Nopparut “TALON|Book” Hempamorn is a Thai fighting game competitor, and Evo Tekken champion, and the interviewee in a recent discussion produced by Arcade Futures.
Book talks on a myriad of topics including becoming a pro, modern fighting games, and inspiration, but ends the discussion with a lightning round approach to ranking a handful of major fighting game franchises on a tier list, and honestly, he’s a hard man to impress.
Interviewer Ram lists some 10 fighting game franchises and asks Book to deem them low, mid or high tier. Things kick off with Mortal Kombat, Dead or Alive and Soul Calibur, all three of which are quickly placed in the “low tier” category.
In fact the majority of the dozen or so franchises go straight to the lower tier. As many would be, Ram is surprised enough by the strict judgements that he inquires as to what it is Book is basing his placements on.
“I’m thinking of in term of [these games] becoming e-Sports,” he clarifies after placing King of Fighters amid the bottom rung as well. The Thai player goes on to discuss how King of Fighters’ most prominent and referenced examples still tend to be the relatively older entries, and this (in addition to said entries being particularly difficult in execution) don’t make for a very inviting combination.
You can watch or listen to the entire interview via the embed here. We’d love to hear your thoughts and reactions to Book’s list, as well as to any of his other statements as he offers insight into the world of fighting games from a status very few ever reach. The discussion about fighting game franchise tiers begins at the 29:50 mark:
Timestamps:
Intro – 0:00
Early Tekken Days – :50
Becoming Pro – 6:30
Book’s Motivation – 7:49
Gamers8 – 8:50
Playing Tekken 8 and Street Fighter 6 – 10:43
Who Inspires You? – 13:29
Most proud achievement – 17:15
Dealing with Emotion/ Being Grateful – 18:53
Impressions of Tekken 8 – 20:46
Goat Tekken game? – 24:08
Thoughts on Street Fighter 6 – 25:15
2XKO – 26:44
I have to beat everyone – 28:50
High Tier, Mid Tier, Low Tier – 29:50
Outro – 34:14