Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike competitive legacy lives on at Japan's Cooperation Cup

Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike has been around for almost 18 years and to this day remains one of the most exciting competitive fighting games to watch.

Last weekend, the 15th Cooperation Cup was held in Japan. Hundreds of the best 3S players in Japan and from around the world competed in two 5v5 single elimination tournaments. In the two years I’ve watched the event, it has become one of my most anticipated FGC events of the year because of its purity, its hype, and its high level play.

Day one of the event hosts a ‘same character only’ team tournament. The second day features a more traditional teams tournament with each player choosing the character they will play throughout the event. This year, both tournaments were an amazing display of 3S skill.

Those who are not familiar with the Japanese 3S scene should take note of some of Street Fighter V’s top players who were around during the 3S heyday. One top 8 team included recent Echo Fox signee Yusuke Momochi (Yun,) Joe “MOV” Egami (Chun-Li,) and Tatsuya Haitani (Makoto.) The winning team included Shinya “Nuki” Onuki, who plays Chun-Li in both 3S and SFV.

Despite those big names, some of the best highlights from the tournament came from lesser known players. . I’m old enough to have played games like 3S in arcades and watching killer after killer step up to the cabinets at Cooperation Cup was like a timewarp. I was fascinated as much by Makoto player Tominaga sporting the throwback big jeans and Kangol as I was by his Makoto play. Some of the players are so popular, they can be identified by the color of their character costume, like Deshiken’s neon green Ken, Kokujin’s pink and white Dudley, or Match’s dark purple Akuma ( Gouki in Japan.)

All of the players have had years to hone their 3S craft and they take the event seriously. It’s single elimination, too, adding even more pressure.

“When you’re at Cooperation Cup, you immediately feel the passion that every player and every team has for 3rd Strike,” player/commentator Andrew J. “Duralath” Alandy told Yahoo Esports. “It’s still impressive to see such heart for a game that was created before a lot of players touched an arcade stick or threw their first Hadouken.”

My favorite element of Cooperation Cup is the atmosphere. You can hear the pop-offs and the “ay, ay, ay” combo chants throughout the venue. There is a pop-off almost every match and sometimes after every round. It’s refreshing to see, considering most top Japanese players tend to show very little emotion in Street Fighter competition these days. Players even mug it up for the cameras and we almost never see that in a Street Fighter V event.

“3rd Strike play here transcends most of what I’ve seen in most contemporary fighting games. Every movement, every action carries some sort of discourse where fate can be turned and what seems like a guaranteed defeat becomes a thrilling victory,” Duralath said.

There might not be a better example of this than the Matsuken (Ken) versus Nitto (Yun) match during the main event. With the game tied at one round apiece, Matsuken was cruising to a win in the final round before Nitto’s parries and Genei Jin combos took over. Nitto completed what may have been the most unlikely comeback of the weekend. His teammates lost their minds celebrating that win, while Nitto played it cool, as if it were the plan all along.

“The level of play in 3rd Strike is strange. Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth, to quote Mike Tyson,” player/commentator Thomas “Arlieth” Shin told Yahoo Esports. “Then it becomes a mad scramble to maintain a tenuous grasp on momentum before your opponent can begin to play optimally again. Even top players are not immune to this. It’s a brutally unforgiving game that punishes you the moment you get too comfortable, whether it be in the neutral or in setplay, and the meta is still evolving.”

In the current era of esports, Cooperation Cup stands out as an example of pure competition. In Japan, many tournaments don’t have prize purses because of gambling laws; in this case, the winning team received a plaque featuring art by Yoshihara Motoki (who also competed in the event) and medals. Each competitor is playing for something more important than money or recognition.

“Cooperation Cup has always been a tournament for the love of the game, not any kind of prize. The feeling of responsibility to carry your teammates can be both incredibly motivating and a heavy burden. There is also a strong urge to form teams representing your local scene to prove your strength. Kyushu’s team is a great example of this,” Arlieth said.

Even in Japan, regions are still competing to see who is strongest, just like East Coast versus West Coast in the United States.

“I think the personal element of fighting for your region’s pride was what got to me the most,” Arlieth said. “I want to see more team-based events, showcases of character specialization like Pre-Cooperation Cup. By design, 3rd Strike is a very human game where the expression of a player’s creativity and their will to survive are especially apparent.”

No other fighting game may be as well-preserved in a tournament setting as 3rd Strike is with Cooperation Cup. There currently aren’t any high profile events similar to it for Ultra Street Fighter IV, and it remains to be seen if Street Fighter V can evolve into something people will play for the love of the game.

“This was my first time in Japan and Cooperation Cup. I always told myself that one day, I would compete in a Japanese tournament,” Duralath said. “The big draw for me was to play 3rd Strike surrounded by like-minded individuals. Playing against Japanese players made me so hungry to continue competing in the game.”

Michael Martin is so impressed with the high level 3S play at Cooperation Cup, he wants to be there in 2018. Follow him on Twitter @Bizarro_Mike.