The EVO Special | Extra Trashy - Trash Talk

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Welcome back everybody to extra trashy.
It has been months. I am I would say I'm sorry, but
am I Maybe maybe I'll be more consistent.
You know, I've been leaving my my host idom here all alone with
nowhere to to vent his thoughts besides his rage baiting YouTube
channel. So I got to apologize to idom.
You doing OK idom? Yeah, I'm doing, I'm doing good.
Just how to kind of let my emotions and let my thoughts

(00:23):
out. And now we have the podcast to
do that. Perfect, perfect.
Well, that's all the people I need to introduce.
We might as well get into the topics today.
Show some respect. What's your last minute ass
invitation by the way, Adam? I absolutely.
I actually, I watched your last YouTube video.
I think it's about evil entranceor something like that.
And it'll expire. It's still weird to me that you
consistently upload on YouTube. But as much as I'm going to show

(00:45):
you some love, I'm going to cut your ass down.
Adam. Let me show you something,
brother. OK, You see that?
How easy do you see that? Do you see that?
Do you remember? That.
Hold up, damn, hold up. You know the team out on.
Flexing the ring there. The Street Fighter League

(01:06):
championship ring. Remember, Adam, I whooped your
ass head to head at Street Fighter League and you was like,
why did he do that? So I'm going to go ahead and,
and, and let the truth out, right.
Do you remember what the situation was that you were
surprised? First of all, I don't remember
this exact situation, but that was eight years.

(01:29):
Ago. You got to let Rob Love in the
past. OK, easy.
You got to live there. If I pick this up right now, I
don't know what happened. What's our all time record?
What do you think our all time win percentage record is between
us in training? I got to be like 90% me it is.

(01:50):
That's pretty good my ass all the time.
You're training brag a lot in tournaments.
So yeah, I got this one small thing that I can got damn shit
on you without on. That's it.
You got a ring, I'd do it. I saw shine.
I saw a knuckle do all flex in their ring.
I still don't got a ring. Yeah, I'm like, I'm Charles
Barkley now. I don't got shit.
I just on a talk show and talking shit now.

(02:12):
Pretty much, yeah. You see his YouTube channel?
That's where it all went. Damn, thanks for having me on,
O'Brien. No problem.
Thanks for hopping on because it's a special show because of
course Evo is right around the corner where maybe some of us
can redeem ourselves. I don't know.
I don't you got a chance of of greatness still.
I think the rest of us are kind of washed and going for the the

(02:33):
hell of it got other things going on.
But of course, Evo is still, to this day, Evo Vegas is still the
primary event, the number one event.
What do you what do you mean by that?
It's a we'll got to get into it.It's getting debatable these
days, right? I feel like a big topic of
conversation is what is the truebiggest tournament?
What is the the number one eventof the year?

(02:54):
You know, the numbers might be might be showing some changes
with the times here. But before we get into EVO
entirely, it's been a while. There's a few things we got to
touch upon, especially for the Street Fighter fans.
We'll get through it briefly before getting to the mean
potatoes of EVO. It's time for a word from
today's sponsor, Tesseract. Tesseract produces the high
uppercube Pro, an ultra premium,low profile leverless controller

(03:17):
with its compact form factor. The Hypercube Pro is ultra
portable, but don't let that fool you.
This thing is built like a tank.It has an ultra premium feel to
it with its sleek all metal build and it just feels premium.
But the gorgeous all white and gold color scheme, it's probably
one of the most beautiful controllers I've ever owned.
Alongside the ultra premium feeland the really portable form
factor, I think it's just a really forward thinking

(03:38):
controller for Street Fighter six players in general.
It includes the extra thumb button here down in the bottom
right and also even an extra pinky button here on the left.
I personally started using the thumb button myself to map to
Perry and I instantly saw my Perry success rate increase.
And for those of you attending EVO in person, Test Track will
be doing a free giveaway of a Hypercube Pro.
Just find their booth at EVO andsign up for the giveaway.

(03:59):
The only downside is unfortunately I will be signing
it, so my bad. For those of you interested, a
link to the Test Track website and Hypercube Pro will be in the
description and in the pin comment as well.
Thanks again to Test Track for sponsoring this video and back
to the action. First of all, since we last
talked, the king has returned. All right, so got back in Street

(04:21):
Fighter six and I have a lot of thoughts about his announcement
and his game play troll, which Ithought was sick.
But there were some some mixed reactions and I saw some
interesting community reactions as well.
But I don't know what you guys thought about.
So got coming back if you're hype or not looking to get zoned
out if he even is still a zoningcharacter.
What do you guys think? Bro, his his his animations are

(04:42):
fire as hell. I love the the the way they
redesigned and all that and his moves just look extra violent to
me. You know, I think that's
something they've done a lot better with and Street Fighter
6IN general. I don't know if I could say that
they've even missed on a have they missed on the character
design of your opinion so far out on?
I don't think they've missed on anyone.
I love Gaul's look. I like DJ got the probably the

(05:05):
best cure to redesign Bison. I don't think they've missed on
any redesigns. Yeah, I think a lot of the newer
characters have been pretty coolcompared to their old
counterparts. Ed to me.
Biggest upgrade. Ed was kind of a bit lame in
Five, and now Ed's actually kindof sick.
I don't think they've missed on any of the older, actually, no,
there's one character. Well I guess the horse is cool,

(05:27):
but I don't like newer bison actually.
Agreed, that was what I was going to push back on.
I I I like the the visual designof Bison, but his gameplay.
Oh yeah. It's.
Too. Yeah, generic Street Fighter
mind and all that shit in comparison to yeah, my favorite
Bison game. I like the mind.

(05:47):
The mind is fine to me. It's just everything else around
it like he's he's he's too Street Fighter six to five.
He's too low for a drive rush, rush down and then scissor
kicks, not being in charge. Like I just don't think he has
he has a bit of his own identitynow with the mind mechanic, but
it's not it didn't hit quite as well as I think the other

(06:08):
redesigns. Like like I don't mention Ed.
I hated Ed in Street Fighter five.
I thought he was a terrible waste, waste of a slot
character. I really like him.
He's one of my favorite characters in six right now.
So cigar to me is kind of speaking my language with that.
As soon as he showed up on the screen, I mean he had a wall
splat DP like he he did an uppercut and the motherfucker
bounced off the wall like that was too sick.

(06:30):
And then his level 2 like, you know, he says I will crush you.
And he said that always before and that was one of his alliance
in Street Fighter five as well with his V trigger, I think.
But now I believe him. Like when he says I will crush
you, he like grabs your head. You, you look tiny as fuck next
to him. He's about 8 foot three.
He grabs your head and then justbeats the shit out of you in
four different ways. And I believe him.
I think he will crush you. Like when he says that I I take

(06:51):
what he says at face value there.
And so I think he looks brutal. I think he looks so sick.
I think the thing with Sagat is he looks like way cooler.
I think he did like a a Falcon knee, like some kind of knee
attack after the defeat that actually looked very sick as
well. I'm curious, one thing that I'm
curious is how the fireballs aregoing to work.
I know his fireballs got changeda lot so I I'm iffy if the whole

(07:12):
zoning identity of Sagat or is he just going to be more rushed
down? Like I guess Ken is way more
rushed down than he was in previous Street Fighter game
just cause how Street Fighter six work.
I'm curious how Sagat's going toactually play.
But visually he looks amazing. He's like towering over you now,
like you said, and he actually feels like a a big character.
I just I hope he's actually ableto zone bro.

(07:34):
In the end of the day, I want tosee the fireball trap in the
corner DP. We don't need to overcomplicate
this thing. I think that right now even Gile
of course is a zoner, but in it,you know, man, people be rushing
shit down with Gile something serious like I, you know, I, I
want to see the typical fireballgame, but I think it's a lot
harder to pull that off in Street Fighter 6:00.

(07:55):
So we just had to see how it go.You know what's interesting
about that? That was a big discussion point
and I did a video talking about how some people were theorizing
that to to give context to the audience.
What had actually changed is instead of high tiger shot, low
tiger shot being separate moves entirely, one with punches, one
with the kicks, and you have light, medium and heavy with
both 6 different variations plusthen that the EX or OD version.

(08:15):
Now it's all just quarter circlepunch.
The light version gives you the low Tiger shot, the slow one,
and then the medium and heavy are going to be high tiger shot.
And then you have an EX version.I I'm guessing you do it with
light and medium, you get a low and then with medium and heavy
you get a high. And both of those hit crouchers
because high tiger shots whip oncrouchers.
And the point being high tiger shots can be really slow or
really fast, but they whip on crouchers and then the low ones

(08:37):
hit crouchers but have less speed variability.
So like you have to mix up your fireball zoning patterns to do
different traps, catch people, jump in, etcetera, deal with
other fireball clashes, right. So he got pretty complex in the
zoning patterns and people were theorizing that because of
modern you have to limit the number of special moves strength
variations you have, especially if the motion is on the same
input. Because you don't have a kick or

(08:58):
punch button, you have a light, medium, and heavy.
Therefore a quarter circle forward attack is 1 special
move. Then you have the special button
which can do another strength, but you're always going to lose
at least two versions of a a strength of a move.
Unless they do some weird exception with the special input
which they have for like JP. They don't.
They don't have a few weird things to cram special moves in
but it usually you lose some flexibility.

(09:20):
So the theory is like oh what? Rather than like make a modern
lose a bunch of fireball variations compared to classic,
give them Tiger Nexus AKA the the tiger generi and make it
more of a brawler and simplify his zoning a little bit to make
it equal across modern classic. That's a speculation, but I did
that video talking about how people mention that and a lot of
the comments I was surprised. Huge portion of the comments

(09:42):
said I'm so happy that his fireball game is reduced.
I don't like fireballs from Segal.
I much prefer him to be a mixed.He's supposed to be Muay Thai.
He should be he he should be kicking, he should be attacking.
He should not be throwing fireballs from full screen.
That was a huge majority of the comments I got on that video.
I was so surprised. You'll be surprised how many

(10:05):
people don't like zoners. I'm telling you it's a it's a
real thing. And that's what exactly why I
think guile doesn't really zone in SF6.
It's zoning is anti anti fun. I feel like for a lot of like
newer players. Oh, look, you're, you're no,
you're right. But I will say, and I'm hesitant
because I don't want to sign theold man on the porch.

(10:27):
But The thing is, we all had to go through that annoying ass
part of learning how to deal with owners.
Like that's just how Street Fighter or fighting games work.
In the end of the day, it feels like even if you lose, if
somebody was right in your face and beat you up, you felt like
you had a chance, quote UN quote.
Whereas when somebody's on the other side of the screen and you

(10:48):
just can't get in. Now it feels like, oh, what am I
supposed to do that when you're new to the game, when you're new
to the game and that's a part ofgetting stronger.
So to me, this reeks of the people that are speaking like
that, reeks of those who want the skill gap lower.
And it's not just a stylistic thing.
It's also skill gap because the stronger you get, the better you

(11:11):
get at Traverse in those type ofsituations.
You know I can get more lucky ifwe just drive rushing at each
other and not just drive rush reverse 6 fans and lift reverse
6 respectfully. But if the more I'm any in your
face and I'm plus and it's aggressive, the better chance I
got of getting a win off on somebody who I'm not better
than. That's my opinion.
Yeah, I mean, the comments are obviously from more casual fans,

(11:32):
right? They they use the word spam a
lot. Like that was like, you know, as
soon as someone uses the word spam and fighting, like you
instantly know they're more of acasual player, which is fine.
That's that's 99% of the people who buy the product, right?
Like that's but that that was the perspective I got.
I got a lot of feedback from that perspective because I do
think the zoning is an acquired taste.
And it's The funny thing is to me like the two extremes of the

(11:54):
zoner versus grappler, to me thezoner is anti fun to the casual
and then the grappler is anti fun to the competitive.
That's true. Wow, that's.
True, right? Casuals love grapplers 'cause
they coin flip and then competitive players hate it
'cause they're they're coin flipping.
And then usually more experienced players are like
more OK with zoning. I mean, there's still variance

(12:14):
in. Tapes like CAS owner for sure.
That's more than when somebody command grab this 50 times it.
Depends. It depends, but.
I'm the grappler player here andI definitely don't think
grapplers are that bad. You guys are just crazy.
Yeah, but we don't care anything.
You're a scrubby. Yeah, that's actually.

(12:34):
I still get comments about, you know, like, oh, I don't have
that scrubby ass Laura, you knowthat.
So it's still both ways, too. There's still plenty of casuals
who are scarred from Laura from Street Fighter 5.
But you know what's scary is it explain everybody.
In the end of the day, I will say that the casuals are more
important than us, in my opinion, because there's more of

(12:55):
them. However, of course, even though
that's true, there's a risk if you go too far down that casual
rabbit hole when you lower the skill gap too much, which we're
not there yet, the casuals will also stop having fun even though
they don't realize it. The if the if you make the
results too volatile if it it gets to you don't have as much

(13:17):
to strive for. You know the the game pissing
you off is what also keep you playing the game.
If it's the right type of pissing you off, you get what I
mean? If it just feels like nobody
wants to be play professional rock paper scissors, it's not as
interest entertaining the more. There's a sweet spot for having

(13:38):
a fair challenge versus just complete volatility, right?
There's always that's that's that's like the ultimate a sweet
spot to find in game design. And I I do think in Street
Fighter six, they've they've inched a little bit closer to
introducing a few more randomness variables.
And I think they've hit AI thinkthey've hit a great sweet spot.
And that's why the game is so popular and so addicting to
people because of the mechanics like DI, like for lower level

(14:00):
players, DI does fall off for high level players, except for
Idom because he beats everybody on the planet with with DI like
he's the you're the DI king. First of all, it's crazy how
many top level got MO game Mamochi.
Just got top two and three oblique respawn and I saw I
don't beat both of them back-to-back with random DIII.
Call them a breaker. They're not random.

(14:21):
They're kind of they're calculated.
It's just like you're predictinga button.
It's just I'm I'm going to take the risk.
Yeah, so shut the hell up. We're.
Facetious here. Being.
Facetious here to make a point. OK, obviously you know what
you're doing a little bit and also like your spacing is really
good. Like you, you often do it when
the wall is right off screen, solike it's barely in range to
wall splat so it's lower on their mental stack.

(14:42):
You just got into that that range like you're really going
to as soon as that range shows up, then DI before they even
have a chance to think about it.Like it's really, I've noticed
that with your gameplay, it's super sneaky how you find that
spot and then you rob them. But I think for lower level
players, it's a great like kind of mechanic to just kind of coin
flip with each other because both of you are kind of bad at
dealing with it. And I think it has that gambling

(15:04):
mentality that gets people to come back.
But as you progress, then you start unlocking the skill gap
mechanics. So it's all still there for
sure. I don't think they, I don't
think them streamlining or I shouldn't say streamlining, but
focusing got more on less of a fireball game plan is
necessarily them reducing the skill gap.
But they definitely did simplifythe fireball options objectively

(15:24):
because they're just less of them.
But there's going to be other tools to use.
So I think in general, I think they're they're kind of inching
a little bit away from stuff that a lot of casual players
complained about charge moves. Bison is not charge also part of
the modern control scheme limitations.
I think in general, these long standing traditions that we go,
Oh yeah, learn some charge. They'll put some hair in your

(15:45):
chest. Like, oh, learn some sigat
fireballs and fireball and uppercut.
It'll put hair in your chest. Those kind of tough to get into
characters and and systems and and character place else to
fight against are definitely being chipped away.
Yeah, I mean it's and it's working.
I feel like I do think just thatthis is the just I just say real
quick, I think this is the best sweet spot we've seen in Street

(16:07):
Fighter as far as between casuals and pro level play.
Early on I was scared. I was like, oh, are we a little
are we too far down the casual side?
But now looking at these type oflike top 8 at blink and so we'll
talk about later on and stuff like that.
It's made it so that's like, allright, bro, people are getting
consistent results just like always.
So, you know, I think it's, I think I think it's at a good

(16:28):
spot. I just think the interaction,
but I think more people would rather interact with the
character. I always say zoning.
Zoning characters are kind of non interactable.
Like you've seen a lot of the highest level zoners, Dawson and
five Morgan and Marvel happy chaos, like they're just not
even letting the other person play.
So I think it kind of dilutes itto A1 player game versus like

(16:51):
rush down characters where you still feel like you're playing
the game. It's just sometimes you just get
rushed down really hard. And to be fair, that happens to
everyone because everyone's has Street Fighter six rounds where
you just get perfected and you didn't really get to play versus
like watching somebody get around the zoning.
And then when you got to get around the zoning, I I just
never got in. So it's kind of better like

(17:13):
that. That's funny, I do agree overall
people prefer that. But yeah, I guess personally
like in my head, like I'd ratherdeal with zoning than just get
low for a drive rushing to throwloops.
Like I I feel so much less satisfied.
About guessing. On a throw loop.
They're not the low for drivers.At least I can play Nuch against
that. I thought you was going to say
like Zingy for Laura, mixing your ass up over and over again

(17:35):
like command. Grab yeah, I mean, well, once
you once they get into, yeah, sure, before the connection, but
that's very similar. Once Zengeeb gets into range for
stand like a dry brush cancel I I don't feel as satisfied.
I didn't do nothing wrong, I'm sorry.
Like, not nothing, but I didn't do enough wrong for me to feel
good about that round. I just don't.
Yeah, I. Just think, we're all old.

(17:57):
We're all on the zoner. We'd rather deal with zoners.
We're all just old. Like, you know, all those street
fighters, the new Street FighterSix players are like, what are
these guys talking about? But you're right.
What? Ryan's from 4:00.
I played Marvel three. I was getting zoned by Morgan.
Like all that stuff. I played JP.
Yeah, I'm used to that stuff. Yeah, it's true.
We're behind on the times for sure in that one.

(18:18):
But Sagat's coming back. I think he's going to be sick.
I'm definitely trying to mount August 5th.
I think he's dropping like rightafter Evo.
So the king will return and I'm sure he's going to have some
zoning with them. He's still going to have a
fireball uppercut game. I'm definitely looking forward
to throwing a fireball. Seeing you jump and doing an
uppercut like that will heal my old soul.
Like I just it's, it's heartwarming just to think about

(18:41):
like young buck, how about I Chuck this fireball?
I never even placed a guy, you know what I mean?
I just think I'm I just think I'm getting older and I just
want to throw a fireball and do an uppercut.
I don't know what it is about. It's just so appealing to me.
So I'm looking forward to that. August 5th.
But before we get into EVO, we did have the precursor to that
for the Street Fighter 16 link. Respawn was the last premiere we

(19:02):
had over in the Dominican Republic and we got to see the
new potential trend in the Street Fighter 6.
Results in terms of competitive players are really an old trend,
really depending on how you lookat it.
We'll see if it keeps up at EVO.But Rob, you were there.
You got to experience it first hand.
Before we even get into a littlebit of the results, you want to

(19:23):
speak to how it was to be back in the Dr. again.
You become like a regular host there and boys are put on a good
show. Thank God that yeah, they have
me there every year as the as the host and I, I appreciate it
bro. I'm not going to lie.
This ain't no goddamn PR talk this real behind the scenes
shit. I promise y'all bro that is one
of the I ain't going to disrespect no other crowds.

(19:43):
There's some amazing crowds around the world.
This is at least time for the best crowd in my opinion.
Like at least time for show. The energy there is crazy and
it's just the audience that you get.
I will say worldwide I have noticed the audience have a
shift from just a certain demographic, like I guess like
guys of you know what I mean, like maybe 20s to 30 + 40 plus.

(20:10):
To now there's just dude, there's men, women, kids, old
folks like and I feel like the Dr. is where I see the biggest.
I would say mix. This is you guys 1 little story
by the way, just as far as like how how big it is there and like
even like how famous Minnow Rd. is there.
For example, I went to a Dominican Barber shop that

(20:31):
inspired treat you really good. So at I'm done with the thing.
I wait for my Uber and this girl, she speaks Spanish, you
know, she didn't speak English, but she asked somebody that I
knew to like translate. And the translation was like, do
you know MENA? And I'm like, yeah.
And she started shipping, but she's not at a fighting game
tournament. She just works at this Barber
shop. And she's like, wow.

(20:53):
Like because her, her brother and her family, some huge MENA
fans. So I even when you're down there
like, bro, I think I saw some politicians at the event new.
So as a whole, it's just a huge like event, it seems like for
the country, at least that's what it feels like to me.
And I think that the the the thecrowd is 10 out of 10 matches,

(21:13):
10 out 10, all of that bro like.And I think the production is
amazing there too. So this is one of the the best
tournaments of the year in my opinion.
I don't know how y'all feel but I think it's one of the best
events of the year. I agree, no, it's helping one of
the best and I agree with the energy.
I got to go there in 2019 and that was pre YouTube era for me
and that was the first time I like took photos and signed
things and I was like what what is like people, random Dr.

(21:34):
people, they came up to me with their kids, you know, wife and
kids and all of that. I was taking photos with
families and I was like, this isnever.
I was just like like a, you know, AB tier competitor at that
time, but you know what I mean? I wasn't even like popular on
YouTube or nothing. I was like, what is happening?
Like how do the how do you even know who I am and why are you
asking me for a photo and and all this.
And then the crowd is going crazy there.

(21:55):
And every single player I sat down to play was God like I
played casual so that I don't even know who just random dudes
pulling up with a PlayStation pad sitting down to play.
And I was sweating like every single set, which is rare.
Like normally, like in most scenes, you go to a smaller
scene. It's like the notable players
you'll know and those are the ones that really stand out.
Every single dude I played was just God like.
So I think it speaks to like thethe strength in the community.

(22:18):
There's tons of players are the average level is super high and
then they're they're all mega fans of the community.
So if you have a chance to go tocompete in the Dr. to visit, I
definitely highly recommend it as well.
It's a super good time and and they just are fans of the scene.
They support it so much. I don't have you been have you
been to Dr. I've never been to the Dr. and I have.

(22:39):
The only reason I've never went is just because I'm kind of
lazy, but that's really like I no, you're scared.
To go over the ocean, is that, is that what it is?
I've been over the ocean plenty of Times Now.
You're still scared though. I don't know.
I don't believe you. I think, I think the reason I
didn't go this year is because Iwas too close to EVO.
I was like, I'm just going to goto.

(23:00):
Evo. Anyway, you didn't want to go to
the points? Yeah, yeah.
It's it's it's next time. All right.
Yeah, you got to go, man. You got to you're you're you're
you're becoming stoop kid again.I don't know.
You got to get out there. I need to see Idom and the Dr.
the barbershop with Rob next time, you know, see, see if they
know some Idom out there. You might be celebrity out

(23:22):
there. Idom.
I'm I'm saying. I mean, I'm sure you really, I'm
sure you are to be honest, like no, no, no joke, maybe no a hell
of shit, bro. Like it's it's fire.
Yeah, all the stories I've heardis, is always kind of like that
everyone always like high praisefor the Dominican community so.
Right, they're big fans of the game, big fans of the scene.
They support a lot. And just to give credit to MENA

(23:43):
Rd. isn't that amazing? The ambassador they got like
bro, like that's I feel like it's it's a huge part also to
him for, you know, representing the scene at such a global
scale. And on top of that, doing a
great job, like all of his public appearances, his
interviews at tournaments, like he does a great job of being
representative, just not just for fighting games, but his
country, his people. Like, so I don't know, there's a

(24:04):
whole recipe for success there. And you can see it paying
dividends, right? You can see that effort from NRD
and his peers and everyone actually paying off in real
time. It's really cool and.
I feel like he puts too much, you know, pressure on himself
when it comes to that, because you got to think the whole he
probably like the whole country on his back, like his whole
scene, you know, so he probably want to go out there and win
this event every single time andyou know this the showdown

(24:27):
match, you want to win the showdown match and all this
stuff. Brother, this is my opinion like
and it's I think it's pretty much fact, bro, if Mina chose
never to play another game of Street Fighter or never won
another match like which never happened, of course, but like
dude, you put the scene on the back like that story is still to
this day one of the best storiesin fighting game history.

(24:48):
Point blank. It's fighting in E sports
history, the Dominican Republic's rise dim Pakistan,
You know what I mean? It was a in a different type of
way, but there's not really too many times I think where we can
kind of point to one guy. I don't know if there's any
other times outside. We can point at Arsenal Ash and
say, damn, did we find out aboutPakistan?

(25:11):
We look out about minute and then we found out about
Dominican Republic. So you know what he's done for
the scene and everything for theFTC, but especially for the
Dominican FTC and the country isout of this world.
Just want to point that out. And and it's an ongoing story,
right? Like he just won Eva Japan again
for the second time. It's nowhere near over, right?
His legacy is being built like crazy right now.
And I get I get what you're saying about bringing up that

(25:32):
pressure because if we get to the results, right, MENA Rd.
wins Eva Japan again back-to-back.
What insane, right? Come back to blink Respawn.
He got 7th last year, losing to Nain out of Honduras.
Nain Junior, Yeah. I don't know I'm sorry, I
apologize. I'm keeping his country
incorrect. Please correct me the comments

(25:54):
apologies their name, but he double jeopardy meant Rd. on
that one and then this time he drops the losers to nephew and
loses to Tachikawa before top 8.So not even a top 8 appearance
at this one and then this top 8 was it was you know, Speaking of
the king making me nostalgic. This top eight kind of made me
nostalgic. We had, what was it, 5 Japanese
players in this top 8, which is something we haven't seen in

(26:17):
forever. It used to be the norm.
It used to be every single premier was like, who's going to
try to stop these 5 Japanese players from winning, right?
Like you, you might have a new from Korea, maybe one European,
one American, right? Like that was kind of the mix,
every top 8. But this one, you know,
Kusanagi, Moke, Kashikuma, Mochi, psycho nephew, Fudo

(26:38):
Tachikawa, like really? And some old school Japanese
players, right? When you finally got down to it,
you know Fudo took this one overfrom Emoji and the Moke in 3rd
place. Those are dudes who have been
around for a while. Fudo Mammochi have been doing
this for decades. Ancient evil champions.
Three by the. Four Cup champions.
Bro, not not to go deep into it,but age wise like is there a

(26:59):
note bro Fudo like you said, they've been playing what 30
years and they still. They're both 39 years old.
If you're God like, it just stays with you.
I don't know what age like what age is like.
All right, damn, you can't reactno more.
Or like maybe it's just is it a fighting game thing?
Maybe. I know we're not going deep into
that combo, but it's fascinating.

(27:20):
Like they are, they're not just still serviceable, they're still
like able to win the biggest events.
At how old are they, like 404544?
3939. Oh, no, 39.
OK, they're younger than I thought.
I didn't know. That they're on the younger end
of the older Japanese top level players, right?
Like Diego's like what, 42 or 43?

(27:41):
Sacco is up there. He's like 45 or 47.
He's getting, you know, he's up there, up there.
So they're they're still on the younger end of the legends of
our era as soon as they hits 40.They might be done though.
That that's what Rob's. That's what Rob's kind of
implying. As soon as it gets to 40, like
you're 39, you can still win events for a bit.
That's. 40 hit. Oh no.
I'm checking their birthdays right now.

(28:02):
Is that even born between blink respawn and evo?
Are they OK? Neither.
Their birthdays are between blink, respawn and Evo.
They're good OK there you emotion futo.
You guys were safe to make a runat evo don't worry.
But yeah it's it. It was so sick to see not only
the level of Street Fighter justlike but these players
returning. So it makes me wonder like it's
just a sign of of things returning to the ways of old.

(28:25):
Like we had the point system andesports World Cup qualifiers,
which got a huge incentive for so many people to travel now,
because the past two seasons hasbeen hardly any international
travel relatively to these events, right?
Look at look at blink respawn this year compared to last year,
right? There was only one Japanese
player, which is Tachikawa. This time.
The the notable attendees list is like there's like 50 players,

(28:47):
like at least potentially like 20 Japanese players went.
I might be exaggerating a little, but you couldn't call
who was going to win this tournament.
They were all out here, all the top NA players except for Rydon
for some reason, a huge portion of the top Japanese players, a
couple of strong European players as well.
So we're seeing so many more people travel, and then we're

(29:07):
starting to see, oh, Japan is starting to.
Bro, I don't think. Go back to the top placements.
I don't think so. I don't think so, not yet.
Because Humble Breaker, I would imagine that the Japanese
players were there and top eight.
Oh yeah. And.
I see, OK, I I see Guichi. It's Guichi, just a kid North
America Banshan, of course, Japan Blas from Chile, Indian

(29:32):
Walker, UK dual cabin North America either Bashi Japan and
then Lashar Korea. So only and that top 8 there's
only two Japanese players and 22North American players.
Two, yeah, we got AUK all that. So and then I want to say C was

(29:52):
CEO dominated by. Yeah, CEO.
No, not really. CEO, The Korea Show.
Lashawn RNL and then Latin America doing work right with
Crimea and not Pedro causing a ton of upsets.
Yeah. Ton of upsets.
Along the way right now the, the, the levels right now seem
very, you know, I think they're,they're pretty close right now.

(30:14):
I don't know who's the toughest region.
I would not be surprised to see.I don't know bro these topics
that we talking about don't evengot men or punk in them.
They're two hearts are what? What?
Punk mate. Top 8A CEO Oh.
You're right. And they all got them at the
end. You're sure, right?
Yeah, that's. True, these top eights are too
hard to call. Funny enough I doing some

(30:36):
research about the blink respawntop 8.
None of the top 10 seeds got top8 at that tournament, which is
actually insane. I had to bring that up so you
before every tournament they like seed the players and it
well, who you're guessing is gonna win and who's gonna
potentially get top 8. None of the players, not even
the top eight seed the top 10 seeds.

(30:56):
The highest seed that I think got top 8 was Memochi and he was
11. But none of the top ten players
predicted to get top 8 was even there.
Well, interesting. And that's funny, like isn't
that crazy that Memochi and Fudoweren't top 10 seeds?
I think that's to your point, right?
Is it that there's so many good players that who go to a
tournament who could win? And to be fair to the people
seeding it right, Like how couldyou not seeing Fudo Memochi that
high? Fudo was kind of and Mimoshi

(31:19):
kind of did not place that well relative to what you would
expect in the past few tournaments.
I think food got like a four like a couple back-to-back 30
twos or Top 40 eights for CEO and comma breaker.
They were at these events like Adam, you beat mochi at comma
breaker. Fudo felt for sure early.
Did you say it should have lost like at least?
You should have lost. He should have lost at least

(31:41):
three times, but yeah, that's that's the closer you get to
losing, the more free it is. That's always the FG I.
Mean mochi got 200 points at comma breaker though.
No, that was Evo Japan. I'm sorry, never mind.
Yeah, that's EVO Japan. Yeah, he did good at EVO Japan.
But everything goes. Right, so it's hard to predict
this stuff. And then Speaking of prediction,
right, talk about our boy psycho, right?

(32:02):
Coming out of coming out of nowhere.
I'm doing air quotes here because I feel like he's low key
been cooking for so long. Now.
I you know, people might have discredited his his performances
at Street Fighter League USA, even though he took out a lot of
big names, including he might have beaten Gacha Kuna also at
Street Fighter League US World finals, if I remember correctly.

(32:24):
But you know, he's people like look at that team and go, oh,
Street Fighter league USA was carried by punk just by name
power alone, right, even though these players on the squad did
get big wins and beat some of the world's best players.
Then psycho goes to combo breaker.
He drops to losers in pools to Ithink Picklestein local, you
know, JP main who keeps getting in and then fights on Twitter

(32:46):
about 1 and Dunning with The Dark Knight squad.
You know, so he loses to Picklestein and then goes
through losers and goes on a tear and beats problem Max and
and then Tokido on stream. We got a win over Tokido on
stream. So that's like a notch in his
belt in this tournament. He's getting all his big wins on
stream, beats nephew and top 8 losers and then has the maybe
the most hype set of the whole tournament versus Gatchikoon

(33:08):
with that insane final game, final round interaction.
You know where he gets the finalknock down in the corner, throws
the bombs down, predicts the jump out, jumps air to air
reaction with the Zuna drop and then gets the the full combo
pickup to kill. Yeah, that was sick.
He was like officially adopted by the Dominican community at
that point after that one and finally had like a really big,

(33:30):
big top 8 performance under his belt.
So he's on the the come up for. Sure, psycho psycho.
I feel like Adam Street Fighter league actually like I know
yeah, people had a punk narratives.
He shut all that shit down him and shine in my opinion, at NA
finals when it matters most in the clutch, Shine and psycho
whooped ass and then at Capcom cook in front of that crazy ass

(33:54):
crowd, Shine and psycho cooked. I want to say both of them.
I I know shine like clutched outon everything like because he he
broke through the choke Shine asGigi's that shit over it now
Shawn, Shawn, they got damn broke through to a different
level and I think psycho showed the same thing.
But now to see him notice in singles tournaments crazy.
I think that is cool to actuallypinpoint.

(34:16):
I remember seeing oh damn, maybeyou autumn.
I remember seeing autumn breakthrough this like I'm good
to like, oh, wow, I'm I'm getting to elite level now.
I've seen that with cycle you. I've seen that with damn, who
else, Brian? There's somebody else that's in
my mind just now. Nephew he's been.

(34:36):
Playing amazing. Yeah, he's recently he won mix
up too. Yeah, he's gotten to like the,
you know, elite status, I feel like, or at least right, right
in that that situation. So I think it was cycle.
We seeing that same thing, bro. I think he's due for a big win
in my opinion, or at least like a top three finish.
Yeah, I think he, I think he's broken through.
And yeah, they, they both shine.And Psycho got big wins in that

(34:57):
street for the league world. Like Psycho actually ended up
beating Kowano and a setup win over Gatchikun as well.
In that grand final. So in front of the biggest crowd
we've ever had for for Street Fighter.
So yeah, definitely making a name for himself this year.
So he's kind of like one of the new people in the running for

(35:19):
that qualification with the points out of nowhere.
But at the end of the day, this was kind of the story of Futo
though. I mean, the fact that he was
about to be eliminated several times against Moke with that
insane comeback, the Level 3 failing the chip, the ridiculous
comebacks, and then that grand finals first set to reset the
bracket. Staring death in the face with
his wake up reversals, his reversals after blocking normals

(35:42):
to do level 2 because he was going to die no matter what.
He's clutch, man, He's clutch. He's looking in prime form.
But the question is, does it carry through to EVO?
Like there's so many good players.
Do you think this means something going into the big one
coming up? I I I wanted to say something
just real quick on the the Moki Fudo match.

(36:05):
Moki was up 2O with my versus Fudo's DJ.
I don't know how you guys feel about this but I said this on my
stream. Moki got bored.
There was no reason to switch off a my.
He got bored playing my and he actually just switched for no
reason because he was destroyinghim with my.
Hold up, I remember your ass playing your ass playing against

(36:27):
punk in a very important topic and your ass was whipping his
ass and then he beat you like a game.
He was at 2O smoking him. He won like a game and you
switched and stayed with the other character and lost.
No, no, he he switched. That was Capcom Cup 2019 grand
finals. He he was cooking with Laura.

(36:48):
He lost the game, swap swap to poison and then won the
tournament. So you're being separate, that's
true. But you did do that too.
You. Know.
I know. I don't know which one I know
which one Rob's talking about. I actually know which one Rob's
talking about. The online The online qualifier.
Yeah, it was important. Yeah, the CPT qualifier, but
that one's, that one's different'cause like I was practicing
with poison more for Karen, so that one's different.

(37:11):
So unless Moke was practicing with Chun for some reason
against DJ, yeah I'm wrong, but he was cooking with mine so you
had no reason. To that was I I yeah, that that
match. If you look at the the Fudo Moke
losers final set, I've never seen Fudo look that free for
those first two games. I've never seen that before.
Every single fireball was jumped, every single frame trap

(37:31):
connected. It was just like Moke could not
do anything wrong. He speed ran Fudo for four or
five rounds straight free and then the last, the third game,
he barely lost. I don't.
Know why? More like bro commentators y'all
go ahead and take this and use this if you want to.
I'm telling you bro, please start letting people know.

(37:52):
I call it winning time bro. Shit is different.
We've seen it for years. If you've been around the
goddamn scene, it's different when you bop the motherfucking
win. The better player, at least on
that day, for whatever reason, is always the one that's going
to clutch it out. If at EVO, I don't.
If you end up going down against, would you say by the

(38:13):
name Pickle Schneider? Pickle Stein, What's his name?
Pickle Stein. Pickle, Pickle Stein.
If you go down. Big win to him, man.
Against Pickles 21-O and a round, I would bet $1000 that
you about to win while you are down a game and a round because
I know he don't got that you. You get what I'm saying?
It's deeper than just the actualanalytics or the actual

(38:35):
specifics of the match. The whole game changes when it's
like, OK, now this is for the set, you know?
So I think no matter if he, evenif he didn't switch, I think
Pluto was going to win that shit.
And I'm judging that not just about the fact that he won that,
but also about the fact that he had to go and clutch out and
reset the bracket in grand finals later on, which I don't
want to get to that yet, but he just in different form.

(38:56):
The way people win Street Fighter tournaments, I don't
know if y'all agree with this bro.
The way people win the biggest Street Fighter tournaments, it's
not by being the best, it's by for whatever reason that music
start playing. You got the touch and it just
happens to be the right fucking day that the music plays for you

(39:18):
and you open the fucking all spark.
That's how the shit go. It's not random, you really are
playing better than everybody. But if, if, if we play Capcom
Cup then for like 5 days in a row or five weekends in a row,
Cockrule will only win Capcom Cup one time.
He would not win it 2 even 2 times.
It it depends on how many peopleBLAS beat that time.

(39:39):
You get. What I mean, yeah, yeah, I get,
I get what you mean. Yeah, there's there's a handful
of people who are of that caliberts and the odds are you
have to recalculate the odds each time you go to another
bracket match, right? Like what are your odds of
winning and then doing it all ina row?
Poker and all those, it's almostlike, you know, like poker.
Poker is extremely highly skilled but in the end of the
day the best player just means you're going to win 15% of time

(40:06):
or some shit versus other dudes only going to win.
Amongst the other best players yeah exactly.
I definitely agree of course there's a lot of guessing we do
short set formats like other games of 1V1 type of sports or
competition They don't do our first to three with a reset.
We think that's like such an evolved set.

(40:26):
That's not how you ever see all the Olympics do table tennis.
One set takes hours. They're doing, they're doing 3
different formats. They're doing first to seven,
win by two for, for four games. And then that is and you win
that whole thing by three games and then that is one set and you
do like 4 sets. It just, it keeps growing and
going and going. No other format do we do this

(40:49):
tiny compressed like win right now or it's over.
And that does introduce more variance and that's part of the
funds for like what we do. But it does mean like you got to
be you have to be of the best and have it be your day that
that's. Fast Boodle did those supers I.
Don't dis. It's very scrubby and simple but
like what if those supers got blocked?
Like like. Don't get me wrong, you get my

(41:09):
point every. Street Fighter Six match?
No, no, that's every Street Fighter Six match.
If this shit hits, you might just win.
So it's different. It's yeah, you know what?
I you know what I'm saying? So I don't know, I think, but
yeah. Boodle was on the verge of
losing several times and he did wake up reversal, wake up super,
reversal super and they all landed.
They all landed like that. And if any, I think there's
three moments where he would have lost if that reversal was

(41:30):
blocked three moments, right? He coin flipped 3 times and and
came up heads. He called it each time, right
and? That's the reason.
But it's also your day, yeah? Yeah, yeah, of course.
And and to be clear for Rob, like with listeners like your
day amongst the other best in the world because it could be
their day like their, their margins are razor.

(41:52):
Thing only among the best yes norandom, so this is not random at
all. You got to be at a very elite
level and then who wins out of goddamn punk and minute today
fucking day? Who knows?
You know what I mean, or that big burden punk at EVO grand
finals. Now I will say, though, that

(42:15):
some people when it matters most, you know what I mean?
Like it's it's not about it's not just skill.
That is I know I'm taking it offto like a different thing, but
it's just interesting to point to me like big Bird, the jump
in. I hope big Bird.
I watch this. They only want him to relive
that, but that's not a skill issue, that was just a.

(42:36):
Yeah. Something about that more, it's
mental. It's mental, it's mental, it's
mental. It's mental at that point, yeah.
Yes, like I think people like, Idon't, I, I, I don't, I'm not
really as much like these peopleas people thought in the past,
but you know, like you're reallygood at, you know.
I just think it's for me, I've always just felt like it's kind
of just suppressing your emotions and just being like, if

(42:57):
it happens, it happens, so you kind of just don't care.
For me, that's how I've always saw it.
But for other people, like I said, I've noticed, you know,
people get nervous and like theyplay better in pools versus
grand final basically because they're less nervous.
I don't. I just want to quickly apologize
real quick that I just not thought about the fact that I
showed you a Street Brier Leaguering and you got a Capcom Cup
champion in your trophy trophy case.

(43:19):
So my apologies. Yeah, I guess.
I guess I could have got that all right.
What am I saying? I was trying to be humbled.
If he could have mobbed you pretty easily, he's trying to be
nice about it. Oh, Rob, That's that's cute.
Very nice, Rob. Well done.
But Speaking of winning time, Yeah.
So we're going into EVO 2025 andfor this tournament we have 4228

(43:44):
competitors signed up for StreetFighter Six.
I'm going through the numbers real quick to give some context.
So 4228 for Street Fighter Six Tekken 8 pull in 2521 entrance
and then third place Fatal Fury with 1576 entrance.
And this is interesting that there was a talking point about
this because the numbers are definitely down across the board

(44:06):
for entrance. And we're seeing for the first
time for Street Fighter 6 specifically that Evo Japan has
both surpassed Evo Vegas in terms of entrance, but also grew
from the previous year. So Evo Japan in 2024 had 4851
entrance and then Evo Japan in 2025 had 6653.

(44:31):
Now to be fair, I think there was like a bit of a rounding
with like DQS for the brackets making an even number for the
way they structured that. So that might be off by a few
hundred, I'm not sure. So people can verify that
number. But still it went to 6000 from
4800. And now Evo Vegas is 4200,
right? So there's a 2000 entrant

(44:51):
difference there. And so Evo Japan growing, Evo
Vegas shrinking, We've never seen that.
We've never been in that, that this is a fluctuation point,
right? A point of inflection here.
Where is Evo Japan for Street Fighter finally surpassing Evo
Vegas? You know, Evo Vegas was supposed
to be the Prestige is supposed to be the one.
Are we seeing a little bit of a shift right now?

(45:12):
What's going on? Here, too much dip on your chip.
Don't trigger me Brian. In the end of the day, let me
know, let me know 50,000 entrance for Street Fighter
alone. Evo Vegas is evo.
Whoever went the reigning and defending evil champ is punk to
God right now. That's just how this shit go in
our culture. So you know, I do think that

(45:33):
it's that is an interesting point, though, that you bring
up. I think in the end of the day,
it's so famous over there in Japan, bro that I think we're
going to continue to see this trend of them going up like
their their numbers continue going up.
But we got to make sure we also point out the other games
entrance are much higher ego Vegas than Evo Japan.

(45:54):
If I'm not mistaken, all the other fighting games are much.
Bigger in Vegas yeah Tekken Tekken 8 had for Evo Vegas now
this year coming up has 2500 entrance and then Tekken 8 for
evo Japan had 979 and then guilty year dropped to 693 and
you know guilty year was previously top three for 2024

(46:15):
Vegas and that 2000 right so it's it really is just Street
Fighter 6 is growing. I think the overall entrant
numbers for Evo Vegas is still higher than even Japan.
It's just that Street Fighter 6 is the main title of both
events, but it's just so huge inJapan right now that it's
carrying the entire event to a whole other degree, whole other
stratosphere it's reaching, which is really surprising to

(46:36):
see that it's still gaining momentum.
And I think that's in part to like the Evo Japan event itself
improving. Like they, they it started off
kind of shaky. Some of the years people didn't
like the venues, there wasn't enough AC, there was issues,
right? Like, so I think they've been
actually improving how the eventis run and promoted and, and,
and Street Fighter six itself isstill it still has momentum in
the community more and more people getting into it.

(46:57):
So it's really interesting to see.
But I do agree, for me, in my heart, Evo Vegas is the one.
But I can't deny that we're in achanging time, right?
You got any thoughts on them? I just think this to me, there's
a lot of reasons why EVO Japan'sbig getting bigger and street
fighters just, you know, Evo. But I think the reason EVO
America's get, well, I guess a bit smaller bro, shit's

(47:20):
expensive. I'll be honest, that shit, that
shit's expensive. And I I do think having other
evos kind of defense desensivizes people from other
countries to go to Evo America. Like if I'm from, I don't know,
the UK, why am I going to go to Evo America when it's probably
cheaper for me to go to Evo France, though I could save
money and just go there. I think having more evos is a

(47:41):
good thing and a bad thing. I think more people will
probably go to evo in general. Like there'll be more collective
people like all three evos if it.
Than if there was just one. But I do think the other evos
might suffer. Well, Evo Vegas will suffer.
But the, the, the whole economicsituation, political situation

(48:02):
of the world is there's a lot ofpeople who don't want to travel
both within the US and to the USright now.
Like that is a very big reality.And Evo registration is, is very
expensive. Vegas itself is very, there's a
lot of money, right? So I can see a lot of people
choosing to tune into Evo at home rather than attend if
they're not like a super hardcore competitor or if
they're international and have other options.
So that's definitely a big reality.

(48:23):
Of it, I just think it's huge. I think bro, like just you add
in Evo, Evo France, of course we've been had Evo Japan, but
now you got Evo Japan, Evo France and what are we getting
It's going to. Be a rotating one, but I don't
remember where it's going to be.Evil world, I think like
something. Crazy they haven't saved the
location publicly. No, OK.

(48:44):
I don't recall. Well, yeah, Yeah, I think so.
That, that. But in general, you you add in
all these evos. I think that's a topic in
itself. But yeah, anyway, I do think
that's. I have a lot of Yeah, I'm going
Rob. I have a lot of things to say
about that of. Course Barcelona was already
tweeting about it. I don't know if he deleted the
tweet or not. He was already getting Flack for
saying he feels like too many evos is watering down the the

(49:05):
prestige of winning an Evo title.
Which I kind of agree with. I I to me personally I think
they need to solve this and theyneed to call one of them evil
worlds and not make it a rotating one.
Make it like evo world champion and like just pick and like
settle it like the other one. Ones are big but they need to
put one above the other. I think I'm trying to say
there's 4 equal weighted tournaments across the year.

(49:26):
Nobody will ever accept that. We would never accept that.
We would never accept that they're equal.
Like evil, Vegas is evil and theother one for.
Time over time, that's how it goes.
If they try, if they make it so over time it'll get watered
down, it'll get sanded off, and eventually what used to be will
no longer be. That's it.
They will be determining the direction of the culture.

(49:47):
Like what we doing? We doing evil like evil awards,
lifetime achievement award FGC like and you say oh Justin Wong
has 30,000 evos or whatever how many he got?
Like are y'all going to say thatwhen somebody got a evil Japan
and a evil France and shit, you're going to just list it as
a? Evil we we wouldn't have to if

(50:07):
they specified evil World champion.
Change the name. Change the name bro.
They they I exactly they're they're but they're probably
not. I'm just saying it will lose
meaning. It just it's just how it will.
Just like I think personally evopre 2009 and post 2009 are
totally different beasts. That's.
What you mean by that you're. Gonna no, no, you're gonna get

(50:28):
you're gonna get a flock. Are you saying Flack?
Are you just saying Justin's Evo's pre 2000 for Marvel 2 is
not the same? Oh, you're saying they got
harder? I, I think they got harder, they
absolutely got harder. I think that's still an
incredible achievement. But I if I said someone post
2011 won every single evo for a game in a row that to me I'm I'm

(50:50):
sorry he's not the entire littletravelling.
Brian's doing the the the basketball.
The old heads were trashed. Everyone's magnet.
No, it's definitely not that. I'm.
Saying in the past, but I'm quick.
Right now I don't. Know no, I'm, I'm saying the the
new there's, there's just more people traveling to these
tournaments. It's getting harder and harder.
There's more full time professional players.
It's just it's just different. It's just a different world.

(51:11):
It it is I mean, but I will say to I'm not going to lie, I am on
that side Brian, to be honest. I I agree with you, but I will
say to give them bail that how can I put it.
The resources are also differentnow too.
These guys are doing that shit when yes, it's a lot easier
competition in my opinion. I and the O GS have argued me
down for years about that shit. I don't even know how it makes

(51:33):
any common sense to even fix your lips to say the competition
is not harder now. It's not even close like common
sense wise, but we also coming into the game with YouTube now.
They ain't had YouTube like. There's so many they had even
though they had YouTube. You said they had YouTube.
They had. YouTube.
They had YouTube. It was not good on it.
It was a cat. Yeah, they had YouTube.

(51:55):
Right, I don't want it to mention the achievement.
I'm just saying they're it's comparing apples to oranges.
What I. Really.
Yeah, because it's not. It's not fair to say somebody's
better than my bad bro. I just want to say real quick,
it's not fair to say you better than me all time because you got
8 evils but you won them back then.
And I don't have 8 evils but I got to play against 50 full time

(52:16):
fucking players that's just I'llnever catch.
You, I think it's, you can't compare it.
And then and then even now post this era between the, the, the
modern, like 2009 to now, maybe even a little bit after 2009.
I think it really picked up in 2011.
If I were to really like narrow it down like once, because
international players didn't really start going till 2011,
2012, right, Especially for the Street Fighter evos, especially

(52:39):
2014, 2015, that's when it was like, Oh, we're having the world
show up. So they try to win these Evo
titles. And then up until now, before
Evo France, even even Japan is alittle different.
How are you going to start comparing it once there's three
evos a year, right? I think there's just eras.
Eras happen. And I think we're entering a new
era and it's going to just waterdown the conversation and be
able to be more nuanced and there's going to be arguments,

(53:00):
Oh, you're disrespecting the OG's.
No, it's, it's just different. And so we're entering a
different world here. And that's why I bring up the
Evo Japan versus Evo Vegas. What is the big one?
Because I in my heart, of course, I'm Evo Vegas all the
way old. That's what that's what means
something to that degree. But if it keeps going this way,
will always be that to the general consensus?

(53:21):
Who knows? When I brought intros for a
player, when I'm hosting the show, if somebody want evil
France, evil Japan, it's amazing.
I'm a motherfucking say you're evil Japan, you're evil French
champion. If motherfucker want evil Vegas,
I'm going to say you're a reigning independent evil
champion. That's the difference.
But you're doing your subtle part to protect the culture.

(53:44):
But there's a lot of new kids coming in this shit, y'all, I
ain't gonna lie. And then we've been around for
longer for this shit. So when they've coming into the
FTC and evil Japan already exists and evil France already
exists and all this other shit. So over time, yeah, it could
happen that I, I really do hope there's some name changes or
something. I even was for the idea of like

(54:05):
not naming evil France and evil whatever like Evo and I call
them something else. But marketing wise it might not
work. I, I don't the reason I think
it's weird too. It's goes first of all, we're
going to somebody's going to be the first one to win all three
evos. Like somebody win Evo Vegas of
Japan and France for a same game.
Probably might be Arsenal cuz I know Arsenal already won both

(54:27):
for Tekken. So it might be Arsenal first.
But even then it gets so weird cuz there's EVO champions.
Like I know all the Champions for all the American evil.
If you ask me who won Grand Blueand EVO Japan, I don't know.
It's not, it's kind of not the same.
Before it's like everyone's heldat a pedestal.
But now it's like it's going to get like little, like less and

(54:49):
less. And I don't know who's EVO
champion anymore because this guy might have won Marvel Two in
France and I don't even know whothe player is.
Yeah, EVO is more concerned withexpanding the brand and
preserving the prestige right now, which is it's a risky move
for for them as well because youcan water your own brand down
like that could happen. Like there there is EVO is known
for being the fighting game events, right.

(55:11):
And then EVO Japan when that wasintroduced, like, oh, that's
cool. There's another thing.
EVO is the fighting game event in Vegas now they're like, no,
no, really. There's three of them and
they're all the same. We'll see how this this actually
works. I will enjoy the gameplay in the
shows, but I do agree that it's it's a kind of a big branding
and marketing question really, at the end of the day.
How will this play out over the next couple years for both the

(55:35):
brand of EVO, the legacy of the Champions, and for the community
as a whole? I really don't know.
I really don't know how it's going to shake up.
There'll be good games in all ofthem, but what will stick in our
minds one will resonate with thepeople.
Like you said, worlds. That's it, all one evo worlds
and all is good. We'll see if they listen.

(55:55):
What happens if they change Evo Japan to Evo World and then
Vegas gets? You can't do that.
You can't do that. But he really can't do that.
They could. That's not bi.
That's not any bias, it's just history.
Like it's just you. It's just always been here.
It could move, I just pick one. I think it can move.
Japan has more, well, Street Fighter entrance.
I guess we have more all the other game entrance.

(56:18):
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think it can move it.
They just need to pay more. Or or it can move every.
Place. It can move every year far as
I'm concerned. I agree.
That becomes a travelling budgetnightmare though 'cause like if
I'm thinking OK, next year I want to go to Evo, I know it's
in Vegas at least, so plan to goto Vegas.

(56:38):
Yeah. Versus what?
About the other people that liveit.
Gives other people. Yeah, it gives other people.
Yeah, I think a big complaint isthat the world championship is
always in, in Evo Vegas and people, some people are just
will never be able to go like there's visa issues, there's
there's ways, there's monetary issues.
So if they if they at least keeprotating across the world, I
don't, I don't care personally. They do that as long as they
call one. This is the one, you know, Like

(57:00):
that's to me what I care about. I guess the problem is for like
people who will like to go to evil, evil every year and then
like I said, it might become a problem for them because like,
say, you know, one year it's in Vegas, next year it's in Dubai.
And now I'm like, oh fuck, I hada plan to go to Dubai or
something. And then like, I don't have, I
don't have money for that. I'm not going to evil Vegas.
I. Can't go to and I do Vegas I do.

(57:21):
Vegas. Around might even water down a
little bit to be fair to O'Brien.
Like I can't explain it like except like.
We know we. Go to Vegas every year.
Like it's, you know, it's the whole energy around it.
Like we know it's time to go to Vegas.
It's time to you know. Complex questions, but I think
for this year it is still safe to say at this point in time
most people will consider this EVO to be the World

(57:44):
Championship. For now I we will see that will
remain the same. So going into this EVO we talked
a little bit about Blink, Respawn and the build up for
this season. I need each one of you you to
give me a pick. We we got to do a little bit of
prediction. We got to think about where this
evo could end up. Last year Punk was the champion.

(58:04):
He had a great performance that CEO leading up to it one CEO
right, that was kind of like theprecursor event this year, CEO
and bleak Respawn are acting as the precursors for for this evo.
What what are we thinking? I need I at least one pick to
win before. We pick before we pick.
Can we have one thing though? What's that?
Ban Lashar? We're all going to pick Lashar.

(58:25):
Can we ban Lashar? I know all of our picks are
probably. Less Lashar's OK what's what's
what's Lashar's? Lashar's the best player right
now. What's his biggest win?
I guess a lot of us, his biggestwin is probably that CEO.
No, he hasn't won. He.
Won them back-to-back. No, no, I know.
No, he's the best right now as far as like in form, but he
hasn't won his grand. I know he knew her, but he

(58:47):
hasn't won his Grand Slam yet, right?
Like one of the grand slams so he wouldn't be my.
No, he got third place at CapcomCup and yeah Fit and then 4th or
5th the year before, so Captain Cup is where he's gone the
furthest at the biggest last year.
Finishes. Top three at you got EVO?
Yeah, you got top three or four at EVO Japan, I think.
Yeah, he's got close. I think he I think he finishes

(59:09):
top three at EVO. OK, what's your pick then?
So yeah, we can pick Lashar. He's on the table and Rob has
someone else. Who do you got?
Rob? Give us a pick and defend it.
To God is going to be the back to fucking back evil champion.
You heard me say this shit righthere, right now, back-to-back

(59:29):
evil champion and the reason I say this he is going in there
with I feel like how can I put this bro?
The weight is off his goddamn shoulder, right?
He's already won it. He's his his his confidence is
even even the arrogance that alltime high we seen with that
Street Fighter league, him and men are talking trash to each
other and all that. The I feel like I you know,

(59:52):
normally I like to pick MENA forthese type of things.
I could see MENA winning it as well, of course, but I feel like
form Wass right now. Punk is at A at a different
stratosphere right now. And I think when it matters
most, I mean that grand finals that he had last year up against
Big Bird bro. And how many times have we seen
Punk and top 8 is this is well that he's like he was.

(01:00:15):
Playing top eight, yeah yeah. So I think he got top 8 like
every SF6 evo, yeah. There's only been two.
He was top eight, I think fourthin the fourth or third in the
first one. So third.
So. 33 Spotter 6. Consistency 3.
Spotter 6 that he'd been a top 8all three times, you're saying?
No, no, two. There's only two right in Vegas.
Yeah. There's only been 2, but then

(01:00:36):
even and then in five we know when he bought Coquito and shit
like that as well. So he he has consistent great
results there. And I just think that, you know,
a lot of people are very nervousin that spot.
You trying to fight up against adamn supercomputer as far as his
reactions and whatnot there. I think it's terrifying knowing
you can't press a fucking buttonin neutral.
You can't drive rush, you can't jump.

(01:00:57):
His mental stack is Infinity. I think he, I think he runs it
back actually, bro. You're you're Rob.
So that's already messed up because punk's in my path.
If I I think if I were to be punk, I think that's for like
top 24. That's fucked up, Rob.
Oh, no, no, no. I mean, you know, you're.
Not fucked up. Look, man, you look like eye
drop today. You know, look like eye drop

(01:01:19):
today a little bit. It's 'cause it's 'cause the the
facial hair is getting, the facial hair is coming in.
True, true. You know, kind of going back to
what Brian said, I don't think anyone pre 2011 Evo has ever
gone back-to-back and Street Fighter at least.
In terms of winning at all. Yeah.
And winning. Yeah, because I think Daigo was

(01:01:40):
the last one that goes. Back Daigo was the last 2009.
That's what created his legacy. That's a whole another topic of
conversation talking about MENA Rd. right?
If it if it was Vegas, it'd be done for.
But Daigo, the reason why a hugereason why he's as legendary as
he is is because he won those two evos back-to-back like that
cemented it forever. He was already legendary for
that with his performances in Guilty Gear and other games, but

(01:02:00):
those two were like nail in the coffin goat forever.
So that that's that's big, that's encroaching Daigo status
if Punk wins. I just want to make sure I point
out just 'cause, you know, I don't want to fucking think I'm
squishing it up. I do believe if it if it's not
punk Minnow is my second favorite to win.
That's my opinion. You.

(01:02:24):
Know punkin men. Punkin men in my talk, but I got
Punk number one right now. I think Punk is a favorite.
I think he wins but number 2 noteven le sure.
I OK, if I had to pick someone other than myself, Obviously if
I had to pick somebody to win itall, I would have to go with it.
It's got to be Lashar. I sorry, that was kind of just

(01:02:45):
my pick. The CEO and comma breaker.
Lashar is the first one to make this game seem not kind of point
flips. So I got to go with Lashar.
I agree, actually, yeah, I'll, I'll pick somebody else, but
that would be my pick too, because I, I what you said there
was so important. I think he makes the game seem
not like guessing like the the situations he gets into.
He seems to have the proper button timing, the response, the

(01:03:07):
whip punish the the counterpoke.Like everything seems to be
almost solved with him and I, I do agree that he he's gotten to
a level where the the more scrambling up close interactions
feel controlled in a way that wehaven't seen.
So I do I I really wish he went to Blake respawn.
I I wish he would try to sweep the three in a row, but maybe

(01:03:29):
evil will have to be it. I don't know if you have any
like inside item to to what he'sdoing in his game play, because
I feel like it's so interesting watching his button press
timing, the way he counterpokes like while people are pressuring
him, he knows exactly when to press like in return and shut it
down. Like they never get extended
turns on him. I don't know if you have
anything that is X Factor. I've only played Lashar once and

(01:03:51):
I beat him the one time we played casual.
So he if he runs it to me, it's over.
So that's all I'm saying. But I don't think we're.
I don't think we're. All right, Lashar wins as long
as he doesn't run into IDOM. Got it.
Understood. I want to make sure I'll also
say I agree that Lashar is the best player right now.
I just want to let it be clear I'm not.

(01:04:12):
I'm just betting on greatness over better, if that makes
sense. So what I mean by that is just
like I said about it's, it doesn't always come down to just
raw skill. I think it almost never does.
That's why in the biggest tournaments, when does the dude
who's just the hottest or the most skill at the time on paper

(01:04:34):
when it don't happen, it's more of a mental thing.
And I think that's why I don't think MENA is necessarily always
the most. Bro remember evil Japan minute?
That fucking jump back air throwin the corner against the
against the Cam. Was that accurate?
And it's a yeah. Jump back, air throw.
That's not skill bro. I hate to bring that to y'all.
That's not skill. That is some other shit going

(01:04:54):
on. That's some ethereal, you know
what I mean? That's just, again, the music.
You got that touch. Some motherfuckers got it, you
know? And I'm not saying Lashar
doesn't, I'm just saying we haven't seen it yet.
You know what I mean? We haven't seen it yet.
Now with Punk officially, I've seen it with that evil.

(01:05:17):
That's what Punk was missing before.
Now that he got that evil, he already had everything else.
And somebody like Mina. I can never walk into a
tournament that is the biggest tournament on earth, one of the
biggest terms on earth and say that Mina is not a fucking top
two, top three favorite. I don't give a fuck what's going
on in the scene. This *** minute could go oh, and

(01:05:37):
two and every bracket leading upto it and he has earned not I'm
not me right, he has earned the for some reason, when it matter
most. You know what I'm saying?
That's that's. Why I got in between his in
between his Eva Japan wins, right?
I mean, he did win Cream City, but to be fair, that's that was

(01:05:57):
more like an NA regional, right That where he qualified a
captain Cup in between those those Eva Japan wins.
What was he? What did MENA win of that
caliber? In fact, you can even argue
there were some moments where hekind of was having a lull in his
performances. He So the first EVO Japan win,
he went the first after the first EVO Japan win, he came

(01:06:18):
back to play in our World Warrior.
He drowned in Pool. He'd be like that.
That's brother. That's how it.
Goes brother, this is my point. I I remember that that's not How
did that happen? That that's the truth.
Then Rd. is definitely not the most consistent player.
But he has the most Grand Slam wins.
I think he might be the goal of Street Fighter, though, even
though he's not the most consistent, because when it

(01:06:38):
matter most, you know what I'm saying, and punk might be the
and punk is in the GOAT conversation.
He could be the arguably GOAT because he's won the most shit
as far as just regular like majors.
And now he finally got a fuckingevil, the first American evil.
You know that stuff is greatnessto me, though, you know what I
mean? So that that that's.
So, So what about let me let me press on Lashar?
Then why do you feel like the music wasn't playing for Lashar,

(01:07:01):
that comma breaker and CEO? And you know, he got real close
with Street Fighter League Japanas well.
Why? Why do you not consider those
moments to be like that? Because that music right there,
that's from when it matters most.
The world is on the line. The whole Unicron about to blow
this bitch up, but Unicron aboutto blow this bitch up until it's
EVO Capcom Cup, EWC, you know what I'm saying?
You save New York City or some shit that's different.

(01:07:25):
You those those biggest ones When I don't wins Capcom Cup,
you got the touch. You hear what I'm saying?
That's a whole different pressure, a whole different ball
game. That's why I look at like that's
why I was psycho. I knew and and psycho and shine
yes, they did their thing at Street Fighter league Street
Fighter league NA finals. That's cool, brother, when you

(01:07:46):
did that shit at Capcom cup and and now and all of this is on
the line. OK, you reach a different tier.
Same thing with sports. You know IDZ there's my fuckers.
That's great in the regular season, but what have you done
when it mattered the most? That was the knock on Punk, and
now I can. Now I don't I don't knock him on
that. Now he won E Punk, you know, but
that's all I'm I won't be surprised if Lashar wins.

(01:08:07):
What you're saying? He would get in if if Mina.
If Mina wins, he doesn't go intoa new tier.
If Punk wins, he does not go into a new tier.
If Lashar wins, he goes into a new tier.
I would argue if Lashar wins, hegoes into A tier for Street
Fighter 6. He's entering his own tier
because that to me, that's threepremier wins in a row which has.
Not I I, I don't think even during Street Fighter Five,

(01:08:30):
nobody won. Comma Breaker CEO and Evo
back-to-back. That's the Holy Trinity.
Yeah, that's is it. That's what I'm saying.
That's literally blink. Respawn was kind of shoved into
the schedule there, right? Like that was inserted to be of
that caliber with the esports World Cup and CPT points now.
So that's why I was a little disappointed you didn't go to
that. But for years it was comma
breaker CEO and evo like that was the big three really like

(01:08:55):
the build up to evo. So if Lashar to me wins that, I
think that that is like winning evo Japan back to but you know
what I mean? Like that to me is like that's
of that level in my opinion. So I think if he if Lashar wins
this one, he surpassed a lot of people in this era of Street
Fighter 6 like and legacy as well.

(01:09:16):
I think he'll be like undeniablythe best SF6 player, but even
then it's kind of kind of like alot of discussions to be had.
I mean, he's probably the most consistent.
He would not. You can.
You think if he want evil? You think he'd be the best
Street Fighter Six player of alltime so far?
We were just saying, Rob, listen, comma breaker, CEO, EVO,
that was the big three. Nobody has won all three of

(01:09:39):
those in a row. That means to me, if you win all
three of those in a row, you have you have won the build up
to EVO like that. Is it you?
You have swept that era. So that to me is is saying
something. If Lashar wins EVO on top of
that, it's like I I bleak. Respawn shook things up for the
first time by having something of that caliber put between CEO
and EVO. Normally that wasn't there.

(01:09:59):
Right? And Lashar did not attend.
He took a break. So kind of muddies the whole.
Yeah, but it muddies the whole build up a little bit.
But like, for the legacy audiences, it was comma Ricker
CEO, EVO CEO was always the precursor to EVO.
Like the preview of what was going to happen.
And Lashar went Punk one CEO last year than one Evo.

(01:10:20):
Lashar won CEO this year and comma breaker if he wins evil on
top of that, that's to me, that's the the three big leading
the ramp to to legacy, you know,the lamp to ramp to greatness.
So I think there's a big conversation for Lashar if you
if he wins EVO in terms of taking over some spots in the
world of Street Fighter 6. Yeah, yeah, that's a, that's a

(01:10:41):
good God damn case. That's hard to argue that level
of dominance because I mean the most dominant player that I
didn't seen probably was what probably punk back in the day,
2017 type. Yeah, that's the 2017.
Paul is the yeah, that's the most dominant player we've ever
really seen, and even he didn't do that.
Well, well, actually to mines are still season 1 Goichi and

(01:11:06):
Dragon Ball. He was unbeatable, yeah.
That's. Actually the that's actually the
GOAT season 1 Dragon Ball Goichi.
And now, all this time later, isthe winning Fatal Fury EWC.
Yeah, yeah. Now he's a Fatal Fury champion.
That's fucking crazy. And top 8A comma breaker, you
know, he's, he's who knows aboutEvo, right?
Goichi, I don't know, I don't know what he's going to be
focusing on for Evo, but he, he,if he chooses to, he could,

(01:11:28):
right? Like he did it at comma breaker
and he was the one who like gatekept.
Who did he gate kept? He, he randomly got like top
four in the final world Warrior for Japan when a lot of people
needed those points. Like he gate kept somebody from
getting the points to qualify. He's like, oh, I'm going to show
up and and win this or like go really far.
I don't know if he's nasty. I don't know if this evil would
give him minimum one back-to-back evil Japan.

(01:11:50):
Yeah, rather it's Street FighterSix.
So he won back-to-back evil Japan and he won Street Fighter
League World Championship beating Japan and carrying for
it respectfully, like he had to carry too.
I'm not if you if the strong went evil, I'm not comfortably
saying that he the best Street Fighter Six player up to this
point of all time. Well, most.
Two straight depends and fucking.

(01:12:10):
Like for titles, yeah, I think MENA would still be MENA would
still be above, but one title away from equal footing with a
shark. I was wrong.
Going back off of what you said,you still said you're holding
Evo Vegas higher than Evo Japan,but you got to give.
What's the ratio? What's the ratio?
You know what the? Ratio is.
I agree entirely, but to win twoof them bitches and win it

(01:12:33):
back-to-back now so it's. Like .75 Evo Vegas is like, what
is it? Is it?
I don't know but. You get what I mean by that.
Like I do think Evo Japan on paper technically was the harder
tournament like last time, right?
Like do we agree on that? Like on paper, skill wise, but I
believe the the the the stakes of Evo Vegas make it more

(01:12:55):
respectable and harder to me. But skill wise, like who was
there in playing like how much harder the pools are harder and
everything gets harder. Do we agree by?
That then that logic by that logic Japan like then you should
hold Japan by higher. But to me.
There's just a little bit less. Evo Vegas Harder.
I see what you're saying, but also even for skill wise, like I
think for the average level, theaverage level is much higher in

(01:13:17):
EVO Japan. But I don't know if I am firm on
this position, but there's a decent amount of the
international top talent that doesn't go to EVO Japan, right?
I mean, they might have went this year, but I know at least
in the first Eva Japan, I don't think like if the birds were
there, there's a handful of players who don't end up
attending. Yeah, this one was really
stacked. I think this was 2024 or the

(01:13:39):
most recent 1/20/25 was much harder to win.
So like the fact that MENA did it again is.
My point is the best, but there's.
Some top level players that aren't going from like the best
in the world from other regions besides men aren't going.
The average level is much higherthough, of course.
But like when you're looking at Menardi, who are you looking to
beat him? Winning, winning Evil Japan.

(01:14:00):
Specific people. Winning evil Japan back-to-back
is more impressive than winning combo breaker CEO and evil in a
row. And I'm I'm staying on that.
I'm down on that hill. That's my opinion.
I think winning evil Japan back-to-back is is more
impressive than that's one. In the end of the day, it's
amazing and and one of the best things I've ever seen.
So I'm not downplaying it, but that's one year of being a God.

(01:14:23):
Back-to-back is like, they had awhole year to get better.
And I won again and the tournament got harder and I won
again and I just wanted. To value because like the thing
about MENA Rd., right, like we said, those were the peaks, yet
it kind of the valleys in between.
But Lashar is having this whole ramp moment.
Like to me, they're, they're they're amazing, but it's kind
of cool. There's there's two different
things to appreciate there. Like MENA Rd.

(01:14:44):
I had no, I was not going to that.
Even Japan, I was not like men are with Japan again, you know,
like I wasn't, that was not on my mind.
But Lashar, if he does this in arow, that's also very impressive
to me. Consistency is huge.
At our local, we did like a little fantasy draft for this
year's EVO Japan. You know, no one picked MENA
because there was like, he's playing like he hasn't been

(01:15:05):
playing that well that entire time.
No one picked MENA, so no one got robbed in there.
Yeah, Rob would. Have picked me.
Rob, you are. You're annoying with the punk
MENA picks because it's like 80%of the time it doesn't work and
the 20% of the time it does. And it's like, yeah, I guess
eventually if you keep saying punk and MENA, you're not.
Well, my percentage. They're going to come around and
win again. Picking them, my percentage is

(01:15:26):
still, I bet you it's still higher than what other people
get by picking all these other motherfuckers.
I've been in my percentage, yeah.
Yeah, if you just, it's like, you know, on your test it's
always put C on the scanter on it.
You just always put punker MENA.Eventually, you're going to win
more than you lose. You picked Kaka Rooper Japan.
I did not. So you you you.
I mean for a cat punk up I thinkyou literally picked.
You guys, you know, I still get comments about oh, I can't

(01:15:48):
believe on that podcast no one put Kaku even though you guys
outvoted me on the solo predictions on our show, you
know, I put 100 Kaku. You guys voted me out, which was
insane, by the way. But look, yeah.
So by the way, who's winning that evil Vegas?
Do I get my pick here? Oh, you didn't even say yeah,
who you who you got? I guess you guys reminded me.

(01:16:09):
I guess it's about time, Kakadu.He's back again.
Whoa, that's. A That's a tough one.
That's a tough one. This is this is the one.
If he wins cup champion evil back-to-back.
Back to Evo. Great.
He he hasn't been playing that well since Capcom Cup to be

(01:16:29):
honest. But it could.
It could happen. Menardi hasn't been playing that
well. I just got to get my vote in
because I feel like I got robbedof my prediction last time.
My other pick would have been, it would have been Fudo.
That would have been. I just, I just think the clutch
factor he showed to me is of that.
I mean, he's done it before. Both Fudo, Memochi, they're Evo

(01:16:49):
champions. Fudo's clutch factor is
ridiculous. But I am always a believer in
Kakadu. Kind of like a Rob's been our ID
To me. Kakadu, it just has the
optimization, the level. I'm a little bit nervous because
he hasn't been going to tournaments.
I wish he was selfishly just to watch him play.
But he, you know, he, he qualified right away.
What he doesn't have anything toprove right now.
Got $1,000,000 Topanga League. I think he did decent in Topanga

(01:17:13):
League. He didn't win, I think, but
wasn't he top three we. Got that Fourth?
Yeah, if you can get. If you get 4th and 3rd in
Topanga League, you can win the whole thing, right Fudo?
But objectively, on paper, Fudo would be a better pick right now
because he just won the Panga League and Blink respond, which
is absurd. And the way he won blink respond
to me is like Rob's clutch factor, you know?
So Fudo it's to me is hitting all those boxes so.

(01:17:36):
But I'd rather just say Kakadu because.
Hey, Khakaroo, the fact that he won the most money ever, bro,
and not not from one event. He won the first gamers when it
was Gamers 8. He won Gamers 8 and EVO.
That means you can always bet onhim safely, in my opinion.
So yeah, I think that's AI do think that's a safe, that's a,
that's a, that's a good pick. Yeah, he's just been low key

(01:17:57):
since Capcom Cup for us in the West, right?
So I feel like a lot of people aren't thinking about him right
now. So so I want to throw this out.
When I saw the top eight, I saidPunk was going to win.
That was that was me last year. As soon as I saw the top 8 brack
I was like Punk winning the. I'll pick punk.
I picked punk windows to win evil last year beforehand I
believe. I think it's an interview.

(01:18:17):
Well, we know it's Punker MENA so.
No, it was because. I believe it.
Was because the CEO? To be fair it was because he was
hot up CEO but I don't pick other people bro.
But then you don't pick Lashar. I'm I'm just still confused.
You know about? No no but I said I got Lashar.
I swear I would pick. I would literally pick Lashar
bro if he already had a Grand Slam win.

(01:18:38):
But punk, What did you consider punk's Grand Slam before that?
Was it the what was the 2017 turn?
A lot of money. Was it elite?
Is that what you kind? Of just Grand Slam you.
Didn't have no Grand Slam win, so you you poked a hole in my
argument a little bit. But I will say his history was
crazier than Lashar's to be fair.
But that is a fairpoint Lashar. Lashar to me is the closest

(01:19:01):
we're getting to it's, it's not the same, of course, 2017 Punk
was a different level. But what I'm saying is Lashar is
the first time we've seen any sense of stability and
consistency at premier level. The first, the very the very
first instance of it and then Fudo is the second one to meet
to a degree to win Topanga League, even though it's not our
CPT Premier. And then blink Respawn right

(01:19:22):
after. That's the second instance.
I think this season it's finallyinching towards like a more
stable competitive environment in that sense.
And I don't think that's just the game.
I think just like also the mobile competition is so high
that so many people are travelling that it's really hard
to make that that jump. But I feel like Lashar is making
that push more than anybody. That's why I'm really looking at

(01:19:44):
Lashar right now. Yeah.
And you know, side note, by the way, I actually, I think I
brought this up to you before, Brian.
I don't know if I'll talk to youabout it.
I don't. But somebody like Lashar, I
really think one of the secrets to being like super God like is
like almost stoicism. Like not literally, but not, you
know, I think a lot of the not. Really.
Not really. There's a lot of people who

(01:20:05):
aren't like that, who are just God like.
To be fair, like in sports consistency, I really think
that's one of the reasons why I like to like a lot of the Asian
players be fucking God like as fuck because they kind of just,
and I'm not the one on fucking weird ass anime shit.
I'm just saying like even you eyed easy, like you show more
shit now. But I definitely think one of
the reasons you want to cap pumpup was your temperament.

(01:20:27):
I think people's natural temperament, you know, like
somebody being a more emotional,outward emotional person, I
think creates more volatility, even whatever your skill level
might, might be. Like I, I, I even think that,
yeah. I mean, even though I know MENA
doesn't fit in that type of category.
I'm I'm about to bring guns. Your two goats are Punk and

(01:20:47):
MENA, who are extremely emotional people.
MENA Rd. wears his emotions on his sleeve and you can argue
that has his power up. That's actually his X Factor,
that he knows how to harness it.And Punk.
I can argue it hurt punk a lot over the years.
Maybe it has, but maybe it's also fueled them.
Like I think punk is a person who who's fueled by ego and
spite, right? And so in a sense that could be

(01:21:08):
what drives them as well. Like, I think different, you
know, competitors find differentsources of what drives them.
Generally, I think culturally aswell from Japan, you tend to see
more reserved attitudes and theytry to, you know, not show their
emotions on their sleeve. That's kind of a cultural thing
as well. But.
I think that's what. Makes the hood.
No, I'm not saying how they are inside, like what they really

(01:21:30):
feeling inside. And you know me, you know what
my personality is kind of, I want to say similar to punk, but
as far as competitively, you know, I, I agree.
You're more on that side. I'm more on that side.
You also. Think that you know, if you put
fucking punk skill in God damn Lashar somebody's fucking his

(01:21:51):
brain. Like as far as like his
personality type that probably would have been had 50 evos and
Capricorn quiz by now in my opinion.
But maybe, maybe I see what you're saying about consistency,
but maybe that also fuels the peaks.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's hard to say now.
I get what you mean. Like MENA, MENA is a player who
peaks. Is he not like, oh show, I don't

(01:22:11):
look at MENA as consistent as a consistent player for his level.
Like he for being the most eliteplayer potentially on the
planet, right? Like he'll have results that are
not of what you would predict for someone who just won an EVO,
right? I mean, they're still in the mix
of top top level talents, right?But even if you're trying to get
above and set yourself apart, it's it's not always a random

(01:22:33):
tournament. You're not going to think that
of that result, but he peaks andthen it could be because of
those, that emotional energy that he draws for those moments,
right? So it's hard to say.
But I do agree that you're saying with Lashar's
temperament, he's always very consistently placing very high,
right? Every Kaplan Cup, he's he's top.
He's like 5th place or higher strip of the league.

(01:22:53):
That's a format about consistency.
He was the most dominant player in that league.
He didn't clutch out in the end,but he was, you know, the the
MVP Right now we're seeing him win back-to-back premieres.
It's a safe bet to say he's going to probably go far.
Oh, for sure. Right.
And I think that's to his his credit for his temperament.
I I see what you're saying there.
I don't think he's a player who's fueled by his emotions to

(01:23:16):
peak in that moment. It's more about a consistent
rise to the top where but we've seen these other players who I
think are very emotionally charged and that fuels them to
win when the lights are the brightest.
Justin Wong, I don't know what the better strategy is.
Justin Wong is, I would considerhim AI know he plays lane, but
he's I think he wears his emotions when he was competing.
You fucking like, like you said,MENA punk Sonic fox, Sonic fox

(01:23:40):
expressiveness, you know, so Oh yeah, I, I guess in general, I
think not just Grand Slam as a whole, from my vantage point,
people that are even keel got a better chance of repeating the
same process and same level of skill over and over and over
again. I think that's one of the
reasons why the Asian countries are stronger, but that's about

(01:24:00):
me. That's true.
I don't, I don't. I actually don't think you know
all know the argument, but I don't think Asia's the best in
SF6 to be fair. That's not that's that's not
even controversial to say anymore.
The reason why I was bringing a blink respond is to say it made
me nostalgic because we saw Japan but back in top 8.
But yeah, I don't think that's controversial.
I don't. I don't think that about.
Top to bottom though, like depthwise they are depth wise right?

(01:24:23):
Yeah, depth wise, but it's always like that.
They got a million for, they got2000 more people playing then I
was according to this Evo. It's not even fair.
That's a fair point. Well, it just depends on what
you're talking about, right? So like you're saying, Adam,
that if you took the the top 20 or top 10 best players and did a
10V10, there's other regions that can beat them.
And I think that's definitely fair in this game 100%.

(01:24:43):
And now if you compare the average and depth of talent,
Japan shits. In the world like.
There's so many. Players OK, not like no Ocvs.
There's countries that can beat them 10V10I.
Think if you took Nas top ten and took Japan's top ten, it's
not even close. Well, I mean say not even close,
but I think it. Averaged the results somehow did

(01:25:04):
maybe the round Robin and and and weighed every.
Result. You got to beat like who just
scores the most points first to three?
Top first player, first player. You think America, like NA as a
whole might get it? Yeah, yeah.
Oh shit. I got to think.
About this in six, in six, in six.
In six and you. Know.

(01:25:25):
I'm I think it falls off very maybe you did top five.
I think the problem with every other region is it falls off so
fast compared to Japan. Right.
No, I think. If you didn't see Chile, like
Chile could win, you know Chile could.
And also if you depend on how you you weigh things like blahs
beat all of Japan and the world during Capcom Cup, right?

(01:25:46):
And crime A, you know, you almost made Diego retire, right?
Like so you can make arguments depending on the format for
every region. I think you'd have to do some
kind of like theoretical weighted round Robin and average
the results. Where are we going real quick?
Punk Mina Adam Duel Kevin. That's 12345 Punk, MENA, Adam Do
Kevin nephew where we go. Knuckle.

(01:26:09):
Do knuckle. Do knuckle do.
Knuckle, do you're saying like versus Japan?
Yeah, this is our top. I want our 10 because I I that
sounds crazy, but I want to see if I'm tripping 10 right now.
That's punk, MENA. That's 8.
Kev, Nephew, Knuckle dude, that's six and we struggling to

(01:26:29):
find four more. We're going to put Psycho in.
Oh no, no, no. Oh, you got to put psycho.
You got to put Noah. Yeah, Noah's.
Psycho Noah's the final boss forUSA in this format for sure.
Yeah, Noah's in there. And then what did you say,
nephew? Then there's like, I don't know,
Yeah, it's debatable. There's Psycho is making a good

(01:26:50):
case for himself. Psycho right now.
Then maybe a Jack, you know, like.
Then maybe a shine, maybe a. Who else?
A boost. A boost, boost, boost.
Damn boost there. I ain't gonna.
Lie our team kind of nasty punk Minna Adam dual Kevin nephew
that's five knuckle dude no other prodigy psycho Jack Sean

(01:27:13):
boost. Now I will say.
They've all be in the best players from Japan, Yeah, every
single one of them they've done.It so we could win that, we
could win that, but I don't think we are favored if it's
we're not favored. If we listed Japan's 10, I'm
sorry, not favored, I don't think.
Really, really, really. Because who's the best player in
Japan? Kakadu, right?
You all say Kakadu. OK.
And then and then I mean Japan is kind of like if you think.

(01:27:40):
Mode sheet what what do you meanwhat do you mean who we just.
Want to? Kangoli Judo right now is the
best player in Japan. So, so so I I, it's funny you
say this, how punk was in 2017 to the rest of NA.
It's how I see Kakaru to the rest of Japan right now.
Oh, like. It it, there's a gap, and then
there's the rest of them. But Fudo just cleared that gap

(01:28:05):
twice. I.
Was it panga and? Yeah.
He'd be his, yeah. He'd be his, his friends at home
and abroad. Like OK.
Blink, blink, blink. Good tournament win first and
seven, and 1st and three are entirely.
That's very especially. In SF say.
But I think that's validated entirely different sense.
To me, but you're right, it depends on if you're running

(01:28:26):
this in reality or not. To me, I'm running this as a
theoretical computer simulation in my head where they're playing
first and ten sets round Robin, everybody, we're averaging all
the scores, right? That to me it would, will never
happen in real life, in a real event, and it'd be boring as
fuck. It would take years, right?
So I'm just saying if I had, if I had a computer simulation to
crunch the numbers of the average amount of wins between
all the players round Robin of every region like that, I still

(01:28:47):
put Japan probably over. Now if you do an actual
realistic format where people have to knock each other out and
do a smaller set format, then ofcourse USA has a huge chance,
Huge chance to win. I don't know what favored, but
huge chance. I got Noah beating any of them
up. I'll give a damn.
I know that sounds crazy. I'll give a deal, I think.
Noah in his own way. You know what I mean with it.
Like I. Think in the first of three, no

(01:29:09):
one could beat any of them. Yes, I think so, yeah.
Well, I think Kakutu kind of beat the brakes up of a matter
of captain. Kakutu, you right.
I would, I would be a very hesitant about Cochrane, but the
rest of them, yes. Adam, you bring up a fair
fucking point as I sit there andput this list out.
That's interesting. I might have to start a
narrative in strips and beef up.Giving giving Rob too much fuel

(01:29:32):
here. All right, well, I think we're
we're coming up to the end of this.
Do we have any last words for the extra trashy audience going
into this EVO? I I I do want to say myself, say
what's up I'll be at evo. It'll be good to see everybody.
I'm sure there'll be thousands of people there.
Let's get some games. Let's say what's up and let's
have a good time. Rob, you want to say anything to
the people? Oh yeah, just AI guess.

(01:29:54):
My main thing is like man, like that not to go too deep, but
like life, this shit is like a dream right now.
All this host and stuff and everything bro, the stuff, the
way the FTC is going and the waylike life is even for me
personally and you know, I was just got damn.
You know bro, I remember we played that motherfucking Evo.
You won. My controller was fucked, yeah,
but we played on stage at. Evo.
But you know, when I was going to these tournaments and stuff,

(01:30:15):
I never imagined like doing thistype of stuff with it.
So it's super cool. I appreciate y'all a lot.
Y'all changed my life. So I'm very excited to talk to
all of y'all who attend EVO and you know, I think it's going to
be a classic show. Yeah, same thing.
I mean, if you guys see me at EVO, come say what's up.
You know, thank for you guys. Glad you guys enjoy all the
stuff we put out and all the things we do.
So if you see me, come say what's up.

(01:30:36):
All right, that wraps us up. We'll see you guys after EVO to
see how correct I am and how wrong Idom and Rob are.
All right. Thanks for listening guys.
Peace.

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