Summary: Denfami Interview with Tokido (2017.1.20)

http://news.denfaminicogamer.jp/interview/toukaigi2017-4 @BornFreeTweets @tokidoki77





Income

⦁ Depends on the person

⦁ He himself gets a small salary from his management office

⦁ Lately the price pools are getting bigger, so one can't neglect that income

Training



⦁ He tries to train every day, he gets the feeling of guilt if he doesn't

⦁ Training session get shorter, he actually plays the game for maybe 3 hours per day

⦁ Instead of playing endlessly, his training shifted more towards analyzing videos and researching tech



Motivation to become pro?

⦁ When he heard that Daigo became pro he was surprised that somebody could make his passion into a profession

⦁ He thought himself as one of the best at that time, so he thought "why not me aswell?"

⦁ When he was doing his Master degree at Tokyo University, he was extremely bored

⦁ He couldn't see himself living the "normal" life, so he chose the path of a pro gamer

⦁ Was a hard decision, luckily he got support from his parents (they let him do what he wanted)



Why did you start playing video games?

⦁ First memories of playing Super Mario Brothers when he was 3 or 4 years old

⦁ In primary school he had to change schools and got bullied, nobody wanted to play with him in school

⦁ At that time he went to an arcade with his cousin 5 years older than him and played Virtua Fighter 2

⦁ Going to school was very boring, but practicing VF2 every day made him endure daily life, for a year he trained every day to finally beat his cousin

⦁ He was still participating in club activities in school, but more or less as a "ghost member", all he could think about was games

⦁ After Virtua Fighter 2/4 he transitioned into the Street Fighter series (namely 3rd Strike)

⦁ When he was in the first year of middle school he went to his first tournament in 1998 (it was Kind of Fighters)



Origin of his nickname

⦁ Name was given to him by his friends at the arcade

⦁ He wanted to register himself as "Hakkun", since his name is Hajime

⦁ But because he was basically only using this one special move from Yagamiiori (sorry I have no iead about KOF, but apparently the character says "tonde", "kikku shite" and "doushita?!" in succession, which formed his nickname)



Perception

⦁ In school nothing in particular changed

⦁ Parents did support him and bought him the ticket to EVO, dad wanted him to experience foreign countries

⦁ But what he noticed is how his parent's perception of him playing video games changed after he won EVO

⦁ They didn't understand video games, but they did understand the scale of a tournament with price money held overseas

⦁ He had a lot of friends in arcades with which he could share his experiences, it was very fun

⦁ He doesn't go to arcades anymore, but it was a huge motivation to get recognized by people he has never met before and to know that they can actually appreciate what he is doing



School

⦁ He was giving his best in school as well

⦁ He was aware that he had to be good at school in order to be able to justify playing video games

⦁ He didn't hate school, he didn't really struggle, and the support from his parents helped a lot

⦁ Of course it wasn't his own decision, a lot of it was his parents influence, they were very good at "manipulating" him ("If you get good grades, we buy you a game.")

⦁ "Because Ie wanted to play games, I studied hard. Because I played games, I was able to get into Tokyo University."



Video games

⦁ In general playing video games isn't seen as a good thing, even he himself partly believed that and sough after some kind of justification

⦁ But there are people out there who are convinced, that by doing something earnestly that one can assert oneself in society

⦁ There is a certain aesthetics in one's own play

⦁ He also beliefs that from the bottom from his heart



Older generation of gamers

⦁ The players who played over 20 years ago, they played for "mutual consent"

⦁ Winning or losing wasn't the reason for playing the game

⦁ He couldn't understand this kind of mindset

⦁ He played a game to win at a tournament, to do that he played strong characters in the most efficient way possible, securing him the win

⦁ 20 years ago people played to make it difficult for their opponents, to be tenacious

⦁ He feels this kind of people have a better sense of beauty in the game

⦁ "But to be honest, most of these people are weak." (laughs), they went too far in their obsession for a certain playstyle

⦁ Lately the playstyles of most players became similar, there's not much room for style anymore



Mindset

⦁ 4 years ago he put a lot of work into SFIV

⦁ He lost a very important match to Momochi (in a FT10), he was leading 6-0 and lost in the end

⦁ Was a shock for him, had to rethink his approach (always picking strong characters etc.)

⦁ He realized he wasn't taking the game seriously enough, it wasn't up to that moment that he saw the flaw in his approach

⦁ Obsession with winning wasn't good, "winning is only worth 51%"

⦁ Aims for a playstyle where he can show the results of his training (flashy plays)

⦁ The journey is the reward. "The Way of the Game" (Way of the Samurai)

⦁ "If you really give your best, you can grow as a person" He finally realized, that games are the thing that enable him to do that



Karate

⦁ He started doing Karate

⦁ He found a lot of common points between fighting games and martial arts

⦁ When doing martial arts, you get immediate feedback (pain), you don't have that in games > it's harder to "feel" what you did wrong in game

⦁ If one notices that difference, it's easier to reflect on his own mistakes



Advice for aspiring pro gamers

⦁ After all, playing games is fun and should be used as a stress relief etc.

⦁ But if you want to become pro, you shouldn't treat it solely as a "game"

⦁ You shouldn't just aim for tournament winnings, but also provide fascinating play for the audience



⦁ He is pursuing the "Way of the Game", trying to become the fighting games Sen no Rikyu (Tea Ceremony Master 16th century Japan)



@elsonigo

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