Custodes 40k: Gamerbee

Sorry, this one isn't going to be about 40k at all, but I felt like this guy really deserved his own post. Gamerbee was, without a doubt, the strongest player I saw at EVO2k10. (which, as it turns out, is the same number of characters as 2010 so isn't saving me any effort typing)

Some quick backstory.
EVO is the biggest fighting game tournament in America and is held in Las Vegas every year. Thousands of people come from all over the country (and the world, even) to compete. And when I say "thousands" I don't mean, like, two.

Justin Wong and Daigo Umehara are considered to be just about the two strongest players out there. They both hold great authority over the community. New games come out, events happen, or whatever and everyone calls up these two guys for interviews to get their thoughts. Granted, there are several people like this in the community, but most of them are more confined to being experts in one or two games. These guys are experts at fighting games, period.

These two are sort of like old rivals. At any given time, nobody is quite sure who is going to beat who in Street Fighter. Tournaments involving both contestants often come down to one versus the other for the top spot. Here is a famous EVO clip showing what is probably the clutchest shit of all time from their match in 2004.

That's about the equivalent of being down by three runs, bases loaded, 2 strikes, 2 outs, bottom of the ninth, and hitting a grand slam. Except that the ball flies into space where a benevolent, cosmic entity happens to catch it and personally return it to the field which makes everyone watching the game, both in the stands and on TV, simultaneously orgasm and crap their pants at the same time.

Anyways, Daigo is the reigning EVO champ and this year there was a lot of hype surrounding the JWong/Daigo rematch. Everyone basically expected the tournament to come down to these two squaring off for the top spot. (or as close to it as possible in a tournament with nearly two thousand entrants) But then something unexpected happened. JWong was eliminated way outside top 8.

This random guy, Gamerbee, playing with a character that everyone thought was shit, including JWong himself, handily defeated everyone he played. Justing Wong and JR Rodriguez being the biggest names I know of, though I'm sure there were more. Still though, JR and JW not making top 8 because of this random guy from Taiwan? That's crazy!!

His games were seriously intense. And not necessarily in the nail-biting, edge-of-the-seat kind of way, but more the "wtf is happening?!?" kind of way. It wasn't that he eked out a win against some top players, it was that he completely man-handled some of the best players in the country and ended up making 5th place in the whole tournament. All using a character that is widely accepted as being really, really terrible.

When he made it back to Taiwan, a big group of gamers had driven out to the airport to meet him and congratulate him with flowers and banners.