Alfredo Osorio will represent Cuba at world video game event in Singapore

October 23, 2021

Alfredo Osorio works at Antonio Maceo Secondary School in the municipality of La Lisa, in the Cuban capital. He is an English teacher and like every teacher, he usually arrives early and leaves late. He likes classic television series like 24 Hours, anime, and martial arts movies.

But he doesn't only experience the latter through the screen. He also practices them as a first-degree black belt in Jiujitsu. It's not exactly a very relaxed schedule, but along with all that Alfredo is also a street fighter who delivers K.O's across exotic scenarios thanks to Capcom, laughing Machiavellically while defeating his opponents with grandiose psychic powers.

How is all this possible?
It's normal that it sounds strange, but the reality is simple. Mael-Bonchan, as Alfredo is also known, is an esports athlete and his specialty is Street Fighter V Champion Edition.

To everyone's delight, just a few days ago he qualified for the Global E-sports Games, the flagship event of the Global E-sports Federation, which will be held in Singapore, the first time in history that we will have direct representation at a live international E-Sports event.

Here at JT we couldn't pass up the opportunity to talk with him.

This result is a major step forward personally, as his passion for video games began as a child thanks to his brother's Super-Nintendo.

"We had several games including Killer Instinct, Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, all fighting games, and from there I became interested in that type, which is what I've always liked".

Since then, Mael hasn't stopped learning and improving himself, because in fighting games it's necessary to understand the space you have available, employ techniques to provoke movement or retreat, chain combos and know how to cancel them when necessary.

It's not as easy as shouting Hadouken; however, Mael enjoys all this complexity, embraces it, revels in it like every player who understands the fundamentals of the meta-game he practices:

"I'm always going to have fun, I think that beyond the professionalism and seriousness that one dedicates to improving oneself, you have to be a fun person, games are meant to be fun and to have a good time (...); although rivalries exist, this is a community".

A dilemma that all athletes face, especially now in times of pandemic, is training. We have already discussed the difficulties experienced by our esports athletes in dealing with conflicts such as the need for Internet access to compete or the speeds and bandwidth that cause lag or disconnection.

Mael also faces challenges in his day to day. The main one is that right now he doesn't own a PS4, the console on which his 1v1 category will compete on PS4 among 64 players. His computer also doesn't have the best conditions for a video game that is quite demanding graphically and where each frame can make the difference.

Despite this he doesn't stop, as he has friends who lend him the console and help him practice whenever possible, usually after he returns from work. The support he receives from his family and partner is very important, who felt the joy of being selected for the GEG as their own.

But that's not all. There is also, although not as visible, a community of Cuban Street Fighter players, with whom he maintains very good relations and where — he tells us — brotherhood and exchange take precedence over aggressive competition.

"It doesn't matter so much who is better or worse, who has better or worse skills, in the end we all have fun and exchange knowledge", he says.

With participation in an international event, it's almost certain that this community will become much more active and will receive a flood of new participants who will want to test their fighting skills.

When it comes to role models or references, he speaks of his admiration for Benjamin Simon's technical abilities and reaction speed, champion of E.V.O in 2018, and Naomi Sako, one of the so-called Five Gods of Japanese fighting video games, both players of international caliber whom he makes sure to follow on social media, and watch whenever they compete or participate in a tournament.

His favorite character is Mr. Bison or M. Bison, the classic villain of the saga who faced Ryu on more than one occasion.

His preferred move is undoubtedly the one called "Screw" or Psycho Crusher where Bison shoots forward like a torpedo to destroy his opponents.

In glory

Participating in the GEG is a great honor; the feeling Alfredo felt when he heard the news was difficult to describe, he says. "I never expected to participate in such a big event and much less to be the first Cuban to do so", he assures.

Mael is determined to place on the podium to demonstrate that "in Cuba we have a lot of talent, not only in Street Fighter, but in Dota, in football, in many more esports".