More than a million people have seen the famous “Moment 37” video from EVO 2004, and today a brand new moment was added to the list of jaw-dropping Street Fighter battles: Poongko’s perfect victory over Daigo “The Beast” Umehara at EVO 2011…

For those who haven’t kept up with the goings-on of EVO and pro-level Street Fighter matches, Daigo is unquestionably one of the world’s top players, evidenced by his first place wins at numerous tournaments – including EVO 2009 and 2010 . It’s somewhat rare to see him lose a round at EVO, much less entire matches, so when Poongko beat him with a solidly perfect victory, including a dizzy, the thousands in attendance and thousands more watching at home understandably went nuts.

I was watching via the live stream, and have to admit shouting at my laptop in perpetual disbelief. One of my friends was in the crowd, and he said the entire room was on its feet, with him yelling “OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD” as everyone attempted to regain composure. It’s moments like these that help me understand entire bars going mad over football, soccer or baseball – after years of turning my nose up at rowdy dudes losing their minds over a ball going into a net, I can totally relate. The crowd, the excitement, the shared intenisty of everyone witnessing a moment in time… it’s something I never dreamed would happen to video games, so each and every time this happens, I regenerate one more piece of my icy, unfeeling heart.

Great matches from both players all around, of course, and we’ll undoubtedly see more amazing matchups at EVO 2012…

Via iPlayWinner and EVO YouTube Channel