EVO Changed Everything | Extra Trashy - Trash Talk

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Welcome back to the next episodeof Extra Trash.
It's been a little while. We're post evo now and we had a
little bit of delay. I may have been afflicted with a
serious case of Ebola. So if you're a podcast feed
listening to us on YouTube, watching the video source or on
Spotify as well, A lot of peopleseem to not know that this
podcast is fully available on Spotify and all podcasting

(00:21):
platforms. We'll do our best to avoid any
bodily fluid sounds entering your eardrums.
But I am back here with IDOM. How you doing IDOM?
I'm doing good, just you know I didn't get sick from EVO so
there's half the half. The extra trashy crew is OK and
I should not be coughing, but I am glad I didn't get sick

(00:42):
because getting sick sucks. Indeed it does.
And by the way, Rob, how, how are you feeling?
Robbie, are you doing? Are you doing OK?
Mina or D is the goat the goat? OK, I was asking how, how
you're, you're feeling Rob, I thought I thought maybe you
would be, you know, is your health OK?
I know you're off in Saudi Arabia.
You're understood. Understood.

(01:05):
Well Rob, you know he he's getting straight to the point
here. Yes, we are finally post EVO
here. Rob is off in Saudi Arabia doing
hosting for Esports World Cup for Tekken of all things.
That's kind of crazy, right? Like what the hell is Rob doing
hosting a Tekken event? Rob knows how to bring the
energy. I I respect it.
Rob always, yeah, Rob always gotto bring be hype.

(01:28):
I he did an amazing job with Tekken.
I was watching Tekken a bit, butyeah, he did a really good job.
Yeah, I mean, Tekken itself is just naturally hype, so I I
think he knows how to tap into that.
But then after the event, he's like, man, I should play Tekken
for the first time ever, you know, after he completed the
job. But shout outs to Rob.
But yeah, he's not here to talk his shit about MENA Rd. being

(01:51):
the GOAT post Evo. So MENA Rd. takes Evo Las Vegas
and dominating fashion and kind of making history and and and
the along the way taking IBO Japan and Evo Vegas in the same
year, winning back-to-back Evo Japan.
It's the only player to win two Capcom Cup champions ever.
And funny enough, Rob TV did notcall MENA Rd. for this one.

(02:14):
I had to go back and double check the tapes.
You know, you called Lashar Adam.
I called Kakadi. I got close.
Rob was actually the the most off from our predictions because
he said punk the God. Rob, you have any words to say
about that? The God is the most naturally
talent, the most fundamentally sound player that I've ever
seen. OK, true, true.
But he didn't win EVO because, you know, MENA understood the

(02:38):
goat. OK, OK, He had to clarify his
arguments there. So thanks for clarifying, Rob.
So yeah, he actually didn't callhis coin flip didn't work out.
You know, it's either MENA Rd. or Punk the God.
This time it was MENA Rd. and you know, I wouldn't have called
it, but once I saw top 8, I feellike it was kind of a similar
situation to last year. I don't know if you felt that
when you saw the top 8 bracket. I was feeling pretty confident

(03:00):
if one Mr. Futo didn't make it to MENA Rd. that he was going to
get the job done and make history again.
I kind of had the similar feeling where it was kind of the
topic was kind of foregone. I feel like that's happened a
lot of times in Evo, Street Fighter history in general.
Like I remember 2019, I think I had said whoever won between me

(03:22):
and Bon Chan was going to win. Same thing in like 2024.
I was like between punk. It was punk.
I think punk, mochi first. I don't remember the first
person punk player. Yeah.
I mean, I kind of had a similar eight, yeah.
Yeah, I, I think I had a similarfeeling and then kind of the
same with this year. Like I was like if between MENA

(03:45):
and Phenom, I think whoever winsprobably wins the entire thing.
MENA and Phenom. Yeah, Phenom.
He finally had his first top 8 appearance.
I mean, if we break down who qualified for that top 8 on that
EVO Sunday, it was MENA, Rd. Kakadu, Fudo and Phenom who were
the ones on winner's side, I believe.
And then we had Angry Bird, Xiaohai, Mickey, and Lashar on

(04:11):
the loser's side. So Phenom finally making his
first top 8 appearance. And I really like this top 8
because it was a mix of like themost established Street Fighter
Six players to date. And not just Street Fighter Six
players, but legacy players who have firmly established
themselves as the cream of the crop in Street Fighter Six,
along with Phenom making his first ever EVO Top 8 appearance.

(04:32):
Even though he's been so consistent for so many years, it
has so many amazing placements. He kind of doesn't have that
really public notable win. He got like third place Capital
Cup 2019. But he I feel like he's he's his
clout is not there for how consistent and how good his
results are, right. So this was big, I think, for
Phenom's legacy. Is that a real status for
Phenom's first top eight? That was phenom.

(04:53):
'S first EVO top eight Yes, he'snever historically like popped
off at EVO, right? Like he's always doing good at
major events, Capcom cups, and consistent throughout premieres.
But first EVO top 8. Not even a 7th.
Oh wait, I I feel like I see Phenom all the time.
Like I know Phenom never really had the the big breakout win,
but I expected like what, at least one evo top eight?

(05:15):
I did not know that. Yeah, yeah, it's surprising to
hear for how I feel like Phenom is like your favorite player,
favorite player. And it was kind of funny.
They did the prediction voting for who's going to, I believe
win. Like we're watching from the
crowd, right? So they had those stats from the
the people voting in from home and Phenom had the lowest amount
of votes, lower than Mickey. And Mickey is the underdog.

(05:38):
Of course, that's the big story from this as well.
Mickey, 17 years old out of HongKong, playing a mostly Cami, but
also my and he destroyed in the competition.
His run was absolutely nutty. And the thing about how he
played it was so offensive right.
Like we look at punk the God as like the definitive Cami player.

(05:59):
But as we are starting to see the evolution of this character
amongst different players representing different play
styles, we're seeing how you know, she her grime, her
gimmicks that are supposed to bebad.
The hooligan shenanigans. No, they're good.
Mickey was hooligan grabbing andand and slicing the shit out of
your favorite player. It was absurd how many times he

(06:19):
would make these crazy conversions, amazing situational
awareness and also just throw ina mix like he would just
hooligan view into Level 3 and you were dead.
And he did that all throughout the bracket, getting in through
loser's side. So I don't know if you found
that surprising because Mickey, I personally did not have him on
my radar at all. I've seen him in the Hong Kong

(06:40):
World Warrior results page before, but I never actually
seen him play personally. So I don't know.
I don't. Have you seen Mickey play
before? I I've seen Mickey play, but I
think the first time I've seen him play like in a big
tournament setting because like I heard Evo was his first
offline tournament that like in a crazy first offline
tournament. Now he was like Japan.

(07:02):
He that was his first, I think that was his first offline in
America USA tournament. But he had competed and several
other major. So this wasn't his first ever
tournament. So he was at CPT Singapore super
premiere top 32 Eva Japan. He got top 48, but that was his
first time, I think going to America entirely.

(07:25):
So he has had some experience from a very young age, but
nothing that really like broke out and made waves on stream.
So yeah, I watched him play likeShine earlier on in the bracket,
but that was kind of the first like real experience.
But like Shine kind of, I don't want to say Shine kind of cooked

(07:45):
them, but Shine did kind of cookthem when they played the first
time. But then that happened insane
run because that was, I want to say that was like top 192 or
something or maybe top 96 when they played.
So he had to have an insane losers run.
I wish I could. I probably should go back and
look at it. The rest of the losers run.
But you know, to have that kind of endurance at a young age is

(08:07):
actually pretty, pretty surprising because you know,
kids in there, you know, TikTok videos in their short attention
spans. He would probably get kind of
lose track of you know, who's even playing in bracket.
But you know, he had a long endurance spring got all over
the third, which is crazy and helost me money because I bet on
him when he played phenom. So if it's still salty there.

(08:28):
Yeah, he couldn't lose up till that point.
So you're right, he played at inRound 2 two against Shine and
lost that. Then the losers.
Here's the run he went on. He beat JP King, then he beat
smooth King. Though the player who made an
upset versus the DJ player who made an upset versus Tokido in
round one, right? Tokido went to losers round one,
which is absurd. Then he beat Adrian, Adrian

(08:48):
Riven, you know, one of the our best Ken players in NA now he
beat Hope VX Bow beat Taco, got the run back versus Shine in an
eliminated Shine beat ending Walker Torremeshi.
And then in top 8 when people thought maybe his momentum would
slow down, he 30 angry Bird freefree.

(09:08):
This was not a close set whatsoever.
And he was hitting angry bird with all of the shenanigans,
right? Like like you thought maybe, oh,
eventually a strong enough player will slow down and force
Mickey to play a strong solid neutral game on the ground,
forcing to play more like a punkor a phenom.
No man, he was doing his hooligan shenanigans.
He was applying his mix. He he cooked angry Bird 32

(09:31):
versus Fudo and I believe that was when he took out the my
versus the DJ really close set there then and then 32 phenom,
right. So he he just couldn't be
stopped in this losers run. He went 17 and two in this
tournament. He won 17 sets over this
weekend. That is ridiculous.
It finally took Kakadu to slow the kid down.

(09:53):
And you know that's what Kakadu does right?
He's used to crushing kids dreams in these high stakes
situations. Beat Blas and Capcom cup and
then eliminated Mickey here fromEvo.
So big shout outs to Mickey right?
And doing it all without being fazed.
You mentioned him being young, having TikTok brain rot.
I mean, the whole time in top 8,he was there patiently unfolding

(10:14):
his box to hide his inputs and Ithink he even plays on lever
list, but he's still hiding his inputs.
You know, he has the Kwamba branded box where he he unfolds
it, places his hands and controllers inside so his side
by And then didn't like really pop off engage with the crowd.

(10:38):
Like, I don't know what he was thinking because how could you
not understand that you're having the run and the showing
of a lifetime here and just keepit so cool.
So big shout out to Mickey. I mean that I think was like the
big take away and he was the thecrowd favorite, the people's
champion for the EVO weekend. And also shout outs to friend of

(10:58):
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(12:03):
pin comments. Now back to the EBO Top 8
discussion. But when it came down to it,
Kakadu eliminated him and it came down to MENA Rd. versus
Kakadu. And like we mentioned before,
once MENA Rd. kind of got into that top eight position, it
became pretty clear in my opinion, after he took out
Phenom that and Kakadu beat Fudo, I think that was a big

(12:24):
one. Historically.
This is an Evo Japan run back. MENA Rd. cooked Kakadu for his
Evo Japan victory in 2024. This his first Evo Japan versus
Kakadu. It was bad.
I believe it was a three O in that showing as well.
This winter's finals was maybe even worse.

(12:45):
Like I I, I'm so surprised to see Kakadu.
He's been so dominant and so unperturbed, like he makes the
game look easy. I I've never seen a player
breakdown like that. Every interaction, every read,
every jump, every coward Crouch.Everything MENA Rd. did worked

(13:08):
and it's been working for years now.
Years I guess the player who hasbeen dominating the rest of the
competition. So I don't know if you have any
insight into that, but I can't figure out what MENA Rd. has
over Kakadu. I think the last, the last time
they played, I think MENA is on A12O game streak like 12.
The last times they played it's been 120I.

(13:28):
If they played a first to 10 it would have been 12.
Zero right now. So I don't know what is going, I
don't know if Cockaroo doesn't have Blanca experience because
like that could be a big, that could be a big thing.
I don't know if then it just haslike the script on how Cockran
would play for me watching and Iguess me trying to analyze it,
I, I feel like Mena's kind of staying out of JP's range, but

(13:53):
also staying within JP's range. So if he calls a ghost, he can
drive rush through the ghost andpunish him.
And also slides really good at stopping a lot of JP
shenanigans. So there's a lot of walking back
from MENA, just getting drive meter back and also being able
to drive rush and JP can't really, you know, he's not going

(14:14):
to clip you low and, you know, look for a drive rush me.
So he kind of has nowhere to really stand.
That's kind of where I'm kind ofgetting at.
I feel like Mena's playing the matchup amazing and Cockaroo
just can't get any offense because Mena's always had, you
know, this insane defensive tellon what somebody's going to do,
making somebody really scared toapproach.

(14:34):
So I think MENA MENA combined with that and also not even
letting Cockaroo RJP really start their offense is really
telling and really stopping Cockaroo from getting any
momentum started when they play.Interesting.
Interesting. Any other perspective we want to
share on that? Is the goat.
The goat, OK maybe maybe he's just the goat, I don't know.

(14:56):
Rob Rob put it best. Maybe he's just the lights are
that bright and MENA Rd. is the one who steps up to the plate
and delivers when the pressure is on.
But I do agree with your your analysis there for sure.
I think Blanca is definitely a stronger pick than a lot of the
cast against JP for those reasons.
To have a lot of anti projectiletools to the slide, a lot of
mobility options. It's hard for JP to get
comfortable. But it's interesting because you

(15:18):
know, Kakanu is not just AJP player.
He he locked in with JP to take Capcom Cup.
But we saw in that whole season starting with season 2 when JP
was heavily nerfed with his antiRB nerfed.
For example, Kakadu picked up the pieces and and picked up M
Bison and Akuma and was cooking into Pangoli immediately.

(15:38):
Right? Like he he can, he can switch if
need be. His peak results come from JP.
But I'm starting to wonder like is this is this guy like your
side? Hey, maybe you should in these
extremely high stakes situationsincorporate a different pick,
right? Because he seems to have dropped
that strategy entirely, which has yielded him success.
He won capital, he's $1,000,000 man, right?

(16:00):
Like he's won eastward World Cup.
He gets it done with JP, but he he beats the the players in this
top 8. He's beaten with other
characters. He can do that.
So I'm wondering what is the mentality be behind sticking
with JP here? Is it pride?
Is it stubbornness? Or just like legitimately his
his opinion? His best strategy, his best

(16:21):
chance to beat MENA Rd. would beto go with JP because he's just
that much more comfortable and stronger with him.
I don't know, I almost feel likehe should try something else.
Maybe a Bison pick, but I'm likeI said, I'm still kind of iffy.
Even when he was playing Bison and Akuma, his results wasn't
really the best. I would say with those two.

(16:41):
Like I know he did good at Street Fighter League, both of
them, but he's AJP player he is known for he got his best
results like he. Didn't go to Topanga League.
He he didn't go to many international tournaments.
I, I think it's hard to, it's not enough data points is what I
would say. There's just so few tournaments
that people went to in those prepoint seasons, right?

(17:03):
There's so few events. And he did really good with
those characters and he did really good in the World
Warriors as well in Japan. So it was all against Japanese
competition, which is, you know,different than full
international competition. But I think he did very solid
against his world class players with those characters.
We just never got to see him test it and open bracket
international events. I, I, I never really was a fan

(17:26):
of the, the, well, I'm a, I'm Bison's number one hater, but I
never really, I never really seehim do too well with the Akuma.
So I, I don't know, I feel like he's been AJP player.
JP is just a strategy. I don't know of his stubbornness
because I've had that to happen too, where like you have a
character and you're like, I could beat this guy with this
character. I'm just going to win with them.

(17:46):
So I don't know of his stubbornness.
I don't know how to ask Cockaroo.
But I, I think there is probablya light at the end of the tunnel
with JP. He just has to figure something
out if he really wants to be Venna.
So is MENA Rd. now officially the greatest Street Fighter
player of all time? Is it?
Is it time? I feel like there's such a

(18:06):
conversation to be had. There's such a conversation to
be had. The the number of Grand Slam
titles. It it just doesn't.
No one comes close. No one comes close anymore.
I it you? It's hard to ask me that because
I have like so many. Well, this is an old basketball
talk, but like there's so many like, you know, you know,

(18:28):
criterias and stuff like MENA itit's it's too hard to me the I
don't even think I have a goat fighting game player.
A lot of people always bring up Justin and Daigo, but I don't
even think I can name. One off the top of my head.
Well, there's so many good players anyway, right.
I think I think it's always an unfair conversation, which is

(18:50):
why people like to have it it there's no right or wrong
answer. And I do agree that comparing
cross eras is completely fruitless.
It's it's apples to oranges. Yeah, it it doesn't make sense.
But of the modern era, I think he's the greatest of the modern
era. Free now, like the number of
accolades is is ridiculous. What would you disagree?

(19:13):
For the modern era, how modern are we talking?
Like Street Fighter Five and andbeyond, 5 and beyond?
Yeah, it's it's just a hard conversation.
Don't ask me this, Brian. It's a hard conversation.
To me, modern Capcom Cup is Street Fighter 5 and beyond,
right? Maybe you can even count Capcom

(19:34):
Cup 2015, but to me I think there was a clear division with
Capcom 2015 and beyond when the tour really started to solidify.
So you have both Capcom Cup and EVO as being like the Grand
Slams, and then Evo Japan was added later on as well.
I, I, I think it's, it's hard because I feel like men, men is

(19:56):
amazing and like before we, you know, before I don't feel like,
oh, I don't just salty, but it's.
I feel he never really had the, I'm going into every tournament
and just kind of winning arc. He wins the Evos for sure, but
it's never been, I'm going to goto this, this, this and this is

(20:17):
just going to be 3 tournament wins in a row for me.
When I think of that, I think of2017, Paul, the 18, Tokido, that
kind of stuff. So that's kind of where I was
like, damn, he's just going to win every racket.
Now I will say it's much harder in Street Fighter Six, you know,
you know, anyone, I don't want to say anyone can have a good
day, but you know, we've seen tournaments where people you

(20:37):
don't expect to win kind of win and you're like, oh, well, you
know, that kind of happens. So it's different with six, but
we haven't had that level of great consistency because like
men won all the Evo, but men hasalso had like some shaky
tournaments in between. So it's not really dominance.
It's just, oh, it's kind of liketo say Evil's the only
tournament that matter. And to some that's probably

(20:58):
true. You know, some people probably
only watch Evo, but there's there's all the as somebody
who's really deep in the there'sall the tournaments that matter.
Like you just say Evil's the only one is kind of
disingenuous. I agree.
I agree, I I if one Rob TV were here he would just let us know
that Menardi is the GOAT. Yes, the GOAT indeed indeed.

(21:18):
But Rob very heavily favors Grand Slam events.
Right, but I also I lean a little bit more towards your
opinion where I very much value consistency above all else,
which is why I'm a huge proponent of the point system as
well. I do not like auto qualifiers,
but I still I value the events that they ought to qualify from
heavily. But in general, to me,

(21:39):
consistency is massive and I think Lashar was making the case
for himself and he would have, you know, maybe jumped my
rankings in this list if he had won this EVO, right.
But there was a consistency in the grand slams that is
undeniable here. So meta Hardy, I think is the
closest to toeing the line between Grand Slam accolades and

(22:00):
consistency because he could consistently getting the Grand
Slam accolades. So to me that is very it's very
different to do win these thingsback-to-back and have a have a
string of evo championships thatit to me is absurd.
But I do agree with you that in between if he had like 1A single
CEO or a single combo breaker, you get what I'm saying.

(22:22):
Like he sprinkled one of those in.
No conversation done. But since Lashar is making that
case, it does add a little bit more debate factor you have you
have more grant ground to stand on for the debate.
But I will say that it's interesting because season 1
meant RDI. Think if he had results like he
did back then, now would be donefor because season 1 minute Rd.

(22:43):
was doing this. Season 1 Minute Rd. was in top
two, top three of every single premiere that was available.
There's only three and then alsotop two at Evo Vegas and then
one St. for the league world. You know what I mean?
He was making that conversation for the most consistent player
without the title in season 1. Now he has all the titles, but
he has the the valleys in between or it's like he's Batman

(23:07):
mode just prepping for the next evo.
So it's very interesting. But I, I, I think regardless,
he's in your conversation and I think to me personally now after
this, Daigo was it and is a legend, the GOAT to many in the
FTC based on his I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm trying to put this as

(23:31):
positively and as respectfully as I can.
Daigo is the embodiment of FGC aspirations, right?
He's inspirational. He represents the idea of hard
work, consistency and striving to achieve your goals and you
know, the will to keep winning. It's the title of the book.
And that's the ethos that he embodies.

(23:52):
And that in itself is inspirational.
And he has a vast body of work, even pre EVO 2010 after he got
his back-to-back EVO Evo championships in Street Fighter
4, doing it in multiple game titles, multiple versions of
Street Fighter Guilty Gear as well, right?
Like he, he has done the thing for many years and has earned
his respect in his Topanga Championships as well as Street

(24:14):
Fighter 4. His Captain Cup runs right?
He's done it for a long time. Major wins in Street Fighter
five as well. I feel like we are seeing that
with MENA Rd. now, live in frontof our very eyes and we will not
place the same level of mystiqueand fanaticism and reverence

(24:34):
upon these accomplishments untilyears later.
I feel like with the the advantage of hindsight, I really
do feel like people will look atthis era with MENA Rd. and his
body of work and it's Daigo willalways be Daigo because, and he
was the first to do this, the first professional gamer and the
FGC, maybe the first professional gamer ever, right?

(24:55):
He, he, he is a trailblazer in this.
I feel like MENA Rd. maybe not Diego legendary status, but his
influence for his own region, his country.
He's an ambassador for the all of Dominican Republic.
He is extremely, I don't know when he speaks in his

(25:17):
interviews, he is a great ambassador for the game and the
scene itself. I think he's very respectful to
the community in that sense and he wears his passion on his
sleeve, so some people hold it against them when he gets
emotional. But I feel like that adds to his
vulnerability that he he he makes it clear how much this all
means to him. I think with hindsight and years

(25:39):
to come, MENA Rd. is approachingthat legendary status, right.
It's just we're too close to it.We're in it right now.
We can't see it. I think looking back, people
will be like, wow, that guy won EVO Japan back-to-back and EVO
Vegas. He won two Capcom Cup champions,
the only person to ever do that.He won the Red Bull, Kumatase.

(26:00):
He has the titles in between. I really do feel like we're
seeing a legend in the making with MENA Rd. and that that's
that's kind of like the bet I'm putting down.
Looking back. We will we will appreciate this
time and MENA R DS career more in hindsight than we do right
now. I just think we're too in the
middle of it kind of maybe like a LeBron James for a while,
right. I think, I think when you're in

(26:20):
the. Middle of this.
When you're in the middle of it,you can't appreciate it as much
and there's a lot of people who are tired of seeing someone
winning. You see people commenting like,
I'm so sick of MENA Rd. winning.I see comments like that all the
time on social media, YouTube, whatever.
Looking back, MENA Rd. will go down in Street Fighter history
as one of the Goats approaching.Not not surpassing, not

(26:43):
replacing, but approaching Daigostatus.
He is making the case for himself and I think add one more
title to this and it's going to be undeniable, I just think.
And it's funny, you pulled the LeBron argument.
Diego's Jordan and people are going to fantasize the
romanticize about Jordan. And like, it doesn't really
matter what anyone else can do. No one's passing Jordan.

(27:05):
It's kind of literally the same.Thing, except in this case it's
it's unfair to Daigo because he didn't have these in his prime.
He didn't have all these events to, you know, all these grand
slams to express his skill at that level.
MENA Rd. has more rings than Daigo.
It's an unfair comparison it. Is unfair, but like it's still
Diego. Like it's kind of you're not

(27:26):
going to argue somebody old, like old.
I don't want to say old man mine, but like the guy who, you
know, set the path. It's also kind of Daigo just
being Daigo is letting people kind of keep the, the, the

(27:47):
memories, the, the evil moment, 30 sevens, you know, all that
stuff. The Street Fighter for you, you
can't, I'm not going to forget that.
And that to to a lot of people, that's how they got into the
FTC. So they don't want to, they
don't want to forget those moments and be like, oh man,
there's, there's somebody else going to pass Daigo.
That's true. Evil moment 37 is you're.
That's a very good point. I think evil moment 37, it goes

(28:10):
beyond and any rational statistic or event, Daigo
pulling off evil moment 37 is first hand responsible for
getting thousands of people intothe FGC, not just playing Street
Fighter that that could be 10s of thousands, hundreds of
thousands maybe to play the game, but to like become core
members of the FGC. Thousands of people were

(28:31):
directly from that. I was influenced by that clip
for sure. I, I wouldn't say that's solely
responsible, but that was an influence of mine.
I, I clearly remember seeing at around 2007, 2008 when that
started circulating YouTube. I, I clearly remember that clip
and that was on my mind when I picked up Street Fighter 4 from
Best Buy randomly on sale. You know what I mean?
Like there was a connection drawn there.

(28:53):
So I think MENA Rd. is missing an Evo Moment 37.
So maybe that's what it is. It's not a title.
He needs an Evo Moment 37 type of clip.
And once that happens, I don't know if it's possible in this
day and age and game engine, I don't know if we can find an
equivalent, but he needs an Evo moment 37 and then it's done.
If he fights Goichi at EWC and Goichi does wake up level 2 for

(29:18):
some strange reason, just bury it.
You're solidified. It's over.
But it doesn't quite work the same unfortunately.
But one other thing off the the Daigo thing, it's it's also
mystique, like Daigo's mysterious, like you.
You never even know what Daigo'sthinking.
You know, Daigo to some people, Daigo's like the legendary, you

(29:38):
know, go who's just always thinking about everything and
tell the people Daigo's just thedrunk uncle.
So it's it's however you you seeDaigo.
But either way, it's cool to kind of have like AI guess hold
somebody to a higher degree or just like, I don't know, like
high praise for somebody you don't know.
True, true. And and that brings up the

(30:00):
question what is Zygo to you item?
Because you actually got eliminated by Ida by Daigo at
EVO and you know, you had a really close set with with Daigo
and I had to go back and watch the tapes.
You know, I was, I was watching the match from behind in the
crowd and it got on stream and got clipped.
And after beating you, you know Daigo, he kind of kind of was

(30:22):
feeling himself a little bit. He looked back to Bon Chan and
kind of had a little bit of of kicking his step, you know what
I'm saying? He had some energy to his words
there. I had to get the translation
from Twitter. So after he beats you with a
reversal saying heavy punch fulldriver sequence into Level 3, he
looks back to Bon Chan, who apparently he's having trouble

(30:42):
with the Manan Akuma matchup. And we got we got we had to get
Twitter on the case. Apparently he goes, that's how
it's done. How do you feel about that
Daigo? I, I at first, you know, I saw
that clip and I was like, wait aminute, did Daigo watch trash
talk episode 01 where I interviewed Idom and he

(31:04):
foolishly did not choose his words carefully and claimed that
Daigo like a scrub. Now before the comments go off,
I have to I'm going to defend you here item because I in that
moment, I was like, item, you need to choose your words
carefully here. Maybe this is a chance for you
to come clean about this moment.Here's here's my interpretation
of that. You mentioned that Punk also

(31:27):
described his play style as scrubby as advice for you at EVO
2022 top 8 for when you're goingup against him, Laura versus
Kyle to prepare you for the match ahead.
That is you speaking, correct meif I'm wrong.
You're speaking a little facetiously, a little flippantly
about encapsulating his play style for being stubborn, for

(31:49):
being reversal heavy, for takingrisks and unorthodox situations
where other players might have just defaulted to blocking it
out and try to find a less riskyopening.
Daigo will be more willing to bet it on reversals and also to
consistently bet on reversals inthose situations, and it's up to
you to understand that he won't be conditioned to stray away

(32:10):
from that, and to expect those options consistently in order to
play effectively against them. Not that he is a bad player in
beneath you, but he has a play style stubborn like that.
Am I correct in that translation?
The. Floor is yours yes Brian Daigo
does play a bit stubborn and that's always been how daigo

(32:34):
play. That being said, I I think maybe
the clip was for bon Chan because I Remember Me and bon
Chan did play a lot at at Red Bull Ku mate in Paris and I was
kind of you know beating bon Chan a lot.
So it was kind of maybe that waskind of like, I know Daigo was

(32:55):
kind of watching and like a lot of the players that were kind of
watching, but yeah, I was kind of doing well versus a lot of
Japanese. That being said, I did lose to
Daigo in this set at Eva. This is probably, I think this
is the first time Daigo's ever beaten me in SF6.
That also being said, I think I lost because I played too

(33:15):
respectful and I should have played like the scrub, but
that's just how that's I I think.
Are you saying? Diego, Diego outscrubbed you.
Is that what you're saying? Is that what you want the people
to know? Diego played, no, Diego played
really well and like, you know, you had like, I like Diego play
like it was Street Fighter too. So I messed up.
I had to play on like the StreetFighter 6.

(33:38):
Yeah, I didn't see enough randomDIS like you're kind of the DI
king in this game. I didn't see anywhere near
enough of those. I don't think I di, I don't
think I drive rush, I don't think I tried any Street Fighter
Six stuff. So it was my fault because I
would let Daigo play like it wasthe 90s again.
So I just. I'm trying to set you up for the
Daigo fanboys and not tear you apart man.

(33:59):
Because every, every time Daigo comes up, people are holding
that quote against you. And like, like, you gotta, you
gotta tread water carefully whentalking about Daigo, right?
He's eventually you have to talkcarefully about Meta Rd. right?
I'm just in 10 years time, it's going to be the same thing.
You dare say anything other thanpraise?
You better watch out and hold that.
But yeah, that was a funny set. So yeah, Dago is a little bit of

(34:22):
a pop off there, but more like teasing Bonshan in that moment.
But for a moment I thought he was going to say like, oh, you
think that's scrubby, Huh? Like I almost saw I was like,
wait a minute, I saw the the wayhe kind of was moving after
that. I was like, hold up, was there a
little bit of beef here? But no, I think he's a more
showing off for Bonshan there. But Speaking of our evil
personal experiences, we actually had a tournament set

(34:44):
and losers because we both got upset.
I'll say equally upset. You know, I lost to the the
number one ranked CFN Chun Li with about 500,000 Mr. from
Japan. So that was really a big upset
when I lost to Saya and you lostto simply ego North American
American JP player. So I think those were equal
amounts of upset. Like both of us were expected to

(35:05):
win free. Absolutely.
So we met in losers bracket of Round 2 and you know, I was kind
of, I was excited for that one. I'm not going to lie.
I was like, hmm, if I, if I win this setup, this, this podcast
is going to go in a funny, interesting direction.
And I was kind of cooking you for a bit.
I was kind of cooking you that that first game I literally just

(35:26):
couldn't stop Terry doing dry brush jab.
So that was kind of that was theset and I just kept getting hit
by it. And you know, me being stubborn
thinking this is SF6 and this shouldn't work.
I kept trying to stop it and I just kept getting counter hit.
Yeah, I did it one time like thetest, you know what I mean?
And you know we're playing on PS-5.
It's I think the setups are pretty good at EVO, but PS five
just has more input delay than PC, right.

(35:49):
So like I, I don't you do it that that much on PC, but I did
it and it counter hits you and I'm like, oh, this is going to
work, isn't it? Like as soon as I did that,
that's not normally my play style really.
But I because I know you want tocheck it and then you, you tried
it and it worked. I was like, oh, I'm going to
just keep doing this. And it did work over and over.
And then you got me in the second game pretty clean.

(36:10):
Third game, you hit me with the wake up item 2 frame that came
back. I missed my meaty and I also
there was 1 moment I via recorded our set.
You did a jump. I was up around and if I just
did my DP into Level 3, it was over.
But I suck and I did I just did DP no Level 3.
You brought it back and then it was down to like, you know, 10
percent, 15% each. And you did Manon's spin through

(36:32):
my fireball, which is very rude because you forgot to remind me
that Manon has an anti fireball move with her spin.
You know, that's, that's I thinkthat's kind of almost cheating
if you ask me, 'cause no one remembers that she has a spin
move that can go through projectiles, right?
So that was very rude of you. Idom I don't know if you know
that. Studied the tapes and also, you
know, you got to work in your execution.

(36:53):
You're getting kind of, you're getting a bit older.
I know Street Fighter 4 Brian would have hit the DP into Level
3, but that? That was on stick.
I could do that on stick on lever list.
No, I've never been able to do that that I've actually the fact
that I even did an uppercut thatwas already hundreds of hours of
work on lever list to even do anuppercut, much less that Level 3

(37:14):
cancel. No, no Street Fighter 4 Bride
would have would drop that as well.
I played ball rock back then dude.
You think I'm doing DP Level 3? I could barely uppercut an
arcade stick. So you got me in the end.
It was a close asset, but I think it was worth it just to
see Daigo pop off on you for, you know, all the disparaging
remarks you made. But other than that, I had a

(37:35):
great time at EVO even though Ebola kicked my ass as well.
Anything you want to bring up from your EVO experience?
Did you, did you have fun even though we all got washed in
tournament? I had a good time at Eva, I will
say and just to you know, I knowa lot of people have been on
the, you know, setups at tournaments are bad.
This EVO really good setups, no complaints.
I there was EVO 2023 and four who had really bad like PS-5

(38:03):
setup. People's ports were kind of
exploding. I don't know if anyone's port
exploded this year, but I will say really good setups, fun time
overall. Got to do a lot of stuff I
didn't usually get to do at EVO.Got to, you know, try tocon
trial the upcoming fighting game.
Got to lose like thousands of dollars at blackjack.
So it's all fun and games. Very true, very true.

(38:26):
And any final thoughts from Rob T?
Mina or D is the goat. Got it, got it.
Well, that's EVO 2025 in the books, and it definitely was a
fun one, but we got other thingsto discuss here.
Let's touch on it. The king is back to God.
I've been playing a lot of cigar.
Adam. That's not your kind of
character. I don't think you have No, no.

(38:46):
Did you even play him? Did you even boot up and try
him? I got to got to master and I
think after as soon as I did that, I was like, OK, you know,
I'm, I understand Cigar and Cigar's here and I've never
really been a fan of Cigar. Cigar's probably not one of my
favorite Street Fighter characters, probably on the
lower half, but he's cool. I I like him.
He actually feels like a more unique character than a lot of

(39:08):
the other characters in the game.
I do think he is very more rushed down than Zoni.
I turned on the game wanting to throw Fireball and I figured out
Tiger Knee was the best move in the game.
Well, yeah, it's interesting. I think his zoning, he has one
unique aspect to his zoning thatI think makes it a little bit

(39:28):
more dynamic and interesting than other characters.
But with the way they changed his fireballs, where he only has
one fireball special move, the light one is the low tiger shot,
medium and and heavy or high tiger shots.
The low tiger shot is maybe the worst projectile in the game.
Yeah, it's really bad. It's.
Horrible. And that's, that's maybe a

(39:49):
loaded way to describe it. It's just you can't use it in
the way you use other projectiles.
You cannot if you try to use it like a regular, like a Kuma
fireball, right? Like you think, oh, it's my fast
fireball. It's going to stop them from use
it as a poke to stop people fromwalking forward.
You are going to suffer because it just has a ton of recovery.
It's 50 frames total. And I think other equivalent

(40:09):
fireballs are between like 40-5.Something like that number of
frames or to 47 and that minor number of frame difference.
That X few extra frames means a world of difference.
In fireball recovery that is thedifference between eating a jump
in or not eating that Aki cowardCrouch dive into a full combo or
not eating the manon spin launcher into a full combo or

(40:31):
not right? It that few frames completely
determines how the utility of the fireball plays out.
So low tiger shot is really justfor, in my opinion, full screen
harassing. Like if you literally get a
knockdown, they go completely full, completely full screen
where there's no threat of a jump landing or as a meaty
right, like you get a knock down, you can do as a meaty low

(40:53):
fireball. So it's only for those things.
And then the medium and heavy tiger shot, this slower high
tiger shot and the faster high tiger shot, they they are good,
but you can just duck them, right?
So there's no threat of drive gauge chip and people can also
duck underneath them. If you do some up close as a
poke like you would normally do with a fireball is do like an
extended range poke, they can duck the fireball and just

(41:14):
punish you with a sweep like a low forward.
Like a lot of caters have long range moves from Crouch that
will just go underneath the fireball and punish you on
reaction. So his zoning is challenging in
that aspect. High tiger shot is super great
for stopping people from moving forward though.
Like you can just Chuck it, Chuck Chuck Chuck it and those
and they stand up and try to move forward.
They get hit but you're throwingfireballs to not much gain.

(41:36):
Like you're just stalling. You're not doing drive gauge
ship. You can't alter the low tiger
shot timing either so there's nothreat of like making them with
Perry or anything cuz it's the same timing every single time.
There's no variation cuz there'sonly one.
However, the one interesting aspect about a zoning, which I
wasn't apparent right away, if you throw the medium high Tiger

(41:58):
shot as it travels forward, you can throw the OD Tiger shot
while it's still on screen, which is a unique rule to Sagat.
It's kind of like his V trigger 1.
I believe it was the Tiger cannon from Street Fighter five.
He could throw fireball and thendo the V trigger fireball while
it's still on screen. So at least he has that.
Like you can throw medium high Tiger shot and it goes real slow

(42:20):
and then also throw the OD high one which does a billion hits
and also is like plus a billion on block or the OD low one.
That's the only thing that like tightens up the zoning because
you can throw both those and then after the OD you can
recover fast and and anti if they jump.
But other than that he's not a good zoner.
I feel like all the other Akuma's a much better fireball

(42:41):
character than Sigat. Like way better that that.
That's kind of how I felt about it.
I don't really when I I I tried zoning before, but I think
Sagat's rush down is really good, like having his stand
medium punch as a really good poke.
Tiger knees, one of the best special moves you get in so
easily and it's very easy to make.

(43:02):
Plus, especially if somebody just crouching in a block stream
already his crotch medium punch drive rush into crotch medium
kicks the true string. So you just it's free pressure
and you're still in throw range.And you could also just mash
stand medium hunt. He's a really good rush down
character in my opinion. You could really just stay in
somebody's face. Well, I I feel like his Okie's

(43:24):
kind of bad though, so I do agree with what you're saying.
Like he has the +2 stand medium punch, sort of like jury.
Think about Jury's stagger pressure.
And then his low forward function's a little bit more
like Aki if you want a comparison.
It's not plus unblocked naturally they buff that with
Aki. But you can do drive rush
cancels into the crashing mediumkick to four plus frames.
So if they try to walk away and it's a true string like you
mentioned so they can't uppercutin between.

(43:45):
So if they're trying to stand walk away or do a reversal, they
can get clipped low into a full combo.
And if they block it, if it's done close enough, it's a true
string and you can get a tick throw or pressure after.
So that's really good. And the meta behind them does
seem to be high. Tiger shot throw that so that
people want to Crouch and then Tiger knee to punish people for
crouching. Because if they Crouch block and

(44:07):
you Tiger knee instead, you get in and it's plus.
However, here's what I think about that.
Tiger knee is very reactable to DIII.
Think I started playing when I started playing Segat mirrors if
you're the light one is safer. I think if you can't really do
that for the light one, if they're in range, the medium 1
is really good to go over fireballs and covers a really
good distance. But you can react to it with DI

(44:29):
and also as people are learning the match up, it's perfect Perry
fodder. It's it's like it's a less
flexible. I don't know if it's less
flexible, but it reminds me of Terry's medium burn knuckle.
But burn knuckle is a better jump scare.
It's harder to react to Tiger Knee, you can see it.
And people are starting to perfect Perry very consistently,
so I wonder if that's going to remain that strong.

(44:51):
Yeah, I'm getting perfect Perry.A lot.
I don't even think it's that badof a perfect Perry fraud.
When I was playing Cigar, a lot of people are getting Imperfect
Perry, so I never really felt not threatened to do it.
Obviously you get DI. DI kind of sucks and I think DI
is very easy to react with it, but perfect Perry is Imperfect
Perry. Being in the game, I feel like
it makes me want to do it more because I'm not going to get

(45:13):
perfect parried. But there's no reason to parry
low. Yeah, but.
There's no incentive I feel like.
I mean people just crouched by default, so it is also.
Kind, I think it's a match up thing.
Like I said, I think week one itwas really good.
Now that I were Week 2, I'm like, oh, I really need to pick
my spots a lot. Careful.

(45:33):
I still think strong overall having the threat of it is
strong, but it's not it's a think I think it's a match up
check. I think it's one of those things
that you has to be used very carefully as people actually
know the match up. So I think at mid level
spammable and I think it's one of those things that falls off a
bit at high level. The threat of it allows Sagat to

(45:53):
use his other tools. It's one of those things where
he could start then gaining moreground or as people look to
Perry that you can use like towards light kick to get in
with the low and other options. So it opens up his other tools,
but you're not going to be mauling with it as you were Week
1 is my prediction. And he moves like a freaking

(46:13):
tank, dude. He's so slow.
He's so slow. And so my prediction is right
now as he stands, he's a character specialist character.
Again, there's there's going to be very few high level Sigat
mains in my opinion. As he stands now.
I'm having a lot of fun with himthough.
It's so challenging, it's so hard to beat the average.

(46:33):
Like throwing and bison in there.
A Jamie, any kind of character that is all about steamrolling
and offensive momentum. Shutting that Dallas they got is
so hard but also very satisfying.
I'm enjoying the challenge as much as it makes you want to RIP
my hair Hera at the same time. It's frustrating to sell but I
can see a a future where there is a handful of Sagat mains

(46:56):
doing work. But I I think it's going to he's
going to be a niche character athigh level in my opinion.
As he stands right now I don't Idon't see him having enough
things that are no low for dry rush right?
No super easy abusable things. His tiger Nexus.
His tiger gin Ryan is weaker than Ken gin Ryan in my opinion.
It is good for drive gauge damage but it's a lot easier to
fuzzy the stand. You fuzzy with a stand jab?

(47:18):
Do a delay stand jab, you block the overhead and interrupt the
the medium follow up and there'sno low so it's just like not as
threatening. Like even if you block overhead
and E plus frames it's at the end of the world so doesn't have
as much spammable stuff as what I feel.
I, I will the Super satisfying thing about playing Sagat is

(47:38):
when you get the, the OD fireball clashing with the
regular fireball and the Super Ilove, I love that.
That's the, that's the most satisfying thing about playing
Sagat, though. True.
Good job. Good job there.
But I, I, as it stands right now, cigars probably bottom 10
hot tape. I was talking with Javits about
it. You know me and Javits always

(47:59):
listen, always say cigars. Probably bottom 10 in the game.
You know, I used to always be irate with cigar players
complaining about their character.
And now I'm old and I'm, I'm gravitating towards him and I, I
play it an hour in rank and I'm like, I get it, cigar players,
I, you are working harder than everybody else.
You are better than all these players who are robbing you free
with their mindless rush down and, and, and rush down tactics.

(48:21):
I get it now. So cigar players, I'm sorry for
thinking you were corny for years for complaining about
checking fireballs and upper cutting.
I get it. It's a stress.
You're playing everybody else's game the entire time you're
playing defense in this game is how it feels.
You get your offense here and there for sure, but getting to
that position is difficult because he's so slow and has no
low for a dry rush. So a lot of the time you're

(48:43):
you're dealing with everybody else's BS and trying to counter
it. So tough but satisfying.
I think he's a lot of fun though, so I'm going to keep
playing it for now. So I I think he feels cool, He
looks cool. So overall I think it's a great
addition to the cast, but I think he will be a character
specialist character. So for example, Bon Chan on
Sagat, I don't know about that man.

(49:04):
I don't. I have.
My prediction is he's sticking with Akuma.
That would be my guess right now.
Especially esports World Cup coming up, right?
There's no way. Yeah, Akuma's.
Akuma's too good, and I feel like Akuma does everything Sagat
wants to do but better, except maybe in the health department.
And the health difference isn't even that strong because in the
older games Sagat had way more health than Akuma.

(49:26):
Now it's like he has an extra 100.
Who cares, right? Does he even have an extra 100?
It's just oh extra 100 compared to Akuma Cause Akuma has well
1000 like 9 K right? But Sigat has average health.
What give him some health? Like that's that's actually it's
kind of weird in this game to me.
They they've homogenized the health department so much.
That is a weird thing where onlylike Geef and Marissa I think

(49:48):
have extra health. Maybe I'm misremembering.
Honda too. If Honda has extra health, why
doesn't Geef or sorry Sigat? Like Sigat is the slowest and
largest character in the game. Yeah, I, I, I hope in the future
Capcom changes the health values, because I do think it's
a bit silly too. But yeah, what are you going to?

(50:09):
Do yeah, we're a homogenization there.
I I definitely think the guy should at least be Honda tier at
least like because he's he's constantly forced to anti air
difficult jump insurance becauseof his height and his angle of
uppercut. So to me that would be a great
addition. Actually, normally most people
view modifying health values to be kind of a mean balance change
9K smile with akuma right? But I do think extra health

(50:32):
actually does make a difference.That one extra interaction for
bigger slower characters. It can actually make or break
tournament run right a ranks that win.
It actually does become the difference maker in certain
situations. But anyway, Sagat overall, I
think a win for Street Fighter 6.
I think a cool character. We'll see where he develops from
here. And but Speaking of E sports

(50:54):
World Cup, Bonchen, I don't think he's going to Sagat for
this tournament, but we're starting to see what this
tournament will shape up to be. We just had the LCQ wrap up
right before the time of this recording here.
And so from this recording, it'll be one week until we have
the actual esports World Cup main event and the LCQ over in

(51:15):
Saudi Arabia. It was stacked, man, one of the
most stacked tournaments of the same caliber of like Aceo combo
breaker, right? Very similar kind of player
distribution, but with even moreJapanese players potentially in
attendance. And of course, some of the main
killers are not in the event because they've already
qualified, right? So this tournament was

(51:36):
incredibly stacked and you saw major upsets happening day one.
Like think about who was it who didn't qualify out of day one.
I'm forgetting we had a couple players who were in esports.
World Cup didn't make it out of pools.
Sahara, the Ed player that was kind of cooking, he went Owen to
that bracket, which is crazy to say Owen to Owen 2.

(51:58):
I think Akira. I think Akira also the Cami
player who got third at Evo Japan.
I want to say he went Owen two or one and two.
I know he lost his ZAP for, you know, Shalas, is that cooking up
with the cigar? But I know he didn't get far.
There was a lot of players, a lot of favorites that grounded
pools, but that tournament was too crazy and too unpredictable

(52:18):
to call. Yeah, so it was super nuts the
the level of talent there. And once you got it today too,
it's just like Captain Cup qualifiers in East in previous
esports World Cup, top 8 placerswere in the LCQ, for example,
right. People have been into this event
and gone really far. So it was really nuts.
But as it boiled down, the goal of this event was to get into

(52:39):
the esports World Cup. And they have been distributing
spots throughout the season, right?
And they kind of just like throwthe spots left and right.
We're going to take top 8 from Captain Cup.
We'll take all the Street Fighter League players who who
were in Street Fighter League World.
We'll take two players from thistournament, 2 from here.
We'll throw some over in this Chinese tournament.
You know what I mean? They kind of just like throw
them around like candy, like, and there's not that there's a

(53:00):
little bit of a logic behind it,but not that much to be honest.
Like they're kind of just tryingto quickly fill these spots in.
This LCQ for some reason had 10 spots available, which doesn't
even make that much sense because of the way the double
elimination bracket works. After the top 8, four people tie
for 9th place, so they had to doa runoff tournament with all the

(53:22):
9th place finishers to determinewho the final two were to round
out those 10 qualifiers. So the the main goal of the
tournament was just to get into E Sports World Cup.
If you lost before qualifying, you got decent prize money.
There's $50,000 in prizing for all the players.
So they paid out all the way to top 48.
If you got top 48, you got 1K right Top 321250 top 2415 116th

(53:48):
PL. seventeen fifty 11th through12th 2500.
They're just throwing out money.So the the goal of E sports
World Cup in general is to get people to Saudi Arabia, get
people to look at Saudi Arabia. It's to promote Saudi Arabia,
right? That's the whole initiative that
they're doing this for. So it makes sense in my opinion
for them to like, say, hey, all the spots are in the LCQ, come

(54:09):
to Saudi Arabia, we're giving you money.
Just get top 48, you get 1K. You know, I mean, it's like
paying for your vacation, like come, come, come, come.
That's that's the whole goal of the why they did it this way and
it worked. It got the talent out there.
But it's funny because the top 8, there's no prizing for top 8
at all. You just get into LCQ.
So that top eight, man, those were the happiest players, the

(54:29):
happiest top 8 you've ever seen.It's hard to know if they cared
a lot it it mattered for seating.
They did apply some seating fromthe top 8 results, but it's hard
to know if it mattered that much.
I don't know. I don't know if I would care at
that point. Yeah, I was thinking about too.
Like as soon as you get into topeight, it's like, who cared?
I felt like there were players obvious I I want to say they
were trying. I don't even know, but they it

(54:50):
kind of felt like dragged on, like why are we playing this?
What are we doing? We already everyone here got
what they wanted. We're all happy that, you know,
let's go out and celebrate and they kind of just had to play
the top 8, which was very weird.Shot was the Hurricane though,
because he definitely he won it kind of convincingly.
Yeah. Yeah, that's the big, one of the
big stories from LCQ is Hurricane out of of you know, he

(55:13):
people might know him from his his competitive days in the UK
scene always kind of kind of lowkey, right?
Like he doesn't travel much. He's a salary man, full time
job. This is what his hobby is
monetized hobby on the side. So all props to Hurricane.
And he's from Cameroon and he I believe moved back in the last
year or so or past six months. He moved back to his his home

(55:36):
country Cameroon. And so he's representing Africa
in this tournament, you know, representing his home country.
And he's always done really wellin the UK scene and made deep
runs, made big upsets. You know, he beat Punk at Kings
of the World, offline CPT last season.
He's been doing the things in Street Fighter Five.
So he's been one of the strongest players in the world
for a long time, but never had abig international win under his

(55:57):
belt. So I feel like for Hurricane, if
he's in winter stop 8 and cooking like that, I think for
him, he has more to prove than anywhere else.
I can definitely see him be like, I'm going to fuck these
people up and like this, this ismy win.
You know what I'm saying? Like this is my notch on my belt
and I I care a lot. So there's definitely a lot of
pride on the line. And he cooked with this Cami.
And you know, we were talking about about earlier the Mickey

(56:19):
style of gameplay Punk, the God,what is hooligan?
He barely knows the input for that move, right?
But hurricane is a bit like Mickey.
You know, he he hit Hikaru, for example, the sequence he did
like jab, jab Sam, Lykic, Dr. rush cancel, OD spin knuckle,
like reset the combo on hit the the light drivers cancel and to
OD spin knuckle to cross up convert to Level 3.

(56:40):
And of course, he does a lot of like surprise hooligans and
neutral to the grab to Level 3 as well.
So he he mixes in a bit of that grime to his gameplay along with
the solid reads and fundamentalsto get the job done.
And he took this tournament in dominant fashion.
So just the rattle off who qualified.
So from the top 8, the qualifying players were Quintio,

(57:02):
who was the number one Terry player from Japan who was
rocking with Terry from before the buff.
So since release, he switched over and he was the guy kind of
putting Terry on the map and bitbit of like an online warrior at
the time grinding in Japan. Not as much offline tournament
success or or many tournaments he traveled to, but this was his
big showing Terry's buff. Now there's a lot of Terry

(57:24):
players, Oil King switching to Terry and we have a lot of Terry
representation as well because he's really, really strong now.
But he was one of the OG's like creating a lot of the early tech
and it paid off for this event. Go Ichi doing the thing.
He just won esports World for FATAL Fury and EVO, and now he's
in this Street Fighter Six Esports World Cup.

(57:44):
He's coming for that Xiaohai position, man.
He stole esports World Cup and EVO from Xiaohai.
Xiaohai was going to be the first person to win two
different game title esports World Cups.
It's going to be Goichi now. That's kind of crazy, right?
He's on. He is on a run.
You know, Guichi's my favorite DNF player.
Yeah, I got to throw it out. Got to throw that out there.

(58:06):
My favorite DNF player. So, you know, hopefully he, he
can do well in Street Fighter Six EWC because, you know, he
plays DNF. So he's kind of acclimated with
playing good video games. Oh.
My God, DNF is a good video game.
I'm not going to lie, it's a good video game.
That's why, that's why, that's why I'm praising him.
He's going to do well. When when everybody is asked DNF

(58:29):
dual is so much fun. I actually I do love that game
whenever it's one of my favoriteparty games for sure.
But yeah, go Ichi man, He's he'sone of the goats of fighting him
in period. We used to be the poverty anime
God. DBFZ brought him in some cash
finally for his efforts. You know, DBFZ champion best in
the world for a time in that game, doing it in Fatal Fury

(58:51):
now. And if he can get Street Fighter
Six, he's always been a top player and really strong
competitor. But if he can get a major title
and Street Fighter Six as well, that's it man.
No one else is doing multi game like him.
Xiaohai was the other person, right?
Which was incredible. But if Goichi's up there now,

(59:12):
that's that's legacy like that'sincredible.
You don't really have too many modern multi game gods.
So like I said, having that withGoichi and Xiaohai is also kind
of insane to see like most people who are entering
tournaments now or you know, youdo well in one game and then
that's kind of it. You don't have that nowadays,
kind of like how you know, daigos winning guilty gear or
you know, Justin Wong winning Tekken.

(59:34):
So it's cool to see now we we have less and less of that
because people are focused on one thing.
So I I am all for this and I I like that Guichi's doing this.
Yeah, and he has a chance now qualifying there.
And of course Hurricane qualified and Hikaru with his
AKI qualified be the LCQ. And he was one of the players
that went really far in the original or last year's esports

(59:56):
World Cup and was supposed to beat the champion last year.
Xiaohai, I believe he was up four one or four two against
Xiaohai in the top eight, first to five format.
And Xiaohai, that was his most difficult set actually of the
whole tournament. He had to clutch up and bring
that thing all the way back fromthe.
Brink of defeat multiple times to clutch that set versus Ikaru
and went on to win the the the whole event and that just shows

(01:00:17):
the level of play these days. Ikaru had to do it through the
LCQ. We also had a junior with a
Zengeef from Japan and Matsu 56 with his Kimberly who you're a
fan of his perfect parry shenanigans.
He made a a a good run through losers as well to get in there.
Tachikawa clutched it up, using his combo of Manon and his
modern Ed and one of the biggeststories from this whole thing,

(01:00:38):
Riddles from Toronto getting thejob done with his Terry after,
you know, he, he stole the sage and slam for me.
Now he's still in the LCQ from everybody else, right?
I think that's pretty equivalent, equivalent feat.
So big wins to Riddles here. His run he took out take take
piano who was like like the number one online JP in Japan on

(01:01:01):
CFN. So that's you know, massive when
they're super strong online player taking his talents
offline for one of his first events JOA out of China beat oil
king 21 beat Chris Wong 2O beat takamura 2 OB Kobayan 2O and
then Ryu say 2-1 to qualify for E sports World Cup and that
Kobayan set was nuts Dude. His clutch factor is ridiculous.

(01:01:21):
So Riddles from Smash Ultimate dropped by Team Liquid right
before this, now qualifying for esports World Cup.
The the Kobe on set was amazing.I was like, I was watching a lot
of his matches live. He played fantastic versus Kobe
on I will say his, his run. I was a bit scared for him
versus Takamura. I feel like everyone who plays
Takamura the first time kind of gets kind of gets, you know,

(01:01:45):
surprised by how Takamura played.
But Nah, he played amazing in the entire tournament and you
know, good, good stuff to riddles because he definitely
kind of just like went from smash to Street Fighter.
So seeing like his his kind of like effort pay off.
And now he's in esports World Cup.
Really, really cool to see. Yeah, yeah.

(01:02:05):
And I know Team Liquid is, is punched in the air right now
because remember, these orgs want players in the esports
World Cup desperately. Because along with giving away
1,000,000 Apprising for the actual singles tournament, 250K
for first place for esports World Cup, the club championship
system is giving away millions, millions of the esports clubs

(01:02:26):
via the overall leaderboard where across all the game
titles, if your players or team do well in events based on their
placing, they get points, you got the most points, you'll win
that, you win millions. So you know, esports woke up in
the side of government. It's just throwing money at
these esports organizations to to motivate them to get players
and to to supply the talent for this event and your whole goal

(01:02:48):
as an esports org. The only thing left is trying to
siphon funds from the esports World Cup.
That's the only way you make money these days at NA esports
and Liquid. They dropped their guy who got
into the esports World Cup, so and he was on Team Liquid for
quite some time. So big place a Riddle.
Sometimes you need that chip on your shoulder, you know what I'm
saying? Sometimes you got to get
dropped. The show was good, hey.

(01:03:10):
Yeah, we got experience. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I was in the back doing the dishes.
Now look where we are, baby. Like you, you should have stuck
around, should have been loyal. You would have seen how the
heights I could have taken you to.
But Riddles gets the job done, qualifies.
And then out of the 9th place finishers we had, DCQ, Kojikog,
Waseem from Saudi Arabia and Ryusei were all tied for 9th

(01:03:30):
place. So they had to play a mini
bracket. DCQ beat Kojikog to qualify and
then was seen beat reuse, say toqualify.
So a local Saudi Arabian player was seen who's been he's been on
the map for a while now and Street Fighter six really strong
player local talent through his super stacked LCQ qualify.
So that's a that's a huge win for him and for the Saudi
Arabian scene as well. So that's awesome to see that a

(01:03:54):
local player actually ended up qualifying.
So a big props to was seen for getting that done and that
rounds out the qualifiers for the LCQ and in the end, shout
outs again to Hurricane for taking the whole event.
But that means we have the groups decided for the E sports
World Cup. They actually did try to apply
some level of seeding to this, but you know, at this point it

(01:04:15):
almost doesn't matter. Like dude, it's just the best of
the best and the groups are nuts.
So they have they have 12 groupsdivvied up.
Two players make it out of each group.
Groups of force here into the actual bracket phase.
And yeah, you can't. Call it right, This is yeah, you
can't call it. I think there is no, there is

(01:04:37):
really no easy group here at all.
So I just wish everyone the bestof luck because it's going to be
a bloodbath and I'm going to be enjoying watching the bloodbath.
What do you think about Group E?That's one that stands out to
me. Group E is EE is Tachikawa
Xiaohai punk to God Kakaroo. So I mean, we're a year past the

(01:04:58):
the punk Xiaohai are you nervousdrama.
I think they kind of squashed that a while ago, but maybe
maybe it's back, you know, as maybe this resurfaces that.
But having Punk, Xiaohai, Kakaduall in one group?
That's nuts. And Tashi Kawa, his manon, you
know, his Manon was amazing the entire ICQ and you know I.
Don't mean to despair, Tashi Kawa, he he can make, he can

(01:05:19):
make the win happen for sure. He's at that level.
But I just don't think he has like the same name power right
now and Street Fighter 6. But yeah, I, I'm very excited to
see that. I mean, punk, Punk probably best
player in NA. You know, Kakadu probably the
best player in Japan. Oh, punk's the best player in
the US And a yeah. And then Kakadu being the best

(01:05:39):
player in Japan, probably the best player in Japan.
You know, good, really cool to see it.
And then you know Shaohai and Tasha Kao is still there as
well. Returning champion, returning
champion right and and no one expected him to win this event
at that time. So it's hard to say and and he
had a really good run at evo, ofcourse, top 8 at evo 5th place I
believe right, he finished in fifth and so he had an amazing

(01:06:03):
run as well. So it's not like he's rusty in
his skills. He he doesn't have as many
prolific showings in between these major events, but he
showed up won a sports World Cup, 5th place at Evo.
He's ready to go, man. He's ready to play.
So that that group is is too hard to call an unfortunate
drawing though group H has gawichi crime out of Chile,

(01:06:25):
phenom and blahs out of Chile. So the Chilean wonder kids, you
know the the 1514 year old prodigies there, they both got
drawn into the same group unfortunately.
So that that that is unfortunatethat they might have to face
each other and eliminate each other.
However, do people make it out of each group?

(01:06:45):
I can see a world where both Crimea and Blahs get out of this
group. Just say you're not a fan of
Phenom because Phenom to me is the sleeper pick.
Again, Phenom is, like you said,your favorite player's favorite
player. I am a huge Phenom fan.
I think Phenom actually can get out of that group pretty pretty
handily. Yeah, I don't disagree, man.

(01:07:05):
I'm, I'm not making predictions.I'm just saying what what could
happen. You can't call any of these
groups. There's not a single group where
I'm looking at it. And I'm like, yeah, they're
they're going to win. Group B has riddles, Memochi,
Kawano, MENA Rd. I would love to see MENA Rd.
finally get a big esports World Cup win, right.
He he was stopped short last year by our boy dual Kevin

(01:07:26):
getting the job done there. That's a challenging group.
I don't recall his performances against Mimochi and Kawano.
Have they played frequently? I actually don't even know.
I don't think they've actually ever.
I don't think I've ever seen MENA play Kawano in this game,
and Mimochi. I don't think they played either

(01:07:49):
at EVO any of the EVO Japan. Yeah, really.
For as as much as MENA Rd. has taking wins from the Japanese
community at their own evos, I don't think he's there's a few
notable players I don't think he's interacted with during
those runs. Maybe we're mistaken, but never
in the the bigger top eight matches have they played.

(01:08:09):
A group that I'm actually looking forward to.
It have to be Group CI. Think Group C has a a lot of
star power and I wanna see the ending Walker big bird matches
cuz. They were trying to get.
Into it a bit and that was Ripple Kumite Paris grand final.
So I think that should be a goodgroup dual Kevin also in there
as well and shoot those kind of,you know, the the sleeper, but

(01:08:33):
that's another group that I'm actually really looking forward
to. Sleeper in the West, maybe.
Shuto is really big in Japan. He has a really big following
and a social media presence as well.
He has a lot of fans in Japan and he's a, he's one of the
more, I'm one of the most consistent Japanese players,
especially at international events.
And I was putting on a really good Captain Cup run.
I, I forget exactly where he goteliminated.

(01:08:54):
Was it Blahs who took him out? But he was making a run for
himself in the the loser side ofCaptain Cup as well.
And so, yeah, all these groups are super stacked.
They're going to be entertainingmatches throughout.
We got to make one prediction item.
We got it. We got to do it.
But. I I don't have any faith in my
prediction here, but if I have to take 1 winner out of a hat,

(01:09:19):
I'm going Kakadu young. I'm going Kakadu again.
All right, so I picked Lashar last time.
Not going to pick Lashar again. This is out of left field pick
and I'm confident in this pick. My man.
Gotcha Kun's winning the entire tournament.
Gotcha Kun. OK Gotcha Kun is winning the

(01:09:40):
entire thing. I mean he's always made a deep
run in these events and he's always a solid pick.
He has aside from Capcom Cup 2018, though, he hasn't got the
1st place finish at I guess he had the Singapore in 2023 CPT
But for the Grand slams, he's he's a solid pick for 5th place
and above. You know what I mean?

(01:10:01):
Like he's for sure getting top five.
Like I I agree with that, but that's not that's not a bad
pick. It might it might be his his
weekend. But anyways, I think that wraps
up our our selection there of our predictions for.
Mina Rd. is the goat. Right, sorry the GOAT.
Sorry forgot to get Rob's. Rob's picking there.
Rob has been Rd. but but Rob what about?

(01:10:23):
What about punk? Isn't it is does some punk have
a shot as well? What?
The guy is the most naturally talent, the most fundamentally
sound player that I've ever seen.
True, true. All right, well, the coin flip
is always good for Rob. It's going to be 1 of Punk or
MENA Rd. for Rob. And you know what?
Those are not bad picks as well.If MENA Rd. gets his job done.
Like I said, legend before our eyes.

(01:10:45):
Punk. Punk needs another big win
though. He he needs a big money when he
hasn't had one of those. I think that's kind of the thing
about Punk actually is that he'sbeen so consistent for so long.
Aside from E league 2017, he hasn't got any of the cash cow
events, right. He doesn't have a Capcom Cup and
he doesn't have an esports WorldCup.
Those are those are the events that you want to win just to
line your pockets or evo like you get like an evo win is like

(01:11:11):
top 16 or top 32 at this event in terms of pricing.
So I'm, I'm sure punk, the guy is looking to to finally get a
big cash win under his belt for Street Fighter.
But that's all we have for this episode.
Let us know in the comments whatyou're thinking about E Sports
World Cup, what you thought about Evo 2025.
If what your predictions are. I'm curious what you guys think

(01:11:33):
about how this tournament will shake up.
And we're going to wrap it up here on the Extra Trashy
podcast. Thanks again to idom for joining
me and we're going to go ahead and close it out here.
Thanks for listening and tuning in.
Peace guys.

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