Alex Valle (), also known as CaliPower and Mr. Street Fighter, is a Peruvian-American professional

fighting game A fighting game, also known as a versus fighting game, is a video game genre, genre of video game that involves combat between two or more players. Fighting game combat often features mechanics such as Blocking (martial arts), blocking, grappli ...

player. Valle is mainly a Ryu specialist and is considered one of the most influential people within the fighting game community.

Gaming career

The first tournament Valle entered was an original ''

Street Fighter II is a fighting game developed by Capcom and originally released for arcades in 1991. It is the second installment in the ''Street Fighter'' series and the sequel to 1987's ''Street Fighter''. It is Capcom's fourteenth game to use the CP Syst ...

'' tourney using

Ken Ken or KEN may refer to: Entertainment * ''Ken'' (album), a 2017 album by Canadian indie rock band Destroyer. * ''Ken'' (film), 1964 Japanese film. * ''Ken'' (magazine), a large-format political magazine. * Ken Masters, a main character in ...

, in which he lost to a

Guile Guile may refer to: * Astuteness, deception. * GNU Guile, an implementation of the Scheme programming language * Guile (''Street Fighter''), a video game character from the ''Street Fighter'' series * Guile (''Chrono Cross''), a video game chara ...

and a

Dhalsim is a fictional character in Capcom's ''Street Fighter'' series. He made his first appearance in '' Street Fighter II: The World Warrior'' in 1991. He sometimes goes by the alias "long-arm" and his fighting ability includes stretching his limbs. I ...

player. Valle's original competition was John "Choiboy" Choi and Mike "Watts" Watson. He was also the first American to ever face

Daigo Umehara is a Japanese arcade fighting video game player. He specializes in 2D arcade fighting games, mainly those released by Capcom. Known as "Daigo" or "The Beast" in the West and or "Ume" in Japan, Daigo is one of the world's most famous ''Street Fig ...

in a tournament: the ''

Street Fighter Alpha 3 ''Street Fighter Alpha 3'', released as in Japan, Asia, South America, and Oceania, is a 2D fighting game originally released by Capcom for the arcade in 1998. It is the third and final installment in the '' Street Fighter Alpha'' sub-series, ...

'' World Championships in 1998. In the tournament, Valle lost to Umehara in an outstanding comeback. From 2002 to 2010, Valle has had 10 Top 8 performances Valle is known for innovating the "Valle CC (Custom Combo)" which was his key to winning the

Battle By the Bay B3: Battle by the Bay, the B4 Championships, and the B5 Championships were the first three instances of the open fighting game event that is now known as the annual Evolution Championship Series. B3 was created by Tom and Tony Cannon, Joey Cuellar ...

''Street Fighter Alpha 2'' tournament, the predecessor of the

Evolution Championship Series The Evolution Championship Series, commonly known as Evo, is an annual esports event that focuses exclusively on fighting games. The tournaments are completely open and use the double elimination format. As with Super Battle Opera, contestants ...

(EVO). After three years of not making a Top 8 at EVO, Valle took a 4th-place finish at EVO 2013 for Street Fighter X Tekken using a team of

Yoshimitsu is a name used by three different characters who appear in the ''Tekken'' and ''Soulcalibur'' series of fighting games by Namco. The first version of Yoshimitsu made his debut in the original ''Tekken (video game), Tekken'' in 1994. The second ...

and

Lars Lars is a common male name in Scandinavian countries. Origin ''Lars'' means "from the city of Laurentum". Lars is derived from the Latin name Laurentius, which means "from Laurentum" or "crowned with laurel". A homonymous Etruscan name was bo ...

, being defeated by

Justin Wong Justin Wong, occasionally shortened to just Jwong, is a formerly American and now Canadian professional fighting game player. Wong has won more EVO titles than anyone else with nine tournaments won: seven for '' Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of ...

. Valle later took a 4th-place finish at Capcom Cup 2013, losing an "epic" runback against Dexter "Tampa Bison" James. According to an interview with Canadian Smasher Toronto Joe, Valle was impressed with the '' Super Smash Bros. Melee'' scene in SoCal. When Toronto Joe asked for advice for building a community, Valle responded "Find a group of dedicated people willing to lend a hand and create frequent events. Community building takes a long time so have realistic expectations and cater to your scene directly." When Toronto Joe asked how the Fighting Game Community stands out compared to other game genres, such as

first-person shooter First-person shooter (FPS) is a sub-genre of shooter video games centered on gun and other weapon-based combat in a first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action through the eyes of the protagonist and controlling the pl ...

s and

MOBA Multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) is a subgenre of strategy video games in which two teams of players compete against each other on a predefined battlefield. Each player controls a single character with a set of distinctive abilities that im ...

s, Valle stated that " e FGC started in arcades where you had to take out the player next to you. The social interaction is what makes every match interesting because we instantly feel our opponents struggle for each defeat." Valle was excited for ''

Super Smash Bros. 4 and ( colloquially and collectively referred to as ''Super Smash Bros. 4'' or ''Smash 4'') is a group of two 2014 crossover fighting video games developed by Bandai Namco Studios and Sora Ltd. and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 3D ...

'' and he felt interested in showcasing the game at upcoming tournaments. Valle competed in an early preview of ''

Ultra Street Fighter IV is a 2008 fighting game published by Capcom, who also co-developed the game with Dimps. It was the first original main entry in the series since '' Street Fighter III'' in 1997, a hiatus of eleven years. The coin-operated arcade game version ...

''s Omega Mode, in which he lost against Ryan "Filipino Champ" Ramirez. Valle is known for having an offensive playstyle when playing with Ryu, as determined by Justin Wong in his Step Up Your Game series of articles. Valle announced his retirement from competitive gaming in April 2017.

Personal life

Valle is the CEO and co-founder of Level Up and is the man behind the SoCal Regionals tournaments as well as the Wednesday Night Fights Online Tournaments. Valle formerly ran ReveLAtions, The Runback, and Super Smash Sundays; the former being a major that happens once a year, and the latter two being weeklies. He was born in

Lima Lima ( ; ), originally founded as Ciudad de Los Reyes (City of The Kings) is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón River, Chillón, Rímac River, Rímac and Lurín Rivers, in the desert zone of t ...

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal , national_motto = "Fi ...

Tournament results

References and notes

External links

Alex Valle's Player Profile - Shoryuken Rankings

Alex Valle on Facebook

Alex Valle on Twitter

Alex Valle on Twitch
{{DEFAULTSORT:Valle, Alex Living people People from Westminster, California Sportspeople from Orange County, California American esports players Fighting game players American sportspeople of Peruvian descent Sportspeople from Lima Marvel vs. Capcom players Street Fighter players Year of birth missing (living people)