Given the pre-existing setup I don't mind that they at least got one East Asia player in. It's the best compromise out of this mess, even if it ain't perfect: Japan gets a guaranteed 5 slots; and sure the LCQ's also is in the US but I can certainly imagine that any Japanese top player who enters that (looking at you Tea as a major possibility) will be favored precisely because a lot of your usual suspects (outside of like ESAM, Elegant and Light) are already qualified for the finalé. For that matter of course VGBootcamp would never want to throw away a regional hosted in Japan entirely.
Meanwhile the East Asian playerbase (and qualifier) do get at least one representative in and it ensures that the qualifier was worth something even if it wasn't perfect. XIFL's probably the right choice for this. Won East Asia's online qualifier, already is in Canada (placed 17th in a
Category 2 regional which Riddles won) and was apparently an established player in Hong Kong. FWIW XIFL also took a game off of Leo at Uprising 2019. Long ago, but that's not something many can claim to have done at all.
Also, the final Barnard's batches have dropped:
THE RETURN OF
EVERYBODY POOPS (VOD of a recent weekly LB Finals at Shanghai here, via Chinese Youtube / Crunchyroll Bilibili. Also includes prior sets in the playlist.)*. Outside of his reappearance, I'm surprised that Sisqui's lead over #2 Toura is not that large (might grow though since the former finished 4th at VGA) and the fact that Atomsk and Zaki are exactly tied and have combined for 60 % of Dedede's total haul is kind of amazing.
Other characters:
: 9 players, although it remains to be seen how many more points he'll get. Zackray leads - his 16 points is good for 30 % of Sora's total - and otherwise we have a grabbag of known names, such as Stroder, Lea and Kameme.
: 6 players, which is a major difference compared to the ol' Smash 4 days I have to presume. Dabuz has almost 50 % of her total points, with Yuzu and Homika also getting significant results within their different scenes. The other players are YamaD (Japan), Honduras' Big Fred... and EVERYBODY POOPS. There he is, in the most unexpected of places.
: 13 players! Riddles leads, albeit Tsu is only 2 points behind. AndresFN and Cless also figure here with significant contributions, and those four have combined for 2/3rds of Terry's total point haul.
: 14 players! French main Nitox leads with a 6 point cushion over Rinkururu. Nitox has perhaps sneakingly placed consistently well at European majors and that's why he has 18. After second place it becomes a lot more scattered - no one else has managed above 10 %.
: 11 players. Mezcaul leads by a massive margin - 37 points (65 %) compared to second place RJ's 5. Sure, Nair^ has not been as active as one might've expected (in part because of a relative lack of large tournaments in Mexico), but still, Mezcaul's point haul has been really significant for the space pirate.
: 5 players (something tells me that we're gonna see numbers below this). Raito's 30 points is half the duo's (trio's?) total, with Wisdom and SkWirrel also amassing noticeable results at several tournaments. Vintendo and Zane round out the point-scoring playerbase.
:
20 players chipping in! But with the caveat that only San has managed to score over 10 points. Still, notable players galore here - Goblin, Gluto, Yez, Pokepen, Colombian main Ghoul979 etc.
: 6 players. Like Dedede, Kirby has an American / Japanese tie for the lead. This time between JeJaJeJa and Konokururu, both with 9 points. Jesuishoq has a surprisingly low 3 points, dunno really why that is. Low attendance in EU tourneys perhaps?
: 13 players. Ven leads with 15 points - but only by 3 points ahead of French main Naskino. Ty, Mystearica and Chinese main Yooo are 3rd to 5th and follow closely behind Naskino in turn. After them, a major cluster.
: 6 players. Brood leads... barely, with 6 points. Irish main Dmitri is second with 4, with JP main Amesara and US main DiZ tied third with 3. Bloom4Eva (in a surprise cameo) and Doom round out the point-scoring playerbase.
: 16 players, but only 5 of them in NA (incl. Costa Rica-based main Triple for consistency) and 2 JP mains. French main Otakuni leads with 14 points, but RaZe comes really close to snagging his second character lead with 12. VinS and OTI are tightly behind with 8 and 7.
: 8 point-scoring players, which isn't bad considering some of the other characters. Rickles leads... with just 6 points. Japanese main Ganora's closely behind with 4, and then we have two players from the Middle East in third with 3 - Saudi main Hamza and Bahraini main D3. Also, Stroder cameo.
: 8 players. Alternis and Peanut are tied for the lead with 6 each, and Italian main Midoriss is closely behind with 4 (Midoriss might've actually taken the lead with his VGA performance since he gained an additional 4). Kwaz and Taiwanese player Quote (who's appeared under the Hero section) also make appearances.
:
3 players that have scored points. And poor Swordie is almost entirely dependent on French main Myollnir for points (10 out of 12, 83 % - even higher than Puff!). ScrubbedOut and Danklin have contributed with 1 point each... but man. I think we reached the realm of Smash Bros. extreme poverty here: where even Mac and Ganondorf have rich-by-comparision playerbases and they + Duck Hunt / Lucario can at least point to having a well-known player on their side. I swear
Myollnir might be one of the least talked about low / bottom tier heroes out there. If not the least. The solace for Swordie is that other mains - incl. ScrubbedOut, Danklin and Erik - can help him right the ship at least a bit.
*(This guy is suddenly my new favorite player. Has one of the most eclectic character roster you'll ever see,
has won a local while cosplaying and is not afraid to press a ton of buttons.)
