ns through the year but Dragon always seems to rise to the top and really establish himself as just that next level, right? Not to say there aren't other good setrion players but the proof is in the results. And Ninja Killer is just that absolute perfect example of an online player's success story, right? For those of you living under a rock that haven't heard of Ninja Killer, he was just an online player back in the MKX days. Very young competitor, very young guy. Here with his family, shout out to the family of Ninja Killer, obviously here in the crowd, supported him as always throughout the year.  But there was always that air of kind of pessimism from some people, like, is he really that good? Or is it just online? Now, here we are about a year and a half later and he's one of the highest seeds going into the world finals. Dragon is the brick wall of defense and Ninja Killer just oozes natural skill. There is just so many amazing small details that go behind his decision making, his reactions. Optimized knowledge, the smallest little thing that happens in a matchup with like a Liu Kang. And Liu Kang is his favorite character. We know that Ninja Killer can play multiple characters but Liu Kang really is his bread and butter. It's the character that put him on the map in Mortal Kombat X. The best execution we had ever seen. Blowing everyone away. Liu Kang was hard to play in that game. Do you think the optimized close and the hit confirms? That was hard. And Ninja Killer just made it look like it was not. Very few players can make the hardest execution in the game look at that. But that is what we're going to see Liu Kang versus Settra. Now, Ninja Killer has actually been playing variation three Liu Kang today as well. Now, that's the one thing that makes me the most interested about watching Ninja Killer is, again, that willingness to thoroughly master a character. And if that means playing all the variations, so be it. I mean, if you're going to have a favorite character, it makes sense to at least try them out. I had a chat with Ninja Killer yesterday said, why do you pick variation three? What are the circumstances? And he said when the low viable doesn't serve a purpose, V3 is great. He betrayed the balance of all things. Okay, here we go. It's Beast Coast Dragon, CGL Ninja Killer. Expect mayhem right here. But so far the projectile game, which is what we expect from this race. Settrion, she is going to be that character that wants to keep your arms reach. She can play amazing footsies. And we know Dragon can, but Ninja Killer is going to look to get in and establish a counter hit on the forward four, but we're not going to spend the crushing blow just yet. Definitely worth saving that crushing blow on the forward four for a rainy day. Spend the bar on that bicycle kick. Just make sure that you get that extra crushing blow requirement tick off. Liu Kang very much a character built around those crushing blows. If you fight a Liu Kang in round three and he hasn't used any yet, you are in serious trouble. I always use this term kind of like a win condition character. Liu Kang is definitely one of them. If you aim for the crushing blows in round three, then you just have this ultimate advantage, which is kind of hard to beat. The roar jumping. Those air ball projectiles do make your jump into a little bit harder to answer yet because it can stop your jump at any point. But now here comes Ninja Killer, the stackers. Bicycle kick and we're going to spend amplifies a tick towards that crushing blow. Similar to Joker, three amplified bicycle kicks. The next one crushing blows for damage. So I always forget that that front throw has that like little extra bit of damage when you hit the floor. I'm like, oh, he survived it. Oh, never mind. But a good first round for Ninja Killer. Now, if you remember, since the last time we saw them play, wow, that knowledge, get that rock out of my face. Councils almost immediately just to create the forward fall game and expand it further. But that's going to be a fall confirmed for Dragon. That's a knockdown. Natural barrier deceivingly active as a move. One of the best specials in the game. Absolutely. But push black dragon just wants to keep Ninja Killer as far away as possible. The rush down and Ninja Killer is so scary. You just don't want to mess with it. That's really good knowledge of Ninja Killer. If you do hit that air fireball, you go for a flying kick and still block in time.  Escape failed on the throat. Music to Liu Kang's ears. That's a grounded confirm. Keep things unbreakable. Speaking of unbreakable, nice chunk of damage into the restan situation barrier. Close up the startup. They all blows and play for Ninja Killer. That is all he needs. I really commend the patience of Ninja Killer right here. Normally known for amazing anti-air, but it's just not extending. Gets hit by a jump kick from Dragon at this health. You might die to be really careful. I've said he has that fatal blow. He still has that crushing blow throw as well. Oh, speaking of which, oh, just enough. All about going in. Now we know the scariest thing about that game, right, is it's so useful when characters hold onto a crushing blow and can kind of like build their offense around it. That was the only crushing blow we saw from Ninja Killer in that whole game. We didn't see the bicycle kick. We didn't see the uppercut. We didn't see the 4-4. The only one we saw was the throw. But the fact that it was held onto for so long is enough. You have this character just wants to get in your face and just give you a hard time. It's so strong. Even with that one crushing blow with Ninja Killer, absolute surgical with using it in practical gameplay. Just waits for the magic moment and it takes a lot of discipline to be able to do that. We're going into game number two now and there's the reversal punish. You've got to watch out for some of those projectiles in the range because the flying kick will punish it. Okay, and again teleport just to get out of the corner. Nice little junky damages to finish in the knockdown, giving Dragon positional advantage again. That's what Sentry on G plays for the range. Punish! No par either. Now that's actually also Ninja Killer's awareness of resources. You notice he doesn't really do many kind of neutral flying kicks just like out of nowhere. A lot of these like done on reaction to the boulder slap and stuff like that. But if he sees you haven't got resources for big damage, he will take risks because what are you going to do? Like 12%? Why should he care? All right, neutral crouch, clean finish there for Dragon. No need to go for anything complicated there with the life that was left. And it's going to be, I'm really forcing this match up. This is going to be the match. It's going to be Ninja Killer trying to close in the space, Dragon, playing foots even necessary. But ultimately, if I have range over you, I don't want Ninja Killer anywhere near me. Historically Ninja Killer has had the best over, wow, that was incredible. Has had the best over Dragon in a number of the sets this year. So you know Dragon, now this is the biggest stage. Dragon is going to want to be able to really finally seal the deal in this environment. You know that's what he wants. No better place to do it. Sledgehammer, he tries to reversal punish. Little bit of a mishap there from Ninja Killer, misjudging the frames perhaps. But isn't it a full punish, wake up buttons all the same? Liu Kang, there's just something about this character where players can be on the money, conversion as well, trying to jump out. I'm going to go for that resan situation. Fatal blow to play for Ninja Killer again. If he can land a clean confirm. Dragon is like on the cusp. He's like less than a percent away from his own Fatal Blow. Oh, now he's there. That's going to put him there. Eldercut. So he has the opening here. Oh, no, the roar forward, forward just to catch you ducking. But when Liu Kang's doing that position, it's so scary. His grabs are some of the most effective in the game thanks to crushing blow. His mid to so confirmable. You know what we said about going into round three, if you haven't used any crushing blows as Liu Kang. Oh, that is exactly where we are. It is party time for Ninja Killer right now. Dragon has to be impeccable on defense. Well, in the recent patch, let's not forget, Cetri on her far teleport cost two bars of defense. Now down to say goodbye to your teeth. And that's huge to get that defensive bar out of Ninja Killer. It means that Dragon could now be more aggressive and not worry about it. Just take the damage where he can. Scary position from this range. Have you really careful low fireball? Good chunk of damage. And that's right. Only just punish, but only just a little bit to the two shot range. Oh, oh, no, the down to again. Other plans for that dragon is not going to go for the breakaway. Try to save the bar. Pretend to be a last lifeline, but that one hurts. That one hurts so good. Ninja Killer now to zero up on Beast Coast Dragon. And it's a calm game. It's a disciplined game. And that's why I like watching these two gentlemen players because you're guaranteed this kind of quality, right? You're not seeing just two guys just, you know, banging rocks together and hoping for the best, right? You have two of the smartest players in the community and you're guaranteed good games. It's like I said before, though, the issue is they are both so good at the game, but Ninja Killer definitely does end to come off better when they play. So that's kind of more of what we're seeing right now, right? They've been two very good games, but ultimately Ninja Killer is taking it again. And you know Dragon doesn't want that to be the case. However, he has to turn it around right now or it's too late. He's in a tricky position. He has no choice but to get three games back to back on someone who's just to zeroed you very comfortably. It's quite a tall order. Let's see if Dragon's able to use the knockdown to guarantee a teleport out. And that is what I was getting out earlier on before as interrupted by the crushing blow. It was just how rude of the game. She had to spend two bars of defensive bar to escape the corner now, which means that central players, they kind of have to look for some more quirky and innovative ways to escape a corner without spending all your money. They just don't work the same anymore. Oh, that was a really important breakaway from Dragon. Oh, tagged by the low. A way of interrupting the gap, baiting you into trying to flawless block or press a button. And this is just a mauling from Ninja Killer now. Match point on Dragon. And we're one round away from the dream matchup. Cleanest offense in the biz, and this is why it's very difficult for Dragon. He doesn't have two bars of defense, so he can't physically teleport out even if he wanted to. Ninja Killer. He's slowly moving in for sledgehammer. But I feel like in this matchup, it's a game of damage. Dragon has the range advantage, but no, that flying kick was 1,000% reaction. And now Ninja Killer. Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, the confirmed clean damage and a knockdown escape failed. This is terrible news. So Ninja Killer's doing Liu Kang combos that have existed before he was born. Insane, imagine that. These whippersnappers that are just so godlike. But this is scary now for Dragon. Doesn't want to get grabbed. Doesn't want to get hit. Oh, no. Oh, barely alive. This is the last lifeline for Dragon. Has to pull out a miracle now. There's no time left. I mean, he's got a fatal blow. I don't want to say it's impossible. Ping! Teleport! Dragon finds the perfect moment. Spends the fatal blow. Absolutely worth it. And steals the round right from underneath Ninja Killer. That was a needle and a haystack teleport. The perfect time. Frames later, that would have been blocked. Perfectly played from Dragon. Fatal blow is going to be gone, though. And that is quite the thing to lose going into a final round. There's a fatal blow than the set, though. Again, twice. Here we go. Grabs. Trice attack, but remember, grabs. Not so easy to deal with if you're trying to press a button to tech. And there's the pushback. Dragon riding momentum. Trice to confirm. That's exactly what we're seeing right now. This is momentum from Dragon.  And it has led into this just absolute sequence. You have to watch out with a natural barrier, putting yourself minus. That's a confirm, but again, no counter hit. So there's no launch. Have to am... Oh, the patience! Ninja Killer's ready for the teleport. Oh, my... I grab again. Good situation for Ninja Killer here. He's got so much bar. He has everything ready to go. And we're going to get even more worried. Now Fatal blows and play one single confirm. That's why he's sticking out. Oh, the launch! Yo, the high, the knowledge. Dragon still willing to do that. Full screen game. The wake-up roll just to get through. This is the last chance Ninja Killer really has. If he gets one clean confirm, this will be a 3-0. He tries! He tries, but remember, Fatal blow armor does not work the same way it used to. I do feel like that would have worked free patch as well. That was just so good from Dragon to know that he didn't have to worry about just the reactionary Fatal blow there. Before the patch, armor existed on frame five.  It takes longer for the armor to become active. Doesn't sound like much, but in those exact situations, it makes a big difference. Count the frames, baby. It matters a great deal with this level of play. But so far, Ninja Killer off to a pretty good start for damage. Dragon, oh no, not again! Perfect timing because Dragon just used bar to teleport in place. He went for another one that was kind of like fake-outs. And this is the adaptation, right? This is when two players of extremely high level begin to adapt to each other. Dragon made two massive plays off of just teleports at their perfect time. Wow! You want to down to me? I'll do the same thing back. Dragon going in for big damage here. But we saw before, Dragon got two massive plays off of the back of just two neutral teleports at perfect timing. Dragon in this game started things off by teleporting in place. You know he's trying to bait Ninja Killer into expecting like the exact same kind of thing right there, right? He's trying to bait Ninja Killer into pressing buttons because you can punish the teleport if you appear behind it. If you stay in place, you just make him with buttons. But Ninja Killer's not biting a button for button here. Have to be so careful. Both players, the crab! Oh no! Just enough, just enough. And Ninja Killer finds himself on another match point. He's having a fight for it. By no means is this easy, but Dragon back to the wall waits for the jump in, just sniffs out the over-aggression. But no, the teleport! Yeah, there's a counter hit! He's pressing buttons here. Dragon was getting a bit greedy trying to press after the teleport. But I mean, Ninja Killer hasn't been pressing every time, so I definitely understand why you think it worked. Now, the natural barrier doesn't have as much of a... Right there, right there. But Ninja Killer doesn't over-commit to the full string. Like he has these quick reactions. If it's not as whip-on-a-jibble, no bicycle kick! That's bad news. Dragon has no choice but to make another pretty difficult comeback in this situation. It's always possible, but it's gonna be tough. Dragon really trying to make the most of these long-range buttons. One thing's at you and does have over-leukanging. Just the absolute stand-up neutral. There's a standing one. There's a lot further than his. Oh, wow! That was dangerous! Absolutely. That could have been an interruption in the half. Right, take some plus frames. Here comes the load of punish. Very punishable. Dragon punish! Knowledge. Remember, you can duck the amplify on the low shot. Walking into these boulders right here. Most likely trying to force-block them. Get rid of that chip. Take away some of that advantage. But it is... Oh! Wait a second, Dragon. Dragon is fighting back-musted. And then some... One more round and we're gonna tie this thing up. Match point, time after time, and Dragon just refuses to die. He wants that win his finals. He can taste it. One round away from tying things up. That's it. It's all it takes.  Oh! ...is going for the short. See, he's really looking for, like, the hell's wrath and those arching projectiles which is with nicely, but the interruption. Unbreakable. Yes, indeed. Decent chunk of damage into position there for Dragon. Comes into a fireball, but that's all right with the health he's got so far. And Ninja Killer. He doesn't overextend. At this level of play players, they rarely stick out full strings if they know wake-up rolls are things. It's just not worth it. Stick out the individual button and confirm it if it comes out. If not, stay safe. But now Dragon again. Damage here and there, but he will consistently be out-damaged by Liu Kang outside of crushing blows. Goes for the play once more. Has to hold his turn. Scary situation back to the wall and no bar for a bar. I'll tell a patient from Dragon. He is not pressing anything. Individual buttons, blows off Ninja Killer. The grab, good stuff. And sending far away, which will be on Dragon using it as a chance to find out the corner. Fatal blow, it's locked and loaded. Oh no, watch out. This is scary now, Ninja Killer. One clean opening and this is game over. And that's not going to kill, but it's going to be chip territory. That last breath might save him. One more opportunity and there's the bar spent. Double Dragon rings it back two to two.  Come on now, Dragon. One more game and you know, there's going to be a lot of energy. I am so happy that he brought it back because this is a match that most of us are expecting to see at like every tournament and it's usually here, right? Winner sites up a Dragon Ninja Killer like, yeah, of course it's here. But no one wanted to see this be a 3-0. But not only is it not a 3-0, we might have a reverse 3-0. Only at the world finals, final combat 2020. Come on, first hit and first blood is going to go to Dragon Ninja Killer. There's kept character and variation all series long and that I think it really shows the confidence. This is less about the matchup and more just about player versus player right here. He's going to get a knockdown. What's the pressure getting hit individually? That's an easy confirm though. A bit more momentum heavy than we've seen in previous games. Ninja Killer much better for him now. Dragon looking for a whiff on his reach. Oh no, that was a huge surprise. Another bar spent. That's now two Ninja Killer. Oh, the floor is blocked. You hate to see it. But no damage to kill and Dragon finds the moment. If he, there's surely no chance. He makes this comeback surely. There's no chance. Don't say never. He's got a fatal blow. I wouldn't write it off. And with the button set. Oh, the mobility. This is set you on. She's so seen as a Zona, but she has so much more than that. Her footsies are impeccable. She is a hybrid through and through. When played optimally like this, absolute hybrid. But Ninja Killer, some long range buttons. He finds himself on match point for another time. But so consistently, Dragon has been bringing the set back, kicking and screaming. Now they just consistently trade. Wait for each other's turn. He can't lose. Liu Kang's on the Shaolin Lunks machine. Look, he's got that support. See the crushing blow. I think he heard you full combo now. Ninja Killer doesn't quite get the bicycle kick. This might be a costly drop. You know, maybe you hate to see it, but it might just happen. No damage again. Consistency disrespect. The disrespect gives a counter hit and dragon. He just wants out. Good damage there for Ninja Killer back to back. Oh, no, this could be disaster. That fatal blow. You can never count out a full screen set. You're on with that fatal blow. Least of all Dragon, he's fishing for it. Oh, that could be a whiff punish. Confirmed. Speaking of which, Ninja Killer fights the fatal blow. And Dragon goes down to the loser's bracket. It is going to be Ninja Killer versus Sonic Mountain. Winners finals at this final combat. Can you really say you expected anything? That's like, that was a insanely competitive match. Dragon really gave it all, but it's just ultimately the second Liu Kang. There's just this damage factor that is rarely matched in this game. Ninja Killer knows how to really fish for it.  And Ninja Killer just had that one moment. Yeah, it's, it's, it's so difficult. It really is especially in the hands of someone like Ninja Killer that you know has like so, like you said it, right? Natural skill, natural talent, which is also something that Dragon has. But the character choice that Ninja Killer has right in this Liu Kang. Liu Kang is a very strong character. There are, there are many good Liu Kang players around, but Ninja Killer's like personal blend of like absolute thorough knowledge of the game, knowledge of Liu Kang's character and ability to put those big brain, big risky plays, hard to do things into actual like practice. And we saw stuff like that, right?  And that's exactly what we saw there. Dragon credit where it is due was so close to bringing it back and taking that in that game five. You know, that was two zero. That was a good, quick two games. Ninja Killer and Dragon said, No, that is not going to end there. I mean, there's a significant difference in damage and that does matter in this final moment. Just clipped and you know, it's Ninja Killer. He wasn't sticking out the entire string. It was just one, two stand alone because Dragon was ahead of his leg. I was convinced that Dragon was going to get the whiff punish in that moment. As soon as Ninja Killer went for that like standing, you know, two punches and that's perfect range for, and Dragon's doing that all year. Seeing that go, Right. That's it. Round over whack, Hicked Firm, fatal blow gone next round. But we didn't see it this time. Ninja Killer was able to take that. But that is when his finals guaranteed Ninja Killer and Sonic Fox. Could it be any more perfect for people that have been following this game all year now? Losers bracket action. Oh, this is this is elimination period. But remember, it's top eight. Everyone in this top eight can feel proud of how far they've come. This was not an easy tour. Why I don't want to see anyone go. It's got to be done. It's got to be done. So our next matchup is going to be deoxys versus Tweedy. Ultimately, the question mark is going to be the character that Tweedy plays because we know deoxys has a really good chance of just Jackie upgraded. I know upgraded is quite the talk of the town at the moment and she is a very popular character for good reason. She's arguably the best. Her and Johnny Cage share that top spot. So while we get into this match, let's quickly talk about that for a second. There is absolutely no denying upgraded is probably the best character in the game. You know, there is a clear case to be made that she is at the very least top tier. Right. This is a very strong variation of a very top to minimum. I think very, very powerful, very popular, very common in tournaments. But when you see upgraded at this level of play, it is really hard to play her at the level that you see people like deoxys playing her because she isn't very pick up and play. Like, yes, she has the super jumps. Yes, she has like really good mix ups. But at the end of the day, like you need to have the execution to do it. You need to be able to make it work. And that's not to downplay the character at all. There is like, at this point, there is like no denying that the character is strong. But I don't feel like we're at a point that the character is like carrying anyone. Because look at who's playing her. Rewind, deoxys, Nivec. Like that's just a couple of them. Are we really going to see those players and say, oh, carried? Like how could you do that? At this level of play, if the character is good and you're a professional player, it is your responsibility to use the tools to win. I've got to say I'm really jealous for the players that have those small combat headset covers. Oh, you mean like the one's the MK on it? Like Tweedy's got right there. And the logo ones. Yeah, that's it. I wanted to give a shout out to Astro for supporting this event and providing some audio equipment. I believe the players are using the A40 headset and a Mix Amp. So shout out to you guys. I believe these ones are Comma Breaker. And I was lucky enough to get a couple of stream games at Comma Breaker. All right, don't flex too hard, mate. Yeah, man. You only made it to finals day. Fine, whatever. Get over it. Yeah, I've got pro comp points. How many do you have? I don't want to talk about it. It's fine. I don't want to talk about it. We don't need to talk about it. But Tweedy, we have to look at the potential matchup that's coming up. It could be Giris versus Jackie. However, Giris, not the character he used to be, although still undeniably very strong. Yeah, I heard Infinite Warden was bad. You hear lots of things. In this matchup, though, Jackie has always been one of the characters that has some hitbox related answers to Giris' pressure. And that's even harder. Now things like the forward two string has been adjusted and now characters universally have some more flawless block answers. And it's not as oppressive as it once was. So let's quickly talk specifics, right? So Infinite Warden used to be all over the place. Now most Giris players have either changed characters or they've gone to other variations. But there are a couple of people at the combats, the Tweedies that are really stuck with Infinite Warden. The changes made were, across the board, some combos aren't possible now due to a couple of changes on speed of the mid. But it's that main mid, right? That forward two one, that advancing punch. It was three hits. There was no gap. It was barely minus on block, which in layman's terms mean it was really good and it was safe as all hell. Yeah, had to hold it. Yes, you just had to deal with it and that was it. There is now a gap between the second and third hit. The speed of it generally has been changed, which means that some of the optimized combos are no longer possible. It's not as good as just used in the offense. But it by no means is bad, right? You just have to completely change around how you use it. It's not as free as it once was. So it looks like they have gone with the matchup. It does make sense. Tweedy has been grinding almost exclusively Giris for quite a while. One of the Premier Giris players out riding it now. It's going to be Tweedy versus Deoxys. Let's get this one stuck in. Looks like we're in. Oh, I'm going to... Yep, there we go. We're back. Good to go. Looks like actually Deoxys gets the first significant hit. But it's the patience. What Tweedy's been doing all day is just this fearless use of down one and four. That actually I think would have crushing blowed if it was a little bit closer. That's one thing Tweedy has always been really good at. It's just fishing for those counter hit, crushing blows. The ones that still exist for a while.  However, Deoxys has had a fantastic game so far. The flawless block consistently. That flawless block did not exist before the current patch. It was one of the main changes. That's actually both times we've seen that string. Both times Deoxys has flawless blocked. And I want to make sure I point out Deoxys was one of if not the best like infinite warden player back when you know kind of Evo sees about six months ago. So you know if anyone's going to know about how to abuse the changes of the character, it's got to be Deoxys. That jump was almost a full jumping. The grab is going to be a good start, Tweedy. As long as the fatal blow is ready, but Deoxys kind of risky there. I didn't want to go for a dash punch punish. Tried to just be a little bit more free. But either way, it's going to be around for him all the same and this is the oppressive nature of upgraded. You can anti air. You can interrupt. It's just the price you pay for messing up the execution is a full combo. And sometimes it just ain't worth the damage. I'm going to get some big opening here. A late breakaway. Most of the damage was already done. Body splash pressure, but interrupts the stagger. Deoxy snips it out. Good conversion to knockdown as well. It doesn't quite get the final hit. So there is damage left on the table. Oh, not there as well. Deoxys, the second Tweedy did a body splash at like the most annoying range. Deoxy went for that advancing mid just to get out of the way. Oh, the conversion from Tweedy. Look at the damage. This is going to hurt so good. Crushing blow. Got it. Oh my God. 50%. Come on now. Oh, no. I mean, we're talking about damage. I think we're about to see our own. Yeah. And that's to keep things unbreakable. Keep the damage nice and high. He's dead. He's like mad dead. Oh yeah, for sure.  He should rewind time or something. No, that never happened. I don't know what you're talking about. He doesn't rewind. It's Deoxys.  However, game one is done and dusted.  A 50% curious combo and Deoxys is like, I know a 50% combo does it immediately. I mean, let's not forget both of these players really made a name for themselves in Injustice 2. And I mentioned that because upgraded the leap pressure so similar to Blue Beetle, which was Deoxys' premier character pick at the time. I mean, I'm rated as a bit better than Blue Beetle was, but the mobility is there, right? Clearly doesn't mind playing these high-octane quick characters. That looked like a buffer to me just in case it connects. And here's the grab. Every time you grab, you put your life on the line. But Tweedy is just so fearless with it. When you whip a grab in this game, you are the most vulnerable. You have ever been in any NRS title, but it doesn't stop Tweedy from just enforcing it and getting a full combo for his trouble. There's two grabs. I mean, he doesn't care. Tweedy just doesn't care about you. That's the way he plays, right? He enforces that mid. He enforces that throw. It doesn't matter who he plays with, no fear. I've never seen him ever crumble under the pressure of playing a specific opponent. He just doesn't let it bother him. Tweedy said it earlier today. He is in this tournament. Oh, that is an unfortunate breakaway. And Tweedy had that clutch last-game situation against Ninja Killer. It just didn't quite win it. But Tweedy has had quite the day. And Deoxys, that super close game against Tekken Master, these are two players that have fought tooth and nail to be here. And now they will fight tooth and nail even more so. Tweedy mentioned earlier today he's looking to take out the big names and he's every bit confident he can. But the conversion, Deoxys, picks up the jump, heads to Tanya, the low. I mean, no damage and very unsafe, but it just makes you fear. Jump-ins are overheads, right? So the low, I mean, it's the mix. It is the eternal mix and the mix continues. Speaking of mixed Deoxys, it's letting those low ground pounds go. One of the only things in Jackie's toolset that is just straight up unsafe. So the point that you rarely see it, which is probably why we're seeing it work so much. If it's unsafe and you use it sparingly, it's still a really vital tool to go for. The body's clash, throw escape finally comes out from Deoxys who looks for it. They are going to trade, so it's going to give Deoxys a turn. And there's the tech knowledge. She's so small, she can make some strings with and get a counter hit punish, which is exactly what just happened there and why gearers players hate this matchup. But that was counter hit too. Because it's an active move, you're going to get those big boy damage combos. Oh, what's next? Goes in for that meaty jump. Does one over extend too much, Deoxys. And again, the gap. The floor is blocked. The side switch as well. This is a scary position if you're Tweedy. Wonderful throw tech. Now, this is chip. Even at this point, Deoxys doesn't even need punishes. He just needs to keep him blocking. Keep blocking. You'll block yourself into an early grave and a dash punch to the chrome dome. All right, here it is. That's two games to zero now. Deoxys looking absolutely unstoppable. Not at all surprising to see him with this level of matchup knowledge, right? Deoxys, he was one of the best infinite warden players back before Upgraded came out. Of course, he's going to know how to have used this matchup. Now, this might inspire a character change. I think Tweedy is looking for it. He's going through the roster. He plays a simple and effective gearers. And there's the Baraka. Did you hear it? It was Baraka. Baraka. His first ever pick. I just think of what happens and he plays a very effectively but basic gearers game. The moment you have that knowledge to make the main strings that Tweedy uses with, it kind of shuts down that whole game plan. So I think he has felt forced to go for a character change. I mean, Tweedy just has that primal Baraka. But it's Berserker. What? Okay. Well, question mark. We might see some tech right here. Berserker Baraka very rarely used, but dangerous all the same. And there it is. More of that. The damage is pretty insane for this variation and he should be able to get some combos. Yes. One of the Baraka variations that if he counter hits 4-4-4 can actually get a special on the end. We don't see very much Berserker Baraka at all, but it is the variation that gets the Blade Lunge. It gets the Baraka Zerker, which is like the Flurry. And it gets the Legkabob, which is the low stab. The Legkabob is safe. Everything else is not. But there is a mind game between when you can floor the Splatoon on that. It's a very tricky variation by Baraka Normal Standards. However, Deoxys knew that Tweedy was going to come in swinging and that's he's like, Wait, what? No! The 1-1 whiff. You hate to see it too far away. He made the right read. It was just a hares length too far away and then the ship damage and the very least Deoxys gets himself in the corner. So Tweedy at least has that, but it's a shame how that all happened off the whiff of the 1-1. That was highly unfortunate, but nice pick up and a punch to the jaw. Here comes Baraka, one of the stronger down twos for the angle alone. Backing up now has been really careful. Opened up by the two hit and the breakaway was forced. Having to break away, upgrade the Jackie can be a horrible situation. It just opens up off so much.  It begins. Nearly a chase down. What is even going on here? Never ending pressure, but Tweedy able to find some breathing space. But what do you do at any moment? She could pull the trigger on the blast and you just became with Punishable. One thing that is absolutely going to happen is upgraded is going to have so much more traditional just standing damage. But Baraka hits hard, but a lot of it is crushing low requirement universally. Oh, no! The tech and the knowledge. This is something Deoxys familiar with and caught on the ground of valiant effort from Tweedy by all accounts, but this time it's going to be Deoxys moving on. And although you can really see why the Baraka change came through, it was shutting down the gearers. A character change was necessary, but Zirca Baraka is something that not everyone knows what to experience together. But that Baraka Zirca amp being flawless blocked at the last minute was, I think, all the information we needed. Deoxys was ready for this much. It was definitely worth it. I definitely will let Deoxys lose this to Jackie. Upgraded definitely doesn't help matters. So I understand the change completely. It's a shame to see Tweedy get eliminated, but what a year Tweedy has had, right? Tweedy has gone from just so much. I remember there was a point in the season where so because Tweedy did very well earlier in the season, I believe Tweedy thought he could kind of sit pretty and go, oh, well, maybe I don't need to go to as many tournaments as I once thought. So he kind of sat back and didn't attend a couple of events. He was like, well, I don't really need to have qualified for finals and that's it for me. You know, he doesn't really worry too much about seeding because he will play anyone, right? If he doesn't care, he'll just play anyone and feel like he can win because that's the confidence you need. And he does a lot of the time, hence why he's here in Top 8. But as the season came to the end, I remember specifically him saying like, oh, my maths was off. I'm not guaranteed at all. Uh-oh, what do I do about this? So he started going to those last couple of events very, you know, really stressed about it and ended up, you know, managing to make it in the end. And here he is now, you know, loses Top 8 even though he's eliminated now. Top 8 at the World Finals is still a phenomenal result. Yes. Right, there's no getting around that. But our next matchup, Losers' bracket action once more, the lone UK defender who's been able to make his way. Should we be commentating this one? I feel like we'll... So Foxy's coming up, right? Yeah. We say we try not to be biased, but you know we can't help it. I'd give it a good go. Speak for yourself. Should I like swap out? Like, Aquaman's right there. Like, should I just like... Well, no. I guess that's the question and answer, isn't it? Foxy Groundpaw has managed to get Losers' side Top 8 today, playing mainly Shang Tsung, but he's actually been going a couple of characters, right? It's been Kung Lao, Night Wolf, we've seen. Foxy's character, Paul, has been predominantly Shang Tsung, and then if the matchup calls for it, Kung Lao's a pocket.  His opponent, Rewind. Rewind is... I think a player that a lot of people are really gunning for this weekend. He's been playing absolutely phenomenally. He's won pro-compervents in the past. There was Celtic Throwdown with the Liu Kang versus Sonic Fox. Rewind is an Evo Champion, Celtic Throwdown Champion, like Evo Champion for Injustice 2, saying that he is a world champion material because he's done it before. But Rewind managed to get Top 8 by eliminating Dizzy TT, another one of the UK hopefuls in the very close five game. It was a really clutch play from Rewind to bring that through. So Rewind is either going to be the slayer of the UK overall, or Foxy will be able to get that ultimate revenge. But these are two players that I really enjoy watching both of these. Foxy due to the horrible bias that we show him every time. But also because I respect his play a lot, right? Shang Tsung is really good for him, the way he plays Kung Lao also. He is like the epitome of strike throw. Like Foxy's got... He will normally have like Hides and random accounts who always call himself throw spammer and whatnot because he sees the comments. He knows you guys call him a spammer. But does he care? No, he doesn't. You fueled him. Like you make him want to do it more. That achieves the exact opposite effect. And here he is. But I mean, Foxy feeds off that energy. He plays for effectiveness and a lot of players aren't really prepared to be as slow and disciplined as he does bring to the table. Shang Tsung is a perfect character for that. And I mean, this whole tournament has been a wonderful representation of parts of the world that many, many years ago didn't really get their chance to be represented. And now we have players from South America. It warms my heart to see various parts of Europe. Like come on. It absolutely warms my heart beyond the leaf to see again, like at least like what, three Europeans in top 16. You know, Nivek, Dizzy, Foxy. Of course, there were some European hopefuls at LCQ. I mean, this is a far cry from 2011 where Foxy was this kind of unknown online player that nobody thought was dangerous because, hey, it's online. How good can he really be? Exactly. Always 10 years later, right? Like we've been with the game for so long as, you know, so many of you guys that have been watching from home the whole time, you guys have all seen. You know it has not always been an international show. There was a point that the Netherrealm scene was very much kind of like America or Bust. And even though America is still very much like the most dominant force in the game. Oh, of course. We've got Conqueror. You've got, you know, Canada. You've got, I mean, honestly, shout out to the South American. I want to say shout out to the South American Mortal Kombat scene. They have a underratedly large classic presence too. They consistently to this day have to arcade. Ultimate MK3 tournaments that have numbers that can trump a lot of other tournaments in the world. It is remarkable stuff. But I do believe now the handshakes come through. We should be loading in real soon. But I mean, this is a, this is a matchup where it's going to be defense versus lightning fast offense. And we're going to see who's going to come off better here. Rewind versus Foxy grandpa. Losers action of this topic for the world finals. Final Kombat 2020. One will advance. One will be eliminated. The question is who is going to be who? The original big bad boss. The unfrozen next generation aspirant. Allow me to present my qualifications. That was a both intro. Way more syllables than she did. Well, just say the older generation, my friend, but now this matchup is going to be upgraded. She is going to leap. She is going to want to have no part in this ground eruption zoning, but the escape failed already trying to go for the unpredictable grabs. Foxy goes for the forward grab because the reverse wanted to corner was way more predictable. I mean, he literally builds his game around throws or strikes, right? He has like the epitome of that of that play style. And it really kind of forced it to be as prominent as it is now. The big thing we're seeing a lot of movement knowledge from Foxy, right? We're seeing every time rewinders going for like leaps or whatever that right there. He's going for that big boot that forward for because he's not trying to hit rewind. He's just trying to move out of the way of the of the jump and it's working like three for three match up knowledge right here. But a wonderful tech from rewind getting clipped by the one one though. And Foxy has to show so much discipline to not add. Yeah, those chumpings because at any moment she could blow you up for it and it looks like now the back three connects all the same and a breakaway breakaway but with the fatal blow and play all it would take really was a was a fatal blow to start the general momentum. Didn't quite land it, but round one's going to be Foxy's anyway. Round two fight now rewind. You know, he's the kind of play that's going to adapt. We're seeing Foxy has that very obvious answer. Oh, okay. Foxy has that obvious answer for the lead. I'll be very surprised if rewind doesn't try and figure out somewhere around it immediately gets the perfect time to go through the corp's drop and is going to enforce Foxy to go for a lot more prediction. Corpse drops there. The close ones just in case the leap but Greece kick as well. It's so many ways Jackie can get combos in this variation. It's great here Mark will clipped again. Looks like some more foxy. I think just going for the hard reads of the neutral duck and it's not working at all. Rewind is going to get the second round here. Rewind that is exactly the round he needed up that first round being so so controlling the boxy. Oh, Foxy tries to get out of dodge by finishing the string rewind chases him down nonetheless. Now this is the scary situation. You just have to wait for your moment to strike but upgraded. She has a million and one ways to do it. The flawless block again. Really good trade for Foxy getting a little bit of his meter out to break away with punish on the 114. Here comes that ground eruption full screen back. You go for now rewind. He's just looking for that magical leap. Foxy waits for it. Oh, the needle magic range. What a crouch Foxy breaks the jaw. See you later teeth. But it's not over. This is Jackie Briggs. We're talking about damage. Fatal blows and play. Oh, no clipped. Are we going to see a leap? Oh, wow. Foxy, I know you want to leap. How about that? You're not going to say I'm on a jinx at first. Foxy normally having such a grab heavy game. He's normally the one that falls victim to the constant down twos, but it feels like today he's been the one dishing the mountain stead. I mean that's actually one thing. I've noticed as Foxy is known for playing very by the book very kind of like by the rules, right? Very strict, very calculated, but today he's still playing that way, but he's willing to make these big decisions, right?  I feel like that might be an element of why he's doing so well today, but does not mean that this is done by any means rewind more than capable of bringing this back. It's been one game in the first of three. We have plenty left to go in this set. Now, rare sight you're going to see. I feel like we're going to see less grabs in this matchup purely because the chance of being absolute point blank. It's just less. Rewind doesn't want to put himself in a position to get grabbed here. He wants to be mobile. He wants to be airborne. Oh my. Lawless block on the dash punch will take it. And now commits to the forward two, four, two, because it just moves Shang Tsung so far away. Hard to with him. And now the fresh up breakaway being used means you're kind of at the mercy of it. Rewind tries to be a little bit cute. The reverse grab again, more damage. And now they will blow and play cannot count this character out, especially when fatal blows ready to go dash punch at the start of it. Can't confirm every single hit here could be a confirm if he commits. Hang on a minute. Oh my God. Talks drop. Oh, there we go. Fatal blow. The trigger is pulled and rewind. Actually, will that do enough? It's a couple hits first. This should kill, right? Yeah, he's definitely dead and early confirmed means it's completely unscaled really. And I got to commend the patients there from rewind where Foxy went in. Assuming that was because I've been defensive the whole game. You're not expecting me to go in. That's exactly how the last game ended. Was it rewind? I don't think was ready for the jump career. No, just clipped by the arse end of that ground eruption from this range. Foxy two forward dashes. You think you've caught the defensive flow? He just dashes in and grabs you. It really throws off your momentum. Wow, perfect range rewind. Recognizing the punish there. Down one to interrupt stealing a turn back. Shang Tsung getting a couple of percent of health back but commits to a projectile and that's a jump in. Every time I dropped home over rewind. Every time folks, he does a single projectile. He is dancing with the devil here. The damage for upgraded is so insane and rewind making the perfect reads. Oh, speaking of which full spot comes through again. The Foxy plus frames. Oh, short hop. Look like a flawless book attempt to me perhaps. Oh, no, the counter hit. That was really smart because rewind could see that Foxy had like very clearly mistimed that meeting forward to so he just woke up with the optimal punish. Wake up with a crushing low launcher. Absolutely. You're going to mistime it. You will pay the price. Rewind takes a game back. We might have a really good set on our hands here. You can see some adaptation. Rewind is not being as crazy offensive. He's just looking for the moment. He's trying to catch the rhythm of Foxy's projectiles. He's being wise to it quite a lot. But now the ball's in Foxy's court. He's making the little get back down here. Oh, that was such a quick micro duck. I would argue whether she actually entered a ducking state at all. You know what I mean? Whips the grab. That's going to be another one. The damage of these grabs on a perfect read. It looks like a match up. It's a little bit tricky here. She has the answers to the momentum. Should be a full combo. Rewind definitely doesn't deem it worthy to go for a break away then might start now. It's crucial to get that health back here when you're this low. Every percent counts. Oh, hard dedication. Just dash in and grab again. It is a big payout or a big disaster. You kind of just have to roll that dice and accept it. Rewind is playing out of his mind so far. He's just the way he's being so much. Even though Foxy is avoiding all the jumps, it's not deterring Rewind. Because you're avoiding him. You're not punishing him. And if he hits that leap, he's doing 300 damage. So of course, there's no reason not to. You can see the care. Foxy's having to place a lot of carry to every single projectile he throws here. Oh, dash punch. High speed from Rewind so far. No flaws. Foxy's having there from Foxy. Has been quite successful with that so far with these leaps. Momentum is the magic word in this matchup. Reverse grab into a turn. Foxy has to hold it again. Tries to challenge it with a down two. Big mistake. And Rewind continuing the pressure. Foxy just wants to get out. But can he? It just feels like Rewind. Relentless. There's no getting away. Well, thing is like it's one thing to just avoid the leap every time you're at a distance. But when she's point blank, you are just having to deal with it like the rest of us.  I feel like the matchup just isn't working. It's hard to say whether it is clearly a matchup thing, though, because Foxy, he won the first game.  But the big question is, can Foxy keep up?  You have no room for error. One projectile gone askew and you get jumped in on and you take 300 damage. You have to be flawless blocking. You have to be doing all this really difficult stuff. The question is, is there a character you can pick in his arsenal that maybe isn't as quite high maintenance but can still get the job done? But then Rewind plays many characters. So what's to stop him from just changing should Foxy manage to tie things up? You have so many questions to ask and not enough answers in the heat of the moment. Well, Foxy, he's going to ride the wave with Shang-Stung to the bitter end. We'll see if he's going to be able to adapt to it anyway. But so far it's Rewind, who's just been in full control all the way through and it looks like, again, history's just repeating itself. He's point-blank and that's where he's going to stay. And the reaction says no way Rewind's off to get locked on that overhead. Nice little micro dash underneath the jump and Rewind answering back with an immediate dash punch. Oh, hits him, but wasn't confident in the ground eruption. So this is a scary position for Foxy. Going to be quite the miracle comeback to make. Has to hold all of this and grabs. I mean, they've become extremely dangerous when you're this low on life and now it's going to be either hit, match point for Rewind, and he's just riding all the momentum. This matchup is so heavily focused on Rewind looking for that one opening and just sticking to him like glue. He's playing the matchup perfectly so far. Foxy just has no room to breathe. Oh, just trying to just raw jump from point-blank Rewind. He wants to end this now. He's got somewhere to be. Oh, wow, just a straight-up slap on that forward too. Such a long-range punch. If he can, oh, and he just keeps, oh, that looked like a bait to me. Yeah, he did the short one. That was really smart. And he countered the short leap and he canceled it immediately. He is wise to the plan, but no breakaway for Rewind means that this one's going to hurt 37%. But Rewind, a leap, a dream, and a fatal blow can totally win this round still. Foxy doesn't want to open commit. Especially if he threads the needle and gets over the ground eruption. Here he goes. Scary times here if you're Foxy. The low Rewind risking it all, but all he needs now is one clean opening. Foxy defending for his life, but all it takes now is one clean hit. Oh, no, just like that. Wait, was that a trade combo? Was that a little like a trade combo? That was high. Is that actually might be it? I think Rewind's taking it. There it is. That was so clean. Rewind 3-1. Eliminating Foxy ground fire in this top eight. What a display of knowledge. It's just the fact that Foxy is spent today being so insanely fast to crack into with that defense. Rewind just fighting the magic open every time it's all over. It's all over it. Decision making and playing the matchup perfectly at no point rigged that Foxy looked comfortable outside of game number one. Rewind found his rhythm and that was all she wrote. Shout out to Foxy for getting as far as he did top eight for the World Finals. This is where his journey is going to end. Foxy has been doing the UK proud for eight plus years. At this point, another Elman continues to do so. So well done, Foxy. It's a shame to see him go here from a very biased perspective, but of course it can't take it away from Rewind. For sure. Rewind played that there's no taking away from it whatsoever. Rewind played phenomenally. He's in great form and could totally even move into, you know, loser's finals, maybe even grand finals. He's got the skill and he's got the talent. He's definitely got the drive. You can tell that for sure. But yeah, that's where Foxy is going to bow out of the championship. So that does mean that our round one games for top eight have now been completed, but we have plenty more left to go here. But we are getting scarily close to the end of this final combat. It's been a long day, but it's been a good day. It's been a long year. Like this journey began, the pro competition began at a Combo Breaker. It did. Last year, 2019. I keep wanting to say this year, but it's not. We're officially 2020 now, so I've got to keep reminding myself. But Combo Breaker was already almost a year ago by this point. So it has been a long, old year of watching.  Like just all over the place, all over the world, Europe having events around and obviously America too. Online events, individual leagues, it has been a long time coming to get to tonight. And I must say that I have not been disappointed by a single set today. I think it has been consistently really high quality. It's been worthy of a world finals. It truly is just a gathering of the world's finest players and they've been battling it out because everyone here could have totally won. On that note, actually, we have got the brackets for the top eight to go over, of course, the winners finals, the legendary matchup that everyone wants to see, Sonic Fox versus Ninja Killer. And on the loser's side, we have Combat versus Deoxys. And then now, because of Rewind to Victory versus Foxy, Dragon versus Rewind. I believe they will be the next two matches that we will have on stream. Please do correct me if I'm wrong. But I believe that we have Combat and Deoxys and then Dragon and Rewind coming up. But I mean, amazing.  Once more we have, I mean, it's just such a dominant part of the world for another on games, right? That has been true for years and continues to be the way. But I mean, it just goes to show there's so many tournaments, there's so many events around all the entire country and online events, you know, shouts to, you know, all the people that did like online stuff through the year, you know, stuff that isn't even affiliated with pro competition. There have been companies out there and teams putting on like online events. You shouts to all of you guys keeping the MK Dream alive, even in the online space. But in that really good netcode to use, you like to see it. We're waiting right now. We should have our next few matches coming up very, very soon. Combat and deoxys. Definitely promises to be a competitive one. I mean, we're at this point in the tournament now where anyone could just have this miracle run and every one of the brackets riding a lot of momentum. I definitely think that for combat deoxys, I definitely think we'd be seeing combat go just straight to Johnny Cage because outtake versus Jackie, I mean, most likely, because the big thing is combat is still predominantly an infinite warden player, right? If he plays gear, it's probably going to be infinite warden. And the benefit of that is, you know, you have, if you're good with the character, it's very effective. It's very, you know, I don't want to say, I don't use the word simple, but you know what I mean, where it's game plan is very good to enforce in the game, right? It's not the hardest thing to get going with a strike throw. But then we saw a lot of knowledge, but enough from us. I've just been told by production something quite exciting. We are ready to throw over to Josh Gray for an announcement. Ladies and gentlemen, it is time for a reveal, but I need some help. So please help me in welcoming the creative director of Netherrealm Studios and the co-creator of Mortal Kombat, Ed Boone. Ed, it's great to have you here. This is a big moment for many, many fans when it comes to comic books, when it comes to history. But first of all, I'd like you to kind of take the stage and let us know what's happening on March 17th. Oh, March 17th. Well, you know, Spawn is going to be available on March 17th. This is a character that, you know, has been talked about being in a Mortal Kombat game since Mortal Kombat 9. Every single game that we do, we've had guest characters, and everybody's always saying, you got to have Spawn in the game. You got to have Spawn in the game. And we actually, you know, we're waiting for the perfect time to do it. Cannot wait to show you guys the gameplay in terms of how he acts, and also the special guest that we have as far as the authentic Spawn. This is, like, to our team, you know, to have Mortal Kombat game without, you know, Keith David as Spawn is, we just couldn't do it. Ladies and gentlemen, it is an absolute pleasure and honor to introduce Mr. Keith David. Hey. Thank you. Thank you. Hey, Josh. I mean, and thank you to all you Mortal Kombat fans. I love that. And we love to be a part of this. It's fantastic. No, Mr. David, could you tell us maybe a couple of fans out there who are not as familiar with Spawn? Who is Spawn as a character? Well, Spawn is a soldier named Al Simmons. And Al Simmons, at the moment of his ultimate demise, makes a deal with the devil and becomes Hell's Spawn. And, you know, what I love about him is how it doesn't work out exactly the way he thought it was going to work. And so he winds up doing some really nasty stuff for really good reasons and all that kind of stuff. So, I mean, he's so wonderfully complex that he can't help but to love him. You know, what's not to love about Spawn? Really. Right, Spawn? Yeah, he happens to, exactly. He happens to be kind of the embodiment of the road to hell is paid with good intentions, if you will. Oh, yeah. So, you were able to voice this character a couple years ago, we'll say. And for you to come out as this character again being released right after Joker, it's almost kind of a play in between the schedule of what characters are being released and how much Spawn likes or doesn't like clowns, am I right?  Oh, I love it. Okay. All day long. Now, Ed, when it comes to showing the gameplay with Spawn, I mean, as you said before, your team has been working behind the scenes. This has been one of the most requested characters. How does it feel to finally be able to reveal this character in a Mortal Kombat title? It feels great. You know, like I said, our team has wanted to put Spawn in since forever.  We got to have it. You know, it's not Spawn without his voice. And so we got that. We were lucky enough to get that. And, you know, when you see him and you hear him interacting with our characters, there's something special for us as, you know, fans of Spawn since he was created to see him interacting with our characters as the dream come true. And for you to be back in the voice booth to bring this character back to life, what was that experience like? Well, as Al Simmons was resurrected, I am so happy to be re-resurrected in this character, you know. Spawn is one of my favorite characters in the world. And so it was, I'm more than happy to be back. That happy doesn't begin to describe. I'm like, hellaciously happy. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm sure all of us will be hellaciously happy as well as we finally get to see the reveal of Spawn in Mortal Kombat 11. Let's take a look. We can purge the ten hills. Only if you follow my lead. All of your respect. That's not in the cards. Fight! That's what I'm talking about. Wow. Wow. Ladies and gentlemen, was that worth the wait? The internet's exploding right now. And to have this moment, to have a legendary performer such as yourself and a legendary creator such as yourself, this is tremendous. The fans all around the world, thank you for this. I'm getting emotional because I've waited for this my entire life. So thank you once again. Mr. Keith David, anything else you'd like to say when we have you here? Keep coming back. Play, play, play. Yeah. Thank you very much. Ed? Thanks, man. This is, like I said, this is a dream country.  So, you know, again, something that putting Spawn in our game has been a dream. Our team has been, you know, dying to do this for years now. And this is really just kind of like the culmination of all that. So we can't wait for you to get your hands on him when he's available in the 17th. All right. Thanks again, gentlemen. And once again, everybody watching, make sure to pick up the combat pack, which is now 60% off. Spawn will be released on March 17th. And also, that trailer featured two unreleased tracks from the heavy metal band Trivium, entitled Nine and Scattering the Ashes. Okay, folks, we still have a couple more matches before we crown ourselves a champion. And we're going to have one more reveal a little bit later, Ed. So I look forward to that as well. Thanks again, folks. Spawn, March 17th. We're going to take a quick break. We come back. Oh, no, we're going to the commentators. The match about to begin. So let's head on over to the commentators. Take it away. These video games won't play themselves. No, that's it. Let's talk a little bit more about that.  I hope you guys aren't disappointed. Spawn has been something the community has wanted for a long time. We hadn't seen that trailer before then, too, which is always the best way of doing it. I mean, as an MK90G, Ed definitely isn't lying when he says that the community literally since 2011 or maybe even before was really in high demand for such a legendary character. And it's nice to see him in full force. So I do hope that when Spawn comes out, you'll have a lot of fun with him. But that is slightly, slightly down the line as for now, we have a final combat to finish. And we have some of the best players in the world ready to go in this Losers' Bracket action. We are still down here in the Losers' Bracket, which means if you lose here, you are eliminated and we have some of the very best ready to go.  I believe it should be combat versus deoxys. I believe it's combat, deoxys. If my memory's not the worst in the world. Yeah, look, perfect timing. Look behind us. You can see those like pixelated images. I think I've got my glasses on. But we talked about this matchup just a little bit as we were loading in and getting everything ready to go. It's, well, combat likely to go straight to Johnny Cage and combat really being the first Johnny Cage of Mortal Kombat 11. When Johnny Cage was not necessarily the new hotness and it definitely was a kind of shadow of what he is now. There was a big question mark over what Johnny Cage was at launch, right? There was a lot of disparity within the community as to whether Johnny Cage was even good. And now, you know, fast forward the clocks a year and he's pretty much top tier. There's kind of no real two ways about it. Privilege of this man. Players like Combat have been using Johnny Cage the entire time. Even back when the community was quite divided and didn't know if the character was even good, you know, remotely usable. Combat was playing Johnny and was like, no, he's definitely at least good for these things that I'm using him for, you know, certain characters or matchups or whatever. And here he is now making it work. And the reason we're talking about combat with Johnny Cage is we just saw deoxys versus Tweedy. And Tweedy was playing gearist the whole way, which is another character we know that combat plays. Combat has pretty much been gearist in Johnny Cage, but we saw deoxys, who himself was a gearist player once upon a time, against Tweedy. And it was quite a dominant 3-0 because of a lot of matchup knowledge. Deoxys thoroughly seems to understand exactly how to exploit what has been nerfed about gearists and what makes the character, you know, struggling to match up, right? Jackie versus gearist has always been a bit of a tough one for gearists, really, in the eyes of a lot of the players, and we definitely saw why here. To the point that I'd be very surprised if we saw combat stick with gearist himself. As we load in now, kind of hard to make predictions. If I were to put you on the spot right now, Mustard, and say, who do you think is going to win this? What do you think it will be and what's the score? I kind of got my eye on combat though. I feel like if combat is playing Johnny Cage, which you know he is, I feel like we've seen Jackie versus Johnny a lot. Like these are kind of like two of the arguable, you know, best two in the game, right? And combat made it in as a final, qualified player for the entirety of final combat. I'm going to say combat 3-2. He has more than really proven his worth in this tournament bracket. He has gone through the gauntlet. He remains in the bracket right now. This is the later stages of the tournament. Players battling out for top four status. Let's get this started. Whoa, Jackie Jax, I was kidding. You better hope so. Oh, damn, we missed some context. Let's not go down that rubber hole. Either way, we're kick starting things. It is going to be outtake versus upgraded. A matchup that we were more than ready to see. These two variations. Oh, this is top two. These are the best two characters in the game without question right now, with just how much they bring to the table. But so far, both players really can turn around. Looks like the damage is kind of being in combat's favor so far. But that might only last so long. Upgraded has been on quite the tad today. The grab coming forward again. Combat with a comfortable start here in round one. Corner pressure. Oh, there it is. That's where Kaze wants you to be, full combo. And a barrage damage. Not quite enough to get the kill, but it will be damn close. This combat takes the first round. This loser's quarterfinal here in this top eight. Let's take a while to get some of this momentum going. Tries to answer back for the leap, but a little bit too slow on the mark. A wonderful throw tech in the down three just to steal the turn away. Escape failed. And that's because combat with this back to the wall went for a forward grab. The throw to the symbol of play. Go for the unpredictable option. Back to four. We're just straight back to midscreen. And the blink of an eye. Here we are again. Wall cup grab. The mini mids that Jackie put into the table. It's a sweet spot. It's where Johnny Cage wants to be. He has the range advantage. He can go in for those punishes. All the in between. We're going to get a full screen situation again. But no, there is no full screen that combat wants any part in.  He wants to be point blank. He wants to end this game right now. But here comes Deoxys. I don't know if it will blow. It's possible. We see him backing up trying to beat something up. Combat on wake up. But now chip damage. A very serious threat. But there we go. The buffer from Deoxys. Perfect spacing. Buffering buttons in this game. Doing it from a range where the only way they'll come out is if they hit. And if they hit, you can just buffer the max damage option and on with nothing happens. The instant low. The tricky stuff from Deoxys. And the comeback. I mean, I'm not surprised he made the comeback because it's Deoxys, but it still stands impressive. He was so far behind in life. Yes, it cost him his fatal blow, but absolutely worth it. 1,000%. But now combat fighting back. Sticking out those foes once again. Star out of nowhere. Hello. Again, two times in a row. Doing some respectable damage at the same time. Rising star. The strength of it is that it's safe on block if you amplify it. Here comes the pressure. Restan situation. Deoxys. On the micro duct. Barely even saw the duck come out. That was like Neo's dodging bullets in the matrix levels of micro duct. Trying to tell you, oh, and you're ready. You won't have to. All right. Oh, no. No, that execution error. Could have been a lot more punishing than it actually was. That scooping jump punch. That's well for Johnny Cage. Combat to make these jumpings really ambiguous. And now here we go. Looking for the four falls. Again, airborne. Back to back blast. And again, you see it. Watch out for the whiff, mate. That one was close. Both players. Oh, nice and weak, but the confirm. Oh, my goodness. Oh, my goodness. The clutch coming out from combat. Johnny Cage, the original fatal blow cancel character, still has those crispy conversions. I mean, you said it right. That was a clean, confirmed combat. He went for that knee into the cancel. You know he was looking for just that. At the very least, he blocked. Saw it hit. Saw that Deoxys had jumped and was ready to confer. That was perfect. Looks like they're going back in again. I know we could potentially try and lower those health bars, but the reality is this is like the tournament. No interruptions. I mean, it's a shame that the graphics obviously are overlapped, but we're in final combat. We are absolutely in the later stages. We do not want to take these players out of the zone. Under no circumstances, but there's an immediate confirm again. Deoxys. All right, yeah, we're just going to cash out some damage almost immediately and remove it from play. That might be the first time I've ever seen that interactable combo into. I legitimately can't think of a single time. Oh, the pickup. Rising star. It's good. No need to amper yet, though. The bar really important. Stagger is the individual hits. Those kind of single hits to mean if you stuck to the string, great. But if not, have to just roll with it. Take the plus frames or anything you can get. The grab is going to connect again. So many highs. Deoxys. Just in case he sticks out a string. It's not worth trying to whip punish unless you walk right into it. And it's that patient game. Very minimal force balls will come out from combats again. All it takes is one touch. Kinda like this. And there it is. A round down again. Deoxys going to take it. That's exactly why you're going to be seeing combat being careful to throw these projectiles. You throw one at a bad time and Jackie has just jumped all up in your face and you've lost like 30% of your life into a situation you don't want to be in. Now this is that scary moment. Watch your toes. Gonna get clipped. Here comes some of that damage again. The flawless block on the anti air but no meter to up three or up two. Speaking of blocks. Yes, combat. Responding kind. There's a thing or two about that himself. And this is a big leap for combat to have in throw tech. But even at this point, even like the percent or two of damage is enough for combat to keep the lead going. Try to anti air but a little bit too late. Oh, is that a drop from Deoxys? Or trying to bait on the break way I wonder. Trying to sometimes get down. Yep. Unlikely Deoxys is going to use break away there. I mean the reality to make a comeback. Yes, the fatal blows and play but it deemed a bit more useful going into the next round with more resources. And now everything we need the clean blast into the air. Breakaways forced. Again, combat. Not in a good position. You don't want to be out of defensive bar against Jackie because this happens. Oh my. All over the shop. Deoxys just slide in from here, there and everywhere combat trying to fight back but down over half life and we've only just started the round. And it's the pressure over and over. Instant jump into the low. It's just so risky to block a low when the jumpings come as often as they do. Oh. Uh oh. Could have definitely been potentially more damage on the table signs of potentially combat being a bit nervous. Max range dash punch into the crushing blow and that was a swift way to turn it around. Deoxys looking good. Jackie. I think the players are now being talking about lowering the health bars. Happy they let the match rock though as opposed to just taking them out of it. We're going to be going and sorting that out most likely. But still, one game apiece. This is exactly what we're expecting to see. We have seen game fives all day and that's to be expected when you get to this level of competition but still it has been pretty incredible. There's a minimal amount of the force force coming out from combat. This is normally a variation that you see picked because of the zoning, because of the ranged game. But combat is not really that kind of matchup he wants to play. He wants to have the safety and the damage. Yeah, but it's all about rising star. Having that kind of poke up close that you can do safe. Yes, you can make it with if you have the matchup knowledge and in certain situations it's not safe. But combat, he's really going to put himself in those positions. This is as close as I think we expect it. But that's the thing. Whenever you watch combat play, like I don't think he really cares about the force balls. Yeah, he would use them. But I definitely think he's playing this variation for rising star. You have to remember the reason that's such a big deal for Johnny Cage is it's effectively like his fast mid, right? It's safe on block. There's no gap when you amp it. But almost immediately Deoxys has other plans. And it kind of makes total sense. Your choice is to go in almost immediately. She has a rush down queen. The entire reason you pick this variation tries to floor this block, but the win. Combat doesn't want to overextend. The grab is going to be good. Full screen again, but that's only going to last for so long against a character like this. The force balls coming out at a safe range. But just like that, he's waiting for the jump in. Combat rising star. Ship by chip so far. Both players on similar meter at the same time. Very few grabs. All about those buttons. Taking it in turns. One after the other, I press, you press. That kind of just keeps us to reset the neutral. But then again, oh, OK. Oh, wow. That clean interruption from combat. If you wonder. You can see it again. There's the bait. The flawless block. Deoxys was ready for it. Oh, that's generally surprising. Even more surprising that Deoxys did not answer that grease kick. He had the bar for it. That would have been a full combo. The health that I left, who knows, maybe it would have been a little bit more. But the choice isn't going to be his fatal blow comes out. And fatal blow being used here means no capsules are available later. I feel like even though it won the first game, it's not been the most important thing. I feel like in this kind of matchup, you just want to take the round. You lose the cancel. Sure. But at least you get the round on it. And another one, combat. He's been so good at just those standing jabs to interrupt all this dash. Oh, this jump stuff from Deoxys. It's been so useful. It's hard to do that, too. You have to just make the decision that she's not going to go for that double air shot in the air. And she does, obviously, like, exactly there. That was Deoxys calling out that standing jab that combat's been going for. He expected combat to interrupt. He was right on the money and he punished him for it. Bit of a funky wake-up situation there from combat. Maybe trying to chase down a preemptive leap. But at this health, Deoxys does definitely need to be worried. One of the last bars of Alps is going to get spent by the time this round's over. We're definitely going to get at least one more back. There it is for combat. He's just looking to close things out. Rising Star comes out. A clutch breakaway from Deoxys. But at this point, it might not be enough. Oh, he's going to try and go for the overhead on me. Eat this down one. Both players, smiles all around. I mean, these are two players that have a lot of fun with the game, especially when they're against each other. They're two young bloods, very high execution. Play a million miles now. They're very much cut from the same cloth. Oh, yeah. It comes to you like the modern community. I'm not at all surprised to see them play this well, but also still be somewhat light-hearted about it. But I can guarantee you, beneath those smiles, they are absolute seriousness. They haven't come this far just to lose here and lose the pause. But it looks like it's real. Side-switch back to mid-screen and a high damage at the same time. A down one squeezed out to strong armor turning. Combat's going to get it. And the meter completely identical. Oh, potentially some blower spots coming out. Another confirmed up punch. And that's a breakaway, expensive way to avoid damage, but the Oxys has no choice but to do it. Oh, anti-air again. Something combat has not been shy of consistently knocking upgraded out of the air like that. Oh, oh my goodness. Not only plus frames, but combat tried to catch the Oxys but it jumped. And the fact that he jumped kept him able to punish combat. Two bars of offense spent to keep the fatal blow a worthy trade. And now it might help the Oxys if what might be the final round for him going into this next game. Definitely needs to get this win to tie things up. Combat's the one in the lead, but he's clipped again. I mean, I did say I was expecting to see a game five, and this is exactly why. But now combat's fighting back. Not going to let him get it that easily, but a confirm again. Watch out for your stick out. Three, four. Nice amount of optimization there. Try to down two. Desperation down two from combat. And the immediate duck. This was no part of this game. You say was it? It's not quite over yet. Okay. The fatal blow is spent. That's going to do a big chunk. Now all combat needs is one good confirm into nut punch or a grab and a little bit more. Absolutely can make this work, but it's going to be tough. The Oxys has that fatal blow. Oh, don't wake up neutral jump. Shout out to Dan Forden. Oh my God. That was clutch on the last minute. The wake-up jump. Dan Forden came out, gave combat the strength he needed. Takes the round and goes into match point. Fitting, really. For the wake-up neutral jump, I think that was the size of nerves. But what was it nervous? Was that neutral duck on the dash punch? Unfortunately, she takes after a dad in that respect. You hate to see it, but here comes the full combo. All right. Knocked down into corner pressure. This is where Jackie wants to be. Another grab. The snowball effect begins here for combat. Who's just content to sit there and block. He takes his chance to get a grab, and it's a forward throw. Doesn't want to be too predictable. Okay. He's going to grab. Here comes another one. Yeah, the Oxys. He's looking good to take this game, but he did last time, but that is the brawler's block completely misses. But not deterred. Combat goes immediately in for the grab. Combat. All the big way for the punish. Off with his head, I say. And game five. We are on the way. This is always coming down to just that last final decision. Back to fight. It's like this is either to change character, which I do think is unlikely, more just to reset some time. Players at this level, they'll go back to character select. They'll go with the same characters and the same variations. This is just to, like, not give your opponent too much momentum. Wait, what? It shook his head. I mean, the Oxys plays a lot of characters, and this is game five. Like, this is one game territory. We're officially playing for one match and one match alone. Combat knows how to play the entire cast at the same time. He's having a good, hard think about it. There are so many picks you could potentially do. Who have we seen combat play this season alone? We've seen him play Gears. All the variations. Pretty much all the variations of Gears. Johnny Cage in his day one. We've seen Shang. We've seen Baraka. We've seen Cetrion. Combat just, he plays a lot of characters. What can I say? But it looks like he's going to be going back to it. I imagine it's the outtake. When someone's feeling momentum, sometimes you just need to take it away from them. And if that goes into the realms of character select and so be it. Yeah, combat's going to go back to outtake. The immediate dash didn't grab. And we are indeed in our final game situation. This is losers. So one of these players is going home. Combat did that. Just raw shadow kick. He is trying to send a message for this last game. That's the combat. He's the perfect blend of natural skill and just the largest risk you've ever seen. He's just not afraid. He plays with his heart on his sleeve and it's reflected here. Here comes the down three. Steal the turn. Deoxys gets a grab, which could be the start of disaster. Clipped it again. Dash punch conversion. Any damage is good damage in this position. They find that clip below. Watch your feet again. This is all guaranteed damage too. That life lead even further. Put forward. Deoxys gets the throw tech. Safety of the rising star combat. Still very much in the lead. But this is Jackie. Oh my God, that was clutch. Any other character would have fallen victim to it but the fatal blow and play. Deoxys can still make this combat. Any given moment. Raw dash punch. One hit. One hit and the fatal blow will do it. One hit. Deoxys is absolutely not out of this. Oh, that could have been it. Going in for the leap. The risky stuff into the low. And the low. Two times in a row. Match point for Deoxys. Deoxys, he is throwing the kitchen sink ham at this point. He is pulling out all the stops. What an insane. This offensive upgrade is just so dangerous. But making a comeback like that, it stars momentum. It puts combat immediately on the back foot. He has to shake that up but he gets hit by the leap anyway. That forward comes back again. Uh-oh. Big hit. Breakaway, I mean, has to come out. 24% after a breakaway though. I mean, that's still damage. You don't want to take in this situation. Deoxys, anti air. The clean from combat gets a combo drop though. That might be bad news. Commits the whole string anyway. It's going to hit its mark. The low has had 100% success rate. Second bar spend. It is Deoxys. Re-stand. And the kick with no bar to kill. But it's so close. Goes in for the jump in. This might shred the health and the dash punch. At the last second, we went all the distance there. But it's going to be Jackie. It's going to be Deoxys doing UIU proud and then some. That was a crazy good series. But shout out to combat. He was the final qualified player. He more than proved his worth in this tournament. And he finally got a major big result at the very end of the season. He was a slow starter. The talent was always there. And he finally cracked into that top air, the world finals. But this time, it is Deoxys moving on. Deoxys just played absolutely mental. An entire set. I mean, it was 3-2, not quite in the way that I really predicted. But if I'm being completely honest, that kind of thing. Absolutely. Especially when we saw that Deoxys just on that next level of just readiness. One of the first real upgraded players that we saw when the variation 3s came out and people kind of looking around, maybe picking up new characters, maybe picking up new variations of their existing characters. And Deoxys saw upgraded, saw that movement, saw that mobility and was just like, damn, I want to play that. And he did. And here he is.  The skills to pay the bills with this upgraded pick. And he moves on, this loses bracket. Securing, I believe, is that top 4 secured? Yeah, this was that joint situation. Yeah, I'm trying to see the bracket in my head. I'm trying to make sure I'm not wrong. But I'm pretty sure, like 90% sure that it's top 4 secured now for Deoxys. But what a result. You know he's going to be happy with that. It's just a perfect example of Jackie at the same time. Fundamentally, he's just a really talented player. He relishes that high execution. Jackie's just such a wonderful character for that because she just gives you creativity and creativity options. You know, you've got different combo paths if you want. You can go with different launches if you want. She's got the built-in side switches. She has more combo options than I think almost anyone in the game, really. Yeah. In terms of what you can do, do you want to be unbreakable?  Do you want to knock down from close range? Do you want to knock them away? Do you want to go for, like, delayed oaky? Like, your options really are just limitless, you know, especially if you've got the ability to get them done. So our next matchup should be Dragon versus Rewind. Now, we're going to potentially see a little bit more Jackie. She's been... We will, from Rewind. She's been the hottest of the hot topic today. But it's a matchup win. She's the best character in the game for a reason. It's a matchup that Dragon has been extremely versed in the Jackie Briggs matchup. He's gone against almost exclusively Jackie today. I mean, he hasn't lost to a single Jackie player. Preparation. He went for this matchup. He studied at the hardest. He looked at his path. He was like, I'm going to fight a lot of Jackie today, I think. So he really was as prepared as he possibly could have been. Combined with the fact that Cetrion can fight upgraded quite effectively.  She's got the buttons. But importantly, she kind of has moves that have those diagonal angles. And if a Jackie is constantly trying to jump in at you and she's constantly trying to just get that inch, those downwards diagonal kind of projectiles, they stop that movement. And they are wonderful at shutting down momentum-based characters. That's probably been the biggest thing to do with the matchup that we've seen Dragon do all day is kind of reactionary instant jump punch. I'm not sure if it's a jump one or a jump two, but we've seen him go for it a lot where instant jump punch into the beam. We see it so many times. It's just on reaction. Jackie leaves the ground. You do that. Best-case scenario. You spot her out of the air and do damage. Worst-case scenario, you're fine. But you showed the Jackie player that you're ready for it, right? Which, you know, especially at this level of play when you get people like rewinds and they're going to see you go for things. And even if it doesn't work, they're going to go like, oh, he's doing that. Damn. I guess that's a thing. Or, you know, oh, he knows this matchup in this kind of way.  But like we said, Dragon, he is... It's not been free for him today against Jackie players. A lot of, like, Nivek's particularly made him really sweat for their first match of the day. But it's... He's won. He's won all the... All the Jackie games today. Dragon is looking the most comfortable in this matchup, I think, of anyone today. Make sure everyone at home is following the action. Follow NRS Esports on Twitter. With all the information you want, all things competitive, MK11. Shouts to Astro for supporting the event with audio equipment. The A40 headset being used, along with a mix amp. And shouts to Roadrunner Records for supporting this tour in general and bringing the good grace of metal. Hell, it's a competitive Mortal Kombat. I'd like it no other way. But going into now, Dragon versus Rewind, very hard to call. Both players extremely hungry for this. And I think that, honestly, it's another one of those matches that is incredibly hard to call. I think that Dragon is going into this. This is a pivotal match because as soon as this match is over, we know our top four. When this match is out of the way, we know who our top four are going to be. We have Sonnet Fox and Ninja Killer waiting in that winners' side, in that winners' finals. And we have... Deoxys. Yeah, but I was just... I completely blanked on the name. I could see Deoxys' face in my brain. I was like, but Deoxys, of course, on that loser's side, top four, only one spot left. And it's going to go to Rewind or Dragon. Man, this is just a matchup of Rewind who's hungry. He's hungry for this win, but so is Dragon. Dragon extremely prepared for the Jackie Briggs. That's for sure. The matchup he studied for the hardest. Looks like that's going to be the matchup for another time. But Dragon, he's going to play that ranged game. Keep Jackie away. I stood with Shinok's Cetrion. I stood for nature's balance. Still counts as taking his side. Okay, here we go. Both players battling out for top four. Beast Coast Dragon, URU Rewind. Who's going to take it? Best of five. Immediately starting things off with that with Punish. One of the many advancing mids to worry about. And there it is again. Back to back. That's going to be half-life gone. Oh, no. It's happened. We dropped the ender. That's unfortunate. That is the hard bit was done. Then the final section. Problem is, Dragon has taken a lot of damage already. And this is Rewind's aggression. Two drops in a row. But this one results in a Punish and a loss of Dragon. Opting to save the crushing blow as well. Could have taken bigger damage, but no doubt sees that breakaway. Kept it grounded. But there's a big hit for Rewind. Look at the jump in. Natural barrier. So active. An amazing anti-jump tool. Oh! That's two times now. Dragon has gone for a poke. And a Rewind has scored that perfect jump in at the right time. But that's it, right? You have to be careful. You can fight characters with, like, traditionally full-proof anti-airs. But if you time it right and you go for that blast, you're probably going to hit any button in the game. It's so dangerous. A nice conversion to Geisse. Guaranteed Teleport just to get out of the corner as well. And it's less about pressure, more about Dragon just trying to keep this full-screen game. You don't want to let upgrade it anywhere near you. You've never been seeing why all tournament long. Percetrion has more options than most at keeping her away. Interaction into big damage. Nice little chunk of change right there. But now another conversion. Especially works. No anti-air. Very risky to anti-air Jack Briggs. And it is why she's so scary. You have answers for what she does. But if you miss the execution or she makes you, you're taking a ton of damage. Dragon trying to back dash to get out of the way and there's a perfect punish. The round is going to go to Dragon. Alright, going to be dominant either way so far in game number one. Yo, that trophy though. I thought we haven't talked about the trophy enough today. I mean, I can't even get into this. I can't even begin to describe how heavy that thing is. It's horrendous. The players can even lift that thing, but they will surely try. The conversation for about an hour from now, I suppose, is now... Oh! Right in the face. Get out of it. Press on. Yep. Already Rewind actually trying it. Going through the air. The blast just to make sure his jump doesn't get trip guarded. Sure, Dragon get up nice and quickly, but the plethora of mid to make the grabs really scary. This is a terrible situation for Dragon. The low again and keeping the side so Dragon hasn't even got the screen to work with again. And this is looking kind of bleak here. Wow, yeah. Shoes up. That was perfectly calculated by Rewind to do not only just enough chip but to also plow through last breath. Should it be there? Really well played from Rewind. Taking that first game. Right. It's one he had to fight for, but it's... it's what Rewind is bringing with his jackies. Just a sixth sense for when to go in. He's had to just get through a foxy ground past Shang Tsung with that just mine field of ground eruption. Now he's having to go up against Dragon. The best setrion all about the... Who has been winning against upgraded players all day yet somehow Rewind is finding that magic moment consistently to just get in and stay in. But now that is already like the fifth or sixth time we've seen Dragon do that in this set alone. Just that hard just duck under a high and then just punish accordingly. It's hard to do that especially at this level of play here. Dragon finds the opportunity over and over and over again. Now that's a big thing because Dragon's ground pound is a low in the air that upgraded does. It is one of the few things in her kit that is straight up if you block it she dies. But because it's a low and it's used so sparingly by people it's not being blocked it's hitting every time which you know is putting that seed of doubt in the player's mind when they face off against them. Oh! Wait what? I mean she's at the full 360 right spinning around. She is spinning right round of course. I wouldn't be surprised if her active right idea. Dragon! Back dash! Oh! Break away from Rewind he thinks he can take the round. Oh! He might have No! He had the right idea and he got the opening. Also I like that end of the dragon just putting a Rewind full screen straight away. Start the round with the position on advantage absolutely. Oh! What's he going to do from this? Dragon's in the best case dog. Perfect read. This is now so good. It's going from Rewind making the perfect chance to go in flipping it out and punishing it. That's now twice he's got it. Speaking of punish though clean opening there from Rewind. He needs a poke for his troubles. Hell free even the nice anti-air there for Dragon. And this is a bit of a back and forth right now. Another button press. This time it's going to be good Dragon. Just sticking out one button too many for the wrong time in game one not seeing the same thing at all in game two. The big thing is Dragon's just able to keep the distance. I feel like in the first game we were almost just point blank actually finding space as hard as it is to do. He needs to play like Rewind and carries like Jackie. It's managing to get the distance but now back to the wall Rewind. Oh no. His execution failed him for most of that round but the important thing he was punished he didn't get a poke he didn't have to give up his turn and he eventually three hits for the price of one and he's not going to complain decent damage but it's not over. He still has to get in the natural barrier Dragon get off me tries to bait. I mean I respect the attempt I totally respect it he just got the opening guy so that would have been round. Definitely seems to be a match up of the space though. Dragon has screen space to work with he can absolutely make it work but back to the wall point blank there's like a rough one to deal with these grabs will just put the biggest spanner in the works you think you're confident and content taking all this Jackie pressure and then she eventually grabs you that was a nice answer the active frames of the down three Oh the punish straight back into the corner wonderful project there from Dragon opened up though just damage this adds up chunk by chunk especially this late on in the round the leap just to reposition rewind fully in the driver's seat again he has to give up his turn they will see if Dragon get anything from this the leap too good the flawless block but too risky no the jump whips that could have been the game okay Dragon come back has to start now he has fatal blow can absolutely do it with one good confirm and this health it's not going to quite kill but it will get close wait what no string just to reappear Oh God rewind he's had this game one three times now and it would come down to the ground pound wouldn't it and you can see from Dragon the head shake and then the nod of acknowledging it's like I can't believe it Rewind is playing with his heart on his sleep he's going so guttural with his reeds he just feels like the time is right to go in he's been right most of the time and this is a match up for Dragon he spent all day taking out upgraded players and he's made it look pretty simple the situation that Dragon would definitely not be happy with to beat every single upgraded player throughout his bracket of upgraded players all day just to ultimately fall to rewinds like you know he's not going to be happy with that outcome but we have to talk about the fundamental point of why there have been so many Jackie Briggs players in this bracket to begin with she's good and if you are a professional player you've got to give yourself the best tools for the job and if this character's good ouch by the way wait a minute did she just blow through the blast there are you sure that only crushing blows if she absorbs the projector or I believe it's that or first hit oh yeah that's pretty true it's one of those double barrel ones if that is the case you almost never see it used in that circumstance although I'm pretty sure of the barrier would block the trap Dragon is not going to complain about it because now he's in a position now to get a grab and now rewinds back to the ball Dragon has to try so hard to just keep him here good pick up and the jump kick at the same time now from here the rock this rock game leap or not in this case it's going to be a leap and enough damage to just see that just a casual 29% projector but only happens if you jump as the replaying off still rewinds driver's seat honestly he's got such a good lead here of games but Dragon firing back oh picked it up again that intractable there's so much damage you just seldom see it so you don't see it every day no meter but still 18% damage for a string by itself that's not going to tickle at all there's the lead chasing down the back last minute I mean there's flash damage of the low ground pound it will chase down that low nicely the reason we see the low work so much remember like jumping attacks on the way down are overheads and the ground pound is a low every time so if you do it right before you hit the floor people are used to seeing characters fly at them and they stand low ground pound to mess that up so well a lot of confidence from Dragon here we'll actually see why oh hang on a minute has bar there's another one in the tank too if he needs it at this stage Fatal Blow can totally win the game and that's why Rewind sitting there holding the pressure he can afford to take a grab now but he can't afford the rest this is going to be it and the Fatal Blow just for good measure but that was done with or without it a perfect game for Dragon quite ironic considering the way the second game went so bad for him in the corner and was then immediately able to do the exact same thing back to Rewind in such a polarizing way now Dragon he has had people almost make three game comebacks against him a couple of times today he now has to do it to Rewind can it be done I don't honestly I don't know but I I want to see it I really want to see at the very least a game five because we need to see that here one fight well if there's a time for it it's now well finals there ain't going to be opportunity for this season and now there's an immediate pick up there from Dragon keeping things unbreakable as always decent chunk of damage into a good situation now he's pressing forward Rewind looking for that right moment let's never forget the female characters they're a little bit more susceptible to that dash punch crushing blow okay there's the pickup and once more just looking for his opportunity oh flawless block is going to be good here just looking for more bit by bit staying at the buttons Dragon just want to overextend Rewind he's looking for a whip punish he's just looking for that one opportunity Dragon with fatal blow just became a million times more scary especially at this health remember Jackie is that 950 health this bar is not as big as it looks oh oh that's been oh wow actually missed might be the first time I've ever seen that not connect oh the block of the punish we see the change Dragon now ready for the ground pound one time that low gets blocked it costs Jackie the round and that's why we talk about high risk but low reward you use it entirely just to throw them off their rhythms get them uncomfortable on block because if they block at that one time it'll cost you the round that's exactly what happened there round 2 fight what that's a breathing space for Dragon if anything and now he's a lot more comfortable full screen Cetrion her grabs put her in a great position for the instant jump in Rewind consistently hit so with Punish again from Rewind looking for it oh big at the air Dragon as soon as he sees that Rewind he was like using so much of that bar the less bar you have the less likely you are to go for those bursts the payout isn't quite the same oh okay Rewind looks a little bit shy of the with Punishers here though like he's looking for them but he's not quite committing Dragon is having some pretty unique answers here the back dash to just try and get out of a dangerous range do you need the pressure with Punish though natural barrier's not going to work out just a string but no Punish again a little bit quick to recover on that one Rewind whiffs up and again here comes Dragon and it's re-standing to grab consistently Rewind is not going to go for them like tech attempts on these those Rewind he's just content to just like take the throw and know you'll survive but now you get lower on health so the more dangerous that becomes Dragon knows that he's playing with fire as he goes in for the air he doesn't go in for the boulder right there turn around from Dragon far more defensive and less susceptible to just being jumped in on with the blast he's sticking out less buttons at a close range where the jump just becomes a threat now what does Rewind do this is just a mental reset there's no way he wants to just restart match after a loss like that you've got to take that momentum away from Dragon this is make or break this is game five one of these guys is going home right here right now if you have time to take speak to your coach think about changes or even if you go straight back in moments of peace just think about it this is the time to do it I have to remember there is a serious amount of money on the line this is the world championship finals for Mortal Kombat 11 this is make or break potentially Rewind's last chance here it is for Dragon as well but with Dragon winning those games he's going into this with the most momentum and momentum this late in the tournament that's a great deal especially in a matchup like this you know where you can just get over you can get impatient and chew you up for it looks like he's going in with Jackie once more this is the character he wants to rock with it's just the final moments where Dragon is just being way too defensive so hard to crack into but an incredible adjustment from Dragon nonetheless we have to remember he was down two games in a convincing fashion in a matchup he has been dominating all day okay so here we go final game Dragon versus Rewind Rewind he started with just a normal jump in two only one of these plays is making it through this is absolutely make or break so far Dragon has a good start back to back grab this time tech get off me the natural barrier watch it mate uh oh the change of momentum this time it's going to be Rewind back to back grab good throw tech tries to anti air but again a bit of an odd exchange that's actually not the first time that specific string has avoided the blast too I wonder if that's some more matchup you've seen from Dragon knowing that you can't just blast your way through that one the same way you can most of the other buttons on again catches the blast this time just built the bar but no breakaway Rewind goes down Dragon match point this is scary for Rewind back to the corner which means all that real estate for Cetrion but it looks like so far Dragon wants to press the advantage what I mean that's it he commits to strings that are crazy active they move them out of danger and they're harder to with punish because if they're active and you press it it's really hard for Jackie to uppercut people's throws but it's really hard for everyone to uppercut hers too alright this is Rewind he's hungry he's hungry for this and he wants to bring it into a final round situation but Dragon didn't even have the crushing blow left Dragon just wants to go away leave me alone Jerry's situation tries to anti-cross up doesn't work out though uh oh Rewind has to watch out here almost has his fatal blow ready to rock for the dash punch this is bad this is bad for Rewind now can he do it the wakeup up three doesn't get scouted out oh no the drop Rewind with the game losing drop potentially that's going to be a heartbreaker if Dragon takes this now oh no and after all that Rewind that one final drop that I mean he had fatal blow I think that would have killed but what's it meant to be in Dragon is able to keep it together on the back of a stressful three game comeback it was another game five unfortunate to go down that way but I mean high pressure high tension situation Rewind really brought everything he had there it's just a shame that it ended the way it did that was a great change of momentum fatal blow was locked in had the chance to go for a leap I'm pretty sure he had the meter to confirm that too by all accounts we should have gone into a final round but it just goes to show just at this level sometimes one smallest mistake something as simple as just your drop to combo happens to the best of them there's really nothing else you can say about that but the point is those kind of costly mistakes in hindsight they are the easiest ones to correct you know you had the right choice you had the right that's where it just hurts the most but I want to say a huge shout out to Rewind Rewind has had a tremendous year pro competition still one of the younger competitors that we have already an EVO champion managed to get top eight of the pro competition for Mortal Kombat 11 like the resume just keeps going on and on and on and I have absolutely no doubt that we'll continue to see tremendous things from this young man as we go through the years even though his tournament is over today it is absolutely not the last time we'll be seeing Rewind it's not going to be the end of his journey and that's the bottom line but that does mean that Dragon is going to be moving on this bracket into the top four so it should be Deoxys Dragon, Ninja Killer and Sonic Fox are four final players in this bracket and what a crazy day of games it's been it's been incredible honestly like as someone that's been following the scene for a very long time I honestly could not have asked for more but it has been a pleasure to commentate this year of the pro competition especially alongside you my friend but we are going to be calling it there for now we're going to go to a small break while we get our top four ready to go we have the strongest of the players are left ready to go and see who will be the best Mortal Kombat 11 player in the world so we're going to go to a break for a few minutes we'll see you guys very soon the catastrophe we want to give a big thank you to Trivium for their brand new single Catastrophist off their upcoming album What the Dead Men Say one of the theme songs here at Final Combat 2020 the album releases next month on April 24th and you can pre-order it now over at Trivium.org fucking god it took down Jumper there's no Legion of Doom no Batman Gotham is yours for the taking you stole the 2020 theme songs the album drops this Friday March 13th so head over to CodeOrangeTorth.com and pre-order today welcome ladies and gentlemen to Final Combat after 16 players the best 16 players from around the world fought through a grueling bracket we are now down to the top four each one of these players that's left in the tournament will be taking home at least $5,000 but every single match up the stakes go higher this first match is a $5,000 money match third place taking home $10,000 and second place will be taking home $20,000 first place will be $40,000 and the coveted title of champion of Final Combat 2020 we thank you for tuning in and for supporting the entire pro circuit the pro competition and we continue to showcase this amazing game in these talented players tonight as we finally crown ourselves a champion for this season our two commentators are standing by to walk us through the bracket and how we've made it to this moment and that's Mr. Aquaman gentlemen let's crown ourselves a champion and welcome everybody to Final Combat 2020 top four here in the heart of Mortal Kombat itself Chicago baby we are here making the best with what we got this is the world championship of our game and it is the best of the best in this top four competing forward is only going to be one the grand champion of Mortal Kombat here in the 2020-2019 season in the first year of MK11 it's going to be of almost a year a year of competitive tournaments and this is going to be your top four Sonic Fox and Ninja Killer here in the winners finals on the losers semi-finals we have Deoxys and Dragon and almost to no surprise but the paths for everyone there has been no easy path there have been David we talked about it so many Game 5 so many three ones and we'll go a little bit later that this may be the best Mortal Kombat tournament I've ever seen and this is this is all possible thank you to everyone involved Warner Brothers Netherrealm Studio Shots 2 Roadrunner Records the entire season we heard the new music from Trivium in the Sponge trailer itself Absolute Insanity so Shots 2 Trivium for their new album and of course for the single here at Final Kombat and I cannot express my excitement for what's about to happen my name is Mr. Aquaman Hey I'm Alter David and it's true Mortal Kombat of NRS video games and for Sonic Fox it is just another year there's Sonic Fox up on the stage behind us and they'll be up there in Winners Finals yet again it's a situation that not only are we accustomed to I think but Fox must also be accustomed to however we were in this position we've been in last season for Injustice 2 with the same character with the same player but the difference though is that for Ninja Killer this is not just any year this is the first year this is his first competitive season playing Mortal Kombat that's correct and in fact when Ninja Killer began going to tournaments look we knew about him from online there were whispers that he was a hidden god and when he went to an offline event he took it that was how we started things off first try and there are veterans that are seasoned 10 year old veterans that still cannot do that are you calling me out myself too so I feel bad there but let's go and get in this first match let's take it over to Joshua great to introduce our two players in this winners finals let's go ladies and gentlemen please welcome our first player from New York City the people's anti-hero Sonic Fox and his opponent from Atlanta the rookie of the year C.G.L. Ninja Killer good luck commentators take it away again even before Ninja Killer came to the offline scene and started running the show there were rumblings on the internet about which one of these two players was better was it Sonic Fox or was it Ninja Killer even back then and that was part of how Ninja Killer came into the tournament scene was with that kind of hype behind him and he has absolutely lived up to that hype 100% this is somebody who only made it out to a few majors this year and in doing so nevertheless had a fantastic showing we're talking about number three overall on points and that was fourth at the online competition fourth at CEO first at DreamHack Montreal third at East Coast Throwdown first at NEC that's quite a path for a year and in doing so he did run into Fox a few times a few times seven times overall throughout the pro competition with a total head-to-head of five, two yes, one of those läuft and at least two players are doing what they were doing all those things they didn't know and one of them takes his favor but those two victories over Sonic happens to tie the most victories against Sonic Fox out of anybody on the planet so if there is someone here that can do it it is Ninja Killer and it is the most prepped for the matchup that we're going to see here here to matchup which we're not even gonna get to see all of that means nothing here as Ninja surprises us out of nowhere with an RKO pick of Johnny Cage. Which matchup did you see them play? I was looking for Liu Kang versus Joker here in Ninja only breaking out of you know Liu Kang here one time one time throughout the entire tournament it's been all Liu Kang we'll see what the difference is gonna be since I saw them play last Sonic Fox of course coming with Ace of Nades Joker you're gonna see a lot of setups a lot of range a lot of jack-in-the-boxes Joker here in MK 11 happens to bring the biggest arsenal I think out of any character I've ever seen besides what we just saw in that spawn trailer are you kidding me he's honestly a really fearful opponent I mean he's very scary great great puts these great mix-ups up close good damage this character was almost designed with Sonic Fox in mind you know looking at the range looking at the way this character resets neutral off of every single touch gapless and on top of that all the setups the way to think ahead to plan ahead to settle all right super ready what Sonic has tried to do throughout their competitive career well Sonic Fox tried that and immediately ate a shadow kick to the face which is you know Ninja has the almost the same read that he has with Liu Kang in those situations with flying kick just replace it with shadow cake and it's almost the same right right right and that's really fast with money school and that's what Ninja almost prides himself on it but but I from the outside looking in I pride himself yeah on on his reaction incredible reactions absolutely right a quick little duck by Fox allowed him to get some damage okay waking up with the button no care whatsoever it's too good to be close jack-in-the-box because you know he wants to be aggressive and what a whip put us in between I mean the reaction we were just talking it up and you can see exactly why right there pretty not in the middle this is right we want with Johnny taken to the corner aka jail if you're this character yes there's a plus six that's right a very late-throwing yet there's an edge killer ready for it or you can really see Fox is trying to mix in the timings okay and how many mix-ups are off of that fatal blow cancel two characters can get to their fate of low in this game we happen to be looking at them is there a pattern here there you go I need a one taking mini risk at all right now has the fatal blowback actually could have canceled it again right here in the call out by Ninja on the down one look like Fox is going for that Ford one and a all-purpose tool is that Ford one range when you see the money on fire come out just like we saw absolutely ready yes finds it the damage comes gets the side switch in 378 damage for the effort to jump out of the corner but it could have been a risk and turning things around here for Ninja yes this is really stuff he's got to find way out haven't seen it yet at least chance for them to escape here it is oh but you see that what a rare drop from Sonic right there that could have led to so many damage but the set up afterwards goes yeah extremely definitely throw after the fatal blow Joker does get a crushing blow on that throw 310 damage ready on the crushing ball because it was on cool down when he grabbed even though it came back during the animation still able to pop it and what a color between the forward two and the one you can definitely see the respect between the two players not just in the gameplay itself but in that kind of response by Fox to getting got with a down to this is the tone set it was that close and it came out to a read like that I get the reactions on each club is when I see Joker to a 421 at me I'm usually holding oh yeah I'm scared is that push to the corner and this variation does have a mix up off of that Ford one for where you know you look low option there also as the overhead pro bar which we haven't seen too much of Sonic box actually get the hits into those pro bars to amplify to try to build a crushing blow that way we actually see ninja killer break out of a couple of those oh great and yeah what went underneath that was sick oh here we go if he amplifies three of those pro bars gives an access to a very damaging crushing blow oh this does so much damage and let's put a smile on that face it is damage on the other hand there's no more of the tricks with fatal blow on the cancel I mean at the cost of the health bar I take it yeah yeah you gotta do what you gotta do they're the ones making the decisions and winners finals there's a final combat trophy I picked that up earlier and you know why go to the gym when you get up that was your workout for the day absolutely I think my shoulders still a little bit thrown out if I'm being honest with you where are you making it through the jack-in-the-box and loading up one more towards that crushing blow believe rat to total always got to keep track of those that does have an impact on whether there's gonna be a lower and overhead and once again he's so good at going between the highs and the mids up straight I can't believe the whip on her style is incredible I saw it next hit we'll do it on the ground once again how many times we're gonna yes one for the low and whether it's amplified or whether it was gonna be crushing blow no longer matters right there a little disappointed that we didn't get to the crushing blow right yeah we can't actually amplify it and get the crush and you know a lot of players do make that mistake of not knowing where they're at and just naturally ending that right anyway because it didn't matter in that situation here we go tied up for one game of peace and this has just been how this tournament has gone start to end if you guys are just now tuning in this has been in my opinion the best Mortal Kombat tournament I have ever seen with almost half of the matches going to game number 5 12 of 27 was it David yes correct oh super weird okay look at the hit advantage on that jump huge range on that button and now I'm buying it here Sonic box it's a chance for pressure it's been pretty light okay and also grab things gets really good Oki as well but not on that forward throw but hey with the health lead also has some really cool tools to put out on screen to zone with the gunshot they can put out the apple by Jack in the box just on cue right there there's a turn there and he's not been able to just do that willy-nilly yeah those have been punished and just the best in the world at micro ducking projectiles and getting those punishes and they called each other out for it and you saw Joker not able to get the kind of shadow kick punish yeah forward one right into it what a cancel and Sonic box sticks around and look at at the end of the day what did that cost him David actually nothing no round fights that fatal blow gonna be going absolutely nowhere start up with a jump kick big damage the fear I saw the breakaway from Sonic box temp right there what's that jumping is active that's about your only option in an exact situation yeah they were definitely playing around that kind of idea but didn't you go I got it very hard to do you guys watching from home that is blocking that within a three-frame window and getting it in the following input very tight stuff but this is why do you guys are the best on the plan David yeah it's gonna be a save the day it's on a fox pressure with the whole string what a block is punishable you have to be thinking he just wanted to try to get one of those one of those crowbars loaded situation because you know if it's blocked okay hit just like this you're gonna feel a little bit better because the closer you get to that the more powerful you feel it's like you know gaining power levels yeah it is exactly like that the fourth one becomes super damaged into the corner I loved a little bat doll by the way this character looks so sick and the fact that Joker has a wonderful Batman imitation to yeah it's great it's just icing on the cake here by jackabox holds the other one yeah you can hold it if you hold it long enough it's when the actual on punish happen because punish it's a big old crushing blow what I think something there was to get something into the armor and then put down in an amplified box to cover that but the stand for a little too early like and this is just shit so now ninja killer has to consider whether it's worth sticking with Johnny or the character that you saw last night and how did that go I mean this is the character that he's known for multiple multiple games and how to go when it was looking versus was it pretty free but we'll see because that was casual like like I also brought up you know these guys save a lot of things for this yeah of course of course but it is the pick the Luke King here down to one sonic one away from grand finals of final combat going up against one of the nemesis of the tour oh yeah it's been a great rivalry between these two players here only three players have multiple wins over sonic dragon we have as being the top four oh yeah so uh that you kill here happens to be in the top four and rewind to I believe we're not dead by the way sick Joker costing I love it first wake up that that works because yeah yeah exactly and it's just not super common in the top player meta and you know those things that steady that they saved up their sleeve with something like that right right right I don't mind you but I saw fire out there I okay but the whole thing and ducking under and down okay oh there was no breakaway never mind wasn't even an option sonic box new amounts match point looking crisp here wanted wanted to do it all the way with juggling talk about all right that's the second head of the string off seriously just showing off come on stop it at this point you could have done what you did earlier make a read crouching action get upon a snow let's just show off the fact that our reactions are that good yeah an execution okay ready and what was that a reaction of the movement forward there sonic I didn't want to see the rest keep it safe for low life here what's it up building a crushing blow up his own with that as well yeah oh lost watching but didn't have the defensive meter to the three and that's the forward throw during that cool down of the fatal half the viewers at home just did the same little like wince that I did slowly on the approach still on the approach and boxes back ninja killer up all the way to the corner now there's a lot of respect and now double fatal blow territory oh he did something there break away gets the flying kick ninja stays alive what awareness flying kick in that situation that was beautiful one of the quickest things that could have come out and with the damage to kill him through the armor of the breakaway great range and almost every time that you go has gotten out of that crowbar I don't know if there's a custom blow lined up on it because of that I think all these breakways are just to avoid that situation that's my guess for the up to the first time that Fox went for a stagger on that string and yet it was ready up afford one there to gonna get a trade that looked to be in Sonic Fox's favor got tied up on health all over that throat yet again you get that on the second hit is so wild all these two are playing some amazing Mortal Kombat right now this is fast of quick reads quick reactions ninja killer it's not quite that 10 health remaining and are we gonna go to a game five just another on the night here we go can you believe it I can this is definitely believe it right where we left off just another game five on the night and it's gonna be Joker still that's what Fox said they're gonna stick with this character the entire way it is down to one ladies and gentlemen yeah to the rescue oh no probably a little bit too late on that and it made looking flip over a little more than they wanted right there but some of those things are just real tricky funky choice like these little steps second hit back and forth in this instance so down to what'll read a little bit too late so did you go out she takes advantage chance for pressure it's gonna be here shit just just check it on to yeah both spent here we go here we go that's gonna be the round and did you kill a goat into a final round here all of a sudden from the depths of what looked like to be for Sonic Fox's victory now has match point of his own and crushing blows loaded all over the place but first blood go the Sonic but here we go what a timing there now that bicycle kick crushing blow here Fox has to be worried about every single one of us loaded oh this is so scary none came what I read in the past 20 seconds here we go they were deleted which will completely reset everybody in here is standing right now in anticipation of what's about to happen breaks the throat there's mama ninja killer in the crowd celebrating not over yet but what a sigh of relief switching back the two players yes that everybody was talking about as being the most likely to win they're clearly extremely talented they put in the work for sure they're very well researched the reactions incredible from ninja killer in a bunch of instances in that I loved the whiff punishing than we saw just fantastic stuff the flawless blocks everything the the micro crouches that was mortal come out 11 at its highest possible level to date I absolutely agree with you which has been with the pro competition has been you know from event to event the level of play has gotten higher through across the board from all of these players right and to hear the apex of our competitive community and that's what you guys just saw well let's hear from that apex with Josh great they're back here hello hello hey buddy we're good we're good congratulations ninja killer this is a gigantic victory in particular because of the history that you and Sonic Fox had throughout the entire pro competition what has that journey been like for you and how significant is this victory right now it is very significant to me because something he's my kryptonite man like he always skews my language but he always beats my ass in offline tournaments man it's just hard dealing with him so like winning this it feels it feels amazing