The month-long AT&T-sponsored Annihilator Cup is currently underway, spanning across five different games of different platforms on different weeks. About 20 Twitch influencers were invited to compete in the tournament whose grand prize nets the winner a total of $100,000. While the first two games included Apex Legends and Counter-Strike: Global Offense, the former of which has its own infamous character, Crypto, the third game would break tradition from the two FPS games with the fighting game Mortal Kombat 11, courtesy of the infamous Sheeva.
Ahead of Mortal Kombat 11's tournament date on April 16th, many content creators and competitive Mortal Kombat 11 players have bemoaned about Sheeva's gameplay. Released during the Aftermath DLC, Sheeva is a character best known for her Dragon Drop. Known colloquial as her "stomp," Sheeva lifts in the air, tracking her opponent's location before she collides onto her opponent below. The easily abused move was enough for C9's Keeoh to almost single-handedly win the entire tournament from just Sheeva's stomp alone.
Prior to Mortal Kombat 11, Sheeva was considered to be one of the weakest characters in Mortal Kombat's competitive history. Since her return, Sheeva had become a character infamous for her gimmick that even competitive players have problems dealing with. Keeoh's reign of terror was the talking point of the tournaments as several clips on Twitter have shown Keeoh utilize the "stomp" strategy towards competitors like Elspeth. A competitor who would become so overwhelmed at the situation ahead of her that she would begin to break down from sheer frustration.
Perhaps what's most annoying about Sheeva's stomp is that it got buffed in Mortal Kombat 11: Ultimate, increasing its tracking and making it difficult to avoid. It didn't help Shroud as he, too, was forced to deal with Sheeva's cheese leaving a similar dissatisfaction. Sheeva's Dragon Drop is also an unblockable special, adding to the frustration as not only is it a move that's difficult to avoid, but you cannot defend against it by merely being defensive.
As many players fell victim to the merciless might of the Shokan Queen's stomps, several protested while others supported Keeoh. While this kind of play may be "frowned-upon" by spectators, it's important to note that with as much money as there is on the line, anything is fair game. As the saying goes, if you cannot beat the cheese, join the cheese. LIRIK would rise to the challenge and adapt according to Keeoh's Sheeva that would take him to the Top 8.
During the beginning of Top 8, Keeoh would face off against LIRIK, who would end up picking Sheeva himself in a mirror match just to eliminate Keeoh from the bracket. LIRIK would make it to Grand Finals, but would ultimately fall to Jake'n'Bake's Scorpion as LIRIK used his Sub Zero, and later, Liu Kang.
While in the end, Keeoh's run was cut short shy of semi-finals, he reminded both "casual" and competitive players why many consider Sheeva to be a problem in her current state. Following the tournament, Keeoh has since apologized and tweeted that he donated gift subs to the competitors who he had fought, adding that it was nothing personal and everything done was for the competitive nature of the overall tournament.v
Mortal Kombat 11 is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
