When you’ve been following the preventing sport group, you may’ve seen one thing unusual taking place at some latest Responsible Gear tournaments. A participant hailing from the U.S. named Joe Biden has been sweeping the competitors, inserting within the high 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 people to consider it is perhaps the present President of the USA, longtime group members know the true story.
I used to be floored once I noticed tweets of the official account for Darkish Brandon tagged in event 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 mentioned in these tourneys, spinning everybody’s head round. Discuss a double-take. I, and different reporters, together with The Washington Publish author and former-Kotaku staffer Nathan Grayson, went on the hunt, attempting to reply essentially the most essential questions rocking the group: Simply who within the hell is Joe Biden, the participant? And why does he most important the ninja Chipp Zanuff?
“I’ve been taking part in 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 group, informed Kotaku over Discord. “I went via a variety of totally 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 might get damage simply.”
Kotaku considered e-mail exchanges between non-presidential Biden and event organizers, confirming that he’s the Joe Biden at the moment 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 taking part in preventing video games for over a decade now, he solely just lately sprung up on the aggressive circuit. Based on preventing sport group (FGC) participant and information 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 nicely for himself, frequently inserting within the high 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 taking part in subject as the highest U.S. Faust participant and founding father of the annual Frosty Faustings event, Mike “ElvenShadow” Boczar.
However what makes Joe Biden so lethal? Effectively, he mains grasp ninja and President of the Japanese Chipp Kingdom, Chipp Zanuff. As to be anticipated being a ninja and all, Chipp is extremely quick and unpredictable. He’s bought glorious mixup potential, can simply open up his opponent for some massive injury, and has the power 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 informed Kotaku over Discord, who misplaced to Joe Biden on the month-to-month Boston Blue Beat event on October 25.
“I believe the principle factor is he performs Chipp, an especially technical character with an insane toolset, that additionally occurs to be kinda uncommon locally,” Rubbish stated. “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 elementary preventing sport expertise, so it’s probably not sufficient to simply defend or navigate his okizeme [wake-up attack]. You additionally should kinda outplay him. The one factor working in your favor is Chipp is a risky character, so should you can sneak in a few hits you possibly can soften him. However that’s a tall order when paired with a participant like Joe Biden.”
Rubbish positioned third in that event, whereas Joe Biden took house second place.
Fellow Responsible Gear participant Jack Wachter informed Kotaku over Discord that Joe Biden is enjoyable to play in opposition to, even when they misplaced to the non-presidential physique double throughout a North America and European open Responsible Gear XX Accent Core Plus R event on October 23.
“I don’t have a lot expertise with Chipp in comparison with different characters, so I can’t evaluate Joe Biden’s Chipp to different Chipps outdoors of Joe Biden being very sturdy,” Wachter stated. “Most definitely high [North American player] Chipp. He is aware of tips on how to play protected (essential since Chipp is made from moist tissues), however may 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 event, Wachter got here in second and Joe Biden landed in first place.
Joe Biden stated he’s solely bought time for Responsible Gear for the time being however is stoked about upcoming preventing video games like Avenue Fighter 6 and the League of Legends fighter Venture L. Till then, he’ll maintain bodying people with Chipp or, should 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 high degree,” Biden stated. “Additionally I’ve spent a variety of time in coaching mode studying tips on 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 undoubtedly ‘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.