Team BANDITS pulled off a stunning upset victory over front-runner VODAFONE GIANTS last week, knocking them down into second place on the standings. With four weeks behind us now in STREET FIGHTER LEAGUE season four there is currently no single team clearly dominating. The difference between first place and last is just one game going into week five, so anything can happen! In this week’s Team Battles we had NASR taking on BANDITS while PANDA GLOBAL went head to head against UYU.
MISS AN EPISODE?
If you missed any of season four and want to get caught up before reading further, check out the STREET FIGHTER LEAGUE: Pro-US 2020 Season 4 Archive or the Capcom Fighters YouTube channel’s STREET FIGHTER LEAGUE: Pro-US Season 4 video playlist for the full episodes.
NASR vs BANDITS
Banned Characters: Guile and Rashid
Big Bird’s NASR and MenaRD’s BANDITS both had wins last week against NORDAVIND and VODAFONE GIANTS respectively. The win by BANDITS over the heavily favored GIANTS was probably the bigger feat of the two but both teams came into this Team Battle with momentum and enthusiasm. The character bans were Guile for NASR targeting Caba and BANDITS elected to keep Rashid out of Big Bird’s hands.
For this Team Battle the first round between AngryBird’s Seth and MenaRD’s Sakura was obviously the most important, as the winner would eliminate a strong player and potentially deflate some morale. As you would expect with two world class players the set was very close. MenaRD did very well but it seemed like AngryBird had the advantage here with Seth’s long normal attacks helping to keep Sakura at bay. AngryBird would win the set 2-1, eliminating the strongest player on BANDITS.
The elimination of MenaRD seemed to take a lot of wind out of BANDITS for the remainder of the Team Battle. By coincidence both players with banned characters, Big Bird and Caba, faced off in the second round but Big Bird’s Ken seemed more capable than Caba’s G as a secondary. Big Bird would go on to beat Caba 2-0. The final third and final round of the Team Battle between Problem X and Venatori was fairly one sided. Venatori finally got to play his main character, Cammy, but he didn’t seem to know how to deal with Problem X’s E.Honda. E.Honda was able to headbutt both offensively and defensively and Venatori struggled to find a way to find an opening to do meaningful damage. Venatori landed an incredible anti-air into Super to win a round in the first game but that was the highlight. Problem X got the 2-0 win to give NASR a 3-0 sweep.
| Player | Team | Character | | Player | Team | Character | Score |
| AngryBird | NASR | Seth | defeated | MenaRD | BANDITS | Sakura | 2-1 |
| Big Bird | NASR | Ken | defeated | Caba | BANDITS | G | 2-0 |
| Problem X | NASR | E.Honda | defeated | Venatori | BANDITS | Cammy | 2-0 |
PANDA GLOBAL vs UYU
Banned Characters: Rashid and Kolin
PANDA GLOBAL took a tough loss to VODAFONE GIANTS in week three but with Punk on the team they will always be one of the competition’s toughest obstacles to overcome. Oil King’s UYU got their first win that same week against NORDAVIND and it was a big one. For Oil King and Kami returning from season three this was especially important as this was the first win for UYU going back to last year. For the team it was huge to break that chain of losses and to be reminded that even though last season was rough that this is a new start. PANDA GLOBAL banned Oil King’s Rashid for this Team Battle while UYU took away Nephew’s Kolin.
Last week’s win for UYU was nail-biting and emotional and this one was the same only it just didn’t break their way this time. Probably the most important set in this Team Battle was in round three between Punk’s Karin and NL’s Cammy. NL was within a breath of winning the first game more than one time and ended up losing. NL had a relentless offense and Punk seemed to be on the back foot at first. Several times NL had an enormous life lead only to have it turn around and give up the round to Punk. Since Punk was the last player standing for PANDA GLOBAL this Team Battle would likely have been a UYU win if NL had managed to close it out.
Oil King’s Seth was incredibly effective in this Team Battle especially his use of jumping axe kicks and his V-Skill to keep his opponents off balance. This Team Battle would ultimately come down to a face off between team captains. Oil King once again played well but Punk managed to capitalize on mistakes or openings with Karin’s big damage combos.
PANDA GLOBAL came out on top here 3-2 but it was another close one. In fact, all three Team Battles for PANDA GLOBAL this season took the full five rounds to decide, giving up a lot of matches to opponents that could be meaningful in tie-breakers. UYU took another heartbreaking loss but they were so close to victory with just one or two rounds going the other way making all the difference.
| Player | Team | Character | | Player | Team | Character | Score |
| Nephew | PANDA GLOBAL | Rose | defeated | Kami | UYU | Seth | 2-0 |
| Oil King | UYU | Seth | defeated | Justin Wong | PANDA GLOBAL | Karin | 2-1 |
| Punk | PANDA GLOBAL | Karin | defeated | NL | UYU | Cammy | 2-1 |
| Oil King | UYU | Seth | defeated | Nephew | PANDA GLOBAL | Rose | 2-1 |
| Punk | PANDA GLOBAL | Karin | defeated | Oil King | UYU | Seth | 2-0 |
TEAM STANDINGS
NASR gets a bit of breathing room with a one game lead over VODAFONE GIANTS for first place. Despite its win this week PANDA GLOBAL stays at third place. The losses by BANDITS and UYU drop them to fifth and sixth place respectively with NORDAVIND getting a big boost up to fourth place due to tie-breakers.
| Team | Record |
| NASR | 3-1 |
| VODAFONE GIANTS | 2-1 |
| PANDA GLOBAL | 2-1 |
| NORDAVIND | 1-2 |
| BANDITS | 1-2 |
| UYU | 1-3 |
TUNE IN NEXT WEEK!
Be sure to catch the next episode on Twitch and YouTube at 4:00 PM Pacific, 7:00 PM Eastern!