Street Fighter League USA Week 3 Recap

Week 3 of Street Fighter League USA promised a lot of fun and it delivered on that promise. The last week saw Bandits and NASR really pull ahead of the pack and with their respective rosters, they look really formidable, and impossible to defeat. But, the other teams are by no means slouches, so we got to see some incredible action.

The matches that went down were as follows:

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

BANDITS (HOME) VS UYU (AWAY)

VS

Match Results

• Xiaohai (Juri) 0 - Vxbao (JP) 2
• Caba (Guile) 1 - Zhen (Dee Jay) 2
• MenaRD (Luke, JP) 3 - Nuckledu (Guile) 1
• Chris Tartarian (Ken) 0 - Dual Kevin (Luke) 1

The first match saw UYU against Bandits who defeated Endemic 40-0 last week. This was a match that Bandits were expected to win, but UYU are no pushovers. The first set saw Xiaohai using Juri against Vxbao. Xiaohai made good use of Juri's crouching medium kick to hit Vxbao, but wasn't able to get significant damage from it. The Chinese JP user was on hand to win the set for his team. The second set saw Zhen defeat Caba in a hard-fought set. 

This left MenaRD needing to salvage things for his team. Against Nuckledu who's Guile is terrifying, it was always going to be difficult. Nuckledu won the first game, but then something rather interesting happened— Mena switched to JP. Mena has always been known as a multi-character player, but so far he has stuck with Luke and Blanka, so seeing a JP was certainly a surprise. From that point on, he was in control of the set and Nuckledu got no change out of him, and Mena won the set. 

This left Dual Kevin to face Chris Tartarian. The last time Chris was in the tiebreaker, he lost to Nephew, and so it was that he lost to Dual Kevin. So UYU won the match and Bandits might have something to worry about as Chris T isn't winning matches right now. 

Final Scores

Bandits (20) vs UYU (25)

RED ROOSTER (HOME) VS NASR ESPORTS (AWAY)

VS

Match Results

• BananaKen (JP) 2 - Angrybird (Ken) 1
• Mono (Dee Jay) 0 - Big Bird (Rashid) 2
• PR Balrog (Juri) 2 - Punk (Cammy) 3

NASR have won every match so far and look very settled, but Red Rooster are very unpredictable and with a decent mix of youth and experience, can hold their own against anyone. This was immediately evident as BananaKen, one of the players with the highest MR in the world, was quick off the mark and he defeated Angrybird. 

Next up was Big Bird vs MonoPR. We got a bit of a surprise as Big Bird went for Rashid instead of Marisa while Mono went for Dee Jay instead of A.K.I. This set was a bit of a wash as Mono had no response for Big Bird's pressure and he lost pretty badly. What it did show us was that Big Bird's Rashid is very viable and could act as a very handy pocket character. He mentioned in his player interview before the match how Marisa could be inadequate in some situations, but with Rashid, Big Bird will have more matchups covered. 

The final match was between PR Balrog and Punk. Punk has been the strongest player on team NASR and is yet to lose a set. But he had also never player PR Balrog before. The set turned out to be the best set so far in Street Fighter League USA Season 6 as the two took their time with some solid neutral game. PR Balrog wasn't particularly doing too well with his anti-airs and so Punk took the chance and jumped in to deal damage. But once, PR Balrog was more settled, he started to really out-neutral Punk. 

The two went back and forth and it went down to the final round of the final game. Punk got the win as both characters were in burnout and PR Balrog threw out an ill-advised crouching medium kick which Punk immediately punished with a jump attack. Both players could have won, but  Punk emerged victorious getting his team to 30 points in the process. 

Final Scores

Red Rooster (10) vs NASR Esports (30)

ENDEMIC (HOME) VS VERSUS VORTEX (AWAY)

VS

Match Results

• Reynald (JP) 0 - Xian (Dee Jay) 2
• ChrisCCH (Ken) 0 - NL (Luke) 2
• Samurai (Luke) 0 - DCQ (JP) 3

Versus Vortex were imperious in this match as they won convincingly. Xian defeated Reynald, while NL defeated ChrisCCH with some ease. The last match between Samurai and DCQ was perhaps the closest, but even then, Samurai only won one round which was so close as DCQ was one touch away from victory with the clock running out. Samurai pulled off the win due to some daring gameplay. But all it did was delay the inevitable as DCQ won and got his team the 40 points. 

Final Scores

Endemic (0) vs Versus Vortex (40)

So this still leaves NASR and Bandits in the top 2 spots, but with the performances of Red Rooster, UYU and Versus Vortex, it is clear that the top two teams aren't going to have it all their own way.