Punk (video Game Player)
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Victor Woodley, better known under the name Punk, is an American ''
Street Fighter , commonly abbreviated as ''SF'' or スト (''Suto''), is a Japanese media franchise centered on a series of fighting video and arcade games developed and published by Capcom. The first game in the series was released in 1987, followed by six ...
'' player.


Career


Rise to success and Eleague 2017

Punk began playing ''Street Fighter'' professionally after the release of ''
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 wa ...
'' in 2009. Though he occasionally visited local events, Punk primarily played ''Street Fighter'' online while focusing on his education. When ''
Street Fighter V ''Street Fighter V'' is a fighting game developed by Capcom and Dimps and published by Capcom for PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Windows, Windows in 2016. An Arcade game, arcade version exclusive to Japan was released by Taito in 2019. Similar to th ...
'' was released in 2016, Punk had completed high school and began attending tournaments more frequently. Punk first appeared on the professional scene when he qualified for the 2016 Red Bull Battlegrounds (the North American
Capcom Pro Tour The Capcom Pro Tour is a series of international fighting game tournaments sponsored by video game developer Capcom. The Pro Tour culminates in the annual Capcom Cup, a single-day tournament held in the San Francisco Bay Area. 2014 Capcom Cup 20 ...
regional finals) through netplay. Here, Punk defeated various high-level players such as Filipino Champ, Ryan "Filipino Champ" Ramirez, Chris Tatarian, and
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 ...
, and settled on third place after losing to
Tokido , better known as Tokido, is a Japanese fighting game player who plays the '' King of Fighters'' and ''Street Fighter'' franchises. He is known for playing multiple fighting games on a competitive level in addition to Street Fighter, including ' ...
and
NuckleDu Du Dang (born May 12, 1996), more commonly known by his nickname NuckleDu, is an American fighting game player known for playing Guile and Decapre in Ultra Street Fighter IV, Guile and Zangief in Street Fighter X Tekken, and Guile and Rainbow Mi ...
. In the months after, Punk took home first place three tournaments in a row: Northeast Championships, Winter Brawl, and The King of New York. At the
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tournament Fighters Underground in March 2017, Punk defeated players such as NuckleDu,
Yusuke Momochi Yusuke Momochi, better known as Momochi, is a Japanese professional fighting game player, particularly of ones in the '' Street Fighter'' series by Capcom. Momochi won the Capcom Cup 2014 championship, as well as winning the EVO 2015 title for ' ...
, and Arman "Phenom" Hanjani in the
group stage A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concent ...
, but was defeated by Justin Wong and Filipino Champ and ended up tied for seventh place. On March 8, 2017, Panda Global announced that the company had signed Punk, with CEO Alan Bunney predicting that Punk would be "one of the dark horses of 2017." This contract came ahead of
South by Southwest South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in m ...
(SXSW) 2017 and the ELeague ''Street Fighter V'' Invitational that ran from March 27 to May 26. At SXSW Conference's Fighters Underground, Punk beat NuckleDu, Yusuke Momochi, Filipino Champ, and K-Brad in the group stages, but quickly bottomed out on day 2 because he felt unusually nervous. At the Eleague opening event on March 27, Punk was able to defeat all opponents except for
Evo 2016 The 2016 Evolution Championship Series (commonly referred to as Evo 2016 or EVO 2016) was a fighting game event held in Las Vegas on July 15–17. Being hosted on the twentieth anniversary of the Evolution Championship Series, the event offered to ...
-champion Lee "Infiltration" Seon-woo. During Eleague and the early 2017 Capcom Pro Tour, Punk's dominating play-style with the character Karin and his
trash-talk Trash talk is a form of insult usually found in sports events, although it is not exclusive to sports or similarly characterized events. It is often used to intimidate the opposition and/or make them less confident in their abilities as to win ...
during interviews became frequently discussed. After winning West Coast Warzone 6, Punk stated that he wanted "to do well at tournaments so people can't talk
hit Hit means to strike someone or something. Hit or HIT may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Fictional entities * Hit, a fictional character from '' Dragon Ball Super'' * Homicide International Trust, or HIT, a fictional organization ...
about me. I like when people boo me. It motivates me to keep winning. I don't even have to respond back." Punk noted that people would get frustrated while playing against him. When Punk competed in California again during the 2017 NorCal Regionals, he was routinely
teabagging Teabagging is a slang term for the sexual act involving someone placing their scrotum in the mouth of their sexual partner for sexual pleasure, or onto the face or head of another person, sometimes as a comedic device. The name of the practi ...
his opponents Long "Circa LPN" Nguyen and NuckleDu in an effort to
taunt A taunt is a battle cry, sarcastic remark, gesture, or insult intended to demoralize the recipient, or to anger them and encourage reactionary behaviors without thinking. Taunting can exist as a form of social competition to gain control of the tar ...
them. After winning the tournament, Punk told ''
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'' that he uses teabagging to undermine and distract his opponents, stating that the taunt "gets in certain people's heads and messes them up." Though this behavior was answered by laughs and cheers from the crowd, Punk's teabagging proved controversial throughout the
fighting game community The fighting game community, often abbreviated to FGC, is a collective of video gamers who play fighting games such as '' Marvel vs. Capcom'', ''Mortal Kombat'', '' Soulcalibur'', ''Street Fighter'', ''Guilty Gear'', ''The King of Fighters'', '' ...
. Punk went on to win the 2017 Eleague ''Street Fighter V'' Invitation, defeating Arman "Phenom" Hanjani in the finals. Phenom kicked Punk into the loser's bracket during their first match-up in the tournament, but when Punk faced Phenom's character
Necalli The main titles of the '' Street Fighter'' fighting game series have introduced a varied cast of 80 ''World Warriors'' from the main series, and 34 from several spin-offs, for a total of 114 playable characters who originated from different countr ...
again in the grand final, he won the match 4–2, taking home $150,000
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in prize earnings.


Second half of the 2017 Capcom Cup

Punk placed second at Evo 2017, losing to ''Street Fighter'' veteran Hajime "Tokido" Taniguchi. After defeating Itabashi Zangief and
Kazunoko better known by this nickname Kazunoko (かずのこ), is a Japanese fighting games player known for playing Holy Order Sol in ''Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R'', Yun in ''Street Fighter IV'', Cammy in ''Street Fighter V'', Yamcha in ''Dr ...
, Punk faced Tokido's Akuma in the winner's finals, but eventually lost against him 6–1. After accepting his second-place medal, Punk buried his face in his hands. Later that night, Punk sent out the
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message: "Let everyone down I'm so disappointed in myself." Punk competed once more at the Red Bull Battlegrounds, which served again as the Capcom Pro Tour North American regional final. This time, Punk was a high ranking player, and he went up against a new player – Derek "iDom" Ruffin – in the finals. Punk defeated iDom 3–2, taking the title and the US$12,000 first-place prize. In a post-match interview, Punk stated that " inning this tournamentactually means a lot," as he originally entered the scene through Red Bull Battlegrounds one year prior. After having won a large number of tournaments in the 2017 Capcom Pro Tour, Punk entered the
Capcom Cup Capcom Cup is an annual fighting game tournament specifically focused on the ''Street Fighter'' series. The event's first incarnation was in 2013 which featured '' Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition'' version 2012, ''Ultimate Marvel vs. Capc ...
as the top seed. However, Punk tied for ninth place after losing to Last Chance-qualifier Naoki "Nemo" Nemoto and fellow newcomer Naoki "Moke" Nakayama.


2018 Capcom Pro Tour


Background

Woodley was only 18 years old when he became a professional ''Street Fighter'' player in 2016, much younger than most of his competitors. In an interview with ''
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'' in April 2017, he stated: "I actually like having a target on my back. It's good that everyone wants to beat me. I like the feeling of people being scared or nervous when they see me in their pool. I really like that." Punk chose his screen name in honor of pro wrestler Phillip Jack Brooks, who goes by the
ring name A ring name is a type of stage name used by an athlete such as a professional wrestler, mixed martial artist, or boxer whose real name is considered unattractive, dull, difficult to pronounce or spell, amusing for the wrong reasons, or projecting ...
"CM Punk".


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Punk Sportspeople from Philadelphia American esports players Living people Street Fighter players Year of birth missing (living people)