Originally posted by SaTsuJiN
I dont know if I asked this before (or if you posted them before) but I cant seem to find videos of tomo playing o_o .. like.. I found some wierdo tomo approved training video (with the whole "TDR" thing), but no actual battles.. would you happen to know any offhand?
To this very day, we do not have any videos of the Top OG Players within their prime playing besides that "One" tournament of Mike Watson back in 1994 playing Super Street Fighter II (He was an absolute monster at that time).
Reason being is that, at the time, no player could really afford those Camcorders because most of these Top Players were in their early to mid-late teens only. Not to mention nobody really wanted to carry those enormous camcorders around to record during a tournament as well (remember those camcorders were like nearly two feet long and a couple pounds).
The only "surviving" video clip of Tomo that we do have is one of him playing as Guile during his "Tomo Teaches SF" video here...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbxrF5PIusE
Within just that super short clip, you'll notice simply just HOW good Tomo was, and that "Ryu" that Tomo was playing against was none other then a Prime Mike Watson. However Tomo is seen making Mike look like he's an intermediate player playing SFII, which is crazy.
That Psychic Air Throw was absolutely amazing considering the situation he was in, which would have made it incredibly hard to react too, however that simple bit just show cases how ridiculously fast Tomo was, and the stated notion of how "he knew what you were going to do before you did it".
On another matter, his short showing of his Guile vs Claw match up was hilarious because he makes it look advantageous to Guile when in fact, Claw gives Guile a hard time. Again, that c.fp against the Wall Dive seemingly as though he "anticipated" it to happen to me blows me away.
We also have to take into consideration of this...Tomo's Guile, was the only Guile during Hyper Fighting to dominate. Nobody at that time could take Guile all the way except for Tomo simply because the Best Ryu Players at the time would eat up every single Guile player alive, making it extremely difficult for Guile to show up near the end of the tournament finals.
Only when Guile was played by Tomo did you see Guile go out on top, and of course his Ryu was untouchable, he is without a doubt, the Best Ryu and Guile Player of all time, yes, write that down, yes, Daigo is the best overall Ryu player today, however of all time, Daigo doesn't even make Top-5 of all time let alone Top-3.
Here is the more detailed account of the Jeff vs Daigo back in 2004...
Kuni introduced these guys.
Daigo in his SF2 Prime & Schaefer coming out of 10 year retirement having never played AE. Both were uncomfortable with the sticks used and Daigo was unfamiliar/unprepared to face CE/HF characters. So both were disadvantaged but gave it their best. Schaefer couldn't easily DP due to the sticks & being out of practice so long.
The Blanka - Ryu match was a sham - HF Blanka's hitboxes are screwed in AE - not as they should be in Hyper Fighting. Daigo got increasingly annoyed as the games commenced, surprised by some of Schaefer's vintage know-how and antics. Jeff, too, was impressed by the Beast's reflexes, patience, skill & technical razzle-dazzle ! He still stated that Prime Tomo was a lot better than Umehara.
Jeff did well for the reputation of Socal's/USA's OGs, reminding us why he was Top 3 from CE - Super in America. He carried the torch for Tomo's Ghost, to the best of his ability managing to perfect all 3 of Daigo's mains (Ryu, O.Sagat & Boxer) with CE Guile & Boxer which are not even Jeff's mains. Schaefer mained Sim in WW/CE, then Sagat & Blanka in HF. Guile was only his 4th pick & Boxer he knows even less. Schaefer held that if he'd been in his prime reflexes, skill, timing & practice he could've beat Daigo 20-0 using mostly Blanka, as he'd done years earlier against the Wolfes (33-0)
Here is the other match up of Daigo (Sagat) vs Jeff (Guile) in AE
Note: This one is the second one, so it's a whole different set from the original Sagat vs Guile one that I posted earlier.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZzbdpSS3ms
Again, this match up does not favor Guile period. If you play Sagat near to perfection, he should control the majority of this match up, well, that is, unless you were playing Prime Tomo. However again, Jeff displays hints and noted strategies of how to get in on Sagat with Guile like trading Sonic Booms with Tiger Shot then knee bazooka in, and if you hit Sagat your in a great position to dominate, if not, you can have another SB charged during your Knee already.
Also note on how Jeff "slowly" tries to hack away at Daigo, there you see almost no huge combo setups or super aggressive playstyle. He makes Guile punish whiffed Tiger Uppercuts that were baited with c.mk (although potentially he could have done c.fk, however c.mk has better range, it comes out faster and leaves him less to chance).
Even the Jump straight up and throw out c.fp to stuff Sagat's arm is OG Style, watch high lvl of ST play today and you'll notice almost nobody utilizing this great tactic. It's great because that c.fp has a good hit box and Sagat's arm's are vulnerable when he throws this, not only that, but when done correctly you'll hit Sagat but the Tiger Shot will fly right by you. Giving again positioning, and the charge (from when you were charging in the air).
Here's where Jeff actually plays as Sagat vs Daigo's Dee Jay, given note here that Daigo doesn't main Dee Jay obviously. Not to mention Dee Jay does indeed have a difficult time up against Sagat for obvious reasons.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtFvEhOjt3c
The first round is just a small hint of how a OG player would utilize Sagat, notice how even when Jeff knocks down Daigo he doesn't go for a jump in or cross up, because Jeff is only looking to completely dominate in the zoning department again. Almost every Top Sagat player today would have gone for a cross up, or jump in set up, however Jeff opted for the total positioning standpoint.
This is easily where Sagat becomes his most dangerous, when he's played with this similar mentality. Everyone it seems likes to cry that Sagat's tactics are too "cheap" and that they are nearly invincible however Sagat was also one of Jeff's main characters, and he's gone on record to say that Sagat is really, really good, but there are characters who when played right can do extremely well up against him.
Take for example in ST, Jeff states that someone like ST. Ryu can have an advantage over Sagat when played right. However with the fact that all the top players today can't footsie or position like the OG players, this match up looks to "favor" Sagat in a variable of either 6-4 or even 7-3 possibly.
However, that's all for now, I'll really break down and go into the intricacies of OG Mentality vs NG Mentality in SF next time. This way people will get a real clear understanding of how SF has evolved to become less strategical and the important reason why because of this that we will never ever see another player who will be as good as Tomo in the game of SF.