I’m convinced that this year’s Olympics are for the gamers. A while ago, a runner who was on his way to the Olympics kept flashing Yu-Gi-Oh cards before his races. Then, the Games actually began with an apparent nod to Assassin’s Creed, complete with rooftop parkour and hooded figures. There was even a Hunter from Destiny 2, or at least something close to one. Now, there’s a guy who’s clearly been perfecting his neutral game in fighting games. His name is Sebastien Patrice, and if fencing stops working out for him, he’s got a future at next year’s EVO tournament.
This became evident in a match this weekend that Patrice ultimately lost, but not before making some waves. That’s because as he was down, Patrice settled on an unorthodox method to try and clinch victory: he began jumping ever so slightly, and then very aggressively, towards his opponent.
An utterly ridiculous clip of Patrice pulling this off at the Paris Olympics is going around now, and I’m kind of incredulous at the whole thing. He’s clearly like a wounded (and losing) animal lashing out as it’s backed into a corner, but the move actually stuns the other guy so much that he just keeps being able to press the advance and frantically whip his saber looking for a touch until it eventually connects. It’s the equivalent of smashing the buttons at your local arcade’s exhibition and actually stealing a win off your opponent.
I always thought fencing had much more to do with composure, light touches, and ripostes, but I’m not sure Patrice has ever heard of the terms if I’m being honest. One of the top comments on the video jokes that his “0-60 is faster than most cars,” and they aren’t exaggerating. This isn’t at all like how fencing looked in Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games.
His neutral jump really popped off in the gaming community, which started jokingly commentating on his technique. Considering that just two weekends ago, the biggest fighting game tournament in the world occurred in Vegas, folks who had the genre fresh on the brain (including myself) started getting jokes off about footsies and jabs, which are attacks you do to try and poke the other player and gain control of the space before you, opening them up to further moves.
In the parlance of the fighting game community, my man Patrice nailed the jump-in. His opponent, who seemed baffled at the sudden burst of energy from Patrice as well as his approach, could not figure out how to punish the move. Instead, he wound up on his backfoot, holding that guard until Patrice finally went in for the unblockable. He may not have won, but at the very least he provided the (gamer) Olympics with its very own EVO moment.