Two Street Fighter titans had another battle with high stakes, and only the victory is an acceptable result for both of them.
North America has lots of great Street Fighter players, but these two are absolutely exceptional. Fights between iDom and Punk are always spectacular, but they become especially great when the reward is as big as a spot at the upcoming Capcom Cup VIII.
Such a match happened on July 25 during the qualifying event Capcom Pro Tour 2021 North America East 1. In fact, it was not one but three super exciting matches.
Have you watched that amazing fighting esports show? Here it is on video and in a short recap! Let’s start with the Top 16 part.
*** Also, DashFight has a treat for you guys — an exclusive interview with Punk about the tournament and his victory.
SFV Esports — CPT North America East 1 — Top 16 Stream
That was definitely just a pre-show as the main competitors did not face each other. Punk defeated Shine, and that was quite an unusual matchup for them — Vega vs Cody. Shine was strong in the second game and gave a good fight in the third one, but still, it was Punk who proceeded to the Top 8 Winners bracket.
The opponent for iDom was Child233, and that was a match of Laura against Balrog. Despite some good defensive decisions by Child233 in the first game and decent offensive attempts in the second one, he was rather destroyed by iDom.
In the parallel Winners brackets, Space Boy defeated DR Mandrake, and iDrop won his match against Lazunoko.
Capcom Pro Tour NA East 1 — Top 16 Brackets
SFV Esports — CPT North America East 1 — Top 8 Stream
In the Winners Semi-Final, Punk had a match against Space Boy, and its beginning was surprising — for some time, it seemed like Space Boy had a chance to win, but then Punk activated his power and proceeded to the Final.
iDom played against iDrop, taking this time Poison to fight Karin. Knowing this matchup very well, iDom won, losing no rounds, despite iDom having good corner control and looking strong in some situations.
The first match of Punk vs iDom happened in the Winners Final. Character-wise, it started as a copy of iDom’s Semi-Final — Karin vs Poison. After a very promising beginning, iDom started losing, so he decided to switch to Laura. That did not help, and Punk got his Winner place in the Grand Final.
To return to that fight, iDom had to face DR Mandrake in the Losers Final. He took Laura to play against Urien. DR Mandrake lost the first game but then took the pace and gave a proper fight. Still, he won only one game and fell out of this CPT.
In the Grand Final, the battle between iDom and Punk got an even more interesting turn. In the first game, iDom managed to defeat Punk and reset the Grand Final.
This hope lasted till the very last game of the final match. Still, Punk was obviously stronger in those two rounds and earned his Capcom Cup spot.
Street Fighter V Capcom Pro Tour NA East 1 — Grand Final, Punk vs iDom
Capcom Pro Tour NA East 1 — Top 8 Brackets
Such a result doesn’t mean we’ll not see iDom (the winner of Capcom Cup 2019, by the way) at the upcoming huge Street Fighter V event. North America East will have one more CPT qualifier on January 15.
It’s a long time to practice! iDom will have enough chances to play against Punk during this period — both regularly participate in the series of online tournament Next Level Battle Circuit. For example, Punk celebrated the victory at NLBC #69.
Cupcom Cup VIII will be a competition of the strongest SFV players in the world. We’ll be able to enjoy fights of such guys as Mago, Nephew, Angry Bird, and Takamura.
The next Capcom Pro Tour event is planned for July 31 / August 1 for French, Spanish, and Portuguese players.
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