Who and what to watch in Guilty Gear Strive and Street Fighter V at NEC

Offline is back. Finally.

This weekend is the Northeast Championship (NEC), and it marks a return to offline fighting game majors in North America. It will take place at Nerd Street’s new Localhost spot in Center City Philadelphia, with most pool play happening Saturday and bracket play Sunday. The event will include competitions in Guilty Gear Strive, Soulcalibur VI, Street Fighter V, Tekken 7, Mortal Kombat 11 and more. Two of the most contested games will be Guilty Gear and Street Fighter V. Here’s a preview of who to watch and what to look for in each game.

Guilty Gear Strive

NEC will represent one of the first glimpses of high-level Guilty Gear Strive competition since the game’s introduction to the fighting game community over the past few months. With a healthy field of 84 players, the character variety and upset potential will be high. Without the restriction of rollback netcode, some of the game’s best players will try to prove that their online results do translate when the tournament shifts away from their homes.

It cannot be understated that a game’s competitive community needs offline majors to better answer the question of, ‘who’s the best?’ and NEC will be one of the first places to see it in action. We won’t be able to truly experience the entire spectrum of top-level Guilty Gear Strive play until there are more international tournaments or open exhibitions, but this snapshot of mostly North American players still should provide plenty of information on who needs to be known in the community.

Who to look out for?

Kev “K7 Showoff” Hunt leads the way as the tournament favorite. The Leo specialist is a grinder. Whether it’s an appearance in the top eight of weekly tournaments like Next Level Battle Circuit or a qualifier competition like The Grand Bamboo Battle or even a major tournament like Summer Jam, K7 Showoff’s results are consistently high. His lethal dose of aggression and reversal intuition leaves opponents guessing on their own pressure options and should provide him with a good path to a top-eight berth at the minimum.

Jorge “Shine” Orellana will be a problem at NEC. Backed by multiple top weekly tournament finishes, his Potemkin was an issue for players since the beginning of Guilty Gear Strive. Behind the new and improved version of the guard-breaking grappler, Shine has all the tools to tackle all the previous bad matchups that plagued his potential runs. All that’s missing from his cabinet is a major tournament victory, and NEC might just be the place for a celebration.

To keep it simple, if Victor “Punk” Woodley is investing time and effort into a game again, he’s an automatic favorite. He was arguably one of the best in the country before a brief hiatus from the game, and with his inclusion at NEC, he belongs on the list of favorites. Whether it’s his Sol Badguy or Millia Rage, Punk’s ability to dissect an opponent and enforce his incredibly sound neutral and fundamental play is second to none.

What to look out for?

Although many of the players entering NEC are familiar with one another in an online playing field, there are only a few instances of offline interactions. The set play and mixups that work with the luxury of latency might not translate when the only lag that comes off the screen is via the console. It will be worth watching which players take it easier on their approach from either an offensive or defensive end to take advantage of an overzealous opponent. With so many players close in skill, that level of conservation may be the difference between advancing in the tournament and falling into the loser’s bracket.

If this was a tournament set without new characters or the past few patches, character selection and matchup knowledge would be key. But, with so many changes and buffs to specific characters (that may not need it), one of the biggest narratives will be whether a strong player will have a plethora of characters at their disposal. There are already changes to specialists that hint at this. Whether it was Punk’s investment in learning Millia Rage or May extraordinaire Matthew “TempestNYC” Tulloch’s ability to bust out Leo, it may no longer be a set character situation. NEC might just hinge on which character is more developed for a specific matchup than the player’s individual skill.

Street Fighter V

Street Fighter 5 will return as one of the marquee games and with a strong 56-entrant pool, featuring some of the best in the world. Offline Street Fighter 5 already has plenty of history, and with some countries and competitions already off the internet, NEC will serve as a reminder that North America has plenty of talent to look out for. The storylines won’t revolve around how lag affects play or whether online tournament results translate to offline, but rather who among all the hungry names during the online age of Street Fighter 5 can step up and claim a major tournament victory.

Who to look for?

We start the favorites with the alpha of Street Fighter 5: Punk. At one point, Punk was the best player in the game, and although he may have dropped off from that peak, he remains a tournament favorite in any competition he enters.

Unlike past seasons, it is no longer a guarantee to predict what character Punk will use to embarrass his opponent because his ability to pilot anyone in the game is world-class. Yes, the Karin will always be there, but Punk showed his abilities to adjust and counter-pick if necessary, and no one in the country can do it better or with more confidence. The only potential drawback to his ascent to the crown at NEC might be his focus on Guilty Gear Strive, but that is only a small negative.

Bryant “Smug” Huggins is a world-class talent and a threat to any competition he enters as a favorite or a wild card. He’s one of the best players in North America against international talent, and his incredible runs at Capcom Cup prove it each time he qualifies. That said, his lack of tournament results this year do not paint a consistent picture of his skill and progress for the year. Although many of his disappearances were due to lower weekly appearances at Next Level Battle Circuit and the increase of strictly online-only competitions, his ability to win any tournament remains intact if his Balrog or G continue to be at an elite level.

There are plenty of dark horses in the tournament that can upset the status quo such as Stephen “Space Boy” A. or Victor “MaiLyn” Pena, two players that were heavy on the weekly tournament scene and grinded their names and reputations to the top level, but it would be difficult to bet against the two established world-class names. NEC might be the playground for a breakout performance, so having a player like Space Boy and his incredibly consistent and wild Sakura play make a deep run or win would not be unprecedented.

What to look for?

The field is smaller than a major tournament or a Capcom Pro Tour event, but that only means that the skill gap and wiggle room for error is nonexistent. There are two huge names in the field in Punk and Smug, but plenty more hungry players who are trying to push their own brands to the stars. Because there is a lack of “established” or recognizable names to the casual fan, this is a tournament filled with breakout performances, and if any of those players end up winning, this could be the beginning of an upward trajectory.

Many of the players in the field are not exactly known for using a multitude of characters, so the competition at NEC will be be full of counter-picks and constant character changes. It will be refreshing to see specialists duke it out with technology and knowledge that can only be accrued by playing a singular character for a lengthy period.

Lead photo credit: Capcom