At Capcom Cup 2019 last month, I was fortunate enough to catch up with Gustavo "SB|801 Strider" Romero to talk a little shop during the big event.

Romero is one of the most prominent G players to ever compete in Street Fighter 5, is a three-time Capcom Cup finalist — making it to the big show in 2015, 2017, and 2019 — and was one of the team captains on Season 2 of the North American Street Fighter League. In this interview, Gustavo had much to say about Capcom's latest fighting title, including how players can go about stepping their game up.

Alongside being a top Street Fighter 5 competitor, Romero holds down a full-time job, as well as a dedication to fitness and going to the gym. While it might not seem like there are enough hours in the day to do it all, Strider does, and he shares some insight into how others might be able to achieve similar results in life.

We also delve into the depth of Street Fighter 5, what makes the game technical, problematic characters, and more.

Of course, an interview with Strider just would not be complete without a discussion about the president of the world. Gustavo shares a message to those who think G is nothing but a robbery character.

Please note that this interview was conducted just before the Street Fighter 5 Season 5 update was announced/released.

DreamKing: How do you manage a full-time job, playing Street Fighter 5 competitively, and fitness?

Gustavo: It comes down to time management. I want people listening to really look at their schedule and think to themselves, are they using their time correctly? Are they maximizing everything?

There's a lot of downtime during your day. You get off work, you turn on the TV for another hour or two hours, whatever, and you watch that Netflix show. Or maybe you wake up and you stay in bed for an extra hour just doing nothing.

For me, work and gym, I schedule my things around that because that's going to happen regardless. I try to just not waste time. For Street Fighter 5, I don't just like to randomly hop online and play and press buttons. If I wanted to do that, I'd play Call of Duty or something.

I want to play with a goal in mind. I'll look at some videos and notice 'my anti-air sucks, I need to work on that.' So I'll hop online and work on that. Or 'I suck in this match up... why?' I'll look at videos, I'll figure out answers, go into Training Mode and practice that. When you do play, play with a purpose.

DreamKing: What would you say to people who don't believe G is a technical character in Street Fighter 5?

Gustavo: I don't care to convince anybody, honestly. When people say that, that means that they do not understand the character. I want people to just play the character. Just play the character. See how you do against random online Uriens just jumping in on you. Oh, his anti-air is so easy, you say? Well, let's see.

To me, if somebody says that the character is pure robbery, it tells me that they don't understand G and that they don't know the match up. It tells me that they're definitely going to get robbed.

"Coming from someone who loves Street Fighter 4, the game is very technical. Street Fighter 5 is very technical. The guessing portion isn't so much, but how to avoid those situations and keep the game in neutral is very, very technical. "



DreamKing: We talked about the idea of being able to avoid bad situations in Street Fighter 5 and how important having the awareness to do so is. Do you feel like the stigma that this game is "simple" comes from people who don't embrace that?

Gustavo: 100%. I feel like that stigma comes from when you're watching matches, they snowball really quickly. You got a character in the corner and you kill them in two, three, four guesses. That's what people see. It's just coin flips.

Essentially, if a character does get offense started, it IS a guess. You can throw in factors that make it a more educated guess, but how did it get to that point? Ultimately, that's what Street Fighter is. Street Fighter is not about those guesses, it's about what happened during the match that lead to that guess.

How did Karin get you in the corner? Did she just walk up low forward you and you got clipped? Why did you let her get in that range? These are questions you should be asking yourself when you get put into these situations. That's the only way to actually improve. If you're not asking yourself these questions, you're just going to keep blaming the game.

Coming from someone who loves Street Fighter 4, the game is very technical. Street Fighter 5 is very technical. The guessing portion isn't so much, but how to avoid those situations and keep the game in neutral is very, very technical. There's a lot more depth than people think, and if people do not think that, it means that they don't understand the game — and that's why they're not placing.

DreamKing: How can someone who doesn't understand the game on this level, but wants to, start to wrap their head around this?

Gustavo: I want everybody to just keep in mind and be very aware that when they are put into the guessing situation, what lead to that? And when you're put into that guessing situation, what are your answers? Because you have more than you think. It's not as simple as tech or block. There are so many variables.

You have to keep all of your defensive options in mind and rotate them, but in order to do that you have to know what your defensive options are. Just go in the lab, man.

*Gustavo elaborated on how to improve during one of his live streams, and you can check out the clip here (NSFW language).

DreamKing: Was there a character during Season 4 and this year's Capcom Pro Tour that was a thorn in your side?

Gustavo: This season, I would say Cammy. I feel like Cammy counters G pretty hard. That's a match up where the G player has to outplay the Cammy player to such a higher degree that it's just difficult.

But outside of that, I feel like I've prepared for the bigger match ups, like Rashid, Karin, and Akuma, to make sure that they're not issues. Honestly, I don't think G does bad against any of those. I felt confident coming into this season knowing that my character doesn't just straight up lose to the top tiers.

DreamKing: Is there a general or universal change that you'd like to see that could potentially improve Street Fighter 5?

Gustavo: I honestly think the game is in a pretty good spot right now. In order to change it, it would require a bit more overhauling. Maybe some tools certain characters have are very abusable. But one thing I do not like is having just these overpowered characters that, if you pick this character, you're bound to find success. I don't like that. I know G gets a lot of hate for that, but how many Gs do we even see?

But overall system overhauls? Maybe stun damage could be reduced so the game doesn't feel so snowball-y.



801 Strider vs. iDom at the Capcom Cup North American Regional Finals 2019 — Credit: Capcom Fighters

DreamKing: What characters do you think need the most changes going into Season 5?

Gustavo: What we should be looking for is top tier characters not absolutely invalidating the other characters. I feel like Season 3 had that a bit worse than this season, where you had Guile, Menat, and Abigail.

We don't have that right now, but Rashid I feel is a character that, in a tournament setting, he is so powerful because he puts you in such terrible situations. You, as the defender, have to react fast enough to strings, and if you don't you lose the round. The window of opportunity to actually interrupt these is very small, so you just have to be on point. And in a tournament setting where nerves get involved... it makes Rashid, in my opinion, the best tournament character. So maybe tone him down a little bit.

Karin's V-Reversal should not work on mediums. I don't know why they buffed that. That V-Reversal is used more for offense than it is for defense.

There's a lot of these little things that these characters have that might be toned down, but overall I don't think there needs to be a huge overhaul for a character — just tiny, little things.

DreamKing: Any shout outs you'd like to make?

Gustavo: Shout outs to everyone who supported me this season. I tried to get into Capcom Cup from the beginning of the season. I said I was going to do it with G, and I was able to do it. Hopefully, they don't neuter him too bad or, hey, we might have another player in the Rashid army! *laughs*

You can find more of Gustavo over on his Twitter account, and be sure to catch his live stream on Twitch for regular Street Fighter 5 broadcasts and content.

Banner photo — Capcom Fighters.