Jemmillion: Congratulations on being the winner of the May 2015 East Coast Player Spotlight! How long have you been playing fighting games? Do you play any others competitively besides Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3?
Jesse: I just want to say that I am grateful that I have been chosen for the May Player Spotlight. It was unexpected, but I am glad that I have been given this opportunity.
I have been playing fighting games for as long as I can remember. When I was a kid, my neighbor had a barber shop in his basement next door. When my brothers and I would go get our hair cut, there would be fighting games set up so people could play while they waited. The game of choice was Tekken 2 on PlayStation 1. This was my first exposure to fighting games in a local setting, because people around the neighborhood would come by to play and hang out.
My brother’s and I were also competitive growing up. We had many games to play each other in and fighting games were pretty popular in my house. But at this point I didn’t take fighting games seriously as a kid, and I didn’t know there was a scene dedicated to fighting games. I just played them, because they were fun, but I wasn’t interested in being the best or at least above average at playing fighting games at the time. That wouldn’t come until much later when I first played Street Fighter 4.
The only game that I play competitively at the moment is Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3. I do play other fighting games though, such as Mortal Kombat X, Street Fighter 4, and Dead or Alive. However, Marvel is the only game I’m focused on right now.
Jemmillion: In Marvel vs Capcom 3, the main team that you use is Captain America/Rocket Raccoon/Dr. Strange. What attributes do the characters have that you believe give them good synergy?
Jesse: To be honest, I didn’t start playing MvC3 until Ultimate was released. I didn’t even know about the game until my friend had brought Street Fighter and Ultimate Marvel 3 over and asked me to play them with him. At first, I didn’t like the games, because I was so used to the Tekken and Dead or Alive style fighters. Over time, I grew to like the creativity you could still achieve in 2D space.
This translates over to why I play Captain America, Rocket Raccoon, and Dr. Strange. I like to be creative in how I play. My original team when I first started playing Marvel was Nova/Doom/Hawkeye. Looking back, it wasn’t a bad team at all. I just didn’t know how to play it effectively. In the meantime, I was working on a new Captain America team (a team of characters I felt were annoying or bad). I found that the characters were not as bad as I imagined and found that they worked very well together. Captain America does a ton of damage and Rocket/Dr. Strange help extend his potential. They make up for his weaknesses. I could move around the screen more with the assists to back him up and cover his disadvantages. And it turned out to be a fun team to play overall, which is what I was looking for after playing cookie cutter Nova for so long.
Rocket Raccoon is also a tricky character. His small body size makes him annoying to do combos on and his special moves allow him to control the screen. Add in Dr. Strange, and it’s a tough shell to crack. I like to refer to the style this team brings as a puzzle piece. You can steam roll early on, but then also make the opponent guess what you are going to do next.
Jemmillion: Which characters are your most difficult match ups? Which are the easiest?
Jesse: The Characters I have the most trouble facing are Wesker, Magneto, Akuma, and Zero. I have being hard at work finding options against teams with those characters, such as picking Dr. Doom to be the point character. Wesker can lock down my assists all while staying just out of harms reach, which puts me at a big disadvantage if I can’t get my neutral game started or be able to get into and land a hit. If you see my matches against Kenny at the Temple Tournaments, you can see a live example of why I find that matchup so difficult.
The easiest matchups for me are Dormammu, Wolverine, and Doom. Dormammu is pretty predictable to me, and he doesn’t do well against Captain America, because his movement gets shut down by Captain America’s Shield Slash move. Wolverine is a unique match, because although I do think he’s a big threat, he is limited in how he can approach my team. He can’t go crazy and do what he wants like he can to other people’s teams, for the fact that Captain America also has really good normal moves, and the assists help keep him out of trouble if Wolverine is on the attack.
Jemmillion: At Go For Broke in March 2015, you fought against BIFU|Coach Steve and won very impressively, making it into the top 3. Tell us a little bit about what that experience was like for you.
Jesse: That was a BIG moment for me. I felt a lot of adrenaline and excitement when I took the win at the last match. Of course, I have to give credit to my friends that helped calm me down, give me advice, and tell me what I should adjust between matches. They were a huge help, and I feel that their words of encouragement allowed me to believe in myself and that I could pass Coach Steve.
I highly respect Steve. He was a great opponent, and I had played him a bit before when I had went to New York of Curleh Mustache and in casuals at NEC. He was no stranger to my team at Go For Broke, but I think that I just made the right decisions at the right time to ultimately win the match. When the match was 2-2 and the last round would decide the winner, I had went to the character select screen. My teammate Jameel and my friend AT| Vada were asking if I was okay and if I was comfortable with the situation. Jameel likes to ask me questions to see where my head is at before each round, which was a huge help. I told him I was okay and that I could finish out this match. Vada, though, was hyping me up and telling me what I should do and not worry about who my opponent was and to just play my game. He said I had “Nothing to lose.”
I took that phrase to heart, and I kept repeating it in my head. I even said it back to Vada before I pressed the rematch button. I told myself that I am doing great so far, but honestly, if I had lost, nobody would really care. They’d say that I played well, and that he was the favorite to win anyway. So in reality, I literally had nothing to lose. At the start of the round, I was already committed to doing a raw Charging Star with Captain America, which resulted in a Happy Birthday situation that led to me winning the match.
A fun fact is that the first match I played in the tournament was against Coach Steve, and he beat me 3-1. I had to play through the entire tournament in Losers, which blows my mind looking back at it.
Jemmillion: Who is the toughest player that you’ve ever fought against? Why?
Jesse: Haha, honestly, the toughest player I’ve ever faced is not anyone in the Philly Area or the offline scene. My toughest opponent is an Online Warrior known as Pat33able AKA Patbot AKA Pat. His team is Hawkeye, Frank, Nova. That might not seem that intimidating, but I assure you, he is a specialist with that team. He’s an active member of the MvC3 Reddit community, and the running joke is that if Pat were ever enter a Major, he’d make Top 8 easy. We play often, but that guy is just on another level.
Jemmillion: You’ve obviously competed in a lot of tournaments. What do you feel your greatest victory in the FGC is? Why?
Jesse: Besides the Go For Broke tournament, I also feel great about my performance at the Temple Tournaments. Back in September 2014, I made it to Winner’s finals of the tournament. It was the first tournament of the season, so I was surprised I got that far. I honestly did want to do well at that tournament regardless. The summer leading up to that tournament, I basically locked myself in a room and played Marvel. I worked on the Captain America team and decided that I would bring out the potential it had to Philly. I had to be doing something right at that time, because a week later I had made it to Grand Finals to face against Demon Hyo. I didn’t win in Grand Finals, but that shows how much I put into the team and that I was serious about it.
Jemmillion: Are you currently sponsored? If not, are you currently looking for sponsorship?
Jesse: I am not currently sponsored, but I am with a team in Philly. It’s a five man group: me, Jameel, Ameer, Kyle, and Alex. We practice together often and we give each other advice on what we should improve on. A sponsorship would be awesome, but right now I’m focused on having fun and hanging out with friends.
Jemmillion: What are your goals for the rest of 2015 that you plan to accomplish within the FGC?
Jesse: My goals of 2015 are to travel to more Majors and tournaments. I’ve been to Curleh Mustache in New York, which is so far the furthest I’ve traveled in my FGC career. I’d like to travel out of state more. East Coast Throwdown is coming up soon, and I want to be there. There’s also CEO in Florida, which I do want to make an effort to go to. I work full-time, though, so setting aside time to get to those Major events is a puzzle in itself.
Jemmillion: Will we be seeing you attend more events in the future? If so, which ones?
Jesse: East Coast Throwdown is next on the list. I do want to go to more Majors around the country, but time will tell.
Jemmillion: If you could be one superhero and one fighting game character, who would it be? Why?
Jesse: Hehe, I knew this question would come up, but honestly, I don’t have an answer. I never really identified personally to any of the characters I play. That might explain why my tournament name is JESSE instead of something else. I think Super heroes and game characters are cool and all, but there is no clear cut choice on who I’d like to be.
You can follow Jesse at the below social media sites:
https://www.facebook.com/jesse.tucker.7
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJaZqaD9fJvBOc6qOpmdPrg/feed
Want to learn more about the FGC (Fighting Game Community)? Check out:
jemmillion.wordpress.com 