Button Mash returned with another five tournaments on the 4th of July at Belfast’s Accidental Theatre. Let’s check out how they went down:
Invincible VS#
(4 players/Bracket)
FreakingFracker (Omni-Man/Battle Beast/Conquest) won this closely-fought round-robin tournament with 2-1 wins over second-placed Pennma (Thula/Omni-Man/Lucan) and third-placed Mini_Kai (Powerplex/Bulletproof/Cecil) and a 2-0 win over Skeletorr (Robot/Battle Beast/Cecil).
Guilty Gear Strive#
mattie (Ky) followed up his April win with another GGST tournament victory. Once again, he had to do it from the losers’ bracket after losing 3-1 to Dr K (Zato) in the winners’ semi-final. FabricatorZayac (Anji) and Maka (Ky) were dealt with before a rematch in the losers’ final, which mattie won 3-0, before a pair of 3-1 wins over Mister_Finer (Robo-Ky) to retain the Button Mash GGST crown.
Tekken 8#
Hench Man Hoey (King) claimed a dominant win, not losing a single game on his way. FreakingFracker (Victor) took second place despite a loss to Skeletorr (Kunimitsu) in winners’ bracket, as he got his revenge in a tight losers’ final. In the end, though, Hench Man Hoey had too much for him in the grand final.
Blazblue Central Fiction#
Not many would have guessed that BBCF would be the largest bracket at this Button Mash - but then out of nowhere, Arc System Works announced a new character was coming to the game, nine years after the most recent character addition, resulting in a fresh surge of interest in the game. Maka (Amane) came out on top despite being knocked into losers’ bracket by FabricatorZayac (Ragna). He fought his way past Dr K (Jin), Mr Potato (Terumi), and Orion (Susanoo) on his way to a grand final rematch with FabricatorZayac, which he won 3-1, and which he followed up with a 3-0 win in the reset.
Tekken 3#
The throwback game this time around was the iconic third instalment of the Tekken series, and kaworuscott (Jin) claimed victory with a close grand final win over Skeletorr (Lei/Ogre), while Yreval (Paul) took third place.
Unfortunately, stream viewers were not treated to the triumphant return of Dr Blad.
What next?#
Button Mash will return on Saturday the 22nd of August at the same venue. Guilty Gear Strive, Street Fighter 6, and Avatar Legends will be joined by two further games still to be announced. In the meantime, entries have closed for IGM Summer Showdown this coming weekend, but there will be plenty of stream coverage of what promises to be a thrilling weekend of fighting games. Day of Champions XVIII is taking place in Dublin on August 8th, with the usual quartet of games (GGST, UNI, 2XKO, T8).
The Belfast weekly locals have returned to Tuesday evenings recently - the QUB SU is closed on the week of the 14th, but we should be good to go for the 21st. As always, keep an eye on the Button Mash socials for all the latest information.