Community hub
Recent from talks
Contribute something to knowledge base
Content stats: 0 posts, 0 articles, 0 media, 0 notes
Members stats: 0 subscribers, 0 contributors, 0 moderators, 0 supporters
Subscribers
Supporters
Contributors
Moderators
Hub AI
Evo Moment 37 AI simulator
(@Evo Moment 37_simulator)
Hub AI
Evo Moment 37 AI simulator
(@Evo Moment 37_simulator)
Evo Moment 37
"Evo Moment #37", or the "Daigo Parry", is a portion of a Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike semifinal match held at Evolution Championship Series 2004 (Evo 2004) between Daigo Umehara and Justin Wong. During this match, Umehara made an unexpected comeback by countering 15 consecutive hits of Wong's "Super Art" move with only one remaining unit of health. Umehara subsequently won the match, though he went on to lose the Grand Final against Kenji "KO" Obata. Evo Moment #37 has been described as the most iconic moment in competitive video gaming, having influenced the fighting game community strongly.
The Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike finals of Evo 2004 took place at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona on August 1. Daigo "The Beast" Umehara and Justin Wong, two of the best Street Fighter players at the time, had never played against one another until that point. Despite this, the two were already known for having a supposed rivalry with each other due to their differences in gaming philosophies. Street Fighter was the only game to still be played on traditional arcade cabinets at this Evo, all other games being played on home consoles. Umehara and Wong met one another in the loser's finals of the tournament. Here, Umehara opted to play using Ken, while Wong picked Chun-Li.
In the final round of match one, after each player had won a round, Umehara got off to a weak start as Wong was playing conservatively, slowly chipping away on Umehara's life bar. Rolling Stone described Wong's behavior during this match as "the antithesis of Umehara's aggressive approach" and stated that video of the match shows that Wong's turtling was effective in "getting under his [Umehara's] skin." Match commentator and Capcom employee Seth Killian commentated that "this is rare footage of Daigo actually angry ... Justin's turtle-style now on the verge of putting Daigo down." Umehara's Ken was down to his last unit of health. With 26 seconds remaining, Wong had the option to run out the clock, but he was eager to end the match.
At this point, any special attack would knock Umehara's character out if it connected, since special attacks deal a slight amount of damage even when blocked. To win the round, Wong attempted to hit Umehara's Ken with Chun-Li's Super Art II move, able to hit multiple times; the Hoyokusen (鳳翼扇, hōyokusen; "Phoenix Wing Fan"). However, instead of avoiding it, Umehara chose to "Parry", a high-risk, high-reward technique which allows the defender to block an incoming attack without losing any health, but requires moving toward the opponent's direction in the same time a hit lands, within six frames (0.1 seconds at 60 frames per second) of the impact animation. Umehara had to predict when his opponent would start his Super Art Move, essentially making the first parry before the move even started, and then perform the same split-second timing on all 14 of the remaining hits. Umehara did so successfully, and went on to counter a final kick of Chun-Li in mid-air before launching a 12-hit combo, capped by Ken's Super Art III; Shippu Jinraikyaku (疾風迅雷脚, shippū jinraikyaku; "Hurricane Swift Thunder Leg"), winning the match.
GamePro and Eurogamer pointed out how the moment was elevated by the "euphoric" reaction of the crowd, which erupted in cheers and shouts as Umehara parried Wong's moves and turned the game around. Umehara went on to lose in the Grand Final to Kenji "KO" Obata, playing as Yun.
One of the tournament organizers and the primary ring announcer, Ben Cureton, was asked to create a highlight video of the "Daigo Parry" after the tournament was completed. Cureton uploaded the video under the title "Evo Moment #37", picking an arbitrary two-digit number to represent the highlight. In the book Evo Moment #37, Glenn Cravens wrote that:
Obviously, it's the No. 1 highlight, but in picking a number like 37, it would signal to the viewer who wasn't there that there were many incredible moments like the "Daigo parry." He wanted to make sure people didn't miss out on Evolution 2005 coming next year.
A previously unnoticed recording of the match was discovered by Evo business developer and Tekken brand and community advisor Mark "MarkMan" Julio in 2019, lying amid a stack of old tapes and discs. Recorded by Ace R., this video is filmed from a different viewpoint and includes distinct live reactions of the people in the crowd. MarkMan uploaded this video on YouTube in April 2019.
Evo Moment 37
"Evo Moment #37", or the "Daigo Parry", is a portion of a Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike semifinal match held at Evolution Championship Series 2004 (Evo 2004) between Daigo Umehara and Justin Wong. During this match, Umehara made an unexpected comeback by countering 15 consecutive hits of Wong's "Super Art" move with only one remaining unit of health. Umehara subsequently won the match, though he went on to lose the Grand Final against Kenji "KO" Obata. Evo Moment #37 has been described as the most iconic moment in competitive video gaming, having influenced the fighting game community strongly.
The Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike finals of Evo 2004 took place at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona on August 1. Daigo "The Beast" Umehara and Justin Wong, two of the best Street Fighter players at the time, had never played against one another until that point. Despite this, the two were already known for having a supposed rivalry with each other due to their differences in gaming philosophies. Street Fighter was the only game to still be played on traditional arcade cabinets at this Evo, all other games being played on home consoles. Umehara and Wong met one another in the loser's finals of the tournament. Here, Umehara opted to play using Ken, while Wong picked Chun-Li.
In the final round of match one, after each player had won a round, Umehara got off to a weak start as Wong was playing conservatively, slowly chipping away on Umehara's life bar. Rolling Stone described Wong's behavior during this match as "the antithesis of Umehara's aggressive approach" and stated that video of the match shows that Wong's turtling was effective in "getting under his [Umehara's] skin." Match commentator and Capcom employee Seth Killian commentated that "this is rare footage of Daigo actually angry ... Justin's turtle-style now on the verge of putting Daigo down." Umehara's Ken was down to his last unit of health. With 26 seconds remaining, Wong had the option to run out the clock, but he was eager to end the match.
At this point, any special attack would knock Umehara's character out if it connected, since special attacks deal a slight amount of damage even when blocked. To win the round, Wong attempted to hit Umehara's Ken with Chun-Li's Super Art II move, able to hit multiple times; the Hoyokusen (鳳翼扇, hōyokusen; "Phoenix Wing Fan"). However, instead of avoiding it, Umehara chose to "Parry", a high-risk, high-reward technique which allows the defender to block an incoming attack without losing any health, but requires moving toward the opponent's direction in the same time a hit lands, within six frames (0.1 seconds at 60 frames per second) of the impact animation. Umehara had to predict when his opponent would start his Super Art Move, essentially making the first parry before the move even started, and then perform the same split-second timing on all 14 of the remaining hits. Umehara did so successfully, and went on to counter a final kick of Chun-Li in mid-air before launching a 12-hit combo, capped by Ken's Super Art III; Shippu Jinraikyaku (疾風迅雷脚, shippū jinraikyaku; "Hurricane Swift Thunder Leg"), winning the match.
GamePro and Eurogamer pointed out how the moment was elevated by the "euphoric" reaction of the crowd, which erupted in cheers and shouts as Umehara parried Wong's moves and turned the game around. Umehara went on to lose in the Grand Final to Kenji "KO" Obata, playing as Yun.
One of the tournament organizers and the primary ring announcer, Ben Cureton, was asked to create a highlight video of the "Daigo Parry" after the tournament was completed. Cureton uploaded the video under the title "Evo Moment #37", picking an arbitrary two-digit number to represent the highlight. In the book Evo Moment #37, Glenn Cravens wrote that:
Obviously, it's the No. 1 highlight, but in picking a number like 37, it would signal to the viewer who wasn't there that there were many incredible moments like the "Daigo parry." He wanted to make sure people didn't miss out on Evolution 2005 coming next year.
A previously unnoticed recording of the match was discovered by Evo business developer and Tekken brand and community advisor Mark "MarkMan" Julio in 2019, lying amid a stack of old tapes and discs. Recorded by Ace R., this video is filmed from a different viewpoint and includes distinct live reactions of the people in the crowd. MarkMan uploaded this video on YouTube in April 2019.