Trash Talk

Brian gets iDom on the mic to talk over recent events in Street Fighter! From official drops like a major balance patch and the final CPT qualifier, to community pop-offs and sponsorship woes.

Before becoming the face of fighting games, Sajam got his start by dabbling in Street Fighter 4 and other post-2009 era titles. During this time, he noticed a distinct lack of fighting game content and guides to onboard him to the genre, and worked to fill that need himself from the start. After graduating highschool, Sajam became another socal Arcade Rat, competing heavily in both Injustice and KI, under the moniker, Steeeeeeeeeeve. During his long hours at the arcade, he was eventually noticed for both his gameplay and content creation in the genre, and was granted a seat at the commentary table. Getting into the content game early allowed Sajam to begin making enough money from his youtube channel to stop working his part time jobs after school. From this point forward, Sajam used any spare time he could find from his college education to live a double life as a hybrid competitor and commentator.

With the Street Fighter 4 esports scene growing year after year, the release of Street Fighter V brought in new opportunities, and new investors, looking to capitalize on the potential market. Sajam found himself in prime position to take his commentary career to the next level, and took the jump in 2016 to focus on it full time With his gift for gab, dedication to the craft, and a bit of luck, Sajam went from commentating the graveyard shift of online weekly events, to EVO grand finals within a year.

Sajam quickly became the most prolific commentator in the world of fighting games, with appearances in EVO grand finals across multiple titles, E-League, the Capcom Pro Tour, and Capcom Cup itself.

While his commentary career grew, Sajam made the conscious decision to grow his content brand. Unbeknownst at the time, this would eventually serve to save his career, as an internal disagreement with a member of Capcom’s production team would lead to a pause in his hiring. Even more so, soon, the world would go into lockdown due to Covid, bringing down the tournament scene, and with it, all major commentary opportunities.

During this time, Sajam further developed his unique Twitch talk show to YouTube content pipeline and style, further building his presence both in, and outside of the fighting game community. Soon his efforts got him nominated for Best Fighting Game streamer at the Streamer Awards. While he did not win the award, he leveraged this opportunity to network with larger content creators outside of the core FGC audience, with the intention of building a show which would help himself, and the FGC as a whole, break containment.

This production would culminate in the Sajam Slam, a team tournament series which pairs some of the largest content creators in the greater twitch-verse with pros from their respective fighting games. Returning to Street Fighter with commentating EVO grand finals, the success of the slam series, and a year later, securing the Fighting Game Streamer of the year award, Sajam shares his complete journey, and the secrets to his success in gaming, commentary, content creation, and growing the FGC. Please enjoy.

Prior to becoming one of the strongest character specialists and most successful content creators in the Street Fighter scene, Broski got his start dabbling in online lobbies for Street Fighter 4 with his friends and posting meme clips on youtube. 

In the final years of Street Fighter 4, he discovered a local gathering and made his first trip to play offline, despite his initial doubts. Getting over this fear opened his eyes up to the greater Street Fighter competitive scene. With the release of Street Fighter V around the corner, Broski prepared to go all in.

With the esports bubble on the rise, he found his opportunity in the world of competitive Street Fighter with the Gfinity Elite series, netting him his first full time sponsorship, and a taste of what the professional gaming life could be like.

With the rise of this wave, he made the decision to switch to part time work to focus more on his Street Fighter career in late 2019, unaware that soon the bubble would burst and the pandemic would bring the esports scene to a halt.

With the world in lockdown, and a brand new main in Oro to explore, Broski made the decision to invest more into streaming and content creation. With more time to practice and passion to play and develop his Oro, Broski saw his results steadily improve in the now-online only CPT circuit. This success culminated with his first appearance on SFL EU, where he played a pivotal roll in leading his team Mouz to victory.

After the release of Street Fighter 6, Broski initially settled into JP for his first competitive character, but didn’t quite find his calling until AKI released. With his new main in hand, Broski would close out season 1 strong with a World Warrior win under his belt, and a 3rd place finish in the regional finals.

With Season 2 underway, AKI received a significant number of buffs, and Broski was ready to capitalize. After securing his spot in the winners side of the UK and Ireland regional finals, Broski took down the competition, including EVO 3rd place finisher EndingWalker, to secure his first ever Capcom Cup qualification.

On this episode of Trash Talk, we cover Broski’s journey from beginner Street Fighter player, to Capcom Cup qualifier, the secrets behind his content creation success, and why AKI, is cool. Please enjoy.

At the age of 18, MenaRD qualified for the 2017 Capcom Cup finals. Hailing from the Dominican Republic, a lesser known region in the world of Street Fighter, MenaRD was expected to falter in the face of the established veterans of the game that stood in his path. At the time, the only people who expected MenaRD to perform, let alone win, were his fellow country men, and MenaRD himself. The historic run that followed culminated with a grand finals showdown between the young Dominican Birdie player, and the reigning EVO champion and legendary fighting game genius, Tokido. MenaRD, against all odds, would narrowly avoid defeat in the first set to then reset the bracket and ultimately claim the Capcom Cup title.

This unprecedented win catapulted both MenaRD, and the Dominican Republic as a whole, into the forefront of the minds of the greater Street Fighter community. This new found success came bundled with a new level of pressure and scrutiny placed on the young player. While MenaRD continued to put up strong results in the following seasons, he was failing to capture the same magic that had earned him his Capcom Cup title, and felt the weight of the negativity projected at him from the online community.

Things would soon however, change forever. With the support of his team, Bandits, along with his friends, family, and colleagues, MenaRD began to see a light at the end of the tunnel. Suddenly, MenaRD had captured that same magic he had in 2017, and made history once again in 2023 by winning Capcom Cup IX, the final Capcom Cup for SFV, and becoming the only person to ever win the cup twice.

With the release of Street Fighter 6, MenaRD established himself as one of the most dominant and consistent players in the world. With an EVO Vegas grand finals appearance, multiple premier top 8 finishes, Street Fighter League USA and World championships, and the EVO Japan 2024 title under his belt, MenaRD has found the science behind his magic, and aims to use it to conquer the competitive circuit.

On this episode of Trash Talk, I sit down with MenaRD to discuss his journey from playing at home in the Dominican Republic, to dominating on the world stage, how he handled the pressure of taking the crown from the established players as a new face in the scene, and his thoughts on the current state of Street Fighter 6, the pro tour, and his hopes for the future.

Dual Kevin has in recent months established himself as one of the strongest and most consistent Street Fighter 6 players on the planet. After touring the world in attempt to qualify for the Esports World Cup, he succeed at the very end at the Last Chance Qualifier, defeating world class competitors in a historic, but un-documented losers bracket run. While he made his mark with a strong 13th place finish and eliminating the EVO Japan champion and favorite to win MenaRD, Dual Kevin would continue his momentum by securing 3 consecutive top 3 finishes in the following CPT premiers. But before his ascension to this level of world class play in Street Fighter, Dual Kevin was a college student working at McDonalds in Indiana, with dreams of being the best Marvel vs. Capcom 3 player on the planet. With a main stage EVO top 8 finish under his belt, he switched his focus to competing in Street Fighter, eventually quitting both school and his job to go all in on becoming the best player in the world. On this episode of Trash Talk, I sit down with Dual Kevin and discuss this journey, the training techniques he leveraged to ascend to the next level, and the harsh reality of how the Capcom Pro Tour in 2024 does not reward consistency. Please enjoy.

NuckleDu has been one of the strongest Street Fighter players in the world for over a decade, where he began winning tournaments at the age of 14 to help pay for his food while his parents were away. With his shakey home life, Du was thrust into the shady world of esports while a teenager, traveling the country and training in seedy areas with questionable sponsors to pursue his dream of being the best. Over the years, NuckleDu established himself as one of the strongest and most consistent players in the world, securing Evo top 8 appearances, Capcom Cup qualifications, and high profile legitimate sponsors. This all came to a head in the first Capcom Cup for SFV in 2016, where NuckleDu claimed 1st place. Due to his lack of guidance in this world, this lead to a financial misstep and Du owing over $140k in back taxes to the IRS. Now married with two children, Du has raised the bar in his dedication and perseverance as a professional Street Fighter player, grinding to secure his financial stability, pay his debts, and provide for his family. Du breaks down his journey from humble beginnings to being a leader in the professional fighting game scene, and his recent qualification into Capcom Cup XI.

Nephew has been one of the strongest Street Fighter players in the USA for several years now. After leaving his full time software engineering position at Google to pursue being a full time professional Street Fighter player and gaming content creator, he has now solidified himself as one of the best in the world. After a string of strong performances, included 9th at EVO 2024, EWC qualification, 5th at ECT, Nephew placed 2nd at CPT Singapore as the only American to enter the event among the sea of top Japanese and Asian competitors, to secure his spot in Capcom Cup. This is his story.

Capcom Cup Champion and the man carrying the weight of the Manon army on his shoulders, iDom, hops on to discuss his meteoric rise in the FGC during the Street Fighter V era, his critiques and true feelings of Street Fighter 6, competing in this era, and getting to the grand finals of a CPT premier with a "low tier".