Are old matches still good to watch/study?

[Big Daddy Josh]

I'm just wondering is there a time cutoff where the matches become irrelevant? My thought process is that players should be progressing year after year, so I'm assuming anything older than a year I should avoid watching, or am I wrong for thinking this? I know I can probably learn from almost all the matches by top players, but I don't know how much the game has changed from back in the day( I've only been playing since November of last year.)

 

[SAUS]

Watching recent stuff is definitely ideal, but for some matchups/characters, you may have to watch older stuff. I'd probably not go older than 2013. There's tons of footage online these days due to the popularity of streams, so there's plenty to watch.

 

[The_Burn]

Old games can be important because fundamentals are usually more obvious (spacing, priority, ect.) And as you watch you can see how new strategies were developed to counter older strategies.

This is good for two reasons:
1- it teaches you how to punish unsafe moves someone at your level might use that higher level players avoid (like the Falco double lazers that have the 2 or 3 frame punish window)
2- it teaches you why you need to do certain inputs in certain situations while avoiding other inputs (usually because they are unsafe but again many people aren't high enough for you to notice until you have developed the habit)