Guilty Gear Strive Top 8 Combo Breaker 2025 Recap

Clocking in at just over 600 competitors, GGST was one of the larger brackets for this year's Combo Breaker, even if it did come 200 players short of last year's attendance. Never the less, some of the best-known players in the scene flew to Chicago to prove their worth. UMISHO, Leffen, Nitro, among many others, were in attendance. 

Guilty Gear Strive Starting Top 8

Some of the notable matches before the top 8 proper were UMISHO vs Nitro, which resulted in Nitro being sent to the lower side of the bracket after a clean sweep loss against her. Leffen failed to advance to the top 8 on the back of a pair of close losses, first against Lord Knight, who did best the Swede in the upper side, while SQ edged out a 3-2 victory versus Leffen, who will only be able to repeat his last year's CB performance.

Upper Side Matches

The morning's opening match was UMISHO's Sin Kiske vs. Kshue's Johnny, which resulted in a clean sweep for last year's third-place UMISHO, who is closer to improving her performance in 2025 by advancing to the winners' finals. Jack vs Hotashi was the other opening match of the top 8, a Happy Chaos vs Nago matchup, one that Jack seemed well in tune for, causing Hotashi to consider a late switch to a bridge that would not arrive, ending in a 3-1 win for Jack.

At the winner finals, UMISHO attempted to claw back every round by Jack's momentum and gameplan with Happy Chaos against her Sin Kiske was too much and resulted in a 3-1 series.

Lower Side Matches

Nitro showed some preparation for his opening lower bracket match, as he dove into the series with Leo Whitefang against veteran Anime fighter Lord Knight, who lost the first two sets of the series before taking one himself, but it was all for naught, as Nitro closed it out 3-1. For her part, SQ's Ramlethal looked as deadly as she knocked out Leffen. There were high expectations for her next series versus Razzo, and she delivered, earning two wins before finishing the clean sweep and sending FlyQuest's Razzo home.

The second round of lowers began with Hotashi switching to Bridget against Nitro's Giovanna. He then went back to his Nago for the remainder of the series, to which Nitro swapped out to Jack-o for the 2-2 score and secured the win to move on to the lower semi-finals. Kshue would make short work of SQ, who had so far looked dominant in the lower bracket, in a clean 3-0 sweep to come up against Nitro. There, the Baiken vs Johnny matchup would go the distance, with Nitro eventually moving to Leo Whitefang and securing the win.

UMISHO entered the lower side finals to face a red-hot Nitro, who had already survived two 3-2 matches on his path. After several round 3 matches, the floodgates opened following Game 3's victory for UMISHO, who was now challenging for her first CB win after a 3rd place finish in 23, and 2nd place in 22.

Grand Finals

Setting the vibe for the grand finals was an incredible first set, going to round 3 and then finishing off with a sliver of health in favor of UMISHO's Sin Kiske, a feat she would repeat once more during game 4 to bring about a grand finals reset. She maintained the momentum on her side with a clean first set and then pulled back from the brink to reach series point in game 3, where she started with a perfect first round. However, after an incredible reaction to avoid a second-round loss, Jack scored his first point in four games, but in the end, UMISHO would be crowned champion.

Guilty Gear Strive Final Top 8

• 1st - UMISHO
• 2nd - Jack
• 3rd - Nitro
• 4th - Kshue
• ~5th - Hotashi, SQ
• ~7th - Lord Knight, Razzo