We are now in the back half of the season which means it’s time for the runbacks. The first five weeks of competition have been intense with six of the Team Battles being decided by tiebreakers. The first five positions in the standings through week five are incredibly tight with the difference between first and fifth place being just 40 points. Because the points are so close it’s anyone’s game for the top five teams. ENDEMIC, coming into this week with just 35 points, needs as many 40-0 Team Battles as it can get. So now in week six things will continue to heat up as each team vies for one of just four spots in the playoffs.
If you missed any of season 6 and want to get caught up before reading further, check out the STREET FIGHTER LEAGUE: Pro-US Season 6 Archive or the Capcom Fighters YouTube channel’s STREET FIGHTER LEAGUE: Pro-US Season 6 video playlist for the full episodes.
ENDEMIC (HOME) vs UYU (AWAY)
Away Team Player and Character Order: 1) NuckleDu (Guile), 2) Zhen (Dee Jay), 3) VXBao (JP), 4) Dual Kevin
At this point ENDEMIC is in a big hole and needs not just wins but big wins to climb out. They were 65 points behind fifth place after five weeks. In Street Fighter League you can make up ground quickly with 40-0 wins but earning those is difficult with the level of competition present. This week they went head-to-head with UYU, who occupied fifth place coming in. In their first meeting ENDEMIC got their only win of the season against UYU 25-20 in a tiebreaker. This was a great opportunity for ENDEMIC to start a comeback, but it did not materialize as they lost to UYU 10-30.
ENDEMIC had the home team advantage and could counterpick UYU’s player and character order. UYU’s first player was NuckleDu using Guile and ENDEMIC decided to put Reynald’s JP against him. The choice makes sense because Reynald beat NuckleDu 3-1 in week one and NuckleDu himself said that JP was a bad matchup for Guile. This was indeed a tough match for NuckleDu as Reynald’s JP used his Overdrive meter extensively for his ranged attacks to shut down Guile’s Sonic Booms. NuckleDu would go on to win 2-0.
The lone bright spot for ENDEMIC came in the second match between Samurai’s Luke and Zhen’s Dee Jay. Both played aggressively with Samurai using Overdrive uppercuts after knockdown and Zhen using anti-airs effectively. Samurai won a close first game but Zhen came right back to win the next two games, finishing Samurai with a perfect in the very last round of the match.
VXBao’s JP was in the anchor position for UYU and ENDEMIC selected FlashMetroid to face him. After a bad first game FlashMetroid started getting some momentum in game two, which he won to tie it up. The momentum carried into game three and VXBao looked a bit shaken but he regrouped and went on to win the next two games to finish 3-1.
| Match | Player | Team | Character | | Player | Team | Character | Result |
| 1 | NuckleDu | UYU | Guile | defeated | Reynald | ENDEMIC | JP | 2-0 |
| 2 | Samurai | ENDEMIC | Luke | defeated | Zhen | UYU | Dee Jay | 2-1 |
| 3 | VXBao | UYU | JP | defeated | FlashMetroid | ENDEMIC | Blanka | 3-1 |
| Tie-Breaker | – | – | – | defeated | – | – | – | – |
| SCORE | TOTAL | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Break |
| HOME | 10 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| AWAY | 30 | 0 | 10 | 20 | 0 |
RED ROOSTER (HOME) vs VERSUS VORTEX (AWAY)
Away Team Player and Character Order: 1) Xian (Dee Jay), 2) Oil King (Ken), 3) NL (Luke), 4) DCQ (JP)
VERSUS VORTEX and RED ROOSTER came into week six in the middle of the standings with the former in third with 115 points and the latter in fourth just 5 points behind. After taking a bad loss in week one, VERSUS VORTEX won three of their last Team Battles. RED ROOSTER was the team that handed VERSUS VORTEX the week one defeat. They would lose three straight following that but two of them were incredibly close and they won last week to break the losing streak.
PR Balrog’s Juri started things off against Xian’s Dee Jay in the first match. This was a hotly contested match where both traded having the upper hand. Xian would win 2-1.
Oil King was next up in VERSUS VORTEX’s order using Ken and the second of RED ROOSTER’s Juri Players, Ajax Fidelity, went in. Oil King won a dominant first game with very aggressive play. Ajax Fidelity got his offense started more consistently in game two, but Oil King won 2-0.
BananaKen has been one of the stars of this season so far. Through week five he only lost one match, to MenaRD, despite playing mostly in the high-pressure anchor position. His JP continues to impress with a 3-1 win in this anchor match against NL’s Luke. NL won his last four matches prior to this week but was brought down to earth here.
The Team Battle was now tied 20-20 and it was time for the tiebreaker. Mono’s Dee Jay took on DCQ’s JP in a single game. DCQ won this one in two straight rounds.
| Match | Player | Team | Character | | Player | Team | Character | Result |
| 1 | Xian | VERSUS VORTEX | Dee Jay | defeated | PR Balrog | RED ROOSTER | Juri | 2-1 |
| 2 | Oil King | VERSUS VORTEX | Ken | defeated | Ajax Fidelity | RED ROOSTER | Juri | 2-0 |
| 3 | BananaKen | RED ROOSTER | JP | defeated | NL | VERSUS VORTEX | Luke | 3-1 |
| Tie-Breaker | DCQ | VERSUS VORTEX | JP | defeated | Mono | RED ROOSTER | Dee Jay | 1-0 |
| SCORE | TOTAL | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Break |
| HOME | 20 | 0 | 0 | 20 | 5 |
| AWAY | 25 | 10 | 10 | 0 | 0 |
BANDITS (HOME) vs NASR (AWAY)
Away Team Player and Character Order: 1) Big Bird (Rashid), 2) Punk (Cammy), 3) AngryBird (Ken), 4) Nephew
The final Team Battle of the week was between undefeated NASR in first place and BANDITS in second place. This was an absolute thriller and is another of the season’s highlights. Adding to the electric atmosphere were the emotional exchanges between players on both teams from both the gaming chairs and the bullpen. For the first time this season Caba’s trademark enthusiastic and loud support for his team was on display.
BANDITS got a strong start as Chris Tatarian’s Ken got a strong win against Big Bird’s Rashid. Big Bird came out swinging and the match was very frantic with both players taking turns unleashing barrages of offense. Each of the match’s two games went to the final round but Chris Tatarian won them both. The last round of the game Big Bird had a huge life lead only for Chris Tatarian to stage an unbelievable comeback.
Punk is the only player to be undefeated this season and in the next match Xiao Hai faced him with Juri. Xiao Hai and Punk both played the first game patiently, looking for openings. It was a very close first game, but Punk clutched out a win. Punk popped off between games and in the first round of game two Punk played recklessly, which was exploited by Xiao Hai to win. Up to that point this was a very close match but the rest of game two was pure Punk domination as he finished Xiao Hai with back-to-back perfect rounds to win 2-0.
The first two matches of this Team Battle were epic, but the anchor match was mind-blowing. MenaRD and AngryBird faced each other in Grand Finals of EVO earlier this year and here was the rematch. MenaRD started off with Blanka against AngryBird’s Ken. AngryBird won a tough first game and MenaRD switched to Luke for the remainder of the match. This was a real slugfest with both players trading momentum back and forth. The energy was off the charts as both teams’ players cheered and bantered amongst themselves. It went down to the very last round of game five and AngryBird would triumph 3-2.
| Match | Player | Team | Character | | Player | Team | Character | Result |
| 1 | Chris Tatarian | BANDITS | Ken | defeated | Big Bird | NASR | Rashid | 2-0 |
| 2 | Punk | NASR | Cammy | defeated | Xiao Hai | BANDITS | Juri | 2-0 |
| 3 | AngryBird | NASR | Ken | defeated | MenaRD | BANDITS | Blanka/Luke | 3-2 |
| Tie-Breaker | – | – | – | defeated | – | – | – | – |
| SCORE | TOTAL | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Break |
| HOME | 10 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| AWAY | 30 | 0 | 10 | 20 | 0 |
TEAM STANDINGS
NASR solidifies its position at first place while VERSUS VORTEX moves to second place. BANDITS falls to third place due to tiebreakers and UYU moves up to fourth. RED ROOSTER falls to fifth place, again due to tiebreakers, while ENDEMIC continues to hold the sixth spot.
| NASR | 6-0 | 170 |
| VERSUS VORTEX | 4-2 | 140 |
| BANDITS | 2-4 | 140 |
| UYU | 3-3 | 130 |
| RED ROOSTER | 2-4 | 130 |
| ENDEMIC | 1-5 | 45 |
TUNE IN NEXT WEEK!
Be sure to catch the next episode on Twitch and YouTube on Wednesday at 4:00 PM Pacific, 7:00 PM Eastern!