"Meet Your Mod" Episode 18: Bohemian Polka

This Week: Bohemian Polka

Why did you choose that particular handle, is there a story or reference you'd like to explain?

I kind of wanted a cool name, so I tried to sign up on another forum as Bohemian Rhapsody which is my favorite song from Queen. However, that was taken, so I decided to sign up as the Weird Al parody of the song- Bohemian Polka.

This turned out for the better as Bohemian Polka is a much more convenient name.

What is your background with fighting games...Did you start with BB or are your OG like SFII?

My older cousin was into anime/videogames, so I probably picked up the interest from him. I used to go to his house and play SNES a lot. One of those games was SFII. I played Chun Li, but mostly I was just mashing medium lighting legs. While it was enough to empty the pockets of other kids who also had no idea of what they were doing, it wasn't anything impressive.

I picked up more of an interest my college freshman year when a friend of mine had Guilty Gear XX. My friends and I played a lot, but still had no idea of what we were doing (mostly we tried to see who could mash out Instant Kill first). However... since we were all equally bad, there was no motivation to try to get better.

Blazblue CT was the first fighting game where I actually learned how to play and was interested in a competitive community outside of beating up my friends. I hung around on Gamefaqs for a bit and then eventually decided to try DL. Everything else is kind of self-explanatory from there.

What competitive scene are you involved with? (Ranbats, Arcades, XBL, PSN, Reload Online etc.) Would you elaborate the benefits of this particular scene?

I am involved in the (fabled/mystical) Pacific Northwest. It's a pretty safe bet to say that if I did not join this particular scene, I probably would not have stuck around.

One of my biggest worries in being new to a competitive scene was running into a harsh and unfriendly environment and/or hanging out with a bunch of obnoxious and loud people. A friend of mine was into the Smash community, so my experience mostly came from that.

However, when I went to my first meet I was really surprised. Everyone seemed really normal and they were friendly despite my very horrendous skill.

A benefit that I did not realize right away is that the skill level of PNW is very high and it is a very active scene. Because of this, as long as you play regularly, you will improve. On the other hand, it it sometimes difficult to not be discouraged when you get stomped in the face over and over.

However, as I mentioned earlier- everyone is friendly and they are more than willing to help you out if you are struggling. We also hang out regularly outside of fighting games, so it's been a lot of fun being part of the scene.

How strong do you feel your nation is as a whole, what is the next step to strengthening it?

Japan's level is very high compared to the US, but I do not think that Japanese level is unreachable for the non-Japan Blazblue community.

Distance is a huge factor when it comes to the level and skill of players. Unfortunately, the US is very large and the Blazblue community is spread far apart. Even in a scene like ours, we cannot cover every character and therefore we have large gaps in match up experience when it comes to certain characters. And even if we did have every character covered, everyone plays their character differently. It's very important to go out and play against as many people as possible.

I am glad that our scene takes an active role to travel to other scenes in order to play (though it would be more convenient if people would visit us), since that helps bridge some of that gap. However, not everyone can do that as life obligations as well as finances are always a factor.

I do hope in the future that communities are more active in reaching out to their neighboring scenes. And I also hope that Japan will take more of an interest in traveling to the US to play here. Both will help strengthen the Blazblue community as a whole.

Which player(s) give you the most trouble and why?

A lot of people give me trouble. As someone relatively new to fighting games, there's still a lot that I have to learn. Getting beat up points me in the right direction so I know what I have to focus on to improve.

What has been the most helpful tool while growing stronger in BB?

The most helpful tool is definitely the community. Both offline and the online community are important for improvement.

I am really happy to be part of the Rachel board as well as Dustloop. Reading information and having to answer questions has helped me learn a lot about the game.

Playing offline and being with people has also helped me tremendously. Whenever I don't know something, there's always someone I can ask. And playing is really the best way to get experience.

Is there anything you'd like to share regarding your respective character or Dustloop in general?

In a nutshell- Rachel is an odd character.

My first choice for Blazblue was actually Jin. However, after seeing how Rachel played I became much more interested in choosing her as a main. Still, it was difficult for me because Rachel is conceptually a much more difficult character than most of the cast. Even now I still have to work on resource management as it's very easy to use Rachel's tools poorly.

One thing I definitely like about Rachel though is her options. Rachel can always do a lot of different things which makes playing her very complex, but also very fun. This was true even in CS1 when she sucked.

Another reason why I play her is that being able to use Rachel's tools and resources correctly feels very rewarding compared to playing other characters. When I get a setup or trap to work correctly, I feel more motivated to continue playing.

A downside to her abundance of options is that since she can be complex to manage, it is very easy to mess up when playing Rachel. You always have to be aware of a lot of things when it comes to both yourself and the opponent. I think that this is the reason that even though she is now strong in CS2, she has not been doing very well in Japan.

Despite all of this, I have faith in Rachel as a character and the Rachel community to continue to develop and contribute to Blazblue.