« UMVC3: Sacramento Players MINE & X-Ray Getting The Spotlight »

MINE (left), Hi Im Nasty (middle), and X-Ray (right). Photo by Romeo Rivera Jr.During vanilla Marvel vs. Capcom 3's competitive lifecycle, there were two players from NorCal that nobody expected to place very high in the finals. These two players are Tinh "MINE" Ngo and Raymond "X-Ray" Monsada from the Sacramento area. Out of all the well-known players who attended NorCal Regionals 9, EVO2K11 and the more recent SoCal Regionals, MINE and X-Ray were able to push through and go big to the top 8 in brackets.

They are interviewed by Antonio "CoolGrayAJ" Javier of Evil Geniuses, detailing their pasts and some of their game plans for Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3.

After the jump is an excerpt of the interview questions. If you want to check more of their play, look out for upcoming Sacramento events on Shoryuken's Pacific North Matchmaking forums and follow the players directly on Twitter (MINE - @AFANOFMINE, X-Ray - @XRAYmvc3)

CoolGrayAJ: You both are two of the most consistent players in the scene, placing Top 8 at every major you’ve attended since NCR9 (except for X-RAY at SCR, but we won’t get into that). Being from Sacramento where there are no arcades to be found outside of broken machines at Roseville Golfland and Sacramento State, how have you managed to get to the level you’re both playing?

X-RAY: The truth is, since MvC3 came out, 90% of the time it was really just MINE and I playing together. MINE was already one of the best players in Nor Cal, so I was fortunate enough to have him. Outside of that, it’s just such a hassle to travel, so we really didn’t play with anyone else. We have our little circle, but that was it.

CoolGrayAJ: A good portion of the people reading this right now might not have access to big arcades and bountiful competition like in SoCal and the East Coast. What would you say to players that are trying to level up their game without this privilege?

CoolGrayAJ: There’s a lot of talk about patches and nerfing Wesker because of how overpowered he is perceived to be. fLoE has said before that even though he uses Wesker, he still thinks he needs a nerf. Do you guys feel the same?

X-RAY: Honestly, I don’t think he’s OP – I don’t even play him anymore. He does tend to be a little random at level 3 X-Factor, but you can really say the same about any character. In the proper hands, Super Skrull can be as random as Wesker, and just as devastating.

MINE: I definitely agree. My only opinion about people crying about a Wesker nerf is if Capcom does decide to nerf him, what next? There’s always going to be a top character, so just deal with it. Accept that Wesker is the way he is, or accept a never-ending nerfing cycle. He’s a good character, no doubt, but this is a game about team synergy. You can’t just throw Wesker in the mix and expect a good team – he’s good, but not that good.