This weekend saw intense worldwide Street Fighter V competition for this year’s Red Bull Kumite competition, which in 2019 has changed locations from Paris, France to the “spiritual home” of the Street Fighter series and was held at the Aichi Sky Expo in Japan. Fifteen prominent, world-class players were invited to participate in the Kumite, including Capcom Cup 2019 runner-up Victor “Punk” Woodley, 2018 Capcom Cup winner Tsunehiro “Gachikun” Kanamori, and EVO 2019 winner Masato “Bonchan” Takahashi. Red Bull Kumite contenders played Street Fighter V: Champion Edition, the most recent build of the game which released last week that brings major mechanics shifts to every character on the roster.
The 2019 Red Bull Kumite also ran a Last Chance Qualifiers event, where nearly 250 notable players from around the world took shot at qualifying to compete with the fifteen invited players at the main event. Last Chance Qualifiers culminated in a very entertaining final set between Japanese player Kubo “stormKUBO” Arashi and Lee “Infiltration” Seon-woo, the six-time EVO champion and Street Fighter V winner of EVO Japan in 2018. “Infiltration” has been on hiatus from competing in Capcom Pro Tour events since late last year, but “stormKubo” nixed “Infiltration” and his roster of characters to claim the final spot at the main event on Japan’s Sunday.
The 2019 Capcom Cup was the last stop on the tour for this year in Street Fighter, but with the changes to Red Bull’s Kumite Capcom’s closing event was not the last major event for the game’s competitive scene for the year. This year’s Capcom Cup suffered from number of difficulties, but the Kumite from Red Bull went a long way to repair the sour feeling left behind and showcased excellent matches, high-level play, great organization, and chances for the players to show their personalities. Here’s UK player DC “Infexious” Coleman demonstrating his famous stone-cold disposition on his way to the Kumite battle cage:
After a day’s worth of nail-biting competition, Grand Finals for 2019’s Red Bull Kumite were ninja-off between “Infexious” and his form-switching Zeku and last year’s Kumite champion Atsushi “Fujimura” Fujimura’s technical and setup-heavy Ibuki. “Infexious” kept his trademark cool throughout the battle, but Fujimura ultimately came out on top to become the 2019 Red Bull Kumite Champion. He was given a samurai helm, going with the event’s theme of Street Fighter being back in Japan.
The full list of final placements for the 16 Kumite combatants and their character choices is listed below.
1. Fujimura (Ibuki)
2. Infexious (Zeku)
3. 801 Strider (G)
4. Takamura (Akuma)
5. StormKubo (Abigail)
5. Problem X (M. Bison)
7. Tokido (Akuma)
7. Punk (Karin, G)
9. BigBird (Rashid)
9. Luffy (R. Mika)
9. YHC-Mochi (Dhalsim)
9. Kichipa-mu (Zangief)
13. Bonchan (Nash, Sagat)
13. Gachikun (Rashid)
13. Daigo (Guile)
13. Haku (F.A.N.G)
Fujimura was also featured in the People’s Choice Match for his play against Belgian player Houmaid “Takamura” Rabie and his Akuma. You can check out their exciting match in the video above.
For fans of competitive Street Fighter V, the next season for the game’s Pro Tour using the new Champion Edition content and mechanics resumes in the spring of 2020, and a special Olympic-paired event sponsored by Intel will take place parallel to the 2020 Games in Japan.