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Poongko takes advantage of his fill-in role at CPTA Final and Misse's Capcom Cup fate is decided.
Last chance couldn’t be a more apt description for the Capcom Pro Tour Asia Finals in Singapore. The round robin event, taking place at the GameStart Asia 2015 event featured nine of Ultra Street Fighter IV’s best competitors, with the ninth spot decided in a last chance qualifier. Kindevu and his impressive Elena survived the first day but in an interesting twist, Poongko, a last-minute replacement for Team Razer’s newest addition Seonwoo “Infiltration” Lee, played some of his best Street Fighter of the year and dominated the entire event. Poongko took fate into his own hands, qualifying for Capcom Cup outright, while paving the way for Misse, who has been on the bubble for weeks.
Hearbreaking Pro Tour End
Perhaps the biggest storyline going into the last chance qualifier for the CPTA Finals was Evil Geniuses’ Eduardo “PR Balrog” Perez making the trip to Singapore for one last attempt to fight his way into the Capcom Cup. PR Balrog looked fantastic early on, hitting all of tough one-frame links he’s known for with Balrog, landing numerous double digit combos. His path to winners finals was relatively unimpeded but there he met Kindevu and the troubles began.
PR Balrog started out the set with a victory, but two Kindevu took the next two games, forcing PR Balrog to rethink his strategy. In an effort to find some way to get through Kindevu’s Elena, PR Balrog switched to Yun, a surprising pick to many but he had been playing Yun casually online on his livestream previously. Unfortunately the pick didn’t work out as Kindevu claimed the set 3-1 and the loss left PR Balrog holding his hands to his face in frustration.
Things didn’t get much better in the losers finals as PR Balrog faced Team Razer’s Gackt. Dropped combos and a loss right away had PR Balrog looking heavenward, with his hands raised, clearly seeking some kind divine intervention to keep his hopes alive. Gackt put PR Balrog on the brink of elimination by taking the second game. But momentum shifted drastically as PR Balrog took the next two games, tying the set 2-2. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be as Gackt clutched out the final game and the reality set in as PR Balrog again sat for a long moment, accepting his fate. He took his last shot at Capcom Cup and came up short. He appears to have decided not to attend Dreamhack Winter.
Beats in Our Head
Yosuke “Kindevu” Ito may have been the biggest surprise to come out of the first day. His combination of calculated aggression, timely heals and superb footsies with Elena carried him through the last chance qualifier, defeating Gackt in the Grand Finals 3-0, and into the CPTA Finals, where he had a strong performance throughout the weekend.
He opened the event with a win over Qanba Douyu’s Xiao Hai, and at times he was dominant, winning convincingly against Qanba Douyu’s Dakou, MOV and Kentaro “Misse” Nakamura. While Kindevu managed to escape with a 3-2 victory against Red Bull athlete Masato “Bonchan” Takahashi, it wasn’t enough as his three losses to Razer’s Xian Ho Kun, Poongko and recent free-agent Naoki “Nemo” Nemoto set him up for the losing end of a tie-breaker.
For the unfamiliar with round robin events, all 10 players play each other in first-to-three matches and their records dictate who makes it into a first-to-seven Grand Finals. Any tie-breakers are decided by the results of head-to-head match-ups and overall record throughout the round robin proceedings.
Rise of "The Machine"
While Kindevu had one of his best weekends of the year, one of Korea’s top players, took full advantage of his good fortune. Infiltration couldn’t attend CPTA Finals due to another engagement and, as a result, his spot was filled by Lee “Poongko” Chung Gon due to coming in second place at Nine States Tournament 2015 in Fukuoka, Japan, earlier this year.
Poongko’s performance at CPTA Finals was his best in months after early success gave him enough points that he would have qualified for Capcom Cup regardless of the results of the CPTA Finals. He looked great all weekend, flustering his opponents with Seth’s mix ups, cross ups and step kicks. He lost one set to Xian 3-0, but went on to an incredible 21-10 record throughout the round robin proceedings. He shut out Dakou and MOV 3-0, beat Nemo, Bonchan and Misse 3-1, and had his closest calls against Xiao Hai and Kindevu, taking those sets 3-2.
As Poongko asserted himself as the CPTA Finals champion and Kindevu narrowly missed his chance to take the automatic spot. Kindevu was tied with Nemo with five wins, but a loss to Nemo broke the tie, allowing Nemo to move onto Grand Finals, where Poongko would continue his dominance. Poongko jumped out to an early 4-1 lead before Nemo threatened a comeback by winning two straight games, making the score 4-3. Poongko’s relentless air-to-air attacks and his step kick combos overwhelmed the typically unpredictable Rolento play of Nemo. Poongko took the set 7-3 and claimed his first premier event win of the year.
Nemo's Biggest Fan for a Day
Misse likely may have been the biggest Nemo supporter in Nemo’s final match against Xiao Hai late on day two. A loss to Xiao Hai would have given Kindevu a better record than Nemo, thus giving Kindevu an opportunity to fight for the automatic bid against Poongko in the Grand Finals, preventing Misse from qualifying through points pending results of Dreamhack Winter. Nemo took the first game of the set with a final round blow up, forcing Xiao Hai to rethink his character selection. Xiao Hai switched to Yun and the pick worked out in his favor as he won the next two games in the set.
Yun's air mobility proved to be problematic for Nemo’s style of play with Rolento but one could almost feel the moment the game slipped away from Xiao Hai in the final round of game four. Xiao Hai whiffed numerous attacks, allowing Nemo to punish and with Rolento, he simply needs one small window of opportunity before the opponent is dizzied. Nemo concluded the set with a perfect round in game five, gifting Misse his spot into Capcom Cup.
The full standings for CPTA Finals are as follows:
1. Poongko 7-1 (21-10) and a 7-3 win in Grand Finals over Nemo
2. Nemo 5-3 (19-16)
3. Kindevu 5-3 (18-14)
4. RZR|Xian 4-4 (19-15)
5. RB|Bonchan 4-4 (18-15)
6. Misse 4-4 (15-18)
7. Qanba|Xiao Hai 3-5 (19-18)
8. Qanba|Dakou 2-6 (11-20)
9. MOV 2-6 (8-22)
Poongko, Nemo, Xian, Bonchan, Misse and Xiao Hai have all qualified for Capcom Cup outright or through ranking points.
CPTA Finals could very well have been a preview of what’s to come at Capcom Cup, with high level player from competitive Street Fighter’s top killers. Each set felt more significant than most typical events as the gravity of the situation was apparent. Win and get in. Lose and you’re out until 2016’s Capcom Pro Tour. Dreamhack Winter taking place on Nov. 26-28 should prove equally exciting and emotional as it is the last gasp for any player hoping to outright qualify or sneak in through ranking points.
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