Street Fighter League USA Week 1 Recap

Street Fighter League USA has started its 6th season and it returns with a new game, Street Fighter 6. There are six teams in this season's tournament which is the normal thing to expect. The rules of Street Fighter League USA mirror those of Japan with some slight deviations. So it goes like this:

• Every team is represented by four players with three of them playing the match
• There is a home and away format in which the away team must reveal their player choices, characters, and order with the home team able to counter pick them
• The first two sets are worth 10 points each with the final set worth 20 points
• If there is a tie, one more game is played which is worth 5 points. For SFL US, the rule is that the 4th player must be the one sent up to play the set.

At the end of the season, the top teams will go to play at the Street Fighter League World Championship where they will face off against the winners of Japan and Europe for a chance to be the world champions. 

The three games on show today were:

• Versus Vortex vs Red Rooster
• UYU vs Endemic
• NASR Esports vs Bandits

Versus Vortex vs Red Rooster

VS

The winners of last season's competition, under a new name, Versus Vortex, were up first against the newest team in the league, Red Rooster. It was an Asia vs Puerto Rico affair as both teams were proudly representing their regions. 

Many might forget that last season when UYU won, it was under very difficult circumstances as they only made the playoff by the skin of their teeth, but once there, they really showed their prowess and became champions. So, perhaps it should not be too surprising that they started this season with a defeat. NL going up first against PR Balrog ended with a win for the latter, and when Xian went up against Ajax Fidelity, the result was the same. The closest match was the anchor which saw DCQ, the hero of last season, up against BananaKen who might be better known for his exploits in Blazblue. 

The JP mirror match was exhilirating, with both players gaining the upper hand at different intervals. But, eventually, BananaKen, who has one of the highest MRs on CFN right now, was the winner. This meant that Versus Vortex did not gain a single point and will have to look at how they can come back from this. 

UYU vs Endemic

VS

The second match was between the reigning champions, UYU (a whole new roster though) against Endemic (also with a whole new roster). UYU started really well, sending off Vxbao first with his JP (there were a lot of JPs) against ChrisCCH (who really hates JP). Chris was a tad rash and it seems that really affected his gameplay and he lost to Vxbao. 

The second set saw another mirror match, but this time it was Luke with Dual Kevin and Samurai going at it. Dual Kevin was the winner as he adjusted pretty well. This left Reynald against Nuckledu. Reynald was a few minutes away from making Capcom Cup in the CPT North America West tournament, but lost to Snake Eyez in a match for the ages. This time, he wasn't going to lose against Guile. The Guile pick was weird from UYU considering Guile doesn't have a great record against JP, but if there is anyone who can make Guile usable against JP, it is certainly Nuckledu.

However, it was not to be as Reynald set the tone and though there was a late rally by Nuckledu, it was not enough and he lost 3-1. 

This set the stage for a tie breaker and with the SFL USA rules, this meant Flash Metroid had to go up against Zhen. Blanka in a first-to-one set is a serious advantage as his unpredictability makes it really difficult to beat him in such a setting. So it proved for Zhen who though using Dee Jay, a strong character, was unable to do much against the oppressive pressure from Blanka. 

So, Endemic were able to turn the tide and win the match for his team. 

NASR Esports vs Bandits

VS

The final match was a stunner. NASR Esports, who last season merged with Bandits to form something of a super team, were now facing off against that same Bandits team. With the teams now separated, NASR added the impressive Punk, and Nephew to their roster, while Bandits had Chris Tartarian, a prominent Ken player and one of the best in the world along with King of Fighters legend, Xiaohai, who is also an avid Street Fighter fan. 

There was a sense in the pre-match interviews that MenaRD felt NASR could have done a lot more to have the team merge again, while AngryBird explained that he simply didn't know Mena was available to team up again and once Punk contacted them, it was a no-brainer to go with perhaps the most successful Street Fighter V player. 

The matches themselves were a treat as Big Bird set the tone with a very convincing win over Caba. Using Marisa, Big Bird has often said that he doesn't feel the big lady has any bad matchups and that certainly looked the case against Caba's Guile as he found ways to close the gap with perfect parries and brought the pain the moment he was able to get his hits in. 

The second match saw Punk against Xiaohai in a set we don't see often. Punk who has been near unplayable recently, was always going to be the favourite against a player who perhaps doesn't even consider Street Fighter his primary game. Punk was meticulous as he took away Xiaohai's options and eventually forced the defeat. 

This led to an anchor match that also felt like a grudge match. Mena against Angrybird was a set we saw at Evo and there Angrybird was the winner. However, time has passed and Mena has only grown stronger. Starting off with Blanka, Mena won the first game before Angrybird got a win of his own to level the scores. If there is anything that makes MenaRD such a terrifying opponent, it is the fact that he can play multiple characters at the highest level. Seeing his disadvantage, he switched to Luke and was immediately back on top. This way he could contest Ken's fireballs and also deal significant damage. This was the case and it ended 3-1 in Mena's favour. 

This led to the second sudden death match of the day and it was Nephew against Christ T. Chris usually has the upper hand when the two play in tournaments, but the beauty, and terror, of a first-to-one is that anything can happen. This was on display as Chris T took the first round. However, Nephew rallied, overcoming the obstacle course to get the next round win. 

In the third round, Chris tried to establish the life lead with a level 3 super, only to get pegged back as Nephew also did his level 3 super. This left the two in close to burnout stages. Chris recovered first and seemed close to finishing it, but without the gauge found himself hampered. Meanwhile, Nephew sensing the opportunity finished things with a level 1 super. 

NASR had won the match and had 25 points. The league table showed Red Rooster on top with 40 points with both Endemic and NASR coming after with 25 points each. 

The next set of matches will see Endemic againstv NASR, Bandits facing the top dogs in Red Rooster, and finally Versus Vortex trying to ensure they aren't without points by the end of the second week against UYU.