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These are the stars of Red Bull Kumite 2017
We look at the players who really stood out during Red Bull Kumite 2017.
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Spectators hold their breath
© Teddy Morellec/Red Bull Content Pool
By now you should know that Japan’s Nemo won Red Bull Kumite 2017 in a spectacular fashion, winning six games straight against Gachikun in the Grand Finals. But who else shone throughout the tournament?
It’s a singles competition, sure, but there’s no reason we can’t select more than one MVP. Below we've picked out a few of the players that we thought truly stood out throughout the weekend.
Gachikun
Gachikun is relatively unknown in the west, but in his home country of Japan he's one of the most formidable opponents you can face in tournament play. Gachikun’s piloting of Rashid has led many of the top Japanese players to believe that the character could be one of the top five in the game.
Throughout the weekend Gachikun took many convincing wins, including putting eventual winner, Nemo, into the losers’ bracket. Gachikun dominated with his impressive footsies in almost all of his matches, showing that not only was he able to adapt to his opponent’s playstyle, but he also had pixel-perfect spacing when it came to positioning his attacks.
A match that stands out is his clash with Echo Fox’s Tokido. Tokido is known as one of the strongest competitors in Japan and the training partner of Bonchan, meaning that the crowd heavily favoured him in this match. In spite of this, Gachikun completely defied the odds after losing the first round and came back to win 2-1 in a very close set.
Infexious
Another stand-out wild card is Infexious. To those in the UK, Infexious is a friendly face that rarely travels. To the rest of the world his was the diamond in the rough that picked apart Tokido with his Hugo back in Ultra Street Fighter 4. So, it’s safe to say when Infexious shows up to tournaments he not only brings the hype, but he also throws down with the greats.
Infexious actually lost his very first set of matches to last year’s champion, Infiltration, and it seemed like this risky pick might not pay off as a competitor. Thankfully, Infexious lived up to his reputation, displaying his nerves of steel and breezing through the losers’ bracket, mopping up anyone who stood in his way with a mix of Zangief and Necalli.
Even after losing his first set against Infiltration (he narrowly lost as Zangief against Infiltration’s Karin in spite of some truly inspired use of Zangief’s flex to absorb Karin’s pokes), he would run back into Infiltration in the later stages of tournament. It was in this second set that an almost robotic Infexious persevered with his new character, Necalli, by taking risks that paid off and forcing Infiltration to guess how to deal with Necalli’s various jumping attacks.
Daigo
Even though he would fall just short of podium placement, Daigo 'The Beast' Umehara completely smashed expectations with his Guile. Throughout the past year, Daigo has struggled with character choice and finally ditched his standard selection of Ryu. Many thought that this Guile pick might not work in his favour, although having a pocket Guile in Street Fighter 4 and a legacy in fighting games that has spanned decades proved otherwise.
Over the course of Red Bull Kumite, Daigo provided some of the most nail-biting matches you will ever see. From his showdowns with Bonchan that went right down to the wire, to his complete dissection of Tokido, Daigo’s performance was one of the most impressive this weekend and perhaps the best of his Street Fighter V career so far.
Moments like dashing fullscreen into a crouching medium kick, clutching out a win against his old friend and rival Bonchan and eliminating him from the competition entirely, shows that his presence of mind and daring playstyle is still with him.
Even though Daigo got a laundry list of impressive wins under his belt at this year's event, it’s actually his loss against Xyzzy that stands out the most. Rounds were traded as Daigo and Xyzzy went head to head. Daigo’s Guile fought phenomenally with his back against the wall, an almost impenetrable line of defence that Xyzzy struggled to break through.
Bonchan
Last, but by no means least, is Takahashi ‘Bonchan’ Masato. Recently Bonchan has been tearing up the Asian circuit, winning three majors in May alone, as well as being second in the Capcom Pro Tour Global leaderboards at the time of writing. What makes this recent dominance more impressive is that Bonchan is outperforming many players with a character that was nerfed in the current season. In spite of being a weaker character in the second season, he's made Nash look like an unstoppable force throughout 2017.
Every single one of Bonchan’s matches at Red Bull Kumite matches was close. Bonchan would go back and forth with all his competitors and narrowly edge out rounds after suffering massive blows early on. It was Bonchan’s sheer force of will and mastery of Nash that would see him close out games from the brink of death.
A perfect example: Bonchan vs Xyzzy. After Xyzzy swept the first game in an extremely convincing manner with his Birdie, Bonchan fought back from the brink of death and conquer the South Korean competitor in some extremely close situations. One of the most memorable moments in this set was Bonchan’s perfect spacing to duck under Birdie’s ex diving command grab and punish with a quick series into Nash’s critical art. It showed an unbelievable understanding of the match up and the crowd’s cheering nearly drowned out the commentary.
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