The next day remained stiflingly hot.
The weather was strange—unbearably muggy, yet the rain refused to fall. The sky stayed overcast, leaving everyone with a lingering sense of apprehension.
The first day had been dedicated to exhibitions and sales. The Esports Tournament officially began on the second day.
As a competing player, Mai Yaozu was now officially in the thick of it.
Mai Yaozu looked at the guest speaking on the award stage. He wished he hadn't. His eyes nearly popped out of his head.
Holy crap! It's actually Jackie Chan!
He rubbed his eyes, terrified he was seeing things.
But when he looked again, it was still Jackie Chan.
Mai Yaozu didn't recognize the young man beside Jackie Chan, but the crowd's reaction was intense. They kept repeating the same word: "Shacho."
Mai Yaozu knew this was the Japanese word for "President."
The guests briefly explained the rules in three different languages, and Mai Yaozu nodded along.
The core requirement was simple: best of three rounds.
The arcade machines used for the competition were specially modified for the tournament environment, with minor adjustments made to character performance.
Additionally, victory would be determined by time and health, not just knockouts. Even if the match reached its final second, the player with more health remaining would be declared the winner.
Beyond that, there was a mechanic Mai Yaozu had never seen before.
At the start of the match, each player could ban one character, making it unavailable for both sides. Only after this ban phase would they choose their own fighters. Each player had to ban a different character, and they couldn't both ban the same one. This allowed them to strategically eliminate characters that countered their own and pick the ones they were most skilled with. It seemed like a brilliant design.
Of course, this ban-and-pick mechanic didn't exist in the game yet; this tournament was the first to introduce it, drastically increasing the game's tactical depth.
Unlike later King of Fighters games, Street Fighter only allowed one character to be chosen for a best-of-three match, rather than selecting a team of three to fight three rounds.
Mai Yaozu took his seat in the player's area, facing a massive screen used for broadcasting. The moment the screen flickered to life, he almost turned away.
It's too big!
The screen was so enormous that you could see everything clearly from dozens of meters away. But from the player's seat, it was so close that all he saw was a sea of pixels.
"If the games we play one day look as clear as real life, that would be incredible!" Mai Yaozu sighed, watching the two players compete.
From here, you could see the two players in a dedicated glass booth, each seated before an arcade machine. Every single one of their movements was visible with crystal clarity.
One player was using Ryu, while the other was using Mike.
Mike was a character who only appeared in Street Fighter I and vanished after Street Fighter II. He was based on Mike Tyson. Kobayashi Tetsu hadn't made many changes to Street Fighter, so this character was naturally still in the game.
After watching for a while, Mai Yaozu felt he could already predict the outcome.
Although the player using Mike was playing aggressively and had more health than his opponent, Mai Yaozu believed he was playing poorly. His positioning was terrible, and he took damage from punches he should have avoided. Rather than the Ryu player being passive, it seemed more like he was showing off, almost toying with his opponent.
Sure enough.
The tide of battle quickly turned. Ryu unleashed a series of punches and kicks, finishing the fight with a Hadoken to easily defeat his opponent.
"This guy is amazing! He's got some serious skills!"
Mai Yaozu leaned forward slightly, his gaze fixed on the winning player.
As the two players stood up from behind their arcade machines, Mai Yaozu was startled.
A kid?
This Ryu player looks like he's only in elementary school, yet he's absolutely crushing Mike!
The announcer seized the moment to commentate.
"The winner is player Umehara! He is also the youngest competitor in this Esports Tournament's Street Fighter competition—only nine years old! A true child prodigy!"
Umehara gave the opposing player a polite bow before stepping off the stage.
Mai Yaozu couldn't help but rub his eyes.
A nine-year-old can play this well?
This tournament is truly full of hidden dragons and crouching tigers!
Soon, it was Mai Yaozu's turn. He wasn't too nervous; he was just here for fun, so winning or losing didn't really matter.
Perhaps because of his relaxed mindset, Mai Yaozu won easily.
After two consecutive victories, he successfully advanced to the next round.
The competition resumed after lunch, and it was time for Mai Yaozu's third match.
A player stepped up to face him. Mai Yaozu recognized him—it was the Filipino Maid he'd greeted earlier.
The Filipino Maid player bowed deeply to Mai Yaozu, seemingly very friendly.
"Your M. Bison is truly incredible. I don't think I stand a chance."
Mai Yaozu waved a hand generously. "It's okay. I can BAN M. Bison. I just won't use him."
The Filipino Maid grinned. "Then I'll leave it to you."
Mai Yaozu casually banned M. Bison and chose Ryu, the character he was second-best at playing.
The Filipino Maid also casually banned Ken.
Mai Yaozu had just started wondering why she'd made that choice when he saw her hand slip.
Chan Ka-Kui.
Mai Yaozu: ————??
Mai Yaozu shot to his feet.
That stupid bitch of a Filipino Maid actually chose Chan Ka-Kui!
Not just Mai Yaozu, but even the host was taken aback. Off-stage, many of the spectators and competing players were equally stunned.
No one had specifically banned Chan Ka-Kui in this tournament because it had become an unwritten rule.
Anyone who played Street Fighter regularly knew that this character was completely broken—a typical promotional character designed to tie into the movie. While not completely unplayable, it was nearly impossible to win against him unless your skill level was far superior to your opponent's.
With equal skill, picking Chan Ka-Kui gave you a staggering 87% win rate!
That's why, unless you were playing against a friend, no one ever picked Chan Ka-Kui in random matchmaking.
Almost every arcade had the same sign posted:
Pick Chan Ka-Kui at your own risk!
No one had gone out of their way to ban Chan Ka-Kui in this tournament so far because everyone knew this rule.
Mai Yaozu clenched his fists, suddenly overcome by a powerful urge to smash through the glass booth and beat the Filipino Maid to death with the most brutal methods imaginable.
"Fuck you, you bastard! You fucking won't let me pick M. Bison, and you pick Chan Ka-Kui yourself? Do you know your mother is dead?!"
The Filipino Maid merely bowed with a face full of apology.
"Sorry, I have to win."
"Win your mother's stinking cunt, you should have been born as a piece of char siu—"
Mai Yaozu was about to keep swearing when the host coughed twice to warn him.
"The match is about to start. If you don't return to your original position, you will be declared the loser."
Mai Yaozu could only mutter a curse under his breath and sit back in his original position, but in his heart, he couldn't wait to tear the Filipino Maid opposite him into seven or eight pieces.
The match officially started. Mai Yaozu originally planned to follow his previous habit of jumping and kicking to start, then finding a way to entangle after getting close. But Chan Ka-Kui had long arms, and he directly raised his hand and fired a shot, the projectile knocking Mai Yaozu down.
"Fuck you—"
Mai Yaozu couldn't help cursing his mother again.
Actually, if he had switched to another character, he would have reacted. But Chan Ka-Kui was different. Chan Ka-Kui fired a gun, and this kind of projectile was fast. Although the damage was not high, its restraint was extremely sinister, and it would hit almost as soon as he raised his hand.
In contrast, for example, Ryu's Hadoken's damage was not that high, and the flight speed was also slow. Its main role was to restrict, not to deal damage.
In this game, almost every character's projectile has a travel time, except for Chan Ka-Kui.
But things had already come to this. Even if he cursed his mother, it wouldn't help. He had to keep playing.
Mai Yaozu didn't mind losing. After seeing that kid play so well earlier that morning, he knew this tournament was full of hidden masters. But being played like this by someone—it just felt wrong. He simply couldn't accept it.
Today, I'm going to crush this Filipino Maid!
The two traded blows for a while. In the end, Chan Ka-Kui won the first round with half a health bar left.
Mai Yaozu leaned against the arcade machine, silent, merely muttering to himself. He barely heard a word the host was saying, but in this moment, his focus had sharpened.
I have to change my strategy.
Mai Yaozu figured that choosing Chan Ka-Kui was a dirty trick, but it also showed a lack of confidence in the opponent's own skill. After all, Chan Ka-Kui's damage wasn't that high. His main advantages were his long reach, fast attacks, and short recovery times, making his moves hard to read. He was an overpowered character designed to bully others. In a head-on fight, even the character with the lowest damage in the game would hit harder than Chan Ka-Kui.
If the opponent were confident in their own skill, they wouldn't have banned Mai Yaozu's main character first, only to then use a character like Chan Ka-Kui—a classic "un-counterable" pick—to bully him.
"If I can just get close and force a melee, this Filipino Maid won't stand a chance! I shouldn't have picked Ryu. Trying to fight him up close with Ryu gives me no advantage, but if I don't, Chan Ka-Kui's long reach and speed will just wear me down until I'm dead. I have to get in close."
Mai Yaozu slammed his fist into his palm.
Round two began.
Mai Yaozu switched tactics. He stopped trying to break throws or dodge them entirely. Instead, he charged straight in, unleashing a barrage of throws, light punches, and light kicks. His eyes grew sore from staring at the screen, but he forced them open, refusing to blink. He landed a combo of light attacks, launched Chan Ka-Kui into the air with a Shoryuken, and finished him off with a Hadoken. Just as his own health bar emptied, he managed to scrape out a victory.
The battle was so intense that the commentator completely forgot to speak. Only after the victory screen had been up for a few moments did he finally snap back, his voice trembling.
"It seems our Hong Kong player, Yanzu, is truly furious! To win under such disadvantageous conditions... that's simply incredible!"
Mai Yaozu turned around.
"It's Yaozu, not Yanzu!"
Then he turned back to the screen, wiped his eyes, and continued the match.
The third round was the final match. Whoever won this game would advance.
Under the gaze of the entire crowd, Mai Yaozu made no move to attack. Instead, he started retreating.
In fighting games, pulling the joystick back allows a player to both retreat and block. Although Street Fighter distinguished between standing and crouching blocks, a standing block was sufficient against projectiles.
The Filipino Maid hesitated for a moment but quickly reacted, tapping the joystick rapidly to rush forward and pursue him.
Mai Yaozu retreated all the way to the edge of the screen.
The Filipino Maid, controlling Chan Ka-Kui, launched several attacks, but Mai Yaozu blocked them all.
"Hey, isn't playing like this a bit too shameless?"
Mai Yaozu pursed his lips.
"Are you more shameless than me?"
In the early days of fighting games, before guard-breaking abilities were enhanced to the level of later generations, being backed into a corner wasn't a disadvantage—it was actually an advantage! For a fighting game player with fast enough reflexes, they could even react to and break a throw if the opponent tried to force one.
Today, Mai Yaozu was determined to turtle!
Please Support me by becoming my Patreon member and get 15+ chapters.
[email protected]/Ajal69
change @ with a
Thank You to Those who joined my Patreon