Victor “Spooky” Fontantez has supported the Fighting Game Community for 108 weeks straight during the pandemic. After more than 2 years, NLBC online ends.
On April 7th 2022, Victor "Spooky" Fontanez, the man behind the Next Level Battle Circuit (NLBC) announced that the NLBC online edition events would be ending with NLBC online 108. Spooky has been a pillar of the East Coast fighting game community for many years.
His weekly NLBC tournaments for games like Street Fighter V, Granblue, Melty Blood, and Guilty Gear gave the East Coast scene a place to train and hone their skills. After more than two years of free to enter online tournaments, things have come to an end.
What is Team Spooky?
Victor "Spooky" Fontanez founded Team Spooky in 2009. The New Yorker wanted to bring high quality, high level fighting game content to everyone. From his weekly, Next Level Battle Circuit tournaments, to commentating at major tournaments, Spooky is practically a household name in the Fighting Game Community.
The weekly NLBC events have bred some of the strongest East Coast fighting game players that the U.S. has seen. Names like Smug, Hikari, LegendaryPredd, iDom, and more have made their names known by playing in these weekly events.
Why did Spooky decide to end NLBC online edition events?
After more than two years of multiple weekly fighting game tournaments, Spooky discontinued the NLBC online events. This decision came through after many difficulties, including some harassment from some people. Although many are saddened by this choice, members of the community have shown their support for Spooky, hoping that he enjoys this "time off." You can read the entire statement here.
Spooky had worked tirelessly to try and provide a high quality tournament experience for everyone every week. He supported multiple communities, fought through technical difficulties, fought the netcode of various games, and still managed to pump out a tournament every week. Spooky deserves nothing but praise for his hard work.
What's next?
Spooky ends the Twitlonger saying that he will be working with Tenomedia for future events. He will also be doing more casual streams on his twitch channel, twitch.tv/teamsp00ky . He also mentions that GoldenCen and Arturo "NYCFurby" Sanchez will be trying to return players to regular offline events. We here at Esports.gg encourage everyone to give Team Spooky a follow on twitch!