• Welcome to Smashboards, the world's largest Super Smash Brothers community! Over 250,000 Smash Bros. fans from around the world have come to discuss these great games in over 19 million posts!

    You are currently viewing our boards as a visitor. Click here to sign up right now and start on your path in the Smash community!

Vayseth's Voyage: Vayseth Visits Umebura 23

Vayseth's Voyage is an article series written by The Big House Wii U Head TO Vayseth straight from Japan. Every week, he will be bringing you articles on various topics regarding the Japanese Smash Community. Bringing Smash Communities around the world closer and closer together with every article!

Previous Articles:
Vayseth's Voyage: Japan's Top 3 Wii U Tournament Series
Vayseth's Voyage: KARISUMA 6 Results and Review
Vayseth's Voyage: SUMABATO 9 Results and Review
Vayseth's Voyage: Japanese Game Bars
Vayseth's Voyage: KVOxTSB 2016 Review and Results

Vayseth's Voyage: Japan's Love of Team Tournaments


Over the weekend @Umeki continued his monthly tournament series with Umebura 23, which was previewed on Smashboards last Friday. With GOML happening the very same weekend it is likely many did not follow this tournament closely, but a few noteworthy things occurred that I would like to point out. First of all, @Kameme won his very first Umebura and declared in his post-victory speech, "I won Umebura just like I will win EVO this July." It looks like the dominant force that has been sweeping Japan's tournaments will be opting to use his travel award from KVOxTSB2016 to travel to the biggest tournament of the year. His Mega Man play is completely unrivaled inside and outside of Japan, and I cannot wait to see him competing against the world's finest at EVO. Not convinced? Have a look for yourself.

The results of Umebura 23 are as follows (Translated Bracket by @juddy_96):

1st Kameme//Kamemushi (Mega Man//Wario, Kanto)
2nd Rain (Cloud//Diddy Kong//Shiek, Kanto)
3rd DNG|Nietono (Diddy Kong//Meta Knight//Sheik, Kanto)
4th Yuzu (Rosalina and Luma, Kanto)
5th Kie (Peach, Kansai)
5th FILIP (Mario//Cloud, Hiroshima)
7th Raito (Duck Hunt, Kanto)
7th YOC (Corrin, Kanto)

The most interesting results from the event were @Kie Top 8ing while his Peach rival Umeki only placed 49th, @Abadango winning once and then immediately dropping two in a row before going home, and the unexpected placings from both Raito and FILIP. I had a chance to sit down and talk with with both these players during their Top 8 runs at Umebura 23.

FILIP


@Raito (left) and @FILIP (right) compete in Winner's Quarterfinals.

@FILIP is one of Japan's best solo-Mario mains. He traveled all the way to San Jose to compete in Genesis 3, where he was eliminated in round two pools. Since then he has been traveling to tournaments all over Japan getting better and better. He has even picked up a solid secondary in Cloud. Placing in Top 8 at Umebura 23 was a big deal. This is only his second Top 8 and his first in over six months. He still uses Mario 75% of the time, but he has not quite figured out when to switch between Mario and Cloud yet. He informed me that he wants to use Mario as much as possible, but if there's a match up or a player who Cloud is more effective against he will not hesitate to go DLC. He was sent to losers' at the hands of the eventual tournament winner Kameme in a dangerously close match, but not before knocking out both Brood and Raito from winners. He knew that regardless who won between Yuzu and YOC it was going to be rough for him in losers and was eliminated at the hands of Yuzu.

Raito


@Brood (left) and @Raito (right)

@Raito and his team Hukutoku Shokudo impressed me at the previous week's Karisuma 3v3, so I paid special attention to their brackets at Umebura 23. While the other two did not place as well as they would have liked, Raito played out of his mind and made it to his first Top 8 tournament in Japan. His previous best was a Top 32 finish and he wants to continue to improve his Duck Hunt. Many people may have heard of @Brood or You3, but he's trying to prove that he is among the best Duck Hunt mains in the world. Brood and Raito regularly talk about match ups and Raito learned almost everything he knows from Brood. Raito informed me that he has always believed in Duck Hunt's strengths from the very beginning and from the moment he saw how their neutral B can could be used he knew he had to main Duck Hunt. Currently, Cloud is his biggest problem. The previous week he was beaten by @Komorikiri's Cloud, and both Raito and Brood lost to FILIP's Cloud at Umebura 23. Together they plan to hit the lab and try and figure out a plan of attack for Cloud and to continue to develop the character.


@Ayuha hard at work while @Abadango does some commentary at Umebura 23.

Umeki asked my opinion about Umebura and I will share with you today what I told him over the weekend: It was by far the best Smash Brothers tournament I have been to in Japan. They had an extremely impressive setup with a great venue. The stream station was well put together and everything was clearly labeled and easy to navigate. In addition, everything ran completely on time, including access to friendly matches for those who did not make it to the final brackets. All of the rules followed the current US standard and they did their best to play all of the final matches best 3 out of 5. If you are thinking of coming to Japan to compete, I highly recommend Umeki's Umebura series.

The best player in Japan is currently a Mega Man main? There are THREE major bracket threats who main DUCK HUNT? Make sure to stay tuned for more of these relatively unknown players and characters at this weekend's Sumabato here in Osaka, which I will also be reporting on live. I may or may not have some special announcements in next week's article, so make sure you stay tuned right here every Monday night!

As an added bonus, here was the name card given out to every competitor at Umebura 23! This one was created by @Hayama. These cards really seemed to be popular after I uploaded them for the first time last week so I will continue to do so as an added bonus every week. Please give @Hayama a follow and try doing something similar at your own tournaments!


Sayonara until next week.
 

Comments

those namecards looks very cool, makes great advertising for artists, too. it'd be cool if more folks around here were willing to do that.
 
Top Bottom