X-Mania Europe - Player Q&A

X-Mania Europe is scheduled for June 4th and 5th. The official site is here:

http://www.kumite.fr/x-mania-europe/

I thought it would be fun to check in with some of the entrants. Here's a quick Q&A with Wolmar from France, SpinalBlood from Italy and Kareeeeem, our man in Amsterdam. I'm hoping to hear from a couple more people; this post might get updated a little later.

Update 5/18/11 - Added a Q&A with Vernon from Rome.

Thank you guys for the answers and good luck to all participants!

Wolmar

Could you tell us how the tournament came about? Who's idea was it and what steps were involved in making it happen?

Well, let me introduce first the Neo Arcadia arcade center: it is located in the south of France, and it is one of the most renowned arcade venue in France; it is based upon Japan arcade centers, with Japanese cabs, old school Vs. battle games, with also some new and casual stuffs. So this center had once the idea of a big ST tourney. And some crazy idea popped up: it was about asking Mikado arcade center if they would agree to "give" the x-mania license to a European event. Thus, they just did; mailing Mikado and waiting for a reply. Mikado agreed and even was excited about X-mania being elsewhere than Japan (CPS-1 airplane sound). Then, that was it; Neo Arcadia had almost 9 months to figure out how to organize such an event the best possible way.

What are the tourneys like in your area? Who are some of the tough players that you spar with? Is anyone else going to X-Mania? Are there any specific players from abroad or elsewhere in France that you're eager to battle with at X-Mania Europe and why?

ST tourneys in France are still alive. Neo Arcadia's kumite (autumn), Rennes's Stunfest (May, biggest Vs fighting event in Europe as you know), ST team event in World Game Cup (Cannes, huge event), Lyon's Danisen, and some other tourneys here and there across the country (like, 4/5 others). So we can say ST is really alive in France tourney wise. In Europe, I can only think of SvB (London), but they play HDR there, and Thunder Kicks (South England), Hometourneys hosted by jpj, where some of the best euro peeps showed up lately (Orf, Kareeeeem, Ryan Hart...).

Toughest Euro players are, to name just some: Orf (Ryu, UK), SpinalBlood (Sagat, Ita), Kareeeeem (Blanka, Netherlands), Biollo (Dhalsim, Ita), Paskis (Shotos, Finland)... In France, we have quite a bunch of good players : 3 brothers with sick skills (Aerorockman, Dictator; Er Commander, Blanka; veloluffy, Ryu). Cuongster also is a nasty ken, and is able to win pretty much everyone if he's in the mood. All in all, Er Commander is the player I consider to be the toughest right now in France. And he's 16. His mixups and combos are so crazy he can kill you from a single hit. All those players I mentioned are going to X-mania, except for Paskis and Orf. Gonna be sick!

But sickest thing is a Japanese top player will come. It is now 100% sure. It will be either Nuki, Muteki or AFO. Nuki is most likely the one who'll come. And as he is the best Japanese player in Windjammers, I'm rooting for him even more!

How have you been practicing for the tournament? Any specific match-ups that you've been working on?

As some Japanese player will come, I'm afraid we (and I) will have huge difficulties to win one of the 4 tourneys that will take place. But it will be a pleasure even to be badly molested :p

More seriously, I tried to work my Sim against chars like Blanka and Honda. These are favorable match-ups for Sim but ONLY if you perfectly know how to deal with it. If not, it can very quickly turn into a nightmare. I think I can do okay against most of the cast with sim apart from that.

Pretend there's a potluck dinner at X-Mania — what would you bring? In other words, tell us about something you like to eat that you make or get nearby.

Well, the dish I'll talk about is not typically French, lol. In Neo Arcadia's street, there is a lot of little sandwich shops called 'kebabs'. It is basically from Turkey (or even Greece whatever :p), and it consists in thin lamellas of calf meat, with white sauce, onions, small tomato and salad morsels, wrapped in Lebanese bread. So tasty!

SpinalBlood

What are the tourneys like in your area? Who are some of the tough players that you spar with? Is anyone else going to X-Mania?

First of all thanks to RWD for helping me translate my answers into proper English. In Italy, the tournament scene is pretty much non existent as there is no "real" arcades anymore besides the ones you can find at seaside locations, and the games you find there are far away from the fighting game genre.

We do have a small offline scene dedicated to fighting games, however, due to the arrival of Street Fighter 4 the 2X related events have decreased and some of our more skilled players have pretty much retired - there are 2X ranbats in Rome, but unfortunately that is too far away from my location in Milan to attend.

We have a number of players still interested in the game in Italy, but it is too hard to gather everyone from different regions together. Some of them play online using GGPO and Supercade such as Biollo, Vernon, Kenmasta, Redeluni, Xam925, Masonna, Mattycon, Kuroi, Gibbone, Neanderthal, DanyXp, Verzaverde, Steve - these are regular players and I think some of them are good at least for European level. I spar with them often but unfortunately only a few can attend X-Mania due to family duties, work etc.

Are there any specific players from abroad that you're eager to battle with at X-Mania Europe and why?

If I'm honest there is no-one in particular, which might sound like a self-confident response but that is far from the truth as I lose often against many European and USA players. I always try to win but also try to have fun and I find that if I think too much about who my opponent is, especially at tournaments, it may result in a worse performance - I think it's much better to think about the character and the match-up itself.

Anyway, playing this game online has got me in contact with a lot of foreign players, some have already registered for this tournament and some I have already met in previous tournaments. I would like to see Professor Jones and Fuzzy at this event, as I enjoy their play styles.

How have you been practicing for the tournament? Any specific match-ups that you've been working on?

For training I have been using training mode on HD Remix (classic mode), PC emulators and online play with GGPO and Supercade for VS play experience. Like I said, 2X in Italy is not very popular and I think the situation in other countries isn't that much different, so this is where online play helps and programs like nFBA, GGPO and Supercade are very useful in bringing players together.

I also check Japanese videos but unfortunately New Sagat footage is pretty rare and some match-ups are even harder to find - I like Yaya videos, he has a unique style, especially his fireball game, and is totally different from any other Sagat.

There are some match-ups that I focus more on, mainly the more difficult ones such as Dhalsim, Boxer, Claw and Chun. I personally hate DeeJay for some reason even thought he isn't the most difficult, and Boxer because he can win very quickly, so I'm trying to improve on that. I would like to play against more Cammy and Sagat players, as there is a lack of them so I need more experience against them.

It seems like you're the only New Sagat player outside of Japan. Why did you decide to specialize in him?

I like New Sagat because of his zoning/fireball game, the goal is to break the opponents balance with a mix of high and low fireballs, forcing them to jump into an uppercut or sweep. From this perspective I have a lot of fun with him, although it's not always possible to zone properly against some characters due to certain moves or Sagat's height, but that adds to the challenge.

His Tiger Knee is very fast, can be used as a crossover, somewhat compensates for Sagat's overall slowness, and if used unpredictably can be a real threat. Similar can be said about his Super, which is nice for anti-air purposes, going through fireballs done up close and as a general chip damage finisher (like a real tiger, ahah).

The reason I prefer New over Old is that Old relies too much on low fireballs because of the fast recovery, and I find him a bit cheap because of the different uppercut properties (single hit high damage) and the stand LK being cancelable on both hits into fireball. New Sagat has to be played slightly different because he doesn't have these properties so I think he has to use his entire set of moves and normals, making him a more fun character to play. - it's not that Old can't do this also, but more than it's inconvenient to do so resulting in a (in my opinion) slightly more boring playstyle, even if he does have a better zoning game. I also like the ability to tech-throw, which is very important, especially against characters such as Chun-Li and Dictator.

Old Sagat is certainly the stronger character, but I feel New is closer to how Sagat was intended to be, people who like the character should give him a try as it's still possible to do well with him. There is a player in Finland called Paskis who also uses him and he's interesting as his style is more aggressive than mine.

Pretend there's a potluck dinner at X-Mania — what would you bring? In other words, tell us about something you like to eat that you make or get nearby.

I laughed at this, err, well, it may look stereotypical, but I would have to say pizza. :)

What kind of pizza?

Spicy salami pizza :) I guess outside Italy it's called pepperoni pizza because of the spiciness, but it's not the red peppers one.

Kareeeeem

What are the tourneys like in your area? Who are some of the tough players that you spar with? Is anyone else going to X-Mania?

Tourneys here in the Netherlands suck if you're not into SSF4. The guys who run them, an organization called Dutchnoobz are great and are players themselves so they understand what works and what doesn't. But the community itself is just too close-minded for a good and varied scene to exist. Even newer games such as Marvel don't get nearly the excitement a new and actually fun game deserves. Most of the guys who play now came into an already existing scene and don't know how or just don't want to create an environment where multiple games get played. Especially when it comes to the "old" games, something I don't quite understand since if you have never put time into it how is that game old to you.

I usually try to bring a setup with me to those tourneys and get some casuals in for games that I enjoy.

Are there any specific players from abroad that you're eager to battle with at X-Mania Europe and why?

Guys like Wolmar (Honda/Sim, hella cheap so he forces you to be on point and never get caught in a bad spot), SpinalBlood (N.Sagat, never played any N.Sagat who could hit the 5 hit fierce upper like him), Coungster (N.Ken, guy is the definition of solid) always give me exciting games. I don't know how they feel about playing me but I love playing them.

How have you been practicing for the tournament? Any specific match-ups that you've been working on?

To be honest it was doubtful I was gonna make it even though I reallllllly wanted to. Now that I'm confirmed to be there I'm just gonna practice hard against whatever match I encounter. Blanka sucks against nearly anyone. Wolmar and Spinal are two of the players I like to play on GGPO because playing them forces you to just be extra extra solid in your decision making, so I hope I can get plenty matches in with them and a bunch of other players who force me to do the same.

Pretend there's a potluck dinner at X-Mania — what would you bring? In other words, tell us about something you like to eat that you make or get nearby.

Theres this Tunisian (my dad is from there) sauce or paste called harrissa made up of different kind of hot peppers and other spices like garlic, coriander, etc, and some tomato and olive oil. and I like to put it on EVERYTHING like any Tunisian would. So if I were to bring in some food it would probably be a footlong sandwich both side spread with harrise and some olive oil, some olives and scrambled eggs. maybe some lamb chops on the side because every meal needs meat.

VernonSPQR

What are the tourneys like in your area? Who are some of the tough players that you spar with? Is anyone else going to X-Mania?

In Italy we have a long tradition for fighting games. Unfortunately the crisis that infested the industry in the 90s has killed every game center, year after year. A bad scenario not favorable for a genre born and raised in the heart of game centers, but thanks to internet we started to hit hard again and slowly, from ashes, we've rebuilt a scene. Anyway some years have passed and now we have again our small scene dedicated to fighting games with events, meetings and tournaments.

Under the flag of Arcade Extreme, nowadays we continue to run ranking battles in both Rome and Milan (season #3 in progress), that are the regular, monthly tournaments for Italian players. But with the release of SSFIV a lot players in our country have jumped on the new-fashioned-style bandwagon, and meanwhile since the crowd is mainly focused on the fourth SF's incarnation, the attention for old games like 2X is dramatically decreased.

However, since I am one of the coordinator and organizer of the Rome ranbats (along with friends Okuyasu, Shirl and OldBoy) I decided to put 2X in the current line-up season and nowadays these are the only offline tournaments you can find in Italy. This is my personal effort to keep the flame of old school alive.

We have a lot of good players, both newcomers and old schoolers continue to improve themselves. Just to name some: SpinalBlood, Biollo, Masonna, Mattycon, Xam925, Kenmasta, Rukawa and Shirl. Except for the players located in Rome I spar with them online on GGPO/Supercade. Bad luck only a few can attend X-Mania Europe.

Are there any specific players from abroad that you're eager to battle with at X-Mania Europe and why?

Of course, Europe has very strong players but I don't want to mention anyone in particular. I have already met them in past tournaments and often on GGPO, now I wanna just really meet them again in France and try to knock them out from the tourney. We are all friend you know, but this is competition, and we love it.

Furthermore if the Japanese are really coming that's gonna be a hit. In 2009 I have been in Japan for 1 month, during my holiday at Mikado in Tokyo I sparred with some of the best in the world like YuuVega, Mattsun, Taira, Noguchi, Nakamura and many others along with my friend Verza. Man, they're truly unreachable. I wish, at least, some can come in Europe cause I wanna play them again and learn from the masters.

How have you been practicing for the tournament? Any specific match-ups that you've been working on?

Well, playing offline when I can and online when there's nobody to spar with in a real circumstance. Playing online it's really different you know, but helps a lot to keep trained and learn new play styles.

In addition watching Japanese match vids which I find really useful to study match-ups on the fly and memorize important things to try when I'll play again.

Pretend there's a potluck dinner at X-Mania — what would you bring? In other words, tell us about something you like to eat that you make or get nearby.

If I could choose without no doubts a pasta plate or lasagna cooked by my grandmother. But even a pizza would be ok, uh, I simply cannot live without it.