SBO's tourney format differs from Evo in that it's single elimination, meaning if you lose one set, you're out of the tournament. I know a lot of non-Japanese players hate this format, but I really like it, since it creates a lot of tension in every match, and I love seeing upsets, and there were a lot of them happening this year! The event also gives off the aura of an actual sporting event, whereas Evo tends to be a bit lower key in that regard. SBO has awesome intro video packages to start and end each day, there's a huge stage with a center podium for the finals, and when the most important matches are played, they players actually come out of an entrance, complete with smoke, entrance music and faus fire. It's all really awesome!

But you know what was really awesome? Seeing Makoto, a well-known Vega player, coming out of the last minute qualifying tournament and beating the team of Ojisanboy (the #3 player in Japan) and Tokido (the #1 Akuma player in Japan) with a rock solid game. That, my friends, was the upset of the entire weekend! For you Daigo fans, their match against Namameso and Dashio, also known as Namadashi ended with an upset as Namameso's Honda took out Nuki's Chun-li in dramatic fashion, just after Daigo was upset by Dashio's Viper.

After a quick 20 minute break, we were back with the final four teams; Chicken Groove (Iyo and Shiro), KOF Force (Cabbage/Gosho), 2D Shindo (Mago, Nemo) and Namadashi, who I mentioned earlier. First up was KOF Force against 2D Shindo. During the introductions, Gosho asked Cabbage to please win because he didn't know if he could do it, and Cabbage said, "No problem, leave everything to me!" When Mago got on the mic, he could only get out a few words before the crowd erupted with chants of "2D God", which Mago got him grinning from ear to ear, soaking up all of the glory. Finally, when it was Nemo's turn to talk, the only thing he could say was "man, I wish I was as popular as Mago is." Going into the tournament, 2D Shindo was favored to win, since Mago is known as the best player in the country - and probably in the world - and his teammate Nemo is no slouch either, but this is Super Battle Opera, and upsets happen all the time, and it happened here again when Gosho's Rufus utterly destroyed Mago's Sagat in the first match. The crowd, who just minutes before were chanting Mago's nickname "2D God", was now going wild as Gosho was tearing up Mago with a lot of solid, smart play, and Mago could just not recover. Then Cabbage went up to fight Nemo, but lost a close game. However, Gosho came through once again in a nail-biting final match and defeated Nemo to send his team to the finals! The entire venue erupted as Cabbage started dancing around the main stage in enjoyment, knowing that they had capped off what was going to go down as one of the biggest upsets of the weekend.

The same kind of upset almost happened when Chicken Groove faced Namadashi, as Dashio's Viper nearly perfected Shiro's Abel, but Dashio missed a key combo at the end of the round, and Shiro came up huge and won the round, ending it with a perfectly set up Ultra combo. After Shiro finished off Dashio, Iyo came up and finished them off with a perfectly played Honda, setting up a grand final that was actually a rematch from earlier this year. Some may not know it, but Cabbage and Gosho qualified at Club Sega Shinjuku and became one of the first Tokyo qualifiers for SBO, and they actually beat Iyo and Shiro at that tournament. Because of their loss, it took Iyo and Shiro another three months to qualify for SBO.