Guilty Gear Strive’s first major official tournament challenges the community's perception of the "META"

Guilty Gear Duel Online is the first Guilty Gear Strive tournament officially organized by Arc System Works. The tournament took place across two days, from the 22nd to the 23rd of July.

It was broadcast on the Arc System Works official Youtube channel and was managed entirely on Tonamel, a Japanese tournament hosting platform that competes with Smash.gg.

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Guilty Gear Duel Online: The first major Guilty Gear Strive tournament hosted in Japan

Guilty Gear Duel Online had two separate divisions, described as the New Face division and the Legends division. As the names imply, participants in the New Face division can only qualify if they have no tournament victories from previously held Guilty Gear Xrd tournaments.

On the other hand, anyone could participate in the Legends division, but preference would be given to those who couldn’t qualify for the New Face division. To participate in either division the player would have to live in Japan, and necessarily be able to speak in Japanese.

BREAK THE LAW!!!🏆@smerinthinaehttps://t.co/KXUKxVeHvE pic.twitter.com/YRqkVHsORa

— HiFight(ハイファイト) (@HiFightTH) July 23, 2021

The tournament was overall rather unconventional by western TO standards, the strangest feature being that it had a single elimination format. But either way, the tournament had some fantastic matches.

Unfortunately there was no english commentary that was being hosted simultaneously, but it was no doubt entertaining as it featured commentary from Japan’s pro players including Kazunoko.

The results of the New Face Division

Top 4 New Face division (Image via Tonamel)

The New Face division featured 578 participants and was the more stacked division. The winner of the New Face division is a Ky player by the name of Tyurara (translated directly from Japanese)

【GGST】GUILTY GEAR -STRIVE- 公式オンライン大会「GUILTY GEAR DUEL ONLINE - OPENING TOURNAMENT」の結果ニューフェイス部門1.ちゅらら(カイ)2.野良猫(レオ)3.ROW(チップ)3.ヤマシタ(ソル)レジェンド部門1.ブラッドマミー/御傍(ザトー)2.BNBBN(ソル)3.タカシ(ソル)3.あぜすけ(メイ). pic.twitter.com/o0iRftfEJi

— Furious (@Furious_blog) July 23, 2021

The final was a heated match between Tyurara (Ky) & Noraneko (Leo). It is featured in the VOD below:

The results of the Legends division

Top 4 Legends division (Image via Tonamel)

Despite having a larger player cap and lesser requirements to participate, ironically the Legends division had only 225 participants.

It did feature some big names like Fenritti and Kazunoko, but maybe because of its nature as a single elimination tournament, the players who came out on top are relatively unheard of. However, there is no doubting their skill in Guilty Gear Strive.

The winner of the Legends division is a Zato=One player by the name of Blood Mummy.

In case you missed it, the first Japanese #GGST “Major” was won by Zato (Blood Mummy aka Gobou). It was a Single Elim tourney, but still interesting seeing Zato come out on top in a sea of Sol/Chipp/May/Ram/etc. https://t.co/uOjeA4S0Ns

— J I Y U N A (@jiyunaJP) July 24, 2021

Jiyuna said it best, it’s very interesting to see other characters in Guilty Gear Strive come out on top, despite how current lobbies are being dominated by Sol, Chipp, Ram or May. And Blood Mummy (Zato=One) put up a great match against BNBBN (Sol) that can be seen in the VOD below:

There are still many more Guilty Gear Strive tournaments to come this week, and a lot of them will be far more accessible and exciting for sure. Guilty Gear Strive is right now going through its most exciting phase as far as competitive play goes.