Hi everyone, it’s Justin again. I’ve been playing Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown for over a month now and I must say I am having a lot of fun. I’ve continued to play with Jacky and I can see why people consider him top tier. He plays fast and has a lot of high-damage moves.

I have been practicing with LA Akira and he has taught me a lot about the game mechanics and what a beginner like me should focus on before I learn more in-depth strategy. I have also been getting a lot of help from my Twitter followers, friends and other veteran VF players. One move that was recommended to me was the Beat Knuckle. It comes in handy because it’s an easy 35% damage and is so fast that it fits my style of whiff punishing. My next goal is to learn all of Jacky’s moves that will put me in high-advantage situations.

While I still have a lot of work to do, I’ve been most successful at using momentum to my advantage and punishing my opponents’ mistakes. My experience with other fighting games has helped me to read opponents and evade their attacks. However, I am still learning the frame data so I don’t yet know how to best punish my opponent in different situations, such as when I block their attack.

During my travels I’ve been entering VF5FS tournaments across the country and it has been a great learning experience. I played in the Winterbrawl tournament two weeks ago and lost to one of the best players in the country, Denkai. I couldn’t get anything started and he killed me, but his awesome use of fuzzy guarding was a good wake up call for what I need to learn to take my game to the next level. I played in Loser’s against a Brad player. I really didn’t know what to expect from Brad but at least I was able to keep it very close. I was very depressed but the VF players on the East Coast told me to keep it up and that they were impressed, which was pretty nice of them.

The week after I went to Wednesday Night Fights hosted by Superdojo and Level Up and entered the local tournament there for VF. I placed 3rd in that tournament and I was pretty happy that I wasn’t the worst player at the tourney. I think I got that far because I fought three Jackys in a row so I knew what to expect, but it was a great learning experience to see what other good players were doing with my character. I hope to enter more VF tournaments before the Sega Cup because I believe that the more experience I get, the better my chances are.

I will continue to hone my skills in Virtua Fighter and hope to do my best in future Virtua Fighter tournaments!!! Don’t forget to find me online and follow me on Twitter (@JWonggg).

Justin Wong