- Error
King of Fighters XIII
Mortal Kombat 9
Soul Calibur 5
Street Fighter X Tekken
Super Street Fighter IV
Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3
In addition, there are 17 majors that will be used as circuit events on the Road to Evo 2012. All of the tournaments will have seeding points as opposed to just UMvC3 and SSF4. The first circuit event is scheduled to be APEX 2012, which is this weekend.
In addition, tournament organizer Joey Cuellar said there are plans to do online qualifying tournaments.
Much like last year, I'll be stat tracking SSF4 and (this time) UMvC3 for those that make the Top 8, and it'll be posted here, so stay tuned.
Here's a question for you all: What game should be the main event at Evolution 2012?
no commentsI did not expect my Twitter feed to blow up on Friday night. All I did was mention that I was going to announce my pick for Marvel vs. Capcom 3 series Player of the Year in North America for 2011. Suddenly, everyone chimed in with whom they thought was the winner.
The decision wasn’t cut and dry as Wolfkrone winning the Super Street Fighter IV Player of the Year award.
There were so many contenders. It truly was an any-given-weekend mentality.
Deep down, my sentimental pick was going to be Ryan “Filipino Champ” Ramirez. Yes, I hear your chuckles for a guy that is very outspoken and brash. However, there were so many what-the-fuck moments involving him, I wondered whether he’d ever win a major.
At Revelations, he made it all the way to the finals, where he lost to Jay Snyder in a battle of Phoenix-based teams.
During one of his home streams, he went off, talking about how new followers of the scene never praised him when he won but ripped and laughed at him after a loss. He made note of what happened at Devastation, when an opponent caught him with a Level 3 Arthur hyper to get the win.
He finally got that major championship, beating Justin Wong at Canada Cup 2011. Not only that, he backed up that win by taking first place at Northwest Majors III. Things finally turned his way, and he was on top.
But then came the Goodbye Phoenix, Hello Phoenix Shoryuken.com Invitational. He was bounced in the first round, and some of my hope of him winning Player of the Year went out with that loss. He was definitely out after getting eliminated at Southern California Regionals.
I think had it been just a fourth quarter award, Filipino Champ wins by a narrow margin. He is one of my favorites to win the title in 2012.
Mine is also a great pick for 2011 Player of the Year thanks to a late-year charge. He finished second at NorCal Regionals 9 to Justin Wong. He was a force at a lot of Northern California events he attended. He also won the Shoryuken.com Invitational and finished second to Justin Wong at Southern California Regionals.
Combofiend was great as well, dominating opponents with his unorthodox Spencer and Friends. He blasted Marn with a pixel left and then took out Justin Wong in the Final Round XIV championship. He also reached the finals of Devastation.
There were plenty of other contenders, including Eduardo Perez, Noel Brown, Mike Ross, and Daniel Maniago.
However, it came down to two players: Justin Wong and Jay Snyder. Both guys had résumés to die for. Both guys were dominant when they showed up to tournaments. Both of them actually met a few times in major tournaments with a lot at stake. One of them was hurt by not going to a lot of tournaments as the other. One of them was hurt by a penalty that sparked a furious debate among spectators who couldn’t hold a candle to him.
In any case, these guys were threats to win tournaments whenever they showed up.
When I decided on the Player of the Year, golfer Jack Nickaus came to mind. Nicklaus is widely considered one of the greatest professional golfers of all time.
He has several notable records, and the one that is immediately brought up is his 18 career major tournament victories. But even as impressive, he finished second in a major tournament 19 times and third nine times.
The Player of the Year was like that. He not only won a lot of major championships, but when he didn’t, he was in the hunt until the near end.
The North American Marvel vs. Capcom 3 series Player of the Year is …
no commentsYou already know, so let’s just mention some numbers.
During the Top 4s of the Evolution 2011 tournament season, he was 35 rounds over .500 (first), had a .631 first-hit win percentage (fourth), a .778 first-combo win percentage (third) and an .838 closeout rate. But most importantly, he had seven Top 4 appearances. He also kept Team USA alive with an amazing performance at Canada Cup, and he did it on his birthday.
The 2011 Super Street Fighter IV North American Player of the Year is …
The reason I thought Team Utah winning over John Choi and Hsien Chang in the Super Battle Opera South Qualifier Championship was a contender was because it had all of the elements of a great match. It was a championship. There was a ton on the line (the right to represent the United States at Super Battle Opera), it featured a comeback, and the winning team was able to defeat the overpowering character.
It ended up second on my list.
There wasn’t enough to overcome what Wolfkrone did at Canada Cup. There might have been some rumbling before the tournament about who was the Player of the Year, but not after what happened. Add to it that he made this unbelievable feat on his 21st birthday, and it's a story to be remembered for a long time.
The match of the year is …
no commentsThat everlasting moment, known today as “Bionic Marn,” was second on my list. It reminded me of Super Bowl XXXIV. Most people don’t remember what happened for the majority of the game; they just know that the Titans were stopped at the 1-yard line on the final play of the game.
The more I watch the Match of the Year, the more I believe it truly is one of the greatest matches around. Start off by matching two of the best players in North America. Add in a Phoenix team against an anti-Phoenix team with a championship on the line, and there’s a recipe for some great viewing. There was also a Bionic Marn moment.
Here’s some stats on the match:
- These guys played nine games in two sets. Only twice did more than one character survive in a game (and each guy had one of those moments).
- The survival rate combined for both guys was 22.2 percent, way below the tournament average (although, Phoenix’s survival rate was double at 44.4 percent)
- The guy that lost the first character overall in the game won five of the nine games.
- In six games, the guy that was down to his final character first came back to win.
- There were two comebacks at 0-2 (yup, both with Phoenix).
- The losers bracket representative was down 2-1 and then down to his final character before rallying to force a second finals match.
- Overall, the champion won 5 of the final 6 games played. However, that one game he didn’t win will be remembered for a very long time.
The match of the year is …
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2011 was filled with so many highlights and lowlights, a book could be written about all of it. But that would take nearly all of 2012 to do. So in that case, I’ll just mention the top five stories of 2011. Some of them are specific to a tournament or a match, while others are very broad.
There were a lot of stories that did not make the cut, and I’ll mention some of them here:
- OnlineTony wins seven tournaments in a row
- Japan’s unsuccessful attempt to overtake the United States in Marvel vs. Capcom 3 at Evolution 2011
- Daigo Umehara’s Super Street Fighter IV title reign at Evolution ends
- The struggle against top-tier characters
- Perfect Legend wins at Evolution 2011
5. Filipino Champ wins Northwest Majors 3 and Canada Cup: You might hear from one of these matches later in the week. For all that Ryan "Filipino Champ" Ramirez had to go through this year, including bad breaks and unbelievable losses, there were a couple of shots remaining to get a major win before the game switched to Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. He made it all the way to the finals of both tourneys and prevailed.
At Canada Cup, in one of the more unbelievable moments of the year, Justin rallied to defeat Filipino Champ and stay alive in the finals. If this were any other part of the year, Filipino Champ probably folds up and loses. But he didn’t this time around, and that’s what made the win at Canada Cup so special. It was his moment and his major championship.
4. Majors for Team Spooky: Victor “Spooky” Fontanez is beloved by a lot of followers in the competitive gaming scene because of his broadcasting. He also made his mark by going to nearly every major tournament this year. He had his share of ups (Evolution) and downs (comments at Final Round XIV), but most of his supporters have stood by him no matter what the situation. If it was a big event, he was likely there. There was a random poll made after Spooky made his case to stream Evolution, and hundreds of people put their name on it. It was somewhat publicized and it got that much attention. Imagine if it had been heavily advertised.3. Wolfkrone and Latif burn through opponents: Again, you might hear about these two guys later in the week as we give out awards. These guys not only were two of the top contenders in the nation, but they mowed down opponents with their C.Viper.
2. Canada Cup steals the show: Canada Cup was one of the most memorable tournaments of 2011, but it wasn’t all positive. While Wolfkrone seemed to seal his fate as the best North American player, the tournament was marred by a constant stream of advertisements, some which affected the matches. The ending of the main event was struck by a commercial. Not only that, the plan to charge for a premium version of the broadcast was hit with technical difficulties.Those are four of the top five. And the top story of the year is …
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With the three Goodbye Phoenix, Hello Phoenix Invitational Tournaments over, it's time to look at how all 24 players stacked up. How did all of the players do when it come to wins and survival rates? Also, how did they do on defense?
First off, let's take a look at the offense. Obviously, wins matter (and this is how the chart is sorted). But how did they perform when it came to survival rates? It was varied across the board.
And the winner is ...
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Obviously, if you have more than one, the options increase, which includes doing an FADC or performing back-to-back EX moves.
I looked at the top 16 at Southern California Regionals, and was wondering how all of the players would do in certain situations. Who would be the best in certain situations.
And the winner is ...
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Congratulations to Justin Wong for winning the two main events at Southern California Regionals on Sunday. I wanted to post a couple of notes in following the Top 16 of both Super Street Fighter IV and Marvel vs. Capcom 3.
• Your final character count for Super Street Fighter IV: Abel, Adon, Cammy, Claw, C.Viper, Dee Jay, Dictator (2), El Fuerte, Gen, Guile, Rufus (2), Ryu (2), Seth, Zangief.
• Yup, the twins had zero representation.
• There were 46 lineups, including the second finals, in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Wesker was in 22 of those lineups. A lineup that had Wesker won 9 matches (by default, he had to win 3).
• Was Player 1 or Player 2 the more fortunate side? In Super Street Fighter IV, it was 13-10 for Player 1. In Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, it was 16-7 in favor of Player 2.
• Justin Wong's survival rate in the Top 16 in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 was 51.52 percent. Out of 66 characters, 34 survived. In the finals, his survival rate was 58.32 percent 14 of 24 characters survived.
• The average time in between games for Super Street Fighter IV was 7.05 seconds. In Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, it was 13.45 seconds.
I'll have plenty more stats and info throughout the week so stay tuned. no comments
Kim1234 played in a recent Super Street Fighter IV AE:2012 tournament finals, and I talk about it today on the latest podcast. I also talk about my plans in putting together stats for AE:2012 and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3.The Stats Series #107 - 12/14/2011 no comments
