In this episode, we take a look at some of the exciting sets between some of the top talent at Battle of BC 5, as well as the North America vs. The World Crew Battle, and talk about how it all relates to the conversation around which region is the best right now.
In this episode, we take a look at some of the exciting sets between some of the top talent at Battle of BC 5, as well as the North America vs. The World Crew Battle, and talk about how it all relates to the conversation around which region is the best right now.
Hey everyone. Welcome back to the second episode of Upset Factor. I'm your host Lukas, and today we have quite the episode ahead of us. We're gonna be talking about what happened at Battle of BC five going into some of the sets I found to be interesting, as well as taking a look at one of the main events of this tournament, the North America versus the World Crew Battle. The sets I'm gonna be focusing on today all relate to the conversation surrounding which region is the best right now. Since many international players travelled to BC for this event, a lot of uncommon matchups happened, and with those came some somewhat unexpected results. The region that seemed to do the best at Battle of BC this year was Japan with many of the players in the top placements of this event being Japanese. And after Kagaribi, which we talked about last episode, this doesn't come as too much of a shock as the players in Japan performed very well there, beating out some of the top North American talent that traveled to Japan for that tournament. Now that we've set the scene a little bit, let's get into this first set. The first match we're gonna be talking about is between Shuton, a very well known player from Japan who has been around for a very long time now, and Skyjay, a player that recently shot up in popularity for his huge run at Collision in March, placing second in the tournament, only losing to Riddles in a very exciting grand finals. This was especially impressive as Skyjay mains Incineroar, a character that is often thought of as one of the worst characters in the game due to his poor recovery and very slow movement speed. This is quite the opposite to Shuton, who for a long time played Olimar, a character that has always been on the upper side of tier lists, but now plays a lot of Pyra and Mythra, one of the characters in contention for best in the game. Game one of the set started pretty even with both players trading hits back and forth until around a hundred percent, where Shuton took advantage of pyra's immense kill power to take Skyjay's first stock. However, shortly after this, after getting knocked off stage by a neutral B from Skyjay, Shuton messed up his recovery, resulting in a very unfortunate SD bringing the match back to even. This definitely brought the momentum into Skyjay's favor with him, racking up quite the lead, using his high damage and revenge mechanic to bring Shuton all the way to 150% before unfortunately, Shuton messed up his recovery again, using his up B bit too early and falling down into the blast zone with Pyra's up B. After SDing twice, it was obvious that Shuton was struggling to get his footing in this first game, both literally and figuratively as Skyjay juggled him for his entire last stock, swiftly taking the game, two stocks to one. Game two started off with an oppressive first stock from Skyjay with him suffocating Shuton, keeping him right where he wanted him so that he could take advantage of Pyra's predictable recovery to take Shuton's first stock. Shuton didn't let the game get away from him, though only taking 15% before going very deep with Pyra to take Skyjay's first stock with a very clean edge guard, bringing the game back to even. While it was still an uphill battle for Shuton after the first stock, you could tell he was starting to get used to Incineroar's edge guarding tools, with him mixing up the timing on his recovery to avoid another early kill. However, it still wasn't enough as Skyjay took his second stock with only 78% on his own. This proved to be very troublesome for Shuton as even with Pyra's huge kill power, Skyjay was able to live all the way until 188% finally dying to Pyra's forward tilt off of the opposite side of the stage. Getting this kill though seemed to light a spark in Shuton as he was able to use Mythra's combos to quickly make up for the percent deficit between him and Skyjay and keep his momentum, catching Skyjay jumping from the ledge with a meaty spike from Pyra's down air, taking Sky J's third stock and the game. Game three started off with a series of combos from both players, with Skyjay having a very close call, getting caught by the projectiles shot out during Mythra's up B, and after missing the tech, he was just barely able to make it back to stage. However, Shuton was ready for him, catching him in a series of up airs until he eventually took the stock with a timing mixup on the third hit from Pyra's Jab. You could tell after the first two games that Shuton had adapted very well as before Skyjay could even get close to taking Shuton's first stock Shuton lapped him in percent, and swapped between Mythra and Pyra to take Skyjay's second stock with Pyra's Nair off the platform. After playing out of his mind for that second stock, it seemed like he might be running outta steam as he SDed he'd again for the third time this set, but he quickly regained his composure and took Skyjay's third stock with another edge guard from Pyra's side B. Game four started off with Skyjay kicking it back into gear, taking Shuton's first stock with a well timed forward tilt, reading a roll in from the ledge from Shuton. He was able to keep this momentum going, only getting hit once before taking another one of Shuton's stocks with an edge guard deliberately mistiming the Alolan Whip to send Shuton offstage without his second jump. Shuton finally took Skyjay's first stock with a down air into up B with Pyra, however, it wasn't quite enough to make up for Skyjay's massive lead as he got a very early kill with Incineroar's down air, bringing the set to an even 2 - 2. Game five started off with a bang, Shuton showing that he was still in it after that last game footstooling Skyjay out of Pyra's side B and then getting the jab lock into Pyra's up smash securing Skyjay's first stock with only 16% on his own. This momentum continued as Shuton started right back up again, landing string after string to eventually hit Skyjay off stage where he could use Pyra's massive spike hit box to two frame Skyjay, sending him straight down to the blast zone. After a long back and forth between the two players, both were at around 140% with Shuton on his first stock, but Skyjay on his third. Skyjay finally took Shuton's first stock with another roll read, however, it wasn't quite enough as even with another sd after a last ditch effort to take Skyjay's last stock from Shuton, Shuton was able to close it out, finally getting the kill at 180% with Mythra's up smash, taking the set 3 -2. Even though Shuton did end up winning this set, both players were so even this entire match. In each game, you could clearly see the adaptations from both players as they got more comfortable in the matchup. You could especially see this in Skyjay's gameplay with, Incineroar being a character that relies on a lot of reads and conditioning your opponent to succeed, it always makes for an exciting set when Skyjay's in the picture. The next match we're gonna be talking about is between Riddles a Canadian player who is widely regarded as being top 10 in the world right now, and Sisqui a player that has been making his way to the top of the rankings in Europe. Sisqui plays Samus, who has seen a big boost in popularity recently with many people now considering them to be a very solid character, both on and offline. Starting with game one, it seemed like Riddles was having trouble closing the gap on Sisqui, with Kazuya being such a slow character, and while he was able to get some damage on Sisqui bringing him to 90%, it wasn't quite enough to secure the first stock as Sisqui caught him jumping from ledge with a charge shot finally getting the kill at almost 200%. This trend continued as Siski was able to avoid any of Kazuya's many kill options, keeping Riddles away with Samus's many zoning tools to take yet another stock with Samus's charge shot. While Riddles was finally able to take Sisqui's first stock with an electric into Kazuya's back air, it wasn't enough as Sisqui continued to zone him out and take the first game, two stocks to one. Game two looked like a lot of the same with riddles surprisingly not switching off of Kazuya for Terry, who is a faster character with more tools to break Samus's Zone. And while it seemed like he might be getting his footing at a couple points in the match, it wasn't enough to take the game from Sisqui as he beat out riddles with another two stock victory in game two. Game three saw Riddles opting for Kazuya again over Terry, much to the surprise of many people watching this set, and though he was at a huge percent deficit for the first stock, he was able to secure the first kill, finally getting a bit of a lead in his favor against Sisqui. This lead didn't last long though as Sisqui quickly took Riddles' stock right back. However, Riddles was able to continue his momentum using Kazuya's insane combo game to take Sisqui's second stock with only 40% on his own. And right after this, after keeping Sisqui trapped at the ledge, he was able to get him off stage and use Kazuya's command grab to take him right down to the blast zone, using his stock advantage to take his first game of the set. Game four started off with Riddles, continuing to show signs of improvement in the matchup against Samus doing his best to keep center stage and not putting himself in positions where he could easily get hit by Sisqui's Charge shot. However, Sisqui was able to take the first stock of the game, sending riddles out to the blast zone with a quick back air from Samus. While it was looking like the set might be over at this point with Sisqui continuing to dominate this fourth game, Riddles was able to finally get one of Kazuya's brutal zero to death combos that he's known for, to even up the game, bringing Sisqui to his final stock. This wasn't quite enough though as Sisqui went right back to form zoning Riddles out so that he couldn't get close enough to repeat that combo and with another clean back air, meeting Riddles in the air, Sisqui was able to finish out the set winning three one over Riddles. This definitely looked like a tough matchup for Riddles with both of the characters he plays having a tough time against zoner characters like Samus. and with Samus players continuing to optimize their combos and polish their game plan. It'll be interesting to see what Riddles will do moving forward to get around the roadblocks created by his matchup spread. Perhaps if he had decided to switch to Terry for this matchup, he might have had a better time using the difference in pace that Terry brings over Kazuya to mix up the game plan that Sisqui had developed but obviously we won't know that for sure, and obviously Riddles knows more about the matchups that he likes to play than I would, so I'm sure he did what he thought was best in this matchup, but sadly it wasn't quite enough to net him the win. This next set we're gonna be talking about is between Big D, another player from Canada who has really started to gain popularity this year after performing very well at Ultimate Summit Six and many other big tournaments, and Kameme a Japanese player who like many others, traveled to BC for this tournament and had a pretty incredible run, beating out a lot of the top North American talent attending this event. These players share a similarity that I think is interesting with both players playing a character that until recently has not been considered a very good choice by the vast majority of the community with Big D playing Ice Climbers and Kameme opting for Sora. Another similarity between these characters is that they both have some pretty intense combos with quite a heavy learning curve, which can lead to some very fast matches with big swings in favor depending on who can land their combos. Game one started out looking pretty even with both players staying around the same percent for most of their first stocks, but quickly it became obvious that while both Sora and Ice climbers are very similar to each other when talking about their combo game, Sora has many more tools to zone with his sword and many projectiles compared to Ice Climbers who really needs to get up close and personal to play at their best. This gave Kameme the perfect opportunity to run away with the game, taking the first game with a quick three stock victory over Big D. Game two started out with Big D, getting a bit of a lead over Kameme taking him to about 90% on his first stock. However, once Kameme was able to separate the two Ice Climbers and use his many zoning tools like he did in game one, he brought the momentum back in his favor, taking the first stock and dealing a lot of damage on the second. While Big D was able to eventually take Kameme's first stock of the set, this wasn't enough as after coming back into the game on his second stock Kameme was able to continue to zone Big D out and secure the second game this time with a two stock lead. Game three saw more of the same as the first two games with Big D struggling to close the gap on Kameme and honestly after seeing these three games, though Big D is a phenomenal player, beating many top players in some less than favorable matchups, it was beginning to look impossible to get anything over kameme with him yet again. Taking the game with a two stock victory over Big D to secure the set three zero. Now this set was definitely rough for Big D and I think part of the reason for this is when Big D's playing a lot of the players in North America that he normally plays against, Ice Climbers isn't a very common character, especially in North America where a lot of the characters that are played are mainly the kind of bread and butter top tiers that everyone has come to get used to. And while this is the case in North America, like we talked about last week when we were talking about Kagaribi, Japan has a lot more players that opt for some more obscure characters and there are a couple Ice Climbers mains in Japan that Kameme has likely played against a few times. And so while a lot of players might be unfamiliar with this matchup against Ice Climbers, I don't think this was the case with Kameme. And while Big D is a player that relies on matchup inexperience to take some of the sets that he maybe has a worse matchup in Kameme is also a bit of a player that takes advantage of this with Sora not being a very common pick for a lot of top players. So Big D maybe got a bit of a taste of his own medicine in this matchup. On top of it already being a bad matchup for his character. Ice Climbers. Going into the final set we're gonna be talking about before we get into the North America versus the World Crew Battle. This next match is between Spargo and Acola who we talked about last week and after losing pretty badly to Spargo last time with Steve and giving Pyra and Mythra a try earlier in the bracket to no avail, this time Acola opted for a pretty wild pick going for Donkey Kong in the first match of Grand Finals. A character that might have gained him the hearts of the fans watching, but definitely didn't gain him much favor in the set as while he did keep the first game pretty even throughout Spargo was able to take the first game in an intense last stock situation. It was pretty entertaining watching this first game, as you could definitely tell that Spargo was not having any of this character pick looking pretty frustrated as acola was able to keep this a lot more even than Spargo would've liked. So going into game two, I wouldn't be surprised if Acola noticed this frustration coming from Spargo opting for Donkey Kong yet again, possibly hoping to improve on his performance from the last game. But Spargo was not going to let that happen as he showed everyone all of the reasons why DK belongs at the bottom of the tier list. Easily taking the second game this time with a two stock victory over Acola. In this second match, while in the first match, Spargo was looking frustrated that Acola was able to do as well as he did with a character like Donkey Kong. He looked a lot more calm in this second game, and he was not letting Acola get away with anything. He definitely wanted to make it very clear that Donkey Kong was not gonna be the pick that gets him the win in this grand finals. After Spargo made it very clear that Donkey Kong wasn't the answer in that second game, Acola finally switched to Pyra and Mythra for the third game, which seemed to be working for the majority of the first stock with him building up a bit of a lead over Spargo. However, it still wasn't enough as Spargo took the first stock of the game with a back air from Cloud at the ledge. Shortly after though Acola was able to take Spargo's stock and for a moment it seemed like things might have been starting to look up for him with Spargo losing another stock to an unfortunate sd, but Spargo was able to quickly regain composure and take the set with a three zero victory over Acola. After beating Acola twice at this tournament and winning Kagaribi from loser's side, also against Acola, it's looking clearer than ever that Spargo is the best player in the world right now. Until now, though Spargo has been winning consistently against Acola's Steve and Acola has not let this phase him, continuing to believe that Steve is what he needs to be the best. But now, with Spargo being so prepared against that character, it's interesting to finally see some experimentation from Acola like I had mentioned he might need to do in the last episode. It'll be very interesting to see what character this experimentation brings him to as Spargo and Acola continue to play against each other. But until then, I think it's safe to say that Spargo has cemented himself as the best player in the world. So now that we're done with those few sets that I wanted to talk about, let's get into the North America versus the World Crew Battle, which I think was the main event of this tournament, I was definitely the most excited for this compared to anything else going on at this tournament. And I think this was for good reason with both teams bringing a lot of the top talent from their respective regions. Starting with North America, we saw Tweek who is still one of the players that is in contention for Best in the World right now sitting, just behind Spargo and Acola.. We had Riddles who, like I mentioned earlier, is a top 10 player from Canada and also a player that very consistently puts out great showings that all the tournaments he attends. We saw Big D another player that I talked about before with his Ice Climbers. We saw Maister, a very good game and watch who for a long time up until Miya started to gain some popularity in the last couple years was the premier Game and Watch main and has been a very consistent player coming all the way from the start of Ultimate until now. Light a player who in the last couple years has really skyrocketed becoming probably a top five player on his main Fox. Ouch!? Another Canadian player, native to BC who plays Wolf. MKLeo, who we've talked a lot about on this podcast, who was previously the best in the world, but now is still quite up there, but not quite as prestigious as he used to be. MuteAce a very good peach player who we also talked about last episode. Spargo, of course, the, in my opinion, best player in the world right now and Onin the best Steve player in North America. And as we know, Steve is definitely not a character to be reckoned with. So a very strong lineup on the North America side. And now for the world we have Glutonny probably the best player in Europe, though there has been a bit more contention about this recently. Ferps a very strong Kazuya player from Brazil, the only South American representative in this crew battle Miya the game and watch player who we've talked a lot about on this podcast. Tarik a Greninja main from Europe. Ken, a sonic main who is maybe a bit overshadowed by Sonix who I think is the premier sonic main but Ken still a very strong contender for the character. Shuton another player that we talked about earlier in this episode Opting for usually Pyra and Mythra or Olimar. Neo, a somewhat newer player in the scene coming from Japan and maining Corrin, who is a character that has sort of picked up in popularity over the last couple years, but not quite as much as some of the other characters we've been seeing lately. Yoshidora a Yoshi main from Japan, who for a long time was probably considered one of the best, if not the best player in Japan until Acola came into the fray. And like I just said, Acola another player on this team opting for usually Steve, but at this tournament, Donkey Kong and Pyra and Mythra so who knows what he'll bring out in this crew battle? And Mr. R, a Sheik main from Europe. So now that we've talked about the lineups for both teams, let's just get into the first match of the crew battle. So starting with the first game, we saw Tweek coming in from the North American team and Glutonny coming in from the world team. Both of these players have been huge in the scene for many years now, and in their matches before this, they've gone back and forth quite a bit with Tweek winning their last match to win Grand Finals at Kawaii Con, bringing their record to six wins for Tweek five for Glutonny. Getting into the match, in an unexpected turn of events, Tweek ended up playing Wario over his main's Diddy Kong and Sephiroth, meaning this first match would be a ditto as Glutonny has always been a Wario main and I think Tweek was definitely just having fun, wanting to start off this crew battle with a bit of a fun game. but while this may seem like a bit of a joke, pick on Tweek's part, he did main Wario for a while before he switched to Diddy Kong and Sephiroth his current mains so this definitely wasn't a throwaway pick for him, as he's actually beaten Glutonny before in this matchup in the ditto. Both players kept it pretty even for the first stock with Tweek starting with a bit of a lead, but not for long as Gluto caught right back up, bringing both players back to around 100% before Tweek finally took the first stock with an unexpected half charge Waft, getting the first blood for this 30 stock crew battle. Gluto didn't stay behind for long, though only taking 20% on his next stock before finally taking one from Tweek, this momentum kept going as Gluto continued to rack up the percent on Tweek, using his now fully charged Waft to get an early kill so he could start building up damage on Tweek's final stock. It was looking like this may be the end for Tweek with him reaching a hundred percent on his last stock, but he finally took the second stock off of Glutonny before losing his own last stock. Before losing his own last stock, leaving Gluto with only one stock to bring into the next match. So before we get too far into this crew battle, I guess I'll just take a second to explain how they work, just in case you don't know. So like I just mentioned, both teams come into the crew battle with 10 players on each side, giving each team a total of 30 stocks in the crew battle. The crew battle starts out with both teams sending in a player and just using this first game as an example, this was Tweek from the North American side and Glutonny from the world side, and they will play against each other as if it's just a normal game until one of them loses all their stocks and then the winning player who in this case was Glutonny will take however many stocks they still had in the match and move on to the next game against whoever the opposing team decides to send out. And he'll be able to use that one stock that he was able to keep to play against the next player, hopefully taking more of their stocks until he loses that one stock, which will then prompt the world to send in their next player. This continues until one of the teams has sent in all of their players and lost all of their stocks giving whatever team still has stocks remaining the win. So now that we've talked a bit about how this crew battle's gonna work, let's get into the next game. Next from the NA team, after some confusion with who was supposed to play RIddles was sent in, likely hoping to use his Terry to fend off the close range attacks from Wario and use his own close range combo tools to take Gluto outta the game before the world team can build up too much of a lead. Getting into the game, it was looking scary for NA, as RIddles took quite a bit of damage on his first stock eventually losing it with only 80% on Gluto's But Riddles was able to bring things back under control. Finally finishing off Gluto to stop the world from building up too much of a lead. Next from the world team, with Gluto finally being taken out of the crew battle. Ferps was sent in, a Kazuya player from Brazil who in a matchup like this, was likely hoping to take some quick stocks off of Riddles with Kazuya's explosive combo game. However, with RIddles being a Kazuya main himself, this was looking like it might be a bit of an uphill battle as going into the match. Within the first 20 seconds, Riddles had already brought the match back to an even two stocks with a nasty zero to death on Ferps making it seem like he was the one playing with Kazuya's combo game. Ferps didn't let this discourage him too much though as he quickly fired back, giving riddles a taste of his own medicine with a scary combo of his own, which didn't quite get the kill, but was able to bring riddles very high in percent. Riddles wasn't gonna let this faze him though, as he caught Ferps again, with a couple neutral wins, getting Ferps into a bad position off stage before taking another stock again, just as fast as the first one. After getting a bit behind and not wanting to be finished in the crew battle just yet. Ferps finally got the kill on Riddles' second stock, and almost took the third with yet another 100% combo, but Riddles narrowly avoided death and came back to finish the job, taking the final stock off of Ferps and taking the lead for NA, bringing the stock total to 25 to 24. Up until this point, it was looking pretty even with neither of the teams being able to get more than a one stock lead over the other. And with the questionable Ferps pick into Riddles a player that knows the Kazuya matchup inside and out, it was clear that the world was gonna have to be very intentional about what players they send in so that they can get the best match ups possible against the big names on the North America team. Taking this into consideration, the world chose to bring in Miya, a very prominent Game and Watch player from Japan, who we've talked about quite a bit in last week's episode. With this choice, it was looking pretty good for the world as Game and Watch can use his copious amounts of neutral tools to wall out a character like Terry. This wasn't even necessary though as, not even 30 seconds into the game. Riddles air dodged off the stage and got a bit too deep for Terry to get back, losing the lead for NA and taking himself out of the crew battle. Taking advantage of the rough situation though North America used their knowledge of who would be playing for The World to choose their best matchup resulting in Big D coming up to the stage. While it was unclear if this was gonna be a great choice for the majority of the first stock of the game, with Miya seeming very comfortable playing against Ice Climbers, Big D was able to take the first stock, but with Mia taking the kill on one of Big D's climbers, soon after it was only a matter of time before Big D also lost his first stock, bringing the match back to even. So just in case anyone doesn't know, Ice Climbers is a character that is very unique compared to a lot of other characters in the game. And this is because just like the name suggests, there are two Ice Climbers on stage at all times, with one being the main ice climber, Popo, that you are the one controlling. And then the other being a computer controlled character that mimics the movements you do with a very slight delay. But this makes for a very interesting character as there are ways to completely desync these two Climbers, which makes it possible to get some very nasty combos if done correctly. So getting back to the match, like I said, the match was coming back to even with both players at around 80%. But then with a well-placed down smash from Mia, one of Big D'S climbers got buried and in an effort to defend them, big D got his shield broken, giving Miya the perfect chance to take the lead with a free kill on Big D. Miya kept this momentum going, showing that Big D was going to have to try harder to get past Game and Watch's many unstoppable neutral tools and with another perfectly placed down smash, Miya was able to bury both of Big D's ice climbers this time, sealing the game with a forward smash on Big D's main climber Popo bringing the lead back into the world's favor with a two stock lead going into the next match. Hoping to shake things up a bit with another surprising pick. North America sent in Maister, who, like I mentioned before, has been the premier Game and Watch main for a long time. And with these two players never having met in Bracket before this, it was looking like it was gonna be a big moment in the scene with the winner of this game, possibly securing their spot as the best game and watch in the world. Getting into the game, things were looking pretty, even with both players looking very knowledgeable in the Game and Watch Ditto despite never playing it before at this high of a level. And while it seem like Maister was gonna break away a bit, taking the first stock of the game? Miya came right back, taking Maisters stock and bringing the game back to even. This trend kept going as both players didn't want to give up any ground in this game, but finally, after a long second stock Maister was able to finish off Miya reading a roll into his up smash, bringing the stock total to 20 for NA and 21 for the world. Next, coming in for the world, Tarik entered the fray. A player that maybe isn't quite as known as some of the other players on the world's roster, but still very much a force to be reckoned with, usually opting for Greninja, a character that isn't seen too often and Kazuya. For this match. Tarik brought out Greninja as Game and Watch can be a pretty rough matchup for Kazuya and with Greninja not being super common, especially in North American tournaments, he was possibly hoping to use some of the mystery around his character to take some quick stocks off of Maister. Getting into the match though this seemed easier said than done. As with Game and Watch being such an oppressive character, it seemed difficult for Tarik to get a lot of distance out of Greninja's more intricate play style, which led to Maister bringing the crew battle back to even taking Tarik's first stock of the match. Maister kept this momentum going, taking another one of Tarik's stocks with a well-placed down smash, with Tarik barely able to get any more damage on Maister before losing his final stock, netting Maister a crucial three stock, bringing the lead back to North America this time with two stocks over the world. Normally in crew battles like this, it's common for one team to have quite the lead built up in the match, but at this point, the matchup was pretty, even with both teams struggling to gain too much ground over the other, making this a very exciting match to watch Coming up though it was looking like things could swing towards the world's favor with the second half of their roster being filled with many of the most prominent players from Japan, including Ken, Shuton, Yoshidora, and of course Acola. However, North America had some pretty heavy hitters of their own still in the bank with MKLeo, Light, and Spargo waiting for their chance to show the world what's up. And speaking of those Japanese players, Ken was next on the stage from the world side, likely looking to slow things down with his sonic compared to the last couple matches where Maister was able to play things at his pace and not worry too much about specific counter play. While normally when you think of Sonic players, Sonix is likely the first one that comes to mind. Ken is still very much a force to be reckoned with placing very well at many tournaments in Japan and being the previous battle of BC Champion before Spargo took that title this year. Getting into the match, just like I predicted, right away we saw Ken slowing things down, being very selective with when he wanted to engage with Maister, and while things were pretty even for the majority of the first stock, Ken was able to take the first stock of the game from Maister. Maister wasn't too far behind though, as he only gave Ken 20% on his last stock before taking one of his own. However, Ken continued to keep the game going at his pace and took Maister's final stock with a forward smash going into his next game with two stocks still on the board. Coming up next from the NA team, Light was sent in hoping to use Fox's fast movement speed to keep up with Sonic. Making it harder for Ken to play the game at his pace and take back more of the lead North America had gained over the last few matches. And with Fox being apparently one of the only good matchups against Sonic, according to a lot of Sonic Mains, this was definitely a good choice, as for the first stock of the game, we saw Light holding things down for the North America team, keeping Ken from running away with the game like he did against Maister and taking the first stock with a forward smash, reading the roll towards the ledge from Ken. Ken came right back though only taking 7% on his next stock before taking one away from Light, clipping him off the top with Sonic's up air. Things stayed pretty even from this point on, with both players getting to around 100% on their next stocks, but finally, after some patience from Light not getting worked up by the campy gameplay coming from Ken, he was able to finish Ken off meeting him in the air with Fox's up air, taking back the two stock lead for North America. Though light was able to clean up ken's last two stocks very well, with him being in a pretty favorable matchup coming into the crew battle, it wasn't likely this would last for long as now the world had the chance to send in their counter pick, hopefully making things a bit harder for light as Shuton came into the fray using Pyra and Mythra to Outspace Fox's stubby attacks, and keep up with Fox's immense movement speed. This didn't go quite as planned, though, as in the first stock of the match, Light was able to take Shuton's first stock with only 30% on his own, further solidifying the lead that NA had gained at this point in the crew battle. Light kept this momentum going, dealing quite a bit of damage on Shuton's second stock, but Shuton was able to bring things back a little bit, finally taking a stock off of Light with Pyra's Forward Tilt. While there were a few close calls after this with light just barely missing out on another stock of Shuton's with Fox's up smash Shuton was able to seal the game out without any more losses, again, reducing the lead North America had built by one. Next from the North America team, Ouch!? was sent in and while matchup wise, I'm not sure if Wolf beats Pyra and Mythra, last time these two players met in bracket at last year's Battle of bc, Ouch took the win over Shuton winning three, two, forcing him off of Pyra and Mythra onto Olimar. And then three stocking him in the last game in a very intense game five set that I highly recommend watching if you haven't already. A lot can change in a year though as it was looking like it might be pretty hard for Ouch to replicate his performance from last year falling to a clean zero to death from Shuton and bringing the match back to even with 14 stocks left on both sides. Ouch didn't let this get him down though as he regained his footing and kept things a lot more even on his second stock with both players getting up to around 100% before Ouch!? Took advantage of a greedy up B from Shuton punishing the mistake with Wolf's back air. Shuton didn't let that get him down though as just as soon as he got off of the respawn platform, he again went for the up B this time succeeding in taking Ouch!?'s stock and bringing the match back to even once again. While it seemed like things would stay even for the last stock as well. Ouch quickly got Shuton offstage and taking advantage of Pyra and Mythra's very predictable recovery, took the game, keeping his final stock to move on into the next match. Coming in to hopefully finish off Ouch in the next game, we saw Neo coming in. A player that, like I mentioned before, really started picking up steam recently in Japan. And with this being their first tournament in North America it was exciting to see if having him come out against Ouch would prove to be fruitful for team The World. Another interesting thing when talking about Neo is the fact that he plays Corrin, a character that has started to be a bit more popular in the last year or so with MK Leo picking them up for a little bit and Shadic maining them for a while now. And with the meta of Ultimate really settling down after the patches have stopped coming out, it's been interesting to see more and more of these lesser pit characters coming into the limelight. Getting into the game, while Neo was able to keep things pretty even against Ouch, with both players getting to around 100% on their first stocks, Ouch was able to take back control, taking Neo all the way up to 150% before finally taking his stock with a back throw at the ledge from Wolf. Ouch was able to keep this momentum going for a while, taking Neo up to 87%, almost getting the kill a number of times, but before long after a mistimed down smash from Ouch, Neo was able to secure the kill with Corrin's forward smash eliminating Ouch from this crew battle. Coming up next from NA, with two of their big heavy hitters still waiting in the ranks. We finally saw MkLeo coming up to the stage to show off why he was considered the best in the world for so long. And with him having some experience playing as Corrin for a while, this could have been a factor in him being chosen since he would know the ins and outs of the character a bit more than his fellow teammates, possibly giving him a bit of an advantage going into the game against Neo. Getting into the game, though this didn't quite hold true as Neo started off with a bit of a lead over MKLeo but this didn't last long as Leo quickly made up the difference in percent and took the first stock off of Neo with a nasty up B spike from Byleth. It seemed like Leo might continue this momentum to end the game with all three of his stocks still on the table, however, after Neo narrowly made it back to stage, after a masterful edge guard from Leo, he was able to finally take a stock off of Leo, taking him out with a big side B from Corrin leo came right back though not giving Neo too much on his second stock before finishing him off with a back air from Byleth keeping the lead in NA's favor with only three players left on the side of the world. Next from the world to keep the Titan that is MKLeo at Bay. Yoshidora was sent in, who for a long time was considered to be the best in Japan, only losing his title to Acola making him very similar to MKLeo who was considered to be the best for a long time before passing his title to fellow Mexican player Spargo. Getting into the match, it seemed like Yoshidora was struggling to close the gap on MKLeo with Yoshi being a character that doesn't have a lot of reach compared to Byleth who was called the distance Demon at the time of his release. This led to MKLeo taking Yoshidora's first stock with only 45% on his own, further cementing the lead North America had accrued over the world. Yoshi Dora fired back though as even though MKLeo was able to deal another 60% onto his second stock, he did eventually fall to an up air from Yoshidora bringing the world a little closer to even as the crew battle was starting to come closer to its end with 60% already on his second stock. Though MKLeo was able to come back into the match and finish him off, making it look pretty scary for the world team, making them that much closer to being out of the game. However, not wanting to let the lead get too big. Yoshidora came back yet again, not wanting to be out of this crew battle just yet, and took Leo's last stock, bringing North America down to their final three players. Getting into the final three players for both sides. Next in from North America was MuteAce, with North America possibly not wanting to give up Spargo just yet, as even with Yoshi having a tough time against both of the players spargo plays, with Acola still in the mix, having Spargo still available to take him down would be a big advantage for North America. Coming into the match though, it seemed like saving Spargo was possibly a bad call. As Yoshidora was able to get a zero to death on MuteAce's first stock, making the most of his final stock in this crew battle. And then again taking another one of MuteAce's stocks, bringing the crew battle back to an even seven stocks however, not wanting to get three stocked MuteAce collected himself and finally took Yoshidora's first stock. Barely holding on to the lead North America had been keeping for so long. And finally coming in from the world side, we had Acola coming to the stage and with Acola being the player, many expected would be the MVP of this crew battle for the world, it seemed like this might be a bit of damage control for team the world as between Mr. R, a Sheik player from Europe and and Acola, it definitely felt like bringing in Acola now to hopefully bring things back to even on a character like Steve was the safer play. This choice paid off as getting into the match, though it seemed like MuteAce was possibly going to be able to get some momentum going to continue the lead North America had been working with for so long, Acola wanted none of that, taking MuteAce's final stock and bringing the crew battle back to even for the first time in a while with only two players left on both teams. With Acola's presence looming over the stage, there was only one player that North America could send at this point to take him down as Spargo finally made his appearance hoping to continue to dominate as the possible best player in the world. And even though this crew battle isn't quite as important as an actual set in bracket, winning here would still be just as important in the conversation over who is the best as any leeway in Acola's favor would make Spargo's claim to the title a bit less firm. Getting into the match, Spargo started things off with quite the lead over Acola with a couple very close calls on his stock. However, before he could get too carried away, Acola brought things back, , meeting back up with Spargo to bring things to an even game before Spargo finally took Acola's first stock with a down air, bouncing Acola off the stage, and all the way up into the blast zone. Spargo kept this momentum going, showing why he deserves to be called the best in the world, as he made it impossible for Acola to get any resources and took his second stock with only 37% on his own. It was looking like Spargo might have finished Acola off at this point, which would let him go into the next game with two of his stocks however, Acola didn't want to be eliminated just yet. As he finally took Spargo's second stock with a well-placed mine cart. But Spargo came back swinging, hitting Acola with another down air on the stage to take him out of the crew battle and bringing the lead back into North America's favor with four stocks to the world's final three, with no choice left to be made on the world's side Mr. R finally came in and though he was behind one stock, after Spargo lost to Void at Ultimate Summit six, it seemed like Mr. R might be in a pretty good spot in this matchup with him only really needing one good edge guard to finish off Spargo's final stock. This didn't quite happen as expected though with Mr. R, having a bit of trouble finding the kill on Spargo due to Sheik's lackluster kill power, and with him losing the first stock of the game to cloud's limit neutral be it was looking rough for the world. However, before losing another stock, Mr. R was finally able to finish off Spargo in an intense final stock, bringing the stock total to three, two. For the final game Onin was sent in and while NA had Spargo to deal with Steve on the world's side, with the world being left with Sheik in this matchup, it was looking like this might be it for the world, as with Steve being such a volatile character with a lot of high powered burst options, it was looking like it would be tough for Mr. R to get too much going with the low kill power and high precision gameplay of Sheik. This was looking like it might hold true as Mr. R quickly fell behind on the first stock with both players trading hits back and forth and with Sheik having such weak attacks, these trades were much more beneficial for Onin leading to him taking the first stock in the match, leaving Mr. R with only one more stock between him and the end of this crew battle. Not wanting things to be over just yet though Mr. R stayed healthy on that final stock, taking only 7% before finally taking the first of three stocks off of Onin, using Sheik's needles to stop Onin from mining and confirm into Sheik's bouncing fish. Mr. R kept this going, dealing quite a bit of damage on Onin's second stock, and keeping him fully empty on resources, making it very difficult for Onin to finish off this game. And against all odds, Mr. R took Onin's second stock, bringing the game to a last stock situation. Much to the crowd's enjoyment. Mr. R kept this momentum going, bringing the percents back to even, and having some very close calls on Onin's final stock. But sadly, after missing a confirm into sheik's, up smash, he fell to anvil from Onin with North America, just barely taking the crew battle over the world. This was a very hype finish to the crew battle, and with this ending up so close with both teams being down to their final stock in the last game, it just goes to show how even everything is right now between the different regions with many top tier players coming from all over the world compared to the past smash games where North America always reigned Supreme. While North America did end up winning this event in the end, many players from Europe and Japan made it very high in the tournament, with Japan especially having a great showing as we talked about earlier in this episode, and with the shaky performance of a lot of the North American players on their trip to Japan a few weeks ago, it's looking more than ever that Japan may be the best overall region right now in Smash Brothers Ultimate. I'm curious to see what happens going forward with this debate. As more tournaments continue to happen and more players travel outside of their regions to compete, and even though this year is well underway, it's looking like it's only gonna get more and more exciting as the year continues on. Hopefully you enjoyed the second episode of Upset Factor. Like I mentioned last week from now on, episodes will be coming out every two weeks and next episode just to give you a sneak peek, we're gonna be talking about what happens at Crown the Third. It's looking like it's gonna be a pretty stacked tournament with a lot of the top talent mainly from North America attending this tournament with names like Tweek, MKLeo, Spargo, and many more appearing at this tournament. So hopefully you'll come back and listen to that next episode but until then, have a good couple weeks and I'll see you then.