Friday, July 10, 2015

Examu Cup 2015 Aquapazza brackets

It's that time again where I, as one of the last three remaining people in the entire USA who cares about Aquapazza, (shoutouts to Lark and Ernest, the two others) go over the Examu Cup 2015 Aquapazza brackets.  Due to DFC and Nitro+ blasters, this year feels sort of light compared to last year. There's a lot of lesser-known players, and quite a few glaring omissions in the 24 teams lined up for AP this year. No mercy for the clowns using aliases, everyone gets twitter linked if I can figure out who they are. I'll try my best to give breakdowns, but these are my own opinions, so if your name is nobi and you are the only match I get wrong first round brackets cause I overestimate kaiser don't laugh at me ok. Also, assists are switchable, but when I list them at all I will usually list the assist the player is most comfortable with.

FIRST ROUND
1. 6/20(土) 東京 中野TRF qualified at Nakano TRF in Tokyo
Team: 軸中心 Jikuchu Shin (the name of a sadlife tapestry store) 
Player: 藤真拓哉(環) AKA 萌えの伝道師/Moeden/Moe Missionary Tamaki/Ulthury
Player: 珈琲貴族(トウカ) AKA 暁/Akatsuki Touka/Rina
VS
2. 5/30(土) 神奈川 タイトーステーション横浜西口五番街 qualified at Taito Station Yokohama 5 in Kanagawa
Team: チャリで来た!The Bicycle has come! (some silly meme from a print club with 4 boys posing)
Player: 殿下@茅ヶ崎トウカ(トウカ) denka Touka/Yuma
Player: みゅう(このみ) myuu Konomi/Yuma
Analysis: Right off the bat we have some annoying team of aliases that I could only figure out by comparing photographs and using Google. Sorry Akatsuki, Denka wins.

3. 5/2(土) 大阪 KSB2015 qualified at KSB2015 in Osaka
Team: 移動要塞と観覧車 Space Battleship and Ferris Wheel
Player: gamera(ささら) gamera Sasara/Ma-ryan/Llyr
Player: 真田(アロウン) sanada Arawn/Ma-Ryan/Ulthury ...wait, sanada ARAWN? not Tamaki? What is going on?
VS
4. 5/31(日) 愛知 ポート24一社店 qualified at Port 24 in Aichi
Team: まどぶた Madoka pig
Player: ごぼう(カルラ) gobou Karulau/Ma-ryan
Player: 322(環) AKA ミニッツ/mini2 Tamaki/Ulthury
Analysis: A tough one, normally I would easily say gamera's team if sanada was using Tamaki. I'll still say gamera's team but I'm a lot less sure than I normally would be.

5. 7/4(土) 東京 ゲームプラザセントラル八王子店 qualified at Game Plaza Central 8 in Tokyo
Team: q’s@電撃MTG部 q's at Dengeki MTG Division
Player: ジン(千鶴)jin Chizuru/Yu
Player: もりのクマサン(ハクオロ) morikuma Hakuowlo/Ma-ryan
VS
6. 7/5(日) 大阪 KO-HATSU(コーハツ) qualified at KO-HATSU in Osaka
Team:
Player: しゃり(このみ) shari Konomi/Yuma/Ma-ryan
Player: こうや(千鶴) kouya Chizuru/Ma-ryan
Analysis: Man, I want kouya to win. He's amazing, he loves the game, for the longest time I said he was equal or just slightly under OZ, but every time I see him in tournament or something he chokes and loses in silly ways. That and morikuma's our boy, so jin/morikuma team, but I wouldn't mind being wrong either way.

7. LCQ1
VS
8. 6/27(土) 富山 アピナ富山南店
Team: 一人組(北陸勢)
Player: 花京院(カルラ) Karulau
Analysis: Solo entry?

9. 6/14(日) 群馬 ザ・サードプラネット高崎店
Team: こみぱ2はよ It's Comic Party 2
Player: カイザー(アロウン) kaiser Arawn/Camyu
Player: CBA(マルチ) CBA Multi/Mizuki
VS
10. 5/24(日) 神奈川 アミューズメントパークジアス上大岡店
Team: q’s@電撃FC部 q's at Dengeki Fighting Climax Division
Player: のび(環) nobi Tamaki/Llyr
Player: OZ(千鶴) OZ Chizuru/Llyr
Analysis: Hahaha not making the same mistake again, although honestly I'd be biased to any team OZ is on anyway. That being said, it is sad to see butter quit Aquapazza to fully focus on trying to beat GO1 in Shana mirrors. :V

11. 6/7(日) 東京 セガワールドアルカス
Team: やけつくいき
Player: ひのエルフ(モルガン) hino elf Morgan/Rina
Player: GJM(ハクオロ) GJM Hakuowlo/Ma-ryan (Oboro? Who's that?)
VS
12. 6/27(土) 福島 スーパービンゴ郡山店
Team: たままる改二
Player: 相田ナコ(環) nako Tamaki/Yuma
Player: 毒アンテナ(マルチ) poison antenna Multi/Yu
Analysis: I will believe in hino elf because he is older than me.

13. 6/20(土) 広島 アミパラ キャッスル店
Team: カープ男子
Player: やな(環) yana Tamaki/Ulthury
Player: ちゃんなご(このみ) nago Konomi/Ma-ryan
VS
14. 5/23(土) 愛知 アーバンスクエア大須店
Team: ゲームスカイアクアパッツァ勢 Game Sky Aquapazza Force
Player: なお(千鶴) nao Chizuru
Player: ナツメ(環) natsume Tamaki
Analysis: nao/natsume team

15. LCQ 2
VS
16. 6/13(土) 福岡 G-stage七隈
Team: 七隈勢です。
Player: まるおさん(モルガン) maruo Morgan
Player: 568(カルラ) 568 Karulau
Analysis: These two literally got a bye last year too, I smell conspiracy!

17. 6/28(日) 大阪 アミューズメントパークエルロフト
Team: 美少女格闘ゲーム bishoujo fighting game
Player: あごうん(アロウン) agoun Arawn/Mizuki
Player: みずちゃま(ハクオロ) mizuchama Hakuowlo
VS
18. 6/6(土) 高知 トイズ帯屋町店
Team: 凹レーション
Player: とみー(マルチ) tomy Multi
Player: ch(トウカ) cho Touka
Analysis: mizuchama's team

19. 5/24(日) 岡山 ファンタジスタ
Team: イーズラフ部 E's Laf division
Player: 湖のイーズラフ仮面(愛佳) uragami Manaka
Player: 火山のイーズラフ仮面(千鶴) yuuji Chizuru
VS
20. 7/5(日) PS3版オンライン予選 qualified online
Team
Player: 鷺ノ宮(環) saginomiya Tamaki
Player: ダイゴ兵(カルラ) daigo hei Karulau
Analysis: Oh this is really unfortunate for our Manaka God lol. Team netplay wins.

21. 6/7(日) 大阪 アテナ日本橋
Team: ひとり
Player: おっぱい(このみ) oppai Konomi/Ma-ryan
Player: BYU(環) BYU Tamaki
VS
22. 6/21(日) 東京 東京レジャーランド秋葉原店
Team: 大佐邸
Player: 来栖川 和人(千鶴) Kurusuga Kazuto Chizuru
Player: イズミ(モルガン) izumi Morgan/Rathty
Analysis: I'm sorry I actually don't know much about any of these players, and I am choosing team BYU just because I've seen his name before.

23. 6/28(日) 鹿児島 アミューズメント・リバティー
Team: 鹿児島リバティ
Player: 地方パンピーP(オボロ)AKA PEKE Oboro
Player: リバティー社員やくも(このみ) yakumo Konomi
VS
24. 6/13(土) 埼玉 ビデオゲームミュージアムロボット深谷店
Team: 真・弾幕結界
Player: くにお(リアンノン) kunio Riannon
Player: おいも(愛佳) oimo Manaka
Analysis: Super Riannon Time all the way

22 Teams (2 last chance), 1 single player team
8 Tamaki
6 Chizuru
5 Konomi
4 Karulau
3 Touka
3 Morgan
3 Hakuowlo
3 Arawn
3 Multi 
2 Manaka
1 Riannon
1 Oboro
1 Sasara

So despite losing 16 spots and some shuffling and departing of old names, the character distribution is still more or less the same as last year. I guess the biggest change is the Touka culling, which honestly I am not surprised about in the slightest. That being said, I guess it's time to address some notable gaps. First off, butter Konomi...the ever present era of OZ and butter has ended because of Shana mirrors. I'm not bitter, really. Second, because of butter's disappearance, nobi has joined OZ, and key has no teammate. I hope it's just that and that he'll make LCQ with someone. Third, GO1 and KOG, always a staple to play every single freaking game in existence, are missing (because they are going to EVO I can't believe I forgot since I'm going too :V). Finally, takakun and nao (katakana nao, not hiragana nao) both seem to have moved on to Nitro+, or maybe they couldn't qualify...but nao was an extremely strong Touka, one of the best...

Edit: So actually looking at some of the qualifiers (a lot of them have helpful brackets), I see Key and Butter entered a qualifier! And they lost...to 568's team! Who then lost to hinoelf and GJM lol. The tourney winner comments actually have hinoelf thanking 568 and maruo for their hard work. But that means we'll probably see Key and Butter in LCQ at least, which I'm thankful for.

Double Edit: Lark suggested I do a full bracket since Japan seems to "enjoy" my "rigorous scientific analyses"...but honestly without knowing the LCQ it's sort of hard. Like if key/butter show up in a bracket that just ruins half if not all the predictions for that bracket...plus I'm going to EVO so it's not like I will be keeping that up to date either.

EVO Edit: My flight is in a couple hours and I am very tired but this is my full bracket prediction. There's a lot more guesswork put into these than round 1, maybe I can do a thorough analysis at EVO, just right now, too tired. Also, a huge disclaimer is if butter/Key team is one of the two LCQ. If they are in bracket 1, I would have them win every match and win the bracket but still get third overall. If they are in bracket 2, I would have them win until they get to nobi/OZ.

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