Header photo from left to right: DNG|Itabashi Zangief (2nd place), GRPT|Haitani (1st place), SPLYCE|Filipino Champ (3rd place). Photo by Stephanie Lindgren.
Ultimate Fighting Arena Results for Top 64
The second Premier Event of the 2017 Capcom Pro Tour season, Ultimate Fighting Arena, is over and Japan’s GRPT|Haitani has emerged victorious, taking 1st place and earning 400 valuable points on the Global Leaderboard!
DNG|Itabashi Zangief, also from Japan, took 2nd place and SPLYCE|Filipino Champ (FChamp) from the USA took 3rd place! Now lets take a look at the Ultimate Fighting Arena 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 Ultimate Fighting Arena!
Ultimate Fighting Arena Results: Top 64
| Placing | Handle | Characters | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | GRPT|Haitani | Necalli | 400 |
| 2nd | DNG|Itabashi Zangief (Itazan) | Zangief | 250 |
| 3rd | SPLYCE|Filipino Champ (FChamp) | Dhalsim | 200 |
| 4th | ECHOFOX|Tokido | Akuma | 160 |
| 5th | Verloren | Cammy | 130 |
| 5th | ZOWIE|GamerBee | Necalli | 130 |
| 7th | CO|Go1 | Ibuki/Chun-Li | 100 |
| 7th | Cola321 (Xiaobao) | Necalli/Vega | 100 |
| 9th | BX3|Phenom | Necalli | 70 |
| 9th | GGP|Kazunoko | Cammy | 70 |
| 9th | RB|Luffy | R.Mika | 70 |
| 9th | Packz | Karin | 70 |
| 13th | Gen1us | Birdie | 40 |
| 13th | Save | Dhalsim | 40 |
| 13th | YOUDEAL|Yukadon | Ibuki | 40 |
| 13th | DA|ImStillDaDaddy | Guile | 40 |
| 17th | RB|Bonchan | Nash | 20 |
| 17th | EG|Ricki Ortiz | Chun-Li | 20 |
| 17th | Mago | Karin | 20 |
| 17th | 96Cafe|Gondo | Birdie | 20 |
| 17th | Takamura_B | Ken | 20 |
| 17th | CO|Dogura | Urien | 20 |
| 17th | CDV|Layo | Laura | 20 |
| 17th | TKR | Chun-Li | 20 |
| 25th | NASR|Big Bird | Ken | 10 |
| 25th | Millenium|Will2Pac | Laura | 10 |
| 25th | AWS|Linkexelo | Necalli | 10 |
| 25th | Mousesports|Problem X | Birdie | 10 |
| 25th | Kuja | Akuma | 10 |
| 25th | Nightcross | Dhalsim | 10 |
| 25th | AWS|Akainu | Guile | 10 |
| 33rd | PandaTV|Dark Jiewa | Ken | 5 |
| 33rd | Afii | Laura | 5 |
| 33rd | MD|MisterCrimson | Laura | 5 |
| 33rd | Mordesai | Zangief | 5 |
| 33rd | FA|AngryBird | Akuma | 5 |
| 33rd | Cuongster | Ibuki | 5 |
| 33rd | LaDOSE|Nassim-Claw | Vega | 5 |
| 33rd | LaDOSE|AkramVVVV | Laura | 5 |
| 33rd | Er_Commander | Guile | 5 |
| 33rd | DrGulag | Laura | 5 |
| 33rd | Brick | Zangief | 5 |
| 33rd | Buuuster MX | Dhalsim | 5 |
| 33rd | ECV|Hiruko | Ibuki | 5 |
| 33rd | Shivryuken | Laura | 5 |
| 49th | OnePunchDan | Karin | 1 |
| 49th | CDV|WhiteBl4ck | Akuma | 1 |
| 49th | Keftaroz | Rashid | 1 |
| 49th | Prim77 | Guile | 1 |
| 49th | Fuhajin | Juri | 1 |
| 49th | Daima | M.Bison | 1 |
| 49th | HLM-BE | Ryu | 1 |
| 49th | Chrisax | Akuma | 1 |
| 49th | Mousesports|CCL | Urien | 1 |
| 49th | ECV|x3Terror | Guile | 1 |
| 49th | Kenpachi | Akuma | 1 |
| 49th | Jaycebis | Rashid | 1 |
| 49th | Flash | Urien | 1 |
| 49th | Colddog | Alex | 1 |
| 49th | RD|Ficello | Guile | 1 |
Ultimate Fighting Arena Highlights
Ultimate Fighting Arena, held in Paris France, was the 2nd Premier Event of the Capcom Pro Tour season. This early in the season it is very difficult to predict what will happen. Let’s take a look at some of the storylines from Ultimate Fighting Arena and just a few of the many sensational matches.
Top 8 Dominated by Asia
Ultimate Fighting Arena is a stark example that Asia is still the region to beat when it comes to player talent. This was a Premier Event held in Europe and not a single European player made it into top 8. In fact, SPLYCE|FChamp from the USA was the only player to make top 8 that wasn’t from the Asia region. Keep in mind, however, that the perceived strength of various regions is always in flux. Remember, two players from the USA took 1st and 2nd place at Capcom Cup last year.
| Placing | Handle | Nationality | Region |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | GRPT|Haitani | Japan | Asia |
| 2nd | DNG|Itabashi Zangief (Itazan) | Japan | Asia |
| 3rd | SPLYCE|Filipino Champ (FChamp) | USA | North America |
| 4th | ECHOFOX|Tokido | Japan | Asia |
| 5th | Verloren | Korea | Asia |
| 5th | ZOWIE|GamerBee | Taiwan | Asia |
| 7th | CO|Go1 | Japan | Asia |
| 7th | Cola321 (Xiaobao) | Taiwan | Asia |
ECHO FOX|Tokido, reunited with Akuma
Japan’s ECHO FOX|Tokido had an amazing season last year with six (!) top 3 finishes in Premier Events including two Premier Event wins! He accomplished all of this using Ryu as his main character, and it was Tokido’s incredible skill as a player and ability to impose his will on opponents that brought him that success. This year he was reunited with Akuma, who was his longtime main character in earlier Street Fighters. When a lot of fans think of Akuma, the character is synonymous with Tokido. Even at this early stage you can see that the reunion will benefit Tokido. He placed 5th at Final Round 20 last month and took 4th place here after being eliminated by GRPT|Haitani in Losers Semi-Finals 2-3. Last year Tokido hovered in the top placements for a few Premier Events before taking 1st and this year will likely be no different.
ECHO FOX|Tokido vs ZOWIE|GamerBee: Losers Quarter-Finals. Tokido had to run through several strong Necalli players in this event and this great match against Taiwan’s GamerBee was one of them.
SPLYCE|FChamp lights it up!
Dhalsim is one of those characters that seemed to be very strong in the early months of Street Fighter 5, but as time went on it became obvious that only a dedicated few could win with him at top level. USA’s SPLYCE|FChamp, also known as Filipino Champ, is one of those players with the skill and the dedication to bring out the character’s true potential. FChamp makes Dhalsim, a character with very slow walk and jump speeds, seem ridiculously fast and mobile. You can see the passion that FChamp plays with in each one of his Top 8 matches, and he put on an incredible performance at this event. At one point against Japan’s DNG|Itabashi Zangief in Winners Finals he was one round (perhaps even one hit!) away from going to Grand Finals (see match below). Later, in Losers Finals against GRPT|Haitani, he was up 2-0 and was within pixels of eliminating him (see match below) but ended up being eliminated himself 2-3.
SPLYCE|FChamp vs ECHO FOX|Tokido in Top 8. FChamp takes on one of the world’s best players and comes out on top 3-1.
DNG|Itabashi Zangief: Churns plants opponents into the ground all the way to Grand Finals
Japan’s DNG|Itabashi Zangief has been one of the best Zangief players on the planet for years. He has this uncanny ability to make sick reads, allowing him to scoop up his opponents and plant them into the ground with Spinning Pile-Drivers over and over again. He also has this infectious good humor about it all. He can be seen gleefully grinning as he scoops up his competition. At Ultimate Fighting Arena he made it all the way to Grand Finals, with a character that until the last patch (or when not being played by Itabashi!) was considered to be a very flawed character. Something happened to him in Grand Finals against GRPT|Haitani, where his reads seemed to elude him, but even so it was a fantastic performance by Itabashi Zangief!
DNG|Itabashi Zangief vs SPLYCE|FChamp in Winners Finals. This matchup is generally seen as being in Dhalsim’s favor, but with the characters on both sides being in the hands of their best players, it was a nail-biter.
GRPT|Haitani and Grand Finals
GRPT|Haitani was widely seen as one of the world’s best Street Fighter 5 players from the very first Premier Event last year culminating in a 4th place finish at Capcom Cup 2016. This year at Ultimate Fighting Arena, only the 2nd Premier Event of the season, he has already earned a 1st place Premier Event finish that eluded him all of 2016.
This was a big win for Haitani, but it wasn’t easy. In Losers Finals against SPLYCE|FChamp he was down 0-2 and was within a few pixels of being eliminated. He made a sensational read to steal that round and save himself and then went on to win the set 3-2.
GRPT|Haitani vs SPLYCE|FChamp in Losers Finals. Haitani was down 0-2 within a few pixels of elimination and clawed his way back.
Haitani’s only loss at this event was to DNG|Itabashi Zangief, but he got the runback and the coldest revenge in Grand Finals. We don’t know if Itabashi Zangief cracked under the pressure of a Premier Grand Finals or if Haitani just figured out Itabashi’s gameplan (or a bit of both), but Haitani shut Itabashi down completely. Haitani was in Losers Bracket so he would have to win 2 sets against Itabashi to achieve victory, and he did exactly that. In fact, starting from his clutch win in the 3rd match of his matchup against FChamp, Haitani won 9 games in a row on his road to 1st place.
DNG|Itabashi Zangief vs GRPT|Haitani in Grand Finals. Grand Finals was somewhat anti-climactic for such an epic event, but it illustrates Haitani’s greatness.