CEO 2017 Results: USA’s CYG BST|Snake Eyez takes 1st Place! Update: Highlights!

Header photo by Robert Paul.

CEO 2017 Results

CEO 2017, held from June 16th through 18th in Orlando, FL, USA, is over and once again it brought the hype! All three top placements were from the USA, with CYG BST|Snake Eyez taking 1st place! This is also Zangief’s first Premier Event win as a character. In a very close 2nd place finish is PG|Punk. Coming in at 3rd place is XSK Samurai. Now let’s take a look at the CEO 2017 results for top 64!

If you missed any of the action, be sure to visit our videos page, where we will have a playlist for matches from CEO 2017!

CEO 2017 Results: Top 64

CEO 2017 Highlights

You can always count on CEO to bring the hype and this year was an incredible event full of between match hijinks and close matches. This is in addition to the elements that make CEO unique, like the pro wrestling-style entrances during Top 8. Here we’ll take a look at just a few of the highlight players and matches that stood out at CEO 2017. Please visit the videos page of this site to find more great matches from the event.

PIE|Smug

2016 was a quiet year for PIE|Smug, with only three Top 16 placements in the Capcom Pro Tour and none of those were top 8. This year, at Premier events Smug finished just outside of top 16 at Final Round (17th place), took 3rd place at Combo Breaker and now 4th place at CEO. He also took 1st place at the Texas Showdown 2017 Ranking Event in early May. Aside from playing Balrog, which is an exciting character to watch because of his crushing, kinetic combos, Smug is popular because of his mannerisms between matches. His humorous banter with other players makes him a likeable player to watch even when he isn’t putting boxing gloves on his opponent. Here at CEO he bested some truly phenomenal players including reigning Champion Liquid|NuckleDu and Japan’s MOV. He was himself eliminated by PG|Punk in Losers Semi-Finals in a very close 3-2 match (see video below).

PIE|Smug vs Liquid|NuckleDu in Top 8

XSK Samurai

With a 13th place finish at the NorCal Regionals Premier Event and two Top 8 finishes at Ranking Events this year (3rd at West Coast Warzone, 7th at Online Event: North America One), XSK Samurai is having his best CPT season performance so far this year. At CEO he earned a 3rd place finish. He is an incredibly precise player and his spacing is truly immaculate. He also exhibits tremendous patience. He put PG|Punk into the Losers bracket very early in the tournament. He was himself eliminated by Punk in Losers Finals 1-3. Samurai won the first game to go up 1-0, but Punk hijinks between matches seemed to have an impact on his play style. This top 3 finish was huge for Samurai and he has positioned himself well to earn a spot at Capcom Cup 2017, with plenty of season remaining ahead to seal the deal.

XSK Samurai vs PIE|Smug

PG|Punk

PG|Punk is one of the most exciting players to watch in the Capcom Pro Tour right now. Currently holding the number one spot on the CPT Global Leaderboard, PG|Punk has already secured a spot at Capcom Cup 2017. It isn’t just his incredible skill that makes him so fun to watch, it’s his antics when he’s not playing. He is often referred to by his nickname ‘The Alpha’ and it is well earned. At CEO his recurring shtick involved dramatic adding and removing of Pokemon hats, sometimes wearing as many as four at a time. As with all of his antics, he’s projecting a confidence in himself and his gameplay. He’s having fun and it’s obvious. A more practical benefit is that he is trying to throw his opponents off their game and disrupt their thought process. Some players can ignore the show and some can’t. Players like PIE|Smug, who often exhibits his own light-hearted antics between matches, plays along. XSK Samurai, in Losers Finals, let it get to him and it may have cost him. It’s always fun to watch, and Punk is a fan favorite.

If there’s a negative consequence to the “Punk Show” it’s that sometimes it looks like he’s playing with his food too much. He was put into the Losers bracket early by XSK Samurai, although he would get his revenge by eliminating Samurai in Losers Finals. He then had a very close call against the Dominican Republic’s MenaRD, where he narrowly avoided elimination with a 2-1 win. He was one round away from being eliminated in top 8 by Japan’s Gachikun and his solid Rashid play, but he worked his way back to steal victory to move on. Punk once again ran the gauntlet through the Losers Bracket to get to Grand Finals. This time he fell just short of forcing a bracket reset.

PG|Punk vs PIE|Smug in Losers Semi-Finals

PG|Punk vs XSK Samurai in Losers Finals

CYG BST|Snake Eyez

What a difference a year makes. The 2016 season was an uncharacteristically rough one for CYG BST|Snake Eyez, who seemed to have trouble adapting to Street Fighter 5 and had outspoken issues with his long-time main character, Zangief. This year he is once again regarded as one of the best Zangief players in the world and has made top 8 in five of seven events so far this season, including a 2nd place finish at Combo Breaker and now a 1st place finish here at CEO! He seemed to be having a lot of fun at CEO, and his stage entrance in top 8 was one of the event’s highlights. Once he sits down it’s all business and he exhibits tremendous poise and focus.

CYG BST|Snake Eyez vs Qanba Douyu|Xiao Hai

Grand Finals: CYG BST|Snake Eyez vs PG|Punk

The Grand Finals between PG|Punk and CYG BST|Snake Eyez was very exciting to watch and incredibly close. Once Snake Eyez tied it up at 2-2 Punk surprised everyone by switching to Nash, which is a harder matchup for Snake Eyez’ Zangief. Snake Eyez went on to win the final game to win the set 3-2.

Capcom’s Top 5 Moments of CEO 2017

Here is Capcom’s Top 5 Moments from CEO, many of which are mentioned above.