It’s been a busy year already for HOLOSTARS English Vtuber Machina X Flayon, member of the Tempus unit. After participating in the Street Fighter 6 Sajam Slam and Holo Fes 2025, and following his second anniversary with Cover, Siliconera caught up with him again to talk about the event, streaming, performing, and singing.
Jenni Lada: Congrats on making it into the Street Fighter 6 International Championship! What led to you taking part, and how did you prepare for it?
Machina x Flayon: Yo! Machina X Flayon here, Ace Mecha Pilot of the R-TRUS for HOLOSTARS English. Thanks for having me! I actually got to take part in the championship because of the latest Sajam Slam held by Sajam himself! I’ve known about the Slam for a while and actually was trying to join the previous one (the second to last slam) but couldn’t make it in time. So this time I was able to get in and it was a huge blast!
I would say that most of the preparation came from taking part in the Slam itself since I was a part of Team Nephew. I’ve always had trouble using Drive Rush in Street Fighter 6 before, but through coaching with Nephew I was able to understand the mechanic more and it made getting better at Street Fighter 6 a whooole lot easier. That and I would say being able to hold viewer-matches with my fans + anyone who stops by for my fighting game streams. I like leaving the streams open so anyone of all skill can come in, and when it’s public like that you’ll get lots of strong competitors to help toughen you up!
So you ended up going with Luke. What led you to picking him as your main?
Machina x Flayon: When I originally played Street Fighter back on the arcades, I think I mained Ken, but something didn’t click until I played Street Fighter 5 on stream around my first year! There was an abundance of characters by that point so I didn’t know exactly who to play and I just kept going through the list till I came across Luke. People would always have a reaction when he showed up on stream, so I got curious and playing the guy just felt great! He’s a Shoto-type character so he has tools for almost every situation, but none really too powerful. But, I think what really cemented it was going through his Arcade story in Street Fighter 5 and 6.
Luke as a character was just essentially your average boy growing up with dreams, but never couldn’t really connect with his father until after his dad showed his true heroic colors trying to stop a terrorist attack. So when that happens, Luke’s childhood was kind of changed forever and it set him on the path where his character is today. I think that type of character doesn’t have a backstory that is too complex, but has enough substance that it just hits home!
What are your thoughts on your match with Frodan?
Machina x Flayon: My match with Frodan was a bit scary because the nerves come for you out of nowhere and I was against Frodan too! During the Slam, I could take some rounds off him, but he definitely did the same back and he adapts during the fight or pretty much every fight. It was definitely fun though since when you fight Frodan, you won’t be able to pull off the same thing twice in a row, he will adapt to it and instantly prepare counters for it for next time! I’d love to fight him again too because he messaged me after and could tell I was a bit nervous. That guy is honestly so much fun to fight but also such a sweet guy too! I WANNA RUN IT BACCKKK.
You also took part in Holo Expo 2025! How did the event go? What’s it like being part of the convention, and how did this year’s experience differ considering you’re now established within Cover?
Machina x Flayon: It’s always fun to be on the big screen especially at the Holo Expo since you know our fans will be there! When you’re doing a streaming job everyday, it’s quite easy to get used to how everything goes and feel all that support you’re getting. But at the same time, you’re only seeing it verbally most of the time, so when you get to go to any convention, you’ll feel the love more there because you can associate a face + voice with all that love too so it hits much harder.
This year’s experience went great and the more you do it ,the more confident you will be and it’s honestly fun to see where you can improve.
HoloExpo is held in Japan though, so I’d love to take some time off and improve my Japanese skills so I can speak in complete Japanese for the con itself! I know a lot of my Japanese fans are there and not everyone understands English and mine personally can be really hard to keep track of! So I want to adapt for them.
In addition to Street Fighter 6, you’ve streamed a lot of other fighting games like Tekken 8, Melty Blood, and Idol Showdown. What do you look for when you’re picking up a fighting game?
Machina x Flayon: Haha, to be honest? For some reason ever since Blazblue, I’m always looking for a Story Mode. Blazblue is a particular fighter where not only is it an awesome fighting game, but the story mode itself is usually in Visual Novel format with more detail than you’d think.
Because I’m already having a lot of fun with the gameplay and the general grind when it comes to learning fighting game characters, I’d love to associate a story or character with that same emotion!
For gameplay mechanics though, I love air grabs, general mobility, mix up options and just a lot of defensive utility!
You’ve really been representing when it comes to visual novels and Type-Moon games. Will we get to see a Fate/stay Night or Witch on the Holy Night run from you? Or, I mean, if permissions don’t allow, want to just let us all know your thoughts on one or both of them?
Machina x Flayon: I’d love to do those and thank you so much! It’s been a bit since I’ve played one on stream, but it’s mainly because I’ve been busy dealing with lots of stuff in the background. Plus, when I play a VN and even stream one I end up going for 3+ hours and honestly an average of 6 hours per stream or even longer. That’s with also voice acting almost every character or dialogue/narration I come across which can be really hefty! There is also, of course, the fact that not everyone is into visual novels so streaming wise you’ll always have that in the back of your mind. BUT even with that it’s an absolute joy to stream visual novels because I’m completely in my element! I don’t need to act a certain way or say something, I can just go with confidence and talk about what I love and it will translate for me.
But Fate/stay Night and Witch on the Holy Night? Definitely! I’ll just finish Arcueid’s route in Tsukihime first! ^ A ^ Then I’ll do those one after another and it’s not fully visual novel but I’d also love to touch Fate/Extra! My heart will always go to Tsukihime first and foremost though; that’s my beloved.
I saw you picked up the Code Geass HD Gawain model kit! What made you decide to go with a build from that series?
Machina x Flayon: Code Geass in general is just an extremely enjoyable series to watch and it has lots of appeal and honestly quite easy to pick up. It has some anime brand appeal so it can grab the attention of people more than your average mecha.
I went with that for the same reason I do with visual novels! I know the series extremely well and have watched it at the very least of 15 times so I know the characters and can yap about them at the slightest mention. I also use these yapping sessions to try to get people to watch Code Geass too and then I can talk about it with people and share my love/passion for the things I enjoy with everyone!
If I am able to do more model kit builds in the future also, I would want to watch the entirety of the series of it first! So if I were to build a modelkit from Gundam SEED, I would go rewatch/refresh my memory/watch the whole thing just so I can talk about it with people that know the series!
You’ve got a fair number of covers under your belt and also sang on songs like “Dead World” and “Flex.” Do you have plans for any more covers or original songs coming up?
Machina x Flayon: I do have more plans and actually I’ve been dealing with a lot of that in the background! An original song is on my to-do list, but for the very first one I think it has to be very specific and I would like to have a certain appeal or message. Theme even! After I iron that out though I’d love to do more originals more often!
I have some songs I want to cover too that I’m getting done and already have a lot recorded! Now it’s just waiting time for everything else to come altogether. After I’ve covered like 4-5 more though I’d love to just focus on originals or short form covers for YouTube Shorts.
Now that you’ve been with Cover for two years, what kinds of goals do you have for 2025?
Machina x Flayon: My goal just centers around doing what I want to do or rather focusing on my dreams and ambitions for my stay here! But also taking a good look at that and seeing which of that is feasible with my current array of skills and what I’d need to do to match that.
So it’s a lot of projects being moved around and honestly even streaming less here and there just so I can take the pressure off and really just focus on improving where I want to!
Streaming is super fun but also it is always socializing and it’s hard for me to focus on that while also focusing on myself!
So goal wise? Just take a step back and plan more for things that I want! I can plan usually pretty well, but some events might need months worth of planning and I can’t put unneeded pressure on myself.
Machina X Flayon is part of HOLOSTARS English Tempus and streams on YouTube, and you can follow him on social media.