Last night saw the conclusion of the expansive Street Fighter 25th Anniversary tournament series at the grand finals event in Burlingame, California. The oldest game on the roster, Super Street Fighter II Turbo, gathered a variety of old-school American competitors together to duke it out on the big stage, including Hung “Afro Legends” Nguyen, John Choi, and Damien “Damdai” Dailidenas, against foreign competition the likes of Mad Catz’ Hajime “Tokido” Taniguchi and Chang “Laugh” An of Western Wolves.
As the brackets were narrowed, only the United States’ pillars stood, and the grand finals would be played between Afro Legends and Damdai. This west coast vs. east coast showdown was a culmination of their history competing in the scene as well as a rematch of a previous winners bracket match in which Damdai swept Afro Legends with his ever-impressive use of O.Ryu, but the challenger would see only one game of victory before dropping again.
Damdai walks away from the grand finals with $3,500, a custom Mad Catz joystick, the Street Fighter 25th Anniversary first place trophy and, most importantly, the pride of dominating a tournament full of killers. We would like to extend our congratulations to Damdai and thank everyone involved with these grand finals and the qualifiers that came before them for an amazing tournament series.
Full results for this and other events at the Street Fighter 25th Anniversary grand finals can be found in our coverage hub.
