I don't see what kind of a victory congratulations this can be considered... for celebrating getting second place O_o but I guess for Talim it's like celebrating getting out of jail and into parole.
Getting second place at Nationals is usually seen as a
lot more reputable then getting first at most smaller tourneys. Sure it would've been great to see him get 1st at Nats with Talim, but that still doesn't take anything away from an otherwise outstanding performance. There's nothing wrong with giving props to those who've earned them. And I'm assuming you know yourself how hard it is to win with Talim. To have beaten so many well known accomplished players with her deserves recognition.
Kura was a superior player than many of the people at the tournament. Tiers do matter it's an old age SETTLED argument. Especially in this game where the tiers are pretty wide in gaps. He had good bracket matchups and also the fortune of having tournaments being short sets.
He tried using higher tier characters like Kilik also and didn't do so well. He was obviously most comfortable with Talim in the later sets. I believe character matchups are more important than tiers. In the case of his final opponent using Amy, Talim is a good match.
But a win is a win, I guess. Even though half of the stuff he did was completely unsafe and should have been punished easily on reaction, but was not because his opponents never saw certain moves before.
This is true.
However, you have to take pressure and nerves into account as well. There are simply too many punishable moves in the game from each character for every player to remember them all. Normally you remember to punish the ones you can get the most damage from or that have a unique animation. This is also based on how often you've fought against a specific character.
They might have seen these moves before, but even in casuals, if you put enough pressure on your opponent using safe stuff, and throw in completely unsafe stuff here and there, no one will react and punish everything. Tack on the amount of tourney nerves and their reaction time/judgement is likely reduced considerably. Not to mention certain characters like Ivy can't punish extremely well and especially if they're in the wrong stance.
In summary, give the man credit. We all know it's nearly impossible to play Talim
completely safe. it's just how she was designed. Blame Namco if you must, but take nothing away from the accomplishments of other players. Just think, this guy took 2nd at
Nationals. Maybe other players can learn from him and help take the character we all love and get 1st at another tourney.