bear with me since i know much more people who had watched more games in evo could probably have a handful more trivias but i watched both top 8’s religiously (and followed their scene for the last year) and it had been a blast.
- during Evo Day 3… Tokido Opened and closed Evo by participating in both the first (vs MadKOF) and last (vs Xian) matches
- Tokido and Xian had duked it out three times in an entire day… first in KOF in loser’s finals (Tokido won), then in SF Winner’s finals (Xian Won), then in SF Grand Finals (Xian won the rubber match).
- Tokido had fought both sf and kof champions of the past two years, vs MadKOF in the opening match, vs Infiltration in Loser’s Finals, vs Reynald in Loser’s Semi, and vs Xian (Multiple times)
- MadKOF and Infiltration… both Korean players who won last year’s SF and KOF tournaments BOTH ended up third place in their respected games.
- Reynald and Daigo both have the Underdog wanting to make it back out from the loser’s bracket although Daigo’s was much more emotional because it is his last match.
other than that the stories of both Top 8’s were Phenomenal
- Daigo’s Match with Infiltration which was (correct me if i’m wrong) the rubber match from last year’s evo and sf25.
- Reynald vs Romance the usual main event of every kof tournament this past year without bala had come to a head.
- PR Balrog’s trying to repeat the victory against Infiltration was intense
- Reynald got his runback from Verna (whose match at top 16 where he lost was IMO the best of the Top 16 kof)
- Xian has the SF advantage over Tokido, while Tokido has the KOF Advantage
- Xian’s had a great year in both games, i was rooting for him during his matches with Fox, Sakonoku, and even Tokido. in the past year he had victories over both Infiltration and Romance.
- I saw Infiltration use Hakan for the second time (first was in SCR 2013 vs Hugo 101)
- Is it just me or Tokido plays Akuma and Mr. Karate a bit similar (minus the air fireballs) nah… maybe it’s me
- This year only had 2 cafe Id guys
- Xian is First Place in SF and 5th Place in KOF.
That was the sickest top 8 SF I’ve ever seen. My take:
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PR Rog now truly deserves to be in that elite top tier. He leveled up this year the way Infiltration went from 2011 to 2012. For a span of 2 sets he truly BELIEVED he was the best player in the world and played like it and it was too awesome to see.
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Mad props to Xian who also went from really great player to the guy to beat. It’s obvious now that he’s slightly above the Japanese competition and he truly entered his prime.
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Tokido really impressed me with the way he dismantled Infiltration. It is true that Infiltration aged 30 years mentally after his INSANE set with PR ROG, so he might not have been at 100%. Still for a guy known for his gimmick vortex setup, the way he just outfoosied the evo champ who outfootsied Daigo again was just impressive. Like PR Rog, Tokido should be insanely hungry to win Evo.
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Daigo continued to be Daigo, I honestly don’t believe he’s washed up but he needs to realize he’s past his prime. I would love to see a character change in ULTRA so he can compensate his ever so slight reduction in reaction speed, instead of just playing Ryu because he wants to be a Ryu in RL.
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Infiltration… I do hope the haters out there finally gives this guy his props. Seriously… his bracket to get there: Kazunoko->Daigo->Sako-> PR Rog to finally lose against Tokido… Infiltration’s greatest strength isn’t his robot like Akuma. It’s his MENTAL FORTITUDE… No matter how bad things get, he never breaks and always finds a way to win. This year he displayed that Daigo beastly instinct. Seriously he laid his balls on the table by choosing Hakan after being down 2 games and facing elimination… that match was unreal. It got so intense, he mentally BROKE PR ROG, as Eduardo couldn’t handle the pressure and just threw the kitchen sink at him in the dying seconds of the match and beat himself.
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Haitani… I got flashbacks of 3rd strike the way Makoto came in and just took a dump on Gamerbee… Yet another character who is so exciting to watch through her sheer burst. Hopefully we see more of him in future tournaments as it was super hype!
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Sako… The king of execution somehow making top 8 instead of choking was impressive. It’s a shame it’s not first to 10 cause I truly believe there’s no one in the world who could beat him in such an extended set.
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Poongko… suffering from the Tokido complex. It’s obvious he cannot play so many games at the top tier level. I’d love to see him stick to just one or two games at most instead of trying to play everything and going out early in the tournament.
EVO as an event leveled up so much this year. I honestly hope the same 120K+ viewers come back next year and we reach another 200k+ milestone. AWESOME AWESOME EVENT!
2 CafeID guys?
For KoF maybe (Verna and MadKOF)
Don’t forget NIN, and Knee are CafeID in Tekken and Poongko is CafeID as well for SFxT and Ae.
I meant 2 cafe id guys in KOF… both were blown pretty bad by Woo
PS PR Balrog vs Infiltration was intense, that hakan switch was surprising
Team Mexico wasn’t as Noisy… prolly because no Bala
Seth killian’s quoting of daigo “I’m not playing to win, i don’t fear defeat… the only fear i have is notbeing true to my self, ryu is not the most powerful, if i wanted to win i’d pick another char, i play to express myself and with ryu i can express myself” sent chills to my spine.
I just noticed that based on Metaphysics commentary Reynald’s weakness is that he almost always has to be on the ropes for his full potential to come out… I actually saw a similar mindset with Infiltration later (though not as much) were matches with Daigo, Sako, and PR Rog really drained him for some part and he was able to mount a comeback but was too drained IMO against Tokido, whereas Reynald had some left in the tank when he made it to Woo (but understandable since the day was almost over and Infiltration was probably spent whereas Reynald’s matches were earlier in the daytime)