Using Parsec For Coaching And Playing Fighting Games In Offline Modes

Parsec is a great tool for the Fighting Game Community (FGC) and for online coaching. To demonstrate some of the power of the software, we interviewed Al “SX EMP | rogueyoshi” Murray (rogueyoshi) about his experiences using Parsec for fighting games and coaching. You can catch his coaching sessions live on Twitch and view the archives on Youtube. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook for more updates on the FGC, events he’s organizing, his coaching, and tournaments he’s competing in.

rogueyoshi is a professional eSports player, coach, tournament organizer, and software engineer. He’s well known for maining one of the notoriously difficult players in DRAGON BALL FighterZ (DBFZ), Nappa. He chose Nappa because he felt like the character’s potential was completely untapped when the game came out, and he was able to discover techniques that hadn’t been previously discussed among other players that he was able to showcase at events.

As an avid member of the FGC, he was looking for a replacement for built-in netplay for many games that struggle to keep latency low enough for practicing with other players online, a way to enable offline modes (especially for coaching), and an option for playing with mods enabled for things like hitboxes. He discovered Parsec in a retro fighting game Discord server and recognized it had the potential to do all of this and so much more. With Parsec, rogueyoshi has been able to coach 43 highly satisfied students in the past 2 months, practice fighting games with other pros online in practice mode, and play some of his favorite classics that don’t have online play built-in.

rogueyoshi got into fighting games way back when the console ports of Street Fighter 2, Mortal Kombat 2, and Fatal Fury 2 were released. His first competitive games were King of Fighters 2002, Guilty Gear XX Slash, and Arcana Heart — that might date him a bit ;). He jumped into DBFZ early because it was projected to be one of the biggest hits of all time and people from all different scenes were picking it up. Tournaments started happening across the country, and he felt like he had to partake even though he missed out on the beta tests.

Generally, rogueyoshi’s favorite part about the FGC is the inspiration he gets from other players and the scene every day. It inspires his work organizing tournaments, competing in events, and teaching other players. His biggest direct influences are the Cannons because they inspired him to dive deeper into coding and turn his passion into a career. He’s made countless friends in the scene, and he loves seeing each of them whenever they find themselves at a tournament or event together. He’s really excited about the future of the FGC with indie games getting better, which is opening the world up to new creative experiences.

rogueyoshi has always been passionate about coaching and giving back to the community. He’s wanted to find ways to reach more gamers to help them up their skills and formulate ways for them to reach the next level. Having the opportunity to watch this happen when he’s giving very specific advice and seeing someone execute a previously unattainable skill-level is really rewarding for him. When rogueyoshi found Parsec, he realized it could be the tool to make his dream of coaching other people all over the world. Initially, he was skeptical of the low-latency promises of the technology, and he had to fiddle with settings a bit to make everything perfect, but once he did, it enabled a really good experience for his students. With the ability to play any mode online, he’s able to convey concepts and regimens that would otherwise be impossible using the built-in online modes on most games.

On top of coaching, competing, and software development, rogueyoshi is organizing two FGC/Smash events local to Philadelphia under his sponsor’s brand (Sector X). The two events are #SectorXSmash (at Disguiser Game Lounge) and #SectorXCoLab (at the Laboratory). They have tournaments for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, DBFZ, Mortal Kombat 11, BlazeBlue Cross Tag Battle, Samurai Shodown, and others. You can follow sectorxusa for more information.