Yesterday over on Shoryuken.com guest writer, Aaron Muhlmeyer conducted an in-depth interview with Northeast Championship's Injustice: Gods Among Us Champion, PimPimJim of the Galloping Ghost Arcade crew. One of the things that made PimPimJim's victory as famous is how he did it... by using Hawkgirl to finish the job; a character that was thought to be... well, not a winning character let alone up against Superman.
If you ever wanted to scratch the surface to find out more about PimPimJim and his involvement with the GGA scene in Chicago, here's your chance. PPJ talks his character development, how the patch changed everything, how he was the only GGA to attend NEC, how GGA trains, GGA's Ghost Battle Series and much more in this editorial:
Aaron Muhlmeyer: You mostly play games made by NetherRealm Studios (Injustice and Mortal Kombat 9), Are there any other games you play competitively? Any you want to learn?
Pimpimjim: MK9 was the first fighting game I started playing competitively, as I played a lot of fighting games casually before then. I occasionally dabble around with Tekken but the legacy curve and the overall depth of the game makes it hard for a beginner to learn. I am hoping the next Tekken game changes some the core engine as it would freshen things up. I’m also a fan of the Smash scene and I’m eager for the release of Super Smash Bros. 4. Whether or not the Smash community deems it a “true successor” to Melee, I’m looking to spend time on it regardless.
AM: Back in MK9 you were known for your Sektor, and now in Injustice you use Hawkgirl, Zatanna and Lex, all characters people would call low tier. What drew you to those characters? Does a character’s perceived tier affect whether you want to play them or not?
PPJ: What drives me to play a character(s) is based on a couple selfish factors. Any combination of: 1) aesthetically pleasing to me, 2) low or mid tier, 3) has stylish and complex combos, 4) underused character, 5) has mouthful of gimmicks that will constantly work in a tournament setting, and 6) deep potential of grown in a character’s metagame.
A character’s learning curve is sort of a different classification. In MK9, it was better to stay a character loyalist and it was proven in the game’s tournament results. MK9′s more “static” game engine made it so those who spent time on learning a character’s matchups, advanced strats, and yomi layer options usually placed higher than those who used a team of characters. In Injustice, it’s not exactly the opposite, but since the game’s engine differs from MK9 in that each character essentially plays extremely different from another and is full of “metabreakers”, it allows players like myself to assemble a team of characters that can be used for counterpick situations.
Sektor was a mid tier character in MK9, and he might have been too much of an “honest” character at the end of the day. Other than up/homing missile traps and instant air teleport gimmicks, he pretty much played the standard footsie game and below-averagely at that. He also suffered from having no armored enhanced special move, not counting his X-ray (which, unlike about every other Sektor player, I abused!). Still, I’m happy that I stuck with him because he is one of my favorite characters in the MK series and is an evil red robot who stretches your limbs and turns you into a scarecrow in one of his fatalities, ’nuff said!
The team of characters I use in Injustice actually aren’t considered low tier anymore much to my dismay. Hawkgirl is what many people would consider the premiere “metabreaker” in the game, as her trait allows her to fly wherever she wants, which is both a blessing and a curse in certain matchups. Her character design is also interesting in the fact that midscreen she is more of a hit and run annoyance type of character with fuzzyable 50-50′s, but if she corners you she can pummel you with 50-70% high-execution swag combos.
Zatanna is a character whom I wanted to main when she was released as DLC, but unfortunately I believe she is one of the only “specialist” characters in the game in which it’s very hard to use her as part of a team because she is extremely complex. Those that use her exclusively (except maybe a counterpick to her terrible matchup, Aquaman) will master her playstyle of poor footsies, but high potential in gimmicks and high damage resets.
Lex Luthor is a super swaggy character that relies in setting up all his traps and armor trait, and then goes ham on you with 50-50 combo starters that lead into tons of damage into even more traps. He might seem like a super complex character at first, but he’s actually quite easy to pick up and use. He is also one of the characters in the game who has an unstuffable but unsafe “wakeup DP” type of move in Corp Charge. I love to Gandhi it up and wake up with it every time even when people will think I’ll stop. (dat negative yomi layer!)
AM: What was your mindset going into grand finals at NEC? Were you worried that Tyrant was going to adapt to you after winner’s finals?
PPJ: My peers would say one of the best traits I have as a player is the the fact that I’ll almost always never get discouraged in unfavorable situations, such as my opponent having a hella life lead on me. I even put it on my FGC player card!
At no point in time I was scared of the possibility Tyrant would “download me”, and he actually adapted to my zoning style in grand finals, so I adapted to that and started rushing down more, as the commentators pointed out. I felt like Tyrant definitely did not know the Hawkgirl matchup, so that allowed me to get away with strats that I would usually get blown up for doing in my local scene.
AM: During top 8, you went with Lex and Zatanna vs. Bane, but only Hawkgirl vs. Grundy and Superman. Did you know against Grr that you would end up switching if you lost, or was that a choice made at that moment? Are there any match ups you don’t feel confident in?
PPJ: At the time of NEC, Zatanna was my least used character in my team and although I used her once in pools against CDjr, I was disappointed in how I played with her against Grr as I was dropping combos and setups that I shouldn’t have been dropping, so when I lost the first game I decided to switch to Lex. Before playing Grr, I knew I would use Zatanna, Hawkgirl, Lex, or even Shazam against him as I have beaten my teammate GGA Max at our Thursday weekly tournaments (who recently just got 2nd at KiT!) with all those characters before.
There are a few matchups in which I’m not entirely confident in because we don’t have true representatives of those characters in my local scene, but I feel like that shouldn’t matter too much because the team of characters I use covers eachothers bad matchups almost perfectly. That and the fact that my playstyle with each of the characters I use is different from how others would use them, giving me the unfamiliarity advantage.
AM: How often do you practice, and how do you use that time effectively?
PPJ: I make the 40 minute trip to the Galloping Ghost Arcade at least twice per week not counting Thursday to train and heavily grind matchups with my teammates and members of the Chicagoland Injustice scene. At home, I almost always just practice strats and combos in training mode as I don’t play online much. It doesn’t help that my connection sucks either, as I’d play online a bit more if the lag was better.
AM: Is your local scene the way you got most of your Injustice experience, or do you feel online is the best way to learn match ups in that game?
PPJ: This is a question that at one point in time had the Injustice community divided, but now it’s general consensus that both are great and effective in different ways. Most would agree that online is the best way to learn matchups that your local scene lacks, but fortunately for me, I am blessed with the best Injustice scene on earth. The rest of this answer is about to get emotional and for good reason.
GGA was a force to be reckoned with in the good ol’ MK9 era. Day by day we would show up to practice to grind and level up constantly and it showed in the tourney wins and top 8s our players were always in. Sadly we were cursed with... continue reading over at Shoryuken.com!
Match footage via TeamSpooky
If you ever wanted to scratch the surface to find out more about PimPimJim and his involvement with the GGA scene in Chicago, here's your chance. PPJ talks his character development, how the patch changed everything, how he was the only GGA to attend NEC, how GGA trains, GGA's Ghost Battle Series and much more in this editorial:
Aaron Muhlmeyer: You mostly play games made by NetherRealm Studios (Injustice and Mortal Kombat 9), Are there any other games you play competitively? Any you want to learn?
Pimpimjim: MK9 was the first fighting game I started playing competitively, as I played a lot of fighting games casually before then. I occasionally dabble around with Tekken but the legacy curve and the overall depth of the game makes it hard for a beginner to learn. I am hoping the next Tekken game changes some the core engine as it would freshen things up. I’m also a fan of the Smash scene and I’m eager for the release of Super Smash Bros. 4. Whether or not the Smash community deems it a “true successor” to Melee, I’m looking to spend time on it regardless.
AM: Back in MK9 you were known for your Sektor, and now in Injustice you use Hawkgirl, Zatanna and Lex, all characters people would call low tier. What drew you to those characters? Does a character’s perceived tier affect whether you want to play them or not?
PPJ: What drives me to play a character(s) is based on a couple selfish factors. Any combination of: 1) aesthetically pleasing to me, 2) low or mid tier, 3) has stylish and complex combos, 4) underused character, 5) has mouthful of gimmicks that will constantly work in a tournament setting, and 6) deep potential of grown in a character’s metagame.
A character’s learning curve is sort of a different classification. In MK9, it was better to stay a character loyalist and it was proven in the game’s tournament results. MK9′s more “static” game engine made it so those who spent time on learning a character’s matchups, advanced strats, and yomi layer options usually placed higher than those who used a team of characters. In Injustice, it’s not exactly the opposite, but since the game’s engine differs from MK9 in that each character essentially plays extremely different from another and is full of “metabreakers”, it allows players like myself to assemble a team of characters that can be used for counterpick situations.
Sektor was a mid tier character in MK9, and he might have been too much of an “honest” character at the end of the day. Other than up/homing missile traps and instant air teleport gimmicks, he pretty much played the standard footsie game and below-averagely at that. He also suffered from having no armored enhanced special move, not counting his X-ray (which, unlike about every other Sektor player, I abused!). Still, I’m happy that I stuck with him because he is one of my favorite characters in the MK series and is an evil red robot who stretches your limbs and turns you into a scarecrow in one of his fatalities, ’nuff said!
The team of characters I use in Injustice actually aren’t considered low tier anymore much to my dismay. Hawkgirl is what many people would consider the premiere “metabreaker” in the game, as her trait allows her to fly wherever she wants, which is both a blessing and a curse in certain matchups. Her character design is also interesting in the fact that midscreen she is more of a hit and run annoyance type of character with fuzzyable 50-50′s, but if she corners you she can pummel you with 50-70% high-execution swag combos.
Zatanna is a character whom I wanted to main when she was released as DLC, but unfortunately I believe she is one of the only “specialist” characters in the game in which it’s very hard to use her as part of a team because she is extremely complex. Those that use her exclusively (except maybe a counterpick to her terrible matchup, Aquaman) will master her playstyle of poor footsies, but high potential in gimmicks and high damage resets.
Lex Luthor is a super swaggy character that relies in setting up all his traps and armor trait, and then goes ham on you with 50-50 combo starters that lead into tons of damage into even more traps. He might seem like a super complex character at first, but he’s actually quite easy to pick up and use. He is also one of the characters in the game who has an unstuffable but unsafe “wakeup DP” type of move in Corp Charge. I love to Gandhi it up and wake up with it every time even when people will think I’ll stop. (dat negative yomi layer!)
AM: What was your mindset going into grand finals at NEC? Were you worried that Tyrant was going to adapt to you after winner’s finals?
PPJ: My peers would say one of the best traits I have as a player is the the fact that I’ll almost always never get discouraged in unfavorable situations, such as my opponent having a hella life lead on me. I even put it on my FGC player card!
At no point in time I was scared of the possibility Tyrant would “download me”, and he actually adapted to my zoning style in grand finals, so I adapted to that and started rushing down more, as the commentators pointed out. I felt like Tyrant definitely did not know the Hawkgirl matchup, so that allowed me to get away with strats that I would usually get blown up for doing in my local scene.
AM: During top 8, you went with Lex and Zatanna vs. Bane, but only Hawkgirl vs. Grundy and Superman. Did you know against Grr that you would end up switching if you lost, or was that a choice made at that moment? Are there any match ups you don’t feel confident in?
PPJ: At the time of NEC, Zatanna was my least used character in my team and although I used her once in pools against CDjr, I was disappointed in how I played with her against Grr as I was dropping combos and setups that I shouldn’t have been dropping, so when I lost the first game I decided to switch to Lex. Before playing Grr, I knew I would use Zatanna, Hawkgirl, Lex, or even Shazam against him as I have beaten my teammate GGA Max at our Thursday weekly tournaments (who recently just got 2nd at KiT!) with all those characters before.
There are a few matchups in which I’m not entirely confident in because we don’t have true representatives of those characters in my local scene, but I feel like that shouldn’t matter too much because the team of characters I use covers eachothers bad matchups almost perfectly. That and the fact that my playstyle with each of the characters I use is different from how others would use them, giving me the unfamiliarity advantage.
AM: How often do you practice, and how do you use that time effectively?
PPJ: I make the 40 minute trip to the Galloping Ghost Arcade at least twice per week not counting Thursday to train and heavily grind matchups with my teammates and members of the Chicagoland Injustice scene. At home, I almost always just practice strats and combos in training mode as I don’t play online much. It doesn’t help that my connection sucks either, as I’d play online a bit more if the lag was better.
AM: Is your local scene the way you got most of your Injustice experience, or do you feel online is the best way to learn match ups in that game?
PPJ: This is a question that at one point in time had the Injustice community divided, but now it’s general consensus that both are great and effective in different ways. Most would agree that online is the best way to learn matchups that your local scene lacks, but fortunately for me, I am blessed with the best Injustice scene on earth. The rest of this answer is about to get emotional and for good reason.
GGA was a force to be reckoned with in the good ol’ MK9 era. Day by day we would show up to practice to grind and level up constantly and it showed in the tourney wins and top 8s our players were always in. Sadly we were cursed with... continue reading over at Shoryuken.com!
Match footage via TeamSpooky
