Six of the eight American players in action during Saturday’s Japan Cup Street Fighter V pool play advanced to Sunday’s round of 64—but five of those players advanced out of the losers’ bracket.
That performance at the Tokyo Game Show wasn’t as successful as some had hoped, but it wasn’t as poor as some had feared either.
Brentt “Brenttiscool” Franks was the only American in action on Saturday to win their eight player qualifying pool. Fellow ‘Trinity’ members Julio Fuentes and Chris Tatarian also advanced to Sunday’s semifinals, as did Kenneth “K-Brad” Bradley, Eliver “KillerKai” Ling, and Vu “Ranmasama” Tra.
Despite solid performances, both Antwan “alucarD” Ortiz and Ryan “Gootecks” Gutierrez were eliminated on Saturday.
The big-name Japanese players in action performed about as well as expected. Kishida “Go1″ Goichi, Nagata “Eita” Hiroyuki, Fujimura “Yukadon” Atsushi, Egami “MOV” Joe, and Inoue “Kazunoko” Ryota all won their groups.
Haitani Tatsuya also advanced to the semifinal stage, albeit in the losers’ bracket.
Two Americans scheduled to be in action on Saturday did not participate. Peter “Flash” Susini was initially scheduled to attend the event but was a late scratch. He will instead compete at Thunderstruck 4 in Monterrey, Mexico this weekend. Hsien Chang did make the trip out to Japan but withdrew from the event after an injury left him unable to walk to the venue.
Justin Wong, who is among the tournament favorites, is one of three Americans who will be in action during the second day of pools. He will be joined by Singapore’s Ho Kun Xian and Japanese favorites Umehara Daigo and Hayashi “Mago” Kenryo.
Pool play continues at 9pm ET on the Capcom Fighters Twitch channel. The semifinal and final stages of the tournament will take place later in the day.
