Coming fresh off of his win at Summer Jam XI we were able to grab Bustah (Twitter: @bstrwlf) for a quick TB10. If you haven't done so already go watch the Top 8 VOD (https://www.twitch.tv/videos/166494559) and see for yourselves why Bustah is one ARMS pro you definitely want to be keeping your eyes on! As always you can find his interview after the page break.
Question 1
APC: Please tell us a little about yourself?
B: My name is Aaron, I’ve been playing fighting games competitively since 2009. I was born and raised in Las Vegas. With EVO being in my backyard, I’ve always wanted to be good enough to make it onto the stage. The first fighting game I ever played was BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger, but I’ve primarily played Street Fighter games (IV & V).
Question 2
APC: When would you say you fell in love with competitive fighting games/eSports?
B: I’m very lucky to live in the same place the biggest fighting game tournament is held. My first EVO was 2010, and that was all it took for me— to see how passionate people from around the world were about the games they play, and the amount of time, dedication, and practice you could see in any of the games was infectious. It’s an incredible thing to me that you might not speak the same language as someone else but if you play the same game, you can still learn about them and communicate in many ways. It’s a unique experience that I haven’t found anywhere else.
Question 3
APC: What gaming achievement are you most proud of in your career so far?
B: So far my proudest gaming achievement hasn’t come from fighters. There was a period that I took an extended break from fighters, and took up speedrunning. I managed to get all possible records in Shovel Knight after several months of practice and long days of streaming. All those records were soon overtaken— but I did get a good amount of attention and spotlight for the work I did! It was an incredible experience, and very rewarding.
B: So far my proudest gaming achievement hasn’t come from fighters. There was a period that I took an extended break from fighters, and took up speedrunning. I managed to get all possible records in Shovel Knight after several months of practice and long days of streaming. All those records were soon overtaken— but I did get a good amount of attention and spotlight for the work I did! It was an incredible experience, and very rewarding.
Question 4
APC: What was it about ARMS that made you decide to take it seriously on a competitive level?
B: I actually had no intention of playing ARMS at all, it ended up sneaking up on me. I played it on a friends Switch at CEO 2017 just to pass some time. I fell in love with how simple but brutal it could be. The controls could be understood in minutes but the divide in skill based off how much overall fighting game experience and fundamentals someone had showed through play immediately. I wanted to play against more players and see what higher level play was like so we took the Switch to the casual area at CEO, and as luck would have it Zerk was there. I had just started playing the game a few hours earlier, and he was available to play casuals. He beat me up! But from that, I could see the foundation for the depth and high level play the game had to offer. I bought a Switch and ARMS as soon as I landed back in Vegas.
Question 5
APC: What made you pick your main over the other characters in the game?
APC: What made you pick your main over the other characters in the game?
B: My favorite type of character in any fighting game is the violent robot or android. That’s a vague description but there are enough characters out there to where I know that’s what I gravitate to. Iron Tager in BlazBlue, Jack 7 in Tekken, Jack X in Street Fighter x Tekken, Triborg in MKX. So Byte & Barq seemed like the only option when I picked up the game. It’s the small things that I love the most, such as Byte saying “BYE BYE” during a throw, and Barq’s howl during a Rush. It’s just too good.
Question 6
Question 6
APC: What is your favourite arm loadout & stage. (Please explain why)
B: I haven’t really dabbled in custom loadouts yet but out of the default loadouts I like Ninjara’s the most. In my opinion, he has the most versatile boxing glove in the game: Buffs. They don’t do the most damage but they have the most curve, best recovery, and since they can increase in size they help in some matchups where boxing gloves can struggle, such as against Ribbon Girl since she is airborne most of the time. It also helps that buffs build tons of meter for Rush, so you can cause players to overextend to catch up in the meter building aspect of the match. Chakram is a really difficult arm to use but it has longer range than Ram Ram and when it is charged can set up for great damage. It also breaks through most light-type weapons very well, which is a must-have. Triblast is great for its explosion property, it makes it a little trickier for defensive play styles typical of Twintelle or Spring Man, because if they counterattack at the wrong time they will run into an explosion.
Question 7
APC: Thoughts on custom vs standard arms for tournaments.
B: My personal preference is defaults but that’s only due to offline tournaments and the logistics of running offline tournaments. If customs become the standard offline somehow, I wouldn’t mind. I support both, I’m definitely going to be working more on custom loadouts for online tournaments in between the offline tournaments coming up in the next 6 months. So far it looks like the balance of the game is based a lot around defaults, so I am preparing more for offline to stay the standard. At the end of the day it’s up to Nintendo what happens. If a “tournament mode” or something similar is released where TO’s can have everything available, I’m sure that’s what we would play.
Question 8
APC: What advice would you give to someone just getting into the game?
B: If it’s your first fighting game— definitely reach out on the main competitive ARMS discord and character-specific discord servers. Try to practice defaults so that you have to work around your character's faults instead of swapping weapons to compensate. It will definitely help you grow faster, and then once you have more experience you can swap weapons around to keep things fun.
B: I haven’t really dabbled in custom loadouts yet but out of the default loadouts I like Ninjara’s the most. In my opinion, he has the most versatile boxing glove in the game: Buffs. They don’t do the most damage but they have the most curve, best recovery, and since they can increase in size they help in some matchups where boxing gloves can struggle, such as against Ribbon Girl since she is airborne most of the time. It also helps that buffs build tons of meter for Rush, so you can cause players to overextend to catch up in the meter building aspect of the match. Chakram is a really difficult arm to use but it has longer range than Ram Ram and when it is charged can set up for great damage. It also breaks through most light-type weapons very well, which is a must-have. Triblast is great for its explosion property, it makes it a little trickier for defensive play styles typical of Twintelle or Spring Man, because if they counterattack at the wrong time they will run into an explosion.
Question 7
APC: Thoughts on custom vs standard arms for tournaments.
B: My personal preference is defaults but that’s only due to offline tournaments and the logistics of running offline tournaments. If customs become the standard offline somehow, I wouldn’t mind. I support both, I’m definitely going to be working more on custom loadouts for online tournaments in between the offline tournaments coming up in the next 6 months. So far it looks like the balance of the game is based a lot around defaults, so I am preparing more for offline to stay the standard. At the end of the day it’s up to Nintendo what happens. If a “tournament mode” or something similar is released where TO’s can have everything available, I’m sure that’s what we would play.
Question 8
APC: What advice would you give to someone just getting into the game?
B: If it’s your first fighting game— definitely reach out on the main competitive ARMS discord and character-specific discord servers. Try to practice defaults so that you have to work around your character's faults instead of swapping weapons to compensate. It will definitely help you grow faster, and then once you have more experience you can swap weapons around to keep things fun.
Question 9
APC: What are your hopes for the future of ARMS?
B: I hope the competitive community and casual fans of the game can all come together and appreciate the opportunities we can have for this game, and support the game on all fronts. Defaults or customs, online or offline— it shouldn’t matter at all. All I want for the game is everyone to do their best and show their best so that more people who are hesitant to play or join only see the best. I hope that eventually the competitive scene for ARMS is ironed out and standardized and players can have opportunities to travel and grow as people. I want talented and passionate players to be able to shine and show what they can do around the world!
Question 10
APC: Where can people find out more about you?
APC: What are your hopes for the future of ARMS?
B: I hope the competitive community and casual fans of the game can all come together and appreciate the opportunities we can have for this game, and support the game on all fronts. Defaults or customs, online or offline— it shouldn’t matter at all. All I want for the game is everyone to do their best and show their best so that more people who are hesitant to play or join only see the best. I hope that eventually the competitive scene for ARMS is ironed out and standardized and players can have opportunities to travel and grow as people. I want talented and passionate players to be able to shine and show what they can do around the world!
Question 10
APC: Where can people find out more about you?
B: I do the majority of my rambling on twitter dot com at @bstrwlf. I stream about once a week at twitch.tv/bustahwuff and I’m always available to chat in any of the ARMS discord servers.
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