NorCal Regionals is considered one of the biggest tournaments in the Fighting Game Community, with Street Fighter (as always) being the closing game. This weekend two of the newer and younger faces in the scene were also the two butting heads in grand finals. The fan favorite was Guile player NuckleDu, the 20 year old from Florida, who won many major premier events last year, including the final and prestigious Capcom Cup itself. But at NCR, 18 year old Karin player, the self proclaimed “Punk” defeated the nearly always dominant Du. Punk emerged victorious from out of the loser’s bracket in a convincing match, with the final score being 6-1.
The Top 8 event was streamed on Twitch by Capcom Fighters, who have already uploaded all matches onto their youtube account. The FGC is known for moments of intense macho-charisma, including NuckleDu’s MO of resorting to teabagging and taunting in game to style on his opponents. Punk talked the talk and walked the walk as he steamrolled over Du, and gave him a taste of his own “herbal tea” medicine on several occasions.
With such a victory under his belt, Punk is now 1st place in the Capcom Pro Tour standings with 570 points. Haitani, victor of UFA, sits in 2nd place with 490 points. Fuudo and NuckleDu are both tied in 3rd/4th with 450 points. Haitani was originally first in the rankings, but only came tied for 17th place this weekend. Punk earning 400 points from his grand victory has tipped the scales severely.
Punk will surely rise up in the hearts of Street Fighter fans as a new favorite contender, but who knows how long he will remain as the highest ranking champ. It wasn’t so long ago when NuckleDu was making a name for himself in the last months of 2016, and he may already be in the process of being dethroned.
The Capcom Pro Tour’s next major event will be DreamHack Austin, which will take place April 28-30.
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