#commentator profile

FGC commentator and Mystery Tournament 2018 champion (portrait by knobbonk)

How did you get into commentating fighting games?

It came from necessity back in 2012 where the Colorado fighting game community began recording/streaming its events. Myself and one other player, Cynthetik (formerly known as Hellfire), were graced by the kindness of another local, Jashugan (formerly known as Chavelo). Jashugan let us use his basement for Persona 4 Arena meetups. He also set up a stream for it, despite knowing little about the game. Considering it was just myself and Cynthetik in front of a live stream… We had to commentate ourselves! That unintended practice lead to local opportunities commentating anime games, King of Fighters XIII, and the one time I did Injustice which the footage is hopefully lost forever ;-). One of the heads of Northwest Majors at the time, Shorjewken, flew me out to do commentary for Guilty Gear XRD. That, with some post-event coaching from Dacidbro, my craft and passion for commentary grew from there!

What’s your history with Lethal League?

Like many early adopters, I first saw Lethal League watching UFGT9’s fantastic Mystery Game Tournament grand finals. Hype filled our local scene as we ran money matches during our weeklies. I quickly fell in love with the League, grinding both the official original release and Blaze.

Do you have a main character pick, favourite outfits, favourite stages?

Main character is Raptor because I'm a Basic Bob who enjoys stale bread washed down with water without any ice.

In light of that, I'm a huge fan of Dice's Domino the Blessed costume and Sonata's Zoot Suit costumes. They're just too fresh & clean!

Music is a huge driver for me in anything I do. So I enjoy stages like Industrial Outskirts, Room 21, and (unsurprisingly) The Subways based on themes alone. That said, I do like to play on larger stages so I can give my smooth brain time to think and position.

You are the Mystery Game Tournament champion of 2018. What does it take to win an event like that?

Many people claim, “I should’ve entered! I would’ve beat everyone in [currently played game].” It’s more than just touching as many niche games as possible; Understanding game mechanics generally rules supreme. As much as someone could’ve crushed that one game, you have to both get to that round and continue to win. Players shouldn’t be depending on solely luck-of-the-draw to win a tournament. :-)

Experiencing mechanics helps players make important connections: “Mashing was popular in the NES era, let me try that here,” or “characters with swords often have good and easy keep-away buttons. This buys me time learn my other buttons/special moves while pressuring my opponent.” The best thing you can control in a Mystery Game Tournaments is time. The more your opponent feels like they’re out of time to learn, the more quickly they panic and make egregious mistakes.

With that mystery game and commentary experience, what are your favourite competitive games?

I'm pretty sure I'll love Guilty Gear XRD to my dying day. Competing, watching; embracing the game is always a treat. It's gorgeous through and through and players can express themselves a multitude of ways.

I also enjoy competing in Koihime Enbu: RyoRaiRai! It's the opposite end of the spectrum, compared to Gear, where the game provides a straightforward and honest footsies game that's truly akin to Chess.

Even though I'm a dumpster fire at playing them, I love spectating the Smash and Marvel vs. Capcom games. Sometimes, I'll even dedicate entire weekends to watching the bigger events!