K7 Showoff showed up at CEO 2021 to take the first Guilty Gear Strive championship belt!
CEO came back to the fighting game community in a big way this past weekend. The tournament had ten different fighting games, each one giving hours of hype matches. On Sunday, the event closed out with Guilty Gear Strive, and this hype newcomer did not disappoint. With over 700 entrants, the CEO Guilty Gear Strive bracket gave way to some of the hypest moments of the weekend.
Road to the finals
K7 Showoff's top 8 started on the winner's side against Panda Global's own Punk. Punk was a Street Fighter V legend, and he had many great showings in Guilty Gear Strive, having taken out the online EVO champion on his way to top 8. The match started off in K7's favor, with him taking a quick 2 game lead. Although Punk would come back in the third game, K7 would ultimately win the match with a convincing 3-1.
In winner's finals, K7 would come face to face with Remi Celeste. K7 started off strong taking a quick 2-0 lead over the Canadian Vtuber. But Remi would not back down, and would come back to take a reverse sweep and make his way into grand finals.
In loser's finals, K7 would go against Panda Global's Kizzie Kay. K7 would start by taking the first game, but Kizzie would go on to take a 2-1 lead in the set, putting K7's back against the wall. In the end, K7 would make the comeback, taking two straight games to head into grand finals.
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The runback
K7 Showoff and Remi Celeste began their bout in the grand final of Guilty Gear Strive with all eyes on them. K7 was playing his Leo, a fast paced mix up character. Remi was using his signature Axl, a keep away character. The match was balanced on a razor's edge. One character wanted to get in, the other wanted him out.
The first set of grand finals was overwhelmingly in K7's side as he took a commanding 3-0 victory to reset the bracket. The first game of the grand finals reset had Remi taking a victory. The momentum seemed to stop there unfortunately for him. K7 Showoff would go on to take another 3 games straight. With his 3-1 victory in the grand final reset, he cemented himself as the first CEO Guilty Gear Strive champion.
"You can feel how powerful he is right now!" -Ebonic Plague
Surprises from Arc System Works
The night wouldn't end there though. Arc System Works blessed (or cursed) the FGC with the announcement of the next character. Arc System Works announced that Baiken would be the latest character to join Guilty Gear Strive! (More on that here)
Arc System Works also announced that both BlazBlue Central Fiction and BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle would be getting updates with Rollback netcode!
