On April 7 the bracket tournament of the ELeague Street Fighter invitational will kick off. Twenty-four competitors survived the first round. The four groups from the preliminaries, now with only six players, will continue to duke it out until there are only two players per group remaining for the playoffs. The top-two placers in the group from the preliminary stage are automatically in the semifinals and will only need one victory to qualify out of the bracket.
ESPN talked to ELeague commentators and analysts Stephen "Sajam" Lyon and Zhi "Zhieeep" Liang Chew to help sift through all the players and information.
Reflecting on groups
Both Zhieeep and Sajam spoke briefly about which players surprised them and met their expectations from the preliminaries.
Together, both agreed Panda Global's Victor "Punk" Woodley lived up to the hype. His play during the group stage mirrored the dominance he showed during a similar exhibition tournament at SXSW, "Fighters Underground." Team Liquid's Du "NuckleDu" Dang's performance and placing also met what you would expect out of a world champion.
Some of the bigger surprises included Sajam's pick of Cygames' Darryl "Snake Eyez" Lewis because of his relatively low-profile in character choices and his lackluster performances during 2016. Both agreed that Joshua "Wolfkrone" Philpot's dominating 6-1 performance in Group C, arguably the most difficult pool with players like Keita "Fuudo"Ai, Kun Xian Ho, aka Xian, and Hajime "Tokido" Taniguchi, was the most surprising result.
Bracket Tournament
Group A
Favorites: Punk and Echo Fox's Yusuke "Momochi" Momochi
Sajam: I don't believe in Punk's ability to close out yet. On paper, he is the clear favorite, but I'm afraid his nerves after the group stage could be an issue. Despite that, he's still my pick.
Zhieeep: I like Punk to make it out. There's going to be a tournament where he will close, start to finish, and this is the place that he can rise up and come through; ELeague is a more comfortable setting.
Lee: Momochi lived up to the billing with a great group showing and secured himself a free pass to the semifinals. He played only Ken and it looked like whatever tinkering he did during Fighters Underground paid off -- this is his group to lose.
Group B
Favorites: Cygames' Eduardo "PR Rog" Perez and Twitch | Hx | CYG BST Daigo Umehara
Sajam: I have PR Rog making it out. He's in the best position out of all the players and his scariest opponent is SnakeEyez, who is on the opposite side of the bracket from him. He has the best chance to make it out either way.
Zhi: I still like Daigo Umehara. He sponsors the top two seeds (Snake Eyez and PR Rog are Cygames teammates) and I cannot see the students disrespecting the master. He's currently mercenary Daigo and I've never seen him indirectly go for just the money.
Lee: The way the bracket is laid out, PR Rog needs one victory to move on since he placed into the semifinals - and the match won't be against the only person he lost to during the group stages (Snake Eyez). That sounds like all the right ingredients for a cruise into the playoffs. Even against Snake Eyez, PR Rog is practicing the correct punishes for Zangief's V-Skill and harnessing his ridiculous reactions to punish predictable movement options and errant normal button presses.
Group C
Favorites: Team Razer's Keita "Fuudo" Ai and Team Razer's Kun "Xian" Ho
Sajam: My favorite is Fuudo. I think he looks really sharp despite the loss to Wolfkrone (his first match of the day). He was training a lot in the backroom and grinding games and that loss was just one of those wake-up calls. I expect him to play on-point for the rest of the tournament.
Zhieeep: I also like Fuudo. I know I should give Wolfkrone more credit because he's playing with that fiery rage and Japan hasn't seen a lot of strong Laura's, but I wonder if his play provided enough information to lessen the surprise of his character. But, Fuudo is just a very solid pick and he even said he's feeling good.
Lee: To borrow Zhieeep's words, Xian is in mercenary mode. There is a significant amount of change on the line and Xian is past the point of playing F.A.N.G. for the fans. If Xian continues to lab up his character and take new setups from other players, he should exit the bracket as one of the two qualifiers.
Group D
Favorites: Team Liquid's Du "NuckleDu" Dang and Qanba Douyu's Zeng "Xiao Hai" Zhuo Jun
Sajam: It's NuckleDu. Everyone knows freedom is the most powerful thing on the planet and it will be live to a television audience that will appreciate that and democracy the most.
Zhieeep: I still like NuckleDu to make it out. With Xiao Hai, his demon is Du and it's more than just a psychological roadblock. For NuckleDu, he's due to reload and double his coffers with a big tournament win; he's hungry.
Lee: Xiao Hai is never a player that you want to give time off and research to -- he will simply come back in the strongest way possible. NuckleDu continues to plague his tournament runs, but Xiao Hai is playing Street Fighter V free of the distraction from other games like King of Fighters XIV.