Evo 2024 Viewer's Guide: Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike
Street Fighter III: Third Strike is this year's throwback game at Evo 2024, returning as a main game for the first time since 2009. After a 15-year break, Third Strike is back and bigger than ever, with a record 1,101 entrants ready to give it their all in the 25-year-old masterpiece.
Third Strike may be three full Street Fighter releases ago at this point, but the game has a dedicated community that has been keeping it alive. Community members have run side brackets at major events for years, like the Evo Community Brackets, and the scene has kept it alive through events like Cooperation Cup team tournament in Japan and the Jazzy Circuit in the United States. You know everybody who has worked so hard to keep this game alive will be excited to give it their all for its return to the main stage. Today, we'll take you through the biggest Third Strike bracket in the game's history, and the players with their eye on the crown.
SETTING THE STAGE
No patches necessary here. Third Strike players will be playing the same exact game they've been playing for the past 25 years. Thanks to the combination of time and the dedication of Third Strike's competitive scene, it has become one of the most developed fighting games out there. Despite the game's age, people are still finding new setups and optimizations to this day.
Third Strike actually made its return to the Evo stage earlier this year at Evo Japan 2024, with a bracket that drew a ridiculous 464 entrants. The All-Japan finals came down to a Yun mirror between SHO and BOSS, with SHO coming out on top 3-1. One of the big questions for Evo Vegas 2024 will be if anyone can stop the tide of Yuns and Chuns. 7 of the Top 8 finishers at Evo Japan 2024 used Yun or Chun-Li. 7th place finisher Koudai was the odd one out, playing Yang.
But if ever there was a place for somebody to bust out some meta-warping techniques, it's at the biggest Third Strike tournament of all-time. Players have been waiting years for another crack at this game on the biggest stage in fighting games, and it's about time to see what they've been cooking up.
MAJOR STORYLINES
You already know about Daigo Umehara and Justin Wong. As much fun as it would be to see a Moment 37 runback in Grand Finals two decades later, there are over 1,000 players in this bracket who will be dedicated to preventing it. Here are some of the names you should be familiar with as you prepare to watch the biggest Third Strike bracket of all time.
SHO boasts two Cooperation Cup wins, from 2017 and 2023, to go with his Evo Japan 2024 championship. A Yun master, it's only fitting that he was able to claim his first Evo championship by taking out BOSS in the Yun mirror. His trip to Evo 2024 will be his first to America as a competitor, and given the form he's been showing lately, he has to be one of the favorites to take the whole thing.
Issei has been one of Third Strike's greats for 20 years now. He reached the Evo finals in 2006, falling at second place to Nitto and solidified himself in Third Strike history as an Evo Champion in the 2v2 competition in 2009, teaming with Justin Wong to take the whole thing. He also has a Cooperation Cup win under his belt, the most recent accolade on his resume, taking the 2019 edition along with Haitani, KO, Nuki and Deshiken. He's one of the strongest Yun players in the world and a threat to win any event he enters.
Tominaga is one of the best bets to break through the wall of Yun and Chun-Li players. His Makoto is nasty enough that Justin Wong decided to sponsor his trip to Las Vegas for Evo 2024 and treat the world to watching him run through this bracket. He had a particularly unfortunate draw at Evo Japan 2024, losing to eventual 5th place finisher yakkun for 65th place. For a representation of his true power, look to 2023's Double Dragon Cup, held at Evo Japan 2023, where he came out on top.
MOV has had a great Chun-Li in multiple Street Fighter games, but many of his best moments have come in Third Strike. From his 2006 Super Battle Opera victory to his 2012 win at Capcom's official 25th anniversary tournament and his second place finish at 2017's 30th anniversary tournament, MOV has been a force in Third Strike as long as the game has been played. Despite an early loss at Evo Japan 2024, he was able to make a losers bracket run all the way to Top 32. If he can channel that energy in Las Vegas, he can go deep.
AmirXL was the winner of this summer's Jazzy Circuit Season Finale 5, the culmination of a series of community run Third Strike tournaments held in the United States in 2024, with his Chun-Li. This is just the latest achievement in a long career for AmirXL. He made two Evo Finals in the 2000s, placing 7th at Evo 2006 and 3rd at Evo 2008 to go with a 5th place finish at Evo 2009's 2v2 competition.
Hayao, perhaps better known as the Hugo God, has been a top level Third Strike player since at least 2005, when he took home a Cooperation Cup championship. He was the highest placing Hugo player at Evo Japan 2024, where he finished a very respectable 17th in the most stacked Third Strike bracket in recent memory. As one of the few who still plays Third Strike's biggest body, you know he's going to be a crowd favorite at Evo 2024.
wadupNEEM finished second to AmirXL at the Jazzy Circuit Season 5 finale and is coming into Evo 2024 as the strongest American Ken player. He'll be trying to make a statement with Ken, who was shut out of the Top 8 by the Yun, Chun-Li and Yang players who made up the finals at Evo Japan 2024.
ShiroKuro is one of the strongest Chun-Li players who made the trip from Japan. A Cooperation Cup champion in 2019, he'll be looking to improve on his Top 24 finish at the absurdly stacked Evo Japan 2024 bracket.
Bubbles took the biggest open Third Strike bracket of the summer prior to Evo, the 221-entrant bracket at COMBO BREAKER 2024. Bubbles had already been making waves at tournaments across the United States, as he was coming off a 2nd place finish at East Coast Throwdown 2023 and a 3rd place finish at Texas Showdown 2024. At COMBO BREAKER, he got the runback over Beesu, the player who ended his run at ECT. Bubbles may be a relatively new Third Strike player in the grand scheme of things, but he's carrying a ton of momentum into his first Evo.
