LGG Interview with SBO 2011 Kuwaiti Team مقابلة مع ممثلي دولة الكويت لبطولة توجكي

Part 1:

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4snpo6JOQ4

Part 2:

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otqXFfOX5H8

Part 3:

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfejTnREjlA

Entire transcript and translation of the interview after the jump!

Translation:

Hamad: Hello, This is Hamad and Ali from LGG

Ali: ‘Sup

Hamad: we have a special interview with street fighter kuwaiti team who participated in japan; Maan, Ganoon, & Nox

Hamad&Ali: How are you guys? Whats up?

Everyone: All good

Hamad: of course you guys have represented kuwait in Super Battle Opera.

Ali: known as tougeki in japan

Hamad: Its the biggest tourney for arcade fighting games

Ali: 1st lets clarify for the audience, lets start with you Maan. What is SBO and how did you enter it? cause we know its invite only!

Hamad: How did kuwait enter SBO?

Maan: Well 1st, SBO is a tourney for arcade fighting games and not console, so anything on console doesnt enter the event. Regarding Kuwait, i really have no idea about the details but i know that the terms requires the country to have an arcade cabinet, center and the game you’re participating in. They requested video footage to confirm that there is an active community, not just a handful of players. They also require footage of local tourneys. There are 32 entries for each game, so its important its distributed accordingly.

Hamad: Thats true

Maan: This started for us at the begining of 2009, and they accepted us. The 1st kuwaiti team consisted of three people and participated at the end of 2009.

Ali: Ok, and do they check on the quality of players in the community? cause you know, the japanese’s level of play in fighting games is really high, wouldnt they worry you’re taking a spot from a japanese entry that is more deserving to enter?

Maan: Well… the japanese have i believe over 25 entries, and they have their own elimination system amongst themselves. The US has 2 entries.. three this year

Hamad: four!

Maan: four… and then theres Singapore, Taiwan, Korea… Europe. I really have no idea how they specify if the teams are qualified or not, but as long as there’s a community

Ali: They aim for an international thing

Maan: Yeah, kinda like the world cup i suppose. So logically, there isnt a community that plays well but doesnt have a spot at one of the strongest tournament events known worldwide.

Hamad: True

Maan: But regarding the participation level of the entered country, i have no idea about the policy. Maybe after a couple of years if the participating country isnt up to par..

Hamad: revoke the right to enter?

Maan: They might do that. The USA in the past couple of years haven’t been up to par. This year they havent passed the 1st round. Kuwait this year has reached top 16

Hamad: Good stuff

Maan: Yes thank God!

Hamad: just to make things clear, Ganoon and Nox are Kuwait’s SBO team, because this year the team consists of 2 people, last year it was 3. So as for the SBO tourney, how did you practice for it? Ganoon can you tell us when you went to japan, what did you do?

Ganoon: Well we went for approx a month. We went to arcades daily. Changing the arcade location frequently. Of course, as we started exploring, we encountered strong players with each new location, until we were satisfied with a specific arcade, and we stuck to it.

Ali: So you go looking for the strong players specifically.

Maan: Yes and we realized that the arcade in Shinjuku is where the top players are.

Ali: So that was your main arcade place?

Everyone: Yes yes…

Ganoon: Yes always there, and always playing with high level players to gain experience

Hamad: So you really took a lovely tour in the arcades

Ganoon: yup exactly

Maan: And the best thing is that the japanese have a social standard, that all the strong players found in the leaderboard gather there on weekends. Fridays, saturday, and sometimes sundays as well. You can see all the people from the leaderboard, starting from number 1, daigo, all the way till number 20, FUCK YUN!!

Hamad&Ali: HA?!

Maan: FU*KYUN

Ali: Aha!

Hamad: Game safari…

Maan: (Interrupts) no, i think the arcade stick there is bad or its expensive, i dont know. And they go looking for cheaper places.

Ali: Yes cause they play alot

Hamad: Thats true

Maan: Yes they play alot, and they look for good arcade sticks and of course best arcades are the ones close to the station, so its easier to get on the train back home

Hamad: Shinjuku station is huge

Maan: as soon as you leave the station the arcade center is right in front of you

Ganoon: the best thing about the scene there is that using the card you can see where the best players are playing through the internet.

Maan: (interrupts) the phone

Ganoon: Yeah the phone, anyways, so they would go to where those players are if they feel like playing against them

Hamad: so using the phone, i just check where the top 20 are, and it will say; Shinjuku.

Maan: Not necessarily, you can search.

Ganoon: yeah, you can search by name and look for a person

Hamad: sweet

Ali: you know since you’ve had your go against high level players, didnt you feel discouraged losing alot, especially the 1st couple of days?

Nox: Sure did

Ganoon: i guess its a must

Nox: Especially the 1st couple of days, we weren’t great.

Ali: New environment

Nox: Yeah, new environment, new style of gameplay

Ganoon: And of course character match-ups. I’ve felt that i’ve done differently against specific characters. I personally got discouraged.

Ali: But hey its an experience gained right?

Ganoon: of course! actually i started looking for characters i dont know how to play against. You know cause Kuwait sometimes lacks in diversity with characters so its somewhat new

Hamad: was there a specific character you felt it was difficult to deal with at first?

Ganoon: yes, for me it was adon

Hamad: adon?

Ganoon: and vega (claw)… i suppose the rest were alright. There are characters i felt really confident against

Ali: What about you nox?

Nox: for me it was ibuki, chun li, and blanka.

Ali: Maan?

Maan: Bison… Yun… you know any character i feel like its lame, keeping a distance.

Hamad: defensive?

Maan: yeah.. *grumbles*..

Ali: (laughs) thats a different play-style; you need to learn against that too… so you’ve also entered Ayano Cup tournament, which is 5 vs 5

Ganoon: Yeah

Ali: we were really happy to hear about the results, you won against two teams.. no wait, only the first team… the second team was supposed to be your win as well, but

Maan: Supposed to…

Ali: we want to know the story

Ganoon: Bison was really strong!!

Ali: Elaborate more about the Ayano Cup 5v5

Ganoon: First entry…

Maan: (interupts) Tell it from when we were at the station. Of course they told us club sega. We usually go to Shinjuku taito Station. This is the first time we go to club sega. we started to look for it for ages, and then we saw kazunoko by coincidence. We were 11 dudes and kazunoko was alone.

Ali: (laughs)

Maan: We were worried we might scare him going all together, so we sent Firas.

Ali: (laughs cause he knows firas personally)

Maan: so firas goes to talk to him since he already knows kazunoko through several matches together. Kazanuku offered to lead the way.

Ganoon: It felt like a march to school

Maan: so we found the place, it was crowded unlike last year. Last year it was held in big box which was quite spacious.

Hamad: The one in Takadanobaba?

Maan: Yes. Sega club was much smaller and in a basement and was really crowded.

Ali: and it was more crowded than last year?

Ganoon: yup

Ali: was last year 3v3 or 5v5?

Hamad: no it was 3v3

Everyone: different opinions

Ganoon: there were lots of arcades and the queues were packed.

Maan: it was really suffocating, but it was fun.

Ganoon: Everywhere in japan is fun!!

Hamad: How was the tournament?

Ganoon: tournament was really fun, we had a blast! the first team we went up against was a full japanese team. We won against them with two of our players. Yousef and Firas.

Ali: Sweet… thats a nice indication

Ganoon: As for the 2nd team. The first character was yun.

Maan: Yes and they had Viper. Hes the person responsible for taking out the american team

Ali: Viper had a win percentage around the 80’s?

Maan: round about %81.6

Ali&Hamad: Grandmaster? of course in japan that’s an insane ranking

Maan: yes grandmaster.. of course his viper was really strong. when we saw the match we wanted to go against the american team, but that viper was a beast. At first we thought kuwait vs america would’ve been a moer significant weight in the match, but that viper was soo tempting. Some of our team member started rooting for viper to actually play against him. When viper won, we started to get cold feet, cause that viper took them all out i believe.

Ganoon: So when we played against them, the first match-up was their yun against yousef’s dudley, and we lost that match. So after that we started to strategize cause we can choose who goes next, there is no set order.

Ali: What about the 1st characters? raffle draw?

Ganoon: No, its an anonymous pick. So now we are going against yun, logically we thought the best player to go against yun is Nox. It was a gamble cause Nox is probably the best one amongst us. He won, and we felt relieved.

Nox: And then it was blanka

Ali: And we know for fact you really dislike blanka

Nox: Yeah i really hate him

Ganoon: yes but he saw a couple of games kiryu against blanka and babatiwawa against blanka

Ali: nice

Nox: yeah so i picked up a couple of “things”

Ganoon: Yeah we dont know how to play against blanka cause we really dont have a blanka of such level in kuwait. Anyway, he learned a couple of tricks and thats it, he does well against blanka now.

Maan: He’s even gone against the top two blanka players in japan and netted wins.

Ali: Thats the advantage of a comunity and participating, you gain experience.

Ganoon: yup exactly. Even when you just stand and watch and happen to see a high level player picking your character you’ll learn things. Especially against characters you dont know how to play against.

Ali: take strategies

Hamad: and see how he plays under certain conditions.

Ganoon: So, anyway.. he won against blanka

Ali: nice

Ganoon: After blanka was… ken?

Nox: Ken

Ganoon: He also has this little problem against ken

Nox: Mhm

Ganoon: just a little bit… he lost against ken and it was back to voting on who goes next. So i suggested myself cause i know how to play against ken well.

Maan: The thing that really put off us off was yun being sent as a first character.

Ali: Yeah I think its rare to see yun being put out there as a first character. Thats weird, hes usually last.

Maan: Please dont forget that theres also a viper there and we dont know who the 5th player is.

Ali: you dont know who the 5th player is..?

Maan: No we dont… we know that there are 5 players, but have no idea, ryu ken, etc..

Ali: cause he didnt play in the previous game

Everyone: Yeah he didnt

Ganoon: But we were still giving alot of thought about viper… cause you hear that he took out an entire team and its scary. Anyways, i won against Ken. After ken it was viper.. or was there another person before?

Nox: no no, 3rd was ken, 4th was viper, bison was 5th.

Maan: We were all really warming up to go against viper

Ali: (laughs)

Ganoon: I really didnt know that viper took out the entire american team at that time. I just sat and played, so i really didnt feel pressured, but it was because i had no idea. I won, and i really didnt find any difficulties because i was holding pressure from the begining of the match.

Ali: Everything went smoothly?

Ganoon: All of it. Even the predections. After that… who was it again?

Everyone: Bison!

Nox: Best bison in japan!

Ali: so whats the deal with that bison?

Ganoon: The highest ranking bison in japan.

Maan: Hes ranked 14th in japan.

Nox: overall 14th!

Ali: of course in japan, a person who reaches top 20 is already insanely good!

Maan: Keep in mind not with any character such as yun or yang

Ali: so not top tier characters you mean

Hamad: i think 6 of the top are yun’s or more even

Maan: yes 7 of the top 20 are yun’s and about 2 or 3 yang’s

Hamad: Yeah, so 14th as bison is crazy!

Ganoon: yes… so i went against him and i won the 1st round barely. second round i couldnt even close the distance and the same for the 3rd round.

Hamad&Ali: He caught on to your gameplay

Ganoon: Yes that was it. I tried to just knock him down just so i can hold my footing in the game. He didnt let me knock him down at all. Best scenario was me hitting him while he is in the air only.

Ali: Tournament gameplay is really different than casual gameplay right?

Ganoon: Of course! theres lots of turtling in tournaments

Maan: and bison is the strongest… no not the strongest character, but if he wants to play really defensive, you really feel discouraged and have a hard time playing. Keep in mind this is not any bison, this is a pro player.

Nox: it was really a bad choice for me to go second

Ali: Why? do you believe you can go against bison well?

Nox: yes i have no problems against bison

Ganoon: Yes he plays well against bison

Nox: Bison and viper, i have no problems with them

Ali: So even with the order of characters/players there are strategies

Maan: Yes… that initial yun.

Ganoon: Yun as first really screwed us up. I could’ve went against yun, and if i can confirm a knockdown the game will be in my favorm, but he has equal chances to do that as well. If he does, i really have no solid escape with sakura. I really didnt want to play a matchup like that. So Nox had the best chances.

Hamad: so this tournament was a warm-up for the big one.

Ganoon: you could say that

Maan: and we had fun. Even the Commentator was practicing, seeing new faces and characters.

Ganoon: I later found out that after our match that viper went against itabashi and fuudo’s team. Strong players, yet viper took them all out.

Ali: Fuudo of course is the player that won the EVO tournament and itabashi is number 1 zangief or number 2?

Maan: maybe number 2

Ganoon: i think number 2

Maan: he won both evo and god’s garden 4

Hamad: right

Ali: thats fuudo?

everyone: yeah

Ali: alright! so its time for SBO. Lets talk about SBO. Nox, during SBO, what was your reactions like. I know that there might have been frustrations. So now that it was happening after a month of training, could you tell us more about it?

Nox: well at first i was scared, cause the team we were going against had a blanka

Ali: but before blanka you went against the american team.

Nox: yes but we didnt know that at the time. When we got there, there was a problem with some sort of delay and we were informed to go against the americans. So we debated me and ganoon on who goes first. As said i dont have a problem with yun. Im more worried from Ken than yun. Fortunately the raffle draw put me agaisnt yun and ganoon against bananaken.

Ali: SBO was a raffle draw for order?

Hamad: Oh! so theres no strategy involved

Ganoon: well the only strategy was who was going to play 1st.

Hamad: So the matchups are set, but which match goes 1st is up to you?

Ganoon: yup.. so theres alot of luck factor

Nox: I’ve played against that yun before

Ali: so you have experience against him?

Nox: Sure

Ali: HsienChang right?

Hamad: yes

Nox: I was really scared, but i was edgy cause of the tournament’s environment

Hamad: Ganoon what about you? how were your reactions like?

Ganoon: I was against bananaKen, i really didnt know how to play against him in tougeki at all.

Hamad: you were getting jitters

Ganoon: I really felt pressured cause of the tournament.

Maan: in ayano cup, he won against BananaKen 2 to 1

Ali: so even you had experience playing against him.

Ganoon: Yes i played against him before

Ali: so during the tournament, was there a different playstyle from him or from you?

Ganoon: Well, i felt like my play during the tournament was different. Even the delicate plays i use to pull off easily

Ali: How?

Ganoon: For example there is this specific jump, where i know the distance thru a small step. I felt like i screwed up the timing with that. It wasnt beucause of the machine; it was because i was scared, because of the pressure. I really have no problems with ken, all i need is a knockdown. I did land knockdowns, but my jumps are all off. Hes not supposed to be able to pull off shoryukens without being punished. Due to my jitters all the jumps failed and i got hit with the shoryukens

Ali: Tournament jitters really plays a role

Ganoon: Yeah it does

Ali: so after Nox won his game against HsienChang and you lost yours, now Nox has to play against BananaKen.

Ganoon: Yup

Ali: What happened then?

Nox: I got scared. I played ken in Ayano cup..

Ali: Same ken?

Nox: No but i hate playing against ken. First round of the game, he won, and a really fast win. The guys got really depressed. Second round, he was winning.

Ali: So he had a health benefit

Nox: Yes, but i caught a break and evened it out, which nabbed the game. Third round i understood his style and dominated the round.

Ali: sweet

Nox: Then we went back to playing the original game, mokoto and blanka. I went back to being worried. I was praying i would get mokoto for the raffle draw. I got blanka.

Ali: So it really doesnt go the way you want it for everything so far!

Nox: I went against blanka, and started to remember stuff i picked up from kiryu and i won.

Maan: Yes thats the best thing that happened there

Ali: Was he number 1 blanka?

Maan&Ganoon: no no, number 1 in osaka

Maan: number 3 in japan

Ganoon: Chari, i used to follow his matches.

Ali: When you used to play with blanka.

Ganoon: yup

Maan: Honestly the game was intense, but it was clear it was Nox’s win

Ali: so Nox was dominating the game?

Maan: Yes yes, from the begining of the game. Unfortunately, alot of people were passing in front of us when it was Ganoon’s turn against mokoto, but (as soon as there was a gap between the passers we can see Ganoon’s hits landing) X 3

Ganoon: (laughing)

Ali: so it was fun

Maan: yes, it was… but when the crowd cleared up, ganoon’s character has lost, So it was evident that it was a strong comeback

Ganoon: Hey, i play well against mokoto. If i put her in a corner its really difficult to get out. I was dominating the game. Then he pulled off a weird move i never seen before, he threw the whole super meter just so he can grab me

Ali: Wow!

Ganoon: yeah, so he grabbed me, hit me with an ultra and i lost

Ali&Hamad: mokoto is a damage truck

Maan: i was really surprised. we were watching the game knowing the it was ganoon’s win. i was holding two cameras. Everytime you can see me recording ganoon hitting. You know sakura’s combo is really long. I glanced away, talked to the guys, glanced back, Sakura was dead and mokoto was smiling.

Ali: (laughing)

Maan: We got depressed again

Ali: So now mokoto will go against Nox, how are you with mokoto?

Nox: hmm.. alright.. 50/50 i suppose. I won, but i knew that the next match would be with Diago

Ali: OOOOooooOOooooooOOoOOoOOO… why go against daigo, its still too early

Hamad: well quarter finals will have all strong players

Maan: Yes and since you’re in one of the strongest tournaments world wide, and now you’re pitted against the qualifiers so it get tougher and tougher in tougeki. Daigo qualified in last chance. You know, we really wanted to play against a strong team; not so when we lose we have an excuse but rather so that when we win its more gratifying.

Nox: i was happy we were told that if we win we could play against daigo.

Ali: so was that an incentive?

Nox: Sure, i always wanted to go against daigo in a tournament scene. and Iyo was with him and he is one of the best players in japan

Ali: We were rooting for you in the stream. We looked like silly cheerleaders. Whenever we saw/heard anything about the kuwait team we start yelling and shoving eachother and sending texts. Your first game on the stream was against Iyo. We were all quiet waiting to see the match.

Nox: Against ibuki?! what did you expect to see?

Ali: (laughing)

Nox: I really dont know how to play against her. But i was playing happily cause i was going against Iyo

Ali: Aha, you were going against his ibuki, and Iyo is a strong player

Maan: i think Iyo is either the 7th or 9th in japan. Iyo’s reputation is really fierce, not just in street fighter… Such names like Daigo and Mago..

Ganoon: Even in this match i really had no luck

Ali: How so?

Ganoon: I wanted to play with Iyo

Nox: and me with Daigo

Ali&Hamad: All bad luck (laughs)

Ganoon: Meh, SBO was really bad for me. I still had jitters playing with Daigo, cause i really didnt know Daigo was participating.

Ali: Yes cause during that time he didnt announce anything

Ganoon: yup, and during the casuals i really revealed all my cards. I’ve showed all my tricks

Maan: Mago said he wont participate, as well as Daigo

Ganoon: Anyway, so i showed him all my plays in the casuals since he didnt want to enter and i wanted to benchmark my level against him. I played really well against him in the casuals. It was better than my performance in the tournament. I really started to worry, cause i was thinking i’ve already shown all my tricks, so how am i supposed to play against him?

Ali: i believe even when Nox lost, it played a factor into your psych

Ganoon: Well… i was joking around when he lost, i asked hiMaan: “Do you want me to eliminate both of them?”

Ali&Hamad: (laughing)

Ali: Confidence huh?

Ganoon: It was just a laugh, so i could reduce the pressure and tension. It didnt

Ali: But your plays were good. Sakura’s combo was 1 frame link. It wasnt an easy combo. Not only did you perform it on Daigo, but it gave you a stun opportunity if you had landed 1 or 2 more frames. That stun could’ve been a game changer

Ganoon: Thats true. If that stun would’ve landed, i would’ve had EX bars for the next round, and that could cause snowball effect.

Ali: But didnt you think that yun – sakura matchup is difficult, even if it wasnt daigo playing?

Ganoon: yes it is

Maan: Generally Yun and anyone

Hamad: Yun is really a strong character

Ganoon: I really love Daigo’s Yun

Ali: Is his gameplay unique?

Ganoon: Yes… that type of gameplay gives you time to react and think, but still feels like the strongest yun.

Ali: what do you mean time to think?

Ganoon: Well when yun is on the offensive, and you’re a character with no uppercut it is really difficult to get out. Daigo doesnt rush into the offensive playstyle. He waits and sees what you do.

Ali: so he plays depending on your playstyle?

Hamad: more of a reaction based style

Ganoon: Yes. When i was playing against him in the casuals, i avoided jumping, cause he has an uppercut move. So i just walk and play footsies. As soon as i try to hit him with down forward, he jumps on reaction in his place, over the forward and confirms a combo with a knockdown at the end. So if you noticed in the tournament, i walk up and whiff down short, and as soon as he jumps i have finished my active frames and hit him with standing fierce.

Ali: so it become more of a tactical play?

Ganoon: Yes i like playing with daigo cause i like the way he thinks and he gives you the opportunity to think like him.

Hamad: you dont feel like its random play

Ganoon: Not at all

Nox: Definately not.

Ganoon: i think that yun is more of a random character

Hamad: thats the thing, lots of people been complaining that for example when you shoryuken its safe.

Ganoon: His yun was really nice. But i do appoligise for the jittery play.

Hamad&Ali: No no. not at all

Ali: Yes we were really proud. But we forgot something. You didnt explain your game with Ibuki

Nox: Well with Ibuki, as soon as i found out i was playing with Iyo, i started laughing hysterically

Ali: (Laughs) surrendered so soon?

Hamad: Look i believe that ibuki has the “touch of death” as soon as she grounds you, May God be with you son.

Nox: Yeah i really have no idea what to do when im knocked down

Ali: Especially since you didnt really play much with Ibuki

Nox: Not really

Ganoon: Yeah, thats the problem. He didnt play with alot of ibuki’s in casual

Maan: We really didnt expect Iyo to participate

Nox: i only played with like three or four. i lost against them at first but started to pick up wins later. But Iyo is different.

Ali: New gameplay?

Maan: During the casuals we kept telling nox, play with Iyo. He replied with Iyo is not participating and there wont be any ibukis in the tournament and he’d rather invest time with other characters. On the last day, Iyo got last chance and got in the same bracket. I mean talk about luck.

Ali: Yeah you really have crap luck

Maan: Even if you see the match. Its not completely one sided, but effort can only go so far.

Ganoon: Most of his setups turned against him, you can say even more bad luck

Hamad: But hey! just as you said. You guys played against big names and your performance was really something to be proud about.

Nox: Yes Daigo was clapping when we came to play against him

Ali: Ah yes! how was their reaction?

Nox: Well, you know, they take the winning team and sit them next to the team they will be playing against. So as we were ushered to our seat, Daigo was clapping cause he heard the white tower team won. He seemed happy

Hamad: Ok can we talk about your choice for characters. Guy, Yang, and Sakura. I mean i could understand Yang, but why guy and sakura? seems like weird choices.

Nox: Well i chose guy for his looks. You know ninja and all. When i played him the first time, i really didnt understand how to rock him, but i understood that he is an offensive character. Then i started looking up games. Kiryu is probably the best guy. I picked up a few things from him, i go into training and come up with a couple of new things. Until i really started loving the character.

Ali: So did you choose him in alpha as well?

Nox: No i really didnt play any street fighter before this

Ali: oh! so you just saw that hes a ninja so you picked him.

Nox: YUP! soley based on looks.

Hamad: Nice, so because you liked the character, that made you want to find it’s potential. Nothing to do with tier lists or other factors

Ali: And how about Ganoon? I’m guessing you’re more of a technical player, prefering specific gameplay types

Ganoon: Yeah. I used to play Honda. When Honda gets knocked down, you play some setups and he’d be in a disadvantage, eventually loses. But Honda is considered a good character. They nerfed him in AE so I deduced that the gameplay is trending more towards knock down setups

Ali: Yep, who gets to knock down the opponent first.

Ganoon: That’s right. Sakura has the ability to easily knock down the opponent, thus making it a bit easier to win with a trick or two. I have more options to keep pressure. I can stick closer to my opponent

Ali: But during the first few days I guess it might have been a little challenging since Sakura’s stamina is a bit low and if you miss a couple of setups it could cost you the match

Ganoon: The way I think about it, it doesn’t really make a difference. I played Honda who had higher stamina than most of the game’s cast so it’s the same thinGanoon: Getting knocked down, setup, get back on, and so on. I manage to escape and end up far away from my opponent and if I was far I have to carefully come closer, because Honda is considered a turtle character so if he blocked first he could keep control of the game. But if he got knocked down, the game could be over for him due to option selects, difficult cross up scenarios and many other factors. So I changed Honda
and I’m not thinking of looking back regardless of how much stronger they make him in Ver. 2012 so I’m sticking with Sakura

Ali: you seem to like Sakura’s gameplay

Ganoon:  yeah sakura is great, plus the game is mostly setup based and she has the ability to do that

Maan: the game is indeed setup dependant with a little bit of turtling but setup-styles are the important aspects of it

Ganoon: I really see this game played this way from setup to setup to setup and keeping your opponent at a disadvantage. There are characters that can escape better.

Ali: And Maan? You used to play Chun Li

Maan: I played Chun Li, and found her boring, charge character with little setups, like what Ganoon said. I then switched to Abel and had a lot of fun due to his fatal setups, stamina and damage but lacked 3 or 4 frame normals.

Ali: isn’t his crouching jab 3 frames?

Maan: no no no, 5 frames. crouching short also 5 frames.It was alright for me but Yun, Yang and Fei Long gave me a tough time

Ali: and with AE’s cast and changes it was harder

Maan: even with those three strong characters it’s alright since there are other characters that can play well against them. But playing against a multitude of Yun, Yang, Fei and Ryu at arcades it’s tough for Abel.

Hamad: bad match ups, yeah

Maan: so yeah, suddenly I had to make a decisioNox: either Yun or Yang. Yun was very fast and Yang was a little slower and thought I’d play Yang. At that time there were no Yang players in Kuwait and enjoyed using him, though I haven’t been able to dig deeper into his gameplay, even when I went to Japan. Fortunately I was able to watch and play against the best 4 yang players at the arcades. I didn’t pick the character though because I liked him but it’s because he’s a bit in the strong side that made me switch to him. For now, I’m enjoyed playing Yang but haven’t used him since I returned to Kuwait, much like a season had passed.

Ali: why? Planning on changing your character?

Maan: Yeah I actually switched to Ibuki [laughs] Iyo played a solid Ibuki, and she has really solid setups and she barely needs to use EX moves. She could take a game without using EX meter.

Hamad: She might need her uppercut I think

Maan: Yeah the uppercut she can use to escape setups but even that move is risky. Ibuki is fun but I discovered that if she gets cornered it’s pretty tough. I’ll get used to it in time.

Ali: until you learn some new techniques

Maan: Ibuki is cool, and that a player like Iyo plays her very well can be a good way to learn some techniques from him when we were in Japan.

Ali: awesome. So you guys went to Japan, stayed there for a while, saw the community they have there and how arcades are over there. What’s the difference between their community and ours? and how can we enhance our community? We are small in numbers as you know and we want to grow.

Hamad: what can we learn from the Japanese community?

Ganoon: we need a lot of people/players.

Maan: it’s easier said than done, and the doing part is very tough here in Kuwait.

Hamad: it’s alright, step by step.

Ali: we could maybe increase the scale, make it a Gulf community

Maan: that’s right, you can. But how can you expect people to travel from Kuwait to Bahrain to the UAE to Saudi and so on.

Ali: let’s take it step by step. First of all what did you see in the Japanese community that you’d like to bring back to our community?

Hamad: for example: do arcades have a different vibe than when playing on consoles?

Maan: of course.

Nox: their player base

Hamad: yeah their numbers help. pretty great.

Ganoon: there are a lot of arcades. wherever you go there’s an arcade

Maan: like starbucks

Ganoon: yeah

Ali: just to be clear to everyone, our community here in Kuwait is so small we get how many people joining tournaments approximately…

Maan: teams can go up to…

Hamad: 50?

Maan: 50 participants. We don’t do any single-entry events anymore because the outcome of the event can sometimes be very obvious. A certain player would win, another certain player would win, so people weren’t psyched up for them, so we made them 3 member team-based events with a rule that none of the strongest players teamed up together.

Ganoon: so other people would want to participate in the events. There are a lot of people who want to learn how to play, especially after our recent experience with

Nox so that hyped up the guys here to up their game. They come up to me to tell me that they want to learn and I usually tell them to just play. Watch and observe and you’ll learn. and if you’re stuck or want some insight then come by and ask us.

Maan: Yeah there’s absolutely nothing wrong for people to come and ask for advice. Maybe here they think if someone asked it would be considered shameful.

Ali: is it because they don’t want to appear like they don’t understand some particular things?

Maan: yeah or that they’d think we were superior, no. That’s never the case.

Ganoon: people need to ask.

Hamad: of course experience is important

Maan: This comes with practicing and playing a lot.

Hamad: and not against the CPU

Maan: yeah

Ali: and you’ll need to play against different people, not just against one guy over and over

Ganoon: but we have a problem like this here.

Ali: how so?

Ganoon: I play with a certain player for 50 or 60 matches in a row to the point where we memorised each other! and we catch each other in the game accordingly. The problem is that we don’t look at the match up character-wise, we look at it player-wise, which is wrong. Because of that I know when this player will jump in for example, but if another person played me I wouldn’t know when he’d jump in.

Maan: it’s the same thing. If i played your sakura and learnt your match up, maybe some other sakura player in Japan or anywhere else I would meet at a tournament would play completely different in offense and defense for example. in this case I won’t be able to do anything. The same thing when I have a certain trick that works on Ganoon all the time, someone else wouldn’t find it hard to escape. That’s wrong. We need other people to play Sakura as well so there would be some variety.

Ganoon: that’s what we saw in Japan. I usually play well against Shiro’s Makoto, who is a thinker and defensive type of gameplay. I didn’t feel pressure from him and was calm. When I played against the guy with the glasses…

Maan: Mesi, he played Akuma in 4

Ganoon: yeah, I’d have a hard time beating him

Ali: because his gameplay was different

Ganoon: His style was very offensive so when I played against Shiro I knew he wouldn’t attack right away and I could throw some fireballs so if I throw a wrong fireball I’d know he’d attack and stop. The other guy no, he wouldn’t let me throw any fireballs. So I’d have to poke with a few normals because she has a very fast dash and her jump.

Ali: so your style is different but you can’t adjust because quickly enough to play against a different style

Ganoon: thats right. so by playing against different styles of makoto players I’d discover what the character’s weaknesses are instead of the player’s weakness in particular. so this is our problem here in Kuwait. we’re discovering the players’ weaknesses, like if I use a cross up on this guy i know he can’t block it but I know Nox knows how to block it. So we need a variety of gameplay styles to up our game. That’s why I enjoy Daigo’s game. He knows enough about the match ups that all he needs is to read your mistakes

Ali: in the same instance

Ganoon: instantly!

Hamad: I noticed this all the time in Daigo. He always tests you in the first round. You could beat him in that round no problem.

Maan: yeah in the first round you can’t tell any outcomes. Even if you won the first round you still have a second and third. Regardless of who it is from the top players like Daigo or Mago beating their first round doesn’t tell much.

Hamad: they consider it pretty much like a chance to read your moves

Ganoon: Daigo reads his opponent easily because he has a good background on the match up he’s up against which eases the process of reading your moves.

Ali: especially if you repeat your actions several times in a game
Ganoon: exactly. In Japan it’s hard for you to repeat actions. Imagine Nox used a certain strategy and got shot down, thought up of a better way to execute it and still got shot down. Because of that his opponent managed to read that he wanted to change the strategy around so that forced Nox to stop repeating.

Maan: that happened to me as well in a game.

Hamad: but in our region there’s a relatively growing following to Street Fighter like tournaments and events at Dammam, Dubai, Kuwait and Bahrain so hopefully the community would grow better and we learn from them.

Maan: maybe you see the people who attend events and tournaments and travel are usually of older ages. 25 years old and above are considered of older age

Hamad: right

Maan: so if you look at the root of the problem like when telling your family that I play Street Fighter, in Japan you’d get support from your family, but in Kuwait they’re not as supportive.

Hamad: it’s depressing

Maan: they’d say “when will you grow out of playing video games?”. So the majority of players playing Street Fighter are mostly younger. Those youngsters can’t travel as freely, nor come to White Tower or arcades as freely because they couldn’t drive or that they’d have to return home early from events

Ali: yeah because of school and exams

Maan: although we’re not specifically talking about exams and school, let’s say during the summer vacation, they still can’t stay out late so he’ll be playing from 5-9pm? we usually come at 8pm for example and an hour from 8-9pm isn’t enough time for these young players to learn and play so they’d have to play online and online infrastructure in the region isn’t very good and it doesn’t help you get better.

Ali: speaking of online, Nox, you’re the most person playing online matches. Online and offline. The advantages and disadvantages of each one. Can you depend on online alone to reach a good level?

Nox: yeah if you’re JUST playing online, yes.

Hamad: you can get good at the arcades this way?

Nox: no no, I was talking about playing online only

Ali: by playing online and then attending tournaments, do you think that would make you skilled enough?

Nox: offline tournaments? No.

Ganoon: but you can get some benefits from online.

Nox: yes it’s beneficial by learning about character match ups

Ganoon: match ups

Nox: yeah match ups, basics.

Ali: so you use it as a learning tool.

Nox: pretty much. but if you ask me to participate in an online tournament? I’d refuse.

Hamad: so like what we discussed before about playing players who you don’t know their styles

Nox: yes, character match ups

Hamad: you’d learn how to play the character and not the player

Nox: yep, you’d learn how to play the character itself

Ali: but lag does factor in

Nox: yes lag is a factor

Maan: online you’d find lot’s of players. Let’s say you want to play Blanka, there are a lot of Blankas. but if you go to the arcade you might find 1 or 2 blankas. so it’s useful to play online because it’ll teach you the match ups.

Nox: it’s great for training and wasting your time but if you tell me to participate in online tournaments for example, no I wouldn’t.

Ganoon: no it’s not worth it.

Nox: except if you’re in Japan then okay because their connection is amazing over there.

Ali: how so?

Nox: no latency issues

Ganoon: nearly no noticable difference between playing at the arcades or online on console.

Nox: it’s like how you look at the difference between Xbox and arcade versions? add online to them. Very minor differences.

Ganoon: yeah very very minor. Their internet is really good.

Hamad: here’s another questioNox: Arcade and console, is there a huge difference?

Ganoon: of course there is a difference

Nox: yeah there is a difference, because we’re used to console version.

Ganoon: yep we’re very used to the console version.

Nox: and honestly I don’t like to play on arcade

Ali: really? why not? something to do with how you’re seated or maybe input issues

Nox: not really about input or anything, it’s just that it’s slower for games to end on arcade and no costumes, and I like Guy’s ninja costume and we don’t have the cards the Japanese use

Hamad: yeah

Nox: so that’s why I play console.

Ali: but it doesn’t make a difference for you in input delay?

Nox: yeah but I just have to play a couple of games and get used to it right away.

Ali: ahh great.

Maan: timing and input delay isn’t a problem for veteran fighting game players because they’ll get acclimated to the different screens or systems very fast. It’s not a huge issue and the issues that make us prefer console version rather than arcade are not really huge like color and costume options, and it’s the same reason for me.

Ali: so it’s basically just side reasons like accessories and such

Maan: yeah because in Japan we’ve been demanding to change colors like wanting my Yang to be blue or red

Ali: and Mago helped make your card?

Nox: yeah Mago helped me out

Ganoon: I learned how to do it myself. Any phone with access to the internet through wifi or cellular connection you can go to the site and customize your card.

Ali: ahh nice.

Ganoon: so through my phone I made Maan’s card, it was all in Japanese so we got lost a little so we asked here and there and got it working and one of our friends there in Japan made my card for me through his phone and for everyone else.

Ali: so every one had cards

Hamad: and got some costumes!

Ganoon: yeah

Ali: sounds fun

Ganoon: from here on playing on arcade was becoming more fun.

Ali: ok so let’s put everything aside a little. Did you regret not doing anything in particular during your trip to Japan or maybe had some nice moments during the trip?
Ganoon: well we’ve been there for a month right? I feel like we’ve only played a little.
Ali: how so?

Ganoon: we still need to play a lot there so we can continue to learn from them

Ali: to get even better

Ganoon: yeah to get even better

Nox: I got bored

Maan: yeah I got bored nearing the end of the trip

Nox: the first 20 days were great, but the last 10 got boring

Ali: so did you regret not doing anything in particular?

Hamad: did you guys want to do something but you never managed to because of time constraints?

Maan: maybe exploring and walking around but it’s okay we can do it next year. we were concentrating on arcades and the game. we still managed to do different things even beyond what I thought we’d expect to do. it’s enough for me that the guys managed to get through the first rounds all the way to the top 16 and no one thought it would happen to be honest. They did what they thought they’d be able to do and much more, and lost to the best players in Japan. I wasn’t planning in going to markets and stuff like that and I always have next year or winter which will be a separate trip. We did manage to pull off our goals, thankfully.

Ali: so anything interesting happened? like any moments you’d like to share?

Hamad: so that’s the bigger question

Maan: Ganoon learned to cook one dish which he cooked every day for an entire week and everyday he keeps changing it’s name!

Ganoon: they used to annoy me by telling me my cooking was horrible but once I quickly asked Maan how the food was and he said it was really delicious. He forgot he had to play along with the other guys…

Ali: so you were the team’s official cook!

Ganoon: yeah you can say so, because I usually wake up earlier than the rest

Nox: I usually made the rice but some days it was hard some days it was too soft

Ali: so a lot of stomach aches?

Maan: no if you stayed in Japan and ate Ganoon’s dishes you’d really love it.

Hamad: excellent

Ali: you’d have to forcefully like it!

Maan: but with all honesty there were some days where the dishes were absolutely delicious!

Nox: There was that day when we made some eggs and cheese samosas

Hamad: awesome!

Ganoon: so yeah I chopped meat, onion, garlic…

Hamad: of course that upped your Street Fighter skills!

Ganoon: yeah…… whenever I cook and eat, I go to the arcades and win for sure.

Nox: see I got bored near the end of the trip but I’ll always regret leaving my friends there.

Ganoon: yeah

Ali: you made friends there with the players

Nox: yeah I made friends with Babatewawa who played Guy, Fujino who’s online handle was AndySG. And who else…

Ganoon: Itabashi

Nox: Yeah Itabashi… Everyone really

Ali: you guys even gathered with them for lunch

Maan: we wanted to surprise the guys that flew to Japan with us so I planned it with Mohammed Ramadan, Ganoon and Nox to talk to Iniashi, Daigo’s friend because Daigo didn’t speak English, that we’d want to all gather for lunch some day and he said that Daigo and the guys wanted to ask the same thing but they didn’t know of their schedules! So we told them that we had no schedule in particular

Hamad: yeah that’s a tough schedule

Maan: *smiles* yeah it was a tough schedule, so we agreed with an Arabic restaurant’s owner Abu Waleed to make the event there and wanted it to be a surprise for Jaber, Feras, and the others. Our guests were Iniashi, Daigo, Mago, Tokio and Fujino. We didn’t invite them because they were good players or anything but because they were great friends. Fujino maybe isn’t well known outside but he’s a very skilled player.

Nox: his Akuma is amazing.

Maan: his Akuma is scary but his name isn’t well known outside. And it’s not because he’s not famous or anything that he isn’t skilled.

Ganoon: of course not.

Maan: and it has nothing to do with rank either, he doesn’t play as much as the rest even though he’s only Master rank but he’s a beast.

Hamad: maybe he doesn’t play much

Nox: yeah he doesn’t play a lot he usually just watches.

Ali: even Babatewawa is Master rank

Maan: yeah he’s Master but he doesn’t play a lot and doesn’t even go to the arcade a lot.

Nox: but he’s a really great player.

Ganoon: what amazed me more is that even his wife played really good. Her Ryu is good.

Nox: Fujino’s

Maan: her basics understanding is very strong. Very high level basic understanding but she lacks match up knowledge

Ali: she doesn’t take it too seriously, maybe for fun with her husband

Ganoon: yeah yeah, but she joined him in a tournament

Nox: yep when we flew back to Kuwait they told us they joined teams with Shiro

Ganoon: they told us they lost in their first match

Ali: but it sounds fun, nice to change things up

Maan: other than making friends the players there went over to Nox and Ganoon and gave them thumbs up and it’s enough to have the number one blanka and abel players to give you such a gesture.

Nox: Daigo was once standing behind me while I was playing against Kiryu’s Guy, it was a mirror match. When I won he gave me a thumbs up and clapped.

Ganoon: Daigo

Nox: Yeah

Ali: Guess you were playing really well that time

Nox: I played Kiryu a lot over there and honestly I don’t like the Guy mirror match

Ganoon: you don’t think of winning as much as learning during these match ups

Maan: and here’s our problem if we look back at our main issue. If you compare my level with Daigo’s level, you’ll say Daigo will win for sure. But if I beat him, he comes to me and says “nice!” or “Good job!”. In Kuwait if someone beats a higher level player he has in his mind that he’s too good to give praise to that person who defeats them. Why…

Hamad: you mean feeling more superior and bad conduct

Maan: yeah. It’s great to be praised like that. I hope you beat me twice instead of this one time. This psyches them up! One day you’ll stop playing. Where would your community be? If you reinforced that person he’d take these good qualities from you when you leave.

Hamad: yeah reminds me when I used to go to White Tower a long time ago I had such experiences with the top players there. Even if I didn’t win they’d compliment something I did that impressed them. And these are some of the reasons why I play Street Fighter till today.

Maan: This is what everyone is supposed to do. That’s one of the problems here. There has to be some positive reinforcement. Some complimenting to keep the players interested and for them to do better. Play more, ask more.

Hamad: get some experience.

Hamad: This is the last and most important question. Of course 2011 was a great year for you guys and lived the dream. So what are your plans for 2012?

Nox: I won’t be participating in 2012.

Hamad: not thinking of going to Japan again?

Nox: no I would go to Japan, but won’t participate in SBO. I’ll give someone else a shot.

Hamad: but you will continue playing your Guy

Nox: of course I’ll be going and continuing but I’ll be participating in other normal tournaments but not SBO.

Ali: and you, Ganoon?

Ganoon: God willing, if I get another chance I’ll give it a go.

Ali: how about other tournaments? Will you guys go to Australia, America

Hamad: Evolution

Ali: or tournaments close by in the Gulf region

Ganoon: well it’s a little difficult for me to travel so if I get to do so I only have one option.

Ali: especially we don’t have any sponsors so everything is paid through personal expenses.

Nox: we just got back from a month long trip to Japan so it’s tough.

Ganoon: it’s hard to find the time especially because I am married so it’s hard to play a lot and hard to travel a lot and applying for a vacation from my job so it’s a little tough. But I’ll hopefully try to pick one or two events max per year to attend. I’m planning for another trip to Japan next year.

Ali: sticking with Sakura or have some secret things in the works?

Ganoon: I’ll most likely stick with Sakura.

Ali: so, Maan.

Hamad: you told us you’re switching to Ibuki

Maan: I really would like to get a shot at SBO, but as you know it’s a once per year event. If I wanted to participate because I wanted to just say that I did then that’s wrong. Joining for the reason that you think that you can win is the most important thing. If everyone wanted to join just to brag that they participated in SBO that is considered being selfish. If someone has the skills and feels like they’ll do well then they deserve the spot and his friends would support him. And this is what happened. We all nominated Nox and Ganoon to go because we know that they’re our strongest players and we supported them all the way to Japan.
and they managed to prove that they’re the strongest two players we have by beating me and other top players here in Kuwait and managed to get the spot. This is what we want. We’re hoping the next SBO qualifier tournament would be a Gulf-wide event so we expand our community beyond just Kuwait. We want to create a strong Kuwaiti team to participate and win to be able to qualify for a spot at SBO. The strongest player will be given the spot because of his skill and ability to qualify. I’d give that person the spot because he deserves it and not just because he participated already before.

Hamad: I’d like to point that out to Nox

Maan: no don’t worry about what he said back then it’ll be removed from the interview later. If he remains to be strong throughout 2012 he’ll participate!

Ali: in the end there will be qualifiers and the strongest will win.

Maan: true. Even if I wasn’t very skilled I’d still join and try to compete. If I did win then I obviously aren’t weak. We’d want to make a group who we will nominate to try for the qualifiers based on their skill.

Ali: in the end you’re representing your country.

Maan: exactly, we’re representing Kuwait so it’s important to keep in mind not to be selfish as the event happens only once a year.

Ganoon: another important thing is that if we get a qualifying team they’ll need to go to Japan before the tournament at least two weeks to practice.

Maan: going there 2 before the tournament or spending your first day shopping, second day playing with Daigo and Mago and taking pictures with them, that’s wrong. The guys went there for an entire month, and they sacrificed so much. It was fun but it wasn’t always fun. There were some sacrifices that needed to be made in order for us to pull this off like leaving our families and work behind.

Ali: it had it’s ups and downs.

Maan: yes. Ganoon has a wife and kids for example, Nox is responsible for providing for his home as well. I’m chillin’ so it’s different *smiles*. but if someone wants to take a shot at this tournament it’s amazing and high in skill level. With all due respect to Evo, anyone can participate, SBO has the best of the best Japanese players and Japan is considered the best country that plays Street Fighter so for me I consider it the strongest tournament in the world. That’s my opinion, even though it’s rules and requirements are tough being single elimination. So if you wanna go there 2 days before the tourney then stay home, save up your money and let someone else who’s up to it to go.

Let someone else who can go practice for a month or two weeks, although a month is a bit over, so two or three weeks to have a shot. The guys trained well and these are our results. And if they lost from a weaker team then they would train for a month there next year not just a couple of weeks. but in the end they lost from a formidable team, and they tried their best and gave it their all and the results were great. And this was our second year at SBO. Others have tried for longer than us but didn’t produce the same results and especially that for Nox this is his first Street Fighter game with only a year and a half of experience and produced great results.

Ali: speaking of this being the second year we participated in, what is the difference between this year and last year? This year you did remarkably well while last year it was not so stellar.

Maan: yeah our performance last year was a lot lower. You could say we didn’t have a strong community, less players.

Ganoon: the time period where we stayed in Japan was very little.

Ali: so you weren’t really properly ready for the event.

Ganoon: no, but this year we stayed there for a month which addresses our first mistake. it made a huge difference for us.

Hamad: in the end it was a great run for you guys, and you made us proud, and hopefully will continue to do your best next year.

Maan: there’s one more thing we forgot to mention. When Daigo came to Kuwait at the expo last year, we asked him a question about Kuwait’s position in the world with regard to skill, and he answers straight to the point without any compliments or anything. Not because he was our guest at the time that he’d compliment us. He said Japan, then a gap, America, then a huge gap, Kuwait, then everyone else. It isn’t something that made us feel down or anything actually it’s really good to know where we stand but he did say “this person plays well”, “this person has good skills”. This year, we asked him when we invited him for lunch, he even was kind of shy to tell us and we’re sure he’s being honest because last year he said we were “here”.
So what did he have to say about this year? he said: Japan, small gap, Kuwait, big gap, America, then everyone else. We asked him how the European level was he said they were good. Australia? Good. But he didn’t keep them in the ranking in his head. and we consider this a huge form of encouragement. Shiro, Neurosis, Mago, Tokido, Bonchan, Nekojita, Babatewawa, Kiryu, Fuudo, Itabashi and many others

Ganoon: that Bison player too

Maan: Neurosis yeah, these guys are all amazing, even if you win against them they’d come over to you to ask to play you again like with Nox

Ganoon: Itabashi came over to me to ask to play again with me

Hamad: of course other than the great performance there you were able to make some really good friends

Nox: we are still in contact with them on Twitter.

Ali: still in contact with them?

Nox: yeah I never stopped communicating with the guys, they’re my friends. I’ll be waiting for them next year!

Ali: God willing, they might even come over to Kuwait, why not.

Nox: I’ve been asking them.

Ali: just like how Daigo came over, and he’ll be here soon (Daigo’s event started by the time this interview was posted) in October, hopefully there would be more players. So you guys proved that there are skilled Kuwaiti and Gulf players

Maan: Kuwait has a spot on the map now. So if you’re planning on visiting Europe or America, make a stop at Kuwait as well, you won’t regret it.

Hamad: thanks guys

Ali: alright let’s close it off, Hamad?

Hamad: is there any last message you’d like to say?

Ganoon: thank you very much

Hamad: and that was the interview with the Kuwaiti Street Fighter SBO team. Stay tuned for more coverage on our local scene and we’ll be bringing you coverage for the upcoming Daigo event. We’ll see you soon.

Ali: See ya.