The Road to Pro

Recently I auditioned for WCG’s Ultimate Gamer Season 2. What is Ultimate Gamer? It is a reality show that pits gamers against each other in various games for a chance to win $100,000 and to be the ‘face’ of WCG (World Cyber Games). The audition process, just like that of any other show, consisted of me meeting with the casting directors. However, the casting process also required all auditioners to play three games; Forza 3, Street Fighter 4, and Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2.

The first game, Forza 3, was fairly simple for me. All I had to do was figure out the buttons for the view change and that’s it. It’s driving, and very easy for me. I took first in my race and beat second place by about 2-3 seconds.

The second game was kind of tough for me. It was MW2, which I do not like. I would much rather play MAG. All things considered, I didn’t crash and burn horribly, but I played it very lame. I didn’t complete the challenge, (I ran out of time and died in the second attempt). However, I proved that I could play.

Third and final game was Street Fighter IV, on pad (DUN DUN DUNNNN). This is always manageable provided Cammy is unlocked, since my other character is C.Viper. This was not the case. I had to play some generic Viper and scrub out a win against Dhalsim and be happy with it.

Sadly, I didn’t not make the show. However, I did score very high on the gaming portion. I found this odd because I assumed there would be way better players than myself there. I did see a good Street Fighter player on the line. Also, there were quite a few MW2 players there as well. This made me curious.

So when WCG decided to host a fight club in Virtual Fighter 5, Tekken 6, and Dead or Alive 4, I decided I’d attend and see how I fared. I hadn’t played Tekken in months so I knew I was going in extremely cold. Also, I decided just for the challenge, I’d enter the other two games. Here’s the break down on how I did

In Tekken 6 I placed 27th out of 71. My main was King and boy was he rusty. There were a ton of winnable matches but I didn’t have the chops to take them. I am very upset, I feel like I should have placed higher.

In a game that I have never played on console, I played it once in Japan on arcade, Virtual Fighter 5 I placed 8 out of 36. I asked Krismas who I should pick since he knows how I play games. He said I should use Sarah Bryant since she is pure rush-down which is my play style. I think I impressed him with the speed at which I picked up the game and the character. Yes I did get beat by people who played the game longer, but I could ‘see’ them. Meaning I knew why I lost and that’s because I didn’t know what their characters did.

Ironically the last game, I had played once many moons ago on the original Xbox, Dead or Alive 4 I. placed 13 of 48. I did not understand what was going on in that game. I could follow Virtual Fighter because it was slightly similar to Tekken but there was soo much crazy stuff going on. Oh well ces’t la vie.

So this breaks down into a top 10 finish, top 20 finish and a top 30 which could have easily been top 20 from someone who can maybe get less then 10 hours a week of gaming in. I felt no pressure in any of the matches, maybe that’s because I have that big arcade win at PAX under my belt. Ironically, being the head of a video game site you don’t get to play as much as you would like.

What is the point of all this? I was thinking maybe I should just try out to see if I could be a pro gamer. Growing up, my generation never had a pro gaming circuit that is anything similar to what people have now. I love to compete and need some new people to play against. Even Lemon has been supportive telling me to work hard since I’m already on team No Work. I’ll chronicle my journeys or lack of them, show you some stuff I have been practicing, or just share some knowledge with you. Who knows, you might just receive that extra bit of info that puts you over the top, but when you sign that pro contract remember who helped.