Dreamhack Champ Justin Wong Talks Future of Street Fighter V, Esports & FGC

This past weekend, FOX|Justin Wong took first place at the Dreamhack Austin Street Fighter V tournament in Austin, Texas. If you’re keeping track, that’s the FGC veteran’s third first place finish in his past four events. Our boots were on the floor at Dreamhack Austin and we knew we had to catch up with Mr. Wong and chat about the state of Street Fighter V, the future of the game, and his thoughts on the age old question, “How can esports and the FGC co-exist?”

Justin on Street Fighter V, Currently

Like we said earlier, Justin has been killing it lately, taking first place at Canada Cup Master Series and Toryuken 7 before claiming his third win in four events at Dreamhack Austin. Wong credits his success to moving away from Karin, his longtime Street Fighter V main character and putting his efforts into a certain type of chacter.

“I’m focusing on more defensive characters that fit more of my old school playstyle from back in the day. But I still need to perfect my craft because it’s harder to play defense in this game.” Justin mentions the importance of having a character that fits a person’s playstyle when discussing his EchoFox teammate, FOX|SonicFox.

“When it comes to Street Fighter V, there’s no character that compliments his style,” Wong said. “Sonic’s style is very aggressive. He maintains pressure to stay on you, but there’s too many characters in Street Fighter V that can get pressure off of them. He also plays characters he likes. He liked F.A.N.G., but the character isn’t great.”  

Wong mentioned that he greatly enjoys playing DLC characters due to their new, fresh approaches to the game. When asked about specific characters, Justin said he masters characters, but instead masters the games as a whole. He also mentioned his desire to try out Cody, G, and Sagat when they’re released. Justin’s mindset when attending non-Capcom Pro Tour tournaments is to play the DLC characters to gain some relevant experience for the new fighters.

“I played Falke at Canada Cup and it ended up working really well,” Wong told us, “so now I’ve put Falke as one of the characters I use in tournaments these days.”

For folks looking to jump into Street Fighter V, Justin says that in order to succeed, they need to limit their games of choice.

“I think Street Fighter V is one of those games that requires your full attention. You can’t dabble in Dragon Ball [FighterZ], Tekken, or be any sort of multi-game expert and get the results you want in Street Fighter V,” Wong said. “It sucks, because I love playing every fighting game, but if I want to be the best in Street Fighter V and want to survive in the CPT scene, I need to focus on Street Fighter V. It takes tons of studying, grinding matches, and focusing on player habits, but I think that’s what makes Street Fighter V so much fun.”

Justin on The FGC and Esports

Wong lamented on the amount of fighting game tournaments and events that are taking place on an annual, monthly, and weekly basis, but says the amount of tournaments shows enthusiasm for the scene.

“That means our community is growing and is strong. But you’re travelling every single weekend...and there’s multiple events each weekend. I wish I could clone myself and go to all of them, but in the end you’re playing for yourself, your team, and your fans, so you want to go to events that have the most prestige.”

We mentioned that this might tie into the advent of esports’ arrival into the FGC realm, and the disconnect that exists between the two. Justin attributes the disconnect to the natural human fear of change.

“The grassroots scene has been around since before I started playing,” Wong said. “But people are scared of change. It’s going to take time for tournament organizers to realize that if they hold an event the same day as an event with a $10,000 pot, that there might only be entrants from the local scene who go. Most of the pro players are going to go to the $10,000 tournament, which might make others who want to meet these top players go to those events instead.”

Justin on the Future of Street Fighter V 

We wrapped up our chat by asking Justin if there was still more life to Street Fighter V or if Capcom should consider starting work on Street Fighter VI. Justin said that he thinks a Season 4 of Street Fighter V will happen, comparing it to Street Fighter IV, which had five iterations. He also said SFV isn’t going anywhere.

“Competition is getting better, there are tons of newcomers, and upsets happen a lot,” Wong said. “The whole world plays Street Fighter V. People might play other games, but everyone plays Street Fighter V.”

Indeed, Capcom knows full well how to stretch a game. If Wong is right about Season 4, we may very well look forward to a year or more of varied SFV competition. As long as it runs, Wong has proven to be well worth watching through this year and any years following on his rise through the ranks.

Justin Wong wasn't the only one thinking about the future of their scene at DreamHack. We also caught up to Guy "Dr DisRespect" Beahm, who shared what he believes PUBG Esports needs to succeed.