Tuesday
Dec212010
Avoiding the Puddle Episode #12 featuring Mr. Naps!
BY 
Aris ON Tuesday, December 21, 2010 at 8:06PM
Aris ON Tuesday, December 21, 2010 at 8:06PM 
This episode of the podcast features one of the best fighting game players in the US, Mr. Naps AKA Emphy. Naps is an expert player in multiple fighting games such as 3S, SSF4 and Tekken 6. He is without a doubt the best Bryan player in the Western World.
Before we get to our interview with Naps, MYK and I cover topics such as tournament confidence and what the actual meaning of "being good" is. Give it a listen and see what you think. If you have any suggestions for guests, the podcast or the web site in general, please send those to Aris@avoidingthepuddle.com.
Listen:
Podcast
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MP3 - 01:17:34 - 71.0 MB
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To see Mr. Naps in action, check out some of the vids below:
Reader Comments (68)
There's no way that a 2/3 match determines who is better. Tournament performance doesn't even determine who is better. 'Who is better?', besides being a loaded question, is up to community opinion. Some people do better in casuals, others in tournament, others in MM or ft10. I can see how someone with the arcade mentality would view tournament as being the hard samurai's truth about combat, but really it is a matter of community opinion. And that's not even my opinion, that's Aris' opinion too...with regards to the Naps interview 'I feel like you're really hot and cold. ... Some tournaments you don't do as well. ... I think you're the best American tekken player that's out there right now. But you're not as consistent as some of them.' I'm not trying to play gotchya, just showing that arcade samurai mentality is just at odds with personal opinion.
But asking who is the best tekken player is like asking who is the best baseball player. There's no correct answer. Same goes with 'top ten characters?' damnit.
And with chivalry... it is at odds with samurai, because the goals are different. It is okay to have a philosophy about the game (and be a pro) where tournament victory isn't the most important thing.
But I approve of slapping Reno just cause it's baller.
Whether you can determine who is better through FT 10 or tournament is debatable. However, I think a point should be made that the best way to get better is through repeated practice and getting your assed whooped by top players and not giving up and coming back.
The reason why I don't think tournaments aren't seasoned for beginners is that because of seeding, the worst players are matched up with the best players. Thus they are always likely to go to 0-2.
This makes it hard for beginners to level up in tournaments. I think the best way to level up is to face all types of players from scrubs to experts.
I think back in the day with a vibrant arcade scene this was possible. These days it is not since only the hardcore can go out and make a trip to an arcade.
If you want to know the types of different player archtypes that existed back in the day you should check out Catlord's Tekken Psychology Faq.
Tekken Hierarchy
----------------
__________
| Master |
----------
/ | \
__________ | ___________
| Turtle |---Nutjob---| Pitbull |
---------- -----------
\ /
__________________
| Average Player |
------------------
|
____________________________
| Street or Virtua Fighter |
----------------------------
|
__________
| Masher |
----------
http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps/198900-tekken-3/faqs/1073
Great stuff as always guys thanks a lot :)
@Lingmassacre Good post, I like a good debate. Though you did quote me correctly, I didn't clearly say WHY I think Naps is the best. Iit was implied. I think hes the best based on playing him in tournament. I'm more consistent then you think I am.
Anyone can win at any given time and winning 2/3 is a whole different skill in itself. in tournament, your nerves, adaptation skills, character knowledge, etc and just winning 2/3 games is what is tested here. And we as competitive gamers see tournament results as who is best and what not. but to actually get 1st place in tournament is also a different story.
i personally think its the way tournaments are set up, that being games set at 2/3. if sets were longer, id think we would see less upsets. but do to time constraints and just straight up changing the rules, i dont see this happening ever. I think of it like this; if you flip a coin, you have a 50% chance of getting heads or tails. if you only flip two times, the score isnt always going always going to be 1 to 1. sometimes it will be 2-0. if we flip ten times, it should be 5-5, but sometimes we get 6-4, 7-3, etc. the more times you flip (50x, 100x, 1000x, etc) the more accurate the outcome, which is 50% heads, 50% tails. technically, the better tekken player should win, but given only 2/3 games, the probability is not accurate. if there are more games played, usually the better player will end up winning more.
However, You cannot just look at one casual session and be like "this guy is better cause he won 43-29". but it should be more overall wins at different times and over a span of thousands of games (like arcades in asia). some people do better in tournament style 2/3, and some people do better in long sets. i guess the only way to tell if someone is really "better" is if we have tournaments that are ft3, ft5, ft10, ft50 style tournaments. but for now, we have 2/3.
just because you won 2/3 doesnt mean youre better than the other person. results need to be consistent, which includes consistent tourney placing (top 10?) and playing sets.
Tournaments are what matters because winning a tournament gives you the glory. Nobody gives a shit if you beat a Japanese player in a FT10 after you lost to him at SBO. If FT10s consistently paid more and got more recognition than the tournaments, FT 10s would be what counts.
@Aris, I think you're consistency is fine. The consistency thing was within the Naps interview quote. But I enjoy good debates ^^. I think naps is hella good too.
@eddieboy, No way there are going to be ft10 tournies. So we live with what we can. Avoidingthepuddle has covered ft2 vs ft3 a few podcasts back, check it out (if you haven't already). PS. coinflipping isn't a good example, odds can change during the course of the match for a number of different reasons.
@Lingmassacre BTW, you are a future guest on ATP. Just thought I'd let you know.
Good shit....as always but you need to get this up on ITunes
When aris says a wins a win he means it. I once saw a match of him vs filthy in DR at super arcade where filthy's port went out and aris didn't care and proceeded to multi throw him with king till he died lmao. Good stuff.
@Phunnykidd Welcome to the streets!
To me its a mixture of both to be a top player, one you have to be consistent in tournament but you also have to hold your own in exhibitions and ft10.
@ Aris didnt you say that Bronson was so good in casuals and such but in tournaments he would crack, so it seems like in this podcast you contradicted yourself right there dunno maybe im not seeing the bigger picture here
@RinoH If Bronson is good in casuals but not as good in tournament, and I think tournament is all that counts, then that means Bronson is not meeting his potential in tournaments and therefore is not THAT good. On a side note, he has been doing a bit better lately.
Great episode! I think the player which can win 2/3 sets in tourney is definitely better since tournament win is more official & is recognised...further more, u will get more pressure in tourney play
Aris you fuckin slut, great podcast. I think this is my fav one to date - J Tran and all that chat of Bronson-Sensei was fucking badness.
I really liked JTran's breakdown of his top 5 tier list and why he feels that way.
Naps-san, Aris is right, you need to talk waaay more shit - you're so fuckin knowledgeable it's not even funny. Until this podcast, I don't think I've even heard stories of you speaking before let alone finding a random sound byte somewhere. lol
I've caught Tyler2k on the Zaibati, but this shit is gold.
bad and thanks
As most of you don't care - I am pretty much the guy responsible for the South African Tekken Community. For 2011 we'll finally have a South African representative taking part in the WCG shit your pants with laughter if they get it so wrong again tournament.
Sorry - what I'm getting it is with regard to the opinions that are being placed on Tournament wins as opposed to other forms of match ups.
Now Namco doesn't exist in South Africa - and neither do tournaments run by anyone but the fans, which is me. lol
I run a session for between 8-15 guys depending on venue and turn out every Saturday. There are no official tournaments with prize monies and things like that - so these guys pretty much just have to come together and play a bunch of 1st to 5's with each other or 1st to 10's or whatever the menu of the day is.
So who ever has the most amount of wins over everyone else at the end of the day gets to go home with a little woody... but these aren't even like tournies or anything.
So when there aren't any tournies to enter - what kind of mediums can people fall back on to rate how well people are playing?
I very much like 'consistency'. If one dood is able to just rock up to sessions and own session after session... he's doing something right.
Call outs like MoneyMatches and TrashBag matches... - man no dumb fuck in their right mind is going to sit down and start fucking around in a trashbag or a money match. You can pretty much be sure that no-one wants to get caught out in that bullshit. To boot a serious enough MM or TB Match can generate a crowd and there can be some pretty serious vibe/atmosphere from spectators and supporters and shit... it can get real. Those guys can start talking about taking your money and using it at McDonalds or how fucking beautiful you'll look in one of their little outfits - that's distracting.
Lets use the footage I took of Bronson and The Great Ivyn in France a month or so back to show you the kind of nerves and balls of steel you have to have to handle this kind of bullshit pressure...
Bronson was pretty much fighting a fucking alien - - - to boot - The Great Ivyn's fellow South American Team mate AlexisHH is a Julia player... and then on top of that - those guys were ordering McDonalds over the phone with Team America's money and singing songs boi.
catch that here - http://www.youtube.com/user/FoxSt3v3?feature=mhum#p/u/6/EpVJLDRi6Rc
Without you having to watch the vid - Bronson was down something crazy like 6-9 or something... and there was bullshit and noise being thrown all over the place - but he just went SSJ and reversed it to a 10-9 score, took the guys phone and ordered French Big Mac x4. I believe you can only do this if you're a good player. No disrespect to the Great Ivyn who is actually a dear friend of mine - but I believe Bronson is the better player of the two on any given Sunday.
In America/Japan/Korea - there are perhaps enough tournaments happening all the time that nearly every good player from the respective scenes can attend. So yeah it's perhaps possible to weigh everything up on the tournament results alone. That's cool stuff and I feel you on that.
People that can't or don't make tournaments or enough tournaments have themselves to blame - fair enough.
Very Hypothetically, what if Master Jimmy misses Strong Style - - - Bronson takes the tournament.... Jimmy wakes up and he's pissed that he's missed the tournament.... makes a HUGE shit storm on the boards and gets 500 people to back him and 500 people to back Bronson in a "I diss your win at Strong Style" type match up... 1st to 3 or 1st to 5 ------- the pressure from the tournament is emulated and it's a pretty rad situation --------- would a win there still not really count towards either player looking bad ass or earning a certain type of cred?
Here in S.A we can't base anything on tournament wins as there just aren't any/enough... so we've had to think of different ways of getting serious and trying to prove whose who and it's been pretty successful thus far.
If tournaments are extremely regular and other players from the other regions of South African can join in regularly and they are pretty national - - then fuck yeah, we can get very accurate results and a decent idea who the best are just from tourney placings.
But without that kind of structure we're kinda left to our own devices right now.
The discussion is tier though - thanks for pulling that one out Aris. I totally get your whole point on the issue, but I also understand if other people have different opinions under different circumstances as MarkMan was alluding to etc.
And for god sake - when you pick up a controller to play this game against anybody, you're going to war. Please leave any other fagotory @ the door. power reminder to anyone with a scrotum.
My London/Euro ninja - are you guys having enough Tournaments and events atm to use Aris' method of snagging and labeling the best players through Tourney performances with a fair degree of accuracy?
great cast and topics
awei
So its not that theyre not good its just that they havent reached their potential and you should have RIP on just to shit talk on Jimmy lol
lets hope this podcast wakes up the scrubs
@ Lingmassacre
just read your posts now - badman
Aris put this shit on itunes so I can have it on my iphone. Or I'm gonna deathfist you in your beautiful bellyful of buttermilk.
is this podcast available for dl via iTunes?