Category: Interviews

Mike “Elvenshadow” Boczar has made a name for himself by carving out a niche in the fighting game community: Having built a two-day major out of his famous Frosty Faustings event that started off as a small annual event in the Chicagoland area–the event has always featured Guilty Gear as the main event, and drawn a large crowd.

While at Frosty Faustings IX, we sat down with him to talk about what makes this event tick.

Corey “Missing Person” Lanier: Mike, you had another very successful year with Frosty Faustings. How are you feeling now that the dust is settling on the event?

Mike “Elvenshadow” Boczar: It’s a unique mix of accomplishment, success, and exhaustion. I’m running on four hours of sleep, and didn’t eat on the final day of the event until 9:30 at night. The tournament ran smoothly, and everyone seemed to have fun, so I’m really happy about that.

Missing Person: Frosty Faustings is one of the few events that features Guilty Gear so prominently in main-event status. How does it feel seeing the game you love so dearly receive all the attention and hype it gets here?

Elvenshadow: Well, you obviously have events like CEOtaku and Anime Ascension, but the reason I started this event was to build the Guilty Gear scene. I always wanted Guilty Gear to be in the spotlight. We had a lot of viewers this year, we had players from ten different countries come for this event. It’s just awesome. It makes me want to keep promoting Guilty Gear and getting more people involved in the game. A lot of people that watched the stream and stayed to watch top 8 got interested in the game, so that’s success.

Missing Person: Do you ever worry about losing viewers when Guilty Gear comes on as the main event, as opposed to more popular games like Street Fighter? Or do you believe that you can generate enough hype with Guilty Gear that the risk pays off?

Elvenshadow: The risk is absolutely worth it. Guilty Gear is what our event is known for. Other games obviously come with their own crowd, and they still generate and get a buzz from our event as well. We’re happy to see numbers for every game we run–and we ran 32 this year. But every year sees numbers grow for every game, and I’m happy for it, but it’s nice to see overflow during the event for the game I love.

Missing Person: What do you feel has been the biggest obstacle in bringing Guilty Gear to the forefront and being widely adopted in the west?

Elvenshadow: I think there are a few things. A lot of people just don’t even know about it. It isn’t heavily advertised here and so when people who aren’t involved in the FGC think about fighting games, titles that come to mind are usually Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat. Within the FGC itself, I think a lot of players are discouraged to try it out due to a perceived high barrier to entry. While the game does have some difficult things to execute, people who regularly can do complex combos in Marvel or land 1-frame links in Street Fighter shouldn’t have too much trouble as long as they are willing to put in some work in the lab. It’s all about first building the muscle memory and from there applying it.

I think once people get past that point, they can really start to enjoy the game more as they see improvement. GGXrd is much easier to get into compared to previous games in the GG series. I would say if you are the least bit interested, talk to people in your local scene that play it or people online and ask for advice. There are tons of great resources out there and many people are willing to help!

Missing Person: Frosty Faustings started off small. Can you talk about that for a bit?

Elvenshadow: Well, we initially started off in a small hotel venue. It was about half the size of the hallway of the venue we used this year. The next year, we ran it in the same venue, but had a bit more space. We then moved to Nickel City Arcade for three years. Then the year after that, we ran it at a game bar that is no longer in business. For Frosty Faustings VII and VIII, we ran it at another hotel, but this year’s venue was far bigger. Every year just grows exponentially.

Missing Person: How difficult was it planning the early events with you being located in Japan at the time? How has that changed since moving back to America?

Elvenshadow: Back when FF started out, it was during simpler times. Streaming tournaments wasn’t really common and we had no sponsors involved. It was mainly a matter of finding a venue, coming up with tournament list and schedule, and assigning roles to other staff members.

In some ways, it was easier because it was a smaller and less complex event, but the fact that I was halfway across the world with a 15 hour time zone difference from Chicago made things difficult at times. I had limited opportunities to make phone calls overseas, and when I did, I needed to use a prepaid phone card. Most of the coordinating with staff happened over forums and private messages but most conversations did not happen in real time. I did my best to keep up with what was going on in the local scene, but sometimes it was hard when I wasn’t physically there all year.

I think one of the biggest challenges was trying to change venues. We ran the event 3 years in a row at Nickel City (FF III-V) even when it was clear that after FFIV we had pretty much outgrown it. There weren’t many other options I knew of at the time, and hotel-hunting without being able to easily call and physically check the venue in advance made things difficult. Game Pazzo worked well for FFVI, but closed down soon after. For FFVII I was back in the States months before the event, so it was much easier to shop around for a bigger venue.

I’d say that now there are many new challenges we face every year, which is a result of the event growing and us wanting to make improvements. I spend much more time on planning than I used to. There’s a lot of work to do but the more we do it, the better we get at doing things more efficiently.

Missing Person: How big do you think it can get? Do you think Frosty could be a three-day event at some point?

Elvenshadow: We could, but we’re not sure if we want to. We like that our format is tailored to people who have difficulties traveling. That’s why I designed the schedules so that no games overlap between Friday and Satuday. You don’t have to worry about missing a day because of the possibility of your pool landing on that day. Instead, you can come for one day, play the whole way through, and you’re done. You can carry your own momentum through the bracket.

I think our format is really unique and cool. You can also go out and party on Saturday night, and not have to worry about catching an early morning flight the next day to go back to work with a hangover. But it’s something to consider where we could even run pools for the larger games on Friday night.

Missing Person: You had probably one of the most hype matches of the event in losers bracket with PG|MarlinPie. You were so close to clutching out the set. How did you feel in that final game?

Elvenshadow: I felt like it could’ve went either way. That second round started off really bad. I was knocked down right away with the drill because I tried to play it safe by backdashing. I had to play very defensively at that point, and had a burst at the end. I knew he was going to bait it, but I still did and regret it. I can’t feel bad losing to MarlinPie. He is a great player, and we always have great sets in tournaments. I’m happy I even made top 8.

Missing Person: How do you feel the west is doing in catching up to the Japanese players in Guilty Gear?

Elvenshadow: I feel like the skill gap between US and Japanese players in Xrd has been gradually getting smaller. If you compare the skill gap between US and Japan in Accent Core, we are definitely closer now than we used to be. I think it’s also a bit hard to judge accurately at times because there are only a few Japanese players that are coming over here frequently who compete in Xrd. We don’t often get to see how a lot of America’s best players do against a wider variety of Japanese opponents. Obviously Evolution is the exception and even with that we have seen a US player in top 8 both years Xrd has been present at Evo, with several other players getting close to top 8, and many Japanese players have lost to US players outside of top 8. I think we are on the right track and just need to keep working hard to improve.

I think the biggest things we can do to close the gap is to play a wider variety of opponents and play more often. Matchup knowledge is key in Guilty Gear due to how unique each character plays. Many scenes don’t have people playing certain characters so we have to rely on net play or traveling to other regions to learn every matchup well. Playing regularly is also important. It doesn’t matter how naturally good you are, if you don’t stay in practice, your skills will deteriorate or become stagnant. Japanese players have the luxury of regularly scheduled gatherings at arcades with a wide variety of talent and character variety at their disposal.

If we want to compete, we need to do our best to cultivate our scenes and train with a variety of people as often as we can. This also means making an effort to travel to events and play new people, even if you think you are going to go 0-2, attending just for the matchup experience and practice is worth it alone. Combining all that with regularly studying Japanese match videos, as well as studying your own matches, I think we will continue to see overall improvement in the US scene as long as we stay motivated and work together to get better.

Hopefully the gap in release time between Revelator 2 on arcade and console won’t be very long, so that we don’t fall farther behind in the new version, but I have a feeling the gap won’t be as bad as previous releases. Just remember that once REV 2 drops in arcade, we shouldn’t lose motivation to keep playing just because it’s not on console yet. Just because there will be some balance and system changes doesn’t mean that staying practiced up on the version we have right now won’t be beneficial, as most things will still carry over.

Kenneth “K-Brad” Bradley of Evil Geniuses just had a breakout year: making Capcom Cup 2016, he was able to send fan-favorite Daigo Umehara of HyperX into losers bracket in a stunning upset, and continues to show his prowess in Street Fighter V. He also notably stayed put in the major shuffling of players between Evil Geniuses and Echo Fox.

When I caught up with him at Frosty Faustings IX, he had a lot to say about his feelings regarding Cammy in SFV Season 2, among other topics–including the changing of the guard in EG.

Corey “Missing Person” Lanier: K-Brad, you did well at Frosty Faustings. You had a good performance in Street Fighter V this time around.

Kenneth “K-Brad” Bradley: Yeah, but I didn’t do great in Marvel. I made to Winners Semis in my pool, then lost to RyanLV, who eventually won the tournament. But I did pretty good in Street Fighter.

Missing Person: How are you feeling with Season 2 so far?

K-Brad: I’m honestly not sure. It’s one of those things where I’m not exactly sure what direction Capcom was trying to go. I think they’re trying to make it a crazy rushdown game where defense isn’t really rewarded. I don’t know. I’m not really an offensive player anymore. When I look at the changes, I think, “They have to do something to make defense a little bit better.” And with Cammy, you have to be able to play at least some defense.

Overall, they made Cammy weaker in Season 2 because her divekick was a big deal; she could do it whenever she wanted. But on the ground, she has gotten better. Her frame traps are really good and her buttons are better. They made standing medium kick and back medium punch better. They did a lot of stuff on the ground that’s good, but a lot of her game play revolved around divekick. Her whole plan was to bully you on the ground, then after she has done that, then she can take to the air. She is just one of those characters where divekick really does matter.

You could still be risky and do EX divekick into EX dragon punch, but I don’t play like that. I would say that if she was S-tier in Season 1, she’s probably A+-tier in Season 2. She’s still amazing, but there was a minor drop.

Missing Person: You not only made it to Capcom Cup last year, but you had a great start, putting Daigo Umehara into losers bracket to start things off. Go through that with me.

K-Brad: I love playing players like Daigo because there is so much thought involved. There’s a lot of mind games involved when we play. I knew his fireball game is amazing. I knew he was going to be able to read a lot of things that I was going to do. I started off losing the first two games off of bad mistakes on my part. He was able to DP through a couple of my block strings. In the third game, I decided to play a little safer. In the latter half, I was able to block a lot of those DPs and just punished accordingly.

But the whole time, I was thinking, “I’m down 0-2. There’s no way I’m going to win three straight on Daigo. Nobody wins three straight on Daigo.” It was a pretty great experience being able to put him into losers bracket.

Missing Person: After that, do you feel like your confidence has improved going into Season 2, having pulled an upset on someone that people were betting on, against you?

K-Brad: That’s the thing. It doesn’t matter who I’m playing, people are betting against me. Even when I played Infiltration at Canada Cup, nobody expected me to beat him there, and I did. When I beat NuckleDu at SoCal Regionals, nobody expected that either, because he was beating me the entire season. I’m used to being the underdog. As long as I believe in myself, that’s all that matters.

Missing Person: What are your feelings on the big free agency season that saw PR Balrog, Momochi, ChocoBlanka, and Justin Wong all leave Evil Geniuses?

K-Brad: I knew something was coming up. But when PR Balrog left, then Justin and Momochi, I had no clue what was going on. I knew that PR Balrog wanted to leave and do his own thing. But when Justin, Momochi, and Choco all got signed to Echo Fox, I was pretty happy. However, I was more upset at Echo Fox buying out all the talent. I’m happy for my friends getting a nice deal. Who knows how long gaming is going to be relevant or how big it can actually get, so these guys should get rewarded for their success. It’s just that Echo Fox didn’t need to buy out so many players. But I got over it. I know that to be the best, you have to get the best players, so it was a smart move on their part.

Missing Person: But now you guys have NYChrisG. How does that fit with you and Ricki on the team, and do you feel positive about it going forward?

K-Brad: It’s going pretty well. Chris just got second in Street Fighter V at Frosty, and honestly it was one of the best picks on the free agent market. He’s a dominant player in Marvel, he’s good at Street Fighter V and was good at Street Fighter IV. I’m very happy that Chris got signed. It was the smartest choice that Evil Geniuses could’ve made out of all the free agents available.

Missing Person: You’re known as one of the biggest foodies on the tournament scene. What tournaments do you look forward to going to just based on food alone?

K-Brad: Australian tournaments are the best, because you can get literally anything in Australia, and it’s good. They have a bit of everything that I love. When I go to Japan, the things that are usually out of this world are the typical sushi and ramen. But you can get Italian, burgers, sushi, and it’s all amazing. But domestically, I love to go to Texas for events. I love barbecue, and they have amazing briskets there. They definitely have the best barbecue there.

Missing Person: In 2016, we saw you hit the four corners of the Earth for tournaments. Are we going to see that much travel out of you this year?

K-Brad: For sure. At the end of 2016, I started to think, “I did so much travel this year. I’m not sure if I want to subject myself to that again.” I went to a lot of these events alone, and it made me feel a certain way. When I was at all these international events, I was usually the lone American.

But all in all, I think I’m going to do it all over again this season.

Missing Person: Do you feel like jet lag affects you when you play?

K-Brad: If I fly in the day before the event, absolutely. But typically when I fly in for an international event, I do it a couple of days in advance. That way the first day I’m there, I can do whatever I want. Then on the second day, I can sleep as much as I want. By the time the tournament starts, I’m ready.

Missing Person: Do you have any advice for Cammy players that are struggling in Season 2, after doing well in Season 1?

K-Brad: If you were a Cammy player in Season 1, you have to let go of going to the air. I would focus more on the ground. If you can do that, then you can start to pressure. If you’re only focused on the ground, sooner or later, your opponent will forget about the air game. Then you can sneak in a few EX divekicks. But for the most part, you should be more focused on establishing a strong ground game this season.

In October, I got a chance to sit down with Team Liquid’s Du “NuckleDu” Dang, fresh off his victory at Canada Cup. Little did we know at the time that Dang would go on to hoist the biggest Street Fighter V trophy of them all in Anaheim, in December.

When I found out he was going to be at Frosty Faustings IX, I thought it would be appropriate to follow up with him–given his recent catapult into the limelight after Canada Cup, and to see how he felt about the Season 2 changes that he had to overcome to stay competitive with R. Mika.

Corey “Missing Person” Lanier: Firstly Du, congratulations. You’ve been on the wildest ride of your life since I talked to you in Toronto. How has it been for you?

Du “NuckleDu” Dang: It’s an adjustment, because I’m not used to winning so many majors. I was always able to win local events in Florida. But now I just keep winning, and I’m not fully sure how to take it in yet.

Missing Person: When we talked at Canada Cup, one of the keywords of that interview was confidence. You had said that winning that event helped to boost your confidence. At what point did your confidence level increase to the point where you believed you could win Capcom Cup?

NuckleDu: I think it was after Canada Cup. When I beat Tokido at the Red Bull event in Seattle, it proved to me that it wasn’t just the character I was using. It might actually be a bit of my own skill.

Missing Person: Right, because you didn’t even use R. Mika in that set.

NuckleDu: Right, I had used Guile against him. It was a good confidence-builder. It’s easy to psyche yourself out going into Capcom Cup, which is the biggest tournament of the year. It was great that I was able to overcome that.

Missing Person: I remember seeing on Twitter, during Top 8, that you tweeted that your hands were shaking violently. Did your nerves ever come down during Grand Finals against Ricki?

NuckleDu: The reason they started shaking was because I made the mistake of looking out into the crowd. When I saw how many people were watching, it was like staring over the edge of a cliff. When you look down, you’re going to freak out, and it was the same thing for me when I looked out into the crowd. I just avoided that. Once I started looking at the screen, everything calmed down for me.

Missing Person: You’ve already done quite a bit with your money. I saw that you sent your mom on a trip to her native Vietnam. You also bought a couple of nice cars. How does it feel to have this amount of financial freedom at this point in your life?

NuckleDu: Financially, I’m at the best point of my life. I want to invest so I can have a future. But on the other hand, I’ve never had money before, so I also want to enjoy it. People have told me to put it into a time-locked account so that I can’t touch it until I’m 70. But when I’m 70, I won’t have the energy to do what I want to do!

So right now, I’m just enjoying it. But for people who are worried about my finances, they’re worried more about it than I am at this point. But for the record, I haven’t even touched the money I won at Capcom Cup. The money I’ve spent is from savings and my salary from Team Liquid.

Missing Person: You’ve heard it here first, guys. Du is not going bankrupt any time soon!

NuckleDu: No, not at all.

Missing Person: Let’s talk a bit about psychology in these games. During Winners finals of your pool at Frosty, you and Gllty both engaged in some teabagging. But some of the most notable teabags that people have talked about came at the expense of Xiaohai. Is there a reason that you go after Xiaohai like that?

NuckleDu: Truth be told, Xiaohai is my favorite player. The fact that I’m able to teabag him and still win is amusing to me. He’s also a really emotional player, so whenever I do so, I know I’m doing mental damage to him. I would never teabag a random player. But on Xiaohai, definitely.

Missing Person: It’s more gamesmanship than anything?

NuckleDu: Right. When Gllty teabagged me, people asked me on Twitter if I was offended. No. When people do it back to me, I feel honored. They’re acknowledging my work. I would never be a poor sport about it. I like seeing it.

Missing Person: With the Xiaohai matchup, you’re well ahead of him.

NuckleDu: Yes, but in China, he did very well against me, and it was close. This was after the Season 2 changes saw R. Mika get nerfed and Cammy received some buffs. It was an uphill battle, plus I had an accidental pause. But I was still able to clutch it out.

Missing Person: Do you feel like Xiaohai is starting to adapt to the match, or do you feel like the Season 2 changes has aided him?

NuckleDu: The meta in the matchup definitely changed in Season 2. I wasn’t surprised that it was so close due to Cammy getting stronger and Mika getting weaker. I just had to adapt and learn how to play Mika differently. I’m still figuring it out.

Missing Person: We know that Nash received nerfs based off his performance at Evo, and they ultimately proved to be inconsequential. Do you feel like the changes to Mika were warranted, especially with the Irish Whip nerf?

NuckleDu: I think they nerfed the speed of it, as well as the frame advantage, and that was fair. I don’t think that they should’ve changed the wall bounce properties. The problem was how fast the move was and how safe it was on block. But people suffered a year of R. Mika, so I understand Capcom’s decision. She’s still good, you just have to think a little bit harder.

Missing Person: You most notably said that you had a fear of flying, yet 2016 saw you finally take a flight to Canada. This year, you made a bigger trip to China. How was the country for you?

NuckleDu: The people organizing the event in China flew me there first class, so it was an amazing experience flying there. It made me forget I was on an airplane. The food there was great. Xiaohai took me out to dinner. He’s an extremely nice guy. He even pulled out my chair for me, poured water. The scene was really nice, and made me want to travel more.

Missing Person: Were the players welcoming, given the fact that you have been wrecking their national fighting game hero as of late?

NuckleDu: Yeah, he’s definitely the poster boy for the scene there, and when I played against him, they were naturally going to root hard for him. Aside from that, they were super polite and friendly.

Missing Person: Do you feel like China has difficulties dealing with other nation’s players, given the state of their internet and access to data?

NuckleDu: China’s internet is simply awful. Given that and the fact that country is huge, they can’t really practice with each other save for offline. There’s inherent disadvantages in that for China vs. the world, but Xiaohai is the exception when he squares off against everyone else.

Missing Person: You’ve done extremely well with Street Fighter V. Are you looking into other games as well?

NuckleDu: Street Fighter V will always be my main priority. I might also play Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, the 2 vs. 2 format doesn’t look as crazy as Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. SonicFox has also offered to teach me Injustice 2, so I may take him up on that–since he is the best at NetherRealm Studios titles.