Editor’s note: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the writer and do not reflect Shoryuken.com as a whole.
“Download complete.”
Those are the words that sent everyone into a riot at Evolution 2016, when Seon-woo “Infiltration” Lee claimed his place at the top of the standings in Street Fighter V. As first seed, Infiltration was the expected victor and he had–without question or surprise–conquered every challenge to do so.
To be perfectly transparent, I have been an Infiltration fanboy before he became the Infiltration that everyone knows so well. I remember being in an arcade near Isu station in Seoul in 2010 when he walked in and started dominating. When I later found out through Ryan “Laugh” Ahn that Infiltration was attending Evolution 2010, I went around proclaiming that Infiltration would make Top 3 that year. The typical response I received for my pick was, “Who?”
Six years later, people know who. People even know why I would say this man–whom I am lucky enough to call a friend–is one of the best players in the world. But let me tell you this: I don’t expect him to win Capcom Cup.
The Strong Start
In Street Fighter V, no one came out of the gates swinging like Infiltration did. His first six tournaments saw six wins–three of which were international events, while the others were local Korean events. He qualified for Capcom Cup the first chance he got at Final Round. He finished second alongside Fuudo and Xian at Street Fighter V Crash in Seoul. He looked dominant even in the events he didn’t win.
It’s very evident that he came out wanting to make a statement about how he would remain the gatekeeper in Street Fighter V. He started the beta playing Nash and had no character crisis at any point. He dedicated himself to fully learning how to play Nash in the way people saw him play Akuma in the Street Fighter IV series.
Come Evolution 2016, he was the hands-down favorite against the entire field. When he clutched it out in an exciting grand finals against his teammate Fuudo–which featured him fighting out of loser’s bracket after Fuudo beat him in Winner’s Finals–there was no question who was the best. Had Capcom Cup been the week after Evo, everyone and their parents would have put Infiltration at the end of their brackets.
The All-Star Break
Growing up in the 1990’s, I was a fan of the St. Louis Cardinals. I remember every season in around June, the standings would have the Cardinals either in command or in the running for their division. I would always look at that with hope. My grandmother, ever the cynic, would remind me of their constant failings by saying, “Just wait until the All-Star Break. That’ll change.”
Without fail, she was right. Every year, after the All-Star Game, the Cardinals would begin an implacable slide from first to worst and miss out on the playoffs. While Infiltration has no worries about missing the playoffs in his situation, everything that has happened since has been quasi-reminiscent of the Cardinals of yesteryear.
Standing on top of the world at Evolution 2016, Infiltration stated that he would take a much-needed break. While he had been doing a lot of playing and traveling and needed a break, I was worried about how long a break we were talking.
Last time, I talked about the parallels between Xiaohai’s travel and recent success and Infiltration’s in 2012. Well, as much as the parallel rings true for Xiaohai right now, the inverse of the parallel is seeming to ring true for Infiltration. Where the Chinese contender has been traveling, playing a lot, and succeeding, the Korean champion has been resting on his laurels, slacking on finding competition, and struggling.
His very first event back after Evolution was ESL’s Brooklyn Beatdown–a full two and a half months later–where he finished 13th. As follow-up to that, he finished 9th at Southeast Asia Major in Singapore. It’s fitting to note that in the former event, none other than Xiaohai finished in the top spot–thus illustrating the point even further.
These are already cracks in the armor of one of SFV’s leading competitors. But that’s not all.
Who’s His Competition?
I’d be more apt to overlook some of this as growing pains in the current meta if Infiltration was training harder. The problem is that he is not training at a level even remotely close to players like Hajime “Tokido” Taniguchi or Xiaohai. He isn’t even coming close.
His first tournament win since returning to the circuit was at a local event in the United Arab Emirates, where the only player close to his level is Big Bird. While playing events in Korea, where he is the best by far, doesn’t mean much either, it would at least show him practicing. He hasn’t attended any ArcadeStream events since week 2 of the game’s release, and has only served as a commentator at the Spirit Zero events since Magic Stick Cup.
When he does load the game up, Infiltration only hits training mode. While he is setting up various situations in Training Mode, he is not applying them into real game situations. He has not played a single ranked match since March. While the merits of online play can be argued ad infinitum, when rivaling Tokido’s training regimen alone, Infiltration’s simply doesn’t add up. You cannot simply set up situations on yourself and expect other people to set them up the same ways.
His Demons Are Stronger
There were players obviously giving Infiltration trouble before his break. Momochi had his number when they played at Street Fighter V Crash, beating him in every game they played over the course of the event. Tokido was giving Infiltration problems–ultimately breaking past the titan at CEO this year. Fuudo gave him problems at Evolution 2016.
If everyone had taken breaks and the tournament circuit shut down leading up to Capcom Cup, I would say this would be no problem. But there was only a break for Infiltration. Everyone else kept working. If they were giving him problems then, I’m worried to see what they’ll do to him at Capcom Cup.
Pocket Characters?
It’s impossible to count Infiltration out however. We know this man very well from his time in the spotlight. We saw him play virtually every character in Ultra Street Fighter IV by the end of its life cycle. In Korea, players had already witnessed him playing Alex and F.A.N.G successfully in tournament.
He is very quick to absorb, understand, and execute various characters at a high level. Only a year into the game is a bit risky to throw new characters out into the wild, but if anyone is capable of doing it on the biggest stage, he is. If he has any new characters in training in secret for Capcom Cup, I’d expect to see them if the brackets shift that way.
Getting Rid of the Rust
It looks like Infiltration is trying to get the rust off from his break. He has attended three events in the last month, and is already confirmed to be in attendance for Canada Cup this week. With a month to go before Capcom Cup, we can expect the number of events he plays to ramp up a bit in an effort to regain his bearings. Will this regrouping time be enough? That remains the question.
Final Thoughts
It’s very hard to bet against Infiltration, but I’ve decided to rock the boat and do it anyway this year. He is a great player and, on the top of his game, he’d be a shoe-in for the win. The truth is, he’s not at the top of his game right now, and I’m not sure he has enough time to get his groove back.
However, he is a clutch player in a room full of killers. He thrives under pressure, and I can definitely see him getting top 8 at Anaheim. The rest will ultimately depend on how hard he pushes himself over the next month.