Daru_I-No: “I won [GGST Evo Japan 2025] in a weird way and it left me feeling unsatisfied”

Guilty Gear Strive continues its amazing lifespan with new characters joining the roster and many tournaments to support the competitive excitement. The game remains the main title for the Arc World Tour 2025, and Evo Japan kicks off this official circuit.

Granblue Fantasy Versus was successfully revived with the Rising version. From a beautiful but simplified title, the game made it to the top competitive level, and it remains here even after the first year in AWT.

The final brackets for both Arc World Tour games happened on Day 2 of Evo Japan 2025. The matches start right after The King of Fighters XV tournament.

This game has found its unique place among modern fighting titles. GBVS Rising is arguably the best for beginners to the genre; its accessibility features are close to perfect. The visual style fills the hearts of anime fans with pure joy.

Sure, the pro tricks at such events as Evo Japan 2025 are not simple at all. Check out the GBVS Rising top 8 matchups and results in the table below.

After an amazing run in the top 8 brackets, Kasausagi faced Zangief_Dream in the grand final. The opponent reached the match point first, but Kasausagi on Ferry broke through the zoning tools of Cagliostro and performed a reverse sweep.

Kasausagi is the Evo Japan 2025 Champion for Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising.

The developers from Cygames announced a new Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising character around a month ago — Galleon. They showed her gameplay trailer during Evo Japan.

The girl has a set if tricky zoning tools, and she uses them to set up traps for opponents. A special stream on May 26 will reveal more information about Galleon and GBVS Rising Version 2.10.

The release date of Galleon in GBVS Rising on May 28, 2025.

The Arc World Tour 2024 Global Finals happened just recently, but that event brought something new to the game. Venom joined the Guilty Gear Strive roster right after the tournament and the meta changes to the game. How do they reflect in the Evo Japan 2025 matchups?

Here are the GGST final top 8 brackets.

Daru_I-No is one of the most prominent character loyalist in Guilty Gear Strive. The player even has the name of his main in the competitive nickname! Daru_I-No did no lose even one game in three matches of his top 8 run.

The grand final was filled with technical issues, and RedDitto apparently couldn't play the match. In this pretty weird way, Daru_I-No won the event.

Daru_I-No is the Guilty Gear Strive Champion at Evo Japan 2025.

In the lower brackets, we could see a pretty traditional presence of Happy Chaos. The character did not reach the final, though.

RedDitto sure demonstrated the inspiring power of Ramlethal. However, the Arc World Tour 2024 Finals winner could not deal with the mighty witch this time.

As for Guilty Gear Strive announcements at Evo Japan 2025, Unika comes next in Season Pass 4. Arc System Works officially confirmed this new DLC character.

The release date of Unika in Guilty Gear Strive is May 27, 2025.

Both Guilty Gear Strive and Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising tournaments have opened the Arc World Tour 2025 esports season. The top players earned quite a few standing points, and the winners qualified for the Global Finals event.

The Arc World Tour 2025-2026 Finals event happens in Seoul, South Korea.

Only two Arc System Works are highlighted in the main lineup of Evo Japan 2025. UNI2 has a different schedule of AWT qualifiers. The World Tour for Under Night In-Birth starts at the main Evo event in Las Vegas, from August 1 to August 3.

The next big tournament for Guilty Gear Strive and Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising is Combo Breaker 2025, from May 23 to May 25.

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