There is a drama in eBASEBALL. Professional e-sports player Orix Buffaloes Yu Takagawa 10,000 character interview

My name is Kai Fujisawa and I am in charge of public relations and recruitment.

2020 has been a year of trial and error, including how to make the most of our "home time" and how to communicate while we can't meet people due to the new coronavirus infection.

Meanwhile, e-sports is increasing year by year.

In 2019, "professional e-sports player" was the second-ranked job that junior high school boys wanted to be in the future, and in 2021, e-sports will become even more popular as entertainment that allows you to connect with people from all over the world online from the comfort of your home. It will become popular.

Source: Awareness survey on the future envisioned by junior high and high school students 2019

There are a variety of eSports games, including team battles and individual smartphone games, but did you know that eBASEBALL

Real professional baseball teams are competing in an e-sports professional league using the Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball released by KONAMI

▲“eBASEBALL Pro League” official website

 

Twelve teams are divided into the Central League and Pacific League, similar to real professional baseball, and compete to be the best in Japan.

Therefore, we at BEYOND would like to ``contribute to the e-sports industry that will continue to grow even more in the future, and at the same time revitalize our hometown Osaka, which is still suffering from the coronavirus pandemic!'' With this in mind, we at BEYOND will hold the ``eBASEBALL Pro League'' 2020 season Orix Buffaloes. We have signed a sponsorship contract with!

▲ Players Ibusuki and Fujimoto, who even came to our Osaka office for a match, and representative director Haraoka, who lost the match.

 

In addition to signing sponsorship, I was also in charge of creating the "Orix Buffaloes Support Site," so please take a look.

eBASEBALL Pro League 2020 Season Orix Buffaloes Support Site

So this time, we asked Orix Buffaloes representative player Yu Takagawa ``What made you want to master PowerPro?'' and ``What will the future hold for the esports industry?'' We had an in-depth interview with him about everything from deep stories about eBASEBALL to the esports industry!

▲We spoke online with a baseball-loving development engineer who was in charge of creating the support site.

 

table of contents

1. First interview with Orix Buffaloes representative player Takagawa
2. In power processing, preparation is more important than technique.
3. The operability of PowerPro is changing every year!
4. Does Takagawa have a poker face?
5. The way you play is different from real baseball.
6. Make esports more entertainment

First interview with Orix Buffaloes representative player Takagawa

―Now that Beyond has become a sponsor of Orix, I wanted to learn more about esports players, so I would like to ask you a lot of questions. thank you!

thank you!

―First of all, I would like to hear a brief self-introduction and career history from Mr. Takagawa.

My name is Yu Takagawa. She is 30 years old and lives in Saitama Prefecture.

I haven't revealed much about my career so far, but I didn't really do anything after graduating from university, and the Power Pro League started in 2018, and my older brother was participating in it. hey.

▲The older brother of Mr. Takagawa, a representative player for the Yomiuri Giants. In the Central and Pacific interleague match, I played against Orix's Ibusuki.

 

My brother used to play PowerPro as a hobby and had been playing online battles for a long time, and I played other games as a hobby and had distanced myself from PowerPro.

But when I saw the Pro League, I thought, ``That's cool.''

At the time, I was a team of three people, and I started playing on PlayStation 4, thinking, ``It would be fun to play in a team game, and I wonder what would happen if I played.''

Then, as I played, I gradually started winning, and it was fun to get better at it, and I thought it would be fun to be on that stage someday, so I started dreaming.

From there, I started seriously aiming to become a pro around November 2018. I played Power Pro seriously for about 9 months, and the Pro League test was in the latter half of August 2019.

- Your profile says you've been in power processing for 25 years, but that's quite a long time, right?

It may be packed.

I was playing PowerPro 3 for the Super FF Famicom as early as I can remember.

It was the first time I did it with my brother, so my history is probably the same as my brother's, but I have written more about PowerPro in my profile than my brother, so that part is vague (lol) )

-Did your brother's playing skills improve from then on?

He's 3 years older than me, so there was a difference.

Visually, it was about 7 to 3.

Back then, I was just playing, so I didn't really practice, and although I like games, I wasn't that good of a child.

-After your brother became a pro, Mr. Takagawa himself started practicing seriously.

I agree.

Some people think that PowerPro players have good taste or are geniuses, but I actually think that if you play consistently, you can become pretty good at the game.

What you're playing is fairly simple, just move the cursor button and press the x button with your right hand, so I think it's a game that will be highly reproducible if you practice repeatedly.

-By the way, do you play baseball in real life?

I played hardball baseball until high school.

I believe that I have given a spirit to a white ball.

I'm short and I'm not the type to hit a home run, but I think my punching power is what makes me attractive, and even though I'm short, I hit very powerfully and hit 2 bases. Ta.

I had given up on becoming a professional baseball player because I was short, but I was surprised when Tomoya Mori (currently of the Saitama Seibu Lions) came on the scene.

-What was the content of the exam to become a professional gamer?

When I joined, there was an online preliminary round, and about 90 people from eastern Japan and 90 from western Japan, a total of 180 people made it through.

Those who made it through the online preliminaries will be divided into East and West, and will play five league games in a round-robin format with groups of six players in the form of offline preliminaries.

For example, with 5 wins and 0 losses, they would be eliminated from first place.

From there, around 50 to 60 people make it through and go on to interviews.

-What kind of questions are asked in the interview?

It's like looking at your qualities as a person.

I'm a professional gamer, so the better I am, the better, but it's entertainment after all, so I think there are people who think, ``This person probably wouldn't be interesting to watch.''

- That's right, just being good is not enough.

But if you have the ability, you can become a ``solitary player.'' That's also cool.

Well, I guess they didn't look at me that much during the interview, but rather I think they looked at my behavior.

I answered questions such as ``Why did you start playing power processors?'' and ``What do you want to do when you become a pro?'' and I expressed my thoughts on them.

From there, 48 successful applicants were sent to the draft board.

There were 20 players who continued on, so we held a draft meeting to have a total of 48 players in 12 teams with four players per team, and as a result, we ended up with about 24 players.

Some of the other players know him, and people who are ranked 1st to 50th in the in-game rankings are the ones you recognize when you play against him.

The PowerPro community is pretty close, and we hold off-line meetings, and there are groups of people who are close to each other who go out to eat together.

In power processing, preparation is more important than technique.

-How often do you practice on days when there are no matches?

The average practice time on non-game days is about three hours, and on long days it can be over 10 hours.

I guess I keep playing matches out of inertia, or maybe I just find it fun to play online matches, so I'm not sure if it's practice or not.

I'm focusing on the practice mode and the mode where you play against the computer, and the computer is the most difficult level.

- From a professional perspective, what level of computer skills do you have?

I get hit with meaningless blows, so it's not that I'm strong or anything, but that I'm sneaky (lol)

The goal isn't to beat the computer, but the computer gives me nice pitches, so I use them as practice.

I'm doing this while thinking about case batting and other things based on actual matches.

Before, I had the mindset of ``I'm just going to do my best with all my guts,'' but there was a limit to just thinking about hard work.

So, I changed my approach to ``Let's work backwards to figure out what I need to do to get better,'' and things started to open up a lot.

If I thought about each problem one by one, such as how I should think in order to find and overcome problems and develop my strengths, I think I was able to acquire techniques that felt good to me. .

- Your profile says that your favorite tactics are ``defensive maneuvers that take away hit-prone batted balls.'' Are you considered to be good at defense?

Actually, I thought I was good at hitting.

During my first year in the professional league, I had the desire to show off my batting skills and make people think, ``Here's a great guy!'' But when the game actually started, I was so nervous that I couldn't hit or pitch. It is said that the only thing he was able to do properly under extreme conditions was his defense.

From there, defense started to be featured.

-Do you get nervous during matches?

I especially played last year's match, but this year it wasn't as good as last year, so maybe I'm just getting used to it.

Last year, I was talking about hard work, saying things like, ``I'm spending my life playing Power Pros! The one with the strongest will wins!'' But I guess I was wasting my time.

This year, I only thought about winning and what I would do to beat my opponent.

-Once you have decided on your opponent, you think about strategies to defeat this person.

The opponent was announced two days ago, so I thought about my opponent's past games, his pitching habits, which pitches he was good at, which pitches he was weak at, and if there were any openings, and visualized his pitching before going into the match. Masu.

I think that work is probably the most important, and I think the preparation stage will determine the outcome more than the technique.

-It's not like it's a real show.

People watching may think it's ``technology versus technology,'' but it's more important to read the data.

The operability of PowerPro is changing every year!

- Has the operability of the game changed from before to now?

With updates every year, the management incorporates player opinions and improves the gameplay, and the game is gradually changing.

So, the gameplay has changed quite a bit between last year and this year, and we've taken into account user feedback, making it harder to hit hard and hitting the ball harder.

- Has it become easier for players?

The range of tactics has expanded dramatically.

Last year, it was a hard-hitting game with powerful players hitting home runs.

We used to try to overcome players who couldn't hit home runs, or players who couldn't hit more home runs than other teams, by hitting hits, but this year, we're prioritizing hitting hits.

In order to become stronger in PowerPro, it is important to know how to manipulate those pea-like strong swings.

Once you have mastered the power of a strong swing, you can begin to understand how the ball will fly if you hit it meatball.

When it comes to competition, he pretends to make a strong swing and hits a meaty ball, or while giving the impression that he's going to make a meaty ball, he induces a high pitch or something like that and hits it with a strong swing. There have been many.

Last year, I was basically a strong hitter, and when I hit a home run hitter, people judged me as weak, thinking, ``Wow, that guy ran away, he's not good at it.''

The nature of the game was that it was easy to hit a home run, so if you hit a ball that looked like it would be a home run, you hit it with a strong swing, and if it was a little off, it couldn't be helped.

In the Pro League, the home run king had 15, so it was an environment where home runs were easy to hit.

This year, it has become easier to play meatballs, so more and more players are starting to play meatballs, thinking that playing matches with a higher probability will lead to victory.

Does Takagawa have a poker face?

-Which do you prefer, individual matches or team matches?

It's definitely a team game.

I think team battles are more fun to play.

As a viewer, when it comes to individual competitions, I feel like I'm only interested in the top five.

I'm worried that it's going to turn out to be a really professional versus professional situation.

-If it was a team match, there was some communication within the team during the match, right?

I am doing. I think I should bunt in this scene.

This year, we are communicating via voice chat while maintaining social distance.

In reality, only one person is playing the game, so you might think that the three people at the back aren't needed, but when it comes to human-to-human battles, it's definitely more interesting when emotions come out. That's right.

When your friends appear on the wipe and you score a point, you and your friends will be happy together, or only your friends will be happy and the player will look cool (lol).

I think you can enjoy a lot of things like that.

-Orix's Maeda cried during the opening game, right?

Ah, I was crying so hard.

▲Orix's Maeda won the opening game. Click here for the video of the match

 

I don't think of the ``eBASEBALL Pro League'' as a place to watch good games, but rather as a place to watch the dramas of people.

I would like to show you how people put their pride into preparing and fighting on the spot, and the relationships between people.

There are quite a lot of people looking forward to the background.

For example, Maeda has the experience of winning the national tournament in 2017, and the person who competed in that final was Chunichi's captain, Sugawara, and that's what Maeda will win this week. I think you can enjoy the drama there.

▲Match video of Orix Maeda VS Chunichi Sugawara

 

―During the match, Mr. Takagawa seemed to have a poker face and a smile on his face, but do you have a commitment to keeping your mental level level?

I have a pretty grinning face, and even though I look serious, I have a hard time holding back my laughter.

So during the match, I end up with that expression that I don't understand (lol)

Last year, I felt too rushed, and when I looked back at it myself, I thought it was a bit embarrassing and lame.

So this year I wanted to do it with style, so I did it in a slightly hipster style.

But when I was happy, I felt like I had a grin on my face.

-Have you been practicing more for this tournament?

It increases, but what you do is more important than time, and I think you should think first and then do what you need to do.

I feel like I have more time to reflect on myself in order to improve my abilities.

To tell you the truth, I made it to the e-Climax Series last year, but I lost there and was heartbroken.

I had a feeling that if I worked hard, the world would turn to me, and that if I dedicated my life to it, I might be able to get results.I had such faint expectations, but they were shattered. , I felt like my opponent was in an area that I would never be able to reach no matter what I tried.

After that, I didn't play PowerPro for a while, but just when I was thinking about giving it another try, I was asked to continue as a player, so the fire was sparked again.

The game also changed from PowerPro 2019 to 2020, and I started over from scratch.

So from February 2020 to around July 2020, I didn't touch PowerPro at all.

-Are there any players you consider to be your rivals?

Personally, I may not have many of them, but the ones I have a lot of feelings for are the Giants.

It was my brother's games that inspired me to become a pro, and I watched them cheering for the Giants, so I wanted them to win in the Central League, and I wanted to go to the e-Japan Series and play against the Giants and win. I think so.

-Have there been any sibling rivalries in the past?

Not yet.

There was a strong possibility that it would happen this year, but if we were to play in a situation where we were in 3rd place at the end of the previous round of the exchange game, we decided that it would be appropriate for captain Ibusuki to go to the Giants game. .

-Are the Giants still a strong team?

I think this is a team full of talented players.

I'm the type of person who is extremely particular about things, so I think this year I'll have a chance.

Tateno , the Giants' captain , has a 100% strong swing rate.

He hits a lot of home runs, so he's definitely strong, and he won MVP last year, so he might be stronger than anyone else.

However, with this year's game style, a 100% strong swing rate will be criticized, so I think it would be easier to come up with countermeasures.

*Metaru = “to have a strategic advantage”

But that's the good thing about him and makes me want to support him, and I think he's a person who plays the game with determination.

Tateno is more picky than anyone else and is a big fan of Kamei, but during the first year of the e-Climax Series, even though Kamei was in a slump, he made him a regular starter.

That's the kind of person who plays games with a lot of focus on their own preferences.

At that time, I thought that people who can outshine others and possess something that goes beyond rationality would be better able to rise to the top.

The way you play is different from real baseball.

―I thought that No. 1 Sho Nakata's tactics were unique to PowerPro, but are there any other fighting styles that don't exist in real life?

No. 1 Sho Nakata is the strongest player in Hokkaido Nippon-Ham, so he wants to get many turns at bat, and he has a special ability called "double play," so if he uses it as No. 1, he won't trigger a double play. Nakata's number one theory is that he is aiming to hit with the ball.

Either that, or I'll try to collect runners and then ignore the double play and go for a home run.

Since they want to have as many at-bats as possible, the theory in Power Pro is to make Gracial, who has a double play, or Kamibayashi, who has quick feet, first, and Yanagida, who doesn't have a double play, as second. It has become.

There is also something else called ``a pitcher's luck of winning or losing.''

If you have the luck of winning, your fielder's power increases by 5, and if you have the luck of losing, it decreases by 5.

For example, in the 4th or 5th inning when the team is losing or the score is tied, after getting two outs, they force the pitcher who has a chance of winning to come on the pitch, suppressing the pitcher and allowing the team to attack.

I think that kind of winning-luck succession is a strategy unique to Power Pros.

Make esports more entertainment

―While the e-sports industry is strangely booming due to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, have you noticed any changes yourself?

In terms of changes, the biggest thing that has happened since I became a professional is that I have received supportive comments on Twitter and other sites, and when the actual matches are published on YouTube and other distribution sites, I can now receive reactions in the chat section. That's a big change.

It makes me happy to be praised when I play well, and when I receive negative reactions when things don't go well, it makes me feel like I have to do better.

In terms of actual issues and whether it will have an impact on real life, we haven't reached that stage yet, and compared to professional baseball, there is also the issue of scale.

If the esports industry is to develop, it will need to grow into a more popular and widely accepted entertainment genre, and I think it is definitely a niche genre.

This is just my opinion, but I think the essence of entertainment is that when you see someone genuinely enjoying themselves, the viewer feels happy as well.

I think it would be great if people could see the performers having fun and think, ``Wow, that looks like fun,'' and even people who weren't really interested in it could get interested.

-This is the first time I've heard that players play with this in mind.

However, as an individual, there is still a limit to what you can do.

It's important to keep that in mind, but in the eBASEBALL Pro League, we still need to improve our individual numbers.

Yoshida of the Giants who is attracting the most attention , and he has 60,000 followers on Twitter, making him the player with the most fans.

However, after that, the number drops considerably to a few thousand or so, so in order for the fan business to grow from now on, it is necessary to increase that number individually.

―I would like to see more attention paid to the stories and characters of the players in order for them to become fans.

Many of the people currently enjoying "eBASEBALL Pro League" may be eBASEBALL fans who follow the content.

You can also think about which of the 48 people you should watch, or maybe you should watch this person because he or she is cool.

This year, as part of KONAMI's initiative, VTubers are streaming the "eBASEBALL Pro League", and the Nijisanji watching room has been viewed tens of thousands of times, so that's a good way to get people interested. I think it would be nice if there were at least a few people.

▲ Watching the match by VTuber is being streamed live on the official PowerPro/Prospi channel

 

So it would be interesting if a new VTuber professional player appeared, and since all 48 players are currently male, I think it would be interesting if the first female player appeared.

-In real baseball, men and women would be separated, but in Power Pros, it doesn't matter.

But I have to check the rules to see if VTubers can appear (lol)

Since the premise is that faces and real names be disclosed, the rules themselves may have to be changed.

In the future, if we want to create an industry where children play and watch e-sports with the slogan, ``E-sports is fun,'' adults must protect the environment so that they can make a living by saying, ``When I become a professional, I can make a living doing this.'' I think I have to go.

Currently, it is not realistic to make a living with just one power processor.

Speaking of the industry as a whole, I want everyone to create a situation where people can make a living by becoming a professional in esports.

If you don't think about that kind of business model, it won't last, and I think it's a bit irresponsible to tell children, ``Let's become professionals.''

-There are even vocational schools for those who want to become professionals, so I would like to see that established as well.

In that sense, I am extremely grateful to companies like Beyond that support us.

As a player, I would be happy if the number of people who support me like this continues to increase.

-Thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to interview you. Everyone at BEYOND will continue to support Takagawa-san and the Orix Buffaloes, so please do your best in the upcoming games! Thank you very much for today!

Finally

The most impressive thing I heard from Mr. Takagawa this time he was conscious of making the matches enjoyable to watch as entertainment .

Mr. Takagawa not only performs at a high level, but also as a performer with professionalism, and he has a strong desire to liven up the industry, so Beyond would like to continue to support him.

Actually, I had never played PowerPro myself and only had a vague knowledge of the rules of baseball, but when I watched the video of the game, the players seemed to be serious and having fun, and when a point was scored, When I see my team members happy, it resonates with me and makes me think, ``Ah, this is what sports are all about,'' and I feel like I understand why e-sports are so popular.

Beyond will continue to support the Orix Buffaloes in the 2020 season of the eBASEBALL Pro League so that even people who don't play games can enjoy the content and make the eBASEBALL Pro League more popular. Let's go!

 

© ORIX BUFFALOES

©NPB

© Konami Digital Entertainment

 

• eBASEBALL Pro League 2020 Season Orix Buffaloes Support Site
• KONAMI eBASEBALL official website
• Yu Takagawa Twitter account (@yuusoom_pawa)