« IPW INTERVIEW WITH CHRIS HU! »

Chris "Fascinating" Hu has a lot of fans out there, myself included!  He is a tremendous Ryu player in New York City, facing off against the best the East Coast has to offer.  As good as his Ryu is, though, his match commentary on streams is godlike. IPW brings you this interview with the man, the legend, Chris Hu!

LVC: First of all, I want to thank you for giving me your time.

Chris: No problem.

LVC: First question.  Where are you originally from?

Chris: I come from China. I am Chinese.

LVC: Where in china?

Chris: It's South of the China, Call, GuangZhou.

LVC: How did you become interested in fighting games?

Chris: Actually I play fighting game since I was 13 years old. First Game is SF2.

LVC: You want to go into that a bit more?

Chris: Yea, Fighting Game for me that is about Two person using mind to beat each other, I like the feeling like this, Fighting game include a lot of things, like reaction, strategy, that's why I like fighting game.

LVC: Which cities in china have the best fighting game scenes?

Chris: Basically would be Guangzhou, ShangHai, BeiJing.

LVC: In China, does anything else get played besides KOF?

Chris: Not at all , Chinese focus on KOF a lot, maybe 1 arcade like up to 10 machines kof97  15 machines kof98, We do have another game, Just Not that popular, since Right now we have sf4, Chinese getting better in this game.

LVC: Very interesting. What matchup in Street Fighter 4 gives you the most trouble? 

Chris: Overall is Sagat and Ryu mirror.

LVC: Why?

Chris: Coz Ryu mirror is pretty difficult for both players, not even just using footies for spacing, Wake up option for both players still need to guess each other, Sagat is about is damage and spacing , Fast focus attack, good Sagat players know the spacing really well.

LVC: Why do you play Ryu?

Chris: Coz I like Dp for anti air, FireBall for ground Game! Btw. Ryu actually is easy to use, But difficult to master.  Actually People say Ryu is cheap and nobody placing very high in tonrament.  I would say they don’t know Ryu at all.

LVC: How do you feel about Ryu currently? What are his biggest strengths and weaknesses?

Chris Hu at Seasons Beatings 4. Image Courtesy of ProtocolSnow.comChris: Ryu is a "Normal" character, He has no special moves, Because Ryu has Normal skill like fireball and dp, That's really depend on the skill of player for using ryu. U good U good, U not good,U lost and His weaknesses is about his biggest strengths coz he is pretty normal.

LVC: Who is your biggest threat on the east coast?

Chris: They say my demon is Andre, If you talking about threat, that would be Andre.

LVC: I've noticed that by watching your videos actually.

Chris: Yea, His Bison kills my Ryu somehow.

LVC: What about his play style causes you to lose?

Chris: He likes to do "math", and he really betting win on me for some corner trap situations, Everytime I guess wrong, I dont know why, Maybe I need more random Dp, coz that out of math.

LVC: Before we talk about the EC scene, do you play any other characters in SF4?

Chris: Yes my Abel is pretty godlike.

LVC: I didn't know you played Abel.

Chris: Yea, I play Abel really well.

LVC: Are you going to bust him out in a tournament one day?

Chris: I will bust him in China.

LVC: How do you feel about the New York scene right now? 

Chris: Pretty Salty, and People just stay at home playing XBL,I am pretty sad about that. I want they go out CTF a lot. (editor note: He's referring to China Town Fair in NYC, an arcade)

LVC: Was there a time where people played at CTF a lot?

Chris: Friday Night Usually, Actually A lot of good player around all over the USA, but they need to show up and have good competition with us.

LVC: Do you think Justin Wong leaving New York hurt the scene at all?

Chris: No, It doesn’t hurt the scene, Coz People can survive without anyone, If people keep training!

LVC: Which players on the west coast do you respect and want to fight?

Chris: I don’t know WC at all, But I do know some famous players, I want to fight them all if I have chance,Like Valle, Combo, Edma, Utj.

LVC: Do you know Ricky Ortiz? He's our best player up here in northern California.

Chris: Oh yea, Ricky. I know I want to fight him also. yea.

LVC: What goes through your mind when you do a random shoryuken? I love to watch you fight because you almost never miss a shoryuken.

Chris: U don’t scare ,I don’t scare, Basically It's this concept, and when opponent come close u, it's 50/50 chance, coz u are shoto, he either do nothing or do something, and Experience and reading his pattern help me to do the right wake up dp.

LVC: I really like that shirt! 

Chris: Take to Seb!

LVC: Have you watched any of the streams iplaywinner puts on?

Chris: Yea, Some of them, because it's WC it's pretty laggy.

Chris: Can’t really enjoy it sometimes.  I really hope I can commentate one day on WC.

LVC: We would all love that!

Chris: thanks.

LVC: How do you feel about super not coming out in the arcades? We're all really bummed about it over here. 

Chris: That already confirmed? I don’t think so.  They must have arcade for ssf4. They dont let Japanese being bad in ssf4.

LVC: If it doesn’t come out in the arcades, will you continue to play the game?

Chris: Of course, we got Xbox360!

LVC: What changes do you personally want to see in Super Street Fighter 4?

Chris: First one is balance for this game, Make every character has their own advantage, Another one is great music as always, the commentator in sf4 is godlike, has to do more in this part, and what they mention about team play in xbl, I really wanna have Clan fight!

LVC: What do you want to see changed to your character, Ryu?

Chris: I think He is pretty balance, I don’t exactly find out something need to be fixed on ryu, maybe one more ultra? and maybe the jump medium punch, U can have more juggle of that.

LVC: Do you plan on trying out a new main? Or are you just gonna stick with Ryu?

Chris: I will using Cody as a first try character, and then i will find out which character fits me, I will keep training Ryu as back up, :)

LVC: I'm gonna main Cody too! :) When you play someone for the first time, what habits do you look out for?

Chris: does he really how to technical, does he like random dp or messiah kick or something else, I normally could lose first game, After I can confirmed his style, I gonna know what to do next.

LVC: Very interesting.

Chris: someone cant technical, that's how u work about walk front and then walk back and punish him.

LVC: What is your favorite place to eat in New York?

Chris: Ah, I cant tell, Actually the food I try is not that awesome, I know WC has more good Chinese chefs!

LVC: We have amazing Mexican food over here!

Chris: I would like to try Mexican food!

LVC: They don’t have good Mexican food in New York, you gotta come here!

Chris: I will come to visit WC.

LVC: What is your favorite movie?

Chris: U mean American Movie?

LVC: Chinese and American .

Chris: American moive is "super bad" Chinese movie is "Wu Jian Dao".

LVC: What is your favorite music album? American and Chinese.

Chris: American is "If I were a boy" Chinese is .... A lot Man,,,, I cant tell!

LVC: hahahah! That wraps it up basically. Anything you would like to tell the west coast, or anyone in general?

Chris: Yea. I would like to say, All fighter is pretty equal, we fight for relationship, we fight for training our mind. It's not about beating someone, it's about learning something, and finally u win but you lost friend, maybe I lost but I gain friends,  Friends being more important than games, games is just a step for 2 people being a friend, I really like to chill with friend, laughing with each other.

LVC: Oh good stuff! 

Chris: And why people wanna win all the times, that's because we are men! We don’t have the word "lose" that's why we need to step our shit up.  That should not be effect 2 people relationship.

LVC: Good stuff Chris.

Chris: thanks.

If you want more Chris Hu then head over to Frame-Advantage.com for videos with excellent commentary by the man himself!