Panda Global's Victor "Punk" Woodley took home the first ELeague Street Fighter V Invitational title and $150,000 prize pool Friday in Atlanta.
The top eight was a mix of blowouts and nail-biters with some of the world's best players in attendance. There was a beautiful blend of legends in Echo Fox Yusuke "Momochi" Momochi, Grapht's Keita "Fuudo" Ai and Twitch's Daigo Umehara mixed with the next generation of fighters in Qanba Douyu's Zeng "Xiao Hai" Zhuo Jun, Cygames' Eduardo "PR Rog" Perez, Joshua "Wolfkrone" Philpot, BX3's Arman "Phenom" Hanjani and Punk.
Two players, regardless of results, stood out with electric performances.
Phenom was the dark horse of his group and the top eight, but it didn't matter to the Norwegian player. He swept Fuudo in three straight games with fearless Necalli pressure and then impressed again with a quick 3-1 victory over Punk. If he was the underdog, it didn't show -- he dominated all the way to the grand finals. Fuudo's run was full of close calls and ridiculous finishes. Outside of a 3-0 drubbing of Momochi, Fuudo's set with PR Rog was one of the best sets of the year. In the last game and last round, Fuudo was relentless in his forward momentum and clutched out the victory with an insane hit-confirm crouching short into critical art. He was just one correct read and combo from eliminating Punk, but Fuudo was a star.
Punk, on the opposite spectrum, showed some real human error during his tournament run. While it is well known that Punk's weakness is slow and patient play, the Karin maestro struggled with all types of play. If it wasn't his snowball round, he looked noticeably slow on defense and in the whiff punish department. Fuudo schooled him in patient play, and Phenom ran a train through him with his disrespectful fast pace. But Punk was one of the best players in the world for a reason. For a player who suffered from nerves and impatient play, he made the clutch reads, comebacks and decisions to be one of the final two players in the tournament.
The grand finals featured Phenom and Punk, the two young guns in the tournament. The best European player, Phenom, took on arguably one of the world's best players, Punk, in a grand final befitting of the high stakes. Phenom took down Punk in lightning-quick fashion during their first meeting in top eight, but he ran out of gas in part two. Punk was shaky throughout the top eight, but he looked a lot better in the final set of ELeague. He optimized his hits and suffocated Phenom on the ground. Despite a lack of anti-airs, his offense (and a huge uppercut mistake from Phenom) was too strong for the opposing defense.