NorCal Regionals 2017 (sometimes shortened as NCR 2017) was a ''

Street Fighter V ''Street Fighter V'' is a 2016 fighting game developed by Capcom, Dimps and Taito and published by Capcom for PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Windows, Windows. The major follow-up to ''Street Fighter IV'' (2008) as part of Capcom's ''Street Fighter'' ...

'' tournament that took place in

Sacramento, California Sacramento ( or ; ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat, seat of Sacramento County, California, Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento Rive ...

on April 14-16. Being one of the eleven Premier Events of the

2017 Capcom Pro Tour The 2017 Capcom Pro Tour was the fourth edition of the Capcom Pro Tour, an annual season of ''Street Fighter V'' tournaments that are officially sponsored by Capcom. The 2017 Capcom Pro Tour followed several months after the "Season 2" update of '' ...

, the winner of the tournament automatically qualified for the Capcom Cup in December 2017. This was the 15th NorCal Regionals event and the second to feature a "death pool" for competitors who failed to register ahead of time. The tournament was won by Victor "Punk" Woodley, who spent much of the final match

taunting A taunt is a battle cry, sarcastic remark, gesture, or insult intended to demoralize or antagonize the recipient. Taunting can exist as a form of social competition to gain control of the target's cultural capital (i.e., status). In sociological ...

his opponent

NuckleDu Du Dang (born May 12, 1996), more commonly known by his nickname NuckleDu, is an American fighting game player known for playing Guile and Decapre in Ultra Street Fighter IV, Guile and Zangief in Street Fighter X Tekken, and Guile and Rainbow ...

Background

NorCal Regionals 2017 was hosted in Sacramento, California on April 14-16. Much like in 2016, NorCal Regionals 2017 featured a "death pool" for all competitors that registered on-site rather than in advance. Tournament organizer John Choi stated that this featured returned because "people really liked avingexciting matches right off the bat." The winner of the 2016 death pool, Martin "Marn" Phan, registered in time, but told ''

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

'' that he planned to de-register himself so he can battle through the death pool again, stating that he wanted to do it every year. Competitors in NorCal Regionals 2017 included

, Tatsuya Haitani,

Yusuke Momochi Yusuke Momochi, better known as Momochi, is a Japanese professional fighting game player, particularly of ones in the ''Street Fighter (series), Street Fighter'' series by Capcom. Momochi won the Capcom Cup 2014 championship, as well as winning t ...

Justin Wong Justin Wong (born November 15, 1985), occasionally shortened to Jwong, is an American professional fighting game player residing in Canada. Wong has won more EVO titles than anyone else with nine tournaments won: seven for '' Marvel vs. Capcom ...

Daigo Umehara is a Japanese esports player and author who competes competitively at Fighting game, fighting video games. He specializes in 2D arcade game, arcade fighting games, mainly those released by Capcom. Known as "Daigo" or "The Beast" in the West and ...

Tokido , better known as Tokido, is a Japanese fighting game player who plays the '' King of Fighters'' and ''Street Fighter'' franchises. He is known for playing multiple fighting games on a competitive level in addition to Street Fighter, including '' ...

Fuudo , better known as , is a Japanese electronic sports player specializing in the ''Street Fighter'' series. Fuudo entered the fighting game scene in 2005 playing ''Virtua Fighter 4''. Fuudo has won various fighting game tournaments, including the ...

, and Eduardo "PR Balrog" Perez. A few days before NorCal regionals,

Evo 2016 The 2016 Evolution Championship Series (commonly referred to as Evo 2016 or EVO 2016) was a fighting game event held in Las Vegas on July 15–17. Being hosted on the twentieth anniversary of the Evolution Championship Series, the event offered to ...

-winner Lee "Infiltration" Seon-woo announced through

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

that he had canceled his flight tickets for Sacramento, stating that he was not yet ready to attend Capcom Pro Tour events. NorCal Regionals also features other fighting game tournaments, such as for '' Marvel vs. Capcom 3'' and ''

Tekken 7 is a 2015 fighting game developed and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. It is the seventh main and ninth overall installment in the ''Tekken'' series, and is the first in that series to be released for PC. ''Tekken 7'' was released to Am ...

''.

Finale

The finale of NorCal Regionals 2017 came down between

Capcom Cup 2016 Capcom Cup 2016 was a ''Street Fighter V'' video game tournament that was held in December 2016. 32 players qualified for the tournament by winning one of the eleven Capcom Pro Tour Global Premier Events, Evo 2016, one of the four regional event ...

-champion Du "NuckleDu" Dang and

Panda Global The giant panda (''Ailuropoda melanoleuca''), also known as the panda bear or simply panda, is a bear species endemic to China. It is characterised by its white coat with black patches around the eyes, ears, legs and shoulders. Its body is ...

's Victor "Punk" Woodley. After NuckleDu bested Punk in the winners semifinals, Punk entered the finals from the loser's side of the brackets and had to beat NuckleDu in two best-of-five sets in order to win the tournament. Punk won the first set three-to-one, using the character

Karin Karin may refer to: *Karin (given name), a feminine name Fiction * ''Karin'' (manga) or ''Chibi Vampire'', a Japanese media franchise * Karin Hanazono, title character of the manga and anime ''Kamichama Karin'' *Karin Kokubu, a main character in ...

to counter many of his opponent's

Guile Guile or Guilé may refer to: Fictional characters * Guile (''Street Fighter''), a video game character from the ''Street Fighter'' series * Guile, a video game character from ''Chrono Cross'' People * Daniel Guile (1814–1882), British trade ...

's attacks. After this, Punk started to play

mind games Mind games (also power games or head games) are actions performed for reasons of psychological one-upmanship, often employing passive–aggressive behavior to specifically demoralize or dis-empower the thinking subject, making the aggressor ...

, distracting NuckleDu on the character selection screen and

teabagging Teabagging is a slang term for the sexual act involving placing the scrotum into the mouth of a sexual partner for sexual pleasure, or onto the face or head of another person, sometimes as a comedic device. The name of the practice, when it ...

during subsequent matches. After a successful

combo Combo may refer to: Technology *Combo television unit, a television with either a VCR or a DVD player built into a single unit * Combo drive, a type of optical drive that can read CDs and DVDs *A guitar amplifier incorporating one or more loudsp ...

or stun attack, Punk frequently pressed "down" on his controller to make Karin crouch,

his opponent. Punk took the second match three-to-one as well, winning the tournament. NuckleDu is known for teabagging himself as well. After the tournament, Punk told ''

Kotaku ''Kotaku'' is a video game website and blog that was originally launched in 2004 as part of the Gawker Media network. Notable former contributors to the site include Luke Smith, Cecilia D'Anastasio, Tim Rogers, and Jason Schreier. History ...

'' that he uses teabagging to undermine and distract his opponents, stating that the taunt "gets in certain people's heads and messes them up." Though this behavior was answered by laughs and cheers from the crowd, Punk's teabagging proved controversial throughout the

fighting game community Combat ( French for ''fight'') is a purposeful violent conflict between multiple combatants with the intent to harm the opposition. Combat may be armed (using weapons) or unarmed ( not using weapons). Combat is resorted to either as a method of ...

References

{{Capcom Pro Tour 2017 2017 fighting game tournaments 2017 in California