"Meet Your Mod" Episode 4: Zidane

A big welcome to Dustloop's newest moderators! Here, we are committed to the competitive scene with organized information and active discussion to further everyone's game play. We feel these newest additions will elevate character boards and reflect active members who consistently contribute. Some may be familiar, while some of these users aren't "celebrities" (yet). We are going trough a QnA process to help our Dustloop community get more acquainted with our newest moderators.

Zidane

[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]

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

I don't remember exactly how it started or why but I know I came up with Zidane based on FF9 even though I wasn't a big FF9 or FF fan in general. Changed it to Zidanel33t like 5-6 years ago just because I used to have AOL, got rid of it and I needed a new AIM account. Lost my old PW + e-mail account for that account so I made Zidane, which is pretty much how I introduce myself to people (instead of saying Zidane leet which is lame)

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

My first fighting game seriously was Guilty Gear. An old friend from Cali was telling me how awesome GGXX was and I was like "Ok, I should buy this." Found out it was $40, told him to go F himself. He told me about #R coming out for the Xbox and how it's $20 and I got into that. Started as a netplay warrior, met someone online who lived in NY and held gatherings ( Phrekwenci ), met more people through him and that's how everything started.

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

Uh... I dunno? I go to Team Stickbug locals that just started up but before that I stopped going to tournies for like 2-3 years. I go to a major every now and then if the rest of the NY crew wants to go. I mean the benefits of locals is that it allows you to constantly play people in you area, lag-free. You get to chill and hang out and play some games and it's usually at a reasonable time and distance from your house ( since it's a local ).

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

If you mean the US concerning BB then pretty weak. I feel the skill level of the average BB player is generally lower than other games and BB also attracts people that are NOT fighting game players. The only step to strengthening the BB scene, from scrubs to "top players" would be actual communication between coasts, top players and etc. Strats aren't discusssed, bad habits aren't put on display so people can stop them, it's just a scene of people telling other people they're good when they're probably either a) not or b) not THAT good.

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

It honestly depends on how i'm playing a certain day. Sometimes players who are really aggressive give me problems and I wind up panicking / not blocking anything. Other times aggressive players just... tire themselves out after blocking another mixup and make mistakes and then I lose to more patient players who try to out-smart rather than just push buttons.

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

Training mode and playing others. I'm really tired of people just picking a character and going on the forums and learning everything there. People don't make characters their own anymore; it's just dial-a-combo and dial-a-strat. After the point where you feel you know a significant amount from training mode, you put that into practice by fighting other people. You learn what's good, what sucks and change and adapt from there.

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

Hazama is stupid.