The Smash Bros. doc was really unique because it told the history of the entire melee scene while simultaneously focusing on a particular player or players who stood out during particular periods. I have learned bits and pieces of the history of competitive Street Fighter from a bunch of different sources (forum threads, YouTube videos, and Sirlin’s book), but there’s no one source that has info. on everything.
There are so many different topics and points to hit that could be really interesting, but to me, they’re just all random scattered, epic events in time to me. Things like:
Tomo Ohira’s reign during the SF2 days.
Team USA flying over to Japan (I still have never seen Bang the Machine :’( )
Justin Wong’s reign during the Marvel 2 days.
That time when the Japanese came over and showed that roll cancelling consistently was not only possible, but necessary to compete
The revival of the scene with Street Fighter IV a.k.a. the 2nd golden age
The first Battle By the Bay tournament and it’s Evolution to what it is today.
This is just what I know off the top of my head, and I’m sure there’re a lot more stories that I don’t know about. Hope someone has some insight that they can share. Hopefully we can keep a record and build a timeline somewhere of all the crazy things that’ve happened in this awesome subculture haha
Hi dude! I was hoping someone else would give you a nice big answer because there’s so much to talk about and I really don’t think I have the time right now (nor am I the right person) to do it all justice. Since nobody has answered yet, though, here are some things off the top of my head really quick.
You are absolutely right that there’s no one source for info. The best I can do is share with you some of the many sources that I’ve learned from and enjoyed. Some of these are more info-dense and some are more about the personalities. You’ve probably seen some of these before, but I’ll bet there’s something here that you haven’t.
There is way too much material with just sf2 little less capcom fighting games. And in the US at that. You could possibly read stories, but a lot of the matches aren’t documented since YouTube and smart phones weren’t around. I’d be interested to see some sources though. I wish I was in my early teens during the 90s. I would’ve gotten to play so much at the arcades
The only OG tourney stuff you’ll find on youtube will be the Official Capcom Tournament that happened out in the Midwest way back when for Super SF2, as well as the UCLA ST tourney footage that Kuroppi managed to capture.
Other than that, it’s mostly footage from the 2000s+