SoulCalibur truly is world-wide phenomena. It have communities all around the world… Like the one in Republic of South Africa, that I didn’t know it even exists up until recently. Let’s learn more about it from one of their very own!
Nickname: AshiiNferno
Twitter: @AshiiNferno
YouTube: AshiiNferno
Birth year: 01/11/2002 (currently 18 years old)
Hello AshiiNferno, can you briefly introduce yourself?
Hi everyone! My name is AshiiNferno (pronounced Ash Inferno, or otherwise commonly referred to as Ashii) and I’m a fighting game player from South Africa! My main game is Soulcalibur 6, even though I tend to casually play other fighting games. Soulcalibur is definitely my favourite fighting game franchise – no doubt about that!
You are from Republic of South Africa and you have active SC scene there I didn’t know it exists up until recently. Can you tell me more about it?
Soulcalibur definitely lacks a big presence compared to other games here like Tekken and Street Fighter. Soulcalibur V was when the game started to gain a bit of traction on a competitive level with some strong players like SAPhoenix, PaasHaas, Ennohex, Hei-Long, Zombiehunta, Luminous, Draeka and Jaguguarang.
The release of Soulcalibur 6 is what really helped grow the game here with a good amount of new players joining in. We may not have big numbers for Soulcalibur, but the players do have a big passion for the game here.
Who are some notable players or personalities of RSA scene?
Among our noteworthy players in the SA Soulcalibur scene is SAPhoenix – otherwise referred to as SAP for short. SAP is one of the main community figures that really helped build up the fighting game scene in South Africa as a whole, and was kicking ass well before I was born! Dubbed as our Edge Master of South Africa, he’s an exceptional Soulcalibur player from Cape Town and has been around since the early arcade days back in the 90s. He has also established a strong tournament record, being the Cape Town Showdown 3rd Strike SCV champion, placing 2nd in Historic Hard Hitters and 4th in Cape Town Clash SC6. He’s also an outstanding teacher and mentor in the Soulcalibur scene and has assisted various players – myself included – in learning the game.
PaasHaas is another long-time Capetonian Soulcalibur player and one of our local SC champions, winning Historic Hard Hitters and carrying a strong tournament record with 2nd place in CTS3 and another 2nd place finish at Cape Town Clash SC6.
Spaghetti is a strong multi-FG player from Johannesburg that has shown incredible skill in the Soulcalibur scene, with a 1st place finish at Johannesburg Beatdown (JHBD) SC6 and 3rd place in Historic Hard Hitters.
In terms of TOs/personalities, Sigma is one of the main community leaders that does an incredible amount of work for the fighting game scene here in SA, ranging from tournament organisation to commentary, no matter the game.
How will you compare the SC talents from RSA to “usual suspects” of international scene? I know it’s hard to judge, but feel free to be biased!
As of now, compared to the international scene, we are still lagging behind in relation to the rest of the world. Africa as a whole is generally under the radar due to poor internet infrastructure and travelling being very expensive. I do believe that once more opportunities become available for us, we will be able to level up very fast and hold up well against international competitors. There are already some players who are very strong within the local scene and could possibly give a good challenge to some players abroad.
What are the streams and/or youtube channels to follow for RSA SC?
In terms of Soulcalibur, I occasionally upload my sets vs local players here from time to time, and Sigma Streams has archives of the Cape Town Clash tournament and our most recent Get Washed exhibition series. We don’t, unfortunately, have any regular streams for the game.
What are mayor tournaments or exhibitions in RSA to look for?
Cape Town Showdown is considered to be our biggest major event, even being a TWT Challenger event in 2019. It was founded by SAPhoenix back in 2011 and is a completely community-run event focused on running tournaments for the community. A vast line-up of games are played alongside Soulcalibur such as Tekken and Street Fighter.
Get Washed #7 was our most recent event which consisted of FT5 exhibition matches featuring some of our local players. COVID has unfortunately halted the scene quite a bit, especially due to the poor netcode, making offline tournaments unaviable for the time being.
I assume online play is not possible to EU/NA/SA/SEA, or am I wrong? Does your community travel to represent themselves on international level?
Online play within our own region can prove to be a challenge at times due to not all areas having access to good internet. As an example, fibre in Cape Town is more easily accessible than in Port Elizabeth, which can often result in some players having weaker connections than others. Due to the current netcode of SC6, a slight hiccup in connection will cause noticeable lag resulting in combo drops and missed punishes, with even 4 bar connections not being very stable.
Online play anywhere outside of South Africa is pretty much a no-go due to not only the netcode for the game, but also our internet accessibility and infrastructure. You can get 3 bars vs EU at most if you happen to be on fibre here, but it’s definitely not a good experience.
We don’t have players travelling internationally on account of how expensive it is.
What other FGs have active communities in your country?
Tekken has a very large presence here in South Africa. Cape Town Showdown 7 managed to become Africa’s first official TWT event, being a Challenger event. Online play for the game is also quite active. Street Fighter V and Dragonball FighterZ are other games with a large following here that are also played online. I still think that Soulcalibur is the best though, ha ha!
Please answer a single question that you were not asked but you would like to answer!
If there’s one thing Soulcalibur needs right now, it’s better netcode. This will do wonders for the game across the world, not just the South African scene. In a time like COVID where locals aren’t a thing, online play is pretty much our only option and good netcode is a MUST right now. Please give us good netcode, Project Soul!
Thanks for the interview!
South African SC/FG Sources To Follow
SAFGC Twitter: @SA_FGC
Random Select Events: @RSE_Chirps
SAFGC Discord: safgc.co.za/discord
SAPhoenix: @SAPhoenixCT
Spagetti: @spagetti_za
Sigma: @Sigma_Chirps
Sigma Streams (Youtube)
Youtube Documents About FGs In South Africa
The Fight is All : Fighting Game Tournaments in South Africa
Down the Rabbit Hole – Arcades in Cape Town, South Africa