The local competition was fierce for Red Bull’s stacked double-header weekend in Chicago and Philadelphia, where fighting game hopefuls tested their skills against their rivals in Tekken 7, Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition, and Under Night In-Birth Exe: Late[st] Singles Qualifiers on the Conquest circuit. The Chicago Qualifier was hosted by stream host and commentator Jeremy “Vicious” Lopez, and the Philadelphia event was MC’d by from FGC veteran Michael “Yipes” Mendoza.
In Philadelphia, players competed for spots representing their region at the Red Bull Conquest Finals in Santa Monica on November 23rd and 24th. The reigning 2018 Street Fighter V Philadelphia Champion Jeremiah “Princess Slim” Amos placed respectable 5th, losing to Alexander “Lexx” Bautista and the indomitable Victor “Punk” Woodley, who placed first and will be representing the Philly area in November.
The winner of the Chicago 2019 Red Bull Conquest for Street Fighter V was Marvel vs. Capcom refugee Kevin “Dual Kevin” Barrios, who beat out many notable players, including Rob “RobTV” Burney, Brian “Brian_F” Foster, and Marcus “THE COOL KID93” Redmond to compete for Chicago at the Conquest Finals in November.
The Red Bull Conquest Singles Qualifiers are important stops on the Tekken World Tour for competitive Tekken 7 players, as these events are also Dojo stops that give players who can’t travel too much change to earn points towards Grand Finals. In Philadelphia, Paulo “Shin Paulo” Duarte went totally undefeated against 2018’s local champion Jacob “Victim of Ritual” Tew who placed 5th and Ariel “fightinggm” Capellan, who placed second.
In Chicago’s Tekken 7 Singles Qualifier, Marquis “Shadow 20z” Jordan was able to defeat Kable “badonkiezonk” Massie, defending his spot as the reigning local champion following his 2018 win. Shadow 20z used Zafina, a returning character who’s new to the Tekken 7 roster with this month’s Season 3 update during the event, but clutched it out with a Claudio hopkick to take first place in Grand Finals.
New to the Red Bull Conquest circuit is developer French Bread’s Under Night In-Birth Exe: Late[st], an anime fighter that’s been getting some unexpected Esports attention. Red Bull Conquest events also feature playable demo builds of Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[cl-r], major update to the current version of the game that includes balance changes, new moves, and a new character named Londrekia (who isn’t demo-ready yet). Players who checked out the demo are sharing their discoveries on Twitter with the hashtag #UNICLR.
The Philadelphia Red Bull Conquest 2019 champion in UNIST is Fernando “Punished Fendo” Rodriguez, who had to beat out 72 other players (including Street Fighter V Champion Punk, who placed seventh in UNIST) to represent his region in Santa Monica at the Finals.
In Chicago, the entrant numbers were just as high and Isiah “RoyalHeartv2” Smith took the campion over Michael “UNIST_player” Nordmarken and Matt “Magnets” Guzik, who placed second and third respectively.
Streams from the Red Bull Conquest Singles Qualifiers in Philadelphia and Chicago are available on Red Bull’s official Twitch channels, and full results for the Philadelphia and Chicago events are available on Smash.gg. The next qualifier is scheduled for Los Angeles on October 12th, an area home to many prominent players that’s sure to be high stakes.