ReveLAtions Finals: Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3

The grand finale of ReveLAtions 2012 was indeed one to remember. The big names of the west coast came out, not to mention EVO’s champion Filipino Champ was competing in his first competition after EVO. Many people gathered around the big screen in the evening to watch who was going to be crowned champion of Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 at ReveLAtions 2012.

The opening match was against AGE Fanatiq and EG Justin Wong. In round one, Fanatiq was running with Magneto, Storm, and Sentinel, while JWong was running his standby Storm, Wolverine, and Akuma. The round ALMOST got called on time, but at literally the last second, X-Factored Sentinel took out JWong’s Storm and Akuma, giving Fanatiq a one point lead. In the second match, Sentinel got happy birthday’d by JWong’s Storm, causing a major loss towards Fanatiq and he lost the second round. But it was not over yet… Happy birthday’s all around as JWong used a team hyper combo to knock out Sentinel once again and Magneto at the same time.

Is it déjà vu? Because I could have sworn I saw that exact same thing happen in the previous round. That’s right; Sentinel got happy birthday’d AGAIN and an X-Factor team hyper combo knocked him and Magneto out at the same time. This left Justin Wong with the match win. What an opening match!

The second match pitted the pad player PadTrick against the favored Filipino Champ. PadTrick tried his luck with Vergil, Dante, and Strider Hiryu against FChamp’s Magneto, Doctor Doom, and favorite Dormammu. Vergil and Dante got knocked out early, but Strider Hiryu did his best and took out Magneto. But the ninja was nothing against Dormammu’s final Dark Dimension hyper and he crushed him into oblivion. The second round was a bit better for Pad Trick, despite blowing his X-Factor early. He did pretty well and knocked out two characters, but still lost the round. This got him pretty pumped as he showed that Dante deserved to be seen more often in competitive play. Dante was clearly the MVP for round three as he took out every one of FChamp’s characters. Even though Pad Trick lost to a level three X-Factored Dormammu and was knocked into the loser’s bracket, he still did relatively well for a pad player against the champion of EVO.

The third match was against Killer Kai and TTF Dios X. Killer Kai was running with a character that saw a lot of game-play at EVO: Zero, as well as Taskmaster and Wesker. He was battling against Dios X’s Doctor Doom, Sentinel, and Storm. Now that was the Zero I remember from EVO. If he gets you in a corner, you could say good night to your character. This loop in the corner with Zero killed all of Dios X’s team and gave Kai the win for round one. But Dios X made a comeback when he saw that he needed to kill that Zero quickly or else face certain doom. He most certainly did and that clenched the victory in round two. In the third round, Dios X played a major zoning game to try to knock Zero out and it almost worked, but with an X-Factor and call out to save Zero, this did not happen. It unfortunately came back to bite him in the ass, for right in the opening, Kai got Dios X’s team early with Zero and took out two characters in mere seconds. The final match point, it seemed that Kai blew his X-Factor early and put him at a disadvantage. But he was able to take out both Storm and Doctor Doom and left Sentinel with level 3 X-Factor. Sentinel took out Wesker, leaving Taskmaster alone to deal with him. A scary thing to go against for any player, but had Dios X mashed Sentinel’s super, he would have killed Taskmaster. Needless to say, you leave a mercenary with a sliver of health and he will come back to take revenge. Kai took that match victory, but not without a few battle wounds to show off.

The next match-up was against Combofiend and AZHP.hAZ Forward, both using characters that do not see much game-play unless these two are playing them. In the first round, Forward took out Combofiend’s team with an X-Factored Strider Hiryu. This ninja can sure move and with his level 3 Ouroboros attached to him, nothing could stop him from winning. Forward was on a roll and his iconic C. Viper, a character that does not see the light of competition much, took out every single one of Combo’s characters. This pitted Combofiend into a corner and he switched his team to Nova, Spencer, and Hawkeye and go into the third round. But this was the end of the road for Combofiend. Forward’s Doctor Doom took out both Spencer and Nova and an X-Factored Strider, once again, took out Hawkeye.

The momentum of these back and forth matches continued as Killer Kai and PadTrick were against each other. Kai ran his Zero, Taskmaster, and Wesker team, while pad player PadTrick ran with Dante, Vergil, and Strider. The rounds themselves were back and forth; Kai took round one, but Vergil came back with a vengeance and knocked Zero out, winning round two. A close call in the third round caused a loss for PadTrick. He was so close to killing Zero very early in the round, but he left him alive and that ultimately killed him. In the fourth round, Kai showed what Zero was really made of and took out PadTrick’s team, giving Kai the victory of the match.

After his victory against Combofiend, Forward was on the stage once again against AGE Fanatiq. Since the matches were so intense, it was hard to notice that Forward himself was a pad player for this match. His C. Viper, Doctor Doom, and Strider Hiryu team went up against Fanatiq’s Magneto, Storm, and Sentinel team. In round one, Strider was snapped in to get killed so easily, almost giving Fanatiq a perfect. Strider is such a squish character that, if snapped in early enough, is not a threat with level 3 X- Factor and Ouroboros attached. But Forward was not going to let his death be in vain. Strider was snapped back again in round two, Fanatiq hoping for a repeat like last time. But this time, Strider was smart and avoided getting hit by Sentinel’s Hyper Sentinel Force hyper by crawling up the wall. The ninja sought revenge for last time and killed Sentinel, taking the round for Forward.

This back and forth action did not stop there. In round three, Fanatiq got his revenge when he juggled some of Forward’s team with Storm and taking that round. Upset, Forward fought back and hard. Although Magneto was X-Factored to kill Strider, which was snapped in from C. Viper, Forward was able to catch a happy birthday from Storm with C. Viper, winning the round. It was now down to match point and both competitors were pumped and ready to go. Forward’s Strider tried to take revenge for his fallen comrades during the round, but failed and the match went to Fanatiq.

Next was the final match in the loser’s bracket. Whoever won this would have to compete against the loser from the winner’s bracket. This match pitted Killer Kai and AGE Fanatiq against each other. The teams remained the same and the battle began. In round one, Fanatiq was trying his hardest not to get touched by Zero. He was looking for an opportunity to kill him, but Zero found the perfect one and happy birthday’d Sentinel and killed Storm AT THE SAME TIME, winning the round for Kai. It was the first time in the tournament we had seen a two character KO from the same team at the same time. Although Fanatiq was down, he was not out. Even though Zero caught Magneto early and killed him in round two, he was able to happy birthday Taskmaster and kill Zero shortly afterwards.

The back and forth action continued as Fanatiq took round three, but then lost in round four. Kai’s Zero took our Magneto, but was having a hard time getting into Storm who was playing a good keep away game. Storm attempted at running out the X-Factor from Wesker, but this was not enough and she fell, giving Kai the round. It was now down to match point and both competitors gave it their all. There were dropped combos for days on the field, with the audience’s cries being “ahhh” and “ooohhh”. Taskmaster got happy birthday’d, Fanatiq found an opportunity to take out Zero with Magneto and he did, and X-Factor was blown to try to save a character. Ultimately, the round was timed out and Fanatiq was just alive enough to take the match in victory.

Now it was only the winner’s bracket. We had Justin Wong against Filipino Champ. FChamp was either really confident or really cocky, because when he was choosing his team, he led off with Magneto, but chose a random assist for Doctor Doom, and Phoenix was the anchor. The reason for the random assist on Doctor Doom is beyond me. This cocky attitude got the best of him in round one when Justin Wong was trying to go for the early kill before Phoenix changed to Dark Phoenix. This strategy failed and she still became dark, but JWong was able to take her out with Storm. Now, FChamp got serious after this point. JWong is more than capable of taking out the champion, considering they have played against each other many times. In round two, JWong acted rashly and whiffed the Wolverine Weapon X hyper, allowing him to be killed by Doctor Doom’s grab. At the end of that round, it was Akuma vs. Dark Phoenix. But not just any Dark Phoenix…level 3 X-Factored Dark Phoenix. There was no hope in sight for Akuma at this point and FChamp took round two.

The Phoenix player kept his momentum back up and was not playing around anymore. Although JWong tried his best to snap in Phoenix to kill her before there was 5 bars of meter, he just couldn’t do it and he was left to deal with yet another level 3 X-Factored Dark Phoenix. Round four turned out to be no different. Aside from dropped combos for days, the good ol’ standby strategy of X-Factored Phoenix (in any form) and rape face was controlled by FChamp and he took the match against JWong.

But Justin was not out of the competition just yet. He was then pitted against Fanatiq, the winner of the loser’s bracket. Keeping the same teams, they fought. The previous match must have caused something in JWong to snap, because he completely swept Fanatiq with a 3-0 victory. His Wolverine was clearly the MVP of his team, taking out Magneto very early in two rounds.

Justin Wong and Filipino Champ met on the battlefield once again. However, this time, both of them changed teams. JWong was running with a seemingly experimental team of Spencer, Vergil, and Frank West, while FChamp stuck with Magneto and Doctor Doom, but switched out Phoenix for Dormammu. JWong was back for revenge! Playtime was over and it was time to get serious, for this match determined who would win the tournament or if the brackets would get reset. If JWong wins, the brackets reset and the real battle begins.

Round one did not start off too hot for Justin. Doctor Doom caught both Frank West and Spencer on the incoming, knocking them both out. But Vergil avenged his fallen comrades and took the round for JWong. There was going to be none of this when pride and money was on the line. In round two, there were more dropped combos like crazy, but poor Frank West had to go up against Dormammu. Needless to say, FChamp took that round.

That didn’t scare JWong one bit. In round three, his demon mode and X-Factored Vergil took out FChamp’s favorite Dormammu. Although he did take a happy birthday and Frank died, he still won that round. It was round four and FChamp was done. He X-Factored Dormammu to kill Vergil and Spencer. He was indeed trying to go for the perfect win, but at the last minute got grabbed by Frank. Although the battle was lost, Filipino Champ won the war and took the match in victory against Justin Wong. He was crowned champion of ReveLAtions 2012 in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3.

The fast pace action of UMVC3 keeps people glued to the screen to watch as combos are dropped, X-Factors are blown, and hypers are whiffed. But at the end of the day, the love and passion of the game still exist and will continue to exist for many of these players. There were many other individuals at ReveLAtions 2012 aside from the players that made their names known to the world for their passion. Keep an eye out for an exclusive interview with the cast of “Assist Me!” and a company called HitBox, both revolutionizing the world of fighting games in their own way.

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