the interview below!
Michael Martin shares his experience and outlook in pursuing a career in esports media.
Gamer and life coach Tavian “The Philocypher” Napier continues his FGC Philosophy series with an interview he’s lone looked forward to: Michael “Bizarro Mike” Martin of Yahoo! Esports. Martin talks at length about his experience freelancing and moving into a full-time job in the video gaming media, including how his goals have changed between first seeking work in this field to maintaining that role on an ongoing basis.
Martin and Napier also discuss Street Fighter V, ELEAGUE, the difficulty of game development, and the FGC’s “growing pains”: how the fighting game community continues to expand and change under the influence of an “esports” outlook. While competitive fighting games already have a long history, Martin proclaims: “I think we’re in a golden age of fighting games right now.”
Rising SoCal star Jesse “Commander Jesse” Espinoza showed up big on many people’s radars after a shocking win over FGC legend Kenryo “Mago” Hayashi at the ESL’s Brooklyn Beatdown. From that win, Jesse’s gameplay received a sudden burst of acclaim and scrutiny the Dhalsim practitioner had not yet faced in his gaming life.
“EXP Docs: Commander Jesse Street Fighter Documentary” gives a more intimate look at the struggle of an un-sponsored player trying to keep up with the pros. Jesse is allowed to lay bare what makes him who he is–his family, his mentality, his play style. With this, the creators of this great documentary show how this continues to guide him on his journey for growth. Be sure to check out this rare examination of a player suddenly thrust into the limelight.
FGC News recently interviewed two top European players on the site at TBS’s ELEAGUE: Ryan “Prodigal Son” Hart, and Arman “Phenom” Hanjani.
Ryan Hart has been around. When the British pro says the production is like “nothing else he’s ever seen”, his pro experience dating back to the days of Tekken 3 make it easy to believe him. During the conversation he talks about how his life as a married man makes staying on top difficult, and how he was torn over the defeat of Luffy.
Opposite of Ryan was Arman ‘Phenom’ Hanjani, fresh off his win of to qualify for top 8 in ELeague. He talks about how he has to remain confident going into any match regardless of his opponent, how he only plays to get paid, and his fear of trying another game (in this case, Injustice 2) at the expense of getting worse at SFV.
It’s hard to believe, but after many weeks of excellent FT7s, we are approaching the final Guilty Gear Xrd -REVELATOR- Super Steam Xrd Exhibition League match! As enjoyable as those sets have been, with the added opportunity of learning more about the players who participated, “it’s not over yet!” as the Guilty Gear announced would say. This weekend, a truly stacked set of Daredevils approaches the ring.
We have Fable|Kizzie Kay against Nakkiel, as well as SLP|DavidCue facing TS|NerdJosh. If you haven’t heard of those names before, not to worry–let’s learn a little more about each one and see how they feel about their competition.
Let’s get a better grasp at who’s who, and how they feel about the upcoming battles.
Fable|Kizzie Kay
On the match: “I would like to say thank you very much for the invite to SSXrdEL. I am very happy to have the chance to fight a player that I look up to in the scene.”
On his opponent: “He is a really strong player, very solid, and has a very good gameplan despite some people not understanding what he is doing. One of the things that I have to be very aware of is that when he has momentum, he is actually one of the hardest players that I have ever fought in Guilty Gear because you just don’t know what is going to happen next. It makes you feel like the next decision you make might be your last. Despite this matchup being in Sin’s favor, the player skill is so high that I feel like this matchup is even vs Nakkiel.”
On his own playstyle: “My style is very wall/read-based. One of the things I know I have as a player is once I get a complete understanding of what the opponent likes to do, I will start abusing the weaknesses of the opponent’s character. As that process happens mid-match, I will then begin to attack player habits. This will suffocate the opponent and make them feel like they have no options. With this, I am able to use non-advantageous situations to my advantage.
I really think that this is a rare style, but I have met people with similar styles that are better than me, so I know how it feels like to be on the receiving end. My final thoughts on this upcoming set is that I don’t really know what to expect Nakkiel’s gameplan to be, but I’m sure he’s going to be well-prepared. I will also be well-prepared, so I feel that there is a high chance that it will be an extremely close set.”
Nakkiel
On the match: “I’m happy to be involved with SSXrdEL! Kizzie Kay and I play each other often, so I hope we can put on a good show for the viewers and bring the REV 1 league to an exciting close.”
On his opponent: “I have a lot of respect for Kizzie Kay. A few years ago, I was feeling pretty demotivated about fighting games; I had met Kizzie Kay when he was still just getting into Guilty Gear and BlazBlue competitively (or rather, traveling out to events) and his eagerness to improve and attitude toward learning really refreshed my love for the games. It’s been a treat to watch him improve and see the difference in his skill each time we play.
“To me, Kizzie Kay has definitely proven he’s the best Sin in the States and one of the best players around. I’m expecting the match will be a difficult test of us as players, I’m looking forward to it!”
On his own playstyle: “I think my style as a player is pretty adaptive, as I’ve competed as a few different archetypes of characters. One of my strongest traits is taking any advantage I have and turning it into a victory. I work to make sure my opponent feels pressured and uneasy at all times possible. I’ve been consistent with this across zoners, rushdown and even mid-range styled characters.
“Our playstyles clash well together along with our character selection in Guilty Gear, look forward to it and good luck to Kizzie Kay!”
SJP|DavidCue
On the match: “I’m honored to have been picked to play. I hope we put on a good show.”
On his opponent: “Josh is one of my closest friends in the FGC. It’s crazy that we somehow always get matched up to play, but we typically have hype matches, so hopefully this one will be too. He’s a great dude and one of the best overall gamers I know.”
On his own playstyle: “My style is pretty unorthodox. I rely on my ability to beat you in the neutral rather than on big combos that lead into knockdowns.”
TS|NerdJosh
On the match: “Should be a fun way to end REV 1 netplay before the great journey ahead, known as REV 2 netplay.”
On his opponent: “I think he’s one of the most prehistoric savages in anime games, what kind of monster thrives off so many standing Dusts and airgrabs?”
On his own playstyle: “I think I play a very red-light, green-light style of no respect to full respect turtle, so it can be hard to call me out at times. Love frustrating an opponent into attacking me so I can counter punish. I think David vs. I will be full on haymakers. Lots of scrambles; there will be no honor in these killing fields.”
Wow, that’s quite the stacked Exhibition League match, isn’t it? These top players will surely send off -REVELATOR- in a memorable way! Clear your schedule and definitely mark your calendar now for this Sunday (May 21) on Silva_hime’s Twitch channel, starting at 9:00 PM EST/7:00 PM CST/6:00 PM PDT. HellaBrett and Ryyudo will grace the microphone stations.
In last week’s online Guilty Gear Xrd -REVELATOR- set, Mr. K’s witty Leo engaged with NC Jin’s Dizzy. We also had Killey’s Johnny test himself against braindead2000’s Venom. If you haven’t seen it live, take a look below!
Capcom’s post-Battle Arena Melbourne 9 interview with Rize|Marn reveals that his trolling comes just as heavy in a conversation as it does during a heated Street Fighter V match. His jovial nature doesn’t make him any less of a competitor, though: he was able to make it in the ranks of the top 16 at the Australian Capcom Cup Qualifier.
Marn spoke honestly about his feelings on the current version of Street Fighter V’s character balance and playability. He had a particularly strong, yet mixed opinion about the Crush Counter system, on which he had this to say:
“I love watching this game. I don’t like playing this game. But if you removed Crush Counter, I would like playing this game, but I wouldn’t like watching this game.”
You can check out the entire candid chat in the video below.
You might recognize Dark Sided|Somniac’s Bison from the Ultra Street Fighter IV days, but the Melbourne, Australia native has been active in his hometown’s fighting game scene since the era of Street Fighter III. Capcom was able to catch up with Somniac at Battle Arena Melbourne 9, where he took 25th place after clashing with some of the world’s best.
Somniac is actually the winner of Battle Arena Melbourne 5 and 7, and has a lot of unique insight into his country’s now prominent Street Fighter scene. A few cool pieces of Australian fighting game history were extracted for the unknown international observer in the interview–which you can view in full in the video below.
In his post-Battle Arena Melbourne 9 interview with Capcom, Razer’s Xian seems slightly deflated, despite taking an impressive 5th place at the Capcom Pro Tour event. He cites the cause of his disposition to losing to Grpt|Fuudo, and being sent home by Echo Fox|Tokido–two players that have become his demons since his recent switch to Ibuki.
Though a little bummed out, Xian is already thinking of future victories, saying that he plans to take a hiatus from the tournament scene to re-access his whole strategy in Street Fighter V. Xian says the next time you see him will probably be at Tiger Knee 2017. You can watch his full interview with Capcom right here:
