The SF:IV International Exhibition was absolutely nuts, my cousins living in Cali took the time to go, and they were going absolutely apesh*t on the phone when they saw it go down. Basically put, Poongko from S. Korea with his super aggressive Ryu, Iyo with his #1 Dhalsim from Japan, Daigo The Beast Umehara with none other then Ryu, and Justin Wong representing the USA with Rufus.
I'm absolutely jealous of my cousins getting to see it first hand, however the match ups now on Youtube were absolutely intense. Forget the Exhibition label on it, everyone in there didn't want to halfa$$ their gameplay, and brought their A+ Game to the forefront. Obviously the competitiveness kicked in, and it had a REAL tournament atmosphere.
Poongko lived up to his reputation with an aggresive playstyle by rushing in with Ryu, even landing an absolutely ridiculous and monster combo on Daigo in the Ryu vs Ryu mirror match up, however Daigo was simply too much to handle and eventually took it 4-1.
Iyo utilizing Dhalsim has demonstrated even more why I say Sim is just unappreciated in the SF:IV world. He absolutely zoned and punished his opponents mercilessly, everytime they would jump in, they'd eat a natural AA from Iyo, or else suffer the Ultra setup.
Daigo The Beast did what he usually does...he would beast, there was many times in which it looked like Daigo would lose, however out of nowhere he'd pull off a Psychic Shoryuken and land to Ultra to either turn the tide, or give him the victory.
Justin Wong has earned even greater respect from me, because in the fighting game world now, where it seems everyone wants to copy Japan, or think they are the best, he came in with Rufus and went all the way, beating Poongko, Iyo's beastly Sim, and only losing to Daigo to finish 2nd. He basically put to all here in the US saying "We can hang with anyone from the world when it comes to SF:IV!".
My cousins had a blast, and to be honest...although I'm retired, I have a sense of jealousy grow in me, because I would have loved to have been there as well. Anyhow, I waving 60/40 into going to Evolution 2009 now, no not to compete or do any casuals or what not, however simply to experience the atmosphere again...I truly miss it, considering the last Evo I attended was 2005.
Anyhow here's the videos...
Poongko (Ryu) vs Daigo (Ryu) Mirror Match (Obviously as a Ryu player myself, this has a special place for me, rofl)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENYI5bsVILA
Daigo (Ryu) vs Iyo (Sim) Arguably the best match out of them all...Pyschic Shoryuken ftw!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HuUJBqDbZ8&feature=related
Justin (Rufus) vs Iyo (Sim) ROFL, Fatman FTW!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=st_r1g8w24E
After all of this, how in the world can Street Fighter IV not be the greatest fighting game of 2009 folks. You gotta love it man, also, I might just make it to Evo2k9 now, since Wats is trying to get Tomo The Legend Ohira to show up, and if it does go down, all I can say is, if you want to meet the GREATEST STREET FIGHTER PLAYER of all time, Evo2k9 will be the place.