This article is part of our Dragon Ball FighterZ series.
There have been plenty of great Dragon Ball FighterZ matches in the five months the game has been out, but on Saturday afternoon at CEO 2018, we bore witness to the greatest one of all.
William "Leffen" Hjelte.
Goichi "GO1" Kishida.
Ever since GO1 called out Leffen as his next target for a first-to-10 back in March, we've been waiting for these two to really battle it out. Sure, they met twice at Brussels Challenge at the beginning of April, but Leffen hadn't yet practiced too much and got washed 5-0 between two sets. They both attended Combo Breaker and Summit of Power, but didn't face each other at either tournament. The only tape we had on these two was almost three months.
My how things have changed.
Just look at the final minute of that match. Leffen went from getting bodied by GO1 three months ago to going toe-to-toe in one of the most intense neutral game sequences you'll ever see. But let's not get ahead of ourselves too much - how the two got to this point is equally entertaining.
In the very first game, Leffen looked to be in full control. He had taken out both the Bardock and Cell of GO1 while only losing his own Cell. His Android 21 and Super Saiyan Vegeta might have been at about half heath each, but he had the character lead. Taking the initiative, he landed a solid combo on GO1's Vegeta that put him at about 33 percent health. And then this happened.
Yes, GO1 summoned SHENRON in a major tournament. We've seen him do this before, but never in the Top 48 of a big tournament like CEO. But he did it and it seemingly threw Leffen completely off his game as he tore through both Android 21 and Vegeta with his extra Sparking Blast to take the first game.
Moving into Game 2, Leffen again took the initiative in this game, drawing first blood by taking GO1's Cell and Bardock. Things might have looked similar to the Game 1 heartbreak, but this time around, Leffen recovered and won the game to move into a third and final game.
This. Game. My. Word.
As things got down to the wire, it was clear that we were witnessing something great. For the third time in a row, Leffen came out of the gate on fire by taking out GO1's Cell right off the bat. At that point, though, GO1 surgically cut through Leffen's health bars with deadly precision. While Leffen might have ended up with a 3-vs-1 situation after taking out both GO1's Cell and Vegeta, Leffen had chipped away at all three character's health, leaving them with around 50 percent health each.
Leffen was on the verge of doing something that only four people have done in a major tournament and beat GO1, but GO1 is a legend of this game for a reason. Even when Leffen had put GO1 at about 10 percent health, GO1 kicked off his trademark defense and blocked quite literally everything that Leffen threw at him (including the kitchen sink). Leffen did everything that he could, but GO1 made the correct read every single time and slowly fought his way back into the game before delivering the final killing blow. GO1 hasn't been having the best time lately, after losing at Combo Breaker and not even making the grand finals of Summit of Power. The sigh of relief was real once he finally finished up the game, as evidenced by the never-before-seen pop off from GO1 once it was over. Just look at the elation here!
GO1 tapped into that Ultra Instinct and came out on top. He went on to defeat Ryota "Kazunoko" Inoue in the next round to move into the winners' semifinals where he'll face off against Eduardo "HookGangGod" Hook in a rematch of the Summit of Power winners' semis.
We might see some great matches in the Top 8 on Sunday evening, but it's going to be hard to top what was best match of the year so far.
