York Beats Lancaster in Roses Esports 2018 Varsity

Originally published on Esports News UK ( https://esports-news.co.uk/2018/05/21/york-wins-roses-esports-varsity/ ) May 2018

Established in 2013, Roses Esports began as an unofficial competition between Fragsoc and LUGES, the gaming societies of York and Lancaster Universities respectively.

After several years of trials, esports was eventually added to the official Roses line-up in 2016, with Lancaster taking the series 2-1 to earn 4 points for their university.

Things did not go so well for Lancaster on their return to York in 2017, suffering a humiliating 6-0 whitewash at the hands of the home side, and they looked to bounce back this year. How did they do in each game? Charlie ‘MrCH1LL’Hill provides a recap.

SUPER SMASH BROS. WII U (EXHIBITION): YORK 13-15 LANCASTER

Kicking off the proceedings for Roses was a new event for 2018: A Super Smash Bros for Wii U crew battle. Each university fielded 5 players, each of whom had 3 lives. They fight against each other one at a time, with the winner taking any remaining lives onto the next match. This continues until a team has lost all its lives.

As this was a new event, the Smash 4 crew battle was an exhibition match and thus did not earn the winning team points towards the overall Roses Esports score. Nevertheless, pride was on the line, and heading into the match Lancaster were the clear favourites.

The match began explosively, with Lancaster sending out Adeeb ‘UrbanTurban’ Mahmood, who looked ready to sweep York’s entire roster after taking 7 stocks in exchange for only one of his own. His overconfidence got the better of him, though, and after killing himself twice, York were in with a shot.

The match contained to remain in Lancaster’s favour, but two standout performances from York took the match to the wire. Charlie ‘Nin’ Morris and York’s captain Elliot ‘BananaFish’ Townend took 9 stocks between them before eventually being shut down just 2 stocks from the finish line.

The result was as expected, but York put in a far more respectable and competitive showing than most would have predicted.

CSGO: YORK 0-2 LANCASTER

Coming into Roses 2018, the most hotly anticipated event by far was CSGO. Last year’s tournament was by far the closest event of the series, with York surprising Lancaster to take an impressive 2-0 victory, a feat they hoped to repeat in 2018.

The first map was York’s pick of Train, and they gained their preferred CT side after winning the knife round, but it was Lancaster who took the pistol round after a comfortable 3k from Rhys ‘Exparilis’ Maddren.

After the conversion to 3-0, York took the next six rounds, with Iwan ‘Eyewan’ Harvey leading the way with some crisp multi-kills on site retakes. Lancaster managed to slow the game down, however, and brought the final round count for the half to 8-7.

The switch to T-side brought more woes for York, as a failed flash gave Lancaster the pistol, and they quickly capitalised with six on the bounce. York were finally able to break through in the seventh round of the half, but it was too little too late, as Lancaster were able to push it over the line for a 16-10 victory on York’s map pick.

Lancaster’s pick was Overpass, and whilst traditionally this has been a strong map for the York team, it was Lancaster who would dominate the game. The pistol fell to Lancaster, and they were able to convert to 3-0, then 5-0, on the CT side.

A clutch 1v2 on B site from Matt ‘Mattwan’ Nottley gave York their first round, but as on Train, they struggled to find purchase on site against Lancaster’s superior defence. Some smart fights led them back to 5-3, but after losing momentum in the 9th round, York crumbled to 11-4 at the end of the half.

The pistol was crucial, but for the 4th time in the series Lancaster took it. Some sloppiness on the conversion round led to early kills on A in York’s favour, and a clutch ninja defuse from Eyewan gave York a bonus round.

It was Lancaster who decisively won the 4th round of the half, however, and closed the map 16-7, giving them a 1-0 lead in the Roses series.

LEAGUE OF LEGENDS: YORK 2-0 LANCASTER

Next up to the plate was League of Legends, and Lancaster were looking to avoid the embarrassing 2-0 defeat they suffered last year at the hands of a vastly superior York team.

Lancaster took blue for the first game and were on the back foot immediately after a late level 1 fight went 2 for 1 in favour of York. This combined with two heavily early-favoured matchups in the top and mid lane gave York a significant pressure advantage across all three lanes and the jungle, with Freddie ‘Fredstaa’ Payne’s Olaf invading and forcing a flash from Dragos ‘xSkillsS’ Cernea’s Sejuani within the first five minutes.

Boasting a two-level advantage over his Lancaster counterpart, Fredstaa continued to dominate the early game, keeping vision control over both sides of the jungle and allowing all three of his lanes to constantly shove into Lancaster’s towers.

By the 18th minute, all three of the outer turrets fell in favour of York. A pick onto Sejuani gave York a free baron at 23 minutes, and after an explosive team fight in the south jungle, York took the game at 27 minutes.

Game 2 saw Lancaster take up the red side, and whilst the game was bloodier, the game’s progression was almost identical to game 1. Last year’s perfect game involved Fredstaa dominating the Lancaster jungler with Graves into Kha’Zix, and with these picks replicated, history was doomed to repeat itself in 2018.

An invade into the north jungle again forced xSkillsS’s flash away and a quick trip to top lane left Tom ‘INT TimTam’ Wood in a rough spot in the lane after Fredstaa chunked his HP. This combined with winning lane picks in the mid and bot lane created a similar situation to the previous game. Lancaster did manage to pick up some kills, but once the bot tower fell, York’s vastly stronger bot lane transferred their advantage to the other lanes, taking all three outer towers at 18 minutes.

The pressure became too much for Lancaster, and xSkillsS’s inability to respect York’s jungle vision gave York a free baron at 21 minutes, followed shortly afterwards by the game. With the Roses series tied at 1-1, all was left to play for in the final game of the day.

DOTA 2: YORK 2-0 LANCASTER

York have a history of dominating Lancaster at DOTA 2, and despite long-time captain David ‘Faraday’ Meehan rotating out of the roster into a coaching position, York’s new roster showed no signs of breaking this tradition in 2018.

With the Roses series on the line, York were confident in their picks heading into game 1 on the Radiant side, and this paid off early with Jack ‘Fyre’ Tinsley picking up a first blood onto Matt ‘FairyPrincess’ Wood with his Slark. Heavy harassment from York’s Riki and Bane picks and a lack of lane pressure in Lancaster’s draft meant Slark quickly snowballed out of control, leading to a 3k gold lead for York at 10 minutes.

Despite this, after a series of ‘death ball DOTA’ exchanges in the mid lane, with both teams overstaying their welcome attempting to capitalise on picks, the game swung into Lancaster’s favour. At 20 minutes, Lancaster had collected a 2k gold lead for themselves, and were looking to pressure York further, but Slark was too far ahead in gold, and after a messy team-fight York forced Lancaster into their base.

A couple of picks and buybacks were exchanged, prolonging the inevitable, but eventually Lancaster were caught without buybacks on their carries, and York swiftly closed the game at 35 minutes.

Lancaster fancied their chances heading into game 2, but York surprised them by sending Bane into the mid lane. Lancaster did take first blood with a 3-man dive on the top lane tower, but despite this, all three of Lancaster’s laners fell behind extremely quickly, with Jiwan ‘Water’ Gupta and his elemental counterpart Fyre dominating their opponents with Bane and Terrorblade respectively.

Lancaster attempted to 4-man stack throughout the game, hoping to snowball kills into some kind of opportunity, but York for the most part were unresponsive, letting the superior laning and skill of their carries do the work. York did give up several kills in sequence to a Lancaster squad that refused to leave the top lane, but the carries were too far ahead for York, and eventually Lancaster overextended, picking up just one kill and tier 1 tower in exchange for a tier 3 in the top lane.

Lancaster were able to get the odd pick, but York were always able to trade back, and after Roshan fell to York in the 29th minute, the game followed, giving York a comfortable 2-0.

SERIES SCORE: YORK 2-1 LANCASTER

Despite a dominant showing in CSGO, Lancaster were unable to contest York in either MOBA, and lost the Roses series 2-1.

Despite this, Lancaster will take heart from not getting whitewashed as in 2017, and with new games like Smash, Overwatch and Hearthstone all looking to enter the Roses line-up, things could be very different heading into York’s Roses defence in 2019.

Interview with Tom ‘GP’ Scott

Unpublished interview with Tom ‘GP’ Scott, head of DAT Team, Smash 4 TO team based in London. Organisation runs Albion, DBZ and Meltdown: the main major, monthly and weekly Smash tournament series in London.

CH: Thanks for talking to me GP. For the last 3 years, if you mention Smash 4 TOs in the UK or even Europe as a whole, your name is immediately mentioned. Can you give me a brief history of your time as a Smash player, pre and post Smash 4 player, and how DAT Team came into being, how we got to the point of creating this team.

GP: So I’ve been around for ages. My very first tournament was Jan 30th 2010, a very long time ago now. I found the Brawl scene through All is Brawl, and through Willz. He gave an event link to a friend of mine, just happened to see it, went along and it just went from there. I was playing Smash for nearly a year before I realised there were actual London and UK events. I guess a large part of why I started running stuff was to grow the scene, get people to join the community without having to look around too much. So yeah, that’s how that got started.

DAT got started originally because I was a real stubborn man! I was initially running events on my own in London, and they weren’t the worst events, but they weren’t great, I was basically spreading myself too thin. Eventually, Eve and DX17 came to me and said, “we’re helping you today, you don’t have a choice”, the events got better, and I guess it went from there.

Yeah, I got the feeling from your TwitLonger that DAT Team has always tried to bring a grassroots approach to the events it runs, and I guess that shows in the origins you mention there. Can you tell me a little more about that and your philosophy when it comes to running events?

I mean when it comes to running events I could literally write pages and pages on this topic! The most important thing is to do what you said you’re going to do with the event. I think this might be a little weird, but when you see events do the reverse of this it makes a lot more sense. I would far prefer to promise less for an event and then be able to provide more on the day because we had extra time, rather than promise loads of stuff that we aren’t able to do because we run out of time. This is a particular philosophy that a lot of Europe struggles with, particularly when it comes to events like crew battles. It leaves a far sourer taste in an attendee’s mouth if they don’t get something that they’ve been promised. It’s an important thing to do what you said you were going to do, and I don’t think this is something a lot of people subscribe to, you see loads of events that kind of score a black mark because they have to cancel something because they ran out of time.

In the same vein, it’s important to run stuff on time. It sounds basic and simple, but there’s an expression, ‘Tournament Standard Time’, and it refers to running several hours late. The fact that this is a ‘standard’ for most tournaments is unacceptable in my opinion. You put out a schedule and you follow it to the letter; if you can’t stick to a schedule, you change the schedule. Unless something extraordinary happens, like Ixis camping people out in Grands to game 10 every tournament, DAT events always finish on time or early. I think this is way more important than a lot of people make it out to be.

So essentially, it’s about professionalism. Running on time, sticking to the event schedule…

Yeah. The way I see it, whilst Smash is still grassroots to a degree because of a lack of company support, for Smash 4 or Melee really, it’s all done by the community, but at the end of the day as a TO people are paying you to provide a service; if you aren’t providing what people are paying you for, what are you doing? Not to target anyone specifically, but people don’t understand just how much work has to go into TO-ing an event. I’ve personally helped just about every TO in the UK in some way, shape or form, and so many of them think it’s going to run itself, and it just doesn’t work like that. Events end up being run poorly because people aren’t willing to put the work in to make an event really good. It’s my biggest pet peeve with events: most of the time I don’t get to enter events because I spend so much time running them, so when I do get to an event and it’s bad, it’s a real let-down for me.

That’s understandable. So, like most people, you were a competitor before you were a TO, but you were TOing in the big transition period for ‘new-gen’ Smash, between Melee/Brawl/PM and Smash 4, which had a large combination of veterans and new starters coming together to form a new community. As a TO, what was that transition like, and did you face any difficulties in trying to bring together old and new communities?

I’ve been running events for just over 7 years, and this is a topic I think I’ve got quite a strange stance on, and I don’t normally speak to people about this very often. I don’t actually consider the Melee scene a part of our Smash 4 scene. We’ll run events together, especially on a local scale like weeklies or smaller regionals, but at this point I feel the scenes are ran exclusively from each other. Back in the Brawl days we ran together out of necessity because both scenes were much smaller, but now each community has expanded to the point where we don’t need each other, and I think it’s detrimental when we run events together once you get past a certain size. I don’t really consider the two scenes as one entity. The key difference is that Melee players will stick to Melee, no matter what, and more power to them for that. They’re the only 1v1 fighting game scene where they won’t move on to the newest game in their series, which is kind of funny when you compare that to the Smash 4 scene, because there’s no way Smash 4 will live on once Smash Ultimate is released.

When it comes to moving between games, you find your feet initially, figuring out rulesets for tournaments and how you’re going to run events for the game. The biggest logistical thing for the change to Smash 4 was the size of events. The UK wasn’t big on Brawl, so to get 20 people for a tournament was a big tournament. Nowadays we get 70 for a DBZ monthly and we’re disappointed with that. Regarding rulesets, I think if you want to try something new, you have to do it from the start, because once you ban something, like custom moves in Smash 4, there’s no way you’re going to get the community to go back and try it again. I do feel better prepared for this transition though because as an old Brawl veteran I’ve been through it before. The main issue is going to be securing consoles, as Switches are much smaller and easier to steal than Wii Us, so short of just zip-tying everything, I’m going to speak to the guys at Nintendo UK and try and figure out a better way of doing that. But in terms of gear, I’m in a much better spot: I had 0 monitors going into Smash 4 and going into Ultimate I have 54.

That is an incredible number of monitors… About Nintendo, I think it’s safe to say they are looking to become more involved with the competitive Smash scene, with events like Nintendo UK VS Live happening on 28th/29th July and featuring an invitational style Smash Ultimate tournament. Do you think their involvement is going to change the face of the scene, and how much do you feel it’s still down to the grassroots members of the scene to keep things going?

I’m going to be careful what I say here, because I don’t want to reveal anything I’m not supposed to! The way Nintendo works as a company makes it difficult to support the Smash community, even if they want to, as all their policy and decision-making is run through Nintendo Japan first. Everything comes out of there, and anything that Nintendo Europe or America want to do, they have to run it through Japan first. I see people online moaning at their local Nintendo branch about not supporting their scene and I wish they wouldn’t, because it’s not entirely in their hands. I do think Nintendo are gonna be more involved with Smash Ultimate. There were actually a couple of Nintendo UK Smash 4 events, which weren’t ran that well, but they tried, which is an important thing to remember. I’m hoping that we’re going to get more support in the future. Nintendo supported Albion 2 and they’re going to support Albion 3, they’re bringing Mario Tennis Aces. In an ideal world, they would have brought Smash Ultimate too, but we weren’t able to make that happen unfortunately. I can’t say much more now, but there will be something else Nintendo-related announced at Albion 3 for us. All I can say is make sure you play your best at Albion 3…

Very cryptic, and a nice plug! Albion 3 is of course coming up on 14th/15th July, the largest Smash 4 event in the UK, but is currently sitting at less entrants than Albion 2, what do you attribute that to?

There’s a ton of different reasons for this. I don’t think I’ve done as good a job advertising Albion 3 compared to Albion 2. I’ve had a lot more things going on in my personal life compared to last year, where I was able to focus literally all of my time on Smash, so that’s a big difference for me. There might be a few people who are taking their participation down with the release of Ultimate coming soon, but I don’t think that’s a huge factor. For a lot of lower level players, the 10-man round robin pools were a huge selling point for them, but we just can’t do that again because the strain on the TO team is too great. I wanted to make a statement with Albion 2 and really set a standard for how events should be run for the whole of Europe, and I feel like events are much better across the board because of it.

Do you take credit for this increase in standard?

Not specifically, the event’s success for example was definitely a team effort, I might have been making some of the bigger decisions but in terms of running the event on the weekend, that was 100% down to the team. It ran so well, Eve in particular is straight-up the best bracket manager and scheduler in Europe, and that was a huge factor. In terms of the increase in standard, I think people noticed on their own and raised the bar because of it, but I did make a point to post after the event about this and a lot of people saw that as well. At the end of the day though full credit goes to DAT Team as a whole: we ran a 300+ man event with half a dozen people, which shows just how good they are.

Fair enough. This has come up a couple of times but as a sidebar, do you think TOs can, or indeed should, compete at events they run?

It comes down to the size of the event. I think that TOs need to know the limits of what they can do. In an ideal world obviously you’d like to enter, because you’re still a competitor. I learnt that lesson the hard way when I initially had Ben and Eve helping me, they made me realise I can’t enter Singles and Doubles and TO the event all at the same time. I think TOs sometimes don’t understand that they need to make sacrifices for the good of the event. A good example of what I’m saying is New Era in Birmingham. Willz ran it, and he’s one of the only people I think who’s been around in Smash longer than I have, but I think because he didn’t enter because he’s a PR player, it ran well even though it had so much stuff all happening in one day. He’s relatively new to large scale TO-ing, but because he’s been around so long he’s seen all the mistakes that have been made by other TOs in the past, and this is what makes him good at it.

Yeah definitely, I think Team Regen and Willz are obviously going to be major players going into Smash Ultimate, along with DAT Team and Street Smash Manchester in the north. So, your message with Albion 2 was setting a standard for large-scale events in Europe. What is your message with Albion 3?

Albion 3 is about closure for me. For a lot of people in Smash 4, this is their final event. We haven’t heard anything about Syndicate this year, we don’t know if that’s happening, so as far as we know this is the final large European event for Smash 4. A lot of people have said to me they’re entering Albion, and then they’re done until Ultimate. It’s their last chance to prove themselves in Smash 4, and I’m definitely feeling that myself. I hope there’s a chance for new beginnings for DAT Team. This year we got a sponsorship from Bandai Namco to run DBFZ and Tekken. Whilst the numbers for that have been smaller than I hoped, it’s our first steps into the pure FGC as opposed to just the Smash FGC. The FGC in London doesn’t really have a major right now since the death of Super Versus Battle, and this is something I’ve wanted for a long time now, and maybe Albion can become that event for London in the future. This isn’t going to be the biggest Albion, and it certainly won’t be the last, but it will be the swansong of European Smash 4.

Speaking of the future, I’m not going to ask you to regurgitate your entire TwitLonger, as far as I understand you’re wanting to slow down on TO-ing after Albion until the release of Ultimate.

Yeah I mean, the thing is when games come to the end of their lifespan they naturally slow down. Because of this, the numbers go down, and because of this I can’t afford to run DBZs. It’s not about the money, I need to make that clear to people, but I have to be somewhere in the realm of breaking even, which isn’t happening right now. Meltdown realistically, unless the recent spike in numbers continues, is going to have to move to a fortnightly schedule rather than a weekly one. There’s also a lot of personal stuff going on at the moment that is really important for me to get right, and I can’t afford to spend all my time running Smash 4 events.

Another thing for the team is that post-Albion 2, we became a lot bigger and a lot more noticeable, which is great and I love that it happened, but a very small minority of people have used this to target us, about things like seeding in tournaments, and are trying to drag us down. A lot of work goes on behind the scenes, particularly with seeding, to make sure there aren’t conflicts regionally or scheduling problems, and some people don’t understand that and are not very polite when they voice their criticisms. This is an extremely small minority of people, I think I could count the people who are really bad with this on one hand, but what gets me is that as TOs themselves they should be aware of what they are saying. I’ve been doing this for years, I’ve got thick skin, but it does wear on me and my team to be getting these kinds of things said about us. TOs are people at the end of the day, and we belong to the community, and I think we give a lot of leeway to people. I’ve given people who are late a lot of extra time or gone out of my way to contact them when their games are due. These are situations where if it were the pure FGC, you’d be disqualified and if you complained then you’d be laughed out of the venue, but we don’t want to be like that because at the end of the day, we’re part of the community too.

What are your plans for the future then, for the release of Ultimate?

I’m planning on running events immediately as Ultimate drops. I really want Europe to be a strong region in its own right. I don’t want to pay players from the lowest spots on the PGR to come to our events, I want our events to be so good that people in the US and Europe look at them and think ‘I want to come here’. The gap between Europe and the rest of the world has shrunk massively between the beginning and end of Smash 4, but we need more events of high quality to keep pushing that down. We’ve had international players from Europe come to monthlies that aren’t even meant for them necessarily, so you can see where we’re heading. We’ve got a relatively good skill level across the board in European players, and we’ve got quality TOs all around Europe. When Ultimate comes out, we’ll be far better prepared than we were for Smash 4, and I hope we can continue to reduce the gap between ourselves and Japan and the US. Our community is far more open than it was at the start of Smash 4, and that can only be a good sign.

Anything else to add?

For people who are still wanting to compete in Smash 4, events aren’t stopping by any means, so don’t worry about that, and honestly, I want as many people as possible to come to and watch Albion 3. There are still big things to be announced, Nintendo have a big announcement on the Sunday so try and catch that if nothing else. Final shout-outs go to DAT Team, and my own region the East of England. There were a lot of dead regions at the start of Smash 4, including this one, but now we have 3 PR players in it. The final thing I want to say is, in regards to Meru’s TwitLonger about Europe and what he said about national pride within the continent, I have to agree with him when he says that a little national pride is definitely healthy, competition drives progress and I’d like to see that continue into Smash Ultimate, whilst also keeping the community as a whole open and communicating.

Japan Dominates DBFZ World Tour Finals As U.S Crumbles

Originally published on sickodds.com ( https://sickodds.com/news/japan-dominates-dbfz-world-tour-finals-as-u-s-crumbles) February 2019

JAPAN DOMINATES DBFZ WORLD TOUR FINALS AS U.S CRUMBLES

After seven sagas, four last chance qualifiers and a gruelling finals bracket, the first year of the Dragon Ball FighterZ World Tour is finally over. Ryota ‘Kazunoko’ Inoue, winner of four sagas and tournament favourite, defeated Dogura, GO1 and Fenritti twice to take the crown. Even when faced with a bracket reset against Fenritti in Grand Finals – his first set lost at the World Tour in four tournaments – Kazunoko remained unfazed. Bringing brutal offensive pressure with his trio of Gotenks/Adult Gohan/Yamcha, the Japanese fighting game veteran steamrollered his way to the top, cementing his place as No.1 in DBFZ for the first competitive season.

Coming into the weekend, four competitors had already secured their places: two from Japan, and two from the United States. Over the four last chance qualifiers on the first day the Japanese players asserted their dominance. Dogura, Kindevu, BNBBN and Fenritti all fought their way through qualifiers to claim a place in the top 8, and this was to spell doom for the two American competitors.

Eduardo ‘HookGangGod’ Deno was the first to fall, going 0-2 in the final bracket to Dogura in winners and Fenritti in losers. What was harder to watch for the American fans, however, was crowd favourite Dominique ‘SonicFox’ McLean also falling early in the bracket. Whilst expectations of a SonicFox win were on the table, considering his success against Kazunoko at the end of last year, it was a relatively new face who would steal the spotlight.

BNBBN came out of nowhere on the first day to enter Grand Finals in the 2nd LCQ, beating ApologyMan and Fenritti on the way, only to lose to Kindevu in the final. Unfazed, BNBBN entered the 3rd LCQ and won, with a second win over Fenritti and victories over ACQUA and Nakkiel on his way to securing a spot in the final bracket.

Seeded to fight SonicFox in winners round 1, BNBBN surpassed all expectations, defeating him 3-2 in a nail-biting opening set. His combination of Kid Buu/Bardock/Goku shook the EVO champion, and a couple of mistakes from SonicFox in the 5th game were punished severely by the Japanese upstart. BNBBN would go on to make 5th, losing to Fenritti and GO1. This was the same placing as SonicFox, though his losses of BNBBN and Dogura were a lot more surprising for the man who came to the tournament to cement his throne.

5th and 7th was the final placing of the two Americans at the World Tour Finals, then, leaving the top 4 spots to be secured by the Japanese. LCQ winners made up two of the top four spots, with Kazunoko dropping a set to one of them in the process. All the explosiveness, variety and suspense of the last seven sagas was magnified under the spotlight of the Finals stage. And Kazunoko finally put to bed claims against him, securing the trophy and the title of best DBFZ player in the world. For now, at least. The first season of DBFZ was phenomenal.

Who knows what the second season will bring.

DBFZ World Tour Finals: Saga Recap

Originally published on sickodds.com ( https://sickodds.com/news/dbfz-world-tour-finals-saga-recap ) January 2019

2018 was an incredible year for gaming, esports and fighting games all at once, but no title exploded onto the scene quite so spectacularly as Dragon Ball FighterZ.

The 2D fighting game based on the popular Dragon Ball franchise sold over 2 million copies in its first week of release, and quickly established itself as a titan of the fighting game scene. At its debut Evo event in August, it became the most watched main event there of all time, boasting a 257,000 peak viewer count.

Outside of Evo, Bando Namcai have invested heavily in their own tournament series, the DBFZ World Tour. Seven qualifiers, or ‘sagas’, have been played throughout 2018, with the winners receiving a spot in the World Tour Finals (as well as their very own Dragon Ball!).

With the finals happening this weekend in Los Angeles, four saga champions have already secured their spots in the tournament. We take a brief look at their performance at the qualifiers, and speculate on who will take the crown this weekend in LA.

RYOTA ‘KAZUNOKO’ INOUE

Wins: Saga 1 (CEO 2018), Saga 5 (SEA Major Singapore 2018), Saga 6 (Japan Round 2018), Saga 7 (CouchWarriors Crossup 2018)

Representing Team Godsgarden, the Japanese Street Fighter and Guilty Gear veteran Kazunoko is undoubtedly the favourite to take the finals after securing 4 of the 7 Dragon Balls available in qualifiers. Kazunoko came out of the gate swinging to take the first DBFZ saga at CEO 2018.

Despite going down to GO1 in Winners Quarters, Kazunoko would recover to dominate him over two sets in Grand Finals, defeating SonicFox, Dogura and Fenritti along the way.

The middle of the season was quiet for Kazunoko: he didn’t attend sagas 2-4, and placed 5th at EVO, losing to GO1 and Moke. By the time we come to SEA Major in Singapore, however, Kazunoko was looking unstoppable. Having cemented his Gotenks/Gohan/Yamcha line-up, Kazunoko’s ultra-aggressive playstyle allowed him to obliterate everyone in his tracks.

Throughout the final three sagas of the season Kazunoko failed to even drop a set, picking up wins against a variety of top players. With over half the Dragon Balls available under his belt, Kazunoko will be looking to convert his 2018 performance into a big win to kick off 2019.

DOMINIC ‘SONICFOX’ MCLEAN

Wins: Saga 2 (VSFighting 2018), EVO 2018, DreamHack Austin 2018, Canada Cup 2018

A four-time EVO champion and fighting-game natural, SonicFox has certainly continued the trend of his career by making an immediate impact on the DBFZ scene. Representing Echo Fox and sporting his trademark blue tail and fox head, SonicFox’s saga win came at VS Fighting in the UK. He went undefeated through the event, picking up wins against zeroq, Moke, GO1 and Dogura.

Outside of this, however, his saga attendance was fairly poor; his only other result was a stray 7th at SEA Major Singapore. Despite this, he was a prominent success throughout the year, with notable wins at DreamHack Austin and Canada Cup 2018.

Known for his aggressive playstyle, SonicFox’s best demonstration of this was at EVO. After blasting his way through the Winners bracket, including a 3-0 domination of GO1, SonicFox dropped the first set of Grands 3-0 to GO1. What followed next was arguably the hypest set of the year.

SonicFox’s shell of Bardock and Android 16, with his flavour-of-the-month favourite Fused Zamasu, threw itself time and time again against the wall that was GO1. Despite every game being close, SonicFox was able to clutch it out every time and take the second set 3-0 to secure his 4th EVO victory. The final move, a raw Dynamite Driver for the kill, embodies SonicFox and his playstyle. He will be looking to bring that raw power, aggression and sheer rudeness (in-game) to the finals this weekend.

GOICHI ‘GO1’ KISHIDA

Wins: Saga 3 (Ultimate Fighting Arena 2018)

The master of various 2D fighters, GO1 has proved his consistency yet again in DBFZ, placing in the top 3 of all of the first three sagas. Despite narrowly missing out to Kazunoko at CEO and losing an intense Losers Final set against Dogura at VS Fighting, third time was the charm for GO1 as he took his saga win at Ultimate Fighting Arena in France. Boasting wins against strong European contenders Aixy and Skyll, GO1 took first place over HookGangGod 3-0 after a reset in Grand Finals.

Whilst he was somewhat absent from the rest of the sagas, his solid trio of Cell/Bardock/Vegeta combined with an unmatched defensive playstyle will continue to be threatening in 2019, as he looks to secure a win at the World Tour Finals.

EDUARDO ‘HOOKGANGGOD’ DENO

Wins: Saga 4 (Thunderstruck 2018), Summit of Power 2018

Representing NRG Esports, HookGangGod features as one of the most prominent character specialists in DBFZ, with his Piccolo being unmatched in the competitive scene. His consistency at sagas throughout the year is also to be noted; boasting top 8s at CEO, Ultimate Fighting Arena and Thunderstruck, where he took first place without dropping a set.

Boasting wins against Supernoon, GO1 and SonicFox throughout the year, the Namekian master has amassed an impressive body count in DBFZ. Outside of sagas, HookGangGod’s most impressive placing has to be his victory at the Summit of Power. At arguably the most stacked tournament of the year, with 16 of the world’s best players competing at an invitation-only event, HookGangGod defeated ApologyMan, GO1, Fenritti, and finally SonicFox in a gruelling two set Grand Finals to take the win. This tournament success combined with his unique playstyle will surely make him one to watch heading into the finals of the World Tour.

THE FINAL SUMMONING

With four strong contenders having already secured their spots, the World Tour Finals is sure to be a highly competitive start for DBFZ in 2019. Whilst Kazunoko’s four Dragon Balls surely make him the favourite, the achievements of the rest are not to be dismissed lightly. Combine that with the host of talented players who will be hungry to enter through the Last Chance Qualifiers on Day 1 of the event, and the finals are going to be explosive.

Follow the brackets at Smash.gg and don’t miss any of the action by tuning in to the stream on Twitch.

Is Smash Ultimate The Esports Title Fans Have Been Waiting For?

Originally published on sickodds.com ( https://sickodds.com/news/is-smash-ultimate-the-esport-title-fans-have-been-waiting-for ) December 2018

Released last Friday, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for the Nintendo Switch has been one of the most anticipated releases of the year, after being teased for the first time in March 2018. The game features every single character from previous Smash iterations, plus newcomers from other Nintendo series, such as Inkling from the Splatoon franchise and Ridley, the infamous alien dragon from the Metroid games.

The game has received almost ubiquitous acclaim from players and critics alike and its sales reflect this; it was the most pre-ordered Nintendo Switch game in history and in the UK alone it has outsold the previous Wii U series game by over 300%. It’s no doubt that the game is a marked success for Nintendo, but one of the biggest questions that remains is how the game will be received amongst the competitive community and if Nintendo will learn from past mistakes when dealing with arguably their biggest and most dedicated fans.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF SMASH!

The genesis of competitive Smash, including its subsequent growth through 3 different games of the series, is well recorded in the legendary Youtube documentary “The Smash Brothers Documentary”. Whilst the documentary highlights nearly every aspect of the Smash Bros. community, no issue is more pervasive than the rift between Nintendo and their competitive player base. The most notable sign of this came with the division of the community into two separate factions with the release of Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii in 2008.

Many Melee players rejected Brawl, criticizing the slow and defensive gameplay changes implanted by Nintendo and since this time the two communities have remained relatively separate; the Brawl community graduated to Smash 4 when it was released in 2014, whilst the Melee community remained faithful to the game they have been in love with for over 15 years.

Whilst the games are relatively similar in their featuring of a wide cast of Nintendo characters and basic controls, there are noticeable differences in the gameplay. Melee has always been praised for its fast, aggressive style of gameplay, where a good player can destroy his opponent in just 4 combos. Conversely, Smash 4, whilst seen as a marked improvement on Brawl, presents a much more conservative approach. Defensive options such as shield and air-dodge are incredibly strong compared to their Melee counterparts, and the general movement speed of each character is slower. Thus, whilst there are a good number of players who will participate in both games, there are also a large amount who will focus on one. This is evidenced by the presence of many Melee or Smash 4 only events across the competitive scene, with generally only the most prominent tournament series, such as Genesis, Evo and The Big House bringing in large amounts of participants for both games.

SMASH THE ESPORT?

Both Smash games have garnered a substantial following, and whilst their place in the fighting game community would still be questioned by some traditional FGC players, their viewing figures at major tournaments put these doubts to bed. At this year’s EVO in May, the Melee Top 8 Finals garnered almost 200,000 viewers at peak time.Whilst Melee continues to grow year-on-year, Smash 4 suffered particularly this year with a figure of approximately 48,000. This can be partially put down to the announcement of Ultimate in March, coupled with the awkward early-morning time of the Wii U Top 8 for European viewers.

Nevertheless, Melee has almost constantly outdone Smash 4 for viewing figures across shared tournaments and this speaks to the longevity and consistency of the Melee community, who have reaped the rewards of dedicating themselves to the same game for almost two decades.

THE ‘ULTIMATE’ REUNION?

In the days of Melee, and then Brawl, Nintendo actively distanced itself from the competitive community. Since then they have made continuously greater efforts to provide for their greatest fans, culminating in the Super Smash Bros. Invitational in 2014 and the subsequent Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Invitational earlier this year. Each event invited top players from the Melee and ‘new-gen’ community to duke it out in a showcase of the upcoming game’s potential. Despite featuring non-standard tournament formats and rulesets, Nintendo’s engagement with professional players was, even for the most cynical of mindsets, an acknowledgement of the competitive community. Throughout Smash 4’s lifetime Nintendo continued to provide growing support at events such as Genesis, APEX, and multiple 2GGaming Sagas.

It seems that Nintendo intends to support Ultimate in the same way that it has supported Smash 4. The question of what and how much support this entails is yet to be determined. But the introduction of competitive-friendly features into Ultimate, such as a limited ranked ladder system for online play and a much more developed training mode, suggests that it may be to a greater degree than Nintendo has shown in the past. In addition, whilst it is very early to analyse the intricacies of Ultimate’s gameplay, the changes have thus far been well received. Players from both communities have praised the universal speed increases across the cast, as well as the introduction of every single fighter from previous titles to the game. Melee legends such as Joseph ‘Mango’ Marquez, William ‘Leffen’ Hjelte, and Juan ‘Hungrybox’ DeBiedma have produced content for both Twitch and Youtube for the game’s release, and this is key to the future of Ultimate.

Whilst the Smash 4 community will naturally migrate to Ultimate, Melee players will be harder to convince. If Nintendo can capitalise on the initial interest in Ultimate and turn it into a solid, company-supported competitive scene, the potential for Ultimate is great. Resources are not a problem for the company, with net sales of $10 billion this year alone. Whether they are willing to or not is by far the greater question.

But regardless, the Smash community has always put in the work to sustain their competitive scene. Across 3 official titles, one community-developed mod to Brawl, and now going into Smash Ultimate, the competitive scene of Smash has continued to grow without, and sometimes against, the very company that made the game. For such a dedicated and self-sustaining community, the future will always be bright.