Cygames' Eduardo "PR Rog" Perez and Daigo "The Beast" Umehara qualified out of Group B to the playoff stage of ELeague Street Fighter V Invitational Friday night. PR Rog ran through the competition, and looked dominant doing so, to remain in the upper bracket. Umehara capped his qualifying bid with only one loss against PR Rog.
Umehara and Hiroyuki "Eita" Nagata needed to qualify out of the earlier bracket matches to make it to the final four-man tournament on television, and both did it with flair. Umehara dominated every match he played in and showed off a vastly improved Guile. He was concise in his decision-making and dictated the pace for every round. Eita lost 3-0 to Umehara to start but ran the gauntlet and cruised out of the bracket.
The quarterfinals
PR Rog ran through Eita, 3-1. The oppressive nature of PR Rog's Balrog bottled up all the explosiveness of Eita's Ken for a relatively easy set. PR Rog was efficient; whether it was wake-up buttons to discourage throw loops or crouching strong to check the run approaches, the matches swung in his favor every time. Eita provided only glimpses of the kind of unpredictability he was known for, but it was a struggle to open up his boxing opponent.
Umehara took down Cygames' Darryl "Snake Eyez" Lewis, 3-0, for his third consecutive sweep in Group B. Snake Eyez went out with his Akuma, but the real show was Umehara's Guile. The match was a story of perfect spacing, sonic boom pressure and the occasional flash kick read.
Winner's finals
PR Rog struck down The Beast in convincing fashion, 3-1. He qualified for the playoffs and drew Panda Global's Victor "Punk" Woodley in the first round. The matchup against PR Rog and Umehara boiled down to pace. PR Rog's approach was to walk down his opponent and react to every button and projectile with either a v-skill or a jump, while Umehara switched up the tempo with either a dash-up frame trap or kept the distance with fireballs.
Unfortunately for Umehara, PR Rog's v-trigger comebacks were effective, and the overall pressure was too much for the Japanese legend.
Your second qualifier, Daigo Umehara...
Umehara barely contained Eita's ferocity and escaped with a 3-2 set victory. It took a complete change of pace and tempo, fearless wake-up reversals and relentless offense to do it, but The Beast finished off Group B as the second qualifier. Eita showed off all of his tricks in the final set. The Ken master turned the entire set into a mad scramble, with a Rolodex of wake-up reversals, empty jump ex moves, and the right amount of baits, but Umehara did just enough to quell the storm.