CEO 2019 Results: Japan’s RED BULL Hx|Bonchan takes 1st Place!

Premier Event: CEO 2019 Results

CEO 2019, held in Daytona Beach, FL, USA from June 28th through 30th, is now over and Japan’s RED BULL Hx|Bonchan has taken 1st place! This is Bonchan’s first Premier Event win of the 2019 season with his previous best being a 3rd place finish at Taipei Major early this month. He also has a Ranking Event win on the books at Versus Masters in late April. Prior to CEO he held 6th place on the Global Leaderboard standings with 670 points and this win will move him up to 4th place.

Bonchan made it all the way to Grand Finals through the Winners bracket after defeating Japan’s YOG|Machabo in Winners Finals 3-1. After trying several characters over the last few seasons he seems to be finding success with Karin, a highly mobile character capable of big damage. He still uses Sagat in certain situations, a character he is famous for using in previous Street Fighter games, and used him against Japan’s Ryusei in top 16. He would ultimately face off against Japan’s FUDOH|Fujimura in Grand Finals.

Fujimura is having an incredible 2019 season and it continues with his 2nd place finish at CEO. Over the past two weeks alone he has two wins, one at the Fighter’s Spirit Ranking Event last week and the other with his own Premier win at Taipei Major in early June. Needless to say, Fujimura is on quite the hot streak in June even with a lot of success earlier.

The road to Grand Finals was mostly through the Losers bracket. Fujimura lost 0-2 very early in the tournament to Korea’s UYU|JeonDDing. In Grand Finals Fujimura won the first set against Bonchan 3-2 to reset the bracket to have a chance at first place but would fall short in the second set, losing 1-3.

Coming in at third place was Japan’s YOG|Machabo, who is having an absolute breakout season. This is Machabo’s third top 8 placement at a Premier Event in a row with one of them, Combo Breaker in late May, being another 3rd place finish. He also has a Ranking Event win at BAM 11 in mid-May to his credit. His main character, Necalli, has fallen off in popularity among top players this season. Machabo’s Necalli is not what you’ve come to expect over the years and is absolutely thrilling to watch, showing off new tricks that may turn that popularity trend around.

The top 8 at CEO was almost completely dominated by Japan with only one representative from the USA making the cut. Dual Kevin made it in through the Losers Bracket. With his Rashid he made an incredible come from behind victory against Ryusei’s Urien in his first top 8 match but would be eliminated in the next match-up against Japan’s CYG BST|Fuudo. Now let’s take a look at the full CEO 2019 results for top 48!

If you missed any of the action, be sure to visit our Videos page, where we will have a playlist for matches from the event!

CEO 2019 Results: Top 48