I'm gootecks, fighting game veteran, CEO of esports startup Cross Counter TV, co-host of Excellent Adventures of gootecks and Mike Ross, and make a living playing fighting games, creating YouTube videos, writing eBooks and training people to get b...

Are you actually any good at pogs?

apparently i'm a champion

A man of hidden talents and an emoji global superstar from what I'm hearing around the office.

hah i see u dip

When's Bobby Scar coming back to Excellent Adventures?

I think Bobby now has a newborn Baby Scar so probably not anytime soon unfortunately. Also I think he hates SFV cuz he was late to the SF4 party. But yeah Bobby was awesome to have on the show and I really appreciate the respect that he is so good at both games because very few people are.

Thoughts on this video? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ih06VY71vA

Hadn't seen that before, but that's pretty funny! Nice touch on the music too.

I guess maybe I should just never say anything and never compete? Because if you never put yourself out there and never try, you can't lose and feel the shame of random internet haters! /s

Really though, it's okay, I'm happy with the way things have turned out for me so far and if you'll notice, all of those losses are in foreign countries that I got to go to (except the one at WNF of course) so that was awesome as well.

Also happy to be at a level where people will take the time to make really detailed videos making fun of me. Maybe someday there will be a compilation of wins if I can manage any haha

PS Happy cake day!

The antithesis of love is apathy here. Anyone making an amazing video like that is paying homage more than anything. Just wanted to say it makes my insides feel warm and gooey to see you take it in stride and laugh. Idk shit about esports but you're my new favorite esporter.... eathelete? Uh... you get it.

Thanks! Most definitely would rather be hated on than have nobody give a fuck one way or another.

Hate is just misdirected love for sure

Has anyone told you and Mike that you kinda look like Mordecai and Rigby from regular show?

reference

no but I see the resemblance now hahaha

Best memory with Mike?

Hmmm tough one because there are so many and we continue to make new ones!

I'd say probably our 12-hr layover in Fiji on the way to Australia in 2011 was probably the most hetero bromantic vaycay that anyone could ask for lol. Also cameraman from CC Asia/SEAM sent us a dropbox folder full of old photos from our first trip to Singapore on the tail end of that trip and holy shit we look like babies haha.

Or maybe doing Evo on ESPN this year and Capcom Cup last year on the analyst desk with Peter are awesome memories as well.

Not everyone is as fortunate to be able to not just do what they love but also to share these experiences with their bros. So I am grateful to be in a position where we can do these things.

Realistically how much time should i study frame data

I think if you spent 10 minutes trying to understand what + and - on hit and block meant, you could learn the ins and outs one move at a time.

Frame data is the language of the game in numbers form. So just in the same way you learn a new language one word at a time, once you understand the framework of frame data, it's much easier to learn it a little bit at a time.

2 questions: You get three SFV characters to do whatever you want, Buff, Nerf, Whatever: Who do you choose and what do you do for season 2?

Secondly, how are the groupies? I hear there are FGC cougars prowling all the events.

Generally it goes against my beliefs to nerf characters because I believe it makes for more fun to make weak characters stronger. So I would probably buff the characters that are generally considered weakest which are probably Gief, FANG, and maybe Rashid.

But now that I think about it, someone made a point to me the other day about how Riot balances League of Legends so that the strong characters rotate. Or maybe Blizzard about how they rotate which race is strongest.

But the idea is that eventually everyone's character becomes good and if you keep playing long enough, you'll get your turn so to speak. So I think that model is interesting for semi-hardcore casual players, but probably the reality is that we probably don't have a lot of those players left.

The real nerf though is to nerf input lag and buff matchmaking and communication over CFN.

I have never seen an FGC cougar, but feel free to let me know if I'm missing any lol.

Thanks for the reply! I'm surprised on the Rashid, the Japanese seemed to have thought he was hidden high tier and John Takeushi plays him like a beast.

Maybe Juri instead.

Forgot to mention Juri, she's underrated as well IMO

You're an inspiration, Ryan.

In the film I've Got Next you mentioned you had a quarter life crisis and changed. What did you realize and what changes did you make?

This is coming from someone who thinks they're going through a similar crisis.

I realized that if I were to stay in the same place in life I wouldn't be able to grow and accomplish my goals. The changes that I made were:

• break up with my gf at the time
• stop selling porn on eBay
• focus all energy on SF4 and creating content

If you're feeling like you're in a rut, reading The Alchemist by Paulo Cuehlo was a big catalyst for change for me.

Also looking back over the past several years, lifting weights has been a great outlet to see progress in myself which motivates me to grow in other areas.

Top 5 changes wanted for SFV?

1. Remove input lag
2. Improve netcode/connectability
3. Improve communication through CFN
4. Open the API so people can create more interesting stuff like @SFV_CFN and vleague
5. Create a marketplace/platform for people to create their own skins, costumes, backgrounds, etc like modders already do on PC.

when's Mike and Gootecks' Super Smashing Adventures coming around?

On a serious note, do you ever think Marvel Vs Capcom 4 will happen, and who would you want to see in it? Pick 3 from both marvel and capcom.

If Smash 4 wasn't so goddamn hard to play, maybe it would have happened lol.

I think that Disney is doing more and more gaming stuff and they'd be silly to pass up the opportunity to capitalize on such a great franchise.

Hmm I'd like to see Punisher, Tony Stark (different from Iron Man), and Bone Saw lol.

On the Capcom side, of course Urien, Rose, and R. Mika.

When is the real life adventures of Gootecks and Mike Ross coming back? That was one of my favourite series

It's tough because I think we've gotten to used to the luxury of having Steve shoot and edit everything that when we travel and don't have that, it's usually not gonna happen.

But you never know, happy that you guys remember it and enjoyed it so much, that's for sure.

I wrote up a show outline a while back so really all it takes is some funding and a business model and we're good to go.

why do a lot of FGC "talk show" fail?

Lack of consistency and quitting before they "succeed"

Now that it's been some time, how do you feel about Urien in V? Do you hope to make him your main at this point, or does he play too differently from 3rd strike?

Also, how do you feel about ArcSys fighters like Guilty Gear? Is it something you and Mike may cover in any measure on excellent adventures?

I think he's a lot of fun! I really enjoy playing him and really haven't played anyone else since his release haha. He doesn't play much differently from 3s once you get used to him I guess.

Guilty Gear is cool I just never played it in my formative years and always feel like there's never enough time to learn a new game now.

gootecks, if capcom decides to fix sf5 for season2, what are the top 3 things you want fixed that's NOT on this list? Keep it up with excellent adventures man, big fan of the show. https://www.reddit.com/r/StreetFighter/comments/4z0gdm/comprehensive_list_of_current_issues_by_priority/#4thbutton

First off just wanted to agree with basically everything on this list.

I think having a way to message people easily through CFN would be great. I guess maybe they won't want to open a can of worms kinda like how Nintendo wants you to communicate over long numbers instead of screen names.

This sounds silly but I have no idea how to message someone on PSN that I fight in the game.

The other thing is I think there should be a way to switch characters instantly in training mode via a dropdown menu, rather than trying to impress me with fancy graphics that take forever to load.

I don't have the time that I used to when I was younger, plus I think my attention span is much lower than it used to be so it's really painful to me to go from losing a match online, to loading up a replay to figure out where I went wrong, to then loading up training mode and picking characters and waiting for that to load.

Granted now I play with two setups to mitigate this, but it still sucks that it has to be this way because the menus take so damn long.

Who was your favorite guest on Excellent Adventures?

Oh man, so hard to choose. It was always a blast having everyone on.

But I think our episodes with Combofiend, Justin, K-Brad are the best.

But you know when we had Infiltration and Xian on earlier this year, and Xian espoused the virtues of staying calm and then Infiltration looked into my soul and told me to "enjoy your game," that was awesome as well!

And when we had Champ on and he didn't let us play and had Ricki on to show us how to play, those were great too.

And Rob the Magician was a dark horse favorite as well!

And of course it's crazy that we had Kenny Omega and Xavier Woods on! We're lucky to be in a position where these types of crossovers can happen with awesome people!

So yeah, I tell you who I want to have back again ASAP is Floe.

Who was your favorite guest??

I'm stuck between Scar and Infiltration.

Scar and Mike had such amazing chemistry that watching them was a blast, meanwhile Infiltration was just such a troll to the people who he was playing against, but also was very interesting to listen to.

Most definitely, Bobby was one of the best! Can't believe there is another Mike Ross out there. If Bobby wasn't so cool, I'd be jealous haha

Honestly if i would choose it would be you, mike, kbradizzle for every damn episode. Fuck can him and mike get into a contest makes me laugh every time.

Id like to see smug again also. The final episodes of ultra with smug was great.

Thanks, I can't believe we actually were able to pull that one off. Only someone as smart, skilled, and charismatic as Smug could bring the best out of us like that when it counted.

SmugDaBeast.

For the record, was he the only guest who helped you get through an episode with no losses?

He was the only time we all went undefeated. And the only time it really mattered!

I've been really hoping you get Floe back on Excellent Adventures. Best guest imo has been Kenny Omega though.

Dude being able to have Kenny on the show and THEN watch WWE TLC PPV was amazing! Kenny is a literal superhuman and I'm fortunate to be able to call him a friend.

When I read your two ebooks about SF5, I remember following along well and appreciating the insight for most of it... but when I got to that final chapter where you started talking about Frame Data all of a sudden the difficulty of understanding the topics you were discussing rose so suddenly that I felt like I walked into a wall.

Have you ever heard of or found a more simple, intuitive way of explaining block strings and how to create them? Because all of the +1 and -1 talk in your ebooks were pretty tough to get through.

Thanks for the feedback!

Yeah in retrospect that chapter sucked and the examples were way too complicated.

I actually made a video last night for the Rise Up in Ranked Matches course that explains it better.

Check it out at www.riseupinranked.com

How'd you get past Capcom threatening to block your material?

By slowly making amends and then eventually doing an official licensing deal with them which is where we are at currently.

Hey Gootecks. Huge fan of yours and Mike Ross. Really helped me a lot with transitioning from pad to stick and made the game more enoyable for me.

Question 1: How do you cope with a crushing defeat e.g. tournament setting going 0-2. What steps do you take to tone down the salt.

Question 2: What do you do to prepare for such events? I know everyone has their ritual whether it be training, playing casuals, going over safe and unsafe moves etc.

1. Accept that everyone starts at the bottom. I think my first real tournament was Evo 2003 and I went 0-2. I actually thought I was halfway decent at the time too so it sucked. But really you need to understand that the result is essentially irrelevant and is just one measure of progress. What's more important than winning and losing is making incremental progress in the game. So if you start to see tournaments as the test and the rest of the time you spend with the game as homework, then that should change the level of salt you feel. Another thing is that each salty loss should drive you to learn from your mistakes or the holes in your game. If you're salty enough to be pissed, then you should be salty enough to hit Training Mode and figure out a solution.

2. I don't really prepare which is why my results are inconsistent. I would suggest that rather than trying to prepare for Evo or another major, try to prepare for your local instead.

Most locals have 15-30 people max, so after going several times, you should have a pretty good idea of which characters are common and who you are likely to face. So then you can work on these matchups and study these players individually.

The other thing is that when you're preparing for tournaments, remember that most of the training that others do is just to play with others so you should try to session with others during the week.

1. How did you and mike meet?
2. Have you ever considered doing more fighting games on the channel other than SF (Like KI for instance)
3. Whens K-brad comming back on the show? :)

1. Me and Mike met at Video94 in the early arcade days of SF4 in 2008. We played a lot but didn't really talk until after our epic timeout showdown at at tournament at AI. the last few seconds are on YouTube, look it up.
2. I would love to grow CC to that level bt unfortunately don't have the time to do it myself, but it would be great to have the gootecks and Mike Rosses of other games to give a similar treatment to other games on the channel.
3. Not soon enough!

Hi Gootecks,

after having had ample time with SFV, how do you compare it to IV?
Which do you prefer?

Easy, I prefer SFV.

IV was great because it resurrected the franchise in an era where I personally thought I'd be playing 3s until my hands fell off.

But I certainly don't miss Focus Attacks and some of the option selects.

I do miss a lot of the friends and community that we had back then here in SoCal though. Seems like the big problem with SFV is that most of the players that played IV casually (or even semi-seriously) did not make the jump to V.

There are many reasons for that, but I think the biggest one, at least amongst my friends that don't play anymore, is just that they are in a different position in their lives now and don't have the time to dedicate to learning a new game.

Think about where you were 8 years ago in terms of real life responsibilities and no matter where you are now, it's likely dramatically different.

Anyways, I think SFV is super fun and although there are things about it that really drive me nuts like the input lag and some of the online stuff, I still like it way more.

Plus it's nice to be able to play a character that I actually give a fuck about again. Though I do miss my girl Rose and hope they bring her back some day.

Hey Gootecks

Sorry if this was answered in one of your videos already, but who do you think are the most underrated/overrated characters in SFV in terms of fighting potential?

Underrated is probably FANG or Rashid.

Overrated...probably Mika hahahaha

Will you be competing seriously in season 2? Your Urien is looking good !

Really just depends on travel opportunities I guess.

This year I thought it would be great to focus on competing and going as many places as I could.

I had mixed results due to the fact that I was unfocused in my training beforehand and then was too excited to be in new places to focus on training while I was there.

Also I realized over the past month or so that it's not conducive to growing Cross Counter if I'm traveling so much because it just throws me off my rhythm to leave and come back so much.

So next year I'm just going to focus on training myself here at home in LA and growing CC and if it looks like I can hang with the big boys again then I'll do so, but I have so much work to do on myself and my business first before traveling so much again.

In your opinion, how does the modern FGC compare to other esports communities, such as MOBAs?

What can the FGC learn from other communities and what can other communities learn from the FGC?

I'd say that we can (and have) learned a lot about presentation and sponsors.

Other communities can learn about personality and generating a reaction from the audience the way that guys like FChamp do

Have you ever considered trying jiu-jitsu? It's a great workout to go with your strength and conditioning, requires same mindset as Street Fighter.

No, but thats intereseting, thanks!

what do you think about coaching in tournaments?

Well last I checked, the biggest MMA and boxing fighters all have coaches that are ringside during the fight.

Also, every professional sports team that I can think of has a coach.

So if we are similar to pro combat sports, then we'd have coaches.

And if we were similar to traditional ball sports, we'd also have coaches.

So I don't see the issue.

What do you feel is the big next-step for the FGC? If you were "CEO of the FGC" what would be your first action to grow the community?

Seems to me like the next big step is a shift in events.

I just don't see the 3-day multi-game event idea growing much larger than what it is currently.

On a long enough timeline, it seems like if we all do our jobs properly, there will be a need to grow into larger venues like convention centers, but I don't think that can work for most events because once you've been to enough of them they all start to feel the same.

Instead, I think Evo will grow to be a 4-day event (as Mr. Wizard has teased on Twitter) and other events will cut Friday out because I think more and more people are going to have more jobs and responsibilities that they can't take the time off from.

So instead, what we'll be left with is one-night events that are primarily for spectating.

Think of it like MMA or wrestling. You never see big long multi-day tournaments because people don't want to watch those.

You'll find that most tournament attendees aren't super semi-pro or pro level players, they're casual players that know they are going to get bodied, but just want to go for the experience and to have fun.

Well my bet is that there are more of these players that would come to a one-night event in a major city. Not trying to put down the existing TOs, most of them do great events, just seems like the only event that can actually get longer is Evo.

If I were CEO of the FGC, the first action to grow the community is to have a resource where players of all skill levels could go to get quality information about the game and how to improve. Kinda like what we're building with www.crosscounter.tv. ^{_^}

The more people we have that can just reach baseline competency of understanding the game, the wider our audience will be. Most players are not trying to win Evo, they're just trying to beat their friends so the more that we can cultivate the "slightly hardcore" casual market, the better it is for everyone.

what happened when you took that break and left mike all alone? i was real worried when that happened but i'm glad you came back.

It's a long story that I'm pretty sure I talked about in my AMA from last year and in a YouTube video. But everything's fine now.

The upside is that because of the break, it allowed me to explore some different opportunities in music which lead to expanding my network and making some awesome friends and having some great experiences I probably wouldn't have had otherwise.

What's your favorite thing to do when not in front of a screen?

Well so far this year, my favorite thing to do away from a screen was be at Burning Man.

So that is my new favorite thing to do when not in front of a screen.

Trying new food and traveling internationally is great too

1) How committed are you to teaching/training others? Are you truly passionate about it or do you do it just for the dollars? You charge more than Wong and Champ and they have tournament results.

2) What's the #1 thing a silver needs to do to get to and survive in gold?

1. Committed enough to realize that I can train more people with a video course than I can one-on-one. Passionate enough to take a chance on trying something like creating a video course rather than just trying to do as many one-on-one sessions as possible.
   

People think that because I charge more than Champ and Justin that I'm in it for the money. In fact the opposite is true. Check the Wayback Machine and see if you can find the order that the trainers were added to the page. The first one was K-Brad, I didn't add myself until months later after some guy was bugging me to help him in 3s.

I didn't start CCT as a way for me to make money with my own coaching, I did it because it was an idea that I'd had before and K-Brad was staying at my place and down to give it a shot so we did. The goal was to test an idea, show people how to play, and provide a platform for other coaches to make some side money.

If you're trying to win Evo, you should definitely train with either of those guys. Surprise! Good ol' gootecks has zero experience winning Evo! ^{_^}

But none of my students come to me at a level where that is even something they are working towards. Most of my students are just trying to get better at the thing they suck at because they work real jobs and don't have a lot of time to dedicate to getting better. So I help them save time and speed up their journey.

1. I would say that in order to get from Silver to Gold, you need to learn how to use your resources effectively and optimize damage on your opportunities. Usually Silver players either blow their resources completely or never use them or are doing inefficient combos and don't use their meter to do max damage.

What is your opinion of the game industry? Is it advancing or going really slow?

The game industry is great because we are starting to see it grow into areas that probably most people would not have imagined before.

Esports in particular is on the verge of becoming mainstream (or at least mainstream as far as gaming goes). It's great to see the type of crowds that the big events like Evo and Worlds get, and with that of course the prize money and sponsors and fans, etc.

There's also mobile gaming which I am pretty uninterested in at the moment, but other people get super hype for it. But the way it's going it's going to look less like "mobile" in a few years and more just iOS/Android gaming. Because when you look at hardware advancement, devices like the iPad Pro are starting to look less "mobile" and more like big touchscreens. So that will be interesting for those that play those games.

The real potential, however, is in VR. I haven't played with the PSVR but for many gamers, that will likely be the obvious choice for them. Games are the most obvious experience to create with VR, but the true potential is in re-creating or inventing new experiences that you can share with others.

So I think the game industry is evolving quite rapidly!

1. How did you get into fighting games?

2. Where do you see the fgc in 5 years?

3. Is smash a fighting game?

1. answered in a previous question
2. I see the FGC getting out of hotel ballrooms and into the type of venues where you'd see an up and coming rock band (totally dating myself) or DJ. And yet to be built venues geared towards esports and gaming.
3. Well there are characters that have combos, special moves, battle for space, and have a winner and loser. Which part of that doesn't sound like a fighting game to you?

If given the opportunity, would you be Kenny Omega's valet / manager at his Wrestle Kingdom 11 Main Event match @ the Tokyo Dome Show?

What!??!?! Of course!!!! I got your back Kenny! Even if we have to fight dirty to win, I'm in there!!! Never swung a chair before, but I'm willing to learn!

Top 5 books you've read that inspired your entrepreneurial adventure?

1. Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki - my mom nagged me for years to read it and I'm glad I did, definitely wouldn't be where I am without it.

2. 4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss - definitely helped me put the passive income mindset I got from Rich Dad Poor Dad into action. And his podcast is awesome!

3. Double Your Income Doing What You Love by Raymond Aaron - Helped me further drive home what I already knew which is that if you only did the 2-3 things you were really good at, you'd be more fulfilled and make more money.

4. No BS Wealth Attraction for Entrepreneurs by Dan Kennedy - Not so much because this book is all that great, but because it lead me to find the rest of Dan Kennedy's work which educated me on the power of direct marketing.

5. Masters of Networking by Ivan Misner - I took his class in college called Networks & Social Capital and learned so much about the power of your network. And by network I don't mean the number of Facebook friends you have or how many people watch your stories on Snapchat. That shit is irrelevant.

BONUS books are probably How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie and Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. But those you probably are already familiar with.

When are you going to get Jamie Lee Curtis on the show? (She's a big SF fan, for anyone that didn't know)

She doesn't return my calls :(

How sick are you of seeing the PogChamp emote?

Moderately to somewhat sick Kappa PogChamp

Is there a game that you wish you could play competitively, but can't? What game is it and what are the reasons?

Oh, how does it feel to be Twitch's hypest emote?

I really wish I would have learned how to play Starcraft 2. Not even competitively just to the level of being halfway decent. Kinda like how I'm sure most people I work with are trying to be good enough at SFV to be decent.

During the SC2 beta times, I didn't think there was a lot of info on how to get better. I think at the time Day9 was doing his thing, but I'm more of a written word kinda guy and don't have the patience for video.

It doesn't feel like anything because it's not something that I engineered, did on purpose, or even said "okay" to.

What other games do you play other than sf?

I used to play Mario Kart on my Wii U but now don't play anything.

But I bought Civ6 so maybe I'll give that a go. I think I'm a secret sim game nerd because I really liked Fairy Godmother Tycoon and also played a little Tropico while I was waiting for SFV to update.

What do you think about Battlerite? Or Bloodline Champions, if that oldie rings a bell. Just in general and from a fighting games vet perspective.

Never played either

Are you friends with Bart Kwan of Barbell Brigade? Any chance of a Gootecks x Bart Kwan collab?

I see him in passing and really appreciate the work they've done with Barbell Brigade. I'm not strong enough to be on their level yet haha

Hi Ryan, long time Excellent Adventures fan! I find that it's common advice for content creators to be told to work hard, be consistent, value the community, etc. Do you have any uncommon, not obvious piece of advice for budding content creators, YouTube or otherwise?

Consistency is the most important.

The uncommon, not obvious piece of advice would be to have a bigger vision or game plan for your content.

If you're trying to make videos to get dat Max CPM, I got bad news for ya, you're going to give up before you get there. YouTube and Twitch revenue should be the icing on top of, not the foundation of your cake.

If you look at my early stuff, even from the super early podcast days, I always had a premium product to accompany the free stuff.

Think about what it is that you can get your audience to buy, even if it's not your own product that you created.

This gets you into the habit of learning more about your audience and what they like which can help you create better content as well as create better products or services for which to sell.

For example, if I made videos about cats, I would sell my audience an ebook on training my cat, build an email list and send them Amazon affiliate links to cat products by which I'd get commissions. I'd also sell cat merchandise like collars and whatnot.

You said in a reply

So next year I'm just going to focus on training myself here at home in LA and growing CC

Think you'll make it out to WNF more often then?

Yeah I like going to WNF, it's just far from where I live and I was traveling so much that I wasn't able to go. But definitely the strongest competition in SoCal!

How do you feel about Street Fighter(and fighting games in general) finally entering that echelon of eSports like Starcraft, Counter-Strike and League of Legends. Do you think the FGC will lose it's roots and family feeling?

No because correct me if I'm wrong, but you don't really see a lot of grassroots events doing IRL SC, CSGO and LOL tournaments, do you?

Aside from Evo and Capcom Cup, there are only even a handful of premiere events that could rival the major events of the other games (and even those are homegrown), so the vast majority of FGC is homegrown and has a family feel.

I don't see that changing ever

I just reached silver what now?

See if you can get to gold quicker

What is your least favorite video game?

Also if you could change something about Street Fighter in general, what would you change and why?

Hmmm I really don't play anything else so I would say all of them that aren't Street Fighter or Mario Kart are my least favorite.

Maybe Counterstrike is at the bottom. I played Quake when I was a kid so I know it's not FPS as a genre lol.

If I could change something about Street Fighter, I would have a mode that actually shows you how to play, solve problems, and think about the game the way the game wants you to think about it.

The game wants you to think about it a certain way but it never tells you that upfront. It's like an angry jealous girlfriend that's super pissed all the time but never tells you why she's mad.

What changes do you think FANG should have in season 2?

Maybe you should actually be able to die from poison like you would IRL.

Hi gootecks,

Could you please come up with a way for those who can't buy your book and video course, such that they could get them by watching online ads or something? It's a win-win.

Thanks

This is actually something that I tried before, where I used a content locker to put the files inside of and you had to complete an offer to get it.

It either wasn't very well received or didn't work properly, I can't recall. But yeah my book is available for Kindle Unlimited members (which has a 30-day free trial anyways) and the course is going to be available when it's done on crosscounter.tv, for which there is also a 1 month trial.

So yeah it's really not that hard to get all my stuff for free, what's stopping you?

Hey Gootecks! I'm a huge fan, sometimes when I wear my PogChamp sweater I get to explain to people that you're more than a twitch emote.

With Capcom Cup coming soon, who is your Top 8? And who are your players on the rise from each major region? (US, EU, Asia, Latin America)

LOL thanks for spreading the word. I'm sure Kappa and the other emotes don't have people doing the same for them.

Hm Top 8 is too hard to predict.

US - I think NuckleDu has proven he is the next generation superstar EU - Phenom and CCL are super strong Asia - Infiltration's Korean army of Xyzzy, Verloren, etc are going to be killers. LA - Haven't been following and haven't been there myself unfortunately :(

What game was your biggest inspiration?? How do i get your job?!!?

Definitely SF3: 3rd Strike!

Well I don't have a job, I have a business, so I guess if you wanted my job you'd have to replace me in Cross Counter!

But on a serious note, if you want to do what I do, then you should start now. There was no job listing on monster.com that I looked at, I forged my own path doing something new. Definitely I've had a lot of help along the way, but it comes down to following your passion and learning the necessary skills along the way to help further your cause.

For me, having a strong technical background has helped a lot when it comes to being able to do my own production for content and web projects in the early days. Now I'm fortunate enough to have great help but at the beginning, I had to learn how to do everything myself.

Will Lord Aris be on Excellent Adventures any time soon? His episode is one of my favorites.

Has he been playing SFV? One of my favorites as well, what a swell amigo

What got you interested into fighting games to begin with?

When I was a kid my friends played SF2 and I thought it sucked and didn't get it. I do remember wanting to fit in but had no idea how to play or why they liked it.

Then I was on vacation with my parents and the only halfway decent game in this arcade was SF2 and I fell in love.

So I guess it took me discovering it in my own way in order to get into it.

What is your opinion on SFV's gameplay? Something needs to be changed? Everything is good?

Biggest pet peeve for me is the input lag

Hey Goo. How much do you miss the 3rd strike/cvs2/mvc2 days?

I miss the game itself a fair amount.

I miss the community that we had here in SoCal in the SF4 days more though.

Is there any notable students that you have that show potential to being a great Street Fighter 5 player? Do you think that student would also make an appearance on the show?

Kevin Yates (panoptic) has been a great example of the player that you can become through the help of a strong coach. Alex Myers helped speed along his progress so much and now he is helping me on my new video course at www.riseupinranked.com.

Would he make an appearance? Once he reaches that level it will be an amazing story to tell!

Is there anything in particular that had helped make Cross Counter more profitable besides the switch to subscription videos before YouTube releases? I remember an interview you have years ago where you talked about cross counter not being profitable so I was curious what has changed in the fgc to help content creators.

Honing our model over time to be able to transition to subscription has been the most important change for us, business-wise.

The other thing is just having grown the audience large enough for most of our efforts to be successful.

CC is not built on one sole source of income, we have a lot of smaller streams that are built to create something sustainable. But this was the goal from the getgo. Don't rely on one thing, diversify the income to be able to weather the storms and try new things.

Hey Gootecks, I love the Excellent adventures series. In particular my favorite guest was when you had Strider with you guys for SF4, I've re-watched those a couple times.

How do you feel about sfv for the show versus street sf4? I kinda liked how you used to be able to choose who to play in ranked matches because that made for some times

Love your content, GL with Cross Counter.

Strider was great, those episodes were a lot of fun!

Yeah I agree it was fun to be able to somewhat choose who you would fight or not fight against. It's possible that EA was tailor made for SF4 and we need to make something new for SFV.

Fighting games have been a niche within gaming. What was the reasoning behind locking Cross Counter and Excellent Adventures behind pay walls instead of a free model that pays off in the end with bigger sponsers due to higher views? companies like capcom are already bleeding this community dry and making us bitter.

In order to get to a place with "bigger sponsors" you have to survive long enough to get there. If we didn't have various ways to monetize and were dependent on YouTube ad revenue to pay the bills, we'd be dead and gone long ago.

Feel free to make new accounts, cancel, get free trials, torrent, steal whatever you gotta do, it doesn't matter to me.

I don't see how any bitterness towards Capcom and their model should be reflected towards ours and vice versa.

Hey Gootecks,

How do you feel about the relationship between Street Fighter and the FGC?

Should the FGC be doing more to diversify attention to multiple games, or does it make more sense to support this concept of a Major League game and several Minor league ones?

The FGC as a whole doesn't do anything because it doesn't exist.

What exists are individuals and small pockets of people that play and run events and stuff.

So if you think more attention should be brought to other games, then you should be the one to start doing that.

Be the change you want to see in the world

Do you visit us from r/kappa ?

what's r/Kappa

Hi Gootecks,

Besides SF is any other fighting game that you like now or previously ?

Why you think SFV is having a hard time attracting new young players to the scene ?

I played a lot of MKII and MKIII as well as Killer Instinct as a kid.

I think nowadays young players have so many different ways to spend their time and gaming is just one of them. You have social media, Netflix, YouTube, etc, and gaming is so diverse.

So within that there are so many different facets:

-mobile gaming -PC gaming -free to play games -single player games

Within all of the ways to spend your time, SFV seems like it would be one of the ones that has the steepest learning curve with the most uncertain payoff, and the least amount of information available for how to improve.

I hate to sound like an old man but kids these days have it easy. When I was a kid, there wasn't a friendly welcoming FGC face to show me how to play. If you sucked, people just made fun of you and talked shit.

So I think it's just easier for young people to just go and do something else.

Are you named after the Dudley move?

I'm not, but Cross Counter is, yeah

What are your feelings on Smash in the FGC?

Smash is great and the community is very supportive, what's not to like?

Considering your network within the community, have you heard anything at all about season 2 changes or when we can possibly expect them?

Nope, but if they don't announce something after Capcom Cup, we riot!

Hey, gootecks! We need more stuff in Europe. I really wanted to enter the green screen contest, but it turns out none of the prizes are available outside of Europe. I wanted to ask if there will be any contests that people outside of the US can benefit from?

Damn well maybe you shoulda just made something anyways and let us decide whether or not it was worth shipping some shit all the way out there to ya! lol jk

But really though if the prizes were the only thing motivating you, then maybe it wouldn't have been all that good, just saying :P

Your new training programs are a pretty novel idea. Do you think you will be offering it in Asia and Europe in the future? Also, now that Mike is free from his Twitch duties, will you be ramping up cross counter activities that include him?

Thank you! I guess we have a lot of misconceptions to address because there's no reason why we can't train people in Asia or Europe now regardless of location.

One of my students is American born but based in Taiwan right now.

With most students, it's not super important to actually play matches with them the whole time.

Most of my time with my students is spent creating a roadmap for them to improve.

You can check out a lot of my videos of me training my students on crosscounter.tv.

Yeah now that Mike is back in SoCal, we will definitely be ramping things up once he's settled!

Hey Gooey, love the show and everything you and Mike get up to.

Any tips on recognizing and overcoming the proverbial "wall" in Street Fighter, or any other competitive game?

Thanks!

I think the best way to overcome a plateau in Street Fighter is to learn a new character. Playing different characters helps you to see the game in a new light which changes the way you make decisions.

What do you think my little pupper is thinking about?

He's thinking about what he's done to deserve the current lack of cuddles you're providing

Hi Gootecks!

The excellent adventures keep me connected to SFV since I no longer have access to my own setup. Thank you for the fun and entertaining content every week!

Do you ever play casuals at tournaments, or is it strictly a "play your matches and get out" kind of deal? I know you're a busy dude; does your workload ever make you lose sight of the fun and sense of community that street fighter, and fighting games in general, provide?

Also, the next time you travel to Dallas, I would love to make you a bubble tea! I work at DFW's highest rated (on Yelp) bubble tea/smoothie shop and I've seen you with one in your hand during many excellent adventures. My treat!

Casual matches is what I miss most about arcades. Console setups at most tournaments just aren't conducive to this type of thing. Though in Japan they had signs on the setups that said 1 game, 2/3, ft5, or Rookie-Gold ranked or maybe it was sorted by league points.

But yeah usually I don't mind playing casuals at tournaments, but the other thing is that I also don't enjoy hearing people talk shit when I lose a casual match. So essentially nothing is on the line for the opponent, but it feels like everything is on the line for me. So this is why quarters are so effective because even tiny stakes are stakes.

Yes I've definitely lost sight of what makes this whole thing fun many times. Thankfully SFV has revitalized that and whenever I start to feel jaded, I just spend some days just playing and remind myself that it's fun and I do this because it's awesome!

Never been to Dallas, but that would be awesome, I love bubble tea!

Why do you do sumo deadlifts instead of conventional?

Feels more natural to me. Also watched a YouTube video on which stance is right for you and my limbs are a length where either one works.

Now that you guys are on PC, any chance of you and Mike playing Killer Instinct on Excellent Adventures?

unlikely but you never know

What are you planning to do with your life after fighting games? or you just going to be in the community forever, jk.

I thought at the dawn of SF4 that this was a 5 year thing, but now it seems like fighting games and esports are really more of a 20 year timeline.

So after I feel like my work is done and I've accomplished everything I wanted, probably just invest in whatever VR headset will allow me to sit back and live in a virtual world and never leave the house again.