The fighting game community (FGC) has grown from holding local events to smaller venues to occupying ballrooms at four-star establishments with talent from all across the globe attending. Major sponsors such as Capcom, Namco Bandai, and others are responsible for the development of some of the world’s most famous franchises in gaming, and are showcased at a central tournament featuring the top fighting talent from across the world. With major prize pools, fighting games are now reaching a platform that can be compared to traditional eSports.
Each week, I’ll be posting interviews I’ve had the pleasure of conducting with members of the fighting game community. The interviews will touch upon their history in the FGC, where they got their start, and what they’d like to see from video games in general.
This week’s guest is one of the rare players who use Viper in Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3, Jahi Skerritt aka CTRL IGTUnknown.
Kash: Thank you so much for joining me today, please introduce yourself to the Broken Joysticks readers.
Unknown: I am CTRL IGTUnknown and I play Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3.
Kash: I’ve talked in the past to some of your CTRL teammates about how they joined up. How did you come about joining the team?
Unknown: Well, a group of friends were a part of an old team and they looked past our friendship and also saw the skill of our play, our being me and pzpoy. From then, we were offered to join the team which we agreed to and with a switch of management we became CTRL.
Kash: A fighter’s tag is like their identity. Some would rather use their name and some nicknames; how did you decide what yours will be?
Unknown: Ok, so as a kid I decided to be the most arrogant person I could possibly be. I chose my tag when I first began playing Smash and I thought I’d be so good going to my first tournament that I wanted to beat people and have them feel bad for losing to someone who is “Unknown”. My name was originally going to be “Random” but I thought that was meh. I was probably 16-17 at the time. I also wanted my name to be hard to find (for whatever stupid reason) so that if I were to have a wiki page made for me, I would know that it was me and not any other Unknown. I wanted to be the most “known unknown”. Lmao very stupid. The IGT was added just to make it easier to find myself on the internet when I grew up a bit and thank god it worked.
Kash: I’d be lying if I say this hasn’t crossed my mind in the past but, what does the IGT in your name means?
Unknown: Haha, well a lot of people ask. I originally intended to not tell anyone but I cracked probably a month in. It stands for “I Got This”.
Kash: You mentioned you play Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3. Is that the only fighter you play professionally or are there more? Also which characters do you use?
Unknown: So I started with Super Smash Bros. Brawl. I played Snake and Donkey Kong. I then played vanilla Street Fighter 4 when it came out on PC because that was the only platform I had. I played Chun Li originally but I switched to Viper and I’ve recently picked the game back up with Viper. I also play a bit of Injustice and in that I play Scorpion and Catwoman. I think that’s it for fighters. I plan on picking up a lot of anime fighters, I’m a big fan of Persona 4 Arena and I messed around with Misturu. Even some F-Sion in Melty Blood and Taokaka in BlazBlue. I want to be a force in those games and not just play casually.
Kash: In Marvel I know you play Wesker, C.Viper and Sentinel. Did you choose Viper as a nod to your Street Fighter 4 past or was there something about her in Marvel you feel people overlook?
Unknown: Oh pffft i forgot to mention yea I play them and yes actually I play Viper in Marvel because I sincerely just like the character. I didn’t have her on my original team for the same reason I didn’t play her since vanilla SF4 and that’s because my execution sucks haha. Besides me really liking the character I do think people overlook a lot about Viper. Shes insanely good but pretty difficult to play in neutral but once that is mastered, she’s pretty hard to deal with.
Kash: What is your highest placing currently at a tournament?
Unknown: 2nd twice at Civil War losing to Chris G :(. I do win my local scene’s stuff and I did win a pretty big tournament run by Skisonic and Steve H called “KnockOut Fights”.
Kash: Online play is something that many of the top players in the FGC prefer not to do or do it in secret. Do you feel online play is good and some players just don’t take advantage or do you think online play teaches too many bad habits that won’t help in a tournament setting?
Unknown: Well, its a little from column A and a little from column b. I play Street Fighter online because I don’t really have another choice. I don’t always have my local scene to play with so it is good to keep you on your toes I think but it in a way teaches you bad habits but you can choose not to learn those habits. You can choose not to wake up DP every time and learn to deal with “scrubby” tactics from the other online players. When you think about it, some of these online players with bad habits are the players you fight within the first rounds of pools. So the bad habits that you see online you can learn to punish and use to your advantage in tournament.
Kash: Do you think other people in the FGC like their characters because they like them, or because they need to use them based on the current tiers and meta game?
Unknown: That is another thing that really varies by person. I pick the characters I like. I originally played Chun Wesker Phoenix, but I switched it up and found a love for sentinel and switched my girl characters haha. Some people pick stuff they like that happens to be broken like me with Viper. Some people just want to win and pick broken stuff and that’s fine too.
Kash: With the Marvel community, people feel the game should have been more similar to MVC2 which showcased only about 6 of the 56 playable characters. The Vs series only had 1 balanced game and that was Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter which was the “worst” version. Do you think its impossible to properly balance the series?
Unknown: I do think it is impossible to perfectly balance a game with 50+ characters. When you think about it, there are but so many archetypes for a character. So with 5 “8 way dash” characters. One will do the most damage and probably be the most fitting of the “8 way dash” characters. I do like that the top 8 for UMVC3 is still more broad than MvC2. So yea with so many characters someone will do a similar job but better. Why play Dhalsim when you could play Storm? Why play Ken when you could play Psylocke? It has always happened and always will. Its the nature of games.
Kash: Patching fighters is usually on a per company basis and if they currently have the resources with some companies doing it frequently than others. What is your opinion on patching fighters, do we require them frequently or annually?
Unknown: Well, that all depends on whats being patched. Stuff like vanilla Phoenix should have gotten hot fixed really quick… not sentinels freaking health… But when a game goes on for about a year with the same stuff working I do like to see patches to change things up. It shows which players can stand the test of change. As long as the patches aren’t drastic and frequent i think patches are fine. Hot fixes are also cool with me. I usually get flack from the older players that say “just stick it out, we didn’t have patches. We learned to deal with it.” And I find that argument silly. You didn’t have patches because the technology wasn’t available. Even with it not available there were still patches! Look how many versions of SF2 and SF3 came out? Those were the “patches” of their era. So again, patches are fine with me and I feel should be with everyone.
Kash: Last patch related question, while there is possibly hidden tech we might be overlooking in UMVC3, the fact certain things need to go is still there. If you could patch three things in the game, what would you patch?
Unknown: Xfactor, making it only lvl 1 but longer lengths, astral vision not lasting as long and not building meter, and sougenmu not lasting as long. Its hard to pin point 3 because there are a lot of things wrong with certain characters but outside those characters, Morrigan, Vergil, and Zero, the game is actually pretty balanced to be honest.
Kash: As of late there’s been this push to get the FGC to eSports level. The community has a variety of colorful personalities as well as hype moments at events. What do you think is currently holding us back?
Unknown: Well, I believe in “fake it till you make it”. So in my opinion, what is holding us back is us not setting forth rules for spectators. I don’t know about you but if I were a parent I would never want my child at an FGC tournament. Especially alone. Certain things need to stop along with the players throwing matches. It benefits no one and is overall just asinine.
Kash: How difficult do you think it is for a new person to enter the community and feel welcome, from your experiences? Also how open are you for people to come to you for advice, guidance or to play a set?
Unknown: Well if you ask any of my twitter followers you would find out that I respond to literally everyone. As for newcomers coming to the scene it all depends on your hunger. If I didn’t really want to win then I would have left and never came back to my local scene. They use a “tough love” method to get you in to the scene. It was a rite of passage and I’m glad I stuck around. As for being treated well, as a newcomer at majors I was always treated very hospitably by Nelson “Remix” Reyes, may his soul rest. Even when I was a nobody, he greeted me and showed me love like he would his closest friends and he did so till he passed. Im glad I was able to tell him that multiple times before he passed. I definitely use that experience to encourage and welcome the newcomers so they actually feel welcome.
Kash: While it’s something that’s been going on for a while, what’s your take on pot splitting or throwing matches on stream? With tournament organizers and streamers vowing to work together to stop that, do you think we’ll see less of it?
Unknown: I hope we see less of it. Splitting of the pots is no big deal IMO. There is nothing anyone can do about it. If im good friends with someone I will most likely split it with them. I will NEVER throw a match though. I can’t just give up bragging rights and the feeling of a win just for nothing. Again, it benefits no one for you to throw matches. You really just ruin it for the viewers and thats who pay us or will be paying us a lot more in the future. So lets not ruin it. Just play the game.
Kash: If you could challenge any player to a ft10 in any of the three games you currently play, who would you pick and why?
Unknown: Justin Wong just because I’ve only played him in vanilla once and the one time I played him in ultimate I wasn’t feeling to well at the time. He is an amazing player and I’m actually a big fan so playing him would be great.
Kash: If you were brought in by Capcom and Marvel to select two additional characters for both sides, who would you bring in that would deliver a mix no solo character currently offers?
Unknown: Hmmm, this is a tough one. For the Capcom side, I feel like they covered such a wide span of archetypes it’s really hard to come up with something orginal. Sooo for capcom I’d say Cammy (because I like the character) and Seth from SF4, having a character with all those tools in this game would fit really well. For Marvel, I would love to see Venom come back and maybe Black Widow just because she reminds me the most of cammy haha and she looks really cool.
Kash: Other than fighting games, what other styles of games do you play?
Unknown: I am actually an avid League of Legends player. I play a lot of league man haha. It got to the point where I had to start limiting myself. But to be honest that is it. I really enjoy fighting games and league. I play games to compete and not really to just “have fun”. I dont play any single player games ever. When you asked about the patching, I couldn’t help but think of thee MOST prominent game to EVER exist and it has patches every few weeks. FGC needs to get their heads out of the ground and understand that patching isn’t a problem when done correctly.
Kash: Are there any upcoming game(s) on any platform that makes you scream “I need this in my life”?
Unknown: To be honest. The only game im excited for is Smash 4. I don’t plan on getting any of the next gen systems anytime soon, but i will definitely get a Wii U for Smash 4.
Kash: Next gen consoles are out and the only one with a fighter made exclusively for next gen is Killer Instinct on Xbox One. How do you feel about the game, will it do well being exclusively on Xbox One and will you pick it up for tournaments?
Unknown: It being an exclusive I feel will hurt it because the game isn’t enough to persuade me to get an Xbox One. I think the game is ok, it is heavily footsie based but the fighting engine is basically the thing people hate the most about Marvel 3, and that is TAC’s. So I will not be playing killer instinct.
Kash: If you could grab any character from one game and put them in any other game, who would you pick, where would you place them and why?
Unknown: I would put Viper in Smash Bros just see how they would make her.
Kash: Any upcoming tournaments that you’ll be attending?
Unknown: I will be attending APEX this weekend, Winterbrawl, SCR, and Final Round for sure.
Kash: With stream sites like Twitch becoming the easiest gateway for people to view the community and players in action, is there any particular stream were people may see you play outside of a tournament setting?
Unknown: I actually have my own stream at www.twitch.tv/igtunkn0wn I play a bunch of games.
Kash: Any last words for the Broken Joysticks reader as well as any way for them to contact you with any questions they might have?
Unknown: Thanks for coming to me for this interview. Shout outs to my team and all their support. You can follow my team on Twitter and Facebook and if anyone has any questions for me I can be contacted via twitter.
