watch now! detail...
well that match was good for me, i won 3/0 i'll do my best and give everything i've got i really wish the best of luck to wolmar… i’d rather say he’s got some guts to come here and play to be honest haha everything, like really everything can happen. if ryu, chun-li, or blanka sound familiar, if you ever did a quarter circle motion on your snes d-pad, then you should know about street fighter ii. you sure know it’s a game that created the basis of a specific kind of games, as we won’t talk about fighting games today if sfii didn’t exist, 20 years ago.
but did you know that game has been played all over the years still, including at a competitive and high level? with dedicated people, gathering all around the world into communities of players, in order to practice and play against each other? during 20 years, they sharpened up their techniques and strategies, they shared, taught each other… these guys are a bit more than just “playersâ€; here, we call them legends. here we are, in las vegas, nevada. in this city will take place a huge event in the small world of fighting games: evo. an all time classic is back in the business, finally: super street fighter ii turbo. â â we will follow wolmar, only european player in the tournament,
facing the best us and japanese players. tournament has started, and wolmar won two great matches against marsgattai and alex valle. his next match can lead him to top 8, which means playing on evo's main stage. his next opponent is mao, a claw player. you may know that character under the name "vega". in japan that character is named balrog, so everyone just call him claw, to make it clear. claw is on the very top of st tier list... i'm comfortable in every matchup when i play claw. no matter what the match is, i always think my claw has the edge. but every player has strenghs and weaknesses,
and in my case, the character i fear the most is honda. not a bad thing for the french player, who picks honda as a sub character. dhalsim is solid overall but against claw dives, he can't control space like he does in a ryu or guile matchup. but wolmar knows, depsite the clever counterpicking, he has to give the best he can against that top level japanese player. mao scares everyone for a reason: he's an extremely clever and merciless player. claw is known as a character with absolutely no unfavorable matchup, even against his worst, which is boxer.
so yeah, mao is so scary because of that character, but mainly because he's so technically strong, he knows every matchups like crazy, if he has to wait for 70 secs in the corner he'll just do it. his claw is just so scary. the match starts, and turns quite weird... wolmar is smiling, he's aware of the absurdity of the match. indeed, when there is a life lead, you just can stay in the corner waiting for time over: you can call it playing safe or even turtling. i played him in casuals before with honda, 'cause with sim it's like useless haha. so i tried my best with honda, which was equal to being able to do nothing.
i just couldn't do anything. playing such a guy is like playing tennis with federer. you just need a certain level to play. here is just the same. i just don't have the level. maybe there was like a round where i was somewhat close to win, but that's really all. i even gave up during the end of a round, it was just useless to play anymore haha. wolmar doesn't believe he can win anymore. he knows mao isn't ashamed to play dirty, as he's proud to play claw, the best character in the game. that's how it goes when you want to win tournaments.
anyway, i had no tools against such a player, so i had to play in loser brackets after that. for sure mao's on another level, but hey he's like one of the very best players of the game so... wolmar's not out yet. he's just faced a top level player, a step above us players. the japanese players do come to tournaments for a reason: they're here to win, and nothing else. kuroppi, long time and old school player, is happy to gather the best of europe and japan in a us tournament.
it is something quite new for the us players. not easy to organize such tournaments in such a big country. but tournaments are unique opportunities for players to level up. this is why kuroppi created a website database. kuroppi.com and st revival have that same purpose : keep the st community strong and active, with also remarkable event organization such as that tournament of legends. zaspacer also created a website in order to make the community of players stronger. streetfighterdojo is a website featuring videos
for each characters of the best players in the world. the best way for newcomers in the scene, is to download the st rom and play. it doesn't really matter if you only have a pad, you just have to discover the game. playing on stick won't make you instantly a better player you know. indeed, no need to play since '94 to be a competitive player; wolmar started at home, playing online. he watched tons of videos, read theory about the game mechanics, then he did tourneys and got some results in the french scene. it's definitly a great player who started playing on pad.
he started playing stick to be able to compete offline. that kind of choice is something new school players (sf4 players for instance) can't really understand. but i think it's a good example to follow. it's all about achieving the best you can do, when you know you're good in something. there are some other domains where i think i'm competent (and a lot where i think i'm not at all) but video games are one of these. plus i'm doing quite good in competitions, and tournaments help things to be clear:
i dunno, if you know tons of stuff about birds, there's not a lot you can do to prove how good you are in ornithology! as for video games, you can do competitions, so i will do them as long as i enjoy it. i think every player wants to show he's good in a particular domain, and push it as far as he can; that's what we have in common in my opinion. it's a game mixing a great accessibility and a real deepness, and i research that in everything i really love. i'm a lot into philosophy, and it's quite the same. very profound philosophers like epicurus or blaise pascal, or even descartes,
i really dislike philosophers using boring rigmaroles. it's quite the same in fighting games, the more it's complicated, the more it is boring to me. the more you find things, the less you really find something, it's paradoxical. that paradox is still fascinating me when i play st: both great simplicity and deepness. back to the competition: wolmar still can reach top 8 after his loss against mao, but he has no choice but to win. so i had to play against mars again, in loser brackets this time. remember, marsgattai lost 3/0 against wolmar.
mars won twice to face that french dhalsim again. loser will be out for good, so pressure is huge right now... guile/sim matchup almost always means a sim victory. his crouched medium punch goes under guile's projectiles even worse, it punishes the guile player, and also allows sim to block if he missed. either he avoids the attack or he parries it. guile can't jump on dhalsim if he's cornered, dhalsim will attack unrelentingly dhalsim can throw fireballs as a ryu would do a hadoken
and as guile must charge his attacks, he has no time for it so this matchup favors dhalsim especially to a very-well versed player. to win, guile must be very patient and block everything. first match is a win for wolmar. 1/0, but marsgattai stays cool and is giving his best as soon as game two starts. 1/1: things are getting tight, yet the matchup is quite an easy one for dhalsim. some people in the crowd decide to cheer mars, the us player, and they start being heard pretty loudly...
2/1 for wolmar, one point away from the main stage... the final victory will go for the most patient and focused player for sure. starting from this match, there was some hellion in the crowd, nohoho, which i don't salute much... who started to scream each time i took any hit. on anything. except him screaming, it was silent. just him "cheering up" his friend. to play dhalsim against guile you must be patient and very focused. to have the good reflexes to do the right thing.
which you can hardly be in a tournament. especially in a tournament. the atmosphere during a tourney can be very heavy. we've seen a lot of players lose their temper just because of the atmosphere. even players with rituals or exercises to keep calm in such a crowded and noisy place, it's really tricky. best players are those who keep calm at all costs i simply need calm to stay focused when i play dhalsim. it's a character which requires a lot of focus and quick thinking
you need to think a lot to play dhalsim it really bugged me, you can imagine how loud and annoying it was even worse, you keep your attention at him, not knowing if he's about to scream or not and when it's an evo match, well, you can easily lose, even in a guild/dhalsim matchup. and marsgattai is very strong in this matchup. now, the friendly atmosphere is gone for good, nohoho's repeated grunts and screams are really breaking the french competitor concentration.
as you just guessed, this match is crucial for the french champion. winner of the next game wins all: reaching top 8 and playing on the main stage. there's a lot to win and a lot to lose, screams get harsh and loud, and wolmar seems disturbed, more and more. he had a clear lead in that match, and now that is gone, will he be able to let it away and give his very best? don't miss the next episode! see you next week!
