Sonic Boom has ended with MOV taking first place and a spot at the EU regional finals. Taking 2nd is the other Japanese player MJS|Haitani. After that European titan RB|Luffy takes 3rd while up and comer AWS|CCL takes 4th place. The rest of top 8 are: MD|MisterCrimson, Melty|Will2pac, PxP|Problem X, and PRLS|Packz.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stoLqWXsIOY

Also something I completely forgot was that there was an event happening during evo called SANA down in Brazil. The winner of that was Ericke Piquet da S. Maciel who I will now refer to as Ericke.

Today signals the start of Defend the North 2016 over in the east coast USA. This is a ranking event.
Expect many American players and possibly no international players. The usual east coast squad is in attendance as well as a group of players from the west coast.

Stream: twitch.tv/teamsp00ky
Brackets: TBA

Someone stop me please.

the cyrus virus is spreading

Well there goes everyone's predictions.
Sorry for not making a post before Evo as I had to get ready for my flight.
But my goodness what an Evo it was.
All the games were great but I'll stick to what we've been talking about in this thread.

RZR|Infiltration is your Evolution 2016 winner. Also the only prediction I got right aside from RZR|Fuudo getting in top 8 who incidentally took 2nd place. In 3rd place is Yukadon who has made his break into the international scene with his Nash. In 4th place is HM|Go1 who continues his dominance as the world's cleanest Chun-Li player. However MOV is only steps behind, taking 5th along with the crowd's favorite LI Joe

After that the newly sponsored AW|Nemo takes 7th with his highly mobile Vega along with HM|Eita with his hyper aggressive Ken.

Evo was super good this year and I can only imagine how great Capcom Cup 2016 will be. See you guys next time when we see the return of many ranking events until the next premier event: The Tokyo Game Show

EVO PREDICTIONS

I'd like to hear everyone's top 8 predictions (maybe a little bit on why) and also any other little predictions you guys might have.

Here is mine:
7th - HumanBomb
7th - Haitani
5th - Xiao Hai
5th - Nuckledu
4th - Justin Wong
3rd - Momochi
2nd - Tokido
1st - Infiltration

HumanBomb - He has really stepped it up since USF4. He was already fairly decent in USF4, placing decently at CCC 2015 at 17th. Now he has really kicked it up a notch. His play is clean and I believe that he still has so much room to grow as a player even after Evo. I might be stretching it but I think he's going to do swell for the years to come.

Haitani - Considered by many Japanese players to be the best in Japan, there's no question he will at least do well. It does seem, however, that he tends to lose to players outside of Japan. Being at Evo there is no shortage of international talent. We will see how far he gets but it feels wrong to keep him out of top 8.

Xiao Hai - I just feel like this is a game that suits some of Xiao Hai's strengths well. Brilliant reactions, rock solid execution, and some decent spacing. He was one of, if not the best, Cammy players in SF4 and right now he's looking stronger than anyone else. Especially after winning G-League.

Nuckledu - The first American to show up on the list and he is at 5th place. A little ambitious but I believe in him. Nuckledu is a very versatile player that is known to do really well against international players. Even without much practice he did well last year at CCC 2015 and now he's putting in the time.

Momochi - Aside from a shaky showing at G-League Momochi quickly grew into a major threat after the initial phase of SFV's lifespan. His patented Ken with all the tech, reactions, spacing he needs to turn Ken into a deadly weapon. Not only that Momochi is known to keep pocket characters just in case. He had a Juri, Evil Ryu, and Elena in USF4 and it's possible he has something else in 5. He is half lab-monster and half mind reader and this makes him a very fierce competitor.

Justin Wong - Justing Wong, simply put, is a fighting game player. Justin Wong is a world class player in almost any game he touches. His dominance in MVC2 and to a lesser extent in U/MVC3 plus his brilliant track record in early SF4 and right now in SFV show that he is without a doubt at heart one of the best overall fighting game players of all time. His immaculate spacing, reads, experience, and knowledge makes him the best at America and for sure a top place at Evo this year.

Tokido - Just like Justin Wong, Tokido has traditionally always been very good at fighting games at it's core. He finds the cheap stuff and abuses it. That was before SF4, however. While he did use Akuma, who had the infamous "Akuma Vortex," he stated that he now realizes that he should stick to characters more often even if he finds cheap stuff from new characters or else he will not grow as a player. Tokido who was already placing in top 8 in games that release that year has stated that he will now grow as a player. That is scary and that is the reason I put him above Justin Wong.

Infiltration - It might be a little predictable but there's no way he isn't going to win this year. Infiltration was a master of many characters in USF4 and he should be no different in SFV. He already showed the world his FANG and I'm sure there's more to that. At the end of USF4's timeline he played 2 characters mostly. Chun-Li and Decapre. Decapre is very similar to Nash with his disengage, reengage playstyle with a dash that's similar to Decapre's pseudo-teleport. And guess who is similar to Chun-Li in SFV? well, Chun-Li of course. While it may not look like it with his Nash, Infiltration is a defensive player at heart. He is a very active and mobile defensive player. Chun-Li and Nash can play either the mobile or active defensive player and I believe he has a secret pocket Chun-Li ready for top 8 at Evo which will throw everyone off and he will win it all, for now.

Those are my preds and reasoning. What are yours?

(mind you i made my preds like a month ago ok)

It was probably really hard to tell (probably because you couldn't see any of it) but Qanba Douyou|Xiao Hai has won G-League. As per usual Xiao Hai becomes the best player in anything he touches as long as he is in China. 2nd place goes to RZR|Xian who took everyone by surprise by both is strong performance with FANG and his surprise Ibuki pick in grand finals (which, sadly, amounted to nothing really). In 3rd place HM|Go1 shows off his subtle consistency. Ever since Final Round he has done well in every tournament he entered. Another consistent performer from Japan is RZR|Fuudo who takes 4th place, just barely beating out 5th place's DNG|Itabashi Zangief. Itazan surprised many by taking the first Zangief top 8 in CPT, and at a stacked premier event no less. The rest of the top 8 are HM|Eita, GGP|Kazunoko, and HumanBomb (aka my boy).

Just outside of the top 8 are 4 players that really should not be top 8. Not to denounce the current top 8 but these players' capabilities define them as top players. Mago, Tokido, Haitani, and Poongko all share 9th place. Tokido especially took 17th place after being eliminated by Poongko.

I feel that Poongko is finally starting to really get this game and I'm betting that we're going to see him do pretty well at Evo.

Next week is Evo which I will also be in attendance for. See you guys there!

G-League pools are starting today.

This is the last read on the Asian players before Evo. Many are going however those already in America post-CEO have opted to stay in America. Tokido and Momochi, premier champions, are expected to attend the event, however, so it is possible that we will see a repeat champion between the two. Other strong players such as Kazunoko, Fuudo, Bonchan, RB, Go1, Eita, Haitani, Mago, Xian, and the usual Chinese players Dakou, Jiewa, Xiao Hai and GamerBee (Taiwanese but it counts kind of?). Shiro, HumanBomb, and Itabashi Zangief are also in attendance.

Real talk I think HumanBomb is ridiculous in this game. He is always slept on during big tournaments. Even in Capcom Cup 2015 he beat Fuudo and Mago, while losing to Poongko (who made 4th place) and narrowly losing to Snake Eyez (7th place).

Stream: twitch.tv/capcomfighters
Bracket: http://gleague.challonge.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mb6Jc4juSF8

So he was just getting baited on SUAVE I knew it all along.

CEO ends with Tokido taking both first place and a guaranteed spot in Capcom Cup 2016. 2nd is RZR|Infiltration who Tokido finally overtook at this event. EG|Momochi lies in 3rd place after a thrilling match with Tokido with Tokido getting a full 3-2 comeback. Finally we have YOUDEAL MJS|Haitani taking 4th. The rest of the top 8 are Liquid|Nuckledu, BST|Daigo Umehara, Mago, and CBZ Ohnuki.

What an amazing event. CEO never fails to impress. Next we have G-League, China's first premier event. Expect the Chinese players and many other asian players to make the trip. Some may be split, however, as Evolution 2016 is just 1 week after G-League. Some may consider skipping G-League to stay in the USA for Evo. Perhaps those who went to CEO are staying until Evo as well.

2 more big events until a slew of ranking events. The best period this year.

Edit: a couple things to note
Poongko made his first top 16 here, I hope this signals the return to his rightful place as a top 8 player. Looks like he keeps getting better and better.
A surprise placement from Coin Up|Ludovic getting just outside of top 8.
Stupendous also makes top 16 as Zangief, the first placement of Zangief in top 16 at majors.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJwAkpfcEj4

As some of you may already know CEO pools have already started on https://www.twitch.tv/capcomfighters