I wrote this the other day, it's huge so it would be a shame for it to go to waste lol.
Final Round XV- my impressions:
This was easily the best MK tournament I've ever watched live. Massive props to Atlanta guys for organizing this amazing event, Osu16bit & crew VSM for hyping it up and Medina4life for providing a brilliant stream (possibly best MK stream ever).
As for the tournament itself, I watched the entire thing, until 7.15 AM my time (CET). I went to bed dead exhausted, but it was well worth it.
I'll go in chronological order with my comments, pool by pool and then the Top 8.
POOL A:
So many amazing matches in this pool, among them vVv CD Jr. vs STB Shujinkydink. CD Jr. started off with Jax, but lost the first game 2-1 to Dink's Quan Chi. Dink was blown up in round 2 though as he had no meter (used it for rune traps in round 1), really shows how badly Quan Chi needs the meter in order to compete, or at least Dink's Chi lol. So, being a game down CD Jr. decided to switch to Smoke and it paid off as he won 4 straight rounds to put Dink into the losers bracket. Only one of those 4 rounds was close and it was insanely close. It was the 2nd round of the first Quan Chi vs Smoke match, where both were 1 hit away from getting killed, so both decided to teleport and Cd Jr.'s Smoke teleport ended up beating Dink's Quan Chi teleport. Apparently there was a lot tension after the match, they said on the stream that CD Jr. told Dink to go back to Canada, not sure if anything else happened. I was cheering for Dink, but did expect CD Jr. to win. Dink eventually got eliminated by ClintTheBeast's Sonya 2-1.
Massive props to Big D for reppin' Nightwolf and beating CD Jr.'s Smoke in pool A winners bracket finals. He was definitely the biggest sensation of the pool (he also beat ClintTheBeast and TS Sabin). However, my favorite player to watch in this pool was definitely Ikizzle with his amazing Sektor. His hit-confirming ability is amazing, as well as his iaTUs, I was really impressed. I really enjoyed all the Sektor vs Sonya matches in this pool. First Morty Seinfeld's Sonya beat Ikizzle's Sektor 2-1 early on in the winners bracket. Later, in the losers bracket Ikizzle's Sektor bested ClintTheBeast's Sonya 2-1 in a very close match. Just moments later another Sektor player, GOL Eklectic, took out Morty Seinfeld's Sonya out of the tourney in another very close match, 2-1. It was these two Sektor players that ended up fighting for a chance to challenge CD Jr. in losers bracket final and Ikizzle came out on top 2-0. CD Jr. proved to be too much however, besting him 2-0 (2-1, 2-0). It was an amazing run by Ikizzle considering how early on he was eliminated from the winners bracket. On the road to CD Jr. through the losers bracket he beat Konqrr's Kitana (2-0) who btw seemed rather rusty, RTO Toxic's Reptile (2-0), ClintTheBeast's Sonya (2-1), Show Time's Reptile (2-1) and finally GOL Eklectic's Sektor (2-0). Show Time himself was a mini-sensation beating Konqrr and Morty earlier on in the winners bracket before falling to Big D's Nightwolf. Going back to Morty's Sonya, I like how he used her Arc Kick a couple of times to escape corners (who says the move is useless).
POOL B:
No big surprises here as the 4 big names made it to the winners bracket SF: LB NY Chris G., VSM Crazy Dominican, Pig of the Hut and Osu16bit. CD's Kitana took out Chris G.'s Noob Saibot 2-0, losing one round in the process (I think Chris G. should play as Reptile against Kitana players, but he apparently thinks that's a bad match-up for Reptile, contrary to popular belief since most people say Reptile has the upper hand in that match. I myself hate fighting good Reptile players with Kitana). In the other SF Pig of the Hut's Kenshi beat Osu16bit's Kitana. 16bit did well to win one round, but other than that, it was obvious Kenshi is a nightmare for Kitana. After he lost the first game 2-0 I think 16bit knew he wasn't going to win this match, at least that's how I interpreted the look on his face after the first game (he looked hopeless). CD was actually watching the match from behind and afterwards they exchanged some words, it looked to me like they were discussing the Kenshi match-up, but I'm not sure (the conversation seemed friendly though and I liked seeing that, my Kitana heroes chatting).
Osu16bit managed to fight his way through the losers bracket where he recorded a very nice win over Chris G., the man that bested him last year at Evo Top8. Unlike last year where he played as Reptile, this time Chris G. went with Noob Saibot. It ended up very close, 16bit won in three games and each game was a 3 round game (1-2, 2-1, 2-0). Once again Chris G. loses to Kitana playing as Noob Saibot, maybe he should re-think that Reptile-Kitana match-up. I think it was after this match that 16-bit and CD exchanged a "bro-fist" (probably my favorite non-competitive moment throughout the whole week, that was so awesome to see). It was now time for CD to face Pig's Kenshi in the winners bracket final and CD pretty much got blown up (he even switched from Kitana to Nightwolf for game 2, but it didn't help, he couldn't win a round). And finally, the much anticipated match, the ultimate Kitana showdown happened in the losers bracket final- Osu16bit vs VSM Crazy Dominican. CD won the first game 2-0 in two close rounds, if I remember well 16-bit threw out an X-ray at CD near the end of round 2 and it very likely would have won him the round, but to his misfortune CD's fan projectile got to him first and killed him. CD then almost got a flawless win in round 1 of game 2 and at the moment I thought there was no coming back for 16bit, however he took the next two rounds pretty convincingly. CD took the final game in straight rounds however, applying some good corner pressure in round 2 and winning their final air-to-air trade with a jump kick. I was cheering for our man 16bit and believed he could win, but CD proved better this time (2, 1 into enh. fan seems to be his signature, a deadly signature that takes half of your life). 16bit bowed and handed over his paper fan to CD after the match, good sportsmanship, it was great to see that!
POOL C:
Just like in pool B, there were no big surprises in pool C either. KN Detroit Balln313 won the pool, playing mostly as Shang Tsung, his signature character, he beat vVv REO's Kabal in the winners bracket final 2-1. My favorite player to watch in this pool was definitely GGA Dizzy and his amazing Johnny Cage.
Dizzy was put into losers bracket after he lost to REO's Kabal 2-0, but he fought well considering it's a bad match-up for Cage (he managed to take one round in game 2). In the losers bracket Dizzy really impressed, he took out ATL_R3DD who was in Top8 last year at Evo plus a local favorite. R3DD played as Liu Kang and Smoke, but failed to win a round. Shorty after Dizzy took out D-Que Beats, a very solid Cyrax player who was put into losers by Detroit's Kabal (1-2, 1-2). Even D-Que couldn't win a round against Dizzy, he tried with Cyrax and Kenshi. Meanwhile GGA Jeremiah's Sheeva was winning everyone's hearts with some very solid performances. Jeremiah was put into losers by REO's Kabal (0-2) and out of the tourney by JTG, a Kung Lao player (1-2). JTG was another victim of Dizzy's amazing Cage, however JTG made Dizzy work hard for the win (2-0, 0-2, 1-2). Unfortunately for Dizzy he had to face REO's Kabal again in the losers bracket final and I knew it was the end of his run. He lost in straight sets and once again managed to take a round (1-2, 0-2). I can't help wondering what would have happened if the match between Detroit and REO went the other way and Dizzy had to fight Detroit in the losers brackets finals. Detroit would have probably went with Kabal too, but his Kabal is not on the same caliber as REO's imo. Maybe Dizzy would have made Top8 in that scenario. Either way, he really impressed me.
POOL D:
This group was very interesting. VSM Maxter (1st) and Death (2nd) ended up qualifying for Top8, both were in Top8 at WB6 as well. Other big/interesting names: EMP Tom Brady, Slips, B W1zz, OnlineTony & Lord of the Fly.
Not sure what happened with OnlineTony. He played Maxter early on and did pretty well, it took 3 games for Maxter to beat Tony's Kabal (Maxter was playing as Stryker and Cyrax). I later heard Tony DQ'ed himself?
A funny triangle happened between Tom Brady, Slips and Noobe. First Tom Brady, playing as Sub-Zero (!) bested Noobe's Cyrax 2-0 in the winners bracket. Then Slips, playing as Scorpion (of course), beat Tom Brady (Sub-Zero again). This was a very good match and even though Brady lost, I thought he did well, he had Slips quite a few times trapped in the corner under pressure with the Ice Clone out. It ended 2-1 in Slip's favor (0-2, 2-0, 2-0) and the final round was pretty close. If I remember well, Brady was closer to victory but Slips caught him with a spear and just when Brady was about to get the breaker Slips shortened the combo with an air throw that just did enough damage to win him the match. The triangle was completed later in the losers bracket when Slips ran into Noobe and lost 0-2 (0-2, 1-2). Noobe's Cyrax is the most unorthodox Cyrax I have ever seen. Poking like crazy and using those air throws to anti-air and also to get in, it was so rhythmical (? lol) all together. I bet Slips was all like "WTF is this $hit?!" lol. Slips was put into losers earlier on by Maxter's Cage, he didn't win a round. If I remember well he had some bad luck with the enhanced spear, I think on one occasion it just went through the opponent (?). Overall, it was still a fine result for Slips, but to be honest I wasn't as impressed as I was with his performance at Frosty Faustings in January (he didn't look as sharp to me this time).
Regarding Tom Brady, as much as I liked what I saw from his Sub-Zero I really wasn't impressed with his Raiden (I saw some say otherwise on TYM, not sure why), especially against STB Gr8one. He said he picked up Raiden to counter some characters and among those characters he mentioned Kitana. He lost in straight sets to Gr8one's Kitana, he just looked insecure/lost to me. The final moments of the 2nd game were insanely close, with the timer running out Brady was making a comeback and he pretty much came back all the way only for his Raiden to drop on the floor due to time running out (1-2, 0-2). Gr8one shortly after eliminated Lord of the Fly's Nightwolf from the tourney in a close match (1-2, 2-1, 2-1) and afterwards took out Noobe as well in another close match (2-1, 0-2, 2-1). He was finally beaten by Death's Mileena in the losers bracket final. Considering this was his first major he did amazingly well finishing 9th (I even think they said on the stream that this was his first offline tournament altogether).
I'm not sure who eliminated B W1zz from the tourney, he lost to Death in the winners bracket (1-2, 2-0, 0-2; Death played as Mileena first and then switched to Sonya) and then someone beat him off-screen (?) in the losers bracket. He had some interesting enhanced projectile set-ups with Raiden. STB Red Djinn was another player reppin' Sektor at Final Round, he lost to Maxter's Cyrax 0-2 (1-2, 1-2) in the winners bracket and I don't know who eliminated him later in the losers. The highlights of this pool for me were Slips beating Tom Brady and Noobe's "crazy" Cyrax.
TOP 8:
I don't have much to say regarding Top 8 and I already talked too much. I was cheering for Crazy Dominican but wasn't expecting him to beat CD Jr. in the losers bracket. I thought it was interesting that CD Jr. went with Liu Kang first. I don't think I've ever seen him play Liu Kang, especially in a tournament. I remember CD shaking his head as CD Jr. selected Liu Kang, interesting. However, CD Jr. switched to Smoke after CD equalized the score (I thought he would go for Jax as he usually beats his brother's Kitana with Jax).
I would have liked to see Big D make the Top4 reppin' Nightwolf, that would have been amazing since many see Nightwolf as one of the weaker characters in the game. Still, Big D did well finishing 5th and Nightwolf has been represented nicely at the tournament.
The match between Maxter and Pig of the Hut was pretty interesting, going full distance and both changing characters along the way. Overall, Pig played really well, he made some great rolls on reaction with Mileena and the way he beat 16bit and CD earlier with Kenshi makes me think that match-up is easily Kitana's worst match-up. I definitely didn't expect him to go with Cyber SZ during the grand finals against REO's Kabal. He sneaked in some pretty cool Ice Parries, but overall I feel like he knew REO would reset the bracket and just decided to take a mental break and show off another character to the stream (not sure though, just my impression). I think he should have stuck with Mileena against REO's Kabal (Death put up a good fight earlier in Top8 with Mileena against REO's Kabal).
EXTRA SHORT SUMMARY: Best tournament and best stream I watched live (and I watched a lot).
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PS: I checked the latest VSM Thursday Night Casuals archived footage yesterday and Brady said he has decided to drop Raiden. lulz