Gaming supermen

Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike - street fighter parry!!

Blocking one of the Street Fighter characters' crazy super moves is one thing, but parrying every single blow? That's something else. It's not a totally impossible feat by any means, deflecting 14 hits in a row, but the near-death victory is supercharged by the riotous crowd when Ken makes his last-minute attack. You might be able to parry moves like this, but you'll never have an entire convention cheering you on (this comes from Evolution 2004, the world championship for fighting games). Even if you're not a fan, you've got to appreciate the skills. And yes, there's a bigger screen somewhere.

We discovered this video on alpha06'spage, but we also managed to track down the original videographer, Seth Killian, who narrated us through this uncanny match.

"I shot it on handycam at the EVO world finals in 2004, and that's my voice having the geek-tastic freakout about 'madness!' The match is from the Street Fighter 3: Third Strike finals, between Daigo Umehara (playing as Ken) and Justin Wong (playing as Chun Li). Justin is one of the most dominant US players, best known for a really boring style designed to frustrate an opponent into making mistakes. Daigo is a legendary player from Japan most famous for an aggressive style and an uncanny ability to read his opponent's mind and predict their next move."

"Unfortunately, this is exactly what happened to Justin in the clip - Daigo had almost no life left, so just blocking the super move from Chun Li would have killed him. Justin activated it to go for the simplest win, but Daigo predicted Justin's move (you can't just handle that move on reaction) and was able to deflect the super move's 17 fast strikes by using a separate parry motion on each of them, before countering the prone Chun Li with a winning combo. It was a perfect marriage of top-level mind games and expert execution performed under the pressure of an intense finals match. And, of course, you don't have to take my word for it - the very vocal opinion of the crowd (made up of the world's most hardcore fighting fans) speaks for itself."

Latest in Action
Assassin's Creed Shadows screenshot showing Yasuke kneeling and praying while wearing a traditional purple robe
Ubisoft reaches deal with Tencent to create $4.3 billion mini-Ubisoft subsidiary to "spearhead development" on new Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six games
Assassin's Creed Shadows Belly of the Beast Ise Sadaoki sending Naoe to get papers
How to retrieve the papers in the Assassin's Creed Shadows Belly of the Beast quest
Assassin's Creed Shadows cinematic screenshot
Assassin's Creed Shadows shoots past 3 million players and 40 million hours played with the "second-highest day 1 sales revenue in Assassin's Creed franchise history"
A cartoon woman catches a tomato while cooking in Rhythm Heaven Groove
Rhythm Heaven Groove has one of Nintendo's longest-suffering fandoms absolutely feasting: "AFTER 10 YEARS WE FINALLY WON"
Assassin's Creed Shadows The Killing Field executioner boss fight
How to find and kill the executioner in Assassin's Creed Shadows
The Forgotten Cellar door beneath St. Katherine's Church in Atomfall.
How to open the Forgotten Cellar door in Atomfall
Latest in Features
Patrick Stewart as Professor X in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
The classic Fox X-Men are returning in Avengers: Doomsday, and I've got a really bad feeling about this
Thor and Loki in Thor: Ragnarok
After 15 years in the making, Thor and Loki's reunion in Avengers: Doomsday could be the perfect MCU conclusion for the characters
Soft Rains logo with frog drawing
"There is an expectation we're gonna make a little Skyrim": Ubisoft and Bethesda veterans form new studio headed by Skyrim and Fallout designer, debuting with first-person sci-fi and "crunchy mechanics"
Witchbrook screenshot of a library in the magical college with witches flying on brooms
Witchbrook: Everything we know so far about Chucklefish's magical new life sim
The village green in Atomfall
My first 3 hours in Atomfall feel playing Fallout 3 for the first time, and if you don't check it out I'm legally obliged to bash you with a cricket bat
The Demon's Hand
League of Legends' take on Balatro is one of its best mini-games yet – and it's also exactly what's wrong with this era of League of Legends