It's the third round of the championship, tied 1:1, best two out of three. Hundreds crammed into the room to watch the young player Daigo face off against an unnamed opponent.
In "Street Fighter", when your opponent attacks, you have one frame (1 / 30th of a second) to block him. During that split second, if you swivel your joystick a half-circle, your character defends the attack. The game writes "Tech bonus" onto the screen.
Daigo plays the boxer in a white robe. In the first 25 seconds of this video, he is beaten down to zero health, where a single blow would end him. Then watch for his consecutive "tech bonus" streak, and ensuing revenge.
"It's madness! It's unadulterated madness!"
...
Next Tom pulled up a Korean video from a Starcraft battle. In South Korea, Starcraft competitions are shown on national TV.
What a wonderful country.
Tom showed me the popular Stacraft player YellOw. "Lots of girls like YellOw because he's rich, plays Starcraft really well, and he's hot."
He must have gone through a geek-to-hot transformation, because in the video, he looks like two different men. The teenager peering through glasses at his computer screen does not resemble the cocky youth strutting through a cheering stadium.
In the battle shown below, the handsome YellOw is head to head against the top-ranked player Boxer. They duke it out on a stage, observed by hundreds of audience members. Amongst the screaming teen girls sit many middle-aged people waving streamers.
Boxer issues a rush against Yellow in the first five minutes. The two male announcers' voices rise in fevered pitch, as Boxer's minions rage through YellOw's town. Before the sixth minute is up, YellOw writes "gg" (slang for "good game") and resigns. Both announcers scream in voices so high they hit falsetto, "GG!!! GG!!!!!"
Smoke explosions fire upward from the edge of the stage. The camera pulls back to reveal the audience cheering at top volume.
You should queue this video and then skip to minute 4:45, unless you love watching starcraft moves.
Watching people go nuts is so fun. That's why I watch basketball and soccer. Not for the sport, but for the audience.
11 comments:
I'm no Street Fighter savant, but I thought "parries" (what Daigo pulled off) were done by tapping forwards when the opposing player's attack should connect. (This itself is risky because one must hold backwards to block in the SF series; tapping forwards, if mistimed, means the errant parrier just gets hit.) That is, I don't think you have to pull off a half circle to parry.
我觉得你在blog上还是花了挺多的时间和精力的。说明你能挤出更多的精力干些别的，是不是因为你的感情寄托有些空呢？
Menghe,
是因为我很喜欢写作。
(I spend a lot of time writing this blog because I enjoy the act of writing.)
I think your writing is so good that I spend lots of times read your articles last sunday. Before that I just skimed over your gallery. And I think you can do more better that maybe you would publish somthing like books from your blog.
BTW, I am so glad see your feedback!
I wonder what the gaming scene in Japan is like if that's how Korea is! I <3 Japan.
Just amazing. A great write-up - something is happening here... GREAT stuff.
When i was running the UK gaming teams, guys came back from the large events in Korea for CounterStrike and said they'd been driven around with full security and mobs of screaming fans chasing them everywhere. As opposed to back in the UK where no one even asks for an autograph.
That's not a boxer in white. It's ken! Jesus, you're such a street fighter nooB!
I can't imagine being a fan of a game player! I guess I'm becoming to old for this world, or this world is becoming to young for me!
I'm not from the UK but I say: "It's not my cup of tea!"
RC, the Netherlands
The StarCraft move is so dramatic because most of the attack is conducted with non-attacking pieces. Those robots are "SCVs", the drones that gather resources. This means a) they do not have much power to attack; b) if they get destroyed he almost surely loses. Thus, it is a bold sacrifice play.
DF
Hi dear,Boxer is the super player of starcraft from Korea,people called him:Emperor of Terran,because of his creative of skill and amazing control ability to beat thousands of his opponents,he has become a legend in the Starcraft.This rush show of Boxer is just one of Boxer'S excellent performance!He make people know that Starcraft can be played in this way,which they will never though of it,it is Boxer make this game become an art.I think that Boxer plays an import role to make Starcraft so popular today in Korea.Slayer's boxer is always my favorite,and will be forever.
Tom.cruise
If anybody want to know more about Boxer,pls feel free to ctc me,My email adress:sohot007@hotmail.com
How to ctc you,Ms Niniane?
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