CouchWarriors League Online Results – April Recap

Welcome back, CouchWarriors family! It’s been a few months since we were forced into isolation by the COVID-19 pandemic. As tough as it has been to not get out to regular ranbats and weeklies, we have seen some great community efforts to stay connected and run online tournaments for any game which supports them.

Chief among these online events has been the CouchWarriors League, which we launched with incredible timing just before the coronavirus news started to hit. What was intended as a national leaderboard for state ranbats and majors has shifted with the times, and become a weekly online tournament for our rotating roster of top games. While that feeling of playing next to your opponent in a live venue is irreplacable, we have at least been able to enjoy some rare interstate matchup as each scene sends its best gladiators into the online arena! And thanks to a stack of $100 prize vouchers supplied by m-wave, there was a little bit more than pride and points on the line…

If you happened to miss some of the earlier editions of our CWL online weeklies, we’re going over the results from April here to ensure everyone’s caught up for the next month!

You can see the CouchWarriors League standings for each game here.

Street Fighter V

  1. ORDER|Travis Styles
  2. DS|Somniac
    3. pahnda

The first weekend of distanced competition was marked out for SFV, and we got underway with a sizable 40-person bracket despite the late pivot to online. We got to see a strong mix of characters and regions represented, with QLD ranbat bully Ervin-Jason “pahnda” Garanovic charging to a Winners Finals showdown against defending BAM Path to EVO champion Travis Styles, representing Perth.

Despite the flashy moves from pahnda’s Akuma it was the solid and adaptable Travis who moved forward to Grand Finals, where he would eventually be confronted by the wily veteran Xavier “DS|Somniac” Nardella. Their set was a hard-fought one, between opponents who’d had the chance to test eachother’s strength many times before. But after Somniac was able to reset the bracket against Travis’s Chun Li, the West Australian put his foot down, switching back to Balrog and sealing the deal with a cool 3-0.

Both players were in good spirits after the match, and given how consistent they each have been over the last few years it seemed like the stage could be set for several online rematches in the coming months.

 

Smash Melee

  1. DS|Sora
  2. GZ|Sock
  3. Davox22

The CW League schedule was set out so that each fortnight would feature both Smash and FGC action, so the next Saturday gave us our first taste of online Melee. And thanks to Josh “DS|Sora” Lyras and his Donkey Kong, it was an absolute feast. Just look at the highlights of him going apeshit on Grand Finals opponent Jacob “GZ|Sock” Waddell!

By the end, the commentators and viewers had all been converted to apes.

 

A truly decisive win from a dominant player. A giant gorilla salute to you, Sora.

 

Tekken 7

  1. FAM|Gun_Mo
  2. GRU|Stuckles
  3. Ravenboy

The next tournament to fire was for TEKKEN 7, the best “attended” yet with 57 online warriors getting ready for the next battle! But with many high-ranked CWL players missing from the bracket, things were open for a few new names to break through. In particular, Queensland’s Peter “Ravenboy” O’Flanagan toppled community stalwart Tom “yiggs” Ho and CWL frontrunner “Moose” to cap off an impressive run to Losers Finals.

But the Grand Finals proved to be an all-Victorian affair, as Kun-Mo “FAM|Gun_Mo” Yon went up against Chris “GRU|Stuckles” Stuckey. Gun_Mo had powered through the tournament undefeated, demonstrating the power of recent DLC character Fahkumram.

Stuckles also had a very convincing day out, able to consistently clutch it out until colliding with Gun_Mo in Winners Finals.

That encounter was hard fought, with Gun_Mo coming out just ahead. But it might have given away more data than Stuckles would have liked – even after doing the hard work to set up a Grand Finals rematch, Gun_Mo immediately swept him aside 3-0 to claim 1st place (and of course, an m-wave voucher)!

Smash Ultimate

  1. GZ|SebPro101
  2. Maplemage
  3. Kanga|Ghost

Predictably, the turnout for the current Smash game blew everything else out of the water for this month. With so many players, a quick set of pools were run to filter things down to a top 32 “Pro Bracket” which could then play off for the CWL points and voucher.

Winners Bracket was dominated by twin Victorian R.O.B. players, as Sebastian “GZ|SebPro101” Poli-Tabone and Michael “SSG|MasterofDisaster” Driss plowed through waves of Australia’s finest. Joshua “Kanga|Ghost” Francis made a run down the other side of the pairings, and after dropping games in early sets made it to Winners Final. SebPro101 dueled MasterofDisaster in Winners Semis, taking a clean 3-0 after MOD refused to pick R.O.B. into the ditto.

Seb continued to dominate even against Ghost, and looked indomitable as he marched into Grand Finals.

That matchup ended up being a runback from earlier in the tournament, but not from MasterofDisaster or Ghost. Instead, it was ACT player Maplemage who battled through Losers after being sent there by SebPro in round two! Maplemage got past Tomas “DT|Luma” Parish, Edward “~Fez~” Simmonds, MOD and Ghost in quick succession to earn his shot in Grand Finals. But in the end, he could only take one game before SebPro shut him down.

 

That’s all the results for our April online events! Congratulations to all who competed, and especially our winners – who raked in what are now the only CouchWarriors League points on offer. Stay tuned for more results from May and (hopefully not) beyond!

 

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