After exhausting all the options I thought I had, I finally broke down and decided to venture into the land of twitter to contact some of these folks I’ve been trying to interview for a while now. Well, two tweets later I’m in business (who knew it would be that easy)! So pull up a chair and a bucket of fried chicken while I interview Dacidbro in all his wordy and wordly glory, right after the jump!

CanopyKingdom: How are you Mr. Dacidbro? Can I call you Dacid? Or bro?

Dacidbro: You can call me Dacid, Bro, Dacidbro, David, or really anything else is fine too. People have gotten pretty creative in the past. How are you?

CK: I’m just peachy, thanks Davidbro! So before I ask the obvious stuff, fill me in on who you are and you played in the past? Who is DACIDBRO~? Dacidbro: Okay, well.. I’m a professional fighting game player. I’m a high level American Marvel vs Capcom 3 player, top level American Blazblue player, and am one of the targets in Skullgirls, thanks to my pre-release and intial success with the game. I’ve traveled across America, to Canada, and Japan for fighting games, and have turned a considerable profit through winnings and favors. More importantly though, I’ve had a fantastic time along the way with all the friend’s I’ve met.

CK: Did you play anything prior to those games?

Dacidbro: Well, yes. I theoretically started my career when I was about 4 or 5, with Mario Bros for the NES, and continued developing my video game talents for the rest of my life. My first fighting game was Smash Brothers Melee, and I loved it to death without really knowing it was part of any genre.. when the Wii released and Brawl came with it, I went to my first offline tournament with the help of a friend I met online, and ultimately found Blazblue through that same friend. It’s rarely a short process getting into fighting games, haha.

CK: Haha, well I didn’t mean to stretch back to your childhood, but hey it’s always good to respect your roots! So you came from Melee, went to Blazblue, then Marvel, and now Skullgirls. Have the transitions been hard? Do you still play any of them?

Dacidbro: The transition from Smash Brothers to any fighter is going to be a bit rough, but it could have been worse. My first 300 Blazblue matches were all losses, while I tried to figure out what a fighting game with high/low mix up and block strings was, and what all the weird system mechanics meant on a more subtle level. My current fighting games are King of Fighters XIII, Skullgirls, Marvel Vs Capcom 3, Blazblue, and when it releases in America, Persona 4 Arena (Which I was dumb enough to play while I was in Japan, and can’t stop thinking about now that I’m back).

CK: So what’s your history with Skullgirls then? Got a friend on the inside? Bored of Blazblue?

Dacidbro: Well, I originally found out about SkullGirls through MikeZ, former top American Blazblue Tager player. He introduced me to the game early, and I played it at every tournament he demo’d pre-release builds at. Until I played Painwheel, the game didn’t mean much to me, even though I could tell the system was really smooth and the game was intelligently created. I am certainly not playing this game because I’m bored of Blazblue, mind you, that game is still one of my absolute favorite FGs. Haha.

CK: I getcha. Just seeing as there’s a large number of people ‘jumping ship’ for the lack of a better term I was just curious.

Dacidbro: I’m actually pretty upset with all the people who stopped playing BB, but that’s more of a conversation for another time. Lol.

CK: So it’s obvious you like the game, but why Painwheel? Who do you play in Melee / Blazblue / and Marvel? Are they similiar to one another?

Dacidbro: I love Painwheel because she represents everything I enjoyed about Marvel 3 Morrigan without really anything I didn’t care about. She’s all approach and rushdown, instead of zoning; instead of having the tools to do both, they just gave her much better footsies tools, greater mobility and scarier mix up and pressure. My focus in fighting games is almost always rushdown, and this character is one of the most fluid I’ve played in this category. It’s uncommon for rushdown characters to be so capable of outmaneuvering characters, or having so many tools to accomplish their goal of approaching. Melee, Blazblue and Marvel aren’t really similar, no. But they’re all fighting games, and I’m not one to get hung up on developers or system mechanics. I’m a firm believer that fighting game communities need to band together instead of maintaining separation, like they usually have previously, so I learn as many games as I can. I’m certainly best at games that have an emphasis on mobility, though, and all of these games have that.

CK: I meant to ask what characters you played in those games, and if they were simliar to one another and Painwheel.

Dacidbro: Ah. In Melee I played Marth, although I was really never good at Melee. Blazblue, I play Bang, and he’s the character I have the most significant accomplishments with across all the games I play. In Marvel, my mains have been Dante / Taskmaster / Akuma and Captain America / Dante / Taskmaster / Vergil. I picked up Morrigan for a period in Marvel3, but she was too much execution for the time I had. Painwheel represents everything I wished I could have done with Morrigan, in a character that is much more custom tailored to my needs anyway, so it’s pretty perfect. In Skullgirls, I use Painwheel/Double. Double is a specialist on my team as Assist, DHC, and meter-user.

CK: It sounds like you might have enjoyed Sentinel in MvC2 if you ever get the chance to play him ;).

Dacidbro: I’ve heard the same from MikeZ, I’m sure it’s true. Unfortunately it would probably make much more sense to just do the best I can with Painwheel than to try to revive Marvel 2.

CK: I always lamented the fact that I could never play Sent in MvC2 decently, he was such an amazing character to play and watch. So outside of Painwheel what else (if anything) do you like about Skullgirls?

Dacidbro: The system mechanics. The engine for this game is absolutely brilliant, compared to most fighting games. There’s almost nothing about the current system that is flawed, which is difficult to say about most modern fighting games. Proof of this system’s intelligence is the capability to support customizable assists and only have maybe one or two that stick out as a bit too powerful. I’m really impressed, there are a ton of features to the engine that are really smart, such as “must hold start to pause”, or “mandatory vulnerability on assist before startup”, or supporting 1, 2, or 3 characters per teamwhile still maintaining balance.

CK: Admit it, you also like the game for Painwheel’s smile too.

Dacidbro: I can’t say I know what it looks like! She’s brutal enough I usually just watch my opponent’s character. Haha. I’m sure she’s charming under all the metal and spikes though

CK: If you ever get the chance try beating Filia’s story mode. I’m sure her smile will incite a giggle out of you, haha.

Dacidbro: I’ll try to someday, but I actually don’t have a personal copy of the game.. I play all my matches for every game at friends houses or GameCenter arcade.

CK: THIS INTERVIEW IS OVER. PETITION TO EXILE DACIDBRO!

Dacidbro: Haha. Seriously though, I’m almost never home. I go home to sleep, that’s it. It would be really pointless to buy my own copy, so instead I use media to promote the games I play instead. I also put a lot of extra time into supporting local tournaments for every game I play.

CK: You are a fried chicken eating scholar and a saint I see.

Dacidbro: I truly wish I knew what that meant so I could agree or disagree, but instead I’ll just plug my sponsor one more time. GameCenter Arcade. San Mateo California. Yep. Literally the only dedicated place I can practice. Thanks Myung!

CK: Well you did give me a picture of you standing infront of a KFC you know

Dacidbro: Ah yes, that Colonel Sanders was quite a man. That picture was from Akibahara, while I was in Japan for a Blazblue tournament. If you’re interested here’s some footage of me at the tournament, the only that was recorded of the American team, I reverse OCV’ed!

CK: So how’s the game looking a week in now? How’s your region? Dacidbro: The game is still great. Everyone, myself included, needs to put a lot of work in to improve. Myself and a few others are strong, but strength is pretty rare, for now. My only difficult match at the first tournament was against CopperDabbit, in grand finals.

CK: So Double’s butt is the new Sent drones then?

Dacidbro: It’s much better than that, at a glance. It performs many of the same functions, but also (pardon my pun) doubles as a reversal.. it has invulnerability as though it were a dragon punch. For now, the only thing to stop it is to avoid it and abuse the very long cool down, either by mixing up the point or punishing it afterwards, but it’s extremely potent and I doubt it won’t be nerfed.



CK: I’ll likely be using it in the future, but for defensive measures. How’s character selection looking for you otherwise? Too many Solobellas? Double Assists everywhere?

Dacidbro: I wouldn’t really know.. I haven’t played online at all, and offline many people have just copied my double assist from pre-release tournaments. I’d expect double to be on a vast majority of teams, and I know any mobile point or peacock over double is very strong. That’s what I would expect to be the name of the game, for now… but complacency early on is dangerous, don’t stop thinking about new combos.

CK: I’ve noticed alot of folks placing an importance on combos, but what would you say new comers, or even vets from other games should do when jumping into this game for the first time?

Dacidbro: Forget combos, entirely, until you have a game plan. If you don’t know your best pokes, your best mix ups, and your best wake ups (to drastically oversimplify this), you shouldn’t be touching combos yet, except in free-form mash style whenever you hit the opponent.

CK: Ok how about some Painwheel tips? She seems like a pretty daunting character to get into.

Dacidbro: Sheeee isssss. One of the harder characters I’ve played, in terms of execution. How deep do you want this to go, there’s basic, and then there’s like 5 levels of advanced. They all take a long time.

CK: Any predictions on how you the game will turn out let’s say six months later?

Dacidbro: Ah, no Painwheel tips then, I guess? Where this game will go in 6 months depends on if there will be any patches. I think there’s a few significant problems at the moment, but if they’re cleared up this game could last as one of the best fighting games made. But there’s also the blank spot of who will play it. Because of the art style, there are some people that won’t give it a fair chance. They would need to be persuaded.

CK: Ok, well first go ahead and lay those Painwheel tips on me! Then you can throw your opinion out on the artstyle and what not if you’d like. Dacidbro: Well if we’re just touching basic tips, make sure you understand flight mode. That’s the absolute core of the character. inputted with quarter circle back “kick”, she gets 2 flights per jump. She can not unfly, unlike any other flight character. Her normals in flight mode will cancel her flight, and dash in the direction held. This is the basis for her mobility and pressure, so get comfortable with it. Also, her super armor is found by holding the button for certain moves. Whenever she flashes with lightning, she will absorb hits, more based on the strength of the move. You can use this to counterattack, or just to absorb an attack you couldn’t have blocked! This last one is specifically for if you get caught in flight mode, it’s really useful to charge jump Fierce Punch then cancel to flight as a sort of “parry”.

CK: I wasn’t aware you could use it as a makeshift parry, that’s an interesting way of looking at it. Well in the air anyway.

Dacidbro: It’s tricky, but sometimes it’s literally the only thing you can do. It has a fair amount of start up before the super armor, and you’re not likely to beat anything afterwards, but armor > flight can let you get away sometimes, and armor > super is fast enough to beat some things with flawless timing.

CK: Sounds like you’ve got to be creative with her.

Dacidbro: The skies are open, if you want to be. I think the difference between a good and a great Painwheel is how many of these specific intricacies one knows and can perform on a dime.

CK: It looks like you may have a long ahead of you.

Dacidbro: I intend to put a ludicrous amount of time into this character. I do want to be the best SkullGirls player, someday.

CK: I intend to be the best Skullgirls player that doesn’t go anywhere near you!

Dacidbro: Haha, maybe you will be..

CK: I’m pretty confident in my defense, I enjoy this game allowing me to go for that option. I do believe that’s about all I had to ask you, was there anything else you wanted to mention before one last question?

Dacidbro: Ah, not really, other than to encourage everyone to either support their local scene, or go out and join it for the first time. Great spending time with other people who share the same kind of passions.

CK: Shout outs to anyone?

Dacidbro: My mom for always supporting and encouraging my crazy adventures, Team GameCenter for a great trip to Japan, Gamecenter for all it’s helped me accomplish, both the arcade itself and Myung Kim for the sponsorship, and everyone across America who plays or watches Fighting Games, especially the stream monsters. Thanks, everyone! And thanks for the interview, hope my answers are useful for something.

CK: Where can people contact you?

Dacidbro: Whenever I’m on, AIM works (Dacidbro). Twitter is great too (@Dacidbro). Those two are probably the easiest, twitter being most consistent.

CK: And one last question: Favorite flavor of ice cream and where to get it!

Dacidbro: Ah man.. in general, my favorite ice cream isn’t a specific one. I think if I had to get as specific as possible, it’s either any cookie dough ice cream, or hagen daz coffee flavor. Should be available at any supermarket. But I try new things all the time.. and I get all kinds of flavors.

CK: Thanks for your time Mr. Bro! I hope to play you in the future! Dacidbro: Thanks, Chibi. Take care, let me know if you need anything else, or just want to talk.