Canada Cup: EG.JustinWong Part 2 [FINAL]

It was interesting to talk to Justin Wong during Canada Cup. He was telling me that I could have made Top 3 in Marvel and that if I played Floe it would have been a good match.

Justin also said that I had potential, but that I lacked the ability to attend every event. I explained to him that it's pretty hard since I don't have a sponsor. I continued saying that the only support I have is my job and that it is very hard to travel with your own support.

It's always in the back of my head that traveling on my own money means I have to break even. Sometimes I don't want to think about that and would just like to compete. It also stresses results since breaking even means getting top 3 or top 8.

However, there was something Justin and I had talked about that really brought controversy to what I believed. After I had lost to Mago, I sat down and gave Justin his stick back.



"I tried, but I could have done better," I told him. Justin replied, "You out footsied him. He just took advantage of his character against yours." I replied asking, "You think so?" He said, "Yep."

You see before this Justin Wong and I had a conversation about Japanese footsies. Before I get into this, this is Justin's point of view. It is an opinion and is based off of his experiences. This means you can take it as you see fits (with a grain of salt or as reality).

Before Justin and I played our Marvel match on the stream we had some down time and conversed about a couple of things. One specific thing in general was which country had the better footsies: America or Japan?

Without questioning it, Justin answered that America has better footsies and that Japan has no footsies at all. He continued saying, "The only person that actually has footsies is Daigo."

Justin explained that Japan knows more setups and knows more about the game mechanics. He felt that Japan was much stronger in that area than footsies when compared to Americans.

I was confused about his perspective. I replied asking Justin, "Well, what about 3rd Strike? Don't they have footsies?" Justin replied saying, "I don't think they have footsies either. They just take advantage of the parry system (in which he said he struggled with)."

I didn't completely agree with Justin since I believe there are players that are not well known in Japan and are extremely strong. That, to me, has to be evidence that Japan has footsies.

Japan do have excellent setups when it comes to fighting games. But what of the Daigo "the Beast" himself?

How did Daigo achieved such great footsies and fundamentals? I'm sure hard work and practice does account to most of it, but he must have had great people to practice against to achieve it.

Now to argue in Justin's favor, back in the days of Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting Tomo was considered one of the best in the world. When compared to the Japanese by a certain someone (I forget who - it might have been Jeff Schaeffer or Seth Killian... correct me if I'm wrong), there were about 5 other Japanese players who were on Tomo's level.

This was back in the days when footsies and fundamentals were the foundation of Street Fighter. There were no FADC's, no meter, no dashes, ect. All you had was your character and various moves and normals.

I know this may be a very controversial topic, but something like this intrigues me to understand who has the better footsies/fundamentals. At the end of the day, I want to know who's better so that I can go there and challenge them myself!

What do you guys think? Do the Japanese have better footsies or does USA have better footsies? What about other countries (for example Europe, Australia, and Korea)? Leave your comments and questions below! I would like to know! :)

-Miky