Dab v Perfect Legend

So first off, let me say that I absolutely *love* the era of gaming that we’re in now. For lack of a better word, it’s the Twitch Era. That time in gaming where we can actually watch our favorite video games or related celebrity in a way never previously seen.

I love the fact that I don’t have to watch old fashioned boob tube, seeing the same over produced commercials designed to keep the corporate juggernaughts rich. Finally, there’s a show for me, and that show is playing on Twitch.tv.

Last night was another Mortal Kombat X tournament. What I really like, is that there are regular MKX tournaments. What I don’t like is that, despite followiing everyone whose anyone on Instagram and Twitter, these tournaments still manage to come as a surprise to me. I had no fair warning that a tournament was about to happen. My twitter feed wasn’t blowing up with announcements. Instead, after watching a video I’d downloaded, I checked twitch, saw that there was an unusually high number of people in the MKX channel, and found out for myself. So I kinda missed the beginning, which is no big deal. I’m just saying I think they could do a slightly better job of letting me know when the shit’s about to go down.

As I type that, I’m thinking that it’s probably a regular tournament -- at the same time each week -- and I’m the fool who just doesn’t realize.

Either way, the second thing that kinda bothers me about the tournament is that it’s the Xbox One version. As you already know from reading my blog, I have the PC version (no tournaments there) *and* the PS4 version. So it kills me that the one tournament that’s getting all the attention, the tournament that anyone can enter, is the one you need an Xbox one for. Because fuck, I’m not buying this god damn game three times. If for no better reason than I refuse to unlock three fucking Krypts.

The tournament is the #ESL, I believe. The first thing I noticed is that SonicFox wasn’t in it. The commentators mentioned that because he’s already qualified for the finals, he decided to sit this one out. I have mixed feelings about this.

On the one hand, sitting the tournament out is a smart decision. I mean, SonicFox is the best and he knows it. Which means he’s also aware that, the more he plays against people his level, the more they will be able to feel out his reads. It’s a basic fact of human nature, and you see the very phenomenon in every strategy game (I first noticed it in Chess). The more games you play with someone, the more likely your win/loss ratio is to go to 50/50.

Why? Well sooner or later, the loser will start to learn how to parry your attacks (for lack of a better word). And the more the winner wins, the more likely he is to play riskier, slow his reaction times, and get comfortable with his patterns of attacks.

So by sitting out the tournament, SonicFox is making it harder for his rivals to reach that level of familiarity with him. He’s practically the only pro player to use Erron Black, and I fully understand his not wanting them to get too much experience against him.

But now for the other side of the coin. By sitting out the tournament, *he’s* losing out on experience against his opponents. He’s not getting his name out. And there’s the possibility that him sitting out can be taken as a sign of weakness.

Still there’s the counterpoint that he’s really a good guy, who wants to give his peers a chance to have *their* names be scene. To give the other guys a chance to get in on the MKX fame that he has in abundance.

But what made me much happier than not seeing SonicFox in the bracket, was seeing Dab there. I don’t know why, but I really like Dab. Maybe it’s just me recognizing the skills from the first time I saw him play. I really like that he’s one of the only players who will change characters, and play just as good with several. It’s clear to me that to be at the top level of the game, you really have to know how to play all of the characters. Because if you’re going to counter a toon, you have to know how that toon attacks in the first place.

But I also love the way he plays as Jacqui. He really uses her like nobody else. He strings along these combos I didn’t think were possible. Excuse me if I’m repeating myself here, but I see him use the uprocket in combos, in a way I’d never dreamed. And that allows him to knock up his opponent and use Jacqui’s punch combo special move on their way down. It’s insane.

He also does another thing I’d like to incorporate into my Jacqui play. He’ll knock an opponent down, dash up to them, and fire the down rocket at their feet. It’s good stuff.

Which also led me to realize one of the major flaws in *my* play. I cannot perform a run or backdash. I know, I know, all I have to do is push the stupid direction twice in rapid succession. But for the life of me, I can’t pull it off. During the load screens, I try and try to to practice it, but in actual play, it never works out.

As a matter of fact, much of my inability to run is due to the controller. You see, I spend most of my life playing on old school, nintendo style D pads. But they really hurt your thumb. So with my PS4, I’ve switched to using the tiny thumb joystick. And I love it because it’s so much easier on my thumb. But I can’t fucking run with it. I hate it. I’ve tried everything, but it seems if I have to choose between my ability to play at a high level, and the health of my thumb.

Back to Dab. I tweeted him good luck just as his final match was starting. And he even retweeted and favorited my tweet. I think that’s so cool. I find that all of my heroes of the moment are professional video games players. Probably because that’s what I wanted to be when I was young. In StarCraft, it was Taeja. But now, it’s definitely Dab and SonicFox (in that order). All I’m saying is that Dab is such a down to earth guy, a father and pro gamer. I’ve very happy for him, and I’ll be cheering for him. They said even though he lost to Perfect Legend, that he’s still in the running, he’s still a contender. So awesome.

I’d also like to take the time to say that I kinda hate Perfect Legend. Mostly because he plays as Kung Lao, and I think Kung Lao is an OP, crappy toon to play with. His EX Hat spin makes him kinda cheap. Combine that with the drop kick and the zoning power and I just pretty much always root against him.

The truth is that Dab deserves mad props. His specialty is to never give up, never surrender. He has the ability to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, a rare talent that is almost unheard of in today’s world of gaming. He has the ability of change the pace of the game, as if evident when he gets his opponent into the corner.

As a matter of fact, he only lost against PL because of a few minor, technical errors. I saw him not cancel a run and get punished for it. He also, several times, ran into the EX Hat spin, instead of stopping just next to it. Now I know, to be the best of the best, you really have to be consistent at *Not* making technical errors like that. But I know that Dab’s game is so close to being at the top level, I fully expect him to take home a definitive win sometime *very* soon.