First of all, before I share my story, I would like to say thank you so very much to the creators of this contest which are @donkeypong, @playfulfoodie and @jodipamungkas.

There's a lot of contest on Steemit which are all great but this is one contest that gave an opportunity for us gamers to share something in the form of a very fun way of writing. So, let me share my best gaming experience so far in my whole life. I really wish that there would be a lot of contests like this.

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My History with Gaming

I've been playing games for a very long time now even before I started school. My dad introduced me to the NES, SNES then I played myself throughout the arcades, PS1 and when Counterstrike, Red Alert and PC gaming was merging in the Philippines, PS2 and now I have an Xbox 360 and a Vita.

I have a lot of memorable gaming experience that I can still clearly remember till today, more than 20 years later. There's the death of Aeris (Aerith) from the hands of Sephiroth that broke my heart, the adventure I had with Link trying to save Zelda in the past making me feel like a real hero, the nightmares I had with Resident Evil and Silent Hill, espionage and conspiracies from Solid Snake and a whole lot more.

But there's one thing that is lacking from all the games I played, that's the excitement and thrill that only a specific genre can give

And that is fighting games.

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First Introduction To Real Players

You see, I've been playing fighting games a lot but only in neighborhood. I always thought that I was the best because I could kick the hell out of anyone's ass when it comes to fighting especially in arcades.

There was the Street Fighter series, Marvel versus Capcom series and even rare gems like Destrega or Rival School.

I was always the winner and sometimes even get to real fights because of winning against other kids back then.

Until one day, I was maybe 14 or 15 back then, a group of older guys, maybe 20s or 30s came to our arcade place and played. Since there were a lot of fighting games then, they fought a lot of us, me and my friends in several games. I choose to play Tekken because I'm confident and for the first time in my life my ass got whooped.

And that was the first time I felt so embarrassed, none of my friends even beat them in other games. I felt so down but motivated and then that's when I realized that the world is big and there would be a lot of players like him who is better than me and that's when I decided to dedicate my time and life to gaming specifically Tekken.

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Getting the Main Character

So that's when I decided to play Tekken seriously. I've watched videos in Youtube, the main Tekken by then was Tekken 5 and it was the emerging of social media in the Philippines so Tekken videos were already available.

I tried numerous characters but one character made the impact to me to master and that character is inspired from my favorite movie actor, the one and only Asian superstar Jackie Chan and that character's name is Lei Wulong.

Lei was very hard to master, I mean much harder than other characters in Tekken. There are power types like the Michimas or Paul and Bryan that has few moves but very useful, speedy type characters like Xiaoyu or Steve that keeps you guarding like a turtle, poking type like Nina or Anna, wrestlers like King or Marduk or counter type characters like Lee or Law.

But Lei was different, he isn't too strong nor too fast, he was one of the few characters that has more than 100 moves and 70% were useful, he has versatility, the ability to attack in any situation whether you're back turned, lying down, near the wall and even drunken lol.

It took me years to get to my level of playing on Tekken today especially that I don't have enough resources before and I could say I'm an advanced player but still miles ahead from the professional players such as Nobi or Furumizu, Japanese top players and Knee or JDCR, top Korean players.

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My First Tekken Tournament

After some time, I managed to land a job in one of the top call centers in the Philippines and the reason why I applied there is because they have arcades and you know what it means, there's Tekken, it was Tekken 6 by then.

And that's where my skills significantly improved because I was able to play everyday for free. I know that you need to play a lot to get better in gaming but I never knew how much you would improve till you play everyday and I even beat a lot of skilled players in the company.

Then there came a tournament from another site because of an anniversary or event. So I joined even though I don't even know how to get to the place. I even registered personally and the organizer said I could have just registered by email and then pay the tournament fee on the day of the battle. That's how excited I was.

So there came the tournament, I went alone, yeah, I don't have friends that are good in Tekken in the company. I was after work that time so still had no sleep, haven't eaten anything but endured it just for the tournament.

My first opponent was a Bryan character and an easy one but there's one thing I realized when playing, since we were fighting using PS3 instead of arcade, that's when I realized I was at disadvantage because I'm not used to playing in PS3 and I don't have a joystick to use. Every gamer will know that there's always a difference in the "feeling" whenever you play the same game on a different platform.

Even so, I still went on to fight and see how far I can go with my skills and I was surprised I manage to win the 2nd place. It was a bit disappointing when they changed the rules in the last phase of the tournament because it became a one win take it all instead of winning 2 in a row. Nevertheless, I was still very happy and felt confident in my skills and I know I can still improve.

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Future Plans

I still play in arcades for Tekken 6 and Tekken Tag 2, I want to play Tekken 7 but Lei Wulong is still not available there so there's no fun in it yet.

Now that I have a family, they're my top priority right now but because of Steemit, I was able to share my passion about gaming and hopefully be able to stream and record gaming videos like the people in Gaming HD who are so awesome in making gaming videos and I believe Steemit is my ticket in achieving one of my dreams.

And of course, become a professional Tekken player that one day may represent my country in worldwide Tekken tournaments like EVO and fight those legendary Tekken players that I look up to even if I don't win :-)

And here's a sample combo from Lei that I practiced a lot way way before when I was still a noob.

Lei Sample Combo

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Thanks for Reading

I'm sorry for the long story, I just can't stop writing knowing that I am able to share my gaming experience and how it made me become a better person. Thank you for reading.

I own all the photos and videos

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