Introduction
In the beginning, there was rec.games.video.arcade.
And lo, the year became 1991 and r.g.v.a. was overrun by demon spawns addicted to SF2, arguing ceaselessly about tactics and who was the best.
These demon spawns were cast out by the r.g.v.a. losers into the pit known as alt.games.sf2
alt.games.sf2 begat Tom and Seth. Tom and Seth fought, but eventually joined forces.
Another site that was around in the early days was the brawl.mindlink.net ftp site ran by David "Zoid" Kirsch. Before there were sites like GameFAQS or Shoryuken.com, it was a great place to get all of the early SF2 FAQs.
Beginnings
Usenet -- agsf2 days
alt.games.sf2 was a Usenet newsgroup, which is a primitive bulletin board that allowed people with access to post SF Strategy and other assorted topics. However, Usenet was not widely available at that particular time to the public. It was mainly accessible from assorted colleges and universities from around the US, and a from a few workplaces. It was virtually a new way to talk about your favorite things with other people from around the country, and the world. This was also the first time that people would post not just strategy, but about other aspects of SF as well. There were topics ranging from psychology, to player habits, to betting on matches, etc. Everything was fair game in alt.games.sf2.
flamewars -- flame wars go here?
The newsgroup was also a notorious hotbed for flames. Anyone who was remotely familiar with Usenet and alt.games.sf2 will remember such recurring flames as Seth vs. Stiltman. This is one argument that has persisted, even into the present. There are many other flame wars worth mentioning, and one can find a vast archive of the newsgroup at http://groups.google.com.
IRC
Late 1995- Allen Hackley (LordVoid) founded the channel #sf2. There were even less people at the time who had access to IRC than to Usenet and email. The original members were LordVoid, inkblot, Ponder, Ben Cureton (tragic), Bob Painter (Kuroyume), marwan, and Derek Daniels (omni).
1996 - #sf2 on EFNet was then changed to #sf3, in anticipation of the impending release of Street Fighter III. Some people finally find their way to IRC shortly thereafter.
1998 - #sf3 had changed to #capcom, to better reflect that the channel's interest in all Capcom fighting games. More and more people were starting to appear on the channel. Conversations were becoming more frequent, and the majority of the users were from agsf2. Unfortunately, even #capcom was not without drama. There were many instances of heated arguments, with personal issues increasingly involved. Everything that was in the SF community was now made public.
Shoryuken.com
Late Feburary 2000, Shoryuken.com was born. 4 guys with nothing better to do gave birth to the best Street Fighter "supersite" out there.
Major Tournaments
Midwest Championships - MWC
B3 - Battle By the Bay
Boston Brawl
East Coast Championships - ECC
B4-B5 - B4 and B5
March Madness - Philly
Texas Showdown - TS
Major Events
USA vs. Japan - 2000
Evolution
Loose Template
As a loose as template I decided I would put a fill in the blanks here- Jesse
Southern Hills Golfland (SHGL)- Southern California Closing date-?
Sunnyvale Golfland (SVGL)- Northern California
Chinatown Fair (CTF)- New York
Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 and the emerging Tournament Scene- Owned by socal/new york/seattle
Capcom Vs. SNK 2: the last competitive capcom made fighter- Owned by norcal
The Rebirth of Street Fighter 3: Third Strike- Owned by FFA?
Major Tournaments
B3- I'm not that old
B4- (The GameRoom, Folsom CA) MVC2 1st: Duc Do (Spiral/Cable/Cyclops; Spiral/Cable/Blackheart) 2nd: Alex Valle (Strider/Doom/Commando; Ironman/Sentinel/Doom) 3rd: Image (Magneto/Cable/Cyclops) 4th: Arturo 5th: Eddie Lee
B5 (The GameRoom, Folsom CA) - MVC2- East Coast resident Justin Wong Gains the title of champion 1st: Justin Wong (Magneto/Cable/Cammy; Storm/sentinel/cammy) 2nd: Duc Do (Spiral/Cable/sentinel; Spiral/Cable/Cyclops) 3rd: Viscant (Doom/storm/sentinel)
Evolution 2002 (UCLA, Los Angeles, CA) -
Marvel vs. Capcom 2 1st: Justin Wong (Storm/Sentinel/Cyclops; Magneto/Cable/Sentinel) 2nd: Rodolfo (Sentinel/Storm/Commando; Magneto/Cable/Sentinel) 3rd: Combofiend 4th: SIN 5th: Nestor 5th: Clockwork 7th: Rattana 7th: Ghengis
Capcom vs. SNK 2 1st: Tokido 2nd: Ohnuki 3rd: Ino 4th: Ken 5th: Liquid Metal 5th: BAS 7th: John Choi 7th: Alex Valle
SF2 Super Turbo 1st: Jason Cole 2nd: Ohnuki 3rd: Jason DeHerras 4th: Apoc 5th: Jason Nelson 5th: John Choi 7th: Mike Watson 7th: Jumpsuit Jesse 7th: Mester
Evolution 2003 (Pomona, CA)-
MVC2 1st: Justin Wong (Santhrax) 2nd: Ricky Ortiz (MSP; Santhrax; Storm/sent/psylocke) 3rd: Rodolfo (Santhrax; Mag/cable/sentinel)
CVS2- Ino (Japan) takes down Daigo Umehara (Japan) 3s- KO (Japan) beats Daigo (Japan)and the world championship
Evolution 2004 (Pomona, CA)- MVC2- Tekken 4: 1st) Jackie Tran (Jin) 2nd) JinKid (Jin) 3rd) TomHilfiger (Nina) 4th) Aenica (Julia)
Tekken Tag: 1st) Ryan Hart (Mishimas) 2nd) UNCONKABLE!!! (Anna/Armor King/Devil) 3rd) Slips (Eddy/Julia) 4th) Shin (Changs)
SC2 1st) RTD 2nd) Mick 3rd) Sownemisis 4th) ViciousSuicide
GGXX 1. Daigo (Sol) 2. Kindevu (Eddie) 3. RF (Faust) 4. MIU (Sol)
ST:
1st: Daigo Umehara (Ryu, Balrog, Osagat)
2nd: John Choi (Guile, Osagat)
3rd: Kuni (Gief)
4th: Justin Wong (Osagat, CHun)
5th: Alex Valle (Ryu, OSagat), Wes Truelson (Ken, Balrog)
7th: Jesse Howard (Ryu), Seth Killian (Honda, Gief)
3rd Strike: 1st: KO (Yun) 2nd: Daigo Umehara (Ken) 3rd: Justin Wong (Chun) 4th: Raoh (Chun) 5th: KSK (Alex), Kokujin (Dudley) 7th: Hsien Chang (Ken), Mike Watson (Yun)
CvS2
1st: Kindebu (A-ken/sakura, bison, blanka)
2nd: Ricky Ortiz (A-Vega, Sakura, Blanka)
3rd: John Choi (C-Ken, Guile, Sagat)
4th: Dan (C-Ryu, Ken, SAgat)
5th: Justin Wong (C-Vega,Chun,Sagat), Buktooth (N-iori,morrigan,hibiki)
7th: Eddie Lee (A-Mai,Eagle,Vega). RF (A-sakura,bison,blanka)
MvC2:
1st: Jwong (santhrax)
2nd: David Lee (Mag/cable/sent, cable/sent/cyke, sent/storm/cable, cable/mag/doom)
3rd: Xecutioner (SAnthrax, Sent/storm/cyke)
4th: Chris Schmidt (MSS, MSP)
5th: genghis (Santhrax), Randy Lew (Cable/sent/capcom, sent/ironman/cable)
7th: Soo (MSS, MSP). Harry Potter (MST, Santhrax)
Evolution 2005 (Las Vegas, NV)- 3rd Strike U.S. vs. Japan 5 on 5:
Team USA: Watson (Ken) Justin Wong (Chun-Li) Hsien (Ken) Ken I. aka Sextaro! (Makoto) Ricky Ortiz (Chun-Li)
Team Japan: Ohnuki (Chun-Li) Kokujin (Dudley) Nitto (Yun) Mester (Yun) MOV (Chun-Li)
FINAL SCORE:
20-5 JAPAN WINS
TEKKEN 5 U.S. vs. Japan 5 on 5:
Team Japan: Kenbou (Ganryu) SDZ (Bryan) Yuu (Feng Wei) Mishimaster (Heihachi) Hato (Heihachi)
Team USA: JOP (Jack 5) tomhilfiger (Nina) Arario (Jack 5) Jinkid (Steve) insanelee (Ganryu)
FINAL SCORE:
14-11 USA WINS
RESULTS
Tekken Tag:
1st - Qudans - [Korea] 2nd - Ryan Hart 3rd - Tomhilfiger 4th - Slips 5th - JinKid / Crow 7th - MadDogJin / SDZ
Capcom vs SNK 2:
1st - BAS - [Japan] 2nd - Mago 3rd - Kindebu 4th - Combofiend 5th - RF / Ohnuki 7th - Justin Wong / Ohayo
GGXX#R:
1st - RF (Faust) - [Japan] 2nd - Kindebu (Eddie) 3rd - Miu (Sol) 4th - Marneto (Eddie) 5th - Ruin (Eddie) / Mago (Slayer) 7th - Tokido (Eddie) / Bas (Eddie)
Super Turbo:
1st - Gian (Dhalsim) - [Japan] 2nd - Ohnuki (Chun-Li) 3rd - Tokido (Chun-Li) 4th - DSP (Vega) 5th - Buktooth, NKI (Chun-Li) 7th - Jason Cole (Dhalsim) / Peter
Marvel vs Capcom 2:
1st - Duc Do - [USA] 2nd - Yipes 3rd - Potter 4th - Justin Wong 5th - Ricky O. / Chris Schmidt 7th - Rawbzilla / Reset
Tekken 5:
1st - Crow (Steve) - [USA] 2nd - Yuu (Feng Wei) 3rd - MadDogJin (Steve) 4th - jra64 (Nina) 5th - Hato (Bryan) / Mishimaster (Heihachi) 7th - Arario (Jack 5) / Kenbou (Ganryu)
SF3: Third Strike:
1st - Ohnuki (Chun-Li) - [Japan] 2nd - Justin Wong (Chun-Li) 3rd - Nitto (Yun) 4th - Mester (Yun) 5th - Ricky O. (Chun-Li) / Kokujin (Dudley) 7th - RF (Chun-Li) / MOV (Chun-Li)
Texas Showdown SBO ECC NEC