WATCH THE STREAMS!

After a successful first week…

Week 2 of Summer Slash V looked promising, with plenty of room for fan-based upsets! Tony Zaldua, the current Lightspeed Champion, blessed our first tournament, and graced us with his presence! Tony was joined by Krait Base team members, William Alonzo and Earlwin Famor, both looking to take a BIG step into the winner’s circle for the first time! Long-time Lightspeed Irvine member, Albert Ortaliza, made his second competitive appearance, alongside Cadet teammate, Conner Gutierrez, who was taking his first steps into the Adult Open scene! Wolf veteran, Alfonso “Fonzie” Ramirez, is stepping into his second LSL tournament, looking to prove himself after falling short at Summer Slash IV. Due to some last-minute drop outs, The Wolves had their only active Cadet step up into his first light-based combat tournament ever!

The Cadets, Conner Gutierrez and Xodus Williams, had some big shoes to fill, after a standout performance from fellow Cadet, Jeremiah Rodriguez, who took 3rd in the Summer Slash IV Open and 2nd Place, last Sunday, for the first week of Summer Slash V.

Gutierrez had a tough time keeping up with most of the season fighters in this week’s tournament, falling staggeringly short versus Zaldua, Ramirez and Alonzo. He kept up a serious amount of energy through his fights, being one of the “most active” fighters, preferring to rush in and circle his opponent. He was also the first combatant to prefer a corner starting position, this whole tournament! Gutierrez left the pools with 2 wins overall and short of the winner circle, at 5th place.

“... not enough running... if I can, give me the opportunity to run in circles”

— Conner Gutierrez

Xodus Williams had a grand showing for his first tournament! Winning half of his matches! His signature quick-hand picks put him in early leads versus Champion Zaldua and Veteran Alonzo, but they showed their seasoned experience by countering with picks of their own. With commanding leads over Famor, Ortaliza and fellow Cadet Gutierrez, Williams wins half of his fights in pools and goes into the semis at 4th place.

Senior Member of Lone Wolf Base, “Fonzie” Ramirez, was excited to get into his second tournament ever and came out swinging! Showing some very impressive use of quick-dodging maneuvers, Ramirez brought his “A-game” on home-turf. He also made great use of some new moves, including a lightning fast bolt, which caught Xodus Williams completely off guard and hyped up the stream and the other competitors! Ramirez slides out of the round robin in 3rd place.*

Speaking of surprising new moves, Albert Ortaliza caught Coach Cang Snow, and his opponent, Ramirez, off-guard when he showed a very impressive display of agility with a quick bolt to the head of Ramirez! Being a generally more defensive fighter, he ended up keeping this energy for several fights, with some great usage of the ring and his ability to surprise attack. Otraliza was unable to secure a win, but being just his second tournament, he has seen the competition and we will be seeing him next time!

“... you gotta’ be more patient, I guess... with the younger guys, because they’re faster, and stuff… I have no patience so... [laughs]”

— Albert Ortaliza

A well known fighter out of Krait Base, Earlwin Famor made the trip from downtown Los Angeles. Bringing with him his signature bolt attack, he was unable to lock it down, as most of the fighters found ways to evade his relentless, over-the-top attack and come back with counters of their own. Famor was only able to score a win over Otraliza, but he ended the night in full smiles!

To his credit Tony Zaldua, the current Number One of Lightspeed Saber League, left the pool as the number one seed. Zaldua brought his signature spice to the matches, often trailing at the beginning, then cleaning up the win with some quick hand picks. Zaldua faced off with Cadet Williams in the semi-finals, who looked to lock in a super big upset. However, it was to no one’s surprise that Zaldua won all of his matches!

The real star of Summer Slash V, week two, was William Alonzo. Alonzo has been with The League for what seems like the very beginning. He always shows some very interesting deception tactics to capitalize on easy evading and landing clean hits. Typically coming short from a Finals match, Alonzo stepped out of his comfort zone, winning five of his six bouts and leaving the pool matches with five wins!* Going into the semi-finals he matched up versus Ramirez for a second time! With the no-pommel-grip thrown out in the final bracket, Alonzo unlocked his final form and closed out the match with some cheeky long-ranged snipes.

With both Wolves eliminated, Krait base reigned supreme in week two. With Alonzo winning his semi-final fight, this marks his very first time entering the grand finals of a LSL tournament! Unfortunately, that also means he had to face his base leader, mentor and current champion, Zaldua. The Krait base teammates had a hard fought match, with Zaldua getting the opening points with a very elegant slip cut to the hand, evading a foot pick from Alanzo. With a few dicey crashes, and quick, indiscernible strikes, the two combatants show everyone just how difficult it is to compete against their teammates. Zaldua starts swapping to two-handed defensive stances, looking for defensive bonuses, which leads to rather questionable exchanges and, by proxy, some hard to make calls by the refs. After a series of back and forth single points, Alonzo brings the score up, seven to eight, with forty seconds on the clock. Alonzo avoids a short slash from Zaldua, but makes the call to go all in but doesn’t fully commit and Zaldua comes over the top with a float attack, landing a two-point assault! The final score was ten to seven, Zaldua!

Closing out week two, and thus, the end of Summer Slash V, we have seen some great fights and the ability to see some great upcoming talent within the league! Across both weeks, we have seen two promotions, with two unranked, new-to-the-league fighters placing directly into E rank. This week, Fonzie Ramirez lept out of Unranked and into E rank. His teammate, Xodus Williams, also made it into E rank for making it into fourth place. Congratulations to both of them!

Again, I would like to personally thank everyone who made this happen. A big thank you to The ComiXLounge for hosting the tournament grounds. Massive applause to Liam Hayakawa, Rico Thompson and Hikaru Hayakawa, for stepping up and making the hard calls in the ring. Much thanks to everyone who participated on the streams, without you guys, the streams just couldn’t happen. To everyone who stayed to watch, cheer on, participated and/or helped to set up and take down, you are the real MVPs!

And again, thank you to Supreme Leader Cang Snow, CEO of Lightspeed Saber League, for giving us the opportunity to host this tournament.

Look for Lone Wolf Base’s live reviews on their twitch channel, as they will be covering both weeks of the tournament! We look forward to future tournaments and future combat with everyone!

MTFBWYA

Andre “Moose” Gonzalez
Cpt. Lone Wolf Base

*Under review, while writing this, we met with a small discrepancy in the match information. Live, we accidentally labeled Ramirez the winner of the first match with Alonzo. This turned out to be incorrect. We have corrected it here. Sorry for the confusion and thank you very much for your understanding!