One competitor at this weekend’s Final Round 20 fighting game tournament was so astonished by his win that he double (and triple) checked that he was moving on before letting his excitement show.
After securing his victory against Evo 2014 runner-up Ryo “Dogura” Nozaki in a tense BlazBlue: Central Fiction match, Glyn-Mikl “Doza” Mendoza initially turned down his Japanese opponent’s post-game congratulations, thinking their winners finals set was supposed to go to three wins. He looked to the tournament organizers for confirmation, asking multiple times about the match stipulations. Nope. He had just needed two wins to be the victor. He jumped out of his chair, celebrating with his friends, and, of course, accepting Dogura’s handshake.
Defeating a Japanese player is typically seen as a sign that you’ve “made it” in fighting game competitions, especially if that player is a former Evolution Championship Series finalist. Doza’s early performance at Final Round 20 is the latest step in a promising fighting game career that started in earnest just two years ago. He’s currently sitting pretty on the winners side of the BlazBlue finals, which are scheduled to begin tomorrow afternoon. Dogura eventually qualified in losers.
For some extra perspective, a tournament organizer has revealed that Dogura was the highest seeded BlazBlue competitor at Final Round, while Doza was the lowest. Both players have also been placed in the same Guilty Gear Xrd -REVELATOR- pool, so we might see sparks fly between them in an entirely different game if everything falls into place.
Final Round 20 kicked off today in Atlanta, Georgia and is scheduled to continue on through the weekend. More details can be found here.
Ian Walker is a fighting game expert and freelance writer. You can find him on Twitter at@iantothemax.
