After months of planning and anticipation, the FV x SEA Major Malaysia 2019 is finally underway!

On the main stage 102 players, with some coming from as far as Algeria, duked it out in Street Fighter V (SFV). Up for grabs were top 16 spots and the all-important Capcom Pro Tour (CPT) Asia qualifying points. Spectators and Twitch viewers were treated to high-level fights and even some upsets.

For full brackets and results head over to the SEA Major website.

Here are highlights on the road to CPT SFV Top 16:

POOL 1
Winner’s bracket: SIN Brandon (Singapore)
Losers bracket: Victrix Momochi (Japan)

In the marquee match of the day, Brandon pulled off an amazing 2-1 Round 3 upset that sent Momochi to the Losers bracket. Momochi prevailed against Talon Denesis from Hong Kong in the Loser’s final to secure a Top 16 spot.

POOL 2
Winner’s bracket: RED BULL HX Bonchan (Japan)
Losers bracket: Yoshimoto Machabo (Japan)

Japan’s high ranking player Machabo succumbed to in Game 1 (0-2) against Filipino PBE Don. After calming himself and making ground adjustments, Machabo fought back in Game 2 (2-1) and connecting ground pounds that he whiffed in earlier rounds and closing out Game 3.

POOL 3
Winner’s bracket: ROHTO Z! Tokido (Japan)
Loser’s bracket: Liquid|John Takeuchi (Japan)

In the Winner’s Round 3 the aptly-named Bravery (Singapore) matched blow-for-blow against the legendary Tokido tieing up with Game 2 (2-0), but “Murder Face” lived up to his moniker with a one-sided ‘Perfect’ ending in Game 3.

POOL 4
Winner’s bracket: TALON HotDog29 (Hong Kong)
Loser’s bracket: SZY Mizuha (Japan)

You might want to sit down for this one – one of the favourites RZR Xian (Singapore) was knocked out of the tournament!  Losing both Winner’s Final and Loser’s Final to HotDog and Mizuha respectively in back-to-back games was something nobody could have predicted.

POOL 5

Winner’s bracket: FUDOH Fujimura (Japan)
Loser’s bracket: IamChuan (Malaysia)

Another tournament favourite Oil King crashed out in similar fashion! With the home support cheering him on, IamChuan roared into the Top 16 beating Oil King in straight Games.

POOL 6

Winner’s bracket: CYG BST GamerBee (Taiwan)
Loser’s bracket: Oswald (Singapore)

It was no surprise that GamerBee won his pool with relative ease but Oswald’s masterful Laura combos stunned the tournament by beating Otani (2-1) in a thrilling Loser’s Final. A dark horse to watch out for tomorrow!

POOL 7

Winner’s bracket: DNG Itabashi Zangief (Japan)
Loser’s bracket: FAV Sako (Japan)

Itabashi’s Mecha Zangief crushed every opponent along the way to the top of the pool. Sako recovered from Itabashi’s thrashing to eliminate one of the few remaining players from the Philippines, Jamse.

POOL 8

Winner’s bracket: FAV Ryusei (Japan)
Loser’s bracket: Fudoh Johnny (Japan)

Even at the end of an exhausting 10 hours of SFV, the quality of fights was still top notch. Child prodigy Super Junior impressed the crowd and commentary with his Urien plays. No shame losing to eventual Pool winner Ryusei, this won’t be the last we will see of Super Junior for sure.

Re-live Day 1 CPT SFV action by heading on to the Versus Asia Youtube page.

In the other tournaments:

• The Top 8 for Tekken 7 sees fierce competition between the Philippines and Malaysia. Which country will reign supreme after Day 2?
• Soul Calibur VI pits lone Singaporean Sia Will.Is.Sia against 3 other Malaysians in the Semi Finals. Can the representative from the little red dot grab the championship in hostile territory?
• The Supreme Champion for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is…Futaboo (Malaysia)! In second place AdverMrPillar, and Saisak (Hong Kong) spoils a home ground sweep with third place.
• A diverse Top 4 for Drabonall FighterZ sees two Filipinos battling for a Final spot, while Malaysia and China battle it out in the other Semi-finals.

For answers to those questions follow Day 2 action ‘live’ via the Versus Asia Twitch stream!