Bearcat Brawl 7: Seeing off Upstate’s best with a passion [Photo Gallery]
A run-of-the-mill iteration of Binghamton’s monthly, Bearcat Brawl 7, very soon grew into a 53-entrant, region-wide Melee sendoff for Jmook when he announced it would be the hometown hero Sheik’s last event in his home city before heading off to Los Angeles.
What was first was filled with excitement over possibly determining the tight race for the Southern Tier winter power rankings soon grew to a stacked regional in just a few days.
Players drove from Buffalo, Rochester, Albany and Syracuse to take part, elevating the event to Tier 1 on the Upstate Melee Champions Circuit and bringing to Binghamton University some of the highest level of competition the region has seen this year.
Ultimate had a bit of a showing as well, with 12 entrants despite the region dividing itself on the day between this event and an iteration of The Smash Lab in Ithaca.
Being “born and raised” at BU tournaments like Hype Waves and Binghamton Esports with a Passion, Jmook said the last hurrah was an emotional experience after defeating Zanya, Lordtet, alright and more without dropping a game.
A big thanks to him for paying for everyone’s post-bracket Five Guys after the crowded Tulley’s ended up being too long of a wait to work out.
Thanks to the TOs Govolow, Toastly and others for such a smooth event, somehow finishing before 6:30 p.m. and to all that made the drive to the Southern Tier!
Photo Gallery
See a direct link to the photo gallery here
Apologies for anyone I missed!
Photos by HitchHikr, Litebow & Toxzis
Results
See final brackets here.
Here are our top 8 for Bearcat Brawl 7’s ultimate and melee brackets! https://t.co/FGKrPVQ73o pic.twitter.com/sF2fLxPbkh
— Binghamton Video Game Association (@Binghamton_VGA) December 3, 2023
VODs
Check out the stream recording, which made it to #1 on the Melee category throughout the day thanks to being streamed on Jmook’s channel!
Despite some audio issues near the end, Toastly and Blooky brought about a great presentation over two different streams.
Highlights:
- Cowbell, after falling to EduPorp in pools, won 6 sets in losers over Blooky, HitchHikr, MonkHB, LordTet, MOOSE, and Eduporp in a rematch to make it all the way to losers finals, losing 3-1 to Zanya for 3rd place
- Eduporp’s impressive run to 4th, beating ArStar Cowbell, Jank (in a last stock game 5) and alright before falling to Cowbell in the runback.
- A tight set of MonkHB taking it over ayeGiohh in front of the largest off-stream crowd of the event
- Jmook and Patches running through doubles, with LordTet and Zanya cleaning up for 2nd place
- Mia beating PRIONBOIL for the first time in bracket, continuing the tightening fight for 1st in the Southern Tier Power Rankings
- Gio giving away a jar of his grandma’s Italian red sauce recipe to Jmook as a moving away gift, which he said he will use on chicken tenders
- Jmook bringing Starbucks from his old stomping grounds, where he worked at the time of his Genesis 8 run
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