If you’ve been following the fighting game community, you may have noticed something strange going on lately Guilty Gear tournaments. A player hailing from the US named Joe Biden has been sweeping the competition, placing in the top 10 in the last 20 or more tournaments he has competed in. But… wait a minute, Joe Biden? Yes, Joe Biden. Although the name has led people to believe it could be the current President of the United States, longtime members of the community know the real story.
I was blown away when I saw tweets on the official account for Dark Brandon marked in tournament wins for 2012 Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus Ran updated and remastered version of Arc System Works’ 2D fighting game from 2002. I mean, @POTUS Twitter was mentioned in these tournaments, turning everyone’s heads. Talk about a double take. I and other reporters, incl The Washington Post writer and ex my box personnel officer Nathan Grayson, went on the hunt trying to answer the most important questions rocking the community: Who the hell is Joe Biden, the player? And why is he Chief Ninja Chip Zanuff?
“I’ve been playing fighting games on and off for at least 10 years,” said Joe Biden, who asked to remain anonymous as part of a long-running gag in the fighting game community my box over Discord. “I went through a lot of different gamer tags growing up. In the end, I just stuck with ‘Joe Biden’ because it felt right, since both Chip Zanuf and Joe Biden are presidents, they have white hair, and they can be hurt easily.”
my box reviewed email exchanges between the non-presidential Biden and tournament organizers, confirming that he was on Joe Biden is currently cleaning up the competition. This was further confirmed by two others my box talk about who he faced in more recent tournaments.
G/O Media may receive a commission
A gift for literally everyone.
Gifts under $20, $10 and even $5. This is Wish, the one-stop shop for all of the above.
Although this mysterious gamer has been playing fighting games for over a decade now, he has only recently appeared on the competitive circuit. According to fighting game community (FGC) player and data tracker Start.gg, formerly known as Smash.gg and owned by Microsoft, Joe Biden hit the competitive scene in November 2021, marking 13th place out of a field of 88 players. Since then he has done quite well for himself, regularly placing in the top 10 in most Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R tournaments in which he participates. Biden is quick to note that he doesn’t “dominate or win every tournament,” but he sees himself on the same playing field as America’s top player, Faust, and founder of the annual Frosty Faustings tournamentMike “ElvenShadow” Boczar.
But what makes Joe Biden so deadly? Well, he is the Chief Ninja Master and President of the Eastern Chip Kingdom, Chip Zanuff. As you might expect being a ninja and all, Chipp is incredibly fast and unpredictable. He has excellent confusion potential, can easily open his opponent up for some big damage, and has the ability to wall run and teleport around the stage. Chipp is a pretty nasty player as a competitive fighting game player Sam “Garbage” honors said my box over Discord, who lost to Joe Biden at the monthly Boston Blue Beat tournament on October 25.
“I think the biggest thing is that he’s playing Chip, a highly technical character with an insane toolkit, which is also pretty rare in the community,” Bokluk said. “So when you play with it, it hits you with a stream of confusion like you’ve never seen before. The really scary thing about Joe though is that he also has really good basic fighting game skills so it’s not really enough to just defend or navigate his okizme [wake-up attack]. You have to outplay him too. The only thing that works in your favor is that Chip is a fickle character, so if you can sneak in a few hits, you can melt him. But it’s a tough job when you’re paired with a player like Joe Biden.”
Garbage placed third in that tournament, while Joe Biden took second place.
Colleague Guilty Gear said player Jack Wachter my box over Discord Joe Biden is fun to play against, even they lost to the non-presidential body double during the outdoors in North America and Europe Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R tournament on October 23.
“I don’t have a lot of experience with Chip compared to other characters, so I can’t compare Joe Biden’s Chip to other Chips other than Joe Biden, who is very strong,” Wachter said. “Most likely top [North American player] Chip. He knows how to play it safe (important since Chip is made of wet wipes), but he can also be aggressive with movement and confusion. I’ve played him a few times in brackets and a few times in random sets. Definitely a much better player than me, even though I managed to send him to the losers bracket once.”
For this tournament, Wachter is second and Joe Biden is in first place.
Joe Biden said he only had time for Guilty Gear at the moment but is excited about upcoming fighting games like Street fighter 6 and on League of Legends fighter Project L. Until then, he’ll continue to deal with people with Chip or, if you happen to catch him in a non-competitive setting, as a projectile and zoning based character Dizzy.
“I had an advantage in Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R races because Chip is a difficult character to master and a less played character at the highest level,” Biden said. “I also spent a lot of time in practice mode learning how to play Chipp and studying Japanese Chipp players like Samitto, Endou and Susumu before the network code rollback patch has arrived coming out in 2020. As for the name, it just makes sense to me, while also being kind of funny that Joe Biden will be playing Chip in Guilty Gear. Some of it was definitely ‘for the memes’ and I enjoy the jokes and attention it brings to the game.”
my box reached out to the White House for comment but did not hear back.