Photo Credit: Robert Paul Photography http://www.rmpaul.com/
Jemmillion: Congratulations on coming in 2nd place at Winter Brawl 9 for Mortal Kombat 9. In grand finals against CR|SonicFox, you first started off playing Johnny Cage, but then switched to Stryker. What was your thought process during those final matches? How do you feel about your overall performance?
KN|Mikemetroid: At first, I can say I wasn’t in the right mindset. I had just come back from pushing a car out of a parking lot at the local diner, thus being late to the top 8. I was soaked and slightly upset that things weren’t going so great. After I played CD Jr, whom I lost to, I didn’t get in the right mindset until I fought Cossner, who I usually beat in tournament. He was up 2-0, and I just calmed down, adjusted my gameplay, and won with a comeback. When I was matched up with Jr once again, I unleashed hell on him with a lot of patience and the perfect amount of gimmicks. I was able to land the infamous Toasty Boost (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6rUNDjjyec ) and soon was matched up versus CR|SonicFox who bodied me.
I once beat SonicFox’s Sonya at NEC 2013 with Johnny Cage. When that happened, he studied the matchup so extensively that no Cage will ever be able to beat him. Sure enough, the way he plays the matchup now is that he literally locks me down and makes me scared to counter attack because of Sonya’s EX Cartwheel and 4 frame Divekick (which both leads to high damage standing resets).
I picked Stryker in hoping that I would be able to at least throw him off a little bit by not knowing the match up. However, since Stryker is one of the worst characters in the game, I was not able to get any full-scale combos, only single hits/specials. Not enough to beat Sonya’s 40%+ into standing reset combos.
Jemmillion: How long have you been playing fighting games?
KN|Mikemetroid: I have been playing fighting games my entire life. My three older brothers would play Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat. I wasn’t that into Street Fighter as a kid though, so I mostly played Mortal Kombat.
Jemmillion: Who and/or what inspired you to become a part of the Fighting Game Community?
KN|Mikemetroid: My brother Ray started to go to Big E tournaments to compete for Street Fighter 4. He mentioned that there were always people playing Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 and Mortal Kombat 2 at the tournaments. At the time, I was about 13-years-old and didn’t think I was really old enough to go. Not to mention, I didn’t really have the appropriate competitive mindset. However, when Mortal Kombat 9 came out (I was 16), I really wanted to take the game seriously. This is because leading up to the hype of MK9, I played UMK3 and MK2 online competitively. Needless to say, I was ready for a new game and not the classic MK games where the player base has been playing the game longer than I’ve been alive.
Jemmillion: Are you currently sponsored? If not, are you looking for sponsorship in the future?
KN|Mikemetroid: Kombat Network technically sponsors me. If I need help getting to an event, I can count on KN to help me out.
Jemmillion: What’s the story behind your gamertag name Mikemetroid?
KN|Mikemetroid: I remember playing Tony Hawk’s Underground and making a “monster” version of myself. I would call him MonsterMike. I was about 10 at the time and was always a sucker for character creation. Around that time, I was a part of some Nintendo forums and wanted to come up with a different name (I came up with the name Metroidkiller when I was in 2nd grade, making my first email account). With a new forum coming out for the Nintendo DS’s Wi-Fi games, I started to use Mikemetroid5565. After which, throughout the years, I ditched the numbers and put a capital in my name, ending with Mikemetroid.
Jemmillion: You’ve been working for Kombat Network as the Lead Tournament Coordinator since 2013. Tell us a little bit about your role within KN, and what we can expect to see in the future.
KN|Mikemetroid: Actually, the first tournament where I was staff was East Coast Throwdown 4 in 2012. I was 17 at the time, and was not very good at my job. However, when I came back for North East Championship, I expressed to Shock and 9.95 that I really wanted to be a part of the staff crew. I came back to staffing in 2013 at Winter Brawl (before Injustice’s release). I quickly went from a bracket runner to essentially running the show alongside Shock.
My role today has a lot of responsibilities. I choose staff, make brackets, tech support, setup/breakdown of systems, and I’m also the one to come to about a dispute before moving on up to the higher TOs.
In the future, we are planning to hire more bracket runners for Mortal Kombat X’s huge player base. We are also upgrading our stream.
Jemmillion: Mortal Kombat X will be released April 14, 2015. What are your views on the game and new characters? How do you feel the style change and addition of interactables will affect the game?
KN|Mikemetroid: I am extremely excited for Mortal Kombat X as I kind of sat out of Injustice. I like the new characters, and I can’t wait for the game’s endless amount of content. The new style is good, mixing what was good with Injustice and what was good with MK9. MKX’s meta game will most likely be footsie based with 50/50s. I’m okay with this, because of the involvement of the block button, anti-airs, and movement (Injustice had horrible anti-airs and movement).
Jemmillion: What are your goals for the upcoming year within the FGC?
KN|Mikemetroid: I want to travel more to compete in Mortal Kombat X.
Jemmillion: What events will we be seeing you attend in the future?
KN|Mikemetroid: I am on a bit of a tourney hiatus right now until MKX’s release. However, post release, I plan to be at the following events for the summer:
April 25th – Big E’s Bar Battle
May 2nd – Monster Island Tournaments – Paradise Found
June 13th-14th – East Coast Throwdown
June 6th-7th – The Common Wealth
June 26th-28th – CEO
July 17th-19th – EVO
August 21st-23rd – Summer Jam 9
Jemmillion: If you could be one superhero and fighting game character, who would it be? Why?
KN|Mikemetroid: If I could be a superhero, I’d definitely be Captain Marvel. He’s not as glamorous as Superman, but he is mad hype and has awesome powers. If I could be a fighting game character, I’d be Johnny Cage. Cocky movie star turned into Earth realm defender! He’s got the ego, the looks, the skills, the fame, and the shades! Total badass!
You can follow KN|Mikemetroid at the below social media sites:
https://www.facebook.com/Mikemetroid
https://twitter.com/mikemetroid
http://www.twitch.tv/mikemetroid
Learn more about Kombat Network at the below sites:
https://twitter.com/kombatnetwork
https://www.youtube.com/user/KombatNetwork
Want to learn more about the FGC (Fighting Game Community)? Check out:
jemmillion.wordpress.com 