Dreamhack Winter 2009
This podcast was recorded at Dreamhack Winter 2009 last month in Sweden after the SF4 tournament which Ryan Hart won. I asked him and the UK’s other SF4 shining star Zak Bennet to be on the show to talk about how things have changed since 3rd Strike, the future of SF4, the Dreamhack tourney, etc. This tournament was pretty epic in terms of scope and prize money with about $7500 on the line and Swedish TV broadcasting the event.
For those who aren’t too familiar with the UK scene, Ryan Hart and Zak are the UK’s best players and I’ve had them on my show way back when they came out to Evo 2008 last summer so it’s good to catch up with them again. Anyhow, topics of the show include:
- limitations of SF4
- esports teams
- impact of Dreamhack & big money tourneys
- training mode tips
Vids, pics and download links after the jump…
Here is a video from SVT, one of Sweden’s government-funded public TV channels (think of it as their CBS, NBC, ABC, etc), who broadcasted all of the esports finals including SF4 (which camiwins and I did the commentary for onstage, but unfortunately they didn’t use our audio, they had the Swedes commentate in their own language lol)
Click here to check out the rest of the esports finals videos on the SVT site.
SF4 Results:
1. Ryan Hart
2. Xian from Singapore
3. Yagami from Sweden (whose on the next episode of the podcast)
4. Zak Bennet
Where’s The Podcast Been?
Wow it’s been a long time! Apologies for the hiatus, it’s been quite a while since the last episode. If you’re wondering how come I haven’t been doing the show, it’s pretty much come down to the following reasons:
- I was burnt out
- I ran out of ideas
- I wasn’t as interested in talking about the game itself anymore
What it all boils down to is that over the past few months I’ve been focused on organizing events, putting out high quality videos and taking SF4 to the next level. That sucks for everyone who really enjoys the strategy talk but hey, what can I say? Part of why I enjoyed doing the show is because I enjoyed asking other players how they thought about things and to be honest, at least when it comes to SF4, I felt like I’d done about as much of that as I could. Not to say that there aren’t other players out there that I could learn from, but talking to someone over Skype just isn’t the same.
I feel like I’ve done a podcast with pretty much everybody in driving distance as I could and so that was one of the things that sprung me into action to record two podcasts, including this one. The next episode is already recorded and features two more players not in driving distance, Sweden’s #1 and #2 players, Yagami and Skatan Milla. That’ll be out soon!
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[MP3] 1hr11min – 41mb
Pics by James Bardolph
James Bardolph aka Worst Gief Ever has a comprehensive blog post about the UK guys’ trip to Dreamhack and (surprise) I’m in it, along with my GTFO.tv partner in crime camiwins. Hope he doesn’t mind me borrowing his pics! I guess this also serves as a Dreamhack wrap-up post.
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{ 28 comments… read them below or add one }
You are most welcome to use them
Thank you, sir!
Good to see you back man I got burnt out as well! Nothing like a new podcast!
Always happy to listen to this!
Thanks man!
Wow, Ryan Hart sounds like he’s in bizarro world to me. I feel the complete opposite about almost everything he said about SF4 and SF3.
Someone cut the cheese and Ryan giggling about it around 36 minute mark. haha.
Finally! I’ve been waiting for a new podcast for a loooong time. Thanks Ryan!
Great cast, I really enjoyed both Ryan and Zak’s honesty talking about the game, especially Zak’s explanation about the little tips he discovered in training mode. It’s stuff like that that really makes these players seem like the pro players people can look up to.
It good to have you back sir, I figured you were doing your thing with SF4 as far promoting and setting up new tourny’s and all. I was missing my weekly dose, but you still gave videos and all that good stuff. To let you know your site is in my top three! Keep up the good work Ryan:)!
well first off I’ll just say thanks for hooking us up with some more podcast goodness. I was one of those people who always looked forward to more, and I appreciate that you use your own time and money to provide us with cool free content like this. I don’t think anyone can really complain that you put your event work (or whatever else you want to do) over that because it’s not like you owe it to anyone.
That said, I just have one honest question/statement about what you said about kind of being burned out on asking strategy questions to the guys living around you (or having enough to satisfy yourself). Was the podcast created more out of your own interest to sit down and talk strategy with these guys, or was it for people who don’t have access to a player base like that? I don’t know if some of the guys you’ve had on the podcast are also burned out, but I know I probably speak for a lot of people when I say that I loved getting some of that insight people have dropped in your pocast, or even just hearing the different attitudes and mindsets when it comes to fighting games in general etc. Even if we were hearing from the same guys often I think a lot of people would still eat that stuff up.
I’m guessing that it’s everyone that’s busy with other stuff though, not just you, and some of them probably don’t want to have to sit down and discuss strategy every week either, haha. Just saying though- as far as us listeners, I don’t think anyone would mind hearing from some of the same players more than once, cuz it seems like people are always discovering new strategies and insights about the game and it’s cool to be able to hear actual discussion about that stuff.
Anyway, thanks again for the new podcasts and GS with L.A. Riots and Hooters Bar Fights!
nice to hear your back, i feel you on getting burned out on sf4 i kind of lost the passion for it a long time ago as well as alot of people in my area thinking the game being too dry and boring. but its good you havent given up, keep up the good work!!!
Hey, if increasing you own game and organizing events is what you’ve been doing instead of getting more podcast out, more power to you. I wouldn’t want to listen to a podcast done by a person that couldn’t win a tournament anyway.
Podcast was gdlk
hey ryan! really great interview with the UK boys, and cant wait to hear the next installment…
i know you said you ran out of steam…i can understand that…but ideas!?
i know you did a small interview with yeb…but getting yeb and jibbo on a show together to discuss gen would be amazing…there is so much info out there on the high end characters, that to hear their perspectives would be like revelations to most people…
and if he comes up for a tournament…id love to hear from sabre…i remember when the game first came home…and sakura was supposedly the best console character…as a player…im not sure that holds still…and it would be great to hear from the master himself about it
Excellent words from Ryan Heart. Glad to have these back!
Damn Gootecks whats up with Ryan Hart. He was straight ragging on SF4. Suprising, considering he plays so well . Don’t get me wrong I’m sure he enjoys the game, but his interview makes it sounds as if he has a bit of anamosity toward Street Fighter 4. Almost as if he only picked Sagat because he is frustrated with the way the system is set up.
I think what Ryan Hart said was very accurate, tiers play a much stronger role in terms of gameplay, much more than they did in 3rd Strike. It’s not that surprising given that SF4 has a lot more in common with SFT2 than SF3rd but it doesn’t change the frustration that comes with it.
Anyone who plays E. Honda will know all too well that tier advantage goes along way in some match-ups and while its nice to think the better player will come out on top, sometimes the game is just against you.
i’m glad to hear that some people still enjoy 3rd strike
Zegai, I don’t disagree with you. I have come across match ups that have been an uphill battle, but thats never been a secret when it comes to SF4. We all know the tier issues with the game. Most of us knew from very early on. Knowing this, Ryan Hart seemed to invest time in a game that he really does not seem to like.
I see your point but its hard to tell if his disapproval for the game is because he genuinely dislikes SF4 itself or that he just prefers the 3rd strike system to the point of sounding bitter. It looks to me like he feels the NEED to pick characters like Sagat and this is the source of his frustration, I think if he really didn’t like the game then he wouldn’t play it, although I cant be sure of that 100%, there’s not much else to play and the arcade scene in the U.K is abysmal to say the least.
I guess only Ryan himself knows for sure. For what it’s worth Im glad he does play it, he’s a good player.
“I guess only Ryan himself knows for sure. For what it’s worth Im glad he does play it, he’s a good player.”
Yeah, Im glad too. He still deserves the credit and recognition he has earned.
I got the same impression as you guys did from Ryan’s comments. Since he has been a top player in the scene forever his opinion obviously means much more than mine, and maybe I just don’t know the game well enough to get where he’s coming from, but I kind of got the idea that some of what he was saying just came from his own negative opinion of the game, and wasn’t that well thought out. Like his discription of what you can do and the fact that you are limited by the ‘rules’ of the game and characters options.. of course that’s true, but that’s just as true for 3S and any other fighting game (or game in general). I guess he just meant that he feels the limits are TOO restrictive compared to 3s? idk, doesn’t really seem like a difference to me though- both limit you to what the game allows and there’s “nothing you can do about it” in either game. One thing I don’t get, with all the talk about how important tiers are, haven’t we seen way more varied tournament results as far as number of certain character seen in top 8, and winning tourneys in SF4 vs 3rd strike? Sagat is supposed to be this big problem, but I don’t see Sagats filling up top 8 or dominating tourneys nearly as much as 3S chun.
Well Sagat does not dominate in tournaments, but he is a pain the the butt. As far as 3s goes, the only reason it’s not a big issue what character you use is because of the parry. If you know what your opponents going to do, just parry it. It’s like freaking magic. Still, this is only the first installment of SF4 and they will perfect it in my eventually. After all their were three different versions of SF3.
Dragon has it right, the parry made a lot of difference in 3rd Strike, in Gootecks own e-book he talks about parry vs. focus and he says as plain as day that the parry rarely has any downside, it helps players break through and does a lot to negate character tier.
If you go on youtube and search Ryan Hart VS Justin Wong, you’ll get a video for a Battle of Destiny Money Match. If you go from victories like that to the relatively mundane system of SF4 you can see why he’s a little bitter.
Hopefully SSF4 will help turn around the defensive combat engine of SF4 and get people back in the game, watch any 3rd strike Ryu and you’ll relish how little you hear “HADOUKEN!”
Yeah, I get the whole parry thing, and I know the FA isn’t any substitute at all. The thing I just don’t get is, if it’s true that the parry really does reduce the importance of tiers relative to SF4, then why do we see the 3s ‘high tiers’ having more consistent placement and dominance in tourneys? Is it just that it’s not a fair comparison yet since SF4 hasn’t been around nearly as long?
Hey Ryan,
Glad to see you back in good form, UK players seems to describe the matchups more technically… which i like!
cheers and happy new years
warrenc
good episode non the less but man that fart was EPIC!
I know I’m very late, but if this is episode 31 then what happened to episode 30. I went back through the website looking for it and I couldn’t find it. Maybe i just suck at searching, but can someone help me out here?
UK’s Hart and Xian are meeting each other again at the World again!
Btw Epic fart.