that was the most boring story i ever heard
Buktooth ruuuuuuuuuuuuuuules!
crazy :looney:
wat?
How to piss John Choi Off-
#1 Bring him a soda when he asked for some “water or something”
So like we’re in Seth’s Shadaloo apt. somewhere hidden and I went with some heads to a gas station on foot…
Now the convenience store was closed but the cashier box was open so yours truly was playing charades with the clerk for about 20 mins to get all our orders…
yes I got Choi a Mt. Dew which he replied-
OMG I ASKED FOR SOME FUCKING WATER WHAT THE HELL IS THIS!?!?!?
good times
I’ll weigh in on the 97 tourney when we gots some footage to share, though that tournament was bomb. IIRC, Choi sent me to losers, and then beat me again in Grand Finals to make sure I knew I was second place. Damned Koreans.
1994:
(book incoming):
The loudmouth UIUC crew from alt.games.sf2 had been breaking hearts in and around Illinois for a few years since powering up and mastering the dark arts of the cheap throw. I believe our crew was Ben Hayek (seen repeatedly in these videos, but mislabeled here and in the Gamepro mag as “Eddie Ferrier,” who is a lot fatter and a lot better at Mortal Kombat), Eu-Ming Lee (grandaddy of alt.games.sf2 and inventor (it’s true, look it up!) of Zangief’s Magic Throw (the “MP2D”)), Caine Schneider, and myself.
We’d played and crushed comp at some smaller local tournaments (at “Just Games” instead of “Super Just Games”!), but I think this was my first big tournament. You can spot my head (w/awesome haircut) at the right side of the screen @1:29 in the very first video.
We drove up and the atmosphere was ELECTRIC. The giant lines swirling around 10 machines, rumors of players from around the country, and I could not WAIT to push through the crowds to get my money up and take my shot. To this day this is a thrill I wish I could explain to post-arcade players–there is no gaming joy like walking in off the street into unfamiliar territory, putting your money up, rocking everyone, and walking back into the night. Pure magic. Anyway I waded into the middle of the crowd, and as soon as I could squeeze up to the front, I picked the machine with the meanest looking asian kid and took him down. Damned Koreans.
This was the first match of what was one of the best runs of my life, playing for almost 2 straight hours undefeated. I played Dhalsim, and only left because I had to pee so bad I couldn’t take it anymore. Ming even stopped by to laugh because he had heard some scrubs talking about the unbeatable Dhalsim guy (he was laughing because the UIUC players knew I was pretty far from unbeatable).
Sadly, this pre-tourney session was the highlight of my tournament. I did end up making it into the “finals” (brackets reset at final 16 IIRC), but fell prey to a bad habit I have even now–experimenting with new stuff DURING a tournament match. It was none other than Jesse Howard himself who eliminated me, and I learned an important lesson about Dhalsim’s st. jab vs a high jumping fierce from Ken. Why did I choose to stop sliding, which is 100% air defense from that range? Because I’m a scientist, goddamnit. Or maybe just an idiot. Or maybe a little of both.
Although I lost, I was hooked on tournament life FOREVER. This was also the beginning of a “Seth vs Jesse” rivalry that spanned the many years of MWC final rounds to come…
PS- In addition to Dave Spence, one other uber old-schooler that was at this tournament that nobody has yet mentioned is Brian Odom, the tall-ass, beret-wearing, black Cammy player. Nice guy!
Note: My old SF buddy from Champaign, Ben Hayek (aka Eddie Ferrier in these vids) is a great player although he cracked a bit (like the rest of us) under the stress of the tourney and underperformed a bit, finishing 7th or 9th. He actually returned to EVO I believe 2 or 3 years ago, and ended up 9th place in the ST tournament, beating Jason Nelson.
This is less a brag on behalf of Ben than it is a testament to the glorious, wide, and deep world of SF players. There are so many great ones out there that nobody has ever heard of–thanks again to Jesse for sharing this artifact and giving us a chance to share some history.
xo,
Seth
Do any of you guys still have the T-shirts from the tourney?
seth: you mean left side? looking all youthful and hunky… <3
/me awaits 97 mwc footage
actually from what i remember seth your buddy placed 3rd right behind me and jesse and my buddy steve, also from cali, took 4th. i have the magazine somewhere and ill look it up, but im pretty sure he got 3rd with vega only losing to me and jesse throughout.
I’ve been looking around the internet for (Jake and Alex); I’m not sure if this link is Alex Medina (he says he likes SF2, and since he was 14 in 1994, he should be 28 or 29 now), maybe someone who uses Myspace can figure it out? If so, send a message so he can see this thread and maybe even post in it.
Oh yah baby!! Shrunk and torn, but still got it!!!
And Mike I think you’re right. Ben did end up getting 3rd with Warwick getting 4th.
Jesse I sent you a pm bro
Awesome old school footage. I suprised Thomas Osaki didnt enter this tourney
That was you to the left of me there when I was leaving the machine, I knew it. Seth truly does put the S in sexy, even back then.
So Ben did get 3rd in the tournament? Was the picture or the name incorrect in Gamepro? Clearly the pic is not Eddie Ferrier.
-wes
I’m pretty sure that’s not Alex. It doesn’t sound like him. Last I heard he moved to Las Vegas and doesn’t really play SF any more.
-wes
just jacked this pic from another thread but found it funny and fitting!
TWITCHY for the win! He was by far the best part of that tournament. If I remember right his Dad was there with him for the whole tournament and he ate a pbj bagged lunch that was also brought by pops. I can’t recall who all came with me, omar,paul, and gary maybe i ferget.
I do remember after watching twitchys robotic yang tatics that it started my “III free and lovin life campaign” ha good shit.
and didn’t Psi steal some chair out of his hotel room and it was found out he’s some kinda clepto?
OH SHIT RANDOM thought…
Jason mother fucking Malone was suppose to show up to play me in some Alpha 2 or something and he never showed and after the tournament we get back home and go irc or something to find out “he was killed in a car accident on the way to the tournament” and i was all freaked out and shit and sent mother fuckin flowers to his mother fuckin house then like a Year later I go to some random PHilly comic book store ST tournament and fucking Malone walks in (Or so i thought) and I was like “wtF dude i thought u died?!” and Malone PRETENDS to be Jasons TWIN and that he really did die and pretended to get all choked up and i felt like a asshole ONLY TO FUCKING FIND OUT IT W A S THAT FUCKIN bastard and he was just kidding bout the twin thing and he faked his Death for kicks.! wow what a random memory. Crazy shit. Omni rmembmer that shit? hahahaha. way too good.
so what do all these og players do for a living now?
No. He stole a 27 inch television from the damn hotel room. Me and Zavar watched him do it. The guy was like a crazed Robert Downey Jr. only without the fame or the common sense lol
Did eddie get into Street Fighter? I met him at E3 and we hung out a bit after the shows (maybe ‘95 or 96’). From what i remember, he worked at Midway and was an awesome Mortal Kombat player. Top 2 for sure. I tried to hook him up with a match against Aric Tetley but i don’t remember if that ever happened.
To think that weird dude was the one who probably taught me the most about SF. I never spoke to him really after that tourney.