KOFXI Sawakoro Festival 2025

Tournament Report by ATG

Preface

In October 2025, it was once again time for Sawakoro Festival! This year proved to be a difficult one for all German players, for a variety of reasons, and ultimately I (ATG) was the only one who could make it. Considering that legendary player and friend U-rasia had passed away this year, I felt determined to come, no matter what!
My trip started in Tokyo, as usual, landing early in the morning on Friday. On saturday, I made my way to good day 21, and the place was as busy as I had never seen it before - a total of 13 players were playing on 4 sets, more than I had seen ever before in Tokyo, even during Shinjuku Carnival days! Yanjirou, Shingo, Zakuroman, Akio, Kentucky, Zorbon, Shisho, Tacchi, Maru, Uguu, C-color and a couple of more were all there! It was nice to finally play against Shisho, whose Ralf is very strong. During dinner, we formed two tables: the alcohol and no alcohol table, you can take a guess at which one i sat. I had a funny conversion with Akio, who insists that Vanessa's LDM is the strongest in the game, and that Gato is only a top 7 character. Our back and forth and obvious disagreement caused a lot of laughter at both tables.

On Sunday, I woke up really early and made my way to Chiba: Rock had invited me to a sightseeing tour to Tateyama, close to where he was born. Tobidogu-San also joined the trip, and we leisurely made our way the coast by car, exploring a temple, an aquarium/museum and a scenic (and well-hidden) photo spot at the sea. It was a wonderfully relaxing, sunny day, just what I needed after the stress of work at home and the long flight. On the way back I was so tired that i slept in the car, but Tobidogu-San and me didn't falter and took a train from Chiba straight to good day 21. I had a spontaneous ft10 with Maru, who plays Kula/Oswald/Vanessa(L), the Tori/TORU team. He won 10-8, I felt very tired and his Vanessa neutral was really good, dodging all my approaches and perfectly punishing bad jumps with 5C(c). You can find the ft10 here.
Monday I spent doing gift shopping in Tokyo and checking out JoJo World, a popup store in Shibuya which was lovingly set up, and even had an "Iggy Cafe", and then the SNK popup store in Akihabara. In the evening I met Tax Thief in Shinjuku Sportsland: Sawakoro connected us via Line. Tax Thief played Maxima/Oswald/Gato, and particularly his Gato proved to be very hard for me to beat. Our skill level was a perfect match - we played a ft10 and it was absolutely crazy, it ended 10-9 for me with 1 second on the clock and both players 0 pixels of life left. Tax Thief swore revenge, so we will have another ft10 when we meet again!

On Tuesday, I met Ryoji, Black and later Ryumi for a few matches at SpoLan. It was nice to play against Ryoji again, Gai, Silber and Ash are rare characters to encounter. I faired particularly well against Ryumi's patient style this time around and managed to get a few good wins in, something that can be seen later when we faced each other during the Sawakoro Festival (not that I won however, he is too strong still). What came as a big surprise that evening was that Black had crafted a wonderful gift for me - two tiny Astro City Cabs with KOFXI branding and a switch to light them up! One shows the character select, the other Oswald hitting Ash mid-match.
Wednesday was the last day of Tokyo, and I once again went to good day 21 in the evening - for a revenge ft10 against Maru. This time I wasn't tired and the help of green tea, ending the ft10 10-1 in my favor. You can find it here.
Thursday morning came, it was finally time to head to Nagoya!

2025/10/09 - Sawakoro Festival Day -1

Arrival & Lunch

I met Sawakoro in Imaike and we headed to a specialty Tofu restaurant. The place and food was amazing - it was a set course menu with all kinds of tofu dishes, most of which I had never heard before.

more stuff
bilder

Port24

evening
bild stuff

Stream archive:

• X

2025/10/10

stuff bilder

2025/10/11

Big Team Battle

Stuff The theme of the team battle: baseball teams
bilder

Teams (click to collapse)

#	East	West
1	x	y
2	x	y

summary of team battle, highlights with video links

after tourney stuff

Videos:

• here

2024/10/12 - Sawakoro Festival Day 2 - Main Event

Arrival

early morning stuff match archive: [x]

tshirts etc bilder

Teams & Team Drawing

stuff & bilder

summary of block composition bilder

The Tournament begins

Warning: Spoilers from here!
links to block videos

• Sawakoro Festival 2024 3on3 A-block, A-block loser's & grand finals
• Sawakoro Festival 2024 3on3 B-block & B-block loser's, hosted by Rock

First Rounds

summary vs hiroshi
some highlights with video links: [x]. J

A-Block winner: x/y/z

B-Block winner: x/y/z

The Loser Bracket aka Loser's Resurrection

loser bracket time. highlights.

other block block winners bilder

A-block loser's winner: x/y/z

B-block loser's winner: /y/z

Semi Finals

summary of semi finals

Grand Finals

Video: [x]
grand final summary

winners bilder Sawakoro Festival 2025 winners: Zakuroman/Yanjirou/Hiroshi

The after-party

After-Tournament casuals video here: [x]
after party summary & bilder

The after-after party

back to port24 for casuals

2024/10/13 - Sawakoro Festival Bonus Day

bonus day with ft10s and casuals, leaving in the evening

Thanks for reading etc - ATG

3on3 Character usage

Overall Character usage

Leader usage

3on3 List of all Teams & Characters

14 teams, 41 players

Team Vane/Oz

ATG

• Oswald
• Vanessa(L)
• K'

TORU

• Kula
• Gato
• Vanessa(L)
• Oswald

BZR

• Vanessa
• Oswald
• K'(L)

Rising Dragons

Zakuroman

• Ryo
• Kula
• K'
• Gato(L)

Tobidogu-San Team / Hiroshi

• King
• Jazu(L)
• Kensou

Yanjirou

• Kula
• K'
• Gato(L)

Elf

Operaza

• Whip
• Adelheid
• Elisabeth(L)

Roger

• Maxima
• Kyo
• Ryo(L)

Tacchi

• Jenet
• Malin
• King(L)

Katagi Desuyone?

Daisuke

• Kula
• Kim
• K'(L)

Senchou

• Kula
• Yuri
• Jazu(L)

Kurocha

• Duck
• Kula
• Adelheid(L)

Yassan ?

Spooky

• Kensou
• Ryo
• Gato(L)

Ryotsu

• Kula
• Ryo
• Gato(L)

Shingo

• Kula
• Ryo
• Gato(L)

Ken GRIfi Gian=

Kenoh

• Kyo
• Oswald
• Ryo(L)

GRID

• Maxima
• Ryo
• Gato(L)

Gian

• Kula
• Ryo
• Gato(L)

Random Team 2

Sana

• Kula
• Oswald
• Gato(L)

eGao Gian

• Shen
• Ryo
• K'(L)

Otoko

Maru

• Kula
• Vanessa(L)
• Oswald

Kentucky

• Whip
• Athena(L)
• Kensou

Kodsuka

• Oswald
• K'(L)
• Terry

初心者Team

Rukkora

• Kula
• Ryo
• Gato(L)

Aoi

• Kula
• K'
• Gato(L)

Arata

• King
• Kula
• Ryo(L)

Anchi N Arts Team

Nori

• Ralf
• Kula
• Gato(L)

Nuu

• Kula
• Gato
• Malin(L)

TSR

• Maxima
• Gato(L)
• Kula

Random Team 1

Hokuto

• Eiji
• Ryo
• Kim
• Gato(L)

Ayuri

• Kula
• Ryo
• Gato(L)

Sengoku

• Silber
• K'(L)
• Ryo
• Mary

Random Team 3

Tenkawa

• Shen
• Oswald
• Ash(L)

Noutenki

• Kula
• Ryo
• K'(L)

Yuito

• Duolon
• Benimaru
• Kula
• Elisabeth
• Benimaru(L)
• Elisabeth(L)

Yasuda Tokudai Circus

Miekazu

• Oswald
• Kim
• Duck
• Kula
• K'
• K'(L)
• Oswald(L)

Tayo

• Kula
• K'
• Gato(L)

Rock

• Ralf
• Ryo
• Gato(L)

Rival Team

Sawakoro

• Griffon
• Silber(L)
• Mary

Ryumi

• Terry
• Yuri
• Ryo(L)

Ozma

• Oswald
• K'(L)
• Gai