The Evolution of Justin Wong

By Jonah Raj

Justin Wong is an American competitive fighting game player that has been active in the competitive fighting games scene for over a decade. He has witnessed the decline and subsequent rise of fighting games as a viable competitive area. Due to his longevity in the competitive fighting games scene, Justin is one of the best known and most experienced competitors in the scene.

Justin was introduced to games at an early age, and would visit the arcade with his grandma to pursue his hobby.

“I got involved in video games from the arcade. My grandma would take me to the arcade when I was 8 years old to play Hyper Fighting. It was fun because I would try to cheese the computer out doing M Bison Psycho Crusher over and over.”

Fighting games were some of the first games he ever played, even though he admits they weren’t a genre he immediately excelled at.

“I was always bad at fighting games growing up as a kid but what got me into it was that I wanted to be friends with the people from school.”

Obviously every professional gamer starts by playing the game casually. Then, something ignites their competitive drive and then they start from somewhere and eventually work their way to where they are today.

“My classmates always beat me to a pulp in the Marvel games. They knew how to do infinite combos while I could only do supers. I just wanted to be better than them so I practiced really hard and eventually I was able to best them.”

Beating his school friends was Justin’s original goal and he was happy when he finally accomplished it. The beginning of his competitive career came thanks to a chance meeting with some other professionals at his local arcade.

“I came across the competitive scene by accident. I always went to the arcade at 10am to practice by myself but then I saw a lot of people at the arcade which never happened. They told me they were going to a tournament in New Jersey where everyone around the USA gathered to play. I decided to follow them and I entered my first tournament: the East Coast Championship 5 for Street Fighter 3 3rd Strike and Marvel vs Capcom 1. I got 5th in both events. The only players who beat me were the best players from my arcade. That gave me the fire to keep improving and going to more tournaments”

Justin’s discovery of the competitive scene and the burning desire for improvement was the start of a career for the record books.

Justin was regularly attending events by 2000 and won his first EVO title in 2002, playing Marvel vs. Capcom 2. This would be the first of eight EVO titles he’s earned to date.

In 2009, Justin broke the world record for the longest fighting game winning streak (300-0). This was the same year that he won the GameStop Street Fighter IV US National Tournament. This gave him a seeding in the semi-finals of Evo 2009. He beat four opponents and then had to come up against his rival Daigo Umehara. Though Daigo beat him and sent him into the loser’s bracket, Justin was able to bounce back and managed to set up a rematch against Daigo in the finals of the tournament.

Justin changed his character from Abel to Balrog to counter Daigo’s Ryu, which is his signature character. The two fought a battle of epic proportions, down to the last game. Justin ultimately took the runner up spot, but the grand finals’ peak viewership of 23,000+ signified the growth of the FGC and the hype behind the match.

With the steady growth of the fighting games community and the release of Street Fighter IV, Justin was quickly dubbed the best Street Fighter player in the United States of America, with top placings throughout the tournaments he competed in.

Fast forward to 2012, Justin had a strong set of first place finishes at CEO 2012, UFGT 8, Canada Cup 2012, Toryuken 2012 and SBO 2012. He managed to place second at events such as East Coast Throwdown IV, Winter Brawl 6 and Final Round XV. This success came even with Justin playing both Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition AND Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Justin’s victory at SBO 2012 made him the first American fighting games player to be the champion at a Super Battle Opera event.

In 2013, he continued performing at the same tempo as he did in 2012, with a number of spectacular top three finishes at tournaments such as CEO 2013, East Coast Throwdown V, Winter Brawl 7 and EVO 2013.

On top of his dominance in Street Fighter, Justin is a strong competitor in the Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 scene, having numerous EVO Championships in both games.

Justin currently plays in the competitive Street Fighter V scene, maining Karin. He is renown for his ability to come back in situations that seem impossible to return from. This has been deemed as the “Wong Factor”.

In 2016, Justin won a record seven events during the Capcom Pro Tour of 2016.

At the beginning of 2017, Justin Wong left Evil Geniuses to join Echo Fox, forming a super team of fighting game players that also includes Street Fighters Hajime “Tokido” Taniguchi, Yusuke Momochi and Yuko “ChocoBlanka” Momochi. Justin was also joined by former Evil Geniuses FGC manager Antonio Javier.

Over the course of his legendary career, Justin has been a champion of a stunning 57 tournaments, the runner-up in 30 more and secured a third place finish or fourth place finish in 20 tournaments, for a total of more than 107 top four finishes.

When asked about his goals for 2017, Justin responded with enthusiastic optimism:

“My goals for 2017 are to win all the tournaments I enter. I want to give it my best for Street Fighter V before Marvel Infinite drops out. I also want to improve the USA scene in fighting games by teaching my community when I livestream. I also want to be more involved with the community outside the competitive level like run the Marvel vs Capcom 2 tournament with IFCYipes that everyone wants. Besides that I really would love to win another EVO. I love playing on that stage. It’s a thrilling experience.”

Photo courtesy of Engadget.