If you've spent any amount of serious time in the FGC, then you probably know about EVO Moment 37. It was the legendary bout between Daigo "The Beast" Umehara and Justin Wong in which Daigo did the impossible. He perfectly parried Chun-Li's kick super in Street Fighter 3: Third Strike and followed up with a punish to finish the match in spectacular fashion. Back in a time when FGC competition was still pretty low profile and grassroot, this was a moment that put it on the map.
Now, the story hardly ends there. Both Daigo and Justin still compete years later and, specifically, Justin still plays old games like SF3: Third Strike. I watch him a lot on YouTube and one of the funnier threads that has gone on in the last few years was everyone figuring out the Daigo Parry and using it against him in Third Strike matches. But Justin has champion mentality. He doesn't get all that mad. He just gets even. He labbed a new strategy for Chun-Li in Third Strike specifically to counter Daigo Parry chasers and at CEO 2022, he put it on display to win the Third Strike tournament.
This was fun and hilarious to see. It was the payoff to so much frustration over the course of quite a few Third Strike videos and streams that Wong has done. I mean, it can't be all that fun to constantly be reminded of the match you lost even if it helped boost the FGC, especially in regular matches. For that, when Justin suspected an opponent might go all in on parries, he swapped to Chun-Li's Super Art 1, Kikosho, her energy ball. And most importantly, it works. He won Third Strike at CEO 2022 and has the championship to prove it.
That said, Wong is such a good sport, he goes on to explain why he switched to Kikosho as a counterpick and why it's so much harder to parry than Chun-Li's kick super art. Simply put, it's the design of the move that makes it so difficult. There are somewhere around 18 hits you have to parry to effectively get past the move and as you parry, your character is moving forward. As Justin explains, that changes the timimg of your parry because of your spacing. You're getting closer to Chun-Li, so the timing changes just slightly and, even then, 18 hits is a lot to try to get through. So far, opponents have only been about to get through 8 to 10 hits of the move at most with parries.
This was a cool moment for an old head like me during CEO 2022 and so very inside baseball. It's the true sign of a champ to me. Justin's not just going to sit there and take your trash. He's going to figure out what he needs to do to improve and trash you right back. Dude even went as far as to say he'd beat Daigo in Third Strike now. That may be true, but I'd still love to see the rematch.
For now, though? Best not let Wong catch you trying to parry him in Third Strike. He's got that Kikosho counterpick battle-tested and ready to school you when he needs it.
