One of the best Under Night In-Birth Players Global
If you’ve been playing Under Night In-Birth and haven’t heard of Redblade something must be wrong. Redblade has been a rising star in the UNIST scene for a while and he was even talked about by top player Squish back in my interview with him.
His about him was right as well! “some players are really starting to make a name for themselves in the community such as Redblade and JJ. They both got top 8 at Combo Breaker! I look forward to seeing the growth in strength of some of these newer players, some of them are catching up at a really fast pace.” Redblade has grown at a crazy fast rate since then taking second at Climax of Night and completely swept absolutely everyone (including his own team) in a 15 v 15 exhibition! He has marked a spot in the eyes of many as the best Wagner player NA and as a part of the highest level of UNIST competition!
Q1: So ever since I’ve been watching you I wanted to know what game or games did you play competitively before UNIST and who did you main? Are there any skills you got from that game/character that translated over to under night?
A: I played SFV (Karin) and Blazblue (Hakumen). Had a brief stint with Guilty Gear but it ended up not being the game for me. I started wanting to get competitive with fighters back when Marvel 3 came out in 2011, but only started going to tournaments in 2015.
Q2: Do you still play any other games competitively or plan to pick any others up or is it strictly UNIST for you?
A: It’s UNI only for me. I now also dabble in BBtag with Mitsuru/Hyde, its a really fun game!
Q3: I know you just went to Climax of Night and I wanted to know what you thought of the event and what it does for the community?
A: Climax was a great event, honestly I think second only to CEOtaku. I think it’s incredible that French Bread games are big enough to get their own major now, and not only that, but to be able to get international competition in its first year as well as being noticed by the devs.
Q4: Speaking about the community I know some view a few of the UNIST guys as a “degenerate” bunch, do you share that sentiment or disagree?
A: Every community has it’s unsavory parts really. On the whole, though I really do love the community and I wouldn’t call it degenerate.
Q5: People are looking at you as the best Wager NA (myself included). When you were picking up Wagner was it due to tier status, playstyle, character herself or?
A: I played the previous version, EXE late, and saw concept art of her on the UNI wiki. I told myself if she ever got added to the game, I would at least try her out because I really liked her design. When the game first came out, people (including myself at one point) thought she was mediocre and a worse version of Hyde, but I wanted to stick with her because I knew she had potential and she was really fun to play.
Q6: During the “Redblade vs The World” incident at CoN did you expect what went down would go down?
A: I knew that after Trill and Senaru, I could sweep the rest of the enemy team. I definitely wasn’t expecting the mutiny though! I asked about it later and my friend Elemental was actually the one who suggested it, so as to not bore the audience. I think it was a great idea.
Q7: If there was ever a US vs Japan event for UNIST featuring the best of the best from each side how do you think both sides would stack up against each other?
A: While there are a lot of strong UNIST players that I think can match up to some of the best JP players (Squish, Infinity, myself, j3 to name a few) I think ultimately the divide in experience is just too much, and JP would win a JP vs NA event.
Q8: What do you think of the UNIST community’s growth? I know it’s been growing rapidly but do you think its gaining the attention it deserved?”
A: I’m really glad to see the community grow. I think the game is great and deserves the extra players and exposure. I hope that people will stick with it, but even if they don’t I always see myself playing this game.
Q9: Speaking of communities how did you get into fighting games and the fighting game community?
A: I got into fighting games at a really young age, my brothers had a copy of SF2 CE on the Genesis and I was hooked, and I also played the Mortal Kombat games on that system. Fast forward a couple years later and I discovered Marvel vs Capcom 2, which quickly became my favorite game in arcades and I played with my brothers all the time. My parents even got the ever elusive PS2 version of the game for my birthday, and it was just about the only PS2 game i played. I didn’t really think about getting competitive in it until MvC3, where I watched streams, posted on forums, and all that other stuff.
Q10: Lastly I was curious, where did the name “Redblade” come from?
A: I played a really old text RPG back in high school, and my character’s weapon was a red blade. I tried registering it on GameFAQs (the name was ninjaken) but that was taken, so I just settled on what the sword actually was, a red blade and it stuck ever since.
If you’d like to hear more from Redblade hit that follow button on his twitter here!
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