With the first half of the season now behind us the pressure will only continue to build as all teams race to earn one of four spots in the playoffs. Teams cannot ban the same characters in the second half, which could have big implications going forward. It’s week nine of STREET FIGHTER LEAGUE and there’s a lot of incredible Street Fighter V: Champion Edition to come! This week’s episode features Smug’s Team DYNAMITE versus HotDog29’s Team PSYCHO SHINOBI and Big Bird’s NASR against Oil King’s UYU.
MISS AN EPISODE?
If you missed any of season three and want to get caught up before reading further, check out the STREET FIGHTER LEAGUE: Pro-US 2020 Season 3 Archive or the Capcom Fighters YouTube channel’s STREET FIGHTER LEAGUE: Pro-US 2020 video playlist for the full episodes.
TEAM DYNAMITE vs TEAM PSYCHO SHINOBI
Banned Characters: M.Bison and Necalli
With both teams being part of a three way tie at 2-3, this week’s Team Battle between DYNAMITE and PSYCHO SHINOBI was crucial for both. Smug’s DYNAMITE came out swinging and defeated HotDog29’s PSYCHO SHINOBI with a convincing 3-0 score this week. DYNAMITE looked incredibly confident during this Team Battle and it reflected during the games. Also note that DYNAMITE all three matches 2-0, which will be important in any future ties.
HotDog29’s PSYCHO SHINOBI took a tough loss but they still have some bright spots to consider. Caba’s Guile is free from bans now for this critical home stretch. He didn’t win this week but it’s still a big gain. HotDog29’s Kolin as a secondary character looked strong in his match against MenaRD’s Birdie. With Guile mostly immune to bans going forward, M.Bison will look like a tempting target. It will also be interesting to see if Xian sticks with Seth or changes to one of his other characters like Ibuki. PSYCHO SHINOBI has a 2-4 record after this week which is only one win behind DYNAMITE and NASR. The team is still very much in contention for a playoff spot.
| Player | Team | Character | | Player | Team | Character | Score |
| Gamerbee | DYNAMITE | Cammy | defeated | Caba | PSYCHO SHINOBI | Guile | 2-0 |
| MenaRD | DYNAMITE | Birdie | defeated | HotDog29 | PSYCHO SHINOBI | Kolin | 2-0 |
| Smug | DYNAMITE | Balrog | defeated | Xian | PSYCHO SHINOBI | Seth | 2-0 |
TEAM NASR vs UYU
Banned Characters: Seth and Poison
Team UYU has been held back by the Rashid ban for the entirety of the first half of the season but that changed today! The team was 0-5 coming into this week but it’s hard to think of a team that will gain as much as UYU being able to use Rashid. Two of the team’s three members got their main character back! It is fitting for this occasion that the first matchup of the Team Battle between JB and Big Bird was a frenetic Rashid mirror-match.
This was a thrilling back and forth Team Battle started off by JB’s 2-1 win over Big Bird in the opening match. Every round was a contest of wills. Oil King’s Rashid play looked much more timid than what we’ve come to expect at the start of his first match but his tempo seemed to increase every round. It was AngryBird and his Zeku that made all the difference and delivered NASR a 3-2 win over UYU. AngryBird added another OCV to his record with a phenomenal performance.
| Player | Team | Character | | Player | Team | Character | Score |
| JB | UYU | Rashid | defeated | Big Bird | NASR | Rashid | 2-1 |
| AngryBird | NASR | Zeku | defeated | Kami | UYU | Akuma | 2-0 |
| Oil King | UYU | Rashid | defeated | Samurai | NASR | Akuma | 2-1 |
| AngryBird | NASR | Zeku | defeated | JB | UYU | Rashid | 2-0 |
| AngryBird | NASR | Zeku | defeated | Oil King | UYU | Rashid | 2-1 |
TEAM STANDINGS
ALPHA 3 and ALL-IN remain in the top positions tied at 5-1 with ALPHA 3 winning the tiebreaker. DYNAMITE and NASR got big wins this week and are in third and fourth place at 3-3. PSYCHO SHINOBI is only one game back at 2-4 and UYU remains in last place at 0-6 with its loss this week.
| Team | Record |
| ALPHA 3 | 5-1 |
| ALL-IN | 5-1 |
| DYNAMITE | 3-3 |
| NASR | 3-3 |
| PSYCHO SHINOBI | 2-4 |
| UYU | 0-6 |
TUNE IN NEXT WEEK!
Be sure to catch the next episode on Twitch and YouTube at 4PM Pacific, 7PM Eastern!
www.youtube.com/capcomfighters
Twitch Viewers: Be sure to participate in challenge questions powered by Azarus for a chance to win UYU and NASR costumes!