Julien: More Balrog, yes. A very quiet guy, and despised (in the Shibuya Kaikan crowd). But an amazing Claw player. I don’t know the nickname Sky High Claw. He was called More Balrog.
Question: Why is he despised??
Julien: Well, when I lived in Japan, playing Claw or O. Sagat was considered “weak”. I guess it’s pretty close to being considered “cheap” in the US.
(Time out)
Way back in the mesozoic era (1994), there were big debates on a.g.sf2 about “cheapness”. After many many arguments, it was agreed that nothing is cheap, and no character is cheap, except for Akuma (for reasons outside the scope of this post). I agreed with this philosophy, and happily repeated tick threw opponents over and over again over the years.
(Time in)
When I moved to Japan, I found to my suprise that no one played O Sagat! There was a couple of new Sagats, but no old ones. Also, no Claws! None except one who was really good at MORE arcade.
For my first year or two in Japan, I didn’t really speak to Japanese players or know them very well. I played some A3, some A2, a bit of ST, but most of my time was spent playing Everquest :). Finally, after several years, I found a little arcaded called Shibuya Kaikan, safe from the ravages of Kurahashi and More Balrog, and I started playing there regularly. I know this sounds like a scrubbish thing to say, but at this arcade I could win 5 or 6 games in a row without too much work, unlike MORE where every single round had to be won from blood, sweat, and tears. Anyways, I started to recognize the players there, and they me. The first one to talk to me was a ken player called Yoshimi, who kept trying this incredibly annoying trap based on jumping jab.
After a few weeks, I knew most of the regulars by name, and I started talking to them. I also noticed that if I played Boxer, Hawk, Chun Li, or Ryu, people would play against me a lot. However, when I played Claw, I didn’t get a lot of competition. Usually I’d win and then people would play on another machine (there were 2-3 head to head machines). So I’d win the game with Claw, and then move to another machine.
I finally asked Yoshimi what was going on. When I mentioned the name “Claw”, he got this grimace on his face. He explained that Claw was an easy character to play, and not fun to play against. I thought this was a little wierd, because I don’t think that ken’s jumping jab, low short x 2, and then either DP or knee bash trick is very fun either. And I actually thought that Claw required skill. After all, I won a tournament at Game in Namiki with him.
(Time out)
To this day, this is the achievement I am the most proud of in SF. Not B2, or B3, or Sunnyvale Golfland tourneys, or any of the money matches or road trips or anything that I did in the US, but winning the weekly ST tournament at this arcade called Game in Namiki. I’m sure no one has heard of it, but this was the arcade where I met Tamashima, and he worked with me on my Boxer. It’s the arcade where Akishima showed the US delegation how to do walk up, low forward, super with Chun li. This arcade had weekly ST tournaments, and I usually finished smack dab in the middle of the pack. But I won it once!!
(Time in)
Anyways, I felt that Claw required skill. Especially when I saw More Balrog dominate matches that I had thought were impossible (Claw vs Dictator, Claw vs Boxer). But I was also a stranger in a strange land, and I didn’t want to disrupt the “wa” with my play. I was happy that I had found an environment with dedicated ST players, players that knew me, talked to me, and discussed strategy with me (Unlike MORE arcade where I was a quiet observer). I did not want to jeopardize this just to win more games with Claw. So I quietly retired my Claw and focused on Boxer, and, with the help and encouragement of the most amazing Chun player (Akishima) I had ever seen, Chun Li.
I never saw anyone play Claw except for MORE Balrog at MORE. Whenever he did well at tournaments, I would hear a kind of “meh” reaction from other players. “After all, he’s playing Claw”. I didn’t really hear the same from O. Sagat, but there was only one O. Sagat player, a friend of Daigo’s. Maybe it was because he played with Daigo, or because he was a regular at a different arcade, but I never heard the same explicit derision towards O. Sagat that I heard towards Claw. But in general, there were no more than one Claw or O Sagat players at X-Mania, the major ST tournament.
Looking back, I have to say that this play environment was much more enjoyable than the US play environment. When I played in the US, there was invariably a Boxer, Dictator, or O. Sagat dominating the machine. I actually learned Boxer because I felt I had no other choice. Most of my ST play was focused on these matchups.
In Japan, the lack of O. Sagat was a very nice experience (for me). I felt like I could play Hawk and be “only” an underdog, instead of having no chance at all. I felt like I could experiment with new characters from time to time. Getting raped by Kurahashi’s guile was more of an educational experience like “Oh, I can’t use my stand fierce here because I get hit by this move”, as opposed to the US where it felt like “Yep, had to block a low tiger again. Now that’s an expected loss of 10% life before I can get a blocked rush”. I came to appreciate this “lower powered” environment. I felt like I got to explore the game space of all the middle tier and lower tier matchups. I liked it, beacause I got to appreciate how interesting and fun these matchups were, and I could pick a character without thinking about the O. Sagat factor.
O. Sagat was my bugbear, but I can see how Claw would be for others. I don’t know why people didn’t have this reaction with Boxer. When I asked Yoshimi about it, he said that it took skill to win with Boxer, a lot more skill than O. Sagat and Claw. Personally, I didn’t mind… it gave me a character I could win with when I was sick of learning with Chun :).
Sorry for the long winded answer! I guess it turned into more an old man’s diatribe. I can see myself in a nursing home, in my rocking chair, mumbling about ST and Game in Namiki tournaments from 1999
I realize that was a very long winded answer, sorry!