Category: Interviews

In my previous interview with Gerald “mintcheerios” Lee of Core-A Gaming, we talked a lot about his unique perspective on the Korean Fighting Game Community. But Lee is known for having a unique perspective on all things fighting game-related. A lot of this is due to his life, which has found him situated in various places across the world.

In this interview, we not only get to know Gerald as a person, but we also hear more on some topics he hasn’t talked about in any of his videos to date.

Corey “Missing Person” Lanier: You’ve been interested in the FGC for a while, but when did you start playing seriously?

Gerald “mintcheerios” Lee: I’m a dirty ‘09er. But I’ve always played Street Fighter. I grew up in the arcades. But I had never really thought about it competitively; I just played a lot back in the day. It wasn’t until about 2009 with Street Fighter IV that I started following the top players. And, of course, the Daigo full parry video was very important for me. But to see how high of a level the play in a game I’ve been playing forever can get was kind of inspiring.

So around that time, I was living in China in a very rural area. I even tried to host a mini-tournament there, and only two people showed up and they were King of Fighters players. But that’s how I got into the competitive mindset. I was just trying to make a scene and get games going wherever I was.

Missing Person: Having lived in China, do you believe that Chinese players like Xiaohai and Dakou are playing at an advantage or a detriment, just based on where they’re from?

mintcheerios: Well, obviously the fact that they have to get special visas to attend events is an obstacle. Other than that, I’m sure they get to play a ton. But I don’t know how the scenes are where they live.

I mean, where I lived was at a university in a very rural part of the country, so there weren’t that many Street Fighter players. That forced me to play King of Fighters. But you see this with Xiaohai and Dakou. Xiaohai especially is known for being the best at KOF. When I interviewed him at Street Fighter Crash, he even said that he preferred the game over Street Fighter. It’s kind of natural, since King of Fighters has always been China’s game.

But personally, I’m happy to see Xiaohai playing Street Fighter. It’s great to see his talent in what isn’t his favorite game.

Missing Person: You grew up in Texas. And you had said you had grown up in the arcades. Had you ever competed in any tournaments prior to moving to Asia?

mintcheerios: No. Like I had gone to China right around 2009. When I was in the arcades, there was a mini-scene around the 3rd Strike machine at the miniature golf course. You could recognize the regulars that were there. But it wasn’t a huge scene or anything like that.

There was no competitions, but it was still fun. I feel like I have a similar story to people who grew up in the arcades.  My mom gave me a few quarters, and you’d basically play a fighting game and try to win so you could play longer. I was never competing in the way we describe it now, but it was still a competition, because in a sense, every single match in the arcades was a mini money match. You were playing to not have to feed the machine more quarters, which shaped the fighting game culture in a way.

Missing Person: Do you feel that the decay of the arcade scene has changed the mentality of players?

mintcheerios: Absolutely. Street Fighter is not that old as compared to other sports. But it’s old enough now that people can now say, “Back in my day…” Which is weird for someone to say about esports at this point. And I’m sure all the people that were in the scene long ago like Alex Valle or John Choi are regaling newer players with stories of yesteryear and what they had to do to be competitive. There is definitely this cultural divide. Back in the day there wasn’t a training mode and you had to play the CPU if you wanted to practice your combos. The easy mode CPU was the closest thing to a training dummy we had.

I remember reading about how Justin Wong would go to Chinatown Fair and play against the CPU to practice his combos. The CPU was a sort of moving target. Coming from that to now, where you can record your training mode dummy to do whatever action you want on wakeup and after blocking, and all these added features, there’s definitely going to be a divide.

Missing Person: Are you saying that things are better now? There’s been a lot of argument that the mentality of modern players is worse, because they play online, and don’t have to worry about losing quarters every time they play.

mintcheerios: There’s a couple of different things there. I think the situation is better for players now, because when you buy the home version of the game you can play it as much as you want, and practice the setups all you want. But at the same time, there is this lower investment barrier to play. Because to play at an arcade, you had to physically leave your house to play. As a kid sometimes you’d have to convince your parents to take you to the arcade. When you got there, you were vulnerable; you had to talk to people.

Nowadays, it’s more anonymous. I know that there are now measures to protect people from ragequitters, but when you’re playing online, people just think, “Who cares?” But the thing is, overall I think the situation is better due to the fact that there are more people playing. But you are still going to get people whom fighting games aren’t necessarily suited for.

Missing Person: Total scrubs, right? [laughs]

mintcheerios: [laughs] Right. But regardless, it’s still better to have a larger pool of players, even if some of them complain about cheap tactics. They were always there back in the day as well. But because you can buy these games at discount prices and play online, it allows for less commitment. Which is good, because it allows for more players to come in, but at large some of them may not be emotionally suited for fighting games.

Missing Person: You had your formative years in the States, then you moved to China, then after that you moved to Korea. What prompted this move?

mintcheerios: I have family that lives here, so I came here to visit them. After my stay in China to study China, I took a bit of a break here. I was doing some freelance video jobs to make some money. That ended up becoming a video production company. I met some filmmakers, and we started a small business together, and it kind of grew to the point where I have to live here now.

Missing Person: There’s no escape!

mintcheerios: Nope. But it’s cool. I have fast internet, and I’ve been enjoying it here.

Missing Person: You said in one of your videos that Evo 2016 was your first time competing at the event.

mintcheerios: Right, but I was also there at 2013 to spectate and record footage for a mini documentary that hasn’t come to fruition yet. I blame Core-A Gaming for taking up so much of my time.

Missing Person: A lot has changed between those years. Is there anything you can say about the differences between the two?

mintcheerios: Evo 2016 definitely felt way more catered to esports. Having the finals at Mandalay Bay with the stage and the jumbotrons, as well as having Street Fighter on ESPN definitely propelled it there.

There are advantages and disadvantages to both. The competing mindsets are always FGC vs. esports, and I feel like there’s merit to both sides of the coin. I feel like it’s going esports because of the increase in popularity, and that’s a natural and inevitable evolution. I feel like some people think that the FGC will be ruined when esports gets involved.

Even if it’s esports, I’ll still be playing the games as well as finding and building scenes. But what esports has allowed the FGC to do is do more of what they’ve already been doing with the financial backing of the game developers and sponsors. You see players who couldn’t put as much time into the game otherwise get sponsored and finally be able to do that. It goes both ways for each case. People joke about “Poverty FGC,” but poverty’s no fun.

Missing Person: It’s been a while since we’ve played. How are you doing with regards to leveling up?

mintcheerios: It’s slow and steady. Again, I blame Core-A Gaming. I’m using the YouTube channel option select as an excuse. But being in Korea has leveled up my game a lot. The online play is so good here. Having a scene where you can meet and talk about the game as well is huge. I have a feeling that’s why Japan has traditionally been so strong in Street Fighter is that the arcade scene allows people to meet up and talk about the game as well as play it.

Missing Person: When can we expect your next analysis video?

mintcheerios: Well, I’m working on one now. I can never say that it’ll be out soon, because nothing is ever soon with the channel. But thanks for the patience guys and I’ll have it out as soon as I can!

Missing Person: Are there any shout-outs that you’d like to give?

mintcheerios: Naturally I want to thank Drakefang for all his sacrifice for the community over here.  Naturally I want to thank all the players over here in Korea—Laugh and Infiltration in particular, since they have helped me a lot with the channel. Plus, everyone who I’ve met in my journey. I’ve met so many people in the FGC that I never thought I’d meet, which has been awesome for me.

If you’ve paid attention to fighting game media on YouTube within the last couple of years, you’ve surely crossed paths with a Core-A Gaming video. From their information on the Korean FGC, to fighting game analysis and even some interviews of Korea’s top players, he has covered nearly everything fighting game-related. Owing to their unique takes on some of the major issues within the scene–interlaced with wild humor and meme usage–the channel has become popular in a very short time.

Recently, I was able to sit down to talk with Gerald “mintcheerios” Lee, the creator and voice behind the videos of Core-A Gaming. One of the most opinionated and intelligent minds in the FGC media, he had a lot to say on the direction of the Korean FGC, which was why he started creating content in the first place.

Corey “Missing Person” Lanier: Gerald, with all the quality content you’ve put out over the last year and a half, you have become quite the fixture in the FGC. What drove you to start putting out content as a relative unknown in the community at large?

Gerald “mintcheerios” Lee: One of the most important things was when Hyounoo “Drakefang” Sung opened a bar called ArcadeStream in Seoul, and it became a place where all the top players could come and play weekly and monthly events on stream. But it was also a dart bar, and a general bar where you could also get food service. When it opened, it was a chance to cover the Korean FGC in a way that it hadn’t been covered before. You’d have all these top players coming in, with all these events happening in Seoul, with no one really covering it. I figured this would be a good opportunity for me to do so, and that’s how the Core-A Gaming channel got started. [Note: as of November 2016, ArcadeStream is now known as DartStream and is solely a dart bar.]

Later, I started doing analysis videos after having a lot of conversations with fighting game players. I thought a lot of these conversations were interesting, and thought that it would be a good idea to put that into a video essay format to see what happened. It turned out pretty good.

Missing Person: With the rise and fall of ArcadeStream, how do you feel this will affect the Korean FGC moving forward?

mintcheerios: Like I said, the main reason I started my channel was to support my local arcade, which was ArcadeStream, and if you look at all my videos prior to its closure, there was always a link to directions on getting to ArcadeStream at the end of my videos. Of course it’s important to have a place where you can go to play these games, and Street Fighter is not in the actual arcades over here. They had Street Fighter IV in some arcades at a certain point, but even those cabinets were getting removed. There are still a couple of places around for the scene to congregate, but they aren’t dedicated to Street Fighter, weeklies, and streaming.

I’m sure that everyone knows in recent years that it’s difficult to run an arcade. Nonetheless, it’s still important to have a scene, and place where people can meet and play these games. It’s kind of a loss to lose ArcadeStream, but I feel like it’s not over yet. I have some plans in regards to that, but some things need to happen first for them to come to fruition. I am trying to reunite the players over here, as all the players really don’t have too many places to go.

Missing Person: Do you feel like there are difficulties within the Street Fighter community in Korea beyond just having a place to play?

mintcheerios: The good thing is the internet here is really good. I recently tweeted what my internet connection looked like, and for the cost of $30 I was getting 100mbps both ways and a ping of 1ms. A lot of the up and coming Street Fighter players in Korea, such as NL and XYZZY, are really far away from Seoul, so they rely solely on online play to practice and improve. I feel like Capcom has moved in the right direction by getting people to play online. Of course, there are still some kinks to work out, but I’m sure they’ll come through.

Missing Person: Do you feel like NL and XYZZY’s travels are helping them, and overall do you think this will help improve the Korean scene?

mintcheerios: I feel like having these players–especially NL, who has been on TV and is a well-known King of Fighters player in Korea–definitely does bring more awareness to the game. It’s amazing because my cousin–who is a Tekken player–he heard about NL playing Street Fighter and decided to give the game a try. When you see these players trying out different games, it inspires you to try as well.

I’m not going to lie, Poongko’s ridiculous Akuma in Tekken 7 inspired me to get into Tekken somewhat, so I’m going to give it more of a shot when it releases on console.

Missing Person: With Tekken and KOF being the biggest games in Korea, and Street Fighter just emerging in the market, are players from other games branching out more with the rise of Street Fighter and the Capcom Pro Tour?

mintcheerios: I think it has waned a bit. Street Fighter had a big push when it first came out. There was a big advertisement for it in Yongsan–the biggest electronics center in Korea–so it had a lot of momentum from that. I think it’s starting to normalize a bit. But there are still a lot of new faces I have never seen before. I think Street Fighter is getting bigger than it’s been since the Street Fighter II days in Korea. It is growing; it’s just not huge. But it is becoming increasingly known. So even it doesn’t hit MOBA levels in the esports realm, it is still steady and consistent.

Missing Person: Talking about new faces in Korea, are there any you could name that people should be looking into?

mintcheerios: A lot of these guys are online warriors, but they do show up to the local tournaments. They do get good online, because with the internet here you can play all the best players in Korea and Japan online with very little lag.

But as far as names, I would look out for Verloren, as he won the Amateur Cup at Southeast Asia Major, and also made it out to Canada Cup as well. His Cammy is ridiculous. There’s also a solid Dhalsim player named Save over here.

I think these are players that are doing well, but all their success is going to depend on how seriously they take the game. I think one of the things about them is going to be support. Even people like Infiltration and Poongko, they were supported by r/Kappa back in the Street Fighter IV days. Even recently, XYZZY has also been sponsored by them. But it just goes to show how difficult it is for these players to get noticed enough to get sponsored for traveling and playing. And because of that, it’s going to be difficult for them to get to Capcom Cup despite their high-level play.

Missing Person: So in Korea, there is an influx of expats living in Korea and playing Street Fighter. Do you think this has helped the Korean FGC out?

Mintcheerios: Not necessarily. The expats and the Koreans don’t really mingle, partly due to the language barrier. Of course when we meet in tournaments, it usually goes well.

But the expats do definitely make their presence felt within the scene here. If you go to any tournament in Korea, you can expect the expats there. But what I like about Street Fighter is how international the game is.

One of the hardest-working tournament organizers in the FGC is Alex Jebailey from Orlando. Having started CEO from the humble origins of salvaging a cancelled event in 2010, it has since grown into one of the largest fighting game events in the world, and has given Jebailey more responsibilities within the community.

While he was at Frosty Faustings IX, I was able to sit down and talk to him about the events, as well as his support of the scene.

Corey “Missing Person” Lanier: Alex, you have a lot going on now. You not only have CEO to worry about, but you have three events to plan for. How are you doing juggling these three events?

Alex Jebailey: I’ll let you know when I’m done with it. [laughs] Seriously though, now that I’m focused on CEO full time, it’s much easier. So far it’s been good. Over the years, I’ve amassed some of the best friends of my life that have helped me. Now, I can delegate better than ever. So now I have people on the promotional side. It’s no longer just me doing the shameless promoting anymore. Word of mouth helps. The community helps. So far, I’m happy.

Sometimes I have to motivate myself. That sort of thing happens when Evo announces their lineup, so I have to get excited about CEO and what I’m going to do with that event. But it hasn’t been easy. It’s funny, because I quit getting nice paychecks from great companies for working twice as hard for less money. But so far, I’m really happy with it. I’m a lot less stressed actually. I’ve lost 15 pounds, which I had gained due to all the stress of working then putting together CEO.

So let’s see how I do with each event. This is the first year for CEO Dreamland–an event just for the Smash community–so I’m going to do it the way they like it. So far, thing are going smoothly. Registration through Smash.gg is so helpful. It’s a great company to have promote your event through social media. It takes a load off of you. It’s more interactive for the community to use and register for events.

Missing Person: How is the community reception so far with Dreamland?

Jebailey: I was at Genesis last week–which is one of the biggest Smash tournaments. A lot of people came up to me that I had never met before and said, “Hey, Jebailey. I’m really excited for Dreamland.” That gets me excited because I do it for the players. But Smash in Florida has always been huge. If it wasn’t for the local community, CEO wouldn’t have grown. If it weren’t for the local Smash community, I wouldn’t have even taken a risk on it.

But it has been a pretty positive reception. And the Smash community is happy, because they see the event and think, “This is perfect. He’s going to do it right, because it’s just our games.” And that stinks, because it’s hard for a lot of people to understand. When you do a large mainstream event like CEO or Evo, you have to do your best for eight or nine different games. But with this event, I can focus solely on them. Plus the other platform fighter communities like Brawlhalla and Rivals of Aether are excited. Hopefully the Brawl community also shows up.

I’m really looking forward to doing this event. I also have a lot of local people that put together the Smash weeklies involved and ready to do it. They have already been involved in bigger events. A lot of the staff that does CEO’s Smash tournaments are involved, and they have also done work with Evo and Genesis. So you have the same people working together to make every event bigger and better. Every event I’ve been to has just been improving. And it motivates me to do better.

Missing Person: Do you feel like Dreamland could take away from the attention Smash gets at CEO?

Jebailey: I think so. A lot of the players really care about doubles play. So I said, “Dreamland is your chance to have doubles, because CEO is going back to focusing on every big game in Singles play.” I think it will take away from CEO. The other problem with CEO is that the venue is the same as last year, and we exceeded capacity. I don’t want it to take away from CEO, but if it does, then I’m okay with that.

With the first year of Dreamland, I’m trying to make it affordable. A lot of Smash events are priced way higher than we are. Rightfully so, because a lot of events need to spend more due to the amount of work we are doing. I still think Smash will be big at both events because the players are hungry, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it does take away from CEO. However, I’m looking at ways to give you a discount to CEO if you attend Dreamland. I’m trying to figure that out right now to make it the most cost-effective.

But with all the pro tours happening for all the titles at CEO, I would be okay if it takes away somewhat. And if somehow it completely detracts from CEO, then I can look at splitting up the two events distinctly. My only concern is that with CEO moving to Daytona Beach to a 20,000 square foot venue next year, I don’t personally want it to completely take away, because I will be able to house so many more people in 2018.

Missing Person: Last year at CEO, you had one of the best exhibition matches of the year between Kenny Omega and Xavier Woods. How do you top that at CEO 2017?

Jebailey: I honestly don’t know how we’re going to top that. That was just a perfect coincidence. We had been talking Xavier Woods for months, but we weren’t sure if he was going to make it. When they announced the WWE show in Orlando on Sunday, it worked out that he booked a red-eye flight Friday, and came in Saturday morning. He let me know that he was coming. We snuck him in and got the exhibition. It worked out amazingly.

As far as this year, we know that Kenny Omega does want to come back. He says he’s 100%. He’s now one of the best wrestlers in the world, so I’m glad I got him before that. We’re going to try to get more wrestlers involved with exhibitions. If it happens, it’ll be amazing. It’ll be hard to top it. He may have to put me through a table this time instead of superkicking me. I’ve been working out, so I’ll look better this year. Last year was just one of those perfect moments that came together perfectly. But I’m going to try to do another exhibition of some sort, and hope it comes together well.

Missing Person: You’ve been well known for running a pro wrestling theme at CEO. What inspiration does pro wrestling give you in running your events?

Alex Jebailey: I just love the crowd reactions. The storylines of WWE are good and bad here and there, but I still keep watching because the performers put on a great show. I think the way CEO is themed helps bring out the personalities of a lot of players. Like when you see K-Brad and Dieminion’s entrances, you can see that. But you’re playing a fighting game–two people head to head with each other, winner survives. It’s the same thing in wrestling. There’s no big bumps or spots like in wrestling. People like to entertain and have fun on stage. I like seeing the pop-offs, and I think the theme really is the perfect mold for fighting games.

Actually, after the exhibition with Kenny and Xavier, the Squared Circle subreddit was posting about CEO. People who watch pro wrestling didn’t know that fighting games were as popular as they are. So then they also become interested in the events. But it’s just perfect synergy.

Missing Person: What would be your dream pro wrestling fighting game exhibition? Let’s just assume hypothetically that they can all play fighting games.

Jebailey: Shawn Michaels–who is one of my favorites–and Chris Jericho would be an amazing person to have at the event. The Miz and Seth Rollins both play video games. A lot of them game now. I met Sasha Banks in person and she loves gaming. I also have a friend who is close with her significant other, so I think any of those would be entertaining and would love to have them out.

It would be awesome if all of The New Day would come out. But Kenny vs. Xavier was so amazing that any other wrestler would have a hard time topping it. Just the fact that they were both good at Street Fighter V and they knew what they were doing. It wasn’t just a crappy match for entertainment. That was actually where the face of “Jebaited” came. When I was watching, Tempus Rob took a picture of me. So I don’t know how it can get better than those two. But other people? I would consider The Rock obviously as well as Stone Cold. Anybody would be awesome.

Missing Person: So perhaps a team exhibition between The New Day and The Bullet Club would work?

Jebailey: A team exhibition would be awesome. I don’t know how good the rest of them are, but we’ll see what we can do for this year.

Missing Person: You’re one of the few tournament organizers that show up to other events over the course of the year. What’s your biggest motivator for that?

Jebailey: I’m still a player. I still love to compete. I’m actually in Top 4 of Capcom vs. SNK 2 at Frosty, and also made Top 4 in Soul Calibur II [Jebailey finished 2nd in CvS2, and also made Top 4 in Divekick at the event], so I’m big into the old man games. I haven’t gotten into Street Fighter V like I did with Street Fighter IV, but Balrog is better in season 2 so I’m trying to get better.

But I also like supporting other TOs like Rick from Combo Breaker, and he goes to a lot of the same events I do. We’re busy guys, but if it weren’t for these communities, our events wouldn’t exist. And Mike from Frosty Faustings, is also the lighting guy for Combo Breaker and CEO, so I want to support him as well, because he did a great job at CEO for the entrances.

This will probably be the last event I get to travel to that isn’t work related for quite a while. Combo Breaker will likely be the next I go to. With Dreamhack and all the event planning I’m doing, I have a lot of work to do. So this my last real weekend to have fun. Once I get back to Orlando, I’m going to be hard at work on CEO. I just enjoy being out here with the community. I still eat like crap when I’m on the road. That and losing sleep is the downfall, but just going to these events and meeting people.

It’s different now. When I went to events before, no one really knew who I was. Now, it’s really cool when I go out, and people say, “Hey, Jebailey, I love what you do. I love CEO,” and I ask, “Have you been out to one?” They usually say, “No, not a one.” [laughs] But I still enjoy these events.

Missing Person: As a TO, when you travel to events, do you find stuff that you can incorporate into your events?

Jebailey: Definitely. Everything I have learned has either been from competing in professional collectible card game events back in the early 2000s, early Final Rounds, or going to Evo every year. I’m always taking things in. I learned a lot of new stuff from Genesis last week. So my mind is always figuring out how to make things better.

That’s another big reason why I go to these events. I like to see how they work, how they do their scheduling, how they organize their documents, and their preparation. Everyone has their own style. But you need to keep your mind open. I keep telling people that being a TO is sometimes a thankless job, but the experience that you gain that you can translate into an actual job is amazing. Just to name a few, you can learn things like travel planning, organization, project management, social media skills. There are so many things that a TO is responsible for that is really going to help you. Whether I’m doing this in five years or not, all of this experience has already changed my life.

You always want to take feedback and learn from that and just have an open mind. You may be doing something for years that you think is great. But somebody could find a way to do it better that you could also adopt. I learn something new every single time I go to an event.

Missing Person: Speaking of constructive criticism and improvements, you caught a lot of heat last year for some of the criticism you had for Final Round 19. Do you think that this is something that Larry [Dixon] has listened to and possibly has helped improved the event for this year?

Jebailey: We, unfortunately, haven’t spoken since then. But I know that all the people around him are wanting to do a great job this year. I–unfortunately–won’t be there, because Killer Instinct World Cup is running at the same time. I would certainly love to help him out, and hope it’s a great event.

I don’t ever wish bad on any events. I just wish sometimes that things would change a little bit. They’ve been doing it for many years. My advice though would be to never do what I did. I turned a lot of people against me, but a lot of people also spoke up and said, “Thank you. I thought no one would listen to me, and you said what I was thinking.”

Missing Person: But as a fellow TO, when you see something you perceive as wrong, you feel the responsibility to speak up, right?

Jebailey: Absolutely. I wouldn’t consider myself a control freak, but I believe that I can do things right and know people that can also do things right. I want to see that passed along to other people as well. Our events are growing faster than ever. One of the things I criticized at Final Round was their lack of space, but then I went past capacity the same year. There were a lot of things that happened at Final Round that I also experienced. The pressure was on, and I did the best I could to bounce back from it. The event still turned out great. But I wish Final Round well, and hope it does well this year. But from now on, I’m going to be more hands off on the negative side of other events. If they want to run things their own way, and it doesn’t go well, let the community speak up. If they listen, great. If they don’t, it’s on them.

But every event has stepped it up lately. NEC looked amazing this year, and the Pokkén community have been really happy with the way things were handled at NEC and Final Round. But never do what I did. I did it out of passion, and as a customer, I felt like I had a right to speak up. But I could’ve done it differently. In hindsight, I had to say something. And now, I hope they take it as constructive criticism and improve. I know I also made mistakes last year, and I intend to do my best to fix them.

Missing Person: CEO actually started seven years ago out of the worst of situations. A big tournament, called G.A.M.M.E. cancelled under very shady circumstances, and you stepped up to salvage a horrible situation. Did you think that CEO would grow to the proportions it is now out of that?

Jebailey: Not as fast as it did. I knew that with the experience I had, I knew that it could be big. One of the biggest inspirations–and not many people know about this–has been that Evo spoke to me around 2012, and they told me that they were proud of what I was doing, and to keep it up. The Road to Evo was around the same time as this, and that started to connect the community together.

But to be humble for a second, when I started CEO, I was just a fan of fighting games. Fast forward six years later, I worked with Iron Galaxy on Killer Instinct. I’ve worked with Esports companies. I’ve worked with Nintendo. I’m on the Capcom Pro Tour. I’m a character in a fighting game. I never thought in a million years that I would accomplish all of that. And I’m still going.

I’m not sure how big CEO can get, because there’s always comparisons. I always go to Evo every year and support it. But people always think, “You’re never going to be huge, why think like that?” I disagree. You should be the best event you can be. So I’ve always wanted to grow, and I dreamed big. And now in 2018, I’ll have the opportunity to see what I can really do with space. It’s not going to fill a 20,000 person capacity. If I can hit 4,000 or 5,000 people in a new city, that will be a success. We hit 4,900 people at CEO last year. I didn’t think we’d get there that fast.

I’m also happy that Combo Breaker is as big as it is now. We need more events like this. And now that Capcom’s supporting all these different events, I expect that other companies will jump on board. Never in a million years did I expect to be doing this full time. When I started, I was working a family business, seven days a week, no weekends off. I could barely travel. Now I’m traveling the world. Iron Galaxy sent me to Japan. I’ve done so many amazing things. I’m grateful for it; I honestly am.

Now with all my events, my goal is to teach other people to do what I do. I’m an open book to anyone that has questions. I love to pass my knowledge down. I’ve even considering starting a podcast soon, where I get to give advice and talk about some of the fun interactions I have with some of these players.

Missing Person: Any initial advice that you’d give to aspiring TOs?

Jebailey: The first thing people always ask me is, “How do I put on a huge event on my first try?” It doesn’t work like that. I did maybe 30 or 40 locals before CEO. It takes time. When people ask me how much it costs to put on a tournament, I tell them, “Whatever it takes.” If you want to put on a good event, you need to invest whatever you can afford. Once you create a positive experience, it turns into something bigger.

You’re going to lose sleep putting on these events. Learn to trust people right away. It took me a few years to start delegating down. I was still handling registration at the event at CEO 2010. I was still running brackets and calling them out 2 to 3 years later. But now, I trust people. Definitely give opportunities to people coming to you eager to help. Those are the guys that really want to help and want the event to succeed.

Don’t burn bridges like I did. Network a lot. I have a business card for nearly everyone in the industry now. Just take it slow, and build it up. It’s very difficult to catch up to the established majors. In Smash it’s different. Shine was a major success. But after Genesis, Smash had a major TO summit meeting, and after that meeting, several people came up to me and said that they got started being a TO because of CEO.

So any time that any one has a question about running events, all they need to do is come ask me.

Christopher “NYChrisG” Gonzalez has had a roller coaster year. From winning Evo 2016 after several years of struggling to make it to the top, going through the ringer for his rant about Street Fighter V, then getting signed by Evil Geniuses in the mass free agency period. At Frosty Faustings IX, I sat down with Chris to talk about everything that’s happened in this last year, all things Marvel, and what exactly happened after he won Marvel at Evo.

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Corey “Missing Person” Lanier: Chris, you had one of the best years of your life last year, with the Evo 2016 win at Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3.

Christopher “NYChrisG” Gonzalez: Actually, to be honest, it was one of the worst years of my life, aside from winning Marvel.

Missing Person: Really? How did that come about?

NYChrisG: Being in New York and such, I had a sponsorship, and I went everywhere. Even if it was a 20-man tournament. I was on the grind 24/7. Things were going well. When I moved to the West Coast, things didn’t pan out how I wanted. I started traveling a lot less. To make matters worse, I didn’t have a sponsor. Two years ago, when I got 9th at Evo, I was playing League of Legends all day. Even the night before Evo, I was playing League instead of Marvel. When I got 9th, it really hit me. I started wondering, “Wow, what happened?”

As the months went by, I decided to play League less, and to start building up my stream. Things were starting to go well, but I still didn’t have a sponsor, so I still wasn’t traveling so much. When Street Fighter V was released, I couldn’t really show my progress in the game. A few people were approaching me with sponsorship offers, but none of them were worthwhile pursuing.

Honestly, when Evo 2016 came around, I wasn’t even planning on going.

Missing Person: Really?

NYChrisG: Yeah, but the thing was, someone I knew was working with a team who was interested in me. But for some reason, they wanted to wait until after Evo to talk to me. This guy sponsored me himself to go to Evo. He paid for the entirety of my trip, and put me up with him for the weekend. When I won Evo, it was kind of weird how everything had to fall into place a certain way for it to happen.

I figured that this year was going to be the biggest year for Marvel, and getting on the stage at Mandalay Bay was super important. In the months leading up to the event, I trained really hard. You could see in the matches leading up to Top 8 that I was shaking violently; I wanted to get on the stage so bad. Even though I was confident that I could make Top 8, the pressure to do so made it super hard for some reason.

When I finally made top 8, I was much more comfortable and was able to approach my matches more easily.

Missing Person: You looked more comfortable than I’ve ever seen you play during Top 8.

NYChrisG: Exactly. It felt easier going through everybody, because to be honest, FOX|Justin [Wong] was my hardest match.

Missing Person: I know he’s been a demon for you in Marvel for a long time.

NYChrisG: We have always gone back and forth, and we’ve played each other at Evo every year. I think I beat him first, then he beat me the next two years. Then I beat him last year off-stream to put him into loser’s bracket. Then Top 8 [in 2016] was pretty much a tiebreaker for us, and I pulled the win out.

Missing Person: You basically played like you had nothing to lose.

NYChrisG: Yeah, we were already up on the biggest stage fighting games had ever seen! It was win-win at that point! After Justin, things just seemed easier. I was able to 3-0 everyone leading up to Kane Blueriver. I managed to lose the first game to Kane, but then that was that. I buckled down and got the next six straight. Then it was just pure relief. After these last two years of being in Southern California struggling, to finally have that big sigh of relief, it was suddenly worth it.

But I was so in the zone at the time, that when I won, I was sitting down ready to keep beating Kane. When they finally said I won, I thought, “Wait, really? Damn, I finally won!” It was crazy to think that I could finally pull it off on that stage.

And people still believed that I could do it. And amazingly, everyone wanted me to do it. Obviously, before, I was the villain of Marvel. Everyone acted like, “ChrisG hasn’t won Evo, but screw him anyway! He doesn’t deserve to win Evo.” I guess last year, finally people recognized my effort and said, “You have to end this. You have to get the monkey off your back.”

Missing Person: With the Evo win, something stereotypically Marvel happened. What exactly was going on between you and the guy that people now refer to as “The Ghost of Marvel,” who jumped on stage and confronted you after your win?

NYChrisG: That was the biggest question mark I’ve ever had to witness or be a part of. The stream chat still asks me every day about it. “What did that guy say to you on stage? Who was that guy?”

First of all, apparently this guy was playing casuals all weekend, but people stopped wanting to play with him because he seemed off. What I’m thinking happened is that he came up on stage just to play. I have no idea why he thought that he could. But somehow he thought it was okay.

Regardless of that, prior to the Top 8, he had a shirt on when he came into Mandalay. And when he came up on stage, he didn’t have his shirt on or even with him. And somehow, no one saw him when he rushed the stage! It’s like he pulled an Unsolved Mystery with security. I’m on stage reveling in my win, elated that I pulled this off. Justin gives me a hug. Then I turn around and this guy is right in my face! At first I think, “Alright, maybe it’s a fan. Maybe he’s just giving me props.”

He says, “Congratulations,” and reaches his hand out to shake mine. I thank him and grab his hand and shake it. Then all of a sudden, I try to let go and turn back around, but he was still holding on to me. I turn back around and he looks at me with a deadpan face and says something along the lines of, “You’re not done here. You can’t leave. You have to play me.”

And I was just stunned. Then he shows me his controller, and I’m thinking to myself, “What the hell?” But I just look at him and say, “No, I can’t.” [laughs] But it was weird, because I had no clue what to do while he was legitimately clutching my hand for ten seconds. For some reason, when I turned back around, I patted him the shoulder. I didn’t know what else to do! This was an awkward situation!

But then for some reason, he decides to go sit down and plug his controller in at the station! That’s when [Mr. Wizard] decided, “Yo, this isn’t happening. Does anybody know this guy?” Then they called for security.

The funny thing was, that right after that, security was heightened for the rest of the games.

Missing Person: Only Marvel, right?

NYChrisG: Only in Marvel can the ultimate thuggery such as this happen.

Missing Person: Because I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking that the guy just immediately said, “Money match me now.”

NYChrisG: It would’ve been better if he had said that! It was really weird, because he’s saying that I can’t even leave. Seriously? His face was so serious, that it was crazy, and I had no idea what he could’ve done! I was starting to wonder, “Am I going to have to hit this guy if he doesn’t let go of my hand?”

Missing Person: Fast forward to 2017, and you’re now signed with Evil Geniuses. How do you feel after waiting so long for a sponsor?

NYChrisG: It’s a huge relief. Before I got sponsor, I was having to do it all on my own. I was going to tournaments, but when I started doing really well, I started feeling like I needed to get rewarded for my success.

When I started seeing people losing their sponsors left and right and teams disbanding, I started getting concerned. I started wondering if this was really the direction of the FGC. When all these random teams were approaching me, I couldn’t accept. I was concerned that they weren’t legitimate.

Despite 2016 being one of my most difficult years, it seemed like just before the ball dropped on 2017, everything aligned. I won Evo, I was a free agent. Then with the second season of Street Fighter V, Injustice 2 being announced–with me being strong in the original–the port of Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 being released on PlayStation 4, and then Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite got announced! Suddenly it felt like 2017 would be my year. I was really excited.

I was working on deals with other people, and my stream was getting big in less than a year. Things were actually looking pretty up. Shortly after that, Evil Geniuses contacted me. I was always close with the guys in EG, but it never really panned out for me to join. It was really weird how everything fell into place for me to join.

So now I’m here wearing this jersey, and they are treating me really well. I get to travel again. I don’t have to worry about all the things I was worried about.

Missing Person: What is your wish list for Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite? I know you have to have some ideas in mind.

NYChrisG: I have a list. I do want Gambit, because apparently the X-Men could be DLC. Actually, in Marvel vs. Capcom 2, I mained Charlie [Nash], and I’ve also liked him throughout the vs. series, so I would like to have him back. I do have my Morrigan already. But if I could name some other Capcom characters, I would go with Bass from Mega Man. On the Marvel side, my biggest character would be Nightcrawler.

Missing Person: That’s an interesting one, and one that hasn’t been in a Vs. game yet.

NYChrisG: Which is crazy, because the Vs. series is all about going ham. Wesker plays like how I would expect Nightcrawler to play. If Wesker doesn’t make the roster, I would like a character that is pretty similar to him, which would be Nightcrawler.

Missing Person: With Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, you’ve banked your career on Morrigan/Doctor Doom/Vergil. How do you play that team competitively in tournaments and not suffer from carpal tunnel syndrome at this point?

NYChrisG: [laughs] It’s really stressful to play that team for a full day. If I play casuals at an event, I hold back and don’t do Astral Vision a lot. I’m trying not to tire myself out for the tournament. To keep going in Marvel for a full day while also playing other events, it’s just not worth it. With me playing more lately, I’m cutting back on not going all out all the time, and to conserve my hand strength.

Missing Person: Do you feel like Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is going to make it in to Evo 2017, with the Players’ Choice voting?

NYChrisG: Yes, it’s looking like it’s boiling down to three titles in Killer Instinct, Pokkén Tournament, and Marvel. There’s always a chance that some trolls that want to see the world burn that will spend a mass amount to see a title like ARMS or Nidhogg take the slot. They could do that without ever actually having played or spectated the game. I’ve already seen people putting up pages to donate “for a good cause,” and hiding that it’s for these games.

It’s a weird thing. Because in 2013, Melee got in and it revitalized the scene. But if your game doesn’t win, people are going to feel dejected, and kind of want their money back. But I’d love to see Marvel get back in, but with a set up like this, you never know

Missing Person: How do you feel about a chance to repeat in it?

NYChrisG: It would be great, and there’s a lot of people in the scene supporting this game to make it possible. There’s a ton of donors that are just throwing in $5, because that’s the most they have. I mean, with Marvel, the players aren’t always the most well off financially. But you can tell by the amount of donors that there’s still a huge draw for the game. But with the way the voting works, someone could swoop in at zero hour and create a huge windfall for a random game and Marvel is out.

Missing Person: With Street Fighter V, you’ve definitely put in your two cents on how you feel the changes have affected the game. Are you feeling anything differently since?

NYChrisG: Well, to put it in perspective, I played Street Fighter V teams at Frosty Faustings with Liquid|NuckleDu and PG|RayRay. We did pretty good, but still lost. And we always lost in the same ways–either getting hit by wake-up jabs or thrown. This happened both in winners and losers bracket. How is that a thing?

Missing Person: Do still you feel like making only EX Dragon Punches completely invincible is a bad idea?

NYChrisG: That’s the thing, because it’s apparent the developers sat down and saw that everyone was doing wake-up DPs, but everyone is still doing this stuff! Nothing has changed! Just the other day, I played a Ken, and every time I did a meaty standing roundhouse, he would just wake up with DP and it still hit me! The invincibility is still technically there on frame three, but I’m still getting hit by this stuff even if I think I’ve timed my meaty right. And if DP was such a problem, then why am I still getting hit with wake-up jab?

All of our meaties were getting tagged [in the team tournament]. NuckleDu got hit out of a meaty, then looked at me and said, “I’m almost positive I timed that correctly.” But he clearly didn’t because he lost! It sucks because no matter how perfect you play, those little things are still a huge factor. Of course, you can always say, “Just time your moves better.” But I still feel as though that’s a huge flaw. Everyone is losing that way. It’s really weird how they tried to balance this game out. But, oh well.

Missing Person: I did catch you on one of your tournament streams on your Twitch channel, and caught you playing Ibuki. You actually said that you were enjoying her and Urien more than Guile at this point.

NYChrisG: It’s because no matter how perfect I’m playing with Guile, I’m still losing in the same ways. With Guile, you learn to play safe, but sometimes it’s too safe. I like to be patient but I still love combos. I do want to go in even with defensive characters in every game I play. But if I go with Guile, I immediately regret it.

When I picked up Ibuki, I realized that she is all buttons and hit confirms. It’s a sharp contrast with Guile. With Guile, you have to commit yourself to things, and hope that they can hit. With Ibuki I can just press buttons until something hits and I get a free combo. It’s weird because it’s showing results.

Missing Person: Could we see a major change for you in the coming months?

NYChrisG: I’m just trying to play the game as it is now. You can only base what you’re doing on what is getting results. Do you follow suit, or do you play a defensive zoning style that ultimately loses more than it wins?

Urien is pretty much a hybrid between the two for me. I can either zone all day, or I can push a lot of buttons and disrespect everyone. I like the characters and how they play, but I feel like it’s dumb that we’re watching these kinds of lackluster endings because of the system changes. It feels like everyone is just rolling dice, and I hate that in video games.

I also feel like the flow of the game is weird. Because a lot of other games, even if you see that something’s boring, you know why it’s working and why it wins. But in Street Fighter V the series of events in order to get a win feels disjointed as a spectator.

Missing Person: Do you feel that if Capcom scales back some of these changes, will it work to assuage the frustrations people have with the game?

NYChrisG: The damage was done before the game even came out. As the game progressed, the top tier characters were still good at spacing, and it was like you’re still playing Street Fighter. But now it feels like everyone is in a blender. It’s just ugly.

I don’t know how the next patch is going to pan out. But hopefully some tweaks will happen. I just hope that they change how wake ups work in this game, maybe stalling wake-ups by a frame or two. If it keeps up at the pace that things are going, it’s going to be trouble. With online, most players are stuck in Bronze. It was easy for me to get Gold, but with 90% of people that are active still being in Bronze, that’s a problem.

I often have people in my stream chat asking what they can do to get out of the lower ranks, and I just tell them, “Maybe you should do what is beating you yourself.” Which is sad, because you can’t really play your style with this game. I still play my way because it’s fun. But when I have to resort to doing dice rolling to win, then it drives me nuts. I don’t want to do that, but if the game dictates it, then that’s what you have to do.

Even if the tournament numbers are still strong, if you can’t rake in the casuals because of DLC problems, and you have to pay for everything with real money because Fight Money is bad, then you can’t sustain the game.