Street Fighter V rivalry flares up and gets a little weird at ELeague Invitational

The beef between Joshua “Wolfkrone” Philpot and Kenneth “K-Brad” Bradley continues.

Whether it was intentional or the luck of the draw, Wolfkrone and K-Brad were placed in Group C in the ELeague Street Fighter V Invitational Preliminaries, setting the feuding players up for a rematch after Final Round 20.

In case you missed that one, K-Brad delivered the greatest Street Fighter V pop-off we’ve ever seen after he bodied Wolfkrone four rounds straight to get into top 32.

The two have traded wins in Street Fighter V, so it isn’t much of a surprise when one beats the other. However, their rivalry has become so intense that ELeague had a security guard present on stage in the Preliminaries, which is a little weird since this guard hasn’t been seen once until this particular match.

Right before the match, K-Brad crashed Wolfkrone’s interview with ELeague correspondent Malik Forte like a WWE-style promo. Things got awkward between the players but they remained mostly composed. The two played out an exciting set, with Wolfkrone coming away the victor. He also made sure to let K-Brad know what he thought about his play.

ELeague then conducted a post-game interview with both players and it went about as well as you would expect. Forte asked K-Brad for his assessment on his loss. He described a tactic Wolfkrone was using that he didn’t know how to deal with. Wolfkrone allegedly took that as K-Brad making excuses and didn’t seem to understand he was being complimented.

As the two became more agitated, Forte asked if the feud would ever end. K-Brad gave Wolfkrone his due as a competitor, but expressed his dislike for him as a person.

“In the game, you’re good. You’re good. You’re ELeague. You made it here. You’re on the big stage finally. But as a person, I just don’t like him. I just don’t like him,” K-Brad said.

Forte asked Wolfkrone’s thoughts on the how long the feud might last, and given his response, thankfully ELeague wasn’t live on national TV yet.

“Who gives a f***?” Wolfkrone asked.

Anyone afraid ELeague might force the FGC to tone it down for the sake of esports was clearly mistaken. While I’m sure ELeague’s intent was to play up the rivalry, I doubt they were expecting that last exchange. They’ll definitely need to be more careful with putting Wolfkrone on the mic going forward, and it isn’t only because of the expletives. He’s just not used to being interviewed and it shows.

Unfortunately, K-Brad didn’t have a great day overall, finishing with a record of 1-6, eliminating him from the Invitational. However, Wolfkrone had a stellar showing, going 6-1 and beating three of Japan’s most legendary players: Hajime “Tokido” Taniguchi, Ai “Fuudo” Keita, and Joe “MOV” Egami. Wolfkrone’s spectacular day advances him to ELeague’s Regular Season, which begins Friday, April 7.

In related ELeague news, the following players have advanced on to the ELeague finals by finishing in the top 2 spots in the Preliminaries:

Group A: Victor “Punk” Woodley and Yusuke Momochi (We correctly predicted both players in our group rankings)

Group B: Eduardo “PR Balrog” Perez and Darryl “Snake Eyez” Lewis (we correctly predicted PR Balrog)

Group C: Wolfkrone and Fuudo (We correctly predicted Fuudo and had Wolfkrone as a dark horse in this group)

ELeague play continues Thursday with Group D.

Be sure to check back for more news and information on Street Fighter V and K-Brad vs. Wolfkrone in 2017.

Michael Martin is doing very well in his group predictions for ELeague. Follow him on Twitter @Bizarro_Mike.