With his victory in Rennes, France, Fudoh's Atsushi Fujimura took home the Stunfest 2018 Street Fighter title, his first premier event of the Capcom Pro Tour.
Fujimura needed to reset the bracket from the loser's side and best the current best player in the world, Panda Global's Lee "Infiltration" Seon-woo to earn his tournament glory. In short, Fujimura looked every bit the part of tournament champion: He was electric in his set play with Ibuki, relentless in offensive pressure and, most importantly, clutch.
It took him the minimum six games to defeat Infiltration from the loser's side -- and he finished arguably the most dominant gauntlet of the year in incredible fashion. Infiltration looked lost throughout the set. as he could not find an answer between his Juri and Menat for Fujimura's tricks and pressure. In the end, it was an academic finish and a sign of things to come.
The gap between the elite and the best is closing. Young gunners like UYU's Li-Wei "Oil King" Lin, UYU's Sim "NL" Geon and Fujimura played brilliant Street Fighter -- all three finished in the Top 8. These three represent the fast and aggressive play of the newer generation that prioritize frame traps, set play and constant forward movement over a slower ground game and a defensive hit-and-run style. It will be interesting to see if the trend of the aggressive players continue like it did from the beginning of 2017 (Street Fighter V Season 2).
The breakout performance from Europe's only player in the Top 8, Fnatic's Christ "Akainu" Onema, could also be a sign of more talent rising to the top. Akainu's run was short-lived, but his overall work throughout the tournament was encouraging. His unorthodox movement and defensive choices left opponents baffled and put him squarely on the radar for players to watch.
The character variety from the third season continued to lack diversity. In the Top 8, there were only five unique character choices, and two of them belonged to Infiltration (Menat and Juri). There were two Guiles (Akainu and Cy Games' Daigo Umehara), two Cammy's (NL and Haitani), two Rashid's (Oil King and Tsunehiro "gachikun" Kanamori) and just the lone Ibuki (Fujimura). It is a concerning trend for a game that needs its roster to carry a lot of the excitement outside of individual play. With such an offensive game, it can be redundant to see the same bullies on screen. It might be up to the players to diversify the game, but this is definitely a trend that needs to go away for Street Fighter V to truly bring in its best version of entertainment.