Super Desperation Radio Player Profile: TommyGunzz

After the recent exhibition between TommyGunzz and Crackfiend, Super Desperation Radio's Hellpockets decided to sit down and talk to the player who has parts of Northern California in an uproar.

In a roughly 25-minute interview, TommyGunzz—real name Chris Acosta—spoke with the SDR host at length about his beginnings in competitive fighting games, his thoughts on his and Texas' skill level in comparison to the rest of the United States and why he started talking trash to NorCal in the first place.

Acosta also breaks down his matchup with Crackfiend—he would gladly give his opponent a runback—and calls out several other people he wants to play.

Check out the interview after the jump.

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Keits Discusses the End of UFGT and His Future

Photo courtesy of Adam HeartOn Feb. 8, Adam "Keits" Heart and the crew behind Ultimate Fighting Game Tournament announced that the upcoming event, UFGT 10, will be the last tournament under that banner. While the posting to the UFGT website answered some questions, however, the future of both a Midwestern major and Heart himself remained in doubt.

IPLAYWINNER caught up with the man known as Keits and asked him about the end of an era, the changes in his life and how the Ultimate Fighting Game Tournament made it this far. Hit the jump for the interview.

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IPW Exclusive: Interview With Infiltration, Post-EVO 2013 Thoughts

Courtesy of David Zhou (@dz)

Almost two months after EVO, South Korea's Infiltration speaks to IPLAYWINNER!

With help from interviewer LOD 38, Hoodaman ironed out the questions and answers for your pleasure.

Topics featured in this special interview includes his general and specific experiences at EVO 2013, the worldwire competitive scene and more.

Make sure to check out the extensive interview after the jump!

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House Of M: A Look Into Super Smash Bros. Community Mod Project M

Gamers have a certain affinity for titles of years past. In the fighting game realm, it's noticeable with such games as Super Street Fighter II Turbo, The King of Fighters '98, Darkstalkers 3/Vampire Savior and a couple of others. Next to the fighting game community, the competitive Super Smash Bros. scene have their own with Super Smash Bros. Melee, the second entry in the popular Nintendo crossover series.

"To put it simply, Melee got a lot of things right," a consensus response by the Project M team in our e-mail interview.

This team's fondness for Melee led to development of recreating the feeling and experience through the third entry, Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Brawl might have looked better and had a bigger cast, the members of Project M were resentful of its gameplay that differed from that of Melee.

Through advancements in the Nintendo Wii's homebrew efforts, the team's efforts are able to be realized with this special mod.

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Community Spotlight: Argentos Assemble from Argentina

Argentos Assemble is a fairly new fighting game group trying to reinvigorate the Argentinean scene. We talked with its founder Diego Hombre about the past, present and future of Argentos Assemble.

 

Hit the jump to learn more about the Argentine FGC.

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The New Challenger: Fighting Game Development With Iron Galaxy Studios' Dave Lang

Dave Lang. Source: Windows Phone Central

Japanese developer and publisher Capcom commissioned projects to be developed outside their main production studios. Chicago-based group Iron Galaxy Studios became part of the plan and would later serve something more: they were going to work on Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike Online Edition.

"Street Fighter is actually a Capcom U.S. owned franchise I believe, so when they decided to do that game the U.S. team got to pick who would be working on it," said Iron Galaxy CEO Dave Lang. "[Iron Galaxy] had a great relationship with Capcom, and they were confident our technical proficiency would be most valuable on that project."

This effort by Lang and Iron Galaxy would establish their ground as one of the prominent developers within the worldwide fighting game industry and community.

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Bread and Butter: Word Association

This is one video that slipped through the cracks during EVO but definitely is one you need out check out. Put together by our very own Chris "Shinobi" Ceglia, he asked many players at NCR9 what comes to mind when they heard words such as "Salty", "EVO" and even the name.."Daigo"!

This is easily one of the most entertaining videos I've seen in a while due to the players responses so be sure to check it out when you get a few. For more Bread & Butter interviews and EVO coverage keep an eye on our YouTube Channel!

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Bread & Butter - Interviews with EG Justin Wong, EG Ricky Ortiz & LPN

With EVO less than a week away, we uploaded yet another batch of Bread & Butter interviews so you can get a better idea as to where players got their start in the scene and where they see things going in the future. This time around we've got EG Justin Wong, EG Ricky Ortiz and LPN! Check out all three interviews after the break!

Also, be sure to subscribe to us on YouTube to be the first to know when we upload new videos!

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Bread & Butter Interview with Floe

Our next Bread & Butter interview is now live, featuring multi-game extraordinaire, Floe! Hear about how he got into fighting games, how the newer fighting games changed the scene and his thoughts on the future of fighting games. Check out the full video after the break, and to be the first to know of new Bread & Butter interviews and other hot videos, subscribe to our YouTube Channel. 

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IPW Exclusive: Interview with Seth Killian on Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike OE, DLC Strategy & Dream Projects

In Part 1 of this iPlayWinner exclusive interview, we grilled Seth Killian on the gameplay systems we can expect to see in Street Fighter X Tekken. This week's portion of the interview starts off with Third Strike: Online Edition, delves into Capcom's DLC strategy, then pries into Seth's own hopes and dreams.

3RD STRIKE: ONLINE EDITION

iPlayWinner: 3rd Strike: Online Edition is a love-letter to fans. It has GGPO. It has YouTube features. When are we going to see those kinds of features in new games? Or, is that only going to be for re-releases of old games?

Seth Killian: Well, I’ve talked before about how much easier it is to implement GGPO. You’re sort of able to just drop it into games that are based on 2D animations and things like that. It’ll still work [in other games], but it’s a much easier process to just drop it into games like that. In terms of the overall feature set, you’ve got to help me in my mission. I push for these things once in a while, with some success in some areas. If we can communicate to the Japanese office that I’m not crazy, that it’s not just me, that the fans really react to this stuff, and that it’s really important to them, we can get more of these features in there. We’re making progress in a lot of ways, but we go in different directions on some of the Japanese titles. You’ll still see improvements in the online and overall feature sets and things like that.

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Bread & Butter Interview with Marn

We're back with another Bread & Butter interview, this time featuring Marn! You'll learn a bit about how he first started with fighting games and the friends he's made playing them over the years. He also gives some really good advice to new players at the end -- a piece of advice I think every new player should take to heart. Check it out after the break and find more Bread & Butter interviews on our YouTube Channel!

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iPlayWinner Exclusive: Seth Killian Interview at ECT3 - Part 1

iPlayWinner caught up with Capcom's Seth Killian at East Coast Throwdown 3 and got to talking about Street Fighter X Tekken, 3rd Strike: Online Edition, and the future of fighting games in general. Seth was so gracious with his time that we've broken the interview into two parts, the first of which is all about Street Fighter X Tekken. If you want some of the nitty-gritty details on gameplay systems and changes we can expect as the game's development continues, you've come to the right place!

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Bread & Butter Interview with MAGUS1234

Our newest Bread & Butter interview is with one of my favorite commentators, MAGUS1234! Sure, I might be a little biased since he has been holding it down for IPW streams since the beginning, but it's hard to deny he has a style on the mic like none other. Love him or hate him, check out the video below to get a better idea where he comes from and how he approaches commentating fighting games. 

You can find more of these B&B interviews on our YouTube Channel, so be sure to hit it up and subscribe! 

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IPW Presents Bread & Butter Interviews feat. Filipino Champ and FilthieRich

You guys asked for it so we're back with more Bread & Butter interviews, this time featuring Filipino Champ and FilthieRich! You may remember some previous B&B interviews we put together with Mike Ross, Gootecks, Alex Valle, Crackfiend and Lamerboi, but this is an entirely new set fresh from NCR9. Extra special thanks to Chris "Shinobi" Ceglia for wrangling up the players, conducting the interviews and editing the video!

There are many more on the way so be sure to subscribe to our YouTube Channel to be the first to know when they go live. Enjoy!

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Interviews With Lamerboi, Rom, Crackfiend and LPN about SSF4: AE

As many of you have noticed IPW has been capturing a lot of footage of SSF4: AE at Milpitas Golf Land for YouTube. I pulled aside some of NorCal's top players (Lamerboi, Rom, Crackfiend, and LPN) to talk about their thoughts on AE and specific characters that they are playing.

Lamerboi talks about Guile nerfs, Crackfiend enlightens us on Boxer, LPN gives us a overview of AE and Rom . . . Well lets say Rom gives us a lot of intel on how to learn and play Yang in AE.

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Bread & Butter - Interviews with Tatsu & Gootecks

iPlayWinner has teamed up with The Best Damn Nerd Show to bring you guys a new series of interviews called "Bread & Butter". Next up on the list is Tatsu and Gootecks! 

Much like B&B combos, the aim of this series is to compile a go to set of interviews where you can quickly get a rundown of each player's background. We feel there are a lot of great interviews out there, but sometimes we forget to ask players the basics of where they come from and other general information that people new to the scene may not be aware of.  That said, these interviews also contain information about the players you may have had no idea about as even if you've been around just as long as they have! 

Keep an eye on iPlayWinner.com and the Best Damn Nerd Show (@theBDNS on Twitter) for more Bread & Butter interviews. 

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Interview with Top Makoto Player VRyu

As of late I've given Makoto another shot in Super Street Fighter 4 and have found that she is a lot of fun to play, despite the SSF4 engine working against her. With a truckload of buffs right around the corner in Arcade Edition, it looks like things are on the up and up for Makoto players.

That said, who else would be better to talk to than the worlds most respected Makoto player? We sent over a bunch of questions to VRyu, picking his brain on Makoto tactics and getting a better idea on where he came from and the scene in Geneva, Switzerland. He has many interesting responses to a lot of these questions, so this is a must read for Makoto fans!

Thanks again to VRyu for taking the time for this interview, and special thanks to the SSF4 community over at NeoGAF for helping me compile this list of questions. 

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Bread & Butter - Interviews with Mike Ross, Alex Valle & Crackfiend

iPlayWinner has teamed up with The Best Damn Nerd Show to bring you guys a new series of interviews called "Bread & Butter". The first three we have lined up for you guys are Mike Ross, Alex Valle and Crackfiend, which were filmed at NorCal Regionals 8. 

Much like B&B combos, the aim of this series is to compile a go to set of interviews where you can quickly get a rundown of each player's background. We feel there are a lot of great interviews out there, but sometimes we forget to ask players the basics of where they come from and other general information that people new to the scene may not be aware of.  That said, these interviews also contain information about the players you may have had no idea about as even if you've been around just as long as they have! 

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IPLAYWINNER INTERVIEW: KFR STARNAB

James "Worst Gief Ever" sits down with noted Fei-Long player, Starnab, getting his thoughts on topics such as: recent North American tournaments and the dreaded 2nd place finish! If you like this interview, be sure to check out WGE's interview with Kayane and Luffy!

iPLAYWINNER INTERVIEW: STARNAB

Who are you and where are you from?

I'm StarNab, I'm 27. I live in France. I've always been a huge video games fan thanks to my big brothers. The very first system I played on was the MSX. And the first fighting game I played was actually Year Kung Fu 2. I'm also part of the Katrina-esports team (KFR) which is an esport team dedicated to console games such as FIFA, PES, Halo and SF4. http://www.katrina-esports.com

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iPlayWinner INTERVIEW: Tatsu

Tatsu is arguably the best Vega player in North America. At EVO 2010 he placed 17th out of thousands of players in Super Street Fighter 4. In this interview we learn more about his gaming background, his views on Super Street Fighter 4 and Vega, on his experience at EVO, and more. Enjoy.

IPW: When did you first start playing fighting games and what did you play?

If Smash Bros. doesn't count as a fighting game, then it'd have to be summer of 2008. I played a lot of ST on GGPO. Those were good times:
If Smash Bros. does count as a fighting game, then... well, I guess I played Smash! Melee to be specific. This was probably around 2005-2006.

IPW: No, Smash doesn’t count. Just kidding. So you have only started playing fighting games relatively recently. What drew you to GGPO Super Turbo? Was this game the springboard to your playing any other fighting games before Street Fighter 4?

Yeah. I'm one of the many players who were inspired to play fighting games after watching the Daigo VS JWong comeback video from Evo 2004. At first I tried to get into 3S, but it was too overwhelming so I went over to ST instead. It was just my kind of game. And just between you and me, I'm really good at ST...

(By that I mean that I picked Vega, mashed cr.mp, abused walldive crossups, and won every single match. I thought I was hot shit)

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