Category: Interviews

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Super Steam Xrd Exhibition League Europe Special: Raven fights ZoKHiZ while Pida squares up with King_Rasta

We’re back to our usual programming with a preview of the upcoming Super Steam Xrd Exhibition League. It’s a little bit different this time, as we’re switching continents. The Europe special showcases four Daredevils from Finland, Russia, Austria, and the Czech Republic. Let them Keep the Flag Flying for their homelands and let’s see what they have to say before they face-off in FT7 sets on Silva’s stream this Sunday.

Here they are: first up will be Raven vs. ZoKHiZ, followed by Pida vs. King_Rasta.

Raven

ggxrd-revelator-johnny-portrait

Tell us a little bit about playing GG in your country, and your scene: “I think the Russian community is one of the strongest. Top RU players can compete with top EU and US easily. We have more than 15 players at the top of the community. Notable players are Goga (Chipp), Kler (Ram), Loulaim (Ky), Ashimriat (Sol), Diron (VE) and special notice to Potemkin player, ArsenKamelot, who helped me prepare for Shine at Evo. We have like 100-ish players at our biggest GG major. And the older players like me have some sort of second family.”

On his opponent: “I hope he will not take me to the bus tour. At least not too often… But I do think the match-up is slightly in my favor, and I will make the best of it. So I’m sure it will be entertaining to watch.”

On his own playstyle: “I’m in love with Johnny’s conversion from footsies actually, and also I like to do some hard read options in between the spacing game. Overall, I pretty much am a passive-aggressive player. The weakest part of my game probably is anti-airing and unknown matchups because I freeze too much.”

ZoKHiZ

ggxrd-revelator-potemkin-portrait

Tell us a little bit about playing GG in your country, and your scene: “Let’s see… First of, Finland is a somewhat big country when compared to the amount of people who are living here. There are not that many bigger cities, and they are somewhat far apart from each other, so getting offline matches can be hard depending where you live. For example, the city where I live, there is one active player for Guilty Gear, me! For nearest offline games, I have to travel around 100-150 km or 250km to the capital city where most of the players are. Sadly because of this, most of the time you have to rely on online play for games.

“But considering all that, we do have a somewhat healthy scene in Finland, there are weekly offline sessions in some of the bigger cities. We have a few yearly events here and there. We have quite a few better than your average players and few OG’s from the olden times, also Xrd -SIGN- and -REVELATOR- brought in a good influx of new blood to the scene. So yeah, I guess we are doing as well as we can when you play a niche game in niche genre!”

On his opponent: “That’s a tough one. Raven plays Johnny and is one of the best players in Russia, he has played Guilty Gear series for very long time so he has lots of knowledge of the game. I haven’t played against him that many times before, so I can’t really comment on him on a personal level. But I’m sure it’s not going to be easy for me, I’ll try to play my best and show you all what I can do!

“As for the match up, Johnny is one of the harder ones for Potemkin. He has really good, fast normals that can outrange Potemkin and Mist-canceling makes them really safe on block, not to mention that he also has pretty good corner carry, mixups, great damage and his backdash is really powerful… and then some more on the top. All that combined is pretty hard for the big slow guy… On the flip side, a few mistakes against Potemkin can easily cost you the game if he gets in. But it’s definitely gonna be an uphill battle for me, and I like it that way!”

On his own playstyle: “Hmmm, I tend to gravitate toward slow, hard-hitting walls of meat, so Potemkin was a pretty obvious choice for me in GG. My playstyle? Guess I would like to consider myself to be more of a defensive/reactive player, not that you have that many options when playing Potemkin in Xrd. Other than that, I don’t know what to say, I am not the kind of person to toot my own horn, I’ll let my games speak for me.”

King_Rasta

ggxrd-revelator-faust-portrait

Tell us a little bit about playing GG in your country, and your scene: “With 10-15 players, we are not exactly such a big GG community, but I guess it ain’t that bad for such a small country [Austria]. We usually play offline, thanks to having the VirtualDojo available, but online king-of-the-hill lobbies happen regularly too. That amount of players isn’t enough to get familiar with every matchup, but that’s what the EU discord is for, that has managed to attract a lot of great players and is the #1 place to go to look for some matches. The average skill level and the playerbase has increased significantly in EU since -SIGN- came out, and Discord, as well as event organizers, helped quite a lot in that regard.”

On his opponent: “Pida is a great Axl player, in my opinion, the best in Europe, and it was fantastic to see how quickly he managed to get to the level he currently is. I think Xrd -SIGN- was the first Guilty Gear he played and he is one of the younger players around too, so that’s quite something. We don’t play that much online anymore, but our matches are usually very even and close.

“The match-up I’d say is quite even, and very weird for both parties. Both Faust and Axl force each other to do things they usually don’t want to do, namely go in neutral. Axl has overall stronger pokes hitbox-wise and Rensen to just stuff almost everything Faust does, but Faust hits way harder and can throw items to get opportunities. As a Faust, I have to make calls when to just dash in or when there might be a chance to counterpoke. A few good pokes can turn everything around though.”

On his own playstyle: “I prefer a more defensive and reaction based playstyle, where I annoy my opponent (with items and pokes) until he goes in, then punish those approaches. If I get the chance to start mix-ups and rushdown, I’ll go for that and play aggressively until it’s back to neutral. This is one of the aspects I really like about Faust. The other thing I really enjoy doing is just improvising around the items, see how what I get and how I can use certain things for combos and mix-ups. There are a lot of setups you can learn in Training Mode, but some item constellations are just too specific to Training. And those are the situations I really enjoy too, as they are also the most interesting situations and make Faust entertaining to watch and play.”

Pida

ggxrd-revelator-axl-portrait

Tell us a little bit about playing GG in your country, and your scene: ” The Guilty Gear community in the Czech Republic is quite small, we have only about 10 players. Most of them are really dedicated to the game though. Probably the most visible guy from our community is prk`who streams his netplay adventures. Czechs travel a lot around the European tournaments, where we are usually able to get quite good placings. You can also hear some of us commentating at European events.”

On his opponent: “Axl vs Faust is mostly an even MU in my opinion. Axl has better tools in the neutral game, but Faust can usually capitalize on random hits a little more. When Faust gets the knockdown, he’s much scarier than Axl. Rasta is a tough opponent. He can read the game well and he has solid MU knowledge. He’s really patient and he’s great at adapting to his items. I’ll need to be really on point to beat him. Also he’s an RNG god.”

On his own playstyle: “I‘ve always enjoyed playing characters with long reach who dominate the neutral game with their normals. I try to take control of neutral game, force my opponent to get impatient, and then I punish their mistakes. Basically, I just do Axl things and it works.”

The Europe special is coming up on silva_hime’s Twitch channel. It’s on Sunday, April 16th, at 4:00 PM EST/1:00 PM PDT/9:00 PM GMT, with the second fight about half an hour after.

Curious about the previous Super Steam Xrd Exhibition League match? Check out our coverage, which included YanuCerda, rubedoe, TSB|Blaze, and Ryan Hunter.

Sources: interviews

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Marn talks to Yahoo! Esports about Julio Fuentes, SoCal Street Fighter, and more

One of the more unique and memorable players in our community is Rise’s Martin “Marn” Phan. Known for his outspoken nature and his amusing and–at times questionable–antics, the Vietnamese American veteran has been out of the spotlight somewhat after his top 4 performance at NorCal Regionals last year. However, his recent appearance at TBS’s ELEAGUE showed us that Marn is still here, and is still up to his usual behavior.

Yahoo! Esports’ Michael Martin recently got the chance to talk to Marn, and the latter wasted no time going all in. He spends a good amount of time focusing on Echo Fox|Julio Fuentes, who just barely outranked him at ELEAGUE to send him home, saying how the latter “wasted” his slot. In addition to this, he also has some things to say about the Southern California scene–and himself as well.

Source: Yahoo! Esports

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– Ship of Heroes – Lessons Learned Lead to a Plan for the Future

Last week, Ship of Heroes was brought to KickStarter and pulled from KickStarter all in the space of a few days. Though that may seem like a setback for the team, they’ve taken the lessons learned to heart to form a solid plan for the future. Check out our exclusive interview to see where Ship of Heroes is headed next.

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Super Steam Xrd Exhibition League: Blaze vs. Ryan Hunter, YanuCerda faces rubedoe

The Super Steam Xrd Exhibition League is going strong, despite Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2’s appearance in Japanese arcades. This week’s match has already been fought, so here’s the mixup: instead of previewing, we’re going to see what the players think after having faced each other. A big part of getting better at fighting games is drawing conclusions from previous games and footage, so let’s see what each combatant has to say.

First, check out the action between rubedoe’s Ramlethal Valentine and YanuCerda’s Sol Badguy. It’s an incredibly close set. After that, TSB|Blaze’s Raven pounced on Ryan Hunter’s devious Venom.

 

rubedoe

ggxrd-revelator-ramlethal-portrait

Your match was extremely close, and you did win in the end, but is there anything that you think you could have done better during the matches?: “Call out more 2D, 6HS, Gun Flames, and punishing Wild Throw, instead of just focusing on avoiding it. A lot of stuff was telegraphed, but I went in pretty cold due to real life and Nier: Automata. Usually better at combos than that but it was my own handicap.”

What were your thoughts on this matchup?: “Him as a player, it was easy to tell he’s the kind of Sol that likes to force you to adapt to him, and if you don’t, you just die. Ram can beat these types of Sols, but he did do some stuff to shut down my air options, and he did block or Blitz some of my mix-ups that have those kinds of weaknesses if you recognize them, so good on him for that.

“He tended to hard call-out my going into the air too much by putting himself in the air without reacting to me being in the air myself which is the only reason I won. Once he does this, I can 2S him on the way down, or if he air-dashes above me willy-nilly, which he did. When he did get me in the air though, I was screwed, because air throw shuts Ram air neutral down.

“Sol vs. Ram is bad for Ram unless the Sol is slow to adapt, and the Ram can outplay him.”

Afterward, what lessons did you draw from the set? Did your opinion change because of it?: “Lessons I learned are mostly that I have to work on being more reactionary on my defense and not letting my opponent run his game as easily. The Arm was right, that I only Charge Blitz so I need to work on mixing that up. A big weakness I’ve always had was jumping a lot but not being proactive at defending my space from air throws so I need to figure that out.

“Otherwise, my opinion on the matchup is the same as ever. Ram has downfalls that are pretty steep, but she can outplay her opponent once, and ride the momentum to a won round pretty easily. Matchups just depend on how hard it is for her to outplay that specific character in neutral.”

YanuCerda

ggxrd-revelator-sol-portrait

At one point in the set, you were down, 4-6. What were you thinking about then to motivate you to push back?: “When I was down, my train of thought was that he was showing me some patterns I should be focused on taking advantage of. I started to play specifically anticipating the patterns I was looking for, and that helped me swing back, I think. Now, that I try to remember what those patterns were I definitely have already forgotten all of them.”

What were your thoughts on this matchup?: “I have never felt very comfortable against Ram with Sol, her hurtbox is a bit strange so I can’t be as fun with my combos. Ignoring the matchup though, his style was different than I was used to… for a while, I kept getting more command throws than I thought I deserved because I felt he was passive in pressure. It started to make me more uncomfortable, as I had to rely on the risky command throw more often and once he started jumping out, I did not adapt quick enough.”

Afterward, what lessons did you draw from the set? Did your opinion change because of it?: “First lesson, my fun cross-up setup (Bandit Revolver > YRC > cross-up jK, 2HS into Riot Stomp) doesn’t work on Ram…cost me the final round I believe, and I won’t be trying that again.

“Second lesson is, I have to work on in chaotic sets to avoi making choices that end me up in the corner. It’s clear a strong Ram will make full use of any mistake that winds me up in the corner, and I will be more aware of that from now on.

“Third, make sure my next match isn’t with 5 frames of delay ;). How do you block Ram in that delay?”

Blaze

ggxrd-raven-famitsu-1

At one point, you were down 2-5. How do you think you mounted an impressive comeback?: “I had to change my strategy, Venom outdamages Raven really easily, so I started using the stance to see if the damage difference will be on par with his. Which it was!”

What were your thoughts on this matchup?: “On the matchup itself, I personally think it’s in Venom’s favor. He can control a lot of space and make Raven come at him how he wants. Also, Venom’s wake up timing is a lot faster than the [rest of the] cast, so a lot of okizeme that I usually use does not work on Venom. He can easily back dash, super jump, and even 6P me if I glide at him, which can hit me before the ball is even active.”

Afterwards, what lessons did you draw from the set? Did your opinion change because of it?: “Opinion stayed the same. Venom vs. Raven requires Raven to work in neutral a lot. Also, Ryan knows the matchup very well since he plays Mystic (Florida Raven) a lot. I have to thank Daiandoh and Grover for the experience I got from playing them here in NYC.”

Ryan Hunter declined to comment.

What’s next for the Super Steam Xrd Exhibition League? It’s time for a Europe special! On April 16th, European Guilty Gear warriors will duke it out Silva’s stream.

Sources: Silva (YouTube); Silva (Twitter); interviews

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Punk and NYChrisG talk West Coast Warzone Grand Finals with Michael Martin

A player you’re hearing about with increasing frequency: Panda Global’s Punk. Having made his name at Red Bull Battle Grounds last year, he brought the point home there that he was for real. Having already secured his spot in the top 8 of ELEAGUE, he also spent his weekend taking a decisive win at West Coast Warzone over Evil Geniuses’ NYChrisG in Grand Finals.

The two players talked to Michael Martin after the event, and had a lot to say about the match. Chris discussed his mistake in allowing Punk to approach easily, and failing to too many shimmies. Punk on the other hand discussed his usage of shimmies to set up a throw game that saw Chris fail to tech four consecutive throws during the set.

At the end of the day, Punk showed respect to ChrisG, saying that he is a great Guile player–and that his defensive play is far better than Liquid|NuckleDu’s.

Source: Yahoo! Esports

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ELEAGUE Street Fighter V Invitational player profile: Daigo “The Beast” Umehara

While he has had a rough start in 2017 for the second season of Street Fighter V–going 0-6 at the 6th Topanga League, tying for 33rd at Final Round 20–Twitch.Hx.CYG BST|Daigo “The Beast” Umehara is still arguably the most successful and recognizable persona in not only the Street Fighter series, but in all of fighting game history. With his recent switch to Guile due to his longtime main Ryu getting questionably nerfed, and therefore possibly hindering his tournament performances (but Ryu will be getting adjusted in the next patch), Umehara is showing how serious he is about winning as he advances to the quarter finals of the ELEAGUE SFV Invitational.

In this short ELEAGUE player profile interview, Umehara briefly discusses key aspects of his life that lead to him becoming a professional fighting game player. He mentions the public stigma that came with playing arcade games in Japan, his relationship with his martial arts-trained father, his time working at at a hospital–to make a living outside of competitions–helping people with dementia, and his rise to the top in the Street Fighter IV era. You can watch the full video below.

Sources: ELEAGUE; Capcom Unity

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NuckleDu addresses his rise to Street Fighter V stardom in Conversations and Fireballs

Liquid|NuckleDu had one of the best possible 2016s ever. However, that incredible year has shifted into a struggle to stay on top in the current Capcom Pro Tour season. So far, he has been unable to replicate his late success last year on the tour, finishing 3rd at Final Round 20 and 2nd at South by Southwest.

However, he is taking it in stride. In this interview with Zorine Te of Yahoo! Esports, he talks with her about the adjustments he has had to made to his game in order to continue to compete with a target on his head. He also discusses how his newfound fame has affected his life and his maturity level, and what he hopes to from the new characters in Street Fighter V.

Source: Yahoo! Esports

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Shoryuken interview: RayRay discusses his focus on Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, and his tournament demon

PG|Rayniel “RayRay” Hidalgo is no stranger to the biggest stages of Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Having twice made the game’s top 8 at Evo, his highest finish was runner-up to Kane Blueriver at Evo 2015.

While last year saw him focus on Street Fighter V, the quest to be the final champion of UMvC3 at Evo has driven him back into the title. He has shown that he is serious in his efforts, winning 1st place at Naptown Clutch 6. While at the Indianapolis tournament, I talked to him about his sponsorship with Panda Global, as well as his plans for Marvel this year.

Corey “Missing Person” Lanier: Ray, how has your training in Street Fighter V been going? Are you ready for this season of Capcom Pro Tour?

Rayniel “RayRay” Hidalgo: I honestly have stopped playing the game almost entirely. It’s not for any specific reason, but it’s just something where I just lost interest in the game.

Missing Person: Do you feel like the Chun-Li changes in Season 2 added to the disinterest?

RayRay: I don’t think that’s it. I feel like overall, Chun-Li is still fine and will continue to be a strong character in the meta. It’s mainly that they added a lot of things to the game that I didn’t like. They nerfed a lot of the defensive options that characters had, including universal ones like the V-Reversal. They also gave a few more characters legitimate mix-ups, which makes having defensive options all the more important. In Season 1 it was a bare-bones game, but it did allow for more mind games and truly allowed individual player strength to shine through. Now, the game feels more about set plays and doesn’t allow for that to happen.

Missing Person: Has the shift from Street Fighter V allowed your focus on Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 re-emerge?

RayRay: Definitely. After Marvel won the Evo Player’s Choice donation drive, my focus has increased on the game.

Missing Person: You’ve been known for playing a relatively standard team of Magneto, Doctor Doom, and Sentinel. How do you keep it fresh when you know players know the matchups against all of these characters, as well as combined as a team?

RayRay: It’s a little more standard, but the game still allows for creativity to flow, especially in the neutral game. I feel like Marvel 3 is a game where you can play the majority of the cast and still excel just by understanding the core mechanics and the flow of the game. Especially when you break it down to playing just the top 15 players, you can just get by simply on knowing how the game works and executing properly.

Missing Person: With Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite on the way, what are your initial reactions to what has been revealed so far?

RayRay: I hate the fact that there are no assist calls in the game. I feel like that assist calls are the most creative things within the fighting game genre, and by not implementing them, they have ruined the Marvel series. We’ll see how the game shapes up, though. I’m forcing myself to remain optimistic. I’m going to play it either way. There’s no reason to be angry with their design choices.

Missing Person: Are there any characters that you have on your wish list for Infinite?

RayRay: I want to play Star Lord [from Guardians of the Galaxy]. Other than that, I’d be happy with anybody on my team in Marvel 3.

Missing Person: If there is a deep divide in player preferences based on the differences in mechanics between Marvel 3 and Marvel Infinite, do you believe that Marvel 3 still has some life left in it?

RayRay: People will still play Marvel 3 no matter what. It’s in the same boat as when Marvel 3 released and players were still playing Marvel 2. However, the top players will move on. I think the lack of high-level competition will take me away from taking Marvel 3 seriously. However, the sandbox approach of the game will still be loved by fans and make it hard not to keep playing.

Missing Person: How has your sponsorship been with Panda Global in the year that you’ve been with the team?

RayRay: It’s going great. I’ve been able to travel a lot because of them. I was also able to do well in Street Fighter V since Evo.

Missing Person: Do you feel like the diversity in the fighting game roster of Panda Global encourages you to pick up more games?

RayRay: Coach Steve in particular really drives me. He’s from my area, and he plays every fighting game known to man. He makes me want to pick up more games.

Missing Person: What games are piquing your interest?

RayRay: I might try Injustice 2, but I almost feel like I’m lying even as I say that. The NetherRealm Studios titles tend to feel too stiff for my tastes.

Missing Person: How do feel with the lead up to Evo in Marvel? Are you optimistic of your chances to make top 8, and possibly win?

RayRay: After the donation drive, not only did my interest become rekindled, but so did everyone else’s. The last few months of Marvel are not at all indicative of what we’re going to see at Evo. Everyone else is going to be at their highest levels in July, so it’s really anyone’s guess how it’s going to shape up.

Missing Person: Having played as many tournaments as you’ve had, are there any specific demons you have in competitive play?

RayRay: Actually, one of my biggest demons is Flocker. I have actually never beaten him. In 2012 to 2014, there were what people were calling the Five Gods of Marvel. I beat every one of them except for Flocker.

Missing Person: What does Flocker do that gives you the most trouble?

RayRay: I would have to say that his Vergil causes a lot of problems for me. He is able to open me up with him and get a lot of hits in with Vergil. The ironic thing is that most people believe that his Vergil is bad, and even Flocker himself says the same thing. I don’t understand what specifically about his Vergil gets to me, but it does.

Missing Person: Do you feel like it’s his Vergil alone that is the problem, or is it Vergil in general that causes you problems?

RayRay: I feel like it’s Vergil in general. I like to move around a lot and use normals that cover the whole screen. Vergil is very good at preventing me from playing that way.

Missing Person: Have you been making any adjustments to counter Vergil?

RayRay: I’ve actually been taking pages out of Filipino Champ’s strategies. I’ve been staying in flight mode near the top of the screen. I usually stay around normal jump height, which is not where Magneto is strong. I learned to play the game like that, and it became habit. Thus, I haven’t used flight as much as other Magneto players have. However, I’m working to add some more defensive styles to my game, and hopefully that will work better against Vergil.

[Feature image by Corey Lanier]

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Shoryuken interview: Wolfkrone on Laura’s changes and FGC rivalries

Sponsors need to take heed, because Joshua “Wolfkrone” Philpot is putting his name on the free agency map this season. Having placed 3rd at Frosty Faustings IX, 2nd at Naptown Clutch 6, as well as strong results at Final Round 20, he had already shown himself capable this year. His meteoric rise to the top of the charts at ELEAGUE, finishing at #1 in Group C–which was considered the pool of death–has cemented his place as a player to be feared.

While at Naptown Clutch, I talked to Philpot about his feelings on Street Fighter V’s Laura this season, his chances on making Capcom Cup this year, and his ever-growing rivalry with EG|Kenneth “K-Brad” Bradley.

Corey “Missing Person” Lanier: Josh, congratulations on your success at Naptown Clutch. 2nd was not what you were looking for I’m sure, but run me through the match with EG|NYChrisG in grand finals.

Joshua “Wolfkrone” Philpot: I definitely need more Guile experience. The Guiles that I find online are pretty easy to beat, but I believe they’re not on the same level as Chris. During the first game with Chris, he turtled the whole time, moving back and throwing Sonic Booms. During the second game, I realized that’s what he was doing, and adapted. I went in a lot more. It worked and I won that game. During the third game, he adapted as well, and started pressing more normal buttons in the neutral game. I didn’t anticipate that, as it’s easily punishable on whiff. He won the third game off of that. In the final game, I re-adapted and started punishing the normal moves he was throwing out. He immediately switched it up again.

That’s one thing that online players struggle with doing is the constant adaptation. We were both constantly adapting to each other over the course of the set.

Missing Person: How are you feeling with Laura? You were one of the holdouts last year, even though she was considered bad last season.

Wolfkrone: I like the adjustments that Capcom made that made her tournament viable. The main thing that I didn’t like in Season 1 were V-Reversals. Whenever you applied pressure and were at an advantage, various characters could just V-Reversal and make it their turn to do the same thing. I felt like it was unfair for most of the cast to make you work your way to get in, then off one safe block string, they can knock you down, and it would be their turn to apply pressure.

Also in Season 1, a lot of characters were using [invincible] DPs to get out of my setups. Now they actually have to block. I feel like they actually have to fight me instead of just doing DP.

I feel like Laura is viable now, and doesn’t have to deal with abuse from the rest of the cast anymore.

Missing Person: Do you worry that the new patch may flip it back around, or do you think that Laura will stay viable?

Wolfkrone: I haven’t felt any sort of worry about it this time. I would actually even be happy if they reverted the changes. My main concern was DPs. I actually like Season 1 Laura. I was actually peaking near the end of Season 1 just before the patch took effect. I think I would’ve done well this season in spite of DPs. I was actually getting better with my reads on when to apply pressure. Even if they reverted her changes, I would be happy.

Missing Person: Will we see you travel more this year on the Capcom Pro Tour?

Wolfkrone: Well, you know we all have real life responsibilities outside of the game. But as time permits, I plan to travel as much as I can, and hopefully qualify into Capcom Cup.

Missing Person: What do you feel will be your biggest hurdle in doing so?

Wolfkrone: After playing some of the pre-season tournaments, I’d say my biggest challenge so far is Guile. I’ve lost two tournaments to Guile. I’m confident that Laura can beat any character in the game. It’s just very difficult for her to get to him.

Missing Person: So do you feel like it’s adapting your mobility and approaches then?

Wolfkrone: That would be great, but that matchup still favors Guile. It’s one of those bad matchups where she just simply can’t get her way. He doesn’t really have to play footsies; he can spend the entire match playing keep away from her. You can die just trying to get to him.

Missing Person: At Frosty Faustings, we saw a bit of a pop-off from you against K-Brad. What’s the background on that one?

Wolfkrone: I have historically always beaten K-Brad, even in Street Fighter IV. All of a sudden in Street Fighter V, he started acting like he wasn’t used to losing to me. He acting like he was shocked to lose to me. So I just wanted to send a message and tell him, “I’ll always beat your ass.”

Missing Person: Do you think there could be an exhibition between the two of you at some point?

Wolfkrone: There’s always the possibility of it. Shinblanka offered to hold one at Final Round, and I declined; I want him to earn his chance at redemption. Until then, he can hold the loss. I know at Final Round, I’ll be up there alone on the stage, and all his little friends will run up there to try to coach him. I don’t want to worry about that. My sights are set on the CPT. That’s more important to me. He can hold that grudge.

Missing Person: Something that was discussed shortly after that by Yahoo! Esports was how rivalries in the FGC were necessary, and how they were diminishing. Do you feel like the FGC is being whitewashed to the point that they are disappearing? Do you feel like they should actually be common?

Wolfkrone: I feel like they should be common. It rids the scene of contentment. You shouldn’t be thinking that you beat someone or got beat by someone and be happy either way. When someone beats you, you should never be happy about it.

I don’t want to generalize and say that it’s like that across the board. But when someone bodies you and you smile and shake their hand like it’s okay, I can’t stand it. It’s not okay. It should never be okay.

People keep saying, “Well, you have to be a good sport.” But those people are likely being eliminated in pools. They don’t know how it feels to be up on that stage to lose like that. It doesn’t always hurt to express how you feel, and I don’t feel like you should be punished by the public for that because of how they feel you should act. I feel like players should always be able to express themselves, and rivalries are part of that expression.

While Philpot lost to K-Brad at Final Round 20 in one of the most infamous popoffs to date, he currently has the last laugh in his performance against his rival at ELEAGUE. We’ll see how this growing feud develops over the course of the season.

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Polygon tells the rise and fall of Mad Catz in the eyes of the FGC

If you grew up in the general gaming community, the death knell heard as Mad Catz filed for bankruptcy was probably music to your ears. If, however, you have been a part of the FGC, Mad Catz’s demise sounded more like a dirge. Responsible for putting arcade sticks in the hands of many players over the last decade, the company was one of the sole beneficiaries of the fighting game renaissance experienced during and after 2009, as Street Fighter IV became the hottest fighting game in a long time.

But a lot of their success in the FGC  could be attributed solely to the community itself, with Mark “Markman” Julio’s efforts to shift Mad Catz brand recognition to a positive light, for example. Having started at the company in the role of technical support, Markman ultimately was the one that sparked the SE and TE Fightsticks that became the line we knew today.

In this interview with Polygon, Julio talked about his time there, stating that, “We created an ecosystem where players, competitors and fans can unite under a brand and really make impact-driven memories from the shared experiences.” He also talks about how Mad Catz began sponsoring and selling at events, saying that when he had asked for time off to go to a tournament, “My boss at the time asked me if the event would be willing to help promote the Mad Catz products, or even sell them during the event.”

Source: Polygon