Inside the Red Bull Conquest 2018 San Francisco Qualifier

Recently, Red Bull Conquest‘s eSports roadshow brought them through the San Francisco Bay area. Taking place at Oakland’s Esports Arena on 2nd Street, the nine and-and-a-half event ran three brackets for Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition, TEKKEN 7, and Guilty Gear Xrd REV2. The winner of each bracket received a Red Bull Conquest-branded set of headphones and Arcade Controller.

Event Summary with Photos

The Pools began at 12 PM with quite the turnout of both competitors and fans showing up. It was sure to be a long day for some competitors and for folks committed to seeing the competition brackets play out. Thankfully, this was helped by both the large supply of Red Bull’s signature drink, a loaded grill staff had set up, some custom Red Bull mixed drinks from the Esports Arena itself, and a large number of “casual” game stations where anyone could play between rounds or after losing a match.

Matches really started to heat up around 5 PM when the semi-finals began. While I wasn’t able to stay all the way till the end of the tournament, I was lucky enough to catch the matches for each game. When 6 PM hit, the finals of Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2 kicked off. It was quite the nail-biting experience!

Interview with Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2 Winner

Finally, I was lucky enough to grab a small interview with the winner of the Guilty Gear finals, a gentleman who went by the name “Bears.”

How was the tournament? Any moments that had you worried?

“Definitely, as I said before, my friend usually gets the better of me, but in the end, I managed to change my destiny and turn it around.”

What do you think your play today? Anything you think you could improve on?

“Definitely, many things that I noticed while I was playing, if I had been a better player I wouldn’t have done them. It’s the kind of things that are a habit, and hard to change mid-game. So I focused on what I could change.”

This may seem a bit cliché, but what made you choose Guilty Gear?

“Well, the music certainly helps, mostly it the fact that my local arcade had other games as it’s primary fighter, and the other players were really good, but when guilty gear came in as a new game it evened out the playing field.”

Any recommendations for those wanting to compete in their local tournaments?

“Guilty gear is unforgiving, and I know it’s the kind of game that, if you don’t know how to play, it feels like you don’t get to press a button the whole match. But the flip side is this means your opponent is very advanced and will often be open to being asked advice, and I would have killed for that starting out.”

Any final remarks?

“It was my first time in Esports arena, and it was a long drive, and most are held at night on weekdays, so it was nice to do it on a weekend with nice food nearby. It’s a good area and I’d like to make it out more often if I can.”

To see what’s coming next for the Red Bull qualifying events, visit their site (and check out their google map with all the info where the show is going next)

For many more photos of the event, check out our album.