MvC2 absolutely changed my life.
Even though I had played fighters throughout my life due to my cousin getting me into them at a young age I never got into them when it came to tournaments until 2001 or so.
I remember seeing MvC2 in the laser tag place at the mall. I thought it was the most beautiful game in the world. I immediately wanted to learn everything about it but had no idea how to play it. So I just picked characters I knew were familiar to me from a gameplay stand point.
A few months later I found out the other arcade in our mall had weekly meet ups for MvC2. I got absolutely destroyed at the first meet up. I don’t think I even killed a single character off any person I played that day.
Something about that day just lit an absolute fucking fire in me. I went home and found as much tournament footage, character breakdown videos and combo videos as I could. I grinded and grinded and grinded (Side Note: funny thing is I didn’t know it was for Dreamcast and I didn’t know it had an PS2 port until almost 2005 so I only got to play/practice when I went to an arcade) until I became the best player in my area. I remember the first time I pulled off an AHVBx3 on someone and then guard broke the next character. I fucking screamed “YES” at the top of my lungs.
Then I started going to other arcades around my area. I was still either close to or the best player in each area.
Then I started going to the Seattle gatherings at GameWorks and realized just how high the ceiling for Marvel was. I got to play OG’s like Rowtron, Rattana, Preppy and others. Usually being absolutely destroyed in the process.
Then when I went to my first evo in 08 I got to see all the players I watched and studied in person. The Kings, Magnetro, Chunksta, Clockwork, so many fucking people. It was surreal for me. (Side Note: Alex Valle watched me play ST in pools and said I had a really good DeeJay)
Marvel truly lit the competitive fire in me when it came to so many things. A common phrase In our marvel community was Be Godlike or Get off the Sticks. I tried as hard as I could to live up to that in my competitive card game “career” too.
Marvel got me to tip my toe into so many fighters. Some of them I ended jumping head first into the deep end with like CvS2, ST, 3S even “lesser” games like Virtua Fighter and Melty Blood.
It also got me to go back to games I played as a kid and look at the differently and learn them at the competitive level, Killer Instinct, UMK3, Weapon Lord and TMNT: Tournament Fighters (SNES) immediately come to mind. I also played more obscure retro fighters like Sailor Moon S and Gundam Wing Endless Waltz.
I’ve traveled to so many places, met so many people, made so many friends, got to look at games and certain aspects of my life I don’t think I ever would have without MvC2.
The absolute and undisputed GOAT of fighting games. 
