North America East Two [Ranking Event]

This weekend was Punk’s weekend. There’s no way around it. He obliterated everyone he fought, with the exception of NuckleDu and Brian_F (I’d like to see how this set went). At the beginning of Top 8, he chose Chun-Li against The Cool Kid93’s Abigail. The Cool Kid would only win one round during the entire FT3 set. In Punk’s match with CJ Truth he went back to his tried and true Karin, only giving up 1 game and 1 round to the Cammy player. Now facing Nephew, Punk chose to engage in a Kolin mirror match (I had no idea Punk had a Kolin). Nephew did about as well as CJ Truth did. In Loser’s Final, Punk fought iDom and completely dominated the first 2 games, getting a perfect round in the 2nd game. iDom looked like he was gonna make a comeback when he won game 3, but Punk shut him down and took the set to arrive in the Grand Final.

The two sets of Grand Finals impressed me a lot, Punk showed off his adaptation best against NuckleDu. Punk ended up beating all three of NuckleDu’s main characters. Both competitors look on top of their game and ready to compete in the culmination of the CPT season, Capcom Cup, in about a little over a month’s time. I can’t wait to see it.

Besides running into Punk, both Nephew and iDom had impressive showings. Nephew destroyed one of the last Zangiefs, mhike2stronk, with some truly disgusting mixups along with some solid play. The Kolin player also had a 3-0 victory against Brian_F, each game in that set being competitive. iDom also had a strong victory against Brian_F (3-1) and in Winner’s Final had a very close set with NuckleDu. At one point, iDom had the match advantage at 2-1, but NuckleDu never gave him another round after that point.

I want to also make a quick shoutout to mhike2stronk. He may not have had the best showing in this Top8, but he is really fun to watch and an all-around great guy by all accounts. I was sad to see him go down the way he did and I hope to see more from him in the CPT 2019 season. Here’s to some Zangief buffs, but not too many. I have too much trouble with that MU as it is.

North America East Two Results Ranking Points

North America East Two Results Global Points

North America Leaderboard Top 8

This weekend didn’t change up much about the leaderboard, no one new got on or off. Just Punk and iDom overtaking Toi (who couldn’t compete in this tournament being considered on the West). Smug didn’t compete in the online tournament, opting to accept Red Bull’s invitation to their Kumite event, which no one could blame him for doing. Now, there’s only one more event to get more Ranking points for the NA region.

Global Leaderboard Top 26 + Auto-Qualifiers

Again, this weekend didn’t change much. NuckleDu went up one rank. Punk, while still not guaranteed, made it much more likely that he’s going to be in Capcom Cup. He’s only a little over 100 points under the alleged safe zone (according to @OneFrameLink) and, given this weekend’s performance, I’d say he’s the favorite to win North America Regional Finals. It hasn’t been a good year for favorites when it comes to the regional finals. I wonder if Punk can break that streak.

Next Weekend’s Events

• North American Regional Finals at Red Bull Conquest in Washington DC, USA on 11/17-/18 [Premier]

This is it. The last CPT event before the month long build-up to Capcom Cup. After this weekend, 31 of the spots will be decided barring any unforeseen issues. I’m curious how the whole Infiltration situation will shake out. He hasn’t competed since Evolution in August. I thought that Capcom and Panda Global (his sponsor) both would’ve reached a decision about whether he’ll be playing or whether PG will continue to sponsor the Korean player by now. Hopefully, this is announced soon because removing the 11th ranked player will have some big changes to the matchups that the other competitors need to study. For example, at this moment Justin Wong’s first match would be against Nemo if nothing changed about the leaderboard. But, if they remove Infiltration from the equation, Wong will be facing StormKubo. A different character match up and much different type of opponent. It might end up that players will have to split their focus during preparation to plan for either way this could go.

Below is a chart showing the players who don’t need a 1st place finish to qualify for the NA Regional Finals. Smug only needs to be the highest placing NA competitor (outside of the 7 already above him in the NA Leaderboard) in the open tournament.

With Smug only having 80 points, it’s technically possible for any NA player to show up, take 1st place in the open tournament, and get that 8th seed in the NA Finals over Smug. Because this is the last opportunity to acquire Global Points in the 2018 CPT season, I find that scenario extremely unlikely. Even if the players who are safe (Rank 20 and above) didn’t show up, there are still some killers who could just squeak into Capcom Cup and will more than likely show up for the tournament. I’ll just list off some some non-NA players below Rank 20: Mago, Momochi, Itabashi Zangief, Verloren, Nemo, StormKubo, GamerBee, Brolynho, Akainu, Momi. Yikes! I honestly think that the NA players in the finals will stay the same. Maybe the seeding will change, but that’s about it.

Remember how I mentioned that this is the last event to get global points? Well, below is a chart showing what placement these players will need to be guaranteed entry into Capcom Cup. It’s technically possible for people below CJ Truth in rank to get in with a 1st place win, but that would require the Top 26 basically getting no points and a 1st place finish. Pretty unlikely.

Well, that’s it for this week. It’s weird to think that this time next week we’ll know mostly what Capcom Cup’s pool of players will look like. I’m really hoping Smug makes it into and wins the regional finals. If NuckleDu or Justin Wong win the regional finals, Toi could get into Capcom Cup or Smug if he places high enough in the open tournament. I’m excited to see who ends up securing the bottom 7 or so spots. See you next week.

Follow me at twitter @Sniffulls.

Join the GBFGC Discord! We have a regular crew who play many fighting games, including SFV which has an online tournament every fortnight. It's a great place to talk about FGC happenings and find like-minded players to compete against. Here's the discord link. If that link expires, just DM me on the site and I can give you an invite.