Evo 2017: Sunday Top 8 Highlights

As Evo enters its final day, things get turned up. The event moves into the Mandalay Bay Events Center, and players walk out onto the big stage to decide who will be the last man standing — a champion of their game.

So to keep you all up to date, we’ve taken the best moments from each final day Top 8 and compiled them just for you. We’ll continue to update this page with new Top 8 moments throughout the day, so stay tuned.

Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3

The Marvel vs. Capcom series has a storied history at Evo. Over the years, MvC 2 and 3 and both thrilled competitors and spectators alike. This year will be the final year for UMvC3, as it makes way for the new Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite — a game that’s looking good after this morning’s exhibition that showed off the newest character, Jedah from Darkstalkers. But UMvC3 did not go quietly into the night.

Highlights

RyanLV vs. Prodigy: Ryan spent a good amount of time keeping his distance, converting from stray hits to dominate throughout the match. Prodigy nearly turned the second match around, but after an unfortunate happy birthday situation, he fell into Loser’s bracket with a convincing 3-0 going in favor of RyanLV.

Paradigm vs. Not High Enough Damage: Paradigm’s Haggar and Dormammu put in work, leaving NHED seemingly uncertain how to fight back. He was unafraid to go nuts one second, and switch to passive, measured play the next. It was a quick victory; Paradigm moved on without a single loss, making quick work of his opponent and eliminating him from the tournament.

Prodigy vs. Marvel God: This pair played the same team of Magneto, Dr. Doom and Storm, but Marvel God seemed to just be one step ahead of Prodigy the whole way through. They both played their characters well, but Marvel God got into Prodigy’s head by being just a step ahead, taking the set with a clean 3-1 record.

Paradigm vs. Joey D: This proved to be one of the closet sets of the morning. Joey tried to play safe, but continued to be on the back foot, leaving him unable to mount much of an attack. Despite being on the edge, was able  to make an incredible comeback with just Doctor Doom left against Paradigm’s entire team, timing out Paradigm for the win with a sliver of health left. This would be the story of the next two games; Joey D would have Doctor Doom left, and would either succeed or fail with just the one character.

The set went down to the wire, spanning the whole five games. Paradigm consistently punished Virgil super with Haggar’s Lariat which turned the tide in his favor — in the final match it appeared that Joey would repeat his comeback from game one, but in an incredible turn at the last possible moment, Paradigm completely reversed the momentum with a quick Happy Birthday and secured the match, 3-2.

Winner’s Finals – RyanLV vs. ChrisG: Ryan started off strong with his runaway, meter-building strategy and took the first match after a very patient game from both players — nearly half the match was spent in neutral, a rarity in Marvel. The pattern continued in game two: Ryan’s patient play paid off again, and he won the second round in a very close time out. The pattern repeated itself for the third round as Chris couldn’t seem to keep RyanLV on the ground. RyanLV takes a clean 3-0 over ChrisG — and in potentially one of the most patient sets in history.

Paradigm vs. Marvel God: Paradigm decided to switch his team to Arthur/Haggar/Rocket Racoon, using Arthur to immediately power up and tag out. The pick didn’t work too well; Marvel God took the first game quickly and efficiently. Paradigm sticks with the team, however, and it pays off: he pulled out a clutch second match, leaving the score at 1-1. The third game looked very similar to the first however.

Down 1-2, Paradigm was forced to switch out Arthur for Doctor Doom. The switch worked well for Paradigm with Rocket Racoon playing a much bigger role. Paradigm took Marvel God down to just Dark Pheonix with just a pixel of life, but he wasn’t able to land the last hit of chip, and Marvel God took advantage, closing out the set at 3-1.

ChrisG vs. Marvel God: In this set, able to comfortably play his game against Marvel God. The pair split the first two games, but after that it was off to the races. ChrisG eliminated Marvel God, 3-1, and took 3rd as Chris moved on.

Grand Finals – RyanLV vs. ChrisG: To nobody’s surprise, these two met up again in Grand Finals. The first two games appeared to reinforce the result of their first set; Ryan took the first game convincingly, and styled on ChrisG in the second with not one, but two infinite combos.

It would not be the end, however. ChrisG managed to find a strong foothold during the second fight, and while Ryan was able to win by time out, ChrisG was showing signs of life. He used that newfound momentum to win the next two, evening it up for a final game or a bracket reset. ChrisG’s comeback was just not meant to be, however. He eventually fell in a suffocating last-character situation, slowly chipped out by RyanLV’s Phoenix.

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