Soul Calibur Community

by Tselelleb | 0 Comments | September 23, 2019

Kayane Session

Kayane Session is a community event organized by one of the game’s best supporter Orange | Kayane in partnership with RushEsports and was held on September 21, 2019 in Boutique Orange Opéra located at 7 Rue Meyerbeer, 75009 Paris, France. The tournament featured a SOULCALIBUR VI tournament together with two freeplays of Tekken 7 and Dead or Alive 6 and welcomed a total number of 141 entrants 97 of which entered the aforementioned SCVI tournament.

SHOCKING START

The participants

With such a large number of competitors including some big names within the French scene, close matches and surprises were already set in motion even before the top 8. Top players in the previous Kayane Session like YUZU | Ganondeurf and Pulsar | Jason failed to reach the top 8 in this event. However, the biggest surprise of the event is none other than previous Kayane Session: Road to EVO champion Pulsar | NOOBICYDE getting booted out early in the tournament due to him being sent to losers by Eclipse | S@ms and was ousted out of the tournament by Voldo expert (and fan favorite in the twitch chat) Abysses | Raziel. Thus whatever happens, we would be crowning a new champion.

THE TOP 8

From left to right: Skyll, Aelz, Pantocrator, Saitoh, Hayate, Minato, Keev and Raziel

TIRA: RISING

With Pulsar | NOOBICYDE and Pulsarr | Jason getting early exits in the tournaments, players in their brackets would all get opportunities to get to the winner’s column of the top 8. Two players rose to the challenge, it was SCT | Minato and CN | Aelz. They would go on to face each other in the winner’s semi finals bracket A.

First match, Minato would go on to win the fight 3-1 by taking advantage of Zasalamel’s quick attacks which his opponent’s Tira could not predict nor properly counter. Second match would go on to be much closer between the two with Aelz getting out with a clutch win. Despite being a hit or two away from losing and being sent to loser’s Aelz took out his character’s Soul Charge and upon managing to hit his opponent with a grab that steals life from his opponent, he would go on to continue the pressure against Minato and won the match thus making the set 1-1. Their finals match was likewise very close with both player racking up two win by taking using each of their character’s strengths, in the last round, Aelz had an early advantage when he hit his opponent a damaging lethal hit and having 2 full guages. But Minato won’t let that end easily and by being aggressive with Zas’ Soul Charge, he made Aelz waste his two gauges. However, in the final seconds. Aelz would again clutch it out when he his Minato with a counter hit combo to win the set and reach the winner’s finals.

This past few tournaments, Tira players had been making a statement to prove doubters that the character is viable to be used in tournament level. Baron’s Tira racking up the 3rd spot in Penang Battle Stage, zuzu getting a runner-up in OzHadou Nationals 16 proved this fact. This tournament had another player reaching a sure top 3 spot in Aelz, proving further Tira’s potential in tournaments.

BATTLE OF THE GREATS

Both players getting ready for another chapter in their long standing rivalry

Background check first…Skyll and Keev had been regarded as two of the best SCVI Players not only in the France but all around the world with Keev with his Nightmare winning EVO Japan in a dominant fashion and Skyll’s Mitsurugi winning World Showdown of Esports 7 and racking up the 3rd spot of EVO 2019.

Being in the same community, it is inevitable that these players will regularly meet each other in the final parts of each tournament they enter to. In their previous match-ups, it was always close with Keev winning some and Skyll getting his revenge in another. Regardless, it is always an honor to see this two great players battle it out everytime they faced each other.

In full control of the Match, Skyll won flawlessly

Sadly (and shockingly), this match was pretty one-sided in favor of Skyll.

Using Mitsurugi’s faster pokes and quicker attacks, Skyll managed not to only counter Keev’s every movements but also disrupt his Nightmare’s every attempt of making damaging moves. With a flawless all around game, Skyll not only managed to sweep the first match against Keev but continued the streak to the second match. Thus, ending their encounter much faster than everybody expected. But since its still not the end of the tournament, a rematch was still bound to happen.

Friends and foes

THE FATED REMATCH

Skyll

Keev

Skyll continued his dominance by reaching the Grand Finals after beating Aelz’ Tira despite the latter putting up a good fight.

Keev, on the other hand, would go on a harder path in the loser’s bracket by winning a hard fought battle against Hayate’s Kilik, beating Pantocrator’s Siegfried in the loser’s semis and likewise beating Aelz during the Loser’s finals.

With the said win, it was fated that Keev would return to have a right for another match against Skyll in the Grand Finals and thus, another chapter in their long line of history will be added.

Sadly, the Grand Finals turned out almost the same as with their match in the Winner’s Semis, with Skyll dominating much of their matches and sweeping the set 3-0. Despite Keev winning one round each of their matches, Skyll proved that he was the more prepared one to the Nightmare match up and his Mitsurugi had every answerto any adjustment his opponent tried. With a Ring out win in their final match, Kayane Session just crowned its new champion who many considers as currently the best Mitsurugi player in the World – Oplon | Skyll.

THE GREAT FRENCH COMMUNITY

This tournament showed that the French community has one of the most dedicated players and individual in the SOULCALIBUR VI scene. Not only that, it further showed just how strong its players are against the top players in other countries. With Skyll stating that he would be visiting together some other notable french players to SEAM and even giving out a statement (or trashtalk?) against Singapore’s Shen Chan, SEAM would most likely be another event that we should be excited to see since it will showcase to the World the best players SCVI has to offer!