Street Fighter V Champ: ‘Imma Just Play Guilty Gear’

Victor "Punk" Woodley qualified for his fourth Capcom Cup, the developer-sponsored event that serves as the culmination of each year's Street Fighter V competition, over the weekend. When asked how he expects to prepare for the high-level competition, Punk was as forthright as his in-game moniker suggests, stating unequivocally that he will not be playing any more Street Fighter than absolutely necessary.

While unk enjoys Street Fighter V as a fighting game, he believes it is not worth risking his mental health by continuing to play in an unstable online environment unsuitable for competitive play. He'd rather focus on a game with good online implementation (such as Guilty Gear Strive, which he's also had early success with) than continue playing something that he understandably tilts him.

These remarks are unsurprising, given Street Fighter V's long-standing troubles with online play and Punk's previous criticisms of the game. Although playing circumstances have improved in recent years, Capcom's weak, proprietary kind of rollback netcode known as "Kagemusha" has been a source of contention among competitors since the release of Street Fighter V.

Unfortunately, Punk’s fellow competitors often get caught in the crossfire of his ire for Street Fighter V. After losing a match to rival Derek “iDom” Ruffin in a different online tournament last week, Punk called his opponent “fucking pathetic” for happily taking a win when the match, Punk claims, was affected by lag. His argument was that since the game’s poor online infrastructure made him drop a game-ending combo, iDom should have done the “honorable” thing and given up the match.

Punk has established himself as a villain in recent years, cheerfully playing the confident, cocky heel a like his WWE namesake while racking up victories. Punk is one of the few high-level players willing to call Capcom out when it comes to his criticism of Street Fighter V's online. He may need to pick his targets a little better at times, but when it comes to his criticism of Street Fighter V's online, he stands out as one of the few high-level players willing to call Capcom out.