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

STREET FIGHTER LEAGUE season 5 is in full swing with all six teams now having at least one Team Battle completed. The competition has been intense with most of the Team Battles being very close. Three of the first four Team Battles were decided by a tie-breaker with only RED ROOSTER’s win over UYU last week not following the trend. The first Team Battle this week is CL Gaming facing off against NASR X BANDITS. Coming up next we had PANDA GLOBAL challenging ENDEMIC.

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. 

CL GAMING (HOME) vs NASR X BANDITS (AWAY)

Away Team Player and Character Order: 1) Big Bird (Ken), 2) Caba (Guile), 3) AngryBird (Ken), SUB) MenaRD

Both CL Gaming and NASR X BANDITS came into this week with wins in their initial Team Battles. NASR X BANDITS was in first place with two prior wins. Every one of the Team Battles came down to the tie breaker to decide and this one was no different.

At first this looked like it would be a runaway for NASR X BANDITS. Big Bird took the opening match 2-0 with his Ken over Samurai’s Luke. It was a much closer match than the score implies but the more aggressive Big Bird just made more big reads than the more the more patient Samurai. The match concluded with a flourish fitting for the flashy Ken with Big Bird pulling off a sick V-Shift into Super at the tail end of the final round.

CL Gaming sent in Filipinoman next with his Rose to take on Caba’s Guile. This was the first time we got to see either player play this season and this one was as one sided as the score suggests. Caba’s mixture of well placed Sonic Booms, offensive pressure with normals to disrupt Rose’s offense and Flash Kicks to counter her air-fireball all contributed to Caba winning big 2-0.

At the anchor position it was ChrisCCH and his Luke that went in against AngryBird’s Ken. This was a sensational match with both players looking for every opportunity to go on offense and some impressive reads on both sides. Up until now Big Bird and AngryBird’s use of Ken as a counter to Luke worked very well but this match was close even though ChrisCCH would win the match 3-0. The score was now tied and it was time for a one game tie-breaker.

After the match AngryBird lept out of his chair, urgently conferred with his team, and quickly went back in for the runback against ChrisCCH. You could sense that AngryBird was confident that although he lost three games straight against ChrisCCH that he could win this all-imporant last game. AngryBird went in and won both rounds comfortably to give his team its third Team Battle win. Many players would be shaken by losing three games straight but it says a lot about AngryBird that this just empowered him to go right back in and get a victory for his team.

MatchPlayerTeamCharacterPlayerTeamCharacterResult
1Big BirdNASR X BANDITSKendefeatedSamuraiCL GamingLuke2-0
2CabaNASR X BANDITSGuiledefeatedFilipinomanCL GamingRose2-0
3ChrisCCHCL GamingLukedefeatedAngryBirdNASR X BANDITSKen3-0
BreakAngryBirdNASR X BANDITSKendefeatedChrisCCHCL GamingLuke1-0
SCORETOTAL1st2nd3rdBreak
HOME2000200
AWAY25101005

PANDA GLOBAL (HOME) vs ENDEMIC (AWAY)

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

Both of these teams came into this week looking for thier first win with PANDA GLOBAL having one loss and two for ENDEMIC. This season’s new format is all about points and not about overall Team Battle win-loss record, however, and all of the losses by both teams were by tie-breaker up to this point. This meant that although both teams were without a Team Battle win they are not far back in the standings.

The Team Battle opened up with a Luke mirror-match between Kami and GamerBee. Kami just seemed to be more comfortable throughout the match and claimed a 2-0 win for PANDA GLOBAL. Up next Nephew and his Kolin went up against NuckleDu’s Guile. NuckleDu won a very close first game with visible relief on his face after he pulled it off. Nephew has one of the best Kolins on the planet and NuckleDu has been away from competition for a long stretch coming into this season. Aside from NuckleDu’s visible emotional reactions between rounds and after the match it would be hard to tell just by looking at his gameplay this week that he was coming off a hiatus. NuckleDu won 2-0 and the score was tied 10-10.

Any time we get to see Punk face off against iDom it is always a treat as both players are among the very top Street Fighter V players in the world with an intense rivalry. This was a thrilling match with momentum swings too numerous to count. Punk started the match using Vega against iDom’s Poison. On paper you could see how Vega’s fast movement speed and far-reaching normals could be a good match against Poison but that was not the case as iDom dismantled Vega to win the first game.

Punk then switched to Luke and here the match turned into an intense tug-of-war with both players trading big damage combos. Although iDom’s Poison is arguably the best in the world, Punk’s Luke still managed to get more critical big hits into combos to push Poison into the corner. Punk would win the next two games to take the lead.

After the second loss iDom wisely turned around and had a lengthy conference with his team-mates about some of the issues he was having with Poison against Luke. NuckleDu even told iDom that if he would support a decision to switch to Laura if iDom chose to do so. iDom went back in with Poison to win in dominating fashion to tie it up 2-2 with one round being a perfect.

The last game went down to the very last round but Punk got a big jump-in against Poison in the corner which led to a stun which gave Punk and PANDA GLOBAL the all-important third match win of the Team Battle. PANDA GLOBAL came out on top in this Team Battle 30-10.

MatchPlayerTeamCharacterPlayerTeamCharacterResult
1KamiPANDA GLOBALLukedefeatedGamerBeeENDEMICLuke2-0
2NuckleDuENDEMICGuiledefeatedNephewPANDA GLOBALKolin2-0
3PunkPANDA GLOBALVega/LukedefeatediDomENDEMICPoison3-2
SCORETOTAL1st2nd3rdBreak
HOME3010020
AWAY1000100

TEAM STANDINGS 

NASR X BANDITS coninues at the top of the standings with their win this week. PANDA GLOBAL’s big win this week shoots them from 5th place all the way to 2nd. ENDEMIC, even without a win so far this season, moves to 3rd place. CLG Gaming holds onto fourth place.

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