Seeing that V-Trigger situations weren't nerfed all that much in the Season 5 patch of Street Fighter 5: Champion Edition had me initially worried that the game was still going to be based mainly around its comeback factor, and while I do have to admit that it's still relatively early, more and more evidence that SF5 has evolved into a more thoughtful and neutral-focused fighter is emerging.

When DNG|Nauman won EVO Japan with Sakura while not a single Rashid managed to get into top eight, I was hopeful. Now that Topanaga 2020 is underway we have a new look at Street Fighter 5's competitive landscape, and I've noticed something new that also gives me hope: the rounds seem to be lasting a good bit longer.

As I expressed on this week's EventHubs Podcast episode, the immature 10-year-old in me has noticed that the average SF5 round over the last few years has ended with the timer at "69," meaning about 30 seconds of action. I've actually made a few extra bucks betting (Bison bucks, of course) that 69 seconds will be left during certain tournament matches. Unsuspecting friends figured I was just trying to be funny and were happy to give me odds.

There wasn't much scientific approach here as this was just a crude observation usually taken during mid-level play. Still, it was enough to pique my interest when I noticed that rounds seemed to be lasting a lot longer during Topanga 2020 bouts. I kept seeing rounds ending in the '40s and '30s, and so I decided to do a little experiment.

Professional players are likely going to approach SF5 with a bit more patience than the average online or local warrior, so perhaps their rounds will take a bit longer. Even still, if we compare pro play between 2019 and 2020, we can still see if there's a significant difference in this particular avenue.

If there is, one might attribute it to a setting where patient neutral is more favored over Hail Mary offense and V-Trigger robbery. I decided to get samples from the top eight bracket of EVO 2019 and samples from Topanga 2020 to compare and contrast.

I noted ending round timers from five rounds from each of the 10 top eight bouts at EVO 2019. Then I grabbed four matches from each of the five days we've had of Topanga 2020 and noted the ending round timers for the first five rounds of each of them.

I tried to include a variety of characters and matchups here as there were a handful of repeats (three Rashids in the same block will cause that). Finally, averages often came out to a decimal point, but I rounded ".5" and above up to the nearest whole number.

EVO Top 8 Ending Round Times RB|Bonchan (Sagat) vs. iDom (Laura)

62, 61, 68, 67, 53

Average: 62 YOG|Machabo (Necalli) vs. CYG|Infexious (Zeku)

48, 49, 60, 58, 42

Average: 51 NASR|Big Bird (Rashid) vs. ALUS|Yang Mian (Zeku)

63, 75, 61, 53, 66

Average: 64 AZ|Kichipa-mu (Zangief) vs. FD|Fujimura (Ibuki)

63, 75, 45, 69, 51

Average: 61 Machabo (Necalli) vs. Big Bird (Rashid)

45, 67, 51, 64, 41

Average: 54 iDom (Laura) vs. Fujimura (Ibuki)

65, 60, 77, 58, 79

Average: 68 Bonchan (Sagat) vs. Infexious (Zeku)

44, 28, 77, 47, 62

Average: 52 Big Bird (Rashid) vs. Fujimura (Ibuki)

54, 69, 78, 72, 55

Average: 66 Big Bird (Rashid) vs. Infexious (Zeku)

68, 35, 45, 49, 63

Average: 52 Big Bird (Rashid) vs. Bonchan (Karin)

69, 70, 74, 74, 39

Average: 65 Total Average: 60

Topanaga 2020 Days 1-5 Ending Round Times Victrix|Momochi (Poison) vs. Fujimura (Chun-Li) Day 1

32, 46, 44, 42, 73

Average: 47 Mago (Karin) vs. Liquid|John Takeuchi (Rashid) Day 1

69, 27, 50, 72, 05

Average: 45 CO|Dogura (M. Bison) vs. DNG|Itabashi Zangief (Zangief) Day 1

33, 53, 32, 27, 56

Average: 40 Mago (Cammy) vs. Fujimura (Chun-Li) Day 1

62, 56, 21, 72, 64

Average: 55 CYG|Daigo (Guile) vs. Moke (Rashid) Day 2

61, 71, 43, 45, 14

Average: 47 Momochi (Kolin) vs. John Takeuchi (Rashid) Day 2

33, 43, 11, 47, 49

Average: 37 RB|Gachikun (Rashid) vs. John Takeuchi (Rashid) Day 2

09, 48, 40, 32, 48

Average: 35 Momochi (Kolin) vs. Itabashi Zangief (Abigail) Day 2

36, 39, 19, 00, 42

Average: 27 Mago (Karin) vs. Daigo (Guile) Day 3

36, 33, 52, 58, 37

Average: 43 Momochi (Poison) vs. Mago (Cammy) Day 3

32, 59, 38, 63, 12

Average: 41 Dogura (M. Bison) vs. Fujimura (Chun-Li) Day 3

34, 08, 26, 67, 57

Average: 38 Itabashi Zangief (Abigail) vs. John Takeuchi (Rashid) Day 3

43, 35, 38, 59, 42

Average: 43 FAV|Ryusei (Urien) vs. CYG|Fuudo (R. Mika) Day 4

75, 31, 76, 66, 45

Average: 59 Fuudo (R. Mika) vs. Nauman (Sakura) Day 4

48, 36, 78, 52, 70

Average: 57 Kawano (Kolin) vs. Rohto|Tokido (Akuma) Day 4

47, 46, 32, 44, 19

Average: 38 Kichipa-mu (Zangief) vs. Nauman (Sakura) Day 4

65, 39, 38, 11, 69

Average: 44 Ryusei (Urien) vs. Tokido (Akuma) Day 5

49, 40, 41, 69, 37

Average: 47 Liquid|Nemo (Gill) vs. Kichipa-mu (Zangief) Day 5

57, 49, 45, 52, 41

Average: 49 Fuudo (R. Mika) vs. FAV|Sako (Seth) Day 5

66, 58, 49, 75, 57

Average: 61 Ryusei (Urien) vs. Sako (Menat) Day 5

36, 11, 30, 23, 46

Average: 29 Total Average: 44

An average difference of a full 16 seconds is certainly noteworthy and does speak to my suppositions that rounds have indeed been taking longer to play out.

This still is surely not a conclusive picture of SF5's round length as not all characters and matchups are represented. The sample sizes aren't the same, either, as there was a lot more to observe when it came to Topanga.

Still, I heavily suspect we'll notice a trend here in 2020 that bouts tend to take a bit longer as developers may have successfully evolved the game into a more thoughtful, and therefore prolonged, contest.

Have you noticed any difference in this arena? What do you think of these results thus far? Feel free to chime in with your reactions in the comments below.