You know what? You didn’t even need to be watching Evo 2025’s Fatal Fury finals to catch this utterly wild scene of Kazuyuki “KojiKOG” Koji basically losing his mind on stage. This thing? It blew up online, faster than anything. People’ve memed it like crazy, sending it from South Town to who-knows-where and back again. But hey, there’s more than just the theatrics to unpack here.
So, KojiKOG’s big “oh no!” moment happened when he went against Goichi “GO1” Kishida, who spoiler alert, took the whole tournament. KojiKOG was rocking Billy, while GO1 had Kain – both totally top-tier characters in the meta since Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves dropped earlier this year. But man, KojiKOG was backed into a corner right from the start, getting slammed by GO1’s combos. First round? Gone. Second round, he found some openings, almost turned things around, like twice, but nope. Got SO close to beating GO1… only to not, in the end.
The fight was what? Not even five minutes, but KojiKOG’s reaction after losing? That felt like a whole epic saga. He howled – literally, for almost a minute. Meanwhile, GO1’s all giggles, trying to play it cool and even console KojiKOG. Meanwhile, folks at home? Already busy clipping this gold and blasting it online. It’s like the perfect snapshot of that gut-punch feeling when you give it your all and still come up short. I mean, we’ve all been there, right?
Oh, and guess what? This whole dramatic display wasn’t a first for KojiKOG. Fans knew it, pointing out his past camera-worthy moments. This wasn’t even his first dance with GO1. Throwback to Evo 2015, they clashed in a side tourney for Aquapazza, a 2D anime fighter. KojiKOG lost then, too, pulling the same kinda stunt – acting like losing a leg or something. But this time around? More cash and bragging at stake. Last night’s win got GO1 an extra $10K from the prize pool. And he’s eyeing that $2.5 million pile at the SNK World Championship in November. It’s like, brought to you by, well, some controversial sponsors, but that’s a whole other story.
In one of his posts, KojiKOG joked about the leg thing again after 10 years or so. I think it kind of resonates because, in fighting games, those over-the-top victory reactions are pretty much expected. But KojiKOG? He might’ve just turned losing into its own kind of art. Folks are seriously pumped to see how he’ll react next time he gets knocked out at a big tournament.
