Street Fighter League Japan Day 7 Recap

Street Fighter League Day 7 unfolded in spectacular fashion bringing what has been an exciting season so far hurtling towards the end. This week featured six teams all looking for different things with the safest probably being FAV Gaming who are far and away the best team so far, sitting pretty at the top, but up against one of the other top teams, Cyclops Athlete Gaming, their crown might be challenged. 

The day's matches went like this:

•  Nagoya Oja Body Star vs Gyogun
• Good 8 Squad vs Hiroshima Team iXa
• FAV Gaming vs Cyclops Athletes Gaming

Nagoya Oja Body Star vs Gyogun

VS

The first match was between the ever improving Gyogun against a struggling Nagoya Oja Body Star. The first game was a mirror match involving Mago and Akira who both used Cammy. Akira has been on a bit of a losing streak and has only won one of his last four matches. He won the first game and was looking good, but Mago came back with two wins to take the set. A visibly downtrodden Akira had to contend with his 4th defeat in 5 sets.

Up next was Oniki who won the first Japan World Warrior Tournament and he was up against Machabo who was back from his illness. Using Kimberly, Oniki started like a house on fire, but soon, Machabo's consistent play overwhelmed the young man and he had to bow in defeat.

Torimeshi had the final anchor spot against Gyogun's ace, Moke. What seemed like the consistent play was for Nagoya to start well, and then losing steam. It happened again in the anchor set with Torimeshi's Dhalsim starting really well. But, Moke adapted and went on to win three straight games to win the set and get his team the match win.

This was great news as a 40-point haul really moves Gyogun up the table and they are a lot closer to the safety of getting into the second stage.

Good 8 Squad vs Hiroshima Team iXa

VS

Good 8 Squad are the 4th team on the table but haven't always been convincing in their wins. This time they were up against second from bottom Hiroshima Team iXa who are looking for points wherever they can get them. Storm Kubo went together first facing Kawano who hasn't always featured this season. The former Evo winner went with Luke, but deferred to Classic rather than Modern controls. He looked good in a close game and got the win. 

Then it was Tachikawa who has the highest points tally in the entire league this season. One of his strongest points is the different characters he can call upon and this time he called upon Dhalsim against ACQUA's JP. ACQUA won the set even after Tachikawa switched to Kimberly. It was his first defeat of the season and it gave Team iXa a real chance to take the entire match. 

The anchor match was between the impressive Jazzy who last time against Shinobism won the anchor match and the tie-breaker match to win the match. Up against Pugera who also won his last anchor match meant that this was always going to be a tense set. Jazzy showed that his win against Shinobism was not a fluke and defeated Pugera 3-1 to win his team the set and move them just above Nagoya Oja Body Star. They are still not safe, but at least they are closer to possible safety. 

FAV Gaming vs Cyclops Athletes Gaming

VS

Cyclops Athlete Gaming are one of the most stacked teams in terms of players with their roster made of those who are proficient in several fighting games and because of this they were expected to do really well. 

That's exactly what they have done so far with some big wins. FAV Gaming on the other side are at the top and are filled with some of the best players in existence. So this was a clash of the titans if there was ever such a thing. 

The first set was between Fenritti against Sako. Sako has missed the last couple of matches and now he was back to do work for his team. Unfortunately, it was not to be as Fenritti was the winner. The second game was between Dogura and Bonchan who are two players with 100% records. This meant that someone would have to lose out and it was Bonchan as Dogura was so clean that the former Evo winner had no answers whatsoever to Dogura's plans. This lends some credence to the idea that Good 8 Squad's biggest miss is Dogura who was such a great addition for them last season. 

The anchor match saw Ryusei who has lost his two sets he has played so far, placed in the anchor spot to ensure that FAV Gaming did not suffer a 40-0 defeat. The decision turned out to be the right one as Ryusei was able to take the set over Go1's Chun li. This tied the match and we were taken to the tie-breaker.

You'd be forgiven for expectiving Cyclops to send out someone else, but it was Go1 coming out again against Ryusei and this time he got his revenge and won the first to one match. This gave Cyclops the win consigning FAV to their first defeat all season. 

This win puts Cyclops in second place behind FAV who are still at the top with 160 points. On the other side, Team DetonatioN FocusMe stay at the bottom with Nagoya Oja Body Star's terrible defeat leaving them second from bottom, while Hiroshima Team iXa's great win moves them one spot ahead. 

The next match day will be on next week and we'll see who else could make it to the second stage.