For the past few years, Community Effort Orlando (CEO) has been one of the last and biggest stops on the Road to Evo, and this year was its most successful yet. CEO 2015 delivered enormous turnouts and top international competition for mainstays like Ultra Street Fighter 4 and Super Smash Bros. Melee, and with roughly 290 entrants it also turned out to be the largest Mortal Kombat X tournament thus far. The MK field here included the strongest representatives from well-known teams like Yomi Gaming and Galloping Ghost Arcade, as well as numerous other heavy hitters from less-hyped scenes looking for their time to shine. This tournament also used the most recent balance update for the game, which led to some controversy since it was not even a week old. In the end, this turned out to be a weekend that shook up the balance of power in some ways and further established it in others.
From the first set of pools on Saturday it became clear that nobody would have a free ride here, regardless of how many majors they’d won. The most shocking result came from a pool featuring GGA Dizzy and Pig of the Hut. Pig lost the Kenshi mirror to Florida’s own Ashenar while the “Sonic Fox killer” was sent to losers by Tampa's resident Shinnok, Yung Bacon. This led to an all-Florida winner’s finals won by Bacon, but that wasn’t all for the upsets. After being beaten decisively by Dizzy, Yomi’s Xenomorph went on a tear in the loser’s bracket; his Cassie eliminated Pig and then Dizzy! This took him to loser’s finals of the pool, where he finally succumbed to Ashenar in a close fight.
This pool embodied two of the major themes of this tournament: Shinnok and Florida. Both had their believers and doubters prior to CEO, and both delivered in a big way here. In addition to Yung Bacon, Florida Tekken player D.R. and Wound Cowboy won their pools with Shinnok, and between these players all three of his variations were used in this tournament. Florida ended up with 9 players in the top 32, an impressive result for a group without a lot of previous major experience in this game. It didn’t come from easy pools, either – for instance, Kitana Prime took down CORN Alucard’s Kotal Kahn to win his pool!
The top 32 had strong variety in both characters and scenes represented. Tom Brady made it with his Grandmaster Sub-Zero, Tyrant & HoneyBee were there with their signature Jax & D’Vorah, two Ferra/Torr players (Biohazard and Whiteboi) qualified, Kombat Houston got 3 players (Digit, Showtime, and Royale) out of pools, and Shinblade from Tennessee won his pool over MK veterans Michaelangelo and Noobe. Next Level and Australia even got some representation, with Glitch (Kung Lao) and Googie (Brawler Cassie) respectively. An especially surprising showing came from Zyphox; after a string of disappointing finishes with Takeda, he switched to the newly-buffed Flame Fist Liu Kang and eliminated Blind Ducky to make it out of his pool! Forever King Jr. also dominated his pool with Relentless Jason, apparently ignoring all the forum talk of this character being unviable. Not everything was different from the norm here, though…
Even more so than Shinnok or Florida or upsets in general, CEO 2015 was the tournament of Tanya. This character has been a hot topic of discussion ever since her release, and the recent nerfs did nothing to quell that. Sonic Fox, MIT and Deg all won their pools playing Tanya exclusively, and REO made it out of his pool in losers with a mixture of Erron Black and Tanya. MIT and Deg used the Kobu Jutsu variation, but Sonic Fox and REO preferred the more zoning-oriented Pyromancer. Sonic Fox and the Terry brothers MIT & DJT enjoyed their usual success in this tournament, fending off the upsets that so many other big names fell victim to.
The top 32 began unusually late in the evening for a major tournament, but that didn’t hurt the level of play. Zyphox continued his strong run in the loser’s bracket, overwhelming Ashenar’s Kenshi and clutching it out over Showtime’s Sonya to reach top 16 and earn his first money finish in a major. He eventually went out in 13th to CORN Alucard. Speaking of going on a tear in losers, REO simply could not be stopped in the semifinal bracket. After an early loss to Wound Cowboy’s Shinnok he needed to win twice as many matches for top 8 as the winner’s bracket players did, and he pulled it off with a strong helping of Pyromancer Tanya. Shinblade was one win away from top 8 with two chances, but couldn’t pull it out over DJT or REO. MIT cruised to top 8 on the winner’s side via a Tanya mirror win over Deg. Most surprisingly, D.R. went from a relative unknown in the MK scene to top 8 in winners, decisively beating fellow Floridian DR Gross to make it. Gross was not deterred, however, and his execution-heavy Cassie won a tough match over Alucard to make it on the loser’s side.
Probably the most exciting match of the top 32 was a top 16 loser’s battle between Wound Cowboy and Forever King Jr. King Jr. went with his usual Jason against Impostor Shinnok, and the match had the most shocking ending seen thus far in MKX: Wound accidentally used the armor mode he stole from Jason, while Jason himself had the armor mode activated as well. Neither seemed to be fully aware of the situation, as Jason’s armor ran out but Wound did not fully punish his recovery. Both were throwing heavy attacks at each other and absorbing them with the armor, until Wound’s Shinnok fell asleep from the armor running out and King Jr. punished him for the win. Unfortunately for King Jr., he went from winning a heartbreaker to losing one, as Deg’s Tanya survived his Jason for top 8 in the loser’s bracket. Meanwhile, HoneyBee gave another strong performance in spite of some struggles with the patch’s changes to D’Vorah’s execution. He lost to Sonic Fox (after finally forcing him to switch to Erron Black) but then defeated Michaelangelo without too much trouble to reach top 8 in losers. This left us with the following top 8:
Winner’s Bracket: Loser's Bracket:
cR Sonic Fox HoneyBee
YOMI DJT YOMI REO
YOMI MIT DR Gross
D.R. Deg
This left the notable final numbers at 3 Yomi players, 3 Florida players, and 4 Tanyas. One Shinnok also remained, keeping that dream alive.
Top 8 on Sunday began with the rarely-seen Tanya vs. Shinnok matchup, as MIT squared off against D.R. D.R. struggled early but appeared to adapt to the matchup as time went on, punishing key teleports to keep it from being a clean sweep. With MIT up 2-1, D.R. had a near-50% life lead in the final round but threw two ill-timed Hell Sparks that were punished with teleports to close out the set for MIT.
Next up was one of the marquee matches of any MKX tournament – Sonic Fox vs. DJT. These two have had close sets in previous majors, and DJT won their most recent confrontation at the Battle X exhibition. This time around did not disappoint at all, as they went with their traditional Erron Black and Kung Lao. The set delivered the back-and-forth runs of dominance you would expect from two momentum-based characters, along with the reads and whiff punishes you would expect from two of the best in the game. To nobody’s surprise it came down to game 5, but DJT prevailed as Sonic once again went to losers before the winner’s finals. Only the Terry brothers remained in winners this time!
Switching over to losers, we got some Florida-on-Florida violence with DR Gross vs. Deg. Gross has been one of Deg’s main demons in the VSGC weekly tournaments, winning the vast majority of their matches, but this would be a different story. Gross displayed his trademark Cassie corner combos along with some impressive anti-air conversions on Tanya teleports, but Deg’s constant pressure on the ground and in the air proved to be too much. It was another back-and-forth set with both sides looking strong, but Deg came away with a 3-2 win.
The next loser’s bracket match was REO against HoneyBee. With two of the most consistent top placers in Netherrealm games, it was no shock that this turned out to be yet another set that went the full 5 games. HoneyBee had shown knowledge of the Tanya matchup earlier against Sonic Fox, but REO’s Kobu Jutsu won the day with an especially decisive game 5. Given HoneyBee’s recent major success in MKX, this was a strong statement from REO.
Staying in losers, we had Sonic Fox vs. Deg in another Tanya mirror. After being sent to losers by MIT’s Tanya, Deg appeared to struggle again in this matchup. After all the close matches we previously saw, this stood out as a quick 3-0 win for Sonic Fox.
The other loser’s quarterfinals pit D.R. against Reo. This was definitely a closer match than D.R.’s previous one, as he used Shinnok’s mixups well and had success anti-airing Tanya’s teleports. However, after going up 2-1 in the set, he lost the momentum and REO ran it back just as strongly. This was another set that ended in a strong game 5 for REO and another 3-2 win to advance.
Finally we switched back to the winner’s bracket for the classic brother vs. brother matchup of DJT vs. MIT. This is a match we’ve seen plenty of times in Yomi weekly tournaments and other majors, and it’s usually been in DJT’s favor. This was the most dominant one yet, as MIT switched from Tanya to Scorpion for one game but could not get anything going. Much like Sonic Fox vs. Deg, this was a fast 3-0 for DJT’s Kung Lao to put him in the grand finals.
The loser’s semifinals gave us another match seen in multiple majors: Sonic Fox vs. REO. Sonic had beaten REO every time in this game, to the point that many players were claiming that REO copies all of Sonic’s characters after losing to them. REO showed early that this time would be different, however, as he went toe-to-toe with Kobu Jutsu vs. Sonic’s Pyromancer. This was another close set that went 5 games, but REO consistently won the spacing & punishing battle on teleports to once again come out on top 3-2 and eliminate the Fox! In a tournament full of upsets, it’s only fitting that this would be Sonic’s lowest placing in a major so far, but 4th place in this stacked of a field is still nothing to sneeze at.
With an all-Yomi top 3, we now went to REO vs. MIT in the loser’s finals. This was yet another Tanya mirror, and very similar to the Sonic Fox vs. Deg match. Unfortunately for REO, after a tremendous run through the loser’s bracket, he was on the receiving end of the 3-0 this time. At 3rd place out of about 290, this was easily REO’s most impressive showing thus far in MKX, but it was MIT who earned a second chance against his brother in the grand finals!
The second time around for the Terry brothers was much closer than the first, and for a surprising reason. After losing game 1 again with Tanya, MIT made a switch to Noxious Reptile! He proceeded to defeat DJT’s Kung Lao and then his Fisticuffs Johnny Cage to go up 2-1, but lost to his Grandmaster Sub-Zero. This created a 2-2 situation where MIT was able to switch back to Tanya, presumably becoming the favorite to reset the bracket. However, despite the matchup appearing rough on paper, DJT had a consistent read on his brother and was able to anti-air teleports at key times. With all of the top-tier characters on display in this top 8, it ended up being the much-maligned Sub-Zero who closed it out for DJT and won him the tournament!
In the end, at CEO we saw a lot of the same faces at the very top: Sonic Fox and Yomi’s best. However, this tournament showed us that there are plenty of other killers out there and nobody’s spot is safe. Expect plenty more where this came from at Evo!
FINAL RESULTS:
1st. YOMI DJT (Tempest Kung Lao, Grandmaster Sub-Zero, Fisticuffs Johnny Cage)
2nd. YOMI MIT (Kobu Jutsu Tanya, Hellfire Scorpion, Noxious Reptile)
3rd. YOMI REO (Kobu Jutsu/Pyromancer Tanya, Outlaw Erron Black, Sorceror Quan Chi)
4th. cR Sonic Fox (Pyromancer Tanya, Outlaw Erron Black)
T5th. D.R. (Bone Shaper Shinnok)
T5th. Deg (Kobu Jutsu/Dragon Naginata Tanya)
T7th. HoneyBee (Swarm Queen D’Vorah)
T7th. DR Gross (Hollywood Cassie Cage)
Congrats to the Top 8 & ALL THE KOMBATANTS THIS WEEKEND!!
(Picture Credit to CEOGaming.)
Article Promoted by TS**
From the first set of pools on Saturday it became clear that nobody would have a free ride here, regardless of how many majors they’d won. The most shocking result came from a pool featuring GGA Dizzy and Pig of the Hut. Pig lost the Kenshi mirror to Florida’s own Ashenar while the “Sonic Fox killer” was sent to losers by Tampa's resident Shinnok, Yung Bacon. This led to an all-Florida winner’s finals won by Bacon, but that wasn’t all for the upsets. After being beaten decisively by Dizzy, Yomi’s Xenomorph went on a tear in the loser’s bracket; his Cassie eliminated Pig and then Dizzy! This took him to loser’s finals of the pool, where he finally succumbed to Ashenar in a close fight.
This pool embodied two of the major themes of this tournament: Shinnok and Florida. Both had their believers and doubters prior to CEO, and both delivered in a big way here. In addition to Yung Bacon, Florida Tekken player D.R. and Wound Cowboy won their pools with Shinnok, and between these players all three of his variations were used in this tournament. Florida ended up with 9 players in the top 32, an impressive result for a group without a lot of previous major experience in this game. It didn’t come from easy pools, either – for instance, Kitana Prime took down CORN Alucard’s Kotal Kahn to win his pool!
The top 32 had strong variety in both characters and scenes represented. Tom Brady made it with his Grandmaster Sub-Zero, Tyrant & HoneyBee were there with their signature Jax & D’Vorah, two Ferra/Torr players (Biohazard and Whiteboi) qualified, Kombat Houston got 3 players (Digit, Showtime, and Royale) out of pools, and Shinblade from Tennessee won his pool over MK veterans Michaelangelo and Noobe. Next Level and Australia even got some representation, with Glitch (Kung Lao) and Googie (Brawler Cassie) respectively. An especially surprising showing came from Zyphox; after a string of disappointing finishes with Takeda, he switched to the newly-buffed Flame Fist Liu Kang and eliminated Blind Ducky to make it out of his pool! Forever King Jr. also dominated his pool with Relentless Jason, apparently ignoring all the forum talk of this character being unviable. Not everything was different from the norm here, though…
Even more so than Shinnok or Florida or upsets in general, CEO 2015 was the tournament of Tanya. This character has been a hot topic of discussion ever since her release, and the recent nerfs did nothing to quell that. Sonic Fox, MIT and Deg all won their pools playing Tanya exclusively, and REO made it out of his pool in losers with a mixture of Erron Black and Tanya. MIT and Deg used the Kobu Jutsu variation, but Sonic Fox and REO preferred the more zoning-oriented Pyromancer. Sonic Fox and the Terry brothers MIT & DJT enjoyed their usual success in this tournament, fending off the upsets that so many other big names fell victim to.
The top 32 began unusually late in the evening for a major tournament, but that didn’t hurt the level of play. Zyphox continued his strong run in the loser’s bracket, overwhelming Ashenar’s Kenshi and clutching it out over Showtime’s Sonya to reach top 16 and earn his first money finish in a major. He eventually went out in 13th to CORN Alucard. Speaking of going on a tear in losers, REO simply could not be stopped in the semifinal bracket. After an early loss to Wound Cowboy’s Shinnok he needed to win twice as many matches for top 8 as the winner’s bracket players did, and he pulled it off with a strong helping of Pyromancer Tanya. Shinblade was one win away from top 8 with two chances, but couldn’t pull it out over DJT or REO. MIT cruised to top 8 on the winner’s side via a Tanya mirror win over Deg. Most surprisingly, D.R. went from a relative unknown in the MK scene to top 8 in winners, decisively beating fellow Floridian DR Gross to make it. Gross was not deterred, however, and his execution-heavy Cassie won a tough match over Alucard to make it on the loser’s side.
Probably the most exciting match of the top 32 was a top 16 loser’s battle between Wound Cowboy and Forever King Jr. King Jr. went with his usual Jason against Impostor Shinnok, and the match had the most shocking ending seen thus far in MKX: Wound accidentally used the armor mode he stole from Jason, while Jason himself had the armor mode activated as well. Neither seemed to be fully aware of the situation, as Jason’s armor ran out but Wound did not fully punish his recovery. Both were throwing heavy attacks at each other and absorbing them with the armor, until Wound’s Shinnok fell asleep from the armor running out and King Jr. punished him for the win. Unfortunately for King Jr., he went from winning a heartbreaker to losing one, as Deg’s Tanya survived his Jason for top 8 in the loser’s bracket. Meanwhile, HoneyBee gave another strong performance in spite of some struggles with the patch’s changes to D’Vorah’s execution. He lost to Sonic Fox (after finally forcing him to switch to Erron Black) but then defeated Michaelangelo without too much trouble to reach top 8 in losers. This left us with the following top 8:
Winner’s Bracket: Loser's Bracket:
cR Sonic Fox HoneyBee
YOMI DJT YOMI REO
YOMI MIT DR Gross
D.R. Deg
This left the notable final numbers at 3 Yomi players, 3 Florida players, and 4 Tanyas. One Shinnok also remained, keeping that dream alive.
Top 8 on Sunday began with the rarely-seen Tanya vs. Shinnok matchup, as MIT squared off against D.R. D.R. struggled early but appeared to adapt to the matchup as time went on, punishing key teleports to keep it from being a clean sweep. With MIT up 2-1, D.R. had a near-50% life lead in the final round but threw two ill-timed Hell Sparks that were punished with teleports to close out the set for MIT.
Next up was one of the marquee matches of any MKX tournament – Sonic Fox vs. DJT. These two have had close sets in previous majors, and DJT won their most recent confrontation at the Battle X exhibition. This time around did not disappoint at all, as they went with their traditional Erron Black and Kung Lao. The set delivered the back-and-forth runs of dominance you would expect from two momentum-based characters, along with the reads and whiff punishes you would expect from two of the best in the game. To nobody’s surprise it came down to game 5, but DJT prevailed as Sonic once again went to losers before the winner’s finals. Only the Terry brothers remained in winners this time!
Switching over to losers, we got some Florida-on-Florida violence with DR Gross vs. Deg. Gross has been one of Deg’s main demons in the VSGC weekly tournaments, winning the vast majority of their matches, but this would be a different story. Gross displayed his trademark Cassie corner combos along with some impressive anti-air conversions on Tanya teleports, but Deg’s constant pressure on the ground and in the air proved to be too much. It was another back-and-forth set with both sides looking strong, but Deg came away with a 3-2 win.
The next loser’s bracket match was REO against HoneyBee. With two of the most consistent top placers in Netherrealm games, it was no shock that this turned out to be yet another set that went the full 5 games. HoneyBee had shown knowledge of the Tanya matchup earlier against Sonic Fox, but REO’s Kobu Jutsu won the day with an especially decisive game 5. Given HoneyBee’s recent major success in MKX, this was a strong statement from REO.
Staying in losers, we had Sonic Fox vs. Deg in another Tanya mirror. After being sent to losers by MIT’s Tanya, Deg appeared to struggle again in this matchup. After all the close matches we previously saw, this stood out as a quick 3-0 win for Sonic Fox.
The other loser’s quarterfinals pit D.R. against Reo. This was definitely a closer match than D.R.’s previous one, as he used Shinnok’s mixups well and had success anti-airing Tanya’s teleports. However, after going up 2-1 in the set, he lost the momentum and REO ran it back just as strongly. This was another set that ended in a strong game 5 for REO and another 3-2 win to advance.
Finally we switched back to the winner’s bracket for the classic brother vs. brother matchup of DJT vs. MIT. This is a match we’ve seen plenty of times in Yomi weekly tournaments and other majors, and it’s usually been in DJT’s favor. This was the most dominant one yet, as MIT switched from Tanya to Scorpion for one game but could not get anything going. Much like Sonic Fox vs. Deg, this was a fast 3-0 for DJT’s Kung Lao to put him in the grand finals.
The loser’s semifinals gave us another match seen in multiple majors: Sonic Fox vs. REO. Sonic had beaten REO every time in this game, to the point that many players were claiming that REO copies all of Sonic’s characters after losing to them. REO showed early that this time would be different, however, as he went toe-to-toe with Kobu Jutsu vs. Sonic’s Pyromancer. This was another close set that went 5 games, but REO consistently won the spacing & punishing battle on teleports to once again come out on top 3-2 and eliminate the Fox! In a tournament full of upsets, it’s only fitting that this would be Sonic’s lowest placing in a major so far, but 4th place in this stacked of a field is still nothing to sneeze at.
With an all-Yomi top 3, we now went to REO vs. MIT in the loser’s finals. This was yet another Tanya mirror, and very similar to the Sonic Fox vs. Deg match. Unfortunately for REO, after a tremendous run through the loser’s bracket, he was on the receiving end of the 3-0 this time. At 3rd place out of about 290, this was easily REO’s most impressive showing thus far in MKX, but it was MIT who earned a second chance against his brother in the grand finals!
The second time around for the Terry brothers was much closer than the first, and for a surprising reason. After losing game 1 again with Tanya, MIT made a switch to Noxious Reptile! He proceeded to defeat DJT’s Kung Lao and then his Fisticuffs Johnny Cage to go up 2-1, but lost to his Grandmaster Sub-Zero. This created a 2-2 situation where MIT was able to switch back to Tanya, presumably becoming the favorite to reset the bracket. However, despite the matchup appearing rough on paper, DJT had a consistent read on his brother and was able to anti-air teleports at key times. With all of the top-tier characters on display in this top 8, it ended up being the much-maligned Sub-Zero who closed it out for DJT and won him the tournament!
In the end, at CEO we saw a lot of the same faces at the very top: Sonic Fox and Yomi’s best. However, this tournament showed us that there are plenty of other killers out there and nobody’s spot is safe. Expect plenty more where this came from at Evo!
FINAL RESULTS:
1st. YOMI DJT (Tempest Kung Lao, Grandmaster Sub-Zero, Fisticuffs Johnny Cage)
2nd. YOMI MIT (Kobu Jutsu Tanya, Hellfire Scorpion, Noxious Reptile)
3rd. YOMI REO (Kobu Jutsu/Pyromancer Tanya, Outlaw Erron Black, Sorceror Quan Chi)
4th. cR Sonic Fox (Pyromancer Tanya, Outlaw Erron Black)
T5th. D.R. (Bone Shaper Shinnok)
T5th. Deg (Kobu Jutsu/Dragon Naginata Tanya)
T7th. HoneyBee (Swarm Queen D’Vorah)
T7th. DR Gross (Hollywood Cassie Cage)
Congrats to the Top 8 & ALL THE KOMBATANTS THIS WEEKEND!!
(Picture Credit to CEOGaming.)
Article Promoted by TS**
