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Behind the Controller: A Look at Wolfkrone

Posted on January 3, 2011 by five

Right around the time of the November 2010 announcement of EVO Online at Galaxy4Gamers.com…

bb …a Super Street Fighter IV gamer named Wolfkrone showed up on the site. Right after making his first deposit, and entering the EVO event, he began competing in cash head to head challenges and single elimination SSFIV tournaments hosted by Galaxy4Gamers.com. In just over a month’s time, he played in an astonishing 120 plus matches at G4G and earned over $1000.00 in winnings. When the day arrived for first round of EVO Online bracket play, Wolfkrone, along with fifteen other competitors, found their way to the top of the sixteen regionally divided brackets, moving each of them on to the finals. Day two of the event was held a week later, and after all was said and done, it was Wolfkrone who was crowned the victor of the tournament. As his reward, he won a free trip to EVO 2011 and an exclusive online title of “No One Comes Close.” Shortly after the event was over, I got a chance to interview Wolfkrone…

Five:
How’s it going today?

Wolfkrone:
Everything is going good today. Just finished up a little Christmas shopping with my family.

Five:
‘Tis the season…I just got mine finished up yesterday,. all done..ready to go…glad it’s over with!

Wolfkrone:
LOL

Five:
So…your username is Wolfkrone. You are a pro Super Street Fighter IV player, winner of the first ever EVO Online Tournament, and exclusive owner of the online title: No One Comes Close”
Before we get into all that, can you tell us a little bit about who Wolfkrone is?

Wolfkrone:
 Well…my real name is Joshua Philpot, I’m from Detroit Michigan. Right now I’m 20 years old, and currently going to college. I’ve been gaming since I was about 5 years old and have played just about any fighting game you can name. I didn’t really get serious about gaming until Street Fighter IV came out.

Five:
Where exactly did the username Wolfkrone come from?

Wolfkrone:
It came from one of my favorite fighting games Soul Caliber IV. One of the stages in that game is called called Wolfkrone Monument, and that’s basically where I got my name from.

Five:
We (Galaxy4Gamers) met you for the first time at EVO 2010. If I’m not mistaken, you visited our booth, signed up for Galaxy4Gamers.com, played in some cash tournaments, and even won a HORI Fight Stick…

Wolfkrone:
Yeah…that was me…I was there…

Five:
Shortly after the announcement of EVO Online at Galaxy4Gamers.com, you came back to the site, and as of right now, you have played in 128 online cash tournaments on G4G…

Wolfkrone:
..Yep…

Five:
What I want to know, is do you think playing all those matches helped you get ready for the competition in EVO Online?

Wolfkrone:
Yeah…the site definitely helped me get ready for EVO Online. Playing on the site got my way more in tune to playing online than I was before. Playing the matches helped learn new things and gave me an idea of what to expect.

Wolfkrone:
When I was younger, everyone used to beat me down in Street Fighter and other fighting games. I would always lose…bad… I think that’s what got me into Street Fighter and made me competitive…When I got be around 10 or 12, I started going to Wizard’s Arcade…it’s closed down now, but…when I was going there…for like 4 years…all they had was fighting games. They had Third Strike, Cvs2…they had King of Fighters…they had all the fightin’ games…going there…that’s when I became really competitive.

Five:
When was the first competitive tournament you ever played in?

Wolfkrone:
It was in February of 2009 right after Street Fighter IV came out. It was at a Michigan Ran Bat (Ranking Battle)

Five:
How did you do?

Wolfkrone:
I placed around 13th…

Five:
Out of how many players?

Wolfkrone:
I think there was like 40 or so…

Five:
That’s not bad for your first time…
How often do you go to LAN tournaments?

Wolfkrone:
Here in Michigan, we have Ran Bats every two weeks, so I go to those…I uhhh…usually win those…

Five:
lol

Wolfkrone:
…and if there is a tournament in either Chicago or Ohio, I usually go there too.

Five:
You went to EVO this year…what did you think of that?

Wolfkrone:
It was my first EVO…It was different…it was alot of fun. There were so many different people there. I got a lot out of it because I got a chance to play against so many really good people.

Five:
We all know you have a killer Viper… do you ever play with any other characters?

Wolfkrone:
I mess around with a lot of other characters, but when it’s time to be serious and play for real, I choose Viper. I can play with any of them but when it’s time to get down to business, it’s Viper.

Five:
How much time do you spend a week practicing.

Wolfkrone:
A lot.

Five:
LOL..A LOT huh? Should we just leave it at that?

Wolfkrone:
Yeah. lol.

Five:
Do you have a sparring partner…someone you play with on a regular basis…

Wolfkrone:
Nope.

Five:
…do you get online and get into endless battles for practice? What’s your practice like?

Wolfkrone:
Usually it’s just practicing punishes in Training Mode. I mostly just play by myself or online. I usually don’t train with anyone. I like to put myself in situations in Training Mode and see how I can get out of them.

Five:
I play SSFIV a little bit and although I suck, I find Training Mode to be the arena for me, because they don’t hit back! How do you practice your timing?

Wolfkrone:
Oh..yeah…I get online…there are a lot of good people online. I have fought a lot of pretty good people online… and when I lose, I go back to the replay and look at that setup and find out what I did wrong, why I lost…then I go back to training mode and try the same thing…figure out my options in that situation…

Five:
I hear ya…
A lot fight gamers use a Fight Stick, like the ones you can get from MadCatz…it’s my understanding, that you don’t use one…

Wolfkrone:
I use a default PS3 controller.

Five:
Why the controller over the stick?

Wolfkrone:
I’m self conscious about people listening to what I am doing or watching my hands while I play. Using the controller they can’t hear or see what I’m doing. If people watch your hands or listen to the button presses, they can react to it.

Five:
Wow…that’s not what I expected to hear…something to think about…smart…

Wolfkrone:
Yeah…in this one tournament…I lost in the first round and the guy was like, “I knew I heard you press something”…

Five:
So it’s a whole strategy thing then…

Wolfkrone:
It is…


Five:
Aside from Super Street Fighter IV, do you play any other video games?

Wolfkrone:
Right now, I play Call of Duty: Black Ops…that game is fun…

Five:
That’s cool…Black Ops is MY staple game…

Wolfkrone:
That’s pretty much it…those two…that’s all I’m playin’ right now.

Five:
What does your family think of your gaming?

Wolfkrone:
They are supportive…at first they weren’t…after I started doing good, they started supporting me. Now they cheer for me…when I come home from tournaments, they are all shoutin’ because they watched the streams…it feels pretty good.

Five:
That’s awesome…I think what makes it even better doing something you love and being able to make some money doing it!

Wolfkrone:
Yeah…definitely!

Five:
Okay…so in this relatively new industry that is competitive gaming…what do you want out of this? Where Do you see this taking you in life?

Wolfkrone:
Right now i see it as fun. I do see a future in this though…through sponsorships. There are a lot of sponsorships out there and there are more coming…I believe it’s going to take another five years or so for things to really get goin’.

Five:
For anyone who is thinking about getting into competitive video gaming, what kind of advice can you offer?

Wolfkrone:
The best advice I would say, is spend a lot of time with a game…study it…dedication and hard work…

Five:
Before we wrap things up here, It has been a pleasure and an honor. I thank you for your time, and I wish you the best of luck in EVO 2011. In closing is there anything else you would like to offer up to our readers?

Wolfkrone:
For everyone who is reading this…Galaxy4Gamers.com is a really, really good site. Go there, and play…you will level up by playing there. It will help you with your competitive gaming and you will improve, because when you play there, you are playing against people who WANT to win, and playing against people like that will definitely make you a better player.

Five:
WOW! Thanks Wolfkrone. Again, Congratulations and Good Luck at EVO 2011!

Wolfkrone:
Thank you Five.

Posted in: Arcade, Benefits of Gaming, Fighting Games, Gaming News, Interviews and Podcasts, Online Video Game Competitions, Uncategorized, Video Game Conventions, Video Game Humor, Video Games
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A Place Where Ms. Pac-Man Still Has a Home (New York Times)

Posted on August 11, 2010 by jon

It is Friday night at the Chinatown Fair video arcade, one of the last of the traditional arcades left in the city. Inside, its hot and sweaty and the walls are blood-red. Amid the kids and the trash-talking and chaos, an older Chinese man stands quietly in the corner playing Jr. Pac-Man…

This New York Times article by Kabir Chibber was originally published on August 4, 2010 on nytimes.com.
View the original article

A Place Where Ms. Pac-Man Still Has a Home

by Kabir Chibber New York Times

Inside Chinatown Fair Arcade
Michael Nagle for The New York Times

WALKING down the southern end of Mott Street — a stretch lined with cheap-toy traps and Chinese restaurants of varying quality — is a fairly unremarkable experience until the sidewalk is suddenly packed with grungy and very loud teenagers and young adults loitering in front of a prominent "No Loitering" sign.

The tourists who make it this far — almost to Chatham Square — will find themselves tiptoeing around the pierced and the eyelinered, around the goths and the hip-hoppers. The biggest of the group turns to his friend and says, "He literally picks up his own life bar and beats you to death with it, son!" Around here, the talk inevitably turns to games.

It is Friday night at the Chinatown Fair video arcade, one of the last of the traditional arcades left in the city. Inside, it’s hot and sweaty and the walls are blood-red. Amid the kids and the trash-talking and chaos, an older Chinese man stands quietly in the corner playing Jr. Pac-Man.

Inside Chinatown Fair Arcade
Michael Nagle for The New York Times

"Friday is the night, it’s packed,"says Travis ("Just Travis"), 30, a dreadlocked paralegal who lives in Harlem and said he has been a regular at Chinatown Fair for seven years.
"It’s an old arcade, more for the hard-core gamers," he says above the sounds of punches, kicks and car crashes coming from the machines. "Everyone here kind of knows each other. Kids come here from all over the city." When he was younger and lived in the Bronx with his parents, Travis says, he traveled an hour and half to get to Chinatown Fair "to train."

In 2005, there were 44 licensed video game arcades in New York, according to the Department of Consumer Affairs; today, 23 survive. With the expansion of interactive online gaming, video game action has largely shifted to the home.

"Arcades are an anachronism now," says Danny Frank, a spokesman for the Amusement and Music Owners Association of New York. "They exist only in shopping malls."

Chinatown Fair has become a center for all the outcasts in the city to bond over their shared love for a good 20-punch combo and "old school" games that more popular arcades don’t stock anymore — the classic Street Fighter II from 1991 and King of Fighters 1996, for example, as well as Ms Pac-Man and Time Crisis.

Travis facilitates an introduction to one of the best gamers in the arcade, Yipes, aka Michael Mendoza, a chubby 23-year-old from Washington Heights with a wispy goatee and a bushy afro-ponytail sticking out under his beanie. "The competition is real good,"says Yipes. "I would say it is the best in Manhattan. And it’s a good hangout. You got games, the people, cheap food around the corner."

Yipes, who wears baggy jeans and has wooden crosses slung around his neck, points out the various factions that make up the arcade. "You have your DDR clique," he says, referring to the sweat-soaked boys and girls who favor the game Dance Dance Revolution, as well as "your racers, your fighters." Indeed, most of the teenage males were huddled around a stack of the newer Street Fighter IV machines.

Yipes says he is going to a games tournament in New Jersey the next day and can’t stay long, but a few minutes later, he’s furiously playing Marvel vs. Capcom 2. A sign above the game says: "Play at your own risk — no refunds."

Gaming Inside Chinatown Fair Arcade
Michael Nagle for The New York Times

One person is recording video of the fights in the games to post on YouTube. The players take the games seriously, but the mood is usually more about camaraderie than cut-throat competition. Benjamin Valle, 19, a college student from the Bronx, explains that rather than the usual arcade policy where the winner keeps playing, most players at Chinatown Fair stay on for a maximum of three or four games. "Usually, you run out of money by then anyway," he adds.

Several employees identified a Pakistani man in his 70s named Samuel as the owner. He says he has been in the business for almost 30 years but then refuses to talk any further, saying he is too busy. Samuel, his thin hair combed over as he leans on a metal cane, is an incongruous sight in a place filled with such youthful energy. At one point a tiny girl rushing toward the dance machines almost knocks him over, without even looking back. Like a tortoise, he centers himself and moves on to his next task.

On Fridays and Saturdays, the arcade stays open until 2 a.m. After midnight, there are more kids with backpacks outside and even more copious smoking.

Sanford Kelly, 22, from the Bronx, looks relaxed in thick glasses and an all-black ensemble. "I’m basically the best guy on the East Coast right now," he says.

Mr. Kelly is a professional gamer; he lives off the earnings of playing (and winning) in tournaments across the country. He is talking to a white-haired man in a Harlem Globetrotters jersey, Jake Morris. Mr. Morris’s son, another hard-core gamer named Lincoln (a k a Dragon), is around the corner by the Bowery avoiding his dad. Mr. Morris, 57, says he had heard that Mr. Kelly was blacklisted from a recent tournament, apparently because he had won so many times that others felt it wouldn"t be a fair fight.

"I read that on the blogs," he says, sympathetically.

A few days later, Mr. Kelly was sitting in Chinatown Fair in the late afternoon, taking on all comers. The arcade is much quieter by day, mostly attracting students from the neighborhood. "It’s certainly different from Friday nights," Mr. Kelly said dismissively, typing into his mobile phone and looking unimpressed. He says he likes to help the younger players improve. "They call me Sanford Sensei," he says.

Inside Chinatown Fair Arcade
Michael Nagle for The New York Times

Behind Mr. Kelly, a girl asked her friend if he was going to play. He looked hesitant. "I haven’t played in, like, a week and a half."

Despite its appeal to the hard-core faithful, Chinatown Fair has been feeling the industry’s pain. Travis says that a tournament at the arcade was recently canceled because of low turnout.

"Now, you can play a million people from all around the world," he says. "For me, it’s not the same as playing face-to-face. The young’uns may not care, but I do."

Back outside, Yipes is smoking a cigarette in the hot summer air. "Last of a dying breed," he says, looking up at the faded sign of the arcade. "It’s not sad, it’s a reality."

A version of this article appeared in print on August 5, 2010, on page E1 of the New York edition.

Posted in: Arcade, Gaming Articles, Gaming News, Video Game Tournaments, Video Games
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