Month: July 2016

After the defeat of GO-1 and Abadango at CEO 2016’s Pokkén Tournament, I made the claim that the US players had closed the year long skill gap that the Pokkén Arcade release afforded the Japanese scene. In my eyes, we were finally playing the same game!

Now that the dust has settled from Evo’s Pokkén Tournament, the largest and most international Pokkén event to date, the results certainly seem to verify this: from the ashes of 1156 players, there was a even split in top 4 between US and Japan. Every match was grueling and exhilarating to watch. For a brand new fighting game IP, it was a fantastic showing that I absolutely encourage you to watch it for yourself. (If you are the small percentage of those interested in Pokkén that haven’t seen it yet, of course!)

But! Those were not the only games played between these long distance rivals. As previously reported, the American and Japanese communities worked together to organize a team battle of their own. As these matches occurred after the official Evo event, these players now knew each other even better, tendencies and all. It’s phenomenal enough to make it through the quadruple-digit-entrant tournament and place as an individual. How well can these communities come together as teams now that they have reads on each other?

Filmed and provided by RvLMillnable, these matches are every bit as high level and vicious as their singles counterparts. Included in the collapsible list below are the teams and their orders, with character usage and EVO placements listed.

No surprise that USA, as usual, came into this as the mathematical underdog. Stats don’t tell us everything, though, and the close matches above prove that. Set some time aside, sip something nice, and enjoy this great, community organized team event.

Sources: Milin