For Jason Bermudez (aka PakuPakuDesu), gaming started with an N64 and a Gamecube and then truly began to flourish when he received a Playstation Portable bundle with Street Fighter Alpha for his 8th birthday. “I spent countless hours running through the game, learning each character and really getting in depth with the game,” he says.
With two brothers in the house, the competitive nature of gaming among them was fierce at times. While his brothers eventually stopped playing competitively, Jason continued to follow his passion to see how far he could go in the rankings.
Years later, as he continued his gaming journey, Jason stumbled across Ultimate Endgamers League (UEL). He checked out the league and immediately signed up for the draft. After only a few weeks, he was drafted to a team and has now been with the organization for two seasons.
Jason describes UEL’s vibe as “steel sharpening steel.” “While it’s absolutely a league with everyone fighting for the top, it still feels like a tight knit community where everyone just wants to share in that love for competitive gaming and support one another,” he says.
Jason’s commitment to gaming and UEL does not come without its sacrifices, but to him it’s all worth it.
As a car salesman, he found it difficult to balance the attention needed to close customer deals with the time he needed for his team. “With sales, you’re never fully ‘off the clock,’” Jason says. And with a pay plan that ultimately requires spending your personal time at work to make a good paycheck, the balance just wasn’t there.
To accommodate his love of the game and the need for an income, Jason recently made the decision to switch to the service department of his dealership. “Sure, there are times when I may have to stop in for an hour or two to help a client or do paperwork for a large repair, but it gives me a lot more free time to spend on gaming, my family, or any of my other hobbies,” he adds.
“I think for most people, the goal is to make this a career,” Jason says, “But thinking about it small-term and more realistically, I really just want to see how far I can take gaming. I want to be able to go to tournaments, compete and see how I stack up against the rest of the pros.”
Would he like to win a pro tournament? Absolutely.
But ultimately, “A lot of my gaming comes from the love of the sport, career opportunities come second,” he explains.
From a strategic standpoint, Jason describes every match like a puzzle. “No two players are alike. Sure, they can pick the same characters, but a lot of players put their own flavor into their gameplay. So, a lot of the fun is picking apart their strategy and overcoming it,” he says.
Jason is equally inspired by his losses though, usually doing VOD reviews of old matches to see where he can improve. “Fighting games – Street Fighter especially – feel like they have an unlimited skill cap. There are always new strategies to form and new challenges to overcome.”
Jason adds, “I can take losses on the chin and while yeah they’re a bummer, as long as I’ve learned something in that loss, I still see it as a net positive.”
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