MajinTenshinhan: Do you think that the increased prize money in the Capcom Pro Tour will light a fire under U.S. players?



Dieminion: It should. If it doesn't, then I guess there's really no point in playing, because... This is what we've been waiting for, right? We've got the prize money now, no more excuses. I mean, yeah, we've been playing for more than 10 years, there hasn't really been much reward or return on... I wouldn't really call it an investment, but you know what I mean. 10 years is obviously a lot of time. So, now, we're still young enough to play, to compete... Now, we just need to do what we've been doing this whole time. Just do it a little bit harder.

MajinTenshinhan: If there were a 5v5 between the East Coast and the West Coast right now, who do you think would win?



Dieminion: Alright, well... See, now, a 5v5 is different from a 7v7. At Winter Brawl, the East Coast won in the 7v7, but a 5v5 now... It depends on the day, really. Depends on the atmosphere.



We lost over there, at EVO, and they lost over here. And it was two different formats. At EVO, it was 2 out of 3, and this time it was one game, 2 out of 3 sets. We won that format, but they won the other format. It was 5 players for them, 7 players for us. Now, to be fair, in the 7v7, they didn't get past 5 wins. So, even if it was a 5v5 that time, we would have won.



But, other than that, it just depends on who's feeling it on that particular day. Like, Snake Eyez is always a threat, he came back on NorCal that one time at the 5v5 at SoCal Regionals, which is a fan favourite match. I went on a rampage at Winter Brawl, I took out like 5 of the West Coast guys. It just depends on the day, I think.



MajinTenshinhan: Even though this is me personally speaking, I believe that I speak for all of Europe when I say that we consider you an honorary European player...



Dieminion: Haha, alright.



MajinTenshinhan: So, I would like to hear your opinion, since you're kind of both on the inside and outside of the European scene, who do you think are the 5 best European players?



Dieminion: MD|Luffy, Ryan. GL|Valmaster. You mean right now, as we speak?



MajinTenshinhan: Yeah.



Dieminion: Alright... WSO|Andreas. Hmm... I'd put it between CDV|Cuongster and CG|Problem X for the 5th spot.



MajinTenshinhan: We've seen a little bit of Street Fighter 5 now. We've seen Ryu, Chun-Li and a very different Charlie Nash. From what we've seen so far, what do you think about the game, and is there any character that you'd like to see in the game?



Dieminion: The game, now, compared to when they first announced it and showed us the first footage and images of the game... It looks a lot more cleaned up now. The animations are different for some move, like Ryu's crouching medium kick. I think the one thing that everyone wants to see is the game speed be raised a little bit. Because, you know, nobody really likes to watch a slow game. I understand why the game is slow right now, since they're still working on it.



Now, as far as Charlie ... I'm actually really hype about Charlie. I'm not going to lie, when I first saw the gameplay trailer, I was a bit confused. Then I watched it again, and again, and I started reading opinions on what other people thought about it, and ... I'll take it. Charlie was pretty much Guile in the Alpha series, when they didn't have Guile in them. So he's sort of the same character, in a sense.



But in the gameplay trailer, he has those teleports, which I think are a trait thing. You know, how Ryu and Chun-Li each have that unique trait? I think that Charlie can only use those teleports when it's part of his trait. Other than the teleports, he still looks really solid. He has the Crescent Moonsault Kick in the air, his Flash Kick looks like Rugal's... I'm actually intrigued to see how his normals are, but they haven't shown too much yet. I'm really excited to see what they have in store for us with him.



But a character that I would like to see return might be... You know what, it's probably not going to happen, but, everyone wanted to see Karin. I would like to see Karin come back, but I'm not too hopeful about it. I hope that Capcom is listening to this. I want to see Karin come back, for the fans.



MajinTenshinhan: One thing I've heard said a lot is that Street Fighter 4 is such a diverse game, with many viable characters, that playing with one character isn't really viable anymore. On the other hand, Luffy won EVO using just one character. How do you feel that the climate is for a character specialist, like yourself, in Ultra Street Fighter 4?



Dieminion: Well, yeah, I'm a character specialist, but I'm actually trying to develop myself into a multi-character specialist. Because, if you want to win in tournament, you have to make the best decisions, and have the best tools to win. I'm all about believing in the character you've invested the most time in, but counters are counters, you know?



But, that statement was more true before the 1.04 patch. The characters that were good were kind of dumb before the patch - Zangief, Yun, Evil Ryu ... T. Hawk, he wasn't top tier, but he was kind of dumb. I'm not going to talk about the new characters so much, because they obviously still needed to be fixed at that point. It seemed like Capcom had the right idea for the game in terms of the pace, but they kind of overdid it with certain characters. I guess they retracted a little bit without doing too much, like Zangief is still good, Evil Ryu is still good... They just nerfed his life.



My problem with Evil Ryu was that ... Well, I had this thing where I didn't think that Guile was that good. He didn't really get changed from 1.03 to 1.04, and pretty much stayed the same. But the reason why I thought he was bad before was because other characters was so good, there was no point to play him.That's what Japan thought. When they came out with their trailers talking about the characters, MCZ|Daigo said something like "If you play Guile, you might as well play Poison", because she's just a better version. She had 1000 life, she has like no recovery on her EX Flipkick, it had even less recovery than it does now, and a lot of combos missed on her because her hurtbox was broken. So, he was kind of right.



I think that if I had played Poison before the patch, I'd have gotten better results. But now, that she's been toned down a bit, kind of down to Guile's level, and characters overall have been toned down, I think that Guile has a better chance to win. But before, definitely, there were certain characters where you might as well just play their "better version". But now, it's more balanced. Now, I think it's a little bit easier to win with one character as long as you know your matchups and such.



But I would never say that, you know, if you need more than one character ... You know, some people main Hugo, some people main Blanka...



MajinTenshinhan: Some people main Cody...



Dieminion: Haha, right, some people main Cody. Some people main those characters. I'm fortunate to say that I don't, but some people do. It's hard to win all those matchups with those characters, so... I would never say "You should've had more than one character", but yeah. It's at least a little bit easier to win with just one character, now.



But for example, if you could always win with your chosen character, then there would have been no reason for MCZ|Daigo to switch to Evil Ryu. Obviously, he wants to increase his chances of winning because Evil Ryu is a better character than Ryu. There's all these speculations about why MCZ|Daigo switched, he was tired of Ryu, he felt he'd mastered Ryu and stuff like that, but ... If you want to win, you want to win. If you feel like you can win with Ryu, then there's no reason to switch characters. Evil Ryu is better than Ryu, and that's why he switched, to increase his chances of winning, which he then did at Topanga and Canada Cup Master Series.



MajinTenshinhan: Yeah, I was one of the haters, I was like "Oh, Evil Ryu, and he got 48th at EVO, what the hell, come on", then BX3|veggey told me to shut up, then Topanga came and went, and I shut up.



Dieminion: Yeah, if he's in good form at a tournament, as long as he doesn't run into a good Vega or Dhalsim, he's pretty much going to win everything. Evil Ryu is just really good.



MajinTenshinhan: In our eyes, and hopefully in your heart, you are not just a U.S. player, but also a European player. So, in your opinion, right now, is Europe or the U.S. stronger, when it comes to Street Fighter 4?



Dieminion: Even. A few months ago, it was Europe, but right now, it's even. The good thing about it, though, is that Europe didn't really fall off, it's more that the U.S. has gotten better. Chris T is really, really good. I'd say he's top 10 in the U.S. right now. He came to two East Coast majors and got top 8 both times, that's really a statement. Brentt is also a good Rufus, really creative. He's lacking a little bit in experience, but he's getting it now, by traveling more.



Marq Teddy is still a sleeper, I think. Thing about Marq Teddy is that ... He's good, and for some reason, people seem to forget about him. I think it might be because Super Arcade isn't around anymore, so there's no Wednesday Night Fights to see him at ... But Marq Teddy can do some damage. He's proven that in the past, like at the 7v7 U.S. vs. Europe 2 or 3 years ago, where he pretty much OCV'd team Europe. Definitely not something that I was expecting.



A lot of good West Coast players, even the ones that were at Wednesday Night Fights before, like Iansanity, I've been watching him when I was playing Chun-Li for a while. At that time, I was getting a lot of advice from top Chun-Li players, in Japan, and I have a friend in Kuwait who plays her too, who helped me out a lot. The thing about those players ... Iansanity, he's really good, but he still doesn't know about things that they know about.



If he knew that stuff, he'd be even better than he is now. I don't know if it is that he doesn't talk to the top players, like CoinUp|Ludovic, I don't know if those guys talk. CoinUp|Ludovic is a really good Chun-Li too, but even he didn't know about some of the stuff I was telling him about until I told him. They both just lack knowledge in some key things they need to know to start dominating. He's still really good, but he doesn't know some of that stuff that people do.



Velociraptor, he does pretty decent when he goes. Like I said, Marq Teddy. Brentt, Chris T. Snake Eyez is a no-brainer. There are a lot of NorCal players too, that are part of the West Coast as well. Like pH|LPN, he's really good. Julio's Yun is very consistent. pH|Hoodaman, he plays Honda, but is still very consistent. EG|Ricky Ortiz, no brainer, really nothing to say there. NorCal has really been stepping up their scene too, they have that weekly, Churning the Butter, it's not new, but it's been going up, it's getting 2000-3000 viewers each week, which is great since the NorCal scene has been slept on for a long time. But now they have the medium to show their skills, and people are watching.



It's kind of funny, though, because Super Arcade is pretty much done now, and then NorCal starts thriving. It's kind of like a tug-of-war, it's really interesting to see. But I think that West Coast as a whole is really strong.