An exclusive interview with the fighting game legend
Video courtesy of EVO Championship Youtube
Street Fighter 6 officially celebrated its first birthday on June 2, and they did so in grand style with the Esports World Cup (ESWC) qualifiers at DreamHack Dallas. With a $50,000 prize pool and a trip to the EWC this summer in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, over 380 players made the trip to the Lonestar State to compete for their share of money and glory.
On May 22, Capcom released its first balance update, not only changing some of the nitty gritty like frame data and hitboxes, but also new costumes, the option to choose different music, and the long awaited release of fan-favorite Akuma.
The updates have brought a spark back to Street Fighter 6. With the release of Tekken 8 at the beginning of 2024, gamers were drawn to the new title in the series like a moth to a flame. Tekken 8 had over 480 entrants in the ESWC qualifiers at DreamHack Dallas.
According to Justin Wong, however, Street Fighter is in one of the best states currently. “The current state of Street Fighter after the patch is amazing, actually. Adding the music player was really cool because, you know, sometimes I want to have different music to be playing. And I’m not the biggest fan of the Street Fighter 6 OST (Original Soundtrack), but the old school Street Fighter stuff? Huge fan in general.”
And if Justin Wong signs off the new content, then it must be good.
Wong, who goes by JWong in the Fighting Game Community (FGC), started his career in 2001 at 15 years of age when he won the Marvel vs Capcom 2 at Battle By the Bay 5, the precursor series to Evolution Championship Series (EVO).
His most well-known fight, however, came during EVO 2004 in Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike. Wong’s Chun-Li had the upper hand on Daigo “Daigo” Umehara’s Ken Masters, but when Wong used Chun-Li’s super art II, Daigo threw parry to all 15 of the hits and used a max damage combo to win in the loser’s bracket finals. The moment is referred to as EVO Moment 37, and one of the most well-known esports moments in the history of video games.
Wong went on to have an established career. An eight-time EVO champion, he’s won in games such as Marvel vs Capcom 2, Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike in 2v2 teams, and Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 to go along with his B5 win in 2001.
When Wong isn’t still competing, he’s creating content around the FGC, as well as commentating at events like DreamHack Dallas. The Spawn Room had the privilege of talking with Wong on June 2 about Street Fighter, the ESWC, and what to expect at EVO Las Vegas.
Talking more about the release of the balance patch and Akuma, Wong goes on to gush about the character release and how clean he feels in the current state of the game.
“Akuma? I love him. Just everything works. He’s one of those characters that I feel like has the most hype when it comes to releases in general. Just because he’s that boss character, right? A secret boss character and everything that comes of him. Street Fighter 6 really complements his play style.”
Despite the fact that the character was just released, Akuma is already playable in both ranked modes and at in-person tournaments (LAN). Wong says that he believes a lot of pro players would say that Akuma is top tier currently because they see his potential.
“He’s the perfect character, his only weakness is his health. And I think there’s going to be interesting stuff that happens. Like, Punk (Victor Woodley) has already picked up Akuma, playing him this whole tournament. MenaRD (Saul Leonardo) is trying to look to play more Akuma.”
With the release of the patch in May also came balance changes to characters. Balances can change the meta more often than not when it comes to which character is top tier, but Wong says Capcom kept the tier list of characters as balanced as possible.
“The balance patch is really good because normally when you think about all the previous fighting games, there’s always going to be like, ‘this character is the best.’ And then when they do a balance patch, ‘this character is the worst’. So the fact that Capcom realized, hey, all these players that are maining the top tier characters, we don’t want to just tell them their character is dead, right? So the fact that they just nerfed them but then still gave them new toys to play with, like new buffs and everything to kind of balance the other characters out. And all those characters on the lower tier side, they went up on the tier list as well. It’s a really, really balanced tier list currently.”
Since the patch is still new, Wong says it’s still a little too early to tell who is going to be top of the tier list in Season 2, outside of Akuma.
“I guess for a lot of people, they will say that it’s really hard to say who the worst character is. And even if there is a worst character, they could still fight, they could still win. So, I’m really excited to see what people are going to come up with, what the current meta is going to look like in a month from now or one to two months from now. So expect a lot of different characters to be shown.”
And a lot of them are going to be shown in the next few weeks during Esports World Cup qualifiers. The first major qualifier happening at DreamHack Dallas helped set the stage for the weeks to come. MenaRD had already qualified by winning EVO Japan 2024 in Street Fighter 6, so even though he placed top 8 at DreamHack, the next placed fighter got to take that 8th spot.
Players who qualified include Higuchi (who placed 9th, but gained the spot from MenaRD), Li-Wei “Oil Kin” Lin, Du “NuckleDu” Dang, Yuk “Chris Wong” Cheung Wong, Zhen “Zhen” Kuang, Arman “Phenom” Hanjani, Benjamin “Problem X” Simon, and DreamHack Dallas winner Tsunehiro “gachikun” Kanamori.
Many of the top 8 qualifiers are known to be at the top of their game, but there were a few players that surprised Wong in the DreamHack Dallas tournament.
“For Street Fighter 6, I would say the surprising player for me would be Zhen because in Street Fighter 6 Season 1, he didn’t have the best showing. He was really known for his Street Fighter V. And that was at the end of the last season. He qualified LCQ (Last Chance Qualifiers), got second place at Capcom Cup, but then even then, nobody really knew him during the whole longevity of Street Fighter V. So, he’s definitely like that breakout star that does doesn’t get enough opportunities, right? But now, he beat MenaRD, who’s the current World Champion in this tournament to previously make top eight. Seeing him (Zhen) there might change his future, his career path.”
His other surprise player was Problem X, who was runner up to gachikun.
“I think Problem-X making it top 8 is also really, really interesting because he’s another person that didn’t do too well in the majority of Street Fighter 6 Season one. He got his momentum during the end of season one and now coming into season two, He’s still keeping that stride and momentum for his caliber because he is the EVO champion himself. I think that’s really beautiful as well. So the fact that he’s doing well now really shows and the fact that he did well at this tournament is really important because, I mean, it’s bragging rights at this point for getting to ESWC.”
The ESWC has the potential of changing a lot of lives with the prize money being offered. Winners will split a pool of $1 Million. The next super qualifier, DreamHack Sweden, will crown another eight qualifiers into the tournament.
But before the ESWC happens, other tournaments need to wrap up their year as well, and all eyes are on EVO 2024 in Last Vegas. Street Fighter 6 is just one of eight games. Despite the fact that Wong is a self-proclaimed “Capcom guy,” he’s just as excited to watch the Tekken 8 action unfold at EVO.
“I’m known as the Capcom guy. I love Street Fighter 6. I do. But watching Tekken 8 is my favorite thing to watch in terms of fighting games right now. I’m so excited to watch Tekken 8 at any major tournament because everybody so good right now. It’s literally a world class game and its hype, it’s so aggressive, and it’s really entertaining as a spectator.”
He doesn’t shy away from his Street Fighter love, however, as this year marks the 20th anniversary of EVO Moment 37. Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike is this year’s retro-based fighter.
“Third Strike will be really exciting to watch just because it’s the 20-year anniversary of EVO moment 37 and the fact that this might be the last time ever Third Strike would be an EVO official title. That’s what Rick “TheHadou” (Thiher) wants to do every year, pay homage to some of the games that were in the past. So last year was Marvel 3 (Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3), this year it’s third strike and if there was a rotation, it would take a long time for third strike to come back again. Maybe, what, ten years again? So, it’s going to be a really fun tournament to watch, especially because it’s number five on the leaderboard in terms of most entrants out of the eight games.”
Wong continues on to muse about the longevity of Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike. “The fact that this old game that is over 20 years old is number five, and it’s beating the current modern games like King of Fighters XV, Mortal Kombat 1. I think that’s kind of insane to me, personally, that it really shows that the retro scene is alive and the online community for Third Strike around the world still exists and people are passionate about it. It’s such an old game that came out literally in the year 2000. So, I really want to see how Third Strike is going to shape up at EVO.”
Which, of course, brings up the question: “Are we going to get a cameo at Third Strike?”
“I entered Third Strike,” Justin said with a cheeky smile. “I always enter a tournament, but then I get hit with, ‘Hey, we want you to work.’ So then it’s kind of tough. But I entered, I did sign up, so we’ll see.”
Wong says he’s also excited to see Daigo get to work at EVO. The fighting game legend was supposed to attend DreamHack Dallas for the ESWC qualifier, but passport issues kept Daigo from leaving Japan.
“The fact that Daigo didn’t get a chance to participate in the ESWC qualifier or any tournament because of the passport issue it kind of sucks because it’s a new patch. They buffed Ryu, which is his character, they buffed Guile, which is also his type of character. He also has a master legend Ken. He’s also been playing Akuma. So him having these type of character choices, I feel like this is kind of his season to show out if he was here (at DreamHack). I think anybody would want to see Daigo do really, really well as well too, because he still keeps the grind going.”
Between balancing patches, ESWC qualifiers, and major upcoming events like EVO 2024 in Las Vegas and CEO in Daytona, FL, there’s a vibe in the air for the Fighting Game Community as a whole. But for Wong, Street Fighter is just getting started.
“The way they keep bringing into the game in terms of adding on stuff, and it’s not just the competitive purposes but more just for the casuals. The fact that there was this raid boss in the battle hub right now to fight Akuma, that’s so cool. Like it’s really cool. I hope that’s not a one-time thing. I hope we get to see more raid bosses to gain more rewards because you get drive tickets and an EX-color. I did the whole thing,” Wong laughs, “I was like, I need to grind for this level 20 skin.”
It’s not just the potential of side games, but also of upcoming characters. “And Takayama-san (Takayuki Nakayama, Street Fighter 6 Director) said, unexpected characters for season two. I love weird stuff. I love weird characters in fighting games because they’re really so cool. So maybe because it’s a Final Fight team, maybe we might see some more final fight characters, maybe more Third Strike characters. A lot of people want the third strike characters in Street Fighter 6. I love seeing their take on new characters in general because it’s just so interesting. They do such a good job. So I want the game not to be stale. And I think right now it’s nowhere near stale and I hope they keep it like that. For the longevity of Street Fighter 6.”
Street Fighter as a franchise has been around since 1987 and is still one of the top selling fighting games throughout the world, so there shouldn’t be too much concern about the longevity of Street Fighter 6. The international exposure for the game at the Esports World Cup will keep the Street Fighter community active for years to come.
Maybe we’ll get to see a 40-year EVO Moment 37 reunion in 2044.
You can follow Justin on X and Instagram @Jwonggg (yes, 3-G’s), where you can follow along with his fighting game travels. And make sure to check out his EVO Japan blog on his YouTube.
We want to thank Justin again for his time with us during a busy weekend at DreamHack Dallas. It was an honor and a privilege to hear his passion for the Fighting Game Community and Street Fighter 6.
Updated at 12:11am June 5 to correct EWC to ESWC.
The Spawn Room 