It’s been eons since fighting game fans had an offline community-filled event to celebrate and have high-level matches in, thanks to COVID-19 making offline events pretty unsafe. With the pandemic on the backburner and people getting their vaccines, offline events are making a comeback worldwide. CEO 2021 is no exception, featuring 2 days worth of fighting game goodness in the US of A.

The tournament certainly didn’t prevent high-level players from around the world from participating. Both Arslan Ash and Book from Pakistan and Thailand respectively travelled to the US for the Tekken 7 tournament, and won big. Arslan Ash won the whole tournament with his Zafina while Book secured a respectable third place with Jin.

Puerto Rican player Mono dominated the Street Fighter 5 tournament using the game’s arguably low-tier character F.A.N.G, who probably had some buffs throughout the fifth season.

Sure, there was a fire alarm prank that happened on the first day of the event, but that didn’t deter the event at all. All in all, CEO 2021 and possibly other offline esports tournaments this month (like the Mobile Legends M3 tournament) are good indicators that offline events will be coming back in stride worldwide. Hopefully in Southeast Asia as well.

Here are the results for each game (via Eventhubs):

Guilty Gear Strive

1. CGL|K7 Showoff (Leo)
2. Remi Celeste (Axl)
3. PG|KizzieKay (Ky, Sol)
4. PG|Punk (Sol)
5. TempestNYC (May, Leo)
5. Aidan|Shine (Potemkin)
7. Splash|Idiosyncrasy (Nagoriyuki)
7. Diaphone (I-No)

Street Fighter 5

1. RR|Mono (F.A.N.G)
2. PG|Punk (Karin, Vega, Cammy)
3. PG|Nephew (Kolin)
4. FM|ChrisT (Ken)
5. Joe Umerogan (Akuma)
5. Hilife|NYChrisG (Akira)
7. HB|Docta Afrikan E.X. (M. Bison, Vega)
7. Dethrone|Nigel E.X. (M. Bison, Balrog)

Tekken 7

1. RB|Arslan Ash (Zafina)
2. RB|Anakin (JACK-7)
3. Talon|Book (Jin)
4. FATE|Khan (Geese)
5. Kaizur (Lucky Chloe)
5. Genghis D0n (Katarina, Fahkumram)
7. FATE|Farzeen (Akuma)
7. Shadow20z (Claudio, Zafina)

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

1. Moist|Kola (Roy, Cloud)
2. Solary|Glutonny (Wario)
3. MuteAce (Peach)
4. FURIA|Fatality (Captain Falcon)
5. 16B|Zomba (R.O.B.)
5. TG|MVD (Snake)
7. Bermuda|Myran (Olimar)