https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evo_Moment_37
"Evo Moment #37", or the "Daigo Parry", refers to 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 parrying 15 consecutive hits of Wong's "Super Art" move while having only one pixel of vitality. Umehara subsequently won the match, though he went on to lose the Grand Final against Kenji "KO" Obata. Evo Moment #37 is frequently described as the most iconic moment in competitive video gaming, having influenced the fighting game community strongly.
In the final round of match 1, 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 pixel of vitality. 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 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 multihit Super Art II move; the Houyoku-sen (鳳翼扇, "fanning phoenix-wing"). However, instead of avoiding it, Umehara chose to "Parry", a high-risk, high-reward technique whereby an incoming attack is blocked without the player losing any health, but doing so requires moving toward opponent's direction in the same time a hit lands, within four of thirty frames of the impact animation – about seven hundredths of a second. Umehara had to predict when his opponent would start his Super Art Move, essentially making the first parry before the move even started. Once the move was launched, Umehara parried all 15 hits 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; Shippuu Jinraikyaku (疾風迅雷脚, "hurricane thunderclap leg") and winning the match.
Justin Wong wrote :
https://www.theplayerstribune.com/en-us/articles/justin-wong-five-toughest-players-ive-faced
There’s such an aura when you sit down next to Daigo. When I play against him, it’s like I can feel his Dragon Ball power level radiating onto me. He’s just so famous, and he’s done so much for the community, and he’s won all these tournaments. He’s the god. And when you play him, you realize you can never get a read on him.
Usually when I sit down next to a player I can run through my flowchart and figure out what they’re trying to do, and then approach the match accordingly. You can never do that with Daigo. You have to play your best game to have a chance against him. Your reactions need to always be on point to counter his. If you take one second to take a breather — boom — you’re done.
I’ve played Daigo a bunch of times, and I’ve never known what to expect. Is he going to go on the offensive? Is he just going to lay back and throw fireballs? If I’m studying matches online, within five matches of watching the same person I can identify all their habits and nuances pretty quickly. But if you watch five Daigo matches, it feels like you’re watching five different players. He’s that good.
Also, I have to mention the Daigo Parry. It’s become the most famous moment in fighting game history.
It was Evo 2004 at Cal State Pomona. Daigo and I were playing to see who would meet KO in the Grand Finals. Everyone there wanted to see me win, and it looked like I was about to when I got Daigo down to one pixel of health. So I popped my super move to finish him, and he parried every single one of my 14 strikes. I was 17 at the time, and when it happened I was just like : This is impossible. Remember, this was before social media. I had never seen anyone do that before. I thought it was a guaranteed win. When he started parrying I just thought : Oh, he’ll mess up eventually.
Yeah, I thought wrong.
He even used the fancy shoryuken to kill me afterwards for the maximum punish. I was just like, “Dude, I’m not even mad. That was sick.”
Daigo watching his own Daigo Moment :
"Evo Moment #37", or the "Daigo Parry", refers to 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 parrying 15 consecutive hits of Wong's "Super Art" move while having only one pixel of vitality. Umehara subsequently won the match, though he went on to lose the Grand Final against Kenji "KO" Obata. Evo Moment #37 is frequently described as the most iconic moment in competitive video gaming, having influenced the fighting game community strongly.
In the final round of match 1, 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 pixel of vitality. 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 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 multihit Super Art II move; the Houyoku-sen (鳳翼扇, "fanning phoenix-wing"). However, instead of avoiding it, Umehara chose to "Parry", a high-risk, high-reward technique whereby an incoming attack is blocked without the player losing any health, but doing so requires moving toward opponent's direction in the same time a hit lands, within four of thirty frames of the impact animation – about seven hundredths of a second. Umehara had to predict when his opponent would start his Super Art Move, essentially making the first parry before the move even started. Once the move was launched, Umehara parried all 15 hits 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; Shippuu Jinraikyaku (疾風迅雷脚, "hurricane thunderclap leg") and winning the match.
Justin Wong wrote :
https://www.theplayerstribune.com/en-us/articles/justin-wong-five-toughest-players-ive-faced
There’s such an aura when you sit down next to Daigo. When I play against him, it’s like I can feel his Dragon Ball power level radiating onto me. He’s just so famous, and he’s done so much for the community, and he’s won all these tournaments. He’s the god. And when you play him, you realize you can never get a read on him.
Usually when I sit down next to a player I can run through my flowchart and figure out what they’re trying to do, and then approach the match accordingly. You can never do that with Daigo. You have to play your best game to have a chance against him. Your reactions need to always be on point to counter his. If you take one second to take a breather — boom — you’re done.
I’ve played Daigo a bunch of times, and I’ve never known what to expect. Is he going to go on the offensive? Is he just going to lay back and throw fireballs? If I’m studying matches online, within five matches of watching the same person I can identify all their habits and nuances pretty quickly. But if you watch five Daigo matches, it feels like you’re watching five different players. He’s that good.
Also, I have to mention the Daigo Parry. It’s become the most famous moment in fighting game history.
It was Evo 2004 at Cal State Pomona. Daigo and I were playing to see who would meet KO in the Grand Finals. Everyone there wanted to see me win, and it looked like I was about to when I got Daigo down to one pixel of health. So I popped my super move to finish him, and he parried every single one of my 14 strikes. I was 17 at the time, and when it happened I was just like : This is impossible. Remember, this was before social media. I had never seen anyone do that before. I thought it was a guaranteed win. When he started parrying I just thought : Oh, he’ll mess up eventually.
Yeah, I thought wrong.
He even used the fancy shoryuken to kill me afterwards for the maximum punish. I was just like, “Dude, I’m not even mad. That was sick.”
Daigo watching his own Daigo Moment :
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