This is issue #13 of thegametwok newsletter, where I share Street Fighter V stats and findings.
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The Republic of South Africa will move beyond the Capcom Pro Tour spotlight and into Red Bull’s Hit the Streets series, which takes place throughout September.
At the CPT Online South Africa event, Billydate survived the ongoing rush of Jabhim to win the event and the automatic spot to Capcom Cup.
Billydate, representing the winners bracket, started the championship series with Necalli, and it looked like an bad decision, as he lost all six rounds played in Grand Final. He switched to Zeku in Game 3 and that didn’t help. But he rebounded in Reset Final using Ed, perhaps on paper another questionable decision, to get the win.
The more I watched Jabhim run through the losers bracket, where he started his Top 8 run, the more I was convinced he was going to win the event.
Jabhim winning six rounds in a row in Grand Final sealed that belief for me.
A player who wins 6 rounds in a row and allow an opponent a round to win a match has achieved a clean sheet, a definition I came up with a while back to define this somewhat-rare moment.
Jabhim’s clean sheet in Grand Final was just the 11th recorded all time in the Capcom Pro Tour, with nearly 300 events logged in the database. For clarification, that’s just Grand Final and doesn’t count that the championship series had a Reset Final, which I’ll get to in a moment.
There have been 2 clean sheet Grand Finals this year. The other was CPT Online North America West 1, won by Nephew on May 9.
There’s been at least 1 clean sheet Grand Final every year. Seven of the 11 have come online, including the last 6.
There’s a catch with the latest clean sheet — Jabhim did it and yet he didn’t win the event. Billydate got hit with it and yet still prevailed.
It got me wondering, has any player been the victim of a clean sheet in Grand Final only to come back in Reset Final and win the event?
Turns out, Billydate is the fourth player to pull off the incredible feat where a player does not win a round in Grand Final but wins Reset Final to take home the tournament. The other 3:
4/24/2016: Texas Showdown, Julio Fuentes def. P.R. Balrog
7/22/2017: CPT Online Europe 4, Sunmate def. Rass
5/26/2019: Combo Breaker, Punk def. Problem X
I mentioned earlier how the decision to go to Ed in Grand Final looked questionable to start. Ed just doesn’t have that much Top 8 history.
Billydate is the second player to use Ed in a championship series this year, joining Infiltration, who lost to NL on May 16.
There’s a crazy element to Billydate going with Ed which made me realize that the rabbit hole of data is as vast as a person’s imagination.
The first time Billydate used Ed in the Top 8 that day was Reset Final. Reset Final!
Game 1 Round 1 of Reset Final was Billydate’s 22nd round played in the Top 8, and he decides that is the time to break out a character for the first time that day.
With a trip to Capcom Cup at stake.
After having lost six consecutive rounds.
After getting perfected a little more than 2 minutes before making the decision.
It’s mindblowing any player would take that risk, let alone against one of the best characters in the game.
There’s only been one prior Ed vs. Karin Top 8 matchup, that was when Imstildadaddy faced Packz at CPT Online Europe 3 on July 8, 2017. There’s just not much data to say this is a good or bad matchup. Raw win-loss totals alone probably favor Karin by a lot.
Again, everything on the line, and Billydate pulled off this go-for-broke move.
It was the 11th time a player used a character in Reset Final which had not been used by that player at any other point in the Top 8 of a Capcom Pro Tour regular season event.
Prior to Billydate, the last player to take that risk was MenaRD, who used Akuma against Lilo24k at Blink Fighting Fest on Sept. 29, 2019.
There is a difference in MenaRD’s decision at Blink Fighting Fest. The series was 1-1 when he made the move to Akuma. He ultimately lost the match and the tournament.
If MenaRD switching during Game 3 to a brand new character is risky, how about Dreamhack Montreal on Sept. 9, 2018? In Game 4 of Reset Final, NuckleDu, trailing 2-1, decided to go to R Mika against Justin Wong’s Menat.
The decision worked, and NuckleDu tied the series 2-2. So Justin, who had used Menat all day, switched to Karin for the first time in the Top 8! One game to win and Justin took the risk and wins the tournament. Amazing.
How about Summerjam 2017’s Reset Final? NuckleDu used R Mika and Birdie for the first time in the Top 8, and Punk used Nash for the first time. That whole series was a test of who could win the counterpick: R Mika vs Karin, Birdie vs. Karin, Birdie vs. Nash, Guile vs. Nash, Guile vs. Karin.
Of the 11 times overall, five have resulted in wins:
7/1/2017: CPT Online Latin America 3, MenaRD (Laura) vs. Mono (FANG)
8/13/2017: Summerjam, NuckleDu (R Mika) vs. Punk (Karin)
8/13/2017: Summerjam, NuckleDu (Birdie) vs. Punk (Karin)
9/9/2018: Dreamhack Montreal, Justin Wong (Karin) vs. NuckleDu (R Mika)
8/29/2021: CPT Online South Africa 1, Billydate (Ed) vs Jabhim (Karin)
Billydate made the risky switch work, and he’s going to Capcom Cup because of it.