PASADENA - I had a chance to catch up with Shizza after he won the LA Riots III tournament. He talks about the final match against Mike Ross, his run in the tournament, and his battle against his friend Onlinetony213.

You can listen to the interview below.

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TORRANCE - Hugo101 will be participating in the LA Riots III tournament, scheduled to take place Sunday night in Pasadena. It's Hugo's first appearance in the tournament series, and he'll be one of two players making their debut.

I caught up with Hugo at the LA Button Mashers event on Saturday and he talked about participating in the event, what he has to do against first-round opponent Mike Ross (he lost the previous match) and the matches he'd like to see.

You can listen to the podcast below.

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Daigo Umehara answers more questions from his fans and followers, and you can check them out on the Capcom blog. Daigo goes into detail about playing competitively, and there are a lot of tips.

One of the questions asked was about how he views opponents:

You said you could quickly categorize play style of your opponent.  What types of categories do you have?

I start with breaking them into two large categories. One is the type loyal to theories. The other is the type that is loyal to his intuitions. From there, I further break them into smaller groupings; for instance, aggressive or passive, high-risk & high-return, or low-risk & low-return. I analyze a player against those categories and figure out his play style.

Check out more on the Capcom blog.

LOS ANGELES - On Thursday I had a chance to team up with Robert of Coin-Op TV to do a podcast with Seth Killian of Capcom. Seth was in the area showcasing Hakan in Super Street Fighter IV, and Robert and I had the opportunity to play as Hakan for a few minutes.

After a few minutes playing Hakan, I like him. I think he's going to be one of those unorthodox characters in tournament play that pisses off a lot of opponents that don't know how to play defense. If I were to play competitively again, I probably wouldn't go with Hakan as my main, but he'd be a secondary character.

Oiling up will be the biggest key, as Seth mentions in the podcast. The ability to move a little bit during a focus was really interesting. And Hakan's range was a big standout when messing around with him from the get go.

Seth and I mostly discuss the good and bad of Hakan in this podcast. But we also touch on some other subjects, including a few goodies expected to be unveiled when the game comes out, as well as the possibility of Super Street Fighter IV coming to a couple leagues.

You can listen to the podcast below.

Second picture by Robert Welkner. Find out more about Robert and Coin-Op TV at www.coin-op.tv.

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This was a short interview I did a couple months ago with Chet Chetty, the national Tekken 6 champion. He's used Paul Phoenix for a long time and stayed with him through the transition to Tekken 6. In this interview, we talk about all things Paul.

You can listen to the podcast below.

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Earlier today, Seth Killian posted an entry on the Capcom Unity blog, where Daigo Umehara answered questions from the community about himself, playing in competitions and other topics. Be sure to check it out as soon as you can. It's a great read into a mind of a great competitor.

Also, Seth Killian announced that Daigo is working on a personal Web site right now - http://daigothebeast.com (awesome name, by the way).

Here's more from Seth in the opener:

Although he's considered notoriously reclusive, he's been very welcoming lately and I've been really impressed by his warm attitude towards the West.  There's some really great stuff in here from one of the finest competitive Street Fighter minds on the planet, so check it out--maybe your question was one he chose to answer.  Even if he didn't choose your question, the good news is that this is part 1 of several--more goodness coming soon!

One of the questions Daigo answers was why he chose Ryu for battle:

It was nearly 10 years ago when I decided to pick Ryu as my character, so to tell you the truth, I don't really remember the specific reason why I picked him (lol).  But I would think the story behind him played a role in my selecting him. Rather than his storyline, I was more attracted to his wholesomeness and straightforwardness.

Go to the Capcom Unity blog for the full interview.

GRANADA HILLS - Jeremy aka Vicious took home the top prize during Saturday's Family Fun Arcade Ranbats 1.3 tournament. He defeated his friend Jesse in the title match, losing the first game but rallying to win four of the final five rounds played.

I had a chance to interview Jeremy after his tournament win, and we talked about the last match as well as the overall run in the tournament.

You can listen to the interview below.

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ARCADIA - I meant to interview this guy a couple weeks ago about Cammy and finally got the chance on Friday. Demon Hyo, in this interview, talks about using Cammy, what to be aware of, and what works. We also talk about him moving to the West Coast.

You can listen to the interview below.

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ORANGE - One of the definite surprises of this past weekend was getting the opportunity to finally meet Arizona's JaeronMerc. His name might not ring a bell to the current competitive gaming audience, but years ago he was an innovater and the guy that pretty much kept competitive DDR alive for a year longer.

His unorthodox approach to tournament formats was adapted by a lot of people -- I've mentioned this in a book I wrote years ago -- despite it being initially eaten by wolves and considered "broken" or "doomed to fail." But in the end of those tournaments, a lot of the formats produced the two best players and a great championship contest.

Years later, he's moved on like almost all of us to different competitive games, including Street Fighter IV. I had a chance to talk to him during the Level|Up tournament on Saturday at The Block, and we discussed a few topics regarding running tournaments and the current Arizona fighting game scene. Also, you'll get our take on what game should be added to Devastation 2010.

You can listen to the interview below.

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This is another fun Players Choice podcast and I hope you enjoy it. It's my first one featuring a player from out of state. In this episode, I talk to Arizona's Juicebox, arguably that state's best Abel player.

Juicebox went to two tournaments in the region this past weekend and finished in the top eight in both; the LA Riots qualifying tournament at Family Fun Arcade, and the Level|Up competition at The Block at Orange. His combination of surprising grabs and hard-nosed defense made him a tough player in both tournaments. But you probably know him for physically doing the Abel ultra motion whenever he connects on it during a contest.

Perhaps his signature moment of the weekend was winning the Beat the Pro event at the Level|Up tournament on Saturday.

In this interview, we talk about using Abel and how he's able to make him successful. He mentions the character that gives him problems and what he's done to help alieviate them. Also, you'll find out why he physically does the Abel ultra motion.

You can listen to the podcast below.

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