Summer Jam XIII, Results, Upset and Bluegod Victory !

The Summer Jam XIII has, for many years, been a major tournament where the US Soulcalibur Community steps up and rises as one. Big E, the company organizing this tournament, is a great asset for the community. So this tournament always has a particular flavour in the heart of Soulcalibur players.

The Summer Jam isn’t only a gathering of fans. It is also an exciting Soulcalibur Major Tournament, filled to the brim with the best players of the US Community for a full weekend of competition !
Of course, they also have a lot of casual set ups to play on too.
I’m sure you understand that this is the place to be to get better at Soulcalibur !

Picture this : the Soulcalibur top 8 has just begun. BDG | Bluegod takes on AXL | Richsticks and moves in Winners Finals.

The second match : FSD | Rikuto VS Linkorz. Astaroth VS Siegfried.

Rikuto immediatly sets the tone, as he is prepared for this one.
His patience, throw game and neutral game are on point.
The first set’s a tough one. He’s very smart and uses his armor tool very cleverly, it offers him more opportunities to counter Linkorz’s offensives actions.
The second run is, in the beginning, to Linkorz’s advantage. He’s able to find countermeasures to Rikuto’s assaults. The angry Astaroth finally makes it to the final round of this set after a very tense fourth round.
The match is very intense and Rikuto makes the upset by sending Linkorz to loser bracket after a beautiful ring out !!

Rikuto makes his way to Winners Final VS Bluegod !!!

( The full match is available here, by the way.)

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Linkorz, after his loss against Rikuto, does a great job, defeating all his opponents without ever conceding a set in all the Top 8. In Losers Finals he beats Rikuto 3-0, the same guy who sent him in losers earlier !
He comes all the way to Losers with his own willpower.
His last opponent’s Bluegod, the amazing Azwel player.
He’s very on point versus Azwel, ducking everything, max punishing lots of things. He seems unstoppable. His science of Siegfried and his reaction to confirm is awesome !
He spends all the first set saying “no” to Azwel’s aggression, taking good decisions over and over.
In the second round, he plays more patiently, safer… Deadlier. Mixing up his opponent over and over.
His mix-up abilities, mindgames, reactions and his capacity to adapt quickly gave us one of the most exciting bracket reset in the Soulcalibur VI history !

If we look at the bracket ( here ) we can see Bluegod has been unleashed all throughout this top 8 : he has beaten Richstick 2-0, Rikuto 3-0 and lost once after the bracket reset by Linkorz.

In Grand Finals, a reset can be devastating or very frustrating for some people, but Bluegod tries to relax, and adapt to Linkorz’s combat style and strategy all over the match.

Juggling with an offensive trait, defensive actions with some great movement and footsies game. His patience and assessments are very well done and give him the keys to victory. He takes a lot of information in the first BO5 and understands well that Linkorz can be overwhelming when he starts an offensive mix-up or when he has to punish mistakes.

Bluegod stays patient and plays a lot more safely and aggressively in the first set after the reset, to break the tempo of the game. He shows Linkorz that he isn’t afraid at all and tries to mix him up a lot. He plays in a more versatile way and it ends up paying off.
Bluegod wins this Summer Jam XIII tournament !!!
Congratulations to him !!!
(All of the top 8 is available here !)