One of the most amazing aspects, in my personal opinion, of Street Fighter V to date has been the crossover appeal that it has garnered within the fighting game community at large. Many games have existed in their own isolated communities over the years, with few players truly crossing over outside of casual, passing interest in other titles. Even fewer broke out in their secondary games to make an impact on the competitive scenes of those games.
With Street Fighter V, that is clearly changing. One of the most notable scenes for this to date has been Korea, which has scene an influx of players from Tekken and The King of Fighters branch out to Street Fighter V with varying degrees of success. In Street Fighter Crash, two players that got their start in Tekken–Sazabi and 200won–are on one team in the Top 4 of the event, poised to take home fight money in their first big event of the game.
With the new Street Fighter blood crossing over from Tekken, one question in Korea is whether these players who have their roots in 3D fighting will be able to be strong and competitive against players who have cut their teeth primarily on the 2D plane. While Tekken players’ results at Evo will definitely be a strong litmus test, Drakefang from ArcadeStream seeks to be the first person to answer that question.
On Friday night in Korea (Friday morning in America), ten players will converge in a 5-on-5 team battle between Team Arcade Stream and Team Tekken. While nothing is on the line, it will be an interesting test of how well Tekken players are transitioning into the game, especially with the names attending.
Team Arcade Stream:
- [TAS] RagingStormX (USA – Vega)
- [TAS] SamsonK (USA – Chun-Li)
- [TAS] Mag9xmitsuko (USA – R. Mika)
- [TAS] zZInsaneZz (Brazil – R. Mika)
- [TAS] ROF (Australia – Birdie)
Team Tekken (All Korean):
- Knee (?)
- Sazabi (Zangief)
- 200won (R. Mika)
- RedStar (Ken)
- Narak HOF (Zangief)
What is interesting to note is that each match will be played best of 3, with every team member playing one another, with the best aggregate score winning the exhibition. Also of note is that this event is not character locked like most team exhibitions, which means counter-picking is entirely possible.
Want to see which discipline stands tall at the end? Tune in at 7 AM EDT Friday, May 27th (4 AM PDT) to find out!
Source: ArcadeStream