Ultimate Fighting Arena returned for its 2023 edition from November 24th to 26th in Paris, with 1,869 competitors across 11 different fighting games.
UK players showed up in force, putting on amazing performances and reaching the Top 8 echelon in multiple tournaments.
The highest result came from EndingWalker, who placed in second in the 541-person Street Fighter 6 bracket, beating out fellow UK player Problem X 3-1 in the Losers Finals, forcing his run to finish at 3rd place.
EndingWalker went on to defeat French player Mister Crimson 3-0 in the Grand Finals before losing 3-0 during the reset, marking his best offline result in Street Fighter 6 since VSFighting XI in August 2023.
Your Street Fighter 6 UFA 2023 Top 8 :
— #UFA2023 – Ultimate Fighting Arena (@UFA_Gaming) November 26, 2023
🏆 🇫🇷 @MistahCrimson
🥈 🇬🇧 @EndingWalker
🥉 🇬🇧 @MrProblemX
4️⃣ 🇫🇷 @_Valmaster
5️⃣ 🇫🇷 @Cuongster
5️⃣ 🇫🇷 @MaivineKusanagi
7️⃣ 🇫🇷 @Kilzyou
7️⃣ 🇫🇷 @Louffy086#UFA2023 pic.twitter.com/GTDZlflw9j
The Mortal Kombat 1 bracket at UFA 2023 was part of the MK Pro Kompetition, the first official circuit for the newly released game, and as such had a prize pot bonus of $10,000. The 129-4 person bracket had two UK players make it to Top 8, with A F0xy Grampa finishing in 4th place and VideoGamezYo finishing in 7th.
Another game at UFA was Dragon Ball FighterZ, part of the 5th season of the Dragon Ball FighterZ World Tour, and had a prize pot bonus of $1,000, with the winner of the event automatically qualifying for the World Tour Finals. Videct, the only UK player to make Top 8 of the 118 person bracket, ended their run in 5th place.
The last of the main FGC brackets to have a UK player reach the Top 8 mark was Tekken 7, with 98 entrants. Rookang made it to the Top 8 through the Winners side of bracket, but finished their run in 5th place, losing to French players Hexmark and Super Akouma.
Elsewhere, in the 245-person Guilty Gear: Strive bracket, UK player Tiger_Pop finished in 2nd place. They reached Grand Finals in the Winners Side of bracket beating Verix from Senegal 3-2, before losing to them 3-2 and 3-1 in the Grand Final and Reset.
Lastly, with a total entrant count of 1,013 players, the Super Smash Brothers Ultimate singles bracket was the largest event of the tournament. However, no UK players made it to Top 8, with Bloom4Eva being the highest placing player in 9th, losing an extremely close set 3-2 to German player Tarik.
The doubles bracket of Smash Ultimate was different, with the Scottish duo of MazeBeans and Kirb0 placing in 2nd, previously beating the duo of MkLeo and MKBigBoss from Mexico, with Luugi teaming up with Finnish player Lancelot to take 3rd overall.
Wade White is a Tournament Organiser for Super Smash Brothers Ultimate in London and Essex.
Writing for Esports News UK about Smash and other FGC events
