Once again, another Wizard World Comic Con recently took place in Sacramento, California at the Sacramento Convention Center. This three-day event hosts famous TV and movie celebrities, artists, exhibitors, comics, anime, and gaming tournaments in major cities of the United States for fans to revel in all it has to offer.
I’ve been to plenty of conventions such as Fanime, Anime Expo, WonderCon and San Diego Comic-Con since the early 2000s. There’s just something about going to these events and enjoying your favorite hobbies with your fellow geeks on a bigger social scale that makes your passions even more special.
Personally, I’m a huge believer of video gaming going hand-in-hand at these events alongside other popular forms of entertainment such as TV, film, literature and… well, you get the idea. In this day and age, video games, especially the competitive gaming aspect of the industry, has grown so much from its “niche” beginnings to heights I never thought I would live to experience.
Upon learning about this convention earlier in the year through social media–and how it would be holding Street Fighter V, Tekken 7 and Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 tournaments in different cities across the U.S.–I decided it would be cool to check it out when it arrived in Sacramento since I lived two hours away from the city. Plus, SFV had free entry included with event registration purchase and big cash payouts for the top eight players. It had been a while since I’d enjoyed myself at an entertainment convention, so attending was a no-brainer.
Street Fighter V Tournament: Mini West Coast Major?
I got to the venue a bit past 10 AM and barely made it in time to register for SFV since I got up a little late and had to rush. Once I got there, I ran into a lot of my fellow NorCal players such as Echo Fox’s Julio Fuentes, Circa eSports’ Long “LPN” Nguyen, Pavo “Pavocado” Miskic, as well as Kelvin and Brian “BJ Unchained” Jeon, among others. Of course, the heavier hitters such as EG|Justin Wong, EG|Ricki Ortiz, and Panda Global’s Ryan “Filipino Champ” Ramirez were in attendance as well.
At first I thought to myself, “Alright. This is like a tougher Churning the Butter or Hadocon–a stacked NorCal local.”
As I looked around to see who else was in attendance that I recognized, I was immediately proven wrong. A lot of strong SoCal players decided to show up out of nowhere: Christopher “NYChrisG” Gonzalez, Jesse “Commander Jesse” Espinoza, Jason “AfroCole” Cole, Brentt “Brenttiscool” Franks, Ryan “Gootecks” Gutierrez and other SoCal natives arrived to compete with NorCal’s best.
Now I honestly had no clue any of these players were showing up for the tournament since the trek from SoCal to NorCal is usually between six to eight hours depending on traffic. Even the WNF commentators, Stephen “Sajam” Lyon and Steve “Tasty Steve” Scott were in attendance. Upon realizing how tough this tournament was going to be and the fact I had hardly played any SFV for almost a week, I was determined at least take down some killers along the way even if I didn’t get that top eight money.
Much to my surprise, I performed rather well. I didn’t get top eight, but I did end up going 4-2 overall (tying for 17th out of 70+ players), sending Brenttiscool to the losers bracket in a close set in the second round and eliminating Gootecks from the tournament with my Vega. I was sent to losers by AfroCole’s Dhalsim in a crazy set involving a double KO that gave us a match each and was then handily eliminated by Ricki’s Karin, 2-0.
Throughout the tournament, I watched a lot of pools matches that one would normally see in top eight of one of our Churning the Butter locals or at a U.S. major: Pavocado vs. LPN, LPN vs. NyChrisG, Brenttiscool vs. Ricki, TSG|Znice vs. Miky “XSK_Samurai” Chea and the list goes on. Most of these sets I witnessed went down to the wire, which really struck a chord in me of how hungry these players are to be the best in this game.
Sadly, the first three SFV pools were not streamed at all. You can watch the last SFV pool in the Twitch stream archive along with several other segments such as Mark “MarkMan” Julio talking with Tekken 7 producer, Katsuhiro Harada and the SFV Boot Camp with Justin Wong and Gootecks.
Some of the more nail-biting matches of the SFV tournament were between the top eight players on the last day of the event. Spectators were on the edge of their seats for BJ Unchained vs. Kelvin Jeon in losers quarters and Julio Fuentes vs. Justin Wong in winners finals was a down-to-the-wire set of the former’s aggressive play style against the latter’s stubborn defense. You can watch those great sets and the rest of the top eight in the Twitch stream archive as well.
As far as my first Wizard Word experience went, I really enjoyed myself. Other than how smoothly the high level of competition that showed up for SFV which I welcomed, the con itself was intimate and relaxing. I got to hang out with a lot of my FGC friends that I rarely get to see and play with as well as make new ones. The Hyatt Regency hotel some of my friends and myself stayed at hotel was super close to the venue and there were plenty of places surrounding the convention center to eat and drink, which made it that much more enjoyable. Plus, most of the cosplayers who were in attendance were some of the best I’ve seen in a while in terms of detail and how in character they were. The picture below I took of this family cosplaying Street Fighter characters made my entire weekend that much more special.
My only minor gripe with the event was that the hours were short on each day, and other than checking out vendors, celebrity meet-ups and autograph signings, buying some collectibles, and mingling with random people, there wasn’t much else to do. Maybe if the venue was larger with more vendors, exhibitors, panels and gaming areas with longer hours, it would have been that much more memorable. Then again, I just might be spoiled from the bigger cons I have attended in the past.
With that being said, what I enjoyed most about Wizard World Sacramento was seeing con attendees stopping by to watch the SFV tournament on the main stage. The last day saw some fairly big crowds forming and drawing curious and appreciative looks and expressions from spectators. I also liked that there was a Street Fighter V booth with multiple setups nearby for casual fans and players to try the game out. It was great to see young kids, teens and adults with their families playing the game at the booth and tournament area. Cons like Wizard World can be a great gateway for casual FGC players and fans alike to be part of something they’ve always been interested in, but maybe too skeptical of their abilities or socially awkward to compete in fighting game tournaments.
Post-Con Thoughts
After the con, I talked to Julio Fuentes and Justin Wong to get their thoughts on their tournament performances, their Wizard World experience and what else could be done to help interact with and transition new players and fans into the FGC through Wizard World and similar gaming or fan events.
“I really enjoyed how spacious and well air-conditioned the place was,” Fuentes said. “Comfort was a 10/10 for this event. Watching matches was easy due to the layout so I had a blast as a spectator. I definitely appreciate how Wizard World gives Street Fighter V some spotlight on their main stage for the con-goers to watch. Overall, the experience was top-notch.”
Wong, who got 1st place in this tournament, winning $1,000 with Chun-Li, said he didn’t expect to win with her.
“The competition was fierce,” Wong said. “Throughout the whole tournament I had to play at 100 percent. All of the pools were stacked with amazing players and anything could have happened to be honest.”
“I like these con events because I can go shop for nerdy things that I like,” Wong said. “I also like the [Wizard World] tournaments because CPT tournaments are too stressful and playing in them helps me relax because I can play to learn. I also love my partnership with Wizard World because Gootecks and I can do SFV Boot Camps where we can help people get better at the game or even be more involved in the FGC.”
Fuentes agrees with this sentiment, but he also adds that players should be interviewed more in between tournament matches.
“We can’t just keep shoving Street Fighter matches down the spectators’ throats,” Fuentes said. “Spectators want to know what’s going on inside our heads so let’s feed them some insight in between matches from the players themselves. Casual players and spectators will be able to relate to the players more, feel more attached, follow them more closely on social media. If an incredibly close match just happened, I would at least want to hear immediately afterwards how the player feels about it. That would be both entertaining and insightful.”
Rick “The Hadou” Thiher, who runs registration and brackets for the Wizard World events and is the tournament organizer for Combo Breaker, said he thinks more outreach into the local communities continuing to refine the presentation of the boot camps and exhibitions are integral.
“Potentially adding educational staff for the casual play areas would be cool as well,” Thiher said. “While Wizard World’s prize pools and professional commentary teams provide a great circuit for our existing community to enjoy, I think the real exciting part of these shows is that they can welcome general convention attendees into the FGC in a fun atmosphere.”
Source: Wizard World Gaming