Month: November 2016

Every time we turn around, a new fighting game challenger appears that threatens to kill off older titles. To most players in the mainstream FGC, Super Street Fighter II Turbo is considered a dead game. With no official support from Evo, and the main efforts to keep the game alive coming from individuals rather than developers and events, the game does not appear in the public eye as often as the likes of Street Fighter V.

To borrow a Mark Twain quote, “The reports of Super Turbo’s death are greatly exaggerated.”

By now, there are no surprises from Super Street Fighter II Turbo. The game is 22 years old, and the work of spaghetti code from previous iterations of the Street Fighter II series. There are many glitches and imbalances that can frustrate even seasoned players of the game. Yes, SSF2T has inescapable situations that, when executed perfectly, assuredly end in you feeding the cabinet more quarters.

Yet, there are still legions of fans and players. And though it is older than most players entering the fighting game scene with Street Fighter V as their gateway, it is still attracting new players. The game attracts as diverse an audience as any other fighting game title, and the Super Street Fighter II Turbo event at Canada Cup was no exception.

In a city where weekly Super Turbo tournaments range from eight to fourteen entrants, Canada Cup went from around 40 players last year to a whopping 73 players in 2016. Fighters converged into Toronto for the biggest Super Turbo tournament in quite some time, hailing from Southern California, New York, Illinois, Ohio, Alberta, Quebec, Nova Scotia, Ontario, and even as far as France and Japan. Three absolute legends of the game in Japan–Mattsun, Shougatsu, and Kusumondo–made their presence felt immediately in the hall.

It was a tournament as big as anyone could have predicted for the aging title. “I am used to going to an ST event and knowing every single person who entered. So this tournament was a big flip where I barely knew anyone,” said Enzo “Man0” Ibarra, a Toronto Super Turbo mainstay.

How did a city like Toronto come to host such a large-scale event for an archaic game such as this? Part of this could be attributed to how central it is for travel compared to the west coast and east coast of the United States, with direct flights from many places. However, a large part of this success could be attributed to David “Atari” Bibona, who has been running the weekly events in Toronto for several months, as well as rallying Toronto players to make it out to various Super Turbo events in the United States.

Bibona put a lot of muscle behind his hustle with the organization of Canada Cup, which led to the RSVP of Mattsun and the Japanese contingent. The attraction of Japanese gods of the game led to the entire house of cards being built up, confirming players from many more regions to test their mettle against the best of the best.

Having the Japanese players there did so much more to fire up the North American scene than we have seen in recent times. Even on Friday, before the actual tournament started on Saturday, the hype was palpable throughout the corner of the room that was delegated to ST. Watching Kenny “Unessential” Ng, a Toronto Chun-Li main and arguably the #1 player in the city, beat Mattsun and Shougatsu in his first matches against them showed that the tournament was not going to be a runaway. Watching the high level of matches in an impromptu 4 team 5 vs. 5 tournament that same night said that we were in for a treat.

The players and spectators that paid attention on Saturday were not at all disappointed. Says Ng, who narrowly missed out on top 8 at the event, “It was like no tournament I’ve ever experienced before! The top 8 definitely was worth all the work.”

There was immediately drama and excitement with every match. From start to finish, everyone came to play and win, and no one went home without a massive fight. My experience ended with a 3-2 record, losing a solid match to Shougatsu on stream, then losing by a narrow margin to RPGv2 in a match where we both could agree that it was one of the best either of us had ever played.

There were many stories like this, with players having their dreams crushed by legends, or losing by the slimmest of margins. Such is the life of a Super Turbo player.

The top 8 featured three Americans, two Canadians, and all three Japanese legends in a heated battle that even pulled James Chen away from his Street Fighter V commentary post to do commentary for the tournament.

“I knew if I was on break from Street Fighter V,” said Chen of his decision to switch games, “I’d be happy to do it. When I walked up, Tania [“Killer” Miller] was on commentary and she basically jumped right off so I could get on. I was super happy to do it because I was hype for Kusumondo, Shougatsu, and Mattsun.”

Winners Side: damdai (United States – O.Ryu), Shougatsu (Japan – O.Honda), Kusumondo (Japan – E. Honda), Mattsun (Japan – Ken)

Losers Side: LordJimmyBones (Canada – Boxer), EG Justin Wong (United States – O.Sagat), Thelo (Canada – E. Honda), eltrouble (United States – Dhalsim)

While most of these players were unknown prior to this event, they proved the skill gap was narrow. Says Eugene “eltrouble” Lin, who ultimately lost to Quebec player Thelo in a stunning upset, “This was basically an Evo-level event for the ST scene. We had 3 special Japanese players, several from New York, three from Southern California, Indiana, Cleveland, Chicago, etc.. as well as local Canadians from Toronto and Montréal all representing here.”

Lin was not exaggerating in his statement. Of the twelve sets played in the top 8, six of them went down to the final game and final round. Many of these went down to mere pixels of health bar. It was a spectator’s dream. Andrew “drewface” Nguyen, a Toronto native who was unable to play due to work obligations at the event, said of spectating, “The Super Turbo Event at Canada Cup was nothing short of magnificent. To see the root of fighting games endure and still provide the timeless moments and hype 20-some odd years later was heartwarming. It’s still drawing numbers in a sparse competitive area like Canada. I don’t think Super Turbo can ever die after Canada Cup.”

There were many things to be had in watching the event. At one point, it had appeared that the two-decade old game still had tech to be revealed; in grand finals, Kusumondo had seemingly used E. Honda’s sweep to go under a Ken fireball from Mattsun. It was later discovered to be a long-known glitch regarding Ken’s super which caused the last special he had used to come out without a hitbox. Regardless, the entire room was found screaming, and even the competitors knew that something huge had just happened.

In the end, after a long and arduous battle, which ended shortly after Street Fighter V sealed its own top 8, Super Turbo ended with Mattsun winning in one of the biggest nail-biters anyone spectating had ever seen.

“Kusumondo is ridiculous,” waxed Chen regarding the grand finals. “There’s no way he should have been able to be that close against a world-class Ken like Mattsun, but towards the end, it almost looked like Ken vs. Honda wasn’t that bad! Kusumondo is the best, and I loved his energy and excitement as well.”

Super Street Fighter II Turbo Results:

1. Mattsun (N.Ken)
2. Kusumondo (N.Honda)
3. Shougatsu (O.Honda, N.Honda)
4. damdai (O.Ryu)
5. Thelo (N.Honda)
5. EG Justin Wong (O.Sagat)
7. eltrouble (Dhalsim)
7. LordJimmyBones (Boxer)

After the trophy was hoisted, the community took a grand picture. 70 players all huddled around, united in their love for one of the games that paved the way to what the FGC has become. Hugs and handshakes were exchanged, new friendships were formed, and new rivalries were kindled. Says Michael “Triforce Legend” Streat, a newcomer to Super Turbo who recently starting learning the game after first playing Street Fighter IV and V, “It was cool seeing all these really good players in one spot. I learned a lot of stuff there that I’m definitely going to try and implement.”

And the old man’s game still finds a way to be relevant. And to concur with Nguyen, may Super Turbo never die.

The full top 8 may be viewed below.

[Feature image: the Canada Cup ST community in attendance]

Every time we turn around, a new fighting game challenger appears that threatens to kill off older titles. To most players in the mainstream FGC, Super Street Fighter II Turbo is considered a dead game. With no official support from Evo, and the main efforts to keep the game alive coming from individuals rather than developers and events, the game does not appear in the public eye as often as the likes of Street Fighter V.

To borrow a Mark Twain quote, “The reports of Super Turbo’s death are greatly exaggerated.”

By now, there are no surprises from Super Street Fighter II Turbo. The game is 22 years old, and the work of spaghetti code from previous iterations of the Street Fighter II series. There are many glitches and imbalances that can frustrate even seasoned players of the game. Yes, SSF2T has inescapable situations that, when executed perfectly, assuredly end in you feeding the cabinet more quarters.

Yet, there are still legions of fans and players. And though it is older than most players entering the fighting game scene with Street Fighter V as their gateway, it is still attracting new players. The game attracts as diverse an audience as any other fighting game title, and the Super Street Fighter II Turbo event at Canada Cup was no exception.

In a city where weekly Super Turbo tournaments range from eight to fourteen entrants, Canada Cup went from around 40 players last year to a whopping 73 players in 2016. Fighters converged into Toronto for the biggest Super Turbo tournament in quite some time, hailing from Southern California, New York, Illinois, Ohio, Alberta, Quebec, Nova Scotia, Ontario, and even as far as France and Japan. Three absolute legends of the game in Japan–Mattsun, Shougatsu, and Kusumondo–made their presence felt immediately in the hall.

It was a tournament as big as anyone could have predicted for the aging title. “I am used to going to an ST event and knowing every single person who entered. So this tournament was a big flip where I barely knew anyone,” said Enzo “Man0” Ibarra, a Toronto Super Turbo mainstay.

How did a city like Toronto come to host such a large-scale event for an archaic game such as this? Part of this could be attributed to how central it is for travel compared to the west coast and east coast of the United States, with direct flights from many places. However, a large part of this success could be attributed to David “Atari” Bibona, who has been running the weekly events in Toronto for several months, as well as rallying Toronto players to make it out to various Super Turbo events in the United States.

Bibona put a lot of muscle behind his hustle with the organization of Canada Cup, which led to the RSVP of Mattsun and the Japanese contingent. The attraction of Japanese gods of the game led to the entire house of cards being built up, confirming players from many more regions to test their mettle against the best of the best.

Having the Japanese players there did so much more to fire up the North American scene than we have seen in recent times. Even on Friday, before the actual tournament started on Saturday, the hype was palpable throughout the corner of the room that was delegated to ST. Watching Kenny “Unessential” Ng, a Toronto Chun-Li main and arguably the #1 player in the city, beat Mattsun and Shougatsu in his first matches against them showed that the tournament was not going to be a runaway. Watching the high level of matches in an impromptu 4 team 5 vs. 5 tournament that same night said that we were in for a treat.

The players and spectators that paid attention on Saturday were not at all disappointed. Says Ng, who narrowly missed out on top 8 at the event, “It was like no tournament I’ve ever experienced before! The top 8 definitely was worth all the work.”

There was immediately drama and excitement with every match. From start to finish, everyone came to play and win, and no one went home without a massive fight. My experience ended with a 3-2 record, losing a solid match to Shougatsu on stream, then losing by a narrow margin to RPGv2 in a match where we both could agree that it was one of the best either of us had ever played.

There were many stories like this, with players having their dreams crushed by legends, or losing by the slimmest of margins. Such is the life of a Super Turbo player.

The top 8 featured three Americans, two Canadians, and all three Japanese legends in a heated battle that even pulled James Chen away from his Street Fighter V commentary post to do commentary for the tournament.

“I knew if I was on break from Street Fighter V,” said Chen of his decision to switch games, “I’d be happy to do it. When I walked up, Tania [“Killer” Miller] was on commentary and she basically jumped right off so I could get on. I was super happy to do it because I was hype for Kusumondo, Shougatsu, and Mattsun.”

Winners Side: damdai (United States – O.Ryu), Shougatsu (Japan – O.Honda), Kusumondo (Japan – E. Honda), Mattsun (Japan – Ken)

Losers Side: LordJimmyBones (Canada – Boxer), EG Justin Wong (United States – O.Sagat), Thelo (Canada – E. Honda), eltrouble (United States – Dhalsim)

While most of these players were unknown prior to this event, they proved the skill gap was narrow. Says Eugene “eltrouble” Lin, who ultimately lost to Quebec player Thelo in a stunning upset, “This was basically an Evo-level event for the ST scene. We had 3 special Japanese players, several from New York, three from Southern California, Indiana, Cleveland, Chicago, etc.. as well as local Canadians from Toronto and Montréal all representing here.”

Lin was not exaggerating in his statement. Of the twelve sets played in the top 8, six of them went down to the final game and final round. Many of these went down to mere pixels of health bar. It was a spectator’s dream. Andrew “drewface” Nguyen, a Toronto native who was unable to play due to work obligations at the event, said of spectating, “The Super Turbo Event at Canada Cup was nothing short of magnificent. To see the root of fighting games endure and still provide the timeless moments and hype 20-some odd years later was heartwarming. It’s still drawing numbers in a sparse competitive area like Canada. I don’t think Super Turbo can ever die after Canada Cup.”

There were many things to be had in watching the event. At one point, it had appeared that the two-decade old game still had tech to be revealed; in grand finals, Kusumondo had seemingly used E. Honda’s sweep to go under a Ken fireball from Mattsun. It was later discovered to be a long-known glitch regarding Ken’s super which caused the last special he had used to come out without a hitbox. Regardless, the entire room was found screaming, and even the competitors knew that something huge had just happened.

In the end, after a long and arduous battle, which ended shortly after Street Fighter V sealed its own top 8, Super Turbo ended with Mattsun winning in one of the biggest nail-biters anyone spectating had ever seen.

“Kusumondo is ridiculous,” waxed Chen regarding the grand finals. “There’s no way he should have been able to be that close against a world-class Ken like Mattsun, but towards the end, it almost looked like Ken vs. Honda wasn’t that bad! Kusumondo is the best, and I loved his energy and excitement as well.”

Super Street Fighter II Turbo Results:

1. Mattsun (N.Ken)
2. Kusumondo (N.Honda)
3. Shougatsu (O.Honda, N.Honda)
4. damdai (O.Ryu)
5. Thelo (N.Honda)
5. EG Justin Wong (O.Sagat)
7. eltrouble (Dhalsim)
7. LordJimmyBones (Boxer)

After the trophy was hoisted, the community took a grand picture. 70 players all huddled around, united in their love for one of the games that paved the way to what the FGC has become. Hugs and handshakes were exchanged, new friendships were formed, and new rivalries were kindled. Says Michael “Triforce Legend” Streat, a newcomer to Super Turbo who recently starting learning the game after first playing Street Fighter IV and V, “It was cool seeing all these really good players in one spot. I learned a lot of stuff there that I’m definitely going to try and implement.”

And the old man’s game still finds a way to be relevant. And to concur with Nguyen, may Super Turbo never die.

The full top 8 may be viewed below.

[Feature image: the Canada Cup ST community in attendance]