Street Fighter League Japan Stage 2 Day 2 Recap

Street Fighter League Japan is back in stride and with three incredible matches, things are shaking up again on the league table. The three games on display today were:

• Shinobism Gaming vs FAV Gaming
• Saishunkan Sol Kumamoto vs Cyclops Athlete Gaming
• Team DetonatioN FocusMe vs Gyogun

Shinobism Gaming vs FAV Gaming

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Last week's matches were incredible as two of the three matches ended with tie breakers. Last time around Shinobism got a victory against Cyclops Athlete Gaming while FAV Gaming also got the win against Detonation FocusMe. This time though, Shinobism were away meaning they had to reveal their lineup with Fujimura first, then Yamaguchi and then Momochi. With FAV able to counter pick them, Shinobism were absolutely obliterated losing every single game and set with Tokido, Bonchan and Ryusei winning 2-0, 2-0, and 3-0 respectively.

This gave FAV Gaming a 40-point haul to add to the 25 they scored last time around. Now Shinobism have to go back to the drawing board to see what they can do. 

Saishunkan Sol Kumamoto vs Cyclops Athlete Gaming

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The second match of the day featured two teams that suffered defeats on day 1 with Cyclops losing to Shinobism while Saishunkan Sol lost to high flyers, Gyogun. With each needing a win, the faced one another with Cyclops on the home side. 

Nemo went first with his JP against Kazunoko. Things seemed to be going his way, until Kazunoko adjusted and started to get the better of Nemo. Eventually, Nemo lost. Next was Higuchi who as always was with Guile and the expectation was for Fenrich with JP to go against him. However, Go1 went up instead. The thinking behind this decision is debatable as JP seems like the natural option. Whatever the idea was, we never got to understand as Go1 lost and Higuchi got the points. 

This left Fenrich against Shuto. It didn't end well as Fenrich lost which again called into question the decision to send Go1 against Higuchi. This means with two match days gone, Cyclops are without a win. 

Team DetonatioN FocusMe vs Gyogun

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The final match of the day saw Detonation FocusMe who only made it to the second stage by the skin of their teeth, and Gyogun who were the surprise leaders of the table at the end of the first stage. 

With a new coach in Tachikawa, Detonation have some great resources. Also, one of the issues of the first stage was character unfamiliarity with Itabashi Zangief struggling with his main while Rashid hadn't come out leaving John Takeuchi to use Jamie. Now though, John is settled with Rashid now, and Itazan has moved to Marisa. Also, Fuudo has settled into a rhythm with Dee Jay and he's also the winner of the latest World Warrior for Japan. 

The first two sets saw a win for Machabo against Itazan's Marisa, while John Takeuchi equalized winning against Mizuha's Cammy. 

This set up a very mouth-watering anchor match between Fuudo and Moke. This was particularly interesting because the two had before now been struggling to be the first to reach 2300 MR. There was even a funny interaction where the two faced each other in ranked for points. Fuudo won the first game, and then promptly left taking points off Moke, and leaving him without the opportunity to win them back. 

Now was a chance for Moke to get his revenge and he started really well, taking the first game. However, Fuudo came right back into it, utilizing his aggressive style and drive rushing Moke into oblivion. Fuudo then won three games to end it 3-1 and ensure Detonation FocusMe got their 30 points. 

This means that Detonation now have two wins which is so much better than this point in stage one where they didn't win their first three matches.

This now means that FAV are on top with 60 points and Detonation FocusMe and Saishukan follow with 55 points each. 

The players will now go on a break to travel for the Singapore offline CPT before returning for day 3 next week.