While throw loops work differently in older games, because you’re usually invincible to wake up throws in okizeme situations for a short period of time — the tactic can still be effective in some situations.
This was the case during CEO 2025, where fighting game community legends, Justin Wong and TMG|MOV, were facing off in the winners semi-finals of the Street Fighter 3: Third Strike tournament in a Chun-Li mirror.
Justin Wong was down to virtually no health, and MOV had about 90% of his health bar remaining with about 22 seconds left in the final round of the last set.
From there, Justin landed 7 total throws, and went for an additional two more in that short span, with one being teched, and the potentially set-deciding throw whiffing due to the aforementioned throw invulnerability that Street Fighter 3: Third Strike offers on wake up.
This was a wild and awesome set of circumstances that played out here, and it shows that while throw techs are a much bigger deal in this modern era, they can still be a factor in older games too.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen commonly used tech in the fighting game community applied to older games, as Option Selects became a big deal in Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo after they became a well known tactic in Street Fighter 4.
Check out the clip below for a quick replay of how things went down.
One of the WILDEST timeouts we’ve EVER seen in 3S.@movmovmov vs. @JWonggg. A CLASSIC. #CEO2025 pic.twitter.com/lWOhq94sXA
— CEO 2025 on June 13-15 in Orlando, FL! (@CEOGaming) June 14, 2025