Hiya!

So, a couple of days ago, I did something I never thought I would ever do. It’s something I may have dreamed of but never in my wildest dreams would I ever believe would come through. I actually won something! It’s wasn’t something as benign as a raffle where you’re just lucky to get your name picked out of a hat. No, it was actually a bout of skill against other people and I had to metaphorically go through 32 other people to reach the top.

I joined one of Street Fighter 6’s online tournaments and I actually won! Yes, little old me, someone who gets all jittery when playing against someone else in, well, anything, actually became champion in a tournament! Yay me!

I guess being the pessimistic puss that I am, I can’t help but think of some of the caveats which led me to win. For one thing, the tournament I joined was one of those Capcom events they offer in Street Fighter 6’s Battle Hub. This means I wasn’t facing off against any big name pro players as far as I knew. I also played the one which was open to the Silver and Gold ranked players so I really knew no big time pro players were here. I mean, I don’t think they would be sandbagging their rank just so they can win something as inconsequential as this. The final asterisk would be the tournament was held at 4AM in my region! This probably meant the really good players were fast asleep, dreaming of all the wins they had earlier. Still, I do want to focus on my win because it does feel like a big achievement for me.

For this tournament, I picked Guile and my Guile is still stuck in the Gold rank for the silliest of reasons. It’s because he was the first character I picked when I first started playing Street Fighter 6 but I basically stopped playing with him because I kept on losing with him. I soon experienced a character crisis as I didn’t think Guile was a good fit for me. I experimented with Blanka but I never really got super used to his style. I had the most fun with Zangief because hitting a Spinning Piledriver or his Critical Art, the Bolshoi Storm Buster, is just so cathartic!

I did eventually get over my character crisis and reverted back to Guile. I know a lot of fighting game fans hate charge characters but I love them! It’s so much easier for me to do a Flash Kick than to have to do that zigzag motion to execute a Dragon Punch or even tap down twice for something like Chun-Li’s Tensho Kicks. So I did keep on playing Guile but never on Ranked. I just played against other players through the Battle Hub because, well, the stress of Ranked matches was kind of getting to me. I rather have the more relaxing Battle Hub matches where all that’s up for are bragging rights. This did mean I have been gaining a lot of experience with my Guile but never ranking him up beyond Gold.

One faithful day, I did log into the Battle Hub and noticed a crowd around one of the booths which was normally not crowded. I clicked on the NPC who was standing behind the counter and he was accepting entries for various tournaments. I initially was super hesitant to participate because I knew I would be annihilated by higher ranked players. Luck for me, I did notice, Capcom was kind enough to make a tournament just for people lacking true fighting game skills such as myself. I signed up for the Silver and Gold rank tournament and I waited excitedly for it to start. I have to say, I was so nervous I had to go pee a couple of times during the 10 minutes before the tournament started!

Anyway, when the tournament started, I honestly thought my goose was cooked very early since I was paired against a 5-star Gold ranked Ken. While it may not be Master rank, that should’ve meant he was more skilled than myself, seeing as my Guile was just at 1-star Gold. Imagine my happiness when I actually won! It was kind of close as I took the first match and then he took the next. I do think I got a little lucky during the 3rd match early on as I did a lot of Overdrive Sonic Booms to get the early advantage and eventually win both rounds to make it to Top 16.

In the next match at Top 16, I was paired against a Ryu player who was around the Silver Rank. Not to brag but I do remember going through him rather easily as he was doing patterned gameplay of trying to get in with a low kick into Ryu’s High Blade Kick/Donkey Kick. This made him pretty easy to punish as he was wide open after the High Blade Kick.

The same could not be said for my opponent in Top 8. I was pitted against a Manon and this Manon was a really good player, in my opinion! There’s nothing quite as scary as a Manon who knows how to collect medals efficiently during a fight! The simple solution would not to get grabbed but that’s more easily said than done! Add to my opponent’s really good corner control, I resigned myself to be okay with making it to Top 8.

However, somehow, I did win! I have to re-watch the matches again because it’s all a blur to me. All I really remember is being ecstatic with actually beating this Manon! I do remember being super nervous so I stopped doing Guile’s bread and butter Drive Rush combo after connecting with Drive Impact just to make sure I wouldn’t burn out too quickly and to make sure I could do a combo. I do believe it’s better to do an easy combo you can perform under pressure rather than a difficult, more damaging one you can mess up in the heat of battle. So, that’s what I did. I just used Guile’s crouching medium punch 2-hit target combo into Flash Kick just to play it safe. It worked so my strategy was sound.

Top 4 saw me taking on another Silver ranked Ryu. However, I can see why this Ryu made it much further along than the one I faced at Top 16. He was doing much more than just jump attack to special move. No, this Ryu would mix in throws and Overdrive Hadokens, keeping me guessing if I should back off when I thought there was an opening. The only reason why I think I won was because he was jumping at the wrong times and allowing me to snipe him out of the air with a Flash Kick or an air-to-air attack. He also burned himself out often, which meant I could do some chip damage to extend any lead I had. Rewatching this match, I really could see how nervous I was as I was messing up even Guile’s crouching medium punch target combo! How dumb is that?

I then moved on to Grand Finals and I could not believe I had made it this far! At the start of the tournament, I really believed I would wash out very early. I would’ve been glad to make it to the 2nd round because that would’ve meant I did beat someone. So, getting all the way to the Grand Finals was like a fever dream. I still felt my dreams would get crushed as I was going against a Marisa. If you know anything about Street Fighter 6, it’s that Marisa can pump out the damage real quick. She has the ability to destroy around 1/3 of one’s lifebar with a single combo! Add her Level 3 to the mix, Marisa can wreck more than half her opponent’s life easily! Some of my fear was removed when I saw she was only a 4-star Silver Marisa… but Marisa is still Marisa, no matter the rank! Also, this guy had to be good as he did make it to Grand Finals!

The matches themselves did get a little scrambly as I noticed both of us were dropping combos and making really silly mistakes here and there. Perhaps this Marisa was like me and was just surprised to make it all the way to Grand Finals like me? By the final round of the final match, however, I built up a lot of confidence, mostly because I already had the lead with 1 match. I was doing more Drive Impacts because I had the life lead and I could afford to make mistakes. Maybe this made me more unpredictable as I did beat this Marisa and I won this Silver and Gold Tournament!

Winning a Battle Hub tournament does feel anti-climactic. There are no fireworks or the stage gets showered with confetti or you see your avatar receiving a trophy or anything like that. Nope, you’re booted off the main stage unceremoniously and you just get a message you won a bunch of Drive Tickets and Kudos for your character. I hope Capcom add a little more fanfare in the future as winning a 32 person tournament doesn’t feel like a big deal. I’m not expecting an EVO-like celebration but I would expect… something.

Even though everyone moved on with their lives quickly, I’m super proud of this achievement. This is not something I ever thought of doing. I never believed I could win in a tournament for anything, let alone in Street Fighter 6! I know this might not seem like a big deal to some because they’re super good at the game. For me, however, it still feels surreal.

Sadly, I don’t think I’ll be able to duplicate this success in the future. I have tried joining a couple of other tournaments held in the Battle Hub. The second time around, I made it to Top 4 only to be trounced by a Gold ranked JP who zoned me to death. The third, I was annihilated by another JP. This last one wasn’t so disheartening as he was a Master level JP and I took a round off him. Gotta take those small victories when you can!

Even though I doubt I’ll ever reach the pinnacle of a Battle Hub tournament ever again, I can still proudly say I did once. I did manage to win a Street Fighter 6 tournament and not everyone can claim to have done that. Yay me! Yay me indeed!

Byee!

Have you ever tried playing in a video game tournament? What was it like for you? Let me know in the comments section below!