06/17/02

Street Fighter Alpha 2 Tournament Wrap Up

Capcom Pentathlon Game 3

The format for this tournament was as follows;  3 pools of players play everyone else in there pool.  The best winning record automatically advances to the finals.  The second best record goes to a wild card pool.  The third best would advance to the Last chance pool.  In the last chance pool only two would advance to the wild card pool.  In the wild card pool the top three would advance to the finals.   The winner would be determined by another round robin in the final pool.  Here are the results;

After rather small turn outs for the previous Capcom Pentathlon games I was nervous about this one.  As it turned out we had 15 people show up to make for a very fun tournament.  

Pool 1

Right out of the gate we started with the match of Dayne and Alli.  This would end up to be the one that would decide to go to the finals and who wouldn't as neither would loose another match.  After a very close first round Dayne went on to win.  After the dust settled.  Neither Jimmy or Jacob had a win.  This would change for one of them as they would go against each other for pride.  Jacob came out the winner in a very close match that came down to the last hit in the last round.

Pool 2

Once again the first match in this pool would be the one that made the difference.  Bryce and Jake started things off.  Bryce used Chun-Lie to trap Jake in the corner and attacked aggressively to beat down Jake's Ken.  

Pool 3

This pool saved the deciding match for last.   Jai and Matt C were both undefeated going in to the last round.  The match had to be decided in the final round were Jai moved on to the finals and Matt would have to battle his way to the finals.   Dan, who arrived a little late would find his back against the wall as he would go to the last chance pool.

Last Chance 

Due to the wild card advancing 3 people to the finals we would take two from the last chance pool.  With only three people this would become an episode of the Weakest Link.  Dan and Carl would go on to the wild card.

Wildcard Pool 

While the finals are always dramatic, this particular Wildcard Pool proved to be just as exciting as the finals.  Dan would have a rematch with Matt C who he lost to in the prelims.  This time it would be Dan who gained the win.  The real drama would be with Alli.   At this point in the Pentathlon Alli was the leader over Bryce by three points.  Bryce was already in the finals and was looking to finish strong.  Alli needed to get to the finals to earn any points at all.  Alli beat out Carl, but needed to get another win to move on.   Jake and Alli have a rivalry and it continued in their match that I called the Goggles Vs. the Sunglasses match.  Jake with is sunglasses once again would due battle against Alli, but this time Alli brought of all things swimming goggles to answer Jakes fashion style.  In the previous two Pentathlon games it was Alli who would be the winner over Jake.  This time Jake would be the one to get the last laugh as he would beat Alli and go on to the finals leaving Alli with his back against the wall to face Matt and Dan.   Alli would put up a fight against Dan as he took the first round.  Dan however came back and won.  Alli would not fair any better against Matt either.  So for the first time in the Pentathlon Alli would not be in the finals.

Final Pool 

Something I found very interesting was the fact that all three of the players who advanced from pool three were in the finals.  This showed that pool three was indeed the hardest pool to advance from.  Dan who started in the last chance pool went 4/0 in the Wild Card round.  Matt C was right behind him.  Dayne was the only one who didn't have any rematches from his pool, as Jake and Bryce were both from pool 2.   

Jake Vs. Jai 

While it wasn't really that great of the match I do have to take note that this was one of the loudest matches, at least when it came to the trash talking.  Jai likes to talk during his matches.  Jake rose to the occasion with a lot of talking of his own. Jai would beat Jake in two strait rounds.   

Dayne Vs. Bryce

This was the next match that I found interesting.  Not due to the game play however, (Though it was a good match), but rather the fact that after Bryce took off his watch Dayne would not be out done and took off his ring. Dayne won the first round after getting a lead on Bryce then forcing Bryce to push the attack to close the gap.  In the second round Bryce would be the one to get the lead and then let time run out as Dayne was unaware of the count down.  In the third round both were a little more aggressive as Bryce would take the match.

Jai Vs. Dan

Jai beat Dan in the prelims and to this point still had not lost a match.  This would change however as Dan would loose the first round but win the next to rounds to come from behind to avenge his loss and give Jai his first loss.

Dan Vs. Matt C

In the prelims Matt got the win on Dan.  In the Wild Card Dan would get the win.  Now in the finals they would fight one more time in match that really mattered.   Matt would come out as the winner.  In the end this would be the only match that Dan would loose.

Bryce Vs. Jai

This was the final and most important match.  Jai had a loss to Dan, and Bryce also had a loss to Dan.  Dan however had a loss to Matt.  Dan had a final record of 4/1.  Both Jai and Bryce had records of 3/1.  With Matt's win on Dan,  Matt had an overall record of 3/2.   What this meant was the winner of this would be tied for first, and the looser would drop to a tie for third.  With Alli out of the finals and no other threat in the over all pentathlon present,  Bryce would come out of this with the lead in the pentathlon.  Now it was just a matter of how big the lead would be.  With a tie for third Bryce would have a 2 point lead over Alli.  If he won however the tie for first would put him in a comfortable 6 point lead.  The match turned out not to be as exciting as the importance of it however as Bryce would win in two strait rounds.   

Congrats to Bryce and Dan on the tie for the points.  Dan would go on to beat Bryce for the first place prize money, but the points would remain split at 9 each.  I think it was really great to see such competition in the finals, and proof that the Last Chance pool DOES make a difference.  

Pentathlon Standings as of 06/17/02

Also I would like to take a moment to give a special congratulations to Chris Tucker on becoming a new father.  Chris was unable to attend this tournament due to the timing of the birth.  Proof that there are things more important than video games.  Congrats to Chris and Jeannie. 

-Shawn