The three times the Mikado Tenkaichi Budokai league (colloquially known as "Mikaten") ran were statement events in the game's history. The premise was simple: inject real stakes into the classic arcade experience through bringing everyone who rose to the top through various means together head-to-head league action and a format consisting of:
A group stage consisting of two four-person FT10 round robins, of which the two group winners advance safely to the finals
A FT5 single elim playoff featuring the second and third place finishers to see who gets a chance at a runback in the finals
The finals themselves, which is a FT10 round robin between the two group winners and the playoff winner to determine the champion
One more key thing about the format: the group winners get some rest ahead of the finals, while the playoff stage and the final round robin are back-to-back on the same day. Needless to say, this all worked out swimmingly. The drama that comes with back-and-forth momentum shifts as the players adapt to each other in a long set environment was in abundance. Due to the nature of standings and tie-breakers in round-robin environments meant scoreboard watching, which meant added incentive to play better in upcoming matchups to tip the scales in their favor for surviving and advancing. The playoff going directly into the final stage provided the ultimate heat check.
The success of Rev1's two Mikaten leagues and support for Jonio's Mikado GG project at large set the stage for the third league, timed to occur during the leadup of Rev2's appearance on the main lineup of the first Evo Japan, to take the next step up. House players of arcades outside East Japan would have their chance to punch their ticket to the league, and Jonio would by joined my Majin Obama to provide a unique dual-language commentary experience.[1] As is customary in fighting games, when outside hype for an event rises organically to an absurd degree, the players respond in kind with the highest-level footage recorded up to that point.
As the calendar turned to the 2020s, there were natural ends to this era of fighting game history on the horizon that the onset of the pandemic merely expedited. First, the announcement of Strive meant with it Arcsys signalling their intend to sunset Xrd. Secondly, Jonio would in due time leave his post as the steward of Guilty Gear at Mikado. This begs the question: what if this era was able to get a proper sendoff instead of being cut short by the pandemic? The perfect avenue for sending off both Xrd's competitive prime and Jonio's stewardship of the scene would've been one last Mikaten league.
League of Toushins
Since this is a pure hypotheticcal, any logistic constraints that would prevent this event from having a grander scope than the Mikatens that actually happened can go away. Expansion would obviously take the form of having four groups of four for 16 players total from the same player pool of everyone who primarily played Xrd using cards in Japanese arcades in the leadup to the event. An expanded field will allow for greater variety in characters, regions, and career-arc related storylines. When going through and assembling the roster, the main question I asked myself is "who is either ascending to top form or trying to sustain their achieved top form throughout 2019 into what little offline we got in 2020". After that, since I wanted to stress that we would be seeing 16 unique characters in the field, for characters that had multiple deserving representatives, I tried to look for all-around playstyles that were the best blend of fundamentally strong and unique, with out-of-game circumstances (ie: community prominence, not appearing in a previous Mikaten) as a tiebreaker if needed.
After assembling the roster, the next step was to assemble the groups. I have no insight into how the group draws were made for each of the Mikatens, so I drew from what I knew best: seeding it from top to bottom like one would a standard bracket. When I settled on the player pool, I reached out to the biggest historical Xrd junkie I know and told them to "seed this hypothetical bracket".[2] To them, the seeding "tiers" for something this talent dense boils down to Omito, those who stepped up to him with stakes, those who fared well against him without stakes, and the field. With there being only four groups of four, some rematches from previous high-profile Xrd events were inevitable, though an attempt was made to minimize them. The second Mikaten named the two groups the Heart League and Spade League, so I opted to continue with that theme naming.
Without further ado, here's the rosters:
One Last Mikaten League
Spade League
Club League
Diamond League
Heart League
Omito
Nage
Haaken
Ranger
Daru
Takehara
Chachacha
Maruken
T5M7
Samitto
Zadi
310
Sabamiso
DC
FAB
Teresa
One more thing about the format. In the interest of preserving the tradition of the final stage being another round robin league despite the expanded field, advancement from the first stage to the final stage is now win your league or go home. This should inject even more stakes into the proceedings as the margin for error is erased.[3] The chances that the league is chalk from top to bottom (Omito and the other 1 seeds sweeping their leagues, with Omito sweeping the finals league) are lower than ever.
Field of Dream Matches
Before I get into more commentary, here are some notes on the roster selections and omissions:
The biggest source of consternation for me was trying to get an even amount of players of Xrd newcomers in the field, eventually deciding to go with more of them instead of less. Sabamiso's Bedman is a lowkey favorite of mine, and DC passed the eye test over Purea for Sin representation. Neko (Answer) was also under consideration at one point.
Daru had been working in Japan for a while and is therefore within the scope of this project. With this in mind, his inclusion as the I-No rep over 2rio, Koichi, et. al. is a slam-dunk.
I went back and forth between 310 and Isamu for the Venom rep, ultimately deciding on 310 as a testament to the amount of creative setups 310 displays compared to Isamu's strong focus on fundamentals. Fino was also offered as a point of comparison.
GG as a spectator game is not complete without a "wild" player, hence the decision to put Teresa in over LOX.
"First two out" are Kedako[4] and any Slayer (convincing arguments could've been made for Hase's longevity, TY's ascendency or TAKA prompting another Teresa tweet about Slayer defensive habits).
Some of you may have been reading through this wondering "why are you arguing that the perfect sendoff for Xrd's time as the most recent Guilty Gear game is an invitational on arcade hardware that excludes most of the world". This is a valid complaint and a claim that has plenty of examples of stateside open-entry tournaments that serve as sendoffs for their respective games to choose from.[5] You may even question the concept of "sending off" a game in the first place, as there will always be people sticking around to play it over any successor put in front of them. These (or less good-faith readings of them) are not the primary point I'm trying to make here.
Under Jonio's stewardship, the Guilty Gear scene at Mikado achieved international acclaim, becoming an institution in the process. By virtue of being "if you build it, they will come" in action, this rising tide lifted the boats of GG players all over the world from AC to Rev2. The Mikaten series in particular, along with other national tournaments held there over the years, showcase that it is the players giving their all that give events meaning. You don't need a large prize pool from a corporate governing body to have stakes, nor do you need bright lights and theatrics to put on a show. These things will rise on their own, and the community will too.