It's Sunday! Which means the start of a new week! And the end of CEO 2019. With that, we have the best of 700 NRS players battling it out for pro tour points and here's the breakdown of what went down as it happened.
Top 8 going into it:
Winner's
Tweedy vs. PXP AF0xyGrampa
Echofox Sonic Fox vs. GRV Dragon
Loser's
Noble Sylverrye vs. Noble Kombat
Kevoxreborn vs. Ninjakilla_212
Hit that spoiler below if you want to check out the results. Otherwise, we've got EVO in a month and some other things in-between, so be on the lookout for all of that good stuff.
With DMS in the ring and AquaDavid on mic, we got things going with Tweedy's Jacqui against F0xy's Kung Lao. F0xy opened up strong before the match even started with the "handshake or fistbump" mix-up on Tweedy. Tweedy, not even phased, took match 1, starting things off with a first hit krushing blow into near flawless. F0xy was able to recover and secured the first game. He was able to carry that momentum into a game 2 win down to the final hit, where Tweedy seemed to finally figure out his gameplan. But F0xy just wasn't going down, he kept adjusting throughout the following rounds and secured his 3-0 victory with his favored throw brutality.
Next up, for the first time at an official event since I2, we had the long awaited Sonic Fox vs. Dragon deathmatch (not to the death). Dragon, champion of Cetrion players everywhere, walked out to the stage with a Cetrion cosplayer to confirm that he was, in fact, playing Cetrion. Sonic decided to start things off with Cassie Cage, giving him the ability to meet Dragon in the zoning war. Dragon came out looking strong with a game 1 win, but Sonic looked comfortable enough to keep playing Cassie. However, Dragon looked more comfortable and he ran away with game 2 more dominantly than the first. Dragon proceeded to win one more game, taking the set 3-0 and sending Sonic Fox to Loser's.
Over in Loser's, we had the obligatory Noble team kill with Sylverrye against Kombat. Sylverrye was to be our first Liu Kang of the night, up against another OG character, Johnny Cage. In arguably the first back-and-forth game of the night, Sylverrye took the first win. Making good use of the fatal blow cancel, Kombat took the following game with a well-timed throw. Once again pulling off some crazy mind games with the fatal blow, Kombat took another game. Sylverrye wasn't going down that easy though, he hit him right back to tie up the set. The loss sent Kombat over to the character select screen, where he decided to try out Baraka. Our final game game down to a fatal blow to fatal blow exchange, with the victor coming out being Kombat, winning the set 3-1.
Our next game was one sure to go down in NRS history: Kevodaman, now playing as Kevoxreborn, was up against the enigmatic NinjaKilla, here at his first major. The online, now offline, Liu Kang master faced off against Kevo's Sonya Blade. In a game 1 decided on a failed Fatal Blow gamble, Ninja clutched out the first win. Having seemingly gotten the download, followed it up with a back-to-back victory. Facing elimination, Kevo almost went with a character swap to Jacqui, but stuck it out with his main. But in the end, Ninjakilla proved to be the better player, winning the set 3-0 and advancing forward.
Going to the next round of Loser's, Sonic Fox played Kombat in the battle to determine once and for all, who was the better team between Noble and EchoFox. Sonic played another set with Cassie, while Kombat switched it up with our first Geras appearance. Sonic set the tone of the set early, with a game 1 brutality over Kombat. Game 2 was a repeat performance for Sonic, which drove Kombat to go give Johnny Cage a shot. It wasn't enough to slow down the Fox though, Sonic took the set 3-0 and saved his tourney life for another game.
Closing out Loser's Semis was Ninjakilla's Liu Kang vs. Tweedy's Frost (yes, Frost). After an interesting first game won by Ninja, Tweedy decided to go straight to the rematch. In an insane scramble that had the crowd on edge, Tweedy whiffed a game-winning combo, proceeded to breakaway from Ninja's punish, failed to chip him out, and won game 2 with a poke on his last bit of health. Ninjakilla hit Tweedy right back with a game 3 flawless victory win in the final round. In one more nail-biting set, Ninjakilla used some saved up krushing blows to seal the last round of game 4 taking the set 3-1 and advancing closer to Grand Finals.
Back over in Winner's Finals, we were looking at Dragon's Cetrion against F0xy's Kung Lao. Dragon ran away with the first 2 games, winning in pretty much the same dominant fashion he's been doing so all weekend. F0xy was on the verge of making a comeback in game 3, but Dragon baited out a throw with Cetrion's teleport and took the set 3-0, securing at least 2nd place and his seat in Grand Finals.
In the match to determine who was going to play F0xy in Loser's Finals, we had the Ninjakilla/Sonic Fox runback from pools, where Sonic narrowly sent Ninja down to loser's in the first place. Sticking it out with Liu Kang and Cassie respectively, Sonic took game 1 pretty free. Deciding to mix things up, Ninja went to the character select screen to see how his Jacqui would do in the set. Sonic just had things too under control, taking another game and placing Ninja in danger of going home. Ninja went back to the character select screen, deciding to play things out with the character he's best known for. Sonicfox was able to secure the 3-0 in the end and advanced to Loser's Finals.
In another runback, this time from Combo Break this year, Sonic Fox and his Cassie fought F0xy's Kung Lao to determine who would get their shot at a rematch with Dragon. Not skipping a beat from his win over Ninja, Sonic took game 1 over the Kung Lao master. That ended up being the theme for the rest of the set: F0xy put up a good fight, but Sonic Fox emerged the victor, taking the set 3-0 and securing his seat in Grand Finals.
Where he rematched Dragon's Cetrion with Jacqui Briggs. Dragon was finally the person able to stop Sonic's current streak, winning the first game without too much trouble from the person generally considered the greatest NRS player around. A character switch from Sonic to Cassie seemed to chip away at the force that was GRV Dragon at CEO, as he took a flawless victory in round 1 of game 2, and eventually the game. Looking much better than he was, Sonic followed that up with another win and one more away from resetting the bracket. And with that, Sonic kept it going with one more win, taking the set 3-1 and putting Dragon on the bad end of a bracket reset.
Dragon took just a brief moment to think about things before getting right into the rematch. Sonic just kept pushing through the new set, taking another win with a flurry of throws setting Dragon off his tempo. Game 2 was almost down to a real master comeback, but Dragon was finally able to slow Sonic down and got himself another win on the board. Sonic settled back into that groove that got him to this point in game 3, taking another win over Dragon and tournament point with it. And with that, Sonic carried his energy forward into one more win, taking the second set 3-1 and the CEO 2019 title with it.
So yeah, Sonic Fox is the CEO 2019 champion. Congratulations on the well earned victory, this was a Loser's run no body can dispute.
Top 8 going into it:
Winner's
Tweedy vs. PXP AF0xyGrampa
Echofox Sonic Fox vs. GRV Dragon
Loser's
Noble Sylverrye vs. Noble Kombat
Kevoxreborn vs. Ninjakilla_212
Hit that spoiler below if you want to check out the results. Otherwise, we've got EVO in a month and some other things in-between, so be on the lookout for all of that good stuff.
With DMS in the ring and AquaDavid on mic, we got things going with Tweedy's Jacqui against F0xy's Kung Lao. F0xy opened up strong before the match even started with the "handshake or fistbump" mix-up on Tweedy. Tweedy, not even phased, took match 1, starting things off with a first hit krushing blow into near flawless. F0xy was able to recover and secured the first game. He was able to carry that momentum into a game 2 win down to the final hit, where Tweedy seemed to finally figure out his gameplan. But F0xy just wasn't going down, he kept adjusting throughout the following rounds and secured his 3-0 victory with his favored throw brutality.
Next up, for the first time at an official event since I2, we had the long awaited Sonic Fox vs. Dragon deathmatch (not to the death). Dragon, champion of Cetrion players everywhere, walked out to the stage with a Cetrion cosplayer to confirm that he was, in fact, playing Cetrion. Sonic decided to start things off with Cassie Cage, giving him the ability to meet Dragon in the zoning war. Dragon came out looking strong with a game 1 win, but Sonic looked comfortable enough to keep playing Cassie. However, Dragon looked more comfortable and he ran away with game 2 more dominantly than the first. Dragon proceeded to win one more game, taking the set 3-0 and sending Sonic Fox to Loser's.
Over in Loser's, we had the obligatory Noble team kill with Sylverrye against Kombat. Sylverrye was to be our first Liu Kang of the night, up against another OG character, Johnny Cage. In arguably the first back-and-forth game of the night, Sylverrye took the first win. Making good use of the fatal blow cancel, Kombat took the following game with a well-timed throw. Once again pulling off some crazy mind games with the fatal blow, Kombat took another game. Sylverrye wasn't going down that easy though, he hit him right back to tie up the set. The loss sent Kombat over to the character select screen, where he decided to try out Baraka. Our final game game down to a fatal blow to fatal blow exchange, with the victor coming out being Kombat, winning the set 3-1.
Our next game was one sure to go down in NRS history: Kevodaman, now playing as Kevoxreborn, was up against the enigmatic NinjaKilla, here at his first major. The online, now offline, Liu Kang master faced off against Kevo's Sonya Blade. In a game 1 decided on a failed Fatal Blow gamble, Ninja clutched out the first win. Having seemingly gotten the download, followed it up with a back-to-back victory. Facing elimination, Kevo almost went with a character swap to Jacqui, but stuck it out with his main. But in the end, Ninjakilla proved to be the better player, winning the set 3-0 and advancing forward.
Going to the next round of Loser's, Sonic Fox played Kombat in the battle to determine once and for all, who was the better team between Noble and EchoFox. Sonic played another set with Cassie, while Kombat switched it up with our first Geras appearance. Sonic set the tone of the set early, with a game 1 brutality over Kombat. Game 2 was a repeat performance for Sonic, which drove Kombat to go give Johnny Cage a shot. It wasn't enough to slow down the Fox though, Sonic took the set 3-0 and saved his tourney life for another game.
Closing out Loser's Semis was Ninjakilla's Liu Kang vs. Tweedy's Frost (yes, Frost). After an interesting first game won by Ninja, Tweedy decided to go straight to the rematch. In an insane scramble that had the crowd on edge, Tweedy whiffed a game-winning combo, proceeded to breakaway from Ninja's punish, failed to chip him out, and won game 2 with a poke on his last bit of health. Ninjakilla hit Tweedy right back with a game 3 flawless victory win in the final round. In one more nail-biting set, Ninjakilla used some saved up krushing blows to seal the last round of game 4 taking the set 3-1 and advancing closer to Grand Finals.
Back over in Winner's Finals, we were looking at Dragon's Cetrion against F0xy's Kung Lao. Dragon ran away with the first 2 games, winning in pretty much the same dominant fashion he's been doing so all weekend. F0xy was on the verge of making a comeback in game 3, but Dragon baited out a throw with Cetrion's teleport and took the set 3-0, securing at least 2nd place and his seat in Grand Finals.
In the match to determine who was going to play F0xy in Loser's Finals, we had the Ninjakilla/Sonic Fox runback from pools, where Sonic narrowly sent Ninja down to loser's in the first place. Sticking it out with Liu Kang and Cassie respectively, Sonic took game 1 pretty free. Deciding to mix things up, Ninja went to the character select screen to see how his Jacqui would do in the set. Sonic just had things too under control, taking another game and placing Ninja in danger of going home. Ninja went back to the character select screen, deciding to play things out with the character he's best known for. Sonicfox was able to secure the 3-0 in the end and advanced to Loser's Finals.
In another runback, this time from Combo Break this year, Sonic Fox and his Cassie fought F0xy's Kung Lao to determine who would get their shot at a rematch with Dragon. Not skipping a beat from his win over Ninja, Sonic took game 1 over the Kung Lao master. That ended up being the theme for the rest of the set: F0xy put up a good fight, but Sonic Fox emerged the victor, taking the set 3-0 and securing his seat in Grand Finals.
Where he rematched Dragon's Cetrion with Jacqui Briggs. Dragon was finally the person able to stop Sonic's current streak, winning the first game without too much trouble from the person generally considered the greatest NRS player around. A character switch from Sonic to Cassie seemed to chip away at the force that was GRV Dragon at CEO, as he took a flawless victory in round 1 of game 2, and eventually the game. Looking much better than he was, Sonic followed that up with another win and one more away from resetting the bracket. And with that, Sonic kept it going with one more win, taking the set 3-1 and putting Dragon on the bad end of a bracket reset.
Dragon took just a brief moment to think about things before getting right into the rematch. Sonic just kept pushing through the new set, taking another win with a flurry of throws setting Dragon off his tempo. Game 2 was almost down to a real master comeback, but Dragon was finally able to slow Sonic down and got himself another win on the board. Sonic settled back into that groove that got him to this point in game 3, taking another win over Dragon and tournament point with it. And with that, Sonic carried his energy forward into one more win, taking the second set 3-1 and the CEO 2019 title with it.
So yeah, Sonic Fox is the CEO 2019 champion. Congratulations on the well earned victory, this was a Loser's run no body can dispute.
