Mai is out. How does she stack up so far? | Extra Trashy

Mai has just released in Street Fighter 6, and the community is trying to figure her out. How does she stack up so far? Brian and Idom share their thoughts after a few days of the character, and she feels a little familiar. Will Mai's unique mechanics come together? Plus: The Capcom Cup 11 Group Draw, the Evo Awards (and dress code!) and reflecting on legendary moments that never made it on stream!Trash Talk is supported by our patrons on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/brian_f

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome everybody to another episode of Extra Trashy.
We have, of course, the officialunofficial official Co host
IDOM. How's it going, man?
What's up? Doing good.
How's everyone doing? I I think they're doing good
because we're back to talk aboutmore fighting games.
Specifically, we have Maya's release.
Maya's finally come to Street Fighter Six, the first DLC

(00:20):
character in months. We have the Capcom Cup group
drawing coming up. We're gonna touch on the Evil
Awards, which will be next week after this airs.
And then we have another specialquestion from you guys over at
the Bryant F Patreon page, whichgets into some deep
conversations about our favoritemoments and tournaments.
I didn't make it to the stream, so the deep cuts we'll bring up

(00:41):
in this episode. But First off, my release.
Yeah, my has finally come to to Street Fighter Six and I don't
miss she everything you hoped and dreamed for.
Well, I think my is a pretty cool character in KOF and it's
cool that she was brought into Street Fighter and and I think

(01:03):
is awesome that she was this awesome to have guest characters
in Street Fighter. But I've been playing my she's
kind of, she's kind of, I don't want to say bland, She's not
bland, but I do think she's pretty straightforward.
And I do think she's a bit on the weaker side to be honest
too. One thing I was comparing her a

(01:25):
lot to, I feel like she's a mixture of jury and Chun Lee and
you guys. I'm jury hater number one.
I think Jury is one of the most boring characters in the game.
So I feel like me comparing her to jury is already a a bad sign.
I looked how you're walking thattightrope in the beginning,
right before we went live. I know was telling me he's like,
you know what, Brian, I'm going to take your advice.

(01:47):
I'm not going to complain as much about Street Fighter 6 and
I'm going to be more positive. So I I could see the gears
turning there for you to try to like walk the line to not come
out and be straight negative about my.
But yeah, she's kind of a fireball Dr. Rush character,
right? I mean, they added, I think a
little bit of unique twist with the way the fans bounce.

(02:07):
So there's a bit more set play and I think she'll continue to
evolve a bit and be more dynamicin that sense.
But a big part of her game plan is definitely try to like create
some space and then charge a fireball and then you drive rush
and then either either you you do high low before the 2nd
bounce or you do it after, you know what I mean?

(02:27):
It's like you're kind of just picking where do you do the
driver's low or overhead or throw, but you always do one of
those three. It just depends on which
strength of fireball you did andwhere you do it.
So yeah, I, I don't know if she's that as dynamic out of the
gate. I think she'll have a lot of set
play that evolves over time. But her basic game plan is, you

(02:48):
know, it has a Street Fighter Six effect.
It's a little homogenized, a little bit out of the game.
I do wish her level 1 was more useful, I feel like I've been
trying to lob a lot of the stuffwith her level 1.
But the two problems I see with her level 1 is it's very hard to
combo into mid screen. So like her heavy quarter circle

(03:08):
back punch doesn't combo into level 1 unless you're in the
corner which kind of sucks. And the other issue I have is if
you're playing neutral and you with punish with like stand
heavy punch, if you do stand heavy punch into level 1 to try
to get the ball, you'll be too far and you lift.
So it, it's, it's like I can't even get the level 1 like I want

(03:31):
to. Usually when I'm getting level
1, it's usually at the end of the match.
I'm like, Oh, it didn't matter. I didn't even get to use the
flame stock or I didn't get to use the, the cool part of the
character. So I'm feel like I'm kind of
locked out of the level 1. The way I've been saying using
it or the way I see it being most effective is kind of just,
you know, wake up level 1 and then hope for the best.

(03:51):
And if it hits now I can just dofireball Dr. rush because not
fan space. So I don't know, it's a weird
dynamic. I wish it was more to the level
1 but I feel like the level 1 isthe main part of the character.
You don't even utilize it that much.
It's like playing Rasheed with, just not not with the level 2.
Which wouldn't make any sense. Yeah, it's weird because, yeah,

(04:12):
I feel like the level 1 is the most unique part about her.
Like you, if you do the level 1,you get 5 flame stocks, which
enhances all your special moves and makes your immediate
uncharged projectile a projectile.
Because her fans, if you don't hold the button down to charge
it up, they're just a hit projectile.
So people can press buttons and clash with it and get it off the
screen, or they can just throw their own projectile straight
through it. So her fireball game is actually

(04:33):
pretty weak until you get the level ones.
You have to like kind of take extra steps to make sure that
you can charge the fireball otherwise or or other characters
with better fireballs or just you know, blow right through.
But I agree like you can't combointo it mid screen unless you
spend OD on like OD Renbu the quarter circle back punch that
will let you combo mid screen and even then from like certain

(04:54):
juggles if you get like a punishcounter heavy kick crumple it'll
whiff as well. Basically the level 1 without
flamestock has no horizontal range at all.
So you have to have either up close OD juggle extensions to
get the level 1 mid screen or dolike jab, jab level 1 and even
like you mentioned, heavy punch hit confirm to level 1 will
whiff. There's definitely been a lot of

(05:15):
times where I'm like, oh, I'm going to get a nice little
confirm to level 1 and it just whiffs.
And even when you get them to the corner, there's combos that
work in the corner. If you're not like pushing them
into the corner, it doesn't work.
If you're hurting a little bit out like a pixel away from the
corner, it will it will drop. And so like I got that same
impression early on. I was like, why am I focusing on
getting the level 1? So either what happened is I

(05:36):
would get a combo into the corner and by that point the
next combo to level 1 is going to kill, right?
But by the time in the situationwhere I can land the level 1,
the level one will kill or we'rein later in the rounds and level
2 and Level 3 will kill, right? And her level 2 is actually
really useful. It's especially when enhanced
with level 1. Funny enough, you know, it's a

(05:57):
really it's like A7 frame horizontally moving invincible
super and with level 1, the fireball invincibility is like
full screen and you can like punish Sonic boom from guile
like full screen away. So it is really good with level
1 enhancement with the flame stocks, but it's also like a
good combo extender and ender. And so I find myself mostly like
saving my meter for level two orthree and then cashing out with

(06:18):
that at the end. So I do feel like part of her
unique identity isn't there. Like the install seems so cool
but I've gotten so far without using her install at all.
I'm like at all. I've just optimized my non flame
stock enhanced gameplay and now I find myself in moments where I
have flame stocks and I'm like wait what can I do here?

(06:39):
Like I have not it's been almosta week and I haven't explored
that side of the character at all.
So I think people will optimize that.
But I do agree it's a really rare scenario right now.
I, I feel like a lot of people I, I know Chris G had gotten
really far with my as well in like the ranking.
I know he got to like #1 Mr. with my and I remember one of

(06:59):
his main things was like he thinks Maya is strong, but he
thinks Maya is strong for, you know, the reason that she can
corner you really easily. Like her corner carries insane.
She'll get you to the corner andlike 1 combo all the time, but
it's kind of the same thing where my my good but the reason
she's good is has nothing to do with my.
It's just you know she can do that as I'm safe.

(07:20):
This is just how how the game's going to.
Work yeah, low for drive rush, fireball Dr. rush.
It's a little disappointing because like the main thing I
really enjoyed about my I was like, oh, a unique character and
install character with unique properties and set play right.
Like that's what I was looking forward to, but it's just too
hard to get to that situation. But I mean, she does have the
set play out of nowhere. Like you just do heavy punch to
OD fireball. Like her OD fireball is actually

(07:42):
really good because it instantlygets it's the projectile
property and instantly does a really strong bounce and it's a
fast moving projectile. So if you're like lost and don't
know what to do, you just do like either just throw out the
OD projectile or do stand mediuminto it or stand heavy punch.
And then you instantly can just dry rush in and throw or low
high. So she has that, which I guess

(08:04):
is like slightly different than the other fireball dry brushes,
but it's still kind of just likefireball dry rush.
Yeah, yeah, it's like a little twist.
On it conversions no, she has some sick conversions with like
the anti air level twos like if somebody jumps your flaming
flame stock fireball and then you anti air level 2.
All that stuff is really good aswell.

(08:25):
But even at the same time I I found a lot of my games the
wedding was just like throw looping the person so.
Yeah, and her throw loop is really good.
Yeah, her throw was amazing. Yeah, I didn't realize how good
it was at how good it was at first because it reminds me of
Terry's throw loop at first where you know you have to dash
in to get the second throw. If you walk up, you're not going

(08:46):
to get in range really for the throw, sort of like Chun Li,
they can jab you out of your throw.
But on the dash up one for this one, you still have time to walk
back and bait out their throw with if they wake up with a
tech. So you get a shimmy, which in a
lot of situations you can't do that, like jury can't do that.
For example. Her throw loop is better than
jury's. Now the downside is she doesn't
have a plus on block button. So I think when jury throw loops

(09:09):
you, it's a little more obnoxious because if she just
does stand medium, it's like you're in the they're still in
the same mix up again, because she can just like stagger
buttons over and over. So my doesn't get like the plus
on block without spending OD meter, like maybe dash up button
into OD fireable or something. But she can dash up, walk back,
you whiff throw and then she kills you for it.
So yeah, I feel like when I've been been winning, I've been

(09:30):
doing low for a drive rush and throw loop.
I kind of agree. And then maybe if I'm lost, I do
like button into OD Fireball andDr. Rush and just do something
random and hope to get a hit so that I can go into the throw
loop and kill them. So it's a little, but I think
overall she's been fun, though Ido think the projectile game is

(09:50):
fun when you get it going. Yeah I I feel like Street
Fighter 6 needs more zoners. I know a lot of casuals hate
zoners and like zoners are so frowned upon and like the FGC
and everything in general, but the the game needs more zoners.
Like there's no pure zoner. I feel like in Street Fighter
Six JP was kind of the only character like that and he kind

(10:11):
of got nerve even though he's kind of creeping back up.
But even then, like we need purezoners.
We need different ways to play Ifeel like.
Yeah, Well, what do you think about Dalton?
Because I kind of like zoners, but I don't like Dalton.
So we say pure zoners, but Dalton is the one where I'm
like, I don't, I never enjoy fighting Dalso.
I prefer fighting Dolph in Street Fighter Five, I think to
Street Fighter Six at this point.

(10:32):
Really. Yeah, That's that's interesting.
I I, I like Dulcim in six more than 5, but in 6 I feel like
he's so bad that like he's just going to lose eventually to the
mechanics versus like in five hewas fine the fight until they
had a visa. I I, but that's more of a

(10:54):
grappler player perspective. I can see that no.
No, no, no, no, no, no. I can see that.
I think it's just in general, like usually his owners are
like, you know, I'm going to zone, I get knocked down.
Oh shit, I got to hold all this pressure because I was playing
lame the entire game. But V should kind of fix that.
But even in in six, I think the the problem is Dolson's going to
try to zone, but like you can't really zone in six because

(11:17):
Perry's just going to make a stalemate if you don't go in
eventually. So you can't really zone and
then Dolson has to come to you. And then it's like you're not
really zoning at that point. You're just making awkward
situation. Well, to me, I kind of hate
perfect Perry more than V shift when it comes to Dolson.
I don't like I I know you. I think you have more negative

(11:37):
opinions of a perfect Perry thanI do, but the only time I really
dislike perfect Perry is fighting Dolson.
I actually, I actually think that's more obnoxious to me than
V shift. I'd rather the dolson player V
shift and like create a little bit of space and then I get back
in. Then then I finally get in and
then I try to apply pressure andI eat a perfect Perry and they
back throw me like that. That drives me insane.

(11:58):
So, and I also, I think with Dawson Street Fighter six, the
one of the main ways to beat himis to just do random DI, which I
don't like. Like, I don't like that you just
have to throw a Hail Mary and hope it were I don't know, it
feels like I it's like, oh, to win this, you have to just
randomly mid screen Odie. Sure, you can like I kind of
feel it's a similar like mentality.
So maybe that's just my own mental thing, but I like, I kind

(12:20):
of like JP zoning more than Dawson.
But I do agree overall that we need more like variety and play
styles. So you don't think my relief
fits that, Bilbo? Not really.
I feel like I said playing her, I played her for like I played
her a lot of the days ever sinceshe came out.
But all I'm seeing is like jury chunly mix characters.

(12:43):
Yeah, that's what I see. Yeah, I was saying like a bit of
Aki too, Like there's a, there'sa kind of a hybrid between those
3 characters in my opinion. But you know, I, I still think
there's a lot of room to grow with her.
I, I do see a higher ceiling than other characters.
Like to me, Terry is a lot more straightforward compared to,
compared to my. So I do think people will really

(13:05):
optimize the fan situations. And if we can figure out more
ways to get into the flame stocks, like I, I do see a
future where someone's really optimizing my and they do like
jab jab level 1 instantly. Like, hey, confirm KOF style or
Street Fighter third strike style into level ones.
And then they're zoning the crapout of people.
But I feel like our flame stock system overall leaves a lot to

(13:26):
be desired because like you mentioned, either you end the
first round killing with level 1and you don't even keep the
flame stocks, or you end up not using the meter.
And then you have level two or three.
And it's better to just cash outwith Level 3 and kill them.
Because level threes are just sogood in this game.
Because by the time you, if you have all that meter, you get a
hit. It does 1 1/2 bars of drive

(13:47):
gauge. Like that is so valuable.
If they're, if they're at 3 barsand I hit them, it's like, yeah,
I'm spending Level 3 here. Like if if they had full drive
meter, maybe I'd spend level 1, but at this point in the match,
it's Level 3 because that instantly takes drivers cancel
off the table that they block a couple block strings or in
burnout, it's over. You know what I mean?
So I think the the mechanics of the game I do, I do feel like

(14:10):
there's a lot of pressure that homogenizes the play styles a
little more. Dry brush, fireball, dry brush,
Level 3. A lot of those things kind of
always veer you to optimize in the same direction where if
Level 3 didn't do that drive gauge damage, I'd convert every
time to level 1, right? So I think that's, I think
that's a big issue with her design right now tying the

(14:32):
stocks to the level 1. Her her level 1 needs more
horizontal like horizontal rangethough because I think if you do
because that was my original idea because I kept trying to do
jab jab jab level 1 but even if you do 3 jabs it whiffs.
You got a jab jab man, you got listen to these these KO wet
players, these Street Fighter three third strike players as

(14:53):
you get you get 2 lights that's it man.
You got to confirm right away. I kept.
Trying to do 3 lights and I'm like man, my super just keeps
whipping. I'm just like why?
Why is this happening to me? And yeah, I, I guess, like I
said, the way I was kind of doing it was button drive rush,
you know, heavy kick, I mean back heavy kick target combo
level 1, which guys gives you the flame stock.

(15:15):
But like you're already doing somuch damage and they're already
in the corner anyway. So there's no point.
There's no reason to kind of stray away from the game plan of
just throw looping and probably applying pressure like that.
We can't even do that mid screenif if that target combo for
example works mid screen into level 1, her back heavy kick
kick. It's kind of like the lane
change animation for people who you know, KO up a bit.

(15:37):
She has that three hit target combo from back heavy kick.
She kicks her leg up real high and then yeah, there's three
kicks in the corner kicking combo to level 1 or DP.
It's like a really good combo ender in the corner.
But mid screen. If that, for example, worked
into level 1, at least from low for a dry rush, you have a
decent way to get into level 1 right to set up the game plan.

(15:58):
So I suspect she'll get a patch where they make it easier to get
into the flame stock because otherwise they wasted the whole
mechanic. You know, I kind of I'm a little
bit concerned right now that thewhole mechanic's a little
wasted, but I still believe thatthere could be someone who like
totally optimizes this and and shows out maybe even at Capcom

(16:19):
cup, who knows. So I.
Think I think they're scared of mechanics like that because even
with like Jamie's drink or Manon's medals, it's like it's
so easy to get hits in in six that like having mechanics like
that can make it kind of awkwardto play against because if it's
so easy to get into flame stock,that's what I think they're
scared of. If it's so easy to get into
flame stocks, then you know, I might just get ran over if the

(16:43):
flame stocks are too good. Like 11 perfect Perry.
All I she has flame stock 1 perfect Perry from a non free
metal Jamie's 2 drinks. But but her flame stocks go away
so quick so it's not even that big of a deal.
You do 1 combo and you use threeflame stocks, right?
So it does enhance her projectile game.
But also remember her projectiles are so bad uncharged

(17:07):
to begin with that oh she has a real projectile.
It's like, does that really matter?
I don't know. Like I don't think the flame
stock is so powerful that we should gatekeep it.
I would have really liked a system where you're constantly
spending level 1 with my you getwhat I'm saying?
Like if she was a character thatwas like really centered around

(17:27):
constantly using level 1 to get the flame stocks and managing
that resource, I think that would be much more interesting.
Even if they like toned down herdamage right?
Like it was like you, the whole goal is get a hit into flame
stock, throw some fireballs, zone for a bit, build meter, get
one more, mix up with the fireball to then cash out with
another level 1 and and loop that.

(17:49):
That to me would be more interesting because the way it
is right now, it's like when I do the best with her, I'm not
trying to do anything unique is what I realized at first.
Like on first player I'm like, yeah, time to throw a bunch of
charge projectiles, time to mix up, time to do all this going to
level 1. And then when I started winning
more, I was like, OK, time to throw a few projectiles, anti

(18:11):
RDP, go strike, throw low for dry rush and throw a loop.
And I'm like, wait, I've done this a million times, you know,
like I'm playing the same game again.
So yeah, maybe they'll they'll iron it out in the future.
But overall, do you have any final thoughts on her potential
strength? What do you think?
Do you think she'll be showing up at cap and cup in her current

(18:31):
form? I think she's too new for
somebody to play her at Capcom Cup.
I'm like, I don't know what all the other competitors are
thinking. I think she's a good catch
somebody off guard character, but even for myself I feel like
I would rather. Still try to optimize Monon more
than switch to MY, so I'll probably be playing Monon there.

(18:55):
Well, we'll see. Maybe you'll still have a
surprise MY pick on the down lowor you'll have to be ready for
someones MY because we are actually going to be doing the
Capcom Cup 11 group drawing nextweekend.
So this episode should be releasing on Monday on the 10th
and then I believe I guess it's on the 13th on Thursday.
We'll be doing the actual captain cub group drawing, which

(19:18):
I mean we as in like literally me and Rob.
I don't know how I got picked for that job considering I've
been bashing this format for twoyears straight about how they're
they're doing the captain cub group drawings and how this
whole format has been working with the online circuit.
But yeah, we're doing the group drawing and it's interesting
because just like last Capcom Cup, Capcom Cup X, the issue

(19:40):
with doing the group drawings for Capcom Cup is because 99% of
the drawings or the the players qualified are via offline
tournaments. Let me give you the actual
numbers. It's not 9910 players come from
the offline tournament circuit where if you win the premier
qualifier, you get the spot to Cap'em Cup.
The other 38 of the 48 players come from the World Warrior

(20:00):
circuit. So either your region had two
players, if it was a super region, you would get two
players from that region out of the World Warrior circuit, or
you get one player if it's a regular region.
And so the problem that creates is how do you seed all these
players who? Theoretically and sometimes
literally have never played eachother for a whole season and

(20:21):
previous years prior to COVID. The way Captain Cup would work
is there was a circuit with points.
So you would build up your your global points on the leaderboard
and then that would just be yourseed placement, right?
So Punk, he had twice as many points as everybody else ranked
#1 he's the number one seed, right?
And then someone else who would have like 4000 CPT points, and

(20:43):
then maybe the 32nd player had like 900, right?
So they would be seed 32. And then that's how you would do
it. Punk would play seed 32, second
seed would play seed 31. And that's how the double
elimination bracket is formed. But we have no cross pollination
for the most part because most people are qualifying out of
isolated regions online. So how do you say, oh, this

(21:06):
player should be seed one and this player should be seed 32,
right or 48 right? It becomes an exercise in bias
because you don't objectively have any data to back up what
you're saying, even though you might know based on a good hunch
and some examples that some regions should be ranked higher
than others. You don't objectively know that.
Like where would blahs rank out of Chile, right?

(21:28):
15 years old, qualified. He seems God like, but we don't
have any data really for how he's going to perform cross
pollination against all these other players.
But he's from Chile, a a typically underrepresented
region in Capcom Cup. You put him super low seed.
He might actually be one of the best players there, right?
But you just don't know. So that's the problem we run
into with the new format. So to solve that, I'm doing air

(21:51):
quotes here for the audio listeners.
They do a more random group drawing where they try to
separate the regions out so thatplayers from the same region
have a less likelihood chance ofplaying each other.
And then that's how they do it. So there's no seating based on
any skill level or, or, or accolades.
It's just separating out the regions which led into the

(22:11):
situation last year where we hadGroup F, the Group of Death,
which had Lashar near the Boxer ending Walker and then Kaaba in
there, and then MENA Rd. and Angry Bird Evo, first and 2nd
place from that year. We're in the same group with all
those other killers as well. And then MENA Rd. and Kava,
we're in the same group because MENA Rd. technically qualified

(22:33):
out of North America and Kava qualified a Dominican Republic.
Meanwhile the other groups, manypeople would say we're
significantly less stacked. But when you have all these
players in one group, only two people can make it out.
The rest are eliminated. So we ended up with Angry Bird
being eliminated in groups and Lashard Menardi getting out of
that group, which you know that it doesn't necessarily reflect

(22:54):
how the whole season went up till that point, but we're doing
that again coming up on on this Thursday.
So how you feeling about this this group drawing format?
Do you have any thoughts about it?
Any concerns for your own potential placement item as
someone who's played in two of well?

(23:14):
It too no, I've only played in one of the the group seating.
I don't really I I hate it. I I've always had this whole
conspiracy theory. So this is going to sound crazy,
but I, I will say this to the two players who have won the
Capcom cups ever since this seating drawing has happened in

(23:36):
MENA and Uma, I still think as had the weakest pool out of both
the players. And I think it's a you have a
less mentally draining time playing in like brat and pools
and just making out of your group.
So you're more refreshed and energized to play in top 16
whenever you make it out. I think it's unfair and that's

(23:57):
always how I see it. Obviously with the old formats,
you know, the first seat would always have the easiest power,
but you know, the first seat kind of earned it to have the
easiest path because that says how seating works in everything.
But for the group stage, I feel like it's so is lucky is is R&G
and what are you going to do if your number gets if your name is
called, you got to play. I think it was unfair last year

(24:18):
because like group F was, you know, really hard and like
really impossible to win out of.But even the year before that it
was group F still because I think group F had like Chris
CCH, Mr. Crimson was playing God, like Angry Bird was there.
Angry Bird got double group left.
Actually, that's that's true. Yeah, he won Group F last in the

(24:39):
last Captain Cup for Street Fighter 5, but it was a similar
talking point. Angry Bird, Mr. Crimson, Christy
CHDCQ and then Travis Stiles, Uriel where like at that time
DCQ, Mr. Crimson and Angry Bird were at the top of their game
and Christy Chapter was like knocking on their door as well.
Had a really good showing at Street Fighter League.
He's like the Next up and comingNA player.
And so yeah, end game Street Fighter 5, Mr. Crimson and Angry

(25:01):
Birds especially were like running the show.
So yeah, yeah. And then it repeated next year
and Angry Bird got the short endof the stick in Captain Cup 10.
Yeah, it's, I don't like it. I, I feel like the group stage
is, is bad, but at the same time, what else can you do?
I, I think it's a terrible format as well.
But what else can you do? Is is online and you just got to

(25:21):
pick names out of a hat to play?Yeah.
Yeah, I think that's the big problem.
I complain about this format too, but I think the root of it
is that we don't have any cross pollination to create the
seating in the 1st place. So I, I think this is the best
solution to be honest, from the root of the problem, which is
how people qualify because like I mentioned before, you can't
just say, oh, if you're in the career region, you're seated

(25:44):
higher than someone from CentralAmerica East.
It's like, okay, like that's just being biased, right?
Like so the old format had bias baked into it as well.
I know many listeners, especially from like non NA
audiences would argue, hey man, we can't get visas to go to all
these tournaments or points are going to be lower and yadda
yadda. And I definitely agree with
that. The old format wasn't perfect

(26:05):
either for that sense, but I think it was a little bit closer
to the truth. Just a little bit.
You know what I mean? A little bit closer than random,
because this is essentially random.
And yeah, so we'll, we'll see how this actually ends up.
I told Rob and I mentioned it publicly.
I was like, like I said, I was surprised I got paid for this
because I'm a fan of the Pro Tour.

(26:26):
I'm a fan of what Capcom does, but I've been very vocal about
how I think the format is bad and it's killing interest in the
Capcom Pro Tour. The the online qualification.
No one cares about these online qualifications.
Even I, who I'm a super turbo nerd about this, I have to study
to do this show because I don't know every qualifier.

(26:47):
There's 48 qualifiers if I'm looking at.
Sorry for singling you out. Dive right at Chile.
I didn't expect him to qualify. I was looking at Blaz and Crime
right? I don't know his story.
I had a look at the name list ofthe names to even pull that name
out to identify him. Who?
Who does? Who does I?

(27:07):
I don't want to sound like that either.
Who does? He plays Ed apparently.
OK, right? And then there's salty kid out
of Belgium. Qualified with Kimberly for
example, I don't really know hisstory I'm just I'm just saying
it as it is these are the thingsI have to study up on Salvatore
out of Venezuela. I've played Salvatore in online
bracket but right yeah, I know Salvatore but at the same time I

(27:30):
guess it is hard because like I said me and you who are like
really invested in you know the Capcom pro tour.
We don't know all the players either, so it's very hard for
us, but at the same time, I feellike if they were, I mean we
always go back to this if there's more offline events or
even if Capcom was just better about, you know, hey, this is
the online bracket happening now.
I know like Sagem and James Chenand they do all those recaps on

(27:55):
Capcom fighters, but even then it's still hard to keep up with
and like by the it's it's pre recorded.
We already know who qualified soright?
Like it doesn't really make sense to watch the.
Appeal, yeah, just like with St.Fatal League, anything pre
recorded instantly loses the appeal.
It just you lose like 80% of theaudience immediately.
As soon as you do that, if someone might have saw a tweet

(28:15):
or whatever, I'm like, OK, I think I won, right?
But yeah, it's a big problem. So I'm studying up.
I'm doing like flash cards and stuff like here's the player's
name, here's their main. They qualified here with with
this character and they beat this guy.
You know what I mean? Like I have to memorize all
these because there's so many regions and so many players.
And it's like, oh, it's like I'mstudying for an exam here to

(28:36):
actually know everybody. Whereas like if you tell me
about if I tell you about the offline qualifiers, I remember
the tournaments, I watched them.I was excited, I was invested.
I saw the there's faces, you know what I mean?
I'm just there's such a much more human connection, grounded
connection to the offline qualifiers.
So it's a tough problem for themto solve.

(28:56):
Hopefully they improve it. But yeah, I, I mentioned before,
like if we end up with a group of F situation where it's like,
I don't know, we have instead ofAngry Bird and MENA Rd. we end
up with Punk Big Bird in the same group.
I said, I told Rob, like you hadto carry the show.
I'm not going to talk like I'm gonna, I'm gonna go dead silent.

(29:17):
It's like it was Robin Rynge last year when MENA Rd.
Angry Bird, Lashart, they all started getting pulled into the
same group and they're like, oh,no, they're freaking out on the
broadcast and they're like, they're like, hey, man, I'm
sorry. We, we just, we pulled the names
out of a hat. Like we didn't, we didn't choose
this. Don't blame us.

(29:37):
That one adds to the excitement for some of the spectators
though, because like you don't know who's going to play each
other until the drawing happens.I guess it's different from like
the old formats where like I knew I was playing Fujimora like
two months prior, so like I'm just practicing for Fujimora,
right? But now it was like, oh man,
what is it? I'll have two weeks to practice

(29:58):
wherever I got to play and like that's all the players I got to
practice for. So there's definitely like
cramming time or like you got tobe ready or just locked in
towards the end to just get all those matches in and get and be
able to play everyone right. Yeah, I guess I would say that
from a spectator's perspective, Group F is like the best
possible outcome. Like like when I, when I

(30:20):
complain about this, a lot of people go, oh, but I enjoyed
Group F the most. And I, when I hear that, I'm
like, OK, but then what about every other group?
What about the other, you know, like 10% of the 90% of the show?
I think when you start consolidating all the known
names into one pool, sure you get one group that's really

(30:40):
exciting, but literally the restof the the show suffers 'cause
you end up with groups that no one cares about.
Yeah, that happened a lot. That happened a lot last year
because I, I, I'm, I was guilty of it.
I think a lot of the time as soon as Group F finish, I was
like, oh, time to time to go do something else, time to, you
know, grab time to grab dinner, time to get some food.

(31:02):
So yeah, I'm guilty of that as well.
Yeah, yeah. So I, I actually, I understand
why like a word talked about Group F Group F is the most
notable thing of Kaplan Cup X last year.
But yeah, that's that's to the detriment of everything else.
So I don't know, so I I I would argue that overall it's better
to have a more even distributionso that you care more about

(31:22):
every other group. Or maybe I'm wrong, who knows.
Maybe just making one super death group actually gives like
the most bang for your buck out of Capcom and then like having
everyone chill for the rest of the groups works out.
But there was a lot of time where I wasn't as invested as
well. And a lot of these groups, I I
didn't TuneIn, I would just, youknow, catch up later.
It's also just a lot. It's like multiple days of this.

(31:46):
And yeah, so it's hard to keep that tension throughout a group
stage for a very long time like that.
But we'll see how it is. So I I.
Like I, I wanted to go off, I mean, talk about this a little
bit more, but even as a spectator, I, I didn't really

(32:07):
care about I, I don't want to talk too much as a spectator,
but as a competitor, I don't like the competitive integrity
of the group because like I saidbefore, the I, I, I kept this so
quiet, but I was so I was so pissed.
The Capcom Cup, what was it, 10 or 11?
The last one for Street Fighter five.
What the group is so unfair. I remember MENA having one less

(32:29):
person in this group and I was like, bro, what is this?
This isn't fair. And I, I hated that so much and
it bothered me because looking at that group, I was like, man,
if I had one less person to playthat that's taking my mind, I
get, I get a break that's like, and less, that's 15 minutes less
of, you know, playing and stressing out of who I got to
play again. So even last year with Uma, like

(32:51):
not to harp on like anyone in Uma's group or anything, but
that wasn't, that was an easy group.
I don't like the easy group sideof things.
I don't. I don't.
I hate that so much. Yeah, yeah.
I'm not sure what happened with,I forgot the details, but
someone couldn't go to cap from cup or for some reason like
something happened where there was like only 47 players in cap
from cup, nine were men on one. And so he ended up having the

(33:12):
group with one less player as well.
But yeah, I I agree. I mean, it makes it so that it's
really hard to balance these things that that's the issue at
the root of it, that they're notgoing to solve that with this
qualification format. You can't have a CD unless they
add some kind of intermediate step for seating like they do.
Everybody plays a pre captain cup tournament and then they

(33:33):
seed from that. Like you have to extend the
format even more like the group stages.
No one gets eliminated. It just makes seating, you know
what I mean? Like it just ends up like you
know when. People would maybe like throw
for seating or just, I don't know, it gets a whole lot of a
lot of issues happening. You're right, you're right, it's
a. It's a really tough problem to
solve. So I I wish I could offer an

(33:55):
actual solution because it's easy to complain, you know, at
the end of the day, I think about it, I'm like, there's real
people running this tour and I'mhappy it exists.
So overall I'm happy, right? I'm happy we have captain Cup,
I'm happy this is happening. It's just the potential is like
right there, you know, it's likeso close and we're we're just
not quite landing it. But overall I think should be

(34:17):
exciting. And for a little preview, I do
have the regions, the way they're separating it.
So the way they do it once againis they just start with a region
of players and they just they assign group by Group One name.
So like they go through North America and it would be like,
hey, item goes to Group A, punk goes to Group B, knuckle to
Group C. They do it that way and go
through the the groups to prevent putting item punk and

(34:38):
uncle do all in Group A right? That that's the one thing they
make an effort to do is to prevent having people from the
same region play each other. So at least it's in new matches,
which is that's the bare minimumlike I'm glad we're doing that.
So the groups they have are EMEA, you know, Europe, Middle
East, Africa, Asia, Oceania, that's one region.
Central South America has another region, North America

(35:00):
and then offline, which gives 5 regions they defined.
But I don't have the inside infofor how many groups they're
doing. I would assume it's 8 because
that's the most divisible numberto get two out of there and make
a top 16 and and get an even number of players per group with
six. But you brought it up before we
even started. There's 10 offline qualifiers

(35:22):
and theoretically there's probably only eight groups.
Does that mean we're going to have two groups with two offline
qualifiers? Because in my opinion, generally
speaking, the offline qualifiersare like.
The best. They're good.
Yeah, they're really good. Really good.
You're not going to have any like free matches from the
offline qualifiers. They either won the hardest

(35:45):
tournaments they had or got second in even the harder
tournaments, right? So I think just by that nature,
it ends up we're probably going to have two super stacked groups
just by that alone, right? I guess you would just avoid.
So say what it was Taquito and Lashar who qualified through

(36:05):
Singapore. So they would probably just
avoid each. I mean Japan, they would
probably just avoid each other and the group, group pairing.
So they they would make sure Taquito and Lashar don't play
each other and Chudo and nephew don't play each other.
But that's all they can do. Or they can do 16 groups, make
it even bigger, and then only one person gets out because

(36:27):
that's the visible. Yeah, I guess so.
They could just double the size.Yeah.
I don't have the details on how many groups they're going to do
for this. I'm trying to give it inside
info I'm leaking right now. But yeah, it's also funny to
think about. Like there's three Japanese
qualifiers from the offline circuit, right?
There's Shudo, Tokido, Idabashi,and then Lashar's like Honorary.
Right now he's competing in Street Italy, Japan, so there

(36:48):
could be overlap there. There's Punk and Noah from and
Nephew. So there's 3NA qualifiers at USA
qualifiers as well from the offline format.
So there's a lot of potential for having some overlap there.
On top of, of course, there's the World Warrior program,
there's a lot of USA players because of the way the regions
are divvied up and things like that.

(37:10):
So I don't know, it's going to be interesting to see.
I do suspect like there could bea world where Punk and Tokido
are in the same group, things like that.
Punk Men Rd. Yeah, but that's the nature of
the, that's the nature of the format.
And even no, actually Pumpkin Meta couldn't because they both
qualified offline and same thingwith Pumpkin to oh wait, no.

(37:30):
But there's 10. No, there's there's literally
there's 10. So there's there's two groups
are going to, if they do 8, there's going to be two groups
with two offline qualifiers in it.
You could have punk nephew in the same group, like yeah,
there's a real possibility for this.
So. The drama, the cap, the Capcom
not do the math homework. This is so crazy to me.
Like this is this is common, common math, but I don't know.

(37:53):
I don't know what's going to happen and I'm hope I'm not in
that group. Yeah, it might be brutal.
The luck of the draw. We'll have to see.
So all I can say is don't blame me.
Idom if I if I pull your name out of the hat and it ends up in
a group of death. I'm sorry, man.
I I I didn't choose this. What's what's blame, Capcom?

(38:17):
But we'll we'll see how that goes.
Yeah, I'll blame Rob. Exactly.
Rob will take all the blame. Any bad drawings will be solely
on his shoulders. OK, But also this weekend coming
up, besides the Captain Cup group group drawing, we have the
Evil awards. They're actually going to be
doing the physical event in LA. I'm going to be there because
I'm going to be there already for the group drawing.

(38:38):
So it's going to be a busy weekend for me.
So I don't know, Adam, are you going to be showing up to to
show up in your suit and get dressed up and participate,
mingle a little? No.
Well, I unfortunately will not be at the Evil awards, but I'm
actually going to Genesis, actually next week.
Really. Yeah, I'm actually going to be
there. Or there's a qualifier for Red

(39:01):
Bull Kumite and Red Bull was kind enough to send me out
there. So I'm going to be there playing
some some SF 6 and trying to qualify for Kumite.
Oh, I, I remember they announcedthat.
I forgot that that was going on.Because, you know, Genesis is
actually like a really huge Smash tournament.
I love watching Genesis for, forSmash.
It's one of my favorite Melee tournaments of all time.

(39:22):
So it's interesting that they'reputting a Red Bull qualifier in
there, trying to shoehorn it in.You know, they could do, they
could do that. I I'm going in there to play
some Street Fighter, watch some Spanish and, you know, drink
some Red Bull. OK, there you go.
Get good little Red Bull show right there.
Yeah, I'll be at the the evil awards instead, but I'm

(39:44):
stressing out because the dress code is supposed to be like,
what was the term casual cool meets St. wear formal?
I don't know. I don't have any formal clothes.
I hope it has destroyed my ability to dress for society.
So all I own are like jeans and T-shirts and I was like what the
hell am I supposed to wear at anevil awards?

(40:05):
But I don't know how you feel about it overall.
I have some reservations about it, like do you like the Oscars
or the Grammys? Because I am kind of hate.
Those things, I'm not, I'm not afan either.
I I don't I like praising like, you know, good stuff in like
communities, like I like, you know, the NBA has award shows,

(40:26):
you know, the video game award shows are really nice.
I'm glad, like at the same time fighting games are getting their
award show. But even at the same time I I
feel like it is a very clicky, very very glamored or just
puffed up puffered up kind of just too.
I don't want to say fake but too.

(40:48):
It's a little fake too hot haughty.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I agree. Yeah, I I think it's it's like
self congratulatory a little bitlike you're patting yourself on
the back. I I definitely agree with the
vibe that you're perceiving fromthis.
That's why in general, I don't like award show for that.
Like I can barely TuneIn like itjust it does feel like a bunch

(41:08):
of people sitting in room clapping for themselves over and
over. So it has a very strange vibe to
it. So I don't know, I got invited,
I'm going to go, but I'm stressing out about it 'cause I
don't know what to wear. Like, what are you used to wear?
So the official, the dress code is casual cool meets dress to
impress. What does that mean?
But extra trash, you got to comein the trash trash.

(41:30):
I'm not going to pull a fashion statement, man, Put on the whole
full trash bag outfit and go down a red carpet.
No, I just want to. I just want to not be perceived.
That's my main goal. I just want to dress so that no
one thinks anything when they see me.
That's usually my goal, right? I just don't want to stand out
whatsoever and have no perception.
So that's that's mostly what I'mthinking about.
I know I should be studying for the Captain Cup group drawings,

(41:51):
but I'm like, man, what the hellam I going to wear at an Evil
Awards, an award show for fighting games?
What is this going to be like? So I don't know.
I do have a suspicion that it might be super cringy.
I'm just a little worried. I don't know how it's going to
come off. I don't know.
You OK? So usually at award shows they
also have like trailers, you know, at the Video Game Awards

(42:14):
they always have trailers. Maybe we'll get some new
fighting game stuff at the EVO Awards, Maybe even if it's just
like EVO announcements or something.
That'll be kind of cool to see. All right, they gotta fill that
air. Well they already did the Evo
announcement show where they kind of left no stern stone
unturned. I feel like they went into
detail for all the upcoming events for the years.

(42:36):
I wouldn't be surprised if they had another announcement.
Fighting game trailers say like,you know, new City of the Wolves
character right now. Sorry, I don't know.
They finally show Cristiano Ronaldo.
I forgot, I forgot. Ronaldo's still coming.
Out. Yeah, if they show Ronaldo and
City of the Wolves playing actual playable character, then

(42:57):
it'll be all worth it. They better have a demo there
and everything. That's all I'm waiting for is
what the hell is Ronaldo doing with City of the Wolves?
They made that trailer like Ronaldo is coming to do.
What is he in the game? Is he just going to play the
game? On Streamwood time, like what's
happening? So we'll see, but I don't I
don't know if evil awards is there yet.
You think it'll be that big? I you know, so many people like

(43:20):
non fighting game plays My my non FGC friends, my my high
school friends, They don't know anything about fighting it.
They know evo though, So at the same time, evo still has that
name. So they'll they'll might draw in
the audience. I don't think any of them know
that the EVO Awards are happening, but even then,
they'll see EVO slapped on or something that oh, hey, hey,
Derek, what's this? And then like, oh, they gotta

(43:42):
ask me about it. Yeah, I guess we'll see.
EVO is a very big event, but that's because it's the actual
tournament of EVO. I don't even think EVO Japan
pulls that same viewership. And that's like the next thing
compared to EVO Vegas, no. No my friends, my non fighting
game friends know about EVO Japan.
They were asking me about it so many times they known anything

(44:05):
EVO related is like in their fighting game thing.
They always ask me about EVO. Like when's EVO happening?
When's you know, when did they start doing EVO Japan, all this
stuff. And like, since I'm I'm their
their local video game guy, they'll just ask me everything
that's to do with mostly video game stuff.
Maybe I'm underestimating the reach of the extended Evo brand.

(44:27):
In my perspective, it feels likeEvo Vegas is the one that it's
really broken through to like the at least in the NA audience
the the more general gaming audiences attention.
So I with that, I have no idea how an award show for a niche
gaming community is going to perform when there's no drama of

(44:48):
the stakes of actual video game tournament competition, right?
Like EVO is dramatic because it's like climbing the mountain
to reach the summit, right? Like, who's going to be there at
the end of the weekend? Thousands of bodies laying by
the wayside, only one is left standing, right?
There's a natural drama to it that is universally appealing
beyond anyone who knows anythingabout the genre itself, right?

(45:10):
The awards, though, like you know Justin Wong memes like, I
don't know like that's not that appealing.
We'll. See, you're think you're
thinking of it too competitive of it too competitively.
If you think about it like, oh man, Justin Wong nominated for
his 9th award going on 10 right now.
There's so many bodies laying inthe wig.

(45:32):
Is Justin going to get his 10th evil award?
And then it's like, and then they open the the the envelope
and then it was like, this awardgoes to Daigo and then Justin
Rawl by Daigo again. I.
Don't think Daigo got nominated for anything.
Yeah, I know. OK, I'm not.
I know, Daigo. Justin Wong, the people sweeping
the awards are high out. You know the the 3rd strike

(45:55):
player who was popping off left right and center and doing
splits and and and acrobatics onstage.
He was nominated for like every award and then Justin and then
sage and Mafter. So I don't know if if they're
going to have Hayao out there, he better be there because he's
going to win. He's going to win at least five
awards. And if he's there, I think the
show is saved as long as we havehim there in his white pants

(46:16):
doing backflips and splits and running up and down the the the
stage and and high fiving everybody up to collect his
awards. If he shows up, evil awards is
saved. If not, we're we're going to
have to figure out, I don't know, evil awards going to
figure out some way to carry this production.
But we'll see. I have no idea what to expect.
I'll be there in person. I'm sure it's going to be a good

(46:37):
time just to mingle and hang out.
It's like an excuse for me to see a bunch of the FTC people
again. So I'll enjoy it from that
perspective, but it'll be interesting to see what this
evolves into. Hopefully it won't be cringy.
I don't know. I've I try to watch like the
streamer awards. I couldn't do it.
You know what I mean? I.
I don't like the streamer awardseither.
They're, they're too, like I said, too cringy, I feel like.

(46:59):
Yeah, they're trying to be funnyall the time.
I I think there's a weird thing where when you try to apply
prestige to in a group or an area that doesn't really believe
that it deserves it and it comesoff with a hint of irony.
It just doesn't work for me. I don't know.
So the Grammys I can almost accept because like I think

(47:20):
actually the people there care about it.
But other award show, once you start going down the tearless,
an award show, no one actually cares anymore and it feels it
just doesn't come across right. The prestige isn't there.
Like I, I don't think you can fake it.
So the streamer awards, I feel like it's kind of faking it,
right? And then it's all presented by
streamers and they're all tryingto make a bunch of quips and

(47:42):
jokes and it just doesn't work for me.
Like I don't it's not working for me.
So I'm a little concerned about the evil awards in that sense.
But then I ask you, what's the cut off?
Because, you know, athletes, they take their awards, you
know, to heart. So what's the cut off?
So you're saying it's like the Grammly Grammys is like the
highest tier, the actors and allthe the producers and all that,

(48:03):
they love that stuff. Then the athletes still seem
like they care. Some of them don't.
Some of them are is kind of falling off.
And then like the streamers is where it starts getting cringed.
The FTC is probably lower than that.
But but where's the cut off, Brian?
And we need to know. It's not about the like the
audience size or, or how large the community is to me, it's

(48:28):
more about how meaningful it is to the person.
So I feel like if it's objectiveawards like things for athletic
competition, I think that's not cringy at all because that's
objective, right? So when you start introducing
more and more subjectivity to it, and you also start lowering
the stakes like best button, it's like a little goofy warm up

(48:52):
thing, right, That has that has no meaning.
It's it's it's meant to be an injoke.
And then you start doing things like that's a rag on Rob best
dressed. I'm like, OK, well, this is just
what what is the point of this? A little bit, you know, I mean,
Congrats, everyone nominated. I wish you all the best.
You know, they're all great people and all that, but best
meme, you know, you start, there's a lot of awards here

(49:14):
that are not really intended to be anything besides kind of
fluff, right? And then you mix into that match
of the year, best commentator, you know, there's a few like
more serious ones. I feel like mixed in between.
So I, I, I don't know, I don't know how I feel about it
overall. I hopefully it's a good time and
people enjoy watching and participating, but it's, it's

(49:36):
still a weird concept to me overall.
This is something that to me could be resolved.
Like with some tweets, we could have all voted online and they
could have tweeted out the picture of who won, right?
But doing it in person in a venue, whoa.
We're making this a big deal, right?
There's going to be hosts, people are going to be
presenting awards and saying things and people are going to

(49:57):
go up on stage and accept the awards and say things.
So I don't know. Oh, that's a lot.
To me, it sounds like you're you're harping on Rob because
Rob has a good fashion sense andhe's going to.
Win best. Yeah, I'm excited that I have
nothing to wear before show. And then Rob is already
nominated for best dressed. You got you called me out.
Item you got you got it. Well, that'll be this coming

(50:20):
weekend. We'll see how it all shakes up.
I'll be there. Hopefully I don't fall on my
face on camera, hit the red carpet and and trip and fall on
my untied shoes. But beyond that, we're getting
into our final segment of the show today.
We have another question from the
[e-mail]/brianunder score FI Guess we're
making this kind of like a week weekly segment here.

(50:41):
Some dumpster diving questions from you guys in the Patreon and
this one we have from Kiefer Ortiz.
What's your favorite memory froma tournament that wasn't
streamed? So like a cool moment at
something like a combo breaker that didn't involve actually
being on stage in front of an audience.
So RTS here is asking for the deep cuts because actually,

(51:03):
especially during the offline era, the vast majority of
moments happen off stream. And that's a big part of going
to the events. Actually, this, this touches on
a really important cultural cornerstone I think of the FTC
for, for people who might not know, who don't go to many
events, 99% of the happenings, the matches, the important stuff
happens off stream just by the nature of how it is.
There's too many people, too many matches.

(51:24):
And a lot of my favorite matchesof all time that I've competed
in happened off stream as well. So item, I'll throw the floor to
you. Do you have a favorite moment or
two that happened off stream at an event?
So I, I have one, There was a, there was when I first started
getting into the FGC and I started first going to NLVC.

(51:45):
Still remember there was this time I went, we were going, I
was going to the local on Saturday because you know, I
classes on the weekday and I couldn't go on Wednesday, but I
would go to the weekly on Saturday.
And this is around when Street Fighter Five first came out and
there was like a weekly, there was like 10, maybe 12 people
there. And I remember Sanford Kelly
being there and I won the bracket.

(52:06):
And immediately after there was no stream, no anything.
I think he challenged me to a money match immediately.
And soon as I put the money down, you know, slap the money
on the table, Let's go. Any amount.
Yeah. And all that.
And I still remember I was stilllike, super new to the HTC.
I was like, yo, what do I do? Like, do I accept the money
match? I'm like 18 or 19.

(52:29):
And I'm just like, you know, I'mon the bracket.
Let me just try to humor, not humor him, but like kind of, you
know, save face and not be embarrassed and be like, you
know, I'm scared or anything. So I play and like I beat
Sanford and then I still remember Henry was just cracking
up on Sanford the entire time and it was so funny.

(52:49):
But like I said, it was just allstreamed and it's like it's all
fun and games. It's just never is now.
Yeah, there's so many money matches.
I mean, that's a classic Sanford.
But my shout out to Sanford. Hope he's doing well.
There's so many salty money matches that have happened off
tournament streams, like immediately after the bracket.
I've been challenged to a few. I remember a few of those that
happened to me. I've, I've beaten people who

(53:11):
challenged me to, to money matches after and then like I
kept winning a few more matches into the bracket and then they
were like, I, I've had this happen at least twice.
They're like, oh, OK, you're actually good, right?
It's like I beat them early in pools and they're just tight
because they think I suck because you know, their
competitive ego, whatever. And then I win a few more.
They're like, wait a minute, OK,that wasn't a fluke.

(53:32):
Like you actually kept going. You didn't immediately lose
after. Oh, never mind.
We're we're cool. They kind of like withdraw the
money match application. That's happened to me at least
twice. I, I think that that happens
more when you're, when you're like up and coming and less
known in the scene. So that was like 2016 era like
before I started doing a lot more offline tournaments and
people didn't know, had no idea who I was.

(53:56):
But I guess for me, I, I the onememory I think of is I think of
final round 2019. A lot of people know that moment
who who watched my Street Fighter five career because I
got top eight at that premiere and I had that pop off after
beating of Lauren for some particular people who who didn't

(54:18):
believe in me. Nothing to do with Valoren if
people don't know the lore, but what people don't know about
that that Papa why I was poppingoff so hard as well was because
that was the first match I played on stream.
But that pool had like me, Valoren, I think Puguera or but
now I think actually, but I think the Japanese 3rd strike
Ryu player who played ball Ragon, Street Fighter five, I

(54:40):
think I'm saying his name correctly.
And Daigo. And for me to get out of that
pool, I had to beat Daigo off stream before even getting into
that that position. And I remember I was dropped by
my sponsor leading up to that tournament for not getting
enough CPT points. So when I got through that pool,
I beat Daigo off stream, then I beat Valoren.

(55:01):
I don't know, I kind of had some, I felt like, hey, look at
me in the eye and tell me I'm not going to get some points.
You know what I'm saying? Like I had a little bit of a
chip on my shoulder, but that context was missed.
So I think like the fact that I beat Daigo unceremoniously off
stream was always like a big memory of mine.
And I kind of want to treat it like the Juno with his Tiger

(55:22):
uppercut shorts. There's a tweet of Daigo where
after he was eliminated, he he said lost to Brian F and the the
futo. You get matched against tough
players really quick in this tournament.
So like, he tweeted at me and said he lost all the Diego.
He acknowledged me. So I kind of want to like
screenshot that tweet and print it out.
Like, hey, man, did you know I beat Diego one time seven years

(55:46):
ago? I need a giant tweet of it.
Hey, 10 years ago, you know, theold man here actually beat Diego
in a tournament one time. So that that's always kind of a
fond memory of of mine. And of course, I remember the
match ended with he, he woke up OD flash kick or EX flash kick.
You know, I was doing the combo.Then I just stopped and stared
at him. And of course, the Daigo flash

(56:07):
kick came out and I'm like Daigoyelled son of a gun.
I knew you still had the the umeflash kick in you.
So, so that's definitely one of the moments that always sticks
out to me. I'll I'll take that one to the
grave. I'm surprised you didn't bring
up the the infamous Capcom Cup 2019 LCQ run when it was me.

(56:28):
Strider Danny the the white people chant.
You don't remember that one? That I was a victim in that
situation. I'm not part of that.
Oh. My God, I I I'm surprised you
didn't bring up that one. That was such a good memory.
I I forgot. You're part of Danny.
Yeah, I mean, listen, that's notlisten, us, us white guys, we

(56:48):
maybe can't jump, but we can play some Street Fighter, OK?
I'm I was maybe my prime. I was trying to beat those
allegations and those would comeup here and there.
But it was funny, Strider, I wasplaying Inaba from Japan and he
was playing Yurian. And then Strider, it was, I was
kind of falling behind in the match and I was playing very
safe and solid reserve. And Strider was like, yo, just

(57:11):
overhead him. And I was like, I said, OK, I
just, I just did it. I was like, he doesn't speak
English that well. I don't think he even understood
what was happening. I did like a random full screen
overhead. And then I won and I just
started going to Super Ham. And then you guys started like,
yeah, man, just just do it. And the chant came out.
Not my favorite chant. I that's I was a victim of all

(57:31):
those those are surrounding me. Not not something by my own
design. But yeah, there's always these
like deep stories that happen off stream.
That whole tournament was off stream.
Yeah, actually LCQ. Yeah, good time.
You didn't have to participate in that one.
You were smooth sailing to the end.
I was already qualified. Yeah, one one of the IT was

(57:52):
another one. This one shouldn't have been all
stream. And you know, I still, I still
hold this one because I'm still salty about it.
I think it was this CPT Regionalfinal 2021, I think the one
where me and Punk played the first to five.
And yeah, and you know, the first match had happened off

(58:18):
stream that I won. And, you know, the set ended 54
when the score was still 55. And, you know, nobody, no one
even knows that happened. I I still have to hold that one?
I mean, the lower is that so if people don't know and and 2021,
that was the the second year Capcom Cup got cancelled.

(58:38):
And for the consolation prize, they did the qualifiers for the
region, the top 2. They would play each other in a
show set essentially first to five and there was prize money
on the line. And it was more like a season
finale, like a celebration at the end of the season to have
some matches. But it wasn't Capcom Cup, which
was very disappointing for me because I qualified that year
and I was giving it my all. But so the NA players actually

(59:01):
got flown out to the studio. It's a film, their first of
fives offline to have like actual cameras and and better
angles rather than online sets. And they've pre recorded those
to air in the next couple days. And so I think you're set the
first game. There were some disputes about
some settings for the the setup or what happened.

(59:22):
I think I somebody had told us, I think somebody told us start
and then we started and then it was like, no, the first match
wasn't recorded because somebodycame running in after the first
game when we started the second game and I was like, no, we got
to restart and I was like, you know, I won the first game.
What are you, what are you talking about?
Oh, no, I, I still, that one still bothers me.
I won that set. It was fine for me before he got

(59:44):
to the fifth game. Wow, yeah, that's rough.
So I don't know that counts as afavorite moment, but.
That was a bad moment. That was a terrible moment.
That was a terrible, awesome moment.
Man, production, production and fighting games, there's
definitely a lot of issues like that.
That happens more often than than people would know on the
surface. How many times there's technical

(01:00:05):
issues causing restarts where itimpacts the potential
competitive integrity of what went down?
And that was at the peak of likeyour guys rivalry because I
don't think it's about the moneyfor that one.
I think that was just like about.
Yeah, I won that set. Yeah, that's why I won that set.
Well, history will remember it differently.
I Dom at the end of the 2021 season.

(01:00:27):
Looks like Punk came out on top.No, no, that's not what
happened. What are?
You talking about the histories written by the victors here?
I know, I'm sorry. The the footage shows otherwise.
Like what it What is the truth really besides what the people
perceive so? There's probably somebody
watching that video right now, like, oh, funk, what again?
And then that's all what happened.

(01:00:47):
Yeah, I know. But I I feel like a lot of the
best moments at our offline events don't even happen.
Aren't even like the stream matches are just like the
matches in general. It's usually after the event.
Usually. Yeah, anyway, I mean, I I'm
thinking about not to pick on you, but it just comes to mind
like Ryan Hart versus you at EVO2022, right?
Like they got recorded. So we did have the footage.

(01:01:10):
But like those kind of moments tend to happen off stream,
especially at EVO. You hear the the rumors and the
buzz of like, oh so and so beat so and so.
I think I saw Mr. Crimson lose to who's a Bison player I know.
It was. Was it toy?
No, it wasn't toy. It was who I know who you're
talking about too, and I forgot was this squaw.

(01:01:33):
I don't think it was Squaw either.
Yeah. But like there's there's there's
so many matches like this where huge upsets happen or like
really surprising results happen.
Especially at EVO, you have to dig through the brackets to
really find all of these like hidden stories that happen.
So in general, I would say if you haven't been to a big major
just for those kind of moments, it's worth it.
There's so many stories and so much history that gets lost by

(01:01:55):
the wayside. And I think that also
contributes to like the misunderstanding of players
abilities and levels. And that's a big part of the
reason why I'm motivated to do like the tournament coverage and
even this podcast, right, is to share more of those stories
because so many players get disrespected left, right and
center and they go, oh, this guysucks.

(01:02:15):
Where's XY and Z and top 8? Meanwhile, the player you're
disparaging eliminated your favorite player.
You're asking for a top eight off stream before you even saw
the broadcast, right? So these kind of things happen
all the time all over the place.So if you get a chance, if you
can go to like an evil or combo breaker and you can just like
hover around the setups in a top64, like you get so many

(01:02:38):
interesting moments that happen off stream that are really only
for the eyes of the players there.
I wish we could get better at preserving that history, but I
think it only lives now through our stories and words, such as
here on Trash Talk. But that said idom, you got any
final closing thoughts for the people?
Words of wisdom from idom. I think this is a good way to
always end our show. I.

(01:03:00):
Hope in the next update for Street Fighter Six.
They I, they get I don't want tosay get rid of Perry, but I need
to we need left right mixers back.
Please bring back our left rightmixers.
I hate Perry because it takes away sick left, right mix up.
I've, I had this talk with somebody at an OBC this week and

(01:03:24):
I, I compared a left right mix up in fighting games to like an
NBA crossover. When somebody gets their ankles
broken, it's the same thing. And everyone gets hyped when
somebody falls to the ground andyou know, like, oh, and then
it's like a sick crossover to a jumper.
We don't have that because no one's getting their ankles
broken because everyone's just standing up upright.

(01:03:45):
Well, you can do left, right throw that's.
That's not the same. That's like doing, that's like,
that's like Jordan pushing off or something, man.
That's not the same. All right, get your throws and
everybody, thanks for listening.We'll catch you in the next
episode of Trash Shock. Peace.
Thank you guys so much for tuning into this episode of
Extra Trashy. If you don't know, this podcast
features 2 main formats. Under the Trash Talk banner.

(01:04:08):
We have the in depth discussionsand interviews with top players
and figureheads in the fighting game community in an effort to
document and preserve the history of the people that make
this scene great. With Extra Trashy, I chop it up
with my Co host Idom and discussmore recent events and topical
discussions in the fighting gamescene and provide a more
consistent and regular upload cadence for casual discussions.
These trash talk episodes take alot of time to produce, so we

(01:04:30):
have to have a lot of time in between these episodes, but it
becomes possible thanks to your [e-mail]/brian under
score F. If you're watching the video
feed on this on YouTube or Spotify, you might be seeing the
name scroll by my head on the screen.
But I also wanted to thank our landfill tier supporters like
Ace Crimson, Chuckle, Chuck Asterisk, Kelly Lyles, Alex Sam

(01:04:50):
Gibson, and Smoking Sea Bass forcontributing to the Patreon
page. Thank you guys so much for
supporting and we'll catch you in the next trash talk.