Clash of the Rising Sun: A Spoiler Free Review Of The Battle Mania 5v5 Kantou v. Kansai Exhibition

[mikadolurker]

Battle Mania 5v5 Team Exhibition 5/28/2016

"Where the Jams at?" - Doren2k

    This is what dreams are made of, the Top 5 Kantou gods versus the best of Kansai. FAB (PO), Hase (SL), Machaboo (SI), Karinchu (JO), and Ogawa (ZA) going blow for blow with Ruu (MA), Tomo (LE), Susumu (CH), Omito (JO), and Dogura (SI). Stacked isn’t even a strong enough adjective to describe this shit. It’s kind of fucked up too, Kantou is Eastern Japan while Kanasi is a western region, which is very relevant to tonight but that’s a whole 'nother thing for Sunday. What matters however is the surprise announcement that one of the competitors had for us this evening. Or morning. Fuck I’ve been up for a long ass time. Oh, and how can I EVEN forget this, not only was Majin doing his usual and providing the English commentary but he was back up by none other than Jam. I’m fucking serious. Her voice actress was there and I’m not going to lie, watching Rei Matsuzaki talk as Jam while playing her was kind of awesome.

    FT5 is the name of the game with the matches tonight and the first, Ruu (MA) v. FAB (PO), is godlike. When people talk about damage in Xrd I’ve always heard Johnny, Elphelt, and Sin brought up but Ruu makes a damn good case for why May should never be left out. Not that FAB wasn’t going to pull some ridiculous shit either, I mean this is THE Potemkin we’re talking about. Fun fact by the way, FAB stands for Final Atomic Buster. Have I said that before? Fucked if I know, it’s been a long ass night with Combo Breaker’s own team tournament literally finishing just before this match started-ish. Whoever your cheering for though, it’s going to be a roller coaster of a set, trust me because this was an extremely close set.

 

    Not as close as Hase (SL) v. Tomo (LE) though. Whoever thought to put these two against each other is a genius because this match was so good it’s absolutely insane. I mean yeah, Leo is unga incarnate but Tomo brings the second king of Illyria into the bronze age at least! A technical interpretation of the character is always great to see and damn did it give Hase trouble. Pilebunker solves most of these problems presented though, just swing back with Dandy Step and fire one of these into Tomo’s face repeatedly. Seriously though, Hase’s movement probably did more for him than anything this match. Deftly avoiding that those sticky fucking normals of Leo to get in and deal serious damage without getting put into a blender is the entire name of the game from his end and he achieves it wonderfully.

    I’ll let you guess who won the Machaboo (SI) v. Susumu (CH). It’s really fucking easy, just like the set was.

    One of the main events tonight as far as myself and a lot of other people were concerned though was seeing these two face off. Karinchu, the number one arcade Johnny playing Omito the second place finisher at KSB and the God Pirate of Kansai. When people talk about who the best Johnny is, it’s always between these two every single time. Karinchu plays this character like a bully of a final boss in my opinion. Oppressive, damaging as all hell, and it’s going to take every single last bit of experience you’ve ever earned to defeat him. Omito however is a far more technical and neutral based Johnny as I see it, using a very refined sense of the character to really outplay his opponents and earn that “W”. When the curtain falls though only one can be left standing so the question is, who is the best Johnny in the world at the moment?

    Closing out the night  is just one of the most disgusting pairing in the exhibition, Dogura (SI) versus Ogawa (ZA). Very much like Lost Soul, Ogawa is the reason his character is placed so high up on many Japanese players tier lists. Sporting the zombie green Zato, Ogawa ‘s command of his fighter is always just so impressive that others often look under developed and weak by comparison. Not that Dogura isn’t like that either. His Sin is, and always will be, one of the most terrifying examples of the character to date. Much like Machaboo, a single hit is translated into such ridiculous damage that it’s no surprise that he has gone on to inspire the always loved and constantly growing Sin army across the globe.The man is a fucking beast who I’ve seen run through the best players at Mikado time and time again. I’d honestly take him over 99.9% of the entire player base in a FT5. Does Ogawa fall into that slim margin of victory though? You’ll just have to see for yourself.

    So there you have it. The East Coast of Japan versus West, with the absolute best representing each side. Please, please, please do yourself a favor and watch this because there won’t be such a stupidly powerful event happening like this until EVO. However I do want to say one thing, Nico streams suck a bag of severed dicks. Not only did MajinObama have to pay to see this event but the majority of it was in the typical 360p resolution that Japan seems to deem acceptable for some fucked up reason. The stream froze at one point, I personally hate the scrolling chat system, and no one would be able to witness this shit without dropping money themselves just to see it again. So! If you watch it and the quality of the footage isn’t to your liking, which it probably won’t be, hit Arcsys up on Twitter and let them know (very kindly, don’t fuck this up now) about how you would rather of seen this broadcast live on Twitch. It’s not often in life that our voices can make a change but this is one instance where a large show of support could possibly alter the history of Guilty Gear forever.

 

Link to Battle Mania:

https://www.twitch.tv/majinobama/v/69073245