Hi guys, Spider Muttons Productions © 2010 is back with our newest episode. We’ve been gone for a while, so we thought we would get back into things with none other than EXC355UM, the commander in chief of Shadowloo aka. Ali Abdo.
Having recently appeared on Cross Counter Live with Pyro we thought it would be a good time to catch up with him.
Hollywood X and Pyro!
We chat with him about the past year and the months and happenings in our scene since the last time we last talked to him. We also get the lowdown on Shadowloo Showdown 2012 and their international qualifiers. He also shares his thoughts on OHNX and OHNR, his recent Cross Counter appearance and how he feels towards UMVC3 and SFxTekken.
Follow Ali on Twitter and on Facebook.
And be sure to check Ali and Pyro’s show The X Report.
Lastly, check out the sites for the upcoming OHNX in Sydney and Shadowloo Showdown in Melbourne. Register early guys!
Thanks to Dave/Bosslogic for another boss banner!
Enjoy the interview guys!
Don’t be a Scrub Podcast Episode 18: EXC355UM- SS2k12 and OHNX preview
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Don’t be a Scrub Podcast Episode 18: EXC355UM- SS2k12 and OHNX preview
Spidercarnage: Hello everyone, this is the first CCH of the year. 2012. 2012 being the end of the world and all, so we thought we’d start up again!
Muttons: Good time to start up.
S: Yeah exactly.
EXC355UM: Yeah, you gotta make the most of it man. You don’t just quit because it’s the end of the world.
S: (Laughs.)
E: We don’t let the Mayans win.
S: Yeah. Those damn Mayans.
E: Shit. All our Mayan viewers just left.
M: All our Mayan viewers… (Laughs.)
S: Anyway today we have a special guest with us who is just hot off the presses off a U.S. popular show which we will not mention.
E: Yeah. Welcome, Muttons.
M: (Laughs.)
S: Mmm. Indeed. How have you been?
M: I’m good. How are you, Hollywood X?
E: I’m good, bruh.
S: Hollywood X. And of course we’re talking about Ali, EXC355UM. One of the founders of Shadowloo.
E: Hello, people inside the microphone.
1- S: So, what’s been happening lately?
E: Well, it’s been a busy year- last couple of months. Cos this is the most busiest period for running an event. You gotta… this is the time that you have to secure all the sponsors. If you wait too long, a lot of them will end up saying oh, it’s too close. To the event. We don’t have enough time to ask our higher-ups and this and that.
Some of them are legit, others I feel like they just said that because we didn’t give them much time. So this time I wanted to make sure that we provided enough time for all the sponsors. Um, we’re approaching a lot of sponsors that we feel will go well with Shadowloo Showdown.
Just… a little bit hard to get in contact with some of them. If you don’t know them, then it’s just another email to them, possibly. So I’m hoping that they read the email and read the sponsorship document and really want to become part of Shadowloo Showdown.
I hope the last two Shadowloo Showdowns have been decent enough for them to say, oh it’s from Shadowloo, let’s see what they have planned.
And if not, then there’s always next year.
S: It’s definitely grown every year.
And last year it was definitely the biggest tournament in Australia.
The Three Kings from SS2k10
E: Yeah I think it was the biggest fighting game tournament- possibly one of the biggest gaming tournaments in Australia. Which we’re proud of.
And also another milestone is our twitch.tv channel passed a million views this year I think it was?
I think that’s the highest views for any Australian twitch.tv channel. So that’s something we’re proud of. And we hope that we keep getting milestones like this. And that way we can use this sort of stuff to approach sponsors like I was talking about before.
Um, but yeah I’m hoping this year will be even bigger. I feel like EVO had a milestone of, what was it, 2 million unique viewers or something like that?
S: Yes.
E: That’s huge, that’s amazing.
S: I think at any one point I think there were about 80,000 people watching the live stream.
E: Yeah. We probably won’t get that, or nowhere near that.
But just to, just seeing how many fighting game viewers and people that enjoy watching games…that’s, you know, it makes you feel like you still have a lot to achieve.
And that’s what we’re aiming for.
S: Well I mean, look at it this way- recently I’ve been watching the Big Two. And most of the Spooky streams have been getting a solid five to six thousand viewers. And that’s just the weekly tournament. So I’m pretty sure this year, once when the EVO Road starts up again…
E: Yeah, Road to EVO.
S: Yeah, Road to EVO. I think we’re going to see a lot more- bigger numbers.
Last year the average was about 15,000 per stream. I think this year we can easily expect more than that.
E: The thing about Team Spooky though…is Spooky has got like a cult following.
S: Oh no, most definitely.
E: Anything Spooky’s on, he’s gonna get viewers.
Another big company doing well- Level Up Series.
They’re doing really well. They get huge numbers for the Wednesday Night Fights as well.
S: Oh yeah definitely.
The way it works actually is really interesting. You usually have Spooky who starts on the East Coast and then as you move through the day, at least for Australia, you switch to Level Up right around two o’clock. And then you just follow that till about seven or eight or nine.
E: Exactly, yeah. So it’s just a lot of the viewers from Spooky are already, y’know, ready for more action. So they just switch over to Wednesday Night Fights, which helps.
2- M: So who’s your favourite commentator?
E: Anywhere in the world? Any game?
M: Any game.
E: That’s a tough one. Um. Put me on the spot.
M: For Street Fighter.
E: You know what, even though I don’t understand what they’re saying? The Third Strike commentators from Japan.
They get so damn hype, man.
M: Nuki and…
E: They’re just…I have no idea. I have no idea what they’re saying. But it’s just…they’re so passionate about the game.
They could be saying the most stupidest crap ever. But to me it sounds amazing.
S: Well they are basically the pioneers, in a way, of video game commentary. SBO was basically some of the first tournaments where they actually had commentary over video games.
E: That’s pretty cool.
S: For fighting games, definitely.
E: There’s some really good commentators out there. I wouldn’t be able to pick…but for me…we’ll just say Heavy Weapons. We’ll butter him up.
(Laughs.)
S: With a shifty look.
E: Ah well, who’s your favourite Muttons?
M: My favourite?
E: I know you’re interviewing me, but who’s your favourite?
M: Aw man. My favourite…
Probably…
Rockefeller.
E: Rockefeller?
S: Ah, Dr. Sub-Zero.
M: But he’s no longer active so..at least as a commentator.
E: Sub-Zero, I’ve been talking to him on twitter. He seems like…
M: He’s a cool guy.
E: …a really cool dude. I gotta send him some shirts.
M: Man… some of the girls that he has on his podcast…
S: (Laughs.)
Have you ever noticed? We have a growing trend of mentioning Dr. Sub-Zero on the last three of four podcasts…
E: I think Muttons has a man-crush on Dr. Sub-Zero…
M: I do, man.
E: I know you do. That’s why he’s never going to come to Australia!
M: Well I guess…
E: He thinks he’s gonna rape him.
S: (Laughs.)
M: And…would he be adverse to that?
E: Yes. Yes he would.
M: (Laughs.)
Hm.
E: Hm.
What about you Igor? You got a favourite commentator?
S: Who’s my favourite commentator? Ooh.
E: Your one’s probably an old-school commentator. You love the old days.
S: Sort of yes and sort of no.
M: How about Bill Walton.
E: James, James Chen.
S: For Street Fighter I’d probably say James Chen. Mainly just because of the technical breakdown. And because he takes it so seriously.
For Marvel, it’s definitely Yipes.
E: Yeah, yeah.
S: Hands down.
E: Yipes, no doubt.
M: Yipes is the…
S: Yipes because he…
He does two things; he’s also technical when he needs to be. But he knows to hype it up when he needs to.
And that’s why I think it works.
E: And he’s the inventor of…random lingo.
So…
S: Well, random lingo to a certain aspect but it’s also because they do really similar…
It’s really interesting because the New York scene does something similar to what we do. They make up their own sort of lingo. And then that lingo tends to catch on. So.
E: I know I dig that. I dig that.
S: That’s why it works really well.
M: Well one thing I will say is that I actually don’t like…You know Steve, the new guy they got on [Wednesday Night Fights]?
S: Oh yeah, yeah. I’m not a big fan either.
M: I like him by himself. But he and Yipes are together I think that’s like too much…
E: It’s too much. It’s too much.
M: And just like UltraDavid and James Chen. I love them both individually as well. But put them together and it’s like too much of the same thing.
E: Yeah, you need to mix up.
S: Mmm….
M: You know what I mean? Like James Chen and Yipes. You know a hype guy and a [breakdown guy.]
S: Yeah, that’s basically following the NBA TNT model.
E: Well for me, the best type is having someone who is technical and someone who knows the players. Someone who…
Because you gotta get the fans to connect with the players. And being too technical, they’re not just going to be, ah who’s this random player?
But if you give out a bit of backstory before the match some people will…
S: Well that comes with the territory in general.
All the commentators need to know who’s playing, their play styles, and then how the match actually works.
M: So who’s gonna replace Kyle?
E: I dunno man. I have no idea what we’re gonna to do. We’re gonna have to import someone.
S: Kyle’s gone?
E: Kyle’s gone to Japan, yeah.
S: Oh.
M: For a year.
S: Shout outs to Kyle.
E: Probably going to import Honzo Gonzo from America.
S: He’s actually a really cool guy. I spoke to him at EVO.
E: Yeah he’s a cool dude. So we’re gonna probably get him. If he’s listening to this.
S: Yeah.
E: Pay him twenty bucks.
M: I’m sure he is!
E: Don’t worry; I’ll link him to it!
S: Well speaking of Honzo Gonzo… You lately from what I’ve seen, you’ve been playing Marvel more and more. More than Street Fighter.
E: Yeah. Well, Street Fighter, I like the game, I’m not gonna say it’s a crap game, but it’s so slow.
I like high paced games.
3- S: So what do you think of Ultimate Marvel compared to Vanilla then?
E: It’s…more or less the same thing. It’s still basically Marvel.
S: Oh yeah definitely, but do you like it more or do you like it less?
E: At first I liked it more but now you see all this other crazy stuff coming out from Ultimate and you start hating it but then you just stop and step back.
And you realize this is Marvel. This is what it’s all about. You do crazy shit, just go all out, figure out your own dirty stuff, dirty setups, so.
That’s basically what I do.
I just love the rushdown of the game. Just keep attacking, keep attacking, keep attacking.
S: So what’s your team at the moment?
E: X-23, Akuma, and Strider. I dropped Wesker…
M: Why’d you drop Wesker? That is like…
E: I know, I’m always tempted to go back, especially against like Haggar players or something. I feel like Wesker does so well against Haggar. Not just because of the gun shot but because of his normal counters, not the hyper counter, works really well against the pipe.
I feel like they’re better in this game. Slightly.
So…I dunno. I’m gonna try to not use Wesker at all. So I can better at Strider.
I feel like…I’m not gonna to say I earn my wins with Strider more because every time I use X-factor level 3 with ouroboros, it’s disgusting. It’s like a Phoenix of its own.
S: yeah but that’s always been Strider’s gimmick though.
He’s a glass cannon.
E: That’s true, that’s true.
M: You just like shoot- squirting things at people right?
E: Heheh. Thanks for making me feel better. Now I don’t feel bad at all. Just gonna keep blowing people up with Ouroboros.
S: I mean that was the thing. Even in Marvel 2, Strider was about lockdown. And a glass cannon.
If he gets touched, he’s dead.
E: That’s true.
S: That’s the way its always worked and I think that’s what they’ve recreated here.
I believe Vajira assist is broken as all fuck though.
E: Yeah, it’s such a good assist!
But no, it’s a great game. I’m glad to see it taking off in a lot of places. I don’t know if it’s still…got a lot of hype behind it?
I’m hoping that it does. But it seems like slowly, slowly, the hype’s going?
S: Mmm…I don’t know about that…
E: Maybe not in America?
S: I don’t think we feel that as much, especially in Victoria, not as much.
I think if you go to Queensland, that’s all they play up there. Because basically every single person I spoken to or who I’ve played online is either from Queensland or from New South Wales.
E: The thing is, a lot of people got into it here, but as soon as they run into anything that’s really…uh…
S: Broken?
E: I’m not going to say broken, but disgusting?
Something they can’t explain or don’t want to spend time on to try to beat. Then they just stop playing the game.
S: Let me just clarify. When we say broken we’re actually talking about broken in SFIV’s view of broken. Not in Marvel broken. So.
E: That’s what I mean. Instead of trying to figure out a way to beat that sort of tactic from the opponent, they decided that this game is too much, it’s too crazy. I’m going to stop playing. Which is probably not the best…
S: It’s not the mentality to have for fighting games.
E: Exactly. And that’s why it sucks that the scene could be bigger and maybe later on we could have tutorials or classes to help someone who’s having issues with certain characters or certain matchups. But until then… yeah.
4- S: Actually I wanted to ask you; why X-23? Because I think she’s one of the characters that’s being really slept on. I think she’s really, really good, has really high priority normals, has a decent way of getting in but not a lot of people use her, so.
E: I think the fact is there was Wolverine in the first game and a lot of people just skipped over X-23 and just went straight to Wolverine.
M: And she lost the DHC glitch as well.
E: Yeah. And he was a lot easier to use. So a lot of people went with Wolverine and just…didn’t even give X-23 the time of day. Not many people did. There were a handful of people…
But I liked her. I liked the way she played. I didn’t want to be another Wolverine player. Plus, she has X in her name.
S: Aha, right I see. Your former name.
E: Yeah exactly.
And…
She’s just so quick!
S: It’s like I said, she has good mobility.
E: I love characters who have…
There’s a few things that makes me pick characters.
Speed. Power. And…dive kicks.
They have to have a dive kick.
S: Heheh.
E: And mix ups. Look at my characters man. Strider, Akuma and X-23. All dive kicks. All have dive kicks. And all have some sort of teleport or mix-up ability. Those are my characters.
Even in King of Fighters I’m using Yuri. Because she plays like Akuma. And who else is there…Hwa? The guy that’s like Adon. He’s got his own dive kick.
Characters that don’t have dive kicks, I’m not going to pick them.
M: Capcom loves dive kicks.
S: So what do you think of the new characters in Ultimate?
E: Good. There’s a lot of new characters but the good thing about it was they’re not very similar.
S: They are very unique, actually.
E: Which is great because you didn’t want them just to add more characters in that was just a bunch of clones.
The only problem is; we’re not getting much people using them. If we run into say, a Rocket Raccoon somewhere, I don’t know what the hell we’re going to do.
Because I haven’t seen a Rocket Raccoon since the game came out. Also, not too many Nemesis players around. That’s the biggest downfall for us; we don’t have the matchup knowledge.
Like I just played a new guy today, Tom, he uses Viper. I haven’t played Vipers before.
S: Yeah, that character’s really good.
E: Yeah, in any game, not just Marvel, any game, if you don’t know the matchup, you’re…as Taskmaster says, you’re in for a world of hurt.
S: You fight like an amateur, chump.
E: We need so many people… That’s the good thing about the U.S. They have a huge population and a lot of them have the mentality that they wanna use characters that are low-tier or different. So it’s great for them because people get a lot of matchup knowledge and matchup practice. Here, nothing.
That’s why they’re above the rest. That’s what I think.
S: In Marvel, definitely.
Though I think the way they evolve technology, it just happens over there so much faster than it does anywhere else.
E: Yeah, well it has to. ‘Cos like I said, there’s so much different matchups going on, anytime something happens they’re like, oh wait, hold on. Let’s find out what just happened there.
And then in this day and age with the internet, everyone just puts it up straightaway on YouTube. They want to be the first people to have it up there.
S: Definitely. It’s the whole YouTube to fame deal.
E: Yeah, exactly.
5- S: Can you tell us a little bit more about Shadowloo Showdown 2012 qualifiers?
E: Alright. So it started off with basically asking some of our friends in Japan, and Korea and Singapore to help us run a few qualifiers.
It’s something that we’ve been meaning to do for a while. But we haven’t been able to do it. Like last year, the approach was let’s just get our players, the ones we want and the ones the people want.
This year we wanted to see the best of the best come down. And the best way to do that was hold qualifiers. And there’s people at the time would be at Shadowloo Showdown. And ever since then a lot of people have contacted us and said we want to run qualifiers for you guys, how can we help.
So Offcast is now doing a qualifier in the US for both AE and Marvel. Because we couldn’t pick which one we wanted to do. So we decided let’s just do both.
And in Singapore of course Kev wants to do more than just that. He wants to also do a SFxTekken one. But he wants to fund it himself.
M: Damn. Kevin wants to fund it himself?
E: Yeah, he’s trying to get sponsors to help him out and that, but he just wants to…he wants to have SFxTekken there. He wants to have King of Fighters. Even though they might not send the players. Like we might not send the players- they might. Try to help them come here. Plus they’ll get seeding.
Kev is the man.
And then…Kuwait also wanted to be a part of it. So that was good. So now we got some representation from the Middle East. You got players like Maan, and NoX and Ganoon and all that. And not just from Kuwait but the surrounding areas, like Saudi Arabia’s got a good scene.
S: Oh really.
E: Yeah, they had a stream on tonight, which was…it showed some good level play. And who else we got…
World Game Cup is coming up and they’re interested in running qualifiers for us. We haven’t finalized that; hopefully by the time this interview comes out they’ll be confirmed. So probably the winner or the top two from that event will be flown down.
And just in case a European doesn’t win we were gonna…we were talking to WorstGiefEver about running one in the UK as well just so we can get Europe…
Cos you know World Game Cup’s got Fuudo, Tokido and Mago, so it’s gonna be pretty hard for an European to win…not saying it’s impossible, but it’s going to be tough.
6- S: So speaking of the qualifiers, how do you actually narrow down the countries which you want to run the qualifiers in?
E: Well it’s basically the biggest scenes or those we know will help us out and are willing to do the work.
Cos you don’t want to approach someone and say look we want you to help us out with the qualifiers and they get annoyed and say, oh we’re doing everything.
If the country is willing to help…like everyone that we’ve approached has been really helpful, like a lot of them have tried to get their own sponsors. A lot of them have been doing the venue searching themselves, which is great for us. Cos, all we really have to do is to advertise it, put it in the trailers; make the streams loud for them.
Stuff like that. Which is great for us, because now we get the players and great for them because they get exposure for them.
S: How did you go about creating contacts in those countries?
M: Yeah, why do you think all these people from all these countries are so willing to help you guys?
S: Because it seems like a fairly difficult task to do.
E: Yeah the thing is the first year Sol made a shit load of contacts like when he was trying to get players for [Shadowloo Showdown 1]. He’s the man to go to if you ever want to contact anyone.
Like Mooseking is trying to get this player down. So he’s asked Sol to go find him and contact him. And Sol found him today and talked to him today. And the guy’s interested in coming so he’s gonna come down.
II didn’t want to mention it just yet but it’s Mooseking.
M: It must be a Gen player. It’s Yeb right?
S: Ooh. That would be awesome.
E: I’m not going to say who it is but…
M: Because Xian is already…should be coming right?
S: I don’t think it’s gonna happen because recently the Box Arena had a Farewell Yeb event.
M: Ah so.
E: Yeah. Well I’ll give you that. It’s a Gen player. But which one?
M: Ahh.
E: It’s Mooseking! Of course it’s Gen. Shit.
M: Yeah exactly. I thought it would have to be Gen.
E: Yeah. But there’s also a few other players here in Melbourne that wanna see players come down. And if they’re willing to do the same thing and Sol can contact them. He’s like the…
Super Best Friends! From left; Burnout, EXC355UM, VITRIOL, Sol, Pyro, Zerokill and Bugsimus.
S: Who was your most requested player for Marvel and for Street Fighter?
E: Marvel? Probably Combofiend.
M: Everyone loves Combofiend.
E: Everyone wants to see Combofiend here. But um… for AE… Look.
Daigo needs to come to Melbourne. A lot of people have been asking to see Daigo come to Melbourne. But the dream matchup would be Kazunoko versus Poongko. I think if we can make that happen…
M: You mean a Seth mirror match? Oh my god…
E: If we can make that happen at Shadowloo Showdown, that’d be sick. Because a lot of people would want to see it. It’d be random as hell but it’d be sick to watch.
M: It’d be random as hell.
S: Did Poongko play Online Tony?
E: Not that I know of. I don’t think so.
M: He must have played him in casuals because he’s the Machine but I guess not in [tournament.]
S: Yeah.
E: They must have played. But this is tournament though. Casuals are different.
S: And Poongko actually does tend to sandbag in casuals.
E: Yeah he does!
S: Quite a lot.
M: It’s just because he doesn’t have Red Bull during casuals.
E: Exactly, exactly.
S: Mm, mm. Hasn’t got that fuel happening.
M: So I guess you could say that the last two Shadowloo Showdowns have been about the contacts…
E: Making contacts, and making waves, basically.
Now when you approach someone and say, here look. We’re from Shadowloo. We want to try to have a qualifier in your country.
A lot of people jump on it and really want to help out.
M: Because you helped them out before. And you helped them come down here.
E: Yeah.
We’ve helped them before and they’ve helped us. Plus, anyone that helps us we always…we don’t forget. We might not be repay them straightaway but eventually everyone that’s helped us along the way will be…rewarded. Some way.
S: Also, it’s a free vacation to Australia.
E: Exactly.
S: Put it this way, a lot of people- countries know of Australia. But it’s such a mysterious place. We have killer animals…
E: Truckers. Everywhere.
M: We play on joysticks shaped like boomerangs…
E: Crocodiles coming out off the toilets…
S: Yeah. We’re all thieves and crooks…
E: Standard stuff.
M: Ex-convicts. Standard stuff.
S: But overall Australia has that sort of mystique that you know…
A lot of people travel from Australia out there but a lot of people want to see Australia.
So…It has that appeal to it.
M: I think they’re going to be disappointed. It’s just like a city right? You come to Melbourne, to the city like…
S: I don’t know about that. Most of the visitors of the last two years seem pretty excited.
E: Maybe it’s just us. Melbourne is just boring to us now. There’s not much to see right?
S: It’s the same for everyone though.
E: Yeah, I guess.
M: Oh my god. When you talk about this the only thing I can think about is the zoo!
S: (Simultaneously) The zoo!
E: Ohh dude. If we have to go to the zoo again I’m going to kill myself.
M: (Laughs.)
S: No more zoo trips.
E: You know what…
S: No no we did go last year.
E: Yeah we did. We always go.
The thing is for next year what I’m trying to do is…
S: Another zoo trip?
E: Nah!
For the qualifiers, I would like to be there. To help the organisers run their qualifiers. I’d like to…not necessarily a circuit…
M: The Ali circuit.
E: The Ali circuit?
S: Haha that would be awesome.
M: You go around…and just like…
Worship me.
S: You are the greatest.
E: Welcome to Shadowloo Showdown qualifier, bro!
S: Heh.
E: And uh…it’ll be good, it’ll be good. If I can travel to these qualifiers and help them out any way I can. And also talk to some of the players; get to know them a little better, that’ll be sick.
M: I think you’ll just get in the way. You’ll be like; can I help?
E: Hey Ali, can you go back to Australia?
M: Can you…sit, sit over there?
7- S: So besides the qualifiers, or should I say, the qualifying players, can we expect any extra players to be attending Shadowloo Showdown?
E: Yes.
M: Nos girls? Red bull girls?
Make it happen, Ali.
E: We’re hoping a lot of the sponsored players get sent down. We’re hoping that with all these qualified players the sponsors will be attracted by the cast that we have. Let’s call it cast. Or lineup.
And hopefully the players talk to their sponsors; this is gonna be huge. There’s gonna be this player, this player. Everyone’s gonna be watching. And if you don’t send us down, we’re gonna be missing out.
M: Can I ask one question?
How come there’s no Canadian qualifier?
E: To be honest, we wanted to run one, we possibly couldn’t. But in the last week I think Sol tried to contact Lap Chi.
But he hasn’t responded. And it’s getting to the point where it’s gonna be too hard to run one now. So I guess probably have to wait for next year for Canada Cup.
M: Because it’s the other…equivalent of Shadowloo Showdown other than EVO in terms of international guests is like Canada…Canada Cup right?
E: Yeah.
M: So I was kinda surprised that there was no qualifier…
E: Well that’s what I mean. Maybe… I don’t know. Maybe because we couldn’t make it, maybe it upset them. I don’t want to say it did, but I’m just assuming here. You shouldn’t assume things but maybe that’s what it was.
It’s just…a lot of the players here in Australia just came off EVO and didn’t have the funding.
S: Yeah a lot of us actually wanted to go to Canada Cup. Yeah it was a pretty tough…
M: Tough, tight situation.
S: ‘Cause the thing is though, travelling from Australia to anywhere is bloody expensive.
M: Just admit it; you just don’t want to bring a Ryu player down here right?
E: No, no, no.
M: Heheh.
E: You know what. I don’t know who would’ve won the Canada Cup [qualifier]. Because you gotta realize that it’s open to anyone, these qualifiers. So a lot of US players would’ve tried to have a second chance.
M: Oh yeah, you’re right, you’re right.
S: I was gonna say, if you actually had a New York qualifier, I betcha you get a lot of Canadian players coming down.
E: Well that’s what I meant. Hopefully we get to the point where we have an East Coast and a West Coast qualifier. And even a third one somewhere.
S: Actually you know…Most likely I would say you could probably organize Chris Ghaleon to do it. For like the Midwest.
They still technically count themselves as East Coast, but I’m sure he’ll be more than happy to help out.
E: Nah there’s a lot of people will put their hand up and help us out for sure. It’s just a matter of funding.
S: Yes, that always…
I know you guys would like to have a thousand qualifiers… But then you have to pay for a thousand plane tickets. Which is…
E: Hopefully these qualifiers make enough from entry money to cover as much as the ticket as possible. We make up the rest basically.
S: Okay. That’s actually a really good way of doing it.
E: Yeah. That’s what we figured. Instead of just getting the players and paying for it ourselves, instead we’ll help with the qualifiers. If they get enough numbers, excellent. If they don’t, we’ll make up for it.
S: You’ll cover the rest.
M: Cool.
E: We just worry about also housing them, and hotels and that.
So hopefully we can contact the hotel and tell them we got 200 guests coming.
M: Zoo tickets…
E: Ha 200 zoo tickets!
You know what; I wanna go go-karting this year. I’m taking them go-karting.
M: Man, imagine if you fucking kill Daigo in a go-karting…
S: Go-kart accident! That’s gonna be great.
M: The world will hate Australia forever!
S: And Square Enix will sue you guys if you kill Daigo.
E: Nah, he’s be alright. With that new afro he’ll be fine if he hits anything.
S: Hahaha. He’s got an airbag.
M: It’s a helmet, a Gatsby helmet.
E: He’ll be fine.
8- S: Are you going to OHN this year?
E: Yes.
I dunno. There was a lot of bad blood last year. Because they felt that we skipped it on purpose. Which we didn’t.
And we’re not going this year just to show them that we…
S: Yeah we’re going this year to win EVO points!
E: It’s not just that, we’re going to OHN because we can go to OHN this year. That’s the whole point. Shadowloo Showdown is a lot more better organized. So that’s what’s helped us out this time. Because of the qualifiers and that we don’t have to put up all the money ourselves straightaway. We have some funding for ourselves to go compete at OHN.
As for OHN, I was gonna…I was talking to Gamogo about having the winner come to Shadowloo Showdown, if they’re not an Melbourne player we’ll fly them down rather than doing our own Australian qualifiers.
I’m not sure how that’s gonna work. I still gotta talk to them about it. But because they’re doing EVO points and stuff like that…that might interfere…
S: That’s seems really…
E: That’s what I’m thinking. I gotta talk to them. But I just don’t want EVO to get upset as well. Like we’re taking over their territory or something.
M: Well speaking about…to go on a tangent, do you wanna talk about why you guys didn’t go for EVO points this year? Are you happy to elaborate on it?
E: Like I said on Cross Counter, basically we didn’t want to take everything away from OHN. We wanted it to have some sort of draw card. Now, they got SFxTekken themselves which is great.
S: Yeah I can’t wait to find out about the Gem system.
E: Yeah, that’s one highlight. Now they have the EVO points. I don’t know if they’re gonna raise funds to send the winner to EVO. I’ve been hearing stuff that they possibly will do that which is cool.
M: Which is really cool.
E: If not, it’s still EVO points. It will attract some players. A few players from Singapore, I think Xian might be coming down.
S: Well that would be awesome.
E: So I’m glad that happened. Um…
S: OHN is the Australian national championship. It has always been that. So I’m hoping that they can send the person who wins it to EVO. Because that is technically representing the best of Australia at that tournament.
M: Because for Shadowloo Showdown there’s always so many international players so it’s hard for an Australian to break into…
E: That’s the thing. You’d have some internationals taking the EVO points and then there’s no point in running EVO points here. Because it’s not…
S: Exactly.
M: And that’s fair enough.
S: And at the tail end of the year we get the salty runback at BAM.
E: At BAM. Yep.
S: Seems like things are turning out a lot better this year, organisation wise.
E: Well you learn. After a mistakes as well. A lot of big mistakes.
M: So any predictions for the OHN Regionals this Sunday?
The fu???
E: I think AE can go any way. Right now it’s very close.
M: Right now results are really close.
E: Because Akuma’s been nerfed a little bit. Toxy will probably will have to step it up heaps with Akuma or he will need to switch to Ryu or Rufus or something like that.
If he doesn’t he’s gonna have a lot of trouble against Somniac’s Bison. Sol’s Rose. Hakan’s Cammy. Even Louie (Heavy Weapons) might give him some trouble.
That matchup’s gotten a bit easier for Sagat. Because Sagat’s so good.
M: So, do you like this? Do you like the fact that basically the top spot is more up for grabs, I guess.
E: Yeah, it’s good. It’s better than having one dominant player all the time, for every game. The thing about Toxy is; he’s good at everything. So the problem with him being so good at everything is; a lot of people get turned away from tournaments because they know he’s going to be there. Now, the thing about Sol is that he’s good at a lot of games, but he excels at AE.
It’s not like Sol’s going to go win Marvel. But the problem with Toxy is, he can win AE, he can win Marvel, he can win KOF if we ran it, he’d win Third Strike.
So that’s the thing about Toxy. So now that there’s some competition in AE, it’s better. It’s better for the crowd. It’s better for the players. That’s what I think.
9- S: Speaking of AE, what do you think about 2012?
E: A lot better. Way better. Especially the twins’ nerf alone made the game better.
Akuma, I wouldn’t agree with some of the changes made. I’m not sure why, like it’s Akuma. He should be fucking badass.
But he’s still really good. Don’t get me wrong. He’s still really, really good. But those little things hurt him, especially in some matchups.
M: Well in the big picture [of things], you know I was listening to the Iplaywinner Can’t Patch This podcast. And they were mentioning how…don’t you think AE in the big picture of the community was kinda like a wasted opportunity?
Like when Super came out, it could have been THE game. To push us into esports territory.
E: Yeah. Super was probably the best game out of the whole series. I really had the most fun in Super.
And…I don’t know.
M: And then AE came out.
E: They wanted to add some characters but adding those characters kinda stuffed up the whole game!
M: The whole game…
E: And we lost a lot of…
M: Momentum right?
E: Yeah, not just momentum but a lot of community players gave up because of the twins alone.
M: Yeah. I noticed that.
E: And the problem is…we got some players as well. Because of the twins. But the downfall of that was as soon as they patched it again, those guys…
M: Disappeared.
E: …left anyway. Yeah.
M: So like for a strong scene like America I guess it doesn’t affect them that much. But for down here we really feel like…20% of people stop playing, that’s a lot of players.
E: We’re not a huge community. It’s a decent sized community but it’s not huge. So when you lose a few players, you feel it. Straightaway, you know.
S: I’d say my best estimated guess- I’d say Australia has about three hundred people? Who take the game fairly seriously.
And on a broader basis I’d say Shadowloo brought out the rest of the guys who know of Street Fighter but don’t play 100 percent seriously.
M: Johnny Donuts?
S: Yeah exactly. The Johnny Donuts.
E: We have that Melbourne group on Facebook that’s got like 150. So if Melbourne alone has 150, that’s pretty good. And I know other states can match it.
S: I think Melbourne has the biggest community right now.
M: Our facebook group has 150 people, but how many of those people actually show up to events?
E: But that’s the thing, the question is how do we get these guys?
M: Yeah, but AE didn’t help basically.
E: AE didn’t help.
S: Mm.
“Shut up, shut up! Shut up. I got this. I got this. Just calm down. Everyone just calm down.
Good times.”
E: Well helpfully Street Fighter x Tekken will help a little bit.
S: I think it will actually…well…meearghh.
10- Well actually that’s a really good segue way. What do you think of SFxTekken here?
E: Well, having not played it with the gems or anything like that I’m not sure. But from playing it in the early build, I enjoyed it. I think it’s got a lot of potential.
The only thing is, I heard they changed back the fact that you can go your chain into a move. You can only do chain into launch now?
And if that’s the case the game’s gonna get really boring ‘cause everyone’s just gonna go into launch all the time.
M: But I heard that the scaling…if you do like chain into launcher it affects the scaling of the combo so sometimes it makes more sense to do links or into specials.
S: Seth Killian was mentioning something like that.
E: See, I haven’t been following it too much. How the combo system works. So I gotta find out about that. Hopefully the build at OHN or the build that we’re gonna be getting soon is a really recent one so we can test it out.
S: Speaking of the builds, how are you guys planning on handling the gem system.
E: Well the game doesn’t come out till March. So the first couple of weeks in March we’re gonna test it out with and without. And if it plays well enough without then we’re probably just go without. Because the things with the gems is you don’t want tournaments to drag out forever. Because people have to pick their gems and if they lose a game they have to go back and not just change character but change the gems as well like…
S: They’re also selecting two characters.
E: Exactly. It’s gonna take a shitload of time.
M: It’s gonna be really interesting. Because it comes out in March right? And then EVO is a few months away.
So it’s like you guys get to set the tournament standard for SFxTekken.
E: So hopefully we don’t mess it up.
M: Yeah!
E: Well you know, it’s more like a test run. So if we do something wrong then a lot of tournaments will follow up from it.
If we do crap then…
(Bosslogic cuts in): You can fuck me on twitter!
Get ya shirt at the Shadowloo Store.
E: Well alright, predictions for OHN. I think like I said, AE can go either way. Marvel, there’s a few top players that can take it out.
M: Such as…yourself?
E: For sure! I’m don’t even know you’re asking that. You know that I can do it.
M: (Laughs.)
E: Toxy, Carnage…has been leveling up. But I think that’s more from the KoF practice instead of the Marvel practice. I dunno how that works.
Even I felt it. When I was playing KoF I did better at Marvel for some reason.
M: So KoF makes you a sharper fighting game player?
E: Maybe it’s that thing where the more fighting games you play the better you just get.
M: Really? The more Marvel I play, the more salty I get at everything.
E: Yo, look at Tokido. He’s awesome at everything.
M: That’s true.
S: See, I’m actually the opposite. The more Marvel I play, the better I play ST.
M: Hm, interesting.
S: ‘Cause I just think a lot faster because Marvel’s just…
E: Well what I was gonna say… is the way we’re gonna run OHNR this year is similar to the U.S. qualifier for Shadowloo Showdown. Where say Toxy wins AE, that’s it. He can’t compete in Marvel.
Not he can’t win Marvel, he can’t compete in Marvel. Because he might mess up someone’s chances in the bracket along the way.
M: I see what you mean.
E: So he’s won? He just goes away for a while.
M: So just one winner? Only the AE winners are not allowed to participate in Marvel.
E: Exactly.
S: Well that makes sense. Because if he wins both, he takes both tickets. Hm.
E: Well the way we did it before when Toxy won two he would pick who goes. But we left the choice up to him. Which is not the best way to do things.
And also if he hadn’t been in the tournament someone else might’ve have won it.
M: I see.
E: He might’ve knocked someone out that could have beaten the other person that came second.
So that’s why I think it’s a much better format doing it this way.
M: That’s cool. I like it.
E: Because if he enters there’s no point. He’s not gonna win anything anyway. He’s just gonna stop people from winning.
11- M: That’s cool. So what about OHN in general. Any predictions?
E: Look, I’m hoping it’s an Melbourne clean sweep.
I don’t know how good the Tekken scene is in Melbourne, and I’m not sure how many Tekken Melbourne players are gonna go. I hope some of them make it up and defend the Tekken community in Melbourne.
But in AE, I’m pretty sure a Melbourne player’s gonna take it out.
M: What about Shang Tsung man? He’s been dominating Sydney…
E: Nahh..
M: He almost won BAM. And if not for Akira and for Sol’s you know, whiffed Ultra…
E: Personally I think Sol will beat…
M: Shang Tsung.
E: ..Shang Tsung. He’s learned a lot lately. Not just in the Bison matchup…but his Rose has improved in that matchup. His Rose in general has improved. Not to mention 2012 changes have helped Rose, but Sol’s also got so many characters to fall back on.
Shang Tsung vs. Heavy Weapons. SA Arena AE Farewell tourney.
S: Mmm. Most definitely.
M: You would think that Melbourne would do well against Shang Tsung because we got so many fucking Bisons here!
E: Problem is what people are forgetting is Robsux.
M: Robsux!
E: He’s the one to watch out for as well. Because we’ve had practice against Shang Tsung. We know what he’s capable of.
S: Yeah…no Ibukis. Ibuki/Viper.
M: Viper’s top tier man.
E: Exactly. We don’t really have Vipers here and not too many Ibukis. Like CypherionX doesn’t really come out much. So we don’t have the matchup knowledge and also the fact that we haven’t played him in a while. So we don’t know how much better he’s gotten. If he’s gotten worse.
S: Also from talking to some of the Sydney guys I heard they’ve got quite a lot of new blood.
E: Well that’s what I hope. The more better players from Sydney the better. Because then it’s going to make a much better competition. We don’t want to clean sweep everything.
Also, I’m not sure if anyone else from any other states are going to compete. Like I know Vinh qualified in Brisbane but he qualified with Yang. I’m not sure if he’s still using Yang, and if he is, how good he’s still doing with Yang.
WA, I think Derrace is going.
M: Derrace will definitely…
S: Derrace is always coming.
E: He’s gonna do well. Especially now that Rufus got slightly buffed.
And who have we got in Adelaide to look out for…
M: Isn’t Mooseking from Adelaide?
E: Mooseking with Gen…
M: The Guy player…uhh…Zerolance!
E: Ah Zerolance! That’s what I thinking about.
M: Shiden Edge.
E: Shiden Edge is one to watch out for. And Guy’s slightly better as well. He’s gonna be hard to…
S: To be honest with you I think Guy’s a character that a lot of people have been sleeping on. I think Guy is really, really good.
E: Yeah man. He’s scary as to play as well.
S: He’s just very awkward to use. Because of the floaty jump. But he does a ton of damage. And he has a lot of good, safe option selects and safe jump set ups.
E: His combos seem easy as well.
M: Target combos.
Well to go on a side note, how much are you looking forward to going to a major where you don’t have do anything and just…
E: It’s always great man. Trust me, like it’s the best feeling when you don’t have anything.
But if they came up and said like; look, we need help with something. I’m more than happy to help out. Because I know what it’s like to run events. And if someone asks me then I’ll jump on straightaway and help out.
M: I dunno about you man but I’m looking so much forward to just going there, hanging out…
E: Having some drinks…
M: ..drinking, eating…yeah!
S: Gotta organize hotels first.
E: That’s true. We haven’t even organized flights!
As for Marvel though, I’m only worried about Brisbane. Everyone else in Australia is…
Maybe Joe and a few Adelaide people can do well. But I think it’s gonna be mainly Melbourne vs. Brisbane.
S: Marvel’s always been Queensland’s thing.
E: Yeah but I think we have some good player here man.
S: I know we do, but yeah. But Queensland…I dunno, there’s something in the water up there, man. They love Marvel.
E: They’re a Marvel state. But it doesn’t mean that they’re not going to get blown up.
M: Ohh. Fighting words.
S: Speaking of blown up what are some of the money matches going at OHN.
E: There’s a shit load of moneymatches. I think in the forum I said I’m going to take all your side bet money. And Hebretto took that literally and put me down for every…
M: (Laughs.)
E: …every side bet. I’m like, I barely have twenty bucks in my pocket man!
M: Then maybe you shouldn’t be…
S: Well, there’s going to be a lot of free flights to Shadowloo Showdown.
M: (Laughs.)
E: Sheeiit.
I’m hoping Melbourne does do well.
Marco (on his way out): See you.
E: See you Marco.
M: That guy is going to be a contender as well. I think he’s really good at Marvel. Marco from Couchwarriors.
E: Like I said, there’s a few good players. I think Brisbane are just thinking it’s just Shadowloofox, Toxy, Burnout and Antman, but I don’t think they realize the potential of some of the Melbourne players that they haven’t really seen.
M: Or we could flame out and look like idiots on…
E: Not gonna happen.
S: Honestly I’m backing Queensland.
E: (sighs.)
S: That’s just me.
E: That’s fair enough… as what’s his name once said…
S: I’ve been playing online, they’ve been blowing me up.
E: That’s online man.
S: Hey I’m terrible at Marvel but Queensland’s got the goods.
E: Van Damme once said; wrong bet. Just hold that, bro.
S: (Laughs.) I’m sure he did.
M: Like Jago, hold that L in your chest?
S: Yeah, hold that L in your chest.
M: That shit was funny, man.
E: Jago’s been doing some great…Him and Fingercramp been making some great productions man.
M: Oh man…if you could get Jago to come down, that would be the funniest shit ever.
S: Yeah, shout outs to Jago. Actually I spoke to Jago at Season’s Beatings. He’s probably one of the nicest people I’ve met in the fighting game community. He basically…
I was stranded at the airport. And I saw Jago, and I was like, yo Jago can I use your phone to call Chris (Ghaleon.) And he was like, no problems.
M: Imagine if Mike Ross came down, and him and Jago had their rematch and Mike Ross beat Jago…
That’s be the hypest shit…
S: Yeah, you’re dreaming.
M: I’m dreaming? (Laughs.)
E: Look that’s what I want at Shadowloo. At Shadowloo Showdown I’m hoping some crazy moments happen. I have a feeling they will. And I’m hoping they do for years.
That’s what makes your events. Just moments.
S: The Machine beating Momochi in the finals was pretty good.
E: Yeah. Like look at Final Round. Final Round, that Combofiend moment. EVO had that Daigo moment.
M: You mean the Poongko moment…
S: Hey we had our moment. Mike Ross beating Mago.
E: Yeah, yeah we had some great moments, don’t get me wrong. But over the years you can build up and then you can have a montage of moments.
12- S: Oh definitely. Last question. Esports. Your thoughts.
E: I love European sports. It’s great.
M: (Laughs.)
S: I know, of course. European handball’s the best!
Hey I love European handball. It’s one of the dirtiest games out there.
E: I dunno why everyone is so fussed about the word esports. It’s just…
To me I just call it competitive gaming, first off.
And it’s all the same. If MLG wants to pick up a fighting game, good on them. Well done, pick it up.
As long as one organisation doesn’t stop players from playing in another organisation or another tournament or grassroots tournaments, then it’s fine. I don’t understand what the problem is.
S: I guess in Australia we’re not really affected much.
E: No. Not really.
M: We are the land of the Kangaroos.
E: Yeah heh.
S: Because our scene is so small, it’s basically insignificant.
E: No organizations wants to come to Australia. There’s nothing to do here and the internet sucks.
M: The internet sucks balls.
E: We don’t have to worry about MLG or anyone coming down, don’t worry about that.
S: Plus, we’re bloody expensive. $110 for a new game?
E: Exactly.
M: How can something so cheap…
S: Yeah be so bloody expensive.
E: Exactly. So that’s my thoughts on esports. It’s not gonna happen here so!
So who cares!
S: We’re impervious to the esports problem!
I can see the perspective from the States…because of the small grass roots tournaments.
I mean if you have say a Tekken tournament that has a pot of forty grand for first prize. And second prize is twenty grand. And then you have say a home-grown tournament that is like five grand, I know where the top players are going!
E: Yeah. That’s the problem. If they book it on the same day as another tournament, then that sucks. That’s huge.
S: In a way that could affect us as well. Because say they have an MLG tournament for SFIV or Marvel…at the same time as Shadowloo Showdown.
E: No doubt it will. No doubt it will.
S: It can affect it, it’s just not as big.
E: You gotta also take in the fact that for some players it’s not all about the money. Like I’ve noticed some players that I’ve talked to, it’s not all about the money it’s about how they’ve been treated at events.
Like if a big organisation put all this money out, but treats them like shit and orders them around and that. They’re still gonna pick somewhere they’re treated properly, they’re taken out for food and drinks, and everyone hangs out with them. People to talk to…
A lot of players will pick that over money. I’m not saying everyone will, but a lot will.
S: I think that’s why we had such great success with Shadowloo Showdown.
E: That’s the thing. It feels more…when people come here it feels more personalized. I dunno how it’s gonna be when huge numbers come down. I’m hoping that a lot of the Australian players will still take care of a lot of the internationals and take them out and stuff.
S: I think they will. I think the only problem last year was a little bit the language barrier was a little hard.
M: Thank god for Burnout. Korean speaker.
E: Ah that’s alright. Poongko had his Korean/English book so he could have just read that. Poongko, give me this for a second.
M: Man every time I look at Poongko I feel like the most useless Asian guy ever. I can’t speak anything to these guys.
E: You can’t speak any?
M: I can speak Chinese but like…
E: Well we might have some Chinese players come down…
M: Oh yeah that’s right! But my Chinese is ass.
E: That young Chinese kid, the one, he might come down if eLive sends him. That’d be sick. Like King of Fighters player.
M: Oh okay.
I mean, not to be racist, but can you speak anything to the Kuwaitis?
E: Ah yeah.
M: Can you speak the language?
E: I dunno if they can understand the Arabic I speak, I’m hoping they can. They’ll understand some of it.
M: That’ll be cool.
E: Yeah. But they should be fine. If Latif gets sent down by Razor. He can translate.
It’d be good.
S: (Laughs.) Welcome! Our international translator.
E: Welcome! Hi Latif, welcome bro, can you just translate this for us?
S: Australian hospitality at its best.
M: (Laughs.) Man we should all go for language classes.
E: I reckon.
S: Fuck that, I already speak three languages. I don’t need to know anymore.
M: Yeah, but there are no Croatians coming down right!
E: You know what we should do?
Approach a translating company and get them to sponsor Shadowloo Showdown.
M: That’d be sick.
E: We’ll have all these people in suits and holding sings up. Oh like German, ehhh.
Come here for a second Igor. I need you, bro.
M: Translate this shit for me.
S: I did seven years of German in high school.
M: You can speak German?
S: I know none of it! I did seven years of German in high school!
E: That’s like me man. I did four or five years of Spanish. And all I know is no hablo espanol and how to count to ten and how to swear in Spanish. That’s it.
13- M: Cross Counter.
S: Let’s do the Hollywood experience of Cross Counter.
M: Yeah how did it happen?
E: It was really good. It was slightly different then what I thought it was gonna be. Because you can’t see them when you’re talking to them? And sometimes the sound is not there. So when I was talking I had to stop a few times because I wasn’t sure if the connection was still there.
M: (Laughs.)
S: Well that’s our Fisher-Price internet.
M: Fisher-Price…
E: And also you saw what happened when our connection cut out.
And I said…
S: Apparently all we have is kangaroos.
E: That’s what happened man. I watched the replay today. And basically Mike Ross asked; how’s everything going down there.
And my reply was; eck blek eck blek eck kangaroos…
S & M: (Laughs.)
E: I’m like; that’s horrible. But to me, I felt when you’re there, you don’t hear yourself. So you think everything’s going well. When they start laughing, you’re not sure why they’re laughing. But that’s what they’re hearing. So at the end when I like…
M: So you’re like, why the hell are they laughing?
E: Yeah! At the end they were like; where can we find you? And I was like; follow me on twitter. And it cut out as soon as I said Fol- and it turned out to say Fuck. And I was like; Fuck me on Twitter.
M: (Laughs.)
E: And then they started laughing but I didn’t know why. And then we ended the show and I got a call from Dave, and he said; bro, you just said Fuck me on Twitter on Cross Counter.
M: (Laughs.)
E: I’m like, what? And then I thought maybe that it just sounded like Fuck me on Twitter. But then I watched the replay this morning and it’s basically saying Fuck me on Twitter.
It’s horrible.
It’s horrible.
S: What a plug for Twitter.
E: Yeah!
But it was a good experience. Always good to talk to those guys. Those guys are awesome. They’re doing great stuff for the fighting game community and the gaming community in general.
M: Tell me about the moment- Pyro told me that you guys were waiting and Gootecks was like; oh you guys, we’ll do a test. Wait for a second, I gotta go into Makeup. Shit.
E: Yeah. I know they wear makeup. You can tell.
But yeah…
M: Are you trying to say something?
E: They have to man. They’re Hollywood now. They have to.
M: That’s true.
Did you put on any make up?
E: Yeah! Heaps.
Heaps.
M: Blusher…Mascara?
E: I photoshopped it. Nah, it’s good.
Nah it was a great experience.
M: So speaking of Cross Counter, when’s your Cross Counter coming back on? The X report.
E: Look I wanna bring it back soon. But Dave and Sol reckon just wait till we open the new office. And build it from scratch like a proper set. With green screen and desk and everything. And do it properly.
So I don’t know if I’m going to get it back on soon. I might do small videos here and there updating about Shadowloo Showdown, but the official X Report might come back in May. Because that’s when we get the new office.
M: That’s cool. When all the guests come down, you could shoot like ten episodes of the X Report and then release them post-event.
S: We definitely need to focus a lot on media coverage.
E: Dude that’s what we missed out the last two years. That’s a huge factor there.
S: And not just beforehand, but during the event.
E: And after.
S: And after.
E: Well look, here’s what we want to do this year. Basically get a camera and have like…
M: I got a camera now.
E: Like a wireless HDMI type camera where we can have it roaming around. And say like…
S: Ahh! Arturo Sanchez Rape Cam.
E: Yeah. So say Momochi’s playing on stage we can go up to Choco sitting in the crowd, and ask her. You know while they’re doing a button check, instead of people watching button checks…
M: Watch Choco.
E: Yeah! Watch Choco. Watch Choco, what does she think is going to happen in this match. You know how does he do in this matchup. Stuff like that. And have more crowd interaction and stuff.
S: But also…the way it was last year, basically people started arriving a week before the event. I think that, recording that and putting it up?
I think would also be good for the event.
E: I agree.
One of the highest viewed videos for us was basically Mago and Tokido doing bench presses.
So it’s good to see them out of their natural habitat.
M: Yeah, imagine if you film like the zoo trip or like the stripper’s trip…oh sorry. But…
E: We never film that. You know that Muttons.
M: That’s true. But people would like to see that right?
E: Yeah, of course.
14- M: Shoutouts? Last thoughts?
E: Look I made a mistake on Cross Counter when I went to give a shoutouts to all the communities all there and I missed a few. So first off, Kuwait. Shoutouts to those guys. Saudi Arabia.
Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan. France. Germany, Sweden, U.K.
S: How about the world.
E: Singapore…everyone…
M: New Caledonia.
E: Yeah New Caledonia, don’t forget them!
All the South Americans. New Zealand. Any Antarcticans if there is any playing there.
I’m sure there is. I reckon there is.
Make a documentary. Go to Antarctica and see if anyone’s playing Street Fighter.
M: 3 Green Bars: Antarctica.
S: (Laughs.)
M: Speaking of which, is he coming down?
S: Cpt Munta, yeah.
E: I hope so. His wife just had a kid recently in the last week so. Congratulations to him.
S: Didn’t he say the reason that 3 Green Bars isn’t on anymore is because he’s moving to Europe?
M: Oh yeah! And his wife is moving to Germany or something, for work or for family reasons?
E: That’s alright. Now we have like a European correspondent.
S: Ah yeah. That’s a good idea.
E: Yeah.
Well yeah, like you said. Shoutouts to the world. We love you guys. Thanks for supporting Shadowloo throughout the years and hopefully we can support you guys back.
M: Cool.
S: Thank you very much.
E: Thanks guys.
M: Cheers man.
Edit: If that’s wasn’t enough EXC355UM for you, you can also check out my very first interview that I did with him back in late 2010.
Melbourne Player Profile: EXC355UM
Filed under: Don't be a Scrub Podcast, Interviews, Melbourne Tagged: Ali Abdo, BossLogic, Cross Counter Live, Don't be a Scrub Podcast, EVO, EXC355UM, Fuck me on Twitter, Gootecks, Melbourne, Mike Ross, Mooseking, OHNR, OHNX, Pyro, Queensland, SFxTekken, Shadowloo, Shadowloo Showdown 2012, Shadowloo Showdown 2012 qualifiers, Sol, Sydney, The X Report, Toxy, UMCV3
