The High Drama of the Street Fighter EVO 2015 championships
October 31, 2015 12:08 PM Subscribe
Gamerbee vs. Infiltration. Gamerbee vs. Momochi. Some details inside.
So these matches happened back in July, and I really wanted to make a post about it then, but struggled with the idea of how to frame it in terms of why these matches are so interesting, without getting into spoilers for the results. I couldn't really come up with it in a way that I found adequately balanced between those two concerns, and it fell off my radar. But I just rewatched them this morning, and they're too good not to share. I think the announcers do a great job at framing what's going on within the videos themselves, so hopefully I can make it intriguing enough simply by saying: several people end up in tears (including myself, to my total surprise while watching this live).
EVO is one of the biggest fighting game tournaments in the world, if not the biggest. The players here are Infiltration (South Korea), Gamerbee (Taiwan), and Momochi (Japan).
So these matches happened back in July, and I really wanted to make a post about it then, but struggled with the idea of how to frame it in terms of why these matches are so interesting, without getting into spoilers for the results. I couldn't really come up with it in a way that I found adequately balanced between those two concerns, and it fell off my radar. But I just rewatched them this morning, and they're too good not to share. I think the announcers do a great job at framing what's going on within the videos themselves, so hopefully I can make it intriguing enough simply by saying: several people end up in tears (including myself, to my total surprise while watching this live).
EVO is one of the biggest fighting game tournaments in the world, if not the biggest. The players here are Infiltration (South Korea), Gamerbee (Taiwan), and Momochi (Japan).
I also tried to put together an EVO post but never managed to frame it well enough to pull the trigger, so thanks for doing this!
This year's tourney was tense. There's a bunch of good fights I was going to link, but the most important one was in the Guilty Gear tourney, when Woshige got too excited too early.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 1:00 PM on October 31, 2015 [4 favorites]
This year's tourney was tense. There's a bunch of good fights I was going to link, but the most important one was in the Guilty Gear tourney, when Woshige got too excited too early.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 1:00 PM on October 31, 2015 [4 favorites]
Poongko vs. Onisan was pretty hilarious too.
posted by neuromodulator at 1:09 PM on October 31, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by neuromodulator at 1:09 PM on October 31, 2015 [1 favorite]
Re: Woshige, I have never seen BMing get punished so swiftly. That was an amazing mistake to watch play out.
I don't follow Streetfighter but I've been in proximity to the fighting community for years because of my friend group. I have a question in general: is there anything wild that came out in these notable matches, e.g. playstyles we've never seen before, or maybe a character people rarely play coming out of obscurity to dominate the tournament? Or was this year just a matter of great players turning into godly players, solid flawless combos, etc? Can you guys go into a bit of detail about what specifically was so astonishing?
posted by Snacks at 2:05 PM on October 31, 2015
I don't follow Streetfighter but I've been in proximity to the fighting community for years because of my friend group. I have a question in general: is there anything wild that came out in these notable matches, e.g. playstyles we've never seen before, or maybe a character people rarely play coming out of obscurity to dominate the tournament? Or was this year just a matter of great players turning into godly players, solid flawless combos, etc? Can you guys go into a bit of detail about what specifically was so astonishing?
posted by Snacks at 2:05 PM on October 31, 2015
Snacks:
SPOILERS FOR THE FIRST MATCH
The announcers explain it better than I can, but in the first match I linked above, there's some pretty unexpected gameplay. Gamerbee is known for using Elena and Adon; Infiltration has an unusual (unprecedented?) mastery of many characters. They go into the match with blind character choices, and only the losing player of a game can switch characters. Gamerbee starts with Elena, Infiltration with Chun-Li.
The established meta-game at this point is that Chun-Li is an excellent counter to Elena (which is probably why Infiltration picked her, knowing Gamerbee's probable character choices). Instead, to everyone's surprise, Gamerbee plays an incredible defensive game, using Elena's healing ability to continuously negate Infiltration's lead. It's gruelling to watch, in some ways, because Infiltration is consistently out-damaging Gamerbee, but Chun-Li can't punish the heals sufficiently enough to counter their effectiveness. The first game goes to Gamerbee. You'll watch Infiltration hesitate between games at his opportunity to change characters, and then go into the next game with Chun-Li again. He loses again.
After that game, you'll watch Infiltration take so long deliberating his character selection that the judges bring out a stopwatch and hold it in his field of view. You're watching a professional player with amazing knowledge of characters trying to solve a new problem in real time. He comes up with an unexpected choice that draws cries of astonishment from the crowd - and it pays off. He takes the game. It's an amazing play.
Unfortunately, this puts Gamerbee is the position where only he can switch characters, and now Infiltration's choice works against him. It's over, after amazing performances by both of them, and Gamerbee advances to the finals from the loser's bracket, meaning Momochi can win the tournament in one set of games, but Gamerbee would have to win two. The drama builds.
END SPOILERY SPOILER SPOILERS
posted by neuromodulator at 2:24 PM on October 31, 2015 [7 favorites]
SPOILERS FOR THE FIRST MATCH
The announcers explain it better than I can, but in the first match I linked above, there's some pretty unexpected gameplay. Gamerbee is known for using Elena and Adon; Infiltration has an unusual (unprecedented?) mastery of many characters. They go into the match with blind character choices, and only the losing player of a game can switch characters. Gamerbee starts with Elena, Infiltration with Chun-Li.
The established meta-game at this point is that Chun-Li is an excellent counter to Elena (which is probably why Infiltration picked her, knowing Gamerbee's probable character choices). Instead, to everyone's surprise, Gamerbee plays an incredible defensive game, using Elena's healing ability to continuously negate Infiltration's lead. It's gruelling to watch, in some ways, because Infiltration is consistently out-damaging Gamerbee, but Chun-Li can't punish the heals sufficiently enough to counter their effectiveness. The first game goes to Gamerbee. You'll watch Infiltration hesitate between games at his opportunity to change characters, and then go into the next game with Chun-Li again. He loses again.
After that game, you'll watch Infiltration take so long deliberating his character selection that the judges bring out a stopwatch and hold it in his field of view. You're watching a professional player with amazing knowledge of characters trying to solve a new problem in real time. He comes up with an unexpected choice that draws cries of astonishment from the crowd - and it pays off. He takes the game. It's an amazing play.
Unfortunately, this puts Gamerbee is the position where only he can switch characters, and now Infiltration's choice works against him. It's over, after amazing performances by both of them, and Gamerbee advances to the finals from the loser's bracket, meaning Momochi can win the tournament in one set of games, but Gamerbee would have to win two. The drama builds.
END SPOILERY SPOILER SPOILERS
posted by neuromodulator at 2:24 PM on October 31, 2015 [7 favorites]
Ahh ok that set the stage enough for me. Thanks for the explanation, what an incredible ending!
posted by Snacks at 3:02 PM on October 31, 2015
posted by Snacks at 3:02 PM on October 31, 2015
Oh man, yes, this year had some of the best EVO finals ever (leaving aside the massive anticlimax). All this post needs is some Snake Eyez because WOW that guy knows his way around Zangief
Thank you for this
You are doing the lord's work
posted by DoctorFedora at 3:45 PM on October 31, 2015
Thank you for this
You are doing the lord's work
posted by DoctorFedora at 3:45 PM on October 31, 2015
I make up for a lack of skill at playing Street Fighter by memorizing trivia.
(What's Guile's license plate number? CAP2088)
posted by Faint of Butt at 4:55 PM on October 31, 2015 [1 favorite]
(What's Guile's license plate number? CAP2088)
posted by Faint of Butt at 4:55 PM on October 31, 2015 [1 favorite]
Damn, I was rooting for Gamerbee — I always hated the boring-ass fireball game that people who go hard on the Ken/Ryu axis play.
But it's been long enough — what's with the ultras? Is that like from the Alpha series where you'd have to choose a single super?
posted by klangklangston at 10:28 PM on October 31, 2015
But it's been long enough — what's with the ultras? Is that like from the Alpha series where you'd have to choose a single super?
posted by klangklangston at 10:28 PM on October 31, 2015
Sort of. In SF4 you have a super meter that fills when you attack or take damage, and an ultra meter that only fills when you take damage. You pick your ultra move before the fight, like with supers in 3. Gamerbee is making full use of the fact that if you get hit while charging a focus attack you can recover most of the damage you took (unless you get hit again quickly, which would require Infiltration to change his pattern to something much riskier), while keeping all the ultra power it gave you.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 5:01 AM on November 1, 2015
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 5:01 AM on November 1, 2015
I found my old draft post, with all the videos I was going to link!
Gamasutra article on lessons developers can learn from the Street Fighter tourney
Polygon's highlights
(As of this posting, one video in that article is already a dead link; this is the Melee match they want you to watch.)
This is the full Woshige fight.
And here's all the Top 8 videos, with separate links to the Grand Finals:
Ultra Street Fighter 4. Just the finals.
Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Just the finals.
Super Smash Bros. Melee. Just the finals.
Mortal Kombat X. Just the finals.
Guilty Gear Xrd Sign. Just the finals.
Persona 4 Ultimax. Just the finals.
Killer Instinct. Just the finals.
Super Smash Bros. Wii U. Just the finals.
Tekken 7. Just the finals.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 1:43 PM on November 3, 2015 [3 favorites]
Gamasutra article on lessons developers can learn from the Street Fighter tourney
Polygon's highlights
(As of this posting, one video in that article is already a dead link; this is the Melee match they want you to watch.)
This is the full Woshige fight.
And here's all the Top 8 videos, with separate links to the Grand Finals:
Ultra Street Fighter 4. Just the finals.
Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Just the finals.
Super Smash Bros. Melee. Just the finals.
Mortal Kombat X. Just the finals.
Guilty Gear Xrd Sign. Just the finals.
Persona 4 Ultimax. Just the finals.
Killer Instinct. Just the finals.
Super Smash Bros. Wii U. Just the finals.
Tekken 7. Just the finals.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 1:43 PM on November 3, 2015 [3 favorites]
Damn, Alex Valle's Hugo is terrifying in that Polygon vid.
posted by neuromodulator at 8:50 AM on November 8, 2015
posted by neuromodulator at 8:50 AM on November 8, 2015
Oh man, I remember seeing that Alex Valle Hugo vs. Sagat match live. The most insane part is that that is a REALLY BAD MATCHUP for Hugo overall (not quite Gouken levels of grim despair, but still decidedly uphill at best)
posted by DoctorFedora at 5:37 PM on November 10, 2015
posted by DoctorFedora at 5:37 PM on November 10, 2015
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posted by neuromodulator at 12:12 PM on October 31, 2015