Well, bitches; I just got done selling 400 of you asshats your Modern Warfare 2. I have no idea why I put up with you guys, but enough about me. Today it's all about squirrelyg, one of my Fatal Destructoid '98 contestants. Squirrely was one of the very first contestants that entered the ring for my King of Fighters '98 tournament. I've had various personal chats with my contestants and learned a little bit about him prior to writing this. For one he's one of the more avid SNK fans around on the site that I've seen but has unfortunately fallen victim to something very common for those of his ilk: ain't nobody to fucking play his games with. Prior to Fatal Destructoid I do believe Squirrely mostly subjected himself to playing against the computer simply for his enjoyment of SNK fighters like the the King of Fighters series. As such he's been one of the most excited about this whole tournament from the get go. This initial match was made a few weeks back, while the next will be from a few days ago:



As all of you who've followed the tournament so far know, I'm not looking to do these tournaments to make myself look good. I'll be hosting these tournaments for various reasons: To promote the King of Fighters Love Letter which will in turn inform people more about the SNK as a company, as well as the King of Fighter's storyline; To get people playing SNK fighters with other people in situations where they may normally play games they're more comfortable with; and finally to increase the overall skill level of Destructoid as a whole.

I wish to foster a stronger competitive scene at Destructoid. Not so that we can be assholes who talk about how other people are "scrubs" and how anyone who isn't a tournament level player is a chump. Fuck that noise. I simply want to foster the spirit of competition and brotherhood that can come with playing these sort of games in a friendly environment. I want to bring out the real spirit of what makes fighting games great: bettering yourself as a player because you're enjoying yourself and your time with the people you play against. That's what this shit is all about. That's why in Fatal Destructoid I am not a contestant. I train the entrants. I chat with them and advise them about their playstyles. I do my best to become the social medium that allows them to have access to the other contestants at all times possible so they can spar with eachother. I take personal time to train the farther behind contestants in whatever I feel they need to know. Squirrely himself started out as one of the weakest contestants in the tournament. To be frank he was a bit of a pushover. Remember he was playing against computers for the most part.

Some of out training sessions could get pretty weird. He may not have noticed that I would often pick similar characters to his in order to let him see how another person uses the character. I would change my playstyle from exceedingly offensive or defensive to force him to adapt. Sometimes I would just show him how to do something and then tell him to repeat it in front of me about 20 times without actually giving a fuck about who won the round or not. I'm proud to say that Squirrely has likewise shown the most improvement. He is now proper competition for the top players like Zoel and Senisan. That very same spirit I was talking about is strong in the lad and I'm hoping his example will help everyone push themselves to become better. Let's demonstrate his improvement:



Let's make one thing clear: Both of us were rusty in the initial video made some weeks back. I was personally very uncoordinated and making a lot of pointless movements. I'm still doing a little bit of that right now, though not as much. What this means is that though he's improved and is playing much better since last time, so am I. I'm not a contestant in the tournaments but I am a final challenge that you have to overcome to claim a grand prize. Sure you'll win and get some prizes, but if you train yourself up to be able to beat me then you might get something that personally came from my own wallet as a sort of thanks. I want myself to be regarded as a serious challenge. The obstacle you'll have to overcome once we get down to the actual tournament itself. It's for that reason that I'll continue to get back my old skills and I'm hoping that the contestants will start training with eachother as much as possible, to overcome their common enemy of sorts in me. Rest assured, it's hard to contest that I'm overall the biggest challenge in the tournament right now. I'm hoping some of you are up knocking my arrogant ass out.

Since this time Squirrely's cast of characters has primarily remained the same, though he has picked up Orochi Chris instead of Normal Chris as one of his regulars. A very wise choice. Normal Chris is a low-damage speed character. He relies on being quick and hard to predict but has little power. Long ago he was considered a top-tier character. Orochi Chris--his alternate version. KOF 98 has about 10 of those--has since usurped that and is quite possibly the single best character in the game, only sacrificing some of his speed and gaining much more powerful attacks and the ability to fight at mid-range. I should note KOF 98 is a very well balanced game. The conceptions of which characters are the best have changed with time, as this game is still being played competitively in countries like Japan.

His Orochi Chris does need improvement, though. As you see in both cases moreso than his other characters, that character is the one getting demolished. His main problem seems to be that he seeks to get in as close as possible using slide kicks and Chris' extremely good jumping Heavy, but once he's close in he doesn't do very much. It may suit Squirrely to start utilizing more of Orochi Chris' mid range attacks. Though Squirrely is still losing to me in this video, the real showcase of his improvement is the fact that he's making comebacks with his other characters. When he's feeling the pressure he's now playing it smarter and fighting with some of the absolute safest methods he can think of. He's improving his execution too, managing to link weak attacks into a combo. I'll admit that such things aren't my strength. When I'm not concentrating I will not do that and focus on hit and run tactics. In that way Squirrely may soon have a real edge over me.

Here's to future improvement. Just for the hell of it I conclude with one of my trademark moves that I hope haunts so many of my contestants' nightmares:



SHINGO KEEEEEEEIIICK!!!

Maaaad fucking props to vinilinx of Deviant Art for making this.


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