An independent fighting game player not part of any organization and with zero sponsors won the biggest Capcom international tournament for Street Fighter VI while representing his favorite virtual YouTuber via merch, winning his oshi’s support in the process.
Fighting game player UMA327 was something of a local celebrity in his homeland of Taiwan, winning the East Asian division of the Capcom tournament that qualified him for a spot in the Capcom Cup X international tournament. However, being an independent fighting game player not affiliated with any eSports team or sponsors, UMA327 traveled to Burbank in California, USA, at his own expense to compete for the pot prize of $1 million USD.
Fans in Taiwan would even make fun of UMA327’s dire financial straits, calling him UMA300, UMA270, etc., and so on as the competition went on. However, in an ironic twist, it was his independent status that allowed him to bring whatever he wanted to the venue, with UMA327 choosing to wear merchandise released by his Hololive oshi Ookami Mio to the showdown of his life.
Thanks to his accomplishments, he earned the respect and praise of various fighting game pros, and Fanart, his favored character, Juri, in the hoodie, also began to pop up. However, likely more important were the words of congratulations from Mio herself and other Hololive members, and UMA327’s first action after winning was to reply to Mio’s Tweet congratulating him, without any other acknowledgment of his win for quite a few hours afterward:
While Mio herself has discussed in the past how her requests to re-release the hoodie merch were shot down by management before (with re-releases of Hololive talent merch being extremely uncommon, if at all), it seems that UMA327’s win while wearing her merch helped give leverage to her requests, with Mio tweeting out that management had agreed to consider the option.
If so, UMA327 may have solidified his place in the fandom, successfully spreading the good word of his favorite streamer. The only downside is that, with all the sponsorships likely headed his way with his high-profile win, it’s unlikely that he will be able to have a repeat performance in the now-iconic hoodie.
News about independent players winning big tournament no matter the type of game are always more interesting than the standard pro players’s ( usually korean ) ones. Thumb up.
The black man co-host is representing. These Asian cocksuckers know better, or else their ESG score takes a hit.
That looks like a really comfy hoodie.
Imagine buying or even worse wearing vtuber merch. Simps are a threat to civilization.
Would have been the exact same thing if he was wearing Pokimane or whatever streamer merch, it’s as lame as wearing vtuber merch.
what a chad