I am convinced that this year’s Olympic Games are dedicated to gamers. Some time ago, a runner was on his way to the Olympic Games flashed constantly Yu-Gi-Oh cards before his races. Then the games actually began with a obvious allusion to Assassin’s Creedcomplete with rooftop parkour and hooded figures. There was even a hunter from Fate 2or at least something close to it. Well, there is a guy who clearly has perfected his neutral game in combat games. His name is Sebastien Patrice, and if fencing no longer works for him, he has a future with the next EVO Tournament.
This was evident in a match this weekend that Patrice ultimately lost, but not without causing a stir. When he was on the ground, Patrice decided to use an unorthodox method to win: he began to jump towards his opponent very lightly and then very aggressively.
A completely ridiculous clip of Patrice doing this at the Paris Olympics is doing the rounds right now, and I can hardly believe the whole thing. He’s clearly like a wounded (and outmatched) animal cornered, but the move actually stuns the other guy enough that he can just keep pushing forward, frantically waving his saber around trying to get a hit in until he finally scores. It’s the equivalent of mashing buttons at the exhibition at your local arcade and actually stealing the win from your opponent.
I always thought that fencing was much more about composure, light touches and ripostes, but I’m not sure Patrice has ever heard those terms, to be honest. One of the top comments on the video jokes that he is “faster from 0 to 100 than most cars,” and they are not exaggerating. This is what fencing looked like in Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games.
Be Neutral jump Really jumped off in the gaming community, which began jokingly Leave a Comment on his technique. Considering that just two weekends ago, the world’s largest fighting game tournament took place in Vegas, people with the genre still fresh in their minds (myself included) started making jokes about footsies and jabs, attacks where you try to nudge the other player and control the space in front of you to allow them to make more moves.
In the language of the fighting game community, my husband Patrice nailed the jump. His opponent, who seemed astonished by Patrice’s sudden burst of energy and his approach, was able to not to figure out how to punish the move. Instead, he landed on his back foot and held the guard until Patrice finally launched the unblockable attack. He may not have won, but at least he got the (Gamer) Olympic Games with its very own EVO moment.
