*Sobrang means too much or excessive in Tagalog (Filipino)
Before I start detailing the Tekken culture of the Philippines, I’d like to introduce myself so that you know who I am. My name is JT, aka JTchinoy. I’m a Filam (Filipino American) from Northern California and my main character is Ling Xiaoyu. I’ve been active in the American Tekken community since Tekken 5 and have used Xiaoyu since Tekken 5: DR. I have experience playing against the top players in Japan, Korea, and the United States. Don’t worry, I know just enough about Tekken and Tekken communities around the world to talk about this.
I’m currently living in the Philippines for an extended period and I’m here to give you some insight into the Tekken community that has bred a few big name players in America including the one and only FilthyRich. While everyone knows of these players, nobody actually knows about the culture that raised them beyond that fact that they grew up and learned Tekken in the Philippines. I’m here to provide that information. I’ve spent a total of 5 months in the Philippines as of this article and have been extremely active within the community since I’ve arrived. There’s a lot to cover, so I’ll be writing about a different aspect of the culture in this series of articles.
The first thing I’ll be covering is play style in the Philippines. Coming from America, I’m used to seeing play styles of all sorts from every corner of the country. Unlike America, however, Filipino Tekken players, or Tekkenistas, are mostly oriented towards turtling, or a defensive play style. Most people wait for others to whiff or do punishable moves or come to them and run into whatever they want to throw out. Tekkenistas have very good throw breaking, which is likely tied into their defensive style. While the players all are at a similar level of decency, very few players have play styles that make them unique compared to other people with the same character or make them raise above the rest in skill.
Among the few to be noted as unique in their own rights is the Lei player Dax. While not being a complete monster of a Lei player, his understanding of the transitions of Lei and constant use of them makes him always a nice break from the normal flow of games. Along with him is a Marduk player named Allan, who doesn’t know when to stop attacking. His offensive is typical Marduk offense, except he feels like a freight train running at you once the mixups start. He’s also very adept at using Marduk’s clap to launch people, when most Marduks would just ws+4 or ws+1 in the same situation. Lastly, there’s a misplaced Middle Eastern super model named Sassan who actually goes beyond the 5 move Bruce style. I’d say he uses maybe ½ of Bruce’s movelist, which is more than any Bruce I’ve played in any country. He also has a ridiculous instinct to low parry that dumbfounds me at times.
Because of the turtling oriented culture and emphasis on learning from each other, rather than pioneering their own play styles, the skill level of Tekkenistas is overall stagnant. While people improve their knowledge of matchups, nobody seems to take the time to refine their basics and adaptability. Some people spend several games losing just to get a vague grasp of their opponent’s style. While this may be okay for casuals and possibly death matches, it makes the community overall very vulnerable to new opponents in a tournament environment.
Comments
166 responses to “StrongStyle meets SobrangStyle*: Filipino Tekken”
what’s with the commotion…? haha posers getting the best of you guys.
for sure “GAGUKAMO” is someone who knows you guys with the way he talks poop against you peepz.
Just tripping and not worth the attention dudes.
-JeST_TeR- just let it be man. No need to pour your heart out everytime someone’s says poopy things about anybody or anything.
thanks wes, but this guy pushes my limits.. sorry for the commotion but this guy is taking advantage of the anonymous posting… im sorry and your probably right better ignore…
Sikat2 ku gli? Thanks mehn. Calma nlg mga bro pra indi mn dw gago gwa sg mga pinoy. Dpat ma lipay ta na my article si JT pra ma recognize man ang pinas. So tni untat na ni ^^
hahaha! taking advantage of anonymous posting it is! Well,we can’t blame them for trolling is their only way to make themselves happy. haha.
JT, disregard the posts re: this petty nonsense.
it’s just their way of grabbing attention away from the topic.
keep posting more articles about your travels and matches.
Btw, heard about the great Panda player in Visayas.
names anyone…?
are you reffering to iloilo or cebu? if iloilo his name is rowe…
ahay, cnu ni sa ayhan (GAGUKAMO) nga sakto lng magbura cya comment, cgurado ara lng na xa sa likod ta gatanaw lng ky last ya nga hampang tekken brickgame pa nga version, suyaan mo pa mga taga bacolod, pati lng ko, hisa ka lng naton ky d ka ya kabalo. sakto ko ay? mango ka naton maghampang, amo ni paagi mo para may masapak cmu? luoy man cmu, to ang community sng tekken sa bacolod kg iloilo kaagi skwela, kng gna panumdom mo nga mainaway cla or ma apektuhan cla sng gnaubra mo, te goodluck!!. tani mag sagad ka hampang tekken 6br sng pang trashtalk mo d,
wla ka gne kbalo kng diin ka malugar, la mo na notaran(GAGUKAMO)?
kalabanan d ga comment edukado, bskan amo na na ubra mo pang trashtalk intsndihun ka pa na d nila ky bal-an nila wla gd cla kwaon cmu.
suyaan mo pa nga ga english cla magreply cmu comment,, ngaaw? dugo ilong mo ka inchindi: anu ka mag one plus one hw? isa dugangan isa? (“pa english ka pa sir! kaw to ang eddy ay? congrats daw kaw lang to mayo galing lawlaw ka gyapon sa mata namon!HAHAHA”)
“sa mata namun”..cnu nga namun na dalahig mo to?d ka maghambal may tawo nga proud sa gna ubra mo? patayhuya ka na gd ya kng ma comment ka pa gd after cni, d ko na tani gusto mag intra galing gusto ko lng pabalo cmu nga yab-ok ka lng, bal-an mo kng anu ang tuod nga uyang sa tyempo? sng nangabudlay c nanay mo bun-a cmu ky nagdaku ka nga wla pulos..
Damn! Cant these posers be banned or something? I’m always checking this article out every after a while to see what other Filipinos have to say and all I see are a bunch of nonsense posts from a bunch of idiots!
They just ruin the Filipino image! I wonder what other people has to say about us because of these fools!
as for Nameless Master , SM ILOILO, akech-chinoy and GAGUKAMO… posers please stop… i know you guys are all pinoy’s.. anybody from abroad can read this.. let us be thankful to jt cause he’s giving us some attention but look what are we doing to the blog he just created? we acted like fools… stop the foolery and crab mentality… build a better tekken community here at pinas instead… God Bless and hope this will turn out right instead… peace ^^
With all respect to this page and jt’s article, my apology if my previous comment is not related to jt’s article, it’s just that some things are really need to be taken care of, specially when they already plucking on my nerves
Hopefully relevant comments start here. If there are going to be any more comments at all lol.
wtf is JT talking about? Abigan owned the bitch in their ft10 nuff said…
I also saw EL from bacolod whoop JT’s ass in their best of 5 at youtube.Jt is just hatin coz he got pawned.lol!!!
Comments like this are uncalled for man. We should be thanking JT for trying to get the Philippines some exposure. Kindly take your hate elsewhere, sir. Thank you.
“Akechi says:
April 11, 2011 at 10:01 pm
Who the hell is “akech-chinoy”????
woah, look i have a poser! ”
– haha. too many posers here man. :))))) btw, where’s my card? hahahaha. :)))))))))))))) when is your next TB man? i want to be there. 🙂
Thank you for writing a very informative article JT. Maybe you could write on Philippine tier lists next and which characters are popular over there?
Philippinos should learn to realize that JT is actually doing your community a favor, he’s a well known NorCal player and he wouldn’t say a community is stagnant without the shit to back it up. He’s been there for an extended period (as he says) where Philippinos had all the opportunity to prove him wrong.
I am sorry for your reactions but maybe if you could accept the truth, work on the things he pointed out [less turtle more basics and adaptability and stop losing purposely in DMs (WTF?)] then perhaps you guys too could reach the level where he’s at.
In fact he pointed out 3 unique guys whom you could take note of. Perhaps learn from them because they’ve shown JT how things could and should be done even without turtling
Perhaps JT could elaborate on which basics Philippine players have trouble with? So everyone could take note of it.
Again great article, I’m looking forward to the the next one
so we could reach the level where he’s at?? LOL
JT got his ass whooped by our top players! he’s not even considered top here. his defense, movement, etc aren’t even better than our top players’. and there’s nothing wrong with turtling, knee and jdcr turtle a lot.
I think Jt should note the solid and formidable players, not the ones that simply have an interesting style. Flashy is worth bullcrap if it doesnt make u win
Though it is great that finally the Filipino community has generated interest of some foreign players such as Maximillian and Rip,it is unfortunate that the last paragraph of the article seems to belittle the Filipino Tekken community as a whole.
In any case, it is the author’s opinion and we must respect it.
Only way we can do is to actually show the author that we definitely can improve. I strongly disagree with what the author has noted regarding the Filipino playstyle of turtling and of learning from each other instead of pioneering each one’s playstyle hence we become stagnant in terms of skills. Turtling by itself is already a unique playstyle as it seems from the videos that we see of tourney plays abroad are mostly based on offense then adjust from that end. Whilst it may be more enticing to watch Compared to the Filipino playstyle of being defensive first then learn to adapt from there, I think we can agree that in Tekken the lesser we move the lesser mistakes we commit.
And as far as what the videos of epic matches has showed us from time to time, the winners are usually the ones who make less mistakes. We commit less mistakes by actually reading our opponent defensively. Hence we turtle.
I believe turtling has been effective against jtchinoy a few days or weeks after he arrived, seeing the videos uploaded on youtube, but from then he adapted the Filipino style of turtling as well, making him harder to beat nowadays.
So there you go, I think jtchinoy would at least agree, that the Filipino style of turtling is quite effective too.
just my 2 cents
meanwhile, why dont we watch a pron movie or two? Maybe it would cool down the hotness that ensues here…
LOL @ your last suggestion! But very good point made. I hope everyone, including the haters, develop a sense of appreciation for what jt is doing for the community.
A pron movie would indeed be interesting now lol. Take note kids. If all else fails…. PRON!!!
Tekkenista documentary video hosted by some cute naked girl?
PRON.. Is that like TRON, but with more nudity?
Let’s hope so. Or not.
i think JT is comparing filipino movement to top korean player’s movement.
I wanna say this for the record and this is not for JT coz we already talked about this article of his and I understand it completely and I don’t care actually coz its his point of view. This is his article and this is what he thinks and sees in this Filipino Tekken Community of ours and I have to respect that. Actually I laughed when I saw the word turtle again. Now I still know that JT really hates turtles and can’t accept it. hehehehe 👿 Nweiz, this is for the people who doesn’t understand our so called style of playing. We turtle a lot and that’s a fact especially us T’recs since T3 days. I’ve played with a lot of people here who is against turtling, who talks garbage about turtling and where are they now? Some of them gave up, a lot of them adapt to this style. Why? because its so effective in the name of DEFENSE. In any game, even in real life, if you fight with someone you can’t just go head on with all the skills that you know. You have to think and “turtle” just to read every move your opponent makes. I’m not saying to just turtle until the end of the game. All I’m saying is that this is our style and it helps us a lot so you have to respect it. We don’t care about Flashy moves, we care about winning and losing the way we want it. It doesn’t matter if you win by poking, grabbing, turtling, 2 moves checkmate or even doing ten strings…winning is winning no matter how it comes. If you can’t accept that then make an AI who will abide to your liking.
Now, any of you wants to say something to JT personally then go on the 16th of April.
Any of you from abroad who wants to say bad things against Filipino Tekken Style then go ahead…the floor is yours but I’ll tell you this, WE KNOW DIFFERENT.
at mga posers dyan magkaroon naman kayo ng utak…wag ng gumawa ng gulo…
I agree…
It doesn’t matter whether you win by a MILE or an INCH, the bottom line is “YOU WON”.
Vin D. hahahaha…nweiz, a ninja turtle will win the tourney on the 16th…I can’t tell who but I hope that its Michael Angelo. 👿 PIZZA!!!!!!!!!!!!