Two months after the first edition, the emblematic Crush Encounters returned with Tekken 7 and Street Fighter V Arcade Edition tournaments, and this time it was done all the way in luxury facilities such as the Movistar Center of Barcelona in the Plaza Catalunya .
The community of Tekken, very united and active in recent months, wanted to Tekken in the heart of Barcelona and there were several who mobilized for the occasion. Along with several new faces that premiered in the tournament, we had the three Tekken representatives of the Arkham Team: Blackkazama, Griec and Monoborracho along with Darkwind as a Street Fighter competitor. There was also the pleasant surprise of international representation with the visit of one of the strongest players in Italy, Mr. Crossfire the lion, as well as that of an old acquaintance already in the competitive scene, the Dutch MostEffective.
We were waiting for about ten exciting hours of fighting games and the day gave us several epic moments such as the official announcement of the Blood Jokers fighting games team, after the rage caused in the networks days before the tournament. Not least, it was the fact of bringing together national fighting legends like RickyTTT or Becks.
The day began with the iron fist tournament, being part of the Tekken World Tour as a Dojo Tournament, contesting the FT2 clashes until the final three classics. The battle of Tekken brought together about 40 competitors who fought for the glory of the Dojo, where most participants defended the shirt of a different club. With the absence of the former Crush Encounters champion, the conqueror of Tibetan Europe, the desire to be the new winner revived the hopes of the ‘Tekkeneros’. Even other known players of other fighting games, such as the undisputed champion of Dragon Ball FighterZ, Shanks, or another of the best known players in that game, Mr. Inex, wanted to join the Tekken competition.
TEKKEN 7 BALANCE AND HIGHLIGHTS
It was the Arkham Team players who performed best in the dojo, having a presence in the top 5 as follows: Griec (2nd position), Blackkazama (3rd position) and Monoborracho (5th position). However, they all had to suffer a lot to achieve those positions. In the case of Monoborracho, his duel against RyuFox (also ranked in 5th position) opted for the side of the new signing of Blood Jokers that made masterful use of his mythical robot Jack. This complicated things for the Arkham Team player as he had to continue climbing positions by losing the Winners Quarter-Final. Once in the Losers Bracket he had to defeat Juanra and SquishyBanana to face his teammate, Blackkazama, who finished his winning streak and left him with his final fifth position in the tournament.
As for the Black Wizard, his path through the Winners Bracket was more fortunate as he reached the Winners Semi-Final defeating tough fighters like Juanra or the Italian Crossfire the lion. However, it was the winner of the tournament, XocoHard, who sent the wizard to Losers, where after beating Monoborracho and Lain, he succumbed to his teammate Griec in the Final Losers.
And speaking of the runner-up of the dojo, Griec did not lose any confrontation until the Winners Final against XocoHard, having previously avenged his fellow Monoborracho with his victory against RyuFox. After earning a place in the Grand Final, XocoHard came back victorious and proclaimed himself the champion of this second edition of the Crush Encounters in 2019.
STREET FIGHTER V ARCADE EDITION BALANCE AND HIGHLIGHTS
As for Street Fighter, the tournament had fewer participants and had some other absence but gave us the opportunity to have a Round Robin format, with lots of fighting to decide the 4 strongest players of the day who would go on to play the semifinals. Also with the pleasant visit of one of the most important pillars of the Street Fighter scene, the representative of MadridFGC Dirdamo, the day was loaded with very intense duels to get that hard top 4. After the butcher of the Round Robin of maximum equality , the 4 strongest competitors were Becks, DAZ, Ostrac and Darkwind. It was the most regular Arkham Team player and who had the least losses, losing only against the fearsome Birdie of Italian Ostrac and Akuma of DAZ before reaching the semifinals.
With the top 4 set, Becks stayed behind the podium by losing to DAZ in the Winners Semi-Final and against Darkwind in the Losers Semi-Final. So far came the adventure of ‘macareno’. Subsequently, he repeated again what had already happened in the Round Robin, Ostrac again won his confrontation against Darkwind and sent him to the Losers Final, where after defeating DAZ, he would get a place in the Grand Final to try to have his revenge against Ostrac Something that was not going to be easy, especially for how the results had been given up to that precise moment. However, Darkwind managed to reset that Grand Final and subsequently rise as absolute champion of the tournament.
THE FIGHT CONTINUES
And with those 2 tournaments that we had, we closed the month of April in terms of fighting games but not before anticipating what is to come. With the recently released Mortal Kombat 11 oven and other fighting games on the horizon, the era of fighting games remains strong for everyone's joy. Do not miss all the news about the upcoming face-to-face and online tournaments, the amount of content and tutorials we regularly add to our networks, nor the outcome of the Giants Fighters League in the coming weeks! If you have reached the end of the chronicle, thank you for reading and if you liked it, do not hesitate to let us know.
Until the next fight,
Aalasthor
