Hiya!

The long-awaited Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics has been out for digital downloads and a lot of eager members of the fighting game community have been playing their hearts out. There are also a lot of newbies who have gotten sucked into the hype and purchased the game online… only to get wiped out by a guy named Wazzler has been tearing up the Ranked matches and this mysterious player has been annihilating the competition. So much so that there is a current meme running around how the Wazzler destroying his opponents so bad they request for a refund. It’s all a joke… mostly.

According to one Steam reviewer, he believes the Wazzler has hacked the game or is using a program to assist him in besting his opponents and hopes Capcom will fix this in the future. I’m not totally sure if this is in jest but I am saying there is a possibility someone think this is true. Well, it’s definitely not because the Wazzler is actually Justin Wong, a multiple time EVO champion and has won numerous tournaments in games like, you guessed it, Marvel vs. Capcom 2! So, it’s no wonder why the Wazzler seems to be unfathomably good!

This is just the latest memeable situation Justin Wong has been in. As he has had a fighting game career which has spawned decades, the man has been the subject of multiple memes. Maybe most of them may not be mainstream. However, from within the fighting game community, Justin Wong has had his share of memable moments. As we celebrate the reign of the Wazzler in Marvel vs. Capcom 2’s Ranked leaderboard, let’s go through a few of them, shall we?

Of course, the most memorable meme Justin Wong has been in has to be EVO Moment #37. This happened during the Street Fighter III: Third Strike semi-finals match between Justin Wong and Daigo Umehara, who actually cemented his legendary status during this moment. Daigo was using Ken while Justin picked Chun-Li. Daigo’s Ken was down to a pixel of health and one more hit, even a blocked move from any special attack would take him down for the count. So, Justin Wong had his Chun-Li do her Super Art, the Houyoku-Sen, a multi-hitting attack which was thought to be impossible to Parry completely. What did Daigo do? He successfully parried all 15 hits and countered with a combo of his own, winning the match!

EVO Moment #37 is regarded as one of the most defining moments in fighting game history. You could tell from the excitement as Daigo successfully parried all of the hits and made the comeback that this was something special. The funny thing is, because of how momentous EVO Moment #37 is, people forget Daigo didn’t win the tournament! He did beat Justin Wong to make it to the finals but he actually lost to the actual winner Kenji Obata. Still, this cemented two legacies, Daigo Umehara being called one of the best fighting game players ever and Justin Wong for being the subject of Daigo being called one of the best fighting game players ever.

While EVO Moment #37 is a meme where he lost, Justin Wong also has a meme nicknamed the “barrel roll” wherein he actually won! It was during the Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 tournament finals. Justin Wong may have had great success in Marvel vs. Capcom 2, he wasn’t able to do too well with the next installment, always making it to Top 8 but never being able to win the big one. That all changed in 2014 as he managed to stay on the winner’s side throughout the entire tournament, leading to him facing off against another legendary Marvel vs. Capcom 3 player, ChrisG.

Throughout the entire match, Justin Wong had to navigate through the minefield of projectiles ChrisG lay on the screen with his Morrigan. Slowly but surely, Justin Wong managed to break through this bullet hell with a combination of skill and his “Wong Factor,” wherein his opponent would make the slightest mistake and Justin capitalizing on that error big time. By the end, an exhausted Justin Wong did win after a long championship drought. Running onto the stage to celebrate, he attempted to jump but his knees buckled, leading him to do what is dubbed as a “barrel roll” on the stage, a homage to Star Fox, in an attempt to salvage the moment.

At least with the “barrel roll” meme, people still remember Justin’s victory. Still, a whole lot more people will think of this as when Justin Wong flopped on the floor and rolled on stage. It’s weird and funny and wholly memorable.

The final memorable meme with Justin Wong was when he got “friendzoned” by a Chun-Li cosplayer. To be fair, the cosplayer was Rose Ma, a professional model and who was dating Human Bomb, another fighting game professional, at the time. That didn’t stop Justing from trying to take a cute photo with Rose Ma, who was dressed to the nines as Chun-Li during EVO 2017. Justin put up half his hand to form a heart symbol. All Rose Ma had to do was mirror the hand gesture to complete the heart. She didn’t do that and, instead, gave a hearty thumbs up in its place.

To add a little bit of salt to the already awkward wound, Rose Ma posted the pic on Instagram with the caption “Friend Zone” on it. Daigo Umehara would then also get into the act by posing with Rose Ma but, this time around, it was him throwing the thumbs up with Rose Ma attempting to complete the heart hand gesture.

Ever since then, when people go up to Justing Wong to get their photo taken with him, they request they do the “unrequited heart pose” to copy the meme. Even during the most recent EVO Japan event, Justin Wong wasn’t a competitor but he was there on the floor doing interviews and commentary. Even though the “unrequited heart pose” happened years before, people still went up to him do perform it with them for a photo.

Even though fans do josh with Justin Wong, he does take it in the good hearted fun it’s meant to be. He’s always be a legend and I do welcome our new Wazzler overlord.

Byee!

What’s your favorite Justing Wong meme? Did I miss out on anything else? Let me know in the comments section below!