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Five takeaways from Capcom Cup 2016

Capcom Cup 2016 Street Fighter V champion, Du
Capcom Cup 2016 Street Fighter V champion, Du “NuckleDu” Dang (Michael Martin)

Four matches into the first day of Capcom Cup 2016 and most of us watching around the world were throwing our hands up in confusion. Street Fighter V’s biggest names were dropping like flies.

That’s the beauty of fighting game tournaments. You can’t script them. You never know what’s going to happen. You get the good, the bad, and the ugly, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

During an intense weekend in which 32 players had to endure the toughest challenge of the year, we learned a ton about SFV. Here are our biggest takeaways from Capcom Cup 2016.

Finally, America is great

In a tournament that featured massive upsets and surprises, no surprise was bigger than Capcom Cup’s all-American Grand Finals – Team Liquid’s Du “NuckleDu” Dang versus Evil Genius’ Ricki Ortiz.

If you had asked me at the beginning of the CPT who I thought would wind up earning the title of the best Street Fighter V player in the world, NuckleDu wouldn’t have come to mind. That shows how hard he’s worked this year. He’s always been great. He’s always been consistent. But this year, it all paid off.

He was the clear favorite from North America to get into top 8 and possibly compete for the $230,000 first prize. But how he got through the tournament may have been more surprising than his actual win.

The 20-year-old from Florida never lost more than one game in a set.

Evil Geniuses' Ricki Ortiz at Capcom Cup 2016
Evil Geniuses’ Ricki Ortiz at Capcom Cup 2016 (Michael Martin)

Ricki reportedly trained more for Capcom Cup than usual, which makes sense. She’s in the biggest tournament of her career outside of Evo. The training paid off in a big way.

I’ve seen a ton of Street Fighter V in 2016. All year, I thought Ricki was one of the best in the world. In an esport where Asia dominates, Ricki couldn’t secure any high-profile international competition. She performed well in most Ranking Events, winning one and placing in multiple top 8s, but she never placed higher than seventh at Premier Events.

Ricki didn’t get the win, but second place at Capcom Cup validates her abilities as a Street Fighter V player, something I think people overlooked because of the number of Chun-Li players around the world and the lack of a big win at a Premier Event.

Things looked bleak for Americans early on in major international tournaments but they showed remarkably improved results in Street Fighter V. Despite upsetting top international players throughout the year, America’s maturation in Street Fighter V didn’t reveal itself until late in the year.

Alex Myers had never made a top 8 at a Premier Event in his career. Yet, there he was at Canada Cup with an opportunity to qualify for Capcom Cup. Evil Geniuses’ Kenneth “K-Brad” Bradley traveled to three tournaments in three different countries within the span of a week and somehow put on his best tournament performance of the year at SCR, coming in third place.

These players (and most of the ones who made Capcom Cup 2016) showed drastic improvement over their Street Fighter IV careers. I wasn’t quite ready to go on record as saying the U.S. had caught up to Asia in Street Fighter, but NuckleDu and Ricki (as well as America’s overall performance on the CPT this year) changed my mind.


Asia falters in the home stretch

Team Razer’s Seon-woo “Infiltration” Lee and Hajime “Tokido” Taniguchi went 0-2.

Let that sink in for a moment.The two biggest stars on the Capcom Pro Tour were eliminated in the first round of Capcom Cup 2016.

In 2015, I filled out a mock bracket for Capcom Cup. I had Naoki “Nemo” Nemoto and Masato “Bonchan” Takahashi in my top 4. I think I even had Bonchan in Grand Finals. Both were coming into Capcom Cup hot, having won Premier Events and looking unbeatable. Both went 0-2.

I didn’t fill out a mock bracket this year for that reason. I would have been blown up again because I would have picked Infiltration and Tokido as two of my favorites to make Grand Finals.

On paper, Infiltration’s loss to the number 32 seed Jonny “HumanBomb” Cheng was the biggest upset of the tournament. HumanBomb shouldn’t even have been in Capcom Cup but he was a last minute replacement (we’ll get to that shortly.)

I can’t even tell you what happened with Tokido. Perhaps it was a case of never playing the number 31 seed Ray “DR Ray” Rosario’s Vega. But DR Ray shocked Tokido and Hiroyuki “Eita” Nagata followed that up by eliminating Tokido 3-0.

By the end of top 32, Infiltration, Tokido, Mago, Evil Geniuses’ Yusuke Momochi, HORI’s Naoto Sako, GamerBee, and HumanBomb were all eliminated. That’s enough talent to fill out a top 8 at any other world class Street Fighter V tournament.

From left to right: Naoto Sako, Yusuke Momochi, and Jonny
From left to right: Naoto Sako, Yusuke Momochi, and Jonny “HumanBomb” Cheng at Capcom Cup 2016 (Michael Martin)

So what exactly happened to these players?

It’s a combination of things. There likely hasn’t been this much parity in competitive Street Fighter since Street Fighter IV launched. It also didn’t help that the top half of the bracket was so heavily weighted with top international players that the loser’s bracket became a shark tank. But the skill gap has closed among different regions and I think the evolution of play proved detrimental to some players.

I’ve seen firsthand what some of the top international players can do in a match. Sometimes they know what you want to do before you know it. For as much work as Infiltration, Daigo, Tokido or any other top player puts into defeating a specific match-up, they may have forgotten how to adapt to unpredictability. Everyone has a bad day, but it seemed like players weren’t prepared for some of the match-ups.

One good example might be the champ NuckleDu. After he bopped Tokido at Red Bull Battle Grounds, top Japanese players got together to develop a gameplan against his Guile. The problem is you aren’t just facing his Guile. He is one of the few players on the CPT that has shown the ability to play and win with multiple characters at a high level. Not even Infiltration has done that.


Most players in Street Fighter V, Asian or otherwise, spent the year focused on getting the most potential out of their mains. Daigo and Tokido stuck with Ryu through thick and thin. Infiltration tried to play other characters but wasn’t as successful with them. Tatsuya Haitani was good enough to make countless top 8s but could only muster one Ranking Event win this year with Necalli.

Now they’re looking at an upcoming year full of changes in Street Fighter V. Do they continue focusing on one character or start planning for pocket characters? Is Akuma enough for some players to switch or can they maximize the potential of previous DLC characters that showed promise but haven’t lived up to their hype?

Whatever the case may be, I don’t think top international players will continue to get caught off guard like they did at Capcom Cup. Top Asian players will look at Capcom Cup as a humbling experience and will come back stronger. That means the U.S. needs to work even harder if they want to hold the ground they’ve gained on Asia.

Evil Geniuses' Kenneth
Evil Geniuses’ Kenneth “K-Brad” Bradley is Capcom Cup bound (Michael Martin)

Replacements proved how small the gap is between ranked pros

K-Brad, Yukadon, and HumanBomb were all late additions to the Capcom Cup bracket thanks to three players dropping out of the competition.

These guys didn’t even qualify (through the convoluted rules of the CPT) for Capcom Cup and yet not only were they in Anaheim competing, they were winning.

K-Brad might have been the hottest North American player not named NuckleDu and that proved troublesome for a legend.

Daigo Umehara should have moved into top 16 on the winner’s side. Instead, he dropped a 2-0 lead and lost 3-2 to K-Brad first thing in the morning. I don’t know where K-Brad found the magic that turned his entire season around but it does seem coincidental it happened around the time we took him on a Food Run at SoCal Regionals, where he finished in third place.


Then there was Yukadon, who probably thought his chances at qualifying for Capcom Cup back at Evo, where he took third place, were pretty good. His results post-Evo weren’t great and despite being in the mid-20s on the Global Leaderboard, he wasn’t high enough there or on the Asia Regional Leaderboards to outright qualify for Capcom Cup.

He needed an early Christmas miracle, and he got it.

A series of events led Hong Kong’s Tse “Tse4444” Wa Ping to drop out at the last minute. Yukadon got bumped into Capcom Cup due to some shuffling on the Global and Asia Regional Leaderboard. One day he was out. The next he was in, and boy, did he capitalize on it.

In another dimension, K-Brad, HumanBomb, and Yukadon are sitting in the stands or watching Capcom Cup from their couch at home. Here, they were creating havoc in the brackets.

There’s no way to predict how Tse4444, Felipe “Misterio” Carvacho, or Younes “CCL” Iazaar would have fared at Capcom Cup. It’s unfortunate they couldn’t make it but I don’t believe Capcom Cup would have been as entertaining without K-Brad, Yukadon, and HumanBomb.

Also, as a by-product of the player swaps, it shifted the seeding around. While players complained about that, it changed some of the match-ups. That seemed to affect quite a few top players and created more upsets.

Nobody wants to go into a tournament unsue of who they’re up against, and having wild card entries might add to the already confusing qualification process for Capcom Cup. And you don’t want to set players up for failure just because it might be entertaining to see upsets, though it would certainly spice up the competition. Some of the strongest players at the beginning of the year weren’t as sharp or scary by the time Capcom Cup rolled around.

K-Brad, HumanBomb, and Yukadon showed the skill gap isn’t as wide as it used to be for both regions (like U.S. versus Japan) and players. Street Fighter V paved the way for players who haven’t had as much success in the past to legitimately compete against the best.

The skill gap between players and regions should get even closer next year with Street Fighter V’s 2017 season update.


A house that trains together, grows together

Only one player made top 8 at Evo and Capcom Cup back in 2015: Infiltration. That was a highly competitive year for Ultra Street Fighter IV.

But four players who were in Evo 2016’s top 8 made it to top 8 at Capcom Cup: MOV, Yukadon, GO1, and Ai “Fuudo” Keita. For all the competitive fluctuation we’ve seen throughout the year, I was surprised to see these four players back in Capcom Cup’s top 8.

Looking back on the 2016 CPT, you can see where different players and different characters excelled. Infiltration and Tokido ruled early on with Nash and Ryu, Daigo and GamerBee had flashes of brilliance post-Evo, and NuckleDu confused opponents with Guile and R. Mika at the end of the year.

With the possible exception of Fuudo, none of them were considered favorites over those previously mentioned players at Capcom Cup on the first day. Even Fuudo was sitting in loser’s top 8 after getting bopped by Capcom Cup 2015 champ Kazunoko on day one.

Yukadon, GO1, and MOV train with each other (as well as Eita) in the same gaming house called “TokyOsou.” Having great training partners clearly benefits them and Eita talked to Yahoo Esports about how other top Japanese players also roll through the house to train. Perhaps that offered them a greater advantage when it came to preparing for events.


Player houses aren’t anything new in the FGC, but the lengths these guys went to was above and beyond, and it paid off. In other popular esports, player houses or training facilities seem fairly standard. It wouldn’t surprise me if we see more of that as Street Fighter V and the CPT continue to grow.

And the value isn’t just training for tournaments.I don’t know if it was always their plan, but some of the players in the TokyOsou house also worked hard to find endorsements and sponsorships. Yukadon signed with YOUDEAL, joining long-time competitor Haitani. Eita campaigned for endorsements on Daigo’s stream and ended up being sponsored at Capcom Cup by a couple of Japanese businesses.

It seems odd to be a part of a group of players that operate as a team but aren’t officially recognized as one. t.

But now players have taken it upon themselves to be more proactive in finding teams or organizations interested in signing fighting game players. Nemo pitched himself to multiple organizations at TGS 2015 and ultimately signed with Alienware Japan.

All of these players have put themselves in a great position to succeed in and out of the game. They’ve created a model anyone can use to grow as professional gamers and it gives new purpose to independent gaming houses. Come together as a team, work together to win tournaments, and gain traction with official esports organizations.

A much more raucous Street Fighter V crowd at CEO 2016
A much more raucous Street Fighter V crowd at CEO 2016 (Rose Silvestre)

Capcom should focus on the crowd, not the broadcast

One of the most compelling aspects of a fighting game tournament is the atmosphere. It’s easy to get swept up in the hype if you’re in a room filled with thousands of excited people.

Out of all of the major events I’ve attended this year, Capcom Cup finals at PlayStation Experience might have had the most mellow crowd I’d seen. The event felt flat.

Perhaps the names in the top 8 contributed to that, but even during NuckleDu or Ricki Ortiz’s matches, it just seemed like something was missing. K-Brad said it best when he mentioned it didn’t feel like we were at an event where competitors were playing for the biggest fighting game prize ever.

As much as I love the production values, there are drawbacks that I feel contributed to the lack of energy at Capcom Cup’s finals. The event was being taped for an ESPN2 broadcast, but only for the top 4 matches rather than the top 8.

The nature of the broadcast felt like it killed the momentum. Long breaks between matches made it hard for the crowd to get invested in the action. It felt like a lost opportunity for Capcom and the FGC to appeal to casual spectators considering the arena was filled to capacity.

I’ve been in an Evo ballroom that had fewer people but felt like the roof was going to explode due to the hype. Capcom Cup was sadly missing that.

For as badly as some in the FGC want SFV to be taken as seriously as the most popular esports, this is a situation where the desire to go broad might have gotten in the way. It’s hard to balance the mainstream versus the grassroots. Hopefully, we can find a middle ground, because from the players to the fans, everyone deserved better at Capcom Cup.


Michael Martin is still recovering from the shock and awe of Capcom Cup 2016. Follow him on Twitter @Bizarro_Mike.