Reflections of a Full Time Fighting Game Fan
Monday, February 27, 2012 at 08:21AM Ever since I took the job writing for Shoryuken.com, I haven't really had the chance to go and write something here on my own site. That said I've been meaning to pick up the slack and actually put this blog to good use. Even if I do save the actual fighting game news for "work" this site still gives me a good space to pour out my own thoughts having to go through the editorial pipeline nor having to be tailored for the general fighting game community, just me, your (not so) average full time fighting game fan writing his heart out on the web.
Being a full time fighting game fan, more precisely one trying to make something of a living of this occupies pretty much of all my time. To the point where I do oftentimes sneak in bits of work (articles, art, etc.) during the hours of my day job. It occasionally does come to the point where I ask myself "why am I doing this?" This past weekend, I found my answer.
Labanparooza is our annual February tournament here in the Philippines, it's also usually the first major national tournament on our calendar. This years incarnation however, was a special event for us. Labanparooza 2012 marked the first ever 2 day standalone tournament that we've organized here in the Philippines. Previously, the only 2 day tournaments we've had were those attached to larger animé or gaming events. Being able to hold a 2 day affair on our own shows just how much the Philippine community had grown over the past couple of years.
Where we previously had only 1 game (Street Fighter IV and it's updates) we now had 4 games. In addition to Super Street Fighter IV, folks were fighting it out in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, The King of Fighter XIII and BlazBlue Continuum Shift EXTEND. In addition to that, we were even able to have a booth setup for folks to try out Soul Calibur V.
The games however are only one part of the story, the other part - arguably the most important bit, is the people. Where once people were simply coming as competitors, now we see a larger number of people coming in to help out. You have people coming in bringing consoles, games, recording equipment, etc. In addition to that, you've got volunteers helping out with running the tournament itself for free.
Seeing this, how the community has grown and matured, this is what keeps me doing what I'm doing. More than recognition (though that is nice), more than money (though getting paid makes things even better), it's the thought that somehow what I'm doing is helping this community to grow even more that is the greatest reward of all.
P.S. No image to go with this post today. That said, anyone interested in stuff from Labanparooza should head on over to P2D.
P.P.S. I'd like to apologize to everyone who missed me during the 2nd day. Due to IRL issues, I couldn't come back.
P.P.P.S. Just to clarify, I still like cash though.
Reader Comments (2)
Oh hey. People are LOLing to your reaction fo the Blazblue hype.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/s720x720/429562_224642144299035_100002597538328_417245_1228432838_n.jpg
Nice looking blog!