ELeague reveals intriguing Street Fighter V Invitational groups

ELeague has announced the groups for its upcoming $250,000 Street Fighter V Invitational.

The 32 invited players have been split into four groups of eight for the preliminary round of the event.

The group list is as follows:

Group A

Lee “Infiltration” Seon-woo
Julio Fuentes
Yusuke Momochi
Thomas “Brolynho” Proenca
Ricki Ortiz
Victor “Punk” Woodley
Martin “Marn” Phan
Bryant “Smug” Huggins

Group B

Justin Wong
Bruce “GamerBee” Hsiang
Daigo Umehara
Hiroyuki “Eita” Nagata
Eduardo “PR Balrog” Perez
Darryl “Snake Eyez” Lewis
Alex Valle
Leah “Gllty” Hayes

Group C

Hajime “Tokido” Taniguchi
Ai “Fuudo” Keita
Joe “MOV” Egami
Ryan “Filipino Champ” Ramirez
Ho Kun Xian
Kenneth “K-Brad” Bradley
Joshua “Wolfkrone” Philpot
Ryan “Gootecks” Gutierrez

Group D

Du “NuckleDu” Dang
Zeng “Xiao Hai” Zhuojun
Arman “Phenom” Hanjani
Olivier “Luffy” Hay
Chris Tatarian
Ryan Hart
Joe “LI Joe” Ciaramelli
Long “LPN” Nguyen

It’s still quite early in Season 2 to get an idea of how well most of these players will do in their groups. However, a few things stand out.

Punk is incredibly talented and one of the hottest players in North America. He will get his chance to test his mettle in Group A against two of the all-time Street Fighter greats in Infiltration and Momochi. Daigo and Justin Wong headline Group B, meeting yet again in their careers and for the first time in Street Fighter V since Wong eliminated Daigo at Evo last year.

Group C might be the toughest of them all, with four players who finished 13th or higher on the CPT 2016 Global Leaderboard (Tokido, Fuudo, MOV, and Xian) plus K-Brad, who dominated ESL’s King of the Hill for weeks.

Those who drew Group D are probably pretty bummed, as Capcom Cup 2016 champion NuckleDu has shown no signs of slipping since Season 2 launched. He is still the player to beat in Street Fighter V.

ELeague’s preliminary round is set to begin March 27. Twenty-four players will move on to the regular season, which will air on TBS every other Friday beginning April 7. This marks the first time Street Fighter V competition will be broadcast as a series on national television.

The finals will take place May 27, the weekend of Red Bull Kumite and Capcom Pro Tour 2017 Premier Event Combo Breaker.

In related news, Capcom has unveiled the full details for Capcom Pro Tour 2017, including format changes for the season and Capcom Cup.

Michael Martin covers all things FGC. Follow him on Twitter @Bizarro_Mike.