Sometimes it pays to be in the right place at the right time!

My name is BlueHairKei, and I am a former Puyo Puyo player from England. I have been playing Puyo Puyo for 24 years, retiring from competitive play since 2008. I’ve had the honour of playing some of the best players ever, including Kumachom (whom I consider a friend). I enjoy watching some exciting Puyo players from across the world, and with Puyo Puyo Tetris igniting and propelling the small English and French Puyo communities further, it’s an ideal time to try and bring together the Puyo communities in Japan, Europe, and America.

I met with Tema, one of the best Puyo players, who wants to help promote Puyo Puyo outside of Japan, and together I was invited to take part in a Puyo Puyo Arcade tournament. I haven’t played the Arcade version at all, and I certainly didn’t have enough practice with the controls, but I knew I wanted to have fun even though I’d lose somewhere down the line.

I lost in the first game, but I was so angry with myself due to not being used to the controls. I apologised profusely to Shimasei (my opponent) for such a poor performance, but while I wanted to play for fun, my disappointment was there to see. It was as if, being away from the game for so long, the competitive nature had been laying dormant. My personal highlight was a match between Tema and Notchi, with Notchi winning the match.

After playing the main tournament, we played a team game, which I was able to win a game before getting knocked out, and after dinner with the guys, we played some more, and all of a sudden, it started to click into place, and I won many matches against the other players, running away with multiple games back-to-back. They say “form is temporary, but class is permanent”, and it couldn’t be truer! Sure, I still lost some games, but it felt good to be competitive again!

One day, there will be an opportunity for the best players in Japan to meet with the best players in Europe and America in a true world tournament. It would be a dream of mine to help make it happen. Kiyobi (known as ShibuyaEsper) did a fine job in organising the AnimEVO PuyoTet tournament in Las Vegas, and I was happy to help advise him on the tournament modes, but we must now push on together in collaboration to try and reach the goal of a world tournament.

I want to thank Tema first of all for establishing contact with me, and to Amemiya for coming out. I also want to thank Storm, Notchi, Shimasei, Koketomi, Souma, and everyone else who took part in the tournament today! It has been so much fun, and I hope we can do this again in the future!

Follow me on Twitter: @BlueHairKei