Get Your Tournament - Interviews
GLENN: How excited are you to broadcast Evolution?
LOUIS: I'm very excited, especially with the home announcement. Evo has been kind of a spectator event for me the past two years, so it feel great to actually contribute to the event.
GLENN: Was this something you had even thought would be a reality when you started broadcasting?
LOUIS: It was definitely a goal, but not something that I envisioned would happen in 6 months. When I started casting, I figured it would take me 6 months to develop a stable stream and event, then 1.5 to 2 years for top streamers/players to notice the quality/production of my streams. Doing WNF after 1 month of broadcasting put me on the fast track.
GLENN: When you were asked to help out, how long did it take you to think about it, or did you say "Yes" right away?
LOUIS: I said yes right away, but then hesitated afterwards. I used up a lot of my PTO and surplus cash doing UFGT and Revelations so I did not think I would have the resources to properly support Evo. After I figured that it may be a one-time opportunity and that I would work with Finest KO, I confirmed my involvement.
GLENN: What's going to be the challenge for you either before or during the event?
LOUIS: I think the biggest challenge will be dealing with the pace of the smaller pools. In the other majors I have done the pools were large and easy to manage, but I feel these small quick pools will keep me on my toes.
GLENN: Any surprises during the broadcast, or will it be a straight up broadcast of the tournaments?
LOUIS: I know I'm known for including "random" or "trolling" elements on my broadcasts, but the truth is that this is Evo. This is the time to show off our community and present it to the world. A "straight up" broadcast may sound boring, but to me it means you have a director who knows how to frame and cut to shots that create drama and tension. The goal is to present the intensity of the competition. Any surprises will come from the players and matches.
GLENN: Any picks for the tournaments at Evo? Who do you think will win or shock people?
LOUIS: Since our games are Mortal Kombat, Tekken 6 and BlazBlue, I feel ...
- MK: Chris G
- T6: Bronson Tran
- BB: Tokido
I feel a lot of upsets in our cast will happen in MK. I feel Sektroll from SoCal will upset a lot of people unfamiliar with the matchup and on that note I feel a lot of SoCal Tekken players will upset the favorites in MK. That community has really adopted the game and attempted to master it.
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This is a four-part series called "The Team Concept," where we explore what has happened in the year since Justin Wong has joined Evil Geniuses. How have players in fighting games been affected by teams and organizations coming into this realm?
Dominion Method Gaming is a name in the fighting game community that has been around for a couple years. There are about a dozen players in the organization and the majority of them have made their presence known consistently in tournaments. Two players — Ryan "Inthul" Burke and Eduardo "Puerto Rico Balrog" Perez have made finals in an Evolution 2011 circuit event this year. Others have been regular visitors to the Salty Conflict Online tournament series. And that's just a small sample of their recent reach.
Earlier this month, I did an interview with Jose Rodriguez, aka Hyena, the leader of DMG. He didn't leave any fluff, saying that the burden of a team being a success is put on both the players and the leaders. Prospective signees to team, as he mentions in this interview, sometimes don't realize what they're getting into.
Here's the interview I had with Hyena about DMG, teams and the future.
More after the jump ...
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MILPITAS - While at NorCal Regionals 9, I had an opportunity to spend a few minutes with Joshua "Wolfkrone" Philpot on several subjects, including the changes in Super Street Fighter IV, as well as his placing in the Evolution 2011 tournament series. This interview was done before he finished in the top four of the tournament, and there also is some audio issues. The other part of this interview will come later in the week, but for now, listen in to what he has to say.
Interview with Wolfkrone
Interview with Floe about Street Fighter x Tekken no comments
The guys at MyMaddenPad have an interview up with Patrick "Kornstar" Shaw, one of the two finalists in the Virgin Gaming Madden 11 tournament. Kornstar will be playing tomorrow at 11 a.m. CT for the title against Carlos Yancy. It'll be a matchup of two Madden stars who have long had their footing in the community.
Here's part of the interview, where Kornstar talks about what he needs to do and how tough Los is.
Shopmaster: So you are in the finals and will be in Dallas for Super Bowl Weekend, but more importantly a chance to win 5K and some nice prizes, what do you need to do to win in the finals?no commentsKSTARR: Just run my offense and get a stop. I feel like if I get a stop I should win, if I get 2 it’s a lock I win.
Shopmaster: Have you played Los; your opponent, before and if so what happened in those games?
KSTARR: I have, and he’s been my madden kryptonite to this point. Never beaten los and he’s stopped me from winning big tournaments in the final 4 but we’ve never played on a stage this big and with this must at stake. We’ve played in tournaments 3 times and his record is 3-0 over me. We last played about a month ago at this big west coast tournament in the final 4 where he won off a last second field goal.
You can check out both interviews after the jump ...
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Gamerbee, the newly minted champion of Seasons Beatings V, took some time to talk to Protocol Snow right after he won the tournament. He was humble when asked about his standing in the community, be it locally and globally.
You can check out the whole interview on the Protocol Snow site.
So in the past, you’ve been a good player but maybe not quite top level status. Now that you’re one of the top players in the world, can you talk about what you worked on to help you reach the top? Is it improving your mental game, execution, motivation, or other factors?
I don’t consider myself a top player. Maybe in the Taiwanese scene, I am a top player. But on the worldwide stage, I am not a top player, especially when compared to Japan. My philosophy is that if I want to get better, I can’t consider myself a top player. I have to constantly fight better competition to improve myself and not get stagnant. If I start thinking that I am a top player, I will become complacent and will not work as hard.
I still have a lot of areas to improve in, such as experience and reaction speeds. I win a lot of matches that I don’t deserve to win. In Super Street Fighter 4, often the winner of a match can go either way. Luck plays a role in SSF4. I want to improve my skill to the level where I can control the match from beginning to end.
no commentsJason "Mew2King" Zimmerman knows where he stands. Is there any doubt right now that he's the best Brawl player in the nation? He's won all three Major League Gaming regionals and won a couple major grass roots tournaments. He's been nearly unstoppable in this game.
If you needed to pick one player in any game to win a game and your life is saved, you would consider Mew2King.
In an interview with MLG, Mew2King is asked about his tournament run as well as his status as the best player in the nation in Brawl as well as Melee.
Hmmm, I guess I would say I'm the best overall. I'm currently the best at Brawl, and in Melee I'm between 2nd and 4th (Mango is easily the best Melee player; it's too bad he doesn't want to play Brawl). Mango actually considers me the second best Melee player, but I do not feel I am second best just because I have trouble beating Hbox and Armada.
I don't know if I've made the most money, but I am trying to achieve that distinction. A lot of times that the money was big I had bad luck, and I got just outside the money placings at the MLG 06 Vegas finals and Evo World in Melee in 07. Because of reasons like that, along with travel expenses, I cannot be sure I made the most. The money that I do make is used almost entirely on college, family, and travel expenses. I gave my mom a little over $10,000 because she needed it about a year and a half ago. But as long as I'm doing the right thing with the money I win (I think family and college are good uses for it), then I don't mind that much.
A lot can happen in a decade. In the tournament scene, that can translate to hundreds of tournaments. Reepal "Rip" Parbhoo has captured a lot of the spotlight, continuing to contend for the major championships. He finished second at Evolution 2010 in July and won the qualifying tournament for Super Battle Opera a couple weeks ago.
This weekend, he's in the running for another major championship, the World Cyber Games' United States title. Reach the final match in the tournament, and he'll be awarded a spot in the WCG Grand Final later this year.
The journey to get to this weekend's tournament wasn't the normal route. He had to win an online qualifier just to earn a spot. He ended up being the last player to qualify. This weekend, Rip will take his trusty Law -- something he's been doing for more than a decade -- to Los Angeles with hopes of reaching the top.
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GLENN: I think you were one of the final qualifiers. Did you try to participate earlier in the series, and how did those matches go?RIP: Thats correct, I qualified in the very last online qualifier. The only other qualifier I participated in previously was the second to last qualifier hehe, and I got rolled 6 rounds to 0 in the first round of that tournament. That was my first match online since Tekken 6 came out on console and I got beat by an online pro. I most definitely was not prepared for it. I think the player I lost to actually won the qualifier as well, so she should be in the US Nationals event as well.
GLENN: How much did the online factor play into your matches?
RIP: Tremendously. As most people know, Tekken 6 online does not play the same as Tekken 6 offline. Offline the game is based more on reaction and spacing while online that goes out the window and its more about mind games. The USA is rather large as well, so when matches had to be played cross country we had to deal with even more lag. It made some matches way more stressful than they should have been.
GLENN: You've been in a lot of major title matches over the past year. What's the mindset that you had going into those, and what will it be for this weekend?
RIP: My mindset will be no different. I try to not overthink anything, not underestimate anyone, and just play Tekken the same way I always play. I screwed up in Evo's grand finals by not sticking to that gameplan, but its a lesson learned. With my years of experience, I've learned to adapt very well, but with this tournament in particular, I feel like I'm going to be adapting to the tournament structure more than I'll be adapting to my opponents. From what I've heard its going to be a multi-round round robin tournament structure which I am not familiar with, so thats going to be a new challenge for me. Also, since the tournament is being run on 360's I'll be using stick 100% of the way through. I've been refining my stick play, so this will be good practice for SBO.
GLENN: How much do you know about the players competing this weekend? I saw a few familiar names.
RIP: Honestly, I don't know a whole lot about them. About 50% of them are primarily online players, so they are real wildcards in this tournament. Their playstyle will probably get them some victories because its so different from what offline tournament players are used to. Some of the familiar faces I noticed were Rickstah, Kasht, and The Game. I've also heard that FightingGM is coming down this weekend to LA. I know he won a WCG tournament in NYC, so perhaps they've invited him to participate in this tournament as well.
GLENN: You can't say yourself - Who are some strong contenders this weekend?
RIP: The strong contenders in my eyes are FightingGM (I'm going to assume he's in the tournament), The Game, Kasht, and the big underdog is Rickstah. I think we'll see Rickstah causing some awesome upsets at this event. Hopefully I'm not one of them!
GLENN: What makes Law 'your' character? Also, how long have you gone with him?
RIP: Law has been my character since Tekken 1 so its been about 15 years (yikes)! It was the first character my friend taught me in the arcade for the game, and I stuck with him ever since. In Tekken 1 seeing him do flip kicks and run up someones body was enough for me.
GLENN: Do you have a secondary character lined up for the weekend, or will you go Law the whole way?
RIP: A lot of people have separate 'online' characters, however I have always been and will always be a Law player.
GLENN: I think you have explained the 'putting the pad to your face' thing you do during matches? When/how did that all start and has it become second nature now?
RIP: Hehe, I'm just blowing warm air on it to give the pad some moisture so its easier for my thumb to slide across it faster. I honestly don't remember when it started, but I would bet it was sometime that it was too cold to use the pad effectively and I needed a little something extra. When I play on pad it pretty much is second nature. I even do it on other peoples pads and enjoy watching them get grossed out by it haha.
GLENN: Anyone specifically that you want to face in the finals, and why?
RIP: Rickstah. Because I want to see SOCAL take #1 and #2.
Picture by Kelly Bracha.
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Daigo Umehara wouldn't mind Yun and Rolento in the updated version of Super Street Fighter IV. This was one of his comments he made to The Gaming Vault during the Super vs Battle tournament last month in the U.K.
The Gaming Vault posted the interview on Saturday, where they had talked to Daigo about various tournament and game topics.
Here's some of the questions and responses:
What’s your preferred practice method? Do you like practicing online, or do you feel it’s a far better help to play with your opponent next to you at an arcade or tournament?
With Super Street Fighter IV, I haven’t had much choice. It’s had to be online as Super is a completely different game and isn’t in the arcades yet, of course. Until then, it has to be online, but that may change when the arcade release comes about.
Do you feel a stick is absolutely necessary to get to a top level? We’ve seen some amazing pad players like Vangief on a regular pad and Shizza with the Mad Catz FightPad at Evo – but do you feel, as many do, that a stick is just superior?
In Japan, it’s a very different culture – it’s all about arcades – and I will never change, I am far too used to it. But, there are a lot of people in Europe and America who use the consoles, and there are many great players already out there who have made a name for themselves on the control pad. It’s definitely possible, but we’ll have to wait and see if even more pad players reach championship level in the future.
Picture by Kara Leung.
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