Justin Wong, occasionally shortened to just Jwong, is a formerly American and now Canadian

professional A professional is a member of a profession or any person who works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the particular knowledge and ski ...

fighting game A fighting game, also known as a versus fighting game, is a genre of video game that involves combat between two or more players. Fighting game combat often features mechanics such as blocking, grappling, counter-attacking, and chaining atta ...

player Player may refer to: Role or adjective * Player (game), a participant in a game or sport ** Gamer, a player in video and tabletop games ** Athlete, a player in sports ** Player character, a character in a video game or role playing game who is ...

. Wong has won more

EVO EVO or Evo may refer to: Companies * Evo (company), American sporting goods and outdoor recreation retailer Games * Evolution Championship Series, an annual fighting game esports tournament in the US * ''Evo'' (board game), a 2001 board game * ...

titles than anyone else with nine tournaments won: seven for '' Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes'' between 2001 and 2010, one for '' Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike'' in 2009, and one for '' Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3'' in 2014.

Career

Evolution 2004

In the

Evolution Championship Series The Evolution Championship Series, commonly known as Evo, is an annual esports event that focuses exclusively on fighting games. The tournaments are completely open and use the double elimination format. As with Super Battle Opera, contestants ...

2004 '' Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike'' losers bracket final, Wong's

Chun-Li is a fictional character in Capcom's ''Street Fighter'' video game series. The first ever female playable character to appear in a fighting game to gain mainstream recognition, she first appeared in '' Street Fighter II: The World Warrior'' in ...

lost to

Daigo Umehara is a Japanese arcade fighting video game player. He specializes in 2D arcade fighting games, mainly those released by Capcom. Known as "Daigo" or "The Beast" in the West and or "Ume" in Japan, Daigo is one of the world's most famous ''Street Fi ...

Ken Masters , originally spelled in kanji as with his original full name being unknown, is a fictional character in Capcom's ''Street Fighter'' series. Ken is the best friend and rival of Ryu, who has also appeared in all ''Street Fighter'' games. Ken's go ...

when, in an unexpected comeback, Daigo managed to parry every single hit of Chun-Li's super art II and land a max damage combo. This incident has been widely shared in a well-known viral video.

2009

Wong took part in GameStop's Street Fighter IV US National Tournament in 2009, which he won. After the main tournament, a set of special exhibition matches of Street Fighter IV took place in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...

, on April 18 after the actual competition ended. It featured Iyo who had recently won the Japanese National SFIV tournament, Poongko who won the Korean SFIV National Tournament, and Daigo Umehara who came by Capcom's invitation, and Wong himself. Wong defeated Iyo and Poongko, but lost to Umehara who went on to win the tournament. He was awarded a tournament seed at Evolution 2009 in Las Vegas. Wong gained more fame after the footage of his matches in GameStop's competition were spread on the internet. As of July 19, 2009, the video of the match against Umehara received almost 80,000 hits on Niconico video sharing site.

Evolution 2009

For winning the US GameStop tournament, Wong started his ''

Street Fighter IV is a 2008 fighting game published by Capcom, who also co-developed the game with Dimps. It was the first original main entry in the series since ''Street Fighter III'' in 1997, a hiatus of eleven years. The coin-operated arcade game version was ...

'' competition as a seeded player in the semi-finals on July 18, which is the second day of Evo 2009. He beat four opponents and had to start the next day by playing against Daigo Umehara. In the third and the last day, Umehara defeated Wong and put him into the Losers Bracket, then advanced to the grand finals just to meet Wong again. In the final showdown, Wong changed his character from Abel to Balrog (boxer, called M. Bison in Japan) to counter Umehara's signature Ryu. The two fought until the last game possible, but Wong lost the competition. It was this point of the tournament that had more than 23,000 users viewing the stream broadcasting.

Seasons Beatings IV

Wong joined a tournament called Seasons Beatings on October 16–18 in Columbus, Ohio. He participated in the Street Fighter IV 3 on 3 on the second day with two teammates and won 1st place. There was an exhibition match between him and Daigo Umehara which he lost by two games to ten. For Street Fighter IV Singles, Justin, who this time chose to play

Fei Long is a fictional character in the '' Street Fighter'' series. He made his first appearance in '' Super Street Fighter II'' in 1993 as one of the four new characters introduced in the game. In the series, he is a martial artist and action movie st ...

, won in the Winners Bracket's final against Umehara. He later lost to Umehara after Umehara bounced back from the Loser's Bracket.

2010

In June 2010, Wong left the competitive gaming group Empire Arcadia and signed with professional gaming organization

Evil Geniuses Evil Geniuses (EG) is an American esports organization based in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1999, the organization has fielded players in various fighting games, ''Call of Duty (series), Call of Duty'', ''Counter-Strike: Global Offensive ...

with Martin "Marn" Phan and was later joined by Ricki Ortiz.

Evolution 2010

Wong won the ''Marvel vs Capcom 2'' tournament coming out of the loser's bracket. He also placed just out of the top 8 in Super Street Fighter IV, losing to Bruce "Gamerbee" Hsiang. Wong also participated in the reality show

WCG Ultimate Gamer ''WCG Ultimate Gamer'' was a reality television program that aired on Syfy, sponsored by Samsung and the World Cyber Games (WCG). The show was hosted by Hannah Simone and co-hosted by Joel Gourdin. The first season began airing on March 10, 20 ...

. He made it as far as the Gauntlet (series of semi-final elimination challenges), but was eliminated during the Forza Motorsport 3 driving challenge.

2011

PDP.com's Mortal Kombat Nationals

Wong stormed through the tournament without losing a set up until the grand finals where he won the tournament and the $10,000 1st prize using Kung Lao, playing against Floe's Ermac in the finals.

2015

In 2015, Wong was announced be participating in the Red Bull Kumite 2016 ''

Street Fighter V ''Street Fighter V'' is a fighting game developed by Capcom and Dimps and published by Capcom for PlayStation 4 and Windows in 2016. An arcade version exclusive to Japan was released by Taito in 2019. Similar to the previous games in the ''Stre ...

'' invitational tournament.

Personal life

Justin's engagement to Jacqueline Kwan was announced on July 28, 2018, and they have a daughter, Harper Wong. Justin Wong attended Murry Bergtraum High School for Business Careers and was often seen at the world-famous

Chinatown Fair Chinatown Fair Family Fun Center is a video arcade center located on Mott Street in Chinatown, Manhattan. Historically, the arcade catered toward competitive fighting games. The original arcade opened in 1944 and closed in February 2011, but reope ...

Chinatown, Manhattan Manhattan's Chinatown () is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City, bordering the Lower East Side to its east, Little Italy to its north, Civic Center to its south, and Tribeca to its west. With an estimated population of 90,000 to 1 ...

, where he would be seen playing ''Marvel VS Capcom 2'' and sometimes ''

Dance Dance Revolution (''DDR'') is a music video game series produced by Konami. Introduced in Japan in 1998 as part of the Bemani series, and released in North America and Europe in 1999, ''Dance Dance Revolution'' is the pioneering series of the rhythm and dance g ...

''. As of 2022 he lives in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. Th ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include ...

References and notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wong, Justin 1985 births American expatriates in Canada Living people Sportspeople from New York City People from San Jose, California American esports players Canadian esports players Fighting game players Evil Geniuses players Empire Arcadia players Echo Fox players Marvel vs. Capcom players Street Fighter players Tekken players Soulcalibur players American people of Chinese descent Canadian people of Chinese descent Team Razer players