Deep Dive: Why Is Mexico So Good At King of Fighters?

We still stream KOF 2002 on Thursdays. And monthly KOF 15 monthly tournaments. Thank you for showing once of our tournament 🏟️

The Meme in Mexico was, moms sent kids to the store to pick up groceries or tortillas, and they'd arrive an hour late because they'd spend whatever was left from the money in playing KoF.

You should dedicate this video to all the mexican moms who were veeery pissed off because it took you an hour to bring the cold tortillas and incomplete change from the tortilleria with a brand new KOF arcade.

When my girlfriend saw my Xbox she asked me if i had KoF, she doesn’t play many videogames but she told me how her mother used to send her to the store to buy things so she used some of the spare coins to play King of Fighters and she became a fan. Indeed this was the case for a lot of people in Mexico.

Japan’s impact on Mexican culture is insane. I was actually surprised to find out it wasn’t the same in the US 🇯🇵🇲🇽

i'm Mexican and we love KOF. You forgot one little, but very important detail. Every kid in Mexico has to go to the tortillería to buy tortillas. Let's say you have to buy 1 kilogram (around 22 MXN at this moment), but instead of paying 22 pesos, you ask for only 20 pesos of tortillas (like 900 grams) and so, you end up with extra pesos to play KOF or any other arcade. Many tortillerías had arcade cabs. because they knew it was a very lucrative business.

Met a guy at my old job that was from Mexico and did not speak english very often or fluently. I was making the “come on” gesture that Geese does to Terry to another coworker, shouting it. This fella walks up to me, crosses his arms across his chest then points at me: Die Yabo! I was very confused and entertained but it lead to a good friendship. He would tell me stories about going to arcades in his youth and how big KOF was. Edit: this is my highest liked comment thanks y’all

Seeing a country's love for a specific fighting game always make my heart warm. In Italy we are literally obssesed over Budokai Tenkaichi 3, we also got an European #1 that even was world champion, Paige. Un abbraccio ai miei fratelli messicani

Siempre crei que yo era malo jugando KOF, y en realidad lo que sucedia era que estaba jugando contra los mejores del planeta sin saberlo...

I was born and raised in Mexico, when I was younger I literally had a "maquinita" or an arcade machine with all the old fighting games 20 steps away from my house. Now I'm 19 and I still play current and old fighting games alike. around here the FGC is really something magical sometimes.

Went to Mexico for my bday in ‘12. Flew to Acapulco and stayed couple days, then took a bus to Mexico City. Went to the bus station and the bus was late, needed to be cleaned and to switch drivers. To kill time, I went to the arcade inside to play kof’02 arcade mode (Terry/Ralf/Yamazaki). After a while they made an announcement that the bus was cleaned and they would make another announcement when the driver arrives. Shortly after, this guy sits down and motions, asking if he could play with me (i barely speak English and he exclusively spoke Spanish.) for the next hour and forty-five, he beat the shit out of me. I know he played Seth, he was so good that i never saw his other characters. I tried to get up and go sit with my friends, and he just keep giving me quarters. Then after a while, they sent someone over to tell him that he’s replacing the guy that was supposed to be my bus’s driver, so he drove us to Mexico City and told my friends about his streak. I’ve been salty since.

My dad was obsessed with street fighter and streets of rage growing up. He’s from Mexico and he would tell me how he flunked out of HS bc he was addicted to spending $ and playing those game in front of a store. Love that man.

Ive never about KOF until Geese was put in Tekken 7 and then kept hearing and seeing how huge KOF was in Brazil and Mexico. I love seeing Latin America being so dominant in KOF and Smash

Aqui en mexico hasta consigues "respeto" entre los amigos y gente de la zona cuando eres bueno en el kof, es parte de nuestra cultura

My dad told me he loves fighting games he's from Mexico and could someone tell me some of the older fighting games so I can get some for him.

La verdad y sin exagerar, es que KOF se ha convertido en parte de la cultura pop en México.

KoF 2002 is how I gained the respect of my male students. I'm 22, and I'm a teacher in a secundaria. One day after class I went to a nearby store to get something, and some of my students were playing KoF so I said "Oh, I used to play that as a Kid", they asked me if I knew how to play and I proceded to destroy them, one of them was good but he was no match for my Andy. I even taught them Kim's infinite combo. They told other students and since that day I'm the cool teacher who knows how to play KoF.

I come from Equatorial Guinea, a small African country on the west coast, and also the only Spanish speaking country in Africa. During the period of time where Mexico was getting neo geo cabinets imported, a few of them ended up in my country due to a "mix-up". There's like 5 of them in the entire country, but they're the reason i grew up play kof as well.

One really sad thing is that even our top tournament players from Mexico might not be the top players in the country...there's a lot of people who never get a chance to go to tournament and that are well within tournament skill level

I went to my dad’s tiny home village in the mountains of central Mexico back in 00 and all the kids were just hanging out at the corner store with their coins in hand waiting to play. It made me fall in love with fighting games and fighting game culture