Hiya!
The Esports World Cup is over and done with and the winner of it all was… Team Falcons. Normally, I wouldn’t really care about this but I do know who came out as the champions of this year’s Esports World Cup was because it was a major “plot point” from the EWC’s Street Fighter 6 tournament which took place for the past couple of weeks. Yeah, so while congratulations are in order for Team Falcons, all I cared about was the glorious high-level Street Fighter 6 matches which happened!
There were a lot of intense Street Fighter 6 action throughout those aforementioned couple of weeks. However, there were some matches which really stood out to me in my mind. So, let’s go chat about just 5 of the most hype matches which occurred during EWC’s Street Fighter 6 tournament, in no particular order, by the way.
If you are a part of the fighting game community, you probably know why this is on this list. The two have had an already amazing rivalry and, in fact, Punk vs. Xiao Hai was one of the highlights of last year’s EWC Street Fighter 6 tournament as well. This year, however, this was extra special for one major reason. Before we do get to that, the match was already great. Esports World Cup shuns the more traditional double elimination tournament style and the more familiar single elimination bracket. As such, matches are always going to be “go big or go home.” This was a nailbiter of a set, with close wins all around and even going down to the final game and final round.
While the fight was excellent, there’s no escaping the biggest reason why this match is going to be remembered was because of Punk’s mistake of celebrating too early.
With the score tied, the final game and final round between Punk and Xiao Hai was almost too close to call but it looked like Punk’s Cammy was going to clutch it out against Xiao Hai’s Mai. Cammy connected with the OD version of her Fatal Leg Twister from a Hooligan Combo and then she did a Drive Rush into heavy standing punch into the heavy version of her Spiral Arrow. Punk then ended the combo by linking into the Critical Art version of Cammy’s Delta Red Assault and, assuming it would be enough to KO Mai, he stood up and started to pop off.
He was wrong.
Seeing Mai was still alive with a sliver of health, Punk rushed back to his chair and grabbed the controller. Punk tried to pressure Xiao Hai’s Mai but Xiao Hai used a Drive Reversal, sending Punk’s Cammy into Burnout status. Mai then tossed a Kachosen at Cammy. Fearing chip damage, Punk seemingly instinctively jumped over the projectile only to eat a Hissho Ryuenjin anti-air from Mai. Xiao Hai managed to eke out a victory and Punk got his very own “What are you standing up for?” moment.
To be fair, Punk’s early celebration didn’t really cause him to lose the match like in the other examples of when this happened. He recovered enough to get in the match but I do think his brain was in shambles because of this. It does look like Punk took the loss in stride and good humor as, in an interview later in the week, mentioned that he did enjoy the memes.
EndingWalker vs. MenaRD
It’s hard to think of EndingWalker to be the underdog in a Street Fighter 6 tournament. In this instance, it did seem apt as he had to face off against MenaRD, one of the most decorated Street Fighter competitors in recent memory. Although the tale of the tape did show EndingWalker is more than capable of beating MenaRD as he already had in the past, most people thought MenaRD would get the win in a close match.
This wasn’t a close match. This was pretty much a blowout.
Okay, it wasn’t exactly a blowout. A lot of the matches were close, with both EndingWalker’s Ryu and MenaRD’s Blanka managing to win rounds. Even so, I don’t think anyone expected EndingWalker to do a clean sweep of 5 straight wins against one of the greatest Street Fighter players in MenaRD like that! What made this impressive was EndingWalker’s control of Ryu. He would have the most optimal punishes against Blanka. Coupled with his reactions, he was able to pump out the damage even though he was facing off against a life deficit to claw his way to a round victory.
Luck also played a factor as I can remember that one round where it looked like MenaRD was going close out the match. Unfortunately, he missed with Blanka’s Shout of Earth Level 1 Super Art, leading to EndingWalker’s Ryu sneaking in the win with a big standing heavy kick. Even with MenaRD switching over to M. Bison, EndingWalker’s Ryu was just unstoppable.
Nephew vs. Hikaru and Nephew vs. Tokido
I’m lumping these matches together because the entire thing does have a storyline connecting them… even though it doesn’t really involve the majority of the players involved. Anyway, these matches took place during the second-to-the-last day of the entire Esports World Championship. Team Falcons had the lead in points but there was another team just in striking distance to steal the championship from them: Team Liquid. Despite only competing in just over half of the games Team Falcons had, Team Liquid had enough points to overtake Team Falcons… if Team Liquid’s very own Nephew wins the Street Fighter 6 tournament.
So, you can imagine Team Falcons fans came in force to watch the Street Fighter 6 tournament in the hopes anyone can beat Nephew and end Team Liquid’s chances. So, immediately, Nephew became the underdog as the live crowd was cheering for either Hikaru or Tokido to end our hero’s run.
It was kind of funny because, in the pre-game interview focusing on him being the only one keeping Team Liquid’s hopes alive, Nephew didn’t really seem to care! That’s definitely the fighting game community mindset right there as fighting games aren’t exactly team based. Even though Nephew and, well, Hikari and Tokido didn’t care as well, that didn’t matter to the horde that was Team Falcons fans who have streamed into the auditorium to cheer against Team Liquid’s last remaining hope.
Nephew had to face off against Hikaru first and Nephew pretty much controlled Juri with deceptive precision, shimmying to force Hikaru’s AKI to guess between strike and throw scenarios. This allowed Juri to do a ton of damage whenever AKI would whiff a throw break. Nephew managed to silence the crowd by taking out Hikaru in 3 straight sets while even giving the snide side eye to the live audience. Love it!
Nephew’s Juri wasn’t as lucky when he fought against Tokido’s Ken. Things did start out looking like Nephew was going to pull off a miracle as he did take out Tokido out quickly in the first game. Slowly, however, Tokido started to adapt to Nephew’s shimmy strategy and Ken started to wail on Juri with combos and throw loops, leading to Tokido taking out Nephew. After that, the crowd erupted and, I have to admit, hearing the audience cheer had me a little salty. This is because they really didn’t care for Tokido or Nephew. They just wanted their team, Team Falcons, to cinch the Esports World Cup championship. Heck, they didn’t even interview Tokido immediately and they went to a person in the crowd because that person was a Team Falcons player! That’s rather insulting! Logically, I understand but, as they really didn’t care about the competitors themselves, this just rubbed me the wrong way.
I just love a good see-saw match. It just fascinating when one player takes the lead and the other player makes a comeback. Whether it be via adjustments to their opponent’s techniques or simply counterpicking with a different character, it’s always exciting to see top level players try every trick they know just to win a match. This was certainly the case between Leshar vs. Fuudo.
They initially both played as Ed but, after he lost one match, Leshar switched over to Terry. Even if he lost the first match after this counterpick, Leshar stuck with Terry and it seemed like it was working out with his second try with the character but Fuudo showed off his skill with Ed because, after some time, Fuudo had the 4-2 lead against Leshar and it looked like his Terry wasn’t working out anymore.
For some reason, Leshar stuck with Terry and it looked like he got his second wind! The 7th game was rough as, although Leshar got the 1st round with a Perfect, Fuudo made a comeback on the 2nd round with Ed’s Dream Combo, putting him at match point! The 3rd round was close but Leshar eked it out. Leshar started to get in the groove as his Terry dominated the 8th game. This actually forced Fuudo to switch characters from Ed to Dee Jay to try to stem Leshar’s rally. Unfortunately, it was a little too late. While close, Leshar’s Terry was just too good and practiced against Fuudo’s Dee Jay this time. This was a good and very long set with a ton of drama. Great match with great players.
Xiao Hai vs. Blaz
There’s always something special about when the newcomer tries to beat the veteran. Well, this was a battle between the old guard in Xiao Hai vs the new guard in Blaz. Xiao Hai is actually the winner of EWC’s Street Fighter 6 tournament last year so the question became if he can do a repeat. However, there’s also the story of Blaz, the 15-year old who seemingly came out of nowhere and took 2nd place of last year’s Capcom Cup. Could the youngster with his more brash style and excellent reflexes beat the more experienced fighter who has honed his skills in years of playing?
Early on, it did look like Blaz had Xiao Hai’s number as he took a commanding 3-0 lead with his Ryu early on against Xiao Hai’s M. Bison. Xiao Hai decided to counterpick with Mai and this is when the defending champion started to look much better as he got 2 games after the switch. So, Blaz went his other counterpick by swapping out his tried-and-tested Ryu with Ken, who should be better as closing out the distance. Both Blaz and Xiao Hai started trading games, leading to everything being tied up at 4-4 and eventually leading to a final game, final round situation!
The last round was some of the best Street Fighter 6 action I’ve seen with both Blaz’s Ken and Xiao Hai’s Mai jockeying for position each player trying to force their opponent to make that one fatal mistake to get them the victory. In the end, Xiao Hai connected with an excellent trade combo into Mai’s Critical Art to just barely KO Ken! While this was a heartbreaking loss for Blaz as he was so close, I still have to give props to the first back-to-back EWC Street Fighter 6 champion, Xiao Hai!
Byee!
What was your favorite match during the EWC’s Street Fighter 6 tournament? Let me know in the comments section below!
3rd World Geeks 