Hiya!

It all started innocently enough. I was perusing through YouTube as we all do when we’re not really doing anything. I was just looking for something to watch and YouTube’s algorithm, in all its infinite wisdom, recommended a video to me. The thumbnail had a VTuber named Dokibird on it. Having no interest in VTubers ever, I was curious why YouTube would recommend this to me. So, I read the title of the video and it mentioned about Sajam, a prolific commentator in the fighting game community, addressing some kind of controversy with Dokibird. Curiosity got the better of me and I clicked on the video. What I witnessed was peak beginner Street Fighter 6 hype.

The video had Dokibird, who was just starting out with Street Fighter 6, entering into his first ever online Ranked match. She just so happened to get paired up with vGumiho, another Vtuber who was just beginning to play Street Fighter 6 as well. It was already hilarious watching a couple of beginner players trying to outdo each other. What made it extremely hilarious was when Dokibird “one and done” her opponent, basically leaving without giving vGumiho a chance to run it back. This led to Dokibird gloating mischievously and vGumiho frothing at the mouth with anger.

This was my first interaction with what was going to happen during the Sajam Slam Street Fighter 6 tournament and I just had to watch more!

In the grand scheme of things, the Sajam Slam isn’t a big tournament. There’s no million dollar prize at the end or anything like that. It was just Sajam trying to put together a mixture of content creators, mostly inexperienced fighting game players, into a group Street Fighter 6 tournament and see which team comes out on top. Each team would get a pro player to coach these newbies to see how much they can improve. As someone who’s watched a ton of high level fighting game tournaments, I didn’t expect a whole lot. However, the Sajam Slam participants thoroughly impressed me personally and the matches were actually pretty hype.

One thing I really liked about the Street Fighter 6 version of the Sajam Slam is a lot of the participants were coming out of the Tekken version of the Sajam Slam. Although Street Fighter 6 and Tekken 8 are both fighting games, they play very different from each other. They feel vastly disparate, so a lot of them did feel the difference between the two. It took some of them to get used to the mechanics difference of Tekken and Street Fighter but they did adapt eventually. Watching them get used to different fighting game mechanics was a trip, especially if you’re more experienced with playing a myriad of fighting games as you start to remember you yourself having to learn all the new tech.

While the Sajam Slam isn’t exactly an important tournament, I did like how most of the participants did take it mostly seriously. There was a drive for most of them to really win their matches and level up their skills. So much so that they would go out of their way to not only request for coaching sessions with their dedicated pro but ask for help from other pros who specialize in their characters. This led to them streaming their coaching sessions, like Dokibird getting coached by Justin Wong and Sykkuno, after getting blitzed by Dokibird’s Zangief during the second day of the Sajam Slam, enlisting the assistance of the current EVO champion, Punk, to level up his Cammy. As he did beat his demons, I’d say the extra little help paid off!

Another thing which added to the excitement were actually the reason why the participants went seeking out the extra coaching sessions. They simply didn’t want to let their team down. In hindsight, that’s pretty natural as no one want to be known as the weak link in your team. No one wants to be dead weight by only contributing losses and nothing else and this did bring out the best… and the worst in some players.

A good example of this was Dokibird’s undefeated run during the second day of the Sajam Slam. As only participants of the same general skill level get to play against each other, Dokibird’s Zangief was just slamming through his opponents. A veteran player would be able to identify Dokibird’s playstyle and counter it but, against other players of his caliber, her Zangief seemed unstoppable. Sykkuno was especially traumatized with his match against Dokibird and it certainly didn’t help how she essentially did what she did with vGumiho when she started playing; Dokibird hopped into the Battle Hub, played one single solitary round, which she won and then left. That’s real mental damage right there! Sure, that’s poor sportsmanship and kicking someone while they’re down… but it was just so funny to watch!

On the opposite side of the spectrum, you could also see all of the teams coming together to cheer their teammates when they were winning and offering words of encouragement when they did lose. However, what made them extra special was their excitement while their teammates were playing. For most tournaments, I would watch the “official” stream and, for the Sajam Slam, you do so by going to Sajam’s official Twitch or YouTube channel. From there, you could hear Sajam doing commentary with another pro player and him doing all of the switching between the different lobbies for you.

This would be fine normally but, for the Sajam Slam, I would opt to connect to the players’ streams because, from there, you would get a more in-depth feel of the excitement of the teams. You could hear their amazement when one of their teammates does something really cool or listen to their dedicated pro give them coaching on the fly regarding what’s happening. It’s much different from the hype you would get from watching a live crowd watching at a tournament venue. It feels more personal as they’re actually talking to the player this time around.

Although the round robin matches for the Sajam Slam is over, the finals still has to happen and it’s going to happen a full 2 weeks during TwitchCon. Unfortunately, this did mean some teams had to get eliminated and I’m not sure if they’re going to make their presence known during the event. Still, I’m going to be eagerly awaiting who’s going to win this Sajam Slam because, in all honestly, this has been one of the most hyped tournaments I’ve seen in a while.

Byee!

Have you tried watching the Street Fighter 6 Sajam Slam? What have you thought about it so far? Let me know in the comments section below!