tofucake Profile Blog Joined October 2009 Hyrule 17807 Posts Last Edited: 2014-06-19 19:19:52 #1 Interview With Cactuar and HugS

Crew battles are an ancient and venerated tradition in the Smash scene. They are used to determine the best groups of players.



For anyone unfamiliar with crew battles, the format is rather simple: two crews select 10 players. Each player is character locked. Each crew has 40 stocks: 4 per player. A player keeps fighting until he has no stocks left. If he wins a match with 2 stocks left, he starts the next match by suiciding twice. The match then begins 2 stocks to 4. The losing team counterpicks a stage and player.



Last player standing wins the battle for the entire crew.



Specifically, the EC vs WC rivalry has existed almost as long as the scene itself. Over the years the coasts have duked it out. At most battles, EC won, going undefeated for years. But that all changed at Genesis 2: WC finally won. Battles have always been close, coming down to last man last stock. And now we get to watch the next episode unfold at MLG Anaheim.







This coastal rivalry goes back years, and has always been more of a side event at tournaments. What's it like having MLG decide to make it a feature? Who approached whom with this idea?



Cactuar

The stakes feel so much higher in the post-Documentary era of Melee. MLG deciding to include the classic EC vs WC crew battle is the perfect way to start the summer schedule of majors, as everyone is going to be at the top of their game and eager to show off how much they have improved in the last year. It will really give us a glimpse into what each coast is going to be bringing to each of the upcoming tournaments.



The EC vs WC battle was always a personal favorite. The FC3 battle was one of the videos that got me motivated to start attending majors and look at the smash scene on a national scale. There's been way more intercoastal attendance at regional scale tournaments recently, but in the pre-documentary era, the two coasts would really struggle to have enough attendance at any one tournament to be able to reasonably showcase their strength versus each other. Seeing it happen after all the boasting from both sides has never failed to be wildly entertaining, typically coming down to the last man on both teams determining the victor.







I was the Captain at Genesis 1, where EC was top heavy with a so called "B String" filling out the crew. We played our strengths really well and ended up making a decent stock comeback to tie it up. With each crew being on their last 4 stock, jman clutched out the victory for us over Taj.



Might need to be corrected on this, but to my knowledge, EC was undefeated in EC vs WC crew battles from the beginning of time until Genesis 2 in 2011, which was the last time EC vs WC went down. I wasn't able to attend Genesis 2, so I'm definitely looking to reclaim the... there's no belt or cup or anything... pride? for EC.



I'm not sure who pitched the idea, but





HugS

Jake Kulinski of MLG contacted me about the idea. It's been a long time since the community has been hyped about regional crew battles, but with MLG involved, the hype is expected.

The stakes feel so much higher in the post-Documentary era of Melee. MLG deciding to include the classic EC vs WC crew battle is the perfect way to start the summer schedule of majors, as everyone is going to be at the top of their game and eager to show off how much they have improved in the last year. It will really give us a glimpse into what each coast is going to be bringing to each of the upcoming tournaments.The EC vs WC battle was always a personal favorite. The FC3 battle was one of the videos that got me motivated to start attending majors and look at the smash scene on a national scale. There's been way more intercoastal attendance at regional scale tournaments recently, but in the pre-documentary era, the two coasts would really struggle to have enough attendance at any one tournament to be able to reasonably showcase their strength versus each other. Seeing it happen after all the boasting from both sides has never failed to be wildly entertaining, typically coming down to the last man on both teams determining the victor.I was the Captain at Genesis 1, where EC was top heavy with a so called "B String" filling out the crew. We played our strengths really well and ended up making a decent stock comeback to tie it up. With each crew being on their last 4 stock, jman clutched out the victory for us over Taj.Might need to be corrected on this, but to my knowledge, EC was undefeated in EC vs WC crew battles from the beginning of time until Genesis 2 in 2011, which was the last time EC vs WC went down. I wasn't able to attend Genesis 2, so I'm definitely looking to reclaim the... there's no belt or cup or anything... pride? for EC.I'm not sure who pitched the idea, but @SolidJake is the one who made it happen. There were actually some doubts about pulling it off after the event was planned then cancelled at Apex 2014, but Jake's excitement about getting the coasts together for a showdown has been contagious. Huge shoutouts to that guy.Jake Kulinski of MLG contacted me about the idea. It's been a long time since the community has been hyped about regional crew battles, but with MLG involved, the hype is expected.





What are your thoughts on the top-heavy EC vs. more all-rounded WC?



Cactuar

Again, this isn't a new scenario for EC. It's pretty difficult to get a full lineup of the EC best at an event held on the WC. We probably could have talked about making it 8v8, but the advantage would be heavy in EC's favor, so 10v10 works as a handicap and evens it out.



The big advantage that we get from having 3 Top 5's is that they add a lot of versatility in scenarios where we don't have a player that can fill a niche role or strongly counter a matchup. It'll also let us recover from 1, maybe 2, "mistakes", which would be either making a bad call on what player to send in or a player just underperforming. WC definitely has the tools to minimize how much recovery potential they provide us though, so we aren't looking to rely on our tops carrying us.



HugS

When I say that WC is well rounded, I don't mean to imply our players are anywhere near average. Every single one of our players is top 25 caliber. When I say the EC is top heavy, I mean to imply that some of their players aren't even close to the WC level.







How did some of the EC heavy hitters (Nintendude, DJ Nintendo, The Moon?) not making it out for MLG affect EC team selection? Can the EC team compensate?



Cactuar

Work with what you've got. As great as it would be to have some of the higher level guys that are sitting this one out in the pool of potential players to recruit for the crew, I wouldn't put anyone on the crew if I didn't think they would be able to perform well, given the right scenario. I've got a lot of confidence in the guys that I've picked.



HugS

I don't think they can recover. Looking at their list, they have a lot of first timers that won't be familiar with crew battle pressure.







What's up with WC having 2 captains but EC only having 1?



Cactuar

Quality > Quantity. I actually don't think there was any discussion between MLG and us about how many captains we could have. Maybe I should do some recruiting.



HugS

In the usual case, SoCal has led the team past. This time, we felt it was a good idea to give NorCal an official leadership role in the crew battle. Sheridan is one of the most experienced, intelligent individuals in the community. He's a perfect fit.











What you think about the strong counterpick/matchup-unfamiliarity-pick of



Cactuar

It's a double edged sword. While those characters can be put in to hard counter a player that is unfamiliar with them or a character that can't handle them, they are typically also vulnerable to being counterpicked. We've seen this happen in several crew battles in the past, and the effectiveness of those players has been less than expected.



The typical format for crew battles was to allow the player being counterpicked to change characters if the opposing team selected a counterpick stage instead of going random, but we're trying out a full character lock for this crew battle, giving the teams a stage ban that can be shifted before each counterpick stage is selected. This could affect the utility of M2K, Mango, Shroomed, and Axe.



HugS

I could see them taking a lot of stocks if I use them intelligently, which I will.







Any words for the double-double-crossing Zhu?



Cactuar

Are you ready for the double-double-double-cross? (shoutouts to



HugS

Once a West Coaster, always a West Coaster.

Are you ready for the double-double-double-cross? (shoutouts to James Woods Once a West Coaster, always a West Coaster.





Did you consider adding yourself to the roster? What made you decided against your own inclusion?



HugS

I did, but look at our roster. I couldn't justify removing anyone. Many great players like Bladewise and Okami were also left out. West Coast is too deep.





Take some time to trash talk the other captain(s)



Cactuar

I don't think I could trashtalk either of the WC captains. That they both needed to helm the WC crew is a great gesture of how much they respect my ability as team captain, and at the same time a humble admission of their individual inability to overcome the challenge that EC will be bringing.



HugS

I can't think of anything bad to say about Cactuar!







What result do you expect? How many stocks will you win by? (Specifically Cactuar) How many of the Top 5 do you expect to put in?



Cactuar

Bias aside, I'm expecting it to come down to the 10th man for both teams, and from there, who knows? There is a lot riding on playing intelligently with the strengths/weaknesses of the guys on the bottom half of our roster, and quite a bit of potential variance in the performance of our Top 3 based on how WC plays around them.



HugS

I believe we'll win by 5 stocks. The five players we fear?



We don't fear the East Coast.







Do you view the Fraudulent Player Fund and Plup's 7th place as a precursor/hint of what's to come at the crew battle?



HugS

It's definitely is an indicator of what the West Coast can do to Samus. And they have 2? Bad news.







There's a lot of questions floating about like "WhoChops? Gahtzwho?" And "also who are they?" How did you decide on them, and more broadly, your entire team?



Cactuar

Would you believe I just picked names out of a hat?



I'd rather not reveal too much about Gahtzu and PorkChops and the reasoning behind picking them until after the crew battle. They both have targets on the WC crew, so don't be surprised if either of them end up on stage.



Aside from the obvious picks based on overall player ability, there was a lot of consideration going down the list for each player's matchup specific potential. They each have a possible role to play based on how the battle progresses.





How did you decide on your team? Out of all the top level players in WC, why those 10?



HugS

I mainly chose among the most accomplished WC players. Since we have such a deep pool, I didn't feel like we'd be hurt by having a team that's heavy on certain characters. The strategy comes moreso with the matchups I select.







If you could poach any EC player to add to your crew, who would it be?



HugSZhu...



Done and done.





With 2 Samuses, a character that isn't really known for winning by a lot of stocks, how do you think they'll fare. Or how do you plan to use them vs WC's spacie heavy lineup?



Cactuar

Not every player is picked just for how likely they are to take as many stock as possible. Having players who can grind stock off the opponent regardless of matchup adds a lot of value to the team. Plup had an opportunity to showcase that he could hang with WC through their Fraudulent Player Fund, and Duck has had very strong results at the tournaments leading up to this summer.





You're going up against a team with 2 Samuses. As a Samus main yourself, do you have anything in particular planned for dealing with Plup and Duck?



HugS

Every single player on our team is extremely adept at the Samus matchup. I'm not kidding, I can pull a name from a hat.







The Coastal Crew Battle will be taking place at Friday, June 20 2014, 10:00 PM PDT ( Saturday, Jun 21 5:00am GMT (GMT+00:00) ). You can follow along with the action at



Crew battles are an ancient and venerated tradition in the Smash scene. They are used to determine the best groups of players.For anyone unfamiliar with crew battles, the format is rather simple: two crews select 10 players. Each player is character locked. Each crew has 40 stocks: 4 per player. A player keeps fighting until he has no stocks left. If he wins a match with 2 stocks left, he starts the next match by suiciding twice. The match then begins 2 stocks to 4. The losing team counterpicks a stage and player.Last player standing wins the battle for the entire crew.Specifically, the EC vs WC rivalry has existed almost as long as the scene itself. Over the years the coasts have duked it out. At most battles, EC won, going undefeated for years. But that all changed at Genesis 2: WC finally won. Battles have always been close, coming down to last man last stock. And now we get to watch the next episode unfold at MLG Anaheim.The Coastal Crew Battle will be taking place at Friday, June 20 2014, 10:00 PM PDT (). You can follow along with the action at MLG.tv/smash and the Liquipedia page for the event.



Interviewer: Kyuukyuu, peanuts

Editor: tofucake

Graphics: shiroiusagi, tofucake



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