TSM FTX Leffen hosted The Big LEVO this past weekend, gathering nearly 2000 Guilty Gear players in a massive online tournament. The event featured standard and “beginner/amateur” brackets for both Europe and North America. While most people think of Leffen as a Smash champion, Strive is not his first foray into more traditional fighters. As he ventures into Guilty Gear Strive, he has hosted weekly tournaments leading up to this occasion.
THE BIG LEVO EXPLAINED
With the help of legendary commentary duo Tasty Steve & Sajam, Leffen’s event reached an arguable status of an online major. The amateur ladders welcomed competitors still learning the ropes of Strive, while main brackets featured some of the highest caliber Guilty Gear players of each region.
Running throughout the day on July 3, The Big LEVO had a $1000+ prize pool distributed between top eight placements in each region. As most of the community plays on the PC version of Strive, the tournament ran exclusively on Steam. The amateur and main bracket format allowed players to enter both if they chose to do so. Certain exceptions depended on players’ online ranks and main event performance.
The top four players of each bracket played in a unique best-of-seven format. This is unlike the usual best-of-three or five match formats seen in other games. While organizers learn more about Strive’s match pace, Leffen experimented with this format and gave spectators even more Guilty Gear action.
EUROPE RESULTS
As the first bracket of the day, Europe kicked off the event strong with 473 attendees between both the amateur and main tournaments. Despite not being on stream, the amateur bracket was won by Fil, with a second place finish by Shaddy.
TLR Mystic took first place in Europe’s main event with Axl, followed by GunFrame’s AnBi placing second using Sol. After a bracket reset by Mystic from loser’s side, he won 4-1 over AnBi to close out the tournament.
NORTH AMERICA RESULTS
Following Europe, the North America tournaments kicked off at The Big LEVO. These brackets gathered a gigantic crowd of 1,290 player between each event. DeadlyHound took first place in the amateur bracket over Safe as this event alone featured 366 entrants.
The final bracket of the night saw 999 North American players competing in the online arena. Familiar names like Punk and HookGangGod placed high in the event, while grand finals came down to Evil Geniuses’ SonicFox against former Evo Guilty Gear champion DEB. Looking confident in yet another fighting game, SonicFox took first place over DEB in a 4-2 victory to win The Big LEVO NA.
TAKEAWAYS FROM THE BIG LEVO
As another early Strive bracket finishes, players still try to figure out the meta of the new title. While characters like Sol and Ramlethal are capturing the eyes of top-tier enthusiasts, the variety of characters appearing in online tournaments gives spectators much to be excited about.
With esports organizations like CLG and Panda hosting their own events for the game, all eyes are on Strive for this summer of fighting games. The hype behind The Big LEVO will surely be seen for more Guilty Gear events in the future especially as offline tournaments resume soon.
STAY CONNECTED
Featured image courtesy of TSM FTX Leffen
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