Raptor: Hey Hamad, thanks for talking with us on short notice. I guess the first thing I want to ask is, what motivated your tweet about potentially quitting Street Fighter? It seemed as though things have been going fairly well for you in recent months.
Hamad: To start things off, I really love the community. The FGC is my home and I will never leave that. All the friends I've made and know though fighting games will probably last me a life time haha. But, (oh here it comes) I really don't like the direction of Ultra at the moment, and how limiting the online infrastructure can be for improving skill level.
Raptor: Naturally I have to ask then, what's the local scene like where you live?
Hamad: I love my local scene. We actually get 40 entrants minimum at our monthlies in Insomnia VGC, (check them out they're awesome) but most of the players take the game at a casual level. Obviously I respect human choice but the lack of competitive drive forces me to kind of seek my own answers.
Raptor: When you say you don't like the direction Ultra is going, what exactly do you mean? Can you give specifics?
Hamad: I think that the game has too many random variables at a competitive level. One example being meaty attacks (or attacks on opponents wake up.) You know there is something wrong when delaying your meaty to option select with a DP+throw exists. It's just that the buffer window in USF4 is so large that people can literally just escape all offensive situations. They're never forced to follow the old adage of "just block," because it's not advised in this game. I could go on about throw tech windows and even character designs which most people are aware of.
Raptor: How long have you felt this way about the game?
Hamad: To be honest I've started feeling this way once I started to understand how characters limit your player skill (I'm not saying Fei does, hes a top tier character.) What I mean specifically, is that USF4 has become so match up based that you start to realize that opponents can beat you purely on a technical level without understanding fundamentals due to MU. I think that's when I became less naive and acknowledged that people are playing for money and the game has changed from "expressing who you are" to "doing whatever wins." I think players that can manage to do that with one character are truly inspirational because they don't run away from hardship aka bad match ups. They embrace the challenge in the spirit of how their character is a part of their personality.
For instance, Bonchan went to Yun at a recent tournament. So the argument can't be made that a character is just a tool set and the player makes it work. Sagat and Yun are polar opposite characters and Yun definitely does not express how he is as a human being. So, if Bonchan is forced to switch then I just can't see how I can look at the game any other way to be honest.
Raptor: Ha well I can say, as a Gouken player, I feel you when you talk about bad match ups. Do you really feel you're done with the game though? Is it not worth the fun and excitement of traveling to majors?
Hamad: I'm not sure yet to be honest. I will be at Texas Showdown 2015 on May 8-10 and will have a talk with some close friends about this. After the tournament I will make a decision.
Raptor: Well, speaking for myself, I selfishly hope you stick around. You have to be true to yourself though, and if playing this game doesn't make you happy then you shouldn't continue to play it. Many of us have enjoyed watching you play and we hope to continue to be able to. I wanna wish you the best of luck at Texas Showdown.
Hamad: Thank you so much John. I hope people don't interpret this as a spotlight-grabbing thing. I am honest and just hope people debate about the state of the game than rather who I am haha. (I'm not good guys, there are many better players than myself).
MKX lookin hype as hell in tourney form
good this weekend.
so ready
Too bad its on life support on fightcade