This is the last match of the same Hyper Fighting tournament i spotlighted a few days ago, which is interesting because it’s the same matchup in reverse, with watts playing Guile now.
players: Eric Choi (Ryu, Ken) vs Mike “watts” Watson (Guile)
observations:
Comparing both matchvids side-by-side, you get a pretty good idea of what the Guile vs Shoto matchup should look like from both viewpoints. While most of Ryu’s damage comes from finding openings to establish offensive mixups, most of Guile’s damage comes from gradual attrition. Although Eric Choi lands two knockdowns in the first round, he’s unable to capitalize with any serious threat. In the end, he never gets a good read on Watson’s Sonic Boom patterns and simply runs out time. Watson’s spacing is way too good in this game.
game: Street Fighter II’ Hyper Fighting (Arcade)
venue: Cal Poly Pomona Hyper Fighting Tournament – Grand Finals
recorded on February 24th, 2007
I read a conversation where watts was playing Hyper Fighting during some past UFC bout. I think it was Lesner’s comeback after recovering from that illness he had. Either way, the man recounting this experience is one of the more talented Hyper Fighting Guile players I know, he says watts makes the match feel like a 7-3.
Hyper Fighting is pretty fun, the footage makes me wonder when the tournament was ran and why.
When being “What fighting game era”, so to speak. I was in Iraq in 2007, reason being.
I’m not really sure. As far as i remember it was a totally random side tournament and Watson just happened to be there so he entered without having practiced. It wasn’t a regular thing and as far as i know they didn’t hold another one like it.
There’s an old SRK thread about it but it’s pretty empty. In fact there was an earlier match between Watson and Eric Choi where watts played Dhalsim. The only reason i know this one was the finals is because of the u2b playlist order (which doesn’t even work anymore).
Although some of the comments in this video make it sound like the tournament was ending because the arcade was closing. It might have even been a 3/5 match that didn’t get finished for that reason (plus it kinda sounds like Eric Choi threw in the towel after that Guile/Ken massacre).
I don’t know if he was at Evo this year, but I was hoping to see him on the Hyper Fighting cab Bernie had toward the back. Was not to be. It was such an odd atmosphere because to see Street Fighter II nestled between BlazBlue, Guilty Gear, Melty Blood, and the beta for Skull Girls was so surreal to me. Those games make for such diametric opposites when compared to SF2. Sometimes you could hear the usual projectile hatred, but the interest was what was funny. Mizuki is always a surprise, but I knew he played SFII since NEC so that’s kind of cheating.
Aside from that, on the subject of Guile victimizing players, Sanford stopped by the cab. He didn’t know about that Guile CPS chain from short to fierce and got hit by it in a meaty set up. That’s one of those combos that hurts the pride as well as your lifebar, lol. Didn’t see him after that, but I imagine it was mostly because of Super IV and Marvel, so I imagine it was more painful having to walk away from the loss rather than stick it out for that salty match.