Quit Your Friendlies 5 – two days of Smash & FGC at the Buffalo Riverworks [Photo Gallery]
Buffalo’s regional Quit Your Friendlies made a big splash at the Riverworks for its 5th iteration, with a new venue, spreading the event over two days, and attracting over 200 entrants.
The new venue brought a stage for stream setups, and a huge screen for the main displays.
While some bargoers may have been a bit confused by what was happening, the venue was at times electric as explosive moments shook the high stakes brackets.
$1,000 pot bonuses fueled competition in SF6, Ultimate, & Melee courtesy of TechBuffalo, True Customs, and Peace Gaming.
And yes, there was a Ferris Wheel.
Photo Gallery
Photos by Jay Bradley and Ryan Suttner.
Smash ends the summer strong
In short – Ultimate was as big as the screen it was presented on.
Professional-level stream, 90 sign-ups, and strong out of region competition.
Ontario’s Infinity took the event after a grueling bracket of game 5 sets vs iModerz, elijmin, and SassyFlygon before winning in the grand finals reset vs. elijmin.
While iModerz, SassyFlygon, Jay and others tried their best to keep the winnings within Upstate, a late night bracket win by the traveling Olimar eventually proved impossible to stop.
Ontario also made moves in doubles, with the Ontario team of TanTaco and JoStorr taking the bracket over Buffalo’s Interstellar and MRW after losing to the team in Winners Finals.
Ultimate VODs for Quit Your Friendlies 5 can be found here:
The Melee side saw Rochester’s LordTet as the protagonist in the $700 pot bonus singles bracket (sponsored by the hometown merch guru TrueCustoms), taking sets over Pig, Asylum, Killerrobo, Seagulls, Tsunami, and myself. Not a shabby run in the slightest.
He then solidly followed it up by winning the Monday Night Smashball local over Jank as the next week began.
With a late-bracket dropout from Question, and no Zanya or Jmook to challenge, Capital Region’s Agent looked dominant throughout the event, only losing a game to training partner and carpool member Pig, who placed third.
As you go down top 8 though, it’s clear that skilled talent is all over the region, with Syracuse, Rochester, Albany, and of course Buffalo all showing representation with strong results.
In doubles, the AyVee/Legion team looked dominant until running into the Albany powerhouse of Pig/Agent. After two game 5 sets, Capital Region took it over Buffalo.
Despite some last minute dropouts from Binghamton and Syracuse, it still brought some killer cross-region results!
FGC brings new hype to new games
FGC having its own day gave the much-deserved highlight to the newest blockbuster in the lineup – Street Fighter 6.
Buffalo was able to defend their own turf, with Station taking the 67-entrant event without dropping a set over Rochester’s and AGN’s MacsSama.
In their own words, Buffalo FGC leaders declared pools as a “full-on bloodbath,” with high level players from different regions demolishing each other left and right.
The full vods for Quit Your Friendlies 5 Street Fighter 6 can be found here:
While non-Street Fighter brackets for the most part didn’t have the same numbers as the headliners SF6 and Smash Ultimate, that doesn’t mean they lacked any excitement.
Buffalo’s Joey Fury, coming off from a 9th place finish at EVO, took the 34-entrant Tekken 7 bracket in stride over Demon20z and Hodor without losing a set.
Ontario’s Hachiman took Guilty Gear Strive’s 28-entrant bracket over Gutz and Kami99.
KOFXV had a 7-entrant slobberknocker with Buffalo’s Guzman taking the event after being sent to losers by Bestie Dizzy in Winners Semis, and running it through losers to beat Hodor, Greyheart, Bestie Dizzy and finally taking the event over RakaidZ in a 6-0 grands sweep.
Rivals of Aether, which took place Saturday during the smash brackets, had El_Taco take the modest 5 entrant bracket.
Thanks to the TOs for putting on a great event!
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