Marvel: Less than Prestigious?
CoolGrayAJ (CGAJ): Let’s just get right into the thick of things. American players have been notorious for having the first round curse at SBO. Arguably, it’s been because the Japanese have just been on a completely different level when it comes to conventional Street Fighter games. This time around, they’ve selected a Marvel title for the tournament circuit – a game that has a reputation of being “America’s game” because let’s face it, America has dominated that scene for more than a decade now.Taking that into consideration, your own experience with SBO and the propensity for Americans to perform poorly at SBO with Street Fighter titles, do you feel a win at SBO would be a less prestigious with a title like UMvC3?
Justin Wong (JWong): To be honest, not really. I don’t think it’ll cheapen it at all. AE and Marvel are both my main games, and I’ve put a lot of work into them both. Obviously it’s going to be tough because I’m sure there’ll be a lot of top Japanese players trying to play both games like I am. Tokido and Momochi come to mind, who are both excellent players on their own respect. In general, just winning an SBO is something you want to have as a player in the fighting game community. SBO is Japan’s EVO, and winning a prestigious event like this is huge.
CGAJ: Alex, you were a top MvC2 player, and I remember back at B5 seeing Japanese players like White and Liquid Metal come out to compete. Even though there have always been Japanese players – albeit few and far between – in the Marvel scene, they’ve never been close to the Americans’ level. Let’s say they put Marvel in the SBO circuit back in the early 2000s. Would it feel any less rewarding to win a Marvel title at SBO than it would be to win a Street Fighter title?
Alex Valle (Valle): I can look at it from both sides – the player perspective, and the tournament organizer’s perspective. TOs select games for a reason, and for an event like SBO, you really have to gauge where the popularity is. It goes without saying, an event of SBO’s caliber needs to cater to what’s popular.
With that being said, Marvel 2 wasn’t a huge game in Japan at the time. What actually happened even before SBO was around was a 5v5 exhibition between Japan and the U.S. To make a long story short, Japan got obliterated. It really wasn’t Japan’s cup of tea back then.
Marvel 3 is unique because it’s a lot more accessible because of netplay. Because of the accessibility, you see a lot of the top Street Fighter players in Japan picking up Marvel. That isn’t to say it was a no-brainer to include Marvel, but it’s a smart move. SBO understands where the competition is, and how popular a game is, so I guess what I’m trying to say is that a Marvel win at SBO is definitely very prestigious because of the heated competition.
Anticipating the Competition
CGAJ: How do you feel about single elimination Marvel? During the EVO 2012 season, a lot of discussion went into extending matches to Best-of-5 rather than Best-of-3 to eliminate the “random factor”. Is this something way out of your comfort zone?
JWong: Something unique to SBO is that matches are of course, single-elimination, but also that matches are played in a single game. Fortunately for Marvel, they’re allowing BO3 matches, so I’m glad there’s still room for some sort of adaptation if I drop the first game.
CGAJ: Not to knock your fellow competitors Mihe, Jan and Eliver “Killer Kai” Ling, but are you disappointed that marquee players like Filipino Champ, Yipes, and Chris G won’t be joining you?
JWong: I mean I can’t speak on their behalf or anything, but it might be because they don’t look at SBO in the same way that I do. Going to SBO is something I’d like to do every year, because I would love an SBO tournament win under my belt. For Champ, I know he isn’t going because of personal issues – not that he didn’t want to go.
As far as my Team USA teammates go, they’re all really strong. Jan knocked Abegen down to losers at EVO, Mihe’s Zero is incredible, and Eliver has consistently been improving over time. They’re definitely great players that I see doing very well.
Valle: This year, the qualifiers were really close to EVO. Sponsors couldn’t just fly people out to Vegas and Japan within a month from each other. I’m really happy to see Justin going to SBO for Marvel. It’s his destiny! It’s like if they put Alpha 2 in the SBO circuit, I’d see myself there!
I’m also really happy to see Eliver going to an event of this magnitude. He’s a guy that literally puts his blood, sweat and tears into becoming the best, and I’m glad to see him get a chance like this. When he loses, he really takes it to heart, and it makes him that much hungrier to improve.
CGAJ: One of the things the Final RoundBats players – Abegen, Kubo, Mame Spider – talked about was their inclination to play under-represented characters. Arguably, matchup unfamiliarity played some role to their success at EVO. Is playing against less-represented characters a concern for you at all?
JWong: I’m basically just going to try to go in with all my matches. I’m pretty familiar with the entire cast, because I’ve played them all to some degree. At the very least, I’ll have a bit of familiarity with them all. One thing I can say though, is that my number one goal is not to get hit. Most of the Japanese players have some sort of one-touch-one-kill combo, so I have to get that first hit before they do, since I’m capable of that, too. The key is definitely to get the first hit in.
CGAJ: Are you concerned about the Japanese Vergil at all? That seems to be the most represented character in Japan, and they play him at a very high level.
JWong: Vergil’s one of those characters that see a lot of play as anchor. For the most part, you’ll want to snap him in and deal with him with Level 1 X-Factor instead of Level 3. It’ll be situational though. Say I had to fight against Mame Spider. Spiderman is his best character, so my first goal is to kill him. Then, when Doom comes in, I have to snap Vergil in. At that point, I can pop X-Factor to kill Vergil – when I have the chance, and have a better shot against his lone Doom.
U-S-A! U-S-A!!!
CGAJ: This year we’re represented by a really strong Street Fighter team. I spoke with Haitani and Uryo about SBO, and in regards to the American team, they said two things. First, PR Balrog and Dieminion have the best Balrog and Guile in the world, respectively – while Latif has a Top 3 Viper. Second, they’ve also said that they feel like the American competition has caught up to Japan as far as SF4 goes. What do you think of this assessment?
JWong: I think that the top American players – myself, Latif, Dieminion, PR Rog, Wolfkrone, Alex Valle, etc. – have all caught up to them, but that the average American player still has a long way to go against the average Japanese player.
I really like the American set up this year. The combination of the three players is very strong. You’ve got the offense in Latif, defense in Dieminion, and the balance in PR Rog.
Valle: Something that people need to understand is that this dynamic happened a long time ago. Two years ago, the international boom started. Back when Filipino Champ was still an up-and-comer, he was beating all the international players with his Dhalsim. You didn’t see any of this, because streaming was still pretty new, and a lot of this footage wasn’t documented. So from two years ago, we were already getting to that level. Today, I’d say we’re pretty dead even.
This weekend promises to be yet another SBO to remember. Will the Americans finally take a coveted SBO title home? For Marvel? AE? BOTH!? At the very least, from Team EG’s perspective — hell, from an EG fan’s perspective — you won’t want to miss what transpires this weekend. Trust me.
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GAME HARD
