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EVO 2019 Games Line up & Preview (August 2nd-4th)

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Hello and welcome to my 2019 EVO write up. EVO 2019 will once again be taking place at the Mandalay Bay Events Center from August 2nd to 4th.

Who has joined and who has left

Nine games will be featuring in an official capacity this year (with no charity fan-vote spot), five of which will be making their debut this year on the EVO main stage -

  1. Mortal Kombat 11
  2. Samurai Shodown
  3. Soulcalibur VI
  4. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
  5. Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st]

New games added to an EVO line up tend to fall under one specific trend, a new significant release of a franchise with a known EVO record (MK11, Sc VI and Smash Ultimate), an unreleased game as of the announcement with an unproven record but looks real cool (SamSho) or a game that released outside of the past year with an undeniable community rising. This has lead to Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st], the lastest update to the 2012 game Under Night In-Birth, being added to the line up this year.

Official EVO 2019 (August 2nd-4th) line up

1. BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle

Entrants: 640, -541 (-46%) vs. 2018 - Developer: Arc System Works Co., Ltd. - Released in 2018 - 2nd appearance at EVO - Debut year: 2018

2. Dragon Ball FighterZ

Entrants: 1191, -1384 (-54%) vs. 2018 - Developer: Arc System Works Co., Ltd. - Released in 2018 - 2nd appearance at EVO - Debut year: 2018

3. Mortal Kombat 11

Entrants: 1567 - Debut year (MKX last had 712 in 2016) - Developer: NetherRealm Studios - Released in 2019 - 1st appearance at EVO - Debut year: 2019

4. Samurai Shodown

Entrants: 1719 - Franchise Debut - Developer: SNK Corporation - Released in 2019 - 1st appearance at EVO - Debut year: 2019

5. Soulcalibur VI

Entrants: 742, - Debut year (Soulcalibur V last had 417 in 2012) - Developer: Bandai Namco Entertainment - Released in 2018 - 1st appearance at EVO - Debut year: 2019

6. Street Fighter V

Entrants: 1929, -565 (-23%) vs. 2018 - Developer: Capcom and Dimps - Released in 2016 - 4th appearance at EVO - Debut year: 2016

7. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Entrants: 3492 - Debut year (Melee 1353 & WiiU 1355 in 2018) - Developer: Nintendo, Bandai Namco Entertainment, Sora Ltd. - Released in 2018 - 1st appearance at EVO - Debut year: 2019

8. Tekken 7: Fated Retribution

Entrants: 1885, +342 (+22%) vs. 2018 - Developer: Bandai Namco Entertainment - Released in 2015 on Arcade, 2017 on console - 5th appearance at EVO - Debut year: 2015

9. Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st]

Entrants: 1156 - Franchise debut - Developer: Ecole Software and French Bread - Released in 2018 (Vanilla Under Night In-Birth - 2012) - 1st appearance at EVO - Debut year: 2019

Notes:

  • In every year Tekken 7 has been at EVO following its first, its entrants number has increased, from the 2 years its arcade version was being played in 2015 and 2016, to the console release in 2017 onwards: 465 > 550 > 1286 > 1543 > 1885
  • In every year Street Fighter V has been at EVO following its first, its entrants number has decreased, from its record breaking debut of 5102 players to 2625 > 2494 > 1929
  • MK11's debut number of 1567 is the highest for any MK game at EVO
  • BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle's 640 entrants is the highest amount of entrants for the game with the lowest amount of entrants in any given year

See also How everyone reacted to the EVO 2018 line up video for references sake.

This year we say goodbye to Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2, Injustice 2, Super Smash Bros. Melee, and Super Smash Bros. For WiiU/Nintendo3DS. which at last year's event had 629, 363, 1353 and 1355 entrants respectively. Losing one of the two of the Smash titles has had a much larger reaction than the other, given that Smash Ultimate is a like for like swap with the Wii U Smash. Respect to the Melee community for what they've accomplished over the past 7 years and best of luck in all the tournaments they'll no doubt have outside of EVO going forward.

A new game is the main event of EVO

In the video game industry at large Capcom seems to have redeemed themselves with releases like Monster Hunter World, Resident Evil 7, Resident Evil 2 Remake and Devil May Cry 5, but in the fighting game genre, the poor launches of fighting games Street Fighter X Tekken, Street Fighter V and Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite still give a negative perception of Capcom.

Last year talk began of Street Fighter V losing its top billing at EVO, which has historically always been a Capcom focused event, when Dragon Ball FighterZ was king, Tekken 7 was rising as one of the most fun to watch games and Smash continuing to grow between two games. However SFV held onto its usual event closing spot. That has changed this year when tournament organiser Joey Cuellar AKA Mr Wizard, took to Twitter to announce the finals order of EVO 2019.

Most noteable is Super Smash Bros. Ultimate taking the top spot this year, preceeded by Tekken 7, meaning SFV has been leap-frogged by two games on Sunday. Dragon Ball FighterZ, with its EVO stream viewership record last year seems to have dropped off harshly this past year with its placement not only on Saturday but 2nd. The past year has not been kind to DBFZ with an unknown party causing legal disputes stopping tournament events holding DBFZ tournaments. More likely however, given that CEO had also dropped it to Saturday this year is that matches take too damn long.

PlayStation has offically partnered with EVO, announcement incoming

If you've seen my EVO posts before you'll know that I like to include which consoles are being used for each game, I've always been particularly fond of typing Nintendo Gamecube and CRT televisions each year Melee was present, but this year I've omitted that part from the line up list.

The reason being is that with the exception of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate on Nintendo Switch, all the other 8 of 9 games this year are on PlayStation 4. Coupled with Street Fighter V's console exclusivity to the PS4, EVO all of a sudden seems to have become a PlayStation themed event, which is ironic following the last console generation when fighting games and indeed tournaments were always associated with the 360 because of the PS3's poor track record with fighting games.

Belated Happy Birthday shout-out to Ryu
Belated Happy Birthday shout-out to Ryu

It seems this trend towards the PS4 has gone a stage further, as PlayStation is an official partner for EVO 2019 and an announcement regarding it is forthcoming, no doubt to be held after the Street Fighter V finals on Sunday along with all the other games' character unveils and trailers and such.

I like to think that since SFV didn't have a season pass this year that we're in for the unveiling of Street Fighter 6. Personally I would call it Street Fighter 6: 2020 Fighting and have Ryu and Ken be middle aged martial arts masters.

This is the best 30 minutes of fighting games I've seen all year

Thanks for reading!

FLStyle on Twitter

Giant Bomb Fighting Game Discord channel - https://discord.gg/qpZHYkK

4 Comments

What is the consensus on MGS2's ending today? Do we need "Selection for Societal Sanity" in 2017?

I think the crazy year that is 2017 is very comparable to what The Patriots AI was discussing with Raiden in the final 140.85 codec call of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty.

Inbetween under water swimming segments, Emma Emmerich described Arsenal Gear's purpose as The Patriots censoring the internet for fear of their lack of control; the mass information that flows freely across the internet was supposedly making them irrelevant & powerless. An immediate real life comparison was drawn to MGS2 during the 2012 Protests against SOPA and PIPA incident, which saw the internet rise against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) acts. Even Giant Bomb involved themselves in the protest albeit it in a more comedic fashion when they became the replacement for Wikipedia for a day.

But at the end of the game as The Patriots contact Raiden, they explain it in a different light, one few understood 16 years ago when the game was released. Indeed, many people criticized MGS2's final hours as a big confusing load of mumbo jumbo; nonsensical garbage that was a far cry from the big action hero film style that playing as Solid Snake was in MGS1. And that doesn't even include the too many cutscenes argument which took centre stage of complaints about MGS games prior to MGSV's release. Only years after did people truly disect MGS2 and start referring to it as a post-modern video game.

The AI explains the thought process for Selection for Societal Sanity, the idea that humans on the internet are too immature to 1) discern what useful information is based on its intellectual and factual value and 2) only pass on information when it meets up with their confirmation bias.

And... well, 99.99% of us are very much guilty of both a great majority of the time. Whether arguments in comment sections or Twitter ranges from religion, political affilations and morality squabbles to the celebration of celebrity culture etc. The S3 plan is very much the most extreme version of the idea of "creating context," and I like to think, I hope, that such a system wouldn't be needed. But I will be the first to admit when I see some of the stupid shit that goes on online, it would be nice for people to think, just think, and maybe try to better themselves?

Or to quote Senator Steven Armstrong of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance fame, "fuck this 24/7 internet spew of trivia and celebrity bullshit!"

As I've been on a big cyber-punk binge recently, I find myself watching some videos that discuss these points, whether it be clips from Blade Runner, which I watched this past weekend to get ready for the upcoming Blade Runner 2049, and if anyone has thoughts about the S3 plan itself.

So allow me to present 3 videos to finish this blog, with the hope that by posting the first two videos, I'm "creating context" for the third.

This has been food for though for me a lot in the past couple of weeks, is the S3 plan needed today? Do we live in a post-truth society? Is Hideo Kojima Nostradamus? Why did Konami have to be a bunch of asshats and force Kojima out? Will Death Stranding shock everyone to the point of blowing the MGS brand of craziness out of the water?

Video games! That can be stupid and amazing and I love them so.

PS. If you've never seen Blade Runner and The Matrix before, you should get on that post-haste.

25 Comments

Fighting Game Talk

Mod Edit - Since we've got a new one of these pretty often, we've decided to just designate this as the thread to talk about all things fighting game related, such as FGC, what color of gi Ryu's wearing this week, et cetera. Have at it. Good luck, have Zangief.

It's time for the most biggest prize in fighting game history to be awarded, one of 32 fighting game players will walk away with $125,000, bought to you live from Sony's 2015 PlayStation Experience in Giant Bomb's home turf of San Francisco!

1st: $125,000

2nd: $60,000

3rd: $25,000

4th: $15,000

5th/6th: $10,000 (each)

7th/8th: $5,000 (each)

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All of this year's Street Fighter action during the Capcom Pro Tour has been leading up to this point, when 32 qualified players descend to fight in the biggest tournament of its kind (EVO being the biggest open-invitational tournament event respectively), to cap off what has been a big year for fighting games.

Here is the official bracket!

UltraDavid and James Chen's World Warriors of Capcom Cup video series on the official Capcom Fighters channel has been taking a look at the competitors we can expect to see (the introductory video James Chen mentions can also be found below), a full list can be found here.

Rules confirmation on sets

Best 2 out of 3 matches - Top 32 to top 16

Best 3 out of 5 matches - Top 16 to end of tournament

Streams and schedule (all times PST)

One day, two streams, all the matches, simple!

Sunday December 6th

http://www.twitch.tv/capcomfighters

http://www.twitch.tv/capcomfighters2

  • 10:00 AM – Opening Ceremony
  • 10:30 AM - Round 1 and 2
  • 2:00 PM - Analyst Desk
  • 2:30 PM – Top 16 to Top 8
  • 5:30 PM – Analyst Desk / Break
  • 6:30 PM – Top 8
  • 9:30 PM – Closing / Awards Ceremony

News

Divekick's final character is the Fencer/s from Nidhogg, also receives a permanent price drop

Trailer

Divekick eSports Hour episode

The Fencer's sword throw and its original divekick from Nidhogg make this an easy crowd pleaser and the full game, Divekick: Addition Edition, is only $4.99 from this day forth, not bad at all!

Assorted trailers and video coverage

Geoff Keighley's The Game Awards announce 2015 Best Fighting Game nominees

One isn't a traditional fighting game and the other isn't out of alpha stages but at least they're still being recognised. No doubt the category will return next year for the obligatory awarding of a new Street Fighter game. Other categories can be found here. The Game Awards 2015 airs on Thursday December 3rd.

Fighting game / FGC Stories of interest from shoryuken.com

Street Fighter V

Players

Fight Sticks

Thanks for reading and happy watching!

On the subject of Fight Sticks I bought my first stick 2 weeks ago along with USFIV for my PS4, with the intention of becoming competent with Ryu before SFV's release, since Sagat isn't in the game at least until 2017 if at all. I bought a Venom Arcade Stick and have no complaints about it, the Amazon reviewers described it as a good place to start for people new to fighting games / sticks and easy to mod for those that aren't one or both.

Here's some strange Street Fighter related videos to finish off this blog (poor timing on the video's release, turns out Ronda's human after all)!

432 Comments

SoCal Regionals 2015 (October 9th-11th) Preview + Capcom Pro Tour October & EVO moment 37 interview!

It's finally here, SoCal Regionals, for real this time!

SoCal Regionals 2015 Preview

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We live in a post-EVO 2015 world! And yet the road to December's Capcom Cup continues. SCR 2015 was originally slated for May (before EVO 2015) but due to venue issues it's been bumped to October. Its premier event status for the Capcom Pro Tour is still active so its USFIV tournament still has a spot in the Capcom Cup for its winner, as well as Capcom Cup seeding points and $15,000 bonus for the top 8.

SoCal Regionals is run by one of the original world class fighting game players Alex Valle and his production company/group, Level|Up Series. They are also known for Wednesday Night Fights, the primary West Coast fighting game weekly, which just yesterday announced its new venue at the brand new eSports Arena in Santa Ana, California.

Wednesday Nights is scheduled to return on October 21st. So it's a very busy month for Valle and Level|Up!

Streams and Schedule

http://www.twitch.tv/leveluplive

http://www.twitch.tv/leveluplive2

Friday

Ultra Street Fighter IV 3v3 Teams

Onsite Registration: 8AM-11AM (Capped at 32 Teams)

Note: Spectators can enter this event!

Tournament: 12PM-6PM

Rules/Format:

Pokemon(Character Locked)

Best of 1 Set

Double Elimination

Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3

Pools 1-4: 10AM-12PM

Pools 5-8: 12PM-2PM

Pools 9-12: 2PM-4PM

Pools 13-16: 4PM-6PM

Semis Top 32: 6PM-8PM

Finals Top 8: Sunday Time TBD

Dead or Alive 5 Last Round

6PM-Close

Finals Top 8: Sunday Time TBD

SkullGirls

6PM-Close

Persona 4 Arena Ultimax

Pools 1-2: 10AM-12PM

Finals Top 8: 4PM-6PM

Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax

Pools 1-2: 2PM-4PM

Pools 3-4: 4PM-6PM

Finals Top 8: 6PM-8PM

Saturday

Ultra Street Fighter IV Capcom Pro Tour

Pools 1-4: 10AM-12PM

Pools 5-8: 12PM-2PM

Pools 9-12: 2PM-4PM

Pools 13-16: 4PM-6PM

Semis Top 32: 6PM-8PM

Finals Top 8: Sunday Time TBD

Mortal Kombat X

Pools 1-4: 10AM-12PM

Pools 4-8: 12PM-2PM

Semis Top 16: 2-8PM

Finals Top 8: Sunday Time TBD

Smash 4

Pools 1-4: 10AM-12PM

Pools 4-8: 12PM-2PM

Semis Top 16: 2PM-4PM

Finals Top 8: Top 8 Sunday TBD

Melee

Pools 1-4: 4PM-6PM

Pools 4-8: 6PM-8PM

Semis Top 16: 8PM-Close

Finals Top 8: Top 8 Sunday TBD

Killer Instinct

Pool 1: 10AM-12PM

Pool 2: 12PM-2PM

Pool 3: 2PM-4PM

Pool 4: 4PM-6PM

Finals Top 8: 8PM-Close

The King of Fighters XIII

Pool 1: 10AM-12PM

Pool 2: 12PM-2PM

Pool 3: 2PM-4PM

Pool 4: 4PM-6PM

Finals Top 8: Sunday Time TBD

Tekken Tag Tournament 2

Pool 1: 10AM-12PM

Pool 2: 12PM-2PM

Pool 3: 2PM-4PM

Pool 4: 4PM-6PM

Finals Top 8: Sunday Time TBD

Guilty Gear Xrd

Pools 1-2: 2PM-4PM

Pools 3-4: 4PM-6PM

Finals Top 8: Sunday Time TBD

Under Night In-Birth (UNIEL)

Pools 1-2: 10AM-2PM

Pools 3-4: 12PM-2PM

Finals Top 8: Sunday Time TBD

Blazblue Chrono Phantasma EX

Pools 1-2: 2PM-4PM

Pools 3-4: 4PM-6PM

Finals Top 8: Sunday Time TBD

Sunday

Guilty Gear Accent Core Plus R

10AM-12PM

Finals Top 8: 12PM-2PM

Mobile Suit Gundam Extreme: Vs Full Boost

Pools 1-2: 10AM-2PM

Finals Top 8: 2PM-4PM

The SCR schedule page on its websites says that any of these could change and that the Sunday line-up has yet to be finalised.

Capcom Pro Tour October Calendar

NameLocationDates (Oct)Seeding

Red Fight District

Amsterdam, Netherlands3rd-4thRanking

Ze Fighting Game Champion (CPTA Qualifier)

Chengdu, China3rd-4thRanking

SoCal Regionals

Ontario, CA, USA9th-11thPremier

CPT Brazil

São Paulo, Brazil10th-12thPremier

Ultra Hyakkishu Cup

Tokyo, Japan17thPremier

Milan Games Week

Milan, Italy23rd-25thPremier

Defend the North

New York, USA24th-25thRanking

Ciber Olimpicos Central America 2015

Costa Rica24th-25thRanking

Canada Cup

Calgary, AB, Canada30th-1st NovPremier

The EVO 2015 top 8 received four times as many seeding points as premier events and the premier events top 8 receive(d) twice as many seeding points as ranking events.

Capcom have the full standings here

News

Kotaku interviews Daigo Umehara, Justin Wong and Seth Killian about EVO moment 37

"I wanted to show Justin that this wasn't going to be an ordinary fight."

A well put together video by Kotaku (minus them mistaking Daigo for Raoh). I especially like the description of their mindsets during the match.

Full list of Street Fighter V reveals since EVO 2015

The King of Fighters XIV was unveiled and everyone hates its graphics

An extremely early version of KOFXIV was shown at TGS and it hasn't gone down well! I will reserve judgement of their decision to drop their graphical style for polygons until a version much closer to release is shown. Also I hope the online is good, or just better than XIII. May give this a try myself when it releases.

Thanks for reading and enjoy watching!

I'm glad to finally get this blog up, it's been delayed several times, but now that it's up I'm going to be watching as much fighting game events as I can. Hope you will too!

277 Comments

EVO 2015 Preview (July 17-19, live from Las Vegas) 3 days, 9 world championships to be decided!

EVO 2015 Preview

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Welcome to the EVO 2015 preview blog! The biggest fighting game tournament event on the planet continues to get bigger every year, let's check out the line up for this year's event!

Official EVO 2015 games line up

1. Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- - Developer: Arc System Works - Released in 2014 (2015 for PAL regions) - 1st appearance at EVO - Debut year: 2015 - Running on PlayStation 3
2. Killer Instinct - Developer: Iron Galaxy Studios (formerly Double Helix Games) - Released in 2013 - 2nd appearance at EVO - Debut year: 2014 - Running on XBox One
3. Mortal Kombat X - Developer: NetherRealm Studios - Released in 2015 - 1st appearance at EVO - Debut year: 2015 - Running on PlayStation 4
4. Persona 4: Arena Ultimax - Developer: Arc System Works and Atlus - Released in 2014 - 1st appearance at EVO - Debut year: 2015 - Running on PlayStation 3
5. Super Smash Bros. Melee - Developer: Nintendo - Released in 2001 (2002 for PAL regions) - 4th appearance at EVO - Debut year: 2007 - Running on GameCube (and CRT televisions)
6. Super Smash Bros. for Wii U/Nintendo 3DS - Developer: Nintendo, Bandai Namco Entertainment, HAL Laboratory, Sora Ltd. and Game Arts - Released in 2015 - 1st appearance at EVO - Debut year: 2015 - Running on Wii U
7. Tekken 7 - Developer: Bandai Namco Entertainment - Released in 2015 on Arcade, yet to be released on home consoles - 1st appearance at EVO - Debut year: 2015 - Running on Arcade (Fun fact, 1st arcade tourney at EVO in a decade)
8. Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 - Developer: Capcom and Eighting - Released in 2011 - 4th appearance at EVO - Debut year: 2012 - Running on XBox 360
9. Ultra Street Fighter IV - Developer: Capcom and Dimps - Released in 2014 - 2nd appearance at EVO - Debut year: 2014 - Running on XBox 360

We say goodbye in an official capacity to BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma, Injustice: Gods Among Us, Tekken Tag Tournament 2 and The King of Fighters XIII. BlazBlue and KOFXIII in particular are saddening to see go. KOFXIII has had a storied 3 year run at EVO, particularly the South Korea vs. Mexico rivalry during the EVO 2012 KOFXIII top 8. BlazBlue had the most exciting grand final last year and left both the grand finalists and some developers who had made the trip to see their game on the big stage in tears.

Entrants and prize money

GameEntrants (+ or - from 2014)Prize Money
GG XRD968 (Debut)$9680 (+$10,000)
Killer Instinct397 (+59)$3970 (+$50,000)
Mortal Kombat X1162 (Debut)$11620 (+$50,000)
Persona 4AU437 (Debut)$4370 (+$10,000)
Smash Melee1869 (+899)$18690
Smash Wii U1926 (Debut)$19260
Tekken 7458 (Debut)$4580 (+$30,000)
UMvC3816 (-198)$8160
USFIV2227 (+248)$22270 (+$50,000)
$50,000 = A lot of new phones
$50,000 = A lot of new phones

Thanks to a late $30,000 addition courtesy of Namco the total prize money is now over $300,000 for EVO 2015. This all started back when Capcom announced its partnership with Sony for the 2015 Capcom Pro Tour and the other developers have followed suit, whether its straight up donations from Aksys Games (10k for both XRD & P4UA) and Namco, or money from DLC sales from Ed Boon and the Lang Zone (which won't be the first thing he's dropped money on this month now that he needs a new phone).

Nintendo have yet to join the party unfortunately for the Smash community and Capcom can't officially acknowledge UMvC3 anymore because they don't have the Marvel license. Nintendo of America’s Bill Trinen will be in attendance and competing this year, maybe seeing EVO first hand will convince him to support the scene more.

Kudos to Justin for taking matters into his own hands! I don't know whether people were kidding or actually questioning Justin's integrity on this but he posted another tweet:

You can check out the brackets here and search for specific players here (if a searched player has entered multiple games it'll show them all).

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As always, One Frame Link is on hand with some interesting facts about this year's event, no doubt you'll see some player stats scrolling along the bottom of the screen on stream from them too:

Rules details

General EVO rules

Game specific rules

Smash Melee: 4 Stock, 8 Minute Time Limit, No Items, Pause Disabled, 2/3 Games

Smash Wii U: 2 Stock, 6 Minute Time Limit, No Items, Equipment Off, 2/3 Games

MKX

Streams and Schedule

http://www.twitch.tv/capcomfighters

http://www.twitch.tv/srkevo1

http://www.twitch.tv/srkevo2

http://www.twitch.tv/srkevo3

http://www.twitch.tv/srkevo4

http://www.twitch.tv/srkevo5

http://www.twitch.tv/srkevo6

http://www.twitch.tv/srkevo7

Click to enlarge image, right click>view image to enlarge even more!
Click to enlarge image, right click>view image to enlarge even more!

Timezone converter

In a move that has surprised many, the final 3 games are unchanged from last year. Marvel has retained not only a spot on Sunday, but its 2nd to last spot from the past few years. XRD takes the annual early morning anime spot while MKX, which closed out Combo Breaker 2 months ago and was 2nd to last at CEO last month, has to settle for 2nd out (replacing Killer Instinct). One of the men in charge of EVO, Joey Cuellar, said:

Mad Catz|Daigo Umehara is still the only player to win 2 SFIV tournaments at EVO, winning in 2009 & 2010
Mad Catz|Daigo Umehara is still the only player to win 2 SFIV tournaments at EVO, winning in 2009 & 2010

Which in this fighting game fan's opinion is a strange mindset to have considering Marvel's waning popularity in fighting game tournament streams for the past 12 months. That said EVO 2014 UMvC3 still holds the record for highest concurrent stream viewer-ship and its top 8 very exciting to watch!

One important fact that may get lost in the shuffle with all the talk about which games should get their finals where, is that this will likely be the final official USFIV tournament at EVO, with Street Fighter V launching in March 2016. If it is then I salute you Street Fighter IV, it's been a good 7 years at the top.

For an insight into the MKX scene at the moment and perceived "overpatching," hit the news section below.

Side tournaments (All times PST)

A bunch of these side tournaments' ends will be streamed at the Mad Catz booth on http://www.twitch.tv/madcatz.

Check the full Mad Catz EVO 2015 stream schedule here:

FRIDAY, JULY 17 – TWITCH.TV/MADCATZ

10:00 AMPREVIEW: TEKKEN 7
11:00 AMYatagarasu: Attack on Cataclysm
12:00 PMPREVIEW: ROCK BAND 4
2:00 PMSPAERA
4:00 PMSIGNING: MAXIMILIAN / YO VIDEOGAMES
6:00 PMSIGNING: VampyBitMe
9:00 PMTOP 8: Super Street Fighter II TURBO

SATURDAY, JULY 18 – TWITCH.TV/MADCATZ

9:00 AMYatagarasu: Attack on Cataclysm
10:00 AMTOP 8: KING OF FIGHTERS XIII
12:00 PMSIGNING: GOOTECKS & MIKE ROSS
1:00 PMSPAERA
2:00 PMSIGNING: VampyBitMe
3:00 PMTOP 8: Vampire Savior
5:00 PMArc Revo Cup TOP 4: BlazBlue CPEX
6:30 PMArc Revo Cup TOP 4: Guilty Gear Xrd
7:30 PMSIGNING: Daisuke Ishiwatari
8:00 PMTOP 8: Skullgirls
10:00 PMTOP 4: Capcom VS SNK 2
12:00 AMPREVIEW: Rock Band 4

SUNDAY, JULY 19 – TWITCH.TV/MADCATZ

9:00 AMYatagarasu: Attack on Cataclysm
10:00 AMSPAERA
11:00 AMEXHIBITION: MD LOUFFY VS YBK Santarouman
1:00 PMPREVIEW: TEKKEN 7 EXHIBITION
3:00 PMPREVIEW: ROCK BAND 4

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GameDayTimeStream

Aquapazza

SaturdayNoonhttp://www.twitch.tv/numakie
Arcana Heart 3: LOVE MAX!!!!!Saturday5PMhttp://www.twitch.tv/numakie
BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma ExtendSaturday9AMhttp://www.twitch.tv/jyosua
Capcom vs. SNK 2Saturday10PMhttp://www.twitch.tv/madcatz
Darkstalkers 3: Vampire SaviorsSaturday3PMhttp://www.twitch.tv/madcatz
Dead or Alive 5: Last RoundSaturday10AMhttp://www.twitch.tv/bifuteki
Dengeki Bunko Fighting ClimaxFridayNoonhttp://www.twitch.tv/numakie
Guilty Gear XX Accent Core +RFriday3PMhttp://www.twitch.tv/thebrett
Gundam VS Extreme Full BoostSaturday11AMhttp://www.twitch.tv/thebrett
King of Fighters XIII

Friday

Saturday

Noon

10AM

http://www.twitch.tv/kingsofco

http://www.twitch.tv/madcatz

Melty Blood Actress AgainFriday5PMhttp://www.twitch.tv/numakie
Project MTBDTBDTBD
SkullgirlsSaturday8PMhttp://www.twitch.tv/madcatz
Street Fighter X TekkenSaturday5PMhttp://www.twitch.tv/pandaxgaming
Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo 1v1Friday9PMhttp://www.twitch.tv/madcatz
Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo 2v2SaturdayTBDTBD
Tekken Tag Tournament 2Friday3PMTBD
Under Night in-Birth EX: LateSaturday1PMhttp://www.twitch.tv/jyosua

Arc Revolution cup qualifiers

GameDayTimeStream link
Guilty Gear XRD 3v3Saturday5PMhttp://www.twitch.tv/madcatz
BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma Extend 3v3Saturday6:30PMhttp://www.twitch.tv/madcatz

CEO 2015 highlights

Last month was Community Effort Orlando, and once again CEO surpassed its previous event, check out some highlights including the Stone Cold Kenneth Bradley entrance which was covered by ESPN, Buzzfeed, SB Nation, Vice and a whole lot more!

Incoming Comic-Con 2015 announcements

An event that needs no introduction, SDCC is a place where Capcom and Namco love to cater to the casual audiences of Street Fighter and Tekken, including the reveal of Street Fighter X Tekken in 2010, which at the time seemed like the greatest fighting game ever, and indeed might have been had there not been critical errors in the final product.

SDCC runs from July 9-12, expect SFV and Tekken 7 related announcements. And expect this news item to be updated.

Predator available for MKX tomorrow (Tuesday July 7th)

Kombat pack owners can use Predator starting tomorrow and can be bought next Tuesday. ITs variations are Hunter, Warrior and Hish-Qu-Ten. The first two make sense, a trap variation and a close quarters, possibly rush down variation. Hish-Qu-Ten is apparently a name related to the Predator species in general.

Seeing the Predator take on Jason will likely get the casual MKX player on board once again.

Yatagarasu available tomorrow (Tuesday July 7th)

Yatagarasu Attack on Cataclysm is an indiegogo funded fighting game by former SNK / King of Fighters developers, the campaign ended on August 11, 2013 after receiving $118,243 with an initial asking amount of $68,000. It goes on sale tomorrow!

Steam Link

Fighting Game Community members are not pleased with the constant MKX patches

Before the internet there was no such thing as patches, and a common problem was you'd be stuck with overpowered characters for a game's lifetime (see UMvC3 now that Capcom can't touch it), but now a new problem is emerging. NetherRealm Studio's released a patch that changed characters, making some combos no longer possible, days before CEO 2015 and another one last week nerfing the seemingly overpowered Tanya.

According to members of the FGC, this frequent patching from NRS is not only taking away a tradition of fighting games, adaptation, but it's also hampering players at the most crucial point of the fighting game tournament calendar. In this post by EVO 2011 MvC3 world champion, Jay Snyder AKA Viscant, Viscant gives a detailed breakdown of why NRS need to take a step back and let the players play the game as is for a while.

Games that get patched don't always send you back to square one but some of NRS's patches have shown a curious knack for doing just that. At CEO I watched a bunch of dropped combos with Scorpion. His best 1 bar combo was changed, a lot of people--some who got relatively deep into the tournament--were doing the wrong combos fairly often. I saw a metric crapton of Hellfire Scorpion's running face first into armor. I can't fault the players, they had about 48 hours warning, some of them may have already got on the plane before realizing their character was gimped. This is not nearly enough time to make fundamental strategic changes or to get enough casuals to override your muscle memory.

Later into the post...

And what if it wasn't even necessary? What if we would have eventually solved Tanya Kombat X? It seems like Tempest Kung Lao beats her and Grandmaster Sub seems to do somewhat decently. What if there are 5-6 others who fight her well? She wouldn't even need to be nerfed. The competitive balance would advance, players would learn. But it's all hypothetical now. It seems that actually exploring these matchups and conquering roadblocks just isn't a part of the MKX meta.

It should make for interesting viewing at EVO to see who, if any, character stand out as stronger than others, and if the constant changes lead to any critical dropped combos next weekend.

Thank you for reading and happy watching!

This is the most packed EVO yet, certainly the highest paying EVO yet, hope you'll give it a watch! And if you're tuning in for the first time and are wondering what to expect, it might go something like this:

944 Comments

CEO 2015 (June 26-28, live from Orlando, Florida!) Preview PLUS more June tournaments & Fighting Game news!

We may be only a month away from EVO 2015, but that's no excuse to sleep on its biggest rival, Community Effort Orlando, CEO 2015!

CEO 2015 Preview

No Caption Provided

https://www.ceogaming.org/

CEO Jebailey on Twitter

CEO Gaming on Twitter

In truth CEO isn't a "rival" as such to EVO, a given FGC event doesn't tout achievements in comparison with one another but to itself, not unlike Ryu really.

And CEO has had a lot of success year on year to celebrate since its 1st event in 2010, breaking entrants/attendees and live-stream viewer-ship records alike, and CEO number 6 should be no different. The boxing/wrestling ring (depending on who Jebailey rents from on a given year) returns, both Street Fighter V (for the 1st time in the USA) and Tekken 7 will be playable!

Let's take a look at the games and entrants shall we?

GameEntrantsNotes
Divekick39
Guilty Gear XRD115
Killer Instinct85$15,000 bonus*
MKX289$10,000 bonus**
Persona 4AU53
Smash Melee466
Smash Wii U512
Tekken Tag 251
UMvC3177
USFIV377$15,000 bonus***
  1. Courtesy of the KI community fund drive which took 100% of money from sales during the time period specified to go to Combo Breaker, CEO and EVO prize money
  2. Courtesy of sales from the "Blue Steel" Sub-Zero costume
  3. A portion of $500,000, courtesy of CEO's premier tournament status as part of the 2015 Capcom Pro Tour

Stand up and take a bow Smash community! They get their own room for CEO, well deserved. It's a pity Nintendo isn't handing out any money to its players, especially when the MKX and KI tournaments have a lot less entrants for this event. Marvel is still hanging on (relatively) as it dwarves a lot of the other games as much as it itself is dwarfed by MKX, USFIV & the Smash games

Schedule and streams

Streamer Channels
CapcomFighters
TeamSp00ky
vgbootcamp
vgbootcamp2
funkyp
ceogaming
st_ultimate
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Other June majors

Before CEO, East Coast Throwdown (June 13-14) and South East Asia Major (June 19-21) happened, they were great events, I've removed the preview stuff for those events as this blog is big enough as it is!

News

Street Fighter V details!

A pre-E3 event was held for Street Fighter V and articles and videos are going up everywhere! And then E3 happened and Birdie and Cammy were announced and a Giant Bomb Unfinished went up, videos!

http://shoryuken.com/2015/06/11/going-hands-on-with-street-fighter-v-versatility-has-its-v-benefits/

Ryu (Street Fighter) & Roy (Fire Emblem) confirmed as Smash Bros. Wii U DLC

Rumours have persisted via supposed leaks for the past few months that Ryu and Roy would feature as DLC characters in Smash Wii U and now we have some victory videos of their appearances.

While it's probably safe to assume that this Ryu will be a combination of his USFIV (there's definitely a focus attack in that 9 second video) & UMvC3 version you might want to check out Nintendo's pre-E3 Smash Bros. briefing just to be sure.

Capcom Pro Tour USFIV Rule Change

FGCers brought up a good point on Twitter last week. If a Capcom Pro Tour Premier event's top 4 was full of people already qualified for December's Capcom Cup, and keeping in mind that as fighting game tournaments 90% of the time are double elimination bracket style (meaning there's a joint top 5, a joint 7 etc.) who gets that event's Capcom Cup spot?

No Caption Provided

Well it turns out neither of the joint top 5 get that spot, instead that spot goes to another person on from the leaderboard (which consists of players who've gained the most seeding points from doing well in tournaments), making the ratio swap from 16:15 to 15:16

16->15 Premier Events Qualifiers

15->16 Leaderboard Qualifiers

1 Previous Year’s Champion

You might have heard that PS4 USFIV is not doing very well

Work has begun on patching the broken mess that is PS4 USFIV (some of it has been patched out thankfully), but CEO and EVO are solving a problem with maximum efficiently by declaring they will use the 360 version for their USFIV tournaments, here are some of my favourite glitches and problems.

Yatagarasu lives up to adding FGC commentators in-game

No Caption Provided

In case you forgot about this game or are seeing it for the first time, check out the indiegogo campaign that got the ball rolling, James Chen and Maximilian will also feature in the game. Ultradavid looks just like one of the Persona 3/4 characters from Arena/Arena Ultimax, does this mean he's anime now?

I love Killer Instinct's Shadow Mode

Killer Instinct's Shadow Mode is not just a great concept, it is surrounded by useful tools and ways to play against friends. if you're a Giant Bomb premium member check out Jeff and Jason trying it out on the Unprofessional Fridays: 05/29/2015!

Tekken 7's Kazumi Mishima with a true Tiger Uppercut

I get she can transform cause she's got devil powers but I've no idea why she can summon tigers, I don't care, it's awesome!

Thanks for reading and happy watching!

VGCW's End Game X was amazing! Bringing season 10 to a close. It's also the end of Bazza's time with VGCW, handing his creation over to a new person. You should totally check the archive to see such great matches as Guile defending the VGCW championship in a tables match against Sabin Rene Figaro and Dan Hibiki!

514 Comments

Combo Breaker (May 22-24 - Live from Chicago!) Preview! PLUS M.Bison Street Fighter V trailer, New T7 character & more!

The king is dead! Long live the king!

No Caption Provided

http://combobreaker.org/

Combo Breaker FGC on Twitter

Combo Breaker Preview!

Ultimate Fighting Game Tournament was one of my favourite events of the fighting game community calendar, I covered it in blog form for the past 3 years when Adam 'Keits' Heart (UFGT director, creator of Divekick, Iron Galaxy staffer) unleashed Divekick upon the world. Sadly he retired it last year, but his 2nd in command Richard Thiher is stepping up to start Combo Breaker, Chicago's brand new major. Thiher has got some back up with a large list of people, plus Gaming Generations and CyberPower Systems!

So what will the inaugural Combo Breaker feature? Thankfully as seen in the trailer above, the mystery game tournament (featuring video games and who knows what else?) returns as well as retro game tournaments, exciting!

Recently it's been revealed that Skullgirls has been upgraded to main stage status for this event. You remember Skullgirls right? When we last heard about that game it almost made a previous EVO based off of a massive donation drive which saw it defeated by Super Smash Bros. Melee (and we've all seen how well that game has done for itself since).

Skullgirls didn't completely fade away though, it's made headlines for both its developer Lab Zero Games breaking ground in showing the average gamer just how much DLC costs to make and most recently became the 1st fighting game to make use of (friend of Giant Bomb) Naughty Dog's own John "Cowboy" Bellomy's programming wizardry to make PS3 sticks compatible with the PS4 version of the game.

Here's the reasoning from the man in charge:

  • Friday & Saturday Night Character Auctions - MKX, USFIV, SSB Wii-U & UMvC3

  • The LANGZONE will descend upon Combo Breaker, fresh from his week in San Francisco for Giant Bomb's Big Live LIVE Show: Live! this Wednesday Dave Lang will be bringing a full crew of Iron Galaxy staffers to show their wares and support the event.
  • An all-star cast of commentators including Seth Killian!
  • Capcom has given the USFIV tournament at CB 2015 ranking event status for the Capcom Pro Tour on the way to the Capcom Cup! No doubt if it's a great success this year they'll give it premier event status next year!
  • Combo Breaker also has qualifying status for the Killer Instinct World Cup

Rules updates

Mortal Kombat X - Jason Voorhees is legal

Also:

In Mortal Kombat X Kung Lao has an abusable meter gain bug. Due to the abusable nature of this bug, all Kung Lao matches at Combo Breaker will be refereed. Referees are instructed to enforce a tournament wide ban on wake-up teleport in all 3 of Kung Lao’s variations, and wake-up hat toss in the non-buzzsaw variations.

If you use either of these techniques, you will be issued a warning on the spot. If you do it again, you will be disqualified from tournament play on the spot. This warning will follow you for the duration of the tournament, it is not on a per-match basis.

We apologize for the inconvenience this causes Kung Lao players, but we believe it is in the best interest of the tournament. Instead of a tournament wide ban on Kung Lao 4 days before the tournament, this ruling allows players to play their character in some capacity.

Source - http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1smaljt

Killer Instinct - Cinder is legal

Guilty Gear Xrd - will be played on the 1.1 version

Combo Breaker will be monitoring these games for game breaking glitches and such and has said that it reserves the right to change rules on a game by game basis.

Streams and schedule

http://www.twitch.tv/teamsp00ky

http://www.twitch.tv/vgbootcamp

http://www.twitch.tv/bgcallisto

http://www.twitch.tv/gallopingghostarcade

http://www.twitch.tv/eg_jwong

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News

M.Bison Street Fighter V gameplay trailer

The leader of Shadaloo and creator of Psycho Power returns! Check out his completely revamped movelist!

Ultimate Fight Final Fantasy XIV fighting game experiment looks amazing

I've always said a Final Fantasy/2D fighting game crossover would be a good idea. Swap the super bar for limit break, have the melee characters be rushdown and the ranged and mage characters be zoning, piece of cake (note: not a piece of cake at all, but lots of potential)!

This Final Fantasy XIV fighting game mock-up, without going into too much detail because spoilers, is based on a boss battle from FFXIV and has a lengthy ending Ultimate Finish that rivals MKX's cut-scenes in sheer length. Check it out!

Jason Voorhees MKX DLC dated as May 5th

We've yet to see Jason in action but his Mortal Kombat debut isn't far away. Will he release in time for EVO 2015? The answer is definitely maybe!

Kombat Pack owners will get him 1st, with non-Kombat Pack owners being able to buy him separately a week later. You can also try him before buying if you're on the fence. And there's horror themed costumes for Ermac, Reptile and Mileena too!

New Tekken 7 character - Gigas!

This new character is quite blatantly a powerhouse character, but how much will Gigas differ from Jack and Marduk? Time will tell. But what I can tell you is that there's a specific reason why he's fighting Dragunov in his debut trailer...

That's right, Gigas is a Russian designed, devil gene powered bio-monster... thing.

Also this tweet from @dochaus made me laugh

UPDATE 2: $10,000 of $100,000 going towards KI at Combo Breaker! UPDATE: $100,000 of sales going to tournament pots ($50,000 of which going to KI @ EVO 2015) / Original story: Cinder's looking pretty cool and... who's that?

May 13th UPDATE:

After successfully making $100,000 in 3 short days, $75,000 of the $100,000 has been allocated. $50,000 is going to EVO 2015's top 8, $15,000 is going to CEO 2015's top 8 and $10,000 is going to Combo Breaker's top 8. This is great news for KI players, their game is definitely keeping up with Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat's continuing tournament pot increases!

April 30th UPDATE:

Original story:

Nice little monologue from Cinder that follows on the little trailer story Iron Galaxy have going on. And of course we finally get to see the big bad, Aria, who's been hinted at for a while now. Most notably season 1's secret ending

Thanks for reading and happy watching!

If you haven't gotten your fill of fighting game tournaments make sure to check out the archives for a ton of events that's been happening recently including the ESL MKX Fatal 4 tournament and North West Majors 7!

417 Comments

NorCal Regionals 2015 (Apr 3-5) & Hypespotting 4 (Apr 4-5) preview! PLUS Daigo Umehara retires, MKX round up & more!

Not one Capcom Pro Tour qualifying event this weekend, but two!

PREVIEWS: NorCal Regionals 2015, live from Norcal, USA and Hypespotting 4, live from Glasgow, Scotland!

http://norcalregionals.com/

http://www.hypespotting.co.uk/

The Capcom Pro Tour truly is global, so it's no surprise that 2 premier events would inevitably clash like so many other sports events/entertainment shows/video game conventions tend to do.

Both NorCal Regionals 2015 (running annually since 2002) and Hypespotting 4 (which I'm sure you've guessed is in its 4th year) have the same USFIV prizes on the line, with both awarding $15,000 split between top 8 and a spot in December's Capcom Cup to the winner(s). This weekend's two victors will join last year's winner EG|Momochi (Primarily known for playing Ken Masters) and this past month's Final Round winner RZR|Xian (EVO 2013 world champion, primarily known for playing Gen).

  • NCR is traditionally known for being the 1st big clash of the year between NorCal and their SoCal rivals
  • Hypespotting is Scotland's national fighting game tournament event! It also has a pub quiz, a pub quiz! Watch the Hypespotting community test their gaming knowledge against each other.

Our own moderator @rmanthorp will be in attendance at Hypespotting, have fun!

Trailer Fight!

I like the NorCal Regionals trailer, I also like the Hypespotting trailer... but which one is better? There's only one way to found out... FIGHT!

No Caption Provided

Here we have the NorCal Regionals trailer, which plays on our nostalgia. Some nice transitions from each subsequent Street Fighter trailer, mellow music, scores extra points for advertising another tournament (you'll have to watch the trailer to find out which) and for using Tekken 2's Kazuya Mishima's ending cinematic music, which I'll still instantly recognise 50 years from now.

No Caption Provided

100% pure unadulterated community focused hype. This trailer lives up to its event's namesake. Entertainment value and production values sells you on the event, but if the music doesn't get you hype then you are incapable of doing so.

Attendees

NorCal RegionalsHypespotting
InfiltrationMCZ|Mago
MCZ|DaigoMCZ|Tokido
KazunokoMD|Luffy
RZR|FuudoRZR|Xian (Q)
EG|Momochi (Q)Ryan Hart
AVM GamerbeeRize|Pro Fluke IND
/r/Kappa|PoongkoAlioune
EX PugeraRZR CG Problem X
BonchanGL|Valmaster
Snake EyezWSO|Andreas
EG|Ricky OrtizLLL|Emersion
EG|Justin WongVS|Milligano
EG|K-BradIxion
Chris T
TL|Nuckledu

plus your resident NorCal and Glasgow community members! And whoever else decides to show up!

Streams and schedules

The two events' USFIV proceedings won't clash at all, Hypespotting's USFIV action will finish way before NCR starts.

NCRHS
Capcom FightersCapcom Fighters
Team SpookyVersus Scotland
iPLAYWINNER

NCR - All times in PDT (GMT - 8)

Full Schedule available here

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Other games TBD

Hypespotting full schedule - All times in GMT

Saturday 4th April

09:00 – 11:00: Registration

11:00 – 15:00: Ultra Street Fighter IV Pools

14:30 – 17:00: Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Pools

16:00 – 17:30: SSB4 pools

17:30 – 19:00: Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 Pools

18:00 – 19:30: King of Fighters XIII Pools

19:30 – 23:00: Hypespotting Pub Quiz

Sunday 5th April

10:00 – 12:00: Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Finals

12:00 – 14:00: SSB4 Finals

14:00 – 15:30: King of Fighters XIII Finals

15:30 – 18:00: Ultra Street Fighter IV Finals

18:00 – 19:30: Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 Finals

News

APRIL FOOLS, YES I KNOW IT'S IN THAT OTHER THREAD BUT I DON'T CARE, IT ISN'T EVEN APRIL 1ST ANYMORE HERE IN THE UK BUT AGAIN I DON'T CARE, AN APRIL FOOL IS YOU!

MKX Round Up

Watch the first 30 minutes of MKX's story mode

There was a video some weeks ago there showed the opening of MKX, specifically Johnny Cage, this new video is an extended version which goes waaaaaaaay into spoiler territory, watch at your own risk! MKX is looking amazing!

Liu Kang, Kung Lao and Kung Jin showcased

Liu Kang is indeed back! And we get a glimpse of Liu Kang and Kung Lao's fate immediately after MK9.

MKX is eSports

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ESL (Electronic Sports League) have announced a pro league and a finals not unlike the Capcom Pro Tour and Capcom Cup, the finals will have "at least" $50,000 in prize money. The Blue Steel Sub-Zero skin you see above you is an old school pallet-swap of the pre-order Scorpion DLC. The Sub-Zero version is paid DLC and some/all of the money made from this costume will go towards the ESL MKX pro league.

I like the idea and I like that some of the money that from the game is going towards it, wouldn't have picked a palette swap DLC costume to do it with though.

3 new confirmed Tekken 7 characters: Jin Kazama, Devil Jin and Josie Rizal

Josie, named after the Filipino national hero José Rizal has caused no small amount of controversy (seems to be a trend for new Tekken 7 characters) for apparently being Filipino yet having no physical or vocal Filipino attributes, nor are her clothes. Her rage art, as well as Jin and Devil Jin's seem to be recycled from Soulcalibur V and Tekken Tag 2.

SoCal Regionals delayed to June

SoCal Regionals was originally slated for May 1-3 but due to venue problems it seems it's being delayed to June 5-7. This would put it weeks before CEO 2015 and a month before EVO 2015. I would expect SoCal Regionals to have a significantly less people attending now, luckily SoCal has no shortage of local community members and will hopefully still have a good event.

Thank you for reading and enjoy watching!

Apologies for not getting this up on Monday as I said I would in the comments of the Final Round preview. The whole "only going to sleep at 5:30AM after getting home from a WrestleMania 31 viewing party" thing on Sunday night/Monday morning screwed my sleep patterns and rocked my ability to write HARD! Better before the event than during or after though!

Incidentally my local pub quiz this Monday broke records with 300 people turning up making 68 teams, there was people everywhere!

174 Comments

Final Round 18 (March 20-22) Preview + events, KI - Hisako, MKX - Jason Voorhees, Smash Melee & more!

We're in serious territory now!

Final Round 18 Preview - March 20-22 - Live from Atlanta!

http://www.finalround.org/

No Caption Provided

Final Round 18 is the continuation of the 2nd longest fighting game community tournament event in existence, it is the 1st premier event in the 2015 Capcom Pro Tour for Ultra Street Fighter IV and it will be the 1st American appearance of the incoming Tekken 7. Needless to say this is going to be a must see event.

Capcom Pro Tour prize bonus to Final Round's USFIV tournament

1st Place2nd Place3rd Place4th Place5th-6th Place7th-8th Place
$7,000$3,000$1,500$1,000$750 (each)$500 (each)

In addition to the UMvC3 tournament Curleh Mustache also returns to Final Round! So far the teams featuring are:

  • Team ATL
  • Team Control Team BROKENTIER
  • Team Florida
  • Team Texas
  • Team Norcal
  • Team Socal
  • Team AlternateTime East Coast
  • Team Midwest
  • Team Carolina Pride
  • Team Florida 2
  • Team Louisiana
  • Team World
  • Team San Diego

plus 2 more teams for a total of 16!

Streams and schedule

UPDATE: Full schedule is now below

http://www.twitch.tv/capcomfighters

http://www.twitch.tv/teamsp00ky

http://www.twitch.tv/funkyp

http://www.twitch.tv/sixfortyfive

http://www.twitch.tv/kombatnetwork

http://www.twitch.tv/smashstudios

All times in EST

Stream StationSpookyCapcom FightersFunky P645Smash StudiosKombatNetwork
Friday
10am
11am
12pm
1pm
2pm
3pm
4pmCurleh Mustache USF4 - TeamsKOF XIIISSB WIIU TeamsSoul Calibur Pools
5pmCurleh Mustache USF4 - TeamsKOF XIIISSB WIIU TeamsSoul Calibur Pools
6pmCurleh Mustache USF4 - TeamsKOF XIIISSB WIIU TeamsSoul Calibur Pools
7pmCurleh Mustache USF4 - TeamsOpen AnimeMelee TeamsKiller Instinct
8pmUSF4 - Teams GGXRD TeamsOpen AnimeMelee TeamsKiller Instinct
9pmUSF4 - Teams GGXRD TeamsOpen AnimeMelee TeamsKiller Instinct
10pmExhibition GGXRD TeamsOpen AnimeMelee TeamsKiller Instinct Until Top 8
Room AssignmentGrand SalonChattahoocheeSavannahLanierRoom 1 & 2Chattahoochee
Stream StationSpookyCapcom FightersFunky P645Smash StudiosKombatNetwork
Saturday
10amDOA5USF4GG XRDOpen AnimeSSB WIIUKiller Instinct Top 8
11amDOA5USF4GG XRDOpen AnimeSSB WIIUKiller Instinct Top 8 (End)
12pmDOA5USF4GG XRDOpen AnimeSSB WIIUInJustice
1pmDOA5USF4GG XRDOpen AnimeSSB WIIUInJustice
2pmUMVC3USF4GG XRDOpen AnimeSSB WIIUInJustice Top 8 (End)
3pmUMVC3USF4GG XRDOpen AnimeSSB WIIUOpen
4pmUMVC3USF4GG XRDOpen AnimeSSB WIIUOpen
5pmCOS Play TournamentUSF4GG XRDOpen AnimeSSB WIIUOpen
6pmTTT2USF4GG XRD - Top 32Under Night In-BirthMeleeOpen
7pmTTT2USF4GG XRD - Top 32Under Night In-BirthMeleeOpen
8pmUMVC3USF4GG XRD - Top 32Under Night In-BirthMeleeOpen
9pmUMVC3USF4GG XRD - Top 32Under Night In-BirthSSB WIIU Top 32Open
10pmExhibitionUSF4 Under Night In-Birth (End)SSB WIIU Top 32Open
Room AssignmentGrand Ball RoomGrand Ball Room Room 1 & 2
Stream StationSpookyCapcom FightersFunky P645Smash StudiosKombatNetwork
Sunday
10amGGXRD Top 8 Chat
11amGGXRD Top 8 Chat
12pmDOA5LR Top 8 Chat Melee Top 8
1pmDOA5LR Top 8 Chat Melee Top 8
2pmUMVC3 Top 8 Chat SSB WII U Top 8
3pmUMVC3 Top 8 Chat SSB WII U Top 8
4pmTTT2 Top 8 Chat
5pmTTT2 Top 8 Chat
6pmTTT2 Top 8 Chat
7pmSigned OffUSF4Chat
8pmSigned OffUSF4Chat
9pmSigned OffUSF4Chat
10pmExhibition After USF4 FinalsUSF4Chat

Other events for March

Two events either side of Final Round 18 are worth your attention!

South by Southwest (SXSW) Expo - Fighters Invitational for USFIV - (March 13-15)

Research tells me that SXSW is a set of festivals during March, one for music, one for film and one for tech. At this event (March 13-15) is a round robin tournament between 16 of the best in which the top 8 for compete in a traditional double elimination bracket tournament on the Sunday.

The archive is at http://www.twitch.tv/sxswgamingesports/profile/past_broadcasts

Thanks to user @hassun for pointing this event out to me!

Group A

RankPlayer NameTeamWinsLossesGame ±
1MomochiEG61+10
2TokidoMCZ61+7
3XianRZR52+4
4PR BalrogEG43+1
5Sanford KellyTSC34-3
6Snake Eyez 34-3
7K-BradEG16-6
8LPNpH07-12

Group B

RankPlayer NameTeamWinsLossesGame ±
1Kazunoko 70+13
2UmeharaMCZ52+6
3GamerBeeAVM52+4
4Justin WongEG34-2
5HamadDL34-2
6Ryan HartFA34-4
7Ricky OrtizEG16-7
8NuckleDuTL16-7

Results

1. EG|Momochi (Ken)

2. Kazunoko (Yun)

3. AVM|GamerBee (Adon, Elena)

4. MCZ|Tokido (Akuma)

5. EG|Justin Wong (Rose, Rufus)

5. MCZ|Daigo (Evil Ryu)

7. EG|PR Balrog (Balrog, Evil Ryu)

7. RZR|Xian (Poison, Gen, Elena, Dhalsim)

Red Bull Kumite - Paris, France - March 28th

  • MCZ|Daigo
  • MD|Luffy
  • BE|Nemo
  • Bonchan
  • MCZ|Tokido
  • CNB|ChuChu
  • Dieminion
  • RZR|Xian
  • MCZ|Mago
  • RZR|Fuudo
  • Ryan Hart
  • GL|Valmaster
  • Snake Eyez
  • Infiltration

plus 2 more fighters! More info when available!

News!

EVO 2015 is the biggest Smash Bros. Melee and Smash Wii U tournament(s) of all time

EVO and APEX have been leap-frogging each other in hosting the biggest Smash Melee tournament of all time. It's already been announced that the following games already have over 1000 entrants. USFIV (1979 entrants in 2014), Smash Melee (970 in 2014) and Smash Wii U (debut year) have surpassed EVO 2014's 2 games that had over 1000 entrants (USFIV & UMvC3).

New Killer Instinct character Hisako is revealed and she's scary :(

Killer Instinct Season 2 continues! Iron Galaxy are continuing to nail their new characters, I love Hisako's design, the fact that she has the slowest walk speed in the game as she creepily moves towards you, she's just cool. I hope that she makes top 8 at EVO so everyone can see her.

Mortal Kombat X reveals for Johnny Cage, Sonya Blade, the story mode and Jason Voorhees

Since my last fighting game blog NetherRealm have released quite a few MKX videos, some story, some character reveals. Jason Voorhees was revealed on Friday the 13th (ha!), whether his horror film rival Freddie Kruger will return from MK9 is unknown. Jason is one of the DLC season pass characters.

I like the gameplay and design of all three members of the Cage family!

Might want to not click this story preview video if you don't want to see 7 minutes of MKX's story mode.

Thanks for reading!

Final Round 18 is going to be a good one, have fun watching!

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Winter Brawl 9 Preview (February 20-22) PLUS a shout-out to APEX/Twitch, Rayman in Smash? (Nope) And FGC News! (VGCW?!)

Winter Brawl 9 Preview!

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Winter Brawl often signifies the beginning of the road to EVO in earnest. We know what the EVO line-up is, the Smash community begins the year showcasing its best at APEX (which nearly didn't happen this year, more on that after the preview) and in what has become a popular trend we know what fighting games are coming round the corner in Spring in time for EVO.

I've always enjoyed watching the North East Coast players fighting in big tournaments and there'll be plenty of them in their own back yard! I'm definitely going to watch some KOFXIII and BlazBlue since they're not at EVO this year. I haven't seen much of competitive Persona 4AU so that's also on my list.

Winter Brawl breaks with East Coast tradition and makes USFIV the main event, not UMvC3. Maybe they're hoping the main event's grand final will be less free than last year's main even GF, a rematch between EVO 2013's winner Flocker and runner up Justin Wong, in which Justin crushed the man he used to have a lot of trouble against and people started to believe he would win EVO 2014 (which he did).

Streams and schedule

Full schedule here (Times in EST)

Note: Only Spooky and Bifuteki are live on Friday with USFIV teams and UMvC3 teams respectively

APEX, the tournament that almost never was

APEX happened and was the subject of my last blog and it was awesome, but if you tuned in during the final day or if you're a criminal and didn't tune in at all you probably don't know that it almost never took place.

Remember that extreme snowy weather that hit the east coast? Well when one Smasher decided to play a prank and set an alarm off at APEX's venue the fire marshals shut everything down when it was discovered that the hotel being used as the venue had significant structural damage from the weather that had not been repaired.

In steps Twitch to immediately find a new venue and the Smash community hustled to spread the word and organise transport to the new venue

Despite losing all of Friday and all the time it took to set up in the new space, not a single tournament was dropped, all were completed, how it happened I do not know, other than the APEX staff and the Smash community are some of the best people in gaming. Well done to everyone involved, they all deserved a great event and that's what they still had.

News

The Rayman Smash Wii U Leak(?)

Twitter was a buzz the other day when a supposed leak hit the net of Rayman being a DLC character in Smash Wii U after Mewtwo, the video clearly showed the selection screen with moving cursor and unique character portraits for both Mewtwo and Rayman. But that was all part of the plot!

Turns out it's an extremely convincing fake by YouTube user Omni, who's intending to cash in on his 450,000 views by starting a series in which he "Smashifies" fictional characters into the Smash Wii U selection screen. If you watch the video you can see just how much detail he puts into his Mewtwo and Rayman efforts, modifying existing character images to create new looking ones and replicating the character select section exactly as it features in the actual game. Nice job!

Of course some salty people are calling foul and resenting any notion that this make lead to a cool YouTube series and demanding some form of punishment for Omni. Nah, not happening. I for one look forward to which characters he does in his next videos.

FGC talent acquisitions and departures

I've got two hires and one departure for you this month. The two recruitments are Smash community members D1 (as seen in the APEX story above) and Crimson, who are now employed by Twitch to represent the Smash community much like Mike Ross represents the FGC. D1's deal also seems to fall in line with Mike Ross, allowing D1 to continue to commentate events like EVO and Smash and still facilitate his roles in the Smash scene.

I still can't believe I've moved on to royal colored pastures. The thing is, I got a job with a company that lets me still do community manager work. I can still cast if the opportunity arises as well. Thank you so much for everything people. One of the best days of my life.

D1 (Twitter - https://twitter.com/xD1x

The departure is number one British player and Guinness Book record holder Ryan Hart who departs Team Dignitas. It seems Dignitas is going all in on PC games esports and initially offered Ryan the opportunity to continue to represent them while they attempted to cobble some sponsors together for him, which has been respectfully declined by Hart who is now a free agent. Traditionally a Sagat player, Hart was put off by the USFIV Sagat changes and switched to Ryu, resulting in a great showing at Capcom Cup in December.

HYPEEEEEEE match

First they were thrown into a volcano, now they'll fight in one!

Tekken 7's arcade intro is online, complete with subtitles! Putting the focus of Tekken 7's story squarely on expanding and ending what we know about the bad blood in the Mishima family and the devil power is the best move the Tekken team can make.

Tekken's story got a little out there in recent games and a lot of people have fallen off but now we go back to the simple supernatural family feud that drew people in in the first place, I can't wait!

Not to be overshadowed by the story, I've also got a gameplay video as Pikachu-Harada shows off the move-list of new characters Lucky Chloe and Shaheen. Obviously Harada's speaking Japanese so you won't get the context, but you can see which moves causes which animations, such as Bound! etc.

How to Get Your Friends Into Fighting Games in Five Easy Steps

This article on Shoryuken by Suriel Vazquez seems like a good way to get friends into fighting games at parties. Click it for advice on the 5 steps of Make Them Spectators First, Play Pickup Matches, Make an Event Out of It, Add a Pinch of Salty Bets and Foster the Fighters.

With most people, saying, “Come over and play some fighting games,” will only get you so far. “Come over, let’s do stuff, and I dunno, get drunk, maybe?” on the other hand could work wonders. If that “stuff” happens to be a few rounds of Divekick or Nidhogg after you’ve all gotten tired of Cards Against Humanity, all the better.

Killer Instinct Aganos reveal

Aganos is a big golem, as big in Killer Instinct as Hugo is in Street Fighter, except as you'll see in the video, the game zooms out differently for Aganos so that he doesn't cover the life bars. Check out the Twitch archive to see!

Thanks for reading!

This was a big one! Hope you check out Winter Brawl 9 this weekend and if you're not busy tomorrow night (Tuesday! The 17th!) maybe you should watch the season finale of Video Game Championship Wrestling, VGCW: End Game 9? It's live 11PM local time (GMT) which is 6PM for you east coasters and 3PM for you west coasters. Visit the VGCW website for more details on the card and watch at http://www.twitch.tv/bazza87!

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FOXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX!

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