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The Time I Got My Butt Kicked at Street Fighter

The Time I Got My Butt Kicked at Street Fighter

Here comes a new challenger… to make you feel bad about yourself.

If I think back to my younger days, I can still hear my parents’ voices echoing in my head. After a particularly hard-fought victory toppling some boss fight or puzzle I simply couldn’t get past, I’d look to them and say “Hey…I beat the game!” To which they would almost immediately reply “…and what did you accomplish?” Now that might sound a bit cold, but I’m sure many of you can relate. It’s not as if they didn’t care, they just didn’t understand.

“Gaming culture” wasn’t really a thing back then. To adults, consoles were just another toy, no different than those Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle action figures piled in the corner. Flashing forward to modern day, we find they are not only a huge part of almost everyone’s collective experience, but they can change people’s lives in the process.

Take the recently announced Capcom Pro Tour 2015 as an example.

Those who’ve mastered this legendary fighter (whose roots stretch back to the early days of the ‘90s arcade scene) can score a huge payout. Here is how the current $250,000 prize pool (yeah, you read that correctly, people) will break down among the most-skilled combatants. Rules and scheduling have also been posted to the PlayStation.Blog , where additional tournament details can be found:

  • 1st Place: $120,000
  • 2nd Place: $60,000
  • 3rd Place: $25,000
  • 4th Place: $15,000
  • 5th ~ 6th Place: $10,000 (each)
  • 7th ~ 8th Place: $5,000 (each)

And that is just one of several in-house competitions being held during the upcoming tour, which looks to span the globe. However, if reading this causes you to instantly begin dreaming of button-mashing fortune and glory, I must offer you up this warning. Don’t simply stroll in with a marginal level of Street Fighter competency and expect anything less than an all-out slaughter. I made that very mistake not long ago myself, a move which my ego paid dearly for.

Several years back, my local retro arcade announced it would be holding a Street Fighter tournament. The gamut would run from old school Street Fighter II: Championship Edition to the newer Street Fighter IV . I strutted in that day feeling pretty confident. I figured I would probably lose to some super-advanced player sometime in the later hours, but would fare pretty well during the early co-op matches. I had been practicing with this franchise since I was twelve years old, after all.

The Time I Got My Butt Kicked at Street Fighter

Long story short, I was eliminated in the first round by some kid half my age.

It wasn’t the fact that he was younger than me. What really stung was I felt I had been owned on my home turf. I didn’t mind losing once we moved over to the Xbox 360 and PS3 portion of the event, but I’m pretty sure this kid never saw a legit Street Fighter cabinet in the wild until that day! Anyway, it was a valuable lesson learned. Not only should you never underestimate your opponent, but you shouldn’t underestimate the sheer ass-kickery these kinds of gatherings typically attract. It’s not for the casual types or faint of heart.

But if you’re reading this and feel you do have what it takes, then I say go for it! $120 grand buys a hell of a lot of chopsticks, Daniel-san (you know, because Mr. Miyagi… wax on… ah, never mind).

Good luck, fighters!

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