Gekko going on that rant about the laggy HC while thats the usual amount of ping i have to play with cause noone plays in my region was... eye-opening.

Convinced Gekko just uses this series to show off his music taste

You are an inspiration. I never would have picked up strive without your videos and this series has helped me keep a smile on my face as i get my ass kicked in floor 6. Thank you for such amazing content.

You are honestly such an inspiration for me with this whole series its made me want to have my own journey like this in streetfighter 6

1:33:40 me going 0-3 has never looked so cool 😎

Finally got a chance to finish watching this as my bed time story. It’s always great seeing a journey from bottom to top and this was great example of just that. You had a lot of improvement in not just skill but your delivery of points aswell throughout the video. 🎉❤🎉❤🎉

This is gonna be cold I can already tell

“Life never goes the way you want, that’s how it is.” “No matter what life throws at you, take it on!” *sick ass chorus*

When he said he got 17th after losing to duck I genuinely felt so bad for him

LETS FUCKING GO. If it wasn't for it being late when I watched this I would've actually screamed when you finally won, your music choices are always hype as fuck. Amazing series and here's hoping that all goes better for you in real life and with this channel because damn, does your content deserve more recognition.

Imma be real Gekko, I need you to post the playlist you draw your background music from, because you’ve got amazing taste Incredible video as always! Really fun to watch every update to this series

Dude, your storytelling in this series has been so good and so emotional and the way you put together the final fight was everything. It just felt like such a satisfying culmination of all the hard work you put in and all the struggles you went through. Good on you, Gekko. Can't wait to see what you do next

Unironically that was the best fighting game video I've ever watched.

I'm so glad I was able to be a part of you actually hitting top 16, and I'm even more glad I had you say that you can do anything a mere few matches before the end. I'm incredibly proud of your progress and seeing you grow as a player whilst growing myself is one of the most satisfying things about fighting games for me. Thank you for sharing tech and most of all, being a friend

I'm so excited for this! It's going to be so good. I've finished the video, can vouch, it's so good. Love seeing the improvement in the videos, the gameplay, everything, we love you Gekko, keep up the insane work!

I'm new to guilty gear strive and this channel, but this video is so goddamn good, brings a tear to my eye. The build up and pacing was absolutely amazing. genuine art.

Deep down, I always feel like life always plays cruel hands with someone to test them. It wants to absolutely break someone in order to test their resolve in something. This, is an example of one such moment.

Genuinely amazing series. Editing, music choices and storytelling were all incredible. You inspired me and likely many others to start playing strive and taking competitive games more seriously. Thank you for all you’ve done!

This video was pretty powerful for me. I give up fairly quickly, most times. And when I don’t, I get obsessed until I break. I shy I away from fighting games, ranked games, pretty much any sort of competition because it makes too little since to me. How do I know if my win is due to you getting better or my opponent’s having a bad day, and how do I know I am improving, and how much can I improve? I either give up because I know the kind of person that gives up wont make it far, or I try to pay for the answer to those questions with time and pieces of myself, and I usually run out of one before I can get an answer. I hate to say this, but I was hoping you would fail and that, despite the flashing memories and swelling music, you would lose both hearts for the final time. I wanted to know what you would do when a win becomes impossible for you. But you got eventual what you paid for. Overpaid and probably still paying, sure, but met your goal. I am grateful for the vid tho, because I got to see more of determination in action, and it was edited well and a fun watch, after about an hour I realized that I was angry that you didn’t fail, because I needed to see the aftermath of determination falling short for someone else. Sorry, I just had to post this or it would stay stuck in my head forever and explode. Again, I really enjoyed the vid, and hope your situation improves so you keep making these for a while. Thx to anyone who read this.

Gekko: "I want to get good at Strive!" (Beats multiple best at (character) in the world, wins large locals, gets into national, consistent celestial, gets aura, etc) Me at floor 1: "Bruh what more do you fuckin want, I pop off when I don't fuck up a quarter circle."

This series is inspiring me and many others too. I love every second of what you have created. Every your victory, comeback or read on opponent had me hyped in this series. You helped me to push further and further to get better and I am not planning to stop. Thank you for creating this series and you deserve every single support you got, are getting and will get. I hope more people will find out about this series of yours. This is one of the best content youtube or even FGC would ever get.

After half a year... he finally did it.

Holy shit, the end actually hit me in the feels. Ever since I discovered your channel and watched the 2 episodes of Getting Good at GGST atleast 10 times. I get so hyped watching those and it always gets me to pick up my stick and play a game. Looking back at the journey that you had: Volconage, Tempest, TigerPop, Kenno and all other battles... It's just a relief and I'm super happy that you did it! Congats man, not only on completing the challenge, but for making this video, this is an amazing video and I'll probably watch this 5 times more!

Getting Good At GGST has been such a awesome thing to watch, i binged it in one half of a day and i got so invested in it, feeling the motions of your losses and coming almost to tears of excitement from your top 16. your videos are top quality

Amazing storytelling. Congrats on completing all of your goals. Every one of these get gud stories has been great. You definitely have talent with being able to tell a compelling story. Well done.

Hey man this video is one of the most moving and motivating videos I’ve ever seen. The crisp edits, the music taste, the narrative. I was gripping on the edge of my seat. Well done.

This video is amazing. Great job on this vid and your journey! This series is what inspired me to try and get better at GGST even with the network issues and my own connection problems. You really are an inspiration and I wish you nothing but the best.

It was such a journey watching you go through the challenges. Sadly, I rarely could find the time to watch the streams, but it's still been great, especially with the editing of these videos. I would even say that this series has your best videos yet (watched them all since I discovered your channel and became a fan immediately) I wish you the best of luck with KZfaq and with the stuff going on in life. And as always: There's always next week.

It's really hard for me to sit down and focus on anything for 2 hours, but this was such a captivating experience I was able to sit through the whole thing (with just a short break for snacks), so, really good video!

I know I'm late but this has to be the best series on youtube. The editing to the music choice along with the pacing. It's all magnificent and extremely inspiring. Not going to lie watching this has been helping me continue my grind on fighting games and I hope its inspired many more to give fighting games another chance. Just wanna say thank you GekkoSquirrel for having an amazing channel that I've enjoyed for a long time now (even though I just noticed I'm not even subbed, Well fixed that).

Love love love seeing the huge videos like this. Can't wait for what's in store!

Bro I love your videos! I only played GGS for a little bit and haven’t done so in quite a while, but your talks about moving forward and your motivational journey have been helpful inspiration to me in my work. Basically, thanks for the vids. They help me get through some difficult spots of my own.:)

This is an awesome video and a very hard journey indeed, but I'm really happy, that you made it! And I also hope that everything in your life will stabilise and you'll have more room for things you wanna do. Thank you for such great content you provide to us!

The editing in the montage running up to 1:50:00 was so, so fucking good. Genuinely one of the best fighting game videos I've ever seen.

Your videos are amazing, thank you alot for putting so much effort in it. It was really nice watch. I am so glad you won in the end, good to know all the work payed out in the end and add some bright colours in not so bright moment of your life.

Gekko really knows how to light the fire of determination under all of us

This video is amazing, this and the other one has me on my strive grind as well, I’ve set goals for myself and have already beaten one of the few goals after days of grinding and on the grind for my next, thank you gekko

I think we just played in the tower yesterday! Didnt realize it until I saw your wanted poster in the video. Crazy! Thanks for the matches, and this video is really grabbing me :)

I just want to say that your vídeos are always awesome! The edits, câmera angles, transitions and the music. Perfect. Thank you!

keep on doing what you're doing man. it's been an absolute joy to observe and follow your journey in guilty gear strive, so much so that i even bought the game on my ps5 (which i wasn't planning to). keep grinding, have fun and don't forget to occasionally rest!

Amazing production on this video…I can tell you placed a lot of effort in on this video. Thanks for the inspiration.

Amazing video man, really really good stuff. Editing was awesome, music choices were spot on, and your storytelling was great all the way through!. Be proud of yourself for this one.

1:01:10 wait for my asuka and ill become the real swag messiah

Congrats dude, this series have been a blast ! :D

This series honestly gave me the drive I needed to keep playing fighting games in general. Seeing someone who is much better than I'll ever be, struggle with improving was necessary for me to realize that it's not just me. I have unusually good mental in fight games, but I'm also unbelievably shit at them. There were times when I couldn't win a single match of MK against any of my friends in a 8h session. Even worse, when I got sf6 together with a friend, I went 0-70 against someone with 0 fighting game experience while I had played MK X and 11 for about 50-80h each. When I started strive, I was placed on floor 1 and even tho I have slowly and painfully crawled my way up to floor 5, even I can see that neither me nor the people I face have any clue on how to play this game properly. But at least now I know that even the best players struggle at times to improve and that is a huge help if all the other content you usually see is someone absolutely crushing everyone they face. I'll never be good enough to compete in a tournament, but maybe I can shoot for reaching floor 8 or 9 eventually and thanks to this series I have the drive to do so, so thanks Gekko, for struggling until the end and showing that effort will pay off if you stick with it.

This was my first video by you This video was phenomenal, the music was great and the storytelling was beautiful, the play was amazing, the editing wonderful and I'm absolutely brimming with happiness that you completed your goal, this video was such a rollercoaster keep up the phenomenal work on videos like this, maybe next week will be just as great :D

Such a banger video, super happy for you getting all the goals you set for yourself Also btw personally it was really hard for me to keep track of the games, I had no idea what game was it and what the set count was at all, maybe if you do montages, add a set counter inbetween games?

HELL YEAH! I've been waiting for this one! Let's GOOO!

God this video reminded me to go back and listen to GGXrd OST All of that aside, I must thank Gekko for making this series in the first place. The amount of bs he received both from doing his challenges and his landlord, and he still have the mental fortitude to complete what he set out to do. What a legend

Answering the first question, sorry mate I'm an artist so I actually cannot give up even if I wanted to. 5 years down the road and counting AND HOLY SHIT VKELVIN IS THE GREATEST GATEKEEPER OF THE SERIES

I’ve watched these videos a few times mainly because of how great the editing is and that I wish there were more “getting good at strive” series on KZfaq, this one’s great

Phenomenal editing on this one, congrats on your top 16 placement!

The mysterious 1st round player here, was axl, I think that was a set where the network cut out right before the end of the final set

Inspirational. This series is some of the best content on youtube

Honestly watching you is what made me go back to geo and watching your gameplay with her helped me get better

that sure was a journey. congrats, gekko

The moment I heard the Persona 4 ost I jumped out from my chair. You're music choice has always been stellar, but since Persona 4 is quite litterally my favourite game of all time, this was just a treat. Amazing content as always!!!

The use of baikens theme at the end was so perfect. congrats on getting good at Guilty Gear Strive and i hope your situation improves!

Really inspiring stuff, man.❤

keep up the great work. You seem to have the self awareness and wisdom to know what is healthy and how you can improve. Don't be discouraged or compare yourself to others and their progress and I have no doubt you can achieve much greater feats than you realize.

Awsome video bloody great storyline congrats in the top 16

Well, this journey comes to an end than. Looking forward to whatever video do next be it Strive or not. Your videos are entertaining no matter what. Keep up the great work dude 😊

insanely good video, great work and congrats!!

Such an ironic overlap of the series that inspired me to get really into strive (and I am now roughly but a bit behind where the series starts) and to see kelvin gatekeep a goal here when kelvin gatekept one of my best friends out of top 8 at wuot recently (although her run was amazing shoutout to you phoebe)

Gekko improvement is also reflected how his editing skill is,Fricking Amazing

Watching these videos really inspire me to do my own version of this stuff at some point. However, won't be of this quality since I don't have the kind of editing stuff that he has or where to begin with that. Also it'd be hard for me to decide between 3 things I'd want to do it for: 1. Guilty Gear Strive - Floor 10 and maybe Celestial with Bedman (and maybe Jack-O). (I know it's not a tourney scene, but trying to be realistic) 2. Smash Bros. Ultimate - Starting a small tourney scene among my friends, trying to help them get better. While also trying to get every character into Elite Smash (maaaybe stop being a wimp and actually try going to online tourneys). 3. Learning how to create good quality worlds/avatars, possibly even some games, and to do that swiftly. Though this ain't the same thing as fighting games obviously, but the idea of seeing people improve overtime is something that interests me, so I should give it a shot. Anyways, was feeling bummed before watching this. Now I feel motivated to do stuff again after watching this movie. Glad to have watched it! = )

I love that he has like named characters in this that he sets up like boss battles with sick edits

Gekko has an entire character arc in this video and I fucking adore it

Super late to this but on top of the crazy good editing, this really inspired me and now I want to start entering tournaments

This is fucking great, man. I've stared my own runs back in November and it's been a cool experience. Really makes you approach this like some sports or competition anime storyline. These videos highlight that part a lot, with run ins with past "Characters" and the excitement of the matches. This video is like an end of a season. (But i will one day find out what the fuck you did to those dragons. I will not be stopped)

This series was insane. My favorite part is that match with the potemkin where the fog is playing. This needs to be put in the library of Congress

you had me by the first minute, im gonna love this

Man Gekko this video was fucking amazing, made really cool replays coordinated with the music and also edits on freecamera great job! And on top of how good your video ended up looking, you made it after a year, what a Journey haha. Hope you could post the whole playlist cause the songs aren't listed in the desc of the video.

Bro when adachi came in I knew things were about to get crazy congrats bro though it all you achevived your goal

It took me so long to remember that the growing black and blue outfit looks like the fire force outfits

Since Ive seen a fair amount of comments talking abt the really good music in this video, here's my (with help of a friend of mine) best attempt cataloguing all of it. Some are best guesses and there are a few slots where i had no idea/i couldnt get shazam to work so if anyone knows better than me then feel free to add to it. Also for the Persona 5 osts im not gonna go through 181 songs to find the names lol, so i wrote down the ones i 100% know by name. 2:30 - New Danganronpa V3 O.S.T. White - 18. Cool Morning 3:52 - persona 5 ost 5:26 SDR2 OST: -1-09- Ikoroshia 5:44 - Razormind from Payday 2 6:26 - Blooming Villain from Persona 5 8:04 Holy Orders ～Be Just Or Be Dead～ from Guilty Gear 2 Overture 10:52 - Time to Make History from Persona 4 12:38 - Bloodborne from Bloodborne 13:47 - Undefeatable from Sonic Frontiers 17:43 a persona 5 ost 19:45 ??? 21:17 Deadman's Hand from Payday 2 23:27 FFXIV OST The Twinning Theme ( A Long Fall ) 25:33 - Rebellion from BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger 27:02 Circus Jevil's Pre Battle Theme from Deltarune 28:07 - Black & White from BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma 31:14 - Gathers Under Night from UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH Exe:Late 32:10 - The Disaster of Passion from Guilty Gear Strive 32:45ish beneath the mask from persona 5 mayhaps 33:09 - Crawl from Guilty Gear Strive 33:42 Light the Fire Up in the Night "KAGEJIKAN" 36:05 Despair-Syndrome from Danganronpa 1 36:35 - Still in The Dark (Zato=1 and Millia Battle Theme) from Guilty Gear X2 42:52 - Scarlet Fire by Otis McDonald 44:28 - Red Sun from Metal Gear Rising Revengeance 44:38 Ride the Fire! from Guilty Gear Xrd 45:28 - Death by Glamour from Undertale 46:00 - Cleric Beast from Bloodborne 46:44 - Break a Spell from Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2 50:20 - Despair-Syndrome from Danganronpa 1 51:55 i think it's Persona 5 - Beneath the Mask but im not 100% sure, its absolutely from persona 5 tho song right after it I don't know, but i think from the style its probably a persona game 54:46 - Death Row from Payday 2 55:47 - Break Out Of from Persona 4 57:42 - Collective Conciousness from Metal Gear Rising Revengeance 1:00:05 is a persona 5 ost but idk which 1:02:09 - Blood Drain -Again- (Eltnum's Theme) | Under Night In-Birth 1:04:13 - You're Mine by Carpenter Brut 1:06:06 - Detective Gumshoe's theme from Ace Attorney 1:07:11 - The World Revolving from Deltarune 1:09:09 ??? friend guessed smth dragonball fighter but we're not sure, a small part of Mario 64's endless staircase plays over it at one point 1:09:57 - Beat Eat Nest (Byakuya Theme) from Under Night In-Birth Sys: Celes 1:13:40 - Katamari Damacy Soundtrack - 05 - Lonely Rolling Star 1:16:23 - Extreme Stream (Enkidu Theme) from Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late 1:18:37- Snowden Theme from Undertale 1:19:15 - Devils Never Cry from Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening 1:21:03 - Alone Infection from Guilty Gear Strive 1:21:33 - Sneakman by Hideki Naganuma, Richard Jacques and Toronto from Jet Set Radio 1:24:00 - Theme of Gouki (Akuma) from Street Fighter 5 1:31:00ish - Sky Should be High (vocal version) from Guilty Gear Xrd Revelator 1:33:47 - -SIGN- Big Blast Sonic from Guilty Gear Xrd 1:36:28 - Trigger from Guilty Gear Strive 1:38:54 - Ride the Fire! from Guilty Gear Xrd 1:40:59 - 霧 (ATLUS Konishi Remix) from Persona 4: Dancing All Night 1:45:10 - Mirror of the World from Guilty Gear Strive

My prediction for the next "Why you hate" is gonna be the puppet archetype. It might not even be why the opponents hate playing them but also why the player itself hates playing them because of how hard it is. Great video btw, I'm the type to never know when or how to give up.

You've done it, you have ascended. From making gods bleed to becoming a god yourself. Amazing.

This video was a god damn movie, and I loved all 1 hour and 57 minutes of it.

Our champion came out on top let's fucking go! So so proud of you gekko

I felt it when gekko squirrel said "it's squirrelin time"

these videos always make me want to play strive then I boot it up and suffer, thanks gekko!

GOOOOO GEKKO! CONGRATS!

one of the best videos i have ever watched and i hope it only goes up from here

You know at first I wanted to comment "Hahah funny youtuber Baiken main loses sanity in tournament because of bad luck" but now I just wanna say thank you, for everything really. Things aren't going so well at the moment for me but between this amazing video and Arnold Schwarzenegger motivational videos (been playing too much Terminator in MK11 lately) I got all the push and inspitation to move forward. Thanks Gekko, and godspeed for what's to come.

Congrats Gekko, proud of you

Just binged this series was very epic

This is just a masterpiece my god.

I think that you are very entertaining, I will watch you even if you don’t play strive anymore.

Say, have you ever considered making a playlist with the music you use in your videos? Cause it sounds really awesome.

Fantastic video! Well done.

Video was amazing ! I’ll admit it was hard who to root for vs Patriach Panda,but I’m happy that you won and what you have accomplished. Life happens, it’s not always merry but I totally get that wanting everything to freeze. I remember a few years ago, 5 bad big things happened to me in one day, I broke down for a moment because it’s hard to remain strong. Funny thing is 2/5 of the events were scams,luckily I didn’t engage in it,but it felt too much that day on top of everything else. How many attempts would I give something ? As many as I can as long as I can. I know I’m very stubborn and have pushed the grind to extreme unhealthy amounts before, it’s not a good thing,but I know if I want something… I will do everything to get that thing. And that’s very dumb of me. I wish I could say I don’t know or I’ll just give up after a few tries,it’s not about being stronger than that, just that I was raised to never give up. Giving up is not an option I want to ever consider.

I’ve been waiting for the next episode in this series. Also 13:25 lol

I glad I followed you . Seeing your grow is heart warming and I would love to help you edit your videos and collaborate !!!

yo that marvel big wheel guy seems pretty cracked

The Danganronpa music at the beginning really was a great way to set the tone.

To answer your question at the beginning of the video: 7 months. I found out the hard way that 7 months of straight failure is my limit. I used to be a very competitive tennis player, and I put all my heart and soul into it. One day, in the middle of April, I suddenly… lost it. Like a wave of amnesia, except all I lost was my memory of how to hit a ball in tennis. I suddenly played like someone who had just started, even though I had played my whole life. Every time I hit the ball it just… felt wrong, but I couldn’t figure out what hitting it “right” was. It seems impossible. I even had coaches yell at me, telling me it’s not possible for me just just “forget” how to play. Yet it happened. I assumed it would come back to me tomorrow, or the next day, and then when that didn’t happen, maybe it’s just been a bad week, which became a bad month. I kept trying. And that’s when I found that limit: 7 months. Some people called me a quitter, or said I just had a bad mindset. But for those who have really struggled for something they’ve wanted, you know who you are, you know that 7 months straight of failure is a insane amount of time. Even if I failed and had to quit, I’ll always know that I really, really did try. It was never for a lack of effort that I failed. Things were just never going to change, and I had to move on.

22:46 Baikens rope is still active during chipps super 🤣

Someone get this man a hug!

I was jumping in my room like a mad man seeing the final fight