16-year-old Ed player wins second offline Street Fighter 5 major he ever enters in convincing fashion
A rising star as SF5 prepares to ride off into the sunset
Up until just a few years ago, winning fighting games online didn't give players really any credit to their name compared to "real" tournaments, but now the new generation of online warriors are rising up to bury that idea firmly in the past.
The 16-year-old EndingWalker entered just his second in-person Street Fighter 5 major ever this weekend at Ultimate Fighting Arena 2022, and the magnificent Ed player won it all in convincing fashion over some of the best competitors in the world.
Those who've been paying attention to the online European scene are already aware of EndingWalker's capabilities considering he's won 15 Saltmine League and Capcom Pro Tour World Warrior online tournaments.
But what's even more wild is he's scored all of those victories in just the past 14 months. That's right; he's only been competing since September 2021.
EndingWalker would end up going 8-0 and only dropped a single game over his whole UFA run where he completely ran over world-class SF5 talent including MisterCrimson (3-1), PG|Punk (3-0), Valmaster (3-0), NASR|AngryBird (2-0) and Kilzyou (2-0), and he did it all with Ed.
Taking a look at his actual gameplay, it can be difficult to ascertain why it is EndingWalker is finding this much success against players with multiple years or decades of experience, but there are a few things we noticed.
Endingwalker bringing the hype! #UFA2022 https://t.co/QmpGuw7yy3 pic.twitter.com/b5f8dKRjMk
— RΛZΞR Xian (@XianMSG) November 13, 2022
Aside from excellent execution, EndingWalker's confidence appears to be one of his greatest strengths. He's always playing to win, never to not lose.
You can see his Ed constantly trying to move forward and push the opponent to the corner, even when he should be on the defensive.
That gets extra tricky to play against, however, because he also makes the most out of Ed's strong back dash to keep the spacing exactly where he wants it.
Moreover, his understanding of SF5's frame advantage and timing is impeccable to the point where he can purposefully add gaps or delays to throw even the most experienced opponents off from what they expect is coming.
All of that is perfectly encapsulated in how the young competitor from the United Kingdom closed out the tournament by just walking up to Valmaster to bait the throw and punch Chun-Li in the face with an EX Psycho Upper — all while his parents cheered on in the crowd.
Leave the stage like you just don't care!@UFA_Gaming has a new champion and his name is 🇬🇧 @EndingWalker
— Ultimate Fighting Arena #UFA2022 (@UFA_Gaming) November 13, 2022
#UFA2022 pic.twitter.com/wsCwp6ufqJ
Although EndingWalker is not yet qualified for Capcom Cup next year, there's a very good chance we're going to be seeing how he can perform at the finals considering he's swept all 5 World Warrior rounds of his CPT region this season.
It's exciting to see young talent popping up this late into SF5's life and finding major success in ways we hadn't seen before in the game, which makes the prospect of Capcom Cup and the future of Street Fighter 6 even more so.
If you missed EndingWalker in action, we recommend taking a look at his UFA run in Reversal's Twitch archive from the event although we suspect you're going to be seeing a lot more from him moving forward.
