The year was 2015 and the tournament was Stunfest. Though this Street Fighter 4 competition was held in Rennes, France, it would be two Japanese gods in grand finals as Momochi and BST|Daigo Umehara would be the ones battling for the gold.
During their set Daigo found himself in a position to go for one of the most difficult combos in Street Fighter 4, one in which Evil Ryu uses all of his meter and must perfectly execute five one-frame links and one two-frame link. Despite this risky combo not even necessarily being the most optimal use of meter for the situation, Daigo went for it, pulled it off, and turned a hype moment into an iconic one.
In one of his latest videos content creator JM Crofts takes a look back at Daigo'd Stunfest combo and then tries to pull it off himself.
Indeed, many of us back in the SF4 days found ourselves sitting in training mode trying to pull off this monstrosity with some semblance of consistency, not unlike what surely happened in the days of Third Strike after Moment 37 happened.
Herein lies the greater significance of this move by Daigo: it sent messages. It sent a message to his opponent, in the heat and under the pressure of such a high stakes set, that The Beast was in full force, ready and able to perform at the absolute highest of levels heading into the bracket reset.
It also sent a message to Daigo, himself, as successfully landing this sequence surely cemented in him the idea that he had both the skill and momentum to finish off Momochi, one of the greatest players to ever touch the game. (Daigo did indeed go on to win the tournament.)
Finally, it sent an inspirational message to fans, showing us all what kinds of limits could be broken when discipline and devotion are fully embraced.
Re-live, or experience for the first time, the hype of the Stunfest 2015 combo via Croft's video below and then have some fun watching how difficult it is to actually pull it off. Let us know in the comments how this moment bounced off of you, and if you've ever spent a training mode session trying to recreate it.