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Casuals: Keoma, Brazil's FGC Hero
How Keoma M. Pacheco ended up representing a nation on the biggest Street Fighter IV stage ever.
Keoma Pacheco competing in USF4 at Capcom Cup 2015
© Robert Paul / http://rmpaul.com
On October 10, virtually no one knew who Keoma M. Pacheco was. On October 12, Keoma played his way into Capcom Cup 2015, beating one of Brasil’s top players, Eric “ChuChu” Silva, and Brawl’s Tatsuya Haitani from Japan - twice. The unknown Abel player burst onto the scene in a big way, and won the chance to play for the biggest prize in competitive fighting game history. His starring role in the history of Ultra Street Fighter 4 may have been brief, but his memorable run through Capcom Cup 2015 cemented him as a player worthy of respect - and a sign that the greater international Street Fighter community shouldn't be taken lightly.
Parts Unknown
Originally from Porto Alegre in the Rio Grande do Sul state in the southern part of Brazil, Keoma now lives in Gravataí, not far from his hometown. To anyone outside of South America, these places are as foreign and unknown as Keoma was prior to the 2015 Capcom Pro Tour. To 26-year-old Keoma, this is where he grew up playing fighting games, until he decided to take Street Fighter IV seriously and get competitive.
Keoma’s introduction to fighting games came at the age of 5, when his father used to beat him repeatedly with Baraka in Mortal Kombat II. He still remembers the taunts from his father every time he jumped. You’re never too young to learn what it means to be salty in fighting games. Perhaps that lesson in humility is something Keoma carried with him as he got older and more involved in the fighting game community. By 9 years old, Keoma was living in a new town and had moved on to games like Street Fighter Alpha and King of Fighters in arcades.
“I found myself spending all my free time in the arcade playing King of Fighters,” Keoma said.
Keoma (left) defeats Pro Fluke at Dreamhack Winter
© Stephanie Lindgren / @vexanie
Another KOF Convert
He played fighting games casually but like many players of his generation, there was one defining moment that pushed him to become competitive, Daigo “The Beast” Umehara parrying Justin Wong’s super move at Evo in 2006. Evo Moment #37 as it has become known spawned a generation of fighting gamers who aspired to become as great as the Street Fighter legend. The release of Street Fighter IV and many players getting in on the ground level of the game also played a part in Keoma’s desire to compete.
“Everyone just started playing the game and nobody knew what to do yet,” Keoma said. “This was the best opportunity to jump into competitive Street Fighter. If I wanted to be a good Street Fighter IV player, that was the time.”
Many times, players are closely associated with their chosen main characters. That’s the identity they build through winning. It may or may not come as a surprise to learn that Keoma did not begin playing Abel. In fact, he may have had thoughts of becoming a Brazilian version of “The Beast” by playing as Ken. He said that didn’t work out so he switched to Sakura. That didn’t work out either and he moved on to Ryu afterward. To put it simply, playing a Shotokan character didn’t appear to be in Keoma’s DNA. Eventually, he landed on a character he described as being more King of Fighters-style. That character was Abel.
“This is like a King of Fighters character in Street Fighter IV. He has the roll and the Crack Shoot from Terry Bogard. This is the character that would be the easiest for me to learn, coming from KOF,” Keoma said.
Keoma (middle) blends in with other USF4 players
© Stephanie Lindgren / @vexanie
Wong's Inspiration
It seemed fitting that the moment Keoma credits for getting him into competition involved the same two players that inspired him to pick up Abel. Justin Wong played Abel against Daigo Umehara in winners semifinals and the grand finals at Evo 2009. While Wong didn’t win either of his matches with Abel, it was enough to plant a seed that would grow with Keoma’s Street Fighter IV play over the next six years.
Training in Street Fighter IV consisted of playing the same five or six people at arcades and training mode online, when he finally was able to get online six months after getting the game. It’s a wonder he got anywhere near as good as he is with an online infrastructure he said wasn’t good at all.
“What I’m about to tell you actually happened about two years ago,” he said. “I went to a friend’s house to play another friend of mine, who lived about five blocks away. We had a yellow bar connection. I could’ve walked to the guy’s house and played perfectly.”
Keoma joked about the “yellow bar footsies”, a result of poor internet connections, and how it made learning anything from the game online difficult. He still improved locally, claiming to have won 41 out of 42 tournaments since 2009. In fact, the one tournament he was eliminated from by a Rufus player made him the most salty.
“I got like eighth place or something. That was the turning point where I wasn’t satisfied with my result,” Keoma said. “I couldn’t sleep at night. It gave me the determination to reach a level where no one locally could beat me. I wanted to be better than anyone no matter what.”
Keoma pumps his fist in celebration at Capcom Cup
© Robert Paul / http://rmpaul.com
No Fear
Keoma climbed a tall mountain over the next six years. He persevered and stuck with a training regimen that included many hours of training mode and watching footage of his gameplay in order to observe his flaws or when things started to go wrong for him in his losses. He practiced against the other top players in the region and when he wasn’t playing them, he was soaking up knowledge anywhere he could get it to prepare him for competition.
In October 2015, Keoma became the only player to defend his home turf at a premier event outside of Asia on the Capcom Pro Tour. While other players in the Brazilian FGC were resigned to the fact Pepeday and Haitani were coming and would most assuredly win the Capcom Pro Tour Brasil event and secure the qualifying spot in Capcom Cup, Keoma never doubted himself. Strangely, it was playing against other players online he didn’t want to lose his battle points to that made him strong in high pressure situations.
“It’s not like I was going to buy a house with battle points,” he joked. “You have to be able to handle the pressure when you notice someone is beating you.”
“When people are about to lose, they start shaking. It’s a matter of how well you can deal with the nerves.
Capcom Cup 2015
After the Capcom Pro Tour Brasil event, Keoma traveled for the first time ever. His first stop was Street Grand Battle 2015 in Lyon, France, where he beat Meltdown’s Olivier “Luffy” Hay in a fantastic 3-2 set that included some of the greatest USF4 reads of all-time. He also got beat down in humbling fashion to Lowland Lions’ Roy “MBR” Sommeling because he didn’t have any recent experience against a high level Akuma player. A week later, at Dreamhack Winter 2015 in Sweden, Keoma made top 8, losing to Luffy this time around.
It was all a tune-up heading into Capcom Cup 2015 in San Francisco, where Keoma was one of three top-tier Abel players competing in the field of 32 of the best USF4 players in the world. Keoma might have had one of the closest “pick ‘em” first round match-ups against Red Bull Athlete Darryl “Snake Eyez” Lewis at Capcom Cup.
Keoma displayed his strength in pressure situations and Abel’s comeback ability by winning four straight rounds against Snake Eyez, including three out of four rounds in which Snake Eyez started with a life lead. Keoma went on to beat GamerBee, lose to Xian, and beat Itabashi Zangief before being eliminated by Snake Eyez in a top 8 runback, closing out the day and his Pro Tour run in seventh place at Capcom Cup 2015. In a day full of surprises, Keoma made it further into the tournament than many expected.
The Best in Brazil
Reflecting on Street Fighter IV and the whirlwind last few months, Keoma said he doesn’t think he’s the best Abel between Gustavo “801 Strider” Romero and Sanshiro “Shirou” Nagai. He felt the Capcom Cup results don’t quantify the strengths and differences between each player and called himself an equal amongst the other two players. But when asked who the best USF4 player in Brasil was, there was no hesitation in his response.
“For Street Fighter IV, yes,” Keoma said, citing the strength of his mental game in the clutch or on the big stage as a reason why.
It’s hard to argue that given his results in recent months.
Crowd cheering for Keoma at Capcom Cup 2015
© Robert Paul / http://rmpaul.com
Keoma is ready to make the jump to Street Fighter V with the rest of the competition and the Capcom Pro Tour in 2016. He expects to travel more next year, and maybe even attend his first Evolution. The Cultivation series starring Snake Eyez inspires Keoma to want to travel more and one day, he also would like to visit Japan to level up his game. But in the meantime, he’s grateful for the support he’s gotten in 2015.
“Thank you for the support and for everyone who believed in me. It’s been a long road, and having everyone by my side made me stronger.”
Check back next Thursday for another installment of Casuals and follow @RedBullESPORTS on Twitter for more Street Fighter coverage.
