Capcom Pro Tour Update: Southern California Regionals and Capcom Pro Tour Brasil
Two Capcom Pro Tour premier tournaments were held over the weekend at the Americas, with SoCal Regionals to the north in California, USA and Capcom Pro Tour Brasil to the south in the city of Sao Paulo. Whoever came out on top for the two tournaments would automatically qualify for the Capcom Cup. So who were the two competitors that secured their invites for the big year-end bash? Let’s find out:
Southern California Regionals 2015
Grand finals for USF4 over at Southern California was between two of the most renowned Japanese Players in the world: the Sagat afficionado, Team Red Bull’s Masato “Bonchan” Takahashi taking on one of the most unpredictable players today, Ryota “Kazunoko” Inoue and his trademark Yun.
Prior to their fight for the championship, the two already met in winners finals. Bonchan took the set convincingly to send Kazunoko into losers. Meeting again in grand finals, Kazunoko was out to make sure that it won’t happen again.
The match started fast, with Kazunoko taking the early lead after stunning Bonchan twice during the first game. Bonchan answered back winning the next two games, putting him at match point to win the tournament. Kazunoko however would not go down without a fight. Upon losing game 3, the Yun player tried to adapt to the situation by switching to Ultra 2. After a couple of impressive comebacks and another stun to end game 5, Kazunoko took the set 3-2 and reset the bracket.
The intensity didn’t dissipate as the second set went underway. This time around it was Bonchan who took the first game thanks to a bunch of good reads and punishes. Kazunoko retaliated and took game two in a flash. In game three, Kazunoko took the first round after a clutch punish after jumping over a fireball from Bonchan. The Sagat player was not deterred, and took the next two rounds, putting him again in position to take the tournament.
The fourth game started with Bonchan just dominating Kazunoko in the first round with impressive corner control. Kazunoko would not lie down and he took round two this time with excellent pressure play of his own. In round 3, Bonchan was once again in control, taking the life lead with from a full combo into Ultra. In a last ditch effort, Kazunoko used his super to even out the odds. Though he managed to get in and do some damage, an ill-fated forward dash right into Sagat’s standing round house ended the game, and gave Bonchan the victory.
With taking first place, Bonchan secured himself a spot at the Capcom Cup. The win also boosted his CPT standing from 9th place to 6th. Kazunoko on the other hand had already qualified for the Capcom Cup in CEO 2015 earlier this year. He was able to maintain his 9th ranking on the leaderboards.
Final Results
1. RB|Bonchan (Sagat)
2. Kazunoko (Yun)
3. QANBA.Douyu|Xiao Hai (Evil Ryu, Sagat, Cammy)
4. YP|Filipinoman (Rose)
5. Reiketsu (Poison, Vega, Ibuki)
5. RB|Snake Eyez (Zangief, Evil Ryu)
7. F3|AlucarD (Hugo, Sagat)
7. SD Pnoy (M.Bison, Adon)
9. ISG|eightgrade (Akuma)
9. pH|LPN (Rolento, Abel, Adon)
9. YOMI|Dieminion (Guile)
9. pH|Nando Tovar (El Fuerte)
13. EG|Momochi (Evil Ryu, Guy)
13. YBK|Jayce the Ace (Decapre, C.Viper)
13. EG|PR Balrog (Balrog, Fei Long)
13. Hsien Chang (Yun)
Capcom Pro Tour Brasil
Way down in South America, grand finals for Capcom Pro Tour Brasil was played out between Team BrawL’s Tatsuya “Haitani” Haitani from Japan and local player Keoma Moutsatsos “Keoma” Pacheco.
For those unfamiliar, Haitani was highlighted as one of the best Makoto players in Street Fighter 4 Arcade Edition 2012. He had top placings in various international tournaments together with a highlight reel of hype moments. Since USF4 dropped however, he switched to Rufus who was considered by many to be a top tier character. However he has yet to achieve any notable results at tournaments in this iteration of the game.
Keoma on the other hand is one of the more unknown players in the scene. He has had previous showings in tournaments most notably in 2013 at the Treta Aftermath and the Revox Tournaments in Brazil. He was able to finish in 3rd place for both competitions with his Abel. Since then, he has remained relatively off the competitive radar. If he’s planning on making a return, winning against an EVO top placer to qualify for Capcom Cup is surely one of the best ways to start.
Though he was known for using Rufus now, Haitani opted to go to Makoto for grand finals. The set started with Keoma taking the first game quickly, using Abel’s mixup options on wake up to capitalize on Makoto’s lack of reversals. Game two went by as quick as the first, this time going to Haitani who made good use of Makoto’s momentum-driven offense. In game three, Keoma was able to connect the Ultra on both rounds, taking the lead and putting himself at tournament game. Keoma’s momentum would continue on to game four, getting an Ultra off a failed grab in round one and finally closing it out in round two through good spacing and footsies.
From being relatively silent in 2014, Keoma has now secured himself a spot at the Capcom Cup and now sits at the 17th spot in the CPT leaderboards. Haitani in the meantime has broken into top 32, coming in at 32nd from being 164th.
Final Results
1. Keoma (Abel)
2. BrawL|Haitani (Makoto)
3. SOA|Ibukiman (Ibuki, Oni, Juri)
4. Reversal|ChuChu (C.Viper, Sakura, Poison)
5. SOA.XR|Prometo (Balrog)
5. AAG|Pr3da (Rolento, Elena)
7. SOA|Caju (Hakan)
7. SFT|Guiller BR (Guile)
9. SFT|Alexandro (Ken)
9. FGC./r/Kappa|Pepeday (El Fuerte)
9. WW|CamizaKOF (Hugo, Sagat, T.Hawk)
9. AAG|Baby Brasil (Rufus)
13. SFT|Dark817 (Abel)
13. SFT|Fabinho (Zangief)
13. LTWins|Xitao (Adon)
13. SFT|Jacare (Cammy, Rufus)
Credits go to Capcom Fighters for the videos.
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