My first opponent was Bobbis. His Cammy caught me offguard on the initial round, dominating me with aggressive Air Cannon Strikes (correct name?). I usually play Cobelcog so chose to go defensive with footsies at first but opted to advance more aggressively, which really suits Rashids play style in my opinion, and that worked out well until I had won.

Afterwards I fought Rva Jamo’s Nash. Unfortunatly he never got his offence going and the hit and run style never worked out for him.

My 3rd fight against Jerres was quite a nerve-racking one, I’ve always had an issue with FANG because It’s a struggle to go over his poison wall. Rashid can Eagle spike him but not after it’s up so you have to guess on that. I lost that one very convincingly; Jerres opting to use a very unique rush down style with poison-ball > Dash infront/behind mixups to great effectiveness. I being overly aggressive with jumping in, struggling to keep him pressured. Down to losers!

Down in losers I was faced with MipsuLii and his R.Mika, I managed to beat him but made a Major drop Game 2 that gave that up. I put it down to nerves (After getting beat by Jerres and progressing to about halfway my nerves began to show and would only be set to elevate.)

Angeluso and his Birdie, I hate fighting these types of matches, always since Gouken in SF4. I’m ‘supposed’to win but a few wrong moves and you’re splatted across the stage. His Birdie was very patient, not overly eager to press buttons I managed to push him back to the corner quite easily, eagle spiking chains and VSkill cans on reaction.
MAJOR DROP in round 2! I struggled to find my footing with my CA for the chip win and lost the game. I’m kicking myself for that one!
after that my nerves rose and I became I alot more aware of his EX Bullhorns It was a very close game and I certainly went into tilt after that drop.

Damed with Dhalsim was next, the Dhalsim x Rashid matchup is in my favour and I think it showed. He was good at anti-airing me but Rashid can advance safely (but on minus) with run spinning mixer. Also Damed never hesitated to throw fireballs from near max range even after I demonstrated Rashid could VSkill roll those on reaction, which gave me pressure quite often.

MDZ_Jimmy was next, at this point I began to watch the nosoundgaming stream since whoever lost would be out and whoever won would fight me. It was Ryu vs Zangief. The match was intense but I remember thinking I wanted Jimmy to win cause I’d hate to fight Zangief. (I just fear grapplers)
Ryu in general scares me, as he probably does everyone. Rashid has less than average hp and Ryu can melt the heartyiest of hp pools. It was a tough battle, there’s a lot of ryu fireballs > Ex Fireballs to catch you out that I had to look out for. His anti-airs were extremely on point however most of those were only st.jab, which is great but the damage it does didn’t deter me from jumps for the remainder of the fight. Also Jimmy began using heavens gift of jump ins fj.lk on me, it stuffed my cr.MP anti-air. So i immediately opted to go for EX.Spinning Mixer as an alternative instead.
After the fight was through, I remember thinking that Jimmy had not actually used his VSkill parry against me at all, of which he did in other fights on stream often, especially on jumpins. And to be honest would have shaken me as I was not looking for it.

Then it came to Jerres, my rival from before and flcl and R.Mika i had not faced.
I realise I had to fight both of these challenging foes if I was to win. Jerres runback came first. It was probably a great idea to get in quick since he had just lost to flcl in an amazing 2-0 > 3-2 comeback so was likely shaken.
I decided to take the neutral game slower and try not to worry about his poison as much. I didn’t get caught by as many fireball dash mixups this time too.
I had noticed he was using his VReversal to great effect to Zoidberg his way out of the corner many times. So I began to anticipate this and jump back for the punish in one of the crowning moments of that fight for me.

Then onto the R.Mika, flcl. All R.Mikas are explosive. This one advance mercilessly using cr.HP shoulder, slides and jumps. That was the mixup throughout all the games. I needed to anti-air where I could (I tried to always use EX.Spinning Mixer to give me momentum rather than cr.MP which would place her very close by) Counter jump ins with Ex.Spinning Mixer, Counter shoulders and slides with cr.HP was the gameplan. I used my whirlwind fireballs to gain meter and deter her but LK.Whirlwind has such slow recovery I was punished a few times for doing so with a fj.HK and then the pain train would hit.
I also managed to use Rashids downward wall jump to good effectiveness.
I managed to reset the brackets!

From here the round bounced back and forth between us. My walljumps had become less effective this second set, he had adapted.
His overall gameplan hadn’t changed though. Usually I saw myself at a meter defecit when final round approached. A nail biter for sure. very scary match, very close games. I decided to block moreoften than jump when it game to mixup, I’d rather take a Command Grab for a chunk of damage than a full combo for large damage, corner carry and reset, which allowed him to get 2, sometimes 3 Command grabs in a row on me.
I also thought he never completely utilised his cr.MP or Ex.Wingless anti-air ability against me, for that I’m thankful.

There we go. I’m quite lucky I never met a Laura, as they can be very explosive aswell but much harder to keep away sometimes with their fireball. I’m glad I didn’t fight that zangief,if not just fir my own peace of mind.
Some huge drops I’m not happy but I’m totally glad I won and honestly didn’t expect to do so.