Vakala from Arcadia Fighters sent in a translation of an interview their website did with Razer|Latif. They discuss various topics from Super Street Fighter 4 Arcade Edition v2012 to possible other games he'll play in the competitive scene. Note, this interview was done before v2012 was released.
AF-As usual in our interviews ,first of all we would like to know a little more about yourself : If you study or work, what are your hobbies, what music do you like...
L-My name is Abdulatif aka Latif. I was born and raised in the eastern province of saudi Arabia, I'm here in the US on a student visa, I got a scholarship to continue my education in the Untied States after doing well in my senior year in high school. i am currently studying at University of Arizona majoring in Finance!!
I enjoy spending my time hanging out with friends and playing soccer as a hobby but I haven't been doing it much since school has been getting tough >:( and of course playing street fighter.
I also like to listen to amy type of music except for metal!
AF-Now let see your gamer side, we would like to know how many hours do you play, what is your trainning routine, if you do it offline or online, against whom....
L-A lot of people think that I play 24/7 a day poongko style but thats not true haha, the only time where I spent so much time playing the game was in summer vacation in order to prepare for EVO, I played around 7 hours a day. my training routine was pretty much playing online mode, sometimes ranked just to play against all kind of players randomly then move on to endless if i wanted to test something or was uncertain about a specific match up. Almost every day I played I learned something new which makes me go to training mode to test more stuff in the lab about what I learned and brain storm a bit to figure out additional stuff.
Hit the jump for the rest of the interview.
AF-What do you think about the changes of 2012 version?And Viper changes?Will you continue with it? What would be the tier list?
L-I like the 2012 changes, it seems that a lot of characters in the game will equally likely to do well in tournaments, it will be much more balanced than AE. I honestly thought super was very balanced but after AE got released everything changed, characters that didn't need a nerf got nerfed and vise versa. I'm still going to play viper in AE2012 and looking forward to her new changes.
I think there are going to be a lot of A tier characters in this version, if there is to happen to be a one S tier character that would be seth since he kind of remained the same from AE while all the other top characters got nerfed.
AF-Many of us have suffered the obscene amount of damage that makes Viper with a simple combo, as we call in Spain ''flautas de Viper'', do you think that Viper is a little broken? Do you think Viper is top?
L-I think viper is definitely one of the top characters in the game but I won't say that she's broken, she seems broken when someone wins with her against a player that has no clue on what to do against her, she's a character that you need to play against a lot in order to know how to beat her. She's a hard character to win with against high level of players since she's been the same for three years with only slight nerfs from version to version. Also, Viper isnt a standard character, to beat viper you have to beat the player. Each player makes viper seems to be a completely different character, if viper was a broken/easy character to win with as most people claims her to be, everyone would be playing her by now, it almost took 3 years to get the character to its maximum potential and still no one won any solo international major with her yet.
AF-For you,who is the best viper in the world? Many japanese players say that in Japan there is no Viper as good as yours, what do you think?
L-It felt really great hearing that but I can't say who is the best viper since I myself a viper player lol. Other players should decide that.
AF-A question, maybe a bit compromised, in your opinion, who are the best SF players now?
L-I don't think there is a best street fighter player as of right now, the competition is very close and every major you see a new face doing well in a tournament or winning the whole thing. There are always upsets in majors! its really hard to decide but in my opinion the most consistent ones are probably kazunoko and daigo. Maybe this will change in AE2012
AF-Are you happy with your performance at EVO or do you expected to win it? You eliminate many of the favourite players (Daigo,Pongkoo), how do you feel?
L-I felt really happy about my EVO performance, my main goal was to reach top 8 , never thought i would end up getting second place! My training sessions paid off very well I guess lol
AF-What do you think about Daigo's performance? Many people were disappointed with him? Don't you?
L-Daigo did very well at EVO, he was the favorite player to win the whole tournament thats why people were disappointed in his performances. The competition was very strong, anyone could have won that day.
AF-After the EVO, we read that you will change your sponsor, why? What do you expect from this new sponsor?
L-Yes, i have already signed my contract with the new sponsorship that will be announced at SCR, I left BT because the new sponsorship will provide me more oppurtunities to travel in a lot of International tournaments in the future..
AF-With all the new games that will come out this year and next (SFxT, UMvC3, SC5...) are you going to play any of them seriously or remain only SF?
L-I'll probably only play Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and Street Fighter X Tekken seriously.
AF-Have you try one of these games? Do you see them competitive?
L-I have only played Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 for about an hour and haven't played against any other players yet but from what I saw, there are a lot of random factors in the game but that doesn't mean that its not competitive, as long there are many good players and a big scene for it, it'll be competitive.
AF-With this we thank you for your cooperation and hope see you soon in our country!!!
L-Thank you for having me and i hope the same too. :)
@3
Dude, do you not know ANYTHING about ethnicity at all??!!! You thought Latif was BLACK??!!! WTF ARE YOU ON??!!! You clearly have no idea what black people look like lol
@7 Ah. The number confused me, I was trying to understand what he was saying :P. Thanks
It's on the latest Cross Counter Live, Mike Ross mentioned that he lost his cell phone while staying at a hotel (he mentioned that they really needed one person staying awake as a lookout for potential thieves).
As a Chinese native, this sort of thing doesn't surprise me at all, Mike should be glad that was the ONLY thing that happened to him, hah. There are really really good places in China and then there are some really really bad places. For any foreigners going to China, especially if you're not already Asian or not Caucasian, just take extra cautions, because you will stick out like a sore thumb (aka juicy lambs for the wolves).
@4 - Never saw his actual self in a fighting video until EVO, and even then, Latif and Abdul-latif are two different names. He looked brown and with that hat on, I couldn't tell up until now that he confirmed himself to be Arabic.
@5 - what #7 said, mubta3ith is the term for abroad students, el shargiah is well, the place where he come from (eastern province), similar to saying Texan. I'm Hasawi (that's al Ahsa for you and yes, it is a city in the el shargiah too) myself. :P
HEY LATIF!
If ur losing in Ultimate just remember one thing... Oroborus
Latif should drop UMvC3 and pick up KOFXIII, a much, much better game.
And also better than SF4.
Hopefully one day I'll get to face Latif in SF x Tekken. It'll be amazing.
@19
I think it's pretty much a widely regarded fact that MvC3 and SF4 are balls.
What is wrong with metal lol...