LiteralGrill
Smokin' Hot~
Dabuz has been a big name in the scene since he first made a big splash online back in the days of Brawl. He was a dominant force in the online scene becoming the AllIsBrawl 2009 Spring Ladder Champion as well as wining most tournaments he entered. After the days of Brawl he was fiercely dominant in Playstaion All Stars Battle Royale being the undisputed best player to participate in its tournament scene. Today using Rosalina and Luma he in one of the strongest threats in the Smash for Wii U scene.
Now i'm officially sponsored! Excited to work with @vQGaming https://t.co/5QogKnikXf
— Liquid | Dabuz (@DabuzSenpai) August 4, 2015
Today it was announced that he would be joining the Vanquish Gaming team as it's first Smash player. I took some time to sit down with him and discuss his recent sponsorship, his history in Smash, and his current adventures. Sit down, read, and enjoy.
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SmashCapps: Introduce yourself to anyone out there for those who don't know who you are.
Dabuz: Hey guys, I'm Dabuz, a Rosalina main living in New York one of the best smash 4 players out there right now. I've been playing smash bros. competitively since Brawl came out and casually ever since smash 64.
SmashCapps: So what was it that first got you into Smash? What drew you to the game?
Dabuz: So, I pretty much played growing up with everyone. My brothers played Smash 64 so I played with them a lot, of course back then I was 5 or 6 and was just mashing buttons. Then my best friends throughout grade school played Melee daily up until Brawl's release. By the time brawl came out, playing smash was just the social thing to do for me because everyone else did it.
SmashCapps: So what took you from just being a player socially to moving into the competitive side of things in Brawl?
Dabuz: Anyone who knows me knows I had a competitive spirit. Growing up I played a lot of games and always wanted to be the best out of everyone in everything. I watched tournaments for a lot of FPS games (especially Quake), saw how revered the pros were, heard that smash bros. had tournaments, and decided that with Brawl, I wanted to be one of them, I wanted to be the best in the world! (Of course that never happened, but it was a modest goal
) The game could be played online, I could test myself against the best at something I am good at, it just felt...natural to move into the competitive scene.SmashCapps: What would you say so far has been your favorite moment in gaming?
Dabuz: I can't pick a single moment, I've met countless awesome people through Smash both online (Special shoutout to Neo Zero for being the best friend ever) and offline (Special shoutouts to all of my Long Island crew mates for being an awesome bunch of people) and at the end of the day, those people are why I play this game and talking to those people are my favorite moments... Winning the Nintendo National 3ds tournament comes close though.
SmashCapps: How was that to experience, a Nintendo ran tournament?
Dabuz: So I've actually experienced two, the other one being the Kid Icarus Uprising National tournament (which I also won). It's very exciting, there are cameras everywhere, you get to meet the Nintendo elites such as Bill Trinen, for the smash tournament specifically, players got treated to free food, everyone wants interviews and pictures, there's a VIP lounge, a live audience, and for that short period of time, I felt like a celebrity. It's also run smoothly, no delays, unexpected accidents, and it's why I wish Nintendo would throw more support into competitive Smash Bros.
SmashCapps: I've heard a lot of things about you being heckled at events for your character choice and playstyle. How hard has it been dealing with this?
Dabuz: Leading up to CEO I had minor events where my character gets hate and as a Brawl Oli main, i'm very well used to character hostility. However, at CEO I felt, I guess you could say, disliked and unwanted specifically because of my character and playstyle. It hasn't been a direct problem in person ever since I made that tweet about CEO and I have no issue with my character receiving hate, but it bothered me to have it become personal. I don't change my gameplay or character because of anyone's attitude but no one should feel like their character choice impacts them in person.
SmashCapps: Do you think as our community has expanded the play to win philosophy has kind of died down a bit, leading more folks to have hate on strategies like this?
Dabuz: Definitely, once a game becomes more focused around spectators, AKA eSports, then there is a certain expectation to please the crowd if you're a top player. At the end of the day, I still play to win, but I wish I could do that and still be an entertainer.
SmashCapps: I've heard mention how you're one of the players who does play online a good bit more than other pros including your current exploits on Anther's Ladder. Would you say online play is still an important part of your training regimen?
Dabuz: It is my main source of practice...but I wish I had accessibility to playing pros offline. At some point I feel like there is a skillcap online just due to latency and most pros do not practice regularly online, making it increasingly difficult to push my own boundaries.
SmashCapps: I know a lot of players also practice a lot online especially with Smash 4. What tips could you offer players for maximizing their online practice so it can apply well in an offline setting? What is the best way to transition from online to offline?
Dabuz: Online is an amazing place to test setups, strategies, experiment, and work on general mindgames, so working on the mental aspect of smash is by far the most efficient thing to do online. That way you can focus on applying what you learn to offline along with practicing movement, spacing, and reaction speed. Luckily Smash 4 has pretty good wifi so making the transition isn't difficult.
Dabuz Prepares To Face Abadango Game 1 At Evo 2015
SmashCapps: So onto Smash 4 a bit more. How do you feel about your performance at Evo? Any insights into the matches you played that took place there?
Dabuz: Top 8 is pretty good and it was the goal I set for myself, but for me it's disappointing because it's my worst performance at an offline smash 4 tournament period (aside from when I went Diddy Kong at Collision). On pools day I think I played pretty poorly to be honest with all my sets being very close. During top 32 the next day I was playing really good, decisively taking games and sets until I ran into Abadango, his usage of speed bike threw me completely off and I was obviously not prepared for or used to fighting that custom.
SmashCapps: A perfect chance to transition. I know you've discussed this a bit on Twitter but post Evo how do you feel about custom moves?
Dabuz: I could write essays on this but the short version is: Custom moves have some benefits to them, but they bring a lot disadvantages into competitive smash, and as a whole cause more problems than they are worth.
SmashCapps: So looking forward, where will be the next big events we can see you play at?
Dabuz: I will be at Super Smash Con this weekend, Sktar in a couple weeks, and possibly at Paragon which is early September. After that I need a small break from all this Summer traveling and competing.
SmashCapps: I can't blame you it must have been busy! So recently you've been sponsored by Vanquish Gaming. What is the process like looking for and being approached by sponsors, and what made Vanquish a good fit?
Dabuz: Well I was lucky to have someone that brought the attention of most of the potential sponsors. It's a long process though, a lot of sponsors are new to the smash scene and are unfamiliar with how we work, how tournaments are run, who the best players are, what a smash player would want, ect. What makes Vanquish a good fit is that I could tell they cared about getting into the smash scene more than anyone else who I was approached by; they did research on the players, tournaments, community, everything. They also have a genuine interest in supporting me along with the resources to do so, no other sponsor seemed like they cared as much or would be willing to put in as much work, which is an indicator of a good organization.
SmashCapps: Any tips for folks out there who may be just starting to make a name for themselves and looking for sponsors on how to get sponsored and what to look for?
Dabuz: Be active on social media, in your community, place well, basically, do whatever you can to stand out from the crowd and to show you're successfully growing your own fanbase, a sponsor is looking to make a good investment on their players.
SmashCapps: Any last things you'd like to tell fans out there?
Dabuz: I just want to say thanks you everyone who supports me, I know I always end interviews like this, but knowing I have people who want me to succeed is huge motivation to keep playing. Wish me luck in joining Vanquish Gaming I'll try to finish this "Summer of Smash" strongly.
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To keep up with Dabuz and his new adventures with Vanquish Gaming be sure to follow him on Twitter and check out his Youtube and Twitch channels. To keep up with my own person smash adventures be sure to follow me on Twitter as well. A special thanks to Dabuz for this fantastic interview: it was seriously a pleasure.
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Whether customs should be on or off, I believe the topic at least deserves a fair discussion.
