Month: June 2016

Japanese Pokkén Tournament players have been enjoying a strong and exciting string of tournaments. Azazel, a dedicated trainer to the wildly unrepresented Machamp, has just recently come off a nail-biting 2nd place finish in FujiONE’s Pokkén invitational.

Suicune Master, the appropriately named South Flordia player, has been enjoying incredibly similar success here in the states. In addition to his strong showing at DreamHack Austin, Suicune Master suffered a narrow defeat to his fellow Floridian player Bim?. Mirroring Azazel, the loss came down to a last match situation–a situation made all the more painful by the fact that Suicune was on the verge of a comeback after a 3-0 bracket reset.

These two were clearly fated to play.

Outside of GO-1’s clinic at Final Round on the eve of game launch, Japanese players (who enjoyed a nearly year-long head start in arcades) have not really had the chance to play much against US players. This set is fascinating for a long list of reasons: it gives us a sneak peak at some of the top play we may see at Evo, it shows how much the gap between these two scenes has closed, and it gives us a case study into the rare, polarized matchup of Machamp vs. Suicune.

Zoning vs. Grappler is never easy in any game, but the Rock-Paper-Scissor system of Pokkén Tournament, combined with the varying phases, gives this matchup a unique flavor. Azazel shows significant matchup experience and optimized play here. If the quickly-adapting Suicune Master didn’t have it before, this extended set with the world’s best has certainly armed him with Machamp knowledge for the future.

Source: Suicune Master