Apologies. I know about 40% of this info has been posted, but since the first post on Patch 1.04 tiers on /SF4, a lot more information has surfaced which I have included here
This is information already available on Eventhubs and SRK, but I feel it could rouse some good discussion due to the points some top players have raised.
These all come from event hubs and CCG Air's Twitter account (He translates Japanese @Masters)
Daigo Top 3

• Evil Ryu > Ibuki > Cammy

Pepeday Top 4

• Evil Ryu > Yun > Ibuki > Seth

Kazunoko

• Evil Ryu > Akuma > Ibuki > Rolento

Misc info from Air's Twitter

• Pepeday thinks Guy is top 10
• Kazunoko thinks Sakura is bottom 5
• Consensus opinion was that Poison is around 10-12 in the ranks
• C.Viper in Top 8
• Decapre is very strong but not quite Top 10

So what do you guys think? I'm somewhat surprised that Evil Ryu swept the No.1 Spot so convincingly, Ibuki is abundant, too. The one that surprised me was Poison, I'd peg her around 7 or 8, seeing her come out of the Top 10 surprised me a ton.
Just to be clear, though. These are just opinions and should not be taken as fact, play who you want and think what you want, use this for reference at best, if not to just curry up some discussion.
I'm *really surprised about the lack of Rose in that list, maybe it was just Western hype?
Source: - https://twitter.com/CCG_Air

Shironeko Project is a pretty big gacha game in Japan, and finally earned its own anime this year. Dunno about the anime's quality, hopefully it's good.
Today, let's discuss the history of the gacha game Shironeko Project, powercreep, and the incident that may have lowered company stock: the Palme incident.
As usual, all my info comes from the awesome Youtuber サービス終了ゲームまとめ. This is the video, please give it a watch, like and subscribe if you enjoy it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQj5T6au5e0
Feel free to correct me if I make a mistake anywhere. Know that the Shironeko Project tier list is always changing, and the characters mentioned here don't make the top 10 list anymore.
This is a long tale. In order to tell it, we need to talk about some broken units in Shironeko, and after that, the Palme incident and the decline of COLOPL after it.

• Charlotte

We begin our story during Shironeko's 50 million download anniversary celebration in August 2015.
Shironeko Project is no stranger to broken units nowadays, but this anniversary in particular marked the debut of a Shironeko's first broken limited unit: Charlotte.
The video describes her as extremely popular due to her ability to carry the whole party thanks to her amazing art skill, high movement speed buffs, barriers, regeneration, and ability to carry the whole party by herself. On top of that, her design is appealing and her seiyuu, Maaya Uchida, is quite popular in Japan.
She was basically every player's ideal character at the time for gameplay and waifu reasons. She became the game's kanban (billboard) character quickly after her release.

• Tetra, Mea and Mirielle

Next month, after Charlotte, another popular, stronk dragon waifu was introduced: Tetra. The video emphasizes that Tetra made everything from boss battles to regular battles easy as hell. Both players who owned and didn't own a Charlotte desired Tetra.
Along with Tetra, yet another character was introduced: Mea, the original Funnel unit. In Shironeko, a Funnel is a support that attacks automatically, and separately from the main unit. When you activate a Funnel's skills, it fights with the main unit until a specific time passes or the main unit is defeated.
With Mea, Mirielle was also introduced, the first character with a resurrection skill.

• Tsukimi

In October 2015, an even more broken unit was introduced: Tsukimi. Tsukimi's Funnel is a controllable beam and she has instakill evasion too. At the time she was regarded as having zero flaws and being an extremely OP unit.

• Almond Peak and Almond Premio

During the month of January 2016, two extremely powerful collab characters were released. The collab is question is the Glico collab. Yeah, Shironeko not only did a collab with an onsen, but with a candy company too.
The character in question is Almond Peak, an anthropomorphized chocolate-coated almond sweet from Glico.
Almond Peak is a lancer who received an amazing strengthening, making her a strong unit who synergizes well with others. Thanks to the strengthening, she not only has a recovery skill in Just Guard, but she gets a damage cut and a homing skill too. On top of that, she has a Funnel and skills that activate quickly.
Along with Almond Peak came Almond Premio, another broken unit.
The video also shows an image comparing Charlotte, Tsukimi and Peak. 1 Peak is as OP as 1 Charlotte and 1 Tsukimi, and in terms of raw firepower alone, one Premio is as as powerful as all 3 combined.
The video cautions that players know raw firepower by itself doesn't mean the unit is OP, so take the comparison image with a grain of salt
Strangely enough, this Glico collab gacha was unusually long--the banner was up for a month, so players had lots of time to get the two Almonds.

• Noa

A week later, a strengthening event for Warrior units was released. In general, Warriors benefited from faster attacks, erasing their greatest weakness--their slowness.
Thanks to the strengthening, one unit in particular, Nemo, was transformed into a broken, invincible character with a lot of defensive perks like damage cuts and barriers.
An even stronger character was born out of this: Noa. She became super OP. Even more OP than the already OP Peak and Premio.
This is because Noa's Buster Spin attack became fast and reliable thanks to the Warrior strengthening. She became so powerful that she can clear 11-star stages by herself during co-op battles.
The video shows the power comparison chart from before, this time with Noa added. Noa is 3 times as strong as Peak and twice as strong as Premio.
...All in the span of around a month.

• Japanese powercreep terminology

Shironeko's history is full of powercreep inflation. In Japan, the term インフレ is used to describe gacha games with too much powercreep due to an inflation of broken units. Shironeko is often cited as a big example of this.
If you want to learn more, read this article (Japanese): https://hideo002.com/archives/1804
Basically, the issue of inflation comes from the need for profit--the more OP characters you can hype, the more money you can make. IMO, this is what a lot of games based on original IPs use to draw in new players. It's fine in moderation. But Shironeko takes powercreep to a new level, as you will soon find out.

• Calm before the storm, and a small warning sign

At the time of all this constant powercreep, why did users keep playing? Because Shironeko's management team was very generous with free gems, allowing for 100 free rolls a month!
In March 2016, one of Shironeko's biggest events was held: Chakuma Gakuen, where some characters received student versions of themselves.
Characters were divided into two groups: Team Kazunoko & Team Ikura. Charlotte got a Chakuma version of herself, as did some other characters. In the first half of the event, no broken units were released. But not to worry, all units that made their debut here are still perfectly usable.
New co-op battles that required good strategy to clear were also being implemented. All in all, it appeared as though the management team was finally trying to balance the game.
In the second half of the event, another broken unit emerged: Chakuma Tsukimi.
Luckily, she isn't as broken as Noa, so she wasn't a cause for concern... until Palme appeared.

• The Palme Incident

Finally, the event that caused COLOPL's downfall. The infamous Palme incident.
Surprisingly, Palme was initially difficult to use. Apparently she only became really broken once motif weaponry was introduced. Her weapons make her OP.
In terms of our powercreep image, Palme is two times stronger than Noa and is more well-equipped for survival thanks to her instadeath avoidance, decreased SP consumption, and water property enhancing auto skills, among other things.
In short, she has 10 times the firepower of Charlotte.
The video mentions that there were rumors about players re-rolling for her and clearing difficult co-op battles using her alone in the span of 3 hours.

• Anger at the management team and COLOPL

During a time when beloved characters had just been refreshed with cute school versions of themselves, and the introduction of co-op battles that required strategy rather than brute strength, Palme's powercreep destroyed any good will long-time players had towards the game and the management team.
It's rumored that, due to Palme's powercreep, resentment exploded among the player base and a lot of old players dropped the game around this time.
There is also financial proof that Palme's powercreep caused a slump in Shironeko Project's profits in May 2016.
The cause of this is said to stem from a comment the president of COLOPL made about Palme. He dismissed her as a poor character whose release caused the decline of company profits.
COLOPL's stock price took a plunge after this incident.
Enraged players rushed to the Internet in droves to complain about the game. The incident was soon dubbed "Palme shock jiken".

• COLOPL's decline

However, the video surmises that other factors may have caused the decline in profits, like an increase in new employees and failed overseas expansion.
Unfortunately, by the time the 100 million downloads celebration came around in July 2016, COLOPL and Shironeko's management team still hadn't learned their lesson.
Instead of balancing the game, a new unit even stronger than Palme was released, Farfalla. The video says this unit was released to bury the Palme incident, but the new unit's release only made matters worse. COLOPL's stock dropped to 1,485 JPY (21% down) on July 28, 2016.
Around the same time, Shironeko Tennis was released, and in order to move players to this game from Shironeko Project, the management team distributed fewer gems and stopped counting new downloads.
So yeah, Shironeko Project, famous for being an extremely generous gacha game, lowered its free gem distribution during this time. All because of Shironeko Tennis. Bad idea.
By November 2016, COLOPL's net income forecast for 2017 was 6% lower than previous years. It seems COLOPL's stock hasn't recovered since this incident. It's even lower now. Look up TYO: 3668 to see its history.

• My thoughts

I've always been vaguely interested in this game, but I'm not so sure about it now. The game is still immensely popular in Japan despite the powercreep. The management team must have learned their lesson after 2016 and figured out how to balance the game properly. On an unrelated note, I really like the gacha animation for this game.
Players of Shironeko Project, how is the game treating you so far? Non-players, are you interested in playing? What's powercreep like in gacha games you play?

Whether you're excited for the actual tournaments or the incoming season 2 announcement, this is a weekend no DBFZ fan should miss.
Format: Each LCQ bracket is a single elimination tournament. All sets are 2/3, except for the finals, which will be 3/5. The winner of each LCQ will earn a spot in the top 8 finals, held on 1/27. There are 4 tournaments, so 4 winners will be decided.
The finals will be an 8-player double elimination bracket consisting of the 4 Dragon Ball holders plus the 4 LCQ winners. Every match will be 3/5.
Attendees: 239 players are registered for the LCQs.

LCQ 1 Bracket

LCQ 2 Bracket

LCQ 3 Bracket

LCQ 4 Bracket

Top 8 Finals Bracket

Schedule for Sat, Jan 26, 2018 (ALL TIMES IN PST)

• 10:00am: Doors open
• 10:30am: LCQ #1 begins
• 1:00pm: LCQ #2 begins
• 3:30pm: LCQ #3 begins
• 6:00pm: LCQ #4 begins
• 9:00pm: Event Day 1 concludes

Schedule for Sun, Jan 27, 2018 (ALL TIMES IN PST)

• 10:00am: Doors open
• 11:00am: Top 8 Finals begin
• 7:00pm: Event concludes

English Stream - dragonballfighterz

Japanese Stream - dragonball_games

Note: Stream on Saturday, 1/26 is scheduled to start at 12:00 PM PST (3:00 PM EST) - 1.5 hours after the tournament is scheduled to start.

Notable LCQ Entrants

From Japan

• ACQUA
• WG|ABEGEN
• BNBBN
• HNF|Chou (Superboy/超)
• CAG|Dogura
• CAG|Fenritti
• PONOS|Garireo
• Kindevu
• Kaimart
• KANA
• Maddo (まっど)
• PONOS|Moke
• Matoi
• GGWP|Souji
• DNG|Tachikawa
• Yutta

From Europe

• R-cade|Alioune
• RMZ
• VGIA|Shanks

From North America

• bc|ApologyMan
• ChadDrawsThings
• brkrdave
• UYU|Cloud805
• BFergs
• FOX|dekillsage
• Dacidbro
• Dadpool
• Crescent|Doza
• SCRP|Im_tweakk
• Hitbox|Jayto
• CLN|Kudaytaa
• bc|Lord Knight
• UYU|Kizzie Kay
• W2W|KnowKami
• LegendaryyPred
• PG|Nakkiel
• TH3|Nicomaki
• EG|NYChrisG
• Rath
• Reynald
• NRG|Supernoon
• SubatomicSabers
• Tatsunical
• Yohosie
• Hitbox|ZomBmu

The Dragon Ball holders and their storylines

Now for a TL;DR recap of everything that's happened so far...
Goichi "GO1" Kishida | Local Scene: Osaka, Japan | Sponsor: Cyclops Osaka
GO1 enters the DBFZ finals with the 3 star ball and the well-deserved title of anime legend - as of 2019, he has been competing in and winning fighting game tournaments for over a decade. A music gamer turned fighting gamer, GO1 first made a name for himself in Melty Blood with his earliest recorded Ws dating back to 2009. He was a god in that game - and other anime titles as well - known for his amazing defense that even gave Melty's developers problems.
GO1 started traveling overseas and attended his first EVO in 2015. That weekend, he won a total of 4 anime side tournaments - Melty, Aquapazza, UNIEL, and Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax. In 2016, he started competing in Street Fighter 5, placing 4th at EVO and 7th at Capcom Cup that year. At that time, he was also playing Guilty Gear, KOF, BBCF, and even dabbling in Marvel.
The January 2018 release of DBFZ saw GO1 truly become a household name. For four entire months, he was unbeatable. GO1 himself began the storyline that would define the beginning of competitive DBFZ: he challenged SonicFox, the dominant American player. Their first meeting at Final Round was one of the most hyped up and event-ized matches in FGC history - a real life Battle of the Gods. To the surprise of few who had followed GO1's career, he won by a landslide, then took the tournament 2 days later. And the infamous Blue Hallway exhibition.
GO1 reigned supreme until Combo Breaker, where he finally took an L to SonicFox's new team, which Fox specifically put together to crack GO1's defense. Even after that, GO1 continued to deliver the hype and consistently place top 4 at every tournament he entered. As the fates would have it, his rivalry vs SonicFox took center stage at the Grand Finals of EVO.
Shortly thereafter, GO1 traveled to UFA and secured his spot in the world tour finals by coming back on HookGangGod after a bracket reset. GO1 has since been taking it easy in tournaments due to his tendinitis. He is currently training his new team of Piccolo/Bardock/SSJ Goku. His recent break by no means indicates he's "washed up" as some stream monsters say - after a whole year of DBFZ competition, the number of players who have taken a tournament set off GO1 can still be counted on one hand.
Dominique "SonicFox" McLean | Local scene: New York, NY | Sponsor: Echo Fox
SonicFox is to American fighting games as GO1 is to anime. It would still be a little disingenuous to peg SonicFox as any one type of fighting game player, because he plays all subgenres of fighting games - 1v1, versus, anime, and 3D. Not only does he play multiple fighting games at the highest level, he dominates multiple fighting games at the highest level. At age 20, he is already a 4 time EVO champion with titles in 3 different games, and that doesn't include the side tournaments he's won. Fox has become somewhat of a controversial figure since he's so adept at pushing buttons both in and out of fighting games; however, two things can't be denied: he's deservedly on a shortlist of fighting game GOATs, and the FGC would be much less interesting without him in it.
Fox's FGC story began in 2013, when at age 14, he started to draw the ire of the NRS community for completely taking over Injustice: Gods Among Us tournaments. He got his first EVO win in IGAU in 2014 and then continued his NRS dominance all throughout Mortal Kombat X's lifespan - he added two more EVO titles, 3 ESL championships, and a 13-0 money match victory against Perfect Legend to his resume. While NRS titles were his main games, he also competed in tournaments for UNIEL, Dead or Alive, and Skullgirls. In time, his dominance in Skullgirls grew as strong as his dominance in NRS titles - his primary competition was dekillsage, now his current teammate and DBFZ training partner. Fox also became a top 5 MvCI player in 2017.
Fox was unstoppable at DBFZ locals upon the game's release; his Black/Hit/16 team ran a train through everyone. Chris G was the first person to pose a threat to him, taking a set off of him at Winter Brawl, but Fox ran it back in losers and 6-0'd him in Grand Finals. He enthusiastically accepted GO1's challenge, but come Final Round, he found himself thoroughly outclassed for the first time in his entire fighting game career. Fox, no stranger to maining the entire roster of every fighting game he plays, dropped his entire team and picked up a new one. He came back stronger than ever at Combo Breaker and became the first person to ever defeat GO1. At last, he silenced the detractors who claimed that Fox only won games with "no competition".
His Cell/Kid Buu/Gotenks team still had a tough time against certain players, so following losses at CEO and Summit, Fox dropped his entire team yet again and prepped a new squad for VSFighting and EVO - Bardock/Zamasu/Android 16. Developing the Bardock/16 shell paid off - he won the second Dragon Ball at VSFighting and capped off his storied rivalry with GO1 by winning EVO following a controversial-yet-legal side switch.
After EVO, he tried out several new characters with the Bardock/16 shell and ultimately found success with the first character he was known for using - Hit, who had long been written off as low tier by almost everyone except Fox himself. With that team, he was finally able to halt Kazunoko's post-EVO win streak. He's taking that team with him to the finals - he has yet to lose a tournament with it.
Ryota "Kazunoko" Inoue | Local scene: Tokyo, Japan | Sponsor: Godsgarden
When Kazunoko enters a fighting game tournament, it's not a question of "will he get a top 8 medal?" rather, it's a question of "how many top 8 medals will he get?" Since 2008, Kazunoko has been making a name for himself in multiple fighting games, namely Guilty Gear and Street Fighter. Like SonicFox and GO1, he's a true multi-game and multi-subgenre champion - while he focuses on his main games, he plays others on the side such as Marvel and BBTag.
The crowning achievement of his fighting game career thus far is probably his victory at Capcom Cup 2015, where he took Grand Finals over Daigo. His Yun is so iconic that many DBFZ commentators still make references to it while watching his Yamcha. In 2016-2017, he did very well in his two main games, GG Xrd and SFV, getting 3rd at Capcom Cup 2016 and top 8 in GG at EVO 2 years in a row.
Kazunoko picked up DBFZ as a 3rd main game in 2018. He was always a top player and a lock for top 8, even back during Final Round when he played A Gohan/Goku Black/Vegeta. However, like absolutely every other DBFZ player, he was overshadowed by the GO1/SonicFox rivalry that was the focus of tournaments for the first 5 months of the game's lifespan.
The May patch brought a nerf to Vegeta's assist, and Kazunoko made a gutsy team change: he picked up Yamcha, a very off-meta character who was seen as nothing but an assist. The new Kid Buu/A Gohan/Yamcha team did decently well at Combo Breaker, pretty good at the Summit of Power (who can forget the solo Yamcha comeback on dekillsage?), and finally at CEO a couple of weeks later, it destroyed everyone. GO1 and SonicFox looked lost as they got caught by Yamcha again and again. Kazunoko won his first big major and his first Dragon Ball.
After the August patch, Kazunoko switched his point character from Kid Buu to Gotenks. He won TWFighter. He won SCR. He won SEAM(Dragon Ball #2). He won all of his locals and most of his casual sets. He was so dominant that fellow Tokyo player Acqua made an anti-Kazunoko club.
Although SonicFox finally broke his winning streak at Canada Cup, Kazunoko's gatekeeping was far from done. He picked up right where he left off, winning the 6 star ball at the Japan saga and the 7 star ball at Couch Warriors Crossup. Thanks to Kazunoko winning 4 of the 7 saga events, there will be 4 single elimination LCQ tournaments. Kazunoko might enter all of them wearing a fake mustache and an alias just because he can, but hopefully he decides to leave some tournaments for everyone else to win and we'll just see him on Sunday. No matter how much whining there is about his cheap Gotenks/A Gohan/Yamcha team, remember that he pioneered the team, and he is by far the best at playing it.
Eduardo "HookGangGod" Deno | Local scene: New York, NY | Sponsor: NRG
Unlike the other 3 finalists, HookGangGod is a newcomer to the FGC. DBFZ is the first game he traveled to offline events for, and that makes his accomplishments all the more impressive.
Hook did decently well in his tournament debut at Winter Brawl, getting 17th place, but stream monsters began to take notice of him following a streak of very strong NLBC performances (and being the #1 guy in ranked doesn't hurt). While SonicFox was taking a break from locals, Hook showed up and mopped up the competition. His laid back demeanor and unique team, starring the supposedly low tier Piccolo, immediately earned him many loyal Twitch subscribers, while his results earned him a sponsorship from NRG.
Hook's initial win streak didn't last forever, as SonicFox eventually returned to NLBC and demonstrated how to deal with Hellzone on wakeup. Still, Hook came to play week after week, gradually improving and getting rid of his online habits. He consistently made top 8s, but his true breakout performance came at the Summit of Power, where he won very exciting sets against GO1 and his tournament demon SonicFox. Two months later, he secured the 4 star ball and his ticket to the finals at Thunderstuck in Mexico.
After a long break from offline tournaments, Hook took Frosty Faustings with Piccolo/Bardock/Vegeta. Hook's team has been relatively consistent throughout the life of DBFZ - Piccolo, SSJ "the bf" Vegeta, and current meta character to hold the shell together. He plans to use that team to loop some assholes at the finals this Sunday.

Additional links

• Let's Prepare for the Finals: Summary of High Level Competitive Play in 2018
• DBFZ World Tour Official Rules
• Full list of attendees

I've been running a21, ssjgoku, and gohan. I've want to change things up, but want to gohan. What are some good teammates? Also if you can point me to some top gohan players will be nice.

Please note, there may be Spoilers for some Tourney results, so keep that in mind.
Before we get into, please realize, we are very early in the game still, and as such this tier list is till very fluid in the A+ to A- range. For instance, Nakkiel beat Moke at Final Round (And was a dropped combo from knocking out Go1), but Moke got to Grand Finals at Norcal while Nakkiel got 8th. So, they are rated with that in mind. Meanwhile, HookGangGod, Leffen, Reynald and Lost Soul all have very few tourney's to go off of, so they are tenatively placed in A-. Also, while locals are considered, major tournaments have the most weight.
S+: GO1
S: Sonicfox
A+: NYChrisG, Dogura, Moke, Kazunoko
A: Nakkiel, Momochi, Supernoon, MokeMoti
A-: Leffen, 2GB Combo, HookGangGod, Reynald, Lost Soul, Tatsunical, Fame96, Cloud805, Dekillsage, Teemo
B: Apologyman, Znice209, Punk, Beesu, Yohosie, YLT Cole, Zero_Hour, Ninjaelephant, brkrdave, Irongod, Theo, Kyoku236HS, LordKnight, NicoMaki, RogueYoshi, Rico Suave, Grover
F: You
F-: That player who always superdashes and mashes, and you get mad when they actually kill one of your characters.
I am certain I am missing some notable players, so just let me know who they are and what they have accomplished that is noteworthy.
The S+ tier is only GO1 as I expect him to win whatever he enters until proven otherwise. S tier is only Sonicfox as I expect him to win whatever he enters unless GO1 is there, and even you would be a fool to count him out.
A+ tier I tried to keep to people who seem relatively consistent in getting top 8, and really top 4 in most of what they enter. Since we have so few major tournaments to go off of, this is extremely fluid for now. Kazunoko has a very small sample size, but his only losses are to Sonicfox and GO1, both of whom he took games off of, which is impressive. Same with Dogura, who actually beat GO1, but got beat 3-0 by Sonicfox.
A tier is consistent Top 8 at majors quality players, but who might miss out in more loaded tournaments. Nakkiel could be a tier higher as Nakkiel has been top 8 in every major and even top 4. The NorCal performance was definitely a bit disappointing is is probably why he is here.
A- the good quality players who are still either unproven or a bit unknown due to fewer appearances in major tournaments. Leffen beat Tatsunical and Supernoon, but that tourney is his only real data point and is not as strong as Kazunoko and Dogura's performance. Hookganggod did really well at Bum's, beating Dekillsage and Apologyman, and even took a game off of Sonicfox.
B tier are your Top 16/32 players. Quality players, but who have yet to show they are a threat to get to Top 8 consistently, let alone win.
If you think someone is poorly ranked, just give me their results that you think moves them in one direction or another and I will adjust from there. For now a lot is debatable, specifically in the A to B range.
As we get more data, We will probably add a B-/C tier as we move some of the B and A- players down due to lack of consistency.
What do you think?

I thought it would be fun to rank players based on their perceived community reception, in addition to their skill. Due to the timing, summit of power placement influences the list rather heavily, in addition to the majors before it. Please suggest more players that you think should be in the heel and babyheel lists as I couldn't think of many. Enjoy :)
Babyface Tier List
(people enjoy them winning, like Hulk Hogan)
S+: Kevin Arnold (HGG)
S/S-:
A+: Leffen, Go1, Yohosie
B: Dekillsage, Dogura, Apologyman, Doza
C+: Kazunoko, Supernoon
C: Lord Knight, Moke, Fenritti, Teemo
Heel Tier List
(people cheer them to lose, like Triple H)
S: Punk
A-: PerfectLegend
B: Cloud805
C: ChrisG, Reynald
BabyHeel Tier List
(A babyheel is like The Rock. A shit talker bad guy that people want to win)
S: Sonicfox
A: Nakkiel
THE BIG SKILL TIER LIST
S: Go1, Sonicfox, HGG
S-: Dogura, Fenritti
A+: ChrisG, Reynald, Kazunoko
A: Leffen, Cloud805, Dekillsage, ApologyMan, Double L, Nakkiel, Moke
A-: brkrdave, Teemo, Tatsunical, 2GB Combo, Fame96, Supernoon, LordKnight, Doza
B: Yohosie, Punk, Alioune, NicoMaki, RogueYoshi, Rico Suave, GroverDP, Supernoon
edit - swapped brkrdave and yohosie, supernoon up 1, lordknight down 1, added doza

Its a global weekend for competition, with major tournaments being held in Rennes, (FR), Victoria (AU) and Toronto (CA). Catch all the (tentative) details on the action below!

Tournament information	CPT Ranking	Points for 1st	Number of Attendees	Notable Attendees
Stunfest 2018	Premier	700	238	Infiltration, Fujimara, Daigo, Fuudo, Luffy, Dorgua, Kazunoko, Punk, Haitani
BAM 10	Ranking	150	129	Tokido, Verloren, Xian, Oil King, Jeondding
Toryuken 7	Ranking	150	55	Nuckledu, Problem X, Justin Wong, Marn

 

Brackets and Streaming info:

All times provided are EST. You can see the local times listed in the links above.
Global Time Zone Converter
 

Smash.gg brackets	Twitch Link	Start Times	Other Notable Games	Other Notable Attendees
Stunfest 2018	CapcomFighters	Pools: Saturday at 5am, Top 8: Sunday at 1.30pm	DBFZ	Go1, Dogura, ChrisG, Kazunoko, Moke, Momochi, Punk, xiaohai
BAM 10	NewGamePlusTV	Pools: Friday at 8pm, Semi-Finals: Saturday at 5am, Top 8: Saturday at 10.30pm	Tekken 7	JDCR, KKokkoma, Knee, Saint, LowHigh, Take, Qudans, Chanel, Noroma, Jeondding
Toryuken 7	Toronto Top Tiers	Pools:Saturday at 12pm, Top 8: Sunday at 6pm	N/A	Teemo, Joey Fury, PepperySplash, Tenma, Nuckledu, Justin Wong,

-Tekken 7 at BAM 10 is a Master Event for the Tekken World Tour. First place gets 300 points
-Several notable attendees may be entering SFV and/or other games as well
Point Distribution for CPT
Point Distribution for TWT

Other Featured Games

Lastly, an assortment of games, exposés and festival events will be held at all three locations. You can see the (extensive) list of activities on the respective Smash.gg pages, but there should be something for everybody. Full Event schedules can be found here
Stunfest 2018
BAM 10
Toryuken 7
Here is a Twitter version/translation of the schedules for Stunfest and BAM

Yesterday, I made a post introducing this tournament, and it definitely lived up to the hype. This was a 120 man major with all of Japan's top talent (except Kazunoko, RIP) and even a few international guests. Unlike the American majors we're used to, this tournament was single elim and randomly seeded. If a player loses once, they're gone.
VOD links:

Pools on OpenRec

Finals on OpenRec | Finals on Youtube (thanks u/3510_)

Timestamps are in the youtube description

Bracket

Note: To watch VODs on OpenRec, you do not need to be a premium member, though I do think you need a free account. You're limited to watching two VODs per day.

SPOILERS BELOW

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First, a quick pool recap (notable players in each pool are listed here). The players were randomly divided into 8 pools and 1 winner from each pool was able to advance to top 8.

• Dogura was eliminated in Round 2 by a player I've never heard of before - コロッサス/ Colossus. I looked him up on twitter, and it seems he plays Broly, Black, and 16. This happened offstream.
• Leffen was eliminated in Round 2 by Waka, a well-known netplayer who plays point SS Vegeta/16/Black. Waka lost to Menma in pool finals, 1-2.
• BNBBN took out Teen Gohan god Tahichi and made finals of his pool. He then lost a close set to Fenrich (which was streamed).
• Matoi beat Dragon Ball fighing Day winner Masayan, but then lost to Mokemoti 1-2 in pool finals.
• Pakka, Japan's best only Piccolo, elimiated Souji in pools 2-1.
• Korean Wrestling Man and Moke were both DQ'd from the same pool. The finals of that pool were Verdane (Broly/Cell/Goku) and Tachikawa (18/Hit/Frieza), one of the most unique finals in terms of character variety.
• Superboy (Ginyu/Bardock/Goku) eliminated Garireo (Bardock/Black/16) on stream. The first game was incredibly close - down to their last Gokus. Superboy then ran over Garireo with Ginyu for the next two games.
• Superboy went on to fight Acqua in the winners finals of that pool. Unfortunately, the Ginyu mirror wasn't streamed. Superboy won 2-1.
• Japan's best Krillin, Ikoan, made it to finals of his pool, taking out Inuchiyo (Double Gohan/Goku) on the way. He then fell to Kaimart (Vegito/Kid Buu/Teen Gohan).

Before top 8, each player drew a random number to decide the order of the bracket. For example, Superboy drew "1" and Menma drew "2", so they had to fight in the first found of top 8.
Quarterfinals stacked up as follows:

• Superboy (Ginyu/Bardock/SS Goku) vs Menma (Kid Buu/Bardock/SS Vegeta)
• Mokemoti (Gotenks/16/Bardock) vs Fenritti (Cell/16/SS Vegeta)
• Pakka (A Gohan/Piccolo/SS Goku) vs Verdane (Cell/Broly/SS Goku)
• Kaimart (Vegito/Kid Buu/Teen Gohan) vs GO1 (Cell/Bardock/SS Vegeta)

Two matches were run simultaneously to speed things along. While Superboy vs Menma was streamed, Mokemoti vs Fenrich ran offstream mostly (good call on their part, showing the characters that are actually exciting to watch). Superboy lost the first game to Menma, but he took a breather and brought it back convincingly in the next two games. Once his Ginyu gets started, it's very difficult to stop his momentum. Superboy moved on to semis.
They cut to the end of Mokemoti vs Fenritti, which showed a close game that Fenritti's Vegeta was able to clutch out. Fenritti moved on to semis.
Up next was Pakka vs Verdane and Kaimart vs GO1. While Kaimart and GO1 were getting set up, they streamed the first match of Verdane vs Pakka - it was a close game which Pakka won.
Rather than showing the second game, they cut to Kaimart vs GO1, which was a set for the ages. Game 1 started....and Kaimart just began mauling GO1 with Teen Gohan and Vegito. He won the first game free and had a great start in the second game. GO1 ended up taking that second game, but it was close. When the third game started, it looked like Game 1 all over over again with GO1 repeatedly getting opened up by SSGSS "no mixups" Vegito and Teen "no neutral" Gohan. Kaimart didn't lose a character, didn't use sparking, and never played Kid Buu on point.
Kaimart pulled off the biggest upset of the tournament and advanced to semis, and Pakka finished his set against Verdane offstream, also advancing to semis.
Semifinals were:

• Superboy (Ginyu/Bardock/SS Goku) vs Fenritti (Cell/16/SS Vegeta)
• Pakka (A Gohan/Piccolo/SS Goku) vs Kaimart (Vegito/Kid Buu/Teen Gohan)

Fenritti opened game 1 against Superboy by killing Ginyu immediately, and by the time Superboy was able to do damage to Fenritti's team, it was too late. Games 2 and 3 were a different story - Superboy's Ginyu controlled the matches and ran over Fenritti entirely. He won both of those games convincingly.
Pakka vs Kaimart was another ridiculous set. They're from the same scene and often train and compete against each other - Pakka has previously said that sets between them can go either way depending on what day it is. In game 1, Kaimart found his anchor Teen Gohan all alone with no teammates, health, or sparking against Pakka's full health team with sparking....and Teen Gohan just got angry and went further beyond. It was a clinic.
In game 2, Kaimart had a much better start, but Pakka brought it back with his Piccolo and Goku. Game 3 on the other hand was almost a repeat of game 1. Pakka perfected Kaimart's Vegito and Kid Buu, leaving Gohan all alone (though he had sparking this time). Two level 5s later, Kaimart completed his second Teen Gohan solo OCV in a single FT2 set.
Finals were:

• Superboy (Ginyu/Bardock/SS Goku) vs Kaimart (Vegito/Kid Buu/Teen Gohan)

Kaimart was able effectively shut down Superboy's Ginyu before any real damage was done, and he took the entire tournament.

Congratulations to Kaimart!

He's unranked, unsponsored, and relatively unknown in the west, but he won Japan's biggest DBFZ major since KSB using Vegito (a character that's never made top 8 in a major before), Kid Buu (now fair and balanced), and Teen Gohan (banned in America). He now has a strong claim to the titles of best Vegito AND best Teen Gohan.
If you don't know where Kaimart came from, he's an old school player of poverty games like Melty Blood and Aquapazza. Before the release of Vegito, Kaimart was a nonentity in offline DBFZ - he only played online. Gotenks was his main character. He picked up Vegito because he saw some synergy with Gotenks, and a couple of weeks later, he went to his first Fighting Tuesday and won the whole thing with Cell, Gotenks, and Vegito. He repeated that process for five or six consecutive weeks - not winning every week, but making it to grand finals every week. Over time, his team evolved: he dropped Gotenks for Kid Buu, then he dropped Cell for Teen Gohan.
His first test against A-tier players came at Japan's Battle for the Strongest Region, a 3v3 regional team tournament. He and Pakka qualified to be on Team Tokyo, which was captained by Kazunoko. Everyone was expecting Kazunoko to completely carry the team, but Kaimart ended up taking convincing games from Dogura and Fenritti of Team Osaka.
Despite the strong showing, he was unable to go to EVO (or any overseas tournaments) due to work and being unsponsored. Thus, TGS was the first DBFZ major he's competed in. He will be going to SEAM, so best of luck to him there.
To see more of his matches, search for his name on youtube (I know u/Davechuck uploads a lot of his online matches) or go through the archives of Fighting Tuesday, streamed weekly on twitch.tv/animeilluminati

I understand that with the results at FR, we are once again faced with the dilemma of not winning against the Far East in terms of SF. This post is going to be my breakdown of this situation, taking notes from both USFIV and what little we have seen of SFV. All of this is just my opinion and speculation. It isn't meant to demean or belittle anyone's accomplishments, say they aren't good, etc. This also isn't to say that I think the US is completely weak and Japan reigns supreme. We took out multiple heavy hitters at Final Round to include Momochi, Kazunoko and Reiketsu. It's just an in depth and honest look at the juxtaposition between the Asian and American scenes.
Why We Tend To Be Weaker - The Online Mentality: I understand there were plenty of players that got their start online in Ultra (KBrad, Strider, etc) but that was also a different game. A game based on setups, OSs and unblockables thrives in the online environment where you develop almost a cookie cutter way of winning against throngs of players. This can (and did) translate well into offline competition for Ultra but as stated that game is vastly different from SFV. As far as we can see, you wont be able to just use setups until you win.
A way around this in SFV will be the introduction of best of three for ranked. This will train people to get into the tournament mindset and improve their neutral and set play options. When it's just one match, players fall into patterns since the opponent only gets two rounds to see what the player is doing. You win quickly with the same setups or tech and move onto the next random opponent and start doing the exact same thing. With best of three, they have time to adapt and come up with a counter. This in turn forces the player to go outside his normal one and done comfort zone and not just rely on the same small bag of setups that they have / use.
Supremacy At Weeklies: It is no secret that at each major scene in America, it is typically two or three individuals who consistently win the weeklies. This isn't bad by any means and if anything shows just who is maintaining their level of play above their other local competitors. But that is the key word here: maintaining. If you are always good enough to come out on top of the same pool of competitors this, to me, conveys two simple facts: One, your competition is not getting any better and two, you are most likely not getting any better as your competition is more than likely stagnating underneath you. If the status quo of who wins remains unchanged then that more than likely can be said for the skill level of that local scene.
Many factors can come into play here. Within the recent weeks, it was very clear that there are strong players in the American scenes who just didn't want to help one another. Whether this has or will change in the future won't change the fact that there was this stigma at one point. The talk of secret tech, as well as some players flat out refusing to regularly play each other speaks volumes about this scenario. This conveys the message that these players would rather remain a step above their local scene in order to keep their chances high of remaining the winner of the weeklies tournaments, and I'm sure I don't have to point out how foolish this is. Why wouldn't you want to pool matchup and tech knowledge together and bring the results of those findings towards a major rather than "guaranteeing" the winning of a small amount of cash each week? Is it better to be the king of a town, or to be the king of a country?
Not all US players are like this. Most notably Justin Wong and PR Rog will regularly explain what they did to win, or why what they did that round worked. Sometimes they will even do this mid tournament and tell their opponent what they did and the theory behind it. Even with more rounds to come before a winner is determined they are willing to share what could amount to the secret to beating them in that set. This isn't to call people out that are accused of hoarding or hiding tech. It's merely describing the willingness to have these discussions and how it will contribute to the overall development of our country's players.
Why They Tend To Be Stronger - The Difference In Lifestyle There is a distinct difference in the determination that Eastern players have compared to the US and I believe this lifestyle was bred in the Japanese arcade scene. Some think that our local weeklies were an acceptable substitute but they are not. You will never replace the learning mecca that is a bustling arcade. Day in and day out they were crowded around the cabinet, two players battle it out for all to see, but also share. It is this lifestyle, coupled with their drive to become better to an overall stronger pool of players in a country.
My friend Derek travelled to Japan for a small amount of time and he explained this thoroughly. Although SFV doesn't have cabinets, the lifestyle forged by Japan's arcade scene transitions well into their continued dedication to improving in SFV: "I thought it was interesting that Japan's whole structure lends itself to using your lunch break to leave the office, take a train to the arcades, play an hour of street fighter eating your lunch in between games, then taking the subway back to work, just to take the train back to the arcades when work ended. The most casual there are constantly playing against other people, and a lot of times you are just putting your yen into a row of machines that's back to back to another row of machines, every single time you play the game there is a chance that you are going to play a killer, and it's very difficult to cherry pick who you play. Along with playing local all the time as opposed to the web, it just feels like they can look at that game super different.
I also think as Americans we think sharing tech means reaching out to the community and showing how tech works or what it means, but I have a theory that they share tech way more casual then that, because at the arcades there a loud crowd forms of people who are trying to get to the machines and play, and they were always talking. I speak no Japanese, so the hell if I know, but it's super realistic to think they are talking about the tech they see or the matchup at least a little bit of the time, so I think they have a chance to propagate street fighter tech at a much more casual level.
Also in Singapore they had arcades that gravitated different types of players, and they had like beginner type arcades and intermediate and expert type arcades, so you could always find someone your skill level to level up with. Americans lack that kind of accessibility to sparring partners.
Just some notes I have from my clearly limited sample size when traveling."
The lengths they go to in order to barely squeeze an hour in at an arcade during the work day speaks of the dedication some Japanese have towards this game. I highly doubt you would see this in America even if there was an arcade scene. That being said, I don't think for even a second that just because they had arcades and we don't is why they tend to be stronger and have more drive to perform better. It's just that their approach to improving in this game is supported by their lifestyle from their days in the arcade scene.
Higher Level Training Partners: It is well known that one of the easier / quicker ways of getting better is consistently playing people who are better than you. And who better to play consistently than Mago, Daigo, Tokido and the like? Again, not saying that the US has weak players compared to them, but to constantly play against players of that caliber can only lead to you becoming even stronger. Our best are spread thin across the US and if you don't have access to a strong scene you are at a disadvantage. There are some like Infiltration and Xian who overcame this but their drive and natural ability made up for it I believe
This isn't to say that all is lost. Clearly if you regularly play against our best and try to learn from your shortcomings you will, in turn, improve. However as I noted earlier there are some players in our country that are hesitant to grind out sets outside of weekly tournament play. In addition, since we are clearly a level slightly below that of our Asian competition you understand that our grind will take longer in order to catch up.
In closing, I don't think we need to try and copy their ways in order to become as strong as they are. Their style of learning and sharing is their own, and merely emulating it doesn't mean we will become stronger as a result. The game is still in it's infancy, and maybe NCR this weekend will paint a different picture than Final Round did.

Final Round 20

• Date: March 10-12, 2017
• Tier: Premier Tournament
• Final Round 20 | Preview Thread
• This thread will remain sticked until the tournament ends. Comments will be sorted by new.

Schedule

.	US Pacific	US Eastern	UTC/GMT	CET
Friday (Pools)	3PM	6PM	23:00	0:00 (SAT)
Saturday (Pools)	7AM	10AM	15:00	16:00
Saturday (Top 64)	11AM	2PM	19:00	20:00
Sunday (Top 8)	6PM	9PM	1:00 (MON)	2:00 (MON)

• Complete Schedule

Top Contenders

Player	Team	Main Char	Player	Team	Main Char
NuckleDu	Liquid	Mika	Tokido	EchoFox	Akuma
Momochi	Echofox	Ken	Haitani	Grapht	Necalli
Kazunoko	Godsgarden	Cammy	Daigo Umehara	HyperX	Ryu
PR Balrog	Cygames	Balrog	Justin Wong	Echofox	Karin
Ricki Ortiz	EG	Chun li	MOV	Grapht	Chun li
Chris T	DNL	Ken	K-Brad	EG	Cammy
Oil King	Zowie	Rashid	Gamerbee	Zowie	Necalli
Punk	PG	Karin	Smug	PIE	Balrog
Dogura	Osaka	Urien	Problem X	mousesports	Birdie
GO1	Osaka	Chun li	Fuudo	Grapht	Mika
Phenom	BX3	Necalli	Itabashi Zangief	DTN	Gief
Chris G	EG	Guile	Fchamp	Splyce	Dhalsim
Xian	Razer	Fang	Verloren	KFGC	Cammy
Mago		Karin

• Check the full list of attendees for more!

Useful Links

• Twitter: Capcom Fighters | Final Round
• English Stream: Capcom Fighters
• Brackets
• Liquipedia Fighters Page

Tournament Updates

• Pools are locked in! Final Number of entrants: 468
• Stream is on! Tune in at https://www.twitch.tv/capcomfighters
• Pools results
• Top 64 just started! https://www.twitch.tv/capcomfighters
• Top 8 is decided! Top 64 Peaked at over 48k viewers. Don't forget to tune in tomorrow:

Winners Side

			vs
TL	NuckleDu	Mika	-	Ibuki	Xian	RZR
WFX	801 Strider	Laura	-	Mika	Fuudo	Grapht

Losers Side

			vs
KFGC	Verloren	Cammy	-	Cammy	K-Brad	EG
DTN	Itabashi Zangief	Zangief	-	Akuma	Tokido	EF

What changed in your minds after that Leffen vs GO1 and after that Yamcha domination at CEO? I'm gonna do my tier list later, but now, I want to know your opinion
S: Go1, Sonicfox, Kaz
S-: Dogura, Fenritti and HGG
A+: ChrisG, Leffen
A: , Cloud805, Dekillsage, ApologyMan, Nakkiel, Moke
My tier list is pretty small, I just wanna talk about the highlights
I don't know if I can put Kazunoko in S tier, he was pretty dominant and he run was even better than Hookganggod at SoP
ChrisG has been off for a while, that was the first Major we didn't see him in top 8 and he changed his team recently, I still think he deserves A+
Leffen had an amazing performance at CEO, he almost sent GO1 to losers, he did better than any player on the tiers bellow, so I think he deserves at least A+

I've managed to watch at least some of almost every CPT event this year. I'm also a long time Street Fighter fan, so I've been familiar with some of these players for over a decade. So I thought I'd throw out my thoughts on what I expect from each player, as well as some observations about some of the first round match-ups. The below list follows the order of the brackets.
Big caveat: I'm terrible at predictions. You could give me 10 chances to fill out brackets, and I might get the final four right once. So take all of the following with the ultimate grain of salt.
Caveat 2: I just got a new mechanical keyboard, so typing is fun. In other words, this is a lot more long winded than it needs to be.
Infiltration vs. Humanbomb - Infiltration is obviously going to be a heavy favorite in this one. The question is, does he stick with Nash throughout the tournament, or does he dip into his roster of alts. I wouldn't be surprised if he starts out with an alt in the first round or two. I also wouldn't be surprised if he sticks with Nash unless and until someone blows that character up for a round or two. I think we're all curious to learn whether he's been sandbagging the past few months, or if the competition has just caught up to him. I'm not sure anyone, including Infiltration, really knows the answer to that right now.
Humanbomb is good enough to take 3 of 5 over Infiltration, but it's not likely to happen very often. If he plays out of his mind and catches his opponents off guard, I could see him making it two or three rounds deep. But anything beyond that will probably require the run of his life.
Luffy vs. Mago - I think this is one of the hardest first round matches to call. I'm leaning ever so slightly toward Luffy just based upon Mika's extreme explosiveness, but absolutely no result would surprise me.
Luffy has had a pretty quiet year, and I think he gets under-rated by some because he's European. But I would never discount a former Evo champ. And Mika is a character who can blow anybody up in the right hands. I don't think Luffy has looked strong enough this year to win the whole thing, but I wouldn't be at all shocked if he made it to Top 4. Then again, I wouldn't be shocked if he went 0-2.
Mago has enough talent to beat anybody, and not have it be a surprise. He also has enough talent to steamroll an entire tournament if he's on. The question is, were the results of the Asian finals (which he won) just a one-time spike in his performance, or is it his turn to dominate? Mago is just one of those guys who you're not surprised to see go out within a few rounds, and you're not surprised to see him win the whole thing.
MOV vs. Brolynho - MOV seems to be the ultimate sleeper this year. A lot of people consider him the best player with the best character (Chun), yet it's unusual to hear him declared a favorite going into any particular tournament. Perhaps that's because most of his points this year seemed to come in more modest ranking tournaments, compared to the Premiers. At the biggest events, there just always seemed to be a player or two who looked a lot stronger than MOV. Based upon that, I'm guessing MOV knocks out at least a few players, but eventually falls to a couple of players who end up in the Top 4.
Brolynho has shown he can beat a legend, and he plays a well rounded character who's capable of giving anyone fits. But I just don't think he has enough experience in a field this stacked with killers to make a deep run. He's good enough to pull off an upset or two, but I think he's a few steps away from being a threat to win a tournament of this magnitude.
Daigo vs. K-Brad - Which Daigo are we going to get? He's trounced the competition at some events, and meekly fallen at others. His season has reminded me of MOV in a lot of ways. He's scored a lot of points at regional events, but there always seemed to be at least one person a step above him at the premiers. I kind of expect a mediocre tournament from Daigo. But would anyone truly be shocked if he wins the whole thing?
K-Brad has put in a lot of work this year, and has recently pushed himself into the "strong threat to anyone" category. But I don't think he's yet shown he has enough to challenge for the win at a tournament like this. He's another one of those guys who I think can call the tournament a success if he manages to win a couple of rounds.
NuckleDu vs. XsK - NuckleDu pushed himself into the strong contender category the last month of the season. He probably has the best 1-2 character punch of any player in the tournament with his Guile/Mika duo. His biggest problem now may be that everyone knows he's a serious contender. We'll see how he does now that he's got a bunch of killers actually practicing specifically for him.
XsK Samurai has had a tough time against Du this year, so he's probably one of the biggest underdogs to even make it out of the first round in winners. He's good enough to pick off some of the mid-tier players at this tournament, but it will probably take a miracle run for him to make it deep into the tournament. The fact that he plays Ryu may hurt him more than help. It's a strong character, but it's a character everyone is extremely familiar with. Against this crowd, that's not a good thing.
Xian vs. Chris T - I love watching Xian. I love watching Fang. I love watching Xian play Fang. What I don't love is watching Xian getting blown up because he plays Fang. Xian has been the most consistently strong player in the world at the Capcom Cup, finishing top 3 every year the event has been held. Sadly, I just don't see him continuing that streak this year. Basically, unless Xian way out-talents his opponent, he's going to be an underdog simply due to his character. His one hope may be that there are a lot of Kens around him in the bracket, and that's a character he's had a decent amount of success against. If this game were perfectly balanced, Xian would be one of my favorites to win the whole thing. But playing Season 1 Fang, it would take a miracle run.
Chris T - Perhaps more than any other player in the tournament, Chris T places the blame for his losses on outside forces (e.g. character match-ups). That is not the recipe for success. Ken is explosive enough that Chris has the potential to pull off an upset or two, but I don't believe he's shown himself to be a serious threat at a tournament like this. And given that he's been dedicating himself to his schoolwork instead of the game (good choice), he seems a likely candidate to be eliminated in the early going.
Xiao Hai vs. Problem X Xiao Hai has to be one of the top 3 or 4 favorites to win the whole thing. He's won a lot this year, including some very stacked tournaments. If he's on, he's at worst a coin flip against anyone in the world. The only real question is whether he can maintain his mental focus and energy through one more tournament this year.
Problem X plays Alex, and that alone makes him worth rooting for. The problem is, neither Problem X nor Alex have really shown much against the very highest competition this year. One of the lowest ranked players playing one of the lowest rated characters (at least among the characters who will be played at this tournament), Problem X is probably one of the most likely candidates to go 0-2.
Momochi vs. Mister Crimson - Momochi seems to be a popular pick to place top 3, and I'm not quite sure why. He's been relatively quiet almost all year, with his second place finish at Brooklyn Beatdown being the only result of note since July. He certainly had a ton of success at SFIV, but there are at least a half dozen other players at this event who could say the same thing. And a few of those have had a lot more success this year. So while Momochi is one of those guys who's capable of winning the whole thing, I just haven't seen enough from him this year to consider him a favorite.
Mister Crimson is another player playing a non-top tier character. Which makes him worth rooting for. It also makes him a big underdog to win more than a couple of matches. The very best players in the world would have an extremely hard time winning this tournament if they mained Dhalsim, so I think it's optimistic to believe Mister Crimson can take even a couple of matches.
Tokido vs. DR Ray Tokido is probably the final "favorite" to win this entire tournament. Taking the year as a whole, no one has done better start to finish.
DR Ray is another of those guys who you should root for simply based upon character selection. Having said that, he's got the lowest amount of global points in the tournament (tied with Humanbomb), and he got in via the easiest Premier event (by far). It'd be exciting as hell to see him pull off an upset or two, but he's probably the most likely person at this tournament to go 0-2. Based upon character choice and experience, he's an underdog against pretty much the entire rest of the field.
Eita vs. Go1 - This may be the second hardest first-round match-up to call. They've played each other a whopping 8 times in CPT events, with Eita winning 5. Eita always seems to start off big tournaments very strong, but tends to run out of steam as the fields whittle.
Go1 has always left me wanting more this year. At times he looks strong enough to beat anybody, but it seems like often as not he loses the close ones. Still, he plays an extremely strong Chun, and that makes him a threat to go deep.
GamerBee vs. Ricki Ortiz - GamerBee has been a hard one to figure out this year. Early in the year it looked like he might not even qualify for the CPT final. Then he racked up a string of strong finishes, but still looked unfamiliar with a lot of match-ups. Then he won two premiers in a row. And then he suddenly looked very mortal again. I don't think he's quite on point enough to take this tournament, but he's one of those guys who always seems to go deep in tournaments like this.
Ricki seems like she's still just trying to make things click. Her Chun can go from looking like she can compete with anyone to being blown up from one match to the next. I think she's capable of winning a few rounds, but I don't think her game is at the level it would need to be to truly challenge for the win.
Julio vs. Yukadon - I suspect this might be the number 1 "upset" pick amongst those who fill out brackets. Julio is a top 10 seed, and Yukadon only qualified due to drop-outs. But I'll bet Yukadon ends up being favored by most. Which is kind of interesting, given that he really hasn't done much at all since his top 3 Evo finish. I think his Nash has been somewhat exposed, and thanks to Infiltration, no one is going to be sleeping on his character.
Julio is another one of those players who I think is capable of a "middling result," but hasn't really shown himself to be a threat against a super-deep field. I think he's capable of winning a few matches, but he'd start being a heavy underdog as the field narrowed.
Justin Wong vs. Sako - Another very intriguing first round match-up. Until he won a very tough Asian ranking event, many rightfully wondered if Justin would do more than feast on weaker NA and LA competition. But he pulled off some pretty big wins the second half of the year. He's one of those guys who could go a long way if he gets some favorable match-ups, but I don't think he's proven he can handle quite as many killers as will be at this tournament. And the CPT finals have never been his strong suit, so I don't think anyone would be shocked if he flamed out early.
Sako really came on strong toward the end of the year. But he's yet another one of those players who seems capable of beating any one individual, but probably not strong enough to take an entire tournament like this. Still, he's one of those players who can knock off a favorite, and everyone who draws him will have to be nervous.
Haitani vs. Filipino Champ - As noted above, I love me some Dhalsim, and Champ's is probably the most entertaining ones out there to watch. But something tells me Haitani is just going to blow him the hell up. I'm rooting for Champ, but this just seems like a horrible draw for him.
Early indications were that Haitani was going to be one of the handful of best SFV players. But he's cooled down quite a bit since the early going. Necalli is so solid I think he's a big threat to go deep. But on the flip side, I think a lot of the best players have somewhat figured out the character, so I don't think Haitani can be considered a favorite to win the entire thing. I expect a strong tournament from him, just not one that ends with him winning the whole thing.
Fuudo vs. Ryan Hart - I look at Fuudo the same way I look at Momochi. I will never count out a past Evo champ, but I'm not quite sure why so many people are predicting him to go super far. He's one of only a few qualified players who did not win any tournaments this year. We've seen almost nothing of him since Evo. Mika is extremely dangerous in any given match, but I think enough players have figured her out that it's difficult to win an entire tournament with her. I wouldn't be shocked if Fuudo wins the whole damn thing, but he's actually pretty high up on my list of players who are likely to be upset out of the tournament sooner rather than later. I'm not betting he'll go 0-2 or anything like that, but I'm also not really betting on him being there on day 2.
Ryan Hart. Ryan had a pretty quiet year, all things considered. He's had a strong run of upsets at the CPT finals in the past, and he's capable of doing it again. But I don't think he's found his peak game in SFV, meaning he's probably more likely to be eliminated sooner rather than later.
Phenom vs. Kazunoko - The last of the really intriguing first round match-ups. Phenom is probably the ultimate "dark horse favorite," if there is such a thing. He's won some very big matches this year, including an entire stinking Premier. I think he's probably made the biggest name for himself out of anyone in the world this year. I wouldn't place him in the highest-tier of likely winners, but I think he squeezes in the next tier below that. He's a threat to everyone.
And then there's Kazunoko. He won this event last year, and looked ridiculously dominant doing so. He hasn't found that same groove in SFV, but would anyone really be surprised if he turned it on again? I think he's been too inconsistent to really be considered a favorite (prior to the drop-outs, he was the last player to qualify via global points), and if we limit ourselves to just SFV, we really shouldn't even expect him to go that deep. But when he's on, he's a monster.
Favorites - Here are my top 4 picks to win it all. Hardly any shockers here. These are not in any particular order.
Infiltration
Tokido
Xiao Hai
NuckleDu
Next Tier - I think these players would need a break or two in who they draw, but any of them could win if they get those breaks.
Mago
GamerBee
Daigo
Phenom
Momochi
Fuudo
Haitani
Wild Cards - I really don't expect these players to win, but having said that, I think they have enough talent to pull it off if they have a really good day and catch a few breaks.
Luffy
Kazunoko
MOV
Justin Wong
Miracle Runs - Run this tournament 20 - 30 times, these guys might win one of them.
Xian (man it kills me to put him this low . . . buff Fang please)
K-Brad
Eita
Go1
Sako
Everyone Else - As for everyone else, I think they'd have to play at least a couple levels beyond anything they've showed us just to make it to the final 4. While that's not impossible, I just haven't seen anything from them this year (or before) which leads me to think they can make it all the way through a tournament like this. But we'll see!