Its kinda silly for us to speculate on what’s going on on the other side of the pond - all we have to go from are sporadic match vids and the results of a few (albeit major) tournaments. But its fun, so what the hell, right?
Lets not get crazy re:bas - those vids on uma’s youtube are five years old. Bas got 7th in last years nationals, and based on Gunter’s reporting is still one of the top players in Tokyo. He’s probably still in the mix with ysk and kok, just behind uma perhaps.
Uma’s probably the most consistent player from what we know - he owns ibaraki vip for free. But after him it seems pretty open:
K- Yane is the man, but it doesn’t seem he’s a level above Rai or Deshikitsune.
N- Tsugu is probably the best. Daidouraku seems to do better in certain matchups though, so it’s not cut and dried.
C - Cross (Kurosu) seems to be the best based on tourney results in the past year. I’d be curious why you’d say nakanishi is better.
I agree that Kurosu is more successful-- I’ll edit my post. The info I based these players are from my friends in Japan who play cvs2 on a consistant basis and join tournaments there. They said Nak’s team is more solid w/ certain matchups, but they also said of the 4 grooves c-groove is more of a mixed bag of players making it difficult to determine.
Nakanishi quit games after the Capcom Olympics. At least a year, possibly for good. Tsugu is quitting after nationals in July. I’m pretty sure Rai quit also. The best K groove players in Osaka are Bocchan and Deshigitsune, but Yane is better than both of them I think. He went even in his set with Bocchan (although he was ahead after the agreed upon 20, for some reason they extended it to 30). He beat Kitsune in a set a while back as well.
best C is probably Cross by default, but he hasn’t entered anything in a while. not many C groove players worth their salt anymore. Dari might be the best active one.
A is Uma. bas switched to Hibiki this year so he’s still working things out. Uma’s used his team for years.
P, no one of consequence. P-Rugal is probably the only big name still using P.
Glad to see someone with firsthand experience post, but damn. This might be the most depressing thing I’ve seen on this site since the evo voting thread. Nakanishi gone? Rai and Cross maybe too? Tsugu (the guy I learn the most from watching) leaving soon? WTFFFFUUUUUUCCKKKKKKK
I just hope there’s talent on the rise out east to make up for these losses. That’s just bad news all around.
