EventHubs.com Top 10 of 2009 fighting community list

10. GGPO, better net code and online match making: In the past, playing fighting games online was considered a joke by many players because their timing was so severely thrown off by lag.

While GGPO was released awhile back, Capcom made solid strides in implementing it into their fighting games in late 2008 and in 2009 which helped reduce the impact of latency.

While GGPO wasn't used in every online fighting game, notably absent here was Street Fighter 4, several companies put an increased focus on improving their network code and the overall online experience.

Considering how crappy most fighters were when played online just 3 years ago, 2009 saw a big leap forward collectively in this regard. While playing in-person will always be the preferred way for major tournaments, the gap between in-person play and online gaming was reduced considerably this year.

9. Seth Killian: You'd be hard pressed to find someone who's given more to the Street Fighter community lately than Capcom's Seth Killian.

Not only is he a special advisor for the Street Fighter 4 games, helping to balance and tweak the titles, but he's become the front man for dishing out new information and communicating directly with the fans.

When a new feature is discussed or new details come out about a Capcom fighting game, it's a surprise when Seth's name isn't mentioned in the article some where.

Despite working full-time at Capcom, Killian continues to work directly with the community by serving on the Evolution Fighting Game panel, plus he's also regarded as the best commentator at tournaments where he pops up here and there to help out.

A lot of people would be burned out and not want anything to do with fighting games after working a full-time job all week at Capcom, but Killian continues to be active during his off time helping out the community where he can.

8. Community websites and videos: If you've followed the fighting game scene, you've probably at some point been to Shoryuken.com. It's the grand daddy of Street Fighter websites. Also, Capcom-Unity has been around for awhile and both provided a solid resource for news and information through the years.

But in 2009 a lot of other sites and YouTube channels started picking up steam. Excellent video sites like Street Fighter Dojo, Lord Aborigine SF4's YouTube channel, The Shend for SF3 Third Strike matches, were great places to see some top level competition.

News sites like EventHubs.com, Hadoken.net, IPlayWinner and Versus City all pushed ahead with furious amounts of updates and information.

In the past, getting your hands on helpful Street Fighter information meant sifting through pages upon pages of forum posts, participating in a treasure hunt that took a considerable amount of time.

Now with all of the quality sites stepping up to the plate, leveling up your game has never been easier.

7. Year of the Fighting games: After a long drought of mediocre or unbalanced fighting games, 2009 saw a resurgence in the genre.

Street Fighter 4, BlazBlue, Tekken 6, the re-release of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and other titles helped revive a scene that hadn't seen many quality titles in some time.

While not every fighter released this year was stellar, considering how slim the pickings had been as of late, this was a great year to be a fan of 1 on 1 fighting games.

6. Justin Wong: Justin Wong has long been regarded as one of the best players in fighting games. While he initially made a big name for himself with several Marvel vs. Capcom 2 tournament victories, in 2009, he became known as the hands down best Street Fighter 4 player in America.

It used to be up for discussion who the top player state side was before Justin stepped up his game, and the fact there is little to no debate now shows you how dominate he has been this year.

Wong has been so consistent in 2009 that it's a huge deal whenever he loses a tournament. While he's currently best known for his Street Fighter 4 prowess, Justin has continued to have strong showings in competitions for Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Street Fighter 3 Third Strike and other games.

With the exception of one person, you could argue no one had a more successful year as far as fighting games were concerned in 2009 than Justin Wong, but of course there's...

5. Daigo Umehara: Nicknamed The Beast, if you watch him play for a short period of time — you quickly learn why he earned that name.

This guy has had a number of impressive wins over the years, but you could argue that he's put in one of his best performances in 2009 while playing Street Fighter 4.

Early in the year he took out Japanese champion Iyo, Korean champion Poongko and Justin Wong at the Gamestop Nationals. Not satisfied with those victories, he came back and defeated Justin Wong again at the Evolution 2009 Fighting Game Championships to take 1st place.

In Japan, which many people think has the best players on the planet, Daigo has consistently won more than any other player at major events, defeating such greats as Mago, Momochi and Iyo.

There have been tournaments in Japan organized just to see if someone could beat this guy, he's gone overseas to knock the crap out of challengers and simply put, he's been the top Street Fighter 4 player in 2009.

Considering the level of competition and amount of players he's gone up against, this is an exceptional accomplishment.

While there are some competitors very close to Daigo Umehara's level at Street Fighter 4, in most people's eyes, he's still the player to beat.

4. Events and tournaments: 2009 saw some major tournaments take place.

Capcom ran a national competition for Street Fighter 4 which included a bout with some of the best players from around the globe, the Evolution Fighting Game Championships also had another excellent outing and Super Battle Opera in Japan was a big draw again.

Community ran events like Gooteck's Bar Fights, Season Beatings IV in Ohio, the NorCal Regionals, BattleField Arcadia and too many other tournaments to count had some great competitions.

While there have been some great big named events, a lot of smaller communities had good showings too. If you check the weekly EventHubs.com event posting, you'll see tournaments popping up all over states and in some other parts of the world as well.

When all is said and done, 2009 was probably the strongest showing the Street Fighter community has ever had for tournaments.

3. Year of the live streams: It wasn't that long ago that getting text updates as the tournaments were taking place or results days afterwards was the norm, but around spring time of this year everything changed.

Live streams went from being a rare occurrence to actually being EXPECTED from fans. If you didn't have a live stream going for a big event — you got an ear full.

Considering how quickly this changed and how good the quality of most of the streams have been, it's hard to believe the majority of the community took this collective jump forward just a short while ago.

While there have been a lot of tournament organizers and other people stepping up in this regard, a very special mention goes out to the folks working on Frame-Advantage.com. Seb and crew have gone out to more events to provide live coverage for the fans than any other group that I'm aware of, and with the fans demanding more and more coverage, it's awesome to see some people step up and take that challenge on.

2. Mad Catz Tournament Edition FightSticks: Getting a high quality stick built for fighting games was an interesting endeavor before Mad Catz got into the fray.

You'd pay between $180-300 and wait for weeks or months to get your stick. While you got your own custom artwork, you probably didn't get all of the bells and whistles you'd hoped for, unless you built the thing yourself.

There's so many good things I could say about this joystick, but you've probably heard all that before. The biggest thing that stood out to me though was that these have become the most common type of controller at tournaments.

Considering the reputation Mad Catz had before their FightSticks were released and how well regarded these have been by fighting game fans, the people behind this product deserve a gigantic pat on the back for their efforts.

1. Street Fighter IV: This should come as no surprise to anyone who's followed video games this year.

Street Fighter IV has won best fighting game many times, and it's even topped a few best overall game of the year lists.

The developers aimed to make a title that would appeal not only to casual fans, but also hardcore fighting game players. With some notable exceptions, this title has been about as well received as any fighting game ever released.

Players who hadn't touched a Capcom fighter since Street Fighter 2 jumped back into the arena, and old school players who had retired started playing again.

While it's not a perfect game, no other 1 on 1 fighter in recent memory has done more to revitalize this genre than the latest installment from Capcom.

So even if you love it or hate it, you have to give props to Capcom for doing what many people thought was impossible — getting a lot of people interested again in fighting games.