During week 14 of Street Fighter League, the absolute standout was Team UYU’s JB and his incredible Rashid performance. We got to talk to JB about joining UYU and his experiences during this season of Street Fighter League.
DES: What brought you to Team UYU? How did your involvement in season 3 of Street Fighter League come about?
JB: I was already friends with the owners of UYU before, and one night they invited me out for dinner and asked me to join the team. They thought I could positively represent the brand and I thought being part of the team would help me too.
Me being a part of Street Fighter League this season is actually an interesting story. NL (Sim “NL” Gun) was supposed to be in my place this season. Unfortunately NL couldn’t play because of COVID and the pandemic making him unable to travel. So since I lived in North America and could play, they asked me to take his spot. Problem X and Phenom also couldn’t play because of travel reasons.
DES: How was it playing with Oil King and Kami? Every team this season appears to have great camaraderie. How did you and the other members of UYU bond?
JB: We were already really good friends before we were teammates, so it was easy to play together. We were able to train together very well.
Rashid-NO
DES: What was UYU’s training regimen like and was it different from your own personal training?
JB: Since Oil King and I both play Rashid, we knew most teams would ban Rashid, so I had to completely forget about Rashid and learn Poison. So most of our training was devoted to helping me learn Poison.
DES: What about Poison made you pick her as your secondary?
One thing about Poison that I really like is that she has a very good anti-air, which is crouching medium punch. It is also very similar to Rashid’s anti-air. With her I could play my ground game without having to worry about the air. Street Fighter V is a simple enough game where you don’t have to completely change how you play with different characters, so I was able to use my own strategies and playstyle with her.
DES: How was it with the other teams? We saw a couple of teams get pretty heated earlier in the season, but how were your personal experiences with everyone else?
JB: I think that we felt we had to prove ourselves since Rashid was banned essentially the entirety of the first season. So we had to prove that we could beat the other teams. We went into every match playing our best and there were no tensions. We had good experiences with everyone else on the other teams.
A valiant effort
DES: UYU had an unfortunate finish this season without getting any wins despite everyone playing great matches every week. What do you feel contributed to that and what could have been done differently?
JB: Honestly, I think the biggest problem was us not being able to play very well early on. For me anyway, it was demoralizing losing early on in the tournament. At least for me, when we got our characters back I hadn’t played Rashid for weeks, not even for practice. The other players there are also the best of the best and unfortunately we just couldn’t get any wins. Once the second half began I dropped Poison completely and focused entirely on Rashid. It was tough to get back into the swing of things.
DES: Last week’s matches were amazing and you in particular played fantastic. Was there anything different about last week when compared to the other weeks?
JB: I think last week was just a matchup thing. The players I played against, Gustavo (801 Strider) and SKZ, I don’t think they have a lot of good Rashid matchup experiences. Gustavo and I played against each other in the last CPT season a lot so I always try to come with something new when I play him. So I don’t think it was anything particularly special. Idom was just too strong in the end though, but he is always that way.
Always learning
DES: Will you keep playing Poison as a secondary?
JB: I think I will. Especially in the online environment, it is hard to stick with just one character. If not for the online situation I wouldn’t even have picked Poison. I am glad that I was able to go outside my comfort zone and be forced to pick a different character. This is the first time I have had a real secondary character and I learned a lot. I am glad I was able to experience that.
DES: Are you interested in any of the upcoming characters in Season 5 of Street Fighter V?
JB: Not really. Since this is my first competitive Street Fighter game I don’t have the attachment or nostalgia to certain characters. I am mostly focused on the balance patches and the new mechanic. Big balance patches always drastically change the game and I want to make sure Rashid is still strong.
Thank you very much to JB for taking the time to speak with us. There are only two weeks of Street Fighter League to go and you can watch week 15 later today, Feb. 4 at 7 p.m. ET, on the Capcom Fighters’ YouTube and Twitch channels.
Published: Feb 4, 2021 09:00 am