Unleashing the Beast

As someone who is a fan of most competitive games and generally concerned about balance related issues in them, I often search out and watch e-sport type videos scattered on the realms of the net. At the moment they are usually concerned with fighting games, first person shooters and a little game called 'LoL', but there was a time when I would look for videos concerning other game types too (e.g. RTS, racing etc). I am not the sort of person that will meticulously analyse these videos as a method of improving my game as, to be honest, I don't really take gaming THAT seriously. It's a fun hobby which just happens to be related to my chosen career path, one that is looking more bleak every day in this country. If I learn a tip or two then sweet. Otherwise, my reasons for looking for these types of videos are purely for their entertainment value.

Fighting games currently take the cake for being the most entertaining as they show the most direct, in your face PvP action a game can offer. Once you understand the basic mechanics of a game like SFIV, its not hard to get excited about what is happening on screen as well.

The following video is time formatted to show only the relevant section (i.e. not 10+ mins).


Daigo Umehara, the fellow sitting on the left-hand side playing as Ryu, is considered Japan's best player. For those of you who don't understand what happened, he basically used Dhalsim's (stretchy arm dude) greater range to his own advantage, uppercutting his arms at max range and buffering into a super. Incredibly tricky and risky stuff. He is constantly pulling shit like this in these sort of tournaments, surprising (mainly) the western scene with moves people never even thought of. Also while of course, in typical Daigo fashion, remaining perfectly calm about it (-_-). His best example would be his fight against Justin Wong at Evo 2004, parrying a full Chun-li Super at 1 hitpoint. Most people nowadays have already seen this video, as it is considered a legendary moment in gaming, referenced (jokingly) on shows like Pure Pwnage and the like. If you haven't seen it, I would highly recommend looking it up.

Yes, this is an 'awesome sauce' post.