Combo Breaker 2016 was a huge event for Skullgirls. Every able-bodied member of the community that could make it out to CB16 did, and the same will likely be true for next Combo Breaker. Like was done for Northwest Majors 8, Skullgirls fan 6let felt a collection of highlights was deserved. He has crafted an intense series of amazing highlights from the event.

There was also a 10v10 Exhibition match that took place before the tournament, which also received a highlight reel from SkullgirlsTV.

Skullgirls is bigger now than it has been since launch, with Combo Breaker having more entrants than almost any other tournament to date. This led to some incredibly intense matches, which have been broken down in-depth below.

The first match of Top 8 took place between CloudKing and cR|SonicFox. This matchup actually echoes another that took place one year before on the same stage. Combo Breaker ’15 saw Sonic face up against Cloud in Winners Bracket as well. At that time, Sonic cleanly took a 2-0 victory, moving on and leaving Cloud to struggle through in Losers. 6 months later these two played again in Winners, the match then taking place at NorthEast Championship 16. Cloud managed to take the set in an intense 3-2 victory. After this victory, Cloud was put into Losers and faced Sonic one last time, where he eventually and lost 3-2.

Despite having matched up against each other in tournament so often, SonicFox is using a brand new team this tournament. As always, Cloud is a very conservative player. He is not afraid to jump back and fish for confirms. Sonic makes a similarly cautious round-start, but very confidently makes his way in. SonicFox does something incredibly smart this round. He goes all out on Cloud, attacking almost recklessly, until Cloud’s Filia comes in with 2 bars. The reason is because Filia has access to an especially powerful, safe DHC in the form of Gregor Samson into Double’s Cathead super. Sonic successfully baits this move out and applies pressure to Double. Having exhausted all of his resources, Cloud is at Sonic’s mercy for the rest of the match.

The rest of the match follows a similar pattern. Cloud makes a few costly missteps and all around being unable to make appropriate adaptations to his play, leads to SonicFox taking a confident 3-0 victory.

The next round of Winners takes place between Swiftfox-Dash and cR|dekillsage. These two don’t often meet in tournament. Swiftfox, or TJ as many call him, has an unusually oppressive Peacock and Cerebella, though if either character dies he can have a hard time catching up. Despite not having won a Major tournament, TJ is a highly respected player for consistently doing really well. Dekillsage, winner of Evo 2014 side tournament and several other events to date, is well known for making safe setups that completely protect him from reversal attempts. This combined with Peacock’s lackluster reversals makes for a fairly difficult matchup for TJ. Brass Knuckles as an assist also is a highly effective counter call against Peacock, as it disallows many of her basic zoning patterns. TJ’s Cerebella assist usually is used to apply pressure and help hold off the opponent, but in this matchup must be used as a wall to counter call Brass, as well as to let Peacock get away, meaning Cerebella will be taking a lot of damage before she even gets a chance to play.

The match starts with TJ retreating and Sage advancing. Beowulf’s jump forward backed by the assist Brass Knuckles shuts down a lot of Peacock’s options from the start. After being pushed to the corner, Sage tries a little too hard to press his momentum and TJ slips around him. Peacock’s game centers around making space and creating a unrelenting assault of bombs and projectiles to bury the opponent in. Each projectile is intelligently and perfectly spaced out. Despite this, Brass Knuckles is a very strong counter to Peacock, as its armor and space coverage makes short work of zoning patterns. Sage eventually manages to kill Peacock, leaving Cerebella on her own. The situation seemed grim, but over the course of nearly 2 whole minutes, Cerebella inches herself closer and closer to taking the game. Against Fukua, TJ primarily uses command grabs, a smart choice due to the nature of most of Fukua’s moves losing to grabs. Clever maneuvering and placement leaves Bella besting Sage’s Beowulf as well. However, in the last moments of the match, Big Band, the apparent Foxbane of the set, punishes a whiffed command grab and finishes off the lone Bella.

The following matches proceed in much the same pattern, but with Sage proving himself to be more adaptable than his opponent. TJ is unable to deal with both Beowulf and Big Band at the same time, and focusing on one or the other opens the door for another angle of attack. Sage also makes a habit to, as soon as he catches Peacock, go for resets that tend to beat any reversal attempt from Peacock, making her an especially vulnerable glass canon.

One particularly interesting moment was the third round start. Beowulf starts with crouching short. Sage actually does this in anticipation of a sweep from Peacock. A sweep would have beaten Big Band, had the round start of the first two games been repeated. Instead though, Peacock repeats her pattern of backing up, this time walking back instead, anticipating the same round start as well. Had Sage called Big Band and jumped forward, the assist Peacock called was intended to counter it and give Peacock room to make space.

The next match is a losers finals heart-breaker. Wing Zero is a fan favorite, but so is Liam. Much of the crowd was torn over who to cheer for, but only one could progress to the next round. Liam, winner of the recent Northwest Majors 8, is one of 3 well known Canadian players. Wing is considered the West Coast Hero, being one of the only players from the West Coast that consistently places highly in East Coast events, having placed 4th at Combo Breaker the year before. Both players are running point Parasoul, but each has a wildly different flavor. Wing’s Parasoul and assists are intent on getting in the opponent’s comfort zone and not leaving ever, while Liam’s team is set up around creating a bubble that the opponent can’t enter while poking from a distance.

As the match starts, Liam retreats while Wing holds his ground and tries to press forward. Liam consistently makes space and put ups a wall for Wing to deal with. Wing has to work around Robo Fortune’s Beam assist, giving Liam’s Parasoul more chances to apply pressure and make space. In the first match, Wing decides to make an early snap to bring Robo in. Robo is a glass cannon, without any true reversals, and Wing makes short work of her. Despite this early advantage, Liam eventually takes the set after a few unfortunate missed inputs from Wing.

As the set progresses, it becomes clear that Wing isn’t appropriately considering his opponent’s options with meter. There are several instances where he pressures Liam recklessly when Liam has 2 bars, giving him access to amazing options in the form of reversals into a safe DHC, which ends up losing him matches he could have won. After losing the first two matches, Wing eventually manages to make a full comeback and tie it up to 2-2. By this point in the set both players are mentally exhausted. Drops and missed inputs plague both players as nerves are at their highest, but Liam makes the best of the situation and takes the set.

For those following Japan as a developing meta, 159man’s (pronounced IkkokuMan) progress through the tournament has been particularly interesting. This round, 159man is up against Elda Taluda, one of the best Painwheel and Fortune players around. Taluda has won Frosty Fausting’s before, and has all around been a really solid player, having taken out Mike Z earlier in Top 16. 159 man’s unconventional a-train assist is interesting in it’s own right, but is particularly strong against characters that like to stay in the air like Painwheel. Elda’s team, however, excels once it gets in, which 159man’s team has no way of easily countering. Something worth noting is that 159man’s assists are exclusively for setups and resets, so in neutral he tends to struggle if his opponent spaces him out.

Taluda makes it a habit to call Cerecopter at the same time he goes in, ensuring that any a-train shenanigans would be stuffed. After getting an early hit and taking out Taluda’s first character, Big Band attempts to maintain incoming pressure but ultimately is unable to stick to his opponent, and lacking a good neutral assist, has a hard time keeping Taluda out. Taluda tries to whittle down the assist before going in. Like said earlier, Japanese players aren’t quite caught up to US players in terms of knowing when to and when not to call assists, on top of their unfamiliarity with picking wide use assists.

A good deal of Taluda’s time across the set is spent baiting and punishing assist calls from 159man, but seems to consistently be thrown off tempo by 159man. One downside of Squigly/Big Band is that the team has no way to safely DHC, meaning a wrong guess on a reversal ends up being heavily punished, though Taluda makes no such punishes this set. Despite his team having all of the on-paper weaknesses that it does, 159man ends up taking the set in a riveting 3-2 set.

The next match is Loser’s Quarter Finals, and it’s between two of the best players on either end of North America. Cloud’s Valentine is one of the best, with very few others even coming close. Liam is equally known for his Robo Fortune and Parasoul. Both players are calculating, and both are content to sit back and wait out their opponent. It’s an interesting match, completely different from either player’s previous match in Top 8 where they faced off against highly aggressive opponents. Robo’s assist is fairly good vs Valentine, as it prevents almost all of her forward momentum.

Both players are very cautious right from the beginning, like always. They dance around each other for nearly 20 seconds, poking with projectiles and normals when safe, with Cloud being the first one to attempt to make an opening for himself. He doesn’t push too hard, though, and backs off when no immediate reward manifests. Something important to look at is that Cloud appears to be trying to aim for both Liam and his Robo Fortune assist when Liam calls it. Cloud eventually finds his chance and lands the first clean hit of the set. After a break in Cloud’s pressure, Liam finds a moment to safely DHC out. Robo up against Valentine seemed similar to Liam’s Parasoul, where both players sat safely at either ends of the screen, poking with projectiles. After almost chipping Valentine out, Cloud manages to save her by switching in his next character. Filia applies suffocating pressure to Liam, with the change of pace eventually polishing off both Double and Parasoul. By the time Robo gets a chance to do anything, there isn’t enough time to make a comeback, and the match goes to Cloud.

Every round starts off cautiously for both players, with both players conservatively feeling the other out. Despite this similar mindset, earlier and earlier in each match one of the players will make the first move towards the other. Each match Cloud wins, the victory comes down to him at some point having Filia in against Double, or Liam using all of his resources and leaving Cloud free to do what he pleases. Each match that Liam wins, conversely, tends to come down to Cloud overextending, or making a bad call. The intense back and forth rages through the set culminating in another 2-2, though ultimately Liam takes the set and moves on.

The last match of Losers Quarter Finals is between TJ and 159man. TJ’s main, Peacock, is a fairly uncommon character in Japan, so 159man’s experience with the matchup was questionable. Squigly can be a really good counter to Peacock, being able to pull Peacock into her range from full screen. While 159man’s assist isn’t as strong against Peacock as Brass Knuckles is, it does provide a giant wall to soak projectiles while Squigly charges her stances.

159man retreats as soon as the match starts, letting Peacock make space and start her zoning patterns. 159man patiently waits for a chance and eventually finds it, using Big Band assist as a shield and pulling Peacock in range. The early use of this tactic left Squigly without resources to keep up the pressure, and a short reprieve is all TJ needs to start his pattern. After Peacock starts up, 159man is at a complete loss on how to respond. He doesn’t have the meter he needs for Squigly’s one counter until he’s already in range to be chipped out, and his assist is doing nothing to help him. After Squigly dies, Big Band faces the same treatment, with 159man being unable to properly challenge anything Peacock does.

After this point, the following matches are more of the same. Both Squigly and Big Band have an incredibly hard time against Peacock. There are short bursts where Squigly manages to land a hit, but as soon as Peacock escapes, the match heavily leans in TJ’s favor. 159Man ends up losing 1-3 against TJ. For those following Japan’s progress in the game, this match is reminiscent of a match that took place at the Evo side tournament of 2015, where SIG lost to both Sonic and TJ. SIG and 159man have together never lost a set against anyone in a US tournament other than dekillsage, SonicFox, and SwiftFox-Dash.

The next match is the one everyone expected from the beginning of the tournament. Despite seeing the matchup from these two team members fairly consistently, it’s always an exciting spectacle. They both know each other incredibly well, leading to some hard reads and conservative moves that otherwise wouldn’t be seen. Last Combo Breaker was Sage vs Sonic Grand Finals, with Sonic coming out on top that time. Both players play wildly different teams now, though, meaning a completely new matchup for spectators.

The roundstart sees an early hit for Sonic. A staple of Sage’s current team is jumping with Beowulf’s j.hp and calling Brass, a hard thing to deal with once blocked. Sonic subverts that stragtegy by getting in Beowulf’s face before he can make room, and stays on him until he’s dead. This quick start soon snowballs into a complete steamroll OCV over Sage’s whole team. The next round, however, is less one-sided. Beowulf does get a chance to breathe, showing off how powerful some of his spacing tools are when backed by Big Band. At one point in the set, after killing Sonic’s Double, Sage is at a distinct advantage over Sonic. It’s a Fukua Mirror Match, but Sage has Brass to back up everything he does, meaning for the most part he’s allowed to sit back and play the zoning game without Sonic being able to respond in any meaningful way. Any Shadows Fukua calls other than Light Shadow can be hard countered by Brass, and any punish attempts on the assist can usually be interrupted with an M Shadow or a fireball. Despite this, Sage goes in and eats an AA, making what seemed to be a clear advantage into a tense match end. Sage’s weakest character, Big Band, ultimately drops a game winning combo and loses him the match.

The final round follows a similar pattern to the ones before it. Sonic’s mobility with Filia overwhelms Sage, and Sonic eventually wins 3-0. A big factor to the loss in the final match seems to come down to how Sage chose to kill Sonic’s Double. He went for chip damage with his assist, but in doing so was unable to tag in Fukua, his strongest character. Had he found another way to chip Double, with Cymbal Clash, Beat Extend, or anything else, a switch to Fukua would have been highly favorable. Fukua with Brass Knuckles hard counters another Fukua, and is one of the best in the game to counter call the opponent’s assists with due to high damage and huge range.

Loser’s Semi Finals takes place between Liam and TJ. This is another rematch from past events, specifically Combo Breaker ’15. TJ won that set, but at the time matches were 2 out of 3, as opposed to the 3 out of 5 tournament standard that evolved later. Liam also did not have Robo Fortune on his team and had Fukua instead of Double, so the dynamic of this matchup has changed quite a bit since they last played. Robo’s Beam assist can interrupt all of Peacock’s projectile patterns, break the armor on Bella’s assist, and also be used to pressure a Peacock trying to jump. Peacock’s projectiles can hit the assist if called at inopportune times, but it does hamper her attempts at setting up.

Through the whole first match, Liam masterfully and precicely executes the game plan his team looks like it would. He calls Beam when Peacock jumps and moves in, then when he’s in he remains cautious and calls Double’s invincible assist for pressure. He repeats this pattern until Peacock has made space, then he goes back to calling Beam, making sure to defend his assist so it can disrupt Peacock. It’s a very meticulous plan, and it goes off without a hitch against Peacock. However, once Bella comes in she lands a very powerful lvl 3 on both Parasoul and Double. Liam was perhaps a little too consistent in his pressure, leading to this crushing punish, killing both characters and leaving Robo on her own versus Bella. This matchup is tense, as one wrong move from Robo will let Bella in. Liam holds up under pressure though, managing to slowly chip Bella away, and wins the match.

A consistent theme across the matches is Peacock struggling to get away, dying, then Bella coming in and putting in a lot of work. Both players tend to play more or less the same from match to match, so there isn’t much variation either way. Liam does end up taking the set 3-1 in the end, with each match coming down to whether or not Peacock could find the right spacing.

Liam and Sage faced off earlier in Top 16, where Liam was sent into losers by Sage. The same thing happened 6 months prior at NorthEast Championship 16, where Sage knocked him into losers, where he ultimately was eliminated by SonicFox. It’s been 6 months since then, with improvement from both players. As far as teams go, preemptive Robo assist calls can break the armor of Big Band, though Beo’s j.hp definitely causes trouble if not accounted for. Brass Knuckles will of course play a big role in preventing Parasoul from calling Robo haphazardly. This matchup favors Beowulf, as once he gets in he has more tools for keeping the pressure on and not letting his opponent go, but Liam’s Parasoul has slightly more trouble sticking to her opponents.

As the round starts, Beowulf appears to have control over the course of the match, but a well timed reversal quickly cuts Beowulf’s momentum off at the knees, killing him and leaving Fukua coming in against Robo. Fukua has some good options to get around Robo, like her air fireball, and slowly approaches and corners Robo. Fukua is able to whittle down both Liam’s team, though she is stopped by Robo. This match ended up down to the wire, but one wrong move at the end by Liam loses him the match.

Following this first round, there is quite a bit of variation. Liam snaps in Sage’s Big Band to deal with the most troublesome assist character. While on paper the right choice, Liam doesn’t end up being able to capitalize enough to get an early lead, losing the second round. The third round sees just how dangerous bad assist calls can be against Brass, with two wrong assist calls taking away half of Robo Fortune’s life. Sage eventually takes that round, with a score of 3-0.

Grand Finals takes place, as many expected, between SonicFox and dekillsage. After losing the set from Winners finals, Sage takes a moments consideration before deciding on a different team than before. He goes with Cerebella and Double, the team he won the Evo SG side tournament 2014 with, over his Beowulf team. While making the switch from a team that performed poorly is an obvious choice, Sage’s new team doesn’t offer any distinct advantages against Sonic’s team over his Beowulf setup.

The match starts with Bella doing a normally unsafe move, Battle Butt, and backing it with an assist. This strategy for Cerebella can be used with many assists, including the one Sage has chosen. This pressure prevents Filia from airdashing in as much as she wants, giving Sage the chance to get going, snowballing his momentum over Filia and Double. Despite this early commanding advantage, Sage’s Bella is unable to find the correct spacing to deal with Sonic’s Fukua. After taking some punishment, Sage attempts a normally safe DHC, but misjudges Fukua’s range and is punished for it. With both players at this point playing their iconic characters, a tense exchange ensued, with one wrong step from either player most likely ending the set. The player to make the mistake proves to be Sonic, letting Sage take the first round.

The following sets are similar in intensity, but play out very differently. The next round Sonic decides to snap in Sage’s Double, a good choice. As we saw with Sonic vs Cloud, Filia’s options are very powerful against Double, and this remains a constant whenever Sage’s Double is forced to face Filia. Sage has several unfortunate fumbles over the course of the set, like going for a reversal Dynamo without enough meter for a safe DHC, mashing Devil Horns at the wrong moments, or going for uncharacteristically unsafe resets in the form of Kanchou. This ultimately leads to SonicFox’s final victory in Skullgirls, taking first place a second Combo Breaker in a row.

Though the biggest Skullgirls event is out of the way, players are already gearing up for the next event. Keep an eye on Defend The North, GUTS4, and CEOtaku for more Skullgirls play in the future, and definitely join us next year for a return to Combo Breaker.

Source: 6let, Team Spooky, SkullgirlsTV