The real hero of Evo was a 13-year-old with a score to settle
What do you when you get your butt handed to you in the most public way possible? You may hear plenty of people say "failure is the key to success," but they haven't been decimated at Street Fighter before.
The living embodiment of getting back on the horse is Skullzer, a 13-year-old fighting game enthusiast determined to make the most of Evo 2016 by settling a score.
In 2015, Skullzer faced off against Gustavo "801 Strider" Romero in Ultra Street Fighter IV. 801 Strider is known as one of the best American players, so his early match was picked for public broadcast on Evo's Twitch stream. Skullzer was 12 years old at the time.
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It wasn't pretty.
Strider made quick work of Skullzer, scoring three perfect victories (in which Skullzer didn't land a single hit) of the four rounds. ("He's just a boy!" you hear announcer Mike Ross scream.)
Instead of getting salty last year, Skullzer handled it like a pro, releasing a video where he talked about how excited he was to play on the big Evo stage, and promising 801 Strider he'd come for a rematch.
And 365 days later....
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New Evo. New Street Fighter with V's release in February. New main for Skullzer, who switched from Ken to Birdie.
Skullzer had gained notoriety for his painful loss, but also how gracefully he handled it, so the internet had his back.
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And Strider, who Skullzer told Mashable via Twitter DM was "really awesome about the whole thing," played the part.
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Then, Saturday night in Las Vegas, Skullzer got his rematch.
While Strider may have still won, it wasn't the mauling of 2015. And there was some A+ showboating from both sides.
"It was so epic," Skullzer told Mashable. " He told me keep practicing."
"Of course I'm gonna keep training and I know love Street Fighter even more."
It seems there will be many training montages in his future, and hopefully another Evo stream appearance.
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Chelsea Stark was the Games Editor for Mashable, where she covered everything from AAA titles, mainstream consoles, indie gems, mobile games and gaming culture. She handled news, feature stories and reviews. Before that, Chelsea was Mashable's Multimedia Producer, where she helped develop visual storytelling aids, whether they were photos of video. She came to New York in 2010 to pursue her master's degree in journalism at NYU's Studio 20 program, which focused on innovation as journalism is changed by new technology. Before coming to New York, Chelsea lived in Austin, where she did online journalism and social media for the local CBS affiliate. She loves good beer, classic Nintendo games, and all things geeky, and spends her time attempting to find anything close to good Tex-Mex in Brooklyn.
