Editor’s note: Some responses have been altered slightly for clarity.
This past Thursday, Showdown eSports hosted the 81st installment of its Churning the Butter series featuring Street Fighter V in San Francisco, CA. NorCal’s premier local draws some of the highest level of SFV talent from all over the region with the likes of FOX|Julio, Circa|LPN, ROG|Kelvin Jeon and BJ Unchained making regular appearances and placing top three or taking first place most of the time.
With Evo 2016 being almost a week away from the most recent CTB gathering, one would expect a huge turnout of entrants with these now familiar notable players among others to get in some heavy last-minute practice and try to win some extra pocket cash for the trip to Las Vegas. This was usually the case right before the biggest fighting game tournament of the year back in the Street Fighter IV days, with big out-of-state and international players showing up to play against NorCal’s best.
However, much to my surprise, none of the names I mentioned showed up and instead stayed at home or went to other players’ houses to grind it out. And while the SFV entrant numbers were solid (55 players), it didn’t have quite the same level of hype and intensity without the bigger names like the CTBs before Evo and Capcom Cup last year.
Nonetheless, last week’s Pre-Evo 2016 CTB had a great turnout and I was able to get in some much needed practice; I ended up placing fourth overall, which while I thought wasn’t bad, I wasn’t satisfied with the results either. The sets I had with the two players I lost to who got first and second place were very close and while I was salty, it was a humbling experience to learn and improve my style with my main character, Vega, so I could be ready for Evo this coming weekend.
Even though there wasn’t enough of the cream of the crop that is commonly on display at CTB, that’s not to say there was a shortage of seasoned and up-and-coming players.
Waiting in between matches for SFV at the Foundry was a perfect chance to interview a few of NorCal’s “sleeper” players who are under the radar and rarely get to travel outside of California to show off their skills. These players were Philip “Casual Phil” Pham, Eric “Brass” Beck and Pavo “Pavocado” Miskic. I was able to chat with these rarely known individuals to get their thoughts on what they like about the Foundry and CTB, how NorCal stacks up to other regions and their thoughts and goals for Evo 2016.
Marcos Blanco: What do you like about the Foundry and the Churning the Butter tournaments that are held here in San Francisco?
Philip Pham: It’s consolidating all the top talent in NorCal as one of the biggest locals in the region. It’s almost a corollary to what SoCal has with Wednesday Night Fights for here.
Phillip “Casual Phil” Pham (right)
Eric Beck: It legitimizes everything we do for everyone who is not crazy like we are. For people who are here to just have some fun and then look at some video games, it totally legitimizes that. There’s such a diversity of people that we have here now. At old-school fighting game tournaments, you would just see fighting game people there and that’s it. We have so many people here who are starting to enjoy what we do and bringing it to the mainstream.
Pavo Miskic: My favorite part about the Foundry is it’s impossible not to run into a ton of friendly faces from Street Fighter, Smash or homies who drop in just to hangout. Being able to step away from the tournament for a second and talk to people keeps the events fun and helps me stay relaxed throughout the night.
MB: What do you think about the SFV competition in NorCal? How does it compare to other regions in U.S. as well as the rest of the world?
PP: It’s hard for me to judge. I haven’t traveled all over the country. I have played a few friends in SoCal online who usually take top 10 at WNF. I think NorCal has the edge for the sponsored players, but SoCal actually has a lot of top talent that I have yet to experience myself. In terms of the world, Europe is at the bottom in my opinion. Besides Will2Pac, I haven’t seen a lot of great success from the European scene. Japan is stellar right now. Everyone is looking to their footage and their replays to understand how to maximize their characters, which is unfortunate because I want to see more American players innovate and make characters their own.
EB: The easiest comparison I can make would be between NorCal and SoCal. I feel like our best are just as good as their best, but they just have a larger mid-range community. The sleepers–they have a ton of those, but we only know about a handful of the famous ones. And then you look at NorCal and you can list five or six guys who are really well known and then you think NorCal is not that strong. But our guys who have put in the work are just as good as those guys. We saw at NCR 2016 LPN blow up Kazunoko. So we know we can take on the international players. I think NorCal is one of the strongest communities in the world right now and we are blessed to have the Foundry for that.
Eric “Brass” Beck (right)
PM: Due to our deep arcade roots, NorCal has always been a strong region. While I don’t think we were able to keep up towards the end of Street Fighter IV, seeing the amount of work and passion that our players have been putting in every week since launch makes me feel really confident for everyone heading into Evo.
Early on when we were all figuring out the game, I’d always want to session with Julio, Kelvin, BJ Unchained and G-Dragon. Not only are they some of the best practice I could ask for, but they’re all really fun to be around. Seeing all of them always hungry to get better and pushing past whatever issues gave them problems inside and outside the game has been amazing. Watching Julio put in the work to become a sponsored player and be considered a major threat in any tournament he enters goes to show that players from NorCal can reach that level.
MB: What are your thoughts and goals heading into Evo 2016 next weekend? Do you think the U.S. has a chance of winning Evo and what needs to be done to accomplish that?
PP: I’m really excited for Evo next week. Personally I’ve prepared a lot. I feel I’m at a level where I’m confident enough to get out of pools. But if I face an international like HM|Go1, who is actually in my pool, I’ll have to watch every single video. That’s what I’m going to do. NorCal is willing to put in that work. In terms of top eight, I would say it would be predominantly internationals as we have seen in all the other Capcom Pro Tour majors we have seen thus far.
EB: My goal for Evo is to always get out of pools because I haven’t done it yet. I’ve gotten to winners finals a bunch of times. I think it was three Evos I got to winners finals and I didn’t get out. I’m only going to be hungrier and go further after that. In terms of the competition, I have Gamerbee and I have NerdJosh. Those are the big names. My Guile is not complete. I have trouble with Dhalsim, Karin, Necalli and Ibuki is so fresh, I’m assuming I’m going to have trouble with her. There’s so much mystery surrounding Evo, I feel like so many sleepers will come out with certain characters you didn’t expect.
PM: Street Fighter V is the best chance the U.S. has had at winning Evo in years. Everyone has had the same amount of time to pick up and learn as much as they can beforehand. The only major thing that we need to do in the U.S. to win is to view each other less as opponents and more as competitors. For instance, Japan tends to be strong in every game not only because they’re localized, but because they’re all very open to sharing and discussing strategies and tech with each other. Only focusing on beating the community around you leads to everyone learning less overall.
Going into the tournament, my main goal is to make sure I keep my stamina up and play my absolute best in each tournament match I have. It’s easy to lose focus over time during a long event while emotions are running high and with downtime between matches. I want to make sure I’m pushing everyone to their limit when they sit down to play me.
I’m really looking forward to playing against as many people as I can from around the U.S. and the world!
Source: Showdowngg, Folsom Street Foundry