Final Round 2018 is in the books, and in just one weekend we saw the beginning of the 2018 Capcom Pro Tour, the continued resurgence of a Tekken pro, and a budding new rivalry blossom into intense Dragon Ball FighterZ action...twice. Let’s a take a look back at the five biggest takeaways from this year’s Final Round.
The Capcom Pro Tour gets INFILTRATED….
In our Final Round preview piece, we mentioned how incredibly stacked the Street Fighter V field was this year. The first two names mentioned were Lee “INFILTRATION” Seon-woo, coming in hot off of his win at EVO Japan 2018, and EVO 2017 Champion Hajime “Tokido” Taniguchi, but little did we know, we were subtly predicting the Grand Finals in the process.
The two Street Fighter titans and last two EVO winners clashed, Tokido even scoring a bracket reset, but in the end INFILTRATION’s skilled play with Menat won the day and gave the veteran his second tournament win in 2018. This gives INFILTRATION a big boost right at the beginning of the Capcom Pro Tour, and the question isn’t so much “who will win” now as it is “who can knock this guy off the winner’s pedestal?”
...but some new SFV combatants make their presence known
The Grand Final may have been the INFILTRATION show, but the final rounds of Final Round’s SFV tournament saw a few new players stake their claims in the scene. Names like Du “Nuckledu” Dang and Ryota “Kazunoko” Inoue were joined in the Top 16 by Taiwanese Rashid player Li-Wei “Oil King” Lin and Atsushi "Fujimura" Fujimura, whose strong Ibuki play saw him defeat both Kazunono in Top 16 AND Nuckledu in Top 8.
Perhaps most impressive was Marcus “THE COOL KID93” Redmond, the winner of Red Bull Battlegrounds Boston back in November, who continued to make himself a household name in the Street Fighter scene at Final Round. His bruising Abigail earned him a Top 16 finish in this talent-rich tournament, taking out names like Ryan “Filipino Champ” Ramirez, Olivier “Luffy” Hay, and Keita “Fuudo” Ai along the way. We will be keeping a close eye on him for the rest of the CPT season, because who doesn’t want to keep up with the cool kids?
Tekken 7’s competition takes another Knee to the chin
Remember when Jae-min “Knee” Bae wasn’t playing at every Tekken 7 tournament in 2017? We bet the rest of the field wishes they could go back to that special time, because the Devil Jin/Paul player decimated the field on his way to a commanding first place finish.
Knee finished 20-1 in the entire Final Round tournament, his only loss coming in the Grand Finals against Kim "JDCR" Hyun Jin. He didn’t lose a single match until the end of the tournament. Who is going to stop this man from ruling the King of Iron Fist Tournament with an iron fist? Will someone rise to the occasion, or will 2018 be the Year of the Knee?
It’s GO time for DragonBall FighterZ
The highly touted exhbition between Dominique “SonicFox” McLean and Goichi "GO1" Kishida did not disappoint in bringing high-quality Dragon Ball FighterZ action. It did however disappoint the Atlanta crowd, and more importantly SonicFox himself, as this battle of words on social media turned into a major learning experience for the young fighter.
GO1 simply had SonicFox’s number from the get-go, giving up a few early matches but then turning up the heat as the exhibition went on and earning a 10-4 victory over his American rival. Then, just to prove that 10-4 score wasn’t a fluke, the surprise rematch in the Grand Finals of the DBFZ tournament saw GO1 reset the bracket 3-0, then win the entire tournament 3-2. We can only hope this turns into the Ali vs Frazier of fighting games, because no matter who wins the matches are always entertaining.
A new Soul enters the arena
Mixed in with all of the action of the live tournaments was a look into the not-too-distant future of fighting games, as a Soul Calibur VI exhibition gave all in attendance a slight taste of what’s to come. The exhibition featured six playable characters -- not including the recently announced Geralt of Rivia from The Witcher -- and offered some intense action that delighted the crowd.
Jon Nitti, Big Boi, Stache, and eventual exhibition winner Michael “BxA Party Wofl” Stabile gave the crowd plenty of high level gameplay to analyze leading up to the game’s launch, in particular Party Wolf’ strong Kilik gameplay in the finals against Big Boi. With Bandai Namco preparing to unleash a third fighting game onto the scene, one can only wonder until the company tries to emulate Capcom and start its own fighting game tournament circuit.
