How Snake Eyez Won Evo With Zangief in Only the Second Tournament He Ever Entered

Snake Eyez won Evo with Zangief in only the second tournament he had ever entered, beating John Choi, Tokido, AfroLegends and DGV on the way. DGV had already beaten him once that day, but he fought back, reset the bracket, and took the deciding game to become the most improbable Evo champion ever.

When the final set reached two games each, one game was left, and DGV's Ryu stood a full screen away. Three months earlier, Snake Eyez had just finished his very first tournament, and his path to that final game began with the only player who had ever eliminated him.

Snake Eyez's first tournament ended with two straight losses to AfroLegends

In April 2010, at West Coast Warzone 2, Darryl "Snake Eyez" Lewis entered his very first tournament. His friends believed he belonged in competition. At home, his mother still wasn't convinced that competitive gaming could lead anywhere. Online, some players already knew his name, but none of that had been proven offline.

He also stood out in another way. Competitive Street Fighter had been built in arcades, and most serious players still competed on fight sticks. Snake Eyez played on a pad. West Coast Warzone would show whether his skills held up under the pressure of sitting beside an opponent while a crowd reacted to every mistake.

He started answering those questions immediately, winning his opening set 2 to 0 and advancing to winners final. Waiting there was AfroLegends, already one of the strongest HD Remix players in the country. AfroLegends beat him 2 to 0 and sent him to the losers bracket. Snake Eyez fought his way back by beating his opening opponent a second time, earning another shot at AfroLegends in grand finals. This time AfroLegends won 3 to 0. Across two sets and five games, Snake Eyez never took a game off him, and he left his first tournament in second place. The two would meet again three months later, but first Snake Eyez had to survive the biggest fighting game tournament in the world.

Zangief's slow walk across the screen made him a counterpick target at Evo

Evo was a much bigger test, and Snake Eyez was bringing Zangief. Zangief had always been terrifying once he got close. One Spinning Piledriver could erase a huge portion of an opponent's life, and one knockdown could trap them in a guessing game where every wrong decision led to another grab.

The problem was reaching that position. Zangief was huge, slow and had no projectile. Ryu could fill the screen with fireballs. Dhalsim could attack from distances Zangief couldn't answer. Honda could stop his jumps and punish reckless attempts to move forward. One mistake could send Zangief back across the screen and force him to start over: walk forward, block, wait, take another step.

HD Remix gave him more options. His inputs became easier, his green hand and running grab became faster, and his hop and lariat gave him better ways to move through attacks. But those improvements didn't solve everything. Zangief still had serious problems against roughly half the cast, and in practical terms nearly half the game could function as a counterpick. Every round carried the same demand: cross the screen. Once players saw Zangief on the character select screen, many of them reached for the same answers, Honda and Dhalsim. The field believed it already knew how to stop him.

Snake Eyez beat John Choi and Tokido to reach the winners finals

The counterpicks started immediately. One of the judges from Snake Eyez's pool remembered players switching to Honda and Dhalsim after they saw him select Zangief, but Snake Eyez kept winning. Then he reached John Choi, who had been destroying everyone else in the pool.

Choi had been winning major American Street Fighter tournaments since the 1990s, and he was one of the players who helped establish the country's original competitive hierarchy. Snake Eyez had entered one tournament. Choi had an entire era behind him. Snake Eyez beat him 2 to 0. The online specialist with one tournament to his name had just beaten one of America's original Street Fighter legends, and he was heading into the Evo top eight.

He entered top eight on the winners side, and his first opponent was Tokido. Tokido had already built a reputation for learning games quickly and finding the most efficient way to win. He chose Vega, who historically had been one of the cheapest characters in Super Turbo. Snake Eyez beat him 2 to 0, sending one of Japan's strongest players to the losers bracket and putting himself one set away from grand finals.

DGV's Ryu sent Snake Eyez into a rematch with AfroLegends

DGV stood in the way. Like Snake Eyez, DGV had built most of his HD Remix reputation online, but within the HD Remix scene he was already considered one of the best players in the country. His Ryu gave Snake Eyez a problem the counterpicks couldn't. DGV stayed with Ryu and controlled the match well enough to keep Zangief from taking over. He won 2 to 0 and sent Snake Eyez into the losers bracket.

For the first time at Evo, Snake Eyez was one loss away from elimination, and the player waiting for him was the same man who had ended his first tournament. Three months earlier, AfroLegends had beaten him twice without dropping a single game. Now they met in losers finals. AfroLegends had just defeated Daigo Umehara. The winner would advance to grand finals; the loser would finish third.

AfroLegends later admitted that dominating their first meeting made him expect the same Snake Eyez at Evo. But Snake Eyez had spent three months studying the only player who had ever beaten him in tournament. He won the rematch 2 to 1.

Snake Eyez reset the bracket on DGV and closed out the final game

The player waiting in grand finals had already beaten him once that day, so Snake Eyez would have to beat DGV twice. DGV had already shown how he planned to stop Zangief, and now Snake Eyez had to find the answer. He did, winning the first set 3 to 1. The bracket reset, and DGV then pushed the final set all the way to 2 to 2.

In the last game, Zangief had to cross the screen one more time. DGV immediately created space with a retreating Tatsu. Snake Eyez chased and jumped, but DGV met him with a crisp anti air. DGV followed with a jump in, which gave Snake Eyez the opening to take control and drive him back. DGV fought his way out and reversed the position, pushing Zangief all the way to the opposite wall, and tried to end the round with a throw, but Snake Eyez grabbed him first. A well timed sweep gave Snake Eyez the first round.

He opened round two with the Spinning Piledriver, taking control of the screen and a commanding life lead. DGV kept fighting, but every trade favored Snake Eyez. With only a pixel remaining, DGV finally created the space he needed, then one final Tatsu left him within range of Zangief's medium kick. Snake Eyez landed the final hit and, at 21 years old, became an Evo champion.

The Evo title changed how Snake Eyez's mother saw his path

The victory changed how his mother saw the path he had chosen. For the first time, she believed that competitive gaming could actually take him somewhere. His first tournament had ended in second place without a single game taken off AfroLegends. His second had ended with an Evo title.

A rise like that has almost no parallel, even outside the FGC.

Who was the first player who made you realize you weren't ready, and did you ever come back and beat them?