It's been two months since our post-Evo anlaysis, and a decent amount has changed since then. Some players have been knocked out of qualification range, while others have managed to push their way in. Between Evo and now, 26 Capcom Pro Tour events have been held, ranging from mostly online tournaments and regional events to a couple global premieres. However, 14 events remain in the CPT schedule before Capcom Cup, so those looking to qualify will have to hit the grind and travel as much as they can between now and the end of November, and nine of those events are global premieres and regional finals with 400 points to give the winners.
Shoryuken's CPT rankings page containing the top 50 will be used as the reference for this analysis, due to being concise and easy to read. However, if you'd like to see a much longer list, you're free to visit the standings page of the official Capcom Pro Tour website.
Kicking off the leaderboards is Punk, Tokido, and NuckleDu who have all maintained their first, second, and third place positions since Evo, with Punk currently being the only person past the 2000 point mark. His first place finishes at East Coast Throwdown and Absolute Battle 8, and second place finishes at Summer Jam and Defend the North, gave him a combined total of 520 points. Tokido, however, has been feeling so secure in his position since his win at Evo, that he's been forgoing participation at CPT events, and attending mostly invitationals offering big money. The only CPT tournament he was a part of since July was a CPT Online Asia tournament, where he finished in fifth. NuckleDu has managed to take 320 points since Evo, thanks to first place finishes at DreamHack Montreal and Summer Jam.
Coming in fourth, fifth, and sixth are Haitani, Xian, and Bonchan. Bonchan has been pushed down a couple of places since his 9th place finish at Evo due to not participating in any CPT events at all since then, but that's not a problem, as his 1150 points have essentially guaranteed him a spot at Capcom Cup. Haitani and Xian, however, have still been actively competing, and have been pushed up a couple places since July. Haitani's fourth places finishes at both an Asia Online tournament and Esports Festival Hong Kong grant him a combined 200 points, but where he really won big was at Japan Cup, where a first place win gave him a whopping 400. Xian managed to gather 320 points by taking first at Asia Online 3, and VSFighting in Europe.
Up next are Kazunoko, Fuudo, and Daigo. All three have climbed to highers ranks since July, with the greatest climb being Daigo, after winning Abuget Cup, Fight Club NRW, and Esports Festival Hong Kong. His three first place finishes gave him a massive 720 points, with a meager addition of 5 points from a 33rd place finish at Japan Cup. Before these performances, he was nowhere near the top 30, but as with last year, he hit the grind during the last half of the summer and slid in. Kazunoko and Fuudo have been seeing steady success since Evo, with 225 and 360 points gained since then, respectively.
Behind them are Itabashi Zangief, Snake Eyez, Justin Wong, Verloren, Oil King, Yukadon, and Phenom. With Itazan at 956 points and Phenom at 870, only a combined total of 86 points separate these men, meaning any of them can gain an edge with one regional win. However, they're all still comfortably in the top 16, meaning that it's unlikely any will be pushed out of qualification completely. Itazan and Snake Eyez are both Zangief players and coincidentally right next to each other. Them, plus Verloren, Oil King, Yukadon, and Phenom have all dropped by a few places since July. Justin Wong is only one among the group to have climbed higher.
Next are Luffy, MenaRD, Big Bird, Problem X, Smug, GO1, and Brolynho, who are all managing to stay afloat above the 700 point mark. MenaRD and Smug are the only ones of this group to have been pushed down a couple ranks, as the rest have managed to move up since Evo; especially Problem X and Brolynho, who weren't even in the top 30 following the big event. However, as predicted in the previous analysis article, they managed to take home to big wins at a couple events and force their way in.
Closing off the top 30 (31 if you include NuckleDu, who is already qualified since he's last year's champion) are Moke, Filipino Champ, Momochi, Xiaobao, 801 Strider, NYChrisG, Sako, and Mago. Since his top 8 Evo finish, Moke has been able to greatly increase his activity in competing, especially since he's now sponsored by Ponos. With 276 points since July, he's still safe within qualification range, but not very. Fchamp, who was also in Evo's top 8, is pretty much the opposite. He's only acquired 25 points since then, and unless he manages to take another win or two, he's probably the most likely to pushed out of top 30. 801 Strider and Mago managed to slide in, albeit barely, which was also predicted in the last article. Mago especially seems to have become more aggressive about competing, having participated in one event every weekend since Esports Festival Hong Kong. However, at 31st on the leaderboard, he's in the most dangerous position, because if anyone below him breaks in to qualify, he'll be the first one pushed out. Finally, NYChrisG has seen a major drop since July, going from 19th to 29th, having only scrounged a meager 11 points in that time frame. Like Fchamp, he'll be among the first forced out of qualification if he isn't persistent.
Top players outside of top 30 who are worth keeping an eye on are Dogura, K-Brad, Gamerbee, Gachikun, Packz, Mono, Infiltration, and Chris Tatarian. The first four are immediately behind Mago in regards to points, and extremely capable of forcing him out. The next four are a bit less probable, especially Mono and Infiltration, due to playing characters considered to be low tier (F.A.N.G. and Juri, respectively), if not part of the bottom four entirely. But if they manage to put in the work and go to tournaments, they could manage it.
This concludes the September analysis. We look forward to seeing if any last-minute changes happen before the final tournament in December. Keep an eye on TechRaptor for tournament results!
