David Kong over at Dream Cancel recently had a chance to sit down with Arcade Shock’s Reynald and discuss a variety of King of Fighters related topics, including how he got started in the competitive scene and his thoughts on EVO 2012. He provides some insight into the competition as well as his overall experiences at the event.

Hello, and thank you Reynald! We really appreciate the chance to speak with you! You’re currently known as one of the best KoFXIII players in the world, but we’re curious about how you got to this point. Please tell us about your history in the fighting game community. How did you begin playing fighting games competitively? What games have you played seriously? How did you get so good at KoFXIII?

Reynald -I started playing competitively about 5 years ago (2007) with 3rd Strike. But before that, I was only playing casually a year before. The one thing I remember that really got me into the mind set of playing competitively was from watching a video of Daigo parrying Chun’s super. That was so hype (and still is)! The other games that I have played competitively are KoF 12 and 13. I would like to say that I got good playing KoF 13 from practicing, but that would not be the case. I don’t have enough time to practice as much as I would like to so when I do practice, I try to remember as much as I can about the system each time I do play/practice. Just doing that helped with analytic skills and I am now able to translate which moves/normals are fast enough to punish certain things (I wish I could give an example but nothing comes to mind). Also having a large variety of play styles in the area I play is a huge factor as well.

You placed 7th this year at EVO2012, losing only to Mad KoF and BALA, who got 1st and 2nd respectively. Please tell us about your experiences at the biggest KoF tournament in history! How did you feel about the level of competition? Who were some of your toughest opponents? How do you feel about your performance and results?

Reynald – The level of competition was good enough I suppose. No disrespect to the ones I did play, but I have a really bad habit of trolling/styling my opponents no matter who they are. I like to have fun while playing, so I may end up doing the most risky reversal/read that a person can do. To most people it may look clumsy or stupid (sometimes it is :p) but most of the time there is a strategy behind what I’m doing. Hands down, the toughest opponent I played was Karou. My information may be incorrect, but I heard he came into the tournament very arrogant and that may have been his downfall. As for my performance, it wasn’t the greatest and I was disappointed. I know you can’t play your best everyday, but that’s just how high my standards are. EVO 2012 was the best experience I’ve had at a tournament. I enjoyed being a part of top 8 even with my early loss and after all of it, I again found the conviction to play. All I have to say is that the community is awesome.

And although he doesn’t believe the game is evolved enough to solidify tiers, he offers some insight into what characters he thinks are top five and bottom five at this moment.

Please comment on the balance of KoFXIII. Who do you feel are the top 5 and bottom 5 characters in the game? Why do you feel this way?

Reynald – Let me start off by saying this is a stupid topic to have. I’ve known for a while that the tier list is indefinite for plenty of reasons, but I believe it’s largely due to the fact that the game system is very intricate in design, so in that sense the game isn’t being played to its fullest yet.

Top 5: King, Iori, Shen, Ex Iori, Benimaru (No particular order)
Bottom 5: Kensou, Mai, Mature, Ralph, Ash

Be sure to head on over to Dream Cancel and check out the entire interview.

Source: Dream Cancel, images via Karaface