« IPW Interview with AutoMattock (JiBbo) »

David-Paul Mattock, otherwise known as "AutoMattock", otherwise known as "JiBbo", is one of the top Gen players in North America. 

In this IPW interview, we delve into his fighting game history, his thoughts on his close match against Daigo, a bit about the scene in NC, Gen, Street Fighter 4, and thoughts on the upcoming Super Street Fighter 4. Enjoy.

Tell us a bit about your fighting game experience. When did you start playing and what fighting game got you into the genre?

Growing up I was exposed to a lot of video games with my brothers always playing them. It really was the hobby I picked up out of childhood curiosity and wonderment but also as a means to interact with my older siblings. Me being the youngest it was difficult to have some sort of medium to accomplish that interaction and SNES Street Fighter II was where it all started for me. So I guess it wasn't so much me "getting into" the fighting game genre as it was me just being a kid. For the most part my introduction into fighting games was me observing my older brother play different fighting games. I sort of just happened to develop a passion of my own.

What other fighters did you play in the past and which ones do you play today?

I played pretty much everything growing up. From Killer Instinct to Clay Fighters to SvC Chaos. Everything. This is all of course before I had a logical clue as to what I was doing or was even a part of the scene around here. I've been described as a mouse back in those days in that I just kinda lurked around played, made a little bit of noise and then moved on. 

Today the games I practice are 3rd strike and SF4. I also play some Alpha 3 and CvS2.

Can you tell us a little about your tourney experience?

The first tournament I ever entered was at the arcade Mind Boggle at the mall in Fayetteville, NC. Back then I really liked CvS2 so I played in that and also entered 3rd strike just for the fun of it. As it turned out, I went 0-2 in CvS2 but I actually won a match in 3rd strike so I felt pretty accomplished. Things were so much different back then! Makes me feel a bit nostalgic thinking back, especially now since the arcade has long been closed. I feel very unfortunate to have been as young as I was then, since I wasn't really able to participate in the scene that was there. Lots of timeless memories took place there that I wish I could have been there for.

Back on subject, the next tournament I remember entering was perhaps the first tournament that people began to take notice of my potential, where I beat somebody unexpectedly and ended up with 3rd place in 3rd strike. 3rd strike was my only game at this time and it was around this time that I developed my passion for the game.

To give the short hand version from that point to present: from that tournament on I began to improve exponentially due to certain people and experiences that really unlocked my potential as a player. I traveled to various tournaments in NC and Final Round in Atlanta, GA. Then as the 3rd strike scene started to explode in NC I was traveling with all the other NC heads to VA tournaments. These tournaments all have unforgettable memories of their own and quite honestly I feel blessed to be a part of where I'm from because of the people and those experiences.

You say that certain people and experiences unlocked your potential as a player. Who would you say were the biggest influences on the development of your skills? 

I suppose it started with my brother Josh aka Yeah Dood 120%. That was when I first became able in 3rd strike and could do stuff on command. I remember he would play it with all the crazy settings like chain combos and stuff, where I wanted it to be just like the arcade so I could compete with the guys there. When I finally got my license to drive is when I really could level up. This allowed me to become better acquainted with the "leader" of the arcade pack, Kevin Michael. Playing him is what introduced me to a totally different fighting mentality, where my reactions were forced into my gameplay. His playstyle is very conducive to learning. Boy did we have some long sessions -- he didn't even like 3rd strike but I believe he saw my potential and wanted me to be the new guy to represent Fayetteville, and I did just that. My next heavy influence would be Alex "Cajunstrike" Roski. Whereas Kevin taught me how to react, Alex taught me how to read into and analyze situations -- how to understand the other person's motives with consideration to your own, dictated by the options of the character. My reasoning skill went way up after our long sessions in 3rd strike. In all honesty I feel that playing these two made me a smarter person in general.

So with both those things combined, reacting and reading, I developed my own philosophy with both mathematically sound and reasoned decision making. I feel certain that I could write a book on how to play fighting games, and I owe much of that knowledge to the many people I've learned with.

There are definitely more honorable mentions. Among them: Justin Wong, Saisyu Kusanagi, COMMONSENSE, Knuckledust, Ecko, Eric Kim, xbox live (lol), Danny Miller, Jive Turkey Jones, SieClayton, P-Soul, Ocelot_357, Tony Majors, Peter Hou, Edmondantes, Exodus, Mega Zangief, Matt Frank... pretty much anybody in NC. Shoutouts!

As a SC player myself, I’m envious of the scene in NC.  Tell us a bit about the NC scene. 

The NC scene seems very unique in that we don't have much common ground for a place to meet yet we always manage to have sessions and build both skills and friendships within the community. That's not to say we don't have our share of drama, but that's not always a bad thing I'd say.

We have a lot of things going on tournament wise. Alex "Cajunstrike" Roski is building up the tournament scene with his monthly "Lucky's" tournaments in Greensboro. The venue is great and the setup is ideal for a high level atmosphere. Many come from parts of VA, GA and SC to participate in these tournaments. We also have Saisyu Kusanagi running tournament in Durham, so we're definitely building in all parts and in many aspects.

We do have one arcade left in Fayetteville, NC. FunFunFun has 3rd strike, CvS2, MvC2 and Alpha 3 cabinets but most of the competition is on 3rd strike on Fridays and Saturdays. I've recently have been going back to play 3rd strike and I'm surprised to see that the locals are still playing and have leveled up. I thought SF4 was the final nail in the coffin for that game, but I've thankfully been proven wrong.

Also, we travel hard! If you heard my stories on the way to evo, then you know all about this. NC coming to a city near you!

We’ve got to talk about Season’s Beatings 4. You vs. Daigo “the Beast” Umehara.  You came *this* close.  What was it like playing against the international champion?

This one is tough for me. My approach was just like playing versus anybody else, although I knew I would be much more nervous than usual. I knew I had a good chance at winning because of my character and my skills. I didn't have any set gameplan other than to not hesitate to jump at him at the right moment. This was a great idea, but at the end of the match when I didn't hesitate to jump, I tried to switch into crane stance to jump over the fireball but I was already in crane stance. Nerves.

I must say that although he's not familiar with my character he played the matchup better than anybody by virtue of his fundamental instincts. I know what I have to do to beat Ryu and I know what Ryu has to do to beat Gen, but I wasn't sure how Daigo was going to approach beating me since he doesn't have much idea what my tools and capabilities are. This considered, it was really difficult to gauge how he was going to approach fighting against me. Combine that with my nerves and it's a losing combination for me. 

In the end it was my nerves costed me, much like everyone else who came really close to beating him. I could give you reasons why I did all the things I did in the match, but they would probably all entail "Well I was nervous"...  Almost literally every time I got hit or made a mistake it was because I was so nervous.

Immediately after losing I didn't feel bad at all, but maybe 10 minutes later I started to feel pretty crummy. I definitely could have won and was in position to win. But even if I would have won, I don't think I'd feel accomplished beating him with the given circumstances. It wouldn't be satisfying for me to take credit for a victory against Daigo's ignorance.

Daigo’s not the only one who knows very little about Gen.  Even after all of this time, there are still but a handful of people playing Gen nationwide and even fewer play him well.  I always wonder why that is.  Is it simply that Gen is too complicated to learn for most?

Indeed his complexity scares most. Gen is not a character you can mash your way to victory with. He's an extremely intentional character with a high execution standard and most people don't have the fighting game level of thinking to develop strategies for a character like that -- much less to apply them in game. This why a lot of early tier lists and public opinion was that he was a terrible character. "Low tier" characters have never been popular. I'm definitely proud to be one of the guys that swayed public opinion on his worthiness of a character though.

Another thing interesting thing I'd like to point out. Historically, execution barriers have never been an issue for top players and if a character was just discovered to be really good with just high execution, it wouldn't be uncommon for people to play them (Yun in 3s, Viper in SF4). This wasn't quite the case for Gen though, as there's still few people repping him casually and in tournaments (Namely: Myself, Yeb, Asiantom). I'm not sure exactly what this implies and while my main suspicion is that most people simply can't do his combos, it may have something to do with the system against characters who are just easier to play. There's so much room for error with Gen, whereas there is no mistake in mashing out a dp into ultra. See Daigo vs JiBbo for further analysis. Haha

Did you know you were going to main Gen before the game came out or did you try other characters first?   What made you decide to play him?

I started off wanting to play Vega. I saw a Japanese vid of him punishing a whiffed Dhalsim fierce, and it looked really cool! That's one thing I like to go for in characters. They have to look cool. Then I started to look at Fuerte because I really like to play fast characters. I always felt since I have good reactions and can think fast, the faster characters are better for me to play since I can play them to the fullest potential. Then when the console character were being announced, I was really hyped for Fei Long because growing up I had a serious Bruce Lee fix. That might even be why I played Yang in 3rd strike, because he had rekkas like Fei Long. Then Gen was announced and I wanted to play him because of a story Kevin told me about a Japanese Alpha 3 Gen. I had the theory that he was a really technical character with crazy amount of potential that nobody would bother to go into to. I love to not only pioneer, but to solve the puzzles and Gen was the rubix cube of SF4. He's also Yang's teacher, so it was also a way to stay in touch with my roots.

I actually started off playing Sakura though, because I wanted to be competitive for the first Final Round. I knew Gen would take a lot of time to master along with SF4 game mechanics, so I just kinda picked her randomly because I knew she was simple.

I guess you can say I'm decisive yet flippant with my character choice, hah. Eventually, I learned all the characters mentioned and more. Most people don't know that I can play all sorts of characters at high level. I feel obligated to play Gen though.

So how did Sakura work out for you at that first Final Round?

I think I ended up in top 50 or something, which isn't too terrible considering 250+ people were in the tournament. Fun Fact: I played Liston just before his match with Kensou so I guess it's not so bad losing to him then, since winning would have changed the course of epic gaming history.  But yeah, Sakura is good.

What do you feel are Gen’s strengths and weaknesses as a character?

As a character I think he's pretty busted. He's got a ridiculous amount of tools and in theory, I think he's easily one of the best characters in the game. What holds me back the most personally is his execution. In the past I've been known for my great execution but for whatever reason I drop combos more than I normally would in this game particularly. I noticed this for a lot of people who don't just play Gen but every character in the game and every top player drops combos. I guess I could say Gen's biggest weakness is SF4.

So do you think that Street Fighter 4 is too strict with combo timing?

Maybe not so much as it's too easy for the other person to mash out a huge damaging combo if you mess up. In fact, hearing or even feeling that the person is gonna mash makes me nervous at times, so I hesitate and drop the combo. The obvious argument against this is to bait it, yet this discourages attacking offensively and if the other person decides not to mash then you lose your offensive potential. Moments like those are why I don't enjoy the feel of SF4. It becomes more random and less controlled and intentional.

Links aren't easy but they're far from impossible to master. Unfortunately there are also other factors that affect me as a Gen player, which are the sticks, the tvs, and the console. I don't have my own stick anymore so I'm left at the mercy of using somebody elses, which has been a real disaster sometimes (in fact, most of the time). Then between xbox, ps3, crt and hdtv there's undeniably some sort of change in the timing. That definitely doesn't help me out either.

Is there a matchup you just dislike to play? If so, why?

Not really. Nowadays likeness and dislikeness has to do more with enjoyment of the game itself, which I don't have so much anymore. There's no more sense of discovery in the game for me and admittedly, I've lost interest for it especially with Super right around the corner. It seems that many pre-SF4 players share this point of view but the new players to the genre still have passion for it.

With respect to the game, turtle honda has to be Gen's most trouble-some matchup. Rufus is pretty tough too. Overall, I think he fights everyone in the cast really well.

OK, we’ll move along to Super Street Fighter 4 then. What do you think of Super from what you have seen so far?

I look forward to it. I played Cody in Alpha 3 so I'll be picking him up first as well as Gen. When I heard that Cody was a sort of jack of all trades, advanced character I felt more compelled to play him. I can relate to his demeanor as well, since I feel a bit bored with SF4. Lately I've been feeling like a bad guy since I completely flipped my enthusiasm for SF4. Things just sorta fit into place for me like that.

It seems a bit too early for true gameplay speculation though, since only characters have been officially been announced. I'm really interested in the changes to the system. If there is a multiple absorbing focus attacking like the rumors mentioned, I think that would add more depth. The more depth the better. I like games that encourage analysis and forward thinking. It's more rewarding this way I believe.

I must say though, Super looks really cool so far.

Let’s pretend that you work at Capcom. By some stroke of luck, you have been assigned the task of updating Gen for Super. What (realistic) kinds of things would you like to change?

Gen is fine I think. Change or improve might imply that he is lacking in some places and I don't feel that he is lacking. What I would like to see is Capcom buffing everyone, rather than taking things away. It looks like they're doing just that too. I just look forward to whatever Capcom comes up with. They could give him a whole other stance for all I care, as long as it's logical and looks awesome.

On second thought, it would be nice if his short and jab chains were easier. Stand jab to low jab has a weird timing to it. Maybe they could give him more practical crane normals too.

Is there anything that you would like to see included in Super that hasn’t been announced yet?

I think more chain combos would be interesting. Judging from the trailer with Guy, it looks like he has his chain. This might indicate other new characters might have them too, such as the rumored Dudley, Ibuki maybe even Gen. I don't think Gen would have this though because that might interfere with hands buffering.

I'd really like a change inside the system that enforces awareness and careful decision making, rather than a universal "yes or no" answer.

Do you have any personal favorite match videos?

Favorites of my own would have to be versus Steve H and Chris Hu.

Steve is an amazing CvS2 player, known for his patience and P-Groove play. It was an honor to play him in SF4 grand finals, although I know he doesn't play SF4 much and doesn't have such extensive Gen knowledge. Much like Daigo though, his fundamentals are through the roof. This match was the summation of pretty much everything I had worked on with Gen up until this point.

vs chris hu http://www.frame-advantage.com/beta/bonus-matches/781-chris-hu-ryu-vs-jibbo-gen

This match was pretty funny because Chris at random basically told me we were playing on the stream for money. "I play JiBbo! 20$!". Hah. I wasn't exactly expecting this it but I couldn't back down and I knew it was good opportunity to play him. He's familiar with Gen too, so it was a good showing that Gen is not at all gimmicky.

I've been on my 3rd strike fix lately, so I've been watching a lot of TheShend uploads. Switching from Yang to Hugo, I've been looking for YSB and Hayao. Recently I found this other impressive Hugo, Matei. RX is still beasting too. As far as SF4, I'm tuned to Frame-Advantage.com for certain matches but that's about it.

Any final words?

Much thanks to Ariez and the other SoVA heads for helping me get to NEC. Special thanks to Ocelot_357 and purifyweirdsoul for getting me to Evo. Frank, thanks for the Taxi then. Thanks to Cajunstrike for his hard work with Lucky's tournaments. Shoutouts to NC! Shoutouts to East Coast!

Thanks for interviewing me!

Also, you can check out some of my music at http://www.reverbnation.com/automattock

And follow me at twitter.com/automattock

Thanks to AutoMattock for the interview!

Comments

[ShowTime]

good read! Jibbo is fun to watch. I never knew he played other characters, esp Sakura. Is it bad that i get mesmerized by the animated gifs? lol

[JuniorMints]

this was an awesome read!

[Fudd]

Great interview. I had a feeling JiBbo and Yeah Dood 120% were related somehow, but I didn't know they were brothers.

[Carazay Taxay]

Jibbo is a beast!! Good stuff! Didn't know he played other characters. The Daigo match was very close. Oh, and Chris Hu is awesome. Even in Jibbo's Hu quote I still read it in my mind in his voice lol.