What a roller coaster ride of hype Capcom Cup 2016 was. This was the last and biggest event for the first season of Street Fighter V, and the results were pretty much shocking. Legends and generally strong players are out as early as two matches, and we had an all-American Grand Finals. With $250,000+ worth of prize pool, with extra money added on top of that from the Capcom Pro Tour DLC sales, there’s a lot in the line for these 32 players, all invited by performing well in the Capcom Pro Tour throughout the year. And it won’t be a walk in the park, as all matches in the tournament will be played in a best of five, so there’s room for comebacks and upsets. Anything can happen.
And boy, was there plenty of upsets.
Highest seed player of the tournament, EVO 2016 champion and No.1 on the Capcom Pro Tour leaderboards, RZR | Infiltration had a surprisingly early exit, losing both of his first two matches against HumaoTV | Humanbomb and then to Mago. “Murderface” Tokido and EG| Justin Wong suffered the same two straight losses. There was just too many upsets just in the first round, with Mago, ZOWIE| Gamerbee and BST| Daigo Umehara going to losers bracket after their first match.
And what a surprise it was to see two American players, Liquid| NuckleDu and EG|Ricki Ortiz to reach the top 8 on the winners side, with the six other players all coming from Japan. Apparently the losers side of all four matches leading to the top 8 spot was just Japan VS the world, as we could have seen Qanba Douyu| Xiaohai of China, RB | Luffy of France, RZR| Xian of Singapore and BX3.RP-LINK | Phenom of Norway all defeated to have all four Japanese to advance.
The six Japanese players in the top 8 are all a force to be reckon with, which includes defending champion GGP Kazunoko. In the end NuckleDu and Ricki Ortiz advanced to the Winners Final, with NuckleDu taking a 3-1 win. Kazunoko was on a roll with wins, including a 3-0 runback against YOUDEAL MJS| Haitani who sent him to losers earlier. Unfortunately he was unable to challenge for the Cup again, as he lost to a dominating Ricki in the losers final. The two American left standing were battling again at the Grand Finals.
Just having these two players reaching the Grand Finals is already a huge story. NuckleDu only started to be really strong in the later parts of the Pro Tour, winning Canada Cup and the Red Bull Battle Ground (Capcom Pro Tour North America Finals). Plus, he is comfortable maining two characters: R.Mika and Guile.
But Ricki Ortiz’s impressive run has certainly caught many by surprise. She has a consistent track record this year, but nothing too flashy like winning a premier event. But the masterful Chun-Li plays should put the transvestite player as the one to watch next year.
The Grand Finals ended 3-1 in favour of NuckleDu, crowning him the first Street Fighter V World Champion for winning Capcom Cup 2016, bagging home $230,00 USD ($120,000 base prize + $110,000 from DLC sales) for the win. With the end of the first season of Street Fighter V as the game for the Capcom Pro Tour, a slew of balance changes and 6 more characters including Akuma will later appear for the second season, starting 20 December.
The results of Capcom Cup 2016 are as follows (courtesy of Eventhubs):
1. Liquid|NuckleDu (R. Mika, Guile)
2. EG|Ricki Ortiz (Chun-Li)
3. GGP|Kazunoko (Cammy)
4. MJS|Haitani (Necalli)
5. RZR|Fuudo (R. Mika)
5. MOV (Chun-Li)
7. YouDeal|Yukadon (Nash)
7. CO|Go1 (Chun-Li)
9. DouyuTV|Xiao Hai (Cammy)
9. RB|Luffy (R. Mika)
9. RZR|Xian (F.A.N.G)
9. BX3|Phenom (Necalli)
13. BST|Daigo (Ryu)
13. MD|MisterCrimson (Laura, Dhalsim)
13. GW|Eita (Ken)
13. PG|Filipino Champ (Dhalsim)
17. Mago (Karin)
17. HORI|Sako (Chun-Li)
17. WFX|XSK Samurai (Ryu)
17. GAM|DR Ray (Vega)
17. EG|Momochi (Ken)
17. ZW|GamerBee (Necalli)
17. EG|K-Brad (Cammy)
17. HuomaoTV|HumanBomb (Chun-Li)
25. RZR|Infiltration (Nash)
25. F3|Brolynho (Necalli)
25. DNL|Chris Tatarian (Ken)
25. PxP|Problem X (Alex)
25. Tokido (Ryu)
25. FOX|Julio (Ken)
25. EG|Justin Wong (Karin)
25. Ryan Hart (Ken, Guile)