“The Bandwagon Effect is a well documented form of groupthink in behavioral science and has many applications. The general rule is that conduct or beliefs spread among people, as fads and trends clearly do, with “the probability of any individual adopting it increasing with the proportion who have already done so”.As more people come to believe in something, others also “hop on the bandwagon” regardless of the underlying evidence. The tendency to follow the actions or beliefs of others can occur because individuals directly prefer to conform, or because individuals derive information from others. Both explanations have been used for evidence of conformity in psychological experiments. For example, social pressure has been used to explain Asch’s conformity experiments, and information has been used to explain Sherif’s autokinetic experiment.

When individuals make rational choices based on the information they receive from others, economists have proposed that information cascades can quickly form in which people decide to ignore their personal information signals and follow the behavior of others. Cascades explain why behavior is fragile—people understand that they are based on very limited information. As a result, fads form easily but are also easily dislodged. Such informational effects have been used to explain political bandwagons.”

Thanks Wikipedia <3

Note the first sign.

We’ve all seen this in action so many times before. When a team catches a hot streak at the right time everyone suddenly a fan of said team. Stadiums are full and once cheap tickets are now super expensive. If you want to see it in everyday life look at all the ‘new’ Yankees or Giants fans (sorry, I’ve never been a big football guy, but I did like the Chargers in the Junior Seau days) that pop up whenever the team is competing for the c’hip (or championship). For the purposes of this article, I’ll use three really good examples: The Miami Heat once they signed Chris Bosh and Lebron, The L.A. Clippers once they got Chris Paul and Chauncey Billups and the Golden State Warriors when they made that incredible play off run that produced highlights such as this.

After that dunk, Warriors tickets became the new thing for everyone. The Clippers are currently going through the same thing. This phenomenon is not just limited to sports, or politics, it also extends into the gaming world. Allow me to give you some background before I rage the hell out.

In fighting games picking a character is a much like picking a tool box. There are different tools in each of them for different situations, but they all serve the purpose of winning the match for your character. In most competitive games (especially fighters) people tend to pick their characters, teams, weapons, etc in usually one of three ways.

The first type of player picks by character loyalty. This means they simply like the character design so much that they play as that fighter/race/whatever for that reason alone. These people will usually use the same character over the course of multiple installments of a game. It’s like those die hard sports fans who like their team even if they’re horrible or someone who likes a band that everyone thinks is terrible. The second type of people pick their character based on whether the character-in-question’s play style fits in with their current skill level. For example, in my early Street Fighter IV days, starting off with a complex character like C.Viper wasn’t a good idea because at the time I didn’t have the execution required to play her effectively. This skill-based approach to choosing also leads them to experiment with other characters after they get to a certain level of proficiency with their main character. The third and final type are the people who pick characters because they are easier to win with, or ‘high tier’ ones, meaning they have attributes that outrank a considerable number of characters in the roster. While this may seem shameless, it is in fact a valid strategy. In the end, the game is about winning, so you pick whoever gives you the best chance of winning.

Teaching them early, huh pal?

With that said, you’d think things would be pretty cut and dry, right? No, they aren’t. In fact, there is a fourth shadow group no one wants to admit they are a part of. The assholes are called the bandwagoners. These are the people who I despise the most. “But Phire”, you ask, “Why all the hate towards the bandwagon?” Simply put, for the fact that these are the same people who, to use a fighter as an example, will talk about how bad your character is, how weak/low-tier they are and how you need to switch them. However, if something changes or new tech is found, they’ll jump on that character too and talk about how good they are with everyone else. Of course, if you confront them, they will deny they ever said anything negative about them and claim that they had “played them before”. Come on. It’s like they just saw the ugly girl from High School hit her stride, become hot and they’re the first in line, claiming they always had a crush on her.

No one was there for these days in Vanilla 4 or Super Turbo.

Why am I bringing this up now? Well since I started playing the SFIV series I’ve watched my Cammy develop from an ’0-2 and out’ champion to something actually kind of dangerous. With the new 2012 patch, Cammy is no longer nerfed to hell. I remember in the original Arcade Edition when they took her dive kick I was about to commit seppuku and find a new main (had my mind set on Yun at the time) but I decided to stick it out with her, and my patience paid off becuase now, I like the way she plays. But now I’m seeing Cammy players popping up EVERYWHERE claiming to have a good one, which 90% of the time they really don’t. They lose to characters that they should be beating, and when fighting against Cammy they lose horribly. Playing online, I tend to win the mirror matches because 80% of the time I know what I’m looking for, what to watch out for, I’m not doing anything stupid, because I know how she works. This is the main problem with bandwagoners, because they really don’t understand the character they’re choosing. They will see videos, or watch some matches and say “Oh man that’s so cheap, I want to do that too!”. So they practice that set of moves, go out to try, then lose to high level players who know their bandwagon character is fraudulent or they lose via being counter-picked because they have NO match up experience.

Even he wasn't safe from Bandwagon fans after death.

Having beaten several ‘Cammy’ players far worse than I should have, in situations that wouldn’t have happened (like misjudging her drill distance) if these people actually knew her well enough to call their play style ‘unique’(which most bandwagoners do by default) we wouldn’t have this problem. I personally feel that people should just pick either what they like, or what they are most comfortable with and just play the game. I think it would make for a better game overall because we’d have more diversity rather than cookie cutter clones of a particular character and play style. Newsflash: This ultimately serves you and the community no purpose, because you aren’t choosing a character you’re invested in, you’re just trending. However, this may be part of a larger problem as a whole with players who aren’t willing to do any work to win popping up in large numbers. I’ll examine that next time.

Aksys Games will sponsor the winning team of the BlazBlue Revolution US Finals by providing full airfare and hotel accommodations to Japan, along with the pride of representing the United States in the BlazBlue Revolution Japan Finals. Not only that, but if the US Team is able to take the top spot in the Japanese Finals, an extra bonus prize will be awarded to the US Team! Now’s the time to grab two of your most trusted comrades and prepare for the revolution of a lifetime!

BlazBlue Revolution US Event Details:

Finals Date: 2/25/2012

Location: Southern California, venue TBA

Format: 3v3 Double Elimination, BlazBlue: Continuum Shift EXTEND console version

Prize: Winning team will win full hotel and airfare to Japan and a spot in the Japan Finals

Restriction: Winners MUST have their US passport or equivalent document by 2/25. NO EXCEPTIONS.

BlazBlue Revolution Japan Event Details:

Final Date: 3/24/2012

Location: Japan, venue TBA

Format: 3v3 Format Final Rules TBA, BlazBlue: Continuum Shift II (V1.05) Arcade Version

Prize: TBA + Special US Team Prize*

*The US Team prize is a monetary award that will be given if the US Team is able to take the gold at the BlazBlue Revolution Japan Finals.

Full rules and event details will be announced on 12/17/2011 here. Until then, stay tuned for more information on BlazBlue Revolution at www.aksysgames.com.

Anyhow you can pick it up here. I like the red personally. I’ll pick one of these up and wear it in a upcoming episode,it’s getting cold in the studio,err I mean 8-bit.Let’s go Justin(sorry but I love that clip so much.)

Don’t forget to follow him on twitterand while you’re at it follow me too!

“Nerd” Josh Jodin is a part of the renowned streaming squad, Team Sp00ky. Josh is a fighting game buff and has been on the scene for ages. He’s a great fighting game mind. This Evo, he was the captain of the East vs West MVC3 team battle.

phire: What do you think that players need to do get to this level and be successful?

Nerd Josh: One of the best things you can do, is carry a little note pad with yourself and write down why you got hit and what happened. Watch how you lose and learn from it. With streams you’re able to absorb more way more information then any of us were back in the day, so all the tools. You don’t have to go hard and pretend like you’re going to college for it but a little bit of studying will help you along way.

phire: In terms of fundamentals, a lot of players will watch combo videos and do combos rather than understanding why or how it works. What do you think?

NJ: To truly understand spacing. If you know how to be a moving wall and you understand when you should throw normals and how you are actually controlling your opponent. That’s the best way to do it. For me I had to learn Super Turbo and from learning Super Turbo I’ve learned to be as lame as possible. (laughs)

phire: So to wrap up, we’re here in Vegas obviously…

NJ: Sin City baby.

phire: There’s a bunch of ambiguous cross ups out there…

NJ: Oh yeah?

phire: There’s one that’s competing this year. Do you know about this? Have you seen her?

NJ: Kayo? Yeah, yeah.

phire: If you didn’t know it was a ts, would you still go in?

NJ: I’d still go in.

phire: You would jump in raw jump in? No option selects?

NJ: You just told me and I’d still go in. I’m not scared.

phire: Good luck in Marvel.

Seth Killian is Seth Killian. If you don’t know who he is just Google him. He is Capcom’s Community Director –  officially and the coolest kid on campus.

phire: What do you think younger player and newer players should do to play at Evo levels and be effective?

Seth K: Well there’s a lot of tools out there on the internet right now. So look around you can find a lot of great strategy videos. There’s some great sites obviously, shoryken taught me a lot over the years. But there’s all sorts of great sites even locally a lot of great videos on the internet. When you watch the matches, try and watch them smart. So don’t look for combos because that’s one of the first things you pick up, try and look into the mind of the players and see what kind of decisions they are making. And you can really try and see why this is a bad decision why this is a good decision. Don’t just watch like a speculator put yourself into their shoes, “What would I do in this situation?”, “Why did this guy do that?” Think through it that way and I think you’re going to really understand at a better level. It’s easy to look at someone who gets blown up or makes a mistake and gets hit and you’re like “Haha they got hit” think about why. What did the opponent do to put them in that situation, to scare them,to mess them up and that’s what’s going to give you the insight?

phire: Fundamentals. What do you think some of the new players should work on?

SK: Head to training mode, I mean it never hurts to practice. But again fundamentals just spacing, timing all that stuff comes with experience and practice. But again you can pick that stuff pretty quickly. It just takes practice.

phire: So are you playing in pools this year?

SK: I am banned by Capcom from in any pools. So yeah. Also I don’t have time and I’m not good enough to play in pools anymore.

phire: Aww man.

SK: I know I can take out some of these guys. But if i got to top 8 I dunno…

phire: Uh oh, come on drop some names, we need names!

SK: Well you for instance. (laughs)

phire: Well at NYU I was pretty free. (laughing)

SK: Kidding kidding.

phire: Thanks for your time.

Justin Wong is probably one of the most well known names as a fighting game player. You can’t mention the greats without mentioning his name. Old school players and new school both hold him in a fairly high regard,that says a lot. Daigo and Justin are forever linked in fighting game history as rivals.

phire: How are you doing today J?

Justin W: Doing pretty good. A little nervous?

phire: Nervous from you? What Evo is this for you

JW: It’s my 10th one.

phire: Is this bigger or smaller than the other Evo’s?

JW: It’s always bigger every year. Plus the games are harder this year because everyone is playing. The game is soo random/inconsistent so it’s going to be hard to stay consistent

phire: What is your advice to new players?

JW: Just travel more, practice a lot, don’t have online habits. Online is always a good thing to play but don’t have too many online habits because it doesn’t really work. So I would suggest saving up a lot of money and keep going to really big tournaments. Network with a lot of people, see all these players (points to the crowds), talk to them. They are really nice people they’ll give you advice. And you keep playing, playing for the love of the game.

phire: Kayo Police? I mean if you didn’t know?

JW: (Straight faced) No, I’d know.

phire: I went 3-2 this year in my first year and time at a major. What can I take away from this experience?

JW: Umm network with a lot of people, make new friends, walk around the hotel rooms listening for buttons so you can play casuals. It’s always good to learn and get better. And every time you come to Evo you learn a lot and you come home that much better.

phire: Thanks man I appreciate it. Good luck this year man.

JW: You’re welcome and thanks.

phire: ….I love you Lemon

JW: I love you too.

The first half of team American Vipers is Wolfkrone. He was on the circuit tearing it up for most of 2010 leading up until this years EVO. All of his wins at major tournaments earned him the number one overall seed.

phire: A lot of players see you on the stream. What do you feel these new players need to do get this level to play at EVO?

Wolfkrone: It’s going to take a lot of dedication, especially if you’re scene is not to great, I’m from Michigan and the scene is not too great there. You really have to put in a lot of hard work, a lot of training mode, practicing your combos, everything.

phire: What you think some of the fundamentals you think are that some of these new players should practice?

Wolfkrone: Picking a character finding the maximum range for the pokes and punishing it. When you’re fighting that character stay at that range, and punish that move. Also once you get down you’ll be able to find ways to jump in on that character. I would say keeping your distance and maintaining your space.

phire: Kayo Police: yay or nay?

Wolfkrone: Nay

phire: What’s wrong the Viper Cosplay too good?

Wolfkrone: Man I didn’t know..

phire: Don’t worry I got crossed too.

Abdullatif Alhmili or Latif as he’s known on the scene is a Guilty Gear player (which gets my love and respect) and another part of the American Viper crew. He is also sponsored by Broken Tier. This year he eliminated Daigo and Poongko. Latif is from Saudi Arabia and is currently studying in Arizona, proving that video games have a global presence.

phire: What would be your advice to new players?

Latif: My advice would be to never give up. To get to a really high level play takes a really long time to get. So once they see that they should never give up, they  need some practice, get advice from really good players. Get passionate about the game, if you like it stick with it, no matter how bad they are they will improve eventually. If not there’s always something else.

phire: There’s a high learning curve between casual and competitive play in this game. What is a key fundamental that people should work on?

Latif: There’s a lot of fundamentals people should work on, for me I would say my best thing is execution. That’s why I picked C.Viper - she’s one of the highest execution characters in the game. If I’d picked Ryu for example I don’t think I’d be very good with footsies as I would be with Viper. That’s why you have to pick what characters fit you best depending on the style of previous games you played. And then you pick it up from there.

phire: We’re in Vegas and there’s a lot of ambiguous cross ups. Brazil and Thailand are the capitals of world for it but Vegas is the close second?

Latif: (laughter)

phire: I think you know what we’re talking about, if you didn’t know would you have gone for it?

Latif: aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarghhhh nah maybe,no, I don’t know.

(off to the side from MIN): You would have gone for it!

Latif: I don’t know…

phire: 6-4?

Latif: Yeah 6-4.

Rounding out this heat is Skisonic, who is a contributing write for SRK, host of the podcast Alphaism Radio. He is always on the microphone during the streams and he’s an overall cool guy. He also has his chops as a tournament player as well

phire: What do you think new players need to do to get to this level?

Skisonic: To get to this level of competition is really no different from any other competition. You really need to practice. What’s great about the scene now is that there is a lot of resources. The forums are good, they have always been there and it’s great to interface with people there but there’s tons of videos coming out. There’s guys doing great commentary, guys doing analytical videos breaking stuff down. Look at that stuff , study it. Figure out why frame data works the way it is. Think about why you loss. Figure out why things actually work. I feel that for me looking at the game from a logical perspective, it really makes sense, then you can replicate these situations, adjust your game, you can make these improvements. You really need to play, practice and get some experience in those situations so you need to work on.But a little bit of studying goes a really really long way.

phire: To touch on what you said about the logic aspect,in these situations are you playing more so the match up (character vs character) or are you playing the player?

Skisonic: I personally play the guy. Personally I was looking at this is today when I was playing today. I will find a flaw in that guys game and exploit that. And if you don’t have one, it’s harder for me to win. That why I struggle against really really top players but against players that don’t know it’s whatever, it’s free. For instance I was played this Blanka today and he had this really really unorthodox playing style where he was doing stuff that I really couldn’t react to necessarily but he picked Ultra 1. And I said oh this is free because I can safe Tortilla ultra 1 every time. And I know because you picked Ultra 1, that you are going to want to reversal Ultra because that’s why you picked it.That’s what I put together. That’s all on the guy. It’s an aspect of his character but I was really making a read on that guy. But on the other side of the coin I played T-roy, he’s a great 3rd strike player, has very little experience in Street Fighter IV. He gave me a harder time than everyone in my bracket.

phire: Because he understands the game?

Skisonic: He understands Street Fighter,he doesn’t understands street fighter IV. So I was saying him I’m going to tailor my game to what you’re doing. Right? But Your game play is all obtuse how I going to tailor my game play around that. I don’t have enough material, I don’t have enough fabric. You know what I mean? You’re making stretch myself thin trying to do that. It makes me takes risks it makes me get scared. I personally play the player. And I think you’ll find a lot once you get up the level.

phire: So what about those players who see EVO and say I want to do this,I want to build something like this for my city. Lets say you’re from a place that doesn’t really have a scene how do you go about building that scene?

Skisonic: Why do you want to this for your city and do this for the people that are playing? Start with them. You don’t have to make it huge. Something that I heard along time ago, it takes 3 people to make a scene. I really believe in that. When you have a 3 man scene this is what happens, usually have 1 person that’s godlike, the dominator. One guy gives that guy the challenge. And the third guy is usually the whipping boy, the scrub. These roles end up changing. The scrub is watching the first two play and figuring out what is going on, and then eventually he’ll move through the ranks. Then the guy not playing is going to be the scrub at some point and the roles keep changing. 3 man scenes are a good start,no need to get too ambitious but once you find some people that want to play.You have to find a common area and just try to make it happen. We actually did a podcast on this specific subject. It’s located here. Look for the episode with Renegade is where we discuss this exact subject,scene building. Here’s another guy that has a lot of experience on this. There’s a lot to do almost to much to say here but you have to find people who like to actually like to play. Find the people who are most passionate. If people see other people coming out they will come out for it.

phire: Final question: Kayo Police Yay or Nay?

Skisonic:………..Funny story!

phire: Uh oh ambiguous cross up?

Skisonic: Yeah you can call it that. We knew about her before and then the news dropped probably about a year ago. Everybody was like ‘wow’ I didn’t know. I would have not known if not for that. But knowing now, it made a lot of sense.

phire: Like beating Daigo and that other stuff?

Skisonic: No, actual build and everything.

phire: She could be a volleyball player?

Skisonic: But I totally would have fallen for it. I don’t mean I would have ended up in bed with her but I would have been like yeah you’re a girl.

phire: True, thanks for you time. I got blown up in pools. I slipped and hit my head on the way out.

Skisonic: Awww

phire: Ah well next year. I wanted to win pools this year but I think that was a bit ambitious for my first time.

Skisonic: Dude yeah it’s really tough.

phire: I made it to winners semis and I lost in losers quarters. I think 4th place overall if this was a real tournament.

Skisonic: Yeah you won some matches.

phire: I didn’t go 0-2 which was one of my biggest fear. Oh and one last random question. What is the thing new players should work in terms of fundamentals?

Skisonic: Blocking!!! People don’t know how to block. It’s not just blocking it’s really about patience. You look at people analyze a match up, they’ll break it down and then they’ll say “Well, my character doesn’t have an answer for this.” That’s never really true, that’s rarely actually true. You get knocked down and you don’t have any good wake up options. It’s not that you don’t have an answer ,it’s that just your answers are tough. You have to block a couple of rotations. That guy is going to get some pressure. He’s rewarded that because he got the knock down. You have to be patient in those situations. You have to learn how reset yourself back to neutral. Do not get get flustered trying to get the momentum back, trying to get your positioning back and all that kind of stuff. So just Blocking and patience.

phire: What you just said resonated with me because as a Cammy player sometimes I have a trouble with the Bison match up during scissor kick pressure because I want to press a button.

Skisonic: Chip damage is just chip damage man. Sometimes you have to take chip damage that’s why it’s there.

phire:……But I wanna go for P (perfect)

Skisonic: NO! NO! See that’s thing. Do not overextend yourself on that perfect just take that W (win)

Mike Begum A.K.A. Broly or legs is a Chun player in an interesting situation. Here’s his interview with Gootecks for some background before we get started. I caught Broly between matches in his pool.

Phire: I’ve seen you in videos and let me say that you are an inspiration to a lot of people, myself included. It’s great to see you at EVO and in pools, you’re still using Chun (Li) right?

Broly Legs: Yes she’s been my character all this time. I have not given up on her since Vanilla(regular Street Fighter 4). I keep playing with her online and hoping that I get better and better and it’s paid off these last few months.

Phire: What would you feel that new players that are just starting and want to get to this level should do?

Broly Legs: They have to get in touch with the character and they gotta know the moves. They have to get in touch with the other players. Really good players come from really good communities, I came from a great community at the Valley in South Texas. We all play together and we all play constantly. If you don’t get pushed to your limit, you’re never going to get good, you have to be able play good players and play them consistently. If you’re going to play computer or easy players over and over again you’re not going to get good. Where is the difficulty, without out difficulty you are never going to get ahead in this game.

Phire: How are you doing in pools?

Broly Legs: I lost to a T.Hawk, so I’m 2-1 right now. I’m waiting for this next match to see who I get to play. But is still gotta go to the lab before I face a really good Blanka to get out of here, so I’m keeping my hopes up but I don’t know.

Phire: So Broly last question Kayo Police yay or nay?

Broly Legs: I’m a big breast guy so if she doesn’t have them I’m not going for it.

Phire: Thanks again and I appreciate you taking the time to talk to me.

Aside from talking with Broly about the game, just hearing him talk about his life is incredible. This guy is filled with such optimism and a spirit that’s indomitable. He truly is an inspiration. Watching him play on video does not do him any justice. His understanding of fighting games in general is vast. His execution is better than most people who play the standard way on stick or on pad. Another thing I’ve noticed is that the fighting game community just embraces him. There’s no one out there being a jerk towards him and everyone seems genuine.I’ve watched a few of his match replays and I’ve looked at the comments and no one trolls him too hard. He has has definitely earned his place in the community

Kevin ‘Dieminon‘ Landon is known as probably one of the best Guile players in the world. He has played overseas in Europe and has won the right with a few other players to travel to Japan for Super Battle Opera to represent America.

Phire: What is your advice to younger players to compete at this level?

Dieminion: Well, I think a lot of inspiration for younger players come from players who are already in the scene. The drive to compete in tournaments as a younger player just happens, you watch streams, enter tournaments, you see how it goes and it is sort of like a puzzle. You may not feel like you are a part of the scene but you find that you find that spot where you fit in.

phire: As you know this is my first EVO, I did ok, I went 3-2 and the players who beat me got out of pools. Considering how bad I was at vanilla (Street Fighter 4) and my improvement what do you think some things that new players should work on so they don’t get blown up like I did?

Dieminion: Work on the basics, fundamentals really. Solid ground game. I feel that a big thing that players over look is reacting. Reacting takes a long way. It’s a part of our lives and it’s there in the game. If you can react I feel that you can do way more with your game.

—– —– —–

Marn is a former member of Team Evil Geniuses and all around party animal. Marn travels frequently for tournaments.

phire: How are you doing Marn? You look like you were partying hard last night what did you get up to.

Marn: I’m good partied too hard, hung over. I was at Insert Coins the other night, that place is ridiculously… look just know that some Canada dude came into Insert Coins and was like ” Hold everything, I want 100 shots of Grey Goose and set it on the table and everyone go in” and I just like alright time to go in.

phire: Good stuff Marn.

Marn: Yeah I know.

Phire: A lot younger players have seen guys like you and Justin on the stream,what would be your advice to those younger players?

Marn: You can look up people but don’t look up people,I always say this. I always believe you will not get better if you just stick with being a fanboy. If you’re a real player, you would want to get better for yourself and not simply be “Oh but Daigo this, Diago that”. You don’t see any top players saying “Yo Daigo let me suck you off” or something like that you know what I mean. It’s always about you wanting to win, not you wanting other players to win. You want be at the top, you get to the top. Don’t be a bitch.

Phire: For new players playing this game what do you think they should work on?

Marn: Footsies, execution and sometime you have to good instincts. You can’t just watch videos and say I’m going to do whatever he’s doing. You have to have a purpose and play with heart. Basically don’t second guess yourself do what you’re doing because if you second guess yourself you’re going to choke like Lamerboi did vs Daigo last year.

Phire: Kayo Police is sadly a trap. Would you have gone for it prior to that knowledge?

Marn: I’ll go for if even though I know it’s a trap.

Phire: After 100 shots of Grey Goose at Insert Coins,you’d say screw it you’re in there?

Marn: No I’ll do it sober, lets go! If she came up to me and said I want f#$k the s@#t out of your ass, I’ll be like let’s go, let it rock!

Phire: Wow, we love you Marn. Good luck and thanks!

—– —– —–

Gootecks is a very important person in the fighting game community. He is a co-host of Cross Counter and he also is a crucial part of the Excellent adventure of Gootecks and Mike Ross. He’s a brilliant mind that’s always smiling,except when he’s getting blown up. Some say he’s part smiley face,some say he’s part balloon dog, he’s a great guy .

Phire:Gootecks How are you doing?

Gootecks: I am fantastic and yourself

Phire: I’m doing ok, I almost made it out of pools but then I slipped hit my head, fell back in and drowned.

Gootecks: Me too.

Phire: Aww sad face. There’s a bunch of people who watch your show and see you and Mike Ross on stream. What do you think those players that are home or the new players should do to play at EVO?

Gootecks: Well for one thing they gotta set aside the time and monety to get the 50 dollar requirement to register but If they are really trying to step it up the really need to spend time.. hmmm if they live in the middle of nowhere all they’d have is online and training mode, and you have to build up the small circle of friends you play with. If you develop a scene of 20 people,there’s usually that one guy out of those 20 who can go heads up with anybody. If you live in an area with a scene, if you’re lucky enough to have an arcade you have to play alllllll the time, got to watch your videos, you gotta know all that stuff. If you live in a place that’s mostly console, you have to put on your best politics face,which is really helpful because if you get good at the game, your politicking skills that got into all sessions will help later as your start getting approached by sponsors and teams. In terms of actual game play mechanics I find most people have poor footsies, so work on that.

Phire:If you can say one thing to any of the new players that may see this years EVO or look at it’s moments on Youtube and be inspired to pick up and play.

Gootecks: You can take it as far you want it, as far your mind can see it. So if you think that you can never be as good as somebody like Justin or Daigo then you can’t. But if you think that you can be the greatest player in the world and set the appropriate goals to do so, to be that person, then you can do it. The first thing you got do is basically get your mind right and understanding what you really want. Do you want to be the best player in the world,do you want to be an organizer, or do you just want to be the best in your area whatever it is, you have to know what its you really want. When I first started playing 4 I literally had a page full of goals front and back; people I wanted to beat specifically, placing at a majors, as well as outside of gaming as well, you know stuff like the podcast I was doing at the time. I did that, it worked, all most a little too well (Dun Dun Dun). If you set goals like ‘I want to be a good Street Fighter player’ that sort of thing is not going to cut it. If you real serious about it go to the library or go to amazon and get some Tony Robins or Raymond Aaron books and start setting some goals.

Phire: Last question, would you say your adventures are excellent?

Gootecks: I think my adventures are always excellent.

That wraps up this heat. The next set of fighters include DR Ray, Skisonic and Broly legs.

Ricky Ortiz is currently signed to Team Evil Geniuses and is a West Coast player. Last year at EVO Ricky lost to Daigo Umehara in the grand finals.

phire: Evo has recently been viewable online thanks to streaming and the games played have been introduced to a lot of new players. What do you think is important for a new player to get good enough to play at this level.

Ricky O: Travel, going to different regions and playing. I traveled a lot Ect (east coast throw down) ,etc. That way you get used to different styles of play so that way you get good experience playing against everyone.

P: How does the Evo compare to other Evos in the past? This one is my first.

R.O.: I think this year is smaller actually it’s about 1400 compared to last years 2200 or so. And I think Marvel is smaller this year too.

P: Did you like the new Lady gaga album? I was ok with it, I like the Judas tracks and the remixes. Another question so since she’s a motorcycle now do we call motorcycles gagas now?

R.O.: (smiles almost laughing) I liked it . On the motorcycle thing I’m not too sure about that.

Aqua Silk
Aqua as he is known in the communities is probably one of the best Zangief players in the world.

Phire: This is my first EVO and I know at home a lot of people are watching the streams. What would you say to the younger players and people that are at home that want to get to this level what should they do?

Aquasilk: I’m telling you guys practice, practice, practice. You have to come here. This is my first EVO also. This place is amazing, so many people and it’s great. Play Xbox Live, the reason why I say that is because skill level the has increased, there’s no doubt that it has improved over Xbox Live. Keep losing because the more you lose the more you are going to start winning. The Street Fighter scene has been getting really big. I encourage players to keep playing, get better and come out to these events.

P: I spoke to Ricky O earlier and he mentioned travelling as a big part of the experience as well, seeing how other regions play is that true?

Silk: Yes, that is great. Lately I’ve been trying to travel to other states just to go to tournaments here and there. I have not gone out too far ,mainly Philadelphia. Check out scenes,different styles of play, different types of personalities and I think that’s a great thing. It’s a good thing to join locals but it’s a better to actually branch out and experience different places.

P: I’ve seen a lot of players here making passes, are you a good wing man and would you step in and let them know what’s up?

Aqua: No, I will sit on the sidelines and laugh. I wouldn’t tell them the truth

P: Coldblooded

Aqua: And that’s the way it goes.

P: Ok Aqua last question. Kayo Police yay or nay?

Aqua: (thinks about it) I’m going to have to say no

Next set of players include EMP Dieminion, Marn and Gootecks. Stay tuned!

The first thing I have learned is that you are as good as the people and where you play. Meaning if you are an online warrior and you’re hunting people that are less skilled than you, you’re probably going to lose using online tactics offline. Also if you play within your circle of friends and you’re the best among them you are big fish in a small pond. My pools had no players from NYC in it but it was people from Canada,Seattle and other places so I was learning about the rest of North America. And I was doing pretty well. I am not a top player in NYC by any means but I was beating people who were the best or pretty good in their regions. I lost to the best ‘Sim player in Canada last game last round and was lack of match up experience that did me in. I also lost to a good Canadian Rufus after mind-fucking myself.

Exactly what my losses felt like

Which brings me to my second point, New York City is tough. NYC because of the sheer amount of people living in the the area has a higher amount of players than most states. The transportation allows these players to travel all over the city to play each other in tournaments often and congregate for sessions to just get better (8-bit dojo is an example of this). Going to a random local tournament you’d have to deal with guys like Dieminon, Arturo, Sanford Kelly, etc. It would be different living in another state where you’d maybe only see one or no big names there. The best example of this is in a non video game sense is take a look at the NBA, there was a point where the Western Conference was stacked. The teams were just so good, Lakers, Spurs, Jazz, Nuggets, Suns, Blazers ,etc. That teams that weren’t bad at all (and maybe be a mid to high seed in the Eastern Conference) still were very low seeds in the playoffs. New York is that tough for no reason Western Conference.

I owned the Eastern Confrence free.

A game play thing that I’ve noticed at EVO is that no one blocks.Not they they are always attacking but everything works at EVO. Part of it I theorize is because everyone’s so hyped up they want to put their stamp on the tournament ,provide hype or just dominate the match. Also there’s a level of familiarity that is lost when you play total strangers. All your set ups will work because no one has seen them before, so people fall for almost anything (I.E. Phoenix inferno at the start of a match) at least once or twice in your 2 out of 3 set. If you know what a character does,how a team operates, common set-ups and strategies before you get to EVO or any tournament for that matter you are going to do well for yourself.

A key thing is that you have to play with confidence and swagger. You have to have the confidence in yourself make those big plays, great reads and get stops when you need them. The people who beat me were pretty much pushed to the brink and they steam rolled the person that was waiting for them in the finals. The person in the finals talked a lot of garbage about how he had his pool in the bag and it was free. However the look in his eyes said other wise. After my first match against the same guy asked me for my gt (gamer tag) and said I looked familiar, some confidence eh? He looked concerned that he’d have to play me at some point. I would have liked to beat him but I guess that’s for another day.

Keep doing you

The last thing I picked up is that the community for the most part is full of good people. Maybe it was just my experience but as a player who sucked horrifically in Street Fighter IV to someone who is pretty decent in Arcade Edition, I can tell you that part of my growth basically came from the community. Other players like Justin, Arturo, Jago, etc were always beating me up but giving me knowledge. Playing at tournaments people have always been willing to talk and share stuff with me helping me understand their character in relation to my own. Evo was no different people were willing to share info, the ‘sim player that beat me told me that the match up depends on if I can get in or not and that me personally I should take more risks to do so because ‘sim cannot really punish too hard. I had theories about this but now that just confirmed it.

During Evo I got some pretty bad news first that our trailer/pilot was denied (boo) which was understandable because we definitely had some technical issues. The news that really got me was about my dog. I’ve had this dog for 16 years. She was/is like one of my best friends ever. This video sums up everything how I feel and went through in the two days I was back from Vegas:

The day she passed I was wreck and I really wasn’t up to full power, (I don’t feel that I am still but that’s another story) it definitely affected my thought process and how much I functioned for a bit. After while things sorta got back to normal I played in a few tournaments and did some events. At the first Guard Crush post Evo I did alright finished in the top 30 out of 55 which isn’t too great but I also took top 8 in the Japanese style tournament they had.

Here are some matches from that:

The Samsung Experience in NYC had a SF tourney that i attended with the weird gimmick of having to win a certain amount of matches before you can even play in the tournament. Basically I finished top 16 and got scrubbed out. I deserved it because I wasn’t ready mentally. I took my loss like a champion and I headed home.

However I learned that friendship is magic because on Sunday the guys at the 8-bit dojo chipped in and got me this incredible Cammy shirt along with a picture and a thank you for putting stuff together. The all knew that I was down and they did so to cheer me up and it did. I was able to get off my sorry butt and get back in the saddle with this writing gig. So it’s back to buisness and that’s buisness as usual.

So yeah that’s what I learned after EVO.

I spent a good amount of time after my loss just watching the rest of the SF tournament. I took a ton of pictures which are available here, I bumped into Kara and she did an amazing job as usual taking photos and those are available for your viewing pleasure here.

To be honest most of my time after the tournament was a blur of watching Sidekicks, hanging out at the pool. I would watch finals and support my friends (most of the east coast players, Justin and a few others). Watching those matches unfold felt like wrestling matches because they were full of flash, technique and substance. Especially Justin’s amazing Akuma only comeback with no X-factor.

The place blew up with Yipes on the microphone. And we were all on our feet yelling and screaming. In a word, it was Hype. I feel honored to be able to say I was there when Poongko powered up and perfected Diago’s Yun.

As much as people say they hate A.E. the place was absolutely coming down when Latieef defeated Diago. There’s a reason why Street Fighter is the main event and not Marvel and it is for moments like these.

The overall experience of Evo is tough to put into words. It’s one of those things where you have to be there to fully appreciate it for what it is. I was able to hang out with people I have not seen in a while,meet some new friends and party with kindred spirits. After Evo was all said and done I went to the Strip and I hung out with Chris G. at the Gameworks arcade. It was not anything like Japan’s arcades but it was nice to be in one. I got to play the Sonic fighting game (I used Knuckles) and played some VS Outrun and I got to play some Pump it Up after many year s(I was rusty as hell and sweating like a Baptist preacher on Easter Sunday). Speaking of you guys need to check out the Balrog movie (posted up top).

I did score some pretty sweet interviews with a few of the players and I will be uploading them once I transcribe them. It’s pretty interesting what the feel is important for players to work on.

What song did I play for my music in Outrun? I played the greatest song ever, Night Flight, of course.

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