Battle Arena Melbourne highlights and more!
Fighting game fans had a lot to like this week, as Battle Arena Melbourne 10 took over the Melbourne Convention and Entertainment Centre! The first season of Overwatch Contenders Australia wrapped as well, with some surprising results.
Be sure to head over and check out the rest of the esports hub! BAM 10 is this weekend, the biggest Fighting Game tournament in Australia! It’s pretty exciting! Remember you can email tips to me [email protected] or you can just click to send me an email. If you want, you can tweet suggestions at me as well, my twitter is down the bottom of this article.
Tekken 7 – Battle Arena Melbourne 10
Battle Arena Melbourne was a Tekken World Tour Master Event, which means it was a haven for the best players in the world — and particularly the best from South East Asia. South Korean titans SAINT and JDCR returned to BAM for the second time, this time followed by the likes of Knee, JeonDDing and Japan’s NOBI as they battled for valuable World Tour points and a lion’s share of the prize pool. Aussie upstart Chand NY, who came achingly close to beating the Echo Fox duo last year, wound up placing highest among the Aussies, just shy of the top 8. Watch him wow the casters below, ducking under Knee’s Devil Jin Rage Art attack to secure the round.
Street Fighter V – Battle Arena Melbourne 10
While Tekken 7 was upgraded, SFV was downgraded — last year it was a Capcom Pro Tour Premier Event, but this year it was a mere Ranking Event. Still worth points, so we saw some of the best players from around the world on the scene — including legends like Verloren and Xian. Oh and Tokido, who won the entire thing in frankly dominant fashion — he dropped just two rounds over the course of the weekend. Watch DarkSided’s Somniac battle his way out of the corner against Brandon in their Top 8 Loser’s Bracket game — unfortunately Somniac couldn’t quite clutch out the win.
Smash Bros Wii U – Battle Arena Melbourne 10
Aussie domination was on hand in the Smash Bros Wii U tournament, as Battle Arena Melbourne 10 plays host to the swansong for the game — next year will see Smash Bros. Switch on deck (I mean, assuming it’s not bad). DarkSided and strong favourite Extra said goodbye in style, putting on an even more dominant performance than Tokido in the SFV, and dropping just a single round. Watch Kanga Esports’ Ghost beat Sriks below in probably the closest game of the finals — every other match seemed like a smashing. Ghost went on to place second — he was not the person to take a round off Extra.
Overwatch – Overwatch Contenders Australia Season 1 Finals
Season 1 of the Overwatch Contenders 2018 Australia has wrapped up with an upset! Masterminds GC, who went undefeated all season, lost to the Sydney Drop Bears! And what an upset — Masterminds had the Drop Bears number when they met during the season, wiping the floor with them 4-0. MMGC stomped their way through to the Grand Finals too — beating Kanga Esports and Blank Blue handily — while Sydney Drop Bears nearly missed a Finals berth in a tough matcha against DarkSided. In the Grand Finals though, the Drop Bears switched to a higher gear and walloped Masterminds 4-0. Crazy stuff. Watch the Drop Bears win map 2 on Hollywood below.
One last bit of news out of BAM 10 by the way — Couchwarriors (the organisation behind BAM) and Twitch are teaming up and sending a bunch of lucky ducks to EVO this year and next. All three of this year’s representatives are above, but next year… it could be you!
Hit us up in the comments or on twitter if you think I missed any of the best highlights, or if you hate twitter videos or whatever!
Joab Gilroy is an Australian-based freelancer that specialises in competitive online games and chicken dinner acquisition. You can tweet at him here.
