Recently, PG signed on the newest addition to our Anime FGC roster, Kizzie Kay, one the most diverse and challenging players in the scene. He’s known primarily for playing Sin Kiske in Guilty Gear but he’s no stranger to playing multiple games including Granblue Fantasy Versus, Dragon Ball FighterZ, BlazBlue, and the list literally goes on and on.
I got a chance to sit down to really get to know the new Panda. We talk about games he’s been playing, his philosophies in his playstyle, future goals and everything in between.
Now that tournament season is on hold, being preoccupied in a world of staying safely indoors is probably the best option for everyone. So what has Kizzie been doing while at home?
“I've just been streaming, you know, learning how to cook, and just learning new games. Just basically kind of doing like my routine that I do during the day and basically trying to figure out cool ideas”
These cool ideas include trying new fighting games including much of the EVO Online line up, including Skullgirls and Them’s Fightin’ Herds. “I've been streaming more various fighting games actually... since there’s no tournament season and I have a lot of time, you know, I could just kind of sit down and learn just like a beginner in different games,” Kizzie says. Of course, Kizzie’s competitive nature is definitely still present in learning these games: “I'm finally leaning towards two games that I want to enter for EVO, possibly three.” So there’s hope you’ll be seeing our boy mixing folks on some smooth rollback connections.
Now getting into rollback fighters is great and all but what about anime fighters -- Specifically Guilty Gear? Well of course Kizzie was all over the Beta test last month and we had quite a bit to talk about.
Absent from the cast for the beta was Kizzie’s main, so who was he primarily playing during the beta period? “So I played a lot of Ky and I had expectations of a certain playstyle in my mind when playing him and I realized that he's really different from the archetype that he originally was,” he says. “So I want to say when the game drops I actually want to play a brand new character and see if I can find a play style that fits me well.”
Now before we dive into his thoughts on Guilty Gear’s mechanics -- what is Kizzie’s playstyle? What does he look for in games and how is he in breaking down competitive fighting games? Sometimes anime fighters can cause much more explosive and dynamic playstyles that really separate it and bring the “anime” to the game besides it’s characters and themes:
“I look at a character that has basically tools to fight everything. That doesn't need to be within the meta, but just enough for me to when I make a decision, it's because I can see it.”
Kizzie discussed needing tools that give him options when he plays. It’s not necessarily about being top-tier, but having those tools and resources that make it a viable choice. “They don't have to be like the best character in the game, but they just have to have the tools that I'm able to utilize, you know?” He elaborated on this type of character choice and how it really just boils down to his performance over the characters, “I feel like I can't really blame anybody but myself, you know? Because it's like at the end of the day, it's like it's my fault.”
This brings up an interesting subject in our talk: Can picking the character you're most comfortable with outweigh a “top-tier”?
“I think that (picking characters with the style I'm looking for) actually strengthens my playstyle, because I don't feel like there's no answer for something that gets thrown at me. Say for example, a situation is really rough. I just need to block. I have very good defense and I just block it out -- and I know when I block it out and I get rewarded or get an intercept,” he continues, “I look for good normals, you know? No need to convert into anything. But just having a good option is OK for me.” This brings a point that the optimal playstyle doesn’t always mean max-damage punishment but perhaps getting great defense rewards. Performing well in sensitive situations may mean understanding situations and reacting appropriately over just going for damage and offense.
“I think the problem is it's hard for some people to see it because they don't really understand what's happening,” Kizzie contemplated, adding that he spends a lot of his time in training by just watching and analyzing. While training mode and playing matches are important, he makes sure not to undersell the importance of analysis and understanding by watching.
“I practice on not only just one aspect of fighting games -- I feel like training mode is just one aspect. I also watch a lot of match videos. I discuss a lot about the game, and I feel like discussion is the most important thing when training and applying what you discuss.”
Kizzie mentioned his struggles in finding long-term training partners due to his training methods, citing spending hours working on small aspects in a game that make most people probably groan out monotony. This type of training style can also really bring criticism upon oneself.
“If I don't like how I win I'm not really satisfied because I didn't do exactly what I practiced. I've messed up in a way. I'm really, really critical about my own play because I want to push myself to that next level that no one has ever pushed.”
Now let’s get back into Guilty Gear Strive and what Kizzie thinks of how it plays in association to his playstyle. Does he enjoy the new mechanics and aesthetic in play for Strive?
“So I always say, like either they scrap the whole formula together and go like a whole new direction or they keep the original formula and then they just go that direction while also remembering the roots,” he responds. It isn’t news that Strive feels like an entirely different game for many players, even though keeping that Guilty Gear skin. Kizzie feels that the game’s direction is almost split too much in the middle and that a good deal of issues are rooted right there: “So I think to bring in more cool things to the table is always a plus. However, I will prefer traditional, but I think for the growth of everything there should be some type of change.”
By traditional, he means that mechanics and options that have been legacied into the game shouldn’t change if they don’t have to. “Yeah, like Pi. Never change your math, right? There you go! Ten years from now, we can’t be like, ‘Oh, Pi is like it's just not that anymore. It's a three instead of a two. It's like seven instead of 15.’” Basically, if the formula is proven right, why change it for change’s sake? “The general idea is really good. I just think they executed the game incorrectly in my opinion,” he says.
This mainly comes into play with a mixture of character design being different across the board. Kizzie mentions “Ky for example, he's like the shoto of the series and his archetype definitely changed from a shoto to, like, a vortex character.” He continues on about the rest of the cast having similar instances of playstyle changing into something they may have not been known for in previous installments. The only exception being Potemkin since he’s, well, Potemkin.
Kizzie also let me know that the beta may have suffered from a lack of information or instruction on the mechanics of the game. “I felt like I was playing the game, but I wasn't playing the demo at full potential. And I understand they probably don't want you to do that because it IS only the demo. It's very hard to do too much when there's not a lot of information out there even to begin with.”
Fortunately for everyone, Guilty Gear Strive took feedback following the beta period and there’s still plenty of time to polish up the game. Until then, Kizzie will keep grinding out other games, including Granblue Fantasy Versus.
Kizzie has been on the forefront of exploring this game and pushing America’s scene for the title and he definitely has a lot to say about it. For starters, he couldn’t recommend the game to people enough: “I feel like this is like the perfect game to make it easy access for new players to come in and veteran players to play. I feel like this is like the perfect middle ground that a base game can do. And It’s very good for its first patch. I will say that this is the most balanced fighting game out right now.”
We discussed how every character appears to have some sort of role in the game, and almost the whole cast can work it’s way into being a viable character in competition. Kizzie adds that the game is still very young and while people are making charts and tier lists, he feels there are a lot of unexplored opportunities in the game still.
From what he told me, strategy seems to be the biggest factor in winning matches that people may not be seeing directly. “The cool thing about the game is that it’s not complicated, it’s simple. But the strategy can be extremely efficient if you apply it correctly.” He mentioned how he championed Percival, one of the now recognized top-tier characters. He recounted how he would take time just to disprove the characters “bad matchups” to educate the people on how great of Percival is.
“For example, everyone was saying Percival vs. Ferry was a 2-8 match up and Percival can never win. And I'm like, ‘that doesn't sound right’. So let me go and play this character and I'll really play this character. Let me go hunt for my bad matchups. Actually when I play, I want to lose. I want to find matchups that beat my character so bad,” and he did just that to show how the character can beat all of these scenarios that people doubted.
Examples like this, not only show Kizzie’s ability to dedicate himself to his training but also his competitive drive to prove himself: “The drive to be greater than what you are I think is the most satisfying feeling ever.” Of course offline tournaments aren’t necessarily feasible at the moment, so would that put a dent in that drive? “Right now, since I know we have to stay safe and inside, I've just been working on building my platform and pushing the Panda Global brand. I’m also bringing stuff to the table for the people who watch me stream -- because I feel like without them, you're not going to be able to do certain things.”
Kizzie also wants to push the people around him to be better as well in the scene. “I think now the time is just to help everybody out and push them to the next level. I think the best feeling is knowing that you created a Michael Jordan in the FGC.”
Of course does he take any inspiration from anybody? Surely this competitive drive has some sort of role figure? “I would say my dad before he passed away, he was really competitive in a lot of ways -- I think I got it from him because he didn't like losing,” he says, “He would tell me, ‘There’s no losing. There’s a way for everything.”
Apart from his father, Kizzie looks up to his hometown team, The Los Angeles Lakers, with players like Shaquielle O’neal, Rick Fox, and of course Kobe Bryant.
That said, his aspirations go beyond gaming. I usually ask the old question, “What goals do you have for the future?” typically expecting to hear something along the lines of building a brand or winning championships. Well, Kizzie surprised me and replied, “I would like to build a facility where people would be able to come in from various areas and find a hub where they're able to go somewhere safely and do what they like to do.”
Kizzie was born and raised in South Central Los Angeles, one of the toughest areas in the country for crime. Giving back and creating opportunities in that kind of area is something that’s on his mind. “I would like to do something in unfortunate neighborhoods and create something like that where kids, teens, and hell even adults who want to come over and just do what they gotta do and play and stay out of trouble.”
Kizzie is also interested in scouting players who share a competitive drive as well as bringing the FGC into the bigger spotlight it rightfully deserves.
Hopefully this gives you a glimpse at Kizzie Kay’s incredible personality. From his breadth of knowledge and experience in fighting games, his work ethic and competitive drive, or his admirable goals -- I’m sure if there’s a personification of “Keep it PG” it must have these characteristics.
Be sure to check out his Twitch and Twitter to keep updated on Kizzie Kay and be sure to look out for him once tournament season comes back in full force.