After a long time, VSFighting X was a big European FG event that featured SC6 as one of the main games, and many heads from the EU community showed up to prove their souls still burn. In the end, Ssylus, Jason, and Aelz ended on the top, and here is an interview with those!
How would you introduce other 2 players from VSFX Top3 to SC player who never ever heard their name?
Ssylus: Prepare yourself for difficult games!
Aelz is a Tira main, easily the best Tira in the EU. Amazing neutral and whiff punishment, and also a very patient player.
Jason is a Mina main but also plays Taki which is no joke, probably just as good as his Mina from what I’ve seen and played against. Again another player who’s neutral is insane. He is a mixup machine with both
Jason: Aelz is currently one of the best player of the french community. He is known for his habit to backdash a lot and let you whiff. Otherwise his playstyle is really compact with very little attempt of mixup, that make him a difficult opponent because it’s hard to make him doing mistake. Everytime I face Aelz in a tournament, it’s an event in the event.
Ssylus is one of these online warriors who manage to make their way to the offline scene. He is a punition machine, and he choose the right character for this job: his Raphael reward his execution very well. Today he have proved he can do very well even in offline tournament. I didn’t really knew him before the VSFX, now I wish him the best.
Aelz: Jason is a veteran french player who’s been playing Mina since the beginning of SC6, with a compact and solid playstyle and is always a tough wall to break, he’s rough on the edges but actually friendly !
Ssylus is the scottish bully with his terrifying Raphael, one of the greatest player in the UK, you might have seen some of his disgusting twitter clips, a grim reminder of his evils ways.
How did you prepare for the tournament? Did it pay off?
Ssylus: I just kept my MU knowledge fresh by going over each character I was likely to go up against in the tournament. Most of all I wanted to refresh my memory of playing Zas because I hadn’t really played against Zas much after Andyroo dropped him. It all worked out ^^
Jason: I honestly didn’t prepare this tournament. So I think I should be really glad about it hahaha
Aelz: For quite some time, I did not play Calibur as I was interested in other games, as the SC6 scene in the EU was slowing down, I felt less interested with practicing. For VSF tho, I tried as best as I could to speedrun a back-in-shape program by playing against some good players. I feel like for the amount of dedication I was able to put into the game at the time, which could have been bigger, the results were pretty good.
Was there any match you were sure you are going to lose yet you managed to clutch it out?
Ssylus: There was two. I wouldn’t say I was sure I was going to lose, but I was worried about Aelz and Jason. Aelz smashed me pretty badly the last few times we went up against each other. But I managed to clutch it out last round of the last game to win 2-1 in Winners Semis!
Jason who I hadn’t played since VSF 2019 ended up knocking me out of the tournament with Mina just before top 8 :’). I had gotten a lot better since then and managed to beat Jason twice. Once in Winners Finals 3-2 then again in Grand Finals 3-2!
Jason: My match against Aelz is surely the match I was the less confident, It wasn’t really clutch this time but he usually beat me so it’s good for my spirit to win this time.
Aelz: I felt like the only real dangers in the tournament were Ssylus and Jason, I was confident I could manage the other players even tho Loz Kias nearly proved me wrong in the loser bracket, so my predictions were quite alright. I really thought I would win against Ssylus tho and Jason was a wildcard that I had a hard time to predict, could go both ways.
SC6, in it’s current version (v2.31), has been around for over a year. Everyone is familiar with the game thoroughly, so was there anything on VSFX that surprised you or caught you off guard?
Ssylus: I like to think I know a lot about this game now. I spend so much time in the lab. Apart from the re-track on a vertical or bugs that happen with some characters from time to time very little surprises me now when playing SC.
Jason: Like you said, this patch is running for long, and we are used to unusual interaction like side tracking. So I will say no, nothing caught me off guard.
Aelz: I dont think I learned new secret techs during this tournament but it was surprising to see how good some players were performing offline, for example SomethingRefined really stepping it up in term of quality of play. I still felt surprised on how impactful a lack of practice can affect you (reactions, mental preparation and readiness..) even tho It was to be expected.
Just recently, there was Evo2022 in US. Compared to VSFX held in Europe, do you saw any differences in playstyles or game approach?
Ssylus: Yes, IO would say overall there are slightly different meta’s between EU, US & Asia; but mostly in their different approaches to MU and counterplay. I think US typically are more reserved and take less risky defensive options, whereas EU will often try and maximize defensive reads. I often see a slight difference in movement, step 2g for EU vs box step in US. Eitherway its hard to make the call as it does come down to the individual players.
Jason: I think the players in USA are overall far more aggressive than we are in Europe, and it’s really visible if you compare the VSFX and EVO 2022. That doesn’t mean one is better than the other.
Aelz: It is a bit hard to say on this matter as you dont really have the same match-up encounters in tournaments between the EU and US. I’d need to compare them more carefully to give you an honest answer!
BONUS: Name your best random quote(s) to use when hanging out with SC community!
Ssylus: Nice Vertical! Nice step!
Jason: What a monkey ! (When the opponent mash) No place is too far for me. (Playing Mina)
Aelz: I don’t have a random quote but I can tell you that there’s no better experience than an offline tournament if you want to meet the community, and I can assure you it’s always a good time ! Thx to Zero and Val for being absolute legends and bringing us this year VSF !
