New Footage of The Legendary "Moment 37" Has Been Discovered

More than just remembered, one of the most historic moments in fighting game history has been re-discovered. New footage of "EVO Moment 37" has come to light.

The footage comes from EVO business developer Mark Julio. He was sorting through old tapes and found an alternate viewpoint to the event.
 

Just today... I found a stack of old tapes and discs that we filmed from past fighting game events (early 2000s). Check out this alternate viewpoint from one of the legendary moments in competitive gaming history...

 
Via Twitter

If you want to jump right to the important moment, skip to the two minutes, 30-second mark (2:30).



What IS Moment 37?

EVO Moment 37, sometimes called "Daigo's Parry," is a fight in a Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike semifinal match held at Evolution Championship Series 2004 (EVO). The fight was between Daigo Umehara as Ken and Justin Wong as Chun-Li. The name was given by a tournament organizer to highlight how many exciting moments there are at EVO events.

Why Is It Such A Big Deal?

In the final moments of the fight, Daigo had a single pixel of health left. This meant that absolutely any damage would down him, causing his defeat. Wong had activated Chun-Li's ultimate attack, the "Super Art" move, which is a series of rapid-fire kicks. Instead of blocking and dying to chip damage, Daigo parried all 15 strikes from the Super Art attack, and countered with Ken's Super Art attack, defeating Wong and winning the match.

The reason this is so impressive is because of two things: the difficulty of parrying and that jump he made in the middle. Parrying is a Street Fighter technique whereby attacking at the same exact moment of another attack, you effectively nullify the move. While one of the best defensive tactics, it's extremely difficult to time reliably, especially 15 times in a row.

The other is the jump. Notice that in the middle, Daigo jumps, continuing the parry and transitioning into the Super Art attack? Had he not jumped, he would not have had the time to get that body shot in while he fell. He then would not have had the opportunity to respond reliably with his Super Art.

All in all, it was a tremendously impressive moment, establishing itself as one of the most memorable acts in competitive video games. It's like when Babe Ruth did that Called Shot, but Street Fighter.