Category: Interviews

Leah “Gllty” Hayes is one of the midwest’s best fighting game players. She has consistently made her way to events across the world last year, showing off her patented Dhalsim to the masses. And it looks like she plans to do even more of that this year. At Frosty Faustings IX, I sat down with her to talk about her journey last year, and what she learned across her travels.

Corey “Missing Person” Lanier: So, to start things off, you had difficulty making it out of pools this time at Frosty. You lost to NuckleDu on stream, then lost losers finals off stream. What happened?

Leah “Gllty” Hayes: Well, with NuckleDu, I was able to focus and commit to a game plan that actively moved around R. Mika, which allowed me to get the first game. Sadly, I was unable to sustain my mental focus on maintaining that game plan, and he was able to beat me the next two games.

Since the latter half of last year, I’ve been trying to develop a stable style of play rather than being aggressive the whole time. I’m trying to find where everything fits together. I’m heading in the right direction, but there’s obviously going to be some hiccups for the time being.

Missing Person: How do you feel Dhalsim has held up in Season 2?

Gllty: I don’t know how it’s going to end up. Even in Season 1, we initially thought Dhalsim was really good, then he fell down the tier lists. With Season 2, there’s a lot of characters that people think will be broken. But you never really know. We’ll see what happens. I don’t think everything is played out yet. DLC characters may also affect things. Dhalsim could be found to be a natural counter to a strong DLC character, and suddenly he’s useful.

Missing Person: You hail from St. Louis, which hasn’t really adopted Street Fighter V. How do you stay sharp playing in a region with a “dead scene” for your game?

Gllty: I’ve actually been going the extra mile to rebuild the community there. When I was younger, I didn’t really make the best decisions in thinking about the community. As I’ve gotten older, I try to reach do things differently and reach out to people. I feel like people aren’t going to be that interested in a community-based phenomenon like Street Fighter unless you make it readily available and tangible to them.

Instead of just playing online with a bunch of buddies, I buy pizza for people, get drinks, and am building a stream setup. I don’t see myself as an effective streamer, but I’m moving towards that. It’s just difficult finding the balance between streaming, community, and my own personal practice for competitive play.

Missing Person: On top of all that, you traveled quite a bit in the past year. 2016 saw you in Korea, Japan, Singapore, and Canada. Has traveling outside of the US helped your play?

Gllty: I think so. But here’s the thing: Japanese players play a certain way. Korean players play a certain way. And even Americans play completely differently. When you go to Asia, they have this strong neutral game overall. They look for consistent and reliable strategies. Then you come to America where everyone just says, “Screw it, I want to go in! I’m feeling like going ham!” You have to have an understanding on how to play players from different geographical locations.

Missing Person: Do you feel like the West could do to learn a bit from the Japanese playbook?

Gllty: If you look at the most successful players–it doesn’t matter who it is–they’ve traveled everywhere. They have the different pieces of the puzzle. I think that’s what it amounts to. If you go to Asia, there’s a different piece of the puzzle than you get in America. Finding a middle ground between the two is paramount and a trial by fire.

Missing Person: There’s been a history of you being considered sort of a “troll” player. Do you think that affects people when they play against you?

Gllty: I can’t speak to it. There’s going to be people that are going to be tilted playing me by virtue of playing me. But I feel like more people are unaffected by me than there are people who are. Some people you cannot troll. But I would probably try to troll Daigo.

Missing Person: Is there anyone else on your troll play hit list?

Gllty: Well, I teabagged NuckleDu at Frosty Faustings. He ultimately returned the favor, but it was a mutual exchange.

Missing Person: Do you feel like there’s going to come a point where this behavior is taken out of competitive play, or do you feel like everyone just needs to get used to it as a part of gamesmanship?

Gllty: Do you remember the video of Justin Wong playing Mortal Kombat against that little kid? That’s just a part of gamesmanship. You can’t completely scrub and sanitize esports. The FGC is still going to stay the way it is.

Taunting is in other esports and if someone is so weak that you can mentally tilt them by taunting them, then it is what it is. If that’s the card you have in your hand to play against them, play it. If you’re taunting, then there’s actually more mental pressure for you to back it up. When I teabagged NuckleDu, I felt like there was a chance that I could get blown up for it. But I know he’s not going to take it personally, and people would be entertained by it.

It’s not so much about the destination as it is the journey. You’re going to these events repeatedly. There’s an element of repetition. You’re trying to improve over its iterations throughout the decades. You have to keep it fresh somehow, but you still have to pay homage to the old-school mindset as well. It’s something that you can take seriously while still not fully taking it seriously. It’s also a part of maintaining your own character, because whenever you play, your personality shows. Whenever you fight someone, you’re communicating parts of your personality to them. If part of your narrative in the game that you’re going to use appeals to emotion as part of your tools, then that’s that.

I know by doing this stuff that it will get visited upon me. But I’ve already come to terms with the fact that I’ve already purchased my own karmic check for it, so I’m at peace with that.

Missing Person: Have you already determined some of your travel schedule yet?

Gllty: I’m just going to do everything over again and then some. I feel like there’s more purpose at this point than there would have been last year. Last year created a situation for this year to go well, more so than last year was about last year itself.

Since Frosty Faustings is a celebration of all things Guilty Gear, my journey to Chicago wouldn’t have been complete without talking with the Guilty Gear scene; one name popped up that needs no introduction to the American Guilty Gear community.

Panda Global’s Kyohei “MarlinPie” Lehr is one of America’s best players, finding his way into both Evo Top 8 and ArcRevo in 2016–finishing 7th in the former, and bowing out early in the latter, a victim of the single game syndrome of Japanese tournaments. He is an amazingly creative and hype player to watch. While at Frosty Faustings IX, Shoryuken sat down with him to talk about his experience with the game.

Corey “Missing Person” Lanier: First off, you had a great year last year, with you becoming the sole American representative at Evo 2016 in Guilty Gear Xrd -REVELATOR- Top 8. How was the experience for you?

Kyohei “MarlinPie” Lehr”: I feel like my career in Guilty Gear finally paid off. I hadn’t played against most of the Japanese players in the tournament before. I had been to Japan and played at Mikado and A-Cho, but I hadn’t encountered those players yet. To be honest, I was really nervous playing against them. I didn’t think I had a chance, but I decided to just go ham, and managed to beat around eight or nine of them on the way to top 8. I couldn’t beat Ogawa, but I’m starting to feel like America is getting there in Guilty Gear. We have to keep our momentum up.

Missing Person: And you not only made Top 8 at Evo, but you made it into ArcRevo. How was the experience there?

MarlinPie: First to one is the scariest tournament format ever. I can play anything but first to one. It just can’t happen anymore! When I’m going to Japan to play an international event, to lose two rounds and have it all be done is just a bummer. I enjoyed the thrill of it though. I couldn’t play all the top Japanese players at Evo, so going over there was a chance to get that experience.

Missing Person: How long did you stay in Japan to train?

MarlinPie: I spent three weeks over there. There is a fundamental difference between how American and Japanese players play. There has to be a resource where everyone is getting their information from. Very few places outside of Dustloop and Reddit go over strategies. If you go anywhere to play in Japan, they are killers. It’s crazy how good they are.

Missing Person: With Dogura and Go1 out for Frosty, how do you feel about your chances?

MarlinPie: I feel good. I always think that I’m going to win, but anything can happen. Sin was nerfed and Dogura has picked up Raven. I have a lot of experience in Japan against Raven, so I feel pretty confident if I face Dogura. We’ll see what happens. [MarlinPie went on to place 5th in the event.]

Missing Person: Do you feel like the fact that Japan received the game a year before America did has any factor in North America’s struggle to becoming relevant in Guilty Gear?

MarlinPie: I don’t think it’s that caliber of a problem now. The players that are doing well in Guilty Gear have been playing for over 20 years now. I don’t think any American has been playing the game for over 20 years at this point. The only new school player that I can think of is Machaboo–the Evo 2016 winner–and he started with Guilty Gear XX#Reload. So that’s still over a decade of experience under his belt.

American players haven’t been playing for that long. The top players in the States aren’t very old school. The experience gap really shows when the old school and new school players play against each other. They don’t know what to do in certain situations and scrambles. When they have that, on top of getting the game earlier, and having lagless online play even with Korea, they have a very fortunate recipe for success.

Missing Person: Out of the American scene–other than yourself–who would you list as the top 3 players?

MarlinPie: LostSoul has got to be my favorite. Even though he hasn’t been able to travel much, I still feel like he’s one of the best. I want to say BjornSonofBears for the top three, but his performance has been somewhat inconsistent at times. [BjornSonofBears went on to finish second at Frosty Faustings IX.] The rest is a definite tossup between GCYoshi, Lord Knight and Elvenshadow. Elvenshadow is one of the only players in America that I know of that has more experience than me in this game.

Missing Person: How long have you been involved with the series, just for comparison?

MarlinPie: I have been playing Guilty Gear for 16 years now. Elvenshadow started just a little bit before me. He was already a top player when I started the game.

Missing Person: What has driven you to keep playing Guilty Gear out of all the possible titles?

MarlinPie: Because it’s the best game in the world. No other fighter comes even remotely close to the level of creativity that Guilty Gear has. There’s no fighting game that’s similar to this. It’s very different, and I just happen to love this style of game.

Missing Person: Speaking of creativity, we saw you do a lot of creative stuff early on with Viper in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. With it coming to Evo, will we see you back playing Marvel?

MarlinPie: This has been a secret, but I have started playing Marvel again. I’m not confident with my play yet, and everyone that has kept up with the game has improved. I have taken off two or three years from the game. With Marvel getting a lot of attention with the rereleases and Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, I wanted to go back to my roots with this game before Infinite releases.

By popular demand, I’m definitely picking up Infinite. I’m not sure if I’ll keep with it though. There’s some doubts regarding the style of the game. It looks like a cross between Street Fighter X Tekken and Tatsunoko vs. Capcom to me. I might not like it, but I’ll try it at least.

If you were asked about Latin American fighting game players, the first name to pop to your mind would likely be Nicolas “Kane Blueriver” Gonzalez. Kane made his mark as a literal world warrior, traveling everywhere and honing his craft in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. The results–including an Evo 2015 championship–speak for themselves. Not only does he have a strong reputation in UMvC3, but he is also skilled in The King of Fighters XIV, earning an invitation to the KOF World Cup.

While at Frosty Faustings IX, I sat down with him to talk about his play, as well as a Latin American scene that is largely unknown.

Corey “Missing Person” Lanier: Kane, you had a very difficult trip into Chicago to get to Frosty Faustings. What exactly happened?

Nicolas “Kane Blueriver” Gonzalez: I had my fair share of problems. One of my suitcases broke. My stick has had issues over the weekend. This stuff happens to me so often that I’ve gotten used to it. You just have to find ways to solve the problems, and keep going.

Missing Person: How are the tournaments going for you?

Kane Blueriver: I’m already out of Marvel and Street Fighter V. I lost a match to Unkn0wn in Marvel, who has been playing super solid lately. I’m currently waiting for The King of Fighters XIV Top 8 in winners bracket.

Missing Person: Have you been focusing more on KOF more than Marvel lately?

Kane Blueriver: Kind of, but it’s more that I have to take advantage of the opportunities that I have to train. There isn’t much of a Marvel community in Chile for a while, and they aren’t as dedicated. Chile has a much stronger KOF community with a strong dedicated player base. Thus, it’s always a staple game of the region, and there’s always people to practice with. With all the opportunities I have to train in the game, I feel like I have to train harder in the game now.

Missing Person: How do you feel Chile will be represented within the King of Fighters circuit?

Kane Blueriver: Well, I’m already qualified for the KOF World Cup via an invitation from SNK Playmore. There was a regional qualifier that Chilean players attended, but they all lost to the Peruvian players. The Peruvian scene seems to be much stronger in the game than Chile at this time. They have a stronger history in the game, but not only that, they’ve always been competitive even when they’ve had worse access to resources than we’ve had. They always figure out ways to keep improving. There’s a huge pool of natural talent in Peru, but because of issues like visas, costs, and other resources, it’s almost impossible for Peruvian players to travel the circuit.

Missing Person: You’re one of the only Chilean players that travels–even for Capcom Cup, Misterio had to drop out due to issues. Do you feel that developers should be doing something to help alleviate the burden on the players for acquiring visas to enter events they’ve qualified for?

Kane Blueriver: I’m pretty sure they want to help, but at the same time, there isn’t much that they can do. Usually, for Latin American players, they need invitations for the events in order to avoid issues in obtaining their visas. It’s not just Latin America–even TSM|Leffen had the same visa issues. I think his team helped a lot to overcome the hurdle. It’s becoming an increasingly prevalent issue as time goes on and the community is more globalized. But even these players who aren’t as privileged because of their finances or country of origin have the same drive as everyone else to get better.

I’m actually helping the two Latin American qualifiers for KOF World Cup–one Mexican and one Peruvian–get their travel arrangements made to go to Japan. They don’t have visas to enter the United States, and if you lack that, you can’t even make layovers there. I had to help them find flights through Mexico to Japan. It was more expensive, but there was no option to go through the United States. It is a real problem that we face in Latin America.

Missing Person: Without going too political, do you feel like the executive orders President Donald Trump is signing will make it even more restrictive for Latin Americans trying to enter the United States?

Kane Blueriver: I think it could be. People who already have their papers in order don’t have much to worry about. But those just starting are likely to face increased difficulties.

Fortunately for us Chileans, we haven’t needed visas to enter the United States or Canada for the last two years, so it’s easier for us than the rest of the region to come here. The only ones, however, that are taking advantage of this, are myself and TSM|ZeRo.

Missing Person: Out of the Latin American region, who would you tell us to keep our eyes on in Street Fighter V?

Kane Blueriver: For Street Fighter, the Brazilians are very strong. Keoma is putting in a lot of effort to return to the position he was in in Ultra Street Fighter IV. Brolynho has shown that he is a force to be reckoned with. Chile has Misterio, of course. Even though he can’t make it to the US, he will represent very well at the regional level. There’s also Baek, who is a strong Nash player. However, he has been playing KOF recently, so I’m not sure which game will be his primary focus. There’s also a Laura player named Moises, who was just behind me in Marvel in Chile. With Laura’s improvements in season 2, he’s dangerous now.

Missing Person: With the KOF World Cup, the world always views China and Latin America as the strongest regions in the game. But the road to the championship will likely have to go through Xiaohai, who is currently considered the best in the game. How do you feel Latin America’s best will fare against China’s best?

Kane Blueriver: The thing about Xiaohai is how much tournament experience he has. Xiaohai’s been around the world to play. Most of the Latin players have never been out of their region. This is going to be a completely different environment for them.

I’ve already had to help the Latin qualifiers get to Japan, and I’ll likely have to help them in Japan too. They don’t know any English or Japanese. They’ll need a lot of help even getting from point A to point B. It will be a completely eye-opening experience. I remember how it was for me the first time I went over there, so it’ll be similar for them.

When you’re mostly centered within your own local community, you don’t have much grasp of what’s happening outside of it. KOF in Latin America has the same connotations that Marvel vs. Capcom 2 had in the States. The same types of people play it, and it’s a very difficult game. I’m sure they’ve never expected to achieve this in their lives playing video games. So I’m sure it’ll make them happy, and I really hope they make the most out of the opportunity.

Missing Person: How do you feel about Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 being relegated to the Players’ Choice Vote for Evo 2017? [And since winning said vote. – Editor]

Kane Blueriver: I’m not too worried about that. Games have their cycles. If people want to continue to play it, that’s great. If they want to abandon it for Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, that’s great too.

At my core, I’m a fighting game player. I’m not just a Marvel player. It’s just that for whatever reason, Marvel clicked better with me at a high level. It’s also unique in that this game gives you the most reward for your time in training mode. That’s why I was able to do well in Marvel. But I still want to bring what I achieved in Marvel to other games.

The vote is out of my control. There’s nothing I can do to keep the game in, so I’m not worried. I don’t like how it’s not about the most passionate community, but who has the most money. But ultimately, it is what it is.

Missing Person: What are your thoughts on Infinite so far?

Kane Blueriver: I’m not too hot on the game right now. The thing that made me love Marvel 3 was how open-ended it was, and how much of a sandbox the game was. Even with bad characters, you were able to create synergy to compete with the strongest individual characters. There are many high-level players doing that. Even at Evo 2016, there were 20 out of 24 characters represented in Top 8. If it had been Marvel 2, there would have been a fraction of that.

I don’t see Infinite going that way. I don’t think it will be a bad game per se, but it looks to be more straightforward. Obviously it will play fast like other Marvel games, but it won’t be as variable as far as synergy is concerned. It will likely be more based on individual character strength, sadly. But I feel the same about Street Fighter V. I don’t necessarily like the game, but in order to achieve what I want, it’s what I have to play.