Just noticed I grabbed 6000th post. Sweet.
1st match. They've never played each other, so they're guessing what the other's going to do. I'm assuming Bala expects Duo Lon to 6A(stretch arm) so he does a crouch stick move. MadKOF throws all caution to the wind and just jumps in on him with j.D and combos. Reset and hits him with a mixup and combos again so he's at half in under 4 seconds. Absolute solid play from MadKOF and simply doesn't let Bala create any space with Billy, which kills him. He PERFECTS him. Bala's Takuma puts MadKOF's Duo in the corner and catches him pressing a button on wakeup and uses his full drive meter and 2 bars (that he gained during the combo itself) to Stun combo and almost perfect him right back. Chin vs. Takuma, Bala avoids a reversal EX punch by jumping, but comes down on an attack and gets HD combo'd. MadKOF drops it, coming out of HD, but kills him anyway. Bala's Shen hops over a sweep punches Chin in the mouth. Bala guardpoints the F out of an EX Come Get Some(Hangetsuzuan) with Shen's Far C, but gets hit by another one in a combo. THen he's in the corner against a Kim, which sucks. MadKOF misses a hit confirm to HD, but Kim in HD mode is scary with the priority of his attacks and high mobility, now cancellable specials. He gets rocked.
Then he switches Billy who got DESTROYED with Ralf.
It starts off shaky, he lets him get away with some Rekkax3 > Shadow Dashes that Ralf can punish with far.C, then gets combo'd, reset, and presses the wrong button to lose Ralf. Bala's Takuma comes in and gets a command grab on Duo Lon in the corner and gets a good Takuma combo, but screws up the special cancel from 6B and lets him walk and gets combo'd for it. Bala misses a big punish on MadKOF Rekkax3 > Shadow Dashing in the corner, takes a bunch of unnecessary damage and ultimately has a to burn a stock on an EX Kick to get rid of him. Against Chin, he gets punished for ending a block string with Takuma's kick fireball. MadKOF EX Rollpunches under it and knocks him off the screen. Bala's Shen j.D's on Chin's counter and takes 100 damage for it, then gets HD Combo'd. He recovers and HD Combo's Chin back from mid screen into the corner, Power Up Max Cancel Jersey Fist but doesn't kill him. He jumps straight up to avoid wakeup EX Head Dive and picks him off with a couple 2B's. Shen starts off shaky again, MadKOF screws up a combo by doing B flipkick instead of D and Bala just goes in and punches him in the mouth, rolls to avoid a wakeup Jayoku cause Koreans DP all day every day, combos and wins.
Bala's Ralf gets the momentum on Duo Lon and takes him down to 100 hp with lots of good reads, jumping over fireballs with j.CD and such, then screws up, thinking MadKOF was going to press a button out of the blockstring and does a hella unsafe 1-2 Punch(Charge back, forward punch) and gets wrecked for it and loses lots of unecessary health. Bala recovers and wakes up with EX Gutpunch that has guardpoint all over it to take out MadKOF's 1st character before he loses one for the first time. Chin comes in and opens Bala up by STANCE DUCKING UNDERNEATH A VULCAN PUNCH before it happens, but doesn't convert and Ralf makes explosions happen. Chin gets a couple counters off before MadKOF sees his j.CD and Ex Punches it. Takuma comes in, HD's, and gets rid of the problem. Kim comes in and it looks really good for Bala. He gets two solid, corner EX Kick combos before MadKOF flash kicks him to make some space. MadKOF catches him with a low, combos, but then stands too close to Bala on wakeup, who does Ex Command grab for the win.
Bala's Ralf and MadKOF's Duo Lon mix it up, both making good blocks and plays, then MadKOF gets a good shadow dash mixup and gets like three combos out of consistently screwing up Bala's guard, who only punishes like one shadow dash. Then Ralf gets one solid hit and HD modes (1st round, by the way) and GETS RID OF THE PROBLEM. He knows MadKOF's Duo Lon can't be on the screen any longer or he will lose to the mix up game, so he tosses him. He'll be up a character, so it's okay if he burns the resources. Chin comes in, after some footsies, gets a good combo full of links and bumps Ralf out. Takuma comes in, and both players whiff a couple moves. Bala expects an overhead, but MadKOF dashes up with a low and gets HD combo'd to the corner, but MadKOF drops the HD Combo again, maybe even on purpose since HD ran out, then Bala super combos him back and makes it even. MadKOF gets three great reads and is in his head by now. He knows exactly when he's going to go for a hop and Ex Punches him out of it twice in a row. MadKOF makes a wrong guess and gets blocked for Ex rollpunching, Bala gets a good hitconfirm into super combo and back to neutral. Bala gets a blockstring off without getting punished for doing Kick fireball, then MadKOF rollpunches underneath a hop attack, then EX Rollpunches underneath a Takuma kick special for the win. Really good answers for what he's sure Bala is going to do and he does it consistently. Bala's Shen comes in and slaps an old geezer out. This is match point for Bala. If he wins, he wins the whole thing 3-1. Shen vs. Kim. Footsies, MadKOF gets an EX Come Get Some combo, gets Guard cancel Blowback'd away then flash kicks Shen's j.CD. Takes him to the other corner and Kim's fantastic normals are just so good, Bala can't do much. Kim jumps back and fools Bala into doing a j.CD to knock him out of the air. MadKOF EX Flipkicks for the win. 2-2
Bala switches Ralf out for Clark,
It starts off looking GREAT for Bala and he gets three great great reads into command grabs all in a row First time is on a reset, second he catches Duo Lon pressing 2A, third he catches him blocking. Bala makes a mistake, doing 2C which MadKOF hops over, and gets combo'd into the corner, gets out, and then makes ANOTHER mistake by being too far away for command grab. Luckily, MadKOF doesn't convert the stray hit, but does land another Rekka combo into mix up. Bala blocks two shadow feet, jumps over a third one, then lands on an EX one and gets j.CD'd outta there. Duo Lon comes in, get Guard Cancel Blowback'd, but then low profiles a j.CD with 2B for a combo into mixup. They trade a jump-in vs. anti-air, then Bala FINALLY punishes a shadow dash! Ex, nonetheless, with a command grab, converts to damage and gets Duo Lon out. Chin comes in, gets a couple drinks, Bala can't get him to sit still so he can set up. Chin worms his way in and fakes an overhead, catches Takuma with a low and backfists him off the screen. Chin gets a fake overhead grab, Bala nails a good hit, HD's, becomes the king of Jersey, almost jumps onto a counter and kills Chin. Shen vs. Kim boils down to Shen going for a sweep that MadKOF jumps over with j.C. Bala doesn't whiff cancel and gets kicked into EX Ranbu super. and MadKOF resets the brackets.
Bala puts Billy back in
MadKOF continues setting the pace by countering everything Billy does, pretty much. Bala makes a mistake and 2C's the air, to which MadKOF gets a good punish. Bala messes up again and ground CD's a butt poof for some reason. Duo Lon counter j.CD > j.CD's him into the corner, lets out a butt poof and just rushes in. Bala takes the bait and jumps straight up and attacks and hits MadKOF, yeah, but he lands on the butt poof. He does it AGAIN and Bala jumps forward. MadKOF expects it and just 2C's him on prediction. Takuma comes in and Bala both misses a punish on a Shadow Dash in the corner AND command grabs the air. MadKOF making so many good plays and puts a lot of damage on Takuma. Chin comes in, takes no damage, but Chin is old and knocks him out. Shen comes in and gets a good combo, resets and uppercuts MadKOF's jump. Chin has like 30 hp and gets guard cancel Blowback'd down to 20 HP. AND THEN MADKOF BRINGS IT BACK WITH SO MANY TRICKS. Throws, and then crouch stances to make Bala's attack whiff, throws him in the corner and combos off of it for the win while having no health. Bala is very upset about this and is definitely not in a good position. MadKOF keeps throwing off Bala's rhythm and won't let him breathe. Like someone won't leave you alone and keeps tousling your hair.
Bala puts Claw Iori in.
And starts off good, gets a good frame trap off of a block string, but MadKOF really doesn't care. He just keeps going in and puts him in the corner, pressures him before Bala finally gets out, gets a hit, combo, but messes up a follow up, gets Rekka'd in the face, then EX Stomp'd. Takuma comes in and manages to avoid a 6A, hops over a Stomp, then sweeps for the kill after getting hit by the butt poof in the corner trick again. Chin comes in, gets two good combos, one off of a throw, one off of a counterhit j.CD and then gets rollpunched. It's like Bala doesn't believe in MadKOF's Chin, he keeps trying to do something but gets stuffed for it, usually by an EX Punch or EX Rollpunch. Shen comes in and gets pressured, MadKOF consistently crouch stance punch links for pressure and EX Punches when Bala presses a button. His Shen just can't do anything. He finally gets a good j.CD, but then Chin counters on wakeup and gets hit and loses the round. He keeps backdashing against Chin, it's almost like he's scared of him. He starts shaking his head and doesn't look very good. \
Bala puts Benimaru in and puts Takuma in the back.
Misses a hitconfirm on Iaido Kick and then gets rocked for screwing up and whiffing a drill kick. Bala just keeps jumping around, he keeps making mistakes and lands on a 2B and gets rocked again. At 10 Hp, he jumps over a buttpoof and drill kicks, EX Command Grabs and is looking pretty good, but flubs his crossup spacing twice and gets 2A'd out. Shen comes in and Duo Lon BAITS A GUARD CANCEL BLOWBACK, then combos Shen into the corner, lets out a butt poof and runs in, Bala j.CD's and ON REACTION MadKOF 2C's him back to the ground. Bala whiffs a Solid Snake Uppercut expecting a hop and MadKOF combos, sees that he just got 2 meters from that combo and EX Supers for the kill. Takuma comes in, hits with a 2B poke, but then doesn't block incoming Rekkas and gets reset into the corner. MadKOF guesses right on an EX Command Grab, jumps it with j.D and gets a full meterless combo. MadKOF lets him out of the corner with back Shadow Dash and Bala finds a good hit, HD Cancels off of it, and gets Duo Lon out. Chin comes in, MadKOF reads a back dash but misses cause of distance. Bala jumps over an EX Punch and then drops his combo, probably cause he didn't get a full charge time on Kick special. THEN BALA PROCEEDS TO DO EVERYTHING RIGHT. He 2B's an EX Punch into a combo, gets a drive bar at the exact point he needed it, drive cancels, then gets a meter stock one move before he needed it and uses it to knock Chin out, very well done. Kim comes in and Bala 2A's an EX Come Get Some(WHAAAAT?) then gets flash kicked and crossed up on the wakeup. Hops and gets flash kicked again, but then back dashes and avoids a sweep completely. MadKOF's Kim activates HD Raw and then 66P's, misses and gets punished for it but Bala DROPS THE COMBO with a whiffed command grab. Kim has enough time to hop and get a j.D, but MadKOF apparently forgets he's in HD mode and does a regular BnB. This gets really intense really fast. Bala blocks the incoming mixup, j.CD's Kim away, gets a block string, Kim gets hit by the kick fireball, Bala EX Special Kicks, gets j.D'd, then DOES IT AGAIN, corner combos, THEN F'S UP THE DRIVE CANCEL FROM THE PUNCH HITGRAB. Kim wakes up and does nothing. Takuma stands there. Nothing happens.
Then MadKOF gets anxious and Ex DP's.
Whiffs.
And Bala close C's him and wins that round.
Next match, Benimaru finally punishes a shadow dash with Iaido kick. MadKOF's Duo Lon pushes him into the corner and keeps him there for half life. Bala fulljumps straight up and comes down with a drill kick. Duo Lon's 2C whiffs cause he did it early and Bala gets an EX Command Grab combo. Duo Lon jabs a hop and then Bala stands in front of him and Iaido1's twice. MadKOF 6A's the second one and combos. Puts him in the corner, butt poof shenanigans, then backs up and lets him out. Benimaru catches a great hit, Ex Raijinken supers and leaves Duo Lon at 30 health. Duo Lon rushes back in and almost 2A's, trying to low profile Beni's hop j.D, but it doesn't happen and he gets clocked in the head. Chin comes in, Bala gets a good EX Command grab off of a reset, but no combo. He instead jumps over him to change up where the screen is so he can cross up drill kick, but messes it up and gets thrown. Shen comes in and gets like 3 counter hit j.CD's, a couple 2B's, reading every single attempt MadKOF does and just plain beats it all out. He gets a good hit and combos into uppercut, then goes for a reset. MadKOF doesn't really care and steamrolls him in HD Mode cause Bala didn't block a low into crouch stance. MadKOF drops the combo, then misses an overhead link. Bala rolls outta there. Three big jumping attacks later, Chin kicks Shen out. Takuma comes in and tries to bait something with 2B. MadKOF EX Rollpunches the recovery frames. Takuma gets a good command grab and combos the old man into his rocking chair. Kim comes out. Bala tries to EX something, I can't see what it is, but gets stuffed by a standing Blowback from Kim into the corner. Kim comes down with a couple overheads, all blocked, then takes a step and a half back and fakes him out. Bala stops blocking and MadKOF 2B's for a combo. Two more overheads and MadKOF hops back and Bala takes the bait AGAIN and gets EX Flipkicked into Flash Kicked. Bala manages to get out of the corner with a Special Kick, tries to hop j.CD, but MadKOF sees it and Jayoku's. Bala wakes up, blocks the first overhead, then tries to 2B. MadKOF hops again, j.D's, 2B's, and wins EVO.
Very very hype set. Easily gets both my biased and my unbiased vote for hypest set of the entire weekend. MadKOF was just crazy on point, making incredible reads and predictions, getting into Bala's head and forcing mistakes out of him. Bala did really well and almost pulled it out in the first set, but just let it go and couldn't seal the deal.
