Yesterday I had the chance to attend VxG.EMP|IFC Yipes’s tournament series, Curleh Mustache West 2. Curleh Mustache is an invitational Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 tournament, featuring players from around the U.S. (and some international players), and this iteration took place in Irvine, California.
One of the first events of note was a special marquee exhibition between coL|Filipino Champ and 1ATK.LXG|Infrit, the first and second place finishers at EVO 2012. Champ also won Mustache last year, so he was expected to do pretty well in the tournament overall. After the exhibition match, which Champ won 10-2, he basically said that he felt disrespected by having to play Infrit, who was “not on his level.” Ouch!
But karma may have gotten revenge on Champ, as he went on to be knocked out in the top eight, tying for seventh place. He was also the last contender from Northern California in the top eight, which was an interesting development for those in the FGC, as NorCal is known to brag about being the best region for Marvel! Of course, he wasn’t using his main team and, like many other players, may have been hiding what he’s working on in anticipation of EVO this week.
Other interesting happenings were Angelic from Arizona securing third place using an irregular team and KillerKai TAKING HIS SHIRT OFF, using the power of his flexing pecs to start a comeback in the final matchup, and the crowd prompting Dios X to also take his shirt off in the final matchup.
Interestingly, Dios X, an oldschool MVC2 player, won second place last year against Champ, who then said he “looked like a pelican.” Can we say revenge again? Dios X won first place, with his shirt off even!
Speaking of that, it was an interesting match psychologically, because when Kai took off his shirt, he began an unstoppable winning spree. When Dios was prompted to take off his shirt, he began losing. It is worth noting that Kai is in much better shape than Dios, and I honestly felt that Dios was distracted by being shirtless. I also had to listen to the fat shaming jokes around me, which apparently weren’t even as bad as they were on the stream. It was then that I began to root for Dios, simply because I’m contrary like that. And then he won! In your face (and beautiful sexy pecs), Kai!
Check out the bracket here, a more detailed summary of the results, or a quick look at the results below:
Results
Top 8
1. Denial|Dios X (Doctor Doom/Storm/Sentinel)
2. Killer Kai (Zero/Taskmaster/Vergil, Zero/Vergil/Strider)
3. Angelic (Firebrand/Dormammu/Shuma-Gorath, Wolverine/Dormammu/Shuma-Gorath)
4. Kane Blueriver (Hulk/Sentinel/Haggar)
5. AGE|Knives (Spencer/Sentinel/Akuma)
5. Richard Nguyen (Zero/Dante/Strider)
7. BT|Clockwork (Doctor Doom/Vergil/Strider, Doctor Doom/Amaterasu/Strider)
7. coL|Filipino Champ (Magneto/Doctor Doom/Phoenix, Magneto/Dormammu/Doctor Doom)
Other Results
9. MC|KBeast (C. Viper/Magneto/Dante)
9. MRN|Marn (Zero/Vergil/Strider)
9. Wentinel (Wesker/Dormammu/Magneto)
9. Drew Grimey (C. Viper/Vergil/Strider)
13. SRKUW|Darryn (Nova/Spencer/Hawkeye)
13. Neo (Doctor Doom/Magneto/Phoenix)
13. 1ATK.LXG|Infrit (Nova/Doctor Strange/Spencer)
13. Ponce (C. Viper/Doctor Doom/Super-Skrull)
17. Stabbotsford
17. Miniboss
17. Paradigm
17. Zero491
17. Freedom
17. DM.MCZ|Xian (Morrigan/Magneto/Doctor Doom)
17. Jeopardy (Zero/Nova/Iron Man)
17. Quasidomo
25. SenorTaxi (Chris/Spencer/Dante)
25. WhiteBlack
25. Genesis
25. IGT
25. Zakca
25. BT|Viscant (Zero/Doctor Doom/Phoenix)
25. SWE|BubBlanAB7 (Zero/Trish/Vergil)
25. AGE|Fanatiq (Morrigan/Magneto/Doctor Doom, Spencer/Sentinel/Akuma, Magneto/Storm/Sentinel)
Losers Finals
Killer Kai (Zero/Taskmaster/Vergil) vs. Angelic (Wolverine/Dormammu/Shuma-Gorath) – 3-0
Winners Finals
Angelic (Wolverine/Dormammu/Shuma-Gorath) vs. Denial|Dios X (Doctor Doom/Storm/Sentinel) – 1-3
Grand Finals
Killer Kai (Zero/Vergil/Strider, Zero/Taskmaster/Vergil) vs. Denial|Dios X (Doctor Doom/Storm/Sentinel) – 4-3 Killer Kai resets
Killer Kai (Zero/Taskmaster/Vergil) vs. Denial|Dios X (Doctor Doom/Storm/Sentinel) – 3-4
Nerdy But Flirty 
Damn, I should have gone with my boyfriend to watch if Kai went shirtless. 😛