4gamer.net posted an article about TOPANGA League today. They interviewed Mago, Tokido, Nyanshi, and "Management No.3." Nyanshi is TOPANGA representative director. And No.3 is the man who supervises most of the game shows on Nico Nico. This's also the first and proper interview about TOPANGA itself.
Here's Beast Note summary.
Impression of the first half
- Uryo was the biggest trouble for Mago.
- Tokido doesn't like online matches. It's hard to adapt with the lag.
- Both Mago and Tokido think that they'll do better in the knockout stage which is offline play.
- sako and Umehara were hardest matches for Tokido.
- Bon-chan vs. Kazunoko was Tokido's highlight.
- Momochi vs. Umehara and sako vs. Haitani were Mago's highlight.
- Mago pointed out that top 3 are players from Kansai (western half of Japan) and 4 to 7 are players from Kantou (eastern of Japan). It's bitter for him.
About TOPANGA
- Nyanshi was Umehara's acquaintance. He and Bon-chan started SF4 because of Umehara's invitation. Bon-chan was already good at gaming, but Nyanshi seldom played games.
- Nyanshi realized when he participated GODSGARDEN #1 (August 2009) together with Umehara that fighting games is a form of entertainment from the hype in that place.
- The goal of TOPANGA is to raise social status of games and gamers. Nyanshi wants people to enjoy fighting games in the same way as soccer or baseball.
- Nyanshi went to Taiwan with Umehara and saw Umehara's popularity with his own eyes, he was convinced that this can be a real job.
- Umehara is not directly related to TOPANGA.
- In January 2011, Nyanshi heard that Mago and Tokido didn't do Kao TV anymore so he invited them to join TOPANGA. (They were Kao TV's regular members.)
- Tokido decided to move on with TOPANGA because GG staff have a real job and he has more time to spend. (Beast Note - That time, KSK was finding a new house and job. They had no place to stream as Gamer's Vision is gone. No Kao TV for 3-4 months.)
First pay-per-view [fighting game] show [TOPANGA League]
- Talking about PPV, Nyanshi thinks that it's now or never. SF4 is still a hit since 2008 and many players have switched from other games. For example, Fuudo from Virtua Fighter, Nemo and Kazunoko from Guilty Gear. The level of gameplay is also high enough to become an entertainment.
- No.3 said Nyanshi first mentioned about the league possibility in the middle of Haitani vs. sako Concept Match. Nyanshi formally made business proposal 1 week after that.
- No.3 said the number of viewers in that concept match was quite good.
- The PPV idea and 3,000 yen plus-minus was from Nyanshi.
- No.3 was worried at first, he thought about 1,000 yen. Then he thinks it's reasonable. Because when divided by 12, it's only 300 yen an episode. And they must avoid a loss.
- Mago pointed out that there're players from Nagoya and Kansai area. Traveling and hotel expenses are necessary.
- At first, No.3 thought that if they could get 1,000 ticket buyers it would be nice. Apparently it exceeds his expectation. He didn't reveal the number, but it's enough to expect a second season.
- Though it's a joint project, TOPANGA will get larger share (earnings) than Dwango (Nico's mother company).
- They asked Capcom for permission. But Ono (SF4 producer) made final decision saying he wants to support player-organized event to keep fighting game business going.
- Nyanshi talked about possibility of having B league (lower division). It's open for everyone, players get promoted to A league.
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