General Information

When: March 22-23, (10am-10pm PST on Saturday, 2pm – 10pm on Sunday)

Where: Oakland (Norcal), CA

Stream: VGBC | GIMR will be streaming the entire weekend on www.twitch.tv/vgbootcamp

Round 1 Pools Info

Why you should be excited

This is one of the first regional tournaments since Big House 1 that will not feature any of the Big 5 Gods of Melee. Some may scoff at the top-end talent, but no one can be fully confident on who will come out the victor or even make it into the Top 8.  Thanks to Norcal’s good player fund, VGBC | Hax from New York and, recently signed, EMG.KirbyKaze from Canada will both be in attendance. Socal’s heavy hitters, Fly Amanita, Fiction, S2J, Lucky, CT|MacD and Westballz will be making the trip to Norcal as well. Norcal’s traditional heavy hitters, MIOM | SFAT, MIOM | PewPewU, and Shroomed will be aiming to defend their home turf while hometown favorites, SilentSpectre and Lord, will also be in attendance. Along with them include people who have been improving rapidly such as Azusa and Darrell, who recently placed 4th at ROM 7. At the end of Day 1 on Saturday, there will be an exciting Captain Falcon round robin exhibition featuring VGBC|Hax, s2j, Lord, and Silentspectre. If you’re really in tune with the West Coast scene, look forward to Violence’s side event that will pit Socal’s and Norcal’s rising stars against each other.

MIOM| Tafo’s Predictions

1. EMG.KirbyKaze

– Looking at the list of attendees, KirbyKaze has the least amount of weaknesses out of everyone. He’s more than capable of handling everyone on the list except for Fly Amanita, possibly. KirbyKaze did have a poor showing at a Midwest Regional, losing to Duck and HIV+, but I am confident with his recent performances, that he has the best shot at winning.

2. VGBC|Hax

– Hax has still had some growing pains, especially with dealing with uncommon matchups, but I do believe it was a smart choice for him to keep Captain Falcon as a secondary to handle characters such as Samus. I’m not fully confident in this pick, but I wouldn’t be shocked at the same time if Hax even won the tournament with a solid bracket.

3. Oxy.Westballz

– Westballz has been on fire lately, winning 4 SSS’s, SCR, and a Norcal local. He’s had really poor performances in the past (Apex 2014), but I think when he gives his opponent an adequate amount of respect that he does really well. I don’t see Westballz necessarily having a favorable matchup against PewPewU, Hax, or KirbyKaze, but he’s still more than capable.

4. Shroomed

– I’ve learned after many years to never bet against Shroomed. Whenever I think that people have figured him out, Shroomed always surprises me with amazing results. He has a strong will and a mental discipline that allows for him to continually steal games from his opponent.

5. MIOM|PewPewU

– I’ve always said to myself that there would be some regression to PewPewU’s performances as a result of Shroomed moving away. However, the character matchups that PewPewU has to deal with are quite favorable. PewPewU has always done well at the regional and local level, but tends to lose to players such as Axe, who (fortunately for him) is not showing up to this tournament.

5. CT|MacD

– After taking quite a few loses from other socal players, there’s been a recent fire in MacD to improve on some of his weaknesses such as technical skill. I think MacD can beat most players at the tourney and also has the experience to stay poised deep in the bracket.

7. Fly Amanita

– This may be a little lower than what people expect from Fly. However, Fly has been out of practice and after a string of relatively poor performances, I can’t really be confident in Fly doing much better than 5th.

7. MIOM|SFAT

– Always a turbulent player, SFAT can be either the best Fox on the West Coast or look very average on different days. I do love SFAT’s ceiling for a tournament and, hopefully, he can pull off a good performance this weekend.

Do you want your tournament previewed in the future? If the tournament is large enough, then go ahead and let me know via email (DanielLee912@gmail.com)

MIOM|Tafokints