Month: January 2017

SNK has been pressing forward with their esports-style World Championship series, with a handful of events distributing all-expenses-paid qualifying positions in the larger, more illustrious tournaments–competing for a real-life version of Antonov’s championship belt. These qualifiers have all concluded, but if you missed them you can thank Gato Ray for compiling the final rounds for the Korean, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Peru, and China qualifier tournaments.

First we’ll start with the Top 4 matches for Taiwan qualifier. The Top 4 was split into two videos, with one just featuring the Grand Finals; if you don’t want to be spoiled as to who’s in GF, don’t look at the title of the second video until you’re ready!

Up next is Road to Peru, compiled into one Top 4 video. Having South America represent is always great to see.

The next qualifier is something strange. The Hong Kong qualifier looks to have been recorded on a smart phone. Our only explanation as to why the tournament wasn’t recorded properly is in the video description:

“I can’t mention the reason why but you and I missed this tournament, definitely.

Please understand bad quality and I found only footage or article concerning this qualifier.”

The final qualifiers are China and Korea; China’s qualifier seems to only have the Grand final set, but Korea’s has the whole Top 4 of the tournament.

Source: Gato Ray

As you may recall, last month PR Balrog announced that he would not be renewing his contract with Evil Geniuses. This caused quite the stir, leaving many of his fans questioning why someone would give up that sponsorship, the dream of many a player. While to some this action is unfathomable, PR Balrog thought a lot about this decision before he made it, and here takes the time to bring us through his thought process.

Primarily, as a player, it seems that the sponsorship was making him lax in his performance and training. The security made him comfortable, thus driving a need to get that fire back that leads him to place highly at tournaments in the first place. He also discusses some conflict with gaining side-sponsors–which he touched on in his announcement–as well as the plan he has for himself and his brand in the coming year.

Source: PR_Balrog