New fighting game world champions were crowned at the 2011 Evolution Championship Series this past weekend, with well-known favorites like Daigo Umehara and Justin Wong falling to new challengers.
New world champions were crowned all around at EVO 2011 this year, with many upsets coming from several places in the Super Street Fighter IV, Tekken 6, Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Mortal Kombat, and BlazBlue: Continuum Shift tournaments.
Most notably, Japan's "Fuudo" walked away with the 2011 world title in Super Street Fighter IV, a division that had been ruled by fan favorite Daigo Umehara since the introduction of "vanilla" SF4 to the EVO tournament back in 2009.
Fuudo's win came via the use of Fei Long, as the "God of 2D Fighting games," using Yun, was knocked out of the final four in the last matches between Fuudo, Saudi Arabia's Abdullatif Alhmili (a.k.a. Latif, using C. Viper), and South Korea's Choong Gon Lee (POONGKO, using Seth).
Japan's 'Fuudo' battles Saudi Arabia's Abdullatif Alhmili in the Super Street Fighter IV Finals at the EVO 2011 Championships in Las Vegas, CA. Daigo Umehara, the MadCatz-sponsored favorite to win, finished in 4th place. (Photo courtesy of Shoryuken.)
Of all the players in this year's tournament, Latif notably took out an absolute murderer's row of Street Fighter players, defeating Justin Wong, Japan's Hajime Taniguchi (Tokido MCZ, using Akuma), POONGKO, and Daigo on the way to the finals against Fuudo.
Justin Wong, America's most famous professional Street Fighter player, did not place in the Super Street Fighter IV tournament's top eight, losing in the second round to Latif. Wong's did have a better showing in the Marvel vs. Capcom 3 tournament, coming in 4th place with a team of She-Hulk, Wolverine, and Akuma.
Jay Snyder, (a.k.a. BOX Viscant) won the MvC3 tournament with the team of Wesker, Haggar, and Phoenix, after multiple scares and close matches against fellow American Eduardo Perez (a.k.a MCZ|DMG PR Balrog) and his team of Dante, Wolverine, and Tron Bonne.
America made a clean sweep of the Top 8 spots in the Marvel vs. Capcom 3 tournament at EVO 2011, with Jay Snyder (a.k.a. BOX Viscant) winning the top spot. Justin Wong, a fan favorite to win, was eliminated with a 3rd place finish by Eduardo Perez (a.k.a MCZ|DMG PR Balrog) in the loser's bracket. (Photo via Shoryuken.)
[Source: Shoryuken, Challonge, EVO2k.com]
Source: Daily News from GamePro.com
Monday, August 1, 2011