This article is part of our Dragon Ball FighterZ series.
It's finally that time, people! After weeks of waiting, the Summit of Power is upon us. Starting Friday afternoon at the Summit House in Los Angeles, 16 of the best Dragon Ball FighterZ players in the world will take part in what will no doubt be the hypest event of the year thus far.
With three days and a bevy of activities going on, Summit can be a lot to take in. As always, though, I am here to break everything down and guide you through these troubled waters. Come with me if you want to live!
Who's playing who?
Given the fact that all of these players some of the best in the game, it's no surprise that both of the eight-person groups are stacked to the brim and both could easily be considered groups of death. Just take a look at this:
Group A:
- Dominique "SonicFox" McLean
- Osaka Ryo "Dogura" Nozaki
- William "Leffen" Hjelte
- Vineeth "ApologyMan" Meka
- Reynald "Reynald" Tacsuan
- Jonathan "Cloud805" Morales
- Steve "LordKnight" Barthelemy
- Sho "Fenritti" Shoji
Group B:
- Goichi "Go1" Kishida
- Christopher "ChrisG" Gonzalez
- Ryota "Kazunoko" Inoue
- Derek "Nakkiel" Bruscas
- Jon "Dekillsage" Coello
- Eduardo "HookGangGod" Hook
- Dawn "Yohosie" Hosie
- Naoki "moke" Nakayama
Each group will be a round-robin Swiss bracket, where the initial matches will take place between the invited players (first four of each group) and non-invited players (last four of each group). Then, players with 1-0 records will play others with 1-0 record, so on and so forth. Those with two or more wins will move on to the winners' side of the bracket on Sunday, while those with two or more losses will be on the losers' side.
It's a good thing that no one will be outright eliminated from these groups, because you know this is going to be a bloodbath.
What's going on each day?
With this being a Summit event, you can bet that more than just regular old DBFZ will be going down. There will be everything from 3v3 team tournaments to a mystery game tournament to Jenga to the ever-popular Mafia. Basically, it's going to be a packed weekend of awesomeness.
Thursday, June 7 (4pm PDT start)
Friday, June 8 (12pm PDT start)
- 3v3 Teams Day 1
- Group Stage Singles Day 1
- Mystery Game Tournament
- Mafia
Saturday, June 9 (12pm PDT start)
- 3v3 Teams Day 2
- Group Stage Singles Day 2
- Combo Contest
- Jenga
Sunday, June 10 (12pm PDT start)
- Final Singles Bracket
- Winners Interview
Who be calling the action?
No tournament would be complete without people to call the action and get us hyped up. The Summit of power is no different, as we've got one of the best commentary team I think I've ever seen in one place. These guys are always at the big events, but never commentating the same game. Not to mention that we'll be getting some pairings that we've never experienced.
- Michael "IFC Yipes" Mendoza
- Christopher "Hellpockets" Fields
- Stephon "Sajam" Lyon
- Christian "Matrix" Ellis
- Luis "Rynge" Avila
- Jose "MrBiscuits" Lopez
- Zhi Liang "Zhi" Chew
I personally can't wait for the Yipes, Hellpockets, Matrix, and Sajam block. The ridiculousness of Yipes and Matrix, combined with the hypeness of Hellpockets and a little bit of analytics from Sajam could be quite the time. No matter who is on the couch, though, you can bet that you'll a side of these guys that you don't normally get to see given the laidback nature of the Summit House.
All that was nice, but who's going to win?
The biggest question of them all. All of the top players have a chance but, of course, only one can come away with the win.
Certainly, SonicFox and Goichi are at the top of the list of players most likely to win. Both have a proven track record of domination and rarely lose sets to anyone except each other. SonicFox won the last meeting, but Goichi still can't be counted out, especially when you consider that Goichi has talked about playing Kid Buu instead of Vegeta, which could be dangerous in his hands.
But we all know plenty about those two. What about everyone else? Who else has the best chance at taking home the top prize?
To fully break this down, I've got some power rankings for you. Everyone loves power rankings, right? I won't go in depth with every single person, but I'll highlight some of the ones that you should keep an eye on over the weekend.
1. SonicFox
2. GO1
He might have the advantage in the overall head-to-head with SonicFox, but the latter simply has to get the nod based on their most recent meeting at Combo Breaker, where SonicFox won two of the three sets they played.
3. Dogura
Dogura is due for a big win after coming up just short time and again. He knocked Goichi into the losers' bracket back at Final Round and then almost beat him a couple weeks ago at Combo Breaker. It's Dogura's time! Besides Goichi and SonicFox, he's my pick to win the whole thing.
4. ChrisG
This man is no stranger to high level tag-team action, being an EVO winner for Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. I think that if SonicFox didn't play this game, ChrisG would likely be the best North American player. He's still no slouch, though, as he pushed SonicFox to five games just last weekend at DreamHack Austin. Look for him to try and close that gap even more this weekend.
5. HookGangGod
Hook. Gang. GAWD. 'Nuff said.
6. Kazunoko
7. Nakkiel
8. Dekillsage
Dekillsage gets the privilege (or curse) of playing against SonicFox every week at Next Level Battle Circuit in New York, so he's got plenty of experience playing against one of the best in the game. That won't help him at the outset, though, as he's in Goichi's group where he will face a few unfamiliar faces.
9. Fenritti
10. Cloud805
11. Leffen
Leffen's got a bit of an interesting road with this game. He's splitting time between this and Smash Bros. Melee, which means he doesn't put as much time in as some of other players in attendance this weekend. Moreover, he came up a bit short at his first major event in the States this year. While he came in second at Brussels Challenge in Europe this past April (only losing to Goichi along the way), he only managed a 13th place finish at Combo Breaker a couple weeks back. With many of the same players in attendance this weekend, Leffen will need to step his game up a bit to avoid a similar outing.
12. Reynald
Having secured his spot in this tournament by way of winning Wednesday Night Fights in Santa Ana, CA a couple of months back, you might think that he'd be a bit higher on the list. My only reservation is that, much like Leffen, he only managed a 13th place at Combo Breaker. I'm willing to be surprised by a big performance from him, but I'm not betting on it just yet.
13. Moke
14. LordKnight
15. ApologyMan
16. Yohosie
Before anyone gets mad, someone had to be last! By no means is Yohosie a bad player, but there's just so many strong players here that she gets a bit overshadowed. Not to mention that while she's widely known as the pioneer of Gotenks, SonicFox is the one that gets all of the notoriety for playing him. This tournament is the perfect time for Yohosie to surprise everyone and really put herself on the map.
So there you have it! Regardless of who comes out on top, this will certainly be one of the best events of the year. Be sure to check back here at the end of each day for our continuing coverage of everything that goes down!
