Capcom Pro Tour North America Finals at Red Bull Battle Grounds Results
The Capcom Pro Tour North America Finals at Red Bull Battle Grounds was held in Seattle, WA, USA from November 5th through 6th. Tokido from Japan and RB from Taiwan were the two players who earned the last 2 spots in the North America Finals by winning the Red Bull Battle Grounds Last Chance Qualifier held on November 5th. In an epic North America Finals held on November 6th, it was USA’s Liquid|NuckleDu who successfully defended his home turf and took 1st place. Japan’s Tokido took 2nd place and USA’s ANBU|Punk took 3rd place!
According to the 2016 Capcom Pro Tour Rules, Liquid|NuckleDu has already earned a qualifying spot at Capcom Cup by winning Canada Cup 2016, and as such there will be no player who earns an automatic qualifying spot to Capcom Cup from this event. Instead, another spot will be added to earn via Ranking Points on the Global Leaderboard.
If you missed any of the action, be sure to visit our videos page, where we will have a playlist for matches from Capcom Pro Tour North America Finals at Red Bull Battle Grounds!
NOTE: According to the 2016 Capcom Pro Tour Rules, no Ranking Points are awarded for a Regional Final or the associated Last Chance Qualifier event.
Capcom Pro Tour North America Finals at Red Bull Battle Grounds Results: Top 16
| Placing | Handle | Characters | Points |
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Highlights North America Regional Finals at Red Bull Battle Grounds
Here are just a few of the many great moments from North America Regional Finals at Red Bull Battle Grounds. Below we will delve a bit deeper and highlight several specific matches which stood out at the event! There were so many great matches and storylines at this event that we will only scratch the surface here, but if you’d like to see more, please visit our Videos page or go to the Capcom Fighters youtube channel!
Capcom’s Top 5 Moments of North America Regional Finals at Red Bull Battle Grounds
Liquid|NuckleDu vs DNL|Chris Tatarian
USA’s Liquid|NuckleDu has gained a tremendous amount of momentum over the last few months. He won several Ranking Events and took 1st place at the Canada Cup Premier Event the week prior to the NA Regional Finals. The additions of Guile and R.Mika to his now rarely seen Nash have proven invaluable. At the NA Regional Finals things started off badly with a loss to Tokido 3-1. NuckleDu would go on to get his payback against Tokido in Grand Finals and eventually take 1st place. However, just two matches after that early loss against Tokido, he faced of against DNL|Chris Tatarian and came within a breath of being eliminated. The match embedded below is one of the event’s best matches but it also shows what makes NuckleDu such a great player. He found a way to win.
RB’s Urien
One of the crowd favorites of the NA Regional Finals was Taiwan’s RB, due to his being one of the few players at this time playing Urien at a high level. RB made it into the NA Regional Finals by taking one of the top two spots of the Last Chance Qualifier the previous day. His Urien play is incredibly fun to watch, but he was eliminated by Justin Wong in top 8 and finished in 5th place. Below is one of his great matches, where he faced off against EG|Ricki Ortiz.
ANBU|Punk: Out of Nowhere and Onto the Big Stage
In big events like this there is usually one big surprise, and at the NA Regional Finals that surprise was ANBU|Punk. His Karin was incredible, making clutch plays, ambiguous mix-ups and inflicting big damage. He defeated PG|Filipino Champ 3-2, DNL|Chris Tatarian 3-0, and EG|Justin Wong 3-0 in a Karin mirror match that was as one sided as the score suggests. He played calm and collected all the way until he got to Winners Finals against Japan’s Tokido, when his emotions started to show. He pumped his fist when he won a round, and when he was narrowly defeated by Tokido he put his head down. Punk would be eliminated in the very next match against Liquid|NuckleDu 3-0, but his performance at the NA Regional Finals was worthy of praise and we’re sure he made a lot of new fans. It’s not as much fun to watch a blow-up, so below is his match against PG|Filipino Champ, which was a good set.
Tokido Still Among the World’s Best Players
Japan’s Tokido has been one of the world’s best players for years now, and the transition this year to Street Fighter 5 hasn’t slowed him down much. At the start of the season the worst you could say is that Korea’s RZR|Infiltration had his number, forcing Tokido into 2nd place finishes at the first 2 Premier Events. Since then he has consistently been in the top 3 in Premier Events and has taken 1st place in 2 of them, which considering the incredible level of competition this year is a tremendous feat. At the NA Regional Finals he was world-class once again, using parries and increased defensive patience to great effect. He made it to Grand Finals in the Winners Bracket, and it was only the incredible play from USA’s Liquid|NuckleDu that kept him from winning his 3rd Premier and playing gatekeeper to others trying to qualify for Capcom Cup.
Below is the match between Tokido and ANBU|Punk at Winners Finals, one of the hypest matches of the event:
Grand Finals: Tokido vs Liquid|NuckleDu
Tokido was actually the player that knocked Liquid|NuckleDu into the Losers Bracket in the first round of top 16, beating him 3-1. In Grand Finals they would meet again. NuckleDu, coming in from the Losers Bracket, had a long road ahead as he would have to win two sets to take 1st place. NuckleDu, having multiple characters to choose from, selected Guile (the character he lost to Tokido with in their prior meeting) and went to work. NuckleDu went on to win the first set 3-1. Tokido made some adjustments, seeming a bit more aggressive, but NuckleDu would go on to take the second set as well 3-1 and win the Grand Finals. Don’t think that the dual 3-1 scores means that this was an easy victory for NuckleDu, however. It was an excellent Grand Finals with both making some clutch plays.
Congratulations to Liquid|NuckleDu, North America Regional Finals at Red Bull Battle Grounds Winner!
Liquid|NuckleDu has gained a tremendous amount of momentum over the last few months. Since the ultimate goal is to win Capcom Cup, now couldn’t be a better time to be on a hot streak. He started the year playing Nash, but as the year progressed he added R.Mika and Guile to his repertoire, and with each of those characters having strengths in different matchups it gives NuckleDu more opportunities to win. He is arguably the best player in the USA at this point in time, and in December we will see if he can take this momentum to Capcom Cup and come out on top against the best players in the world.
NA Regional Finals at Red Bull Battle Grounds Interviews
Below is an interview conducted with NuckleDu at the Last Chance Qualifier by Capcom’s Matt Edwards. For more interviews, check out the CPT Interview Series playlist here.