Sonic-Du: A Real American Hero

November 17 2016






Just one week after becoming the first North American player to win a Capcom Pro Tour Premiere event in over 2 years (SnakeEyez Oct 14th 2014, The Fall Classic), Team Liquid’s Du “NuckleDu” Dang did it again by defending America and winning the Capcom Pro Tour, North American Regional Finals. As impressive as this last week has been for NuckleDu—arguably the most remarkable week for a North American player in Street Fighter V’s short history—his dominant streak was not met without resistance. NuckleDu was sent to the lower bracket in his very first match on Finals Sunday in a quick and dirty thumping versus tournament favorite and Japanese fighting game legend, Hajime “Tokido” Taniguchi. Prior to the match, Tokido mentioned in a Red Bull interview that he'd had his eye on NuckleDu’s famous Guile play and had researched the Ryu vs Guile match-up in the lead up to this event. Tokido claimed that he was eager to test his newfound anti-Guile strategies, and early on, they seemed to work. Tokido beat NuckleDu soundly 3-1 in the opening bout.

Certainly not where he wanted to be, NuckleDu found himself in the losers side early. Yet with his family cheering in the front row, he had the support he needed and he went to work from there. NuckleDu started his losers' bracket comeback with his hyper-aggressive R.Mika and went on to 3-1 Naventic’s Peter “Flash” Susini. He would then finished off a nail-biting 3-2 set, final game, final round scramble with Denial Esports’s Chris Tatarian’s Ken.



The set with Chris Tatarian was certainly the scariest moment for NuckleDu who barely edged out the SoCal native with an extremely tricky sonic boom mix-up. In such a tense moment, it's difficult to imagine that anyone could have blocked the booms. After a sigh of relief, NuckleDu's shoulders relaxed and an effortlessness permeated his play as he breezed into the Grand Final. NuckleDu had to go through some of North America’s finest talents on his path to the big stage but blazed his trail with the swagger and confidence of someone with only one mission in mind—winning.

NuckleDu was ferocious going through the final gauntlet, quickly shutting down Flipsid3 Tactics' Antwan “Alucard” Ortiz 3-1. Ortiz had requested a blind pick to open the bout as both players had a variety of characters mastered, and that was showcased as Alucard sent out Balrog and Birdie while NuckleDu responded with R.Mika before closing it out with Guile. In the next two rounds NuckleDu found himself in a classic esports match-up; a double header of Team Liquid vs Evil Geniuses. First it was a quick 3-0 of EG Kenneth “K-Brad” Bradley’s Cammy, who, to K-Brad’s credit, is easily playing the best SFV of his career. Then he toppled the USA legend, EG Justin Wong’s Karin 3-1.

This led NuckleDu to a loser’s final showdown versus the surprise of the tournament, new face and online qualifier “Anbu PUNK”. The debutante silenced many critics this weekend as his online qualification was met with community resistance due to the suspect nature of online play. He proved that he deserved his spot in the Regional Finals by making a tremendous splash and taking home 3rd place with his clean and optimized Karin play.

After dispatching of the newcomer, Du had set the stage for the most dramatic final possible: NuckleDu vs Tokido; USA vs Japan; New School vs Old School; Mr. America himself, Guile vs The Japanese Hero, Ryu; a rematch all the way from Round 1. The last defender of America wanted revenge in order to stave off the Japanese invader who was only in attendance to make some easy cash off a "weak" region. Viewers that expected a repeated of their first set were duly surprised when they saw the adjustments that NuckleDu had devised. Du jumped to a 2-0 lead secured mostly through divine space control with well-timed sonic booms. This seamless style of zoning is something we haven’t seen fully explored yet in SFV. This is a strategy many had previously written off as too unsafe, or too risky in this latest Street Fighter iteration.

Tokido showed signs of life in game 3 when he was able to capitalize on Ryu’s damage output. He put himself on the board by taking advantage of the brief moments he could get inside NuckleDu's impervious defense, but Tokido's success was short lived. NuckleDu responded with ferocity in the 4th game, baiting out risky shoryukens from his patient opponent before punishing him. The Liquid Fighter ended the first set in style with an anti-air flash kick into critical art. He had done it; the bracket was reset.

Not even Tokido's famous "murder face" would be able to intimidate NuckleDu. Straight into the reset, Du jumped into the lead off his signature pixel-perfect spacing and opportunistic aggression. He even had time to show off a bit in game 2 as he pinned Tokido against the corner with the famous “Guile Boom Loops”.



NuckleDu was brilliant in his offense. He hit Tokido with the reset into stun, which set up a beautiful combo into critical art. It was quickly 2-0 for Du, but the Japanese champion fought back in game 3 with brute force and sealed the victory with a beautiful V-trigger combo into critical art. Both players were on edge after 7 grueling games, and Tokido took a moment to meditate before going into the the 4th game.

The experienced Japanese champion collected himself, but perhaps he should have capitalized on his momentum instead. Game 4 was all NuckleDu. The world's best Guile frustrated Tokido with sonic booms, forcing errant jumps and mistakes from the normally flawless Ryu player. In the end, that would be his demise. Tokido's movements appeared frustrated, and, searching for some offense, he had jumped into the air at the worst moment. NuckleDu's boot met Ryu's chin, and the American had done it. He defended his nation with US Air Force major Guile and professional wrestler Rainbow Mika. With his win, NuckleDu had convincingly answered the question:

“Who is the best player in the USA?”

There is no debate. However, he provoked a new question, “Is NuckleDu the best player in the world?”

NuckleDu must prove himself as the best in the world at the Capcom Pro Tour Finals on Dec 2-3rd at the PlayStation Experience in Anaheim, California. The top 32 players from around the world will conclude the first Street Fighter V Pro season and compete for a share of the $350,000 prize pool and the title of Champion.




Writer // crms
Graphics // shiroiusagi