Happenstance FGC held a Top 8 tournament to crown a champion of Season 1 of The King of Fighters 2002 Unlimited league.  Congratulations to champion Kim!

Kim, also known as Edwin Pedraza Hernández, had an incredible season as he went 18-2 in twenty total matches!

Kim got off to a dominant start in the tournament by winning his first two matches by 3-0 game scores. He then won the winner’s bracket final by score of 3-1. Heading into the Grand Final, Kim had won 9 of 10 games. But he faced a bit of adversity as he lost the Grand Final by score of 5-3. Because he was undefeated to that point a Grand Finals Reset was necessary to determine the champion in the double-elimination format. It was an exciting Grand Finals Reset filled with drama as Teus twice had two game leads (at 2-0 and later 3-1). Adding to the drama, Teus led 4-3 and only needed one more game to become champion. But Kim won the final two games to win the tournament 5-4!

As the Season 1 champion, Kim earned the coveted Happenstance FGC “Boss” championship belt.

The Top 8 tournament, as well as an archive of all of the exciting matches from every stream during league play can be seen on Happenstance FGC’s Facebook page by clicking here.

Kudos to league director Luciano Chapa for directing an exciting season of league play and the Top 8 tournament! Luciano also was league director for Season 1 of Happenstance FGC’s Street Fighter V league. If you are interested to join a future league as a player, or are interested in having Luciano direct a new league, please contact him at Happenstance FGC’s Facebook page.

Top 8 Tournament Recap

The Top 8 tournament featured 15 total matches and the stream lasted over 5 hours. The graphic below depicts the flow of the brackets as well as game scores.

The tournament format was double-elimination with all matches prior to the Grand Final being determined by the first player to win 3 games. The Grand Final and Grand Final Reset were decided by the first player to win 5 games.

As mentioned above, Kim got off to a fast start in the tournament by winning his first two matches 3-0 and only losing 1 game in his next match. His opponent in the finals however, Teus, took a very different path. It was a tough draw for Teus as he played Body 10 in the opening round. Body 10 was in excellent form and performed well in the tournament as he advanced to the Winner’s Bracket Final. In their match, Teus started with a 2-0 game lead. But Body 10 was undeterred as he won 3 games in a row to win the Round 1 match 3-2.

Teus was thus sent to the loser’s bracket where he defeated Alaztor 3-0 in the first round and then defeated Chaps 3-0 in the second round. Next up for Teus in Loser’s Bracket Round 3 was the #2 seed in the tournament El Profe. Teus got off to a good start by winning the first two games before El Profe came back to tie at 2-2. Teus, however, won the final game to win the round 3-2.

In the Loser’s Bracket Final, Teus met a familiar face in Body 10, his opponent in Round 1 of the Winner’s Bracket. It was a tight match as both players were down to their last of three fighters with the score tied 2-2. With both fighters at full health, Teus (using Yamazaki) used a patient, defensive counter-attacking style with plenty of long range attacks to defeat Body 10 (using Nameless).

After winning 4 straight matches in the Loser’s Bracket, Teus was ready to take on Kim and his excellent form in the Grand Final. As mentioned above, Kim lost his first match in the Grand Final as Teus continued his incredible run by winning 5-3. Since it was Kim’s first loss in the double-elimination tournament, a Grand Finals reset was necessary to determine the champion.

Teus was in excellent form as he got out to a 3-1 game lead and only needed two more games. However, Kim proved clutch as he was able to tie the game score at 3-3. Teus was able to secure the seventh game, taking a 4-3 lead and moving within one game of the championship. At 4-3, Teus was nearly able to use Yamazaki to secure the championship. Round 5, the last round of the eighth game, saw Teus (using Yamazaki) start the round with only 2/3 of his health as Kim (using Blue Mary) started at full strength. Teus was able to take a lead with 33 seconds remaining as Yamazaki went on an offensive blitz. Kim was able to use a 9 hit combination, however to tie the match and force a final and championship deciding game.

In the ninth game, Kim once more showed his dominant form as he got off to a solid start. Round 1 went to Kim as he used Kim to take out Teus’s Vanessa. Teus actually started with a lead in the round with Vanessa taking little damage as Kim lost half of his health. But Kim used two combinations late in the round to eliminate Vanessa. In Round 2, Teus used May Lee to quickly take out Kim’s Kim. As Round 3 started, both Kim’s Chin and Teus’s May Lee had full health. Kim did excellent work with Chin as he took out May Lee while suffering very little damage. As a result, Kim started Round 4 with a big advantage as he had two characters left with full health while Teus was down to his last character in Yamazaki. Kim was nearly able to use Chin to end the match, despite the fact that Teus got off to a lead with Yamazaki. But with 13 seconds left, both characters had not health showing in their respective meters. The next blow would win the round and Teus was able to force a Round 5 as he scored the knockout of Chin with a crouching punch. Round 5 started with Kim’s Blue Mary at full health and Teus’s Yamazaki with perhaps 10% of his health left. It only took Kim 4 seconds to finish his championship as he scored the jumping punch knockout with 56 seconds remaining in the round!

Congratulations to Kim on his championship and an incredible anddominant season! Kim went 14-1 in regular season matches and 4-1 in the Top 8 tournament to finish with an 18-2 match record on the season. Kim will surely enter Season 2 of The King of Fighters 2002 Unlimited Match as the favorite.

Official Match Results

Match 1 – Winner’s Bracket Round 1

Body 10 (#5) defeats Teus (#6) 3 games to 2.

Match 2 – Winner’s Bracket Round 1

Kim (#1) defeats Dany Hop (#8) 3 games to 0.

Match 3 – Winner’s Bracket Round 1

Noemless (#4) defeats Alaztor (#7) 3 games to 1.

Match 4 – Winner’s Bracket Round 1

Chaps (#3) defeats TS|El Profe (#2) 3 games to 0.

Match 5 – Winner’s Bracket Round 2

Body 10 (#5) defeats Noemless (#4) 3 games to 1.

Match 6 – Winner’s Bracket Round 2

Kim (#1) defeats Chaps (#3) 3 games to 0.

Match 7 – Loser’s Bracket Round 1

Teus (#6) defeats Alaztor (7) 3 games to 0.

Match 8 – Loser’s Bracket Round 1

TS|El Profe (#2) defeats Dany Hop (#8) 3 games to 2.

Match 9 – Loser’s Bracket Round 2

Teus (#6) defeats Chaps (#3) 3 games to 0.

Match 10 – Loser’s Bracket Round 2

TS|El Profe (#2) defeats Noemless 3 games to 0.

Match 11 – Loser’s Bracket Round 3

Teus (#6) defeats TS|El Profe (#2) 3 games to 2.

Match 12 – Winner’s Final

Kim (#1) defeats Body 10 (#5) 3 games to 1.

Match 13 – Loser’s Bracket Final

Teus (#6) defeats Body 10 (#5) 3 games to 2.

Match 14 – Grand Final

Teus (#6) defeats Kim (#1) 5 games to 3.

Match 15 – Grand Final Reset

Kim (#1) defeats Teus (#6) 5 games to 4.