Final Round 20 Results for Top 64

Final Round 20, held in Atlanta GA, USA from March 10th through 12th, is over the the results are in! Singapore's RZR|Xian, sporting a new main character in Ibuki, has taken 1st place. Japan's GRPT|Fuudo has taken 2nd place and USA's Liquid|NuckleDu, winner of Capcom Cup 2016, took 3rd place.

If you missed any of the action, be sure to visit our videos page, where we will have a playlist for matches from Final Round 20!

Final Round 20 Results for Top 64

Final Round 20 Kicks Off Capcom Pro Tour 2017!

Final Round 20, a Premier Event held in Atlanta GA, USA, kicked off the 2017 Capcom Pro Tour season with all the action, hype and surprises that you would expect. As a Premier Event, it drew players from around the world, with each region of the Pro Tour represented. After 3 days of thrilling matches, the Top 8 ended up looking like USA vs Asia, however, with 3 players from the USA, 3 from Japan, 1 from South Korea and 1 from Singapore. Final Round 20 was a sensational event with many highlights, so we'll touch on just a few of them here.

RZR|Xian Soars with New Main Character, Ibuki

The main story of Final Round 20 is Singapore’s RZR|Xian and his dominating performance with a new main character, Ibuki. Xian has a history of selecting lesser used, high skill characters. In the Street Fighter 4 era he was known for his Gen. Last season for the beginning of the Street Fighter 5 era he played F.A.N.G., a character that has weaknesses in important areas. Xian’s incredible skill as a player allowed him to get more mileage out of F.A.N.G. at the professional level than arguably anyone on the planet, but it is a common view that the character’s limitations held him back. He still had a fantastic year and placed 9th at Capcom Cup 2016, but it makes you wonder how his fortunes would have changed if he was using a top tier character.

Xian did use Ibuki a few times last year with limited results, so he stayed faithful to F.A.N.G. for better or worse. Here at Final Round 20 it was the Ibuki show. Ibuki seems to be a character that fits in well with Xian’s high-activity playstyle, has a good move set, great mix-up potential, high mobility, and can inflict damage. While Xian did have some close calls during Final Round (see the match below against USA’s Liquid NuckleDu as an example), he finished the event unbeaten. It’s true that some of Xian’s success here may be due to his opponents being unfamiliar with Ibuki, so we will see if Xian can keep this up as the season continues.

RZR|Xian vs Liquid|NuckleDu

Character Select: Several Top Players Use New Main Characters

As the start of a new season it was also interesting to see that several players have competed with different main characters this year. Japan’s ECHO FOX|Tokido, who played Ryu last season, is re-united with Akuma, a character he is known for from the Street Fighter 4 era. Ibuki, a character that barely got a mention last season, was used by Singapore’s RZR|Xian (who used F.A.N.G. last year) and Marn (previously R.Mika). Interestingly, after seeing the character in action at Final Round 20, there is even talk right now by some players that Ibuki may be one of the strongest characters in the game. Urien is also making appearances thanks to USA’s Flash (previously Vega) and Japan’s CO|Dogura (previously Necalli and M.Bison). USA’s WFX|801 Strider, who used Cammy and R.Mika last season, used Laura at Final Round with great success. There are even whispers that Japanese legend Hx CYG BST|Daigo Umehara, after an uncharacteristic 33rd place finish at Final Round, may stray from his iconic Ryu in the future.

Strong Players Remain Strong

Japan’s GRPT|Fuudo remains one of the best of the best, taking 2nd place at Final Round 20. His R.Mika remains top tier, and both of his losses at the event were to RZR|Xian (once at Winners Finals and the other at Grand Finals). USA’s Liquid|NuckleDu, winner of Capcom Cup 2016, remains one of the world’s best taking 3rd place. His losses came from RZR|Xian in Winners Semi-Finals and from GRPT|Fuudo in Losers Finals. USA’s EG|K-Brad, who had a sensational season in 2016, kept up his ultra clean Cammy play at Final Round and took 4th. Japan’s ECHO FOX|Tokido, one of the consistently best players of last year (seriously, check out his Premier Event performance record in 2016), re-united with his longtime main character Akuma and earned a tie for 5th place at Final Round.

Rise Up

There were a lot of players who have risen to new levels at Final Round 20. USA's WFX|801 Strider flew under the radar last year with no Top 16 appearances in Capcom Pro Tour events. At Final Round he switched from Cammy and R.Mika to Laura and finished at a respectable 5th place. South Korea’s KFGC|Verloren, who placed 13th at G-League last year, made the trip to Atlanta and thrilled those who watched his Cammy play. Verloren earned a 7th place finish and we hope that this trip to Final Round indicates a greater willingness to travel this year. USA’s EG|ChrisG broke into the top 16 at a Street Fighter 5 Premier Event for the first time at Final Round 20, continuing to refine his Guile play and finished tied for 9th.

Miss Final Round XX Live? Check out our VIDEOS page!

Did you miss out on watching Final Round 20 live? If you did, please visit our VIDEOS page, which will lead you to the great match videos from the event!

Capcom’s Top 5 Moments from Final Round 20

Final Round 20 had so many great moments and this video showcases our top 5 (or 6!). For just a more context on our number 1 pick, there were some activities prior to the event that made the match between EG|K-Brad and Wolfkrone a big rivalry. There would have been a pop-off no matter which player won, but K-Brad came out on top.

