Street Fighter V stars Victor "Punk" Woodley and Yusuke "Momochi" Momochi qualified out of Group A on Friday to enter the ELeague playoffs of ELeague. Punk, of Panda Global, made it through the winner's side without dropping a set, and Echo Fox's Momochi climbed back from the loser's side to be the second qualifier.
The buildup to the quarterfinals was full of surprises and beatdowns. Bryant "Smug" Huggins was the first to qualify to the quarterfinals after he rolled over Echo Fox's Julio Fuentes and Team Razer's Lee "Infiltration" Seon-woo. On his heels was surprise second qualifier, FlipSid3 Tactics' Thomas "Brolynho" Proença, who took down Fuentes in the loser's bracket and finished off Infiltration's tournament run.
Quarterfinals
In the quarterfinals, Punk took down Brolynho 3-1 in a hotly contested set with plenty of back-and-forth. The set featured multiple rounds that were decided by one hit, and unfortunately for Brolynho, most of those swings favored Punk.
Momochi used Ibuki and lost to Smug, 3-0. Momochi's nerves on the big stage were evident and showed in his choice of character's movement options and mix-up situations. It was an odd choice that ultimately did not pay off.
Winners' finals
Winner's finals was a North American affair with plenty of trash talk and stellar play. Punk, a Philadelphia native who won "The King of New York" tournament earlier this year, asked Smug, a New York native, "Where are you from?"
Smug responded to the tongue-in-cheek jab by being coy and ended the interview short.
The match was more fun than the buildup, and Punk managed to squeak by Smug 3-2.
The nerves were evident for Punk when he played Brolynho, but his optimized play style and pace with Karin was too strong for Group A. He was stellar in hit-confirms and made life bar bleed with perfectly executed combination extensions. He should be a favorite for the rest of ELeague.
The Losers' finals
Momochi took down Brolynho 3-0 with signature dominating flair. Momochi was slow and deliberate at the start and relied upon his immaculate hit-confirms and understanding of space to suffocate his opponent. When he needed to speed it up, he caught Brolynho off guard with erratic jump patterns and dashes forward for an overall unpredictable game plan.
The rematch between Momochi and Smug in the loser's finals was a completely different story from the first game. Momochi promised adjustments, and he made them. He pressed buttons whenever Smug applied unsafe pressure, his jump-ins and setups were ambiguous, and his neutral game was picture-perfect. He made short work of Smug in a 3-0 set and qualified out of the group alongside Punk.