This post was originally posted on r/Salty and r/Kappa (NSFW) on 15 Mar 2018. You can check the original post and the comments here. [r/Salty post] [r/Kappa post]

Hello, once again, my dudes.

Sorry for the delay. I will be unable to keep these posts going on a weekly basis, mostly because of university obligations also and because I’ve became lazy, constantly procrastinating. I’ll try to post once every two weeks, but from now on, it’s a “when it’s done, it’s done” deal. Also, to maintain tradition, these last weeks have been a bit insane, with lots of ups and downs personally, so I’m happy to bring you guys FGC content once more.

Last week, we talked about Filipino Champ and Kane Blueriver finally clashing at Winter Brawl X. They played a first-to-fifteen exhibition, won by Ryan 15-10, in which he tried to humiliate Kane in every way possible. All he did, however, was to make the crowd, who went in hoping for a humiliation, want to see a Kane win in the next day. We also recapped most of the UMvC3 Top 8, including Winners’ and Losers’ Finals. In case you missed it, you can read all that good stuff here. [link] If you also skipped the first post about Kane Blueriver’s Winter Brawl X run, where we went through EVO 2015, how the community reacted to Kane’s win and how the crowd started to turn on him, you can read it here. [link] I very much recommend it reading in order. Lastly, if you just found out about this blog, feel free to start at the first post, where we talked about Full Schedule’s Final Round 17 run. [link]

Anyway, let’s go back a bit in time, when things were simpler: r/Kappa’s sub count was below 30000, Tekken 7 was still only available on Arcades, and FGC content was the majority of r/Kappa’s front page material (just kidding! we would have to go back to 2014 for that to be true.).

Disclaimer: I’m not a Marvel player nor wasn’t I at Winter Brawl X, so excuse me for any mistakes. Feel free to correct me or post additional info if you can! Also, if you haven’t seen this set yet, i.e., you’re a SF5/DBFZ/Smash player, grab some popcorn and sit your ass down for some goddamn Marvel.

Grand Finals

The room is completely packed. Both players started to get ready for Grand Finals. In Kane’s corner, Kinderparty. In Champ’s corner, Neo and Noel Brown. The crowd, who one day before wanted to see Kane’s blood, now was down to see him getting his revenge on Filipino Champ. There were still doubts, however, if Kane could actually do it. Ryan did win Winners’ Finals and Kane’s play looked a little bit shaky. Did he find confidence in his play after demolishing Noel Brown’s team? On the other hand, did Ryan actually feel intimidated or pressured as Kane was coming for his head now? Was it going to be a factor in Grand Finals? All these questions were up in the air.

“If any of you guys saw the disrespect last night, you know Kane Blueriver wants nothing more than to eat Ryan’s heart.”, said Fanatiq on commentary before Grand Finals. “I’m guessing we’re going to see a reset here.”, he completed. “Nico, do not shake his hand.” said Yipes, also alluding to yesterday’s exhibition. “Let’s go Nico. Kill this man. Champ sucks! Don’t believe the hype. You are the champ. You are better than him.”, he continued. The players did not shake hands before the match. [basedmonster]

The players picked their respective teams and into the snow we go. Hulk got a 99 seconds grab on Magneto but couldn’t convert into a combo. Magneto rolled back into the corner and immediately super jumped to get away from potential corner pressure. Ryan did a Magnetic Blast and fell down into Hulk’s personal space, possibly from an input error. Kane couldn’t get anything started, as Champ blocked a string, teched a throw and got away. We went back into neutral for a bit. Champ tried to get his zoning game started, by keeping Hulk away and using Doom’s beam assist. It was successful for a while, but he backed himself into a corner, got pressured by drones and got air thrown by Hulk. Kane went straight for a corner combo into a Haggar hard tag and snapped Phoenix in while Magneto had a sliver of life left. Jean blocked a meaty on incoming, pushblocked and got air scooped into drones by Haggar, dying shortly after. Doom came in and got air command grabbed into drones, which meant Ryan respected Kane on incoming because he chose to block. “This is justice!”, exclaimed Yipes, as Doom was eating a Haggar knuckle sandwich. After a DHC into Microwave super and Meteor, Doom died. It was down to Magneto, XF lv3 and five bars. Ryan still had to block a Hulk/Haggar incoming mixup, though. He chose not to and flew away. “Can he comeback?”, asked Fanatiq. “Hell no. Ryan sucks!”, replied Yipes. On screen, Magneto was trying to zone Hulk away, but he couldn’t do it properly without beam backing him up. Ryan eventually got cornered and Kane baited him with a Gamma Charge. Ryan tried to punish it with a slide but Kane had drones backing him up, which made Ryan spend his XF lv3 to save himself from getting hit. Immediately, he super jumped and opened up Hulk with j.S, making quick work of Kane’s point character. Champ didn’t do anything on incoming. Haggar landed safely and went used Lariat. Champ stayed away, possibly because if he tried to punish, Kane could’ve cancelled into XF lv2 and killed Magneto. Ryan tried to get Kane with a Hyper Grav, but Kane did another Lariat after the previous one, completely avoiding it. Ryan by now had less than 40% XF left, so he dashed in to see how Kane would react. Kane up backed into the corner and used pipe to cover him up. He knew Ryan would try to get in so he kept doing lows. Ryan got “caught” and blocked one of those lows. Kane went into a string and Ryan had to pushblock away to save his XF time and avoid pressure. He then went for a slide but not only it was too far, Kane also used Lariat. At this moment, Ryan was too close for his own safety but he couldn’t do anything because Lariat was still active. He blocked the last hit and Kane went into a lv1 super. Ryan had to block all of it because he was in blockstun from Lariat. Kane then went into Sentinel’s drone DHC, immediately canceled into XF lv2, and dashed in. Ryan knew that if he blocked the first drone he would have to sit there and take pressure, so he super jumped away. For the next few seconds, Sentinel relentlessly tried to get a hit on Magneto while Ryan ran for his life. After a rocket punch, Ryan landed on the ground, used a beam and tried to squeeze Sentinel, but Sentinel had already recovered and blocked it. Sentinel couldn’t punish it, so Ryan was safe. After a bit of neutral, Ryan tried to punish a Haggar assist as Sentinel was right on top of him. Ryan probably fished for a Happy Birthday, hoping that Kane hit a button. Unfortunately for him, Haggar was all he got and Kane got a free punish on Magneto’s launcher. “Wassup now? Let’s go, Nico! Reset. Reset that!”, said Yipes after the game. 1-0.

“This is justice. Be you, Kane. Be you! He’s human.”. On screen, the second game had just started. Kane managed to punish a bad assist call by Ryan and got Doom down to half health. A bit later, Filipino Champ opened up Kane’s Hulk with a very low j.L, which Kane tried to block by holding down back. “Damn, you’re Pringles. That was wild.”, said Yipes. Hulk has too much health, so Champ had to TAC. Kane didn’t guess correctly and into the Doom infinite we went. Hulk was probably below 5% HP when Champ dropped the combo. Kane immediately spent two bars to get him out and get Sentinel in. Champ panicked out and called an assist as soon as he dropped the combo, probably to chip Hulk out or to kill him if he tried to go in. Sentinel’s Microwave super didn’t get Doom, who was up in the air chickenblocking, but it caught Magneto, taking him down to 50% HP. Kane later used Haggar’s DHC, cancelling into XF lv1 right away. He went low and, surprisingly, hit Ryan, who was “mashing jab”, according to Fanatiq. Doom was down but Magneto came in safely and flew away. Even if Magneto died, Dark Phoenix was online and he still had XF lv3 while Kane had just used his and if one of his characters died, Kane’s chances of winning would drastic go down. All Ryan had to do was to weather the storm for a while and chip away Kane’s characters. That, however, is much easier said than done. Ryan got air scooped by Haggar, who still had a bit of XF lv1 left in his tank and killed Magneto without spending a bar. Jean came in blocking a meaty, pushblocked and didn’t fall into drones as the flew away in the right moment. She tried to do a 2H to land, but Kane was quicker and caught Ryan with another air grab. “Ryan, would you wake up? What is this?”, exclaimed Fanatiq. Something had rattled Ryan and that was clearly reflected in his play. Kane did a corner carry combo and Dark Phoenix popped in the right corner of the screen, already blocking a Lariat. Kane couldn’t let her get away from the corner or she would do Dark Phoenix things and probably run through his entire team. As Lariat was finished, Kane used a lv1 super while Ryan tried to up back away. After the super was over, Ryan went low but Kane was one step ahead and used Lariat again. Ryan used XF lv3 to keep blocking in the air. Kane went for another lv1, a Hulk DHC, and then a Sentinel DHC, spending all his meter. This was his last shot at Phoenix in the corner, who had been sitting there for some good 15 seconds. Ryan couldn’t do anything versus the amount of things on the screen and had to stay in the corner, blocking. Finally, he pushblocked the last drone from Sentinel’s super and jumped. Kane predicted that Champ would’ve jumped in that situation, so he called Lariat, jumped before Ryan and went for an air grab. Champ teched it but he was back in the corner, with Lariat over his head. Sentinel went low as Ryan tried to press a button and Phoenix got hit, dying a few seconds later. 2-0.

As Yipes was flaming Ryan on the mic, we briefly went into the Players’ cam after the game. Ryan took a heavy breather, shaked his head in accordance to what just happened and quickly went into rematch. He was focused. Filipino Champ was not going to go get 3-0d in the first set of Grand Finals. He was not even going to let this reset happen. He was taking it.

Game three started and Champ, after blocking the 99 second pressure by Kane, opened up Hulk with a very well spaced 2M into slide. “Damn, man.”, said Yipes, probably figuring out what was going to happen in this game. “Does Ryan bleed like the rest of us? Is he going to be flustered?”, pondered Fanatiq. On screen, Filipino Champ went for a Doom TAC infinite and Kane guessed incorrectly. Fortunately for him, Champ couldn’t finish his combo and Hulk flipped out with 20% HP. Hulk couldn’t find an opening as he got zoned out by Doom and Magneto’s Beam assist, so Kane hard tagged Haggar in. The Mayor couldn’t find a way in either as Champ’s zoning game kept him out. A few seconds later, Kane tried to get an air grab on Doom but Ryan teched it. Kane kept going in: after landing, he dashed forward, called Drones, and jumped to air grab Doom but Champ read it correctly and scored what it seemed like a Happy Birthday on both Haggar and Sentinel. That was not what happened, as Doom’s launcher only caught Sentinel, Haggar managed to roll forward and we were back to neutral. “Damn, my man’s playing lame.” commented Yipes about Ryan’s gameplay. It was lame, but it was working. Haggar only had a sliver of HP left when Kane helplessly tried to go for a DHC but Ryan caught him with a Butter Gun, effectively wasting one of Kane’s bar. Haggar died shortly after, desperately trying to score a hit on Doom. Sentinel came in safely, as Champ misspaced his incoming meaty. A second later, Champ went for a misspaced Butter Gun, which got punished by Sentinel’s drone super. It looked like Kane had secured a Doom kill but he dropped the combo. To make things worse, a moment later, Doom scored a hit on Sentinel and the bot was dead. It was down to Hulk and XF lv3. “I strongly believe he is not coming back from this.”, predicted Yipes. He was right. “Alright, let’s go to the next game.”, he finished. 2-1.

In the meantime we got between games, we saw a very stoic Kane Blueriver and a Filipino Champ nodding his head, assuring himself that he got this. Kinderparty coached Nico for a bit while Champ took a sip of his Gatorade.

The start of the fourth game was a continuation of Filipino Champ’s domination. Hulk spent over half of his life trying to open Magneto up, but he couldn’t. Kane, after an unsafe Gamma Charge, had to XF lv1 to save his Hulk from a Magneto punish. Champ simply pushblocked to deny the pressure and we were back to neutral. “Wow! That’s it, that’s it.” exclaimed Fanatiq. Things got even more complicated for Nico as Hulk went for a grab but Champ was ready and punished it with a slide. XF lv1 ran out, Hulk died and Ryan now had 4.2 bars. Things were looking grim for Kane Blueriver at this point. Kane did another mistake a few seconds after Sentinel got to play: he did a misspaced Rocket Punch, thought Champ would press a button and did an air super. To save his Sentinel, he went for a Haggar DHC, which got correctly punished by Ryan’s Magneto as he chickenblocked it. Ryan had to either spend bar or go for a TAC to kill Haggar but he instead went for a sneaky air grab reset, baiting Nico into thinking he would go for a TAC. Haggar died a few moments later and all Kane had now was Sentinel and four bars versus Ryan’s full team, Dark Phoenix and XF lv3. On incoming, Ryan did a meaty footdive, which Kane blocked but didn’t pushblock and that allowed Doom to cross up Sentinel. Ryan did a j.M, which crossed-up and Kane didn’t block it. It was now 2-2.

We were back to the player’s cam and we saw the same situation: Kane kept his composure while Champ nodded his head. “Welp, this might be the finale.”, said Yipes in a low-key monotone voice, probably thinking Filipino Champ, who had the momentum, was going to win the third game and beat Kane for the third time that weekend. “Kane Blueriver searching his soul right now, wondering what he could do differently.”, commented Fanatiq as we went into the final game of the set.

The game started and Ryan immediately went to the skies. He did a Magnetic Blast while going down and almost got caught by a Gamma Charge, which got blocked in the air. Kane moved backwards, backed up by drones. Ryan didn’t want to deal with them, so he went back to the skies. Newton says that “what goes up, must go down” and while Magneto surely loves to bend Physics rules, that’s one that he can’t. Champ tried to land safely by using a Magnetic Blast but, unfortunately, it was at a low height. Kane caught Magneto with a Gamma Charge in the corner that lead into Ryan’s point character dying shorty after to a Hulk meterless combo. Doctor Doom came in and, surprisingly, got away safely from Kane’s incoming mixup, which I think was misstimed as Champ simply air dashed out of it. Doom managed to land and even scored a j.L on Hulk, but Ryan had to drop it because Hulk was backed by drones. They were still on the screen as Kane charged forward, looking for a hit on Doom. Kane went for two consecutive air grabs, both teched by Ryan, who was now dangerously close to the corner. Ryan realized this and decided to play from the top of the screen, spamming finger lasers, desperately truing to build meter for Phoenix. Kane read this and, when Ryan used finger lasers, he did a Meteor super. There was no follow-up, however, as Nico decided not to spend his XF lv1. “He didn’t X-Factor? That was a dead Doom and she wouldn’t have five [bars]! Oh, I think that- I think he should’ve done it.”, pointed out Fanatiq. Kane was now trying to open up Doom with Hulk, backed by drones. Ryan was having a rough time to keep Kane out as his assist was down and calling Phoenix was certainly not an option. Once again backed in the corner, Ryan decided to take it to the skies one more time. Kane caught him with a clap and Doom died effortlessly. It was down to Phoenix, 3.8 bars, and XF lv3. Because Kane called drones to chip out Doom in case he survived, Jean came out safely. She found her space midscreen and it seemed like the game would be decided in the next hit: either Kane caught her and Phoenix died in three hits or Phoenix would hit Hulk, cancel into XF lv3, build five bars and run through Kane’s entire team. None of those things happened, however: while Ryan actually scored a hit on Hulk through a projectile and he XF lv3 cancelled it, he didn’t follow it up, probably because of an input error as he tried to teleport. Instead, he super jumped and did a very high j.S. He fell down, Kane air grabbed him and secured the final game, resetting the bracket.

The crowd was slowly waking up and they clapped for the reset. More games were going to be played and maybe Nico could win this tournament, after all. It was still a long shot, as the first set was very close and could’ve gone either way. Would the second set be like that too?

“RESET!”, happily said Yipes. “I called that reset!”, boasted Fanatiq. “Gimme more games. Gimme some more!”, finished Yipes. Everybody in that room and every stream monster was definitely down for that. Well, everybody except Ryan, who was getting coached by Neo and Noel Brown during the intermission. Kane also had a few words with Kinderparty, who was there by his side all set long. “Meditate [Kane], because if you make him (Ryan) hold this L, you will never have to see him again.” said Yipes as we went back to Character Select screen. Indeed, Ryan losing this after all the trash he talked and everything he did in the previous day would look terribly on him. It would make Perfect Legend’s 13-0 loss in a first-to-ten set to SonicFox look good. He definitely did NOT want that to happen.

“C’mon Nico. Serve that justice on a silver platter.”. First game of the last set of Grand Finals started and Ryan scored a hit at 99 seconds on Hulk. “I’m gonna call it: 3-0 Ryan”, said a confident Fanatiq. “Oh, yeah? This is 3-0? […] Okay, this is gonna happen: Champ is going to win the first two and then Kane is going to win the tournament. This is gonna happen. I’m calling it now.”, replied Yipes. On screen, Champ went for a TAC, which Kane guessed incorrecly, built five bars but, surprisingly, decided to spend three to put Hulk in the blender. Sentinel came in and air supered right away, hitting Ryan’s Doom, who was readying up a Beam assist. Magneto couldn’t do anything as he was flying when it happened. As the super was over, Kane then did a rocket punch and comboed it into drone super, getting Doom to 40% HP. Unfortunately, he made an input error and couldn’t hit an OTG to link into the Microwave super. Doom recovered, Kane did the super and Magneto got a free punish on Sentinel. “Yeah, he’s done, he’s done. Nerves, nerves, nerves…”, commented Fanatiq. Ryan dropped a character killing combo on Sentinel and he kept dropping one combo after another one. The stray hits were adding up, however, and Sentinel died as Kane refused to block Ryan’s buttons. It was down to Haggar, 1.5 bars and XF lv3. Ryan easily zoned Haggar out and won the first match.

On stream, we couldn’t hear a word from the crowd, who a few moments ago was cheering for the reset. We couldn’t see the players during the brief moment between games either.

The second game was looking like it was going to be yet another victory for Filipino Champ, as he opened up Hulk during the initial seconds. Ryan went for a TAC and Kane guessed incorrectly again. He was now 0/4 on TAC guesses during Grand Finals. Ryan went through the motions with Doom and chose to spend a bar to kill Hulk. On incoming, Sentinel had to block beams from full screen and it was clear Ryan was going to keep him away as much as possible. Sentinel managed to get close to Magneto and went for a snap back, but Magneto was crouched and avoided it somehow, most likely thanks to hitsphere shenanigans, surprising both Yipes and Fanatiq. A few seconds later, as Ryan came down from the skies with a j.S, Kane crossed him under and got a free punish on Ryan’s Magneto, finishing him with a Microwave super. Ryan, however, was still ahead because now he had close to five meters, which meant Dark Phoenix was online. Doom managed to block a cross-under Haggar meaty, pushblocked Drones correctly and scored a low hit on Haggar. Champ spent XF lv2 and a bar to get rid of Haggar. When Sentinel came in, Doom still had around 50% of XF left. Champ tried to open up Sentinel but, unfortunately, he was too bloodthirsty: after going for a foot dive and get pushblocked, Ryan went for another one but at the same time as Kane did a Rocket Punch. Immediately, Kane cancelled into an air super and snapped in Jean. Champ had 4.5 bars so Kane would need to do an specific combo, hoping that she wouldn’t get five bars. Jean blocked a meaty and landed safely. Sentinel went for a boot, which Champ tried to punish with a j.H. Champ got baited, though, as Kane knew Champ would try to punish him and he went straight into the air super. In a very weird chain of events, Ryan tried to counter Sentinel’s air super with one of his own. It did not work. “WHAT!? Ryan, what? C’mon! Why would you do that?”, questioned Fanatiq. “Oh, my goodness. There was actually no need for any of that.”, he finished as Jean died on screen to Sentinel’s Microwave super. The game was still not over, though. Doom was coming in with four bars and Ryan could still win the game if he scored a hit on Kane’s 75% HP Sentinel. Doom pushblocked a meaty on incoming. Kane dashed in and used a Microwave super. At first glance, seemed like Filipino Champ pushed a button or tried to jump away from the corner. What happened actually was that Kane’s super got the few last frames of Doom’s pushblock recovery. Nico cancelled the super into XF lv3 and secured his first win in the set.

Cheers were heard from the crowd. On the players’ cam, we saw a very focused Kane Blueriver and Filipino Champ shaking the loss off, wondering what went wrong. “It’s alright, it’s alright. We brush that off. C’mon Ryan. Don’t look shaken like that. Please don’t look shaken like that.”, pleaded Fanatiq. After a couple of seconds, we went straight into the third game.

If the first game was a clinic put on by Ryan, game three was Kane’s turn. Champ teched a throw at 99 seconds put didn’t block an immediate second throw. Magneto was now cornered but Kane couldn’t follow up. Magneto rolled out of the corner but he got thrown back into it. Ryan chickenblocked a meaty by Hulk, pushblocked, and used the brief moment of no pressure he had to land, super jump and fly. Champ couldn’t find a way out of the situation he found himself into, so he did a Magnetic Blast to safely land in the corner. Unfortunately for him, the Magnetic Blast was way too low and Kane was more than happy to punish it with a Gamma Charge. To make things worse, Champ called an assist as soon as he landed and Doom was caught by the Gamma Charge as well. Kane cancelled it into XF lv1 and made quick work of both Filipino Champ’s characters. “SMACKED!”, cheerfully exclaimed Yipes. “[Ryan.] What is going on? What is going on?” asked Fanatiq. On screen, Champ’s only hope of salvaging this game was to get a hit with Phoenix but first he had to block a true 50/50 mixup, from Hulk/Haggar (we talked about this in the previous post). He didn’t and, a second later, she was dead. After 22 seconds of fight, Kane was now on match point, 2-1.

On the players’ cam, the crowd was getting wild and a lot of people were up in their feet watching this match. This was actually going to happen and nobody in the room wanted to miss it. If it wasn’t obvious by now, Marvel had officially taken over Winter Brawl X.

“I don’t understand what is going on right now.”, commented Fanatiq. “BUSSASS!”, replied Yipes. CJ Showstopper came to coach Ryan and we spent some moments in Character Select screen. For some weird reason, Asgard was the selected stage and into the fourth game we went.

Ryan, during the start of game four, was looking a bit more like he did in the first game. He managed to avoid Hulk’s 99 second pressure by backdashing and taking it to the skies. A bit after, he did a Magnetic Blast, landed safely, applied some pressure with beams and tried to open up Hulk. Still, he was taking a lot of risks and it wasn’t looking like the calculated play we’ve seen from Ryan during Winners’ Finals: he was getting dangerously close to Hulk and he couldn’t get his zoning game started. Ryan even got caught by Hulk’s Gamma Charge close to the corner, but, luckily, Doom’s beam assist saved him. A few seconds later, Ryan caught a break and found a hit on Hulk after Kane went for a very unsafe button, thinking Ryan was close enough to block it. Magneto had to go for a TAC or a reset to kill Hulk. Champ chose to TAC. For the first time in Grand Finals, Kane guessed correctly (1/5 now) and we went back to neutral. Champ started to zone out Hulk from the other side of the screen while Hulk traded HP to get closer to Magneto. This trade was favoring Champ so, after a few seconds, Kane had to DHC to save his Hulk’s life. Magneto was flying, so he evaded Hulk’s Meteor super easily. He landed when Kane used Sentinel’s DHC and Champ super jumped to avoid it. He didn’t chickenblock Haggar’s DHC, so that was a wasted opportunity on a free punish, pointed out by both Fanatiq and Yipes. Waste or not, Champ was still on the lead: he almost had five meters, his team was healthy and Kane only had one bar to work with. Haggar also had a lot of trouble trying to find a hit on the ever elusive Magneto. Even when he found a hit, as Champ was falling out of the skies after a Magnetic Blast, Haggar was caught by it and couldn’t continue the combo. Eventually, Haggar got hit by a midscreen Magnetic Blast, which Champ capitalized on to kill him after doing a simple combo and using one bar. Hulk came in, landed safely and survived Magneto’s initial pressure. Kane realized Champ was going to keep trying to open up Hulk so he did a raw snap back to bring Jean in and it worked. Jean now had to block a Hulk/Sentinel mixup on incoming but Champ to take a risk and air grab Hulk instead. It worked and, by the time Kane recovered, Jean was already on the other side of the screen, backed up by beams. Champ also managed to raw tag in Magneto and kill Hulk, who had less than 10% HP left, with Doom’s beam assist. It was down to Sentinel, XF lv3 and two bars versus Champ’s entire team, Dark Phoenix and XF. On incoming, Ryan chose to do nothing and Sentinel found its footing safely. As he landed, Kane went straight into the Drone super, probably fishing for an assist call. Champ, who was flying at the time, could’ve punished it but he dashed in and got hit by the Drones. Kane managed to continue the combo with an air grab into rocket punch into air super and Magneto was down. “Wait a minute, here…” said a cautious Yipes. Doom pushblocked a meaty on incoming and went straight into a footdive. Kane was smarter: after the meaty, went for an air grab, which beat Doom’s move. After a rocket punch, Kane cancelled into XF lv3 and easily got rid of Doom. Kane tried the same with Jean, but Champ teched the air grab. Phoenix now found herself into the corner. Kane dashed in attempt to open her up, Jean used XF lv3 and super jumped. Kane swiftly used a drone super. Ryan tried to punish it with a j.S but he got hit a a drone as he hit Kane, who recovered first and went for an air grab on Jean. Champ teched it. Kane went for another 2M, but Champ had already super jumped. Ryan punished Kane’s mistake easily with a j.S into a combo and that was that. 2-2.

Fanatiq, after the match, cheered: “YES! Let’s go! I’m a little biased here, you know what I’m saying? I-I-I gotta get a little biased because-” “I’m biased! I am SUPER biased!”, interrupted Yipes. Marvel commentary at its finest. Ryan took off his headphones during the intermission to get a bit of advice from CJ Showstopper. Kane also had some words with his corner man, Kinderparty, though he waived him off shortly after, almost saying “I got this, don’t worry.”. As we went into the final game, Yipes commented: “I’ll tell you this. Ryan is the one that is nervous right now ’cause you don’t wanna hold this L after all that you said, buddy.”.

Final game. That was it. This was going to be the end. What would happen? Regardless of outcome, this was already one of the greatest Marvel sets ever played but could it turn into a legendary set? Was Kane’s plot armor good enough? Could Filipino Champ get away with it? Stream monsters and crowd monsters united, all eyes glued to the action. If there’s a God, I’m sure that, on that weekend, he was a Marvel fan.

At 99 seconds, Ryan backdashed and flew away with Magneto, dodging Hulk’s initial pressure. While he was at super jump height, Ryan missed his flight (QCB+S) and did a j.S, which got punished by a Hulk j.H. There was no follow-up, however, Ryan was now stuck in the corner and dangerously close to Hulk. Ryan backdashed, got caught by a Gamma Charge but, fortunately for him, Doom’s beam assist was there at the right time and stopped Hulk from doing more damage. Hulk rolled forward at the same time Magneto rolled backwards into the corner. They both jumped at the same time and Hulk got an air grab on Magneto. Kane OTGd Magneto with a Gamma Wave and clipped him with a drone. Immediately, Nico cancelled into XF lv1 and did a meterless combo to get rid of Champ’s point character. On the mic, Fanatiq sounded like he was getting stabbed in the heart during every hit of Hulk’s combo, his world crumbling in front of his eyes. Doom, on incoming, had to block a Hulk/Haggar 50/50 mixup. “No, no, no, no, no. Not like this, not like this. You can live, you can live. You can block it, you can block it.”, said Fanatiq, hoping that Ryan guessed correctly. He didn’t. Doom got hit by Haggar’s lariat and Kane was about to make quick work of Ryan’s second character. “OH NOOOO! RYANNNNNNN!”, Fanatiq screamed in a high-pitched voice, while the crowd popped hard for Ryan getting his comeuppance on screen. Kane did yet another meterless combo to kill Doom and all Champ had left was Jean, 3.8 bars and XF. He could still do this. All he needed was to survive the incoming mixup and land a hit. On incoming, Champ flew backwards and avoided Kane’s mixup. He also did a j.S as he was falling and opened up Hulk. Champ, however, couldn’t kill Hulk unless he spent XF lv3. “Don’t burn it.”, commented Fanatiq. “He’s gonna have to do it.”, replied Yipes. He didn’t, and not because he didn’t want to, but because he dropped the combo. Nonetheless, Dark Phoenix was almost online, as Ryan managed to get close to 4.6 bars. Unless Marvel happened, she was going to be a factor in this final game. A few moments later, Jean landed from the skies after a j.S, backdashed to the edge of the screen, used a projectile to kill Sentinel’s drones and jumped back. At the same time, Hulk jumped forward and chickenblocked the projectile, but it still managed to kill two drones. As soon as Hulk landed, Kane Gamma Charged in Jean’s direction, backed by the last remaining drone. Champ, who was in the air, landed right in front of Hulk at the same time as Gamma Charge was over. He decided to jump backwards again and got clipped by Kane’s last drone. “Ryan, no!” exclaimed Fanatiq. Kane instantly used a Meteor super and Phoenix died before she had five bars. 3-2. Kane extended his hand for a handshake and that was that.

This is usually when I describe the crowd’s reaction but, thankfully, there’s footage of that moment from somebody in the crowd on YouTube. I’ll just let it do all the work:

On stream, Fanatiq described the fallout: “Kane Blueriver actually comes back after that disrespect last night. Champ is looking salty. Everybody rushed the stage. Wow. That is some justice.”. Yipes could not contain himself nor his laughs, almost as if he was about to overdose on schadenfreude. On the house mic, Big E said: “Y’all wanted hype. What was that?”. That was hype, Big E. You’ve done it again.

Post-tournament reactions

We’ve already seen how the crowd reacted to Grand Finals but how did the internet react to it?

Here’s how r/Kappa reacted [link] and here’s the r/MvC3 thread [link]. Overall, it was safe to say almost everybody was happy to see Filipino Champ take the L medal and eat a piece of the humble pie.

Here’s something posted on the r/MvC3 thread that I’d like to quote:

HB Sora: Kane’s team is built for tournaments. Add to the fact that he is a lab monster with balls of steel (could not believe that he went for an extended combo in some of those confirms) and you have the recipe for a competent EVO champion. Kane Blueriver: I believe your tournament combos have to be your optimal combos. You need to squeeze every inch of benefits you can from what you do, and doing that shows the opponent how confident you are on your play. When someone goes for the short, easy options in moments when it’s not to finish the match right there, I know they’re weak in their minds, and that’s where I can take my advantage. When people do that, it means they’re playing to not lose, not to win. That’s how I feel I was able to best Apologyman and RayRay. And that’s how I feel I was able to beat FChamp here. The moment he did the JRosa (cutting a TAC combo with air S with Doom as soon as you get 3 bars to just do Lv3) on my Hulk on WF I think it was, I knew the match was doable. Incredibly difficult, but doable. [source]

After the tournament, Kane had an interview with Hold Back to Block in which he talked a bit about the exhibition and the tournament.

Hold Back to Block: You were very humble and professional today after Saturday’s events. Why is that important to you? Kane Blueriver: I prefer to remain professional at all times and if I have anything to say, I’ll let the game do the talking for me. I feel that’s the way it should be done. Let my gameplay show […] that I’m capable of- I won’t say standing toe-to-toe because I still feel there’s a huge [skill gap] between me and the best players, but at least I can complete on equal terms and give out a fight. What matters to me is what happens in the game. Like I said, talk is cheap. Can’t stop people from saying bad stuff. […] Why should I give any kind of relevance to people that won’t add anything positive to my life? [..] I’m here and grateful I’ve been given the opportunity to have another season [in the US] and another run at tournaments. [source]

On the following Tuesday, during the podcast “Marvel Live!“, Kinderparty, Persia, SBK and Potato Salad talked about the tournament. Filipino Champ was their guest and he also talked about what happened during the weekend. I’ll quote some interesting parts.

First, here’s Filipino Champ going over Grand Finals:

Filipino Champ: When I played him, I swear, at the first set, I was not ready for him to come out at me full force like that. I thought, you know, that he wasn’t going to be at 100% because I thought I already took his spirit, you know what I mean? I was nice to him. I had like a couple times that I could’ve teabagged him or repulsioned him in Winners’ Finals but I didn’t because I felt like I took his spirit already. I really felt that way. But in the Grand Finals, he came at full force. I didn’t expect this. After he was up 2-0, I had to turn it on and I got the next two games. It was the last game of the first set and he did beat me in a close game. I was like: “Uhh, whatever. Who cares? “. In the second set, I won the first game and I’m up 1-0. Second game, I got the first hit, I got TAC and he had like Sentinel/Haggar, I messed up around those lines and he was able to tie the score. I was like: “Hmm. Is this really gonna happen?”. I had to tell myself that. “This is kinda impossible. This is kinda a dream?”, you know? I was really hard for me to even think about that as a possibility. And then, he got a Hulk game, which is… everybody gets a Hulk game. I was like “Oh shit! I really need to turn this on! Let’s go back to Character Select screen really quick.”, you know? Fortunately, I got a very good – a perfect game, very zoning oriented so I was able to tie. In the last game, it was much dramatic. I got a first hit… no, no. He got a first hit and he burns X-Factor. I was able to survive and I had Jean Grey with 4.6, 4.7 meters and I got hit by the drone and then he Gamma Crushed and I was like “Oh, yeah. I’m about to turn Dark Phoenix here”, but, unfortunately, she died at 4.9. […] When I lost, I was just surprised, I was shocked. It wasn’t even salt because I just had to realize… I was like “Wow. I guess dreams really do come true”. Myself, I couldn’t believe it, right? I was like “Wow. I lost to this guy. Shit. Damn.”. I just got to accept this. The game was over, the tournament was over. The only thing I could do it to get better, move forward from this and congratulate him because he did beat me fair and square. [source]

Persia, who at Winter Brawl X, also described Grand Finals to the crew:

SBK: What was is like to watch that set [Grand Finals] in the room? What was the energy like? You talked about how it was dead silent between Champ versus Cosmos. What was it like to watch Champ versus KBR? Persia: It started out with everyone saying “Oh, man. This is going to be such a blowout after that exhibition yesterday…”. Some people were like “Oh, man. I feel really bad for Kane.” and then the match is pretty close and after the first set, it resets and everyone is like “Oh, okay.”. Everyone is getting excited. They weren’t expecting [Kane] to reset the bracket and now it’s been reset. Then Champ took the very first game in the second set and then everybody is like “Welp. Is this going to be the classic?”, right? “Oh man, he’s just going to sweep him 3-0”. […] [After the last game] everyone was just crazy about it, because after last night’s display, everyone was feeling kinda bad so today I felt like everyone was rooting for Kane. But going into the night, everyone was apprehensive about it. So, I don’t know. It was crazy. There was a huge shift in that period of time. [source]

Lastly, SBK also shared some thoughts on the tournament:

SBK: I thought KBR play was so reminiscent of EVO 2015. He played with so much heart, so much raw reading. It was so cool to see it happen after what happened the day before. You said that you thought that you took his spirit but it was quite the opposite. That losers’ run… he just had full momentum. A lot of people have been giving him a lot of crap saying that “he’s not a champion” or that “he’s dodging”, this and that, and now we really get to see him play like a champion. With how well he really took all the abuse the day before, I really think that he showed up big. Everybody needs to accept that not only he won that tournament but that we have no reason to talk shit about him. He really showed up big. [source] […] As an FGC member, I really liked Kane vs. FChamp. […] With all the emotions that got tied into that match, you could see that in the way that they were playing. FChamp was so rattled in that Grand Finals set. I saw him miss how many Magnetic Blast inputs and just second-guessing every decision: every plink, every spot he wanted to be in, and that’s what really what- Kinderparty: We saw him slow down. SBK: Yeah, he really slowed down because he really didn’t trust himself on his execution. He has a very high execution game plan even though that, you know, Kane has a very, very hard struggle to even get Champ into the position of getting hit. It’s so hard to hit Magneto as Hulk in high level. To see Kane just mentally degrade Champ over the set through the stress and fear that is Team Big Bodies… It was so reminiscent of EVO 2015. [source] (Fun Fact: a few seconds later, SBK would actually say “RyanLV vs. Chris G is the future of the game”. What a god.)

And that’s that.

If you survived through it and managed to get here, thank you! I really appreciate you guys reading all my posts (I’ll get better!). Again, sorry about the delay and I’ll try to stick to the (new) schedule the next time.

I also got the blog running, which is nice. I can’t control ads or tweak the blog that much because of WordPress’ limitations, so sorry about that. It might get better in the future.

As about what’s next, it’s definitely nothing as grand as this moment, but I assure you it will be something hype.

ps:

Much thanks to everybody that contributes to the FGC content machine. You guys have no idea how much every article, every video, and every random comment on reddit helps.

Special thanks to emc (also known as Game650, the dude that created UMvC3:EX) for his hitbox/hurtbox videos; WordPress for being godlike; and to you, reader, that motivates me to write about this garbage instead of focusing on my diet and fixing my sleep schedule (jk i ❤ u).

As usual, if you have any suggestions or criticisms, feel free to comment on the threads on reddit, shoot me a PM there, or to contact me on Twitter.

Cheers and until next time.