Many Surprises at NorCal Regionals 2015
NorCal Regionals 2015 was stacked with many of the world’s top players that weren’t at this weekend’s other Capcom Pro Tour Premier Tournament, Hypespotting 4. Even some technical issue shenanigans couldn’t dampen the hype. Other surprises included Marq Teddy’s Guy eliminating RZR|Fuudo and fantastic Abel play from 801Strider, who put EG|Momochi into the Losers Bracket and got very close to eliminating Bonchan in a very hard fought match. Also very surprising was EG|Momochi’s uncharacteristically early elimination by AVM|Gamerbee, finishing in 9th Place.
Daigo Wins and Qualifies for Capcom Cup 2015!
It was only a matter of time before Daigo qualified for the Capcom Cup event and it happened at NorCal Regionals 2015. MCZ|Daigo “The Beast” Umehara has defeated AVM|Gamerbee in pretty decisive fashion in the Grand Finals. Daigo has now earned himself a qualifying spot in the 2015 Capcom Cup and has earned 256 Pro Tour Points, which are valuable to players who have already qualified for the event for tournament seeding purposes. Daigo was pretty dominant at NorCal Regionals 2015, running all the way through the Winners Bracket. There were a few moments where you could almost catch the glimpse of a smile as he did so. As expected, it was an amazing event and we’ll have more coverage of it soon but for now here is the top 16 and the Pro Tour Points that were earned.
NorCal Regionals 2015 Top 16 Results
| Placing | Handle | Characters | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | MCZ|Daigo Umehara | Evil Ryu | 256 |
| 2nd | AVM|Gamerbee | Adon/Elena | 128 |
| 3rd | Liquid|NuckleDu | Guile/Decapre/Ibuki | 64 |
| 4th | Bonchan | Sagat | 32 |
| 5th | EG|Justin Wong | Rufus/Rose | 16 |
| 5th | PIE|Smug | Dudley | 16 |
| 7th | /r/Kappa|Infiltration | Declare/Akuma/Chun-Li | 8 |
| 7th | Kazunoko | Yun | 8 |
| 9th | EG|Momochi | Ken/Evil Ryu | 4 |
| 9th | Snake Eyez | Zangief | 4 |
| 9th | 801 Strider | Abel | 4 |
| 9th | /r/Kappa|Poongko | Seth | 4 |
| 13th | SD Pnoy | M.Bison | 2 |
| 13th | EG|Ricky Ortiz | Rufus/Chun-Li | 2 |
| 13th | /r/Kappa|EX Pugera | Ibuki | 2 |
| 13th | Marq Teddy | Guy | 2 |
Competition was Fierce, Shirts Were Tossed, Sunglasses Were Donned, and the Beast is Victorious
NorCal Regionals 2015 was incredible! There’s no need to bore you with an intro, let’s jump into just some of the many highlights from the event!
Marq Teddy and 801 Strider Impress
Two players who really made an impression at NorCal Regionals 2015 are Marq Teddy and 801 Strider. With the enormous number of veteran top players from around the world in attendance, it is a real testament to how well they both played that they advanced to the top 16. With such a strong showing, it will be interesting to see how they perform in future events.
Marq Teddy vs RZR|Fuudo
One of the big shockers of the event was Marq Teddy’s elimination of RZR|Fuudo. Marq Teddy’s Guy completely reverses the script that Fuudo is used to playing, pushing Fuudo into the corner and relentlessly attacking. Marq Teddy dominated the match from beginning to end.
801 Strider vs EG|Momochi
Just as Marq Teddy had a dominating performance against a veteran, so too did 801 Strider against none other than EG|Momochi. 801 Strider played a patient game, hitting very few buttons, and picked just the right moments to strike. In match 2 it seemed as though Momochi could not find an answer to 801 Strider’s play and started throwing a lot of Dragon Punches, which 801 Strider punished heavily over and over.
Other Highlights
There are too many highlights to mention, but we’ll start off with Liquid|KnuckleDu. He was a fun player to watch. He put on a dominating performance against EG|Justin Wong, using great zoning and hard to predict attack patterns with Guile to keep Justin’s Rufus away. At the end of the match he even threw on Guile’s shades to thrill the crowd! NuckleDu also defeated /r/Kappa|Infiltration in an interesting Decapre mirror match 2-0, beat Kazunoko’s Yun 2-0, and was finally eliminated by AVM|GamerBee. Against GamerBee he brought out Ibuki, which was interesting. That plan really didn’t pay off, however.
PIE|Smug is always an exciting player to watch, using Dudley to exact punishing combos and sending characters into stun often. In the match against /r/Kappa|Poongko’s Seth, he did both often. Even when Poongko did his characteristic taking off his shirt to become “Angry Poongko”, Smug was unfazed and proceeded to combo Poongko into a 2-0 loss.
Bonchan was on a rampage for a while through the Losers Bracket, taking down Chris Tartarian , EG|PR Balrog, EH|Veloc1raptor, Marq Teddy, 801 Strider, /r/Kappa|Infiltration, and EG|Justin Wong until his reign of terror was brought to an end by AVM|GamerBee in Losers semi-finals.
AVM|GamerBee played amazingly all the way to the Grand Finals. He was sent to Losers Bracket by EG|Justin Wong early in the Top 16, but after that his only defeat was to MCZ|Daigo Umehara at the finish line. GamerBee eliminated EG|Momochi, Kazunoko, and PIE|Smug. At the end of the event he had to play 3 players in a row, eliminating first Bonchan then Liquid|NuckleDu before finally facing Daigo in the Grand Finals.
MCZ|Daigo Umehara Makes it Look Easy
MCZ|Daigo Umehara still has it, and all the way through Top 16 he almost made it look too easy. Before his match against 801 Strider, you could almost see a smile on his usually stoic face. Daigo went all the way through to the Grand Finals in the Winners Bracket, and once there he made short work of AVM|GamerBee. GamerBee had until that point played very well, but he just didn’t get anything going against Daigo. As mentioned above, however, GamerBee had to play 2 other players before playing Daigo, and it is easy to imagine that being incredibly tough mentally.
We all knew it was a matter of time before Daigo qualified for Capcom Cup 2015, but he managed to do it early in the season with this win. Now he can relax and try to accumulate Pro Tour Points so he can get an advantageous seeding at the Capcom Cup event.
For more videos from NorCal Regionals 2015
If you want to watch more matches from NorCal Regionals 2015, you need only hit up our VIDEOS section to get easy access to the full video playlist!