Upside down is a new one…
We’ve seen a heavy evolution of controllers through the years in the fighting game community. From starting out with joysticks, to console gamepads being more prevalent, and now to leverless controllers.
However, this was a first even for me, someone using a PlayStation controller upside down at the recent Dream Con 2025 tournament in Houston, Texas.
This is wild. Not even remapped. Just playing straight up inverted. pic.twitter.com/vQer5A2gJd
— PhattyMikey (@PhattyMikey) May 30, 2025
I think this same guy i said aint no way pic.twitter.com/Nlyd9Ndplx
— Pøser (@Poser9000) May 31, 2025
This is how things went down according to xNightMareEffecT on X at the Street Fighter 6 tournament at the event.
“I fought this dude winners side, blew my mind. He’s a Marisa player also,” he wrote.
“His story was [that he and his brother] would game growing up and his brother never told him he was holding the controller the wrong way 😂🤣 So he said F it and made it work,” according to xNightMareEffecT.
I can’t imagine wrapping my brain around holding a controller upside down to play fighting games, even if it had fully remapped controls.
Props to this guy for figuring it out and holding his controller in a way I’ve never seen done before while playing a fighting game.
We have seen our fair share of crazy controllers through the years though, from Guitar Hero to picnic baskets, the fighting game community is a very creative place for which controllers are used in competitions.
Now, I’m sure we’ll see all sorts of unusual styles for holding them too…