Shin “DRX|Leshar” Moon-sup made an absolute splash at Capcom Cup X this year. The South Korean Chun-Li player started his tournament run in the most stacked group the event had to offer, Group F, in which he was considered an underdog and very unlikely to make it out.
In a group featuring the likes of players such as Bandits| MenaRD, NASR| AngryBird, Bandits| Caba, Mouz| Ending Walker, and MK| Nero The Boxer — with the first two on that list being a two-time Capcom Cup champion and the Street Fighter 6 Evo 2023 champion — few people expected Leshar to survive it, let alone make it out of the group on the winners side with a 4-1 record and then tie for 5th in the finals. At Capcom Cup X, Japanese fighting game legend Rohto|Tokido caught up with Leshar for an interview, and though it was conducted entirely in Japanese we have the English translation for you here today.
Thanks to the efforts of our very own Nicholas “MajinTenshinhan” Taylor, who provided the translation work for us here, we can learn more about the rising star that is Leshar. What’s featured here are the most interesting and important fighting game-related points of the interview, with some lesser non-fighting game topics being omitted.
Kicking things off, Tokido asks Leshar how long he’s been playing fighting games for. Leshar notes that he’s been playing for only about six years, which makes his performance at Capcom Cup X all the more impressive.
With Leshar being from South Korea, some might be asking how he was able to be interviewed in Japanese. The talented player notes that he had the choice to study either English or Japanese as a child, and ultimately opted to learn Japanese.
In addition to some background info, Leshar also expresses his interest in playing Tekken 8 now that Capcom Cup is over. He also explains how his very interesting controller for fighting games works and how he performs certain high level techniques on it.
Be sure to check out Tokido’s video below, and continue on for our English translation of the Leshar interview.
*Note: This interview took place before the Group portion of the event began.
Tokido: How long have you been playing fighting games?
Leshar: I started when I was 20.
Tokido: Wait, so you’ve only been playing for 5 years?
Leshar: Well, it’s actually more like 6 years…
Translator’s Note: Korea counts age differently, as soon as you are born you count as “1”, so although Leshar is 25 by our count, he’s considered 26 in his home country of South Korea.
Tokido: What was your first game?
Leshar: King of Fighters 13.
Tokido: 13! That’s my favorite as well.
Tokido: How do you feel about Capcom Cup? Are you confident?
Leshar: I feel confident, yes.
Tokido: You have a pretty difficult group, though…
Leshar: It’s difficult, but I feel like everyone at Capcom Cup is a strong player so I’ll just do my best.
Tokido: Is there any particular player in this room you feel is extra good?
Leshar: Definitely NL… NL is my teacher in Street Fighter 6.
Tokido: He’s been playing Street Fighter for a long time, after all, and he was good in King of Fighters as well.
Tokido: By the way, your controller… It’s a pretty special controller, isn’t it? Can I have a look at it?
Tokido: See here, this is something you see sometimes with Korean players. You see, these are keyboard keys, the WASD here for the directions and over here you have the attack buttons. I seem to recall… Do you know Korean Wrestling Man?
Leshar: Yes, I do.
Tokido: He uses a controller like this doesn’t he?
Leshar: Yes, Armperor also does.
Tokido: Japanese player are always surprised at your Tenshokyaku (Chun-Li’s down-down anti-air) and how fast you get it out with Chun-Li. That and your Super Art 2, they come out so fast. How do you do the input exactly?
Translator’s Note: Leshar here shows how normally on hitbox, you’d use your index finger and middle finger to input a quick quarter circle motion. He then explains and demonstrates that although he is right-handed and has his motion buttons on the opposite side of what a hitbox usually would (right side), he doesn’t use his middle finger and ring finger, and instead opts to still use his index finger alongside his middle finger to be able to do the input faster.
Tokido: Wait, but how do you press back in this situation?
Leshar: When I’m looking for the quick super, I can’t press it so I’m not actually able to block.
Translator’s Note: When asked how he normally holds his hand, Leshar shows that under normal circumstances (when not trying to do a quick super), he will be using his index, middle and ring fingers in accordance with the buttons. He explains that he developed this different hand position specifically for when he’s looking to super because of how fast he can do it on Player 2 side, since his index and middle finger will naturally be in position. Since he didn’t want his supers to be slower on the Player 1 side, he decided to shift his hand position when he is actively looking for the super input, since his ring finger moves a lot slower than his index and middle fingers.
Tokido: So when you’re looking for this, you can’t block … I’ll definitely be using that against you next time we play. But wow, it’s incredible how fast your inputs can be on such a controller.
Tokido: How is Street Fighter doing in Korea?
Leshar: Well, there aren’t that many people playing…
Tokido: Tekken still has the most players in Korea?
Leshar: Yes, Tekken is the most popular fighting game. When compared to Japan, we don’t have that many players in Korea.
Tokido: Well, Japan has a really large amount of players after all.
Leshar: Yes, but the net code is so good that I’m not really concerned even though we don’t have that many players locally.
Tokido: Do you have any plans after Capcom Cup is over?
Leshar: Well, as you know I’m part of Team DRX…
Tokido: Ah, that’s a very famous team in many games. They have a lot of the biggest Tekken players too, like Knee and Chanel.
Leshar: Yes, we have a lot of Tekken players, so after this I also want to start playing some Tekken.
Tokido: Oh, really? Now that you mention other games, you did very well in King of Fighters and Dragon Ball FighterZ as well. You’ve been really amazing, even in Japan which had a lot of very strong Dragon Ball FighterZ players, there was a period of time where people talked about you as perhaps the best.
And in King of Fighters 15, after just 1 or 2 years you were putting up a very good fight against Xiao Hai. And now in Street Fighter, even though we have people like Moke playing Chun-Li in Japan, most people say “But Leshar’s definitely better”. So if you start playing Tekken after this… I can’t help looking forward to seeing that. Though, personally I’d love to see you keep playing Street Fighter.
Leshar: Oh, I want to try to play both.
Tokido: Please do play both!
Leshar: In Street Fighter 6, I want to keep playing until it ends.
Tokido: I really hope you do. I’d love to practice more with you.
Tokido: Have you ever been to Japan?
Leshar: Just the one time, for Evo Japan.
Tokido: How come you are able to speak Japanese?
Leshar: When I was a child, I chose to study Japanese instead of English… Though, I’ve forgotten most of it now.
Tokido: No, no, you’re very good! Well, please keep remembering more of it so you can talk more to all of us over in Japan.
Major thanks to Tokido for allowing us to translate his work and to Nicholas “MajinTenshinhan” Taylor for providing English translations.
