Didn’t Kuni already say Tomo would be top 3 in Japan fosure? I swear I remember seeing a vid or something about that.
So he doesnt play anymore?
NINJA EDIT: BTW great Taira vids. never knew he was japanese OG too.
My mind has been incredibly taxed lately so, I may not be clear here. I’ll attempt to explain Tomo’s dominance from a balanced and accurate perspective and may add some stories from my recollection.
No, Tomo was not untouchable. His dominance was untouchable. That’s to say that like everyone has good and bad days, so did Tomo. Tomo’s bad days, however, were like a really good players good days.
Of all of the tournaments I witnessed Tomo play in, there was but one that he didn’t place top 3 in. There were many reasons for this. One reason is that he clearly lost the heart of the competition and, like many, felt that the age of Street Fighter was over. I’m not sure what place he got but I’m taking a trip soon and will sift through my storage unit to find some things. The tournament I’m speaking of now was ST.
Understand, after HF, SSF2 was a HUGE disappointment. CE was VERY slow. This didn’t satisfy a lot of people. It certainly made the game easier for those that weren’t so fast. On CE, this made Dhalsim much better. The slower the game, the more time Sim has to react. The dizzy system was also ruined in SSF2. HF had a very accurate way of counting hits so every player knew when a dizzy would occur. After learning on CE and then speeding it up on HF, SSF2 slowed down and, in comparison to HF, seemed far slower than it would have if not for HF. In the end, it just wasn’t as fun. The graphical upgrade was great but much was lost in the transition. Then, ST comes out and while more fun, the super system bothered most. Seeing the stupid systems at play nowadays, I should have thanked my lucky stars for the super system of ST but, again, compared to HF, this dumbed down a lot of strategy in our eyes. SF just wasn’t SF anymore for Tomo and as SF waned, so did Tomo’s desire. Incidentally, Jeff got first in that tournament, I got 3rd, and I’ll have to wait until I get into storage to tell you the 2nd place finisher. I’m almost positive that Mike didn’t make it to that tourney.
Tomo rarely made mistakes. It was so rare that I actually remember moments when he did. It was stunning when he did something less than perfect so it shocked my memory. One time was when Kuni won the tournament. I was watching and Tomo had Kuni in the corner. I think Kuni got dizzy but, what I remember most was Tomo jumping from too close to land a combo. Not only that but he landed the wrong combo! He just did the typical jumping fierce, low forward, fireball and ended too close and got an SPD in reply on recovery “for free.” lol Jeff made that quote quite popular during A1 days. The fact that the simple moment stands out in my mind should show how rare it was for Tomo to make a legitimate mistake.
His timing was impeccable. I remember another tournament when he was facing our old friend Thierry Delocroce(Frenchy, for those who remember). Thierry was a solid player and good guy and like many of us, didn’t take kindly to messing up or losing. When he was playing Tomo, he threw many, seemingly correctly spaced fireballs only to be hit with a hurricane. I used to watch matches intently, to learn. I didn’t play a lot in comparison to most players and I knew that World’s Finest was the best place to pay close attention to every match and every character. So, this match was when I noticed something Tomo did. Half of the time when a fireball came his way, he would hit a standing short before the hurricane. I don’t know if he did it for animation properties or for timing solidification but, I remember noting it, lol. Don’t tell me my memory is bad. So, after Thierry lost to a multitude of hurricane kicks, he stood totally dumbfounded. You could see the awe and confusion. Tomo could walk at fireballs and just hurricane over them perfectly and every time without fail. Thierry, after finally digesting what had happened, turns to Tomo with his heavy French accent and says, “Yoo practees dat muv a lot?” LOL! It made us all crack up! Tomo could amaze great players consistently.
Tomo developed our respect through incredible gameplay and genuine friendliness. I always vibed with the sh*t talkers. It was fun and fueled the competitive fire. With Tomo, there was little to no smack talk. His game did all the talking and he never rubbed a win in your face and never disrespected a loss.
I was never really close with Tomo and I never practiced with him like Mike and Jeff but he was a guy you wanted to love. I spoke to him on the phone sometimes(like right before Hyper when he had already played it, lol). HOWEVER, the idea that he quit because he discovered girls is LAME. I rapped and danced in clubs, had girls, school and a job and still played well. I think I talked to Tomo last around '98 at the time of the Vegas tourney and he told me about DJing awhile and I thought, “YES! I always knew there was the “cool cat” in there.”
Tomo was not untouchable. Mike beat him many times, I beat him a couple of times, Kuni beat him, etc. There was just no consistency in beating him. Mike, I would say, was the most consistent(although the times I played him I didn’t lose… but I lost to players he would whoop). You see, not many want to hear this but, Charles Franco protected Tomo. This is 100% true. Not that Tomo needed it or asked for it, but it happened. Mike knows it for sure because he bitched to me plenty about it. If Charles thought Tomo had a chance at losing, he would float or do some shady crap. Tomo STILL won though. For example, if Tomo was set to play Mike, Mike would all of a sudden have to play Jeff first. If Jeff won, Tomo won because Jeff had a clear mental block on beating Tomo. He just never believed he could beat him. I’ll just assume he was broken by Tomo early on. If Mike won, Tomo would win most of the time but it wasn’t anything like 90-10. More like 60-40. Tomo put the big nail in the coffin on Mike at the big San Diego tournament at UTC when he won the pinball too. Mike thought he would scrape him because he threw Tomo to death in a prior tournament and Tomo didn’t play with throws as often as Mike. Then, as you can all read in the HF guide, Tomo did it to Mike. I stayed in a hotel room with Mike and his farts so I have the whole scoop on where his head was at that weekend.
Another example of protection was against me. See, my Rog, at the time, owned shotos. This was evident when I first played Mike. Charles even coached Mike a bit that tournament, telling Mike to try jumping up in the corner with Sagat to stifle my rushes, and I talked smack and said to keep listening to Charles while I hit him cleanly out of it because they didn’t understand the difference in the dashes per button. See, I didn’t play with these guys. I had my own turf so I’d come with something they hadn’t seen. So, Mike being one of the top 2 players, at the time(sorry Jeff, on HF, I consider Mike 2nd by a small margin and you slightly 3rd. Mike could beat you and Tomo and you could only beat Mike), got wrecked twice in winners and losers. I was living in Vegas at the time ('93) and had no mental blocks. I beat Tomo in my first tournament and beat Mike twice the first time we played so, any idea that I couldn’t beat anyone was never able to form since it was clear that my own ideas brought something new to the table. Charles saw what happened with Mike. I made beating shotos look simple(although Mike eventually found a sick aggressive tactic making it a more even match later). One day prior to the next tournament I called Charles and asked to face Tomo in my first match. Charles tried to be cool and said I’d lose. I said so there’s no problem, right? Ok, he said. You and Tomo, first match. I could tell he wasn’t convinced with his own bs and he knew I could back my ish up. I drive all the way down and Charles not only doesn’t keep his word, but also puts me in a totally different bracket from Tomo. I’m pissed. So it came down to losers final and I was against Eggo. Charles had the nerve to say, “hey Jason, you win this match and you’ll get that match with Tomo you wanted.” Grrrr. I then proceeded to get owned by Chun ticks that I normally could reverse. I was pretty pissed. After the tournament, I humbly asked Tomo to play a set to see if I would’ve won like I thought. Without hesitation, he said, “sure.” We played, I won. Tomo said, “see? You would’ve won” and gave me a bro pat. See, Tomo had no problem being cool since I never talked smack on him. He was just a cool guy who was good and if he lost, he’d just get better, fast. Charles was the shady politician protecting his boy. Charles even screwed Mike out of being on the capcom tape with Tomo, iirc. Although, I’ll always be grateful to the guy for giving us the first place of convergence and the first place of organized competition and recognition with the California Street Fighter Association. I’ll take the good with his bad. He may not have respected the individual players but he had the vision and respect of the scene enough that let us nurture the scene, ourselves, later.
Like boxing, styles make fights. In a bad match up, Tomo had problems too. His Guile, on CE had slight issues with Vega(so did every Guile, imo) and on HF, he had issues with Rog(so did every Ryu with Mike being the smartest in his tactical response).
See, some people get mental blocks like Jeff had with Tomo. I am certain that’s why Jeff didn’t beat Tomo. It wasn’t that he wasn’t good enough. Mike had the same issue with the Japanese early on. Tomo could give even the best player a block if they believe more in what occurs than what can occur.
Was he the best? Undoubtedly so. Could he have been the best in the world? Hell yes! Kuni once said that in Japan there were maybe 5 people on his level. Tomo was above everyone here. He had all the talent anyone could want and competition drove him. It’s ludicrous, imo, to think that if Tomo had played those 5 players that he couldn’t have ended up dominating them too. After all, not ONE of them had it in them to dominate the other 4. They didn’t have a Daigo back then.
There has NEVER been a single, untouchable player in all SF history. Their dominance, overall, may be untouchable. Remember the unbeatable Guile from Japan who never lost? Valle whooped him. Daigo? Many players have beaten him. Ohnuki? Many players have beaten him. Valle/Choi/Wong/Cole/Nelson/Sanford/Sabin/Eddie Lee? They’ve all lost. A dominator has to lose now and then or they will lose eventually out of sheer boredom. Tomo dominated for so long that he got bored, imo. When ST was released, he was done. He wasn’t the same competitor because the fuel was empty. He accomplished all he needed or wanted and the scene seemed like it was dying.
Tomo is part of the legacy of the scene from it’s very roots. Anyone can see that. He was the first “people’s champ.” As much as you wanted to see him lose, you wanted him to keep winning. I know I wanted to believe in him. The only people I wanted to see beat him were Thao, Mike, Jeff and myself, lol. If it wasn’t one of us, I didn’t want him to lose! It was wrong, somehow.
We’ve had many champs now, over the years. Tomo was the first, for me and for many. Not because he was untouchable but because he dominated with a healthy confidence and was a champ among champions. We all dominated our local arcades and cities and he dominated us! If he only knew that you could pick up girls while playing SF…!
That all being said, Tomo has bragging rights for ALL TIME. Tomo will always be a legend. He’s the first UNDISPUTED champion of a scene, genre and community with a rich heritage.
I do believe his greatness has been surpassed, first, by Alex Valle. Still, Tomo was the first.
Long live the first Emperor/God of fighting games! You’re still the man, Tomo!
A quick word on Jeff with regard to myself. I won my very first tournament. If not for Jeff and I becoming friends, I probably would never have played at World’s Finest and may have stopped after a couple of tourneys from boredom from local comp. Thanks Jeff:) I’ll always be grateful.
Apoc.
does emil even play any sf games? he’s like some japan fanboy talking about any sf game whenever he gets the chance but does he even know how to play the game? there are so many people on here that know frame data, the history of sf and all the top players. too bad not all of them really play the game or win anything.
Just saying, I took the reaction time test, and I have like…290 ms on average.
I was happier thinking that my reaction speed was at least mediocre.
Apoc if that “storage unit” is a tape or something containing Tomo footage on that it will be VERY valuable now hehe (and desired here too!)
Sigh, unfortunately, no. I had a 6 hour tape during that time but when I would travel down, I would visit girls. Consequently, I left it at one of the ladies’ houses and every couple of years I ask if she came by it(long time friend with benefits) and it has never turned up. This woman has no idea about the scene, at all, other than I play, lol. I’m not kidding either. Every few years I bring up the tape in the hope that during some move or SOMETHING, it’s found.
I WISH that all old school tapes were brought out and uploaded.
You know who to ask for some, maybe? Bob Painter. I know he used to sell some back in the mid 90’s. Milo Cooper or James Romedy may have one or two.
I was so cocky back then I thought, “what the heck do I need a tape for?” Damn, those moments of idiocy shrug.
Apoc.
Big thank you to Apoc for all the insights. I remember seeing you on the B4 tape. That was probably my first exposure visually to what pro level SF players were like. Still the most lasting impression of the game to me.
At this point I think it’s mandatory that the community find SOME Tomo footage of some kind.
This single vid of Thomas Osaki is just a tease.
[media=youtube]DlQtnkj8NHo[/media]
A note regarding USA vs Japan communities: Back then the difference was not so big I think. There were millions of people play SF in the first year. It’s not that difficult that a player base of that size could create a player like that. The simplicity of SF2 gameplay also lends itself well to players who were “perfect”. There’s much less room for randomness to hand out tournament losses.
Additionally, didn’t Justin Wong go undefeated in MVC2 for something like 3 years? At the height of the games popularity?
Tons of Daigo playin SSF2 (not ST) on Umehara fan site. Nice vids. Also there is a lot of VS.
He doesn’t even mention you lol
can we get at least one thread without you riding on some Japanese dick?
A1 and A2 are two different games.
Well neither do you, so kindly stfu. Thx
Wow learn to read maybe?
Here’s some quotes from LA Akira in the old OG thread:
http://forums.shoryuken.com/showthread.php?t=103126
LA Akira with Japan’s top SF players - Itoyama (right) and Tachikawa (bottom)
I played SF 2 since '92 but really not much competition so it’s great to hear about the old school scene, especially with ppl like Jeff and Alex contributing to this thread. I can learn so much from watching these old vids.
Can you please stop posting in silly colours that are almost impossible to see on some backgrounds?
If you want a word to stand out just bold it.
That’s pretty much always been the case. Same top tier level, but just way more players. “Enriched arcade culture” as Daigo puts it, with tons of high level players all concentrated in a small area. The US has Tomo. What monsters did the Japanese scene produce during the heydays of CE and HF?
Cool post bro.