“Jesse Tucker is a fighting game player and video producer from west Philadelphia. Starting at the age of 20, Jesse jumped into the FGC aka the Fighting Game Community. Until college, Jesse had not encountered too much from them. It wasn’t until his time at Temple University that he discovered the student lounge area had a meet up of players and in his words “the rest was history”.

I’ve been playing video games since I was a kid. Me and my two brothers would play all types of games: racers, shooters, adventure, fighters etc. and I kind of became the best of us at them. I went to tournaments and traveled the US meeting new people and experiencing new things.” – Jesse Tucker

1. What are your thoughts on Philadelphia’s Fighting Game Community?

My thoughts on the community? We are a tight-knit group with a home atmosphere. We get together and play all day or just chill out and meet up around the city. There’s various groups within, but we all are friends and treat each other well. 

2. Anyway you believe we can enhance it or make things better?

To enhance it I think we need a staple area to play and practice in, like Localhost. To get more players in the scene though it’ll take more time, but fortunately there are new games out that bring in people that I’ve never seen before in other games, so the growth is there. We just have to keep it up and show up to events.

3. Now, to the tournament for UMvC3! Everyone has their reasons for playing. What is it about the franchise that continues to hold your attention for 10 years?

UMV3 started my pro career in fighting games, but funny enough I mostly played Street Fighter 4 because I didn’t like the game. It took a few weeks, but once I got the hang of it the amount of characters and combos you could do got me hooked. I couldn’t put the game down after that, and wanted to find other people to play and win against. 

I also think the legacy of the characters and the personality given to each one holds up to this day as well. It’s the Smash Bros of fighting games in that sense where almost anyone can recognize a character they’ve seen before or already like. With the legacy of the previous games, you can see that there will always be people playing and improving at it. 

We have to think about the hype factor as well. I think this game is unrivaled in how flashy it is and how dynamic the interactions are. There’s still things to this day we’ve never seen happen in a match and that keeps it interesting.

4. And the story behind your team?

My team is pretty unique because it’s designed for anti-meta, to punish people for playing recklessly. It’s Captain America, Rocket Racoon, and Dr Strange, which is very odd to see being played at high level. 

I actually don’t have an interesting backstory to my team other than it worked very well online and people were very confused on how to beat what I was doing, so I kept on improving until the team became tournament viable.

My younger brother was actually the one that made me play my current team because beforehand I played Nova, Doom, Hawkeye. He kept using Charging Star with Captain America, so I said to myself, “there has to be some way to beat this character”, and when I explored him I thought he was fun to use and built the team from there. 

5. Describe being in Grand Finals and playing against a zoner?

Grand finals is interesting because the winner has a chance to play against someone we already beat earlier in the tournament. I beat Wedge earlier in the bracket and had to play him again. Winning came down to exploiting his mistakes. Waiting for the right moment to risk a Charging Star, while his back was to the corner. The Log Trap from Rocket Raccoon was also a big decision because it can go through many projectiles, so I relied on that as cover and protection. 

Zoners don’t want you to approach at angles they can’t have full control over either, so my strategy was to make him as uncomfortable as possible and it worked out.

6. Being a competitive gamer is about introspection, control of your emotions and mental state. What have you learned about yourself from gaming?

What I learned was to take risks, but don’t dwell on losses that you couldn’t get an understanding of. I’ve played so many good players and lost so many times that it’s not really bothering me if I do lose. I realize nerves and anxiety play a big part in the competitive side. Mentally, if you are prone to cracking under pressure you’ll likely lose a lot more than you want. I was a quiet kid, yet also had my moments of outbursts so it’s like a timing thing; when do I react, and how do I react to certain situations. If I mess up, I reflect over what to do better next time. 

7. Were you able to gain anything from the forced year off from in person gaming?

I didn’t really play much early on, but when I found online matches were becoming bigger and bigger I got hooked on the game again. Mainly, it was more accessible and less stressful to play at home. Also, it’s fun playing different players. I think that helped a lot on not getting too rusty.

8. Have you applied any of what you learned in-game to outside experiences?

For sure. Fighting games give you a lot of value in life, however it’s still a very human competition. In my main career I do video work. Learning the process of becoming a better player and person through interacting with people in the community helped me outside of it as well. 

9. Do you see any opportunities for gaming and education?

There is a bit of correlation between games and education. I don’t think games are a replacement for traditional school, but as a supplement, it depends on what game it is. It’s one thing to learn or be interested in history through a WW2 shooter like Call of Duty (like I did), but there’s also real world knowledge that gaming just doesn’t handle yet. Maybe one day.

10. What are you up to now? What are you doing when you’re not gaming?

When I’m not gaming I’m doing video work, or working out. I practice MMA which is new for me, but the same principles I learned in fighting games apply in that as well. MMA just physically hurts which is the difference. 

11. What about your productions?

My video company is JTuckerMedia. I do commercial work, event coverage, music videos, promotional videos, and film. I love what I do and I am excited to create new things with people, like combos.

12. Tell us more about your company.

I started making videos when I was younger, around 14 years old. I used to take game trailers and make them my own with music and everything. That’s where I learned video editing early, which came from gaming ironically. From there, I bought a camera and started doing music videos for my older brother and then it grew to multiple projects with different people. Since then, I’ve traveled many places and parts of the world with clients. It’s a very humbling experience and something I wouldn’t trade for any other profession.

13. Any shout outs?

Shout out to the bros Jameel, Ameer, and Black Kyle. Those guys got me better at fighting games early on. Shout out to Mr. Foo who welcomed me to the FGC. Shout out to Brandon Demon Hyo, my Philly rival in Mvc3 and also a good mentor. I want to shout out the Airtag group. If I’m not playing a Fighting game I’m usually hanging out with them having a good time.

For more information on Philadelphia’s local Fighting Game Community, please visit Big E Gaming on twitter or www.localhost.gg. For Jesse Tucker and his video services checkout www.JTuckerMedia.com