FINALLY beat Returnal again, despite the softlock last time I nearly did. Only took 14 hours this time. I can play Saros now. Nobody was really stopping me, but I wanted to earn it. Borrowing a copy from a friend ASAP!!!

NEW JERSEY, don’t forget to vote in the primaries today!

Happy 3 years to the game that gave me a community that changed my life ❤️ Love ya, SF6 👊🏻

If this is your first June out of the closet and you’re nervous about attending a Pride festival, FEAR NOT! 🌈 I made these mistakes in 2021 so you don’t have to. 😅 My awkwardness is at your service. 🫡 #pridemonth #pridefestival #queerbooks

2nd out of 6 at the local! Lost to Viktor’s Kimberly, won the runback, beat BJR for the reset, lost the grand grand final. Really fun sets. Won back almost what I paid to enter, which is always nice. Also, I got a giant hotdog with a PICKLE as the bun and basically ascended.

Happy Pride Month, street fighters.

So Hops & Stocks is looking THIN for SF6 tonight… just me, BJR, and Viktor Vaughn… can I get more of y’all to pull up so we can run a bracket? ✨Dr. Brewlittle’s in Maple Shade, NJ✨ The beer on tap is great, and there’s a really cool giant hotdogs restaurant around the corner!

I spent my teenage years terrified of admitting I was queer, even to myself. So I wrote a book for teenagers where sapphic love is what saves the world. 🩷💜💙 HAPPY PRIDE! 🌈

It’s officially pride month which means if you beat me in bracket you are homophobic, I am not taking questions at this time

It would seem that “Combo Breaker is really over” plus “my book launch month is really over” has HANDS as an emotional cocktail. Couldn’t pinpoint why I felt off all day when I have a fun week of plans ahead, but the collective sensation of ENDING is somewhat brutal.

Having an actually godlike Returnal run… tore through biome 5, tearing through biome 6 at nearly proficiency level 30… and hit a rare glitch where you get trapped inside a portal room and have to void the whole run. Today was not my day. FUCK.

My plan was to both edit and post my Combo Breaker video tomorrow, but I’m not really about letting burner accounts potentially sour one of the happiest bracket runs I’ve had. Will probably wait a few days if not a week to upload. But it’s coming!

Anyway. What’s the best cheap ramen, and why is it Shin Ramyun Black?

Yes I saw that T*chnicals used my face as a thumbnail so nobody else needs to DM me. I privated my account on the other website anticipating the usual dogpile. I’m tired of this shit, grandpa. God forbid a girl think men are being weird about Ingrid.

I still think learning Ken as a secondary, even if I shelved him, is probably the most valuable thing I've done in SF6. Most of the time that I'm offering advice to someone, they're not playing a singular archetype like Marisa. I am so much more useful because I played Ken.

Finally updated my website (lauragenn.com) with 2 more June events—an indie bookstore visit in Flemington, NJ, and a pride month event at B&N Philly—so if you’re looking to get a signed copy of BSAS, it should be much easier to see everything upcoming now. 🏳️‍🌈

Haven’t written since before Combo Breaker last weekend. Clawed 1,000 words out of my chest like surgery at Barnes & Noble… I can play video games now!

I thought brawlers/grapplers were strong because of their high damage. Weakness: struggling to get in. Zoners were strong because they fight safely from faraway. Weakness: lower damage fighting up close. So why is Ingrid doing more damage off a whiff punish than Marisa?

When Ludovic Mbock, an expert Street Fighter player, was detained by ICE office in Baltimore, a network of video game players located him and raised money to retain an immigration attorney, who was able to have him released. https://wapo.st/4uHpwfM

All right, I’ll bite. Does FGC really take issue with streamers calling their opponents bad while streaming? Provided it’s kept in game, no slurs ofc, etc. It seems completely unreasonable to expect streamers to just say, “GGs,” and never tilt or insult their opponent’s play.

My whole life, my dream has been to see my published book on a shelf. 📖 That dream is reality now… so what’s next? 👀 If I could manifest anything, what would it be? ✨

Ingrid being the last DLC to add more World Tour content is the right move. Speaking as someone who completed the entirety of WT pre-DLC… its purpose is to teach the game to newcomers. Once they’ve learned it, they’re much more likely to play any other mode but WT.

There are Marisa patch notes because they fixed a bugged target combo that MODERN DOESN’T HAVE

FGC friends hitting THAT chapter in my book 🧑‍🍳💋

Got my new @brookgamingfans converter from Amazon, put the stickers on my hit box, updated the firmware, and was feeling all set... only to discover I asked my mother for THE WRONG CONVERTER. XE2 only works for PS4 games. I need the Wingman FGC 2. I feel like an idiot.

You know when you qualify to the next stage of a tournament—top 8, next pool, some kind of LCQ, whatever—and then you’re just in uncomfortable limbo trying not to overthink what happens next while you wait to play again? Most of the publishing industry feels like that wait. 😮‍💨

I want to actually ask Tokido for a set next major. I talked to him for a while in the lobby at CEO about Marisa, and missing when Shuto played her… saw him at CB and figured he was busy, but he lit up and said he remembered chatting about Marisa… so I should probably just ask.

I’m at the stage of post-Combo Breaker depression where I ate a Popcorn Baron mini bag in its entirety for breakfast today.

We are incredibly grateful to @gene.meme and the Washington Post for covering Lud's story and the movement to #FreeLud and make sure he is truly free. Community is the only way we will make it through this and the FGC is something beautiful that's worth protecting and fighting for. Free them all!

I wanted to start assembling my Combo Breaker video by tonight, but I still sound like I swallowed a frog, and returning to answering phone at work probably won’t help lol.

H O W does every Popcorn Baron flavor taste EXACTLY like what it says it is? To the point where I won’t touch many savory ones, because the texture of popcorn but the precise flavor of butter chicken is too confusing for my brain? Just opened a bag of key lime pie and GODDAMN.

If any of the amazing FGC photographers around captured me at CB, please let me know! I tragically don’t have video footage or a single photo of my pop-offs for winning the stream set, getting out of my pool, or beating my seed with a victory on day 2. Only footage of the sets.

I’m having a lot of fun poking fun at how fighting games feel to newcomers in my current draft. ❤️

B&N Marlton, you have a signed copy of BETWEEN SUN AND SHADOW now! 🩷💜💙 You can find it face-out on the information desk at the center of the store. ✨

Thank you, fighting games. 🌯

Apparently managed to crush my Wingman in my luggage coming home. Just found the outer shell in my backpack but none of the innards. 😅 Does anyone know the best place to buy one? Don’t want to pay more than I need to, but obviously converter is a necessity as a leverless player.

FINALLY got something Mass Effect in the artist alley at a major. Thank you, Arcanic Artistry, for the Paragon coaster!

If you brought a hardcover to CB this weekend, or told me you had one at home, I hope you know how much that shit meant to me and how intensely it powered me up in bracket. I’ve put a lot of work into SF6, but it pales in comparison to the work I put into getting published.

BTW your Chipotle card has a 6-digit code by a mini QR code on the back that can be entered in the Chipotle app at checkout. If you don’t want to explain to a cashier, or if you want to keep the card. I frame mine. Delivery still has a $10 minimum, though.

My feet hurt at every major, but CB seems worse? I was in pain on every step by midday Saturday, Velcro-braced my finicky left ankle all day Sunday, and am now icing what I think is shin splints in the right leg at home. Maybe it’s that I haven’t broken in my new sneakers yet?

I missed these idiots.

FWIW I don’t think the crowd pulling for Hinao was entirely about Mai. Sagat is also terrorizing brackets and online. “Young prodigy defeats the long-time champion” is simply a stronger narrative pull than “same guy wins again.” But Xiaohai played incredible and earned the W.

I will be making a YouTube video specifically about the highs and lows (and overall personal triumph) of my CB run, including my first W on stream at a major. 👊🏻 But it may be a minute because my voice is GONE. 💀 Will also include my casual FT3 with Itazan! So stay tuned. ❤️

Missed my flight by literally 5 minutes. This has never happened to me before. Crying in the airport, great end to my Combo Breaker, I guess. I feel like an idiot.

Finally got to run a FT3 against Itazan’s Zangief today! I got the first game, then lost three straight, but I got my hits in for sure. He said my overall play is solid and suggested less predictability on oki, both offensively and defensively. Incredibly fun games. GGs.

There are 4 hardcovers of BETWEEN SUN AND SHADOW scattered in and around the main ballroom. If you find one, you can keep it! 👀 It’s a sapphic science fantasy novel and FGC is shouted out in the back! Bring them to good homes, please. 🩷💜💙 #ComboBreaker

Before I go leaving these 4 hardcovers in random places for people to find/keep: Does anyone want to run a set today for a copy of my book? You have to win. 👀

Ohio and NorCal had a wildly hype team battle. #ComboBreaker

Won my day 2 losers set on a pixel in final round against maybe Marisa’s worst MU in the game (Juri). Which means I beat my seed. I’m even prouder of this than I was of my EVO run last year. I’ve come so far and will only go further. GGs to Caba and Orarin.

Combo Breaker, day 2. Pools at 6PM. Win or lose, let’s get it.