Worldwide ST Players Interview [David Boudreau, Bob Painter, NKI, damdai, apoc]

Classic Fighting Games Super Street Fighter II Turbo
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[edit]:

David Boudreau (sim), Bob Painter (honda/gief), Cigarbob (), NKI (chun), damdai () , john rambo (sim), Kuni (gief), DGV (ryu), afro legends (boxer/dj), ganelon (claw), snake eyez (gief), BTC (blanka), apoc (claw) have agreed to do the interview with us.

If you have any specific questions for these players, please post asap.

Also, do you guys prefer we do this as soon as the interviewee/interviewer are free or you’d rather have this done weekly / biweekly?

To reignite the interest of SF2/ST/HDR, I propose that we conduct some email / online interviews with top (current and ex) worldwide (including the Japanese) players.

For non Japanese players, I’ll edit out the questions that are not relevant.

For the Japanese players, I think there are some folks living in Japan that have contacts who know these people and some of these guys have blogs and many of them can be contacted via email. So I think it is doable.

So what you guys can help is to come up with more insightful questions or help edit/remove the shallow ones that I have drafted. Or if you know contacts that can reach these people, post up or pm me.

A list of potential targets (mostly from nh2 blog), free feel to suggest more

Character Specialists:

Ryu: ShootingD , Daigo, Gotoh, Tencho, Futachan, DGV, Shiro, Sasori,Alex Valle

Ken: Aniken, Mattsun, Choshu

O Ken: Peco

Honda: Kusumondo, Otohonda , Thelo, Abebin

O.Honda: Shougatsu

Chun-Li: Otochun, Tojo, Nuki, Keishin, NKI

O.Chun: Inro

Blanka: Komoda, Nakamu, ASTEKA, AFO, NH2, BTC

Zangief: Pony, Gunze , Kakki, Jodim, Kuni, SnakeEyez

Guile: Muteki, Kurahashi , Tsunoppi, Kikai

Dhalsim: Hakase , Gian, Yoshimura, KKY, JCole, JRambo, XSPR, Shirts, Sabin

T.Hawk: Mayakon, Inomata , VIPER , Hiroyan, Shin

O.Hawk: Toutanki

Fei-Long: Yuubou, Hanashi

Cammy: Oota , Nakamura , Tasaka , Ikebukuro Cammy, James Chen

DeeJay: Seki, Ito, Yuzuru

Boxer: Tsuji , Anioah, Tamashima, The SuperStar, Seth Killian

Claw: ARG, MAO, Ganelon, Kachu,Apoc, DSP

Sagat: Akeome

O. Sagat: Muneo

Dictator: Taira , MoreVega, GigaMsx, Oonishi, Nikaiten, ProfessorJones

Multiple Characters Players:
K (o.hawk /fei)
Noguchi (claw/fei)
yaya (Sagat/dj)
YuuVega (dictator/dj)
Afro Legend (boxer/dj)
Shiki (boxer/guile)
Damdai ()
Cigarbob(fei/ken/gief/sim)
Kuroppi (honda/gief)
John Choi (N.Ryu/OG Sagat)
wolfe brothers (Dhalsim/Boxer)
Mike Watson (Boxer/N.Ryu)
Sirlin ()
RoyBisel ()
dreamtr ()
doyle brothers (*)
Mongolorobokop (chun)

  • = a lot of characters
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[edit: underlined questions are less interesting so it might not be used]

{Short Bio}
Name:
Age:
Hometown:
Occupation:
Years playing sf2:
Main character:
Other characters that you play at a high level:
Tournament results:
Favorite fighting game:
weapon of choice:
(sanwa / seimitsu / happ stick? buttons? square / octo / round gate?)

How much time you spend playing sf2 each week during your peak and how much time you spend playing sf2 currently?

How do you practice the game before you become good? Do you leverage PC emulation or console version to practice your execution? How many years does it take to compete at high level?

What is the most advanced / useful technique that you use in sf2 and can you briefly teach us how to perform it?

What matchup you hated most / have most difficulties with? Do you have any strategy to share for this matchup?

Which character has the best design and why? Should o. sagat be banned?

What area would you recommend new / intermediate players work on to improve their game?
What are some common mistakes / bad habits (can be specific to your main character or not) players should get rid off in order to become better?

How many players are actively playing offline in your area? Do you guys have regular tourney or gathering? Or you just go to arcade whenever you want and battle it out?

With more and more arcade closing, what is your opinion of sf2’s outlook in Japan? If console is the only option to play on, will you continue to play and compete?

You might already know, there is a HD remix version of ST release outside of Japan on PS3 and Xbox360. Some liked it and some hated it. Have you tried it? What is your opinion regarding the game play changes, graphics / music changes?

If you like it, do you think there should be a Japan release? If you don’t like it, why? And is the classic mode good enough if arcade ST is not available anymore?

What consoles do you own that can play SF2? Do you have a CPS2 setup as well?

Some people do not like online play because of lag. But we all know Japan has very fast internet connection. Have you heard about ggpo.net? What is your opinion on online play? Can it be a substitution for offline play?

Do you know any good players outside of Japan? What do you think about the level of play in US and the world, compared to Japan? Will you consider traveling to other country to play ST?

Who is your greatest rival and what is your fondest moment in your SF2 career?

Who are the top 3 ST/HDR players in your opinion. If you are one of them, please don’t be humble and say so.

Can you tell us a few things that people don’t know about you or not expected from you? (hobbies, other games you play, special skills you have, some trivia?)

Is there anything you would like to add for SF2 fans around the world?

Do you have any pictures to share with us? Picture taken with other og players? A favorite picture of yours? Fans of yours would love to put a name to a face :slight_smile:

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Player specific question

Kuni:

srk.com is the home of the north american fighting game community. I know that Japanese use 2ch a lot. Is there any other places where japanese SF2/ST players frequent?

NKI:

Can you tell us a little bit about your life in japan?

Do you have a plan to start a family there?

Now that you’re in japan and have easy access to arcade and the local competition, has anything changed with your perspective (ST)? A lot of us would love to have that privilege.

Everyone loves your japan log back then. I know you’re busy nowadays but could you give us a little update (your encounter with the Japanese players, crazy shit you’ve seen, etc) as if you are adding another post to that thread?

David Boudreau:

You’ve been around for a long time but many of us are not involved back when alt.sf2 is still active. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

When did you move to japan and have you started a family there?

IIRC, you live to the north of tokyo. How is the scene there?

Bob Painter:

You are also one of the people that have been around for a long while. Over the years do you and any of your competitors become closer friends? Any anecdote that you want to share?

You’re also one of the rare OG that play both ST & HDR. Ganelon has mentioned how claw’s play style is changed even from a subtle change of removing the stored flip kick.
What about honda and gief? How do the changes in specials affect the play style of these characters?

John Rambo:

New/intermediate players love to pick top tier. Sim is definitely top tier but it is no where as popular as rogs / claw / o sagat. Do you have any theory why?

Afro Legend:

You mentioned that the win against Daigo meant a lot to you in the last EVO HDR tourney.
We also know he’s a mean (punish everything), emotionless (not easily intimated) monster (beast they say).

Don’t you feel any`daigo factor’ that would have affected your performance?
What’s going through your mind while you’re fighting him?

It’s hard to say who is the best ST/HDR player in the world, but if someone say you’re the best contemporary player in the US, few would challenge that.

The Japanese had come to EVO before, but it’s always played on the console where the port is imperfect (ST) or HDR (where they don’t practice).

Do you ever wonder how you’d do at x-mania / SBO? Don’t you want to test your skill against the best of the best using a platform that both US and Japanese know how to play on?

muteki:

How do you convince your wife to play ST? Are you impressed that her chun can compete with all the other guys?

Inro:
Do you have a boyfriend currently and if yes is he good / better than you in SF2?
Will you ever consider men who suck at SF2?

aniken / otochun:

Do you guys practice a lot together when you learn the game?
What do you have to say about the fact that you two are both so good at ST?
Who is better?

otochun:
in some very old videos, you looked quite dorky with thick glasses. and now you looked so fine. what happened?

[any dj player]:

What’s the secret for landing all hits on cr. fierce xx MGU? (ask on behalf of fudd)

[hawk player]:
how do you do that walking super? [insert youtube url]

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First interview is up

Cigarbob

5

reserved another one.

6

Man, this is a really brilliant idea. I’d love to hear from YuuVega or Taira in particular.

Have you contacted NKI to see if he might be able to get these questions to the Japanese players? Maybe one player per week?

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ask them if they have played HDR. if they have, ask them their general opinion on the game and the changes that have been implemented (what they like, don’t like, etc).

tell them, that there are people who enjoy st/hdr here in america and there would be many who enjoy seeing top players from japan compete at our tournaments. sadly there has only been a few who have competed in st (like daigo, ohnuki, gian, tokido, etc). is there any others who might be interested in coming, and if not, what would entice them come here.

8

This would be really good. Great idea, papasi!

As for more players, there are Futachan, Oonishi, MAO, Abebin, VIPER and Peco. From the top of my head, these seem to be the ones worthy of being listed among those others you have mentioned.

I would have another question: “Could you list a habit that <insert character> players often have which they should get rid off in order to become better?” Also, A question along the lines of “<insert character> has a bad match-up against <insert character>. What is your strategy against him/her?”

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Cool idea! Hope to see this all come together…

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I would love to hear Noguchi’s take on HDR Fei.

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Ask the hawk players how they do their tick supers and walking supers.

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sup papercut. what’s special about tick super? i thought you can do that as well. so you can tell us? :slight_smile:

and that walking super, i remember i see that before. can you post a youtube link? that’ll help since it’s hard to express in words.

and vf4, if you are reading this, you might help.

is there any crazy combo/setup that we’ve seen but still haven’t figured out how to do it? it might be a good time to ask :slight_smile:

i’m curious about that safe jump dragon punch install into tick 360. but i don’t know how to express this, a youtube link for that particular player doing it might be easier for them to understand.

13

That is one long, intimidating multi-page list of questions there. I don’t know about the other guys, but it seems answering all of that could take a really long time, so it could just be ignored for appearing to be too much work. I’m not sure how to make it less daunting though.

14

my concern as well. i was thinking to let the interviewer picks the ones that he/she like to answer. don’t know if that makes sense.

On the other hand, I don’t really know which of these questions would bring out the most interesting answers.

Basically I’m just brainstorming here with you guys.

Edit:

This is still not yet final.
I just underlined the ones that I think are uninteresting.
There are now only 12 questions if those are removed. (not counting player/character specific questions)

If you think any of these are boring, post a reply and I’ll probably cut them down to a manageable number before it is sent out or get translated.

Also converted a bunch of short questions to bio form like what zaspacer suggested and now it seems less daunting.

15

Sounds neat.

I was going to suggest the same thing.

I’ve seen it done before. It keeps things short and easy to digest, creates a sense of personality for each person, and should be a lot more doable. You can venture into more comprehensive interviews as features (linked to each page) as you progress. And, in the event that you can’t get ahold of the person for the questions, you can simply make up the bio by adding in a handful of Q&A they’ve done before.

I also like how they do their interviews for the Magic tournament Top 8. Example: 2009 Grand Prix Chicago: Top 8 Profiles : Daily MTG : Magic: The Gathering

It keeps it short and simple, provides some quick comparative stats, then jumps into a few more open ended questions to give it character.

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Hope all goes well with this pap. It’ll definitely be a good read especially if its Muteki or Noguchi.

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why don’t we start these questions off with usa players before japan. some of the top players check and reply to these boards occasionally. or at least they are easier to contact. some questions that i think many or all of us would like to know:

when did you start playing? who are your main characters?

how much time do you put in to practice - hrs per week etc?

what is your hardest matchup?

have you played hdr? what is your opinion of the game relative to st and ae?

what motivates you to keep playing and imrpoving?

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Some interesting players you haven’t mentioned:

Hawk: Hiroyan, Shin
Guile: Kikai
Ryu: Shiro, Sasori
Fei: Hanashi
Claw: Kachu
Ken: Choshu
Chun: Keishin
DeeJay: Seki, Ito, Yuzuru
Boxer: Nikaiten
O.Sagat: Muneo

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Before we interview the Japanese we might as well start out with U.S. players or non-Japanese foreign players. Start off interviewing someone like ProfessorJones, CigarBob, Damdai, NKI, or RoyBisel. Basically someone who is active on SRK who speaks English and would let us hone the questions we ask before we move on to interviewing the Japanese. Once we get enough feedback on what works and what doesn’t, and how much time it takes to do an interview, then we can look into contacting the Japanese. Also by knocking out a few U.S. based players we can give ourselves enough time to get someone to help translate interviews or conduct them in Japanese.

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intangiBLZ - I think that question is pretty neutral. I don’t think it’s hard sell at all. And if they haven’t played it, there isn’t just anything for them to say.

vf4 & snk - definitely.

I have already contacted some of these peeps today. Let’s see.

I still think that the questions are too generic and not interesting enough.

Come one guys. Brainstorm some more questions, don’t judge whether it is silly or not now.

We’ll filter them later on.