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Norman Forrest still remembers his first fight.

It was 1992. He was nine years old and visiting the Radio Shack store in Regina’s Victoria Square Mall. That’s when he saw Street Fighter II: World Warrior on the Super Nintendo entertainment system.

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“I just remember playing it and thinking, ‘I got to get this game,’ ” said Forrest, who is now 33 and has been living in Saskatoon for the last three years.

Forrest never stopped playing Street Fighter, and now his dedication to playing the fighting video game might finally pay off.

After coming in first place out of 32 players in a regional tournament in Regina, Forrest won an all-expenses-paid trip to Toronto for the Cineplex World Gaming Canadian Championships for Street Fighter V. On May 29, Forrest and 22 other players from across the country will compete for a first-place prize of $10,000

While other competitive games often involve being on a team with other players, Forrest said he enjoys the personal nature of Street Fighter’s one-on-one battles.

“It’s like a digital form of chess,” he said.

“You’re basically relying on your skills, your reactions and you out-thinking a person.”

In the past, Forrest has had to pay his own way to compete at tournaments. He travels annually to a competition in Winnipeg called TST, and flies to Las Vegas every year for the largest fighting game tournament in the world: the Evolution Championship Series (Evo).

Last year at Evo, Forrest managed to come in 33rd place in the world while competing in Mortal Kombat X.

As a kid, he would sometimes spend entire days of his summer vacation trying to master one combination of moves. A part-time job bagging groceries came with plenty of flexibility for a 15-year-old gamer, but Forrest has more responsibilities now as the manager of the Safeway on 33rd Street.

“I can’t dedicate eight to 10 hours a day to gaming like I used to, but I guess for the amount that I play I’m pretty good,” he said.