Road Warriors

2009:Wednesday Night Fights

On July 21st, Alex “CaliPower” Valle had a dilemma. Since the beginning of summer, he and fellow shoryuken.com (SRK for short) member Dentron had wanted to put Southern California back on the map. In order to stay ahead of their northern counterparts and to regain their dominance that had been taken over by the East Coast, SoCal needed to start practicing. So Valle and Dentron both decided to host weekly events, gathering players from all around the region to meet together and begin, what they describe as, “leveling up”. Valle would host events, titled “Rush That Shit Down” on the weekends at varying locations while Dentron held them on Wednesday nights at his house near South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa as sort of a weekday counterpart to RTSD. Some Wednesdays, local restaurants would be greeted by the sight of the Valle and several of his buddies; an intimidating sight considering Valle looked like he might have been an ex-Marine (partially aided by his crew cut).

But on July 21st, Dentron announced to SRK that Wednesday Night Fights were “indefinitely cancelled”, and Valle’s planned resurgence of SoCal had hit a brick wall. But who were these players and what game were they playing? It was Street Fighter IV, and the players were a group of people who Valle was hoping would emerge as one of the most dominant groups of fighting game players in the world, something the former undisputed Street Fighter champion was no stranger to. SRK was the leading World Wide Web forum for fighting game enthusiasts around the world, primarily for the world’s best selling fighting game franchise, Street Fighter. RTSD was a phrase coined to describe the play style Valle developed for himself: a relentless offensive attack that did not give opponents time to think or react. But for Valle and the Southern California users of SRK, Dentron’s cancellation was a problem that must be solved. Two decades of playing the game taught Valle that in order to be at the top and stay there, one had to indulge in constant practice and play. Two days a week was a bare minimum for training (a requirement Valle implemented for participants was that they had to be playing on their own time every week as well). Valle knew he had to do something to fill the void that had been created on July 21st.

Editor's Note: This piece was completed for a college workshop just a little under a year ago. It was also my personal introduction to the community. Some information is outdated and a few parts might not even be relevant anymore. However, I believe the overall message of the story still holds strong today, and is prevalent when looking back at not only Alex's personal story, but also everything else that has made the scene into what it is today.
More after the jump but be warned: it's a long read. All comments are welcome in the comment section or e-mail at kaoticdragon@gmail.com



1985: Inspiration

Seven year old Alex Valle stood in the middle of a large crowd: at least 50 people he thought. His parents had dropped him off at the Bullwinkle (which would be bought out and renamed to Boomer’s in the future) arcade off the Magnolia exit on the 405 freeway to meet with his uncle, as they usually did after picking him up from school. The arcade was large to Valle: about the size of two Foot Locker stores, but at that moment he could not find any space to move. The air was hot and murky as the crowds’ collective body heat began to cause the young Valle to sweat, even though he wasn’t playing Karate Champ.

But his surroundings barely registered in his brain. Valle was too busy watching, along with everyone else, his uncle beat the entire Super Mario Brothers arcade game. His uncle pressed a button, causing the 8-bit Italian plumber to jump off the flimsy bridge on to a conveniently placed axe. The axe severed the supporting ropes sending the giant, evil turtle known as Bowser into a fiery oblivion. Princess Peach gave Mario a swift kiss on the cheek. A rapid succession of “bling” sounds arose as the high score was calculated, but Valle can hardly hear it beneath the roar of the crowd as the mob surged forward to congratulate his uncle for becoming the first person in Bullwinkle Arcade history to beat Super Mario Brothers.
He watched person after person praise his uncle and request Polaroid photos with him. One even asked for an autograph. But amidst this chaos, only one stream of thoughts ran through Valle’s mind: “I want this.”

“I want people to glorify me. I want people watching me. I want these bragging rights. I want this moment to happen to me.”

A Brief History of Video Games

The first video game was originally created as a missile defense system in the 1940’s. It wasn’t until the 1980’s when video games exploded with the introduction of the third generation console system: Famicom, more popularly known in the United States as the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). In the same decade, defined game genres also began to emerge, first in the arcades and then in the console, as games transitioned from cabinets to cartridges. Zork (1980) was the first adventure game, using text and typing as the form of gameplay. Pac-Man (1980) became one of the first maze games as well as competitive games as it introduced a high score system. Donkey Kong (1981) introduced the first true platforming game, as players controlled Mario who had to avoid barrels by employing timed jumps and well placed ladders to rescue the princess from the clutches of an angry monkey, but, along with Pac-Man, was one of the first video games to be used in competitions (and was a centerpiece in the 2007 documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters). Described officially as an electronic sport, competition in video games date as far back as 1983, when Twin Galaxies arcade created the US National Video Game team. Twin Galaxies had also kept official records of high scores in arcades around the country as players competed daily for their name to be inscribed in the Guinness Book of World Records. Nintendo also began holding World Championships in 1990, going across the US gathering 90 finalists to compete in Universal City Studios: California. Nintendo also introduced their fourth generation console, the SNES, and with it came the rise of fighting games under two titles: Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter II.

1995: The Rise

Alex Valle approached his second year as a part-time worker at Southern Hills Golfland, one of the most famous arcades in the United States at the time. Located in Stanton, California, it would host some of the biggest fighting game tournaments in Southern California. But the 17 year old Valle did not know about the arcade’s future in 5 years. All he knew was that he was the most dominant player in the arcade. None of the regulars could even come close to defeating him in the newest Street Fighter game released in the series: Street Fighter Alpha. Valle had paid his dues to get to that point. After watching his uncle beat Super Mario Brothers, Valle dedicated his life to being the best kid in the neighborhood in everything involving video games. It didn’t matter what the genre was. If it was Super Mario, he would get more points; clear every stage faster; beat the whole game without dying once. If it was a one on one competition game, like a sports game or a fighting game, he would practice until nobody would even think they had a chance to win. If he had already become the best at a game, he would find ways to play and beat it that nobody else had even thought of. So it was only natural that Alex Valle got a part-time job at Southern Hills Golfland (the decline of arcade profits due to the release of consoles caused most arcades to either close down or merge with other forms of entertainment, such as miniature golf). Valle spent every moment he could at the arcade. Even though he worked as a cashier, most customers only came in for arcade games, which were financially self-managing. So Valle found himself with a lot of free time everyday; free time he dedicated to practicing Street Fighter Alpha. During his break times he would practice even more. And with the reputation that he received from the rise to the top of the arcade, Valle thought he had found the glory he first tasted as a seven year old boy watching his uncle.

But one day, that perception changed.

“Hey Alex.” Valle reluctantly stepped back from the Alpha cabinet to acknowledge his good friend Tao Duong. “Sup Tao.” “Hey, there’s someone you should meet.” Tao shifted to the side and a tall man with a thin moustache and a mushroom cut came forward. “This is Mike Watson. He’s pretty good at Alpha. You should play him.”
Valle nodded with a look of disinterest as the man known as Mike Watson took control of the second player side of the cabinet. Golden letters flashed across the screen as Mike Watson hits the start button after inserting a quarter. “Here Comes a New Challenger!” they read.

Valle, who had been practicing his execution in arcade mode, already had his main character, Ryu, selected. Watson chose Guy, a new character introduced into the series by Street Fighter Alpha. Valle doesn’t give the selection any thought.
The first round began, and Alex Valle immediately jumped in with a rush down mentality. Valle threw out almost every move in the book, a standard operating procedure for the young teen that did not want to allow his opponents any window of escape. But Watson was a veteran. He blocked every move perfectly, and escaped the rush with ease. And in an instant, the tables were turned. Watson throws out a punch, which Valle blocks easily. But instead of continuing a combo, he executed a Bushin flip command, which sent Watson in the air with a quick, short hop and down with an elbow drop. Upon block, Watson then threw Valle, which was near impossible to counter upon block of the Bushin flip. But Valle did not know this, because he had never fought someone of Watson’s level before. As Valle recovered, Watson hit him with a 6 hit combo, which instantly put Valle in a dizzy status, leaving Valle absolutely defenseless as Watson got in a free combo for massive damage. In a few seconds, the chain of events left Valle with less than half health, and he had already been set up for a continuation of the vicious cycle that was Watson’s offense: inescapable throw, dizzy combo, free damage. The inexperienced Valle did not understand that Watson was abusing a character’s game mechanics that allowed almost instant death to those who had not experienced it before.

“OK, this guy is pretty good. I guess I have to give it my best,” he thinks. Cracking his neck with a sharp twist, Valle wipes off a few drops of sweat mixed with gel off his forehead and prepares for the beginning of round 2.

A Brief History of Fighting Game Tournaments

Unlike computer game tournaments, fighting game tournaments began dying in popularity during the mid-90’s before resurging in the 2000’s. Street Fighter II was one of the most successful games of all time, with almost a copy sold for every household with an SNES. But after the introduction of the Alpha series, the number of players, particularly in competitions, fell. Part of the problem was the steady decline of arcades as the rise of consoles kept people at home, playing only with themselves or local friends. Another problem was the fact that fighting games, arcade cabinets, and video game consoles could not utilize the internet like computers could. Thus, competition was very limited and much more expensive, with travel fees or quarters in the arcade (the worse you were, the more you paid, which destroyed a lot of motivation to play in the first place.) But a couple of Cannon brothers would change all that.

In 1995, a website known as Alt Games played host to a revolutionary argument: who was truly the best player at the time? Before Alt Games, tournaments were all through word of mouth, so not everyone played in every competition, even the biggest national ones. But Alt Games became the first forum for fighting game fans, gathering people from across the country to a single website, and people wanted to know who the best Street Fighter was. So Tom and Tony Cannon created the net code for GGPO.net, a server which allowed people, for the first time, fight against other people in a fighting game over the internet. Amazingly, the coding was so well done that there was virtually no lag, which even professional gaming companies to this day cannot say they have. Online tournaments eventually evolved into annual meetings known as Battle By the Bay. It was held in various locations around the country, such as Boston and California, before everyone agreed to settle the location in Las Vegas. Originally a tournament with 64 participants, BBB grew so large that people like Seth Killian, the community manager at Capcom (creators of Street Fighter), came in to help. With that, the fighting gamers decided to change the name and mark the resurgence of the fighting game tournament and fittingly renamed the tournament at the turn of the millennium Evolution.

In 2002, Japan also formed its own national championship tournament known as Super Battle Opera, which was run by Arcadia magazine. Both tournaments became the top two international fighting game tournaments, with Evolution as an open tournament with hundreds of participants a year (anyone can play as long as they pay an entrance fee, which goes into a money pool for the top 5 winners). SBO, on the other hand, requires its players to qualify first. Two spots are held for American and European teams, while Japanese players must qualify through several regional tournaments, but due to the much stricter single elimination format (1 loss disqualifies you from the tournament), it is rare to see foreign teams make it past even just the first round.

1996: The Ultimate Street Fighter

Alex Valle was in the dimly-lit back building of Sunnyvale Golfland in Northern California, about 450 miles away from home. But he was playing in the Battle By the Bay tournament, considered to be the unofficial West Coast championship tournament, which had attracted 64 players from around North America (with 3 of them coming from Kuwait). And Valle found himself in the grand finals of the newest installment in the Street Fighter franchise: Alpha 2. His opponent is John Choi, the top player from Northern California, who, like Valle, was considered to be the next big thing in Street Fighter tournaments.

Valle had come a long way from the fateful day in 1995 where he fought Mike Watson for the first time. He lost that game in the second round as well, to the same tricks. Watson’s inexperience led him to think he could constantly rush Watson down, but he was simply setting himself up for openings for Watson. Half the crowd who were waiting in line for their turn had decided after the match that their money was better of spent elsewhere. When Valle stepped off the cabinet to allow the next player to struggle against Watson, he heard whispers going around the arcade: “Dude, that Mexican Kid lost!” For the first time in his 2 years at that Golfland, Valle angrily thought “I’m not even fucking Mexican!” It was only a casual match that cost Valle 25 cents, but nothing but anger and frustration flowed through his mind. He thought to himself, “What happened? I have never got beat down, EVER, that bad.” He completely ignored his friend Tao, who, after the match, tried to offer comfort by mentioning Watson was the 1995 national champion at Street Fighter Alpha. It wouldn’t have mattered to Valle anyways. He was supposed to be the best. He played every day, sometimes for more than 12 hours, to get to where he was. And he was torn apart in a little more than two minutes of play time, including the loading time between rounds. On his own territory, no less! Southern Hills Golfland was his second home. He walked around its grounds in nothing but a wife beater and jeans without a care of his appearance in public. Valle left the arcade early that day, with the feeling that everything he had accomplished up to that point was nothing. Watson had took away his fun, not allowing Valle to do what he wanted to do, and simply capitalized on his impatient play and inexperienced defense. But buried underneath the cloud of anger was a single thought: “That’s the next level I need to reach. I need to become as good, no, even better, than that guy. I’m going to play harder and prepare for 1996.”

One year later, Valle was one match away from becoming the best Street Fighter player in the country. The format of the tournament was double elimination (a player needed to lose twice in a tournament to be eliminated, creating a winner’s bracket and a loser’s bracket), and Valle was the one who had sent Choi to the loser’s bracket in the winner’s finals. Valle expected nothing less of himself. An entire year of playing Street Fighter Alpha 2 translated to the most time Valle had dedicated on a single game, and it had paid off in the form of what some think was a loophole in the game system, which was eventually dubbed as the “Valle CC”. Long story short, it was unblock-able. No mechanic in the game allowed you to escape from taking full damage from this move if it was performed properly. With its use and near flawless execution, Valle brought himself one step away from the top. Watson had already been eliminated earlier in the tournament, and John Choi (the man who placed first in the very first national tournament Valle participated in: the Las Vegas Alpha 1 National Tournament in 1995) was the only obstacle remaining.
The rules were set: each game was a best out of 3 rounds, with each set a best out of 3 games. Because John Choi was sent to the loser’s bracket before winning it and reaching the grand finals, he needed to beat Valle in two sets in order to win the tournament; Valle only needed one. That meant Choi would need to win 8 games against Valle, which was no small feat for anyone playing anyone else of such a high caliber. But Choi came roaring back, winning the first set and tying the second set at a game a piece, meaning a single game would determine who would be the champion of Battle By the Bay.

Meanwhile, approximately 5300 miles across the Pacific Ocean, a 15 year old Japanese teen named Umehara Daigo, was in the province of Aomori, practicing at another Capcom fighting game, Vampire Savior (known as Dark Stalkers 2 in America), for what would eventually be a showdown with his rival Shin’ya Onuki in the 1997 GAMEST Cup finals. After winning the tournament, he would be a celebrity throughout Japan.

1998: Capcom Alpha 3 International Championship

Alex Valle had won so many tournaments since the’96 B3 that he is now considered “untouchable”; the undisputed national champion. He had defeated John Choi convincingly in the final game of that tournament, and had never looked back. A person recording the final game captured the killing blow, which was then proceeded by a large mob cheering and rushing towards Valle, with him turning around to greet them back. The last image captured before the cameraman could no longer record due to the chaos was a shot of several bodies near the cabinet, with a small glimmer of a wife beater in the left corner of the screen.

After winning the 1998 B3, Valle was invited to a special Alpha 3 Championships tournament hosted by Capcom, the creators of the franchise. Japan had also recently held a national tournament, which was won by a rising star Daigo Umehara. He had beaten every competitor in Japan and agreed to travel to San Francisco to seek out America’s champion. He found Alex Valle.

The stakes were the highest they’ve ever been in a fighting game tournament, but nobody knew it at the time. At least, none of the Americans. The internet was still a new thing. Who had even heard of Japanese pros? America had all the dominant video game professionals, with Valle leading the way in fighting games. So a mixture of confidence and uneasiness was in the air of the arcade, which was emptied except for the crowd of about 100 people gathered around 2 linked Street Fighter Alpha 3 machines. Valle was seated to the left on the first player machine, sporting his signature wife beater. The 17 year old Daigo was on the right with a white long sleeve sweater, long split black hair, and no emotion on his face (a feature that will be a famous attribute of the man dubbed as “The Beast”). A small Japanese woman and a film crew stood in the front corner of the crowd, recording a documentary of the first official international tournament of a Street Fighter game. A white man with light brown hair similarly cut to Daigo’s lifted a megaphone up to his mouth. He explained the rules; a game was the best out of 5 rounds (first to three), with a set the best out of 3 games. The two competitors shook hands, sat down at their respective machines, and began the match.

Daigo won the first round of the first game convincingly, but then Valle got in a groove. He unleashed his RTSD style, not allowing Daigo to escape from the corner. In the third round, Valle almost perfected the Japanese champion, eventually winning the set in the fourth round 3-1. The crowd cheered every time their home-country hero unloaded enormous amounts of damage upon Daigo. It seemed that the match-up was going to be one-sided. The purpose of the RTSD tactic is to apply constant and changing pressure, not allowing the opponent to escape or adapt. It seemed like the perfect counter to the Japanese technical style that involved pixel perfect spacing and a priority towards defending. As the cabinets reset back to the character select screen to prepare for the second set, Valle stared at Daigo. Daigo kept his emotionless gaze on his own screen.

The second game started, and in one combo Valle had already taken away half of Daigo’s health. Despite Daigo’s ability to escape from the corner and slowly create a comeback, Valle ultimately won the round. The crowd began itching with excitement that their man was two rounds away from taking out the mysterious Japanese teenager. In the second game, Valle once again jumped out to an early lead, but as he was on the verge of clinching the second round, Daigo teleported out of the corner, a move he had not even attempted in the first game. The crowd quickly went from cheers to murmurs, and some even gasped, “woah!” Daigo had Valle down to a pixel of health, but he only had a little more for himself, and a well-timed super move finished off Daigo to give Valle a 2-0 lead in the second set, as well as giving Valle match point. Then, Daigo decided to show the crowd why he was the national champion of the East. He began pulling out combinations of moves that Valle and everyone else didn’t even know existed. He connected moves that resulted in massive amounts of damage, turning a lead for Valle into a deficit in the matter of seconds. He used air throws perfectly, almost as if he was reading every moment Valle would decide to jump. He won the next three rounds, tying the match at one set a piece. But Valle didn’t seem bothered by it. He kept his game face on, and when asked whether he would exercise his right to change characters as the loser of the last set, he declared he would stick with his main character Ryu. As the announcer informed the crowd much to their delight, Valle looked straight at Daigo, mouthing “yes” and nodding in an intimidating manner. Daigo asked a question to the Japanese woman, probably because something was lost in translation. She answered, Daigo nodded quickly, and the third set began.

It was almost as if the two players switched spots. Daigo began unleashing a flurry of attacks, not even stopping his offensive onslaught for a second of each round. Valle tried to block, but Daigo unleashed so much damage in so little time that it even broke through Valle’s guard meter. Daigo’s change of play-style only confirmed the deadliness of RTSD: it gave the opponent no time to adapt. They could only defend until their health was chipped away to zero. As the crowd applauded the feat of Japan’s best, both players remained seated at the machine. The announcer brought up his megaphone, declaring Daigo as the first world champion of Street Fighter Alpha 3. As the Japanese camera crew rushed towards Daigo to get his immediate reaction of the victory, Valle could be seen in the back, discussing something vehemently with the announcer. When he got a reply back, Valle could only shrug, throw his hands up in frustration, and stare back at the cabinet’s screen.

The Aftermath

Valle left the 1998 tournament in second place, a soon to be familiar sight for most Americans who would faceoff with a top Japanese player. But 1998 was not without controversy. Valle had expected to have a second match against Daigo, as he was told that it would be the best out of 3 matches. Daigo had only won one match, but the announcer was quick to declare him the winner of the match-up. Some say that Valle was misinformed; others claimed he was cheated out of a second chance; the most sensible rumor claimed that they had run out of time and had to cut the match short. The only thing the world knew was that there was a new champion in town: Daigo Umehara. Alex Valle would continue to be a force in fighting game tournaments, but he was no longer considered untouchable.

In 2001, a young boy from New York named Justin Wong beat Alex Valle in Marvel vs Capcom 2. Valle shrugs it off, as it wasn’t Valle’s main game and Wong was a new kid on the block. Wong would become the best fighting game player in the United States.

In 2004, those who did not know about Daigo before would now know of him. The game was Street Fighter 3: Third Strike. The match was the rising star Justin Wong against the seemingly unbeatable Daigo Umehara (just a year ago he became the first player to win two separate events, Guilty Gear XX and Super Street Fighter II Turbo, at an Evolution tournament). In the most improbable of comebacks, Daigo, whose health bar was translucent with emptiness, faced Justin Wong in the final round of a set in the loser’s bracket. Wong held a commanding health lead with a little under half of it remaining. All it took was for Wong to hit him once, and Daigo’s health would be chipped away to zero and Wong would win the set. Wong decided to use a 15 hit super combo, just to be safe. But in a turn of events that required perfect timing and execution, Daigo implemented “parrying”, a technique where a player pushes their joystick forward the split second they are hit by an attack. This causes the attack to be “parried” and negates chip damage that would be taken if they had just normally blocked it. Daigo parried all 15 hits of Justin Wong’s combo, to the utter amazement of the over 200 people crowded in the Cal Poly Pomona hall to watch the match. Wong couldn’t even believe it; as he unleashed the combo and leaned back in his chair expecting the animation sequence to do the rest of his work, Daigo began his parry. Wong jumped back up, stared for a second in disbelief as parry after parry went off, and began mashing his buttons and rotating his joystick in a futile attempt to stop the chain of events that was occurring in front of him. Then, as Daigo connected a super combo of his own, Justin Wong could only fall back in his chair and stare at the ceiling in disbelief as his entire remaining health was drained in one instance. The crowd erupted in cheers. Seth Killian, who was commentating at the time, could only describe the moment as “unbelievable” and “madness”. It would become the most famous fighting game tournament moment in history, being dubbed as the “Daigo Moment” (also as Evo Moment #37), created a new mindset for fighting game players: never give up until you are dead (known as the Evo Rule), and became the most watched online video of a fighting game match.

After Daigo missed the 2005 Evolution tournament due to personal reasons, he would return in 2006 only to once again meet Alex Valle, this time in 3rd Strike. It was a highly anticipated rematch: the man who showed the world Valle was human against the ex-king of Street Fighter who could still give anyone a run for their money. Valle would get the match he expected in 1998, and he made sure he capitalized on it, defeating Daigo in straight sets and sending the Japanese beast on his way to his worst Evolution finish ever: 5th place. But it was still Justin Wong who dominated America, as a new generation of fighting gamers emerged from the crowd that used to idolize guys like Valle, Watson, and Choi. Now, they are only old-timers, hitting their thirties and succumbing to the grip of real life.

2009: The Resurgence of Southern California; Wednesday Night Fights Round 2

Two weeks after Dentron’s message, Valle’s longtime friend Daniel “SHGLBmX” Tam, posted on SRK that he would continue Wednesday Night Fights. Shgl (pronounced “shiggle”) got his name as a tribute to Southern Hills Golfland (SHGL). He hosts these events in his garage in Westminster, drawing old regulars and new locals alike. Every Wednesday night in Southern California, a crowd of a constantly increasing number arrives at 7:30pm, playing Street Fighter IV to as late as 1am. Shgl greets everyone, including the complete strangers, with open arms into his home.

The garage is dim; it is lit by a single light bulb. Eight people share two two-cushion couches. Five flat screen monitors running 5 separate “stations” of Street Fighter IV are propped up on makeshift stands: a coffee table, a small cabinet, and several left over boxes. Behind the televisions are a couple of wooden shelves on the wall holding cans of paint. A light brown closet stands to the left of it. Behind the couches is a bunk bed that nobody utilizes because it is filled with dust and old clothes.

The get-together is a rather poor operation: every game system, arcade stick, and television screen is borrowed from players who attend. Shgl also has a donation box he set up, which is simply a black Creative Recreation box with a crudely cut slit on the cover. “This covers the electric bills. It ain’t cheap.” Shgl also uses the donation money as a way to make profit by selling players drinks he buys, which are kept in an old white fridge at the back of the garage, next to a door that leads to his backyard. Most players donate; the regulars usually buy drinks as well. Some are just members of shoryuken.com, while others have been friends with Shgl since childhood, growing up and playing video games with him for over a decade. But every new comer always does a double take whenever they see the legend Valle helping run the operation. Nobody treats him like a female fan screaming at a Backstreet Boys concert, but there is a certain respect about everyone as they see Valle and even play him.

Alex Valle paces the scene in his black Puma track jacket, arms folded across his chest. He looks at a couple of monitors in disgust. “Hey people! It’s been two months now! Can we start seeing some improvement?” Some nervous laughter arises, but everybody gets the message. The intensity of the matches begins to pick up, while two players step outside for a smoke and a discussion of strategy. Valle and Shgl stand in a corner, discussing the direction they want to take these Wednesday Night Fights. “These people need to get better,” Valle says to Shgl, who is nodding in agreement. “We should charge people to play. That will motivate them. Go old school. As a kid, a quarter was worth so much, that you had to force yourself to become good so you don’t lose money.” Because the numbers of participants became so large, they eventually agreed to change the format to a tournament-style, with the worst players being banned from the garage weekly.

Valle’s entire life revolves around his competitive nature, creating a play style that had no real disadvantages. Tonight, Valle was utilizing these traits in a new way. “Let’s take this guy for example. If I sit down with him and play him, like, a hundred times in a row, he’ll be a top player like that.” Valle emphatically snaps his fingers and Shgl nods. Valle’s goal is no longer to become immune to losing in a fighting game tournament. He has adapted himself from a player, from “that Mexican kid”, to a teacher. Part of it is due to life. At age 31, Valle now has a full-time job at an undisclosed game company working on Spanish translations, quality assurance, localization of games, and hack testing. He also worked for Aksys Games to port a new Japanese fighting game, BlazBlue, to America. Valle has found a way to use his expertise in his life. He attributes all his success to one philosophy he is trying to pass on to his “students”. “I hate to lose. But at the same time, if I do fail, I will try again. It’s because I hate losing so much it irritates me to the point where I make it a goal never to lose again. To be good at a video game, or anything, everyone must have that. Because if you don’t hate losing, what’s the point?” It is only natural that with the new role Valle found, he is now the head of what he hopes to be the resurgence of Southern California. He was named the captain of the Southern California team in Evolution 2009, and he expected them to beat everyone else. They placed 5th. But Valle can see that people want to improve, and it is their dedication to the game and the fighting game scene in general that caused him to proclaim on SRK a decade after his glory years, “I love you guys. This is why I keep playing the game.” A decade after Valle rose to the top and then gave way to new blood; he is still trying to win. And the new form of losing for Valle is seeing these aspiring street fighters losing. So, like Daigo is doing now in Japan, Alex Valle is looking for who could rise up to be the next champion to represent Southern California; the West Coast; the United States. The time is 11pm on a chill Wednesday night, and Alex Valle only has one thought on his mind: who is going to be the next Alex Valle?