lol ESPN: Lee “Infiltration” Seon-woo wins EVO 2016’s Street Fighter V championship
First off, gaming has come a long way, seeing as how this particular story was broadcast on the front page of ESPN.com. Not only can you read about the NFL’s collective dick getting sucked, Tom Brady, the New York Yankees and the NBA D-League, you can now occasionally get some articles about video games and video game events, like EVO and the League of Legends World Championships. (but very little about Major League Baseball outside of New York, Los Angeles or Boston)
Ultimately, the headline is not as cavalier as I try to make it sound, because at least as far as the Street Fighter scene is concerned, SF is a franchise that has mostly been dominated by Japan throughout the years. There are guys all over the world who have made names for themselves, representing the United States, France, South Korea, and other countries, but typically when it comes to the EVO Championships, Japan has typically run the table on the Street Fighter franchise games.
So it is somewhat of a notable moment that Infiltration won the Street Fighter title, because it’s the series that is arguably perceived as the main event of the tournament, and it’s the one that has been dominated by Japanese players since EVO’s origins in 2002. Not only does Infiltration win his second Street Fighter title, because of him, South Korea has two championships, which makes them the only other region outside of Japan to have multiple SF titles. Seriously, only three other regions have won a SF title, and Japan has the other ten.
Whatever though, ultimately this is still a glorious story of triumph where heroic Korea > evil Japan. Not only does Korea eat Japan, and everyone else’s lunches in League of Legends, we’re closing the gap in competitive Street Fighter play, and this could very well be the start of a dynasty, where Korean SF players can begin to run the table and deny everyone else Street Fighter victories.
