CJ Truth has propelled himself into the stratosphere this year. Relatively unknown in the pro ranks at the beginning of 2018, he began to rally after Evo to find himself in the hunt for a Capcom Cup berth. With his win at Red Bull Conquest, is he able to parlay that momentum into a huge payday?

On Guard

There are two different styles of Cammy play that have prevailed over the course of three years. There’s the ever-popular aggressive Cammy where you put players into a lot of frame traps and bad situations. This is the style that has been popularized by NL, and subscribed to by Verloren.

On the other end of the spectrum is the very patient, counter-poking style of Cammy play that Xiao Hai has always made his calling card. When you watch CJ Truth, you can see obviously which side of the coin he falls on. Rarely jumping, you don’t see too many of NL’s divekick gimmicks. But what you’ll see is a stable ground game, with a few calculated risks thrown in just to throw you off. This is the type of play that fits CJ Truth well, and is part of the reason why he’s done so well.

You often see players perplexed by him and Xiao Hai, who aren’t adverse to sitting around and waiting to get their hits in. Once they do, they try to put their opponents into bad situations with their movement more often than frame traps, and it works wonders.

Wins Across the Board

No one has been able to shake CJ Truth this year — even with the “Cabagate” issue of noise behind players offstream causing him problems in a top 24 run at NorCal Regionals. What this did was only further his resolve, where he was able to string together a run of top 16s and top 8s to prove exactly where he stood in the grand scheme of things.

Had it not been for his determination and perseverance, his win at Red Bull Conquest’s Premier side would have maybe only been relevant in determining who I’d pick for Capcom Cup 2019. But his grind of points helped to propel him to Capcom Cup off of that win.

But to further illustrate how good he is, he was able to take it off of resetting Tokido in Grand Finals, after the man put him into Losers Bracket. When you further take into account that he eliminated Tokido at CEO, and realize that CJ Truth has a winning record overall against the #1 seed, it becomes less of a question mark of if he can take the whole thing.

The Pure Mirror

Here’s his issue going into Capcom Cup: Xiao Hai. As mentioned, they both play very similarly, and to think Xiao Hai doesn’t know how to deal with his own style would be laughable. Given this is his very first match in the bracket, and Xiao Hai beat him four straight rounds at DreamHack Montréal, this is going to be a hard start for the Capcom Cup rookie.

It’s all going to depend on the homework CJ Truth has done and whether Xiao Hai is aware of the threat CJ Truth has become. He could hypothetically do it, but this is the hardest start he could’ve had.

Final Thoughts

The thing is, Xiao Hai does everything in this style better than CJ Truth. I’m almost ready to chalk his first round up to a loss. He may be able to pull together some magic going through Losers Bracket, but given the likelihood of players like Mago, Punk, and the like being their to spoil his day, it could be a situation where CJ Truth just has to prepare to go back to the drawing board for 2019.