Unlike so many legends of fighting games, Reynald Tacsuan's love for competitive fighting games didn't develop as a child of the arcades. He played a little bit, dabbling with games like Street Fighter II on the Super Nintendo in the early 1990s, but it would take almost two decades for Reynald to go all-in on fighting games. In 2008, Reynald was in a relationship that was going downhill, and he turned to Street Fighter III: Third Strike as his chief distraction.

It was none other than Evo Moment 37 that showed Reynald what the FGC could be. "I knew there were tournaments, but I didn't realize how big the FGC was," he told BornFree in a 2018 interview. Not until I watched Justin Wong and Daigo. Watching that clip was the turning point for me. After that, I started playing competitively."

Pretty soon, Reynald had worked daily trips to the arcade into his routine. It didn't take long for him to establish himself as a force. "I was beating everybody there. I felt bad," he told BornFree. "These guys were really good at my arcade, but I just ended up being better than all of them." Not the worst problem in the world to have.

His attention would shift to the King of Fighters series. "I really enjoy playing the game," he told Hold Back To Block at Evo 2013. "When you win, you feel like you really did something, not just 'I had a really good matchup and obviously I was going to win.' You usually have to work for it. I feel really happy when I win."

From the very beginning, Reynald was winning. His first big tournament experience came in 2009, when he entered a King Of Fighters XIII tournament in Hollywood with a Japanese arcade cabinet worth $10,000 as the grand prize. He took the whole thing, winning over Alex Phan. Over the next two years, Reynald would show that he could contend with the world's best at King of Fighters, racking up Top 8 finish after Top 8 finish in 2011 and 2012, including 2nd place finishes at ReLAtions 2011, SoCal Regionals 2011, and MLG Pro Circuit 2012's Spring Championship.

2013 was the year where Reynald would show he wasn't just a contender, he could be the king. After a solid start to the year, with Top 8 finishes at SoCal Regionals, Final Round, and NorCal Regionals, the Summer of Reynald truly began. He began by taking home his first major tournament win outside his home state with a victory at CEO 2013.

Just a couple weeks later, he came into Evo as one of the tournament favorites thanks to the improvement he had shown since finishing 7th in his first trip to Vegas the year prior. He put his soul into training for this stretch of tournaments, and Evo was the culmination of that grind. "I work and I have a wife, so I have to take care of business before I do fighting games," Reynald told BornFree. "The last three months, I told my wife, 'I really want to win this tournament. Give me a little more time and practice and let me go to these tournaments.' She was like, 'Okay, sure.'"

What did Reynald do with that blessing? He celebrated early and dropped a set-winning combo and slipped into losers bracket far earlier than projected, forcing himself to begin Top 8 from the losers side of the bracket. He then went on the run of his life, taking out Chris KOF, Romance, Tokido, MadKOF, and double-eliminating Hee San Wu in Grand Finals to take home his first Evo championship. That included three sets that went to a final game, including the first set of Grand Finals against Hee San Wu before Reynald clinched the trophy with a 3-0 in the bracket reset. The win, powered by that grind, remains the proudest moment of Reynald's career.

That's not for a lack of competition. Reynald continued to dominate King of Fighters XIII after his Evo win, finishing no worse than third across six major tournaments in 2014 and 2015, including wins at Apex 2014, NorCal Regionals 2014 and CEO 2014.

Unlike many FGC legends, Reynald never left the working world behind to go pro. He still managed to find time to remain a top-level player in multiple games. He earned another Evo medal in King of Fighters XIV in 2017, a year that also saw him win major tournaments at NEC, Anime Ascension, NorCal Regionals and COMBO BREAKER.

In 2018, when Dragon Ball FighterZ released and brought competitors from all across the FGC together, Reynald showed he wasn't just a top player in King of Fighters. He was a repeated presence in major Top 8s, taking 2nd at Anime AScension 2018, 7th at the Summit of Power 2018, and winning CenCal Standoff 2019. He also picked up another Evo medal in 2019 for a fourth place finish in Samurai Shodown.

He stuck with fighting games through the COVID-19 pandemic, streaming on Twitch and YouTube, producing a legendary clip in 2021 where he managed to win a round of Guilty Gear -Strive- while an earthquake raged around him. Once offline tournaments returned, he picked up right where he left off. There was a new King of Fighters game, KOF XV, and he remained one of the strongest players in the scene, taking home major wins at DreamHack Dallas 2022, Texas Showdown 2023, and DreamHack Dallas 2023. He's also put in some time grinding Street Fighter 6, earning a spot in Street Fighter League 2023.

His current main game, though, is SNK's latest, Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves. Surprising absolutely nobody, Reynald is a force to be reckoned with. His Kain has powered him to a second place finish at COMBO BREAKER 2025 and a qualifying spot at the Esports World Cup 2025, where he finished Top 16 to earn a $20,000 prize. That's a decent little supplement to his usual paycheck.

Make no mistake, Reynald is still doing all of this while living a full life outside of the FGC: career, family, all that good stuff. Despite earning partner status on both streaming sites, he's had to give up YouTube and Twitch, neither of which he's posted on in a few years. Still, we shouldn't expect him to quit fighting games any time soon. "I honestly will probably keep competing til I physically cant anymore," Reynald tweeted in August 2019. "Even with another life outside the fgc, I will make time to train for fgs I enjoy and consistently place. IDC if theres no real money, I just want to fuck people up."

For fans of fighting games, that's incredible news. Reynald has consistently proven to be one of the strongest players in any game he directs his focus to, consistently a joy to watch. For his fellow competitors? Unfortunately for them, it sounds like he'll be an obstacle in their way for many years to come.

See more of Reynald's FGC journey in Evo Legends Powered By Qiddiya Gaming on EvoFGC