UAE Street Fighter champions take the challenge to Esports World Cup in Riyadh

Known as The Birds, the duo has dominated in global competitions around the world

Two video game champions from Abu Dhabi are hoping to bring home the glory at the ongoing Esports World Cup in Riyadh.

Adel "Big Bird” Anouche and Amjad “Angrybird” Al Shalabi, known in esports circles as "The Birds", are the only competitors from the Middle East who have advanced to the finals of the Street Fighter 6 tournament, and are among 32 of the best players in the world.

The duo will fight it out for the top prize of $300,000 at the tournament, which begins on Thursday.

Besides the representation, there's a lot personally at stake for the childhood friends, who met at school and who've both lived in Abu Dhabi all their lives.

Al Shalabi, a Jordanian, made history last year by winning the tournament at the Evolution Championship Series, better known as Evo, the world's top fighting game competition, held in Las Vegas.

Meanwhile, Anouche, who's originally from Algeria, narrowly lost to Victor "Punk" Woodley from the USA in the final at this year's Evo in July.

“I think the final was very memorable for a lot of people,” Anouche tells The National. “Simply because it had a lot of emotions, the good and the bad.

“The moment we both got into the grand finals, I think everyone knew, that it was going to be a heartbreaker regardless of who won.”

And what a heartbreaker it was. After a reset, the two finalists tied up with two match wins to each, meaning they would need one more match to win. It all came down to the final couple of hits which, unfortunately for Anouche, went in favour of his opponent.

But the loss didn't deter him – he is proud that it was a close contest.

“The fact that it went down to the last round, last couple of hits, I feel like it's hard to get too sad about it knowing that it went down to the wire," he says.

Most of Anouche’s disappointment from his loss comes from the fact that his best friend Al Shalabi won it last year, and was looking forward to them sharing the same accolade.

Regardless, he’s already looking forward to returning to more finals.

“There's gonna be more Evos, I'm still gonna be competing hopefully, and I will get my chance again,” he says.

His friend, Al Shalabi, echoes the same sentiments, saying: “I think he shouldn't be sad, to be honest, he played his best".

Throwing down the gauntlet

Al Shalabi and Anouche, who play for their team Nasr Esports, hope to make a mark at the Esports World Cup in Saudi Arabia this week.

"I'm excited about it because it has the most elite players in the world, and this year especially because you had to qualify to compete," Al Shalabi explains.

They also predict the event will likely overtake tournaments such as Evo and Capcom cup as the preeminent Street Fighter championship due to its alluring prize pool.

“If you ask all of these players to pick one tournament to play in, I think a lot of them would choose the Esports World Cup, especially those who are doing this for a living," Anouche says.

And they have the home turf advantage.

"I think the Esports World Cup is good for us because it's right there next to us – it's an Arab country with Arab people," says Anouche. "For once, we won't feel like we are outsiders, and we won't have the crowd root against us."