GBVS: Rising at Evo Japan 2024: Top characters, best fights

After getting the enhanced Rising version, the Granblue Fantasy fighting game is on its peak — in terms of versatile mechanics, the number of active players, and its presence at top-level esports events. GBVS: Rising is even gaining momentum in the dimension of pro competition.

It has been added to the line-up of Arc World Tour 2024, and the first Platinum Qualifier of this official league happened at Evo Japan 2024. It’s interesting to check out what miracles some of the most skilled players on the planet could perform and what Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising characters they chose.

Tororo made quite a statement in his Semi-Final against Kino. It was as powerful as Tororo’s character, Siegfried, one of the new guys in Rising. Siegfried is a real powerhouse, with highly damaging moves.

Tororo chose the path of active pressure, and Kino could not do much with his Metera. This character prefers keeping her opponents at a distance, for example, by using her butterfly projectiles. It wasn’t really helpful when Siegfried put in the corner. Tororo won this match pretty quickly, 3:0.

First, there was no archetype difference in the other Winners Semi-Final, Rookies vs Ren. It started as a mirror match (like the very last KOF XV round at Evo Japan 2024). Both played Seox, a rushdown character with quick movement and good close-range mixup options.

Rookies looked so much better in the beginning, but then Ren obviously recovered and brought the match to game 5. Rookies changed the character and took Belial, a Shoto with strong pressure and whiff punishment. It helped! After super close decisive rounds (and even a remarkable clutch in one of them), Rookies proceeded to the Winners Final.

In the lower brackets, we could see some more GBVSR characters in action. Takodot played another newcomer, Nier. She is a scary puppet character, dangerous in skilled hands. Still, even her impressive puppet mixups and combos could not defeat Seox of Ren.

In the Losers Quarter-Final, Gamera played Djeeta, a Shoto, who is somewhat better at long-range fights thanks to her far-reaching pokes and chargeable fireballs. With this character, Gamera defeated Kino (a match vs another ranged character, Metera).

For the Losers Semi, Gamera switched to Anita, a new character in Rising. Archetype-wise, she is also a Shoto with good long-range options. After a disastrous game 1, Gamera returned to his personally better character. He won with Djeeta quite confidently.

In the Winners Final, Rookies returned to Seox. That looked like a good choice against heavy but somewhat slow attacks of Siegfried. Rookies dominated in some rounds, clutched in others — and eventually won 3:0.

For the Losers Final, Tororo switched from Siegfried to another big-sword character, Percieval. His distinguishing features are the ability to power-up Specials throughout a match and deal passive fire damage. It did not work against Djeeta, and Gamera proceeded to the Grand Final.

The Grand Final of GBVS: Rising at Evo Japan 2024 was between pretty different characters: a quick rushdown, Seox, and a long-range Shoto, Djeeta. Somehow, Gamera managed to dictate a moderate pace of his Djeeta, and Rookies stepped away from the lightning aggression of Seox.

Gamera dominated in the first match, and he looked stronger in the Grand Final Reset — at least in the beginning. After game 1, Rookies found keys to the patient playstyle of the opponent and won three games in a row and the whole match.

Rookies is the Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising Champion at Evo Japan 2024. Congratulations!

Thanks to this victory, Rookies got a direct invite to the Arc World Tour 2024 Finals. Evo Japan 2024 is a Platinum Qualifier for other Arc Work Systems games too: Guilty Gear Strive and Under Night In-Birth 2. The UNI2 tournament was a day earlier, so check out our post about it.

For everything else for Evo Japan and the exciting world of fighting games, stick around on esports.gg.