Red Bull's Kanamori "gachikun" Tsunehori earned the Capcom Cup championship after outlasting a 32-man field of the best Street Fighter V players in the world on Sunday in Las Vegas.
The Japanese Rashid player was not the biggest name in the field, but he was a giant in his gameplay this weekend. He qualified into the top eight of the final with a flawless record and looked like the player to beat. With impressive victories over Echo Fox's Hajime "Tokido" Taniguchi and Detonation Gaming's Hiromiki "Itabashi Zangief" Kumada, he bullied his path to the top with a pristine projectile game and world-class patience.
When gachikun dominated, it was through a slower pace where Rashid's normals could dictate the neutral game, and when the games were close, it was up to his character's mobility to create chaos and come back to take rounds. In the top eight, every match he played was a nail-biter, including a grand finals reset, but his persistence to play his pace and game was evident.
Gachikun's determination to play his style paid off with the premier championship of the year.
Gachikun and Itabashi Zangief's grand finals set had plenty of peaks and valleys. Itabashi Zangief's Abigail looked unstoppable in the first set with frustrating jabs to stall all of gachikun's momentum and devastating damage from every hit confirm. Despite the 3-0 drubbing, gachikun used everything from runaway tactics, empty jump lows and throw baits to end Itabashi Zangief's Capcom Cup dreams.
It was a battle of swings, and in the end, the most consistent player of the weekend emerged as the victor.
Outside of the biggest surprises in the top 32, the top eight was a result that few could predict. It featured a character list of Abigail, Ibuki, Rashid, Kolin, Nash, Menat, Zeku and Karin. The player list was also diverse with representation from Japan, Singapore, the U.S. and United Arab Emirates. It was an encouraging sign that despite the multitude of Cammy's in the Capcom Cup, the Street Fighter meta still has some variety to it.
In addition, many players had the tournament runs of their lives like Echo Fox's Justin Wong, NASR's Amjad "AngryBird" Alshalabi, and Yusuke "Momochi" Momochi. Wong qualified into the top eight with the slowest average round time and played his signature turtle style all the way to an impressive fifth-place finish, Momochi reclaimed some of his former dominance with a vintage run akin to his earlier days in Street Fighter V and Street Fighter IV, and AngryBird was the dark horse of all dark horses.
Surprise results are nothing new for the Capcom Cup, but 2018 was a year where two players, Tokido and Fudoh's Fujimura Atsushi, established a semblance of consistency; they proved that steady results in a volatile game were possible. But, just like every year since Street Fighter V's debut, the finale of the season proved that not one player could dominate an entire calendar year.