Leveling Up and East Side Games
How a pastime became something more
I have been playing fighting games my whole life. Ever since I was a wee child, starting to get into what would be my favorite pastime of video games, I quickly became fascinated with the genre. Learning how to do all of the different special moves in Mortal Kombat II, my first fighting game, felt like I was unearthing a hidden well of knowledge; decoding the sacred texts. My first fighting game character, Reptile, has this one move I found called force ball that immediately became my favorite thing ever. Force ball was awesome for two reasons: one being that it was a floating green orb, which is pretty sick, and the second being that, on hit, it launches your opponent, allowing you to land a juggle combo. Seeing people try to avoid the force ball (mostly my brother, Jamie, my lifetime training partner), failing miserably, and then flying ten feet up into the air so I can deliver a hefty uppercut was simply the best experience gaming had to offer.
Fighting games, it turns out, are full of the best experiences gaming has to offer, which is something that I would continue to realize as I played more and more games in the genre. From doing weird Yoshimitsu stuff in Tekken 2, to punching people with DK in Super Smash Bros., to continuing to do weird Yoshimitsu stuff (and occasionally hit people with a big axe as Astaroth) in Soul Calibur 2, the genre was endlessly replayable just from the shenanigans alone. Hell, even “bad” fighting games can entertain for hours and hours. Mortal Kombat Armageddon is certainly very far away from what one might consider a good fighting game, but damn if it isn’t incredibly fun to play every single MK character (up until that point) in one game on one of the myriad of strange stages that the game has to offer. The genre, over my many years of playing it, just proved to be one always worth returning to, and one that I actively would go out of my way to play, even if my regular group of gaming friends were not interested. Fighting games are simply THAT good.
However, it also turns out, that fighting games are full of the WORST experiences gaming has to offer. Getting zoned out by Liu Kang fireballs, avoiding Sub-Zero ice puddles, getting hit by a fatality at the end of a match, are all experiences that would infuriate me when playing Mortal Kombat II with my brother. I also remember having an INCREDIBLY hard time fighting Dr. B in Tekken 3, which, I’m sure sounds hilarious to anyone who was actually good at Tekken 3, but I just had no idea how to get around his electricity zap move. I’m pretty sure I lost entire rounds to just that move. I also have a strong memory of when I was a kid of getting angry playing Marvel vs Capcom 2 at the campground lodge one time when my family went to King’s Dominion for vacation. I was playing arcade mode and fighting the occasional other kid that appeared, but at some point, an older person appeared and challenged me. I, of course, accepted, because as far as I was concerned at the time, I was the best MvC2 player to have been in that establishment. This was quickly disproven, as the dude almost immediately put me into the blender with his crazy neutral and offense. I don’t actually remember who he played, but I’m pretty sure that guy is why I play Cable in MvC2 now. I don’t remember if I cried or not, I think I just got really angry and stormed off, but that day solidified that fighting games were hard, and I was going to need to level up to stand a chance against the wider player base.
With varying levels of success, that is what I did. I continued to play fighting games and actively attempt to engage with their systems more. I started to develop some real neutral in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, real combos with Mortal Kombat (2009), and real game plans in Injustice. Fast forward to Super Smash Bros. for 3DS, and that is when things started to actually click. Once the Wii U version of Smash 4 was out, I even began to attend tournaments while in college. While I didn’t win any tournaments, I regularly would do well, and during those years, I don’t think I ever went 0-2. However, through these tournaments, I eventually started having that MvC2 experience again, but on a much more difficult scale. Shoutouts to J Ribs for absolutely dumpstering me with his Ness in Smash 4, that was yet another wake up call that I had a LOT of work to do to become a real threat as a player. Which, through even more fighting games, I would continue to work on. Street Fighter V was an especially humbling experience to attempt to get good at, as it showed all sorts of holes in my general gameplay that I would need to confront in order to actually be a good player in any of these games. Eventually when MK11 came out, I felt my work throughout the years began to show, as I would regularly crush the average player, and when hard matchups or situations showed up, I would actually have ideas or plans to play around them.
All of this led up to what is probably the most important game throughout this whole journey to me, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Smash Ultimate was easily the most exciting video game release of all time due to its insane roster, overall improved gameplay, and increasingly popular local scene that led to some insanely large weekly tournaments. It still had its problems as a game, but for a few years, I simply did not care, nothing was better than locking in and playing some Ultimate. Early on in Ultimate’s lifespan, tournaments such as Synthesis were incredibly exciting to go to, as they regularly would pull numbers over 70 players, and I remember one of the ones I went to was over 100. The times were great, and working on improving was a satisfying experience. However, a little known event known as the COVID-19 pandemic threw a wrench in what was a thriving local scene, causing a frustrating period of time where I lost a lot of motivation to practice the game, since online play for Ultimate is infamously bad. Many a great player was forged through the flames of horrendous delay based netcode, and more power to them for continuing the grind despite that, but for me, I just had to step away. During that time I came back to MK11, which led to me improving quite a bit in that game and gaining some new ideas to bring back to Smash eventually. Guilty Gear Strive also came out as pandemic restrictions were starting to relax a bit, which was another fun game to dive into as I awaited the return of Smash locals.
So finally, we reach the part of this article where we discuss the place in the title, East Side Games. I started attending ESG sometime in August of 2021, which is around when they were able to reopen after getting horribly unlucky with the timing of COVID. ESG very quickly became my favorite tournament to attend, as it was in the Crystal Mall, the space was nice and comfortable to hang out in (MUCH more comfortable than the original tournament in this spot back when it was the Toy Vault weekly), and the ESG regulars were chill. Many of them are now good friends of mine. The cool thing about having a regular tournament to attend is that, over time, everyone starts to learn how to fight each other, and the matches get harder and harder, which generally improves everyone in the building. I’ve had many a strong rivalry with many of the ESG regulars that I’d either go even with or lose to regularly, and I was determined to become the sort of player that could beat anyone in the building. Learning matchups and implementing new strategies every week I attended was deeply satisfying, and it made ESG the thing I looked forward to the most for quite a long stretch of time. Causing the occasional upset in bracket due to the work I put in is a certain level of satisfaction that cannot easily be matched.
One of my most memorable upsets was the first time I won a set over kev_aROS (shoutout to Kev, he’s the GOAT Toon Link). I think I lost around 7 sets to him before finally having the set where all of my practice and theory crafting against both the character and Kev as a player paid off. Another memorable time was beating Fillie the first time I ever fought him. Granted, I never beat him a second time but at least I was able to show I was a player you could not sleep on. My DK hit a point for a while where even a hint of sloppy gameplay would lead to whoever I was fighting having a Very Bad Time™, so even people who played winning matchups against my character would fight me as if any wrong move would be their last. Now sadly, due to this, I played many a set where I would be infinitely camped out, but it is what it is, I’m just glad I forced most people to have to respect my gameplay and the potential of my character. I could pull up to a tournament and my opponent might not realize they have to fight for their bracket life against my funny mid-tier character. Due to all of the practice I was able to get from ESG (and also the UConn weekly tournaments, shoutouts to them as well for being the other weekly I frequented), I was able to do stuff like pull up to HoG and upset Hawk, which no one in that venue was ready for that day. Even after many, MANY, tournaments, I was able to win both a weekly at UConn and an ESG one, which are both some of the biggest highlights of my time competing in Smash Ultimate, and just playing games in general. The ESG one was especially crazy for me since I had to beat a couple of opponents I regularly lose to such as Glare and Kitana. Hell, I almost lost that tournament to ZeldaPlayer since he was insanely locked in, and I had to lock in myself to not crumble and lose in the grand finals reset. There are so many crazy memories I have of playing Smash Ultimate, and so many of the best ones happened while playing at ESG. Plus that isn’t even mentioning the many memories of playing doubles with my lifelong best friend, Dylan, and getting to watch him learn the game and improve over time as well, becoming a nasty Wario player.
(Since I don’t have the VOD where I won, this VOD below is a set kev_aROS and I had after I had beat him where he beats me, which gives a good look into how tough this game is to win consistently in, Kev beat me up BAD here)
I also have plenty of great memories of playing non-Smash titles at ESG, since I also regularly attend their fighting game weeklies. The FGC heads would soon learn that this Smash player could play a little Street Fighter, and was kinda nasty in Mortal Kombat. Another one of my favorite ESG memories was the week they ran MK11 for Little Zeppy’s birthday (shoutouts to Zeppy). I believe this was the first time I actually attended the fighting game weekly, and, to Zeppy’s dismay, he was not going to win his birthday bracket. We had a very close grand finals, but that day, my Kollector and Jax prevailed, which netted me an early tournament win at ESG, way before I would ever win a Smash bracket at the venue. It may have only been a 7 person bracket where about 3 people in the bracket actually played Mortal Kombat regularly, but hey, we take those! I mean, my Jax was MOVING. The next fight night I decided to enter Street Fighter V, and that is when I collected my second ESG title. Again, another very small bracket (a 6 person round robin) but we take those! Over time though, the FGC weekly ended up becoming special to me just due to all of the games people would play on the side, and the amount of incredibly sweaty sets I got to play in different fighting games. Killer Instinct grands the first time they did the KI side bracket was wild, where I was fighting for my life as Eyedol against ThatScrubDavid’s Kan-Ra. Hell, just playing a set of Bushido Blade during one of HOJU’s (shoutouts to HOJU) Mystery Tournaments felt like everything was on the line, even if I had literally never played the game until that set. Honestly, there are just too many great ESG moments to list them all, but that is precisely why ESG matters so much to me and the many other people that go to the venue.
(One of the moments where my Jax was MOVING)
Speaking of the people, that is the real reason ESG matters to me as much as it does. So far I’ve written a lot about myself, but that is only a small fraction of why ESG is as great as it is. I’ve made many new friends throughout my time going to ESG, and their support is a large portion of why I continued to stay motivated throughout my time competing in different games. Through ESG I met Scot (the GOAT Luigi) who coached me many times during Smash brackets and practiced with me regularly, pushing me to new heights as a player, and who I have the most tournament sets played against (with a horrible score of 4-45 lmao). I also met Vakira Man, who I have a close set record of 11-14 with, and someone that I would regularly talk to about all things Smash and not Smash, especially movies. I met Jay, who is easily the GOAT tournament organizer and someone that taught me some stuff about running tournaments that came in clutch while I took over running Chubby Dog Smash while that was still running. Speaking of Chubby Dog, that tournament was regularly supported by the ESG homies while it was running, so shoutouts to everyone who came out to Chubby Dog. Also, through Chubby Dog getting that support, I met people through that tournament as well, such as Austin, Banj, and ZeldaPlayer, shoutouts to all of them, they are the homies. Honestly, I met so many amazing people that I’ll be here typing this article all day if I keep going, so in the interest of time, here is the fabled shoutouts list: shoutouts to Jake (Glare), Al, Ryan, Aries, Freshman, Magnatoon, HOJU, cesoul, small funny, ZeperTheStar, Stew, Kxng Murdock, duckie, BusinessGoldfish, morg, JShroud, The Worst, Rift, and everyone else who pulled up to ESG during its time at the Crystal Mall. Tournaments are a community effort, and I’m glad that all of us collectively make ESG what it is. ESG is a place where I was able to make an over twenty year pastime something much more than just a simple hobby, and I thank ESG for that. Luckily for all of us, ESG is far from over, as it has found a new home at Sarge’s Comics & Games in New London, so there will be many more ESG memories to make and tournaments to attempt to win. GGs y’all, and see you at the next bracket.
