My Experience With Virtua Fighter Tournaments (Virtua Fighter Month)

There was a reason why I chose Week 4 to talk about this: I was at NEC 2023 to help run a Virtua Fighter tournament. I’ll talk about that later, but first let’s get the introduction out of the way.

I’ve spoken in the past about my experience in the Fighting Game Community, or the FGC for short, when it came to games that I competed in such as Dead or Alive for example and I’ve also talked about my time competing in Virtua Fighter, but not as much. I want to take the time to talk about it.

My experience in Virtua Fighter tournaments are a lot more positive compared to competing in other games. Unlike other games that I compete in such as DOA, Tekken, and SoulCalibur, I tend to have a better experience with VF despite the fact that we’re a smaller community compared to other games. But at the same time, I've always loved the VF series since I was a kid, so my love for the games also plays a part there.

I’ve watched a lot of VF tournaments on YouTube back when I was in high school when I learned about the Beat-Tribe Cup and the old-school Athena Cup series. During the resurgence of the fighting game genre with the release of Street Fighter IV, I was motivated to become part of the FGC and make a name for myself. And I’ve talked about the times where I had to find out what game clicked for me.

I didn’t compete in Virtua Fighter until 2017 where I competed in No Matter The Cost, a tournament that featured VF2, VF3tb, VF4 Evolution and Final Tuned, and VF5FS. I competed in all five tournaments in which I made Top 8 in VF2, Top 16 in VF3tb, and I went 0-2 in both VF4 Evolution and VF5FS. I was originally a Lau main back then since I’ve used him in VF5 Vanilla and I tried adjusting to him in VF5FS since the gameplay is a lot different, but after going 0-2 in singles and the team tournament, I learned that I wasn’t clicking with that character.

There were some moments where I played the game and tried to look for a new character to learn. So I tried learning characters such as El Blaze, Shun, and even Vanessa for example and it was a struggle. I loved playing VF and I wanted to get good at the game, but I was having a hard time trying to figure out which character I wanted to main. 

During 2020 when the pandemic began, I picked up on VF5FS again and I began learning two characters: Aoi and Goh. I admit that I’ve slept on Goh for the longest time because he was the least interesting character to me, especially since he felt incomplete when he debuted in VF4 Evolution. Upon using him in games, I admit that I might have treated him too harshly and realized that I clicked with him. I continued to use him and Aoi between 2020 and 2021 up until the release of VF5US where I decided that I wanted to main Goh going forward. It was the best decision of my life.

2020 was also the same year where I created Virtua Fighter Takeover and I contributed to help run Bi-Weeklies for VF tournaments. When VF5US came out a year later, our tournament numbers had increased greatly and at the time, we had to host two streams since it was too big to handle a tournament. By the time offline tournaments make a return in 2021, I would make a return to competing at offline FGC events once again. Summer Jam 2021, I did okay for my first offline VF5US event, despite the fact that I drowned in pools. NEC 2021 was the first time where not only I made it to Top 8, but it was the first time where I made my official debut on commentary. I tied for 5th place at the time.

In 2022, I went to Summer Jam again and did better than last time. Once again making it to Top 8, I ended up placing tied for 5th yet again. However, I went to Sonic & SEGA FanJam in Atlanta, GA and I won a tournament for the very first time, which made me gain confidence as a fighting game player.

And now here we are in 2023 where I competed in three tournaments, where I managed to make it to the finals. Winter Brawl 3D was the first tournament I went to for the year and I fought for my life just to make it to the Grand Finals. I took 2nd Place since I lost to Harpooneer and it was when I was beginning to learn that I am evolving as a fighting game player. Our next tournament, Summer Jam 2023, was supposed to have a stream, but the bad news is that our streamer, ShadowRoyaltyLive, was having technical difficulties. Luckily for us, we had KDQ|WR3CK recorded the tournament for everyone to see. As for my results, once again I tied for 5th.

Last but not least, we had NEC 2023, which took place in the second week of December. I got sent to losers due to a Goh mirror match between myself and Aztec, and I had to fight my way into Top 3. I had to take on an Eileen player in Loser Finals and it was close to the wire, especially at the final FINAL round where I lost due to a wrong input for a throw break attempt and took 3rd place.

I hate fighting Eileen. I really, really do.

Overall, I came a long way since I competed in Virtua Fighter tournaments, but there will be a day where I do win the big one. I’ll do whatever it takes to win 1st Place in VF5US.

VIrtua Fighter Month is almost over. Join us next week as we talk about where we go from here after celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the franchise. And I also want to wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Until Then… Train Up, Fighters!