Should you’ve been following the preventing sport neighborhood, you would possibly’ve observed one thing unusual occurring at some current Responsible Gear tournaments. A participant hailing from the U.S. named Joe Biden has been sweeping the competitors, inserting within the prime 10 within the final 20 or so tourneys he’s competed in. However…wait a minute, Joe Biden? Sure, Joe Biden. Though the title has led of us to consider it is likely to be the present President of america, longtime neighborhood members know the actual story.
I used to be floored once I noticed tweets of the official account for Darkish Brandon tagged in match wins for 2012’s Responsible Gear XX Accent Core Plus R, an up to date and reworked model of Arc System Works’ 2002 2D preventing sport. I imply, the @POTUS Twitter was talked about in these tourneys, spinning everybody’s head round. Discuss a double-take. I, and different reporters, together with Washington Put up author and former Kotaku staffer Nathan Grayson, went on the hunt, making an attempt to reply essentially the most essential questions rocking the neighborhood: Simply who within the hell is Joe Biden, the participant? And why does he important the ninja Chipp Zanuff?
“I’ve been enjoying preventing video games on and off for no less than 10 years,” Joe Biden, who requested to maintain his id a secret as a part of a long-running gag inside the preventing sport neighborhood, advised Kotaku over Discord. “I went by means of a variety of completely different gamer tags rising up. I ended up simply sticking to ‘Joe Biden’ as a result of it felt proper to me as Chipp Zanuff and Joe Biden are each presidents, have white hair, and may get damage simply.”
Kotaku seen electronic mail exchanges between the non-presidential Biden and match organizers, confirming that he’s the Joe Biden at present cleansing up the competitors. This was additional verified by two others Kotaku spoke with who confronted him in newer tournaments.
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Whereas this mysterious gamer has been enjoying preventing video games for over a decade now, he solely not too long ago sprung up on the aggressive circuit. Based on preventing sport neighborhood (FGC) participant and knowledge tracker Begin.gg, beforehand often known as Smash.gg and owned by Microsoft, Joe Biden hit the aggressive scene in November 2021, scoring thirteenth place out of a bracket pool of 88 gamers. He’s since gone on to do fairly effectively for himself, commonly inserting within the prime 10 spots in most Responsible Gear XX Accent Core Plus R tournaments he participates in. Biden is fast to level out that he isn’t “dominating or successful all of the tournaments,” however he does view himself on the identical enjoying area as the highest U.S. Faust participant and founding father of the annual Frosty Faustings match, Mike “ElvenShadow” Boczar.
However what makes Joe Biden so lethal? Nicely, he mains grasp ninja and President of the Jap Chipp Kingdom, Chipp Zanuff. As to be anticipated being a ninja and all, Chipp is extremely quick and unpredictable. He’s obtained glorious mixup potential, can simply open up his opponent for some large harm, and has the flexibility to run up partitions and teleport across the stage. Chipp’s fairly the ache within the ass, as aggressive preventing sport participant Sam “Rubbish” Ehren advised Kotaku over Discord, who misplaced to Joe Biden on the month-to-month Boston Blue Beat match on October 25.
“I feel the primary factor is he performs Chipp, an especially technical character with an insane toolset, that additionally occurs to be kinda uncommon in the neighborhood,” Rubbish mentioned. “So once you play him, he’s hitting you with a deluge of mixups you’ve by no means seen earlier than. The actually scary factor about Joe, although, is that he additionally has actually good basic preventing sport expertise, so it’s probably not sufficient to simply defend or navigate his okizeme [wake-up attack]. You additionally must kinda outplay him. The one factor working in your favor is Chipp is a risky character, so in case you can sneak in a few hits you’ll be able to soften him. However that’s a tall order when paired with a participant like Joe Biden.”
Rubbish positioned third in that match, whereas Joe Biden took dwelling second place.
Fellow Responsible Gear participant Jack Wachter advised Kotaku over Discord that Joe Biden is enjoyable to play towards, even when they misplaced to the non-presidential physique double throughout a North America and European open Responsible Gear XX Accent Core Plus R match on October 23.
“I don’t have a lot expertise with Chipp in comparison with different characters, so I can’t examine Joe Biden’s Chipp to different Chipps exterior of Joe Biden being very sturdy,” Wachter mentioned. “Almost certainly prime [North American player] Chipp. He is aware of learn how to play protected (necessary since Chipp is manufactured from moist tissues), however will also be aggressive with motion and mixups. I’ve performed him a number of instances in brackets and some instances in informal units. Positively a much better participant than I’m, although I managed to ship him to the losers bracket as soon as.”
For that match, Wachter got here in second and Joe Biden landed in first place.
Joe Biden mentioned he’s solely obtained time for Responsible Gear in the mean time however is stoked about upcoming preventing video games like Avenue Fighter 6 and the League of Legends fighter Challenge L. Till then, he’ll preserve bodying of us with Chipp or, in case you occur to catch him in a non-competitive setting, because the projectile and zoning-based character Dizzy.
“I’ve had a bonus in Responsible Gear XX Accent Core Plus R competitions as a result of Chipp is troublesome to grasp and a less-played character on the prime stage,” Biden mentioned. “Additionally I’ve spent a variety of time in coaching mode studying learn how to play Chipp and finding out Japanese Chipp gamers like Samitto, Endou, and Susumu earlier than the Rollback netcode patch got here out in 2020. For the title, to me, it simply is sensible whereas additionally being a bit humorous that Joe Biden would play Chipp in Responsible Gear. Part of it was positively ‘for the memes’ and I benefit from the jokes and a focus it brings to the sport.”
Kotaku reached out to the White Home for remark however didn’t obtain a reply.
