« iPW SPECIAL FEATURE: THE BOX ARENA & THE SAN DIEGO FIGHTING GAME SCENE »

The Box Arena is the hub of the San Diego fighting game scene and they've put together a series of interviews for iPlayWinner to shed some light on their scene's unique history and players. This is a four part series where we will have interviews from players such as Yeb, Shady K and Viscant. Part one gives an overview of the Box Arena and how it came to be, also an interview with newcomer, Steinmania. 

Don't forget, they have a major Super Street Fighter 4 2v2 RANBAT coming up this Saturday! More details can be found on The Box Arena official post, and you can check out the trailer below.

THE BOX ARENA

Christine Gentry of The Box Arena gives us a look into how everything came to be and who is involved to make not only the tournaments, but casual gatherings happen week after week.

Why did your group start referring to themselves as The Box Arena?

There is always debate as to where the name originated from and who actually started it. According to two of the original members, Kuizzy Ef Baby and OceansideDoods, the suggestion was first to be called "The Box Dojo". Some say that the Box came from the fact that the first thing you saw when you pulled up to our steep driveway was four Scion XBs "box cars".

There is another rumor that it came from name "El Cajon" which is the town in East County San Diego we live in. Whoever started that rumor needs a few lessons in Spanish because they thought "el cajo" translated to "the box" when actually it translates to "the drawer" and box is actually "el caja." Nevertheless, the "Dojo" was dropped simply because it sounded kind of silly and it was replaced with "Arena" because we specialize in fighting games. If we had a cooler story.. you would be the first to know!

What is The Box Arena?

The Box Arena now is a lot different from what The Box was a year ago. With the drop of Street Fighter 4 in 2009, one of our original members SkratchiChan, decided to host casuals at our house in El Cajon. The first casuals were four or five people, then we went on to letting HunEBee run some mini eight-man brackets. Over the course of about two months these brackets grew to 40+ players and everyone was trying their hardest to make our sessions on Wednesday nights to play in these dollar tournies.

After attending many unorganized, ridiculously long, and uncomfortable tournaments DJ Frank Fresh suggested we throw our own. We all thought this was a great idea and went for it. We've grown so much since then, now having two great venues sponsoring us, sponsorship by some amazing companies, a beautiful stream, website, fan page, waiting list for casuals, and our own t-shirt line. There has been ups and downs since, but the rest is history. We are still hosting weekly sessions -- that somehow became dinner parties -- and now throw some of the best, most efficient, and enjoyable tournaments in San Diego, CA.

Who is The Box Arena?

The list of Box family members is huge! There are organizers, family, and extended family that have made The Box Arena so successful. I'd say anyone who has come to The Box and gave input, donated, or simply supported our mission is extended family. Without any of these people there would be no Box, or at least The Box Socal has grown to know.

Maybe the answer could be based more upon who sits week after week in meetings, replies to countless lists and emails, and stresses hours and days before each and every tournament. The answer to this question would have to be a list of 10 individuals. Their titles aren't as simple as "Tournament Organizer" or "Tech" -- they all perform numerous jobs within the Box and therefore, labeling them with a single title would be silly. The Box Arena Organizers are :

• Frank Puzon (DJFrankFresh)
• Marc Jardin (GCSupra)
• Kuizzy Lim (Kuizzy Ef Baby)
• Mitchel Steinman (Steinmania)
• Cane Diaz (NatMecha)
• Fernando Sylva (BeefCake)
• Edgar Agapay (OceansideDoods)
• Long Tran (ShadyK)
• Alissa Balingit (UhLeeSuh) and... 
• Christine Gentry (HunEBee). 

INTERVIEW: STEINMANIA

I’m a new face in the fighting game scene and like many of my other hobbies, I've taken it to a competitive level. I place top 8 in the local tournaments and fare very well against the top players in SoCal. Expect to hear more about me in the summer!

You're a new face in the fighting game community. Who or what made you decide to play competitive Street Fighter?

My friends and I have always been fans of the series. None of us were any good but we enjoyed hanging out in arcades, playing on consoles, or just talking about the game. When Street Fighter 4 came out, it only seemed natural to go competitive. I have a very hard time doing anything purely for fun, win or lose. As for my growth in fighting games, I have Allioune, VasAZNion13, ShadyK, Alex Valle, and Yeb to thank. 

What's been your greatest, most memorable match?

My most memorable match was probably against Yeb back at West Coast Warzone 2009. My technique/skill/whatever you want to call it was pretty bad back then, but due to Yeb's lack of match up experience (Has anyone seen Gen vs Cammy before?) I managed to random him out in front of 300 people. I won't forget hearing the crowd.

How did you hear about the Box Arena?

I remember SRK having regional forums, figured I'd take a look for San Diego Street Fighter. To be honest, I wasn't expecting anything. I figured the scene here was dead and I was going to be stuck playing online. I was really lucky to be taken in by Lacey, Kui, OceansideDOODS, Christine, and everyone else at the Box Arena. I mentioned to DJFrankFresh, one of the Box Arena heads that I have some skills in video capture and editing and I found myself on the multi-media department.

How did you make it on to team San Diego for Level Up's "The Specialists"? How did you do at the event?

I made the team with a lot of luck. The previous members weren't able to make the event, leaving three open spots. I had a really good day at San Diego's round robin qualifier -- okay, maybe it wasn't that great of a day, I beat my first six opponents and horribly lost the last three. Luckily, six wins was enough to land the number two spot.

I did a lot better than expected at the Specialists. Again, I went 6-3, but I played against Moval, Shizza, JuiceBox, WarHawk, K-Wheelie, 200yen, and a few others I can't remember. It was a great day for San Diego Street Fighter.

Next up in this series: Interview with Viscant. Thanks to DJFrankFresh for putting all of this together.