He just grinds different.

7th at Toryuken 8. 5th at CEO 2019. 3rd at Texas Shodown. As the highest placing Midwestern player on the global Capcom Pro Tour 2019 leaderboards at 47th, it wasn’t surprising to see Street Fighter League contestant Kevin ‘Dual Kevin’ Barrios conquering the Street Fighter V qualifier for Red Bull Conquest Chicago.

With results drastically better than last year and his domination at the Red Bull event, no one can debate the Indiana Rashid player’s position as one of the strongest in the Midwest fighting game scene.

But those results were only reached by sticking to a focused process, composed of many key ingredients that helped spur on his quick improvement. Instead of meandering through matches, hoping to find some sort of worth in the haze of wins and losses, Dual Kevin takes a different path than the average player.

Credit: BornFree

While development in fighting games can come from hours of simply playing, it’s a method that is slow and arduous. Dual Kevin, however, sees his sets not as a number of opponents he’s faced, but what knowledge he can extract in and outside each match.

“I tend to watch, strategize, discuss, and when I play, go in with a different mindset,” he says, fully willing to be experimental at the cost of losing a round or a few online ranking points.

“I go into matches and test a theory, like if I were to walk and block a lot against this character, then he could do X, Y, or Z and I would be ready to counter. Figuring out whether things would or wouldn’t work makes me one step closer to improving my character or player matchup.”

There’s a mental side of the game that must be engaged, Dual Kevin feels. To better this aspect, he spends a lot of time bouncing ideas off his colleagues.

“I talk a lot about Street Fighter V to people like RobTV, ZachInABox, or even my teammates on Team Frost,” he notes, using these deeper discussions of group theorycrafting to add to his mental library.

“Those talks keep me sharp since it’s not always about playing the game to me. It’s about discussing concepts of the game so I can know, in detail, what a character or player likes to do in a certain situation.”

Credit: Capcom Fighters

It helps that Street Fighter V isn’t Dual Kevin’s first go at the genre. He’s a champion in the Versus series, having become an accomplished Marvel VS Capcom 3 and Marvel VS Capcom: Infinite player over the years. After living in a mix-or-be-mixed world where playing on point is tantamount, the transition to Street Fighter V for him was fairly smooth.

“I’ve done this all before, especially in Marvel VS Capcom 3. I knew how much dedication I needed to put in to get great at something,” he says.

“The same training exercises that I do now, I’ve done in Marvel. The type of questions I ask people and the type of conversations I have with anybody about the game are similar.”

Dual Kevin’s routine didn’t change much before the Red Bull Conquest. Despite strong Chicago players and invading Midwesterners vying for the spot, he decided to focus on shoring up his character matchup knowledge rather than practice for a particular person.

Credit: Will English IV

“If I saw Brian F in my path to Top 8, I’d still ask iDom for Laura info,” he says, pointing out the possibility of never having to take on certain players during the tournament.

“I’m good on Balrog or G matchup knowledge, but I’m way behind on Laura. That’s how I think going into any tournament.”

Of course, the drive to advance in skill is bolstered when you have a training partner who’s just as hungry and dedicated. Fellow Street Fighter League competitor, training partner, and supportive friend Rob ‘RobTV’ Burney has pushed Dual Kevin to stay on top of his game ever since they first played against each other.

“RobTV and I met at the beginning of 2017 during some college tournament in Columbus, Ohio. I had some Indiana friends drive up with me for Marvel VS Capcom 3 and Street Fighter V to enter,” he says.

“I bumped into RobTV before Top 8 was gonna start and I didn’t know who he was at the time, but I remember we were going back and forth on the shit talk.”

Credit: Ignite Gaming Lounge

They fought in finals of Street Fighter V, and Dual Kevin would emerge the victor. At the time, neither of them would have that thought that, years later, they’d be facing off in the grand finals of Red Bull Conquest Chicago. History repeated (though RobTV was the victor last year in 2018 at the Tennessee qualifier), and Dual Kevin walked away the winner this time.

That rivalry, strengthened by a similar level of support, pushes both players to try and succeed over one another and the opponents they face.

“From playing our wack ass grand finals set with ‘footsies’ that we didn’t have at the time, to being on Street Fighter League and being able to compete with the best of the best — that’s what created a rival/brotherly bond. Because at the end of the day, we are both trying to beat each other’s asses.”

Follow Dual Kevin’s upsets on Street Fighter League and other outings through his Twitter.