You've heard this before; but Wednesday Night Fights last night was a special one. With Injustice back in the forefront and occupying a lot of the stream time, there were a lot of great matches to be seen between players of a diverse set of characters. WNF has become a haven for special appearances in all of the games, and while last week it was multi-game champion Chris G, this week it was MK EVO Champion Denzell Terry and his brother MIT, who have been two of the most feared and respected top players throughout the run of MK9, along with longtime Vegas FGC competitor Flawedzilla and some more of the Vegas IGAU crew. What was even more striking after the dust settled was that RDK Tyrant, who is living up to his name, has won his record 3rd WNF in a row.
There was nowhere to hide in the bracket last night; it was stacked end to end with experienced players, and the action began fairly early on. In the second round, Vegas native and dedicated Aquaman player Flawedzilla, who made the trip down with the Terry brothers, drew EVO 4th place finisher MF Slayer (now know as "Mostly Free" Slayer) and his Superman. Vowing to extinguish the tournament of all Supermans, Flawedzilla shocked the audience both at the arcade and at home by pulling out a large pair of swimming goggles to wear for the match. With the freshly acquired gear adorning his head, he went toe to toe with Slayer and was able to get the best of the successful Superman, using Aquaman's zoning to frustrate Slayer and keep him from establishing momentum.
In the same round, EVO Top 8 placer and previous multi-time WNF champion RDK Godspeed, who is considered to be one of the Black Adams of the America, met top MK player MIT. But MIT brought his own freshly-minted Black Adam to the tournament. Godspeed, who experimented with a few characters over the course of the night, decided to play Cyborg. After MIT handed the semi-robotic hero a convincing defeat, Godspeed switched back to his main and the race for BA supremacy was on. The two went back and forth, but Godspeed made a few mistakes early on that MIT quickly capitalized on, and Godspeed was never able to make up the gap. MIT took the set 2-0, which raised the question -- was a new contender for Black Adam of America in the works?
Good matches came one after the other, with Theo defeating flawed, Tyrant defeating Chef, and MIT defeating Aris in a great set. By Winners Semis, everything had come to a head as the two Terry brothers were set to play each other in a virtual family feud. In an great exhibition of high-level Green Lantern vs. high-level Black Adam, Denzell took the first game, putting MIT on the ropes. But MIT adjusted quickly, using Black Adam's powerful keep-away game in Game 2 and defeating Denzell with almost all of his life remaining. Without an immediate answer to the matchup, Denzell went to Superman and powered out to an early lead in the 3rd game. But MIT stayed patient, cornering his brother and evening the gap. Using his trait to make Superman pay for his pressure, MIT was able to win the match after a last-minute corner scramble by running into a teleporting interactible, causing Denzell to whiff at the last second and suffer the game-winning blow as both brothers smiled and the crowd cheered.
With MIT cruising through the bracket, he eventually arrived at Winners Finals to face EVO 5th place finisher Emperor Theo's Superman. Theo quckly extinguished MIT's first life bar in Game 1 and was up by about 150% life, but MIT's solid, patient play brought him all the way back until Theo was able to finally hit him with a laser to end the match. In Game 2, MIT found himself on the edge of death once again, but with Theo having spent most of his meter on Heat Vision trying to end the match, an advantageous clash after a well-placed divekick allowed MIT to bring Theo down to a sliver of life. With both players repeatedly missing each other by inches, MIT was finally able to land a Lightning and edge out the win. And although Game 3 was close through the first half, MIT played well and was able to close Theo out with a number of good reads.
Losers' Finals was a Superman mirror between Tyrant and Theo. Tyrant won.
-------------------------------------------------
Grand Finals between MIT and Tyrant were sure to be exciting, as Tyrant brought his Tier-defying Grundy out once again to face MIT's BA. MIT opened Game 1 using his zoning to keep Tyrant's Grundy out, but an armored Walking Corpse in the corner tipped the match in Tyrant's favor. Tyraant used Insurgency's laser interactible to help control the corner and challenged Black Adam's air control, landing a few key punishes to take the match. By Game 2, Tyrant was putting on a showcase of Grundy's tricks of the trade, using a variety of deceptive cancels, resets and pressure options to take the win and force the bracket reset. The next game found the opponents on the infamous Metropolis Rooftop, with MIT jumping out to a convincing early lead. MIT never let up, and used his trait to force Grundy to take damage as he came in, closing out the match.
With Malik playing well in the second game of the second set and Tyrant down to his last 10% after sacrificing his health to grab Black Adam through his trait, WNF was on the verge of becoming a world of dictators. But With Tyrant landing his ambiguous neutral-jump reset for the 3rd time in the match, he was able to steal the victory as Alex Valle and MF Slayer could barely control their excitement in the background. The tournament was down to the final game, and with MIT heading back to Metropolis Rooftop, the setting looked to be in his favor. But Tyrant stormed out to an early lead and went up almost a full life bar. MIT kept a cool head, making reads and using zoning and interactibles to even the match one bit at time. But Tyrant hit MIT with a conveniently-placed flying drone on wakeup, and rushed in to anti-air MIT before he could establish his offense again, comboing into a Pain Chain and securing the WNF victory.
There are a number of interesting developments following this week's results. MIT has been steadily climbing the ranks, and has now officially made his mark as a player to watch coming up in IGAU. Tyrant has now established himself as the player to beat in SoCal with his 3rd consecutive conquest of WNF. And Vegas has made an impressive statement for themselves with Flawed, DJT, and MIT all in Top 8. But with the East Coast riding victories at all major tournaments in the history of Injustice barring Toryuken, can the WC players fight back to threaten the throne and close the geographical 'skill gap'?
The level of competition is higher than it's ever been, and the stage is set for an interesting next few months.
Top 8:
1) RDK|Tyrant
2) MITDJT
3) EMPEROR_THEO
4) Denzell
5) Flawedzilla
5) Aris
7) EGP Wonder_Chef
7) SonicBoomBrad
Stream Archive:
http://www.twitch.tv/leveluplive/b/435516497?t=1h8m1s
Full Bracket:
http://levelup.challonge.com/wnfae2013_1_4_INJ_se
There was nowhere to hide in the bracket last night; it was stacked end to end with experienced players, and the action began fairly early on. In the second round, Vegas native and dedicated Aquaman player Flawedzilla, who made the trip down with the Terry brothers, drew EVO 4th place finisher MF Slayer (now know as "Mostly Free" Slayer) and his Superman. Vowing to extinguish the tournament of all Supermans, Flawedzilla shocked the audience both at the arcade and at home by pulling out a large pair of swimming goggles to wear for the match. With the freshly acquired gear adorning his head, he went toe to toe with Slayer and was able to get the best of the successful Superman, using Aquaman's zoning to frustrate Slayer and keep him from establishing momentum.
In the same round, EVO Top 8 placer and previous multi-time WNF champion RDK Godspeed, who is considered to be one of the Black Adams of the America, met top MK player MIT. But MIT brought his own freshly-minted Black Adam to the tournament. Godspeed, who experimented with a few characters over the course of the night, decided to play Cyborg. After MIT handed the semi-robotic hero a convincing defeat, Godspeed switched back to his main and the race for BA supremacy was on. The two went back and forth, but Godspeed made a few mistakes early on that MIT quickly capitalized on, and Godspeed was never able to make up the gap. MIT took the set 2-0, which raised the question -- was a new contender for Black Adam of America in the works?
Good matches came one after the other, with Theo defeating flawed, Tyrant defeating Chef, and MIT defeating Aris in a great set. By Winners Semis, everything had come to a head as the two Terry brothers were set to play each other in a virtual family feud. In an great exhibition of high-level Green Lantern vs. high-level Black Adam, Denzell took the first game, putting MIT on the ropes. But MIT adjusted quickly, using Black Adam's powerful keep-away game in Game 2 and defeating Denzell with almost all of his life remaining. Without an immediate answer to the matchup, Denzell went to Superman and powered out to an early lead in the 3rd game. But MIT stayed patient, cornering his brother and evening the gap. Using his trait to make Superman pay for his pressure, MIT was able to win the match after a last-minute corner scramble by running into a teleporting interactible, causing Denzell to whiff at the last second and suffer the game-winning blow as both brothers smiled and the crowd cheered.
With MIT cruising through the bracket, he eventually arrived at Winners Finals to face EVO 5th place finisher Emperor Theo's Superman. Theo quckly extinguished MIT's first life bar in Game 1 and was up by about 150% life, but MIT's solid, patient play brought him all the way back until Theo was able to finally hit him with a laser to end the match. In Game 2, MIT found himself on the edge of death once again, but with Theo having spent most of his meter on Heat Vision trying to end the match, an advantageous clash after a well-placed divekick allowed MIT to bring Theo down to a sliver of life. With both players repeatedly missing each other by inches, MIT was finally able to land a Lightning and edge out the win. And although Game 3 was close through the first half, MIT played well and was able to close Theo out with a number of good reads.
Losers' Finals was a Superman mirror between Tyrant and Theo. Tyrant won.
-------------------------------------------------
Grand Finals between MIT and Tyrant were sure to be exciting, as Tyrant brought his Tier-defying Grundy out once again to face MIT's BA. MIT opened Game 1 using his zoning to keep Tyrant's Grundy out, but an armored Walking Corpse in the corner tipped the match in Tyrant's favor. Tyraant used Insurgency's laser interactible to help control the corner and challenged Black Adam's air control, landing a few key punishes to take the match. By Game 2, Tyrant was putting on a showcase of Grundy's tricks of the trade, using a variety of deceptive cancels, resets and pressure options to take the win and force the bracket reset. The next game found the opponents on the infamous Metropolis Rooftop, with MIT jumping out to a convincing early lead. MIT never let up, and used his trait to force Grundy to take damage as he came in, closing out the match.
With Malik playing well in the second game of the second set and Tyrant down to his last 10% after sacrificing his health to grab Black Adam through his trait, WNF was on the verge of becoming a world of dictators. But With Tyrant landing his ambiguous neutral-jump reset for the 3rd time in the match, he was able to steal the victory as Alex Valle and MF Slayer could barely control their excitement in the background. The tournament was down to the final game, and with MIT heading back to Metropolis Rooftop, the setting looked to be in his favor. But Tyrant stormed out to an early lead and went up almost a full life bar. MIT kept a cool head, making reads and using zoning and interactibles to even the match one bit at time. But Tyrant hit MIT with a conveniently-placed flying drone on wakeup, and rushed in to anti-air MIT before he could establish his offense again, comboing into a Pain Chain and securing the WNF victory.
There are a number of interesting developments following this week's results. MIT has been steadily climbing the ranks, and has now officially made his mark as a player to watch coming up in IGAU. Tyrant has now established himself as the player to beat in SoCal with his 3rd consecutive conquest of WNF. And Vegas has made an impressive statement for themselves with Flawed, DJT, and MIT all in Top 8. But with the East Coast riding victories at all major tournaments in the history of Injustice barring Toryuken, can the WC players fight back to threaten the throne and close the geographical 'skill gap'?
The level of competition is higher than it's ever been, and the stage is set for an interesting next few months.
Top 8:
1) RDK|Tyrant
2) MITDJT
3) EMPEROR_THEO
4) Denzell
5) Flawedzilla
5) Aris
7) EGP Wonder_Chef
7) SonicBoomBrad
Stream Archive:
http://www.twitch.tv/leveluplive/b/435516497?t=1h8m1s
Full Bracket:
http://levelup.challonge.com/wnfae2013_1_4_INJ_se
