We are almost at the midway point in the second season and this week the teams will complete the remaining initial match-ups. As a double round-robin competition, the second half of the season will have each team repeat the opponent order of the first half. This week’s Team Battles put STORM against PSYCHO, season one winner INFERNO versus SPIRIT, and FROST faces off against season one runner-up and current standings leader GALE. Here’s a recap of this week’s action.
If you missed our recap of last week’s episode, browse here to check that out.
Miss an Episode?
If you missed any of season one and want to get caught up before reading further, check out the STREET FIGHTER LEAGUE: Pro-US 2019 Season 1 Archive or the Capcom Fighters YouTube channel’s STREET FIGHTER LEAGUE: Pro-US 2019 video playlist for the full episodes.
Team STORM defeats Team PSYCHO 3-1
801 Strider’s Team STORM went head to head with Smug’s Team PSYCHO, who earned their first win of the season last week. Team STORM’s ban strategy was an interesting one. They anticipated a Team PSYCHO ban on G to hamper 801 Strider and so elected to ban Balrog, Smug’s secondary character, in the hopes of seriously crippling him as both of his main characters would be banned. PSYCHO went with the R.Mika ban instead, which made the Balrog ban irrelevant, but it was a clever attempt.
STORM’s Tommy2Step and Mo-Joe won the first two rounds of the Team Battle against Dankadillas and Smug. Mo-Joe made a surprise Falke pick as his character against Smug despite having a proven Poison. Falke is an uncommon character so most players don’t have much experience against her, and the character’s range and mobility seemed to work well against G.
PSYCHO’s Automattock with his Sagat came out swinging in round three against 801 Strider, defeating him decisively with a mixture of fireballs and normals to keep up offensive pressure. STORM’s Tommy2Step with his Urien faced Automattock next. Tommy2Step got some big jump-in reads for big damage while Automattock had a strong fireball game. Tommy2Step came out on top 2-1 and victory went to STORM.
Character Bans: R.Mika and Balrog
| Team | Player | Character | Team | Player | Character | Score | |
| STORM | Tommy2Step | Urien | defeated | PSYCHO | Dankadillas | Dhalsim | 2-0 |
| STORM | Mo-Joe | Falke | defeated | PSYCHO | Smug | G | 2-1 |
| PSYCHO | Automattock | Sagat | defeated | STORM | 801 Strider | G | 2-0 |
| STORM | Tommy2Step | Urien | defeated | PSYCHO | Automattock | Sagat | 2-1 |
Team INFERNO defeats Team SPIRIT 3-2
Season one winner INFERNO, led by Punk, got its second win this week against CJ Truth’s Team SPIRIT in a hard-fought Team Battle. Team INFERNO would lose it’s first two match-ups as SPIRIT’s Sabin and iDom handily defeated BrolyLegs and JB.
The match between iDom and JB was interesting as both iDom and JB had their main characters banned this week and used secondaries. JB used Birdie and seemed to be at a loss during much of the match with iDom getting 2 perfect rounds. iDom’s Poison, on the other hand, looked fantastic. This reduces the impact of the Laura ban on his team compared to last season when his secondary, also Birdie, was not as strong.
All of the pressure was on Punk and it uncharacteristically showed on his face a few times between matches. Punk’s first match against SPIRIT captain CJ Truth was incredibly tense with ebbs where both players stared each other down followed by flows of offense. Punk would win the final round to clutch the overall victory with a time-out. Punk would go on to defeat Sabin 2-1 and iDom 2-0 to complete the team sweep.
Character Bans: Laura and Rashid
| Team | Player | Character | Team | Player | Character | Score | |
| SPIRIT | Sabin | Dhalsim | defeated | INFERNO | BrolyLegs | Chun-Li | 2-0 |
| SPIRIT | iDom | Poison | defeated | INFERNO | JB | Birdie | 2-0 |
| INFERNO | Punk | Karin | defeated | SPIRIT | CJ Truth | Kolin | 2-1 |
| INFERNO | Punk | Karin | defeated | SPIRIT | Sabin | Dhalsim | 2-1 |
| INFERNO | Punk | Karin | defeated | SPIRIT | iDom | Poison | 2-0 |
Team FROST defeats Team GALE 3-1
NuckleDu’s Team GALE took their first loss of the season this week against Dual Kevin’s Team FROST. Dual Kevin with his Rashid defeated GALE’s Shine, who used Kolin because his Ibuki was banned, in the first round 2-0. FROST’s Sherryjenix had her best match of the competition so far against RobTV in round 2. She took it to the very last round but RobTV got the win, which was the only bright spot of this Team Battle for GALE.
If you had any doubts whatsoever about Samurai’s skill as a player please watch his performance against NuckleDu in the next round. NuckleDu used G, a character that is gaining popularity fast due to his versatility and damage output while Samurai selected Ryu, who is virtually extinct from high level competitive play. Samurai would win the match with a time-out to get the win.
The last match between Dual Kevin against RobTV was incredibly exciting and got emotional as it went on. Going into the third game both players exchanged words with one another. Dual Kevin would win that last game handily to secure the win for Team FROST.
Character Bans: Ibuki and Akuma
| Team | Player | Character | Team | Player | Character | Score | |
| FROST | Dual Kevin | Rashid | defeated | GALE | Shine | Kolin | 2-0 |
| GALE | RobTV | Karin | defeated | FROST | Sherryjenix | Necalli | 2-1 |
| FROST | Samurai | Ryu | defeated | GALE | NuckleDu | G | 2-0 |
| FROST | Dual Kevin | Rashid | defeated | GALE | RobTV | Karin | 2-1 |
Team Standings
Going into the second half of the season Team GALE is still in first place with a 4-1 record, taking their first and only loss this week. Team FROST is in second place and STORM is in third place with both having 3-2 records after getting wins this week. Team INFERNO moves up to fourth place with its win this week and SPIRIT goes to fifth, both with 2-3 records. At sixth place is Team PSYCHO with a 1-4 record.
Tune in Next Week!
Be sure to catch the next episode on Twitch and YouTube at 4PM Pacific, 7PM Eastern.