How a Single Moment in a Street Fighter Tournament Changed Fighting Games Forever

In 2004, at the Evo Championship, the audience witnessed history in front of their eyes. Being one of the biggest fighting game tournaments back in the day, the Evo Championship attracted some of the greatest talents in the world, including the legendary Street Fighter pro, Daigo Umehara, who did what was believed to be “impossible”. 

In the Evo 2004, Diago faced another legendary player, Justin Wong. In the battle of the giants, the audience held their breaths, knowing very well they were going to witness something mind-blowing. However, what they saw back then is still deemed “unbelievable”. The legendary instance that changed fighting games forever was named Evo Moment 37. 

What is the famous Evo Moment 37?

Back in 2004, during the Evo Championship for Street Fighter 3: 3rd Strike, two legends, Daigo Umehara and Justin Wong faced each other. During their match, Diago parried Justin’s Chun-Li special, which has the reputation to be the most terrifying move in Street Fighter games. Seeing Diago parry the ‘unparryable’ move at Evo 2004, the community named the moment, Evo Moment 37. 

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Street Fighter 3: 3rd Strike holds a very special place for the fans of the series. During 2004, fighting games were losing the interest of the players. Being a genre heavily dependent on Arcade cabinets back then, the loss of pay-and-play systems all over the world influenced the scene quite a bit.

How did Evo Moment influence the Street Fighter franchise? 

Street Fighter 3: 3rd Strike was one of the few games that kept the genre alive. It was also revolutionary for the franchise. It introduced the parrying system in the series. With a perfectly timed command, players can cancel their opponent’s moves. However, pulling off a perfect parry is much more difficult than it seems. 

While parrying fireballs and other slow projectiles are comparatively easy, parrying multi-hit attacks such as Ken’s Shoryuken (3 hits) are very hard, and moves like Chun-Li’s special (17 hits) are almost impossible. But not for Legendary Diago, who not only parried all 17 hits but also won the match with only a few drops of life left. 

This feat changed fighting games forever. Capcom understood the potential of parrying and fleshed it out more in future games. After witnessing the moment, fans all around the world got inspired to hone the skill to a new level and help make the pro-fighting games scene reach the level it is today. 

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