Welcome to Part 2 of our interview with Ryan “Gootecks” Gutierrez. In Part 1 we talked about being a pro gamer, pro gaming in general and sponsorship. Part 2 kicks off when I asked Ryan if cross console competition could further boost the popularity of pro gaming. So what did Gootecks have to say about it?

“Yeah, cross console would be good, but I don’t know, it wouldn’t be good for the PS3 people. Because in general, I think Xbox has an advantage a little bit in the player base and the skill level in general than the PS3 does, just from my limited experience.”

So does this mean that Xbox gamers are superior? Well it’s hard to say. Was Gootecks talking about Street Fighter 4 or gaming in general? I’m not too sure either. I know Gootecks isn’t out to start fanboy wars, it is the last thing on his mind, but in his limited experience the Xbox gamers have the advantage.

Street Fighter 3rd Strike And The Influence Of Daigo

It is very unfortunate that Street Fighter 3 never took off quite like previous versions and Street Fighter 4 did, because underneath the somewhat shallow imitator characters (here’s looking at you Remy and others) it was an absolutely fantastic fighting game. It may have even been too difficult for some. Now remember Gootecks was around playing 3rd Strike for a while, Here’s what he said concerning the matter:

“A lot of people that play Street Fighter 4 were like “They made a 3rd one?!” And it’s pretty funny to us because we were like “Well we were playing it, where were you guys?“

Now I thought Street Fighter 3rd Strike was an awesome game, but as a fan of the original I felt somewhat underwhelmed by the characters at hand. Gootecks on the other hand had a different opinion:

“From playing 3rd Strike for like 7 years, and honestly like those characters are so good. Like they were around for so long that they felt as familiar as the original cast did by the time 3rd Strike came out. So I feel like I’ve been playing Street Fighter long enough for the 3rd Strike cast and the original cast to be on the same level, because I’ve been around them both.”

Unfortunately for myself, I wanted to see more Ryu, Ken and Akuma. I loved Blanka, Balrog, Guile and all the other characters and their storylines fascinated me and kept me wanting to play. Their absence left me somewhat disheartened with 3rd Strike.

“You know a lot of people feel the same way, but man if we could get a return to the Street Fighter 3 cast in Street Fighter 5 that would be absolutely amazing. Like a lot of people say that Street Fighter 4 is a boring game or that some aspects are kinda unbalanced or limited, but I still think it was a very well thought out game. And I still think think it was very well put together and I would love to see the 3rd Strike cast and the 3rd Strike system get that same treatment. Because 3rd Strike after the Daigo parry the very next year everything exploded. When it came to 3rd Strike Daigo more than any other player made that game. And then in America you had guys like Pyrolee, Amir and Justin Wong. And Justin Wong was a part of the Street Fighter 3 history, he was part of the Daigo parry.”

He also told me of “The Daigo Stalker,” This was in response to my question as to whether anyone can come up and dethrone “The Beast”

“Justin told me in a podcast that there’s this Blanka player in Japan that will basically follow Daigo around from machine to machine and beat him with Blanka. But he would beat him via timeout like every time. So I guess he did it just to f@ck with him. To us Daigo is like this super amazing player, but even he takes losses.”

I think it”s safe to say that Daigo’s influence has definitely spread over to Street Fighter 4, as he is continually improving and over coming obstacles. The way he takes the most basic of characters and turns him into the most complex fighter is absolutely astounding. So will “The Beast” be dethroned? Only time will tell, one thing for sure it is going to take someone of exceptional talent.

Gootecks is doing a great job getting the Street Fighter 4 scene out there. He holds Bar Fights regularly and hosted West Coast Warzone, which had an absolutely amazing final between Marn and the original American Street Fighter, Alex “CaliPower” Valle. If your a fan of the game then check out his site and his videos on youtube.

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