Daigo 'The Beast' Umehara gets nostalgic on Street Fighter II's 25th anniversary

My earliest memory of SF2 dates back to age 12 or 13, so that’s in '93-'94.

For 3 years, there was an annual national SF2 championship held at Ryokoku Kokugi-kan (Sumo Arena, which is also used for boxing and other martial arts). 8,500 players who made it through the qualifiers gathered from all over Japan. It was done with Super Famicom. Whopping 8,500 qualified players! Can you believe it? A crazy huge number of players entered into the qualifiers to be narrowed down to an opening round with 8,500 competitors. Looking back, we know that it was at a new height of the SF history.

Small mom and pop toy stores also joined the league to host qualifiers all over the country among big arcades. We would stare at store popups and fliers, which listed all the names of the hosting stores from small to big. We would look up where they were and how to get there, to the unknown places every weekend. We had no internet, you know. We didn’t know what and who’d be waiting for us. We could not find out whom you would match against and how he would play until we arrived there. It was such a different time from now. I remember those exciting feelings looking at the popups. Those exhilarating feelings. Such sweet memories.

There has been and will be no other game like that ever. Because SF2 established its genre and it is the milestone that’s been written in the history. It is the legacy. It also means a milestone to me; if there had been no SF2, I would not have been here today as a pro gamer. SF2 enthralled me just as it did to so many others. I have immense respect for the creators of SF2. I will forever be in debt to them.