Battle by the Bay (B3): Street Fighter Alpha 2 Tournament (1996)

B3: Battle by the Bay was the unofficial west coast Street Fighter Alpha 2 arcade grand championship tournament held on 20/7/1996 at Sunnyvale Golfland in the San Jose/San Francisco Bay Area, California, in the heart of Silicon Valley.

The video tape of the tournament you are watching now offers a rare insight into the early days of the competitive Street Fighter scene. Though competitive Street Fighter play has existed since the second game first emerged in arcades in 1991, B3 was the first tournament organized over the internet (via the newsgroup alt.games.sf2) and saw not just a nationwide but an international presence. Organized by Tom and Tony Cannon, founders/organizers of the Evolution Championship Series, it can be seen as the genesis of the modern day fighting game scene.

The tournament itself demonstrates some of the highest level competition seen in a Street Fighter game, even to this day. Though understanding of the game's unique engine was relatively undeveloped at this point, the game having only been released a few months prior, the Street Fighter fundamentals on display here have few betters in spite of the abundance of footage now available.

In the tournament's grand finals, Alex Valle would make a radical contribution to the evolution of high-level SFA2 play when he unveiled what would become known as the "Valle CC", a technique that enables the player to perform an unblockable Custom Combo by activating and sweeping while the opponent is standing. In a display of adaptation that would become legendary, John Choi quickly learns how to evade the technique and even abuse it himself.

I hope you enjoy this footage not just as a historical relic, but as a hugely impressive display of fundamental Street Fighter ability that one can learn from no matter what game you play.

Timestamps:
0:00 Intro

Top 16 Best Bouts:
7:00 James Romedy (Dhalsim) vs. Jason Ngo (Ken)
8:22 Apoc (Adon) vs. David Sirlin (M. Bison)
10:00 Jason Nelson (Ryu/Charlie) vs. Martin Vega (Rolento)
18:08 Tony Ngo (Ryu) vs. Mike Pirring (M. Bison)
22:06 Graham Wolfe (Chun Li) vs. Mike Watson (Ken)
23:53 Tom Cannon (Dhalsim) vs. Adam McMahon (Zangief)
26:35 Richard Koven (Chun Li) vs. David Chang (Ken)
29:24 Graham Wolfe (Chun Li) vs. Julien Beasley (Sodom)
30:45 David Sirlin (M. Bison) vs. Jason Nelson (Ryu)
34:12 Thao Duong (Ken) vs. Jason Cole (Dhalsim)
37:52 Jeff Schaefer (Akuma/Ken) vs. Julien Beasley (Sodom)

Final Four:
46:40 (Winners' Finals) John Choi (Ken) vs. Alex Valle (Ken/Ryu)
58:55 (Losers' Semis) Jeff Schaefer (Akuma/Ken) vs. Jason Nelson (Ryu/Charlie)
1:10:24 (Losers' Finals) John Choi (Ken) vs. Jason Nelson (Ryu/Ken/Sagat)
1:18:29 Grand Finals John Choi (Ken) vs. Alex Valle (Ryu/Sagat)
1:46:19 Results & Credits

Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• street
• fighter
• alpha
• zero
• sfa2
• sfz2
• battle
• by
• the
• bay
• john
• choi
• alex
• valle
• julien
• beasley
• david
• chang
• tom
• cannon
• jason
• cole
• thao
• duong
• richard
• koven
• adam
• mcmahon
• nelson
• tony
• ngo
• mike
• pirring
• sirlin
• jeff
• schaefer
• watson
• graham
• wolfe
• james
• romedy
• apoc
• martin
• vega

[bsmcnair]

Rare footage of Alex Valle actually young.

[ChrisBabaganoosh]

Alex Valle:  Maining Ryu since 1897.

[yashiroXD]

If only the arcade scenes were like this still its a damn shame

[BenjamminClark]

Wow everybody who played SF competitively at the arcades back then was a 100 times better than most of the people who play SF4 at tournaments now.

[pijo80]

Wooow !! Ty for the upload.

So many legendary names for a Great game.

[LolDaMaddin]

James chen? Like in james chen and ultradavid? THATS AWESOME : D never knew he started off with SF so early

[KinetiK001]

@luzbwl if your opponent is standing and you activate CC and do a low it's unblockable

[luzbwl]

how the ValleCC works?

[JoeKochForever]

Thumbs up if you watched the whole thing.

I know I did. Man... I want to birthday parties at that Golfland as a kid; now I'm watching YouTube footage of it. Crazy.

[sjy108]

damn i feel old. i played this in college. 1998. ken roundhouse into roll, light kick jab into roll, oh so sweeeeetttttttt.

[mynameistnb]

I would consider this to be one of the high points of american sf skill. Such class here.

[hyouretsuzan]

1:45:00 EVO Moment #-1. Absolute craziness.