Last month, three of the most recognizable Pandas paid a visit to Adorama’s flagship location in New York City for a day of top-tier fighting games and community support. Adorama partnered with Panda to put on the event, an exhibition series between reps of New York City’s fearsome fighting game talent and some of Panda’s best. In the end, just over $1500 was raised for City Harvest via the stream.
City Harvest is a food rescue organization that collects leftovers from restaurants that would otherwise be thrown away, then distributes it to people experiencing food insecurity. Panda and Adorama have supported the New York charity before, with a Killer Instinct online tournament last December. New York’s oldest such effort, City Harvest works throughout all five boroughs to supply food pantries and community partners with nutritious meals. The organization also works within communities to improve access to nutrition education and bolster local food systems.
The four-hour stream broadcast first-to-ten sets in three major games. Panda’s resident fighting game guru JWong took on Aroo in King of Fighters XV, this year’s long-awaited new release in the venerable King of Fighters series. JWong is one of the elder statesmen of fighting games, a reputation he lived up to by cleaning up Aroo in a 10-0 set.
Kizzie Kay was up next against NYC’s LostSoul. Credit where it’s due; LostSoul put up an impressive performance, keeping Kizzie’s aggressive Baiken under control for nearly the entire set. In the end he didn’t drop a single match, securing a 10-0 victory of his own and putting one on the board for New York City.
After some Panda sparring, the final Panda vs. NYC set had Punk square up with NYCFurby in Street Fighter V. Punk’s dominance in Street Fighter is hard to overstate, but this was actually the closest set of the day. Punk came out of the gate swinging with some initial wins, but NYCFurby gained some ground in the middle of the set. Ultimately, Punk clinched the set 10-4. That made the overall score between Panda and the New York City players 2-1. But who’s counting? (We’re counting.)
Results aside, the event was a fun showcase of what both Panda and the talented New York City fighting game community have to offer. In partnership with Adorama, we’re looking forward to continuing the Charity Cup series to bring more great content and more support for great causes like City Harvest.