From December 16th-18th, Pokken Tournament players from all over the world will be traveling to Pennsylvania this weekend at Northeast Championship to take part in a great finish to a year’s worth of storylines. Known for being one of the fighting game community’s premiere events, NEC will feature multiple titles from the genre as well as a variety of non-fighting game events including cosplay, Pokémon ORAS, Gears of War and even Hearthstone.
For Pokkén, there will be three high profile events going on this weekend. The regular tournament, a very interesting doubles team clash and a 5-on-5 Crew Battle happening between America and Japan. America is up two-for-two in these 5-on-5 bouts, having won against Japan at EVO and Europe at Pokémon World Championships, which makes this one a revenge match on the part of Japan. The doubles matches are also shaping up to be diverse, with most of the Japanese players forming teams with American players. Some American teams previously agreed upon even disbanded in favor of accommodating an overseas participant.
Image Credit: Brendan Hansen
Highly mentionable about the main bracket is that the six Japanese players include Pokkén World Champion potetin & ELM who also participates in Pokémon VGC events, kinuko & Hiet are two strong Pikachu Libre players with two great styles will be in attendance, along with two revered Gengar players sasahune & APOLLO making their first Pokkén trip to our country. A good percentage of well known American players will be participating in the event with a few conspicuous ones being EVO Top 8 placers Thomas "Thulius" McLaurin, Christian "Suicune Master" Patierno and James "Bosshog" Rosseel Jr. as well as the popular Wesley "Cat Fight" Garland. With all the talent on site, this event will definitely be a treat.
The USA vs. JPN event will be pitting two teams of five players from each country against one another.
Team USA:
- Cat Fight, with his Chandelure, has been the anchor of previous crews and has been responsible for clutching out the win each set.
- Suicune Master, with both Suicune and his new Lucario, has a dual strength that can provide flexibility in the ring.
- Thulius, with a Mewtwo, has shown on many platforms that his defensive skills and logical reads can take wins from anyone.
- Coach Steve, sporting both Weavile and Garchomp, can choose to be strong in either Field or Duel Phase.
- Slippingbug, with one of the nation's strongest Pikachu Libres, can employ a very on/off playstyle to snatch wins away.
- potetin, is known for his Weavile and Mewtwo. Being a multi-character genius, provides good reason on why he is Champion.
- sasahune, a notable Gengar main, has been revered for his technical play and pivotal usage of Gengar's invulnerability options.
- Kinuko, with a Pikachu Libre, is a fantastic player whom slippingbug learned a lot from by watching his play at Toratawa.
- ELM, using Suicune, is a very strong player we hope to see more of next year after achieving 7th at Canada Cup.
- APOLLO, being the second Gengar on the team, will also be packing in the strength of this very tricky and complex character.
- Hiet, a very technical Pikachu Libre, will function as a substitute in case any of his compatriots become indisposed.
Image Credit: Brendan Hansen
Registration for the event has now closed, although emergency admittance will be available at the door. You can obtain the finer details from NEC's website. The 2v2 Teams event will occur on Friday evening on the House of 3000 stream while the bracket will run on Saturday under the same stream beginning at Noon. The Top 8 finale will conclude on Funky P on Sunday.
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