#mimas2020

winner of the Michigan Masters 2019 side tournament and current arcade mode speed running record holder (art by @fridgeot)

What names do you go by?

Robo Bonobo and EGMadness EGMadness has been my tag for the longest time, it's basically my initials with an "-adness" at the end, I thought it sounded nifty at the time. Robo Bonobo is a newer tag I'm transitioning into because I think it's even more clever and it reflects my robot character favoritism.

How did you get into Lethal League?

I believe the original was recommended to me on Steam a loooooong time ago and I just took a shot in the dark with it because the trailer looked sick. Definitely a gamble I'm glad I took.

What’s your current Lethal League experience?

Only 44 hours recorded in the original, but around 160 clocked in Blaze thus far. Won the only tourney for it I've entered (the previous year's Michigan M@sters side tourney, in fact), and I'm floating around 4th Division in ranked this season. I'm currently grinding hard to help me get that pot bonus, though! See me in 1st Div by the end of March.

Who are your main/side/counter character picks?

I'm a Doombox one-trick. I'm too stuck on DB's float movement to be able to use anyone else, flying's just too much fun! I've been trying to learn Dust & Ashes just to branch out, but I have a lot of double jump and glide tech to perfect before that pick comes anywhere close to competitive viability for me.

What are your favourite character outfits?

Eaaaasily Prime Poppa Doombox. Gotta rep the red, white, and blue. U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! Also sometimes Safety Weapon if I'm really feeling it.

What are your stage preferences?

I like cramped stages like Scrap Desert and Room 21. They really complement Doombox's vertical angles and let me suffocate my opponents easier.

What input method do you use?

Keyboard! Only fighting game where I actually prefer it. Started playing the original Lethal League on it years ago and it just stuck with me.

The tournament is played on PS4, do you have a solution for that?

Whoops! I didn't even think about that, thanks for letting me know! Looks like I'm ordering an adapter off of Amazon tonight. I was under the impression adapters would be part of the officially-provided setups.

Who do you hope to meet at Michigan Masters?

Melleracappeller, my favorite Lethal League player of all time. That man's got the sauce, paper, juice, and clout.

What made you pick up speedrunning the arcade mode?

I saw Buffet Time's arcade run at Awesome Games Done Quick while I was browsing YouTube a while back, and I felt like I could do better. I was just finishing polishing up my world record times on my main speedrunning game (Madness Retaliation) at the time, so I was in a particularly competitive mood as I watched the run; I couldn't just sit there and think that I would do better, I had to know I would by proving it. When I finished watching the run, I decided to open up the game, practice, learn, and really get serious about arcade running. I don't make a claim like 'I could do better' without being willing to back it up!

What other games do you play?

Mostly fighting games. The other big competitive fighting game that I'm grinding at the moment is Super Smash Bros. Project+, a super sick Brawl mod that you should 100% check out if you have a Wii, a copy of Brawl, and a 2 gigabyte SD card on hand. Also Arcana Heart 3 Love Max Six Stars. That game is FIRE. I will shill it until I die.

Is there anything else you’d like to say to the community?

I would like to urge anyone with the desire to get the Lethal League ball rolling with their local FGCs to do anything they can to make sure that the game is at events, be it casuals or tourneys. The most important part of scene growth is exposure, so don't be afraid to get your setup moving! I haul my PC tower setup to my university every other Friday just to make sure that the games I want to see played get played. Be the change you want to see in the FGC!

SoCal thrower, professional Lethal League Blaze tourney attendee and player

What names do you go by?

Scooter, a nickname my friends gave me in highschool. My friend Looked at me one day and started calling me Scooter, I wish there was a better story like I used to ride Scooters and did cool tricks but no they just started calling me Scooter. I like it though, it's short and to the point. It's funny too, when I go to fighting game tournaments and hear TO's call out names like CaptainXAwsome, 5mi, shake n bake, and Ur-naked grandma. I like the simplicity of it.

I've been called the SoCal-thrower by a lot of people, I like this name as well. It's really strange to think that I've somehow defined a region or shaken a meta game as that was never my intention. I first played this game with my friends who had also enjoyed the first game although we played at what would probably be considered a casual level. One of those friends was Taternater who went by "PoonWrangler420", and because of our matches together we came to learn the game and it's nuances in a very unorthodox atmosphere. Most of the time we would just try things out for the sake of trying new things and seeing what we could get away with. I think that the fact that I had so much success and notoriety gained from my grab-orientated play-style encouraged other players to be more experimental and take more risks with not only grabs but other aspects of their game play. If that's true then I don't mind being the SoCal-thrower.

How did you get into Lethal League?

My friend AEM was the biggest influence, him and I really like watching jerma985's youtube videos and when we saw Lethal League it stood out to me. I never played in any tournaments but really enjoyed the core premise and was really exited for Blaze. I remember Playing it the day it came out and beating the entire story mode in one night and then playing ranked. I only wanted to play for a bit because it was quite late (I think the game was released late at night on Steam), but I ended up getting really into it and became really attached to my rank. When I went to my job the next day my rank was #198 or #199 and I was really proud of myself (in season 1 there were no divisions, just numbers), until I went on my break and saw my rank go down to #420 and when I got off work and got home it was somewhere in the #700s. I was really discouraged by that because to me it meant that I was even farther from the #1 rank player and I really wanted to see the high ranked players of this game because I think it's a cool game.

I now know that's not really how the matchmaking system works but Hindsight is 20/20. But that's the main reason why I wasn't very active in season 1.

What’s your current Lethal League experience?

Pretty good. I've played a lot of people and a lot of hours of Lethal League Blaze. I've been called a lot of names and been given a lot of compliments. I think I've played someone from every continent which sounds cooler than it feels. I like playing in tournaments and playing good players.

Who are your main/side/counter character picks?

Jet is the character I got into the game with but I think she is out shined by other characters. She's still a very good character in her own respect and doesn't get a lot of respect Raptor is this game's Ryu. Switch is this game's Ken.

What are your favourite character outfits?

I like the skins Shadowm_ made for his vocaloid videos on niconico video. Still waiting on gentle to release the texture mod so I can use them...

What are your stage preferences?

I prefer smaller stages because I don't like how some games can devolve to overly complicated keep-away. But Im comfortable on most stages except stadium and elevator. Fuck elevator

What input method do you use?

Logitech underachiever™, now available at your local Walmart retail store! That was my first controller... now I rotate between an Xbox one controller and a fight stick to embrace my inner FGC tryhard! Shoutouts to Mecazawa for showing me that fight stick is a viable input method

I believe people can use whatever controller they are best with. There are techniques that are easier to do with keyboard and others that feel smoother to execute on controller.

Michigan Masters is going to be played on PS4. Are you prepared for that?

Sure, I already play on controller and fight stick so I'm not so worried about the console. I hope the keyboard players will be able to keep themselves from complaining too loudly :^)

Who do you hope to meet at Michigan Masters?

I'm really excited to see the LLB community again, we don't get to see each other because we're so far away from one another but Tournaments like these are great excuses to hangout and see one another face to face. It's a very different experience from talking on the internet. Specifically though I'm really excited to see Mylo & Boog, very different people and very good players.

What other games do you play?

Hmm if you can think of it, I've played it

Is there anything else you’d like to say to the community?

Don't parry too often or it'll be grabbed :)

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!

professional onion contributor

What names do you go by?

imadethis, its a meme :)

How did you get into Lethal League?

Saw it on steam, and played for a weekend straight. I played ranked after finishing story, and my literal first match was Metrekec at rank 2. I lost and went to twitch to gitgud and saw some guy named TG stream it, got into a ffa lobby with him, all downhill from there.

What’s your current Lethal League experience?

~900 hours, didn't play the first game, 140ish rank S1, 3* S2, 1*** S3, some 9-12th finishes in tourneys, no top 8s yet.

Who are your main/side/counter character picks?

playin a lot of candy recently, have >100hrs with dice, db, nitro, candy? comfortable enough with most of the cast

What are your favourite character outfits?

Dust DLC skins even though I don't play him much, TR killed it with those. Detective Nitro is also sick, loved the appearance of @Nitro in the discord leading up to it.

What are your stage preferences?

delete fire from stadium and it would be the best, otherwise pool and factory - so much room for activities

What input method do you use?

Have used ps4, hori commander, kb, mixbox, comfortable with whatever at this point

Who do you hope to meet at Michigan Masters?

looking forward to meeting everyone 🙂 I had to miss combobreaker last minute, so making up for lost time.

Where does this onion story originate?

Monk was streaming and said he loves onion. He said he could eat an entire one, and would do so if he got 10 subscriptions. I gave him the 10 subscriptions 🙂 then he attempted to eat an onion. It's a lot harder than people think, and it became a running gag. DairProductions guys also attempted in one of the online tourney results. Maybe I'll get one for MM 🤔

What other games do you play?

MTG, DnD, Warframe, UNIST, PoE recently

Is there anything else you’d like to say to the community?

nothing much to say - keep playing, tell other people to play, encourage people that stream the game

combo connoisseur extraordinaire (cover from the Lethal League Blazin' Combo video)

What names do you go by?

I change it whenever I feel like but everyone knows me as boog

How did you get into Lethal League?

Found out about it through the LLB trailer and picked up the first game

What’s your current Lethal League experience?

I have 714 hours in LL and 1001 in LLB at the time of writing

Who are your main/side/counter character picks?

For me candy is so versatile that I can play him both laidback and tryhard if I need to. He's my favorite at the moment because I can combo for days and he'll always be threatening. Latch is my second favorite character, he has a lot of cool tricks with the wall that is really unexplored I feel like, plus I just love his angles. In all honesty every character in this game is super fun, so I have a great time playing just about everyone. Regarding counterpicking, I don't necessarily do it unless I'm feeling particularly confident in one character at the moment although candy is the ol reliable.

What are your favourite character outfits?

I like them all so I pick whatever I feel like using

What are your stage preferences?

They're all nice in their own ways

What input method do you use?

Keyboard (WASD movement, numpad actions)

Michigan Masters is going to be played on PS4. Are you prepared for that?

there is about a month before the tourney i might just learn ps4 in that time haha

Who do you hope to meet at Michigan Masters?

I'm very excited to see meller especially, he's always been my best friend in the community since we played back in the first game :-)

What other games do you play?

Not much else

Is there anything else you’d like to say to the community?

And I have nothing to say about the community really except everyone's really cool except mean people >:( I like everyone's different styles and how I'm forced to adapt to them

Raptor main from Oregon

What names do you go by?

Zealotsthename

How did you get into Lethal League?

Jerma985 the TF2 youtuber a few years ago, didn’t play LL1 much but I got easily hooked onto blaze. I’m joining tourneys cause why not and jus another way to improve with also the possibility of getting more people into the game.

What’s your current Lethal League experience?

Almost 600 hours in the game, mostly all in ranked. And I’m finally feeling on par with some of the better players. I feel like I’m a worthy challenge now and like where I’m at. Still always improving and always room to improve.

Who are your main/side/counter character picks?

Raptor, Switch, Dust & Ashes

Raptor main here. But I’m gonna try to random more often to get used to playing other characters and better my fundamentals.

What are your favourite character outfits?

Ball head 2 raptor and black detective suit nitro. Also the dust dlc skins, gotta love those wings bro. Dices dlc skin is real sick.

What are your stage preferences?

I really like the simple kinda small ones like outskirts and desert are my fav. I like em too cause angles stay consistent. It’s hard to learn n keep in mind all the different ones for each map.

What input method do you use?

Keyboard

Michigan Masters is going to be played on PS4. Are you prepared for that?

I’ll still try n learn to play controller. But if I can get confirmation that [EGMadness lets] me use his keyboard I’m all in for that.

Is this your first local Lethal League tournament?

Yee is. My first. And I love this community so im excited to meet everyone!!

What other games do you play?

Team fortress 2 really. Been tryin to get into comp TF2. TF2 and LLB are my main games right now. Love TF2 RJ too, as such I’m a soldier main lul

Is there anything else you’d like to say to the community?

My goal in this game right now is jus slowly improving n I’m noticing it.

the St. Louis Slasher and Tournament Organiser

Where did your two online handles come from?

D3ath_By_Senpai was years of me making names that standout 

I made a Instagram with the name and [...] after a while I was wondering if I could get this name somewhat big in some scene and it look like fighting games was it lol

and STLSlasher came from the SoCal boi Preheat randomly saying that at Combobreaker [2019] and I like the name so I use that name only for Lethal League community

How did you get into Lethal League?

i remember the game as a flash game and one day look it up saw it was a new one wich was LL

when I heard blaze was coming I sold all my PS4 games that I never played and got the game day one and I was top 200's playing with slayer

took a break came back to a lot of new faces and I purely love the community

What’s your current Lethal League experience?

AWWW YEAH BOI THE RANK SYSTEM FEELS BETTER NEW FACES AND LETHAL LEAGUE BLAZE IS GETTING BIG I WOULDN'T BE HERE WITHOUT THE SOCAL BOIS I LOVE THEM SO MUCH AS WELL AS TEAM REPTILE <3

ps SCOOTER I STILL GOT YA CROP TOP

Who are your main/side/counter character picks?

Well im a JSRF fan and i Cosplay my baby Jet she is meant to be protected 

RAPTOR Was my main home slugger

What are your favourite character outfits?

I really like Torpedo but main one I use is the dark blue one and Raptor pink

What are your stage preferences?

ROOM 21 never go wrong

You’ve been running Blaze tournaments in St. Louis! How did you get started with that? Have you run other tournaments before?

Well I run the Tekken 7 scene in stl for streams and to the tournaments so I was asked if I could run local LLB tournaments and lord and behold I’m here

but stl recently lost a venue (Moonbase Market) so we working on more

we have a new venue (Third Rail) but it’s still in the works

and i′ts really small but home feeling like Moonbase

What input method do you use?

The Stick from hell (a 4 pound spring fight stick) that every think im crazy for using

Who do you hope to meet at Michigan Masters?

some more Midwest players I need them to show the game off we need this game to go big

Are you going to compete in your Jet cosplay?

more than likely

like Jet a lot and it’s what pops lol 

maybe Raptor or Dice I've been thinking a lot I want to do something new

What other games do you play?

TEKKEN 7 mostly and anything really fps, mmo, fighting mostly, rhythm

Is there anything else you’d like to say to the community?

I absolutely love this community you guys are the Wave LETS KEEP IT ROCKING

amateur game dev and artist (artwork by BenTheDragon)

What names do you go by?

I go by Ben the Dragon. Nothing too big really, just like the name since I can't really come up with a Nickname for myself.

How did you get into Lethal League?

I first heard of it during my college years when a roommate of mine was showing me this cool flash game where you hit the ball and go as fast as possible. Turns out I really loved that flash game and when the first trailer for the original Lethal league game came out, I was MEGA hype for the game. Also CYBORG CROCO DUDE. That character by itself sold me lol.

What’s your current Lethal League experience?

I feel like I am inches away from being a pro player. I feel like if I had more time dedicated to that game, I'd be up there with the pros.. unfortunately jobs are getting in the way... I have 149 hours in OG lethal League and 189 hours in Blaze.

Who are your main/side/counter character picks?

My main is Latch through and through. Though if I have to pick a secondary, I'd pick switch. Also fun fact, I am 3D modeling a character so I can fit over Switch eventually lol.

Do you have a wip of that you can share?

I am practically done with the model by now. I just need to weight paint onto Switch's skeleton and I am done being put into the game!! Can't wait.

What are your favourite character outfits?

I use Original Latch. Also I remember a time where there was another Latch player that fought over the original color when fighting against me. Those few times I won, I was in bliss. For switch, I love the Green and Orange color scheme and then the Red and Black one too. Those are great.

What are your stage preferences?

I love the Scrap Desert. Small and tiny stages are always pretty great for some reason.

My second favorite is the Workbot Factory because of how badass the theming to the stage is. Music and BG has such a strong energy together!

What input method do you use?

I use a Playstation 4 controller. I am considering a change to Nintendo's new SNES controller though. If I can find a way to make that work, it would be my official go to control. DPads are my jam.

Who do you hope to meet at Michigan Masters?

I just hope to make friends with most of the Lethal League community!

What other games do you play?

I play all sorts of games! I am a giant Mega Man X fan first and foremost before most other fighters too. Also platformers. If I had to rank my top recent games, it would have to be Smash Ultimate(Which i am currently studying to be a pro too), Mega Man Zero/ZX legacy collection, Ace Attorney games, Ultimate Chicken Horse, and much more!

Is there anything else you’d like to say to the community?

GET LETHAL LEAGUE BLAZE its been one of the most fun I've ever had in a community to date. Also the video game is very fun too!