KDZ: Stock up. Winning the second biggest tournament to date has solidified his spot as the most accomplished player in this era of the game. I also give him props for the pre-tournament tweet and pop off. However I'd like to see KDZ improve his public relations. Having his mouthpiece Darth Arma say that TFC meant a lot to him because "it may be the last chance he has to play Superman" was the worst plea for sympathy since the nazi leadership at the Nuremberg trials claimed they were only following orders.
Forever King: Stock up. Another major, another second place finish. King playing Wound Cowboy in the losers finals was a real hype killer since everyone knew it was a match to determine which perennial runner up would get bodied in the grand finals. It's a shame there was no MK side tournament for King to also get second in.
Chris G: Stock down. Has his lack of matchup experience finally caught up to him? For the first time at a major Chris G fails to place top 8 thanks to Hawkgirl, the metagame killer. I worry that his success in AE may hurt his drive in IGAU leaving him vunerable to the Grundy and Shazam's of the world. NEC will be the test to see if TFC was a fluke bad tournament or if Chris G has returned to his role as gate keeper to the MKC at tournaments who salts out after losses, a role now apparently filled by PR Balrog.
DJT & MIT: Stock down. A bad tournament for the brothers from Vegas. MIT was eliminated off stream so quickly no one was sure he even attended and DJT got his black blown out by Green Arrow. At least one good thing came of this since a rare appearance of sober Clint beating him with Deathstroke meant the stream chat had it's obligatory blow up of M2Dave everytime a Deathstroke gets a tournament win on stream.
Playing to Win: Stock up. The doctor is in...the top 8 again. The CoCo ringleader gets another top 8 placement giving him more ammo the next time he gets into a shouting match with washed up Capcom players. While I enjoy seeing P2W and King represent Midwest/Ohio at Summer Jam and TFC I now want to see P2W use his vast wealth and resources to sponsor master theorycrafter know-it-alls M2Dave and THTB.
Young Sonic Fox: Stock up. The child prodigy earns his first IGAU top 8 placing for himself and Babs. I love his Batgirl. It's the perfect character for the kid. It's the risk taking of Mileena except with the corner combos and resets the risk/reward is in her favor. If only young Fox had a mental off switch for his insanity and could actually stop teleporting and jumping when he has the lifelead.
Perfect Legend: Stock down. Pulls off a real master comeback against Frantastic in pools then does it in top 16 against his younger clone Sonix Fox. The second comeback being even crazier since he did it with literally nothing but Earthshaker. Unfortunately all the clutch play in the world wasn't enough to help him against his arch rival Rico and the deadly suit of armor in Wayne Manor. This may have been the saltiest Carl has ever been. He was just sitting there stone faced. I was surprised steam didn't start coming out of his ears. Don't feel bad for Carl though. DOA had a huge pot bonus! Free money for carl. Oh wait.
Atlanta Kombat: Stock up. A great showing for ATL with Clint's Deathstroke and Lex doing work, RTD eliminating guarunteed top 3 finisher Tom Brady, Saltface proving CEO was no fluke and AK don Reno Racks placing top 16 and ruining Storms afternoon by beating CD Jr. Special note goes to Pig, who was last seen training in the Himalayan mountains claiming he would not return to a major until he was ready. After smashing through pools with ease his run to the top 8 was cut short by Sinestro, a character supposedly so bad he was never allowed to live. The staggering irony must have made Paulo's day.
CD Jr: Stock down. Another major, another quick finish that left everyone rushing to twitter to see the bitter tears. Jr did finally accomplish his dream of placing top 8 at a Street Fighter x Tekken major, no doubt impressing the other 7 guys who still follow that game. I will give him credit for complaining about the game and matchups instead of ranting about switching mains. Wonder Woman remains underused in the tournament scene. At this point I honestly hope CD Jr does deliver. Blowing him up is entertaining sport but the less we have to hear about Foxy's online exploits the better.
Khaotik: stock down. Has a pool full of Frost and is expected to reign supreme as Frost of the universe but gets bopped by Green Arrow. Then he goes on to lose to Harley. If I played a top character like that and lost to a Harley I would probably exile myself from that community and go to a another character.
Rico: Stock neutral. Places in the top 8 but the power of the yellow ring of fear scares him away from BLACK ADAM and onto Aquaman. In the end not even the king of the seas could save Rico and he's forced to go home with a solid 4th place finish. At least Sinestro is also a dictator so even when Rico loses it's still a world of them.
Tom Brady: stock down. Before pools Tom gets on the mic and predicts a tournament win. This prediction was not quite as accurate as KDZ's to say the least. The good news is we've so far avoided a repeat of the great Raiden debacle of 2012 and Tom isn't talking up a new main and instead vows to work on his problem matchups. After his loss Tom was only emo for a brief period before he returned to the mic in usual form, regaling us with tales of how he mops up Harley and Batgirl and yelling at stream monsters to kill themselves.
7L: stock up. Puts an end to the bill of goods that Green Arrow is a bad character and it's only Chris G's mythical fundamentals that can win with Ollie. 7L gave us the second biggest surprise of the tournament, the first being an East Coast major actually running on time. Which reminds me, while I will not offer stock evaluation on TOs I will say that the stream was ridiculous. I couldn't even see the chat during the top 8, depriving me of important insight from Tom luls Brady and Artkiller B, and the names were switched so much I'm still not sure who exactly won some of those Sinestro mirrors. Wasn't this supposed to be an EVO level event? If the production values aren't there then I don't see what seperates TFC from NEC, ECT, Summer Jam, Summer Slam, Starrcade and the 60 other East Coast majors.
Forever King: Stock up. Another major, another second place finish. King playing Wound Cowboy in the losers finals was a real hype killer since everyone knew it was a match to determine which perennial runner up would get bodied in the grand finals. It's a shame there was no MK side tournament for King to also get second in.
Chris G: Stock down. Has his lack of matchup experience finally caught up to him? For the first time at a major Chris G fails to place top 8 thanks to Hawkgirl, the metagame killer. I worry that his success in AE may hurt his drive in IGAU leaving him vunerable to the Grundy and Shazam's of the world. NEC will be the test to see if TFC was a fluke bad tournament or if Chris G has returned to his role as gate keeper to the MKC at tournaments who salts out after losses, a role now apparently filled by PR Balrog.
DJT & MIT: Stock down. A bad tournament for the brothers from Vegas. MIT was eliminated off stream so quickly no one was sure he even attended and DJT got his black blown out by Green Arrow. At least one good thing came of this since a rare appearance of sober Clint beating him with Deathstroke meant the stream chat had it's obligatory blow up of M2Dave everytime a Deathstroke gets a tournament win on stream.
Playing to Win: Stock up. The doctor is in...the top 8 again. The CoCo ringleader gets another top 8 placement giving him more ammo the next time he gets into a shouting match with washed up Capcom players. While I enjoy seeing P2W and King represent Midwest/Ohio at Summer Jam and TFC I now want to see P2W use his vast wealth and resources to sponsor master theorycrafter know-it-alls M2Dave and THTB.
Young Sonic Fox: Stock up. The child prodigy earns his first IGAU top 8 placing for himself and Babs. I love his Batgirl. It's the perfect character for the kid. It's the risk taking of Mileena except with the corner combos and resets the risk/reward is in her favor. If only young Fox had a mental off switch for his insanity and could actually stop teleporting and jumping when he has the lifelead.
Perfect Legend: Stock down. Pulls off a real master comeback against Frantastic in pools then does it in top 16 against his younger clone Sonix Fox. The second comeback being even crazier since he did it with literally nothing but Earthshaker. Unfortunately all the clutch play in the world wasn't enough to help him against his arch rival Rico and the deadly suit of armor in Wayne Manor. This may have been the saltiest Carl has ever been. He was just sitting there stone faced. I was surprised steam didn't start coming out of his ears. Don't feel bad for Carl though. DOA had a huge pot bonus! Free money for carl. Oh wait.
Atlanta Kombat: Stock up. A great showing for ATL with Clint's Deathstroke and Lex doing work, RTD eliminating guarunteed top 3 finisher Tom Brady, Saltface proving CEO was no fluke and AK don Reno Racks placing top 16 and ruining Storms afternoon by beating CD Jr. Special note goes to Pig, who was last seen training in the Himalayan mountains claiming he would not return to a major until he was ready. After smashing through pools with ease his run to the top 8 was cut short by Sinestro, a character supposedly so bad he was never allowed to live. The staggering irony must have made Paulo's day.
CD Jr: Stock down. Another major, another quick finish that left everyone rushing to twitter to see the bitter tears. Jr did finally accomplish his dream of placing top 8 at a Street Fighter x Tekken major, no doubt impressing the other 7 guys who still follow that game. I will give him credit for complaining about the game and matchups instead of ranting about switching mains. Wonder Woman remains underused in the tournament scene. At this point I honestly hope CD Jr does deliver. Blowing him up is entertaining sport but the less we have to hear about Foxy's online exploits the better.
Khaotik: stock down. Has a pool full of Frost and is expected to reign supreme as Frost of the universe but gets bopped by Green Arrow. Then he goes on to lose to Harley. If I played a top character like that and lost to a Harley I would probably exile myself from that community and go to a another character.
Rico: Stock neutral. Places in the top 8 but the power of the yellow ring of fear scares him away from BLACK ADAM and onto Aquaman. In the end not even the king of the seas could save Rico and he's forced to go home with a solid 4th place finish. At least Sinestro is also a dictator so even when Rico loses it's still a world of them.
Tom Brady: stock down. Before pools Tom gets on the mic and predicts a tournament win. This prediction was not quite as accurate as KDZ's to say the least. The good news is we've so far avoided a repeat of the great Raiden debacle of 2012 and Tom isn't talking up a new main and instead vows to work on his problem matchups. After his loss Tom was only emo for a brief period before he returned to the mic in usual form, regaling us with tales of how he mops up Harley and Batgirl and yelling at stream monsters to kill themselves.
7L: stock up. Puts an end to the bill of goods that Green Arrow is a bad character and it's only Chris G's mythical fundamentals that can win with Ollie. 7L gave us the second biggest surprise of the tournament, the first being an East Coast major actually running on time. Which reminds me, while I will not offer stock evaluation on TOs I will say that the stream was ridiculous. I couldn't even see the chat during the top 8, depriving me of important insight from Tom luls Brady and Artkiller B, and the names were switched so much I'm still not sure who exactly won some of those Sinestro mirrors. Wasn't this supposed to be an EVO level event? If the production values aren't there then I don't see what seperates TFC from NEC, ECT, Summer Jam, Summer Slam, Starrcade and the 60 other East Coast majors.
