After checking out these bouts, leave a comment below with how you think the play stood up back then to what these guys are doing now in the tournament scene.
Videos recorded by Tempzz.
In that JWong vs Daigo match, JWong relied more on dive-kicking in than he does on pure Rufus footsies and properly placed dive kicks now. Justin also didn't seem to use any of the good Rufus frame traps and he didn't look for/bait out jump backs with jump roundhouse or towards roundhouse.
In Mike Ross vs Justin Wong, Mike seemed to guess-n-pray on his ochios, more so than actually conditioning to land them. He hardly pressured with hands. Now, he does either hands FADC something or jab FADC something, but he didn't do that at all. Relied more on butt stomps and didn't aim his moves as well as he can now. He missed way more EX headbutts than I've seen him miss, and half of them he did from full screen. And no option selects on Rufus dives.
They also didn't really make reads within the setups they had.
This stage always reminds me of fullscreen Heavy SRK into Super, Daigo vs. Iyo.
Ahh before money and esport..when the game was pure. Full screen Dps and Fireballs it looks like an xbox live match by today standards.
*sniffle*
Aaaah the memories; thanks for posting this Catalyst!
This was the first hype SF4 tourney I watched live and is stil probably my favourite!
This could also be what started me coming to this site if I remember rightly, back in the glory days when eventhubs was more like 4chan for fighting game fans, its been a great ride!!
Whatever you think about SF4 as a series, theres no denying the positive things it has done for our community and for so many people it all started here.
I remember when I first went on this website, the Gamestop tournament was the first article I saw. If it weren't for this tournament footage and Eventhubs, fighting games wouldn't be my favourite genre of games. And I would be oblivious to this vibrant and exciting community.
Thank you, Capcom.
Thank you, Catalyst.
Talk about memories. 3rd place was Michigan's own Antwan Ortiz. He was our champ before Wolfkrone started taking all our money and eventually everyone else's money. I played him right at the end at the gamestop right before this main event. I felt so close but so far. That was so much fun.
Personally i thought it was wierd that you posted this up but however instantly i realized what it was just by looking at the thumbnail! this is an instant classic. This here shows how crappy Wong's rufus "WAS back then" compared to now where he does 10 times better but still isnt on the same level as most international players street fighter wise ( mainly japan ). This shows you also just how deadly Daigo can be with a shoto mainly Ryu. As for poongko it shows you he still had sick execution even years ago but just didnt nessisarily play as a character that better suited him named Seth.
Overall i love watching older hype tourneys like this and its thanks to youtube for having all of this available because i got into the scene when someone mentioned a guy name daigo to me and the whole 3S comeback vid. There are so many great matches out there posted but this is a good example of an older one many of us may remember for sure. Thanks for the post.
Man Daigo's Ryu looks like it was a lot more aggressive back then.
The funny thing is, these guys are still the top dawgs. Daigo is the best in Japan, Poongko in Korea, and J.Wong in USA (yeah Wolfkrone some might say, but JWong does play other games, but if he were to concentrate on SF4, I bet he would be #1)
By the way, I like the best out of 7 rounds format being used here. It makes for some interesting comebacks, adaptations, and overall gameplay. They should use this format at evo rather than the one now in place.
I remember this well .. Mainly because of the Iyo- vs Daigo match was a classic. You can see how unbalanaced the match Ryu and Dhalsim is (Justin got owned by Daigo while Umehara struggled against IYO Dhalasim that Wong defeated rather easily with his Rufus)
Also it's seemed so much more fast and agressive. Has for ppl saying that Wong leveled. Actually he's much less impressive than back than . Not many were really good at SF4 at this time outside of Wong and the Japanese player. Wong would completely destroy everyone in the USA and he struggled really only against the good Jap Player. He was still probably at this time better than 95% of what you find on Xbox Live.
I remember this.
I wonder what Vanilla would look like today if Capcom didn't force 3 more versions of the game down our throat and left it alone.
I miss Vanilla arcade. : (
@suprez
The Iyo vs Daigo and Wong vs Iyo comparison isn't really fair, as Rufus was and has always been a bad matchup for Dhalsim too.
Also, you can clearly see that the level of play in these matches aren't up to par with what we see today, so it's not really representable.
But yes, Ryu vs Dhalsim was in Dhalsim's favor. In v2012 however, the matchup seems more even.
Wasn't this tournament played on pad too?
@24 Those 3 versions made for a better game, with more characters. Vanilla was whack, and how it would look, had it been played today? Sagat v Sagat, and Sagat v Ryu every single game, and we'd still be listening to that terrible announcer, and menu music, for these reasons alone, Super was a great idea.
Ahh, the vanilla SF4...I remember at the time when it was released on home consoles and I was so hyped up about it lol. Great times. I remember watching this tourney and it was a good 1. Although, Super is my favourite in Sf4 series, the impact and the feel of vanilla SF4 will always be superior to all the versions of SF4.
These were the videos that got me into competitive SF4. Seeing this kind of environment and wanting to be in one (I'm in Canada so we don't get that kinda hype haha). Also I'm sure these are the videos where people used to think Justin was such a cocky jerk. Can't deny it with some of the stuff he does here (I'm sure he wouldn't have shook Iyo's hand had Iyo not tapped him after he stood awkwardly there for a minute...same with Poongko, Justin kinda just walked right off with a USA chant). He doesn't seem to do it anymore but it's nice to see some hype outside of Evo.
@28, they were, the qualifying rounds were played on the XBox 360 and you had to use their pads. If you were able to make it to the finals, you had the option of stick or pad.
Man this does bring back memories though. I remember when EH put this up the first time around, and its amazing how these players have come a long way since then.
But it's also worth noting that the scene alone has also gotten stronger over the past 3 years with Vanilla, Super, and AE, and newcomers such as Wolfkrone have really outdoing themselves in high level play.
@26 Actually you're wrong about Sagat vs Sagat. Sure there would be a lot of those matches of course. Top tier characters in ANY VERSION will always be the most played. But let's take C. Viper for example. She was BEAST in Vanilla yet no one really dominated with her until guys like Krone and Latiff got their hands on her and had a lot of time to figure everything out.
Menu music and the announcer is a poor excuse for a basis of an argument.
Vanilla was the best version. Daigo plays the same I don't know why his d-riders are clamoring for new footage just watch these vids same fireball spam style. If I played him I would demolish him because he's so easy to read.
@27: Hey, that’s legitimate. If no one else on the planet would play Street Fighter, I would be the best Street Fighter player!
@30 Yeah, the character reveal of Gouken has to be 1 of the best ever for SF series. All this Sheng Long hype was mad lol. In fact, if it wasn't for the Sheng Long hype, Akuma AND Gouken wouldn't even exist in the SF series.
wow, this is nostalgic indeed. i remember this tournament to be the first street fighter one I experienced. I also remember how I disliked the American players, but now they are some of my favorite players lol. I feel like they have matured throughout the years. Also, I can't believe how Rufus' snake strike dealt so much damage!!!