Chinatown Fair is Closing Its Doors

The saddest news for fighting game players in NY hit today. Henry Cen announced on his Facebook page that Chinatown Fair will close on the 23rd. It is unclear whether he's referring to February or March. According to Arturo Sanchez's Twitter posts, the establishment lost its lease. Chinatown Fair has a history dating back to the 50's and produced the greatest fighting game players of the East Coast. There, a young Justin Wong learned from the legendary Eddie Lee. MvC2 was honed to perfection by Justin, Sanford, Yipes, Desmond, Liston, et al. Arturo played everything from Super Turbo to SF4:AE there. Even today's up-and-coming players have begun to hone their skills in this lions den of great players. Soon, it will be no more. I found an interesting piece about Chinatown Fair's history at scoutingny.com (from which I borrowed the picture above). Also, there was a bit of foreshadowing in this year-old video by ArcadeHustla:

How Far We've Come

Check out this footage of B5, the 2001 precursor to EVO. It's amazing how many familiar faces are present. What would these guys be doing today if we weren't in the middle of a fighting game resurgence? It's as if their purpose in life is to play fighting games.

B5 Championship from Marcus W on Vimeo.

Ahh, they were simpler times: Arcade cabinets, CvS1, A-ism Chun, and the best team in MvC2 was "Cable, Cammy, Another."