Back in the day, I was a Champ...

Before 15-hit combos, αlpha counters and Ultra meters, Street Fighter II was REALLY slow and players like myself were reliant on well-timed backhand punches and jump kicks. With no internet or strategy guide available (it was 1993, people...), I found out these secret moves from a Chinese takeout joint in Queens.

These NY cats unleashed these weird, never-before-seen joystick combos like charging backwards for two seconds and quarter circle rotations. "They must be wizards!" I thought. The arcade console they were playing must've been sped up because Blanka and Ryu were moving ten times faster than anything I saw in Menlo Park Mall arcade. I learned their ways through severe ass kickings and brought the learned magic across the river to Jersey. I ruled the land as supreme champion with my mystical new power, the Shoryuken. I almost felt bad these NJ chumps kept dumping quarter after quarter trying to defeat me. Kobayashi Maru, indeed.

The following weekend in anticipation of conquering another arcade, a nameless rogue Flash Kicked me with a two-second charge I never saw. Dude housed me. A Sonic Boom with ANOTHER Flash Kick immediately after (I didn't see him charging THAT one either) ushered the ending of my champion reign of five days.  

I wear this shirt as a reminder of my time as king. Ironically, I wore this shirt last week as a 13 year old slapped me with a 15-hit combo and rightfully so, talked crazy shit. I still beat him but damn that kid and his neo-wizard reflexes...