Frosty Faustings X | Winner: Squish (USA) - Akatsuki
VOD: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJwVzw5cyp0&list=PL9h4zqks3pogjs3Q_JCxLLAkZ94YYPmGz
Anime Ascension 2018 brought seventy-two hopefuls through UC Irvine in order to see who could take the crown home. Fresh off of his win at Frosty Faustings, it was a safe estimation that Squish would tear through the bracket once more in order to claim his second crown in two attempts. In practice, it seemed just as certain. The Arizona native didn't take a single loss from his first set of the tournament all the way through to Winner's Side Grand Finals, ripping through Kyros, Jasepi, Clim and Lolimaiko in dominating fashion. Meanwhile, Lolimaiko went on through a small revenge tour avenging his CEOtaku loss to Trill in Winner's Semis, eliminating him in 3 games to line up his second shot at Squish. Maiko would clear through Squish's first set 3-1 before very quickly falling down to an 0-2 hole in the second set. What followed was a scrappy fight that saw the two players trade blows until the waning seconds of the fifth game's final round. When the smoke cleared, it was Lolimaiko who was the victor... a crazy ending for someone who had committed to attendance just two weeks before the event.
Anime Ascension 2018 | Winner: Lolimaiko (USA) - Vatista
VOD: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgKmuWy8gek
A return to the greater Chicago area lead us to Combo Breaker in May during my own birthday weekend, where an amazing present was waiting--- the largest UNI tournament in the history of the current version of the game. 174 entrants with some of the strongest talent that North America could offer. This tournament was not without its own fair share of surprises. Arguable tournament favorite Tari stumbled in pools to Illinois local, RoyalHeartv2 before falling to Redblade's red-hot Wagner before Top 8. The netplay talent J3 streaked his own way to Winner's Semis with his Linne and Phonon, in order to face off against Clim. Everyone's favorite moderator DrunkSuikaIbuki tore his way all the way through to Winner's Finals to meet Clim in order to play a Vancouver Street Battle classic on a larger stage, though ultimately falling to J3 in Loser's Finals for third. In spite of J3's best efforts, it was Clim's Phonon that won the day, staying in Winners through the whole tournament.
Combo Breaker 2018 | Winner: Clim (CAN) - Merkava, Phonon
VOD: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILDEjvsw7iA
The momentum that the game was riding carried through Orlando for Jebailey's Community Effort Orlando, where a 112 entrant turnout awaited Clim and other hopefuls. To combat the foreign invaders of Clim, Schoolbus, Jasepi and AyoItsDave, the southeastern community brought out their first line of defense. Jasepi was the one who slipped through initially to Winner's Finals, with contested wins over NorseFTX's Orie and J3's Linne. Clim's path to WF was blocked by Argenrost and his Waldstein with some of the best play seen over the course of the weekend in two games, though he couldn't hold his momentum through the Ohio transplant's Gordeau. On the other hand, Clim caught fire... running through AyoItsDave, J3, Argenrost and Jasepi two times without losing another game to take the tournament.
Community Effort Orlando 2018 | Winner: Clim (CAN) - Merkava, Phonon
VOD: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1herUIltR7k
VOD: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1herUIltR7k
By this point, Evolution sat about two months away and a notable shift in the community could be felt. Through a large social media presence from fans, engaging resources and tournaments, the amount of players had seemed to rise dramatically. The success of the game in North America was a far cry from the uncertain look around the English release of the game which appeared to be overshadowed by the release of Dragonball Fighter Z. I wrote a little about the event before EVO here, but much like Combo Breaker, it ended up blowing the doors off my expectations. I'm still in awe about the 200+ entrant event.
However, what was even more amazing was the run made by Saikyo's Enkidu. A character that many players were willing to cast into the recycling bin was being piloted through some of North America's best players. After losing to Clim in her pool, Sai carried herself through a murderers row of opponents such as NorseFTX, Lolimaiko, Tari and Clim! Surprisingly, a peek through her path reveals Korean Wrestling Man of DBFZ fame as one of her initial opponents in Loser's Bracket. Nevertheless, it was Squish who stole the show after the Japanese Merkava, Heiho eliminated Saikyo at 3rd place. Two nail-bitingly close sets in Winner's Finals and the first set of Grand Finals with eventual BBTag winner Heiho were what lay between him and an EVO title, but Squish was not to be denied.
Evolution 2018 | Winner: Squish (USA) - Akatsuki
VOD(s): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQDBosYCGV0 | https://youtu.be/Nv0abYzt2A4?t=8500
Crowdfunding efforts also brought over top talent to the UNI scene this year. For CEOtaku, Sweden's virtuoso Hiari was brought over but many players from the European Union were brought over such as Tokazzz, DHD, Wokker and Crushing Eagle. CEOtaku also marked Clearlamp's first appearance on US soil where yet again the community would pass it's previous largest entrant mark with 273 entrants. In addition to that, I think that this was probably the most skill-dense tournament for UNI in the history of the game in NA. Players who ran deep in the previous year's event fell before top 16 and other large tournament winners also failed to reach top 8.
Nevertheless, when the dust cleared we had our 8 finalists: Squish, Clearlamp, Hiari, Crushing Eagle, Trill, Psykotik, Redblade and Tari. Clearlamp and Squish both made quick work of their respective opponents to set off a meeting of some of the best America and Japan had to offer in Winner's Finals. Meanwhile in Losers Eighths, Redblade bested Psykotik and Trill dispatched Tari before denying Hiari a meeting with his EU compatriot, defeating Eagle 3-2. In Winner's Finals, Clearlamp edged Squish in a close set to sit on the Winner's Side of Grand Finals. Trill smoothly navigated Hiari in Loser's Finals before getting edged out in turn by Squish in five games. Any sort of excitement that followed was promptly squashed by Lamp in three games to take the entire tournament.
CEOtaku 2018 | Winner: Clearlamp_o (JPN) - Byakuya
VOD: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YQj94c3naE
This year's Canada Cup showcased some of Canada's top talent and familiar names like JCT, Icekin, Psykotik and Rikir. It also brought Jasepi, a familiar presence to Eastern Canada's smaller events. As Rikir avenged his UMAD loss to Icekin to advance to Winner's Finals, jasepi would wall off Psykotik to meet him there. This set up a rematch from Border City Brawl in Windsor where Rikir took the tournament from Winners. However, it was much of the same result... with Rikir moving to Grand Finals. In Loser's, it was Psykotik's turn to get revenge on Icekin though his run was thwarted again by jasepi and his Gordeau. Though much like Border City Brawl meeting earlier in the year, Rikir would arise as the winner, from Winners with a 3-1 ending.
Canada Cup 2018 | Winner: Rikir (CAN) - Enkidu
VOD: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-eht9nr5IY
Before Canada Cup had completed, yet another crowdfunding effort would bring strong players from overseas for Atlanta's Climax of Night. Clearlamp would once again return to the US's alongside the legendary Eltnum, Senaru thanks to the effort spearheaded by MajinObama and OutlawVinegar. Though not crowdfunded over formally, another Japanese player would be heading towards Atlanta for the weekend. Tokyo native, Takashi would also be making his second appearance in the states after a vacation that lead him to New York earlier this year, where he formed a relationship with the Lunar Phase group and attended French Bread Showdown (aka Super TSB) in April.
The tournament itself boasted a staggering 143 players for its maiden voyage, a testament to the trust that the community had in it's organizing team lead by Shinobi. Though smaller in number, this tournament could also boast a large level of skill density with surprising events. It saw Evo Top-8 finalist KFL drown in pools, saw the likes of Jasepi, Argenrost, JDR and Trill fail to qualify for Top-8. It also saw Redblade tear through Clearlamp in Winner's Side Top 8 to meet... Takashi who pulled quite the upset over Senaru to meet him in Winner's Finals. In the lower bracket, SoCal transplant burgertime dispatched Infinity to advance and J3 edge out Atlanta native iThatGuy in a hotly contested set. However, both of their runs would be ended by Senaru and Clearlamp respectively. This meant that one of Senaru and Clearlamp would be eliminated from the tournament before Top 3!
Up to this point, the story of the tournament was probably New England's Redblade. In addition to dispatching a large part of the enemy's team in the 15v15 Exhibition, as well as his own, he had also who dropped but one game through the tournament portion, all the way to Grand Finals also dispatching Takashi and his Enkidu in a quick fashion. However, the trip through losers and a thin-margin survival through Senaru appeared to be the jump start that Clearlamp needed. Lamp's Byakuya tore through Takashi in a dominating fashion and did the same to Redblade in the first set of Grand Finals in three games. The second set was similar to the first, though Redblade was able to get on the board. Clearlamp would ultimately claim another victory in a US tournament, going two for two on the year.
Climax of Night | Winner: Clearlamp_o (JPN) - Byakuya
VOD: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Xcy-MBO6qg
As I come to wind down this part of the Year End Review, I have to confess that it was difficult to just narrow down speaking only about the events that received more than 64 entrants. All over the globe, there have been amazing events and the scene is as strong as I've ever seen it. This is in part to locals and regional events. I'd like to shout out a few of them: Michigan Masters, Texas Showdown, Winter Brawl, Norcal Regionals, Border City Brawl, Ultimate Montreal Airdashers Cup, NEC, NorCal Dogfight, Dual/Full Moon and many more. Additional shout-outs to events overseas like Destination Fight!, Bavaria Burst, VS Fighting, Over The World, Reincarnation of Paradise, KSB and more. Without events like this and the passionate people and players who run them, we wouldn't see nearly as much growth as we have.
Hyde: Infinity (2), JDR
Linne: J3 (3), Hiari
Waldstein: Argenrost (2), brkrdave
Carmine: Schoolbus*
Orie: Psykotik (2), NorseFTX, SmartSteer
Gordeau: jasepi (3), hiari
Merkava: Clim (4), AyoitsDave (2), Heiho, burgertime, brkrdave
Vatista: Lolimaiko (2), DrunkSuikaIbuki
Seth: DARK FLAME MASTER, Psykotik
Yuzuriha: Tari (3)
Hilda: RoyalHeart (2), JCT
Chaos: Trill (2)
Nanase: NeoN, Icekin
Phonon: Clim (4), J3 (3), Voltic
Byakuya: Clearlamp (2), iThatGuy-_- (2), LPT, Never Block
Mika: BOLTSTRYKE
Enkidu: Saikyo, Takashi, Rikir
Wagner: Redblade (4), Crushing Eagle, Sometimes Fendo*
Eltnum: KFL, ScrawtVermillion, Senaru, Magnets
Akatsuki: Squish (4), ScrawtVermillion
*Sometimes Fendo and Schoolbus are the same person. This is an in-joke.
*Sometimes Fendo and Schoolbus are the same person. This is an in-joke.
Extras:
With events like Over The World and Reincarnation of Paradise, the Under Night Scene in Japan has also brought teams events to the forefront. From last year's 2v2 at CEOtaku 2017, I had also wanted to share a bit of that with the North American scene. I was able to successfully run a 3v3 teams event at Frosty Faustings to start the year and also run at 4v4 event at CEOtaku 2018. They'll be listed here:
Additionally, I was able to capture footage of First-to-Five exhibitions from various points during the year. Combo Breaker and CEOtaku showcased revenge matches and interesting meetings from players from around the globe. I hope they interest you as much as they were enjoyable for me to record:
Finally, I'll do something a bit different for the last two parts of this year's review. I want to highlight some of my favorite tournament sets from this year:
Lolimaiko (Vatista) vs Squish (Akatsuki), Grand Finals Set 2 - Anime Ascension
Timestamp: (1:59:32)
Reason: I mentioned it a bit before, but in spite of Squish's dominance throughout the weekend, Maiko quietly put together some of the best play I'd seen, culminating in an amazing set.
Magnets (Eltnum) vs JDR (Hyde), Top 8 Qualifier - Combo Breaker
Timestamp: (2:31:47)
Reason: I'll admit my heavy bias here, but knowing how much Magnets wanted to get better and the work that he put in made his entry into Top 8 that much sweeter.
Argenrost (Waldstein) vs Clim (Merkava), Winner's Semi-Finals - Community Effort Orlando
Timestamp: (0:22)
Reason: At this point, Clim was looking like the best player in North America as he tore through the brackets. But Argen had amazing reads and patience to knock him straight into losers.
Squish (Akatsuki) vs Heiho (Merkava), Grand Finals - Evolution
Timestamp: (36:13)
Reason: One of the best in America, if not the best against the #3 Merkava in Japanese arcades. It was a matchup that thwarted him in the past, but Squish's composure held and he got himself an EVO.
Sometimes Fendo (Wagner) vs Hiari (Linne), Top 32 Winners - CEOtaku
Timestamp: (0:00)
Reason: When I saw this one get projected, I was excited. One of Fendo's main training partners was J3, an amazing Linne in his own right, so he was one of the players best poised to stop the EU tyrant.
Takashi (Enkidu) vs Senaru (Eltnum), Winner's Semi-Finals - Climax of Night
Timestamp: (12:00)
Reason: This was an extremely exciting set from two Tokyo-based players in Atlanta. Takashi is a good friend of mine, so I was really excited to pull the upset and put himself in Top 3.
Finally, I'll mention my favorite player to watch from this past year. Three players come to mind to me if I were to talk about the players in North America who moved and shook the scene this year. Squish, who won the first and at one point largest majors in America, Clim who owned the spring and early summer and:
Dramatik | Redblade (Wagner)
But that's my opinion. What do you think? I'd like to hear your opinions as well. What are some of your favorite sets of the year? Who has been your player to watch this year? Who do you think is going to break out in 2019?
Special thanks to Chou (@ChouGokuOozaru) and Ryker (@GSRyker) for their assistance yet again in proofing and editing. Please give them a follow.
