8th
Daigo Full Parry Come Back and Win (SFIIITS) (by RedComeXIII)
“You ever get in “the zone” and almost literally see what is about to happen, right before it happens? You know what is coming down, where, and have the exact right card, play, whatever to anticipate and exploit whatever that is?…
For those of you who don’t know, Daigo Umehara is one of the world’s most successful Street Fighter players. The above clip is one of the most famous—and impressive—comebacks in the history of competitive Street Fighter. Umehara (Ken) was knocked down toone pixel of health; at this point any special move by his opponent’s Chun-Li would have knocked him out (as even a blocked special move deals “chip” damage).
Daigo’s opponent, Justin Wong, commanded Chun-Li to attempt a vicious fifteen-hit combo; remember, any special move hit—even blocked—would prove lethal for Daigo’s Ken.
So instead—in a brilliant combination of strategy (identifying the inevitability—and not in a good way—of blocking) and execution (again, the most impressive sequence, ever for that game)—Daigo chose instead to “Parry” each of Chun-Li’s strikes, timing the Parrying counterstrike within four of thirty frames of animation each time, fifteen times in a row. Did you see he had to jump and Parry in the middle?”
