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James Hata, Champion and UFS Lead Developer: The Comprehensive Interview |
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Written by VikramS
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Friday, 29 August 2008 |
2008 World Singles Champion, 2007 Team Worlds Champion, 2007 US Nationals Singles Champion, 2007 and 2008 ECC Champion as well as many other AoP/FoP titles and numerous Top 8's at various major and minor events - there isn't a whole lot that James Hata hasn't done in this game. He ends his competitive career on the highest possible note as he leaves to join FFG as UFS Lead Developer in a few weeks, so I thought I'd talk to him about his entire history in the game and his plans for the future in this comprehensive interview. I've been lucky enough to play against him in and out of competition many times and am also proud to call him a friend, so it's with some sadness that I see him leave top level UFS behind but also with a lot of hope for the direction of the game in his capable hands, and I know you all feel the same way. Here's what he had to say on the scope of his past successes and what the next chapter holds in store for him
Vik: Alright let's start off easy - Name, Age?
James: James Hata, 22! A year older and wiser since the last time we did this thing.
Vik: That's debatable. The "wiser" part, specifically.
Vik: So let's start off before Nationals last year.
James: Fun times.
Vik: What was your experience with UFS like?
James: I started UFS in New York when Set 1 was just released. Actually the funny thing is that the first two packs I decided to buy along with my Chun-Li Starter had the same freaking rare, Eye Patch!
Vik: Strong.
James: Yeah, my friends told me to quit right then and there cause I had no luck with packs. That weekend after I started, Josh Morris and Seth Morrigan both showed up to the store I went to and they were doing this event where you got to meet the employees and play them for their staff card, like sort of an introduction to the game/ promotional event to get the word out. I ended up taking my terrible Chun-Li deck and surprisingly beat Seth's UR Voldo deck by pure luck and won my first staff card...I dunno, at the time I felt like it was a huge deal and was awesome.
Vik: Already your local metagame was strong. Had you played any CCGs on a competitive level before?
James: Oh no, not at all.
Vik: How did you work your way on up?
James: Well this was in 2006, so I didn't even know about Nationals. The thing is, I missed all the major events in '06 because i went on a study abroad to Sydney, Australia.
Vik: What was your transition as a player like at that time, if at all, and when you returned? You told me it was pretty gradual, right?
James: Well okay, here's the thing; In Australia, I was able to find a playgroup that played UFS except they weren't too competitive and were always a set behind. So I was pretty dominant over there for a good 6 months, I think taking 3 losses total or something ridiculous like that during that time span.
Vik: Yikes.
James: When I came back to NY, I hit up my old store, and found out about The Next Level (SF03), which was the latest set at the time that I missed. So I quickly got acquainted with the set and started playing on a much more competitive level - 'cause thats just how NY is - and then started entering those lovely Foundations of Power tournaments.
Vik: Emptiness FTW.
James: Haha yeah. I had no FoPs at the time, because I missed the first one, but my then Promo Tira Death deck was still pretty effective. When i discovered Nakoruru though, I quickly switched over and then entered and won my first FoP. And I mean, pretty much from there I had a good streak...altering the deck here and there, but I was pretty much known for my Death deck at the time.
Vik: From an analysis standpoint, your Promo Cassandra/Ruru deck for US Nationals 2007 was very powerful because it was an early hybrid deck that took the best established control elements of Death and had a brutally fast attack base on top of that framework. Did you expect it to do as well as it did? Did you think you could win?
James: I expected to do well and focused more on not making mistakes than winning Nationals. That deck originated in Australia, came over to the States and was constantly refined over a long period of time, so I was extremely comfortable with it.
Vik: Were you nervous at all, seeing as it was your first big tournament?
James: Yeah, extremely.
Vik: I bet playing Jihan Critchlow (Goo) in the Finals, a good friend, made it somewhat easier.
James: Well I mean up till that point it was really rough; facing Matt Kohls, who I'd heard so much about, twice, then facing the previous Nationals winner...
Vik: Wess Victory...
James: Yeah, and being able to beat them out was just really awesome. But facing Jihan was rough. He knew exactly how my deck ran because we played each other often but I didn't know how his ran completely because he added in Promo Yun-Seong as a sideboard option at the last moment.
Vik: What was the tipping point? Too much control on your side?
James: Actually, it was purely You Will Not Escape.
Vik: Good card, I hear.
James: I knew Jihan's deck only ran 8 attacks, even with the sideboard because all he had was Infiltrating and those Rock-only attacks. When he sided into Yun-Seong in Game 2, I found he just replaced the Rock-only attacks with Shadow Banishment.
Vik: So you were able to cripple him with YWNE, Megalomania, and Terrible Discovery trickery?
James: Yeah, pretty much.
Vik: It was also a significant win because it put the NY meta and you personally on the map.
James: Yup, well Fred (Ehrhart) did pretty good at Worlds the year before I hear...
Vik: Yes, with Tycho...
James:...but nobody cared, 'cause it's Fred.
Vik: Fred has no self-promotion skillzorz?
James: lol, yeah.
Vik: This leads us into...East Coast Championship 2007. *Sigh*...
James: Ah fun times, what was it like 2-3 weeks after Nats?
Vik: Yep.
James: Yeah I was annoyed by that, coming up with a new deck was really annoying.
Vik: So instead of riding the Cassie deck, you came up with a Fire Cody. Why? Was it Dark Empire (Dark Hado/Defender Of The Empire) specifically or something else?
James: Honestly, I expected people to copy the Death archetype.
Vik: Which some people did, I recall.
James: At any rate, I realized that mirror matches were something I wasn't looking forward to/
Vik: Boring?
James: Annoying. But yeah, in order to come up with a deck that could stand a fair chance against the Death archetype I wanted something that still had the aggro/control that Death provided.
Vik: It was also effective against Void, apparently.
James: Haha, well all my decks worked well against Void, or rather weren't crippled by it.
Vik: So we both went undefeated in Swiss, and ID'd in the last round after an EPIC game in the last round of Swiss that went nowhere.
James: Yeah, fun times.
Vik: Then, we went through Top 8, and met in the final. Anything that worried you there?
James: In the Final against you?
Vik: Yeah, or Top 8?
James: Not really, I mean I faced you before in Swiss so I knew your deck pretty well.
Vik: Yeah 50 minutes for ONE GAME!!! Ouch, that was epic.
James: Yeah epic SUCK!
Vik: Thanks to 4x Emptiness on the board, heh. I was worried because I knew Dark Empire would give me huge problems. It mitigated my discard a lot, and then of course the Pure Of Heart in Game 3 wrecked me.
James: That was always fun.
Vik: Did you expect a lot of discard? It was an unorthodox choice.
James: Between Awakening, Promo Ukyo, and the ever popular UR Dhalsim I knew I'd see at least some discard and since most chararacters had a 7 handsize, free burning for 7 is always nice, especially when you're playing angry Fire deck. Or well...8 in your case.
Vik: Yeah, eff you. So in the intervening time between ECC and Worlds, any decks or such that you experimented with?
James: No, not really. The only other deck I had besides Cassy and Cody was Twelve and he was really just a fun deck. I was burnt out deckbuilding-wise. These events were just too close together..and coming up with new stuff takes time. And really at this point I was like..."yeah I've won enough, I probably won't win any more."
Vik: Wow, that's funny, and totally wrong, as we shall see...as we approach Worlds 2007. First, Teams. It was you with Water Twelve, Omar (Chavez) with Fireball Kohls, and Fred playing Loop Tycho.
James: I was the weakest link.
Vik: Indeed, you were slammed all day. "Dead Weight" was the quote, I believe.
James: lol, not really to be honest. I only lost 2 matches, both to Paul Bittner's Matt Kohls deck. I was able to beat the WCC Champ (Will Simao Jr.) which was kind of cool. But yeah, the deck was ultimately just a fun hobby league deck that I wanted to showcase because at the time...actually even before the ECC...I had my symbols for my character picked out. I won Nats with Death, ECC just happened to work out with Fire, so I was like...why not? Let's go with Water!
Vik: It was very aggressive though.
James: Yeah it was fun and techy.
Vik: Lots of Throws, Twelve's abilities, Secret Art...kicked my ass a few times.
James: Usually just 12 damage Throw after 12 damage Throw coming at you, with Twelve's copy ability coming in handy to copy some control or something.
Vik: Exactly. It was unexpected. Any apprehension going into the Final? We've already discussed this in detail with Team UFS House previously but to recap, it was Matt Kohls with Evil Tira, Paul running Fireball Kohls and Jon Herr with UR Dhalsim.
James: Ah, well going into the Final, I pretty much was the sacrifice. Of course I wanted another shot at Paul but we also felt more confident about Omar and Fred's matchups.
Vik: You guys won the roll and took...
James: Me on Paul.
Vik: Pairing off your worst match first, interesting. Then they took Fred against Matt?
James: I think they took Omar on Jon.
Vik: Ah. Nobody wanted to play Fred, lol.
James: lol yeah, Fred's Tycho deck was insane.
Vik: So you guys win Teams, celebrate heartily, then in Singles the next day you coinflipped between Cassie and Cody, and Cody won out.Yet you didn't make top cut, was that a bad choice? Or was it a combination of fatigue/"I don't care"?
James: A combination of partying and tiredness, and to be honest I really didn't care.
Vik: Fair enough.
James: Like at that point I had 3 titles and was exhausted out of my wits.
Vik: Rest is good.
James: To be honest though I was still pretty close. I went 5-2 that day.
Vik: Yeah I remember we were talking about your chances all throughout the day.
James: I was tied with the other Cody in terms of points, but lost out on tiebreakers, so I was still feeling OK about it.
Vik: In the time after Worlds, before the next season started, you won a few Assets of Power tournaments, correct? This time you featured a pure Aggro deck, Fire Elena, and really helped that archetype gain prominence.
James: Oh yeah, Elena was fun.
Vik: Any particular comments on that deck style? Were you sick of Hybrid decks or just exploiting the speed that was available?
James: Hybrids were awesome, and they were in my comfort zone, but the thing is, Hybrids lost to turn 1 killers. And I saw a turn 1 killer in Elena. Granted, it didn't happen all the time but she was so ridiculously fast that I felt as though it was the only viable Aggro choice. Of course I still had to play smart against defensive decks and control when they set-up; but with that deck, I never felt like I was out of the running.
Vik: Any memorable matches in those AoPs?
James: Kicking your ass in the Team one was fun.
Vik: Ah I was getting to that. You won on a dice roll, bastard!
James: lol. But besides that I remember finishing a match in like 3-5 minutes, getting food coming back, and still waiting a good while in one of those AoPs.
Vik: So Team AoP in New York, your team kinda fell together in the last minute.
James: Yeah, my "team" didn't show up, bunch of assholes.
Vik: Once again, I play you in the Final (our team does, anyway), and lose horribly, after beating your faces in in Swiss.
James: Yeah, I'm good like that.
Vik: Why did you make me fail that dice roll? Voodoo, I swear.
James: 'Cause I'm MAGIC.
Vik: I know, trust me.
James: Haha.
Vik: Between that event and MWCC, you missed SCC, so were there any other events/decks that you recall?
James: Not really, I was more or less on hiatus cause of school and work. Oh, actually, there was the birth of the James Hata deck, the original Water version.
Vik: Yes, Version 1.0.
James: That was fun times.
Vik: Agohani Geri loops and Concealed Shallow Swipes. Quite effective.
James: Yeah, Water damage reduction, Regal Bearing draw power, it was hilarious jank. I actually gave Matt Kohls the decklist and I think he Top 8'd at some AoP.
Vik: Champion to champion deck networking. STRONG.
James: Well we didn't have any big tournaments around here, heh.
Vik: Now we get to the fun part, MWCC.
James: Oh yeah.
Vik: Or Supah Happee Phun Tyme, as I call it.
James: Yeah, fun times Indian midget..fun times.
Vik: You, me, Omar, and Chris Kovaz (scubadude) were all repping Team Dani House. Teams was you, Chris, and Dani Carpenter - our host. You ran the epic SANKURO! For those that don't know, what inspired this deck?
James: I remember - so yeah, Water Hata flopped against Evil and I was out of ideas. So I borrowed my friend's Fire Akuma deck...
Vik: And then I kicked it's ass, repeatedlly.
James: Yeah yeah, I'll give you that one, asshole.
Vik: Then you sort of randomly created Sankuro, and it was really good. Even against Evil.
James: I think I was just randomly looking through books to get ideas.
Vik: And stealing my cards.
James: Yeah fun times.
Vik: So you guys do pretty well, getting 3rd in Teams. Next morning, you tell me "I want to play Death"...
James: Oh yeah that was retarded...
Vik:...And we build the Death/Water Hata IN THE CAR on the way to the tournament.
James: We figured out that decklist in the car. It was like 75 cards or something.
Vik: We kept forgetting cards, lol.
James: Last minute cuts at the freaking place brought it down to 64. Good times.
Vik: Indeed.
James: I remember after Round 1, I was like "crap, I can't kill anybody, it's like a mill deck."
Vik: All those reading this, I really think you should do that sometime. After the first round you were like "Um Vik, I think this sucks". But then you got comfortable with it fast.
James: Yeah it usually takes me at least a match to get used to something new. This was actually the first time I ever got to use Addes Syndicate too, which was kind of nice.
Vik: It's a decent card, so I've heard. Again, borowed from me. At least I got those back!!
James: Also it is where the term "Green Wall of China" originited from, 'cause I played cranny (Kevin Cranstoun) and he coined it.
Vik: You still owe me two Terrible Discoveries, asshole.
James: Cry me a river, bitch. They're rotating anyway.
Vik: True. Green Wall is hard to break through.
James: It was like 1x King's Games, 3x Seal of Cessation, 4x Addes or something stupid.
Vik: Yes, that is stupid. So, no events for you between MWCC and Nats?
James: Nah, school and work, I did try to change up the Hata deck though.
Vik: Since you bring that up, let's talk about the Ibuki issue a bit and how it influenced your deck changes, because that was a factor before she was banned.
James: You mean when you came up to NY?
Vik: Yeah. I know you were worried about her, and I visited you guys and brought her up for testing. Did you learn anything about the Hata deck that helped you? I mean, getting pulverized in 7 straight matches was a good "learning experience", right?
James: Ass.
Vik: I couldn't resist.
James: Um, the Hata deck gets stomped by Kasumi-Suzaku + not being able to commit your board. I also did come to the realization that death negation + draw power might be cool, soon after that stomping, so Death/Fire Hata is born.
Vik: With which you did repay the favor against my Evil Akuma when you visited us, so it's fair. Before Set 9 was released, you were still planning on running that version of Hata for Nats, correct?
James: Yeah. It was my only deck at the time. My local friends will tell you, I was focused on trying to make that character good, focused on the point of annoying people when I asked for advice.
Vik What gave you problems at Nationals 2008? Anything specific?
James: After Ibuki got banned, I wasn't particularly worried about anything. I also heard alot of the Michiganers were adopting similar decks to my Hata: Death negation + Fire splash for Concealed Shallow Swipe. The real difference was that I also Agohani looped as before.
Vik: So we all know who won that one. No need to stroke his ego further.
James: lol, yeah, damn tiebreakers.
Vik: ECC 2008 then. I sadly missed it, but you were able to repeat as Champion, with the new Ibuki.
James: Yeah.
Vik: What made you decide to run her? And did anything give you problems?
James: Well long ago, I decided to never run Evil as sort of like a self-imposed restriction. Then I got kind of pissed off after Nats so I said "Screw it, I'm making Evil." Sort of similar to Omar's little Voldo being born out of hate towards Revitalize. I just wanted to spread the hate.
Vik: If you can't beat 'em...
James: Yeah. The new Ibuki, as soon as i saw her I was like..."Turn 1 Infiltrating? Cool."
Vik: Anything give you problems all day?
James: Not really, I had 3 game losses the whole day and 2 were due to Talim's random aggro that I wasn't expecting and 1 was to Shaneth's (Shane Duckworth') Akuma where I just over-extended.
Vik: The new breed of Talim wasn't an issue either, then?
James: I had to adjust my playing a little bit to deal with her but she wasn't a huge deal.
Vik: Before we get to Worlds 2008, let's talk about the design job. Had you already applied to FFG at this point? What was the process like, and what started it?
James: Well this goes back to US Nats. I basically went up to Steve (Horvath) and said "Yo ...I need a job." And he said "Okay, send me a resume." I was surprised but I immediately sent in my resume when I got back, and got a phone call the same day.
Vik: The fact that he would accept an app from a brown person must have thrown you.
James: lol
Vik: lol, I kid of course.
James: But yeah, ECC was supposed to be my last showing because the day after the ECC I flew to Minnesota for an in-person interview.
Vik:: Really? I didn't know that.
James: Yeah, but the FFG guys mentioned that they were busy with all this prep for GenCon so I basically said "Okay then...I want one last GenCon as a player if that's ok?" And they said "fine".
Vik: So you got an "extension" for Worlds, basically?
James: Yup.
Vik: Did it feel awkward, knowing that it was your last competition and having only a few people in on the secret?
James: Yeah it was really weird. It was also weird like picking what to play and stuff 'cause I did want to go with Hata again especially since Andrew Olexa said he would play his character...and Matt Kohls said he'd play himself if I would. At the same time, though, I wanted to show my best at my last competition and I knew Ibuki was probably my best.
Vik: We talked about this a bit on that Wednesday, and I think you decided on her, without caring about diversity, because she gave you the best chance to win.
James: Yeah, I basically thought if I'm not the best Ibuki player, then I don't deserve to win.
Vik: In Teams, you guys came close to repeating. It was Voldomar, Fred running Twelve this time, and you played Ibuki. What were the deck matchups in the Final, and what went down?
James: Well the Finals it was Olexa's team of Jeremy Ray with Alex, Olexa with Guy, and Matt with Sakura. Omar took on Alex, I took on Guy, and Fred took on Sakura. I pulled through in a close 2-1 against Olexa, but Omar ended up losing against Alex and Fred lost as well. Yeah, it was a sad day for my teammates but I didn't really mind, because I did pretty good all day.
Vik: You guys were bummed out, but how did you perform individually?
James: I lost one match to Evil Ukyo.
Vik: Then in Singles...not a lot gave you trouble.
James: Singles was interesting.
Vik: We talked about All control possible being an issue with Tag Along and Kung-Fu Training along with lots of the usual control pieces - Addes, Blood Runs True, etc.
James: Oh yeah, the Alex matchup scared me cause iIwas unfamiliar with it and I knew Jeremy Ray was piloting it. He was kind enough to playtest with me real quick one match that day before the tournament and he pretty much beat me up 2-0. I did learn a lot though. My matches throughout the day were interesting, facing two different Donovan decks in a row was fun and the Ibuki mirror match was scary.
Vik: How about the Finals against Ben Shoemaker's Evil Ukyo? Any difficulties, memorable sequences, etc.?
James: I knew Evil Ukyo was fast, so instead of trying to outrush it I decided to build up control pieces.
Vik: Interesting.
James: But yeah, using Anti-K' - "Oh shit, it's the cops!" - was hilarious.
Vik: Very good tech, that card. Especially with his early rolls costing him turns.
James:: Yeah, it matches all 3 symbols with Ibuki for some reason and that 2-check, Scourge of Zeus hurt him.
Vik: And James Hata went out on top...riding off into the sunset...as 2008 World Champion and Lead Developer of UFS! Sounds good, no?
James: It's kind of sad that it's my last showing and that I won't get to defend my titles next year.
Vik: I will really miss you in competition man. Still, it will be fun to see you and chill at all the big events like usual.
James: Yeah definitely. I sort of don't want anymore titles anyway.
Vik: Jerkface.
James: lol, I beat the game!
Vik: C-C-C-Combo Breaker!
James: Oh god!
Vik: Before you get on your horse and roll out to Minnesota, a few more general questions. When you build decks, is there an overriding philosophy? Or do you switch it up depending on the metagame? Explain a bit about your process.
James: Well I don't really consider the meta too much. The overriding philosophy, I guess, is to have some answer for any situation you can think of. Don't have any matchup where you automatically lose or have a significant disadvantage, be able to kill quickly, but also have enough control to last the long game.
Vik: That's been true for nearly all your decks, as far as I can see.
James: Whenever I see a character or a symbol that I think encompasses these ideas, I build it, tweak it, and playtest to all hell.
Vik: For novice deckbuilders, are there particular ratios to use? Or just whatever fits, within the versatility theme?
James: I never really calculate it, it's more of a product of testing.
Vik: In my own experience and others, you are the hardest player to rattle that I've ever faced and also tend to exude a lot of confidence in-game. How do you go about acheiving that? Besides your voodoo magic.
James: Haha really?
Vik: Oh yeah. There are others right up there like Jon but against you it's always been the toughest.
James: Hmm...I don't really pay attention to who I'm playing...whether they're famous or not. My big thing is to study the deck I'm playing against, what they're kill condition is, how they achieve it, and what pieces are necessary to pull it off. If I know you can't kill me because you don't have a particular piece out that guarantees your win, I'm not too worried. The more you do it, the easier it gets to do.
Vik: That is definitely true. Practice makes perfect.
James: The quicker you understand your opponent's deck, the easier it is to manipulate them and either kill them outright before they get their kill or out-control their pieces so they cant pull their kill off.
Vik: Talking about the design job, what are your plans for the future of UFS? Anything specific like new keywords and such, or just general ideas you want to bring?
James: I can't speak about specifics mostly because I haven't talked with Steve regarding them yet but expect symbols to matter more. It's hard to explain but I'm pretty much trying to make it so that every symbol on a character counts.
Vik: More effects that involve resources will matter, essentially?
James: Yeah.
Vik: Any ideas for your second character card?
James: lol, no freaking clue. I want it to somehow interact with the first one but still be independent enough that it isn't useless when the first one cycles out. I'll get working on that after I move.
Vik: Finally, any last parting words of wisdom, advice, comments, thanks to friends or whatever? Make it count...
James: Haha...
Vik:...or be funny.
James: God dammit, ugh. I want to thank all the players I've met throughout my trips around. You're all great people...if not a little weird (lookin' at you, Vik). I will obviously miss competiting against you guys but I will still be around beating faces at Staff Challenges. Oh, and uh, be patient for a little longer please, I need to move and get settled before I can fix stuff. Besides that, be fun, be happy, and kick some ass. See you in the arena!
Vik: Weird? WEIRD?!?!?! Damn you Hata!!!
James: lol
Vik. And on that note we end. Good luck buddy, you're gonna need it...
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 03 September 2008 )
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