From: cw21219@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Crying Freeman)
Subject: History of SF2 at UIUC
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1992 11:28:12 GMT


I thought it would be interesting just to hear different stories
about the progression of SF2 at different places, schools, etc.

Here's my impressions of SF2 at the U of I - Urbana...

Part 1) The Age of SPY.

 The first time I saw this game was at a local mall... I played once
as Ryu and got mauled. I had played Street Fighter I before so I
knew how to fireball. However, I didn't know how to block. Needless to
say I got mauled by some Zangief player who thought he was bad....
(Big deal, so he could block.)

 Anyways, eventually the local arcade, Space Port, got the game. I
picked Guile as my character of choice... I had two other friends who
started playing the game with me... The top player of that time was this tall
black Ryu player (SPY) who would smear everyone by jumping in with the knee.
Since we didn't know that you had to block the knee high, we would get
stunned, thrown into the corned and stunned by the knee again. Slowly, we
started to develop a vague idea of aerial defense. Yes, we were truly sad.
 
 Eventually, from reading the net, we learned of some special moves.
I learned the razor kick and sonic boom, my friend JP learned the Chun Li
helicopter kick and that devastating move, the head hop!! Yes, we were now
terrors on the SF2 machine. Eventually we even learned to block high and
matches became slightly more even. Still, that evil short kick of Ryu's
would wreak havoc on us and most of the other players around.... 

After this point, I went to Taiwan, and was out of the UIUC scene for a while...

 In Taiwan, I learned the concept of "ticking". When I first got there, I
would get smeared by these 10 year old kids who would fireball-fireball
roundhouse kick me... Some of the better ones would dragon punch me... It
was pretty humiliating... One day on a streetside, I found out their training
techniques... They would sit there and fireball each other for whole matches
to perfect their fireballs. Yup, fireball fireball fireball, etc. for 10 whole
rounds of Draw games... Some of the better 10 year olds would dragon punch
continuously for 10 straight rounds.  

 Eventually, I got jab jab thrown to death at some of arcades in Taiwan.
I learned the Guile standing short kick-suplex tick and could now consistently
win more than 5 fights against the computer. Boy, did I feel studly. After
a few weeks of training in Taiwan, I was ready to come back to the US and
kick butt.

Part 2) The Age of Cybergeek

 I remember the first day JP (Chun Li) and I went back to Space Port. I was
ready to unleash my short kick-suplex on the SF2 world of UIUC. When we got
there, there was a crowd of people already at the machine. One dude pulled
us over to the side and said "This guy has won over 99 straight matches on
one quarter!" I looked at him from behind and he was wearing a Fido Dido
T-shirt (The latest fashion in Taiwan) Uh oh. Someone else has been training
in Taiwan!!

 I decided, "No prob." After waiting out a line of about 8 people I got my
first shot at Cybergeek. It was a truly pathetic performance. I pulled out
Guile to face his dreaded 99 straight match Chun Li. "Hya! Hya! Hya! Hya!"
My 1st round was over... Damn, I didn't even get my short kick-suplex in...
Round 2. "Hya! Hya! Hya! Hya!" It was over in a total of 30 seconds. My 
only comfort was that it was happening to everyone else.

 The sad thing was it wasn't even strong punch-throw combos he was using.
He would just jump over us and throw us. No one knew how to counter it...
For a while, Cybergeek would dominate using the Chun Li ticks and the
Guile short-suplex... After about 5 tries, I had given up even trying to
fight him...

Part 3) The golden age of ticking.

 Eventually, Space Port evolved into the land of ticking. There were several
players who slowly became the regulars of Space Port.  The most popular player
of the time was Ken. There were several Ken players around...
 Carlos - The fastest button pusher around. He could restun you with Ken short
          kicks he was so fast.
 Quinn - He really sucked at first, but by paying the ultimate price, became
          the scariest player around.  He was the only player around who
          actually preferred Ryu over Ken. Psychologically, most seemed to
          prefer Ken. (Don't ask me, I'm a Guile player)
 Progressive Ken - we still don't know his real name, but we called him that
	  cause of his hairstyle. He originally played Chun Li but switched
	  to Ken. He eventually evolved into a fireball dragon punch master. 
 There were several others, these were just the most noteworthy...
 Regardless, matches would consist of Ken and Ryu jumping in with the knee,
throwing the opponent into the corner and short short throw, repeat until
one Ryu or Ken died. At least that's what I remember... As Guile I would 
always seem to get stunned and wiped out by ticks...
 Even Cybergeek would get ticked to death by these evil Ken players, but
he could still win with Chun Li throw style. The balance of power was more
distributed.
 My recollection of this period seemed to be mainly a bunch of short kick
throw in the corner matches, with the rare counter throw... Eventually,
Quinn, who seemed to be at the arcade whenever it was open developed into
the "Ryu-god" as we called him. He mastered the dragon punch and developed
timing with throws that granted him an aura of fear. 
 I remember that there were two other Guile regulars around and we would
be terrorized by fireball-roundhouse, fireball-dragon punch combined with
ticks... The tables would eventually be turned...


Note: This is just my recollection of SF2 at the U of I and it's probably
	pretty warped... 

(To be continued...)
-- 
 Kenneth C. Wang	| University Of Illinois Champaign-Urbana	
 			| Internet: c-wang@uiuc.edu			
			| AKA Che-Yuan Wang