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1999 - #capcom homepage, agsf2 goes downhill, WC/EC rivalry rises, ECC4, and There's Something Brewing...

In early 1999, Tony Cannon was no longer making updates towards his IRC site, so I asked to take over the page. This was my first attempt at legitimate HTML, so it took a while for me to get it the way I wanted to. It was an ambitious task (at the time), but I was able to add tournaments, more player profiles, some humor, etc. With the user list for #capcom reaching in the upper 30's at any given time, it was rather successful.
Relevant link: #capcom homepage - Assorted stuff can be found here.
E3 returned to Los Angeles, following a 3-year stint in Atlanta. E3 being in LA meant that there were more California players likely to go to the convention. Sure enough, there was a nice concentration of players. John Choi, Alex Valle, David Sirlin, the Cannons, were all able to make it. That year we got to see Street Fighter III: 3rd strike at E3, and there were many differing opinions about the game. SHGL and Joey Cuellar (MrWizard) were able to host an ST tournament for the E3 goers. All in all it was a fun time, but there was no rest for many of the people, because 2 weeks later, ECC4 was on the horizon.

"What is this? Amateur night?" - Mike Watson, on the sloppy play at the SHGL E3 Super Turbo Tournament

The East Coast Championships (ECC) series was started in 1997, with SF3 being the marquee game. ECC2 was a few months later, in August. ECC3 was held on May 24-25, 1998, with players such as John Choi and David Sirlin attending. The tournament that year had expanded from one game to four games; SFA2, 2nd Impact, Super Turbo, and Marvel vs. Capcom. ECC4 would be even more ambitious, having tourneys in the previously mentioned games, and including Hyper Fighting, and the game everyone wanted to see, Street Fighter Alpha 3. It was truly ambitious. There was an amazing 113 (could be more, I am not so sure) people for SFA3! This was the first tournament where the West/East Coast SF rivalry came about. There was lots of talk on #capcom and agsf2 on who the better region was... while areas like Texas and the Midwest were largely left out and ignored (Seth Killian being the only non-coastal player to place). The West Coast had people like Alex Valle, John Choi, in most of the games, Rob Ingrim in 2nd Impact, Don Sneddon, Jason Cole in SFA3, and Viscant in Marvel vs. Capcom. The East Coast featured Eddie Lee in SFA3 and 2nd Impact, and the Chinatown locals in 2nd Impact.
The first tournament of the day was also the marquee tournament at ECC4, Street Fighter Alpha 3. The tourney crowd was very pro-East Coast, with loud cheers when EC won, and a large amount of boos when WC won. About 8pm came the matchup everyone had been waiting for - Eddie Lee vs. Alex Valle. The tourney literally stopped for a moment, so everyone could watch the action. Valle eventually won with his aggressive Ryu, and there was an equal amount of boos and cheers at the conclusion. Alex went on to win SFA3, and ST started at 11pm. There was only one round of the ST tournament before the owner kicked everyone, forcing a continuation on the next day.
The next day everyone went back to the arcade to play in the rest of the tournaments. Unfortunately, everything was behind schedule. Thanks in part to help from the Cannons, ECC4 was still able to finish on time, and became a moderate success. It served as another tough reminder for all as to the limits put on any tournament by available resources. Additionally, this was also a tournament where the majority of the results were never posted by the tournament organizer. There was also a tournament tape that was promised to be released to the community, but alas, that never materialized either. The footage that does exist for ECC exists in the hands of those people who happened to take their cameras and record the event.
Revelant Link: ECC4 Logs

"Where are the results at?" - Joe Van Pelt (Chocobo), 6 months after ECC

Soon after ECC4, there was a large lull in the tournament scene until Street Fighter III: Third Strike was released in arcades. This became indicative of the scene from now on: there is game X released. Everyone plays game X, becoming good. Everyone plays game X until the last major tournament of the summer. Everyone then is burned out, waiting a few months before starting up again.
In agsf2, asides from one "Who is the best in Street Fighter" thread, interest in the newsgroup continued to wane. Meanwhile, #capcom was getting in up near 50 people at any given time. People were starting to pop up from everywhere else in the country, from Minnesota, various parts of the East Coast, etc. They wanted to be a part of the SF community that was literally growing. But people wanted tournaments, too, and they wanted information. Agsf2 was dying, and #capcom had too many general discussions for people to actually learn new strategies. Other SF related sites were too general, only having bits and pieces of SF strategy. In late 1999, the #capcom homepage started to host some multimedia files, with the main attraction being combo movies. There were also some tournament matches on the site, but it was pretty sparse.
In December of 1999, the growing fascination with combo movies, and the increasing interest in SF information could not be ignored. Tom Cannon had a brainstorm. It was one that would change the face of the SF community as we knew it then. Tom originally approached me with the idea of a Street Fighter supersite. This supersite would contain strategies and articles from top players, a multimedia section where combo movies can viewed, and a forum where people can get together and discuss get-togethers, strategy, and miscellaneous advice. I would help in the creation of HTML and hosting multimedia, John Choi and Derek Daniels (omni) would write articles about advanced techniques, and Tom would be the overall Webmaster.

2000 - The advent of shoryuken.com, the ECC5 debacle, B4, the 'death' of agsf2, Bang The Machine

In January 2000, Tom's brainchild was being implemented. No one in agsf2 nor #capcom knew of this task. Only the four mentioned above were involved in this, with input coming from Tony Cannon and Seth Killian (s-kill). At the end of February, the task would finally be completed, and notice was posted to agsf2 and #capcom. "Your Street Fighter Supersite - www.shoryuken.com." At this very moment, the #capcom homepage ceased to exist, and evolved into SRK.
People flocked to shoryuken.com, to see what all the fuss was about. Never before has a site attempted to cover so much about SF, while shunning the most general info about the games and fanboy fixations. The site started with some MvC1 combos from Japan, and some SFA3 strategies from John and Derek. There was also some news about Capcom's next fighting game, one that would change the face of tournaments from then on. That game was Marvel vs. Capcom 2. There were some previews on the site, which made people clamor for the game even more, with its US release date at the end of March.
When March finally arrived and Marvel vs. Capcom 2 was released, Tony Cannon released a combo movie of the game days later. This one combo movie ended up being the most popular movie that SRK has ever hosted. People would endlessly download this video, raving about its combos and screen quality. James Chen (jchensor) and Mike Zaimont also added their series of combo movies, which pushed MvC2 to new heights. Movies were also featured in articles, to show how certain strategies could be performed correctly.
Once SRK had made its mark on the SF community, it spelled the end of agsf2 as a place where people went to talk about SF in general. SRK's forums were initially substandard, but it was a place where people had more access to a bulletin board than they did by going on Usenet. IRC was also becoming more accessible due to SRK's IRC primer, allowing more people to chat in real time. No longer were the days where people had to literally dig to find strategy, it was offered freely and in large quantity on SRK and on #capcom.
On Memorial Day weekend, Todd Dywer (Zeruel) and the Break decided to throw ECC once again. ECC5 was a debacle from the very beginning. Dywer had made a statement to the participants right before the tournament started that the owner was going to take a significant percentage of the prizes. Players balked at this revelation, and began to walk out of the arcade. Time had passed, and finally, the owner finally reduced the percentage he was going to get, but the fight took it's toll. There was an outrage within the SF community, with Dywer taking the brunt of that backlash. It was so severe that it nearly ruined the reputation of ECC. Many of the top players, other than the East Coast, vowed to never come back to the Break, or any tournament that the Break hosts.
The Midwest Championships was able to get back to form in 2000. Twin Galaxies co-sponsored this event, giving away cash prizes to those who would receive the top scores in assorted Capcom fighting games. Twin Galaxies also gave "Lifetime Achievement Awards" to those people who gained recognition through SF, including Valle, Choi, Watson, and even Tomo Ohira. As for the tournament itself, it brought players from California, Texas, and the East Coast battling it out. Little did anyone know at the time, that and any future Midwest Championship would set the stage for the biggest thing ever in the SF community.
Relevant link: Jesse Cardenas' MWC 2000 Log

"What the?!? BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" - The MWC Crowd, after the power being cut off during the Super Turbo finals

The first half of 2000 was also the period where the film crew from JabStrongFierce Productions would be filming their first documentary, Bang the Machine. The brainchild of Peter Kang and Gene Na, the film crew would tape the marquee players of the SF Community and record their daily habits, gaming sessions, and any events and gatherings they would attend. With Tamara Katepoo manning the director's chair, JSF was able to record a phenomenal amount of footage depicting players in their own individual culture.

"The strange thing is you can stop 100 guys on the street and ask them who Ryu, Ken and Chun Li are, chances are they will know what you are talking about…even huge PC games like StarCraft and Counterstrike don't have that kind of recognition." - Peter Kang, on the recognition of SF in the mainstream

Relevant Link: Kang's posting on agsf2, as a call for help within the SF community
July 15-16, 2000 would mark the biggest event to ever hit the SF community. B4, held, in Folsom, California, was a tournament that served a dual purpose. One, it was the last national tournament of the summer 2000 tournament season. The other was that it was a competition to determine who would represent the USA in an upcoming event against the Japanese. There were five separate tournaments that would help determine these six players; Super Turbo, SFA2, SFA3, 3rd Strike, and Marvel vs. Capcom 2. JSF Productions was also in attendance to film this event. You can find B4 results, pictures, and a log from Derek Daniels at SRK's B4 section.
B4 proved to be a major turning event in the SF community. Once the lull following the last major tournament had lifted, the SF community had been revitalized. People no longer had to wait for major tournaments to travel to. Many arcades began to have SF tournaments. Although the tournaments did not have huge turnouts like the major tournaments, the tournament attendance began to increase. These tournaments would breed the new generation of SF players, like Justin Wong (NYC), David Hem(TX), and Long Tran (So. Cali). People were beginning to clamor for more tournaments, and play out-of-town competition, but there were several obstacles preventing this.
The summer was convenient for many players because many of them were students, thus having the summers off. Those who were working found it easier to take vacation in the summer. The spring, fall, and winter seasons would limit those people wanting to travel, since school and work were in full session. Regional tournaments were unofficially formed in order to combat this problem. Regional tournaments were more likely to attract people within their own geographic region, as opposed to those from across the country. SHGL began to host a regional that would attract those in California. The University Center in Houston hosted regionals where people from all over Texas began to compete in bi-monthly tournaments. The east coast has the Gametime, the NEC, and the Florida Challenge.
November of 2000 was the date of the oft-discussed USA vs. Japan Invitational Tournament. JSF Productions, SRK, and several Japanese representatives, including Arcadia Magazine, organized this event to determine who was the world's best in SF. Team USA consisted of Alex Valle, John Choi, Mike Watson, Hsien Chang, Seth Killian, Ricky Ortiz, and Eddie Lee. There were 4 games involved: Super Turbo, SFA3, 3rd Strike, and Marvel vs. Capcom 2. The results can be found at our Japanese/USA section. At the time of the event, which was a Saturday night in the States, a then-amazing 120 people came onto #capcom to get real-time results. The SRK staff that stayed behind updated SRK with results as they got them from David Dial (Gunter), our SRK International Translator.
This major event gave people from the US all sorts of confidence. Although Team USA lost by a considerable margin in Alpha 3 and 3rd Strike, they were able to make it up by doing really well in Super Turbo, and completely dominating Marvel vs. Capcom 2. There was no lull in the tournament scene anymore after this momentous event. The community was fired up, and began to have more tournaments everywhere.
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