Juicebox Abel (Eric) Bio

My name's Eric. Most of you know me as the Juicebox Abel, or simply as Juicebox. I'm 21 years old, and I aspire to be the best Street Fighter player in the world.

My competitive career began with Super Smash Bros. Melee. I liked the game a lot, but my reaction time was very bad and I disliked the feel of high-level play; I didn't like the focus on movement as a primary strategy. Later on, I saw the infamous Daigo video on Youtube… Thus began my years-long foray into 3rd Strike, which is not a very good game for beginners. I played 3rd Strike from 2005-2009 as Makoto, but I never really achieved any notable success. Just scrub mashing at my arcade, really.

During that period, I also returned to Smash Bros. via Brawl, a game which I still like but I believe the community is dwindling (not to mention a little immature). I learned as I played Brawl that my TV lags, a bittersweet discovery that annoys me to this day (I own a CRT as well, now). I was decent at Brawl, winning some pocket change from my local community, but it never took off as a serious investment.

I had the good fortune to attend EVO 2008 as well as EVO 2009 during this period, and I caught my first glimpses of Alex Valle's legendary footsies, the humble yet foreboding Justin Wong, and the spectacle of the organized fighting game community. It was at those events that I learned the value of getting your ass whooped.

At EVO 2009, Street Fighter 4 was previewed to the American masses. The free play machines had a win cap of 7, and in that 3 day period I decided that I would pour more effort and time into SF4 than any other game. Ironically, I gained my nickname that day as well.

The rest is pretty straightforward. I slowly but surely gained ground on my local superiors (SaBrE), eventually getting to the point where I would get top 3 in every local tournament. Around the time of Devastation 2009, I began winning every single Arizona tournament. For now, I do my best to mentor the players here. I'm also focusing on attending every out-of-state tournament that I can by saving every penny from my full-time job.

My tournament placings (Losses):
Devastation 2009: 7th Place (John Choi, Ken I.)
EVO 2009: 13th place (UTJ, Sanford Kelly)
Level Up tournament: 5th Place (Combofiend, Combofiend)
Devastation 2010: 3rd Place (Marn, Alex Valle)

Street Fighter has been very good to me and I plan on doing this for years. Very few things make me as happy as Street Fighter does. If you love the competitive journey as much as I do, sound off with a comment.