“I will stop attending events”: Punk reacts to console malfunction at Evo Japan 2025

Evo Japan 2025 was the largest Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves tournament to date, but it didn’t quite go Victor ‘Punk’ Woodley‘s way. The top FGC player claims his underwhelming placement was the result of a PlayStation 5 malfunction.

While Punk’s main goal over the weekend was to win the Street Fighter 6 tournament, his Fatal Fury side quest ended up not going as planned. As a result, Punk is calling on Evo event organisers to make some changes.

Punk is an American fighting game legend who currently competes for FlyQuest. Recently, he has won Evo 2024 and a collection of Capcom Pro Tour premier events. Like a lot of top FGC players, Punk has also dabbled in other titles, like Dragon Ball FighterZ and Guilty Gear. Most recently, he tried his hand City of the Wolves, ending up in 17th at Evo Japan 2025.

According to Punk, he lost early in the tournament due to a ‘PlayStation 5 malfunction’ that led to his controller not responding to his inputs. He claims this also happened to him while competing in Evo Japan’s Street Fighter 6 tourney last year.

Punk seemed frustrated on X, explaining to fans that he spent a lot of time practicing and traveling for these types of events, just to lose to things out of his control like the console overheating.

He said: “If they decide to run tournaments on this console, I will personally stop attending tournaments. PS5’s controlling the outcome of a set is literally the same feeling as someone spitting on you.”

While Punk’s series of tweets was surprising, other competitors noted similar issues with their PlayStation consoles over the weekend. These included overheating in the PlayStation 5, resulting in controller inputs not responding and frame rates dropping dangerously low. Watching the set, it’s clear to see Punk not reacting to any incoming attacks from competitor Tiger.

Evo event organisers have yet to respond to Punk or any of the other players who claim that the PlayStation 5 has caused an abundance of issues that impacted the event’s tournaments.