When I was 12 years old and after me and my little friends finished church on Sundays, we would come here. Wow, it was like the happiest time of our week, hearing the Daytona USA music blasting when we walked in. To us little nerdy little Chinese kiddos, it was like what we imagined heaven to be. Who would’ve thought coming in here casually to play Daytona USA, Silent Scope, mashing on buttons in Street Fighter 2 and eventually DDR 3rd Mix Ver. 2 Korean version would turn into a career in Street Fighter 3 3rd Strike.
FFA truly is the Mecca of American 3rd Strike. If it wasn’t for being a 18 year old high school kid, watching Frankie3s parry Elena’s Brave Dancer super high, low, high, low back in 2002 while his girlfriend at the time had just came in and slapped him for flaking on her, I probably would’ve never got into 3rd Strike. I think we should all go on a journey and let Pyrolee & 5 Star tell stories around a campfire. To the bum eating Renic’s In’n’Out fries that were in the trash while I was in the middle of a tournament match, to the time when Daigo, Kokujin, KO, etc graced the arcade, being the first arcade to have commentary and weekly ranking battles, I am still waiting for UCSD SF4 Generals, FFA has always been ahead of its time.
Ralph and FFA has always supported everything the players wanted. I still remember during WC of 3s when Ralph was in the back trying to wire the Japanese cabinet to hook up to an American cabinet just so the Japanese players could play against the American players on the best conditions. As much as it is easy to clown sometimes on FFA for the sticks or buttons not working, we can’t really blame everything on the arcade. Over the years, I realized, wow, this place is making .25 cents per game, how do you even stay in business? I believe in the 1980s, .25 cents was the price per game, so with inflation, it should definitely be .50 cents a game now right?? But of course, if you raise the price, everyone complains and doesn’t play. Add that on to the fact that now Capcom decides to release every arcade game the same time as console and the ridiculous price per board, and an upgrade every single year that requires buying a whole new board, it is pretty hard to stay in business.
Anyway, I hope this last tournament at FFA will be the culmination of our 10 years of practice in 3rd Strike. I hope every player that has ever entered an FFA tourney will show up. Some names I would like to drop:
Black guy who plays 12, Big Moose, Bobby with the fat Mexican girlfriend, Dip$hit Oro, Ninjew Nate, George Posadas, Mayuko Nakajima, The Mashing Hugo Nazi, Old Necro Guy who taunts every chance he gets, Tom C, Kingraoh and Rei, RonStar, All of Ayehood’s Korean homeys, and Blonde girl.
Let’s have a 5on5 tourney too!
They should resurrect a statue of Frankie3s in front of this parking lot.
CROYD and MoPreme go find Frankie 3s and open that back up. Or franchise the name, use it again.
