Talented Marvel vs. Capcom 2 player Butra “Roundhouse” Soinak recently challenged fighting game legend Justin Wong to a $10,000 money match. And while it may have been Labor Day in the United States, it didn’t take much work from Wong to quickly close out the set and walk away with thousands of Roundhouse’s dollars in his pocket.
It all started when Roundhouse won Battle of the Strongest 3, an invitational featuring some of New York City’s best Marvel vs. Capcom 2 players, in late 2019. According to Wong, this notable victory gave Roundhouse a bit of a big head, leading to some trash talk between the two before covid-19 prevented them from playing in person. Roundhouse then spent the last year taking down other notable luminaries, including Evo 2009 champion Sanford “Santhrax” Kelly, before finally getting a shot at Wong yesterday.
After some pre-match discussion from the players and commentators, Wong and Roundhouse sat down at their respective setups, the former on the ground in front of a CRT and the latter using an old-school arcade cabinet. Wong stuck with his traditional keepaway team of Storm, Sentinel, and Cyclops (also known as Team Matrix), while Roundhouse chose Sentinel, Storm, and Iron Man. With $5,000 on the table from both players, it was time to finally put up or shut up.
Roundhouse came out strong, adequately sniping Wong’s Storm out of the air in the first game to put her to bed and keep him from running away. This gave Roundhouse enough of a life lead to win the opening match with a close timeout victory, which he celebrated by popping off as if he had taken the whole thing.
Sadly, it was all downhill from there for Mr. Soinak.
Over the course of the next hour and a half, Wong decimated Roundhouse, first going on a 9-game winning streak before eventually ending things with an impressive 15-5 record. It wasn’t even all that fun to watch. Wong, as he’s done for the last 20 years, simply bided his time in every game with his impeccable Storm movement, doing just enough to deplete Roundhouse’s life bars in small bursts and keep his own team safe from retaliation. The frustration was obvious on Roundhouse’s face the whole way through.
This conclusion only makes sense. Roundhouse is pretty damn good in his own right, but Justin is the undisputed god of Marvel vs. Capcom 2, with a record seven Evo championships under his belt since 2001. Even today, as fans beg someone, anyone to bring the crossover game to modern consoles, he stands heads above everyone still grinding out matches. There’s just no comparison—in fighting games or abroad—to the stranglehold Justin’s had over Marvel vs. Capcom 2 competition for the last two decades.
As for Roundhouse, he didn’t waste any time adding to his lengthy string of high-profile callouts.
“What’s next for me? I heard fuckin’ MegamanDS talkin’ mad shit,” Roundhouse claimed during his post-match interview, before addressing his notable detractors directly. “Put up or shut up bro. I’ll play your punk ass for any amount, you fuckin’ sorry piece of shit. You and Fanatiq. Any amount bro, you fuckin’ suck bro. Just because I lost to Justin? C’mon bro, knock it the fuck off bro.”
I guess he’s already looking for ways to make that $5,000 back.