Evil Geniuses’ pro Street Fighter V player Eduardo ‘PR Balrog’ Perez (Michael Martin)

Eduardo “PR Balrog” Perez has been one of the fiercest and most outspoken fighting game competitors for quite some time.

But in recent years, the Balrog main has been humbled by failure. It took a new game and a little help from an FGC legend to help him find his way.

Retirement, unretirement, and just being tired

On January 12, 2015, PR Balrog shocked the FGC by announcing his retirement on Twitter. It wouldn’t last — a few months later he went back to Twitter and reconsidered — but the experience offered a glimpse into the pro’s conflicted mindset.

He wound up having a decent year, including being the feel-good story at Evo 2015 with a top 8 finish in Ultra Street Fighter IV. Though last year ended in disappointment by missing Capcom Cup, 2016’s introduction of Street Fighter V was fresh start for everyone. Like players new and old, PR Balrog traveled early and often on the CPT 2016. He even appeared to be an early contender for Capcom Cup, finishing in multiple top 8s at Ranking Events.

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PR Balrog competing in Ultra Street Fighter IV at Northwest Majors in 2015 (Michael Martin)



“It’s a new game and everyone wanted to travel to see where they were at,” PR Balrog told Yahoo Esports. “Up until Evo, I thought I was pretty good. I wasn’t the best but I could compete.”

Indeed, his Street Fighter V play wasn’t strong enough to keep up with the world’s best players. PR Balrog’s frustration with the game and his results took its toll on him.

“I wasn’t getting joy out of it anymore. I wasn’t having fun,” he said. “If you’re not having fun, why do it?”

After Evo, he took some time away from the game. He spent time playing World of Warcraft and wondered if he should even play fighting games anymore. It’s fair to assume he was considering retirement again, but he said that wasn’t the case.

“People were thinking I was going to retire again. I wasn’t planning on retiring, so don’t worry about that,” PR Balrog said.



Words of wisdom

The time away from competitive Street Fighter did him some good because when he decided to pick Street Fighter V back up, he knew what his weaknesses were and wanted to correct them. So he went to his EG teammate, top North American Street Fighter V player Justin Wong, for some training and guidance.



Wong gave it to him straight. He said PR Balrog’s play was terrible.

PR Balrog is known for his aggressive playstyle. But Street Fighter V isn’t always conducive to an offense-first mindset.

“I started to play more defensively and felt like I was getting the hang of the game,” PR Balrog said. “I went to The Fall Classic and played NuckleDu in casuals and the first thing he tells me is I’m running into everything. Even with Justin’s guidance, I still sucked.”

Team Liquid’s Du “NuckleDu” Dang — who is nearly 15 years younger than Justin Wong — helped nail the point home for PR Balrog. He needed to play more defensively and show more patience.

It isn’t easy to hear about your own flaws, but to his credit, PR Balrog listened to his peers. He gratefully accepted the guidance from Wong and NuckleDu, but there was another force at work in PR Balrog’s evolution: Daigo “The Beast” Umehara.

“I’m not going to lie, Daigo’s book [The Will to Keep Winning] helped me a lot,” PR Balrog said. “I read the book on the way to TFC and it completely changed how I see life and how I see the game. It became less about what I can accomplish in the game and more about what I can accomplish in life.”

The eye-opening experience had a profound effect on him. As a result, one of the first things he did was stop complaining so much about Street Fighter V. He wanted to learn from every win and every loss going forward and you can’t do that if you’re too busy complaining about all the things you can’t control.



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