THE TOSTINO'S INVITATIONAL

The thumbnail for "EVEREST: Ultimate Level 9 CPU Tournament" on Youtube, featuring (from left to right): The Agent, Dark Vincent and Blood Falcon.

### Air date

November 3rd, 2019

**THE TOSTINO'S INVITATIONAL** is the 9th and final tournament of Season 4 of the CPUCS and the 24th overall, airing on November 3rd, 2019. The video on Youtube is titled "EVEREST: Ultimate Level 9 CPU Invitational", and was commentated by Alpharad and Major Duncan.

Naomi Winters dominated the tournament, defeating even CPUCS powerhouse Audible Link, newly returned to form, in order to take home the Season 4 Championship. Erdrick also made major upsets against veterans Rosalina and Zelda, and Blue Incineroar defeated his brother PG Incineroar for the first time.

In Thug Finals, Naomi was challenged by Blood Falcon, who considered her a threat to his power. Blood Falcon easily dominated the fight, but Tony stepped in to replace his friend before she could come to any harm. Blood Falcon was undeterred, however, breaking Tony piece by piece and sending him to the Dark Realm.

As he fell to the Dark Realm, Tony received a vision: while Alpharad was telling a speech in the background, upon a featureless void, the spirits of his old rival Vincent and Captain Falcon appeared to him, encouraging him not to give up in his fight against Blood Falcon and lending him strength. With a mighty Falcon Punch, Captain Falcon passed on his legacy to Tony, who returned to battle with new force. With Naomi Winters returning to aid him, Tony defeated Blood Falcon, who, even with the returned Dark Vincent at his side, was no match for the two Light Realm champions. With one final blow, Naomi eliminated Blood Falcon, saving her friends in the Light Realm.

## Thug Finals

### **Second Thug Finals**

 Naomi Winters | Dark Vincent | Naomi Winters | 2-0

## Trivia

* The tournament venue for the invitational, the Tostino's Stadium, was built specifically for this tournament according to the commentators.
	+ The stadium and tournament were named by the commentators in hope of gaining a sponsorship from the "Tostino's" company. However, this company does not exist, and is a portmanteau of Totino's Pizza Rolls and Tostitos Tortilla Chips.
	+ According to Alpharad, the exact location of Tostino's Stadium was only given to the participating fighters, the commentators, and Tony as he was helping out in the back, leaving the mystery of how Blood Falcon and Dark Vincent learned of their location unsolved.
* Every fighter in the invitational except for Erdrick, Villager, and Lucario had previously won at least one tournament.

* It is the first invitational to be the 9th tournament of its season, rather than the 5th.
* During Tony's vision sequence, Alpharad's voiceover explains that the title of Captain Falcon is given to those worthy of it. This dialogue mirrors Captain Falcon's last lines prior to his sacrifice in the F-Zero anime, *F-Zero Falcon Densetsu.*
	+ Alpharad later confirmed the reference, explaining that *"That is 100% where I got that idea from."*
* This is the first time Panda Global Incineroar and Blue Incineroar fought in bracket.
* The tournament video for this episode suffered several major editing issues, such as microphones dying during recording and project file corruption. This resulted in a five-week delay in the video's production.
	+ Alpharad's original intention for the invitational was to hold a 16 man tournament, which would lead into a Thug Finals before leading into another 8 man tournament. However, because of the editing issues, that plan had to be abandoned to meet a deadline.
	+ The time between MAJOR'S PRE-MAJOR INVITATIONAL and THE TOSTINO'S INVITATIONAL now holds the title of the second longest hiatus between tournaments, being 1 month and 12 days. It is only 6 days behind the time between ENDGAME and TIMESKIP, 1 month and 18 days.
		- However, it should be noted that the delay between ENDGAME and TIMESKIP was fully intentional, as ENDGAME was not only a season finale, but also to served as a conclusion to three seasons' worth of buildup.
* The video title on YouTube, "EVEREST", is a double reference, to the tournament being the climax or "summit" of Season 4 and to the enormous effort that Alpharad went through editing the episode.

* This is the first invitational with Thug Finals held, and the first tournament to have multiple Thug Finals.
* THE TOSTINO'S INVITATIONAL featured no new fighters, keeping the total number of fighters who had participated in the CPUCS up to that point at 98.

## Tournament Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBQvJt65zKQ

## References

1. ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/CPUCS/comments/dr77kj/everest\_season\_4\_finale\_discussion\_thread/f6fxduf/?context=3
2. ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/CPUCS/comments/dr1zhw/the\_delay\_of\_the\_season\_4\_major/
3. ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/CPUCS/comments/dr1zhw/the\_delay\_of\_the\_season\_4\_major/