Welcome to East Coast Throwdown. Mortal Kombat 1's first stop of the pro competition. I'm Infinity, and I'm here with Mr. Aqua. Let's go! Mortal Kombat 1 time. It is here, and so is the pro competition of 2023 and 2024. The first pro competition since the very first one back in Mortal Kombat 11, year 1, 2019. Going into 2020, there has been a three-year gap. A blip, just like in Marvel, where what happened in those couple of years? Everyone that's disappeared is coming back all of a sudden, and we're living it live here, Infinity. This is the 2023 pro competition going into 2024. Welcome, everyone. It's the very first stop of four offline events right here at East Coast Throwdown. Mortal Kombat 1 just came out. So many players are here. And if you can't tell, I'm pretty dang excited. Definitely. Look out so many competitors stacked into each bracket. I don't even know who I got getting out of pools, honestly. This is the biggest case of a wild west that I've ever seen because people have asked me for my predictions. I've looked at other people's predictions, looking at the brackets, having the experience of knowing the older names that are from very, very back in the day, Mortal Kombat 9 players and Justice 1 players that are kind of hiding here and there throughout the bracket that are going to be sprinkling on some bacon bits of upsets throughout today's Mortal Kombat salad. I'm excited. This is going to be great because just being out there in the crowd, I see five to six generations of NRS players under one roof. It's insane. You think about how far we've come. Even some of these people have been since Mortal Kombat versus DC days. So it's just very insane. And prior with some arcade guys out here coming back from the 90s. Insane. This game has just been such a testament of the community. It's brought so many different players together. Even some players that only like in Justice are here for Mortal Kombat 1. It's insane. And same with those that kind of skipped MK11. And those like a lot of just MKX players are here. Unbearable skill is in the bracket for one. Haven't seen him since MKX at an offline event. So that's just one of the many examples that we're going to have throughout the brackets here today as we'll be getting into, I believe, A3 and A4 on the pools to get started. A lot of pools and a lot of action here. There's going to be action on the Netherrealm channel all weekend long, all day today, all day tomorrow, and even all day Sunday. I believe we're doing top 24 to top 16, top 16 to top eight, and then top eight on Sunday, which is just awesome. Thank you to East Coast right now. They're giving us a lot of love. It's amazing. I have a first couple of players up right now, or at least they're doing a button check, I believe. Do you see some button checks going on coming into this? You know, there's what the current meta is. A lot of storylines coming in. There's what the current meta is. There's what it's going to be at an offline, in comparison to offline. There's who has been holding on to the tech and saving it for when the most money is on the line. Infinity, that's really my number one question coming into this. Who's got the broken stuff that they've been saving, that they haven't shown anyone, or that they have shown people that haven't showcased it? As we've seen some tech come to light recently before East Coast Throwdown, that's caused some controversy. There's some wildness out there in Mortal Kombat. One, this is a wild game, guys. And this is a new game when it comes to MK. Wild, new, and just having cameos as that little comfort pick on the side is just so important, which is a very vital rule to this tournament.  That's insane to me. Insane in the first few tournaments we saw it implemented, we saw it a lot. And I think it's going to be a big part of the competition here today because this is our first time seeing it on a broad scale, 299 players signed up for the first offline for Mortal Kombat 1. That's a lot of players. So many. Definitely interested to see the counter play we have. Like you said, first offline, this is where the tech really starts to kick in and people start to show off what they've learned. We've got some dirty stuff like grabs into Cyrax helicopter into. Now you're holding 30%. It's insane. I hope the production has the Vietnam helicopter sound prepared for the entire time he's on the screen. We're just causing PTSD flashbacks as he's coming in. Of course. Get ready, ladies and gentlemen, for all Cyrax here. I'm just kidding with you guys. This is going to be a great time. Look at that. That's the background that we got, Dink. See Saki there in the background? Let's go. Shout out, Saki. Dink, the only Shujinko main in all of planet Earth sitting there in the crowd. The only one I can't think of, a singular other human being that has with the neurons that he's been gifted with up there to think to himself, you know what it's time for? Shujinko, baby. But with a name like Shujinky, Dink, it kind of fits the bill. Like if you didn't use that, like why are you playing? Here on stage, we got 13 captain and one of the boys from STB, simply the best, which is probably like Dink is sitting right there. This is his clan, STB, simply the best. So if he doesn't win, I think he has to change that. Got this general shout on the screen. Mr. Aqua's getting excited. I've got a scouting report for everyone in the chats. Being out there in the crowd, which is behind the players, behind the players for those tables are from Mortal Kombat 1. Four setups per table, a lot of Mortal Kombat going on back there, but when we were warming up out there, I was playing casual with everyone. We were hanging out. I was playing general shout. I looked around and I saw about nine other general shouts on the screen and everyone was talking about it. Why is there so much general shout here?  It's just that good. It's sweet. It's spicy. It's delicious. Finger looking good. It's finger looking good. Oh no. And I love to see that, you know, someone who we all seem to be very underrepresented is actually showing out at this first off line for the pro competition. He's a people pleaser. He's got the big animation. He's got the big burliness, the damage. He's a scary dude when he hits you and complimented with what I feel like is his best cameo, can be Kung Lao here. Combo off the overhead, that consistent low pressure, which is hard because he's really easy to mash on not having a quick check at that space, whereas Lao's gonna give him that with a plus two. And then we've got Sub-Zero with Serena, which is one of the few cameras that can give him the damage that everyone's been looking for as well with the changes to Sub-Zero since the beta of this game and this Milga, but it's big damage. Yes, comes off the axe. Big break early. Definitely don't want that moment. Subscribe by the axe though. Gotta be careful. It's gonna slam. Perfectly jumped over. It is a scary slam too. Just a low if you're far enough away and if you're close enough, it becomes overhead low and actually throwing some mid pressure with the back button over commits to the Lao. But sometimes you gotta do that with shout because that is your only low threat without the low head of Kung-A. 378, no damage. What? Speaking of no damage, that's not what Shao Kahn's gonna do because he does an awful lot. This Milga's 400 still has the axe. Hard to blockable setup. Still safe on block. Command grabs a threat plus on block as well. And when is it your turn against the big boy? I'm close out of here. Got the corner positioning. This is looking a little slow. That stand two was too good. He did it too fast as a reactionary anti-air that he used. Trying to wiggle with the up log too. You saw there from 13 captain and guess the side switch. That is just gorgeous off of the back three. And he does the setup. And uh-oh, this health bar becoming a magic trick because it's starting to disappear. Now we're cooking the general spout chicken. Wait. What, why turn? Found his way out of the lock. You know, cool. I'm off just a little bit. Say, hold on. He's only hit this man twice with some 378 in this round. He's got the damage for one more hit to take it with no break or worry about it. And he gets sent to the Netherrealm with that down too. Might hit because of the recovery. No. And oh my goodness. You can just pick a button with the big point. It's an anti-air. Okay, only got the second hit though. So there's gonna be a half of the damage, but there's the low hat to meet him. Even had some extra soft there at the end that would have forced him to jump potentially. Really good opening round. You're about 13. Definitely. And that's just so powerful giving Xiao that green control to someone with already massive range in the neutral. And he hasn't overextended with, you know, overhead teleport. Hasn't overextended with a lot of things keeping it nice and simple. Don't think he's committed to where the brawl has been the back three into the hello. Kung Lao's been every touch. And you notice how he's not getting the axe back because General Xiao players are realizing that this character and everyone's realizing that he is really good when he doesn't have that axe. The frame data completely changes. Oh, challenged an ice glow. And then that is just fighting Sub-Zero 101. Make it read up. Are they gonna do that or not? And General Xiao not having a ton of these things to deal with that other than maybe a lot of pressure, I would think. Yeah, it was pretty tough. Part of the fashion, I think we can happen big air to air, but you can pull combo. No need though. Big life lead. Round two, fight. Even turning that back one, that one ranged mid, that shot possesses a little mixup. Natalie ending the overhead, company with the low. Nice ball of splot there even got the punish. That was gorgeous. Where the damage itself big overhead like I was mentioning earlier. A full catch out to another 300. And this is life alert for a wide turn. This is versus three here in the pro competition and there was a threat of the low hat really catching them with the overhead off the back one. And this is just Shao Kahn's turn, baby. Onto the axe you go. Had so many options. We haven't seen the wall command grab or tick throws come into play once the axe is down. But I love his usage of it. He has a great game playing. A game playing and you see him implement really well. Axe down, Laos set up, follow up because of what the options are once it's on the ground. Beautiful. In the back pocket like you said with the command grab, core the adaptation later on. And we haven't seen much of the Serena assist or any of these cameos out of wide turn much outside of the combos. And here we see make a swap to the sub zero which is really surprising because it's only going to take away the low hat which isn't a big zoning problem. It's more of a pressure tool of Shao Kahn than anything. So I'm only just going to use it defensively kind of get rid of it in block pressure even. And that's going to be the difference maker. Let's find out. Nice armors on. So the sub zeroed up on a Friday afternoon here in the 50 degree Connecticut weather south to east coast throw down. Still straight up there though. Jump jump. No up lock. One of the easier up locks in the game. Look at he had nice armor on. Did the low hat absorb it but he wasn't even ready for the decision. Oh no. This is going to do some mental damage to him but luckily he got the damage. Three elevens on the board. And here's where you see maybe downside of that cameo of sub zero, sub zero. They're open up with a low and no extender here. Let's have the ground freeze. Every touch seeming that was going to over 300 but he just a drop in a beautiful wake up micro duct. The big slide side switch as a well and almost a night thing. Oh he's starting to feel a two meter from the ice armor. Close the gap. Just time to play. But there's a big three from 13 captain. Every read right from Shao Kahn is usually a third of your life in a peaceful acts as your reward. Oh yeah, why turn calling out a lot of these throws of ice armor but wait. Sometimes when you have a 10 frame launching special move, you just do it infinity. And it doesn't matter if it's on block hit, you just do it acts on the ground. Nice follows blocking the down four to avoid some of the pushback right there. Tries to wake up with the knee again. And he call out in the neutral. We're gonna throw it out. And it works. I love that. Staying to the heck of a button infinity when it comes to general Shao.  It's an awkward trade. Not gonna get a full punish, but hey, captain needs some respect right there with the throw. So I get down, but not out here. Good poke and we got armor. Hold on. That's the second time he's caught. Why turn with just some good old general Shao Shananigans right there. Going for the over and on with and then letting the full string rock because it does move him forward. That's a really big hit box if you aren't ready. Wow. What a gorgeous air to air. It's still converting off the ground here into the Kung Lao low hat pressure. Big throw. He's smart every time he jumps to throw the one, two, two which is trying to maximize the damage off the conversions. If right in there's finally the call out, but no combo punish. Another one. No, two combo punish drops. He just remembered the special I think right there at the end. Oh no. That's a heartbreaker. This could mean everything right now. 13 captain is hitting on that point. For captain it's Christmas morning right now. So thank you for the gifts. Eat the clone though. That mid has been up for breakfast. There's a low hat and now we're talking. It's the cash out. This is wide turns. Turn. Almost jumped right into that ice clone. That's like a guessing life back throw to try to get that escape fail to the Anakin's happening. Our expected double low. Oh, I had the opportunity. Not like this. Wide turn with ample opportunity. I mean this is it. Stand two into the axe. Shout hits heavy. And 13. Gonna take this wide turn. Had his opportunities there. The end multiple opportunities to close it out. Such a heartbreaker.  It was he just opened him up. He just anti-eared really well. He anti-cameo'd really well. Had the great reads against the low hat. And those full combo converges just weren't there in those exact moments that would have gotten him on the board and could have still been alive in this. But luckily this is a double elimination tournament. So you will have another shot in the loser's bracket. What a great match to get a started. General Shao's chicken. Oh yeah. I love the representation already. Two characters that people are kind of writing off in the meta with Sub-Zero and Shao both giving an amazing first game here. And like you said, we've got plenty more general Shao restaurants to visit in this bracket. And stepping up, it looks like we have Black Jesus. Hold on. Why turn with a Serena? It will get a little bit of damage early on. But not much outside of it. I did like to switch to Sub-Zero in the end because that was about to get him the win. Captain. Definitely. Just a couple of reads off. Captain didn't make the counter-adjustment with that low hat. And that was just an unfinished story right there in the end. It was. But Captain's staying strong. He's getting one representing Pharaoh. And this is from Pool, this next one anyway I know is from Pool A3. And here in A3, a bunch of names I recognize. Pulse is in this. Black Jesus that you see here coming up on stage. Someone I warmed up with out there in the crowd. Who is someone I can talk about. You remember me saying like someone that played MKX? Yes. That I don't remember playing in Justice 2. And I don't remember them playing MK11 really is a guy named B-Dog. And B-Dog is here in this. You're right. The fair tour player back in the day. Yeah. B-Dog is here and was killing myself and a lot of people out there in casuals. So that's someone from the MKX days that I'm really excited to see in action. He's here in A3. Zanzoone, one of the new MK11 guys is in A3 here. I grew some who I recognize. Black James I recognize. Fierce is in that pool as well. It's pretty stacked. Wow. So many names. The producer of Fierce. If you guys don't know who that is. The producer of Fierce. Shout out to Offset. Been doing an amazing job. And like you said, there's just, with cameos, so much character diversity. We saw a great example of what it's like to kind of like play around who you're going to go up against when we saw that pick to Sub-Zero cameo. And we just got more of that coming up. Like, I believe Black Jesus, last time I checked plays Liu Kang. Liu Kang comes great with Kung Lao. And I'm so sorry. That is a... We're all scared of the back throw. I know. The throw, the walk back. Oh yeah. The zoning does a full, complete character there. Really good team. Wondering who we're going to see here with this pick. I'm not sure who Britt plays exactly. Rockin' a level-less pad though. We love to see it. Just switched to level-less recently myself. They really tightens up your execution, you know, narrowing it down to just those buttons, taking away all those multiple different inputs in between the D-pads. I love that, yes. On the controller. If it weren't for my risk going crazy, I would play it more. You set things up, so I played China for Sentoh. Liu Kang, and we got Kenshi. There's more variety, that's for sure. Two new characters stepping up to the plate. Where the cameo's going to be, especially for Kenshi, because so many can complement, you know, getting Sentoh out onto the screen. It's just how you want to do it and how dirty he wants to Sub-Zero. Get the hit into the freeze, someone out Sentoh, and then two of you want it. Is the game plan for Kenshi. If you guys are tuning in for Mortal Kombat 1 for the first time, this is NRS's very first public character. Really, that they've introduced a glate. A much different Kenshi than you saw the previous time he was around. Definitely, not to mention Sub-Zero cameo. That ice armor is definitely going to complement against Liu Kang's great zoning. Not to mention with the Kung Lao, it's just giving Liu Kang that extra low projectile here. Yeah, what a cameo to complement Kenshi in this specific matchup. Because you're right, that zoning move, particularly Liu Lao, very strong. It's not gonna matter here. He's got the knockdown on the corners. He's backing off though, getting outside of the range. The pickups I think that he's scared of of Kenshi. Got some of that mean spirit armor. Those ancestors don't play around. Oh yeah, it's cool. White float his voice right now. Black Jesus looking very dominant. Simple staggers and where you're waiting for the low hat, where you're waiting to disrespect on the stagger. So many things, maybe trying to armor. Getting blacked and not believing in that one. Did it on that one. That's execution. Corner combo for Liu excels and that was pushing 50% for one simple mistake of the back throw. 42 biggest combo of the night here on screen. I expect to see bigger. This is Mortal Kombat 1. Get ready for fireworks. And he didn't have to allow, otherwise he was gonna combo off that back throw. Very scary. This is a very stagger heavy character too. All those daggers throws a threat. Bam right there. And he's trying to redo the throw. So terrifying, because you just know that throw comes as a combo and oh, Sento called out Sento, what are you doing? I think he called out Sento as a true last resort right there. Hit or block, help me buddy. Check out. Where's that scar video? Oh, help me. Went right back into it here. And scar is here, correct? Scar is here. A lot of Texas boys showed up actually, you got scar, kevo, ominous song out there. Kevo to man. Another guy that just shows up in the beginning of these games and cooks. So we'll see if that continues out there in the pools as well. Definitely. Wow. That was an interesting drop there. Got the side switch unintentionally. That was not some Shaolin synergy if I've ever seen it. Shaolin monks too. Not happening. Oh, wave down two blocks it though. Jumps out. Nice up block. Have the cameo again before the Kungla extension on the backdrop. But we'll get the side switch. Trying to shoot him when I walk back right there. Not having any of it. Black Jesus is bullying Brit right now with this corner. But let me get into the corner. Oh yeah. She's been a deer in headlights. Big damage and same pressure. Stagger game is crazy. And here we go. The back throw into the combo. So dirty. Especially off of the empty jump where if your opponent is going to try to up lock it. Like that's more damage that he's going to get off of a read like that. Yes. So many mechanics that we'll be going over throughout this as well guys. A lot of new mechanics here to Mortal Kombat 1 and previous titles. There's the back throw and a roller coaster that's not that fun to ride sometimes. Here we go. But can't be holding on back in time. Wait. He did get it in time. No. I thought for sure that it wasn't going to be able to because it was still like right in the middle. Infinity. He's like no I'm a press it anyways. And we'll see what happens. Here we go again. We didn't even need it. Black Jesus right now. And that's what makes this stagger game so scary.  That's really pick your poison here. The moment that you read it he's going to forward for you. Infinity that's the thing. He's going to do the four and four. Trust me. Oh no. That lock up was so intimidating. I would have got hit as well. Brit. Yeah. You could see Brit Blink as that low the low hat and Lou King came his way. And now we find himself to the corner. Brit. Does it make the right read out? It's time to armor. No. It's a perfect. No. He was still there. Jumping into it is so heartbreaking. It honestly just makes you not want to even move and look at this. This is going to chip out here. Black Jesus sitting on match point. He's working on a speed run, ladies and gentlemen. We know Mortal Kombat 1s and fighting games aren't known to be, you know, prevalent in the speed running community but they might need to pay notice. Oh never mind, never mind, never mind. Thought we were going to see that big 40% but drops it. If this was a speed run he would have to restart from the beginning because he dropped it. It just daggers the. Ooh, out spaced but Breaker immediately don't even want to give Brit the momentum right now. And there was a time where he had plenty of time what felt like a neutral to get maybe an ice armor on to slow down at least the low hat and establish some neutral. But hey, you know what? I'm going to stop talking because he finally got sent to out and he's bullying him. This is a different game. Oh, sent those gone though. That was his lifeline. Here he is. Oh. No. This is so scary. And there we have it. Two quick mix ups right there. Below the overhead. Incento stance. A little bit different, a little bit different. Completely different moveset. Incento stances. Kenshi, when he has the spirit out even the spirit's own cool down almost normals are actually different with the sword. They are. And has no access to the spirit specials either like the push, like the rising karma, et cetera. Wow, we just do that on block. Black Jesus. He figured the last few kicks hit. You know, why not? No, that was an animalistic down two and Black Jesus is he fishing for a brutality? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Down two brutal? What's it going to be? I hear everyone freaking out. What's he fishing for? What's he fishing for? It has to be a down two. Black Jesus, what are you fishing for? Oh my God. Oh my God. He's trying to take off that. He keeps falling. He has! You can't escape it. All he had to do was crouch and bait it. So toxic and we're showing off the grill. This is a true Florida boy. I love this. And just looking at the camera like, yeah, I did that. Literally used all three of those last breath mechanics on getting that down two brutal is actually toxic. But like, I'm so here for it because that's the spirit of Mortal Kombat. You definitely want to get those Brutals or Fatals where you can. And now we have coming up violets. And this is from pool A4. Violets is someone I'm actually very familiar with here in MK1, place third at my local. Actually, I actually drove out for that. Has been crushing it in my online tournament series Coliseums, multiple top eights. Great results against great players. Has a really cool team. Molina Sektor, if we're lucky enough. Hopefully, I honestly love that team as well. She just becomes so scary. I'm going to borrow, I'm going to teleport and that missile is going to dunk you on the head. What can you do? Coming in hot. Opponent looks kind of familiar. This is A4. Some of the names in A4 that I recognize that maybe you guys recognize at home. This is the mighty unjust spool who I believe is seated number one here with all the results that he's had here early on. King Raj is in this as well. Another player coming back. I recognize from back in the day. That's right, King Raj. Yes, big on MKX, played a little bit of injustice too as well, wasn't seen much in MK11, back for MK1. Another name back from the proverbial grave. Mingled Jester. Do you recognize that name? My God, I feel like we're in the Liu Kang Hourglass right now and all timelines are coming together for this game and I love it. There's another one in this one, Ragnarok. Ragnarok, big and actually, yeah, played a little bit of injustice too, MKX. Not much of 11 that I remember, but hey, back again. Also in here, violets that you see Alcatraz in Zescal. Some other names I recognize here from cool A4. Amazing. Only two are going to make it out and the two that make it out, fight each other in top 64 of this tournament. In sane.  There's more people standing around Mortal Kombat in the background than there are in the crowd, but it's understandable because there's one, two, three, four. There's like 16 matches going on at once back there. So many crazy sets that we can't fit all on stream unfortunately, but just know this tournament means business. First stop of the pro competition. Everyone's points are on the line. It's going to be insane. The 15,000 was added to this one. 15 or 10? No, 10,000. 10. 10,000 plus entry.  Everyone that comes here pays usually $10 to enter the tournament. That $10 times entry fee goes into the prize pool. So $299. So let's just round up the 300 times 10, another 3,000 in the prize pool. So you're looking at about $13,000 on the line here. Give or take. Give or take. I could be wrong. Don't quote me on that. But quick math and this is unfortunate. Oh no, CRs. They're not in the pool. Oh no, CRs watching this just heart broke right now. Unfortunate CR pilots and CR danger. CR, of course, critical reaction. And I hate to beat it, but that dead horse is there. A group that's come back. Literally. From the dead. They were so dominant in MKX. Even a little bit of dust, too. They had Sonic Fox on the team. They had Dragon on the team. Insane. Their roster was so crazy and they're coming back for this game. And that is lovely. I love to see that. Players giving thumbs up. I like that. That's usually a good sign. Yeah, you have to imagine that they play this pretty often. Yes, we got some in the sector. And that was raiding in Cyrax. Did I see that correctly? Sure did. We got a blast with them. Catchable mustard could not be here. They are here in spirit on the screen. And no, it is not Serena. This is a completely different matchup. Serena raiding. There's something that you don't see every day. Oh, that's something that's gonna hit 450 damage if you get caught, ladies and gentlemen. Yeah, don't get hit. Make sure you block today, but Malina can be very scary in the neutral. Like I said, that sector missile is gonna cover a lot of her risks. And look at this big combo break, though. Oh, yeah. Didn't want to deal with that rocket. Well, guess what? Once it went this out there, you're dealing with it. You're in a stun from that teleport. You're not moving an inch. Speaking of teleports, but this is scary now back to the corner. But wait. And since they are teammates, I wonder if they have any familiarity with each other. Because I don't have much of a dossier on danger here. Very true. They block some overhead both back to full screen. Rule number one against Malina that I found out, fighting violets is block the overhead. That quick, I think was it a 1-2? 4-1-2? 1-2. 1-2. Second over at Keith. A lot of people up. Oh, yeah. Needless to pick up there? Hmm. Beat in the damage, Malina. Oh, gorgeous this game. Got rid of some of that Tarkot there mid-round. Yeah. And here we go with the setup. Oh, didn't quite hit the missile, though. Oh, didn't get the whiff punish on that block overhead. Looks like you're trying to go for that flawless block. There is a flawless block that you can hit at the last hit of that 1-2 string to punish her, but it is a very tight timing. Yeah, third hit comes really quick. Maybe you're reading just the stagger of the 1-2 as well. Yeah. Oh, full charge. Here we go. Charging up that MK Dragon logo, we love to see it. I want to see how much it did on chip, but he flawless blocked it. I'll avoid all that in Violet's putting on display right now of Dominic's danger is unable to open him up. And the pushback on everything Malina has. Three second neutral, going back to work. Rocket's still coming, disrespected by the down two. That was a great frame, perfect. Grab the dash up throw, but we're jumping back in. Wow, what a callout for the teleport. Violet's all over the callouts of predictions right now, and look at this. We're still gonna flex with the melee combos. Okay. We gotta adore the swag. Flexing on us and getting used to the monitors at the same time, a really big thing for newcomers. And there are a lot of newcomers here in this tournament as well. It's here in offline setting. One of the biggest things that can get you first is the difference in how your setup feels at home, which is how it's gonna feel here and how that affects your game play. That is such a big thing, getting used to the frame, the maze, and look at this. Big patience, just backing it up. That was on him. That EXPOSI is scary. So scary. And speaking of scary, this damage is gonna be if we don't get a drop here. Oh man. Only came with the one bar, but couldn't you have spent another to get it to about 50? Probably. Big 40 free throw, and that was a lot of corner carry here. See what I mean, danger. Don't get it. Hope some stabs, and that sets up rockets so well. Corner positioning, and big armor. Still look up and use your jump. Danger, trying to find an answer for that. Trying to find his meaty timing, up with some of the knockdowns, and he's still gonna get the punish.  Pushing back so far, and loud, we'll pick up there. Setting up the rocket. Ooh, but we don't care. That was sick. I love that animation. That was sick. What even was that? I forget the inputs for that, but it is all beautiful every time it is. I don't even know what it is, and I'm a professional competitor of the game. I thought they'd be out of a job. We got a new homework. What even was that? And that went down to 11 seconds on the clock. These matches are insane. Sorry, if it isn't the same string going in the styrox, I don't know what this character does. Like, wait, this is viable? We have other strings? Cool, cool, see something new. Another big reason why I'm excited for this tournament is because there's so much that we haven't seen, and there's so much to still take in because of the depth of the game, infinity. We'll talk about that a little later too. There's so much happening in this game. This arena is going to play completely different from a Milena using Serena, or like Milena using Laof. We go about to get the missile back, and that's one thing that I really love that violinist doing.  Same thing with the teleport here. Didn't get the missile off because that core got hit, but still. Almost on the punish there. Ooh, that's a low side rip after that. That was so risky. On the line, that would have been a brutal. Playing with confidence. This violets and that play right there. Aggression with the health lead, you know, he's feeling it. Going right back into here, no character switch. And Milena will have those characters that can consistently get fatalities on her combos, which everything kind of leads into one of them. Definitely not. There are a few characters that don't have that privilege. It's like they just knew they wanted her to be toxic online, and I love that. Oh, there was, there's characters in this game. They knew what they were doing. Johnny. What? Baraka. Oh, man. Chow? No, I'm kidding. I just wanted to get a reaction. I'm an up-player infinity. You are. I believe in General Chow. I think General Chow is a good character. I think Rain is a broken character. And y'all are going to find out here at East Coast Throwdown. You guys don't want to know my prediction. I think Rain Syrax is winning East Coast Throwdown. I believe it. I caught Sonic last night. Let me tell you. I was like, why did anyone ever say this character was bad? This is propaganda, if I ever heard it. No, that was the propaganda. Oh, beautiful block there. Oh, this is going into rocket, too. Big rocket set up. 397, rocket coming. Reset.  Ooh, did he get punished? We've still got opened up. Looks like we're trying to go for another flawless block. Nice tagger into the row. Oh, that rocket's coming. Oh, wow. Little early buddy still was in a disrespectful mood of a post-rocket to just neutral crouch and still get a button out. Violet's looking really comfortable against fellow teammate Danger there, who, even though he had a deadly duo in Serena Raiden, we just didn't see him get to the dangerous damage that exists in there. Because I love this team of violets and how he plays it. I mean, he even explained it to me really early on. He's like, it's just team not your turn when she gets going. Yes. And I love that. But it's also not just willy-nilly. We were definitely seeing throw or teleport in into the missile to kind of force someone into block spun or just force them into a long hit animation to get it set up. So very good plays there from Violet's. Kevin in the background's up. I know Kevin was here. Shout out to Kevin. So many people have showed up for this event. And we are getting the homies at school on stage. This is going to be a good one, too. We'll definitely be seeing another new character. I think he only plays Scorpion, one of the Loyalists. I am a big believer of Scorpion being massively underrated. I think Scorpion has some of the best screen control in this game. Speaking of Scorpion and massive, Scorpion won massive strike the catch-up and muster tournament yesterday. Point given. I had to make it after you said, oh, both words are in this. And was looking disgusting. Javier Scorpion was hitting for like 550 damage every touch. Go watch that tournament. Oh my god, Javier is one of my favorite players to watch. Just very solid fundamentals. Meanwhile, in America, we're down playing that character pretty hardcore. Yeah, they're like Scorpion. Yeah, Scorpion's terrible. Not to quote them in coming up on stage, but that was the most beautiful shade in the lead-up. Yeah, this person on stream next, by the way. No, but honestly. Jessica, I love you to death, but he learned it from me downplaying, so I can't really fault them for that. But you're the up-player, Aqua. In MK1, I am, guys. I'm no longer a downplayer. Everyone's good. Everyone's broken. If there was a Shao Spirit Bomb, it would literally be you incarnate. Buff Katana. Yeah, Buff Katana, I got you guys. We got you, Star Charger. Don't worry about it. But yes, like I was saying, Scorpion is super strong in the neutral, almost a full-screen sweep. Amplify Spear is a mid in this game. That means you have to be so scared of crouching under. Why don't they use it more? Because if you haven't had a Scorpion just in neutral, and in neutral, it's sort of when you're on a screen, no one's doing anything, and then they just hit you with an instant mid-spear that you just don't even know exists until you're hit by it. It's just not to mention the flames. We got the deception flame move back. It's a lot. Their back, his normals are fantastic up close. 2-1, 2-1, alone, really. Don't give me that look when I say that. Did you guys see that? I said 2-1, and she knew. Because you've been dealing with it. Khanai League has traumatized you, girl. Yes, it has. There's a lot of Scorpions out there in Khanai League. Scorpion and stuff. Good for you guys, though. More power to you, two of my favorite ninjas. So I forgive you. But yes, it's just there's a lot of. And is that King Raj? It sure is. I love to see it. I wonder who King Raj is playing in this game. So according to my notes, this pull may have moved around a little bit. Really? Yeah. I think there was a couple of DQs, so that's probably why. So the winner of this could be on a path to either probably play on just. That's going to be insane. It's what I'm reading down there.  Either way, they're in the mighty unjust part. But is it going to be here in the actual pool? Or just outside of pools in top 64? But I'll try to get a closer look at that pool here once we're in the match. But this is a big one. King Raj. And Cesquil, two OGs of a scene, going head to head in pools. I remember King Raj playing 11, really. Not 11, but was really big in X and a little bit of injustice, too, as well. Yep. I want to say that he went off a little bit with what was it? Like Firestorm or something? I believe so. Who was King Raj on? Yeah. What a time. But yeah, definitely curious about King Raj's pick in this game. Got the handshakes up. Let's see what's for dinner. I have no idea who this man is playing. I would have bet. But I know who we played in other games, and it was Degeneracy. So I was going to say Smoke, but we got Reptile. Oh, Reptile. Where are you? Reptile, which is the latest sauce of the Sizzatians? I don't know. That's a Terran race. Yeah, that's a Terran. Sized off, boys. Hunt, well, not hunt 24, but gang boys. Scorpion boys. And Sector back on the screen, starting off with a secret string that I've never even seen a Reptile player use. And that's why it probably worked right there. That's how I know it's loyalty. And in a huge, you know, you had the sneakiest low imaginable in MKX, do you remember the one string that just had the one standing normal under the weird, sneaky low? That shades of that. It literally is. And you know what, Reptile comes out as one I don't see often. I'm more used to seeing Reptile with Polcaro, so I'm a little curious how this will get a compliment for Reptile. Wow, considered on paper, maybe the second best overall cameo right now from a community standpoint. Because of what it gives everyone, which is low hat. He has Teleport, he has a spin, but it's low hat. That's so dangerous right now. I'll tell you guys why once we see it actually used, because it's the cool down of it. A Zescal is cooking up something fierce with the double fire team of that is kind of crazy. Now that I'm seeing what Zescal just put together with that spin into the rocket, even on block, that's gonna be Scorpion's turn again, I think. Yeah, he's ready for either outcome. And that's the ground flame.  When I saw someone come off that with a Polcaro Teleport the first time, I collectively lost it. And here we go. Oh, try to set up the invisibility there. Really smart by Zescal to shut that down as instantly as possible because of the implication of when he's fully invisible. Oh, yeah. That's when it gets really scary. And look at the pushback on that. Scorpion might be able to punish that, but it looks close, and wow, look at that. Try to up block, and that's gonna be a lead grab. It's a command grab. When you guys try to up block, you get command grabbed on a read like that. It's insane. There's a chip out here's Raj.  There we go.   And it's been challenged really well by Zescal with that 2-1 of darkness. That is just the presence on the screen. Definitely, like don't run in my face. I have range, good sir. Checking you with a mini Scorpion spear. That's what stand two is. Look at that thing. Oh, gorgeous. Another one in, got the setup. That's still gonna cop, all ladies and gentlemen. That was so sexy. I'm gonna say it. Zescal. That was beautiful. Putting on a showcase here and a close one to get us started. This is where, you know, we're seeing familiar tournament names, running in familiar tournament names already and the action's gonna get crazy. Definitely, every rest of our action pack and just different scenes, really showing off the creativity of this game. I was, and I'm sure everyone was worried about what could have been on the screen this entire time. You know, I'm not gonna say it out loud. But we all know what could have happened here. So we truly have to bless these players. Shout out to them for showcasing some- Oh, whoa. And this is where the fun begins. Oh, wait. What, invisible so fast off that? I was like, wait, what? It was so quick. It was invisible and then uninvisible. What was that like? Tech port. Maybe it goes away with the throw. I'm unsure about that, but. We'll find out. No punters on the dash either. It's a big test. And now that he didn't punish it, we'll see if King Lodge tests them a little bit more with the raw dashes. I mean, right there, unafraid the EX dash in his face. Oh, yeah. Side switch, gorgeous. I want to keep that corner positioning. Round two, fight. Mountain Dew. And that's really tricky. I know I have aviators on it at start, but I can barely see that asset bubble on the stage. It kind of blends in with the green fire in the background. That's even scarier.  Yeah, where is it? Big saggers, wait. We're still backdashing in the buns.  Did he get that asset bubble? We'll see what we can pick up there. And does a pure mix that is an overhead that he's charging and can cancel into the death row as low as it is a mix up for meptile here. And that is so sexy. I love that. Make him as though it hurts. That's cool right now. Well, I don't know what that ender was. Was he trying to, do you think he was trying to swag and continue that combo with a down two up forward right trigger? Potentially, you know, and I can see because you want to keep that corner and be cool at the same time. But it doesn't work in a combo. It needs a punish, right? Oh, and that should be chip. Yes, you cannot escape that sequence. It's got this dusting quick. As some would say, you would have to wake up swallows block like, all right. All right, all right, bro, you do it. Oh, ran right into the spear, got the knife. Now that's a get over here if I've ever seen one. Got you. With a rocket, but the multi-hitting speech on the range of that stand to just grossed me out to edge of that spear. That cool night of death. We'll try to outspace. Almost got outspaced again. But Scorpion said, I am the king of range. Have a secret time. Does we'll take in the two full lead another final round of between them. When she gets cooking, it's working. Definitely on the right track here. I'm wondering if we're going to see a Kameo switch. I know Motaro's best couple with reptile very well. Might also give more of the full screen presence Raj is looking for. Raj is cool under pressure. I believe he's a professional poker player outside of. Oh my goodness, you're right. Competing outside of this. So he is on right now. You know, in these situations, he's ready. Focused like a laser right there. Look at him. I don't even know what he's thinking. And it's a royal flush. I've heard he's really good, too. Like King Raj at the tables. No, I want to see that. That sounds amazing. But he's going to need to reverse 3-0. I was not expecting this. He's going to it. Hashtag wet boys infinity. Let's go! Ladies and gentlemen, the high mage of Outworld in Mortal Kombat 1 is making his debut here at East Coast. Throwdown on the pro competition. It's raining, complimented by Sub-Zero. Two different forms of water. That was dirty setup. Water is fire right now. I'm going to try to extinguish this Nesquil Scorpion. Got the Sub-Zero Ice Armor. I do like that. Nesquil, once he saw it, though, said, OK, no zoning. He's going to jump in immediately. He's getting off a lot of this 4-14 into a stone pressure. That's a mention. It's going to be super scary trying to zone Scorpion as he does have a teleport. Oh, nice punish here, though. Oh, no. That was how it all begins with this variation, too. It's all about getting the hit, getting the freeze. And then what rain can do really well is create hard-to-blockable situations off of certain knockdowns, putting certain things on the screen. And we're going to have to see if King Rosh can access. If he can open up Zescal here, nice block at a double overhead. And now to what? From downtown, Zescal's done a really good job of recognizing as he does it that it's going to hit or believe that it's going to hit, seeing what he sees as it does it, because it hasn't been a hit confirmed in a lot of situations. It's been two, or it was a two-one, and then only the one hitting, and he'll still lose spirit. Talk about knowing your ranges. And wow. And your antires. I taught him that. There's range armor. If it's catching it, there it's not going to hurt. It's so dirty. No one's not getting the throw. When that four or three throws can't come in, this is disgusting.  Breaking so late in that combo, though, was King Rosh. Yeah, it's a little scary, because now you have nothing you need. I need to come back, but that power of throw is going to put in work every time. It's not reactable. I'm going to say it. And then there. In the big overhead. And then there was Zescal trying to finally read it. We'll barely misspaces the back two, which is the mix to complement the overhead. No meter to. No meter. Oh, this might be it with fatal blow. Hard to say. We do still have the fatal blow minigame here. So there could be life left, depending. It was very little hit tenuous. So the scaling is going to be well in Zescal's favor. Still, the Azuna dropping so much, creating a self-nuclear bomb. Is scorpion there at the end of his fatal blow? I can't believe that killed. I'm still processing that. I'm not going to lie to you. I thought for sure we're going to have a chip situation.  Big GGs to both players, though. Raj had a great idea with the reptile Kung Lao. Just couldn't close out those games. Both of them going to the final round, had a lovely switch with rain, putting in the car throw work. But at the end of the day, Zescal, master of ranges. Master of call outs is closing it out. Yeah, Raj had his moments. You know, here, up, up, up the lead, had him in the corner. Just a perfect read by Zescal on defensive to read, or on defense to read a stagger, swing and take his turn. Yeah, it's wild, because if you're wrong in that situation, you're going to hit by the second hit of a string. But those are the reads that we do as fighting game players to say, get off of me.  I'm in command here. And is that pulse? Is that young pulse? I was just going to say that, but it's like pulse. And yes, pulse versus Mr. KO. What a firegamer tag. Mr. KO. I wonder if this is Professor KO or Jeremy KO. No, isn't Mr. KO right here? All right, let's go. That's Zork is a back. Is it Zork? Yes. If you don't say it in that voice, it doesn't count. We have a member of the insane clown posse there in the back. Let's go. Juggalos for life, am I right? Yes. Feels like such a big family reunion, honestly, for the Mortal Kombat community. Like you said, a collimation of timelines here for Mortal Kombat 1 players from pre-NRS era, as well as NRS era forward, all here, had a chance to win some points in a piece of the 10K prize pot. Some of the WB crew walking around back there as well, talking with players. King Gambler all the way in the left. So much happening here. And I just got mighty unjust in the back, laughing at shipping everyone to death. And here we go. Looks like we're going to see Raiden. OK, here we go. This might be it. You know what? We should have probably said it anyways. Maybe that would have. OK, OK. Wait.  Here we go. It's a thing. Let's go. We're like low-key speechless, but we're just. Chat knows exactly what we're saying in Infinity. They know exactly what we're saying. They can read between the lines. Mr. KO, we're going to spend the win to get started off of his Cyrax immediately. Johnny Cage first hit. Here we go to the corner. And so much corner carry already. Probably the most plus frames in the game. This is not where you want to be. Pulse all over this right now. Oh, nice. And did he have the audacity? Did he get interrupted out of the low hat? Or did he try to spin for the slower thing? I don't even know. But what's just happened to that? What? Hey, quick round. And this is someone on everyone's radar at this tournament in Infinity. Everyone watching, this is a favorite, in my opinion, to win this tournament. Pulse has been killing people in online tournaments. Let's see how it translates. Definitely one of the strongest Johnny cages right now. And Johnny Cage being an amazing choice as well with the Kung Lao cameo. I think single most plus frames that exist in the game are this duo right here. Because at every low hat, multiple staggers of Johnny Cage. And the rich get richer. No. He just made a shadow kick plus, Infinity. He made a shadow kick plus. No. Release us. Release us. Who blocks shadow kicking goes. You know what? It's still his turning is going to be plus. He owes. Cami owes. Love to see it now. The most nutritional breakfast in Mortal Kombat 1. Cami owes cereal. Oh, wait. We're back at the controls. Don't tell me controls were wrong. I was curious why he woke up with Cyrax when he got knocked down. That's tough. That's tough. Could be a good mental reset to say that that wasn't his fault. What happened in that last game. It's not your fault. I told you, Madam Bo would be a tough negotiator. Yeah. Right back at it. Game two. Plus working on the quickest match of the day so far. Shout out to Madam Bo. He knows that this journey has only just begun as there are three days of combat ahead. I love staring into Johnny's eyes. Yeah.  Now, was it actually loading? I couldn't tell either. I thought they were talking. What's that's all pulse laughing? I was like, OK. That was great. I jokingly argue, Cyrax broke it. I agree. I'm blaming him on every single thing. He's messing with the coding. Come on, Cyrax. He was programmed that way. It's ones and zeroes in his favor. Realizing Xbox path from pulse. It's crazy. It's crazy. This is an age where I feel like this is the most diversity in pads in my control usage as well. Literally, I see like a different controller every two minutes. Some are on PS5, some are converting with the PS4, Xbox, a couple of hit boxes out there, fight sticks. I have a buddy that reverted to PS2. I want to do that, actually. PS2 is, fun fact, my favorite pad use. And fun fact, for everyone at home, the DualShock 2 was the tournament standard, the community tournament standard back in the MK9 days. Really? It was the tournament standard to find an OG DualShock 2 and converter. And that was the optimal way to play MK9. I'm ahead of the curve with that, because that's exactly what I would have done. No one used the DualShock 3. No one. Wow. Yeah, it was pretty crazy. Actually, now that I think about it, no one really talks about that controller. People must not have been a big fan, huh? And same thing with, I hate to say it, but the DualShock 5, similarly, it just doesn't feel good. And now it does not feel good. It hurts a lot of people's hands, and I understand that, too, because I've been there. And that's why a lot of people are finding other alternatives as they should, because something that, you know, take care of yourself first and foremost. Absolutely. And us gamers, we game a lot.  They are your life blood at times. Hand health is so important. And stay hydrated. Please. We're staying hydrated right now with lovely Mountain Dew, lovely water.  Oh, water tastes so good. All right, we're back into a 1-0 for Pulse, head on the ground, pressure's already on. This is where KO does not want to be, because... Johnny dashing up just feels so oppressive. He's like, what's coming? Is it plus phrases to grab? I don't know. And the moment he touches you, it can be the case of it's not your turn until your health bar is gone. Like, right here. Now, plus. What's going to be plus? Plus two. Plus regardless there, guess off of it. He did a throw instead. Plus two would have been... Have a nice day. Did he finally throw it a high? And KO is just getting eaten alive by this dagger pressure game. And Pulse not getting put sub 900 HP so far in this match. Oh, that was a beautiful duck. And look at that! We're going to flex for the camera while Kung Lao handles my light. Wait, thank you. But it was covered by that. Those are my favorite conditioning hands right there. Oh, yeah, almost completely up with the Hollywood meter. But wait, hold on, we got Syrac. Didn't get the Superman, though, which is what we got, the corner carry. And I am scared that Pulse gets the next hit. Yeah, that was an extensive breaker. And we're, oh, here comes the corner carry that we were speaking of. And this is where Johnny Cage excels. Hollywood meter almost up. Might not need it, though. This is going to be a lot of plus frames. Oh, we're choking out, though. That's the last block to avoid the chip there. And Pulse taking his turn perfectly. Mounting a comeback of a lifetime here is going to hold that and let him fall onto it for, I think, the third time. There's no escaping. If you try to jump, you're landing right on top. And Pulse is just doing it. Every time he's done it and followed it in, every time he's done it and done nothing, it's worked. Both! Yeah! He's going to follow it in. And you're holding that. You're holding pressure. He has a nine frame mitties about to pull you in. That's why it's so scary, that dash. And understandably, tricky to block. You guys are probably wondering why he's just getting hit by the hat when he's jumping in. You're worried about an early jump kick or something to form an overhead. But it may not be a mix-up. That may be something that we have to adapt to, but that low hat has been eating a lot of people up when he tries to jump it in because they're looking at the other way. That combo, that was so sick. And we're getting the max flex. So try to get that Hollywood meter. Literally only needs one more taunt to make that happen. I hope we get it too. Show off a little bit of pulse. Oh, this might be. I thought we were getting it there. Big throw. Still a thousand. He's working on a flawless victory, infinity. Is that going to be the case? Is it going to be our first flawless? And look at the Hollywood meters there, but. Oh! Went into the nut punch. And even if he pressed a button, it wouldn't have done damage because it's invincible into a flawless victory. I don't even, I don't even know. What happened to pulse? The pulse just like. He vanished. He liked it Kung Lao cameo. He left the scene of the crime quicker than I've ever seen anyone before. He said the job is done, unplugged and walked away. Insanity. And that's just what we were kind of going into with the whole Johnny Cage. So many plus frames. Kung Lao doing so much for him with just only low hat. I don't even think we've seen any other cameo usage outside of low hat. Maybe like one spin. Yeah, I think so. There was one, I don't know what of Johnny Cage's other than maybe like the four, three, two or something that could go into the spin. It's hard to combo in a Kung Lao's cameo spin. It's talked about a lot because of how slow it is on startup and that's why I'm surprised we saw it a little bit earlier too on some people being able to hit it for everyone. And I was like, oh, that's pretty cool because it's hard. Insane, just wow, such a testament of how strong Johnny is in this game. And Paul's just been playing phenomenally, like you said, doing amazing work in the online tournaments. Has both the Johnny Lao, the Johnny Cyrax as well, where he was one of the first where I saw do full life double hype combos. And we haven't seen it yet on stream, but if you guys do, Johnny Cyrax can load a full height meter, get a combo going and almost try to loop it. It's pretty crazy. There's some craziness in this game, but we haven't seen anything too new when it comes to the competitive meta of the game. And we'll see if we get some of that here as we get into the next couple of pools as well. Plenty of pools coming up, guys. We're doing three sets of pools today. I believe so. Yeah, I believe three sets of pools today. Pools are gonna continue tomorrow morning and it goes all the way up until top 64. And I wanna say it's top 64 to top 24, something like that tomorrow night. And then we do all the rest on Sunday. Yes. I'm working this event. I still have no idea what's going on. I believe so, yeah. Sunday is gonna be just as crazy as any of the other ones, which is just so awesome because usually we're so used to only top eight being on Sunday, but like, no, we're cooking all three days here at East Coast Throwdown. Three streams on Sunday. It's pretty great. Crazy. I love that for us. We're reading to East Coast Throwdown. Thank you to the East Coast Throwdown group as well. They've been doing it up here fantastically for the last 700 years because it used to be known as another tournament. Convert to East Coast Throwdown in the last, I don't know, six, five, seven years. They've been going ever since. Great events up here. Move to Connecticut. Always, always, always metal theme too. Yeah. Let's go. Yeah, woohoo. OST Bob's. Anyways, always and forever, the awards here are incredible with the vinyls. It's a great tournament. The winners here, I don't know if it's the same this year. They haven't shown it, but- They haven't, no. But are they the vinyls we'll have to find out? I hope so. It's just, it's lovely. We'll have to see it, guys, but we will have more action coming up. Unfortunately, we do have to go to our first break. So we will be right back with some more Mortal Kombat, but, Nfini, any closing thoughts on those first few matches? I want to see some more Molina. Woo. I'm going to speak it into existence right now. We'll have to see, coming up, guys, more Mortal Kombat, one of the pro competition here at East Coast Throwdown. Don't go anywhere. Hey, everyone. Welcome back to East Coast Throwdown here for Mortal Kombat 1, pro competitions, first stop. I'm Nfini, and I'm here with the lovely Mr. Aqua, and we are going to get into some more hype matches here. First pools of the day, so much hype, so many different characters that we've seen so far. I honestly don't know what to expect. Mountain Dew is amazing. I was just really enjoying some Mountain Dew voltage. It has been a long time. That was a gamer feel of mine going back to- Oh, the nostalgia. Yeah, that's just taking me back to my childhood right there. Shouts to Mountain Dew. Here on the pro competition, and we got violence. You willed this onto the screen, Infinity. Buff Malina. Before we went to the break, she wanted more Malina. She's got more Malina, and we got that. Turn of all shouts. Chicken back on the screen. This is canon. Hold on. I'm here for it. This is a battle for Outworld right now. Outworld Supremacy. Who will reign? Both of them looking- Why are they both up blocking a neutral? Yeah, like- Full screen. What is this? What's going on here? What was the reason? Byleth's do it just because 13 captain did it? I don't know, but I like it. And he just respected so well through the armor. And because he got Kung Lao, that overhead will come the full combo from the general. I love that combo. It just looks so heavy. I'm pulling the pressure right now. It looks really comfortable too. Captain, Byleth's money to get some of the general's auto insurance. Nice amplified side. Trying to kind of control the space in here. Oh, and wow, what a beautiful call-out. 13 captain all over it with the beautiful call-out. And there's so much range on that. Look at this damage into the corner. You've got to wake up, right? No, we're spexing. In disrespect of the plus two of the low hat, we'll see if Byleth can make a real master comeback pretty much happen here. Oh yeah, had the sector lying in wait. This is possible. Wait, one more sequence. Does that fatal blow too? Dashed up and did nothing. Oh my God, four pressing again. That's not gonna be it. Wow, Byleth's putting on quite a display with this Molina sector team, bringing that back from the proverbial grave and that's how you do it here. You can't even see the life bar. What a brave comeback. 1.01 health to his name and a dream to unite and rule outworldly. Who was Yuck? Koto. Koto, huh? Kolen, Mortal Kombat 2? Cameo? Hope so. Mix up and that was, yeah, didn't even get a hit. And that is the beauty of that move of Shao Khan's 10 frames. It's so quick that sometimes it doesn't get hit and if that move has armor, if it hits something and loses its armor and loses its ability to combo, but if it doesn't, if you get the combo, what a unique special move that General Shao has. Some more big damage. Are we gonna see the sector set up? It looks like it dashing up. Had the right idea to get around the missile, but Violet is playing around that and he looks for what you're doing, not what anything else is doing in that situation. Isn't it? Oh, big call out there. Has the breaker though. Still scary. I think Raffaele Bo can kill us. Why put on damage buff and that should be it. Wait, not like this. Not like this indeed. 13, captain. I think he had a route to kill right there. It had a high enough launch to where stand one or stand two into fatal blow would have definitely comboed for the victory right there. Yes. That was a tough one to see. He may have been... Anything into fatal would have been enough. Getting the long combos was just so scary in those situations. And maybe that's what he was banking on, trying to save the resources. And that was dirty. Last second block on that roll, still covered by the sector on the missile. Goodness. That accident looks so mean and into the 50, 50 town population violets into the slam, but not welcome to the jam. And it's gonna be Valet's turn around. 13, captain, has been a little happy with those axe calls, but it's not the most lethal thing in the game anymore. There is no mix up because you can't just block it low or high. And you can just delay or wake up against it. Can we talk about that walk underside switch though? Shot was such a savage. Round two. Get around the board, captain will go. So into the back to that says it's still, it's still my turn was waiting on some disrespect to big patients, sector missiles out. Oh, don't ball roll on me. Hold this armor. You're still in the corner. Oh, and that's mixed on top of mix. Wow, the perfect compliment to the general sauce chicken. And wow, these call outs do not walk forward. Don't poke me and don't even use the rocket. I'm gonna armor it every single time. That's what I've seen. Here comes another one. Wasn't ready for the throw. But we've seen comebacks before. Captain got to be very cautious right now. No, no, no, no, not again. That was a throw punish as well. 176 for Molina woke up with the down one and that's gonna be what takes it. The audacity by 13 captain. I think he read that he was gonna try to meet with a forward one with his high. Really good disrespect to break up down two and we're gonna be creating a beam of energy. Why does he even do that? Where is that in the actual game? It looks so cool in the outro. Let me just, let me just summon a hammer of dawn from Gears of War real quick. He might need it. Just saying. I think so. And I just love that Shao channels Aries in this game. He really does. You could just see the parallels. Oh, wow. That was so nice converting off of the aired whistle. Wait, wait. And a more pressure that moves you to the corner and Shao Khan, sorry, general Shao without acts is a bully multiple plus frames on multiple points of his strings. And hold. Definitely is. Look at this damage. Oh, dropped it at the end there but still on the rise of pressure. Nice back throw, setting up the missile. Not much else you can do. That was either going to be chip or still maintaining the corner position regardless of hit or block. Look at that anti air. That is a heck of a normal right there. Wicked is that stand two of Shao Khan's back onto the acts. Get over there in the corner because I can side switch and a little too early but the teleporter got him out of there, so. No, I'm out of dodge. Oh, good block. Didn't get the full punish. He didn't have Kung Lao, which is what he had in his muscle memory as the combo and punisher. Damage here, so effortlessly setting up the sector missile. No, y'all no ball rolls. I've had enough. And that was for no reason whatsoever. We just feel like it, you know. He may have been afraid of the comeback because he did have breaker. Maybe he was going to break that last hit and then a comeback. But damn, respect. Braids are to be knocked. Oh, that was gorgeous. That was a MKX conversion right there from Violet. Yeah, I hate to say this as a Molina hater, but I do like that she's doing her thing again. Oh, yeah. Like all of her things from MKX. Full combos, 17 side switches. She's a threat everywhere and anywhere. I love it. You excited? That clips you moving wrong? Yeah, yes, the full combo. Slow hat, back throw. This is still possible for 13 captain. But Violet's with a big confirm. They try to get a reversal stand, too, in there. It's been working for him an awful lot. I think Shout Stand, too, is like nine frames, 10 frames. It's been putting in work. Violet's definitely has. It retakes the lead in this one. I was talking to him in between the break while he was sitting on the stage. And he said he was incredibly nervous playing on that up there. Oh, not looking like it. Still playing very smooth. Great staggers. I said, you aren't playing like a man. It does have some general shout experience as well. Oh, so lovely. Big combo here. That should corner carry a decent amount. Oh, big set up 50-50. That's so dirty. And Kaplan knows how to use his plus rings really well. Shout, too. Oh, yeah, definitely. Oh, that's a punish. That's a good combo. He's going to set up the axe. 50-50, shout out. Oh, so dirty. This is chip territory now. And that is, that's his mid. That's his midlaner, gentlemen, the back one. Axe of shout. Eight of bar as well. Ooh, matrix dodge, missile. And finally ready for the overhead, but guess what? That's only going to open up to the other mix. Set up missile is Violet's. Got the corner positioning. Look at that patience. What a call out. Yeah, the armor, and he's interrupted the back two with plus double digits. I think it is flamethrower from Sektor. You don't see that an awful lot, especially in combos in the corner, which can lead to some deadly stuff. Yeah. There's the low. You thought there wasn't more mix. It's general shout chicken. It's what's for dinner. 2-1 now. Wait, is it 2-2? I think it's 2-2. I think it's 2-2 now. This may be a fine game. This is our first game five. Wow, that was a different match. Definitely. You could just see the adaptation in real time. Doing good at avoiding those missiles, too, with all this forward advancement movement that Shao have, save damage here, setting up missile again. Ooh, jump back. And was able to avoid it this time. Probably going to commit on that. He chased down a little bit farther and held low from downtown. And multiple things from Shao going to the spin of Kung-Wao, the back three and the 2-2 that we see. Dropped it with 3-6-2-1, but axes on the ground. And that's still a good thing for Shao. He was in 2-2 range, where the plus frames can be a threat. And that's whether the storm of this Molina Sektor not losing a lot of damage, though, so still a win-win, only getting hit by the single ones right now. And this is going to be the full combo here. We're into the missile setup. Jumps out of it. Ooh! That's a training combo, I just believe. Do overhead works. My brain can't even process it. Like, that was like the craziest sequence. This isn't going to kill, but this is going to be close. This might bring them to, like, evenish life. It's going to be down to a hit, a piece here, ladies and gentlemen, Violet's 13. Captain, with your drill state. And I don't know what Violet's tried to press again. That mid of shouts that we don't see a lot has caught him off guard here late in the set. And those last game layers are just so interesting, because now we're breaking out all the hidden dirt that wasn't in the first few. There's so many trades. That was beautiful with punish. Dashed up to catch that as well. How late in the set, and how big of a read did you just make to whiff that back to from full screen. Nice bunch of Violet's getting him around. What's the neutral ducking for a moment there, too? But then decided against it, got that grab in. And no rocket from Violet's on the back door the first time that he has it. I think that he, yeah, maybe trying to save it. But oh, we're just anti-air on the teleport here. Now we're going to set that up. And that was great. Neutral duck so that the wake up would go over his head. Last game, last round. Arrow 13, Captain. See, our Violet's at that knee. Just ate something up in the middle of that screen. I don't even know. Not with punish. Here comes the rocket coming in hot. We'll just open up on that overhead, but didn't get a full combo into the low side.  Drops the under, though. Sector's going to come back. Calls it out there. Doesn't even down to it. There's another knee. Every time that rocket's in the air, that knee comes from Captain. Blocked the low. Oh, that was nice. This should be it. Big corner damage to add extra. And there we have it. Violet's holding it down with the Molina Sector. But wow, what a close set. Very well played to both right there. Great showing of General Xiao. Molina, everyone giving them claps in the background. Yes, that was amazing. Big height match. Which one's Mighty on Justin? Which one is Elkacui? That is the question. I want to say Mighty has the glasses. I think he does. Don't quote me, though. Man, Captain, as this set went along, really impressed me. He played around the awkwardness of the rocket so well with the awkwardness of the quick movement of Xiao Kong's, especially Knee, the jumps, the back two, multiple things that moved the big boy around. Knee, back two, and even some real good stand two callouts for really the heroes of that set and what a game five. Super down to the wire last round. Both players amazing with their ranges. And there you see the beauty of a character that has a built-in 50-50 complimented by a cameo that makes it so threatening. Knockdown, cameo call, mix-ups coming, uh-oh. And this round was insane. Craziness. And wow. If you would have committed and picked up off of that two and got a two-two knee or just a two knee, I would may have quit. I may have walked off, set the headset down, and just walked up and shaking his hand on stage. Like, please stop. Mid-match. Oh, and this is a big one. Oh, wow. This is, I think, going to be winners' finals, technically, of this side of the bracket, because two make it out of the pool in winners, and then they play each other. Insane match here. And so I think this is for top 64. Leafs home. Mighty and Jess. Kind of the jack-of-all-trades here. Place Kenshi. I have seen a bit of Johnny. Very good with characters all across the board, really. And I know it's late, but do you remember earlier when we had the CR team battle? Yes. I have a correction. It actually wasn't. Only Violets was sponsored by CR in that match. Oh, really? Yeah. Just a quick, quick, quick correctment. CR reached out and was like, I have no idea who that is. Oh, wow. They're like, huh, not ours. And there they are, the Mighty Unjust. In Zesco, Mighty Unjust on the right. Glasses out with a Goro shirt on, and I know he's not using Goro. Shout out to the hype-land merch. It looks so amazing. It does look awesome. Yeah, look at that Goro. Yes. Oh, wait. Don't cover him. Don't cover him. Yeah, there we go. Rar. I love Goro. Goro cameo has to come out now. Have we not seen Goro yet? Honestly, I don't think we have, which is honestly surprising. A lot of people kind of weigh him as, yeah, they kind of weigh him as like the best or like not necessarily the best, but one of the best offensive cameos in the game. So, yeah, I'm very surprised I haven't seen him yet. Just a very good overall cameo that I feel like complements every character in a way. Definitely does. Both statement, but I truly feel that for Goro. He is a universal cameo. Omelette toss does wonders. Not so many punches, punch walk for chipping out. So many good situations for Goro becoming clutched. Any character that has something low in their string? Low key. It's kind of gross when Goro eats you to the sky and you're respecting some insane pressure. It really is, but it's also so satisfying to watch. Goro comes in just reeked. And no Goro here. It's just gonna be Kenshi sub scorpion Cyrax from Zescal. Both great choices here. Cyrax gonna add in that chip, but Kenshi sub, you're not zoning me and you're getting sandwiched with Cento and look at that damage. It's easy, breezy, beautiful. Beautiful. Cento something, I don't even know. I don't know where I was going with that. And he stops the flawless. That's all Zescal needed here. Stop the flawless. Stop the bleeding. You are not following me. Oh, did not get the extension with Cyrax. Like anticipated. He tried to walk and throw. Let's get another, let's get another. Just warming up. Oh, it's the shim. Wait, this might be a comeback. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Ooh, and that was nice. Securing that chip damage to get the round. Back is still to the corner though, it's mighty unjust. And look at that poke into windmill. Where are you going? Here's why he came off of the, of the sector because I haven't seen too much fill from the Cyrax in this one. I'm just one time in pressure was ready for it. You know, it could be mistime too of trying to jail it or be closer to a jail. And wow, look at the patience there. Attack right at the proper time. Gets the breaker, but still a little damaged on the table. Try to go for spear, but no. Oh, on the ice. I get a brain fart right there. It was a sick whiff on us though. We're not to be with one. Definitely was. And that was a lot of spins and a lot of chip right there. It's been the wind. Big damage, and of course, until comes out to play. Try to hit the launch off of the sweep, but a little too late. They're just beating them up. Look at this. It's a massacre. It's a massacre. They're banking them. It's ping pong at this point. This is so insane. Mighty unjust says, hold on. I have more than one cameo. You forgot? There is a, I think for all of us, we all feel it. You've had to feel this too, Fini. How does it feel? How does it feel when Ketchy hits you with a freeze? My heart sinks into my chest.  It's a literal jump scare. This is a horror game where Ketchy's almost crazy. Because once sent those out, you're just praying something puts him to sleep. Oh, no, that's a heartbreaker drop. And this is going to be the ping pong match of the century here. That's all in Ketchy. She's just beating the bricks off of them. They're hot. And big overhead. And he resummoned them all. No. It's two of you, one. Help. We're scarred when you need them. Help. That's how I feel watching Mighty Unjust or anything is Ketchy's bully people with Cento. And there's a few favorites here. One of them being a surprise to maybe most, but Titanium Tigers has shown up to an offline tournament and he's here. That's amazing. I don't even know what just happened, but it was so awesome. And it's still going. 389. Even if you don't get hit, that is so much chip from both Cento and Ketchy. Oh! What? Oh, that's what it got me to. I think, somehow, someway, who...  Zescal. This is combat reparations right now. Cento is putting in so much work. I've never seen nearly the ability for Zescal to play the game be taken away from him. And just look on Mighty Unjust. I just... I don't even know how to describe what, like the look that he just gave the camera It was cheese. He's like... Calculated. The glasses just start glowing. Oh, wait. He's like, yeah. Was that his brother? Yes. His brother definitely walked up and just like lifted the earbud and went, just keep doing that. I just wanted to laugh with you. Tough one.  I can agree with this pick. The chip is very good with Cyrax, but at the same time, you kind of want to be able to wow out and still be safe, especially when Cento can be so oppressive. Yeah, I think that this is going to be better when he gets the hit. If he gets the hit. Let's go, Zescal. Start off getting him off the Sub-Zero and he immediately got a insane back dash cancel with a back two.  One of the best mids in the game. A back two, or can she... And now we're watching beat him up live. Oh yeah, Cento's still alive. He can come and get you, even if can't she can't. And a back two. Being the overhead threat, right there is how you have, how he opens up at the low. There's mix in this as well, ending into the sword toss. One of the sexiest animations I have seen in this game is that Cento's sword toss. Definitely, and there's so much damage. Match point now for Mighty on Zescal. Has truly been deer and headlights here, but haven't we all once Cento gets going? You know, there are only a couple of opportunities for you to do something, whether it be armor, whether it be poke, mostly not.  That was a broken combo. Oh, he's back. And it was still 40%. Ooh, here we go. And that's, this stays out so long. Oh, here we go. Look, here we go. We're getting something started. This is an, I believe, I believe in magic infinity in the heart of the cards, in everything. Try to blink, just throw a set up and I think you wanted rocket right there. I may be wrong. As well. Falls, three over the mighty unjust in winners will still be, I don't know if he has to play again to make it out. He may have made it out already. I want to say that was the last match for this poll on the winner's side. I believe, don't go beyond that though. I think Violet still has to play his winners match out because there is another side of the bracket where that Violet is on. Yes, for this side, I apologize. That Alcatraz was also one that players like Ragnarok were also one. I believe a couple of more. Is this the one that B-Dog was in? No, B-Dog is in A-3.  I'm excited. Oh yeah. Because Fierce is on the side, Zanzun's on the side. Gruesome, I think it's B-Dog versus I-Gruesome. I think I-Gruesome made it through, I think you would have had to have made it through Fierce to get here. Such a lovely blend of different eras here in both brackets. B-Dog, the Mortal Kombat X specialist, the one of the only ferretor mains in the game's history. Big salute to the ferretor mains out there at Huffman. Big salute, respect to all of you at your annual convention, you know, at a table at Denny's. Salute to you ferretor mains in the world. At one table at Denny's, that's it. Literally. That's the convention. Not even a full table. And here you see really what the match was about. It's get something in the freeze, sentos out, and it's a different game than it was prior. Not to mention, you're trying to flawless block something and then you miss time that even a little bit and you're opened up and look at that sword toss. Oh, it's slow motion. Gorgeous. Thank you production for giving us that, that move in slow motion. And B-Dog is who I warmed up today with. I was out there in the crowd, played him for, I don't know, about an hour straight. I don't want to fight him ever again. It was a little scary. He is a very, very, very aggressive Johnny Cyrax. Oh, yeah. And he's got the hype stuff down. So I'm actually really excited from a spectator standpoint to see if he can pull that off on stream because he pulled it off on me every single round anyway. The hype setups are indeed hype. It's just so much damage, so much oppressiveness, not to mention coupled with Cyrax, even if you don't get opened up, you're holding a lot of chips in salsa before you can attack and take your turn back. I grew some here, don't have a dossier on who he might be coming this with as well, but representing HD gaming. Looks like it on the shirt, let's go. HD gaming group. Oh, yeah. And a name I'm familiar with with online events as well. Seen him in a ton of brackets. I grew some here. Another Xbox pad, like I'm saying. There's so much controller diversity. Just a true testament about how this game is bringing across so many borders. Got the piece from B-Dog, let's go. Are we getting Baraka? Baraka. No, it's some more general shell chicken if that's the case. Yeah, I don't know. Could be Baraka. I think we highlighted Baraka for the controls. Yeah, Baraka and Cage. Okay, now is the time. It has to be time. It's 100% time, I think. Yo, yeah. Oh, yeah. Here we go. Prime time. Strap yourselves in ladies and gentlemen. Look at that. Even he was strapping himself in on the stage. He was like, all right, double Cyrex. Let me tighten the belt up a little bit. Let's sit up. Plus 10% concentration right now. Plus 10% concentration. Plus 10% lean forward in the chair. Got to check your posture here. It looks like they're button checking as well. Always smart to do. Oh, yeah, and this is not a ladies' end, gentlemen. This is going to be a battle of it is not your turn. It's mine. And even when you try to take your turn back, you're still going to hold lots of chip damage. It looks like they're ready. B-Dog, Vinyl Labs. Vinyl Labs being the sponsor. For I, Bruce, our first debut on the pro competition, of the most talked about team in Mortal Kombat 1. Oh, yeah, teams. If you guys have looked up, seen Mortal Kombat 1, even heard of it, you know Baraka Cyrex. Has to be one of, if not the, it's debatable. One of the most oppressive teams in the game. Probably the heaviest hitter in the game damage-wise. It's going to be insane in luck here. Here we go. Not only is this a ton of damage, but it has enormous corner carry and look at that a clean 51st cent. We started off with the biggest combo of the night in an execution error from B-Dog half-life. And if he didn't break, I think he was dead. I think he was two-tap. That was two mistakes. Bruce, it's not a two-tap, I mean. Oh, no, both barrels loaded. Two mistakes into GG, thanks for coming. I love this. 500 to start. But that's how you optimize. They go overhead, but we block those. Seen some nastiness from reducing two with some of the things I do on block into setting up the whip on issues as well. Nice chip. Lots of plus frames from Johnny. He's going to want to keep you blocking, but we're mashing out. Try to go for overhead. He was scared to take his turn right there. It's like he was fearful of Baraka and his negativity because he had a bar, because he armored the last one. He's so scary. See the hug? Staggering like crazy. Maybe too much to know. Oh, nice. Big ol' arc kick. And you know, they both have the same idea there. Like, just back up and press. See what happens. Wait. Oh, that could have been. That could have been, honestly. I could have killed next hit, definitely will. So much chip damage there. Oh, went for a throw a little too far. He's getting ugly. And thought a stagger may have been coming. What stagger happy that entire time? I like that he changed up there at the end. Full string rip into Cyrax. So it's not going to chip out. That's the leader layers. And look at that. How do you re-throw after what you've been hit by already? Literally. I'd be too scared. About to hold up another 500. And that height meter is dangerously close to being full as well. Back is going to be to the corner, though. And that back throw is going to be a full combo with Cyrax. Good staggers. Nice little chip damage on the board as well. A good reaction to that overhead. That's a tricky sequence to block the two. Trying to parry, but couldn't get through. 2-1 next to Gianni. You mean this goes knock down? It does. Beautiful throw. Didn't have a meter to launch. I think he's full on height, but I can't 100% go. And a 4-3 will do it. Oh, yeah. The dizzy knee and the top. Stylish cash out right there by B-Dog. But he even told me it's a quick way to end the match, just like a sweep. It's one that will go to the end screen really fast. Very true. It did accelerate to the end very quickly and get a little culture in here. And I know a lot of casual viewers like to ask the question when they watch competitive Mortal Kombat for all of you that might be watching. A lot of people ask, why don't we see fatalities? Where are they? For these guys, it's all about getting to the next match as quick as possible. Because the less downtime, the less time there is to think, you know, there's back to just this. Yes. Oh, wow. Try to hit that shuttle to get the end. Good, not good. Or you do it for the middle. Yeah. Game 1 fatal, nothing gets under someone's skin more. Let's see if that comes to the play. B-Dog's putting that. I'm sorry, Bruce's putting out the 2-1. But you're going to hear me say, a lot of kidders 2-1s and 4-2-1s. That's the bread and butter. They're so good. They cover so much space. They're very quick. Goes into full combos. These parries just aren't working. Baraka's just getting way too quick enough to mention the helicopter Cyrax coming in and look at that. That was absurd. It just looked absurd. That is a parry, though. Waits out. Even called out. They cancel out of it. Grew some. That was a quick way action 2-1-2 if you're wrong.  Yeah, that was a big call out there. Oh, try to go for the throw. But no, we are going to get this full combo and keep you in the corner. Cyrax on them. Oh, wait.  Beedle, Beedle does a lot of those raw nets because you'll be surprised.  I don't know. Beedle tried to anti-air that, but those speed up the Tarkotans are hard. Oh, this damage there. Oh, big throw. Sorry, he's not even Tarkot in this technically. The Adenian with Tarkot. And that would be it for the kill gruesome. All right. That word can be used to define the round. And it failed. Wait. Wait, wait, wait. He forgot it. Oh, I thought we were going to move list. I'm like, oh, we really want this. Toxic. And was it? Did Beedle just stop him from doing it? He might have done that. Did he just? No, you're not going to. Did he just ice the kicker with?  Or did he cover himself from the embarrassment of it timing out and he went to rematch? Because who did that, Beedog or Grusel? Chat, let us know what you think actually happened there. Was that? These layers on the finish of screen is great. Who was avoiding embarrassment there? Because both of them had opportunities. That's great. Some more big saggers. Spending that two bars for the launch to get some more damage and gorgeous corner carry. Expensive, but worth it here. Look at that chip. Oh, tried to armor out, but no, sir. Stay in this corner and look at the damage. Not done, though. This might. Oh, no. I'm only giving them more meter at the end of the day right there for Grusel. And then this crazy, how much you build meter. The man spent two bars and build a bar and a half in the sequence following. Not only building meter, but also building a pipe meter up. It's active now, but might not need it because of damage. To close out, maybe. Yeah, what are you going to do? It's all going to be invisible pressure, cancelable. How are we? Oh, multi-shot. They're doing it. Did he ice him back? Oh, my goodness. What is this, a savagery? Imagine having layers on finish them. They haven't even said a word to each other. It's all been acknowledgments that this is insane. Actual insanity here. Who's going to get the first fatal? You've got to type it in so quick. You have to get the final, or you're done. It's giving MK2 timing. Yeah, I drop that every time. Peedog. These guys are edibles. I love it. And here we go. Quickest lightning, already back to the corner. Look at the damage. Peedog, living his best life right now. Momy put someone in the corner. He knows he has a multiple-fuga plus ring to mess with. I said it's the side switch. No side rise, though. Opting for the side switch instead of the damage. Oh, that is such a good, that's such a good poke-up I got this. Try to dash back and get something started, but couldn't there? Some of these stackers and a lot of pressure. Not a solid open up just yet, but might not need it.  He's dying from blocking. Bag of Tadinos right now. Ship damage is killing quicker than a Tarkot is. The smooth punish there. Match point now for Peedog. Who you would have thought maybe would have played one of the more outworlding characters like Baraka playing Ferretor back in the day. But I think this is a different Peedog. You said I'm not. You said no more loyalty. I've already lived that life. I'm going savage. I've already lived the low tier life. And that's been put up so high. Too high. That's a big punish. Peedog looking real comfy right now. And still picked it up. That was gorgeous. That was gorgeous. Peedog smooth finish there, Dan. And you're right. That was a different launch. And hit the shades. You've literally throwing shade. Let's go. Quite literally. Best pun intended ever. What a game. Peedog taking it in a really close one. That was awesome.  That was awesome. Well, no better way to close it out. You saw not only the energy in the game, but you see it outside of the game as well, Infinity. And that's something that's really come back to life here for us as a community. And just the past year, as offlines have come back, talking about the last time the pro competition went down was 2019 or 2020. Years ago. We've all missed this. We really have. Just the energy in the room is vibrational. Yeah, the energy in the game, the energy outside of the game, in the crowd. I mean, we're back. We're back. We're back. And we're better. We're back, ladies and gentlemen. There's so much passion from so many different spectrums of the community. Like you said earlier, another realm community being split between several Mortal Kombat and Injustice games, and so many are reuniting for this tournament. That they are. And guys, coming up next is going to be Pools B3 and B4. Oh, I'm thinking about doing that. So let's just. Thank you, Mountain Dew, indeed. They are one of the lovely sponsors for this tournament. And we are here for it. Thank you so much. Yes. And coming up in those pools, guys, look out for players like Titanium Tigers, King Gambler is in those pools as well. Gur, Scar, Vanity, so many others. Jur, so check those out. That's going to be coming up next, guys. But that's it for us, Infinity. Do you have any closing thoughts here in the first couple of pools for everyone watching? Yeah, Buff Malina. That's not what I saw. Were we watching the same game? The guys don't go anywhere. More Mortal Kombat 1 to come.  Now through December 29th, guys, you can purchase specialty marked, specially marked Mountain Dew products. Receive a code for a free one month subscription to Xbox Game Pass, which is not like the best thing in gaming, the best deal in gaming. It's beautiful. That's out there. So many games to play on there, guys. It's a free month. Definitely tap into that. Additional purchases and codes will add more points for participants. And the fun doesn't stop there as well. Keeping an eye out, there's more drops and even more rewards coming later this year. So shout out to Mountain Dew, shout out to the pro competition, Mortal Kombat 1, baby. We're back. We'll be back with more action in just a moment. Cheers. As long as I've known you, you've dreamed of leaving Tenja. Is it so wrong to want some excitement? Was near for the Grand Martial Arts tournaments between Earthrealm and Outwards. Let's begun. Take your place. She should replace me as your heir. Your race can shape shift. Join me. And I will. Ladies and gentlemen, what is going on? This is MK1 Pro Competition, ECT, our first stop in the world tour. My name is Cento, this handsome man. Next to me is none other than Darth Armand himself, Dad Armand. Congrats to you. Man. Thank you. Good to see you. How are you feeling today? I'm feeling awesome, man. I'm just really honored to, you know, what I'm very honored to be at your side. I know you've been putting in a lot of work. You're one of the most amazing up-and-coming commentators of this generation. And, you know, me and the rest of the community have been noticing. So again, I'm thrilled to be next to you for your pro-com premiere. I mean, this is it, baby. We're alive. This is East Coast Throwdown. Super exciting. The pro door has been announced. A lot of money on the line, a lot of points on the line. And this pool is just going to be insane. It's just going to be incredible. I believe this is going to be King Gambler and Wise Gemini's pools, respectively. Those are the higher seas in each of those pools. Both really good players. Heavy hitters. We have plenty of heavy hitters here.  Kevo even came. But when I saw Kevo, I was like, all people are in for it. Treat. Yeah, it's always really cool to see Kevo come back out of the woodwork because Kevo's just such a deep-rooted veteran. But the ability, the talent, it's all there. Kevo's putting in the work. Like, he is a force to be reckoned with. Always, always. And then you got to worry about the new talent that's coming in. Like, we're at a point in time where now, when it comes to competition and competitive play, where it's not so much like there's too many beginners. Like, the beginners are very good off a rip. And you have to watch out for them because, like, honestly, in a matter of months, they can be up there with the top dogs. We've seen the upsets happen. Yeah, definitely. And I think that's more because, like, we have so much access to, like, information, frame data in the game, you know, all these different guides that, like, come out on YouTube, like tech that's going on on Twitter. Like, everybody has the potential to be a great player as long as they're putting in the work. It's not easy. It's definitely not easy. It's not easy at all. But these guys have been putting in that work. And we have each other, like, thanks to Twitter and for us all coming together and finding that tech. Like, people be trying to hide it, but you can't hide it for long. Someone's going to post it. And it's always like the top level players, they be trying to hide it. And then, like, one of the newer guys, they post it. Like, oh, look what I found. They're like, I could have won. I could have won. I could have won. If only I knew. So it looks like on stream, we've got Jer coming all the way down from her. Yeah, so I'm not sure if I have the pool assignment right, but Jer is someone who's been in the community for a very, very long time. Oh, my gosh. So I think, yeah, the pool I have is should be Titanium Tigers and King Gambler's pool. So Jer, veteran all the way back from the MK9 days and kind of kept going, popping up in different NRS games as the time has come up. And I believe this is Triclops, which is Jer's first opponent. Triclops and Justice 2 player playing atrocities from what I remember. My gosh, bro. Like, we got so many throwbacks. What I love about MK1 right now is that we have so many callbacks from the older players and the newer players coming in. Like, a lot of players that came up, like, literally a lot of players that came up during MK11 are going to be playing to MK9. They're like, who are you? Oh, you don't even know. This is like your uncle. You don't even know, bro. You don't even know. You don't understand. Shoutouts to Forever King, the MKXL champion at the community throwdown. He posed for one cue. And then we have to check. He just knows. What does Witte do, bro? And then I have my family sitting right behind Triclops. You can't see them. But that is my wife, Chelsea. And Noah is around there somewhere. My fun little three-year-old who just loves being in the environment, loves being in the atmosphere. He's super excited to be at his first major tournament. And that's so great. The family's important. And they had another one on the way. Congrats, you, Armor. Thank you, man. This is a father and a full-time consecrated trying to do his thing out here again. Must respect to Armor, man. He's gave me praise. But I've learned a lot from him as well. So it's great being in this moment with them. And these boys have been talking for a little minute. It looked like they're trying to figure out what the button's doing. Yeah, they're trying to figure out. So Jer, I haven't really seen a lot. So Jer is a little bit more low-key. Yes, he has been. That's really streamed. But I don't doubt that he's been grinding with longtime friends, first-to-death player matches. So I don't think Jer's going to come into this unprepared. But I'm really glad they picked this match for our first stream. Because even though it's a first-round game, it's going to be sweaty. It's definitely going to be sweaty. And that's why I tell you that competition ceiling is like, everyone's at, I would say, the 70% mark off-route because the tech that's being shown and how good people are becoming that much faster. It's not just like, you have to worry about the randoms in the bracket because they can be very solid. It truly is going to happen. And I just, I love Upsets, I don't know about you guys, but I love seeing a person like, oh, you thought he was going to win? No, whole brackets ruined. Bracketology out the window. Man. I agree with you, 100%. I'm always rooting for the underdog. I want to see the Upsets. I want to see that person take it to the next level. We're going to see a lot of that this weekend, especially if you look at the way that the seating was structured. It's very hard to seed super great players like Sonic Fox and Ninja Killa, who haven't specifically done anything in this game yet, but their presence in Mortal Kombat 11 and all the games prior are so dominant that you can't say that they don't have a chance of winning this entire tournament. Yes, like too strong. Yes. And on the other hand, you have players like Pulse, a little bit newer to the scene, a little bit, especially newer in finding their footing, their dominance in this game. But Pulse has been entering every Mortal Kombat one tournament online, offline, coming to MKNJ, going as much as possible, and he's been putting in the work. And that's what you're going to see. You're going to see those different types of players clash this weekend. And I can't wait to see it on Pulse. Truthfully, like Pulse has been, in my opinion, he's definitely top five in U.S. right now. He's been so consistent in the online tournaments. And just, it's really great to see those online worries. I love this camera. Look at that angle. And look at the kid. There's Noah. That's my son, Noah. Oh, because the Toy Story Hoodie is, oh, oh my God. Look at him. Pop on camera. Look at him. Yeah, so he's excited to see some Mortal Kombat action. Raiden versus Shao Kahn. I didn't see what cameos were picked. I want to say, I would assume that Tricops is playing Shao Kahn, big body boys. We're loud, though. I'm assuming we're loud, right? He has a sub-sector. OK, interesting. So we're going to have some missile setups. We're going to have, and on the other side, we've got a little bit more traditional route with Syrex as the cameo. Yeah, Jir is going to be on the left side, hailing all the way from, I believe, the Montreal area. Oh my God. 44 to stop force. OK, Jir, he's always the only one. Like, he's on the quick way. He needs to get this match done. Because why did you just lose almost 50% health in the fight? We're making a statement here. Watch out for the Oki. OK, good blocks. Jir, as soon as I say that, he does get opened up here by the overhead. Oh, man, you really hate to see.  He's swinging no missed. Oh, I think he thought he was going to swing a little bit more afterward. So he was anticipating more of a whiff to get the whiff punish. Love the sneaky tech there. The poke getting canceled into a very annoying move that can be backed up by Syrex. Comes a sector missile, forcing you to block the second onslaught of offense. And he might be dead, actually. That was a couple of hits into Fatal. And this Fatal does a decent amount. It's close, man. I feel like the Fatals usually give you around 40% depending on what combo, depending on what Fatal blow. Oh, he's alive. He's still alive. 43% not enough to do it. Trying to chip him out, but no, he's out of there. Oh, he does it again to Chip. Chip is the problem. Look at it. Syrex coming in. So much chip, and no, he gets clipped. He's not going to be able to break, and that's going to do it, yo. Jir with the real master comeback. Just off rip. That was good. That was pure just patience. Like, yes, I'm in a bad situation, but a few right decisions can turn this around. And it all started with that Superman to keep him in the air. But watch out. Speaking of the air, it comes the missiles to keep the offense from Shao Kahn going. I'm sorry, General Shao. General Shao, he knows all about the missile, but he does not know about this war. That's this ban. It's about to start. Another back throw. He is one more. Tryclops is big, because this we put him in the corner. But the problem is Jir knows how to get out. I'm a right back at you. Second to keep him locked down. I like that when a guy's when the missile goes up, it's coming down. So you got to be aware and he can call it in front or behind or on top of that. Right. You have to think about the mind game. That I know it with.  But that might not be a situation. I thought that was going to be a punish when he got up. No, this could be bad for tryclops. Don't let it be come back two times in a row. Don't let it be a come back two times in a row. How is he alive? How is he alive? No, he just does it again. He didn't care. He thought Cyrex is going to come in and save him. But no, the helicopter parent isn't enough. You need more. That was like split second, like slow mo. Like I saw that in slow motion as it was happening. Cyrex just helicoptering towards you. And I'm like, is it going to be fast enough? Oh, no. But yeah, that's the thing with Raiden.  Decimate your health bar. 44% for having one bar and the fact that you don't have access to break away. I'm sorry, it's a breaker. I do the helicopter parent doing the thing by one more time. Hey, it's a lot of fire over here. I would like to go back midscreen, too. No, OK. I guess we stand over here there. It's plus. Oh, why do you try to press? Oh, he tried to come in, grab with you with the overhead. Blessing this cadenza, pushing midscreen. Oh, he poked out. You got to trade somehow. Somehow in his favor, he got the trade. He's still alive. Never mind. Wait, what, .3? I mean, he had. He must have just earned that bar. There was like nothing left there. There was nothing left there. And again, in this game, like, yeah, you can fall this block to reduce the chip damage. But when you have, like, all these different special moves from Raiden, all these different special moves from Cyrex and the cameo coming in to help you out, like, it is so hard to keep track of all that. And eventually, you're going to get tagged. Now watch your toes. And you're going to hold 40% like that. Was it worth it? I want you to ask yourself, was it worth it? I don't think it's ever worth it. So, one, think about the throw when you're fighting Raiden. Or, two, think about the overhead too much. You want to block the low. The low is what you're going to hit confirm into damage. And, you know, the overhead, you can kind of see it. You see it coming your way. And you try to react to it. But that's the main thing you want to watch out for. You don't want to get opened up by either one of those. At all. And overhead coming in again. Remember, he can actually get a full combo from the overhead, which is very scary with the Cyrex, so it can become a little nuisance if they can actually know the timing for it. Because now you've got to worry about the overhead low and the throw. And he can hop again. Oh, my goodness. Again, watch your head. You have to watch out for that low. That's going to be that main route to damage. And then once Raiden is like, OK, this guy's not letting go low, I'm going to go with either the harder to react overhead that doesn't lead into too much damage. Or I'm going to try to cash out big time. And it looks like we're going into the next game right away. It might be these triclops not taking a second to think about that. He's going right back in, but he's going right back. Yeah. Yeah. And then the score is 2-0. One game away. So this is triclops. He's character locking himself here with Chau Khan. Yeah. Big change you guys do now know. If the loser does change characters, the winner does have the option to change characters. Yeah. That's also another mind game to think about when you're switching your characters. Exactly. Yeah, you've got to anticipate it. And it's just going to add utility whenever you go to a different cameo. Yes. Pretty good damage here, corner carry. Let's wake up. Let's wake up. Why not? I'll be tired, but no, you've got to get up the tops. Got a good one. One second. Show me some of the sauce. Interesting choice of juror to hold on to that. He had the breaker available, but just opted to wait it out. Maybe think we need to drop something. Hold on to full charge. I think that's it. What are you going to do? You can follow us, Block it, maybe. Maybe? The pressure right there. When you see Cyrus coming at you sometimes, you get weak in the knee, you know? It gets kind of terrifying. A little unstable there. Your mentality. Oh, that's a time to drop. No, he interrupted that.  I don't want to see it. Oh my god, the rocket was still there. I forgot all about the rocket. We all did. It went up. The shout didn't know. That's why you beat the combo. Look at that. 3-13, and he makes out the arm. Good punish. Good punish here. Forcing him to come off all three bars in order to access that breaker. Air to air going to go in favor of juror, but doesn't get too much off of it. Flawless Block to reduce the chip damage. Good stuff by tri-crops. Let's go Block it. That's a great amount of time. I guess the throw, yeah, like I was just saying that Flawless Block in this game works a little bit different than the last game. It's kind of like a bonus for a period of time. You're just taking no chip at all. No, he gets the dunk, but he didn't get to finish. Oh, boy. Tri-crops. Don't drop it here. Oh, no, it's a fatal. Oh, you know, kick it to launch. I'm not going to get a regular launch there. So much chip damage he's holding. Tried to dash it for a punish, but nothing out of that. No, he bumped up in his face. How disrespectful. And look at the chip you're holding. It wasn't enough. And that's going to do it, yo. Tri-crops. 0.43 health armor. 0.43. Nothing left. Literally nothing left on his health. But Tri-crops lives to see another round. It was a chest piece that did it. That's that level 12 armor. Indeed. Ha, ha, ha. Wait a second. I want to put it on him one more time. Oh, he dropped it. It dropped towards the end. Tri-crops, you got to make this happen. You got to make this count. You got to make this hurt. Throwing him on the ax, picking the ax back up. And here comes the sector missile. Respect him with your. That's plus three. We don't care, though. Bye. The low, the low. And wait, big punish. He's going to need a bulk of this damage before he can breathe. Oh, he goes for the restance of command grab. No, even with a plus. I like it. I like it. I love it. I love it. Yeah, no access to that. No access to any kind of armor move right away. Did Tri-crops really turn this around? The missile does get hit out of the air. Oh, my gosh.  My clops is going to stay alive and put the set at two to one armor. He might make this happen. He was on the verge of getting three O's. Like he had 0.43 away from getting three O'd. And I think what would really happen here was the Tri-cops picking on the fact that when Jir is getting comboed, if he's not in a huge life deficit, instead of going for the breaker, he's like, I'm going to hold on to the bar because I want to wake up with it. But when you do that in this game, when you wake up with your armor moving cost bar, that means you're not going to have the breaker, which means it's going to hurt when you get punished. You earn your back pretty fast. If you use that bar, you're going to take the cost of that. You're going to take that full combo in this one. Oh, my God. That's a big whiff, but it's with no commitment. There's some of your commitment issues, Jir. Not like this. Someone's shift. That's it. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I'm not sure if that's a punish there. I think he just wasn't walking. Yeah, I think he was trying to let go. Maybe he's still ducking. Something was going on there. Breaker does come into play here from Tri-cops. Jir still does have access to it, but I'm not going to really see that come into play if Tri-cops goes for throws. If Tri-cops goes for really short combos. He went for it. He doesn't have the bar to extend, but wait, what's the move here? He wants to throw. He wants to throw. He's too far away. Helicopter can't save you. He tried to get Sector into this. He tried to get Sector in the mix there to try something. And then at the very end of Cyrex's helicopter, it clipped him off the screen. So I'm not really able to get that offense going. Oh, that's good, man.  You missed time, you're meaty. Try to do some off of it, though. The ax still on the ground. Oh, he's out of there. Yeah, that's the super frustrating thing about fighting Raiden is when you do get him in the corner, they're just going to air Superman out of there. But you can anticipate it. If you've got the right moves, you can punish that. Sure, I'd like to have to break so you don't take the both of these. He doesn't break. He doesn't break. He's thinking about that wake-up option. Yeah, down two and like nothing. Raw down two out of the wake-up. Good shot. Locks him down with a rocket. The passive is active. But guess what? It's still plus my guy. I don't care. Counter hit because why are you bashing my plus rings? Hold the ax and you're standing in the corner. Yo, try gloves. I'm seeing the adjustments being made real quick. Huge adjustments, and it really comes down to respecting Jeremy when he's on the ground and kind of managing that meter and understanding, like, OK, he's got this meter. What is he going to do with it? Why is he holding onto it? Why is he refusing to break it? And I don't know if I really agree with it. Again, he's still doing it. He wants to wake up like that. So I'll do the rocket without the recovery, but plus rings, it's a more chip. Side right coming in one more time. Watching the toes, that's good. The armor's right through. Guess what? I want to see the side of the screen now. High clumps. He's with us. All right, he has a break. Let's see what you'll do with it. The EX1, I believe, or the enhanced version is safe for the most part. Yes. Minus 12 with so much pushback. Yes. The down one, the nose. All right, we only hit that mid swing. Nice. Oh, if he combo'd up that, I would have lost my mind. It was almost like it messed up his own combo, like he wasn't anticipating the rocket and kind of forgot about it himself. Oh, yeah, I sent that out. That's it. Oh, wait a second. I had to meter the break. Jerry, what is your move? You teleport? Rocket got out of the way. The overhead. One more mix is all that's needed, but he wakes up with the button. Tryclops has now tied it up. Game off. Do you think the fact that Jerry knew how close he was to making this 3-0 is eating him right now? Nothing's more terrifying as a player, I do admit. When you're up 2-0 and then they take that game, the automatic, the first thought is back ahead, like, I can't get the first 3-0. And it does play a factor. And now it can actually come to 3-0. Don't give him a 3-0. Yeah, the score is tied up 2-2. Jerry looking a lot better this time, though. Getting a ton of damage, very reminiscent of that first round where you just get, you know, you get that opening, you get that bonus meter, and you're just in a great position. Too much of a good position. What we did talk about is that Shows was one of the characters that gave the extra 100 health. He has a base, so that's why he's been able to take a lot of these hits. This is the big boy. And he deserves to know this a lot. He got all the armor, he's very tall, and he has a big axe. I don't know about you guys, but I can't hear his axe around the bush. I don't know that thing, said. And he's looked the whole human with it. What? It's a very fitting, very fitting extra 100 health. Wake up Superman from Jir, and he is on round. And I'm sorry, it's set point. If he does win one of the next two rounds, it's all his. But this was close, either way, no matter what happens when you're on out here. I feel like Shrine Claw actually wants the first round of every single game they played in here, but he just made the adjustment. Yeah, it's kind of a slow and patient game plan getting a little disrespectful there. And I don't know if he was trying to expose the gap. And if some character's in back dash during that string, I don't know, Shao Kahn being a big boy, I don't think he can. Oh yeah, no, he ain't got quick feet like that. He can't move like the others do. That's why you need to help assist the second move. OK, a little sneaky there with this sweep. Jir wasn't counting on it. Just lift, open the festival, and again, push through on the board. This is tough, because he's not going to build enough breaker. Yeah, I think he's good. Yeah, he's literally quite literally cooked.  Jir, say, OK, I am not giving you a real, that's not a good look to me or my mental. And he's going to screw that. It was a good set, though. The fact that, again, like, that kind of just shows you the mentality of a seasoned player like Triclops to be in that situation, to be down to absolutely nothing and saying, no, I'm still in this. I can still do this. Although Jir did give him a little bit of that in that first game, I want to say it was, like, second round. He did, like, wake up Superman to avoid, you know, the low hit that's on the ground from Shao Kahn's axe. But, you know, it's it definitely takes a little very, very strong person mentally to be able to fight through that. Because it's it's very easy to call it quits. Very easy to call it quits. And, like, that's it's the mental fortress who we talk about a lot. Like, as we get this, it's beautiful. It's to replay the response about that Mountain Dew. Thank you, guys. But look at the axe being thrown, the fatal being hit. Ooh, we the damage. Yeah, this was the situation where the where Jir, like, survived that and, like, somehow made the comeback. And Jir, I thought it was going to be a 3-0, like, steamroll. I thought it was going to be, like, nothing shifting back, especially after that second game, Jir, super dominant. But this is where Triclops started waking up and catching on to Jir's wake-ups, baiting out more things down to nothing. Look how much health he had, nothing. He thought that was going to chip and it didn't. The .43, I'll tell you that 1,100 health really does add a factor. That's true. If he was any other character, he would have been dead a long time ago. But it's just so much you can do. And, like, this is, like, I expected this type of match from these two veteran players, because they've been in the scene for just quite a bit. So, like, they have that mental fortitude to go through these brackets and, like, you know, beat down and, like, got a dig deep to get to that. And the same thing with Jir, like, on Jir's side of things, about he had to back his mind, I'm about to give a verse for you. That's the mental thing you've got to get past, too, not just when Triclops was doing this thing. It was tough for both players to endure that. All this match right here, all happy. This is Butter from the lamb versus BDG. Oh, Butter is a MKX, really just a strong MKX. And he's been doing his thing for a minute. BDG has been going to come up as a reason to do an MK11. He picked up MK11. He liked Sonya. He says, great. Sonya's not in this game. Oh, my God, I am so sad. But he's found his way with Smoke, and Butter has found his way with the Johnny. OK, and it looks like, according to the way the brackets laid out, Butter won over Wolfie935, now facing off against Big Daddy G. And I don't know how this is going to, have you been keeping tabs on the training regiments of these players? Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes. BDG trains very closely with people like Ninja, with people like K-Mac. That's quite a privilege to be able to train with Ninja. People like Schiezer. Like, BDG has always had that confidence. However, Butter has also played with people like Ninja, but trains heavily with unbearable skill. Unbearable skill, if you guys want to know, is a very strong MKX player and has some success in MK11 as well. So Butter is one of the, in my opinion, Butter is the underdog in this situation, but the underdog you must look out for. He is very strong, and he's been showing that through past experiences as well. Again, it's just kind of, it's very cool to see players utilizing those resources and getting to that next level. Yeah, getting to that next level, and I think that's what we're going to see here. We're going to see Smoke facing off with Johnny. You ever think about playing Vegas? I think Big Daddy G is playing Smoke in this scenario. Yes. And Johnny, Johnny with Cyrex. We've kind of seen a lot of that. Oh, yeah, we've seen a lot of that. A very stable, very go-to pick for a lot of players who are versatile in being able to play multiple characters. You've got to have at least a pocket job. Always, always. The Kung Lao is actually one of the cameos where people argue that it's actually better than Cyrex. Interesting. Because he's so strong with the utility of the low hat being plus two. And you holding this, you're facing very hard to block those situations. And with Smoke, Smoke has over-hitted lows. Oh, yeah, he could definitely mix them, but this is from his corner right now, holding the block low. He's doing a good job of keeping the patience, though. And I see the fuzzy guarding attempt coming out of him. So I think Butto needs to kind of change up the timing a little bit if he wants to throw Big Daddy G off. The Kansas right now, he goes to business since tomorrow. And guess what?  But doing it while invisible is insane to me. Oh my god. There's no visual reference. You've got to go completely by field. That Kung Lao was just doing so much work. Why? Because it could cover all your gaps. Oh, he almost ducked that though. You saw that? He ducked it, but his knife just didn't reach far enough. It was very close. That could have been a really bad thing for Butto. I don't know if that was intentional to put himself in the corner there. The taunt? It gets a regular taunt. Did that man just taunt really? That's full screen like that? What's he on? I don't know. He's going to caulk you. Right now, he's going for a ride. Big Daddy G looking great. Trying to get that. I thought he was going to convert from that. But he's trying to get that hard to blockable setup going, where the low hat comes in right around the time that the overhead comes in. And you want to transition between both of them to keep your opponent guessing. Of course, Cyrix going to keep Johnny Cage's Shadow Kick super safe. And unfortunately, not safe from this throw. I thought that was going to be enough. But no, the down three is going to take it. Yo. Yeah, the back throw is doing only 11%. So had that been a forward throw, I think that would have been enough. But I don't think Big Daddy G was in a position to be really sweating it. Oh, nice blocking overhead. He messes up the cancel. And guess what that means? Big damage for Butter. You guys don't know. He mess up that cancel. That's minus 15. And that's definitely a big punish. Nice armor break, but didn't commit. Yeah, it kind of was. I think he was just anticipating staggering. Beautiful up block here from Big Daddy G. Very easy way to anti-air somebody. But very easily baited out. Go for an empty jump and you get that with punish on the recovery. But it's going to two bars. No, he decides to save it. Just has to hold to 10%. Oh, try to go for it. But it's a no is coming through. Next, but he's holding it for another throw. The back was right this time. Man, Johnny, he's just trying to defend his own. Why is it strange for him to come into his home trying to think he's doing anything but to smoke? They were much right now. Does Follower's Block to avoid all that chip damage and still stay in this? That Follower's Block was crucial. He's still invisible all about the state. Was it just a chip? Or was it just an easy Cyrex net? But that's OK. The Follower's Block that led into that. I'm not sure why he didn't hold it there. It looks like Johnny Cage was going to fall right onto it. But that's OK. We're going invisible. You don't see me. I'm going for all this damage here. Kung Lao set up. Where is he at? It doesn't matter where you're at. Look at that knee. Whoa, whoa, whoa, this man's taunting just like this in the middle of the Buddha. You do realize this is serious, right? You're at East Coast Third Down. You're playing on the stage at East Coast Third Down. You're on the Netherrealm screen right now. The man doesn't care. He gets another cancel. He'll be easy right now. He's definitely putting another grab into another setup. Oh, it was so much. And the cancel afterwards, he'll be easy. Keep taunting. So I love that setup there at the end. He doesn't complete the combo. Instead, cancels into the Kung Lao low hat to make sure that he doesn't do anything on that wake up. And I believe Smoke was able to stuff any kind of armor if it was coming that way. Again, all these setups are brand new.  Love the whiff punish. Love the whiff punish there at that back three. Gets it with a nut punch closer to the corner. And this is where it's really scary to fight against Johnny Cage. With your back up against the wall, no wiggle room at all. And you just got to, like, fearfully poke for your life to get out of here. He's trying to do that now. Oh, it goes for the up block and gets blown up for it. Yo, he's going to have to break this. But you have a huge life lead. Don't mess it up. And oh my gosh. Lesson, BDD's head. And that is going to be a tie up one to one to walk down. I love to see it, man. I love to see the back and forth between these players. And again, the adaptation jumping over. And just like I said, up block is very easy to pull off, but also easy to break out. If you guys do not know if you up block and they made it, they can go for a low to get a full combo punish. Or if they throw you, the throw does more damage. And that adds even more damage to sudden command grab. I'm looking at you, Lyco. Yeah, it's a ton of damage is possible there. So you're always taking a huge risk going for that up block. That's the man canceling while invisible, you can say. You can say. Oh my god. Low. And cancel the kick. The low, the overhead, the low, the overhead. One of these things is coming out.  And now, obviously too much. I think that was a flawless. I don't think butter got his hands anywhere on smoke. Just constantly going for a ride, going into mixed city. That's OK, though. New game, new round, no problem. Jumping in big kicks right to the face.  It was a set shot to jump out, but none of that. You still got a guess for your life. Nice down one. He knew he was there. He knew he could feel him right next to him. Sinked him. Nice flawless block negating that chip. Yeah, really timing it well. Every time Cyrix comes on the screen, flawless block, minimize that chip. That is a super high level tactic that you're seeing right before your eyes. Oh my god, that was a cool combo from PDG. I think he's going to go for another setup after this. Oh, yeah. Where is he? Where is he? I don't know, but I knew where he was. He just poked him and he's going to switch positions with him. Buddy, you need to take this. Very nice. Keep him locked down. The staggers. And what's so interesting, that whole sequence, none of that did chip damage because there wasn't enough time between the staggers strings because Big Daddy G flawless block that first one. Like there, right there. You have to give him time to breathe or else it's not doing anything. You can still see all this flawless blocking. It's not doing anything. Oh, guessing with the force, PDG going up 2 to 1 over Butter right now. And I think I'm seeing the frustration coming out of Butter where he feels like I'm doing all these things.  You should be panicking. But Big Daddy G keeping his composure solid, solid, solid foundation here in this defense. That's what he is. Guess what? How's he? That's overhead, right? That's overhead. I can't even see it. I don't even know what he hit. I know PDG. No, XPDG don't know what he hit. All he knows how to do the cancel. I'm going to take this. How do you see? How do you navigate through that? It's another hedge. It's still plus. Oh, we don't care. We got the invincibility. I like that. Oh, misses the cancel. But he just gets hit instead. And this actually, yeah, this is looking like a mic to the PDG. Just to make sure that he has it over Butter right now. Yeah, and he's running away with it. OK, gets out of there. But again, he's holding that Kung Lao hat so long that even if you get out of there, it's like, OK, you still have to hold it. And it can at least apply pressure where you're going to crumble and you're going to fall apart. He's putting in so little work right now just to cancel off the hooks as well. He reads the throw and he has to break. A little too obvious. A little too obvious there. A little too desperate in that corner. He's going to toss and Kung Lao popping out of his hole and going right back into it. What does he go? I wonder. So, hey, it doesn't matter. He's right back on the screen. Goes back once again. And that might do it. So PDG not dropped the combo. No problem. No problem at all. Big Daddy G advancing the bracket over Butter. And man, that was a very close set in the beginning. But I think