photo courtesy of twitch.tv/eleague
Fighting games have gone full blown esports. The preliminary round of ELEAGUE’s inaugural Street Fighter V tournament kicked off today with a strong slue of players competing in Group A. The matches were broadcasted live at the Atlanta studio and officially started the new era of fighting game tournaments.
Furthermore, it was the fighting game community’s first look at a new type of tournament. One with commercial breaks and invitation only. The broadcast lasted six hours, and only a small percentage was actual gameplay. This is not a critique, it’s just the facts. The best of three made for quicker games, making the host fill long periods of dead air time.
Regardless, the production value was outstanding, and the games overall provided some entertaining Street Fighter. Any criticism is met with the fact that it was their first attempt at a fighting game broadcast. All things considered, they did a great job. The lack of normalcy from a fighting game tournament was lost, but the overall event was a success.
1. Victor “Punk” Woodley, 6-1, Advances to Semifinals
Punk’s recent success is no mistake. His Karin play has pushed the Meta-game. Based off of today’s results, he is a serious contender to take the ELEAGUE title. His 6-1 record was impressive, with his one loss coming to Infiltration’s Juri. No one could consistently deal with his unrelenting corner pressure.
2. Yusuke “Momochi” Momochi, 5-2, Advances to Semifinals
Momochi hasn’t been as effective lately, but today his Ken came to play. He had wins over Infiltration’s Rashid, Smug’s Balrog, and only fell to Punk and surprisingly Marn. Momochi dealt with plenty of game three, last round situations, so it wasn’t an easy road. He did qualify for semifinals with his win over Infiltration.
3. Bryant “Smug” Huggins, 5-2, Advances to quarterfinals
After a disappointing season one, Smug is back in season two with Balrog and hitting harder than anyone. His punish game coupled with Balrog’s damage output is a perfect fit. One mistake and Smug would essentially end the game with his corner carry and use of EX-hits to extend combos to end rounds. It felt like he was back playing Dudley and styling on players.
4. Thomas “Brolynho” Proença, 4-3, Advanced to quarterfinals
Possibly the surprise of the day was Brolynho finishing fourth in the group. He was placed in a win-or-go-home scenario, and ended up winning two clutch sets against Marn and Julio. His mix-ups and recognition of the situation with Necali was impressive. Despite tough losses to Momochi, Smug, and Punk, he had strong wins over Infiltration to finish third.
5. Seonwoo “Infiltration” Lee, 4-3, Advances to quarterfinals
The second real look at season two Infiltration gave us two new characters and mixed results. He had answers for Ken with Rashid, but struggled with his new main in Juri in some situations. It’s a work in progress for Infiltration, and that showed with his 4-3 record. He’s still a player to keep an eye on heading into the next round.
6. Julio Fuentes, 2-5, advances to quarterfinals
Julio had a rough day. He was having difficulties in neutral with his Ken and couldn’t build late damage combos consistently. He did have times were he excelled with insane comebacks with V-trigger. His two wins came over Ricki Ortiz and the must-win 2-1 over Marn to advance. He’ll have to make adjustments if he wants to advance to the semifinals.
7. Martin “Marn” Phan, 2-5, eliminated
Marn. Photo courtesy of twitch.tv/eleague
Marn was undoubtedly the most entertaining part of day one. Despite being eliminated, Marn’s antics provided plenty of hard laughs. His Ibuki play was no joke. However, it feels as if he’ll need more time with Ibuki before he has success. In most of his losses, he kept it extremely close and barely got edged out in a few sets. Hopefully we see the newly sponsored Marn at more events.
8. Ricki Ortiz, 0-7, eliminated
Tier list matters, and that’s proven by the second place finisher at Capcom Cup going 0-7 at ELEAGUE. Cammy got nerfed to the ground, and after a disappointing 33rd place finish at Final Round and going 0-7 today, Ricki is questioning her character choices.
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