Blind 'Street Fighter' player wins his first tournament match

Sven is a Street Fighter V player who made his official tournament debut this weekend, grabbing two wins in the group stage of Sonic Boom IV in Madrid. Sven is also blind.

Sven defeated his first-ever on-stream opponent Musashi at Sonic Boom IV despite not being able to see. Playing as Ken, Sven listened for the sounds of Musashi's Akuma and responded with well-placed blocks and some impressive counters, eventually winning the set in a very close 2-0 victory.

CARD ID: 190338

In a post-match interview with one of the commentators of his match, Damascus, Sven said he developed cancer and became blind at the age of six. He was afraid he wasn't going to be able to play video games anymore without his sight, but then Capcom released Street Fighter II for the Super Nintendo and he found out he could play by listening for audio cues. Since then, he's played a bunch of fighting games including Killer Instinct, Mortal Kombat, and most of the Street Fighter games.

"Street Fighter V has really good sound effects," Sven said in the interview. "I play with a headset on so that I can hear left and right what's going on during the battle. When a character's jumping or when he's kicking or punching, they make sounds -- in different ways of course. You have to study the sounds for a long time before you know them all and when you manage to do that then you have to train yourself to react to the sounds that you hear. Like [other] people do when they see on the screen, I have to listen to what happens and react on that."

Sven, who came to Spain from the Netherlands with his girlfriend, said it's always been his dream to participate in a tournament, realizing that dream wasn't easy.

"You know, you're blind and you have not so much money, and how can you travel a lot?" he said. "There are so many obstacles to take and I'm happy I did it this weekend."

This goes to show just how inclusive the fighting game community (which goes by its shorthand, FGC) is. Many fighting game tournaments are open to anyone that wants to compete, regardless of who they are or how skilled they are.

"That's the kind of thing I love seeing in the FGC," tournament commentator Damascus said on stream before Sven's match. "The FGC is open to everyone, and no matter who you are, know matter what you have in life or whatever, if you want to play fighting games you're more than welcome to join us."

Sven seemed to feel similarly about FGC's welcoming ways this past weekend.

"I'm really happy to be here," he said. "It's nice company with the community. The organization is really kind to me and my girlfriend. Of course, I know I'm not the best player here -- I'm far from it -- but it's nice to play with other people."