On 16th June, Club Sega Shinjuku Nishiguchi held a Vampire Savior singles tournament named 'Devil's PlayGround'. With qualifiers leading up the main event across Japan's Kanto region, the competition was as strong as can be expected. Around 30 players turned out for the event, which was streamed live via UStream. More information about the tournament, including results, can be found after the break.
The last chance qualifier kicked off around 3pm, and took place on two head-to-head Versus City cabinets with a 16:9 display for the crowd to view. Most of the matches were very close and resulted in down to the wire finishes, with Kaji (Lilith) storming through into grand finals on winners' side, whilst Saiki (Zabel/Lord Raptor) battled his way up from losers' side.
It was a close grand final, with Sakai (Zabel/Lord Raptor) managing to reset the bracket and take the top spot. Both players qualified for the main event, which took place from 6pm the same night, leaving the 8 qualified players as:
• Kosho (Bulleta/B.B. Hood)
• KEN (Gallon/Jon Talbain)
• Hisashi (Lei-Lei/Hsien-Ko)
• Komemaru (Zabel/Lord Raptor)
• DD (Sasquatch)
• Nakanishi (Bishamon)
• Kaji (Lilith)
• Sakai (Zabel/Lord Raptor)
It was a double elimination tournament, with a best of three games format and a best of five for grand finals, so each player had two chances at success. With strong performances all round, Kaji (Lilith) again managed to take a spot in grand finals on winners' side after overcoming Nakanishi (Bishamon) 2-1, Sakai (Zabel/Lord Raptor) 2-0 and finally Hisashi (Lei-Lei/Hsien-Ko) 2-1. In losers' side, things were tough as each player was on their last chance, and tensions were high. Sakai (Zabel/Lord Raptor) showed his strength and character knowledge however, making his way to losers' finals, and taking it 2-0.
As had already been seen earlier in the qualifier, the grand final was Kaji (Lilith) vs Sakai (Zabel/Lord Raptor), and was incredibly close at all times. Both players were evenly matched, having played each other several times earlier in the day. Sakai (Zabel/Lord Raptor) took an early lead making it 0-2 with a chance of a bracket reset, but in the end, Kaji (Lilith) adapted and brought it back 3-2 to take the win.
The quality of play was nothing short of incredible from a number of players the entire day, with a wide variety of characters played. Things can only get more heated in the build up to DCC7 later in the year!
http://www.vampire-dcc.com/
The event was streamed here, with archives soon to follow.
