Problem X, Gen, and Gobou win Big at Red Bull Kumite Las Vegas

The Red Bull Kumite 2021 is now over and it was an absolute rollercoaster. Red Bull really gave the FGC something to cheer about when they held a tournament earlier this year in London and it was the first offline Street Fighter V tournament in almost two years. That time, Mistah Crimson was the winner taking the final over iDom and in the process becoming the first European player to ever win the competition since its inception in 2015. 

Unfortunately, this time Mistah Crimson was unavailable, so his place was taken by the runner-up at the Last Chance Qualifier, which was JB. With such a stacked tournament, it was expected that we'd see some fireworks especially with the addition of two other games in Tekken 7 and Guilty Gear- STRIVE-. The tournament went on for two days and winners have emerged.

Tekken 7

For Tekken 7, there were only 8 players, but some of the names included were enough to make people sit up and take notice. The likes of Super Akouma, Knee, JDCR, and Cuddlecore were all in attendance. Interestingly, the tournament was taken by Gen, a Japanese player who has been in dominant form this year, and now he can claim another title with this Kumite win. He took the tournament over Knee, another legendary player who was the favorite for many before the tournament began.

Guilty Gear- STRIVE-

This was GGST's first outing in an offline tournament, and it was worth it. Eight of the top players were on show, and the winner was Gobou, who, after winning every with Zato, came into the Grand Finals with a surprise pick and used Goldlewis against his opponent Diaphone. The set was intense, with Gobou and Diaphone both dominating through their groups and bracket; it was down to who was the very best. Gobou took the set 5-2, and it was a fitting result considering how he had dispatched everyone with relative ease. If that wasn't enough, how about the insane theatrics that Gobou served up?

Street Fighter V

This was the major event and while every other tournament featured eight players, Street Fighter had 16. As mentioned earlier, Mistah Crimson was the first non-Asian winner of the event with Bonchan, Nemo, Infiltration, and Fujimura taking the events since its inception. This time, however, Problem X was the winner beating NL 5-3 in an extraordinary comeback. Problem X was also singlehandedly responsible for ending America's dream of a Red Bull Kumite win when he dispatched both Punk and iDom on his way to victory. 

Another major story from the tournament was Chris CCH's run which was also incredible. Only able to come to the tournament via the Last Chance Qualifier, Chris showed that he was more than a filler as he came out of a group that had Punk, Angry Bird, and Oil King and then proceeded to defeat Brian_F in the Quarter Finals. He could do nothing against NL, but his incredible run was something for people to cheer about. 

Red Bull Kumite certainly lived up to the hype of being the first offline tournament in the United States in two years and we hope that there are many more live events and hopefully with even more fans allowed to spectate.