The legend of Echo Fox Dominique "SonicFox" McLean continues.
In front of a packed house at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, SonicFox etched his name into the history books once more after winning Dragon Ball FighterZ's Evolution Championship Series debut. It was only fitting that he took home the coveted hardware by defeating longtime rival, Cyclops Goichi "GO1" Kishida in yet another exciting set of matches.
There are a few things in life that we can count on: death, taxes, and SonicFox going head-to-head with GO1 during any given Dragon Ball FighterZ tournament. These two have been battling ever since the game's release in January. GO1 started with a string of dominant performances but it wasn't long before SonicFox took the upper hand in the matchup. Ever since he finally bested his rival at Combo Breaker in May, SonicFox hasn't dropped a set to GO1, and that continued as SonicFox tore through his competition on his way to the grand finals.
SonicFox opened up the top-8 with a blistering 2-0 sweep over Cyclops Sho "Fenritti" Shoji. With his new team of Fused Zamasu, Bardock, and Android 16 in tow, SonicFox looked as poised and confident as we've ever seen him. He might have secured his confidence-boosting win over GO1 at Combo Breaker with his old team of Gotenks, Cell, and Kid Buu, but he was simply on another level with his newest lineup.
The reign of destruction continued into the winners final where GO1 could barely land a hit on SonicFox, as the latter was riding an incredible wave of momentum. GO1 even dug into his toolbox and summoned Shenron to restore all his health on the final character but still couldn't manage to break past the charismatic fox.
Meanwhile in the losers bracket, Fenritti bounced back from his loss to SonicFox in the opening set of the day to blaze his own trail of destruction. His first victim was the North American hopeful, Perry "KnowKami" Vinson, who had come into the matchup with his head held high after besting Kuobota "kubo" Tsutomo in a surprising 2-0 upset. KnowKami was no match for the wrath of Fenritti, however, as he was on top of his game in a bid to make it into the grand finals. That trek continued when he easily picked up another 2-0 sweep, this time against Ponos Naoki "moke" Nakayama, which set up a showdown against his Cyclops teammate, GO1.
For as great as Fenritti had looked during his previous two series, he appeared dazed and confused against GO1. Try as Fenritti did, he was nothing in the face of a GO1 that was fighting hard to get a second crack at SonicFox in the grand finals.
As GO1 and SonicFox stood across from one another once more, it was as though the tournament had been flipped upside down. Whereas GO1 was unable to get anything at all going in the winners final, it was SonicFox who couldn't do anything in the initial set. SonicFox desperately tried to gain any ground, but every raw super or cross-up that had landed earlier was matched with a counter and punish from GO1 this time around as GO1 reset the bracket with a 3-0 sweep.
Ever the calculating mastermind, though, SonicFox didn't seem fazed and came back with a vengeance in the second set after switching chairs. He regained every bit of swagger that had brought him to this point and batted away every single thing GO1 could throw at him. Even an entirely unheard of second summoning of Shenron from GO1 wasn't enough to give him the edge. SonicFox had clearly reached his final form and solidified the first ever Dragon Ball FighterZ crown at Evo with a 3-0 sweep of his own that gave him a fifth Evo trophy, including side events, to add to his mantle.