No actually there are a few players here who really can hang there.
But generally speaking, yeah.
I’m curious as to what Emil would have to say on the subject.
Kuni states that Tomo would have been easily Top-2 in Japan. The only guy mentioned to be on Tomo’s level was Tachigawa (CE) that’s it. Kuni himself was a great player, who ranked Top-5 in both Japan and the USA at the time. So if he’s ranked in the same respective ranking in both countries, then the level of competition would have been the same.
Lastly through out SF history with USA vs Japan, USA has proved we are better at the fundamentals of SFII (zoning, and footsies) this has been displayed through out all of our match ups of SF. So take that into consideration, and OG SFII was footsie and zoning dominant, something USA players show all the time that they are far better at. Reasons why I say, OG USA SFII players would have had the edge.
You live in a big city, at least you have competition, some of the younger peeps I know who love SF:IV however living where we are at now, we have absolutely no real solid competition.
You won’t get to “that level” is because competition is not as hard driven as how it was back in the days. Simple case, there’s 203948239048 other competitive games out today, back then, there was only Street Fighter. Less people playing SF:IV, unless you live in a big city with decent to solid competition.
It’s not about just playing the best players, it’s about having on average solid competition (more players wanting to strive to become the best will spawn greater players out of this, we simply do not have that today to that level anymore). You don’t have that now, even if you didn’t get to play Justin Wong 24/7, however if you had a strong competitive scene, then you can still be solid. Look to 94 with that Minnesota scene, they are miles from the best (LA) yet their best was in the end duking it with Prime Watson.
Today, you would need to travel, due to how limited the scene is. Things have changed, we have a less competitive scene for the fighting game genre, this is the biggest problem for the US, if it was as good as it once was back in the early 90’s, I’d guarantee 100% we’d be as good as Japan is now.
Just not the same anymore though, sad, but true.
Americans are too busy tiering things, arguing about them on the internet and wondering how they can best imitate Japan while the Japanese are too busy sleeping in their cars and in manga cafe’s as they drive from loke test to loke test.
Wrong again. Ask anyone who actually KNOWS me and Justin, who have spent time with me and Justin instead of you random bums who think you guys know us, we don’t play SF all day, in fact I’m pretty sure we play less than you do. I play SF4 maybe 1 hour a week IF that. Other times we’re busy handling our other life shit. Stop speculating and get your facts straight. Even when I was at The Arc with Sanford Kelly/Yipes/Rahsaan/Andre/etc. I would play maybe 1 hour MAX or just a FT5 with one of them a day., the rest of the day I’d be on my computer. And honestly, I’ve played Justin in casuals less than 100 matches ever since SF4 came out. So don’t even say I got where I am because I got to play Justin. If anything, I’m going to give most credit to Hsien Chang from Texas, because we practically played a lot, and he taught me all my Rufus stuff even though he plays Akuma. ;.
In fact, I think you guys THINK we play all day just because we’re good and you guys try to make it seem like your lives are ANY better than ours. Maybe you should not try to speculate on someone’s life and get facts. Just because we’re hella good doesn’t mean we don’t do other shit. Sorry man, if in your mind you think we play the game ONLY caged up in our homes all day, you’re wrong.
Same here, I feel like reading something colorful :lol:…
Another superb anecdote by SRK’s Kromo…
Points 2 posts up.
If there ever comes a game called Mortal Comeback, marn will beat even the japanese at it.
Not really. Because they’re single-elim, Japanese tournaments can be random. Everyone can agree that Kyabetsu and Gosho were the best team on the day of SBO, but I don’t think anyone would call them the best at SFIV period, and if you re-did the SBO brackets it’d probably play out completely differently a second time around.
Right now there’s really no one best player. Just a group of guys widely considered to be the best who are competitive with each other. Mago gets a lot of props from Japanese fanboys but he still takes his losses just the same.
Mexico has Diago Umejuarez.
Id say americas top tier players are just really talented and do not play alot…while japans players play alot and might be really talented.
Obvious having a wealth of knowleged will win out in a prolonged set.
daigo got beat at sbo this year i think and it was at sf4…
Fixed it for ya :rock:
I like to go with the traditional spelling mistake of many, many people.
I have noticed a lot of Japanese love on the internet. It is pretty insane really. People love the Japanese culture more than their own and generally instantly assume that Japan does it better or they are more significant.
My own opinion is that the USA is almost equal with Japan when it comes to fighting games, they are better but barely. USA wins when it comes to shooting games though but who cares about shooting games? My 56 year old supervisor who cannot type on a computer is a level 38 in MW2 for crying out loud. No true skill or thought process in those games…
You’re right, but I think it would still be interesting to look at an estimate for total playing time for well known players, although quantifying a skill level would be pretty hard. Making a graph about this would be pretty cool, especially if a correlation becomes evident. Causation could not be inferred though, of course.
It’d also be interesting in seeing a study on how the frequency of completing links is affected by the number of frames in which the link is connectible. I think there would be a major dropoff from 2 frames to 1 frame links.
I’ve noticed every year the incoming class ask the same questions.
Then would you bother explaining to us why Japan can send over 2 players to EVO and one wins it all and the other places in the top 8, while America sends around a half dozen players and none of them get out of the first round at SBO (did we get out of the first round in ANY game at SBO?).
I think those facts can pretty much answer the question. /thread?
Honestly, the USA is just region fucked. Not much more to it. In a perfect world, the top players would pick a city, throw egos aside and living costs aside, and congregate there and level up.
Not really possible… money, responsibilities, reality.
Japan has all of that and more without even having asked for it, they are just fortunate. They’re condensed on that small landmass. Oh, and they haven’t been brainwashed into obsessing over mindless Modern Warfare 2 like crack addicts in the back alley. 
The majority of gamers in the states like simplicity, they don’t wanna “study” matchups to get better.
As far as Justin and Marn go, if they play an hour or so etc, I can just see that as being possible thanks to long term experience over the years, playing is like riding a bike, it just sticks with you. As long as you don’t let it get too rusty (ie not play for 2 years or something), a hour or a few hrs a day/week is more than enough to maintain.
In SFIV, Japan is definitely better. There are the famous guys like Daigo, Mago, Iyo or whoever, but there are also a lot of really good strong players who dont get much press or love. Think back to Daigos friend Dan at Evo. Guys like that, but probably even a little stronger. Outside of the top US players, I dont have the same impression for America. A few guys here and there sure, but not on the same scale as Japan.
As to whyyeah, that discussions been done before.
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meh, you don’t know shit about FPS games thats why.