This is the day that changes the community forever.
His health depleted, Daigo was just a single blow from losing the round.
Here are the basics: in most fighting games, players can block moves to avoid full damage.
Image: Capcom; Design: Christopher Cruz
However, in3rd Strike, simple blocking will still result in chip damage (i.e.
lessened damage but not total immunity).
In Daigos position with limited health, even a block wouldve ended in defeat.
Instead, he had to utilize a perfect parry, executed by pressing forwardintothe attack, to nullify it.
For many, it had never even been heard of Wong included.
People spread rumors, Wong says.
People are saying, You know, Chun-Lis super, its unparryable.
So, in my head, I believed that.
Its like theMythbustersof fighting games.
From every tournament leading up to Evo 2004, I never got parried.
For him, it was more obvious.
Whether I could pull it off was another story.
I sensed that he thought his win was a sure thing.
He claims that his victory was based purely on muscle memory.
It also was intended to be his final competition.
[I] made up my mind to quit gaming once and for all.
Because it hadnt served me; it didnt take me where I wanted.
That all changed after the match.
With his miraculous feat, however, the tides shift in an instant.
The player pool skewed much more toward Americans than it does now, Daigo says.
Justin had 100 percent of the crowds support.
The whole venue was cheering for him and wanted to see him win.
But [as] soon as the crowd decided I was pretty good, they started cheering me on.
People have always cheered for me ever since.
As the American on home turf, Wong had a different viewpoint.
He laments the feeling of building up the communitys support, only to have it slip through his fingers.
So, it was just me left; It was like a Japanese gauntlet.
Theyre like, USA!
Then I fought Daigo, [and] thats where Moment #37 happened.
And you could clearly tell it went from the USA chant to, Daigo!
So, he took the home-court advantage away from me.
Moment #37 just outshined his [victory].
For them, it was just another cool comeback to talk about with friends.
It wasnt until a few years later that it circulated more heavily to become a viral clip.
I didnt think about what the word viral meant.
Viral was not a thing back in the day, right?
There were no socials or YouTube.
I dont think [it] blew up until at least after 2010.
There was like six years [where] that moment happened, but nobody really talked about it.
Its kind of likeFight Club, Wong jokes.
You just dont talk about Fight Club or whatever.
Thats what the fighting game community was like back in the day.
For most, there may simply be too much to take in when watching a match ofLeague of LegendsorValorant.
The success of Evo Moment #37 is likely due to the readability of fighting games.
Even without the knowledge of the deeper mechanics the super arts and parries theres a simplicity to it.
Two fighters duke it out, one is nearly KOd when a flashy move hits, the crowd roars.
The historic matchup kicked off both players careers.
Because were already a small community.
Thats kind of crazy to me.
Daigo agrees, although the experience is still somewhat surreal to him, some 20 years later.
I see Moment #37 in a completely different light than the rest of the world, Daigo says.
To me, its as if it happened to someone else.
Its almost like a gift I received.
People do tell me it was the catalyst for them.
I think the popularity of that video is why people still ask for my autograph wherever I go.
Had he chosen to play differently, nothing would be the same.
[All] because of me wanting to chip out Daigo for the super.
Imagine that it was just a regular match and nothing crazy happened?
Theres a good chance that [many people] might not have been interested in fighting games.
