Sven “BlindWarriorSven” Van de Wege is not your typical fighting game player.
Despite not being able to see, he dominated his opponent in Street Fighter 6 at the biggest fighting game stage of the year, Evo 2023.
Losing his vision at the age of six due to a cancerous tumor that killed his optic nerves, BlindWarriorSven discovered a way to play videogames when a friend introduced him to Street Fighter 2: he couldn’t see the screen, but he could hear what was going on.
Relying on sound, he learned to recognize whether the character is on the left or on the right, walking forward or backwards. Discovering his new-found love for gaming, Sven trained and got better and better.
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BlindWarriorSven dominates Evo 2023 stage
On the first day of Evo 2023, Sven not only took to the main stage of Evo but also pulled off an impressive 2-1 victory.
Donning his black blindfold, the Honda specialist showed everyone at Evo that he was there to win.
Towards the end of the third game of his best-of-three set against EternalPancake, Sven was up by one round. The blind warrior kept the Luke player at bay with headbutt pressure.
He then took advantage of his opponent’s low Drive meter and landed a huge hit confirm, which he then converted into E. Honda’s level three Critical Art. With both of them down with the last hit, Sven unleashed a meaty headbutt to win the round, the set, and the hearts and cheers of the entire Evo crowd.
Aside from Sven’s skills and sharpened senses, Street Fighter 6’s accessibility sound feature, which enables players to fight without visual information, had also assisted in his well-deserved victory.
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