Shots on the Grassy Knoll: A Spoiler Free Review of Northwest Majors 8

mikadolurker · May 3, 2016

"Northwest Majors 8" 4/29 - 5/1/2016
"Lee Harvey Oswald had help, it was Elphelt." - Digital Watches

Northwest Majors 8 just concluded a little while ago with a little over thirteen thousand viewers watching the Grand Finals. It’s always nice to see a scene’s hard work pay off because while KSB was happening in Japan, the state-side scene was showcasing it’s talents in Northwest Majors 8. Starting off with their own 3v3 Team Tournament, some of the best players in the country joined together to faced off against each other. The following day the competitors cut their way through their pools with almost ninety people all looking to claw their way to the top. Representatives from every corner of the country turned up too like Faultydefense (SI), Hotashi (EL), Zidane (LE), ElvenShadow (FA), and TheArm (RA) just to name a few.

However the home team wasn’t going down without a fight. Coming out swinging during the 3v3, the West Coast was ready to make a stand! I said this before, but GC|Yoshi has a sick fucking Bedman. A former Marvel player, the eight way movement of the slumbering antagonist allows him full control like none other of his character in the US. It’s somewhat reminiscent of the level of hopelessness that Sabamiso instills in his victims but in a far more mobile sense. He is also doing an AMA on the Guilty Gear subreddit at the moment so if you want to learn more about him or Bedman in general I’d check it out. A lot of these matches though are a great display of how high the level of play in the US at the moment. Fucking Txrd|Faultydefense, this guy is an absolute beast every time I get to watch him play. From what I have seen, if this man keeps making the rounds at tournaments across the country, we’ll be looking at another world class level of talent. Hell, I think he’s already kind of there to a degree but only time will tell.

Pools were a little bit of a bloodbath, some really amazing moments managed to happen that left the entire audience and chat cheering like mad! While overall the sets weren’t as strong as some of the events we’ve had this year, a few players went ham as fuck. Hotashi’s sniping skills with Miss Confire were on point. Clip after clip unloaded into people as if they were trying to storm the beaches of Normandy. He wasn’t the only East Coast representative though, Zidane the King of the Concrete Jungle himself came out to rip through people too. It’s fucked up watching him touch someone and then just throw them in the blender until they drop. Mr. K wasn’t going to let him get all the attention however, bringing his own Leo to the table this St. Loius based monster was right in the thick of it too. Just leveling and breaking people with some of the most impressive pressure I’ve seen state-side. The entire experience was overall very well produced too! The stream layout was sick, good camera work, the floor plan was well executed, the audio was well balanced and crisp, a very solid production over all. LogicHole was our host for most of the Guilty Gear event until Top 8 and they did a damn nice job! However the brackets were only updated at the end of every pool so it made it very hard to figure out where people were while the matches were still going on. The moderators were also a little bit too aggressive in disciplining the chat, making a very honest but at times slightly overbearing decisions to keep order. I am one hundred percent down with creating a space “...Where players of all skill levels and from all walks of life are welcome and appreciated.” That is something more people should inspire to in my opinion but forced compliance by threatening a zero tolerance attitude can at times lead to a more toxic attitude being birthed. All in all though good shit to LogicHole for bringing us a very well produced event, I really can’t say enough good things about how well the broadcast was run.

Digitial Watches and Thebeautifuldude hold down the Top 8 commentary doing a fucking amazing job. Despite all of the great stills I have of them, this one is the most awkward and funny therefore it's the best.

Sunday though, the day of the finals, was a shit ton of fun to watch. Fuck people who mock US players, the talent we have is world class and god damn did people prove it! Don’t get me wrong either, I still think there is a large gap between the majority of the Japanese and the American player bases. I don’t think that's even up for debate. However wherever you find an offline scene in the states, you’ll find some very competent people. That’s one of the only things that the Japanese really has over anyone to be honest is that they can go and hone their skills in arcades allowing them to train and grow as players into the monsters we know today. New York, Texas, Washington, California, Chicago, it’s not a coincidence that these places have very strong fighters and the players that made it from to this stage of the tournament from those scenes prove it every time they stepped up! You know whats really fucking true though sadly? I think that the International scene as a whole enjoys themselves a lot more than the Japanese do when they play because the amount of laughs that were had and general displays of players being fucking awesome people during these sets was something I really enjoyed watching.

One down, tons more to go though in the Xrd tournament scene. The month of May is now upon us and with it comes Stunfest in France, Toryuken in Canda, and Combo Breaker in the US. What a time to be alive.

Links to everything:

3v3 Team Tournament:
https://www.twitch.tv/logichole/v/63638897

Pools:
https://www.twitch.tv/logichole/v/63771565
https://www.twitch.tv/logichole/v/63789939

Top 16 to Top 8:
https://www.twitch.tv/logichole/v/63953638

Top 8:
https://www.twitch.tv/teamkhaos/v/63950086 (Starts around 07:59:30-ish)

GC|Yoshi AMA:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Guiltygear/comments/4hiroj/hi_im_mcgcyoshi13_bedman_player_ama/