Japan’s prestigious Kagaribi tournament series will return to Tokyo this weekend. Though Smash World Tour points will not be up for grabs like at the previous iteration, the event will still feature a stacked lineup of many of the best Super Smash Bros. Ultimate players in the country.
Here’s everything viewers need to know about Kagaribi 8 before the Japanese major tournament kicks off this weekend.
Players to watch
While acola is a likely pick to win, the prodigious Steve main has shown signs of mortality at recent events. He lost to Kashiya and alice for a fourth-place finish at Maesuma Offline earlier this month, marking his first time missing grand final at any offline tournament. Nevertheless, a streak of four tournament wins since then suggests acola is still in a good position to win Kagaribi 8.
Meanwhile, Naoto “ProtoBanham” Tsuji’s performance will be harder to predict. He has excelled in the United States this year, including placing third at Smash Ultimate Summit 4 in March and double-eliminating Leonardo “MkLeo” López Pérez to win Double Down 2022 earlier this month.
However, ProtoBanham has largely underperformed in-region. He’s missed the top eight at four Japanese tournaments this year. Nevertheless, a win at Kagaribi could help ProtoBanham stake his claim for the title of No. 1 in Japan once again.
Perhaps the most unpredictable variable by far will be Tomoyasu “Earth” Yamakawa. The former Super Smash Bros. for Wii U pro was a play-tester for Smash Ultimate and refrained from competition for several years as a result. However, Kagaribi 8 will mark Earth’s first major tournament appearance since the release of Ultimate in December of 2018.
I just registered for 篝火#8 / KAGARIBI#8 https://t.co/lSH61TCUIS #篝火スマブラ @startggより
— あーす (@earth_tyt) July 10, 2022
How to watch Kagaribi 8
The Kagaribi 8 broadcast will take place across three different channels. East Geek Smash will stream the event in Japanese on both Twitch and YouTube. In addition, VGBootCamp will provide an English-language stream on Twitch.
Round 1 pools are set to begin at 10:30 p.m. ET on Friday. The first day of competition will continue until about 7 a.m. on Saturday. Then, top 128 will kick off at 9 p.m. Top eight will start at 1 a.m. on Sunday, with the whole tournament concluding around 5:30 a.m.
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