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Glyn "Doza" Mendoza is an up-and-comer among fighting game professionals, and already he's got one of the sport's best reaction .gifs. With good reason, as his first-place finish in pool play at the Final Round 20 tournament was way above what anyone expected — Doza included.
When you're seeded 41st but you take out 1st in pools and can't believe it.#FR20 #BlazBlue pic.twitter.com/Dx02z0gCxQ
— Bear @ #FR20 (@BearUNLV) March 11, 2017
He did a triple-take before celebrating his triumph, which advances him to today's winner's bracket of BlazBlue: Central Fiction's finals, which get going at noon ET. Doza also took down Ryo "Dogura" Nozaki, the top-seeded player in the pools and, as Kotaku pointed out, a guy who has been a finalist at the Evo Championship Series.
(Hey, at least he didn't do what Woshige did at Evo 2015.)
Doza was seeded 16th in the A1 pool of 18 players for BlazBlue. To give you an idea of how lightly regarded Doza was, or is, this bracket offers a "projected" option and clicking that, Doza is predicted to go 0-2. He is in fact the No. 1 overall finalist.
In BlazBlue: Central Fiction, Dogura indeed qualified into the Losers' Bracket, which means he'll have to run that table to make it into the grand final, whereas Doza can take one loss and still remain alive. BlazBlue Central Fiction is down to its final eight of 66 entrants
As it happens, the two fighters are also in the winners' bracket of the G1 pool in Guilty Gear Xrd: Revelator. They're on the opposite ends of that bracket, so it's possible they could meet in the winners' final (with the loser potentially getting a rematch in the overall semifinals).
Final Round 20 is staging championship tournaments in 18 events. The Final Round 20 event page is spotlighting which Twitch streams are showing live action. Competition resumes at 10 a.m ET today.
