Last year I had the chance of traveling along a group of peruvian friends to Las Vegas to achieve a lifetime dream we all shared: compete in and watch the EVO. It was a really cool: after several years of watching the event via streaming we were finally there to experience everything for ourselves.
For the majority of people in the group this was his first EVO, so the surprise and excitement of meeting top players, producers, commenters and people from the scene were huge. I shared those feelings for meeting that "celebrities", but almost causally I got to know a person with a not so big or notorious role (but important, nevertheless) in the FGC which caused an incredible impression on me. This is the story of the times I met and talked to this him, starting in EVO2013 and continuing in EVO2014.
Introducing: The Modder
The job a modder has is pretty diverse... it could be as simple as giving aesthetical changes to your arcade stick or it could be more complex, like enabling multiple console support to it (this is what we usually call "a mod"). This curious character has an important task inside the community, but oftenly it goes under the radar and requires quite special abilities: he's curious, and that helps him to understand how the world works and the circuitry inside an arcade stick. He's nonconformist, because sometimes he improves whatever already is working well. He's also pacient against work which sometimes resembles an open heart surgery. But above everything, the modder is creative... and that's an ability which allows him to fulfill some exotic orders.
As some of you may already know, I'm a modder. I started working in the modding business almost by chance when, in 2010, when facin the classic problem of having two consoles and only one arcade stick I decided to solve it by myself. My origins were humble a very clumsy... since I had zero electronics background and inexistant soledring skills I ended screwing my Madcatz TE-S (lucky me, the problem was reversible).
Time passed, I learned a lot of things, I improved my skills and I started doing dual-mods for a lot of people from the peruvian FGC. Then I started selling spare parts, pushbuttons, joysticks and also doing custom artworks. Finally, I started crafting my own arcade sticks. This personal project is what many people know under the name "Rata Mashera" ("Masher Rat" for you, english speaking people), which gave me the satisfaction of helping a lot of people in the FGC and the joy of finding my place in the community.
Duckie and me
It was late 2011 and I stumbled upon a post on Shoryuken.com which catched my attention: John Wade, a.k.a. Duckie, a modder and well known and respected member of the community had suffered an accident on his right eye while working on a client's arcade stick. The injury was serious: it was really painful, developed severe light sensitivity on his right eye, and to make things worse, all this episode caused Duckie financial problems. But thanks to the generosity of the FGC, a small amount of money was raised and he was able to somwhat overcome the problem.
Reading about this touvhed me in a very personal way: all the time I was working as a modder I never really worried about my physical security. I never used eye protection when using a soledring gun and I never realized the risk until I read about Duckie's accident. Finding out about other people's accidents is never pleasant, but realizing the danger I was exposed to thanks to Duckie's story made me feel relieved, so I thanked him in silence without knowing what was going to happen later.
EVO2013 & EVO2014
After getting to the place where all the workshops were installed I took a bit of time to snoop around, buy some unnecessary stuff and when I was about to leave the place I located Duckie and his awesome combo of manly beard and eyepatch working on one of several dual mods waiting to be completed. The pile of arcade sticks next to him told no lies.
To be honest, I can't quite remember why I did it, but I walked towards him and introduced myself:
Sorry to bother you, my name is Renzo. I'm a peruvian modder and I read about you on SRK."Duckie made a pause on his work, put the protective eyewear on his forehead and told me:
Hey, cool. Nice to meet you."Then I opened my backpack and took out one of the promotional t-shirts from Rata Mashera I had with me. I breathed deeply and I continued:
Look, I don't wanna sound awkward, but I wanted to tell you something. I read about your accident some time ago; clearly, it wasn't a happy moment for you, but I want you to know that there's something positive you can rescue from that moment. I was careless in my job as a modder and didn't use eye protection; after reading about your accident I realized the risk and I started being more careful. You helped one person to avoid an accident, so I wanted to gift you this t-shirt, from modder to modder."I'm quite confident of what just happened was the most unexpected thing to happen to Duckie in that weekend. He looked surprised, and still in awe, he told me:
Oh man, it's good to know I was able to help at least one person in the world with what happened to me. Thanks for the words and the gift. Thanks, man!"That was a short and spontaneous retribution moment I paid to the guy for what he done for me... so after the short (but intense) moment, we shaked hands, joked a bit, took the mandatory picture and said goodbye.
After some weeks we exchanged some tweets. I asked him if he still remembered me and he told me he was using the t-shirt in that moment. I took his message with a big grain of salt because... well.. It seemed to me like t-shirt was not going to fit him :D
Days, weeks and months passed and I decided to return to Las Vegas for EVO2014. I had the usual journey: visiting one of my best friends from high school in Northridge, and the going on a roadtrip to Las Vegas.
After being kicked out of my pools in USF4, I was roaming around the venue and I decided to look around for some goodies to buy, just like last year. To the right side of the room, far from all the noise the demo stations some publishers installed were making, I met again with the great Duckie. And as usual, there were lots of arcade sticks waiting to be modded.
I said "hi" without much hope that he would remember my face:
Hey Duckie, Hi!. I don't know if you remember me, but we met last year and I gave you a t-shirt with my modding store logo on it."Duckie didn't doubt a second. Again, he made a pause on his job and told me:
Hey, of course I remember you. You probably had a different haircut last year, but I definitely remember you."At this point I wasn't prepared for what was coming. It was my turn to listen to the most unexpected story in all the weekend... it was like karma was in action, right there:
I was using the t-shirt you gave me just minutes ago, I just changed it to the one I'm using. You know? I call that t-shirt my "happy t-shirt". Why? Easy. I use it every time I feel angry or sad... using that shirt makes me remember how I helped someone and that makes all the bad feelings go away. The shirt is already a bit worn out, but I still use it."After processing what this guy just told me, it was my turn to feel a bit emotional. I had no fucking idea of the positive impact I made in Duckies life last year and it was really good to know that even unintentionally I was able to give a short moment of happyness to a person who had a really complicated episode in his life. Following the usual ritual, we joked around, we talk a few minutes, we took another picture and we said "until next year" (and I meant it, I'm going again to EVO next year).
As closing words to this story, after all these year in the community I realized that even if I still get amazed by the comebacks, combos, perfects, OCVs, reads and all the stuf around the "pure" aspect of the game, the stories I remember most are the ones related to the people in the FGC. I met people from different countries, different cultures and lifestyles through this hobby, and it's impressive how much positive influence we caused each other in our lives.
From time to time some people ask me "What have you got out of all those years of button mashing in fighting games?"
My answer is really short: "It allowed me to know a lot of people and make new friends"
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