Punk\u2019s emotional EVO victory was seven years in the making but it\u2019s just the start EVO \/ Stephanie LindgrenVictor \u2018Punk\u2019 Woodley crashed onto the Street Fighter scene in the early days of SFV, quickly rising in the ranks to become one of the game\u2019s most formidable players. Although he\u2019d won a total of eight Premier events in the Capcom Pro Tour, EVO continued to elude him\u2026 until now. Punk delivered one of the best performances of EVO 2024 against Big Bird, but he\u2019s far from finished dominating the competition in Street Fighter 6. There was nary a dry eye in the room when he clutched out a heart-stopping victory against his friend and fellow competitor on the main stage Sunday night. This marked a major moment in his career seven years after he lost on that very same stage against Tokido in the 2017 Grand Finals. Now, it\u2019s Punk who has finally cemented himself as an EVO champion. The realization brought him to tears as thousands of fans chanted from the stands: \u201cYou deserve it.\u201d We got the chance to speak with Punk in a press conference after his explosive win over Big Bird, where he opened up about his future plans for the CPT and how he managed to stay calm despite his opponent\u2019s overwhelming pressure and facing technical difficulties mid-match. In fact, Punk\u2019s headphones stopped working at the tail end of game three after Big Bird\u2019s bracket reset \u2014 something that would have thrown most players off of their mental game. We asked Punk about how he managed to bounce back from this moment\u2026 but for him, it wasn\u2019t a big deal at all. \u201cIt was at the end of the round. I had almost pretty much won, but it cut out during my level three, and I just knew I had to finish the match,\u201d he told us. \u201cI don\u2019t really need sound when I play, but I like to have it. So even when the sound gets cut off, it\u2019s okay for me to just keep playing.\u201d \u201cSometimes bad things happen,\u201d he added in another comment. \u201cYou see, today, Nemo had a controller issue. So, sometimes things just happen that are out of your control, and it could definitely affect you mentally, but I don\u2019t want things like that to affect me anymore.\u201d That\u2019s a big part of Punk\u2019s current game plan when it comes to competitive fighting games. When asked about how he managed to keep a level head during such an intense match, the EVO champ admitted that he\u2019s allowed himself to get comfortable with losing, something he started doing at the beginning of this current competitive season. \u201cThe only thing I feel like I changed is being okay with losing,\u201d he said to the press. \u201cI feel like that\u2019s been helping me do better these past few months.\u201d EVO marked the first Premier event on the 2024 CPT. Having taken home the championship, Punk is now qualified for a spot at Capcom Cup later this year \u2014 but despite already having a seat at the table, he wants more. \u201cCapcom Cup and trying to win EWC,\u201d he answered when asked what\u2019s next for his game plan. \u201cThose are our two big, important tournaments, and I want to win a lot of money.\u201d This victory is just one of many that Punk has enjoyed throughout his career, but it\u2019s no doubt the biggest on his resume. Now, other young players are making a splash in the competition like 17-year-old EndingWalker, hearkening back to Punk\u2019s own origins as a talented youngster breaking out onto the scene. This prompted the press to ask him about his thoughts on his legacy as an EVO champion\u2026 but he\u2019s not certain how he feels about it just yet. \u201cI\u2019m not really sure, to be honest,\u201d he admitted. \u201cI only really care about myself. I just want to win for myself mostly. I don\u2019t really know what I want my legacy to be. I just want people to know that I was an amazing player. That\u2019s pretty much it.\u201d If they didn\u2019t before, the world most certainly knows about it now. Punk couldn\u2019t even leave the venue without being greeted by throngs of fans cheering him on as he exited the Las Vegas Convention Center. His victory was an emotionally charged moment that followed seven years of hard work, giving him feelings that he wasn\u2019t sure how to articulate to curious reporters. \u201cIt\u2019s really hard to put it in words,\u201d he laughed. \u201cYou know, I\u2019m just very happy and relieved because it started so bad in the last round. I was getting very scared, and then I got a little lucky, and everything just turned around for me. I was just very relieved and just excited, happy. I don\u2019t know. It\u2019s so many emotions. It\u2019s hard to describe it.\u201d Punk made sure to give Big Bird his flowers, saying that the two are good friends and often train together. Watching them duke it out in Grand Finals felt like watching Street Fighter V all over again in the best way. Although they\u2019re still in their mid-twenties, it\u2019s clear that this duo are the new pillars of Street Fighter\u2019s competitive scene. Their nail-biting fight to the finish will forever live on in the hallowed annals of fighting game history \u2014 a match that crowned a well-deserved winner who\u2019s still hungry for more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Punk\u2019s emotional EVO victory was seven years in the making but it\u2019s just the start EVO \/ Stephanie LindgrenVictor \u2018Punk\u2019 Woodley crashed onto the Street Fighter scene in the early days of SFV, quickly rising in the ranks to become one of the game\u2019s most formidable players. Although he\u2019d won a total of eight Premier […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66903\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}