The Norwegian FGC featuring your host: Veggey!

Image: Veggey grappling the crap out of Ono-san (I wanna do that!)

Though I usually send these questions to Swedish players and in Swedish this interview will be with Veggey about the Norwegian fighting game community. First up i would like to ask you about the community overall in norway. Much like the shape of the country (thicker in the south); is the community located in the southern part, around oslo, or are you spread out in the country? In sweden, Stockholm and Göteborg go head to head as East side/West side-rivals, is there such a rivalry within the Norwegian community? Tell me about where you play together, do you host offline meet-ups? In Stockholm we meet up at the MTG/boardgame-store “Dragon’s Lair”; Do you have regular spot that is the “place to be”, and how would one find it?

The community used to be pretty big in Norway, I like to look at it this: The better the players got, the more players quit. And now we can expect the epic number of 15-20 participants in any big Tournament going down, (though the level of play is drastically improved). While numbers would be in the hundreds for early tournaments. Noone being able to play properly contributed to the community a very positive way, in that everyone could do pretty good. When some of us, really stood out, the tournaments got less exciting as the results would be rather predetermined. We used to have a huge rivalry, which would be this one group of players placing top, denying the other group of players their recognition. This would of course go both ways, as both parties where the bad guys. It ended with the one side fading out, and that left only one group of players. We are too friendly right now, its both nice and bad. Nice in the sence that I never feel, I cant lose this, if I lose this I lose my pride. Bad in the same way, meaning, there’s less “things” pushing you in your own scene. Right now the place holding the community together is “King City Casuals.” They host weekly casuals from Friday at around 17, to whenever the fuck you wanna stay there the next day. And sometimes the next day after that, and if there is another day to be had, we will have it. Big and grateful shoutouts to Valentino “Eunbeen” You, and Ole Anders “No_Terran” Herland for sustaining the need for offline play in the Norwegian community. I think they are a big reason as to why the community isn’t just three players.

The Göteborg community, for example, uses the name “Negative Edge”, do you have such a name for your own community of players and is there a website or a similar forum?

We are the guys holding up at http://www.round1ko.com , But we don’t use the site anymore, we just use the Facebookgroup. Its funny that youd ask, because lately We have had a discussion, who “ARE” Round1ko? Is it // The Community // or is it, Me, Taaj and Dako? Id like someone to decide, but really it doesn’t matter. Round1ko is either the Norwegian FGC, or the Norwegian FGC use Round1ko as their connecting point, either way either one would not exist without the other. R1 and NFGC are the Yun to the motherfucking chinese Yang. YES, yun and yang!

You guys always bring the heat, along with your awesome presence, to Sweden’s biggest tournies Dreamhack Summer/Winter with players like yourself, Phenom and Duppsko. Sadly I only recall very tough pools for you and a fated match between yourself and Phenom in the upper brackets of latest tournament. Have you guys had any better results in other tournaments around the world?

I don’t like talking placements openly like its bragging, I love talking about how we have done with eachother bossting eachother up, or dropping shit in dicussions. But it feels odd when its for everyone, like it makes you a better player, it doesn’t. But since 2011, when you remember me losing in Pools( -_< ) Ive done really good for myself, placing 4th, 3rd, 5th and several top 8s at EU-majors with big chunks of the Elite present at the different tournaments like French, dutch, uk , ger and Swedish players ++ and been winning more tournaments in Norway. It all started when I gained my confidence, which was in 2012 at WGC2k12, when in tournament, I realised players I would beat regularly would be considerd a top player in EU, because he had placed before. I continued to OCV a team of top players, and beat established players in MMs. From then on, I didn’t need to feel like, oh shit I’m meeting this player, I just had to play my matchups and my opponents like any other, and I started placing. Regardless, I feel like it doesn’t matter where you lose, but who you lose to. Phenom’s been doing really good also, going head 2 head, final call vs players like Poongko and Ryan Hart. He’s also been placing top 8s at EU-Majors, but he’s much better than just the high end, he’s good enough to beat anyone in Europe right now, and he stands with the title as champ of Norway, a title I want back :3

As far as I know, the Norwegian community has been tiny for quite some time, with only a few players (like yourself) getting placements in tournaments. How do you guys stay on top of the game? Do you practice together a lot? Is online the key tool for staying on top? Dreamhack Summer is at our doorstep, with only a couple of days to go and a massive price purse of 50 000 Swedish kronor. Will you guys be there to bring the hype once again and have you prepared anything new for us this time? The tournament is in Ultra after all, anything can happen! Tell me what you think about your chances!

As mentioned earlier, we have offline sets at King City Casuals, weekly if wed like. But for Phenom, I know he practices mostly online. We used to have tournaments that made us prepared for tournament mentality, but we haven’t had any in 2014, last was November 2013. Me and Phenom meet up every now and then to practice offline as well. But mostly I keep my skills sharp while thinking about Street Fighter whilst playing WoW Arena :3 I don’t think playing the game itself is the best way to improve, I think watching other players play(highest level.) while thinking about all their decisions is just as important if not more important. I think I’ve improved lately as a Player, but I haven’t been actively playing since forever, just a set this week or that week. Going to start practising like the old days with Ultra though, the fun is back.

Me, Phenom, Duppsko and Brillz are coming for DHS. I think we will be bringing the same old, Gief, Rufus, Bison, and Hawk/Chun/Deejay Mixture as we always do. For this tournament I am a little worried, though I feel I am better than before, I am not in the zone, as I am working on practical Theatre exams, so I have very limited playtime until DHS from Ultra release. I will not know the new match-ups, nor be able to exploit the changes to other characters and my own, but in the near future of Ultra tours, I am really thinking my chances are going to be even better than before. Now that I have lost Fei as an easy counterpick to Sagat, I don’t think il be as confident when running up vs him, I met Bashfest at DHW and had a personal win when my Fei Long prevailed against a strong Sagat. But Im not sure how Fei is gonna be in that matchup anymore. If Phenom is in the zone, I am really excited to see how he does this time, I hope he doesn’t run in to any guiles and lose by default 😀

Will you stick to Zangief with these new and unexpected buffs or will you follow the rest of the crowd in the great grappler migration over to The Hawk?

I think this is Zangiefs best edition, including Vanilla. Comparing him up to the rest of the cast, of course. Beeing able to play Zangief’s main game from the first second of the round is like being buffed with constant meter. It’s like they made ex-greenhand free of cost unless it travels through a fireball. In addition, it leaves you in a better position on the screen, while at a slight disadvantage, which doesn’t mean much when you are Zangief and can easily handle head to head disadvantages. That buff alone would mean the world to Zangief, when in addition to this buff, he gets +5 c.lk, +5scmk, better sfmk. In Ultra I see Zangief facing great trouble vs. Juri, arguably a 2-8 matchup, and he will still suffer vs. Sagat, but a little less than before! 🙂 Top15 char? I think he might be. But when I’ve played, ive noticed that Guile has become really hard to fight, and Rose feels harder, might just be because I’ve only played vs her Online. Poison seems tough as well, then we have Dhalsim/Seth which both are pretty bad right now, but a little better.

Bonus question: How does it feel to be, arguably, the most handsome sf4 player around?

Its really funny, because I have bad days, and good days when it comes to how I feel about myself, as anyone I guess. So it means more than youd think, that WorstgiefEver and RMZ crowned me the most handsome man in the FGC back in WGC-2012, that wouldn’t happen for no reason I reckon ;D hellloooouuuuu! So in short, its really fun, and I appreciate the positive feedback!

Thank you so much for answering all these questions and do you have shout-outs or challenges for the people reading this?

Shoutouts. I wanna shoutout Me and Phenom’s new sponsor, who are actually dependant and serious, http://www.bx3.no
Other than that, I finally remember to give big and huge shoutouts to my partners in crime since day 1, WtFudge aka FrenchBoxer(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AipaDo7s32U ), Kram for being my mentalbrofister, Dako for making the decicions and making sure we got to practice offline back inna day “general Dakes”, Nilo Gosain for being my most hilarious bro around, Luna Le the tekken god from UK, for hooking up with our FGC in more ways than one ;3 and giving us support instead of being jealous of our prosperity. Big ups to TheOhi for always practicing online if no one is online even though he doesn’t want to, and for being a super positive guy who always push others up, instead of down. And then to my Latino brothers Taaj and Prozac. Taaj has been my main traveling partner since 2010, and is a really goodguy to hang with. Prozac is just an epic dude who makes anything fun rofl. Shoutouts to Quakeulf and Catmouth Island (New adventure game on PC.) Its gonna be epic! ;3 Shoutouts to Mr King Funk, Petter Lundgren and Sharin, the ‘gief army!
Yagami, Skatan and Boris the emperor for friendship and tournaments back in the day. And A big shoutout to BubblanAB7 aka Sebastian Kappelin, the guy who taught me footsies, and actually allowed me to stand out from my peers early on in the game. Popi, Chino, Chewie and Funkie for Swedish bromance. Duppsko and Brillz for bringing skilled character variety in to my circle, and for being epic dudes. And the biggest shoutout has already been done earlier, to the KCC- PLAYAS. Really I love the Swedish FGC in general, they are really nice.