I'm sure true appreciators of documentaries are irritated by this trend, but as someone who doesn't enjoy being bummed out for 90 minutes with depressing "messages," I'm all for the trend of documentaries that focus on the peculiar passions and infatuations of mundane or otherwise insignificant people. Spellbound, Wordplay, Scrabylon, and maybe most obviously, The King of Kong were all pretty fascinating to me, so it's of little surprise that I'm pretty intrigued by Ian Cofino's documentary about the people whose lives revolve around hardcore competitive fighting games, I Got Next.

What started as a short-form documentary senior project for Mr. Cofino has since turned into a feature-length documentary, though it looks more interesting than you typical student film. The focus of the documentary appears to be on the upper echelons of the professional US fighting game scene and the East Coast/West Coast rivalry that exists within it. He gets access to a number of the top players, most prominently Ryan "Gootecks" Gutierrez, and while I can't say I get much from the talking-head bits in the trailer, the combination of The Go! Team and rooms packed full of dudes ABSOLUTELY FLIPPING OUT over video games is enough to get me excited.
 

I'm sure true appreciators of documentaries are irritated by this trend, but as someone who doesn't enjoy being bummed out for 90 minutes with depressing "messages," I'm all for the trend of documentaries that focus on the peculiar passions and infatuations of mundane or otherwise insignificant people. Spellbound, Wordplay, Scrabylon, and maybe most obviously, The King of Kong were all pretty fascinating to me, so it's of little surprise that I'm pretty intrigued by Ian Cofino's documentary about the people whose lives revolve around hardcore competitive fighting games, I Got Next.

What started as a short-form documentary senior project for Mr. Cofino has since turned into a feature-length documentary, though it looks more interesting than you typical student film. The focus of the documentary appears to be on the upper echelons of the professional US fighting game scene and the East Coast/West Coast rivalry that exists within it. He gets access to a number of the top players, most prominently Ryan "Gootecks" Gutierrez, and while I can't say I get much from the talking-head bits in the trailer, the combination of The Go! Team and rooms packed full of dudes ABSOLUTELY FLIPPING OUT over video games is enough to get me excited.
 

Could be fun. Fighting game players are crazy hardcore up in the top ranks.

This looks awesome!
Although it does sum up why I dont play fighting games any more...

The movie was a little disappointing, the trailer catched alot better what I wanted to see.

Might be interesting. I don't really like watching other people play games, but I am slightly interested in the crowds that play professionally.  I love some competition, that's what lures me into this.

East coast vs West Coast in the context of fighting videogames is just.... asinine, it's 'below stupid' as a great sage once said.

Anyway, it's always good to see these kind of 'on the wall documentaries' of videogames, the drive and commitment needed to be the best, better than all the rest... anyway I would like to see a documentary made of the commitment of top Ikaruga players, that would be something else.

...then some dude from Japan whoops East and West coast.

Justin Wong is easily the best player in the USA.

I enjoyed this. Though I kinda wished it focused more on why they decided to be a "pro" street fighter player as many of these guys don't have jobs and are still able to make a living from this. There was a good conversation between Gootecks and Joe with Gootecks trying to convince him to go pro and joe giving his reasons why not. I thought they should have followed that thread more. They just gave general reasons why and then left it at that.

I hear some Anamanaguchi, nice!

Looks sorta interesting.  I will likely watch it.

Man, who doesn't love some good pandemonium?

" The movie was a little disappointing, the trailer catched alot better what I wanted to see.

There were very little ingame-scenes.

But this was just the first cut, afaik they are still working on it and will include EVO footage in the final version.

Still worth the watch, although I would wait for the HQ-download instead of the Stream.

"

I'll watch for the sheer fact that it seems to be the single most random and insignificant subject for a documentary.

Well King of Kong was one of my favorite documentaires, and probably one of my favoirte movies, but that was because of the character study it turned into.  Lets hope this can live up to my wildly infalted expectations.

I will watch this simply because they put The Go Team! in the trailer.

Does it only focus on one fighting game? It would be better if it focus on the entire genre itself, like show players playing some King of Fighters games and past Street Fighter games like Street Fighter III. If it just focus on Street Fighter IV, it may not be interesting, the fighting game genre does not revolve around one game.    

Looks cool. I shall look into it.

Looks pretty rad.

Mustwatch5stars.

And cheers, Ryan. I'm so going to get my Go! Team on this morning while I work.

i'll watch this....i enjoyed the King Of Pong

which coast doesn't get embarrassed by Japan!

This seems awesome just on the merit of bringing vastly diverse people together to enjoy a similar passion.  It sort of makes me want to get into fighting games. Then I think about how badly I would get destroyed in sf4 and I quickly drop that idea like a bad habit. 

" I will watch this simply because they put The Go Team! in the trailer. "

Those dudes need to touch a few vajayjays.

not exactly rivetting cinematography but looks pretty cool

" not exactly rivetting cinematography but looks pretty cool "

" Well King of Kong was one of my favorite documentaires, and probably one of my favoirte movies, but that was because of the character study it turned into.  Lets hope this can live up to my wildly infalted expectations. "

I actually caught the UfragTV premier and thought it was pretty good.

Man, that was awesome. Thanks for the heads up Ryan.

Surprised they are "giving it away" coulda tried selling it.

I'll probably watch it or wait for a direct download to stream to my PS3.

Watched the preimere of this and man its a fuckin awesome doco, theres going to be a longer cut of the movie after evo this year and there will be a HD torrent for DL on the site soon.

Although the culture behind fighters is awesome, I can't enjoy it.  I just plain suck at fighting games.  Not going to lie, I play games for the single player experience.  Probably because I suck at them.

Lets not get embarrassed japan. please.

Yeah, King of Kong was way more than just Donkey Kong whereas this looks kinda ehhhh.  I'm kinda frightened by people who take games that seriously, this is coming from a guy who plays a shit ton of games already.

OK, The inclusion of The Go! Team in the soundtrack makes this movie mandatory viewing for me. Will watch.

thats a room packed with dudes...

Looks like something I'd enjoy fighting, both as a fan of Street Fighter and as a former SFII competition player.  Never was as serious hardcore as this, but I was still present in every tournament I could go to in Texas.

WHY DIDN'T I SEE ANY WOMEN!?

Looks interesting. Might watch it sometime.

Justin Wong is the personification of the nerdy hardcore gamer stereotype. I hear he has a backup virginity in case he accidentally loses one, it's the source of his power. The chap is amazing at Street Fighter though.

your*

I saw this the other day, it was a pretty good.

" WHY DIDN'T I SEE ANY WOMEN!? "