This weekend, Super Arcade hosted Moment 37 Reloaded, a tournament honoring the ten year anniversary of Evo Moment 37, perhaps better known as the Daigo Parry. Everyone who has a background in fighting games can directly quote the commentary in that legendary clip which touches briefly on Daigo’s rare angry play and Justin’s turtle style. Even though the footage is old, the way that the crowd positively explodes when Daigo pulls off the maneuver still gets my blood pumping.
This is what fighting games are all about.
So when Mad Catz’ Daigo Umehara and Evil Genius’ Justin Wong sat down to their first-to-three exhibition in Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike this weekend, it was understandable that everyone wanted to see that legendary moment a second time. The scene was set perfectly: Daigo locked in on Ken and Justin on Chun-Li and they hit the streets of New York City, the same stage in which the original event took place. Of course, James Chen and David “UltraDavid” Graham filled the microphones with their knowledge of the original commentary and the crowd’s energy was absolutely palpable every time Justin filled up a bar of Super meter.
Even though it seemed as though we were all ready, we were not. At around the five minute mark in their set when Daigo actually performed a full parry mid-match and converted it into the same massive punish as a decade prior, the microphones stopped picking up sound. The hype was too much to record.
If you missed the set, you can check out the full video below, but do yourself a favor and at least watch the parry portion. Even if you’ve already seen it. Even if you watched it live. Ten years ago this moment helped to keep the fighting genre alive during its darkest hours. I can only imagine the positive energy that this new moment will bring to the current generation of fighting fans.
For full tournament results as well as additional details surrounding the event, head over to our post covering Moment 37 Reloaded.
Source: Super Arcade