Fighting games took front and center with with Capcom Pro Tour starting back up again with Final Round. Beyond the Summit also featured some of the greatest names known to Smash at Ultimate Summit and NYChrisG showed off his skills in four different games during the same weekend.
Ultimate Summit Recap
The Summit series officially came to Smash Bros. Ultimate in early March. Few things get the Smash community as excited as a Summit — an event that pits the most competitive and most hyped players against each other in a laid back, friendly setting. The freshness of the game and the creativity of the players was on display, as the bracket was full of 3-0’s. The adaptability and the talent of the pros shined through brilliantly too, as the bracket had a number of back and forth 3-2’s. Team Liquid’s Dabuz and Alliance’s Armada saw their fair share of both.
Melee legend Armada struggled the more of the two, but that was to be expected. After a few months of tournaments, friendlies, and boot camps, it became clear that the Melee pros would need to work more on their Ultimate fundamentals than the Smash 4 players, as Melee’s game engine is very different from Ultimate’s.
Armada consistently leveled up through the tournament, starting off with a rough loss to VoiD’s godlike Pichu and ending by beating Maryland and Virginia’s finest, ZD, and the former Smash 4 champ Zero. He ended up losing to Cosmos, a player that placed 7th at Frostbite and Genesis. Though he lost, he showed a lot of improvement within the set itself, taking a game off of an ink-bomb snipe that reminded everyone why Smash fans call him the Swedish Sniper.
Dabuz continued his own trend of upward growth by getting a 2nd place finish. Dabuz fell out of the Winner’s Bracket when he lost to Japan’s best player, Zackray, and from there went on a Loser’s Bracket run of legends, 3-0ing top players left and right. Dabuz 3-0’d a Melee legend Mew2King, one of the world’s best Inklings in Cosmos, Europe’s best player in Glutonny, and his longtime bracket demon, Nairo. He even clutched out a nail-biting 3-2 win against Samsora by switching from Olimar to Rosalina in game 5. While he lost to MKLeo 3-0 in Grand Finals, he brought every game to a last stock situation. With his Summit performance, Dabuz showed that he isn’t a top 10 player, he’s top 5 at least!
Meanwhile, on the mic and in the skits, Chillindude was quietly killing it. He debuted his hugely popular new talk show, Chillin, and lead his team to a commentary crew battle win that was so convincing that he didn’t even have to play.
SFV - Final Round
Since 2017, FINAL ROUND has been the kick off for the Capcom Pro Tour, so this past weekend our world warriors traveled the globe to arrive at one of the most incredible FGC hotspots in America; Atlanta, Georgia for Final Round 2019.
Liquid`Nemo and John Takeuchi had a great start as both won their pools and qualified for top 48 winners. John was able to beat longtime demon Justin Wong and the always strong Haitani on his path to 13th. Ultimately John was bested by NLBC standout, Shine and legendary fan favorite, Gamerbee.
Nemo came out swinging to get top 48, blasting through Jiewa and then winning his pool by beating former Capcom Cup champion NuckleDu. After a strong day 1, Nemo fell early on day 2. First to OilKing’s fast paced Rashid and then in a cruel twist of fate, to his arch nemesis; Itabashi Zangief. A nemesis who is fresh of a 2nd place finish at Capcom Cup 2018. With Itabashis’ strong performance last year and his elimination of Nemo to kick off 2019, this rivalry appears to remain ignited.
The Evil Geniuses fighters Ricki Ortiz and NYChrisG were in attendance to kick off the new year but both had trouble early on and bounced out at 97th. A disappointing result for players of their prestige but we know they will come back strong. Outside of SFV, Chris made sure to flex his multigame prowess and cruised to 7th in DBFZ, 5th in MVCI and 2nd in CvS 2. Old school, new school, it doesn’t matter; ChrisG is always ready.
Last but certainly not least, Xian made a tremendous march to top 8 and showed no signs of any ‘off season’ rust. Xian is a player famous for digging in and pulling out insane losers’ bracket runs and did it once again. After squeaking through his pool on losers’ side, Xian was on a warpath. Day 2 saw an empowered Xian as he swept through EVO BlazBlue winner Ryusei, some of America’s finest players in LPN, CoolKID93, and Shine, and then the always terrifying, Itabashi Zangief.
Unfortunately, Xian met his end when he faced the always entertaining Punk, who ended Xian’s run at 7th before going on to win the event himself. Nobody wants to lose but losing to the champ is certainly the best way.
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