A competitor in the massive EVO 2010 Super Street Fighter IV tournament became a hometown hero in his native Taiwan for beating heavily favored fighting-game legend Justin Wong.
Last weekend, hundreds of fighting-game fans met in Las Vegas, Nevada for this year’s EVO Championship series tournament, a massive fiesta of fists featuring competitions in a plethora of games like Super Street Fighter IV, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and Tekken 6.
One of the most surprising twists came in the SSF4 tournament, where famed fighting game guru Justin Wong failed to crack the top 8. Wong, who is best known for his MvC2 skills and Street Fighter rivalry with Japan’s Daigo Umehara – best embodied in this famous 2004 Street Fighter III showdown – saw his Rufus defeated by the rarely-seen-in-tournaments Adon of Taiwanese gamer Bruce “GamerBee” Hsiang.
Hsiang’s unexpected victory over the USA’s #1 Street Fighter player sent shockwaves through the fighting community, even though he didn’t win the tournament – he placed fifth after a “heartbreaking” loss to Mike Ross from Los Angeles, and the top spot went once again to Daigo Umehara. When he returned to Taiwan, however, he found a warm welcome waiting for him from Taiwanese gamers grateful that he’d represented their country well on the national stage.
And then – as seen above – he made the evening news. I’m not saying that I’m jealous or anything, but I’d love to see Super Street Fighter IV on the news shows over here in the States. Man, Taiwan gets all the cool stuff.
Congratulations, GamerBee. New blood in the international fighting-game scene is always a good thing to see. Meanwhile, Justin Wong managed to regain his Marvel title in spectacular fashion in what is likely to be the game’s final year at the tournament – what with MvC3 on its way and all – so it wasn’t a wash for the American fighter, either.
(Protocol Snow, via Kotaku)
