Justin Wong was already known for Evo Moment 37, winning Evo a lot more than anyone else, and teaching kids life lessons in Mortal Kombat (plus a Wiki page’s worth of other notable accomplishments). In 2017 he added another line to this resume when he was comically photo-friend zoned by a cosplayer at an event.
Wong posed for a photo with the beautiful Rose Ma at Evo 2017 and made a half heart hand gesture for her to complete. The cosplayer did not see this, however, and simply went for a thumbs up, and thus the “unrequited heart” meme was born. While perhaps not as generally widespread as some, this meme wound up having enough cultural impact that Cygames decided to put it directly into Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising via their latest DLC character.
Here’s the original post from Evo Japan 2017 that started it all:
Friend zone @JWonggg pic.twitter.com/eTyKAlbEV5
— Rose Ma ローズ (@iamrosema) July 16, 2017
The unrequited heart meme had something of a slow burn, but flared up at Evo Japan 2024 when an attending Wong was asked “about 5,000 times” to mimic the pose in pictures with Japanese fans of his:
Justin Wong reveals that he was asked about 5,000 times to take a photo in the Unrequited Heart Pose at EVOJ2024
byu/ZaBlancJake inFighters
The talk of the town when it comes to Granblue Fantasy Versus right now is brand new DLC character Vikala, a mouse-themed character with a giant, sentient metal trap named Dormouse. Developers made a clever cultural marketing move by inviting popular Twitch streamer (and fittingly named) Ironmouse to voice Dormouse.
That would not be the end of their pop culture references, however, as Vikala also enjoys taking Polaroids with her opponents when she lands a particular throw on them. Guess what pose Vikala strikes in each and every one of these photos?
That fateful half heart is now immortalized in a game as Vikala mimics Wong, and though every opposing character has multiple poses they can strike, at least one of these poses is, of course, a thumbs up. Click this thumbnail to see a handful of examples:
Click images for larger versions
The fighting game community was quick to point this out to Justin following Vikala’s release last week, to which the pro player and content creator responded (we’re sure it’s tongue in cheek):
This is painful https://t.co/0Tex16IEcg
— Justin Wong (@JWonggg) October 25, 2024
