Asia East Joins the CPT Fight

You can meet strong Street Fighter players all over the world, but still, some regions traditionally have a better representation at top-level tournaments. Easter Asia is one of such.

On May 15-16, Capcom Pro Tour Street Fighter V matches took place in Asia East. It’s the first qualifying event here, and if you like fighting esports, you don’t want to miss it. Why? Here are some of the names, you might know from other SFV tourneys.

GamerBee - as a part of the Dynamite team, this guy finished 4th in Season 3 of Street Fighter League. He had quite a lot of great matches against some of the best players in the world.

During SF League Season 3, HotDog29 played in the team Psycho Shinobi, and Oil King was part of Team UYU. Both these guys have registered for CPT 2021 Asia East 1 as well.

Infiltration is another CPT participant. We haven’t seen him at big events recently, but you can’t underestimate the might of an EVO 2018 Japan champion. Infiltration finished 5th-6th at EVO Japan 2020.

CPT 2021 got more regional qualifiers, and Asia East players might benefit from this - in 2020, they had to compete against Japanese players, but now this country has its own tournaments. So, to earn a Capcom Cup slot, GamerBee, HotDog29, Oil King, Infiltration, and others don’t have to compete against Daigo or Gachikun - they might meet them at the final event, but that’s a different story.

Street Fighter V Esports - CPT 2021 Asia East 1 - Top 16

Street Fighter V Esports - CPT 2021 Asia East 1 - Top 8

***Update***

Capcom Pro Tour East Asia 1 is over (and what excellent matches it has delivered!) We recommend taking your time and enjoying the fights on video. And here are the results and our short recap.

Two things should be highlighted first:

• Asia East players use an impressive range of characters, including some pretty rare for top-level Street Fighter V events, such as Lucia, Juri, F.A.N.G, and Vega;
• Three Cammy players reached the Top 16 part, so the discussion about how overpowered she is going to continue.

Of course, the power of Cammy is something many people in the community are talking about. Still, it’s hard to tell whether this character wins because of a poor balance or because really strong players perfectly use her abilities.

Four players on the Winner side got pretty confident victories in Top 16 - 2:0s in four games. The Loser side had a bit more intense battles - most of the matches finished with 2:1.

CPT 2021 Asia East 1 - Top 16 brackets

The Top 8 part started with a super interesting mirror match - Cammy vs Cammy. The result proves that mastery of controlling the character is an important factor (NL won all three games and all six rounds)

Lucia and Juri, rare guests at such tournaments, had a tough match in Top 8, and Lucia won it only in a final round.

This battle of Infiltration vs Xiaobao got a continuation in the Losers Final. This time, it was a fight of Vega vs F.A.N.G. Infiltration lost one game and then took Juri again to win three games in a row. Probably, the decision of Xiaobao to stick to Vega is doubtful, and his switch to Lucia in the last game couldn’t save the situation.

A player to pay attention to is definitely NL. That joke of James Chen on the stream that NL stands for No Losses is so relevant for CPT East Asia 1! Before the Grand Final, this player won three out of three games and 17 rounds out of 18 (in the Top 16/8 parts). He experienced difficulties only in the match against Infiltration.

The Grand Final started as a match of Ed vs Cammy. After the first victorious game, NL started losing rounds after rounds, and even switching to Ryu couldn’t save this match for him.

The Grand Final Reset was a comeback of Cammy and NL - however strong Ed and Infiltration were in this match, NL won.

CPT 2021 Asia East 1 - Top 8 brackets

Capcom Pro Tour 2021 Asia East 1 - Top 8 players

The Grand Final battle gives a lot of info for the “Cammy is overpowered” discussion. Infiltration won quite a few rounds against this character while playing Ed. Three Cammy players in the Capcom Cup VIII (so far) - that’s a strong fact, but probably we should avoid quick judgments. 

Let’s wait for other CPT tourneys! The next one is CPT South America West, on May 22-23.

Three other CPT 2021 qualifiers finished recently, so we already know winners of these tournaments:

• CPT 2021 Japan 1
• CPT 2021 Central America West 1
• CPT 2021 North America West 1

DashFight had a chance to ask a few questions to two participants of Capcom Cup VIII. Please, check out our interviews with Mago from Japan and Nephew from North America West.

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