winner of the Michigan Masters 2019 side tournament

and current arcade mode speed running record holder (art by @fridgeot)

What names do you go by?

Robo Bonobo and EGMadness

EGMadness has been my tag for the longest time, it’s basically my initials with an “-adness” at the end, I thought it sounded nifty at the time.

Robo Bonobo is a newer tag I’m transitioning into because I think it’s even more clever and it reflects my robot character favoritism.



How did you get into Lethal League?



I believe the original was recommended to me on Steam a loooooong time ago and I just took a shot in the dark with it because the trailer looked sick. Definitely a gamble I’m glad I took.



What’s your current Lethal League experience?



Only 44 hours recorded in the original, but around 160 clocked in Blaze thus far. Won the only tourney for it I’ve entered (the previous year’s Michigan M@sters side tourney, in fact), and I’m floating around 4th Division in ranked this season. I’m currently grinding hard to help me get that pot bonus, though! See me in 1st Div by the end of March.



Who are your main/side/counter character picks?



I’m a Doombox one-trick. I’m too stuck on DB’s float movement to be able to use anyone else, flying’s just too much fun! I’ve been trying to learn Dust & Ashes just to branch out, but I have a lot of double jump and glide tech to perfect before that pick comes anywhere close to competitive viability for me.



What are your favourite character outfits?



Eaaaasily Prime Poppa Doombox. Gotta rep the red, white, and blue. U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! Also sometimes Safety Weapon if I’m really feeling it.



What are your stage preferences?



I like cramped stages like Scrap Desert and Room 21. They really complement Doombox’s vertical angles and let me suffocate my opponents easier.



What input method do you use?

Keyboard! Only fighting game where I actually prefer it. Started playing the original Lethal League on it years ago and it just stuck with me.



The tournament is played on PS4, do you have a solution for that?



Whoops! I didn’t even think about that, thanks for letting me know! Looks like I’m ordering an adapter off of Amazon tonight. I was under the impression adapters would be part of the officially-provided setups.



Who do you hope to meet at Michigan Masters?



Melleracappeller, my favorite Lethal League player of all time. That man’s got the sauce, paper, juice, and clout.



What made you pick up speedrunning the arcade mode?



I saw Buffet Time’s arcade run at Awesome Games Done Quick while I was browsing YouTube a while back, and I felt like I could do better. I was just finishing polishing up my world record times on my main speedrunning game (Madness Retaliation) at the time, so I was in a particularly competitive mood as I watched the run; I couldn’t just sit there and think that I would do better, I had to know I would by proving it. When I finished watching the run, I decided to open up the game, practice, learn, and really get serious about arcade running. I don’t make a claim like ‘I could do better’ without being willing to back it up!



What other games do you play?



Mostly fighting games. The other big competitive fighting game that I’m grinding at the moment is Super Smash Bros. Project+, a super sick Brawl mod that you should 100% check out if you have a Wii, a copy of Brawl, and a 2 gigabyte SD card on hand. Also Arcana Heart 3 Love Max Six Stars. That game is FIRE. I will shill it until I die.



Is there anything else you’d like to say to the community?

I would like to urge anyone with the desire to get the Lethal League ball rolling with their local FGCs to do anything they can to make sure that the game is at events, be it casuals or tourneys. The most important part of scene growth is exposure, so don’t be afraid to get your setup moving! I haul my PC tower setup to my university every other Friday just to make sure that the games I want to see played get played. Be the change you want to see in the FGC!



You can watch EGMadness on twitch.tv/egmadness and youtube.