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Thaiger Uppercut preview: Street Fighter V and the CPT return to Asia

This weekend, Capcom Pro Tour Asia makes its first stop of the year at Thaiger Uppercut in Bangkok. We’ve seen what Justin Wong and the Ken players are doing in the U.S. Now it’s time to see the level of competition Asia will bring to the Pro Tour.

Familiar faces like Bruce “GamerBee” Hsiang and Martin “Marn” Pham will be in attendance, and we’ll get our first look at some well-known players in Asia who rarely traveled for Ultra Street Fighter IV. Oh, and there’s a wild Gootecks spotted in the Street Fighter V bracket, too.

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(Photo: Michael Martin)

New game, same old ‘Bee

If you blinked, you might have missed a few of the international players who traveled to the West to play Street Fighter V. The most notable, GamerBee, took part in the Red Bull Kumite exhibition. The former USF4 Adon player showed off his Necalli for the first time on the big stage. He had a pretty good showing, defeating Team Secret’s Lee “Poongko” Chung Gon and Mad Catz’ Daigo “The Beast” Umehara.

GamerBee’s most recent appearance was the May 1 edition of the Korean 3v3 Street Fighter V Crash tournament. He managed to get in one game as the anchor for his team (which includes Poongko and Jonny “Humanbomb” Cheng) in the final set to qualify for the top eight winners bracket. Like a lot of players still finding their footing, GamerBee’s wins against tough opponents shows he’s not too old for this stuff.

Gootecks world tour stops in Thailand

Ryan “Gootecks” Gutierrez is on something of a world tour, hoping it pays off in some global points for the CPT Leaderboards. Gootecks played in the Red Bull Kumite open qualifier, failing to make it out and placing fourth at the Kuwait Battle Royale. If Gootecks managed to secure points at Thaiger Uppercut, it will add to his total of eight points earned from Cannes Winter Clash in France back in February. While he has yet to crack a top eight back home in the U.S., the global points could be a factor later on the tour if he is in contention to qualify for Capcom Cup, as global points supersede regional points on the Capcom Pro Tour leaderboard.

Marn returned home to Vietnam after his fourth-place finish at the recent PAX Arena exhibition (he boldly claimed he was going to “win it all” in an interview with Yahoo Esports.) Whether the competition is or isn’t ready for him, there’s no denying his nutty style of play with R. Mika makes him a threat at any tournament.

Home region advantage

Other players to watch out for include Tatsuya Haitani, who finished fourth at Final Round and seventh at NorCal Regionals in March, and Capcom Cup 2015 participants like Singapore’s Ghim “Gackt” Kee Eng, Japan’s top Zangief player in USF4 Hiromiki “Itabashi Zangief” Kumada, Takenori “Tonpy” Shimomura, and Sanshiro “Shiro” Nagai, who traveled as far as Norway in 2015 to qualify for Capcom Cup. Any of these names could fill out a killer top eight bracket.

Thaiger Uppercut will be streamed on the Team Spooky Twitch channel. You can also check out the rest of the schedule for CPT Asia events on event organizer Beast of the East’s website.

Michael Martin covers all things related to Street Fighter V and the Capcom Pro Tour. Follow him on Twitter @Bizarro_Mike.