MK2 brings back massive memories from my youth. Taking a step back, are fighting games popular today? I don't game much, but I haven't seen or heard of any major fighting games outside of RPG style battles.
Besides those dedicated enough to fly to tournaments and compete with the best, FGs still seem to be generally popular among the mainstream; SFV sold 6.6m copies, MK11 sold 12m, and GG Strive sold 1m. The 2010s were a total revival of the genre, which had a bit of a dead period in the early aughts.
There were around 40 people there, about ten of them competing. It was held at an arcade that was downstairs in the La Jolla mall in San Diego.
This was the first worldwide Street Fighter II tournament, that later evolved into the EVO tournament.