On the backs of their dominant collegiate seasons competing in Mortal Kombat 1 and Tekken 8, CFGC Champions “Unimeme” and “Chaotic Perfection” went down to Texas to compete at DreamHack Dallas 2024. The popular gaming convention featured over a dozen competitive esports events, including several FGC titles with prize pots worth thousands of dollars.
The Collegiate Fighting Game Conference [CFGC] emerged last summer as a startup league to facilitate collegiate FGC on a national scale. For many years, universities held local tournaments for players to hone their skills. The CFGC, not unlike the The King of Iron Fist Tournament, pooled the best collegiate FGC players across North America to compete in weekly matches.
The end of this Spring season saw the crowning of four champions in four of the major FGC titles: Street Fighter 6, Tekken 8, Guilty Gear Strive, and Mortal Kombat 1. Among the champions, Unimeme won for Mortal Kombat 1 and Chaotic Perfection for Tekken 8. Last weekend, they fought outside of collegiate and took on the broader FGC at DreamHack Dallas, one of the biggest fighting game tournaments of the year.
CEN got a chance to speak to these two competitors about their experiences getting into fighting games, taking down the CFGC, and competing on the DreamHack stage.
Getting into Fighting Games
Despite their growing interest, fighting games have not always been the most popular genre in esports. FPS and MOBA titles have largely reigned supreme in esports, especially at a collegiate level.
For Unimeme, fighting games have been a part of his life for over a decade. “I’ve been playing various fighting games since 2013 or so when I played MK9 as a youngin, but I started competing with Mortal Kombat X in 2016 because Jason Voorhees is my favorite horror character, and I was immediately sold on him being a playable fighting game character.”
“Some people told me not to get it because it’s ‘too sweaty’, but one friend introduced me to our local scene,” responded Chaotic Perfection. For him, though, the urge to improve pushed him through.
“I’m not a person who’s too naturally talented at any video games but I started practicing and noticing results. I fell in love with it, had a hard work ethic and now I’m here.”
Competing in the CFGC
While most fighting game tournaments are one-off events, the CFGC ran a regular season with weekly matches in a round-robin format. We wanted to know how that different structure felt for the competitors.
Unimeme was incredibly receptive to the format. “The pseudo round robin format we did was honestly a lot of fun. Very unique compared to any other event I’ve taken part in, which made it interesting to prepare for each week. Gave everyone a lot of time to not only prepare for other players, but also to improve their own gameplay over a long stretch of time.”
Chaotic Perfection had a similar positive sentiment. “I’ve never played in an event like that with the seeding process they had through round robins. T.O’s were also very interactive with the players and the feedback process was nice.”
The weekly format brought structure to the collegiate fighting game scene, but also new challenges balancing time between schoolwork, competing, and practicing.
Even with attending college online, the balance wasn’t easy for Unimeme. “Going to online school definitely made it easier, at least for me, but juggling content, school, a full-time job, and having a partner is very hectic to say the least.”
For Chaotic Perfection, balancing gaming and school is all about planning ahead. “Being a student and competing definitely forces me to manage a good schedule. I’m a person that believes in work ethic so I spend many, many hours practicing. I take care of schoolwork during the day and everything else during the night.”
From CFGC to DreamHack Dallas
This past weekend saw some of the best gamers from around the world compete in over a dozen of the top esports titles at DreamHack Dallas 2024. After pulling out hard-fought wins in the CFGC, it was time for Unimeme and Chaotic Perfection to put their skills to the test against some of the best in the world.
Unimeme’s bracket run was a wave of ups and downs. It started miserably with him DQing out of the winners bracket due to traffic. Undeterred, though, Unimeme won three straight sets in the losers bracket. It took facing Enzo in Losers Round 4 to end his valiant bracket run at 17th place out of 50 competitors.
While certainly not happy about his performance, Unimeme was able to take the event in stride: “I played worse in MK1 [Mortal Kombat 1] at DreamHack than I would have liked to, but sometimes that’s how it goes. Part of competing is knowing you’re not always gonna be at your best, and recognizing what you can work on to get there the next time you play.”
Chaotic Perfection started his DreamHack Dallas run in Tekken 8 on a strong foot, winning close sets in the winners bracket before running into Joey Fury, ranked 22nd on Dashfight’s list of the top Tekken 8 players worldwide. His losers bracket run came to an unfortunate halt after going down 2-1 in losers, leaving Chaotic Perfection just shy of qualifying for Top 64. His final placing was 65th place out of 486 competitors.
Competing in one of the biggest FGC tournaments of the year was a major step for Chaotic Perfection: “DreamHack was the most valuable experience I’ve ever had. I had the opportunity to fight a couple top international players and I was able to go blow for blow with most people there and I learned a lot. I caused upsets and it was the most talented tournament I’ve ever seen.”
Still, Chaotic Perfection knows he has work to do if he wants to compete with the best Tekken talent from around the world, telling CEN: “With time and practice, I truly believe I can become great. It was my first really big major and that performance was more than enough for me but I don’t plan on stopping.”
Unfinished Business in the CFGC
Even with Unimeme and Chaotic Perfection playing against top pros at DreamHack, they aren’t through competing in the CFGC. The league’s weekly schedule can be daunting commitment. The former CFGC champions, though, have plenty of experience balancing CFGC with the rest of their academic and FGC pursuits.
When asked if he’d like to return to the CFGC, Unimeme responded with an immediate “Absolutely! I’d like to compete in both MK and Tekken again next year, and take up a commentary role when I’m able to. If the three-peat is in the cards I’ll be incredibly proud but for now only time will tell.”
Unimeme recently earned himself a spot on the LAGr Gaming roster, hopefully giving him more opportunities to compete. After winning the first two seasons of the CFGC for Mortal Kombat 1, he’s already torn up collegiate. Now, he looks to continue taking on the rest of the FGC.
Chaotic Perfection shared a similarly optimistic sentiment: “I most likely will compete again next year, and the one thing I will always look forward to is learning. No matter if I win or lose, I look forward to learning from whatever happens. Also I hope to entertain and put on another show.”
The upcoming Fall season of CFGC will certainly be a great show regardless of who comes out on top. To keep up to date with all things CFGC, follow them on X, Twitch, and check out their website.
