Aizen
Absolute Sovereign
First off, props to Alex Valle (Cali Power) who beat Bonchan's Sagat using Hugo at this year's EVO Championships. Alex is one of the oldest American Street Fighter players who still regularly competes.
Before Alex were guys such as Mike Watson, Jeff Schaeffer and the original prodigy Tomo Ohira. This era of players are the oldest OG players, while players like Justin Wong and others who have been around for a long time are OG players in their own right. But Watson, Schaeffer and Ohira were kings before Wong, Ricki Ortiz or James Chen.
According to Jeff Schaeffer, Tomo only played Ryu and Guile in Street Fighter 2: World Warriors, Street Fighter 2: Championship Edition and Street Fighter 2: Hyper Fighting. When it comes to Championship Edition, Guile, Bison and Sagat dominated the game. Yet Tomo was destroying people with Ryu in that game which is pretty crazy. Ryu was good but you've seen how Bison had that crazy pressure and could re-dizzy and win the game off a crouching strong into combo.
Jeff talks about the strategy of the OG player was to get ahead by a sliver of life. Sometimes being ahead by mere chip damage meant making the other player come in. Without Ultra moves and the comeback mechanic of the more recent SF games, the original Street Fighters were more like chess. For each bit of damage you got down by, the more pressure it put on you in terms of your strategy. You have to earn back all the damage without Super Moves that take near half life or some other mechanism to make up for many mistakes in an instant. In this series of videos, Jeff talks about the "OG" strategy of how they played the game, why some OG players stopped liking Street Fighter when the Super/Ultra moves were introduced and the rise of Alex Valle.
Here are a few videos of Jeff Schaeffer playing Diago. Despite being very rusty, Jeff does a very good job. One person said Jeff had several perfects on Diago in the series which is amazing. For what it's worth, Mike Watson in his prime was at least as good as Alex Valle was in his prime. And an out-of-his-prime Valle is still very good now. Apparently, Tomo was better than Jeff and Mike Watson was when all of them were in their primes. Mike Watson believed if Tomo was a young player in his prime today, he'd be top 3-4 (he said this on a stream a while back).
Before Alex were guys such as Mike Watson, Jeff Schaeffer and the original prodigy Tomo Ohira. This era of players are the oldest OG players, while players like Justin Wong and others who have been around for a long time are OG players in their own right. But Watson, Schaeffer and Ohira were kings before Wong, Ricki Ortiz or James Chen.
According to Jeff Schaeffer, Tomo only played Ryu and Guile in Street Fighter 2: World Warriors, Street Fighter 2: Championship Edition and Street Fighter 2: Hyper Fighting. When it comes to Championship Edition, Guile, Bison and Sagat dominated the game. Yet Tomo was destroying people with Ryu in that game which is pretty crazy. Ryu was good but you've seen how Bison had that crazy pressure and could re-dizzy and win the game off a crouching strong into combo.
Jeff talks about the strategy of the OG player was to get ahead by a sliver of life. Sometimes being ahead by mere chip damage meant making the other player come in. Without Ultra moves and the comeback mechanic of the more recent SF games, the original Street Fighters were more like chess. For each bit of damage you got down by, the more pressure it put on you in terms of your strategy. You have to earn back all the damage without Super Moves that take near half life or some other mechanism to make up for many mistakes in an instant. In this series of videos, Jeff talks about the "OG" strategy of how they played the game, why some OG players stopped liking Street Fighter when the Super/Ultra moves were introduced and the rise of Alex Valle.
Here are a few videos of Jeff Schaeffer playing Diago. Despite being very rusty, Jeff does a very good job. One person said Jeff had several perfects on Diago in the series which is amazing. For what it's worth, Mike Watson in his prime was at least as good as Alex Valle was in his prime. And an out-of-his-prime Valle is still very good now. Apparently, Tomo was better than Jeff and Mike Watson was when all of them were in their primes. Mike Watson believed if Tomo was a young player in his prime today, he'd be top 3-4 (he said this on a stream a while back).
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Eddie Lee trained Justin Wong
