Street Fighter League Japan Stage 2 Day 3 Recap

Street Fighter League Japan returned after a break where the players went to Singapore to partake in the Capcom Pro Tour offline tournament for a spot at Capcom Cup. It wasn't one of the league players that won, but rather, Gachikun, whose team, Good 8 Squad, were knocked out of the league by finishing in the bottom three spots. 

With two matchdays down, the league table is beginning to take shape, and these were the matches on display:

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

Saishunkan Sol Kumamoto vs Team DetonatioN FocusMe

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The third matchday opened up with battle between Detonation FocusMe who have seen early success after thier close shave in the first stage. Up against them was Saishunkan Sol who have also started decently and are looking to continue with their good form. 

The first game saw Fuudo against Higuchi. Saishunkan Sol was away meaning they had to reveal their lineup. Throwing Dee Jay against Guile was a smart move as he can contest the fireball game and has very reliable anti-airs. So, when the game started and Higuchi got aggressive, Fuudo was able to patiently check him, and then wait for the right moment to Drive Rush and deal damage. Fuudo won the first game, while Higuchi was able to get the second. The deciding game saw Fuudo attempt a lot of grabs and systematically break Higuchi down and force him to be defensive. 

The second match was between Nauman and Kabe. Kabe hasn't fared too well as he lost the first match he played in, and against Nauman proved to be no match. The Ken mirror seems to be something Nauman actually relishes as we saw him against Fujimura at the Singapore event and he was also victorious there. He even said during the player interviews that he will happily face any Ken. True to his words, he won the match to put his team 20 points up.

The left Shuto and his Morden Marisa as the one to get something out of this match for his team. John Takeuchi, while incredibly talented, is still some way off his best so far. At the start of the game, he was using Jamie, but that wasn't working and now he is back to Rashid, but, still not at the level he is known for. And with no Cody, he might still be looking for his character. Unfortunately, Shuto is the opposite as he has been using Marisa from the outset of the game and is now at home with the character. He won, 3-0 and sent the match into sudden death.

For that, we saw Higuchi against Fuudo again, and while Higuchi was even more aggressive, Fuudo was the winner, getting 5 points for his team in the process and Detonation continue their impressive run of form. 

Cyclops Athlete Gaming vs FAV Gaming 

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If Detonation FocusMe has been impressive, FAV Gaming have been just as good. They narrowly lost the first match to Detonation FocusMe before a very awesome 40-0 match against Shinobism. 

Up first was Tokido against Go1. The two were great at Singapore, but couldn't make top 8. Tokido lost to eventual runner-up, Chris Wong. Go1 did really well in the first round, but soon Tokido found his rhythm and won the game. 

The second saw Bonchan, who has been scary so far and hasn't lost any game so far. Facing Fenrich, he was again really dominant and looked to be running away with it, but, Fenrich is no slouch and took a game. But, Bonchan has been an unstoppable force and so it proved again as he won the game and set his team up for another possible 40-0. 

The final  game saw Ryusei against Dogura. The latter admitted that he was having a hard time against Ryusei who also knocked him out of the Singapore competition. Ryusei now that he is back from his hiatus has been incredible and he was there to win. He defeated Dogura who was playing nervously.

This gave FAV another 40-point game with means that after three matches they already have 100 points. 

Gyogun vs Shinobism Gaming 

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The third match of the day saw Shinobism who have been a little underwhelming in this half of the season so far against Gyogun who were a surprise contender for the top spot in the first half. 

Gyogun were the away team and sent out Mizuha, Mago, and Moke. Miuzuha has been strong so far this season with a steady Cammy whom he has been using since Street Fighter V. With this confidence, he faced Fujimura and was able to get 10 points. The second match saw Mago against Yamaguchi who is considered one of the best Dee Jays in the world. Yamaguchi won the first game, prompting Mago to switch to Juri who Yamaguchi has said he sometimes worries about. However, this was not even the case as he dispatched Mago even with his character change. 

This left the match to be decided by Moke against Momochi. Moke is really strong in Street Fighter 6 and Momochi is a Capcom Cup winner. The game was very measured and slow with Moke taking his time to poke and check everything Luke (Momochi's character) had to throw at him. With this method, he raced into a 2-game lead. Momochi was able to adapt, speeding things up a bit and hitting Moke hard. He brought the set back and sent it into the last game.

Moke finished it up in the most impressive fashion. Momochi had just used his level 3 super and had burnt Moke out. Moke, inexplicably woke up with a crouching jab which hit and then he went straight into his level 2 super and as he was finishing up that combo, he was able to find one bar and finished the round with the level 1. 

FAV Gaming are top of the table with 100 points with Detonation FocusMe in second place with 80 points while Saishunkan Sol Kumamoto rounds out the top 3 spots with 70 points.