*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”
that’s a good point.
“everything you do in tekken, especially at high level of play, there’s a solution, its up to you how your going to counter it”(i read it somewhere in the Korean Tekken site called tekkencentral or something, i forgot)
everything goes in Tekken PERIOD!
That’s what Ive been thought too ,growing up in t’recs even though i still lack it.
I find it peculiar that so many people see the last paragraph of JTchinoy’s take on the Filipino Tekken scene in a bad light. It’s quite apparent, if you look at it unbiasedly, that it’s supposed to be a wake-up call, a challenge, an opportunity to better ourselves as a whole.
Rather than hating on him, it would be more appropriate to give him our thanks; As he has sacrificed quite a bit of time and effort on his side, to gauge our abilities and potentials. In the end, it will be us ourselves who stand to benefit the most, if we can all just get our heads out of our selfish arses for a minute and actually try to understand what constructive criticism can do.
(That last part was aimed at those who blindly assume every single criticism said towards Filipinos is immediately an attack on the nation. You guys know who you are)
JT shouldn’t criticise players that are better than him. coz that’s like sunchip or deja vu or mr. naps who are aggresive players criticising knee for turtling and lacking offense. how can he say we lack movement, offense, when his aren’t better than ours. he’s a hypocrite. he got destroyed here by our defensive style and he doesn’t like it.
if you’re a bryan or armor king player, would you criticize knee or jdcr for turtling and lacking offense and advise them to be more offensive? i wouldn’t cus i’d be a hypocrite.
it’s funny that he sounds like he did well against us, but actually got destroyed. LOL
as we all can see, every single comment posted here with relevance to jt’s article has brought they’re opinion, if anyone may found some of the comments are negative, it’s inevitable, no one has ever lived without criticism, even after you die in a noblest way, for sure the author is fully aware things like this will occur, let’s just respect every person here has to say, as we all entitled to make comments especially if it’s based on your matches with jt.
I pretty much agree on this.
Stop the hate man , Let’s just be thankful that JT gave an effort for us Filipinos to be recognize in the tekken scene(internationally) , and some makes allot of boasting and stupid comments hiding from anonymous names, whats that makes us ?
yeah we got recognized as stagnant, turtles and lacking in offense even though he got destroyed! and you want us to be thankful of him? you’re too passive.
We all got are own point of view about this ,anyways i’m just being open minded about this topic , see Oroborouos what have to say about this you might be enlightened. HAHA about the word your using destroyed it sound’s biased in a way.
i’m not biased coz i’ve been destroyed before. i say destroyed everytime i got dominated.
i fucking bet you guys would be thanking me if i visited your unrecognized country and wrote an article about how shitty your players are even though i got destroyed! LOL
desperate for recognition lol.
I guess you achieved much for our tekken community good for you man. i guess you destroy your opponents now a days haha!.
Hey JT if you gonna talk shit make sure you back it up BIGTIME! Make sure u can own most of phils top players first before u start complaining about them turtling your ass.Players here are even toying with you giving u mercy games in a ft10 now WTF does that mean???
That means YOU get your trolling ass over here in MANILA and let’s see how good you are! Your’e getting in to my nerves bra!
Lots of DOGS here! ALL BARK NO BITE!
What’s this a BLOG for ANTS????
=D
Thumbs Up
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:)))
I heard in the past JT also lost to pwersa in a money match hmmm. funny that they keep repeating that JT lost to abigan etc. even though they’re not the one who played against him what good does it add? stupid trolls haha!
wow this article is getting out of hand, mont is right lets be open minded about this man. maybe JT made a mistake saying the word *stagnant* but come on man, lets stop this already. the guy is giving us a tourney, and he said he’s going to create an article about playing locations, best player in a particular character, etc…and even though there’s criticism i’m still looking forward to it. i mean don’t be so affected that much, just show him that most of filipino tekkenistas can improve, which is IMO. really CAN improve.
i know tekken is a serious game(not like some other console games, etc…)but come on man, lets not bash a guy who reveals a weakness to our playstyle. especially if our playstyle origin’s are the Koreans. Knee, Holeman, Tongbal, JDCR, etc.. are all Turtle players.
i mean, just believe in your own playstyle and prove it that its effective(even though its already proven, cause of how Knee and JDCR have reach Tekken God in Korea where the best of the best resides, and THEM BEING A SUPER TURTLE)
Agreed. Seriously guys, he’s doing us pinoys a huge favor. Just let the guy write, it’s informative. And quite beneficial to us no matter how u look at it.
What the PRON guy said. Pride always cometh before a fall, as they say, and it’s pride in what we are (turtles) that’s making his advice fall on deaf ears.
…. Pron guy…. I like it.
@ Certified Abangero
U are the stupid troll man i mean are u even Pwersa? Go back to ur place man and tell your baby mama i enjoyed it! fag…
@ Certified Abangero
U are the stupid troll man are u even Pwersa? Go back to ur place man and tell your baby mama i enjoyed it! fag…
I cant believe too many players here are kissing JT’s ass! But anyway im done here it’s not even worth it too lame for my taste.Hahahahaha!
Guile hey moron i’m pretty sure that’s not my brother your talking about. silly clown abangero is right you dick head i bet that’s not your real name ass wipe , are u even pinoy ? kung pinoy ka eto sau potang ina mu ! dahil dinamay mu nanay ku at kapatid ku potang ina mu !
gago talaga yang hayup na yan! abigan ng abigan ampotah di naman xa si abigan!
Guile hey moron i’m pretty sure that’s not my brother your talking about. silly clown abangero is right you dick head i bet that’s not your real name ass wipe , are u even pinoy ? dahil dinamay mu nanay ku at kapatid ku potang ina mu .! -sorry pumatol ako