STREET FIGHTER LEAGUE: PRO-US 2022 SEASON 5 WEEK ONE RECAP

The premier of STREET FIGHTER LEAGUE season 5 is here and it features six new or remixed teams each composed of new and returning players as well as an exciting new format! Up for grabs this year is a prize pool of $75,000 with first place getting $60,000 and second place earning $15,000 with the winning team also qualifying for the STREET FIGHTER LEAGUE World Championship!

This season mixes things up with an all new format. First off there are no character bans this season. There are now four players on each team with three players being selected to compete in any one Team Battle while the remaining player being on the bench. In each Team Battle one team will be the home team and the other the away team. The away team must declare the player order and character selection before the Team Battle begins while the home team is able to choose the players and character selection as the battle progresses. Team Battles now consist of three consecutive matches with each being scored with the format below. If the score is tied at the end of the third match there will be a one game tie-breaker match with 5 points awarded.

MATCHESNUMBER OF GAMESPOINTS
1stFIRST TO 2 WINS+10 PTS
2ndFIRST TO 2 WINS+10 PTS
3rdFIRST TO 3 WINS+20 PTS
TIE-BREAKERBEST OF 1 GAME+5 PTS

MISS AN EPISODE? 

If you missed any of season 5 and want to get caught up before reading further, check out the STREET FIGHTER LEAGUE: Pro-US Season 5 Archive or the Capcom Fighters YouTube channel’s STREET FIGHTER LEAGUE: Pro-US Season 5 video playlist for the full episodes. 

CLG (HOME) vs ENDEMIC (AWAY)

Away Team Player and Character Order: 1) Shine (Cody), 2) GamerBee (Luke), 3) iDom (Poison), SUB) NuckleDu

The Team Battle to kick off season 5 was Cyber Logic Games (CLG) as the home team against Endemic as the away team. The first match between Justakid and Shine was a great way to start the season with Justakid’s Juri seemingly being on the defensive against Shine’s agressive Cody most the the match. Justakid made good use of his opportunities by landing big damage combos while Shine’s Cody kept relentless pressure by staying mostly on the attack, repeatedly forcing Justakid toward the corner. With both players having low health in the last round of the match Justakid landed the final blow to win 2-1.

Next up was Samurai against GamerBee and this was a Luke mirror match. The first game was incredibly close with the win in round three going to time-out and Samurai coming out on top with more health remaining. The second game was not nearly as close but was an interesting battle of position with both players fighting to get optimal spacing. Samurai’s famous patience was on display in this game as he waited for his openings and slowly walked GamerBee back. Samurai took this match 2-0 to give CLG a nice lead in the Team Battle.

Enedmic was down two matches at this point but the third match of the Team Battle had 20 points up for grabs, so Endemic was still in it. Facing off this time was ChrisCCH against iDom. This was another thriller of a match with ChrisCCH’s Luke and iDom’s Poison routinely trading momentum almost every round. The last round of the first game was a good example with iDom’s Poison keeping ChrisCCh’s Luke locked down with her ranged attacks. iDom had large life lead but ChrisCCH managed to get in close and turn the tide, landing some big combos and managed to take the round and the game.

ChrisCCH went up 2-0 against iDom and things were looking good for CGL but you can never count iDom out. The first round of game three ChrisCCH opened up a big life lead with iDom being down to around 20% health but iDom clawed his way back and took the round. Most of the rounds were very close but iDom was able to fight his way back to tie it up. He would go on to narrowly beat ChrisCCH in the final round of the last game.

With the score tied 20 to 20 after match three it was time for the season’s first tie-breaker. Even after the emotional roller-coaster that the last match must have been CGL decided to send ChrisCCH back in to face iDom for one more game. Once again they traded rounds in an incredibly intense game but in the third round ChrisCCH got Poison into the corner and connected with a throw to cap off a sensational set of games to give CGL the first Team Battle win of season 5.

MatchPlayerTeamCharacterPlayerTeamCharacterResult
1JustakidCGLJuridefeatedShineENDEMICCody2-1
2SamuraiCGLLukedefeatedGamerBeeENDEMICLuke2-0
3iDomENDEMICPoisondefeatedChrisCCHCGLLuke3-2
BreakChrisCCHCGLLukedefeatediDomENDEMICPoison1-0
SCORETOTAL1st2nd3rdBreak
HOME25101005
AWAY2000200

NASR X BANDITS (HOME) vs PANDA GLOBAL (AWAY)

Away Team Player and Character Order: 1) JB (Rashid), 2) Nephew (Luke), 3) Punk (Ken), SUB) Kami

Up next for this week was NASR X BANDITS as the home team and PANDA GLOBAL as the away team. NASR X BANDITS decided to put AngryBird up first using Ken against JB’s Rashid and it was decisive. AngryBird’s Ken virtually shut down attempts by JB’s Rashid to start any kind of sustained offense. Ken kept checking most of these attempts with normals and smart fireballs while capitalizing on opportunities to inflict the punishing combos the character is known for. AngryBird got a decisive win over JB 2-0 without losing a round.

For the second match Big Bird faced off against Nephew and it was another Luke mirror match. Nephew had significantly more success in this match with the first game going to the final round with both players having very low health. Unfortunately for PANDA GLOBAL it was Big Bird who landed the final blow to take the first game. Nephew came out strong winning the first round of the second game but from then on Big Bird took charge, landing good whiff punishes and getting Nephew pinned into the corner. Big Bird went on to win the second game to earn another 2-0 for his team.

In the anchor position for both teams was MenaRD and Punk and this match lived up to what you would expect from two of the world’s best players. MenaRD went with Luke as his character against Punk’s Ken in the first game and it was decisively in MenaRD’s favor with Luke’s Sand Blaster ranged attack and his normals keeping Ken in check. For the next game Punk changed characters to Karin and it didn’t find any more success as MenaRD’s Luke got another strong win by keeping Karin from establishing offense in the same way as he did against Ken. For the third game Punk once again changed characters this time to Luke. All of the momentum seemed to be in MenaRD’s favor until round 2 of this game when Punk made a pretty big comeback from low health to win. The next game was a nailbiter that came down to the last round with both players having low health but Punk landed a huge jump-in attack to take the round and tie up the match 2-2. In the final game the momentum had swung to Punk and he won that game with two quick rounds to complete an incredible comeback to give PANDA GLOBAL 20 points to tie up the Team Battle score.

It was time for a tie-breaker match and NASR X BANDITS put AngryBird to go up against a Punk that was brimming with confidence. AngryBird had many high pressure situations such as this last season and he came on top most of the time and it was no different here. AngryBird stayed with Ken against Punk’s Luke and Ken’s fireball game and normals seemed to be the antidote to Luke. It went to the final round but AngryBird ended it with a Super to gave NASR X BANDITS their first Team Battle win of the season.

MatchPlayerTeamCharacterPlayerTeamCharacterResult
1AngryBirdNASR X BANDITSKendefeatedJBPANDA GLOBALRashid2-0
2Big BirdNASR X BANDITSLukedefeatedNephewPANDA GLOBALLuke2-0
3PunkPANDA GLOBALKen/Karin/LukedefeatedMenaRDNASR X BANDITSLuke3-2
BreakAngryBirdNASR X BANDITSKendefeatedPunkPANDA GLOBALLuke1-0
SCORETOTAL1st2nd3rdBreak
HOME25101005
AWAY2000200

TEAM STANDINGS 

The first week of STREET FIGHTER LEAGUE is in the books and here are the standings.

TUNE IN NEXT WEEK! 

Be sure to catch the next episode on Twitch and YouTube on Friday at 4:00 PM Pacific, 7:00 PM Eastern! 

www.twitch.tv/capcomfighters 

www.youtube.com/capcomfighters