Combo Breaker 2026 Part Two: The Chilling

Chicago!

Living in Illinois is pretty sweet for a lot of reasons (mostly Chicago (a billion cool museums, substantial public transit, Chicago's music scene, etc etc)), but living within an hour of both Combo Breaker and Frosty Faustings is pretty high up on that list. The major tournament-Chicago combo doesn't get to happen very often, though, since Chicago's a bit of a hike from both venues and it's hard to find time and people willing to bounce away from the venue for a longer stretch of time. Thanks to some funemployment silver linings and airline cost-saving shenanigans, though, things worked out!

My Combo Breaker started on Wednesday if you squint, when my friend Chastity (check out their CB2026 recap here too!) arrived a day early. After a legendarily awful land-taxi-and-just-sit-there combo, we swung by Pequod's pizza,¹ which I think was a great call on their part given: (a) they had never been, and (b) getting there during the event proper would probably be a hassle.

Thursday

Even though I'm pretty local, I do my best to get a venue room at every event, and to book the hotel starting the day before tournament activities kick off. When you register for Combo Breaker, you do in fact have to tick a box that basically says "I acknowledge that this event starts at 10 AM on Friday," so Thursday hotel it is. Dodge the check-in rush, avoid the worst of the badge line, and keep Thursday as leisurely as possible.

Alas, hotel check-in is still at like 4:00 PM, which the first half of Thursday up for grabs for adventure; this much open time could only mean rolling out to Chicago with Chastity. Thursday's routing was as follows:

Four Letter Word Coffee: Pretty hip and bougie coffee shop. I don't drink coffee (maybe it's time to start?) but the donut I got was great, and it was fun watching some of the bougie coffee shop stereotypes be realized in real time. Someone dressed head to toe in Rick, check. Barista using their break to chat with someone about their bike, check. Someone sprinting in, delicately and blissfully sipping an espresso and water in that order, immediately re-applying their stressed work expression, and sprinting out, check. Nice.

TriBecca's Sandwich Shop: Three Beccas, how lit is that? Personal favorite spot of mine, I went for the Cuban as always. It's a true hole-in-the-wall, with exactly one (1) actual booth and barstool seating against the front window. Super cozy, absolutely killer food, excellent vibes for a warm spring day. Also, great vegetarian options for anyone so inclined!

Cubans normally go across rather than up. I'm not complaining.

Bucket O' Blood Records: Super cool small business downtown, a horror themed everything shop with a sick selection of books, records, and horror memorabilia. Pretty wicked metal selection, and I even found a somewhat rare sleeper favorite record of mine (Tears on Tape by HIM), but I wasn't going to be heading back home and I wasn't going to lug it around all weekend, so it was still a skip. Alas.

Onward to the hotel, where I got my badge, did some hello rounds, and met up with my roommate!

Later on, I capped the night off with an excellent large-group Italian dinner at Toscana Restaurant & Lounge, a recommendation from Xrd player Autodidact. I got the chicken marsala and, in a rarity for me, enjoyed a glass of wine! Good times had by all.

At some point after this, I breezed through a liquor store to grab a case of soda for the room, plus some beer and cider for sipping throughout the rest of the weekend. I really cannot recommend having a solid base of non-alcoholic drinks on hand, it makes life at these busy events so much easier, especially in the evenings when a lot of stuff closes and you're probably not trying to jet away from the venue.

I think I also snuck a Buffalo Wild Wings trip in here, right before they closed? Sometimes a brother needs some BOGO Thursday wings. That and a quick visit to the FGC Illuminati™ room (see: like two stage managers and organizers) to cap off Thursday.

Friday

Unfortunately, the hotel pillows were not agreeing me, and I was hit with a pretty massive tension headache, which I only get 2-3x/year but they invariably show up at the most inconvenient times possible. So, I was rolling into bracket day on a solid two hours of sleep and an unmedicated bad headache. Oh well. Anyways, you can catch my +R bracket recap here

After my 10 AM pools, I went and got CM Chicken down the road with a bunch of the college homies, virtually all of whom played fighting games at least casually. Unsurprisingly, it was awesome to see everyone again, and CM Chicken never disappoints. Garlic spicy tenders for me, a huge receipt for table, and a leisurely walk back to the venue, still with plenty of time to kill.

From there, I ran into Deft, who I anticipated I'd be playing shortly deeper into the +R bracket. If memory serves, he had just finished his pools and hadn't eaten, so I scooped him and serial chiller Brent up for... a walk right back to CM Chicken. In my defense, I didn't eat again, I just needed to hawk the the best Korean fried chicken in the area.

After that, we walked back, chilled for a little longer, and played out the rest of bracket. Deft bossed up crazy style, beating me 2-1 in Winners side and 3-2 in Grand Finals when I clawed my way back to him through a brutal Loser's bracket. Anyways, that's all stuff in the aforementioned +R bracket recap, so I want to give special mention to the phenomenal photos taken by HelloItsLi. Being a main game at a major has a lot of blessings, and chief amongst them is the chance to be captured by the endlessly hard-working event photographers.

I engaged in what the kids call 'aura farming.' Peep the stick + Richard Scarry combo.

First (Deft, left), second (me, right), and third (Soup, right, half out of frame)!

So many people were in the crowd when I finally stepped off for good - Clerver folks (you know who you are), Xrd players, college friends, I did my best for y'all as much as I did it for me. Thanks for being there.

Huge shoutout to Chastity, Cade, and Autodidact, who celebrated with me and promptly picked a spot for dinner. Real champion behavior. That spot was the Westwood Tavern, right across the highway. Great food, good times had by all. I did witness one of the most hysterical breaches of the social contract in human history, wherein someone needed to escape the booth and opted to go under, grabbing the knee of an unprepared Potemkin player. Can't 3f grab your way out of this one, bozo.

I also do really need to extend a heartfelt thank you to the Xrd folks. Xrd really isn't my game scene-wise, and it's not where my competitive energy goes, it's not where I've done most of my commentary, but there's always been a seat at the table for me, which I am greatly appreciative of. It's all love.

With my competitive obligations fulfilled, it was time for CHILLIN, the crown prince of all fighting game major activities.

Haters got Scarred. Thank you Chastity for the photo!

Saturday

Late late late late in the night (or I guess early Saturday morning at that point), I yielded to the headache and evil pillows. I drove back home, slammed some heavy-duty painkillers, and slept in my own bed. Not bad for a short drive from a major, and I came into Saturday feeling properly refreshed! Nice!

A good chunk of Saturday was spent watching the conclusion of the Xrd bracket, with top 24 wrapping at around 4:00 PM, followed by a mid-day meal intermission at Phoenix Flame nearby. I had been there the previous year with a huge crowd of +R folks, and loved my steak sandwich. This year I opted for their steak and fries, which I was unfortunately less impressed by. Oh well!

Eventually we made our way back to the venue to chill a little more, and then catch the Xrd top 8, which ran until 10:30 PM-ish? Solstice took the bracket pretty convincingly, which was awesome to see, and watching Cade and Pzooo make it deep was a treat as well. Vibes leaving the Xrd top 8 were pretty great!

Portillo's from there with a handful of Xrd and +R folks, including Mightyjoey, who won the P4AU tournament 6-0 in sets without dropping a game. What a monster. I know a lot of people end up having Portillo's (or Culver's) two times per tournament, I've done it before, but I really think one is my sane limit, especially given how well I was eating this whole tournament.

The rest of the night was just bouncing around the lobby and hotel rooms saying hey to people! A visit to a Nen Impact setup featuring a cosplay I couldn't identify because I don't know ball, a visit to a hotel room with a certain Xrd-affiliated vtuber on an iPad, it was a riot.

Sunday

Free at last. Sunday was all chillin, and with hotel check-out on Monday, I was free to hang loose a little more than usual! This is where I braved the popcorn line to claim an XL bag of my all-time favorite Chili Limon, plus some White Devil and Cheesecake. The Popcorn Baron can do no wrong. Just a lot of making the rounds and chatting.

It was also this day that I had identified... a threat.

Darkness looms over Schaumburg.

A lone soda can, left too close to the cooling element of the mini-fridge. How sad. Witness testimonies include "What the fuck is that?" and "Bro what" and I couldn't agree more.

I also opted for a few shots of Malort, since this was the true final night. One with Digital Watches, one with my GOAT TrifMoney (in part the reason I play fighting games at all!) ft. iDom. An Australian friend of brought some Australian snacks, including one kind of flavored cracker called 'Shapes,' which are the 'shape' of Australia. TO Gunpaw and I mused over the nature of these so-called 'Shapes,' which was quite fun.

Finally, it came time to put the mutant soda can out of its misery. At 3-something AM, a brave crew walked it outside, and I threw it the air (a safe, respectable distance from any valuable property). It survived the fall. Brave stage manager Trinity stepped up where I had failed, and put the can out of its misery at 3:33 AM. Beautiful.

The rest of the night was spent in and out of the hotel, weaving between conversations in the hotel lobby, out front, and in hotel rooms once again. To me, this is what it's out - having so many people to see and talk to, and making it all happen. Huge shoutout to local TO HamJams, always a pleasure to catch up with him.

I was, however, mortally wounded. A certain high-placing Xrd Leo player informed me that I had:

• No rectangle (cool fidget toy someone was imploring people to 'hit' like a vape)
• No purple (Aviation alcoholic beverage, which I had just finished)
• No bitches (women)

Ouch.

Monday

On the opposite end of my wisdom about getting in the day before the event kicks off, I think if you can make it work, getting out the day after is for the best. Again, skip the exit rush, have better selection of flight times if you're flying, and you now have both Sunday night to go hard if you so choose, and Monday to actually make your exit. Thankfully, this was not the end for me!

With a few of the Xrd crew, we hit up Cafe Blessing nearby, dropped one party member off at the airport, and then headed downtown for a last hurrah. We swung by Reckless Records, which as Chastity pointed out, was a great semi-social activity; we could all stretch our legs and do our thing without needing to talk, but we could still say hey to each other as our paths through the store intersected. I snagged a Darkthrone CD on the way out.

From there, we snagged an assortment of sodas, Gatorades, and Monsters, and went to Wicker Park proper to sit down, chat, and relax. Honestly, an outing like this was a much needed break from the bustle of Combo Breaker, and I'm increasingly thinking it might be time to just have a major-less vacation with some friends in the scene and run around somewhere.

One final journey to Devil Dawgs for a solid concluding meal, and it was time to go. Back to the airport, some goodbye hugs, and that was that. Mid-day Wednesday to late Monday is a lot longer than my major adventures typically last, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

If you were along for any of these various rides, you fuckin' rule. Thanks for being there; thanks for being part of CB26.

Footnotes