Despite Chun-Li’s massive thighs of destruction, or Ryu’s “why penis, why?” inducing crotch,Street Fighter IVis shaping up to be pretty impressive. While our very own Aaron Linde wasbusy prepping the written word, a few of us crammed into Capcom’s private suit in the St. Regis hotel for an epic showdown — the first AmericanStreet Fighter IVtournament!
The journalist-only tournament went on for about two hours, and in a shocking turn of events, bizarre luck actually found me in the tournament’s final rounds. But I wasn’t disappointed with my inevitable loss; I knew there was no way I was going to be able to hang with crowd favorites Jared Rhea, Mike Jones, or Dan Boutros.
The tournament was a blast, with the crowd in attendance getting louder and more rowdy with each passing round. This may or may not have been directly related to the open bar; you make the call on that one. But by the time Jones and Boutros were going head-to-head in the final rounds, shrieks and screams erupted at the tiniest bit of movement.
The tournament official came to a head when Boutros took the win by a small margin, and then had the chance to battle the game’s producer, Yoshinori Ono. Pro tip: You don’t have to be great at the games you make, you just need to make great games. Ono-san graciously accepted defeat, and Boutros walked away with with a bizarre wrestling trophy, crowned the first USStreet Fighter IVchampion.
