scrapped in the game's release. Due to the large additions of teenager characters in the series, SNK decided to add several middle-age ones to balance them. Original characters American Sports Team (Heavy D!) (Lucky) The American Sports Team, also known as the U.S.A. Team, is composed of characters originating from the United States of America. First appearing in The King of Fighters '94, the team consists of Heavy D!, a famous boxer who was expelled after seriously injuring an opponent during a match, , a former basketball player and a karate champion, and , the MVP football player of the year but known for his brash and violent behavior in the sport. Despite not winning the 94 tournament, in their non-canonical ending, Brian returns to football for his fans while Lucky and Heavy D! will continue street fighting and promise Brian to contact him for further competitions. Unfortunately, the American Sports Team later becomes subject of a running gag in the series, which has them invited to participate in the later tournaments, only to get beaten up and have their invitations stolen by other teams prior to the start of each tournament. The team would make their return in The King of Fighters '98, though it is not canonical in the series, but rather for the purpose of a “dream match” as it features every character up to that point in the canon story-line. Since then, the American Sports Team have made non-playable appearances in later games of the series as background characters and in other games. However, in the PlayStation 2 version of The King of Fighters 2000, the American Sports Team appear as optional strikers for the Fatal Fury Team with Heavy D! being a striker for Joe, Lucky for Andy, and Brian for Terry. Antonov is a Russian billionaire and the president of his own company, the Antonov Corporation. After being reinvigorated for his love of fighting, he purchases the rights to the King of Fighters brand despite objections from the board members of his company, and announces a new King of Fighters tournament. Proclaiming himself as the “first champion”, he sends out invitations across the world, challenging old and new teams to take his "KOF" championship belt away from him. After the incident caused by Verse at the climax of KOF XIV, the resulting lawsuits had cost Antonov nearly all of his money and damaged his