Thanks to Silentscope for taking the time to do this interview.
Enjoy
-Fighter101
1-First please let us know what your top 5 favorite games ever made are. They can be on any genre.
Top 5 favorite games: ST, Assassin’s Creed, CVS2, Neverwinter Nights, Witcher 3
2-How did you get introduced to the fighting game genre?
I got introduced into the fighting game genre I believe how most are. By playing a games in an arcade. I was that kid you would see just wiggling the stick and mashing the buttons.
3-What was your first experience with the Street Fighter series like and when did you decide to start taking it seriously?
My first experience with Street Fighter was also I an arcade when I was very young, I don’t remember where or when (I believe I was around 6 or 7) but I remember playing Honda (because you mash buttons you occasionally get 100 hand slaps) against the computer and someone was trying to show me how to get headbutt out, but I wasn’t listening and continued to mash buttons.
I started taking it seriously much later in life. I had the collector’s edition for PS1 when I was a teen, but mostly only played against the CPU (my brother hated fighting games… because I would beat him). It wasn’t until 2009 when I was watching the DBT (Don’t Blow This) group practicing for SBO and using Justin.tv to stream they mentioned playing online using GGPO and Supercade. I immediately downloaded GGPO and started playing online and realized how much depth there was to this game. My first ever major tournament for ST didn’t happen until Nov 2014 Evo Moment 37 Reloaded.
4-You picked one of the lowest tiers characters in SSF2T. Would you say that becoming a top player with a low tier character had any influence in your decision to main Cammy?
When I started picking Cammy it never occurred to me that I would be considered a top player with her. I mostly picked her because she was a character that was not widely used and was fun to play, and the first time I landed a Hooligan Throw I was like “I am sold!.” Only to realize later how bad some of her match ups are.
5-Who do you feel to be the hardest match to handle with Cammy?
Honda and O.Sagat are definitely her hardest match ups but the one I HATE to play against is Boxer. The previous two are just characters that are hard to get in and pressure, a lot of slow walking forward and biding your time. While Boxer has amazing defense as well as offensive pressure (plus a pain to cross up with Cammy).
6-If you had to play an entire tournament with Cammy using only one button and all the specials/throws that come with it, which one would it be?
That would hands down be Medium Kick. Low and stand MK are some of her best poking tools. I can throw (even air throw) with it, DP with it and even combo with it into drill or DP.
7-You’ve been picking up Hawk at Fightcade lately, is this going to be your tournament backup character?
I have been picking Hawk due to Damdai’s influence of showing just how broken he can be. The problem is he has the same bad match ups as Cammy so as a backup character he is not too good. Mostly I just really want to learn the Sako tick (tick and then release the buttons to make the throw attempt safe) but doing the standing tick is absurdly hard, but landing it is so satisfying.
8-What is your current arcade stick of choice?
My current stick is a Qanba Q1 Xbox360.
9-Have you learned about frames and hit boxes, or do you find that unnecessary to be a good ST player?
I haven’t learned about frames, but hit boxes I have looked into a little, because Cammy’s cross up jump Lk has some strange characteristics against some of the cast so looking into that has helped. But I don’t think it’s absolutely necessary to learn to be good at ST, most of the time I have people ask “is that safe?” or “is that an actual cross up?” and my main response is “I don’t know man I just play the character.”
10-Could you share a couple of videos that showcase your best moments with Cammy in tournaments?
Canada Cup (Justin Wong vs SilentScope)
Canada Cup (SilentScope vs Shogatsu)
Evo 2016 2nd side tourney finals (Silentscope vs Killer Miller)
11-What do you think separates high level play from intermediate play the most?
What I see most between intermediate and high level play is knowing the most optimal combo or punish to a situation, at intermediate play you see people react to a situation like a baited reversal with minimal punishes (I have been guilty of this as well) for instance maybe punishing with just a normal instead of a combo. A lot of time I feel it’s not reacting to the situation fast enough to realize what you can do. At high level play you see top players take the most out of every possible situation: wiff dp? Walk in with punish into super or hit to setup perfect safe jump (ex: Chun li SBK, T.Hawk crouch mp which leads to perfect safe jump). Knowing what you can do and being able to react accordingly is a huge step in improving ones game in ST.
12-Who has the best Cammy in the world in your opinion?
The best Cammy player by far is Nakamura (Takechi), although he doesn’t seem to play much lately but he is still my top pick.
13-Is there anything about Cammy that you feel you haven’t mastered yet? Is there hope for her against top tier characters at high level play?
I feel that I have a good understanding of the character. Where I think I fall short are my reactions in general and character vs character knowledge. A lot of the time my reaction to a jump is to hit st.mp (which leads to my famous walk under shenanigans) but sometimes doing a DP would just be better. Also even though I play this game every week at WNF the top players that I play against are usually the same people (Killer Miller, Eltrouble, Scuzbucket, and Mr Igloo) so my character knowledge is mostly limited to their mains.
Cammy always has hope at top level play. She has technically the highest damage output in the game, two 3 hit combos can lead to death and she as a TOD (touch of death/dizzy) on a variety of the cast. But getting to that point usually requires a lot of high risk/ high reward scenarios.
14-What would you say to new generations about SSF2T if you wanted to pitch the game to them?
My pitch to any new comer of the game is to not be discouraged early on. Trust me there will be a lot of losses and deaths along the way but those losses will be worth it later on. Also try to find a community (offline would be best) or someone local to play with because having someone next to you when you’re playing when a situation happens that you both go “WAIT… WHAT!?” is some of the best you can have and is one of the biggest reasons I keep coming back to this game.