Red Bull Conquest Chicago recap and whats next.
Chicago’s top fighting game players battled it out on Saturday at the first Red Bull Conquest qualifier. The top local players in Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition, TEKKEN 7 and Guilty Gear Xrd REV2 were crowned at Chicago’s Ignite Gaming Lounge and will be representing the region at the Red Bull Conquest finals in Washington D.C. this November.
Fan-favorite Marcus “THE COOL KID93” Redmond rose to the top from the pool of Street Fighter players and dominated the field with his signature Abigail play, while Marcus “Shadow_20z” Jordan fearlessly led the pack and emerged victorious against his competitors in TEKKEN 7. The third champion, Duncan “Mr. K” Tonningsen, will be representing Chicago as the Guilty Gear Xrd REV2 winner. While some of these valiant fighters may hail from cities beyond Chicago, the three will now advance to rep the city under a unified banner as they aim to claim victory as the nation’s best fighters at the finals in D.C. later this fall.
The Street Fighter V finals were a raucous affair at the end of a long day of action starting with The Cool Kid and ROBtv facing off in the winner’s finals where The Cool Kid executed a thrilling reverse sweep to push himself to the grand finals. That finals match then saw Cool Kid and Elchakotay gripped in a thrilling affair that very nearly reset the bracket – but in the end, The Cool Kid’s Abigail was just. Too. Much. The Cool Kid actually won last year’s Red Bull Battle Grounds open bracket and was among the finalists at Red Bull Proving Grounds. He clearly rises up to win at Red Bull fighting game events.
In the day’s TEKKEN 7 tournament, Shadow_20z came out strong and never let up. He did not drop a match and in the grand finals defeated Beast Infection, the emerging challenger from the loser’s bracket, to take it home decisively with a myriad of different characters at his disposal. As the odds-on favorite from the start, Shadow’s dominance was never really in question. Hailing from Chicago, Shadow did his local scene proud and they certainly let him hear it following his 3-1 finals victory. Now he goes on to D.C. to see how he stacks up against players from other competitive regions.
Guilty Gear Xrd REV2 saw Mr. K, a traveling player from St. Louis, stout in victory and was never really threatened in his run today. The grand finals saw him best kayloud, one of many Millia players in the tournament. Mr. K was the only Leo player of the entire bracket and admitted to spending time preparing for Millia to win the day. Cementing his status as an interloper, Mr. K quipped in his post-match interview that he represents St Louis, not Chicago. He won himself few fans from the decidedly partisan crowd.
With the Conquest series now officially kicked off, the qualifiers continue throughout the rest of the year. 15 more regional events will take place all over the country, culminating with the Red Bull Conquest Finals in Washington D.C. this November where winners from each region will clash in the ultimate battle for superiority. On top of the trip to D.C., each winner today also took home a cash prize and package of goodies from Hori and Steel Series.
We now move onward to the west, as Seattle is the next stop for the Conquest qualifiers on May 19. The full schedule can be found at the Red Bull Conquest site. All future Conquest events can be streamed at www.twitch.tv/redbullesports
