Tokido Talks State of Street Fighter 5 and Being the Defending Champion

Amidst the hustle and bustle of EVO 2018, we caught up with Hajime “Tokido” Taniguchi, one of the most respected figures in the FGC, to talk about what it feels like to defend his title, and to get his thoughts on the Street Fighter 5 Meta, upcoming characters, and what it’s like to play 8am pools.

You’ve been to this tournament many times, but never as the defending Champion in the main Street Fighter game. Is it different, having that target on your back, or are you just treating it like every other tournament?

I have a lot of experience, and if I think I’m the defending champion, it’s too easy to lose. So, essentially every time I think “I’m a challenger”.

You’re also on the line-up for the Twin Galaxies Fight Club [Saturday] night, with a very good chance that you’ll then be in Top 8 the next day. Do you handle those in different ways, maybe treating the Top 8 more seriously or holding strategies back, or do you just lay it all out?

It’s the same, because my exhibition opponent is Infiltration, and his character is Menat. [She’s] a very good character and the strong players use her, like Justin Wong, and Sako from Japan, and Infiltration, so it’s very reasonable to practice against Menat because in a tournament, I have a good chance to fight against the character.

So, it’s like an extra chance to practice against one of the best. When it comes to going up against someone like Infiltration, there’s a very good chance you could come up against him again the next day. Do you feel like either of you will hold anything back or maybe learn things about each other, or are you just going to lay it all out? Maybe try something tricky against each other?

Maybe a long time ago, I did an exhibition match to steal an opponent’s habits, but now I don’t do that because what is important is improving myself every time, so it doesn’t matter if it’s a casual match or tournament, either way I’ll do my best.

How do you feel about the current state of Street Fighter 5, with the current Meta game? Do you feel just as strong this year as previously?

Season three’s balance patch came out and the strong characters have changed, but my character is the best for me.

Did you find a lot of adjustments after the Balance patch, with Akuma? Any old strategies that you tried but no longer work?

Actually yes, every time it becomes more and more difficult to master him, but he’s a very good character if I master him, that’s never changed.

We’ve got another two characters ahead of us, with G and Sagat, and a lot of players are ready to go back to Sagat and hopefully see him do a bit better than Blanka did when he released, but we’ve had characters come out that change the whole board, like Menat, because she has certain specialties behind her that put everybody on notice. How do you adapt around characters like Menat, and how to you prepare for upcoming characters like G and Sagat?

I don’t have anything special against new characters because I can practice a lot just playing online matches, because everyone wants to use the new characters, so I can get good practice there. Because they’re a new character, at first no-one can use them very well.

It feels like people are still figuring things out about Menat, new nuances that weren’t known before.

Menat was too difficult to use, but as time passed, the players became good. I have time to make strategies against that kind of character.

How much time do you think is left in Street Fighter 5, do you think there is going to be another season of content, maybe more characters, or do you feel they’re going to be getting ready for the next game soon?

I think we have more characters, because the Street Fighter history is very long. Maybe some characters from Third Strike? Maybe a charge character?

E. Honda is the only one of the original’s that still hasn’t made the list at all.

Yeah, he’s the only one. I think maybe next season.

Would you say that the current Street Fighter 5 state of the game doesn’t really adapt all that well to the charge style character? As you’ve said, we’ve thought of two, Blanka and Boxer, and E. Honda is not even in the game yet, Guile still has a little bit of his charge but not much, maybe just that style of Street Fighter characters becoming a bit obsolete?

This is my personal opinion, but charge characters are boring to me. Charge is strong, but I prefer more aggressive characters.

We had a lot of high level players ending up in the 8am pools, is that a strain at all, or do you prefer to get that out of the way early and focus on other matches later.

Actually, it doesn’t matter to me.

Is it better to get those matches out of the way early, then have some time to rest before coming back for the Top 32’s, or have a pool right into Top 32 and just ride the momentum?

(Laughs) I’m getting old, so I want to rest.

You can catch Tokido when he takes on Lee “Infiltration” Seon-woo at the Twin Galaxies Fight Club, kicking off at 9pm PT, Saturday August 4^th.