To say the level of Street Fighter V competition this past weekend at the Barclays Center for the Brooklyn Beatdown was stacked would be a huge understatement. Every pool was filled with well-known and intimidating talent from all over the United States and the rest of the world.
With well-established players in attendance such as RZRlInfiltration, CircalLPN, Bx3lPhenom, RBlSnake Eyez, F3lAlucard, LiquidlNuckleDu, BSTlDaigo Umehara, FOXlJulio, Tokido, RZRlXian, Evil Geniuses’ Justin Wong, Ricki Ortiz, and Momochi, among many others, it was extremely difficult to predict who was going to make it into the top 16 money bracket and eventually take home first place and a huge chunk of change.
When all was said and done however, China’s own QanbalXiao Hai managed to take first place and $30,000 with his amazing clutch Cammy against Japan’s EGlMomochi with his patient and methodical Ken in an intense grand finals set. Momochi advanced from the losers bracket after being sent there by his fellow countryman, RZRlFuudo earlier in top 16.
Momochi went on take the first set 3-0 against Xiao Hai in convincing fashion, switching up his playstyle, making adjustments and capitalizing on his opponent’s rare execution errors and mistakes that he didn’t display earlier on the tournament. Going into the second set of grand finals, Momochi continued his dominance by taking the first game in a rather similar fashion from the first set. With the threat of a 6-0 sweep looming, Xiao Hai had to take a step back to recollect his thoughts and make the proper adjustments to win the tournament.
Fortunately, Xiao Hai did just that by taking more calculated risks, cleaning up his execution, improving his reaction timing, and playing a more solid neutral game to not let Momochi get started. Xiao Hai went up 2-1 in the second set only to have things tied up 2-2 by Momochi forcing a fifth and final game to determine the victor.
This is not gonna be a 6-0! Xiao Hai takes the second game making it 1-1 #TBB pic.twitter.com/iCyp6xvhUm
— ESL Street Fighter (@ESLSF) October 3, 2016
It went down to the final round between both competitors with Xiao Hai confidently taking down Momochi to win one of the most difficult SFV tournaments to date. Other than Momochi, Xiao Hai defeated three of Japan’s best players which included BSTl Daigo (2-0), RZRlFuudo (3-2), and Tokido (3-2) in top 32 the day before grand finals.
Your @theScoreesports Brooklyn Beatdown champion - Xiao Hai! #TBB pic.twitter.com/1PeSZjswcK
— ESL Street Fighter (@ESLSF) October 3, 2016
Congratulations once again to QanbalXiao Hai on winning the theScore eSports Brooklyn Beatdown SFV tournament at ESL One New York. You can view the entire grand finals set in the video below.
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