congrats to CD jr on getting that esports money :)
and also congrats to CURBO on making top 4

Congrats to CD Jr. and REO as well as everyone else! I really liked CD Jr.'s shout-outs after the match.

Other than that, so much counter picking. It seems to me like you need to have at least 2 (if not 3) characters if you want to win a tourney at the highest level.

I got a tragic phone call and unfortunately missed a good portion of the Top 8. I made it back for losers finals though. Huge congrats to CDjr. When he started to weep and thanked his brothers, I was genuinely moved.

As for the tournament performances overall, I'm really starting to worry about this game in terms of balance. I've been saying for a long time, "leave it alone. Let the game evolve." Thing is, we're running out of time, and the counterpicking philosophy has stifled progress. It's the MvC3 sentinel phenomenon: why learn your bad match ups when you can just pick the easy S-Tier character? MvC3 sentinel was NOT broken. He wasn't even top 5, but his intuitive style and high damage made him a crutch for the tournament community, and until they patched him, the game was not evolving at the rate it should have.

It's not just Cage either. The community has to understand that just because a character is not broken does not mean they are not a problem. Many of these characters do not need some of the tools they have. It's time to bring on the nerf fairy.

(FYI, I'm not talking about Jax. Infinite aside, I think he's mostly okay)

I hope "tragic" just refers to bad timing and nothing actually tragic in life, right?




Me too, I confess. I have an older brother and love my family so that really got to me as well. *blushes*



I don't know what to say about the characters and balance anymore now that I've seen Jax (rumored overpowered) so almost "helpless" against Cage (lower mid-tier?). Curbo did amazingly well though with Jax against REO's Cage.

I'll just say again, I think Kitana is very very overrated and I'm scared for her. No wake-up game, no armor, no advantage on block (except for the fake-out kick which is easily interruptible), her fastest string is 11 frames (some have 6 frame strings that launch)... I'm scared... I'm not saying she's bad, but overrated. There are definitely worse characters in the game.

I'm going to bed now though, it's nearly 3am over here. New York is on top of the world in MK, congrats to them and CD Jr. especially! Loved the speech after the win!

Much respect to CD Jr. for winning, he totally deserves it and is a fantastic player. Smoke vs. Johnny Cage is not an easy match up, especially against Reo's Cage but CD Jr pulled it off without doing one reset. Really like his shout outs at the end too, i think its great MK can mean so much to somebody. Like he wasn't just there solely for the money, he seemed like he truly loved the experience as a whole.

Also for the Jax vs. Johnny Cage match up i hear a lot about how it is in JC's favor, but can't jax easily out zone JC??? Like whenever i saw a match up between these two the Jax players always tried their normal rush down against JC who normally would counter attack out and apply his own rush down pretty easily. But for this match up wouldn't it be viable for jax to be trying to create distance and zone cage out with projectiles, ground pounds, and ground pound cancels into projectiles or anti airs? And even if Cage did get up close its not like Jax would be totally helpless as we saw with Curbo vs. Reo in top 4. Maybe this just sounds good in theory but i honestly think it would be viable in a match and it bugged me that no one ever even tried. Am i missing something here?

I also still feel like Kabal could out zone jax and that match up should be fought that way. I feel like its difficult but not impossible and I'm really surprised I haven't seen Reo ever commit to that strategy when playing CD Jr's Jax. Like it might be lame to watch, but there really isn't anything wrong with running away and zoning, especially when 12 grand is on the line. Maybe im not looking at this right tho cuz all my experience comes from online play and online i cannot get in on a zoning Kabal for the life of me.

You're not going to beat CD jr with Kabal zoning. Those guys are so good at dash blocking and timing their jumps all the Kabal zoning is doing is putting REO into the corner where Jax shines.

@Spaceman: I agree with you on the Jax vs Cage match. I too was wondering why don't Jax players try to stay away and mix-up projectiles and ground-pounds? They were all playing their usual Jax game. Some people are saying it's 8-2 in Cage's favor, I think that's way too harsh for Jax. If it's bad, I can see it being 6-4 for Cage, but like you, I think Jax players should change their game a bit. And even up close, Curbo did really well with Jax against REO's Cage. Back to zoning Jax, even if he corners himself by zoning, all it takes is one enh. dash punch and Jax can switch sides and start his own corner game.