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 and went to Shinjuku Sportsland in the evening to meet and play Ryumi, Tacchi and Otokusan.
Right - ATG & Otokusan

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. I also did well against him later when we faced each other during the Sawakoro Festival - still not enough for a win however. 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.

2025/10/09 - Sawakoro Festival Day minus 1

Arrival & Lunch

Thursday morning came, it was finally time to head to Nagoya! I met Sawakoro in Imaike, where he lives, and dropped off my luggage (he let me stay at his place for this year's Sawakoro Festival, thanks!). We then headed to a specialty Tofu restaurant called Ume no Hana in downtown Nagoya. The place and food was amazing, and I would like to come back some day. It was a set course menu with all kinds of tofu dishes, most of which I had never heard before, there was even a milk/tofu mix dessert. After a while, both Sawakoro and me realized almost at the exact same moment that we were the only men in the restaurant, the rest were all old ladies, which was funny.

Port24

Afterwards we strolled around a bit and eventually made our way to port24. It was my very first time at the new location, which is a newly rented room out in the back yard that has all the video games, and really feels like a true arcade! We met Senchou and played for 2 hours. Senchou plays an unusual team of Yuri/Kula/Jazu (recently he switched out Yuri for Maxima). He also plays koihime and is one of the strongest Aquapazza players. It was great to play with Sawakoro again, his defense is a real test of your abilities, and will make you second-guess your offense and mixups all the time. I also felt once again how strong K' is against Silber, and how effective a runaway style can be with him, particularly if you have gauge for Heat Drive.

Evening

We then went to have lunch at a super spicy Mazesoba restaurant back in Imaike, where Sawakoro lives. Afterwards we bought a load of snacks and drinks and retired to his place, playing around on ps2, watching match videos and chatting until bedtime. We also heard from Nori and GRID, who were still preparing for SawaFes in Osaka.

Stream archive:

• 2025.10.09 KOFXI Casuals ATG vs Sawakoro (KOF11 ATG vs サワコロ 野試合配信)【ポート24八事2号館】

2025/10/10 Sawakoro Festival Day 0

Morning

We woke up really early, at 6.30, because we had a special trip ahead of us. Whenever Sawakoro visits me, I either make him breakfast or we go to a bakery and pick up random things, and he isn't shy to try out German food at all. Now that I was at his place, it was my turn to try out a real Japanese breakfast. I am very picky when it comes to breakfast, and the idea of eating fish in the morning really didn't appeal to me - but I tried it anyway, and it was absolutely amazing. Now, if only we had Konbinis in Germany that would sell fish of this quality...

Day - Ise Jingu

Sawakoro and Rukkora, who volunteered to drive, took me on a wonderful daytrip all the way down to Ise, to visit Ise Jingu. On the way, we picked up GRID from a train station, who had come from Osaka to join us, and would later ride back with us for SawaFes. Ise Jingu was great, and I was particularly impressed by the gargantuan trees around it. We also explored the super long edo-style road Okage Yokocho in front of it that had many stores and restaurants, eating a special version of Kakigouri with matcha and Anko paste, a combination of ingredients typical for this region. Left - GRID, Sawakoro, Rukkora

Once we had our snack, we left, driving to Matsusaka on the way back, home of the famous restauraunt Gyugin, specialized on grilled beef dishes.

On our way back, we passed by Game Chao, an arcade i had coincidentally bookmarked, so we made a brief stop to check out the place. There was an Akatsui En Eins cab, and GRID went into practice mode and gave me a rundown of some of the game's mechanics (from what I understand, he either is or was the strongest Akatsuki Blitzkampf player in Japan).

Evening - port24 & Kintaro

When we arrived, Shingo and Zakuroman were already there, playing each other. Since there wasn't much going on yet and there was no fear of taking pictures of bystanders, I took a few photos, trying to capture the atmosphere of the new port24. There was no stream that evening!

Left - Zakuroman. Right - GRID, Sawakoro, Zakuroman.

We didn't play too much and left rather early, because we had a reservation at Kintaro, a traditional Izakaya hidden away in Aratamabashi, Nagoya. A lot of XI players came and it was a merry round of Izakaya food and drinking, and many funny stories were shared. I learned a lot of new things, particularly about Yanjirou. He has only been playing XI for 7 years, much less than most of the other players, who have been playing since it released. Also, after 6 months already, he was able to win against Shingo in a ft10. To quote Sawakoro, literally: "he has mutant strength". There were also tales about the console-only (pad) players in Japan, some of which I had heard before. Since Shoryuken inputs can be somewhat faster on pad if done right, a player called Yassan was able to do really well on console when he played U-rasia. Apparently, a long time ago, they had 8 ft10s on one day, and Yassan managed to win 7 of them. He is considered the inventor of the Yagoto team (Kula/Ryo/Gato(L)). We also had a really passionate discussion about which characters are easy, and which are not. Rukkora considers K' to be easy, Shingo on the other hand picked Ryo. Shingo told many stories as the evening passed on and everybody was listening intently, bursting into laughter every few minutes. There was a story where Toru played U-rasia and was under so much pressure that right as the match started, he whiffed a 623C with Kula, leading to him losing his whole team, perfect. U-rasia chuckled and just said "time attack".

Middle - Shingo, Senchou, GRID.

Back home & Shingo's advice

As the evening progressed and everyone became increasingly tired / intoxicated, we decided to make our way back home. But instead of catching some sleep, we fired up the PS2! It was the perfect time for pro advice, so I once again asked Shingo on what I can improve, particularly against Kula, my nemesis.
He pointed out that on max range, using Oswald's card is strong, particularly the A- and B versions. It can force Kula to block, or at least try and move around the card. Depending on her reaction, Oswald can use dash 2D or smalljump E, smalljump up E, far C or even 3A to counter most of her answers. Shingo said he considers it the strongest play style against Kula, and that Korean player PI has mastered this.
If you ever get trapped in the corner with Oswald against Kula, it's your fault (ouch). Your options are limited and require guessing: 2A,5A, smalljump up D, smalljump E, far C.
He also gave me some advice for K' against Kula, since this should be my least bad matchup of my characters against her, but I still struggle. He told me to not panic and overcommit if Kula blocks a smalljump E - sometimes it is better to back off with a backdash to allow her to make a mistake. Backdash > Ein Trigger can beat Ray Spin in this situation, for example. He also gave me some more general advice - "play less around Vanessa LDM, use more stun combos instead, and make sure your characters don't die by shifting them out, and your win rate will increase 30%".
He also talked a bit about a frequently discussed topic in XI - when to use or not use your skill gauge. He thinks that if you have one skill gauge, you should go for 1-shift combos and not runaway. This is to force your opponent into using saving shift.
He also said that me and Sawakoro have a skill that we both lack - to fake offense, but actually run away, thereby making the opponent wary, giving you more time to build skill gauge.
About the topic of baiting saving shift, Shingo thinks it is better to finish the combo, and not drop it in hopes of baiting a saving shift. The psychological damage will be higher. Also, using saving shift early is not necessarily a bad decision - depending on your team and the matchup, the extra health you preserve might be worth it more than the risk of your opponent reaching 2 skill gauges before you, eg. if you play K'.

2025/10/11 Sawakoro Festival Day 1 - Big Team Battle

Morning & Lunch

The first day of Sawakoro Festival had arrived! Right after we woke up though, Shingo and me immediately hit practice mode. We looked at Ryo's 214P (the "dandy step") and how to beat it with my team - Oswald can use 421B/D, then j.D>2D; Vanessa can use 214P and K', as always, has a million options: Heat Drive, Heaven's Drive, 623A and so on. Shingo pointed out that K' can use 2C in the corner as Okizeme against Kula, it beats both Ray Spin and Crow Bites and if she rolls forward, you can cancel into 623C in the other direction on reaction.
Soon, Rock arrived from Chiba, storing his luggage at Sawakoro's place. After Shingo and me had went out to get some coffee, we had an early lunch at Unagiya Issei. It was rather far away, but the trip was totally worth it - we ate Hitsumabushi, a variant of Unagi that is thin and crispy. Each quarter of the dish is eaten in a different way - with sancho, nori, wasabi, spring onions and with ochazuke (either green tea or dashi). This is my new favourite way to eat unagi.

port24 - Big Team Battle

Arrival & Matchup Talk
When we arrived at port24, only a few people were there already: Nori, GRID and Roger. Nori was practicing Kodsuka's team, using Terry. We had a chat about various characters and matchups. Nori considers Terry a strong character, but with quite difficult inputs. Due to his good neutral, he wins against Oswald and other characters. He also considers Benimaru to be a good character, but he loses hard against Ryo and K'. He can fight OK against Kula by using close and far D and j.C. We also talked about Ralf vs Oswald again, a matchup we discussed in previous years, and Nori reinforced that he considers it even. There was also a system peculiarity that Nori pointed out to me: using Duck's Break Spiral (the command grab super) doesn't always work against low guard when it would against high guard (I have yet to test this properly). On the topic of Oswald vs Maxima, expert GRID confirmed what I had felt since a long time: that Oswald wins this matchup. He also said Maxima against Terry is difficult.
More and more players started to arrive, first a big group of Tokyo players: Tacchi, Kentucky, Kodsuka, Ryuumi, Maru and Operaza, followed by Kurocha, who entered the hall simply saying "XI Time". GRID and me took turns challenging Kodsuka, but he was just too strong for us. Meanwhile, Kenoh arrived, joining the line. He managed to win, which prompted Tacchi to challenge Kenoh. BZR arrived around 15:00 and challenged Tacchi on stream, playing Kyo, K' and Duo Lon. I meanwhile had fun playing against Kenoh, who used Kyo/Duck/Os and even Ryo.

Big Team Battle
In early evening, all players had arrived and the time for the big battle had come. This year's theme was a baseball match: the "Koutou-Ku Yanjees" vs the "Yagoto Giants", a play on the team leaders: Yanjirou (from good day21, in Koutou-City, Tokyo) and Gian (from port24 Yagoto).

Once players were divided into teams and after the introductions were made on stream, the matches started, with Nori on commentary.
This time I got placed after around the first third of players in my team. I had a bad start against Aoi, with many combo drops and missed opportunities on both sides, but somehow got the win. Ryumi was next, and we had played before a good bit in Tokyo, so we knew each other's playstyle. Despite me losing, it was a close and satisfying fight. An absolute highlight was the performance of TORU, who played like a god and beat several really high-profile players. I'll leave it at that and not spoil the details, make sure to watch the full team battle below!

Teams (click to collapse)

#	Giants	Yanjees
1	Kurocha	Nuu
2	Noutenki	Sengoku
3	Tacchi	Operaza
4	Tacchi	Roger
5	Arata	Rukkora
6	Maru	Spookie
7	ATG	Aoi
8	Kenoh	Ryumi
9	Rock	Miekazu
10	BZR	Hokuto
11	Zakuroman	Kodsuka
12	Hiroshi	TORU
13	Shingo	Sawakoro
14	Gian	Yanjirou
15	Kentucky	N/A
16	GRID	N/A

Videos:

• Casuals before the Team Battle, 5h50m: 2025.10.11 KOFXI Casuals vol.1 (KOF11 野試合配信 その1)【ポート24八事2号館】
• Big Team Battle: 2025.10.11 KOFXI Team Battle (KOF11 紅白戦)【ポート24八事2号館】
• Casuals after the Team Battle, 2h18m: 2025.10.11 KOFXI Casuals vol.2 (KOF11 野試合配信 その2)【ポート24八事2号館】

After-Tourey Dinner & Practice
After the tournament, our group of players staying at Sawakoro's home headed back to Imaike and had late-night dinner and a few drinks at Fujino, a cozy and really good sushi restaurant.

Afterwards we stocked up on snacks and drinks and headed home, just to immediately hit practice mode once again. Now that BZR was staying at Sawakoro's place, I had the perfect teacher for my team. He taught me many things, for example specialized Okizeme against Kula. If Oswald does his standard combo ending with 214B, you can whiff 2B then j.C to get a perfect meaty against Kula that she cannot reversal against. If you then delay 2A>3A afterwards and she did a wakeup Ray Spin, you can even get another 3A in the corner. With K', you get a safe jump against Kula after a grounded Heaven's Drive hit, all you have to do is to simply hold up/forward and use j.C. Against King delaying her Trap Shoot after 3D, K' can use 236A as a reversal to beat it. We also did some combo show and tell, and I finally understood how to do that BZR combo after all these years.

2025/10/12 - Sawakoro Festival Day 2 - Main Event

Morning & Arrival

After the obligatory breakfast-training-mode, we headed out for Yagoto. It was around 11 when we arrived at port24, and a massive amount of players were there already, playing on a whopping 9 versus setups of KOFXI, the most in the world since who knows how long ago! Even more players had arrived that weren't there on the previous days, such as Sana from Nagoya and Tayo from the Tokyo area. Looking back at the event now, I took a surprisingly small amount of photos and notes during the event, I was so absorbed in playing and watching others play the whole day. Only towards the end of the tournament I began to snap out of it a litte, taking pictures of the tournament tree and the winners.

Teams & Team Drawing

TEAM VANE/OZ
This year, I got really lucky and my team members formed the ultimate dream team with me: ATG/TORU/BZR, for the full 3 times Vanessa + Oswald!
TORU made T-shirts for us so we looked the part as well!

Taken during the after-party, TORU, red-faced ATG, BZR

Drawing of the Teams
As always, the tournament was divided into two blocks: A and B. The drawing of the matchups for these blocks is always the first exciting part of the tournament. Like every year, literal straws were used to determine the teams, with players shouting and cheering whenever a particularly good matchup was announced. We ended up in A block, with our matchup being none other than "Team Rising Dragons", consisting of Zakuroman, Hiroshi and Yanjirou - it can't get tougher than that!

The Tournament begins

Warning: Spoilers from here!

links to block videos:

• Sawakoro Festival 2025 3on3 A-block, A-block loser's & grand finals
• Sawakoro Festival 2025 3on3 B-block & B-block loser's

First Rounds

A Block Prelimns
Our match against the Rising Dragons was the very first matchup to be streamed on the A-block, and I went first, facing Hiroshi. Being impatient against King is a death sentence, so my game plan was to play as defensively and mash as little as possible with Oswald. Big mistake. Hiroshi sniffed it out immediately and rushed me down with King. I got a few combos in with Oswald, but dropped a crucial shift early in the match and then proceeded to lose against King.
Next up was BZR. He likes playing Vanessa first instead leader, like TORU and me, which is probably a good choice against a zoning team, seeing how mobile Vanessa is compared to Oswald. It was a back-and forth match with many scramble situations and a few dropped combos, but BZR managed to get the victory. He plays the kind of patient that I wish i could, always leaving intentional gaps and pausing to give the opponent room to make mistakes, particularly with his Oswald. Next up, Zakuroman defeated BZR and it was now up to TORU.
Zakuroman changed his point Ryo for a Kula to face TORU in the mirror match and it looked like Zakuroman had the upper hand when TORU suddenly landed a 3A with Oswald leading to a nice Vanessa LDM combo. The crowd was cheering YES! YES! whenever 623C hit, mimicking me, and OH NO! when TORU dropped the combo and lost the match. Thus we got sent to the loser bracket.
Ultimately, the A-block finals were Rising Dragons against "Grifeegian" (Kenoh/GRID/Gian), a really scary team. First, Hiroshi and GRID faced off. Playing Maxima against a zoning team is a nightmare, and even more so when facing Hiroshi. However, GRID's Maxima overperformed, almost KOing both King and Kensou by himself, and it looked like he was closing in on an OCV when Hiroshi's Jazu finally KOed him. What was left for GRID though was a Ryo and leader Gato, both with full HP, which looked it would be enough to handle. But what happened, as it does so often when Hiroshi plays, is that he masterfully played for time and judgement and ultimately won despite a huge life lead for GRID.
Next was Kenoh, who I expected to play Kensou against Hiroshi's team. He chose Kyo as his point however, with Oswald 2nd and Ryo leader. Kenoh managed to get King in the corner with his Kyo but failed a shift combo to Oswald, which allowed Hiroshi to slowly catch up again. For a moment it looked like Kenoh was in the lead again after a nice shift combo, but a repeat of the match before happened where out of nowhere judgement was on the side of Hiroshi again and Jazu was holding the line until time was almost up.
Last up was port24's big boss Gian, leading with Kula. This was a one-sided and decisive victory for Hiroshi, proving that his unique team and playstyle can beat the very best in this game.

B Block Prelimns
Meanwhile, the B-block was progessing on the second stream, with the first match being equally brutal as ours: the Shoshinsha (=beginner) team of Aoi, Rukkora and Arata had to face (and lose to) Maru, Kentucky and Kodsuka. The block finals of the B-block were just as high profile as the A block: Maru/Kentucky/Kodsuka had to face Ozuma/Ryumi/Sawakoro. First up was Maru against Ozuma, who is one of the only Gai players in Japan. Both players dropped a few combos, but Ozuma's Gai got three command grabs in against Vanessa, decimating her HP. Finally only Maru's Oswald was left against Ozuma's K' and Gai, which was too much for a comeback.
Next was Kodsuka, playing his main team of Oswald/Terry/K'. The Oswald mirror was an even fight with Ozuma being able to hold his own, and both players QSed to their 2nd characters. After a short stint with Terry, Kodsuka shifted to K', and a chaotic mirror match ensued, with Kodsuka slowly getting a lead. The decisive moment was a punish against a bad shift to Gai, and Kodsuka took the match.
Kodsuka now had to face "Ryuo Lon" (Ozuma was "Nikkaido Ozuma" and Sawakoro "Sawasabeth", hence the "Rival Team" name). With these two players among the best in the world, it was a real high-profile match. Oswald against Griffon can be won by either character, and both need to be very careful since the point matchup between them can end quickly. Sawakoro took a big lead with Griffon and KOed Oswald, shifting to Silber against Kodsuka's K'. This is a very difficult matchup for Silber. In crazy high-level move, Sawakoro managed to get a surprise hit in by doing a fearless wakeup small jump C crossup against K', but dropped his saving-shift-safe combo with Griffon. He had a big life lead at this point however, and when Kodsuka shifted to Terry, Sawakoro got another 1-shift stock combo in, this time to Mary. The life lead was too much, and after a bit of back-and-forth, Sawakoro took the match.
It was time for Kentucky, a freakishly strong character specialist. He is reknown for his Whip, but his Yuri, Kensou and leader Athena are equally impressive. Against Sawakoro, he always picks Kensou first instead of either Yuri or Whip, which is very hard to deal with for Griffon. Sawakoro had a great start however and managed to push Kensou into the corner, where he took many costly hits. Once Kensou was down, leader Athena entered, and Sawakoro managed to get a wall slam command grab into full combo in for 90% damage. Although Kentucky managed to land an LDM with Athena, her life was already too low and she got KOd. Only Whip was left, which was not enough against the the full remaining team of Sawakoro, who took the victory for Rival Team.

A & B Block First Round Final Videos:
Zakuroman/Hiroshi/Yanjirou vs Kenoh/GRID/Gian
Maru/Kentucky/Kodsuka vs Ozuma/Ryumi/Sawakoro

The Loser Bracket aka Loser's Resurrection

After the initial blocks were finished, it was time for the loser bracket to commence. We had a lot of work ahead of us, and we made it all the way into the Loser Bracket finals. This would have marked the first time an overseas player would have achieved getting into the top 4 in KOFXI, but we fell short just one win away, getting eliminated by Tacchi's unusual team of Jenet/Malin/Leader King, who moved on to the semi finals.
Meanwhile, the B-Block finals were Kenoh/GRID/Gian vs Maru/Kentucky/Kodsuka. Kenoh lead, facing Maru. Maru whiffed a Crow Bites with Kula, Kenoh took the opportunity to stun and KO her with an optimized combo from Oswald to Kyo. Interestingly, he didn't shift back to Oswald for the better okizeme but instead stuck to Kyo. Stuck in the corner, Maru lost Vanessa to a Kyo > Ryo LDM combo after an unfortunate far C whiff. The match didn't last much longer with the lone Oswald having no chance against three full characters of Kenoh.
Playing again in 2nd position, Kodsuka sat down and faced Kenoh's Kyo, who put him first instead of Oswald, either to avoid the mirror match or simply because he feels more confident in this particular matchup. It worked out well for him, punishing an accidental card throw from Kodsuka with a shift > Ace combo, killing Oswald. It appeared at first that Kodsuka's K' would have a much better time against Kenoh's Oswald, but he got caught in an unlucky scramble and had to saving shift to Terry to avoid Ryo's LDM. As always, Kodsuka's Terry proved very strong, but after a bit of poking, a throw and a resulting 50/50 with Kyo, Kenoh was able to defeat him. Kodsuka still had his leader K', but Kenoh's baits and poking-heavy neutral was too much and he was able to take the win.
Only Kentucky was left - time for the boss battle. Kenoh once again led with Kyo, with Oswald in 2nd and Ryo in 3rd position, while Kentucky picked his "true" team of Whip/Athena(L)/Yuri. Playing against Whip is a lesson in anger management and patience, and Kenoh got cornered quickly. He managed to get a crucial jump out into a shift combo to Oswald, once again going for the optimized stun route, leaving Whip 1 pixel from being stunned. The next Oswald got her, and now it was time for Oswald vs Athena. Kentucky didn't have 2 stocks yet for her LDM, so Athena was way less of a threat and Kenoh managed to get a nice Ryo LDM combo in to take her out. The same fate befell Yuri, and while Kenoh dropped the combo, it was too much damage done and he took the win and secured a spot for his team in the semi finals. His performance over the weekend was truly exceptional, despite him probably not playing has much XI as many of the other players present.

A & B Block Loser's Finals Videos:
Operaza/Tacchi/Roger vs ATG/TORU/BZR
Kenoh/GRID/Gian vs Maru/Kentucky/Kodsuka

Semi Finals

The first semi final turned out to be a rematch of the Rising Dragons vs GRifeegian. This time, GRID's Maxima had a worse start against Hiroshi's King and got KOed, with Ryo dropping dangerously low. GRID managed to save with with a hard tagout, but the damage was done and the judgement lead was already heavily in favor of Hiroshi. Gato has a very hard time getting in on zoners, despite his strength, and Hiroshi had an easy timing closing out the match with Jazu.
Next was Kenoh, again leading with Kyo over Oswald. Both players chose a catious style, not trading too many hits early and swichting to Kensou / Oswald, respectively. This is a difficult matchup for Oswald, and despite Kenoh doing his best with extremely patient play, he had to tag out Oswald with a sliver of live left, going back to Kyo. Time was ticking dangerously low, but the judgement lead of Hiroshi was not as pronounced anymore as before, and Kenoh managed to land a crucial hit, killing King and shifting judgement into his favor. However, a brutal triple hit LDM of Jazu turned the tables yet again, and Hiroshi got another (very close) time out victory.
It was Gian's chance now to get revenge for the last match where Hiroshi dominated. His Kula got a close win against King but got chipped to death by Jazu. Ryo managed to corner Hiroshi's Jazu, which is a very scary situation and one that Gian knows how to exploit well. Somehow, Hiroshi managed to escape but took heavy damage, saving to Kensou. Gian caught him with a well-timed dandy step into shift to Gato > LDM, and only Jazu was left, who once again proved to be annoying to get close to. Gian used a clutch block saving shift to avoid getting chipped and punished the whiffed Jazu roll, winning the match.
The next match was Zakuroman vs Gian, which was also a Good Day vs port24 matchup: Kula/K'/Gato vs Kula/Ryo/Gato. Gian managed to get a big lead, beating Kula with a Senga loop, but Zakuroman came back and killed Gian's Kula in turn with K'. Gian got a nice combo from Ryo to Gato going but dropped it, but the pressure continued and Zakuroman's Gato got KOed anyway. It was apparent how liberating it must have felt to play a "normal" match after the terror that is Hiroshi's team, and Gian took a confident win.
Now it was time for the two best players in the world to face off: Yanjirou vs Gian. The Kula mirror match is full of unsafe attacks since C Crow Bites can punish so many things, so both players generally have to take some risks to win. Yanjirou won the point matchup, but his Kula soon fell to Gian's Ryo, exploiting j.E at max range perfectly. Gian got a nice back-turned punish in with Ryo against K' who missed a Heaven's Drive, but he didn't want to invest any meter since both players were still sitting on saving shift, so he left it at 5C>6A. He chose to shift on block after, reducing his shift stock to one, and once Yanjirou got the next hit in, he was able to stun and then kill Gato, leaving Gian only with Ryo. Gian used a sneaky throw bait by jumping up at the last moment to make K' whiff his 5C, punishing and KOing him with a super cancel combo. It was down to the last characters for both players: Yanjirou's Gato vs Gian's Ryo. It was an absolute slugfest of a match, with both characters trading hits until only a pixel was left, and ultimately Yanjirou emerged victorious, moving his team to the grand finals.

The second semi final was Team Elf, Operaza/Tacchi/Roger, vs the Rival Team, Ryumi/Ozuma/Sawwakoro. Operaza lead with whip against Ryuumi's Terry. There is a short timeframe before Terry has a stock and thereby access to B-version Buster Wolf where movement in this matchup is less restricted, and Operaza tried his best to move around with Whip, but ultimately lost the point matchup after getting cornered. Operaza's 2nd position Adelheid had to use saving shift relatively early, one of the downsides of having so little HP and stun resistance. Ryumi got a nice double shift combo with Terry>Yuri>Terry in and eventually KOed Elisabeth, with Adelheid soon to follow.
Next was Tacchi, with his all-female team of Jenet/Malin/King(L), who OCVed our team. He had a great start and KOed Ryumi's Terry, getting several short combos and a mean 50/50 left/right mixup in. Ryumi's Yuri did a little better and KOed Jenet and did big damage to Malin from a single combo. HP was about even, but Tacchi was sitting on 4 stocks, Ryumi on only one. Malin got the KO Yuri in a close match and immediately shifted out to King, who now faced Ryo. The leader duel was to be won by Ryo however, who did massive damage to King and forced Tacchi to use a saving shift back to his barely living Malin, who got KOed. King followed shortly after, and Tacchi now had to face Elf's boss, Roger.
Roger a brawler team consisting of Maxima/Kyo/Ryo, likes to employ stun combos and uses front roll aggressively. His Maxima did great against Ryumi's Terry, KOing him early. Yuri proved to be more difficult, and she was fine trading blows with Maxima until he almost got KOed. Roger then managed to deal good damage to Yuri but had to saving shift to avoid getting Ryo LDMed, losing Maxima, then ultimately Kyo, too. It was down to a wild Ryo mirror match, which Ryumi ultimately won, with a bit of help from the low-HP Yuri, OCVing team Elf and moving his team to the grand finals.

Semi Final 1: Hiroshi/Zakuroman/Yanjirou vs GRID/Kenoh/Gian
Semi Final 2: Operaza/Tacchi/Roger vs Ryumi/Ozuma/Sawwakoro

Grand Finals

The time had come for the grand final, and two extremely strong teams were facing off: Rising Dragons vs Rival Team!

The first match was Zakuroman against Ozuma. Zakuroman's Kula caught Oswald rolling out and moved him cost-to-coast, KOing him with little life lost. Ozuma was forced to saving shift from K' to Gai after a crossup smalljump that would have spelled disaster (senga loop or even an LDM shift combo to Gato), tagging in Gai. Ozuma was finally able to get some damage in with command grabs and single hits against Kula, but was caught too often and lost the character. With only leader K' left, Ozuma finally defeated Kula but then lost the mirror match to K'.
The second player for the Rival Team was Ryumi, leading once again with Terry. Both players were cautious and played a very long point matchup with mostly single hits. After a few scary throw breaks happening in scramble situations and Ryumi blocking most of Kula's brutal mixups, he managed to barely KO her, falling to K' shortly after, but not before doing 30% damage. Ryumi's Yuri was next, but got caught by K's slide > Heat Drive however, reducing her HP to 50%. In the resulting scramble, both players had to use saving shift and were left with Gato for Zakuroman and Ryo for Ryumi, both at full HP and with plenty of stock for LDM. Ryumi managed to KO Gato with a simple shift combo to Yuri, and as a result of the overly long point matchup, time began ticking low. Ryumi's Yuri is a real wall of strong normal attacks, and Zakuroman had a hard time getting in on her with K', feeling the pressure of the timer. Ryumi got the last hit in, shifting to Ryo and winning the match with LDM.
Next up was not Hiroshi, but instead Yanjirou, the team captain. Ryumi played extremely well with Terry against Kula, punishing her reversal super and ultimately KOing her. Yanjirou's K' is extremely strong and you can basically not jump against him due to his insane reaction speed, but Ryumi almost managed to KO him before finally losing Terry. His Yuri play continued where he left off against Zakuroman, making it really hard for Gato to approach. A frame trap Tenryu however took her out, and now only Ryo was left for Ryumi, but with maximum Gauge and full HP. Unfortunately, on incoming he did a dandy step, possibly by accident, and lost the match in dramatic fashion to a stun combo with Gato>K>Gato. It looked like he could have one this match, but sometimes one mistake is all it takes in XI.
It was finally time for Yanjirou and Sawakoro to face off! On this high level, it could be anyone's match to win. Sawakoro was able to build a bit of gauge with Griffon, but was cornered by Kula. He has the best defense in the world however and was able to escape mostly unscathed with a 1-frame j.C. Yanjirou showed good awareness however and used a shift to K' for a guaranteed guard crush, eventually KOing Griffon. Sawakoro's Silber was next, playing with maximum patience against K', and shifting to Mary once his HP fell too low. Both players continued cautiously trading blows, with none landing any major hits, but Yanjirou retained a sizeable life lead. Sawakoro tried to go for a high-level saving bait when the opportunity arose, but Yanjirou didn't fall for it and managed to anti-air heat drive KO Silber shortly after. With only Mary and a pixel of life left, there was no chance to do much more, and Yanjirou took the much and thereby the tournament, winning Sawakoro Festival 2025 for his team, the Rising Dragons!

Sawakoro Festival 2025 Winners: Zakuroman/Hiroshi/Yanjirou

Videos

• Pre-tournament casuals: 2025.10.11 KOFXI Casuals before the tournament (KOF11 大会前野試合配信 )【ポート24八事2号館】 (note: wrongly tagged as 10/11)
• Pre-tournament casuals, setup B: 2025.10.12 KOFXI SAWAKORO FESTIVAL 2025　大会前野試合配信　B筐体【PORT24八事2号館】
• Tournament, A Bock: 2025.10.12 SAWAKORO FESTIVAL 2025 Stream A (KOF11 サワコロフェスティバル2025 A筐体 )【ポート24八事2号館】
• Tournament, B Block: 2025.10.12 SAWAKORO FESTIVAL 2025 Stream B (KOF11 サワコロフェスティバル2025 B筐体配信) 【ポート24八事2号店】
• After-tourney casuals, part 1: 2025.10.12 KOFXI Casuals After the tournament (KOF11 大会後野試合)【ポート24八事2号館
• After-tourney casuals, part 2: 2025.10.12 KOFXI Casuals After the tournament 2(KOF11 大会後野試合 その2)【ポート24八事2号館】

The after-party

Like every year, a big after-party celebration was held in the Izakaya next door. It was a wonderful round of eating, drinking and games. This time was a particularly special occasion because we all wanted to honor and remember U-rasia together. A place was reserved for him, with a photo of him and his favourite drink. I got to sit right on the opposite side, which was a huge honor for me, and I was deeply moved. After the toast at the beginning of the party had been spoken, Everyone came over and gave his glass a toast. It was a wonderful way to remember a friend, and I got to keep the photo in the end - it is now displayed at Mad Gear Frankfurt, right between our KOFXI cabinets.

The party & U-rasia's remembrance

There were also once again games held. This time, players were given a KOFXI special move to pantomime, and their group had to guess which one it was. It was absolutely hilarious, with the crowd shouting, guessing and laughing. The clear highlight was Athena LDM performed by Ryumi, a sight I shall never forget. The pictures for those are confidential, sorry!

Shingo moderating + Ozuma & TORU

2025/10/13 - Sawakoro Festival Bonus Day

The Monday after was, as always, the bonus day. Several players had left already, particularly those that needed to travel longer, but others just brought their suitcases to port24 and played to the very last minute, like myself. Other than playing a ton, I also chatted a bit with Miekazu, who had brought his young son along, a fledgling KOFXI player. Miekazu pointed out that he observed me going for shift combos to K' into Heaven's Drive a lot, for the corner carry and hard knockdown. Instead, he suggested, I should try using 5C>3D>214K, j.214K instead, it has the same effect with no meter investment, but soft knockdown. I knew of this combo but never considered it, and will give it a try the next time i play. That day was also the trip's last opportunity for me to eat at Fukurou, so I once more got my favorite, the deluxe Kara-Miso-Mazesoba.

Sawakoro playing & Mazesoba

Time was over quicker than I hoped, and I had to leave Nagoya via Shinkansen to Haneda's airport hotel, with my flight back to Germany going on the next morning. I didn't leave Nagoya without one more special meal however, and got a Misokatsu EkiBen (Station Bento) for the way.

Misokatsu Ekiben

The trip was over, and like every year, I vowed to return for the next Sawakoro Festival. Over those days, I saw everyone's desire and excitement to play burn bright, despite our collective loss of U-rasia. It was incredibly motivating to me, and I truly felt that our friendship and hobby is there to last.

Thanks for reading! See you next year! - ATG

Bonus Day Videos

• Bonus Day casuals: 2025.10.13 KOFXI Casuals After Sawakoro Fes2025 (KOF11 野試合配信（サワコロフェスティバル2025終了後 B筐体配信) 【ポート24八事2号店】
• Special Exhibition matches: 2025.10.13 KOFXI (KOF11 大会翌日スペシャルエキシビション)【ポート24八事2号館】

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)

砂町ライジングドラゴンズ (Sunamachi 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 幕府 (Yassan Bakufu)

Spooky

• Kensou
• Ryo
• Gato(L)

Ryotsu

• Kula
• Ryo
• Gato(L)

Shingo

• Kula
• Ryo
• Gato(L)

Ken GRIf 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)

柱の男 (Hashira no Otoko)

Maru

• Kula
• Vanessa(L)
• Oswald

Kentucky

• Whip
• Athena(L)
• Kensou

Kodzuka

• Oswald
• K'(L)
• Terry

初心者Team (Shoshinsha 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