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Street Fighter 5 Pro Victor 'Punk' Woodley Declares Free Agency

Just weeks before the start of the Street Fighter V pro season, top American player Victor 'Punk' Woodley has left Panda Global to pursue free agency.

Ozzie Mejia

March 4, 2018 1:45 PM

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The Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition esports season is set to kick off in just a couple of weeks. But prior to Final Round 20, one of America's top players has declared free agency.

As of today I am no longer part of @PandaGlobalPG
Such an amazing org! Thank you for everything and good luck moving forward

— Punk (@PunkDaGod) March 4, 2018

Victor "Punk" Woodley announced his free agency on Sunday morning, annoucing that he was leaving Panda Global. The announcement comes out of the blue, with just two weeks before the start of the new Street Fighter V season. No word on Punk's immediate future, but as one of the game's best players, he'll undoubtedly be in demand from top esports organizations.

Punk led the Capcom Pro Tour leaderboards for a large chunk of last season. He finished in second place at Evo 2017 after an excruciatingly close battle with eventual winner Hajime "Tokido" Taniguchi. Punk was bit by the upset bug at December's Capcom Cup where he started the event by losing to Last Chance Qualifier winner Naoki "Nemo" Nemoto, who would ultimately finish in 3rd place. Even with that loss, Punk fought all the way back and just narrowly missed the Top 8.

The parting between Punk and Panda Global appears to be an amicable one, with Punk's now-former team issuing a statement on Twitter.

We wish the best of luck to Punk as he explores free agency!

You'll always be family to us, Victor. https://t.co/BBdNZxEWbz

— Panda Global® (@PandaGlobalPG) March 4, 2018

That's two of America's top Street Fighter players currently floating around free agency. Almost a month ago to this day, 2016 Capcom Cup champion Du "NuckleDu" Dang also declared his free agency, parting ways with Team Liquid.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?