^ MKX looks much better balanced so far then MK2011.

All the characters we're seeing tonight + D'Vorah, Erron Black, Shinnok, Jax, Kung Jin, Quan Chi and more...

Actually, I think the only character I haven't seen so far competing at big tournies is Jacqui (and Jason). Well, Reptile too, as I think I've only seen MIT play him at a local YOMI tourney. But yeah, so far the character diversity has been very satisfying across all tournaments I'd say.

So yeah, the mid-tiers are doing much better this time round.

To be honest I have not seen any tournament Ferra/Torr play.

I think there was one player who did well at CEO with Ferra/Torr. Unfortunately, I can't remember the name of the player now (I could do some research tomorrow). The thing is I don't like Ferra/Torr so I wasn't that interested. :shrugs:

What a phenomenal match between Grandpa and Nivek!!! Was way too close to call! Wow!

Indeed! Best match so far! I was hoping Nivek would win as he was the only Raiden in the tourney, while KL is also played by PL and CrazySteadyCrawlingShadow.

Great, great match!

So happy to see PL lose to Reo.

I've been struggling with staying awake, I bassically slept over the last 3-4 matches, it's 3 am over here...

There is that Erron gameplay I was waiting for from SonicFox. I'm surprised Pig never switches characters completely since Kenshi doesn't really have great options that aren't zoning in any variation.

SonicFox has all the bases covered in my opinion. High pressure with Erron Black and zoning with Kitana. Failing that he also has got Tanya as back up. I think he is always a step ahead of REO as well. REO switched to Erron Black and then Tanya most probably SonicFox kept beating him with those characters. REO mained Kung Jin first as well as Sonya.

Why do you hate Perfect Legend?

I think he said he's only playing Kenshi no matter what. He's been loyal to Kenshi for quite a while, going back to MK2011 days.

I thought Sonic rushed a bit to switch from Kitana to Erron as he won the first game and could have taken round 1 of game 2 had he gone for the meter burned d, b+2 launcher near the end of the round. Still, he demolished Pig with Erron and said afterwards that Kenshi is a tough match-up for Kitana. Cool to see some Erron too, first time today!

Wish I could FF the Predator promo, I'm desperate for sleep. :-\

Absolutely horrible to watch Kitana. Painful match.

SonicFox wins. Time to play this timeless classic :B

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MC0hV3dea9g

Awesome play from SonicFox! Loved that Kitana, deadly from every part of the screen, beautiful mixture of zoning, spacing, footsies, pokes, pressure, massive combos including some nasty unbreakable ones.

Wonderful to see characters like her and Kenshi, who don't rely on low/overhead 50/50s, do so well.

Congrats SonicFox!

Kitana is hardly a bottom tier anymore .... all those buffs have payed off ... would like to see a high level assassin, though ... :)

I know that some people are loyal to certain characters but you'd think that he would pick someone else up as an alternate for bad matchups. I'd have no problem with him sticking with Kenshi if he could make it to the end and win any of these tournaments. I don't think he won any weeks of ESL and he didn't win Combo Breaker. It just doesn't make sense to me that he would be fine with losing for the sake of sticking with Kenshi when $60,000 is on the line.

I can see why you'd think the switch to Erron was a bit quick on his part but it was definitely the right move in my opinion. The pressure he applies with the 21122 string is insane. He doesn't even rely on the overhead to low mix up that often it seems. I noticed that it hasn't been as often at least.

I hate watching Kitana gameplay because she is nothing special to me but he made her look very good for competitive play. I wouldn't be surprised if a few people try to pick her up due to watching the tournament. SonicFox has a pretty decent Ermac too but I don't care for Ermac this time around so it doesn't bum me out that he wasn't used.


I caught the end of those Predator matches. I didn't expect much and apparently I didn't mess much. Served as a good time to do some things that had to get done after watching the tournament all day.

Overall a good tournament. I hope more people branch out from Kung Lao. He just isn't fun to watch at all. I was also very surprised that there was no Quan Chi today.

Some players are like that though. 16-bit never played a single match with any other character than Kitana, back in MK2011, no matter how big the tourney was and no matter how bad the match-up was (Pig's Kenshi was his worst nightmare actually). I love it when players are loyal to their characters. It's also useful when checking player list before the tournament, you know which characters to expect and if you don't find any interesting you just skip the stream instead of waiting and hoping all day/night you'll see the ones you'd like to see and then end up disappointed.



Heh, I like watching KL due to his crazy mobility and speed, plus I generally like the character.
Yeah, no Quan Chi today. Michaelangelo and Shujinkydink are Quan Chi players, though REO has played him in some tournaments as well. There was no D'Vorah, Kung Jin and Shinnok either (the BoneShaper variation has been very popular lately in tournaments). But it was only a 16-man tournament, so it's understandable. However, we got some good Johnny Cage play for a change and Kitana has been seen rarely so far as well. Plus, I'd say this was the best Kenshi display so far in MKX. So overall, I'm pretty happy with the character variety we got.

Now, I just hope all these Europeans and more + South Americans (Chile, Brazil primarily) come to Evo!

Pig has a very good Kenshi for what Kenshi is supposed to do. I'm not arguing that but I just feel like he could be looking at a matchup that is bad for Kenshi and could be admitting defeat right there in his mind if he refuses to switch. I feel the same way about 16-bit. The Kenshi vs Kitana matchup was in favor of Kenshi in MK9. I guess I just wish that players would switch it up I'd things were going south for them during a set instead of switching to another variation that plays similarly. I like that those players usually are top with that character. I am impressed that Pig can use all three variations well (kenjutsu being the least used obviously). I do think that he should reevaluate if he continues to come up short though.

I like KL as a character but I just don't like watching his gameplay. It's the same thing every time. At least they nerfed the Tempest hat orbit I guess. Yea I was surprised that with 3 Quan Chi players we didn't get to see any of him. Not that I like watching him either but I was surprised. Someone could have probably gotten pretty far with Summoner.

I was very pleased to see a Kano player even though they didn't make it too far. I personally prefer Cybernetic when I use Kano but they definitely made me want to go back and try Cutthroat some more.