APEX is the home of the Smash community. When all communications between the Smashers and EVO were at their all time low APEX kept the community together and are responsible for all the success that has followed in the past year. Now APEX has the full support of Nintendo of America (at the expense of Project M). APEX 2015 could set the event on the road to becoming as big as EVO and the Capcom Cup!
APEX 2015 has been confirmed as the largest Super Smash Bros. Melee tournament in history, surpassing EVO 2014's 970 entrants, here's the full list of games during the weekend:
Reptile has learnt how to speak! I always thought it was weird that he was mute in MK9.
PR Balrog retiring from competitive fighting games at the end of 2015
In what seems to be a move that many are confused about, Evil Geniuses own PR Balrog, the number 1 Balrog (Boxer) player in the world is leaving tournaments at the end of the year. With sponsorship from the biggest esports team to enter fighting games, the ever growing competitive scene and the large amounts of prize money its finally getting ($500,000 for the Capcom Cup/ Pro Tour events) now seems like the best time to be a part of the FGC.
Regardless, PR Balrog, real name Eduardo Pérez is apparently not having fun anymore and will depart at the end of 2015. Good luck to him in whatever he does next.
EVO 2015 line-up confirmed and Jamie Lee Curtis is going?
No, it would not be in Evo if the game wasn’t updated with fresh content. Keeping players coming back for updates and new characters is what every game needs, and it definitely contributed to Killer Instinct coming back a second year.
Team Spooky have begun uploading matches from this weekend's 5th East Coast Curleh Mustache!
Canada Cup Master Series
The official Capcom Fighters YouTube channel has uploaded all the matches from the literal pay-per-view Capcom Cup Master Series event, some of the world's best competed in this tournament, give it a look!
Thanks for reading!
The road to EVO 2015 is upon us! I'm looking forward to seeing what Smash Wii U is like and what everyone's reaction is before July. See you for the next tournament!
Hello and welcome to my final fighting game tournament event blog of 2014! We've enjoyed another year of quality fighting game tournament matches and now is the final big event, the Capcom Cup! Our own Jason Oestreicher will be at the event!
What is the Capcom Cup?
Capcom USA have teamed up with the biggest fighting game tournament events of the fighting game community to stream each Ultra Street Fighter IV tournament via their official channel and to hand out qualifying spots and seeding points (AKA The Capcom Pro Tour) to a 16-man tournament, ran by Capcom which will take place this Saturday. These events included but were not limited to:
Capcom Cup has also been confirmed as the site of the first ever Street Fighter V match, viewable by people watching the event.
News
Street Fighter V analysis
So by now you know that Street Fighter V was leaked and then officially confirmed this weekend!
Maximilian provides the deepest analysis yet about the trailer we've seen:
No OTGs (yet)? - You may have heard the term OTG (off the ground, seen commonly in UMvC3) on this week's bombcast, when Jason was talking about attacks by Chun-Li. But as explained by Max in his analysis, it looks less like an OTG attack, hitting an otherwise grounded opponent back in the air, and more like the original aerial attack by Chun-Li had Street Fighter X Tekken style ground bounce properties, allowing for an extra attack once Chun-Li landed.
Elemental power-ups - I should've figured this one out myself! I was so fixated on the idea of Ryu using the Denjin Hadoken, not his regular Shinku Hadoken, as setting the time-line of Street Fighter V (after SFIV but before SFIII), I missed that it was part of an electrical power up. So had he not been powered up, he may still have done a Shinku Hadoken. Max's speculation regarding Chun-Li's water power up also seems like a good guess.
These power-ups giving characters access to multiple fireballs or extra properties like Ryu guard crushing Chun-Li seems like what the Street Fighter team may have been experimenting with in USFIV with the Omega Mode DLC. If I had to guess I'd also suggest that this is Street Fighter team's continuing efforts to create a system not unlike Street Fighter X Tekken's much debated Gems system. Hopefully this power-up system will be better received than the gems.
I look forward to getting more news as it arrives this weekend!
No platform-exclusive characters in MKX
Goro is a pre-order bonus, how will he figure into tournaments?
In an interview with NetherRealm's Shaun Himmerick, he confirmed that there would be no platform-exclusives in MKX as Kratos was for the PS3 in the previous MK game. This may speak to NetherRealm's efforts to improve their standing in fighting game community tournaments, as Ed Boon himself learned on Twitter following MK 2011/9's release that Kratos was banned from tournaments. What it likely doesn't speak to is guest characters in general, as it's been known that out of the 4 DLC characters Kenshi, Rain, Skarlet and Freddy Krueger, Freddy was bought the most, so the Predator, an Alien or the Terminator as DLC shouldn't be ruled out just yet.
Tekken 7 looks awfully pretty, but people don't like the newly revealed character very much
Tekken 7 test events continue to happen in Japan, testing the new ultra combo-style system, changes to existing characters and getting to gripes with débutantes Claudio and Katarina but another recently unveiled character, Lucky Chloe, didn't go down that well with American Tekken fans.
The response to Chloe was so poor that Katsuhiro Harada addressed it on Twitter saying that he'll just hold her back from the American release and make her exclusive to the Asian and Europe releases of Tekken 7. From a series that has fighting robots, bears, pandas, kangaroos, dinosaurs, people with demonic powers and an old man who lacks the ability to stand up she doesn't bother me as much as she seems to bother so many others.
The Game Awards 2014 - Best Fighting Game
Always interesting to see is the mainstream perspective of fighting games. Super Smash Bros. for Wii U took the award for best fighting game in a category that didn't even include the all but announced Evo 2015 main stage tournament game, Guilty Gear Xrd.
Northeast Championship 15 results
This past weekend was the 15th annual NEC ran by Big E Gaming. Hit this Shoryuken link for a list of games and winners and be sure to check each respective Twitch channel's YouTube page for uploads of the best matches.
Thanks for reading!
That about does it from me, see you next year for Evo 2015 news and more tournaments! Follow me on the Twitter!
It's been quite some time since EVO happened, we're at the half way point between EVO and the Capcom Cup so I figured it was time to showcase another major event on the fighting game tournament calendar, The Fall Classic!
As far as tournament organisers go, The Fall Classic has a 4 man all-star group of East Coast TOs running this event:
Eric “Big E” Small is the founder of Northeast Championships (NEC 15 is this upcoming December 5-7), Winter Brawl and Summer Jam. Based out of Philadelphia.
I'm looking forward to this, I haven't sat down and enjoyed a good fighting game event since EVO, should be good!
News items! All the news items*!
*not guaranteed to feature all the news items
Is this the 1st 4K (2160p) fighting game video?
Iron Galaxy have been continuing to hype season 2 of Killer Instinct, and Maximilian in turn uploaded the new Maya trailer in 4K (the game itself doesn't run in 4K).
1st of all, Maya looks amazing. Her look, her gameplay, great job Iron Galaxy! What do you think of 4K quality?
Street Fighter V? Is it secretly on?
Ono-san tweeted at the beginning of September that a recruitment drive was taking place to join Capcom and Dimps to work on a fighting game. I doubt Street Fighter X Tekken will ever be revisited again, Capcom don't have the Marvel license anymore so Marvel vs. Capcom 4 isn't happening and Darkstalkers Resurrection worked on by Iron Galaxy sold like shit so a new Darkstalkers game isn't happening either.
We are recruiting colleagues to work together with us at Dimps studio for new FG. http://t.co/VHLIEUBnIa
It's got to be Street Fighter V right? What else could it be?
Mortal Kombat X dated and Goro confirmed
As covered on Giant Bomb, MKX has a release date of April 14th, 2015. This should theoretically slot it in nicely in time for EVO 2015. Keep in mind that the EVO line-up is normally announced every January, with late additions to be added as the main fighting game tournament season from January to July progresses.
NetherRealm fans might remember EVO 2013 in which MK9 was added officially for a 3rd and final time due to the unknown quantity that was Injustice: Gods Among Us. That game turned out to be just as good a competitively viable game as any and was added later on along side MK9, which finally bowed out officially this year.
The likely scenario again would be that Injustice gets a bonus year on the roster as a back-up to MKX not being viable. Though I could see the EVO gents putting their trust in Ed Boon and NetherRealm on the back of MK9 and Injustice's success at EVO and simply cut Injustice out and announce the unreleased MKX for EVO 2015 straight away (barring any delays to MKX).
Persona 4 Arena Ultimax sells well in Japan and Europe won't have to wait an extra year to play it
Persona 4: The Ultimax Ultra Suplex Hold sold nearly 90,000 copies in its 1st week in Japan, following the tradition of lesser sales to fighting game upgrades, despite still outselling Street Fighter IV. It's another solid entry into the ever expanding Persona brand.
Sega has confirmed as the publisher for P4AU in Europe and that will happen this November, avoiding the disaster of P4A's release, P4A still hadn't been released in Europe during its only official tournament at EVO.
Brand new characters unveiled for Tekken 7
The only trailers shown so far for Tekken 7 focus entirely on a final showdown between father and son, Kazuya and Heihachi Mishima, with flashbacks narrated by Heihachi's wife and Kazuya's mother, Kazumi Mishima. What will happen to characters outside of this equation has yet to be seen, maybe Tekken 7 takes the shape of another tournament.
Two characters who may be participating is Catalina and an unnamed Arab gent. Harada-san openly admitted he and his team know very little about Middle Eastern dresswear and culture, so they posted some concept art and asked for feedback. Whatever his final look turns out to be, I hope it looks a little less like a progonist from an Assassin's Creed game. I want to see something unique, something never seen before and the Tekken series certainly has a history with crazy, unique characters.
Catalina on the other hand looks like a typical Tekken female, had I not have known otherwise, I'd say that Catalina is merely a costume update for Christie Monteiro. Hopefully her French fighting style, Savate, is interesting to play as.
Breaking news (Oct 3rd)! Location testing details! Tekken has super combos!
The gent to your right is apparently called Claudio and is another new character set to debut in Tekken 7.
Rage Art is the name for the super combo style (technically speaking they function more like ultra combos from the SFIV series), cinematic, high damaging moves that have been seen used when characters are enraged (the red glowing state that they enter when they only have 10% of their health remaining). They seem to be very powerful, doing huge damage, and add even more to Tekken's growing list of comeback mechanics. The bound system also returns.
Pokkén Tournament FAQ
Pokkén Tournament is the non-Smash Brothers Nintendo fighting game I've been waiting for, I can only hope it gets a console release and subsequently a console release outside of Japan. We join Harada-san once again as he drops some info and ideas:
Mega Evolutions?
“When you think about Mega Evolution, there are those [Pokémon] that do Mega Evolve and those that don’t, so you might wonder what happens to the ones that don’t,” says Harada. “We’ve already thought of plenty of things like that since the early planning stage, in order to make it more like a Pokémon game.
How many Pokémon will feature?
“Over the 700 total Pokémon… is what I’d like to say, but the development wouldn’t be done on time by the time we decided,” responds Harada with a laugh. “We expect it to be a little more limited.”
“That said, I believe that the general direction that current fighting games are trending towards having more characters,” adds Hoshino. “I also believe that getting a grasp of how to play as all the characters is a big part of the fun, and as far expanding that goes, we’re thinking of starting with Pokémon that are easy to understand, and with a nice range of movements and ways to play.”
I don't want fighting games with more characters, it's gotten nuts, just have 15-20!
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Thanks for tuning in! I hope to do a few more previews before the end of the year before the road to EVO 2015 begins! Follow me on the Twitter @FLStyle!
The 21st of July. Not only an important day in Giant Bomb history (Happy 6th Birthday Giant Bomb!) but for one of gaming's most iconic characters. Ryu is now 50 years old, which means if Street Fighter V, which has not been announced as an actual thing in any shape of form, was set in the year 2014, many of our favourites would look a lot different today (Ken turns 50 in February 2015).
Ryu has been known as many things since his debut, an unofficial Capcom mascot, a shoto, an eternal challenger, an orphan, a wandering warrior. Let's take a look at his main series game appearances.
Street Fighter 1 could not be more different from what people think of Street Fighter to be today and Ryu's appearance with his red hair and sandals is as demonstrating of that as the game's outdated gameplay. Here we see Ryu rising to the top to face the final boss, Sagat, in what becomes a defining plot point for the both of them with Ryu delivering what we now know to be a Shoryuken* so powerful that it left Sagat with the trademark scar he still has to this day.
* When Capcom actually started making their lore for Street Fighter some time after SF1, they added/retconned Ryu's battle with Sagat to a losing effort on Ryu's part until he tapped into the Satsui no Hado and delivered a Metsu Shoryuken to Sagat.
The Hadoken, Shoryuken and Tatsumaki were as overpowered as they were difficult to execute. prior to the notion of fighting game mechanics like combos and the concept of balancing characters.
The infamous Sheng Long mistranslation which lead many to speculation and April Fools jokes about a non-existent secret character... which lead to a character based on the non-existent character
With fighting games at their height during the golden era of arcades the Super Street Fighter II Turbo version of Ryu is still the most well known. Ryu was seen as the gateway or starting character into learning how to play Street Fighter. His movelist in this game became the standard for future releases.
During the Street Fighter II series the Super Combo was introduced and players first used "New" Ryu's Shinkuu Hadoken for the first time.
Throughout Street Fighter II the Ansatsuken fighting style of Ryu and Ken, nicknamed as shotos, was more pronounced and the basis of the fireball (Hadoken), uppercut (Shoryuken, Sheng Long?) and hurricane kick (Tatsumaki) would become moves used by other characters in other games. Some more than others, see Ryo Sakazaki, which lead to creation of Dan Hibiki.
The Street Fighter Alpha Trilogy is where the Street Fighter lore began to take a life of its own. Set between SF1 and SF2, Ryu and Ken meet M.Bison (Dictator) for the first time, Akuma's Satsui no Hado power is introduced and Evil Ryu becomes a character unto himself, later featuring as a what-if? character is other games.
At the time Street Fighter III was a big shock for Street Fighter fans expecting to play as old favourites as Capcom intended on removing the entire cast for a brand new one. Street Fighter fans couldn't let go of the full roster and so Ryu and Ken returned and by the time SFIII: 2nd Impact and the most known of the 3 versions, 3rd Strike, released they had been joined by Akuma and Chun-Li.
In more recent memory there are 2 periods in competitive Street Fighter that Japanese player Daigo Umehara is known for. The first is the legendary Street Fighter III 3rd Strike parry video against Justin Wong (Ken vs. Chun-Li, the second is winning Street Fighter IV at EVO 2009 and EVO 2010 using Ryu (against Justin Wong and Ricky Ortiz respectively).
Daigo's fighting style, cool silent demeanour and love of the competition and community over prize money or fame mirrored his chosen character and won over fans as the fighting game genre began its revival which still goes on today.
So here's to you Ryu! Hope to see you in Street Fighter V soon!
If this isn't the coolest good guy protagonist design in fighting games then I don't know what is.
Tekken 4... not so much
But then Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection Online on the PS3 brought me back!
Tekken 6... not so much
And then Tekken Tag 2 came out, nostalgic feelings of the first Tag abound! But it was, for me, the straw that broke the camel's back in terms of accessibility vs. complexity. Whereas in previous Tekken games I felt more than capable of playing at a competitive level (online or against friends at least), even with 4 and 6, games I didn't like, I now felt it had gone a step beyond me.
And the story, which was once a fresh set of characters in the once revolutionary 3D fighting game genre in a badass martial arts tournament, started to drift off, making the Mishimas side-characters next to Lars and Alisa in a world crisis story. Most disappointing was the change to Jin Kazama.
Back in Tekken 2 you had Kazuya and his struggles with getting his revenge over Heihachi, resisting the Devil inside him that saved his life in exchange for his soul and dealing with his new found feelings for Jun Kazama, plus his rivalry with Paul Phoenix. And everyone else just entered to be the best and to win Tekken! Sure they all had some issues of some kind, King (the original one) and his orphanage, Law and his dojo, Yoshimitsu being the modern day Robin Hood etc. But it never took centre stage once the tournament began and it certainly never took a turn for the cartoony. They left all their personal baggage at the door, it was time for Tekken and that always took priority. It was a collective roster of badass.
Then Tekken 3 had the brave decision, certainly not done by either SF or MK at the time, to jump its story forward 17 years. Older characters, some replaced altogether, but the basic idea was still there. Jin Kazama with his flame pants and revenge story against Ogre complete with a rivalry with Hwoarang because they beat the shit out of each other in a street fight, the first fight either of them had not outright won.
And now look at Tekken 6, Kazuya broods away in his G-Corporation office, Jin broods away in his Tekken Zaibatsu office (complete with full generic bad guy black leather clothes), the whole world is apparently in danger from the giant demonic turkey Azazel and Paul wants to fight aliens from outer space. The story mode has Lars Alexandersson, recently afflicted with amnesia and accompanied by his cyborg companion Alisa Bosconovitch take centre stage in a pseudo-anime storyline where they go on a journey, learn lessons, overcome obstacles and obvious swerves. No thanks.
Tekken 7 Wishlist
So, here's my wishlist for Tekken 7, the first Tekken to grace the PlayStation 4 and XBox One.
Toning down the gameplay
Tekken 5's Moonlight Wlderness stage, a visually stunning infinite stage with one of the best fighting game tracks
Remove the bound system - Since the bound system came into place it's felt more and more like getting hit once means that you might as well sit back and watch your opponent do an almost Marvel vs. Capcom length combo, except you don't have 2 other characters waiting in the wings. This is even more prominent in closed, walled stages which have apparently become more popular.
More infinite stages - I'm not entirely against closed walled stages, like a MMA ring or something like that because it would also be contextually relevant, but I want the classic Tekken feel back where knocking an opponent full screen means you can forward forward forward into the running animation that would end with unblockable shoulder charge.
Make the more of each characters moves relevant - or shorten the huge movelists, because recently the moves that have special properties like bound (see above) become the only ones worth learning. If I'm playing as Kazuya, I want to get some use out of the classic 1, 1, 2 and 1, 2, 2 punch combos instead of fishing for a successful EWGF (Electric Wind God Fist - a powerful, fast hitting, standing uppercut that is the catalyst for previously mentioned really long combos).
A Super Meter - Super Street Fighter II Turbo style, Tekken already has suitable super combos in the form of unblockable attacks (Kazuya's Lightning Screw Uppercut or Devil Beam, Paul's Burning Fist etc.) and the 10-string combos and the multi-chain throws. Just a singular bar, no 4 or 3 bar spilt for EX moves or combo breakers, just 1 bar, 1 super combo. Maybe this is someone better suited to Tekken X Street Fighter (which Katsuhiro Harada says they're still working on as of last weekand I predict will be fully unveiled at Harada's San Diego Comic-con fighting game panel next week!) but it might be something worth considering.
Improving the Story
Is Kazumi's power that's she's apparently passed on to Kazuya related to Kazuya's pact with the Devil and its own power?
Finish the Mishima Storyline - World-ending threats are of no interest to me compared to the Kazuya, Heihachi and Jin conflict. And if the Tekken 7 unveiling trailer is anything to go by, it looks like they're going to do just that. Even I got a shock to see Kazumi Mishima, the almost mythical figure in Heihachi and Kazuya's backstory. I hope they do this decades-old plot point justice before embarking on a new story for future Tekken releases. Don't let it drag on any longer.
Have a Tekken tournament, focus on the Tekken tournament and have the characters focused on it - I don't want any of these silly shenanigans during the tournament. Have an intro that shows what each character is up to prior to the tournament and then make winning the tournament their priority.
Make an attempt to emulate Mortal Kombat (2011) - NetherRealm Studios games are the gold standard of fighting game story mode right now, we all know this to be true. If Tekken 7 has an intricate story mode or at least an attempt at it we're moving in the right direction.
EVO 2014 Preview, Streams & Schedule (July 11-13) Live from Las Vegas!
Welcome to the EVO 2014 preview! EVO comes to you live from Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino (formerly known as LVH).
What a turnaround for Nintendo, who last year tried to shut down the EVO 2013 Super Smash Bros. Melee tournament and now they're official EVO 2014 sponsors! No doubt the amazing Super Smash Bros. for Wii U invitational tournament at E3 2014 helped to bring them around.
Three games will be making their debut this year, Ultra Street Fighter IV, BlazBlue: Chronophantasma and Killer Instinct. If you haven't seen them played competitively before, you're in for a treat!
Expect to see Ed Boon take the stage once again, no doubt unveiling something new for Mortal Kombat X. Will Nintendo also take the opportunity to address the Smash community? We'll have to wait and see. Atlus will be there with playable Persona 4 Arena Ultimax too!
Check here to see which famed international players will make it to EVO 2014, including South Korea's strong Cafeid King of Fighters XIII players.
Like many of the long running fighting game tournament events, EVO had humble beginnings in the time of arcades, Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat 2. It was 1st called Battle by the Bay, a 40-man Super Street Fighter II Turbo and Street Fighter Alpha 2 tournament in 1996 consisting of California locals and has since gone on to move to Las Vegas and become the biggest and most attended global event in fighting games.
EVO is ran part-time by 3 gents who all have full-time jobs. The Cannon brothers, Tony and Tom, and Joey Cuellar.
EVO 2014 continues to break records, with the top 10 most entered countries outside of the USA looking like this:
Canada – 331
Japan - 127
Mexico - 114
Australia - 28
United Kingdom - 27
France - 23
Brazil - 21
Chile - 19
Germany - 15
Colombia - 13
How do tournaments work?
The championship contenders will want to stay on the winners side for as long as possible!
Double-elimination brackets - Even if you lose, you're not out of the tournament, you simply move to a different bracket, known as the losers bracket. If you lose in the losers bracket, only then are you eliminated from the tournament. The longer you stay in the winners bracket, the less opponents you have to face.
EVO has so many entrants that tournaments are split into 32-man brackets (all double-elimination) and one from the winners bracket and one from the losers bracket will advance to the next round of brackets until we get to the top 8 finals on Sunday, 4 from the winners side, 4 from the losers side.
At the end of the day, no matter how complex fighting games seem, it still boils to each player having a health bar at the top of the screen. Once that health bar is depleted, the round is over. But what you may not know is that the other bar, often found at the bottom is almost as important.
Meter bars allow you to do stronger attacks, break out of combos and more! Keep an eye out for how much meter is filled for each player.
I have another question!
Ask it in the comments and either myself or one of the several Giant Bomb fighting game tournament fans will answer for you.
Daigo and friends assess Ultra Street Fighter IV's tier list
If you saw my CEO 2014 blog last month you'll have seen a week 1 attempt at making a tier list by France's Alioune. Now with much more time under their belt, Daigo Umehara, Tokido, Momochi, Bonchan, Itabashi Zangief and Kazunoko have put together what is considered an accurate list according to these great Japanese players.
Daigo: Yes. I began to look around for characters with high firepower and landed on Evil Ryu. At first, I didn't pay much attention to his strength and selected him. However, once I began to use Evil Ryu, I began to ask myself, "What have I been doing this entire time?"
4Gamer: I see. May we all assume that you will be using Evil Ryu for Evo 2014 and in the future?
Daigo: I suppose. At first I wanted to alternate between Evil Ryu and regular Ryu, but the more I played the more I realized that Evil Ryu is in all respects a superior version to Ryu. In the future, the only matchup where Ryu is more enjoyable to play is against Vega (Claw). From now on, I'll probably stick with Evil Ryu.
Official EVO 2014 titles - Ultra Street Fighter IV, Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3, Super Smash Bros Melee, Killer Instinct Injustice Gods Among Us, Blazblue ChronoPhantasma, Tekken Tag Tournament 2 and King Of Fighters XIII
Plus Project M, Soul Calibur V, Capcom vs. SNK 2, DiveKick: Addition Edition, Persona 4 Arena
Schedule
FRIDAY- Doors open at 10AM for Casuals. Badge Pickup Starts Thursday from 7pm until 9 pm and then Friday morning at 9 am all day.
Any announced official Team Tournaments or Official Tournaments with 32 pre-regs or less will be begin at 2 pm EST as well as Side Tournaments Announced in advance
8 PM - FIGHTERMANIA II Exhibition Event
Doors Close at Midnight
SATURDAY- Doors Will open at 9 AM. Official Tournament Pools will begin at 10 Am Sharp and go throughout the day. Some Games will have their Finals Played out Saturday evening Starting at 5 pm EST
SUNDAY- Doors Open at 10 AM for any unfinished Pools/Semi-Finals Etc and Casuals Throughout the day
CEO 2014 Will conclude by 11 PM EST on Sunday Evening
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Ultra Street Fighter 4 Pools Begin Saturday 10 am Semi Finals 8 pm Saturday Night, Top 16 Finals Sunday at 6PM
Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3 Pools Begin Saturday 10 am, Semi Finals Sunday Morning at 11 AM, Top 8 Finals Sunday 4 Pm
Injustice Gods Among Us Pools Begin Saturday 10 AM Semi Finals 6 PM Saturday Top 8 Finals 10AM Sunday
Super Smash Bros Melee Pools Begin Saturday 10 AM Semi Finals Begin Sunday Morning 11am Top 8 Finals Sunday 2 PM
Project M Pools Begin Saturday 10 AM Semi Finals- 6 PM Top 8 Finals Sunday 12 Noon
Blazblue ChronoPhantasma Pools Begin Saturday 10 AM Top 8 Finals Saturday 7 PM
Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Pools Begin 10 AM Saturday Top 4 Finals 5 PM
Soul Calibur V Pools Begin Friday 2 pm Top 4 Finals Friday 4 PM
King Of Fighters XIII Pools Begin Friday 2 PM Top 8 Finals 5 PM Friday
Capcom Vs Snk 2 Pools Begin Friday 2 PM Finals 5 PM Friday
DiveKick Pools Begin Saturday Top 8 5 pm Saturday
Killer Instinct Pools Begin Saturday Top 8 Saturday 9PM
Persona 4 Arena Official Side Tournaments, Pools Begin FRIDAY 2 pm Top 4 Finals 4 PM Friday
For the past few years, CEO has become so much more than the last stop before EVO, it's definitely as much of a show than it is a set of tournaments. Whether it's the boxing ring, the wrestling steel cage or the general crazy stuff that happens in and around it. In charge of CEO is Alex Jebailey, known in Divekick as Jefailey, who since the last CEO has gotten himself a job in the video game industry as the community manager of Dave Lang's own Iron Galaxy! Well done him!
For the 2nd CEO in a row FighterMania returns! This wrestling-style event takes place on Friday prior to the tournaments and has plenty of cool events going on.
Any tournament that uses Edition Select is OK with me. That's the one I'm looking forward to, Vanilla Sagats, AE Yuns but the concept of the Royal Rumble is the bit that's the best. I'm looking forward to some big winning streaks before the end.
As for the tournaments themselves, I'm looking forward to the Tekken TAG 2 finals on Saturday and then the big finals day on Sunday, it's going to be action packed to say the least. I do hope the top 8 finals have entrance themes again.
News
E3! It was a thing!
Mortal Kombaaaaaaaat
Mortal Kombat X looks amazing! I've seen quite a few E3 interviews with Ed Boon, but Giant Bomb's was just as good as anyone else's, check it out.
I added the current roster's variation styles to the MKX GB wiki page for anyone curious. I'll have more opinions and info for MKX as it becomes available.
This might just be the Smash version of the EVO 2k4 Daigo 3s Parry! (With a Capcom Character ironically) https://t.co/l2J6pEUW4h
The following video from a tweet from who else but Alex Jebailey. It was from the Super Smash Bros. for Wii U invitational tournament, hosted by Nintendo, which was viewed by over 250,000 people and thousands of Nintendo fans in attendance. It had no right to be as fun as it was, only last year Nintendo attempted to block EVO for having its Melee tournament last year, then they announced Geoff Keighley as the host.
I assumed Geoff didn't have any competitive Smash Bros. knowledge but thankfully his host role didn't need any, he introed the players, worked the crowd and in general did a decent job while resident Smash Bros. community commentators Wynton 'Prog' Smith, D'Ron 'D1' Maingrette and Bobby 'Scar' Scarnewman provided a good insight into the crowd and the Twitch chat's excitement.
The entire show is here if you want to give it a watch. It was my favourite piece of content from the big 3 at E3.
What do you think of this early tier list for USF4 from France's own Alioune. I'm surprised to see Dhalsim bottom tier, hopefully he'll rise up a bit as players get more used to USF4. Yun being top tier again is pretty funny, though I doubt Ultra Yun is as strong as AE Yun, I really hope he isn't. We should find out in the coming month how accurate this chart is.
TJ Combo looks pretty cool and here's an interview by Max with Divekick creator and KI season 2 lead combat designer, Adam 'Keits' Heart.
Arc System Works were also at E3, check out these trailers for Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- and Persona 4 Arena Ultimax -
That's it from me for a few week's, I'll be back for the EVO 2014 preview (July 11-13), see you then!
Welcome to the UFGTX preview blog! The final UFGT preview blog, because after this it's done, no more. The man behind UFGT and creator of Divekick Adam 'Keits' Heart is making 10 the final Ultimate Fighting Game Tournament. Sad times, but a lot of fun has been had and will be had this weekend!
Check http://ufgtus.wordpress.com/schedule/ for a game by game schedule listing (Friday & Saturday) and stream by stream listing for finals day on Sunday.
In addition to the departing Super Street Fighter IV, a near complete version of Ultra Street Fighter IV will be at UFGT, tournaments and all. Joining them will be the 7 other official EVO games (Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3, Super Smash Bros. Melee, Killer Instinct, Injustice: Gods Among Us, Tekken Tag Tournament 2, King of Fighters XIII & BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma) and many more!
Yeah that's right, Tekken is back! It was left out at first, but the finals at Final Round 17 back in March were so hype that the EVO gents added it to the list, making the UFGTX TTT2 that much more important.
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All the UFGT favourites are returning such as the mystery game tournament which last year during the finals introduced a lot of people (myself included) to Lethal League, the browser baseball fighting game which as a result featured on Giant Bomb's own Unprofessional Fridays the following week.
Lethal League recently announced a buffed up version of the game for release on Steam, not unlike Divekick's story. The official blog at http://lethalleague.reptile-games.com/ states that it will feature
One of my favourite aspects of UFGT since I started watching during UFGT8 Infinity are the amazing trophies that are always up for grabs, I was a particular fan on the Infinity Gauntlets, which incidentally would give me a lot of Marvel Comics back-story (they were so cool I had to know what the gauntlet was) just in time for the Marvel Cinematic Universe to really kick off and start giving hints towards events in a future Avengers film, when that eventually gets made.
Other previous happenings scheduled to return are the panels (featuring the always interesting Seth Killian, a rare appearance by FGC's main YouTuber Maximilian and my fellow Englishman and Sagat player, Ryan Hart) and the Pre-Game Show Friday night in which 12 contestants will compete in an amusing trivia challenge!
Make sure to tune in this weekend for all your favourite games and players, the final UFGT should be something special!
News
Johnny Gat joins Divekick!
Divekick: Addition Edition+ is the PS4 & XBox One version of the two button fighting game, which will also be a free update for PS3, Vita and Steam. One of the new characters has been confirmed as Johnny Gat of Saints Row. What this means for Divekick is that Pandora's Box is officially open. Expect all sorts of character announcement shenanigans between now and release!
Mike Ross gets a job at Twitch
Rather than a player sponsorship change our first story is a player job change. Mike Ross, who just before the news hit of IGN's IPL getting shut down got a job with IPL, has now got a job with Twitch just before the news broke of Google/YouTube buying or not buying Twitch hit the net last night. Coincidence? I think not. (Congratulations to Mike Ross, he's a great representative of the fighting game community, hope he does good things.)
Ed Boon teases MK 10 and confirms MK9's continuing online functionality after GameSpy shuts down
Before the past week or two I would've already recommended Ed Boon's Twitter account, he's a clever and witty man. Recently however he's been doing cryptic tweets pointing towards the announcement of MKX/10 just before E3 2014 (which is June 10th-12th for the record). Initially some thought that with the success of Injustice: Gods Among Us that it might have been MK vs. DC 2, but it's definitely started leaning in the direction of the 10th traditional MK.
An announcement that has been and gone was that of GameSpy closing at the end of this month and that somehow, unknown to everyone outside of NetherRealm and those within their circle of confidants (maybe Jeff, though I doubt he cares), MK9 will continue to function online.
Hyper Dragon Ball Z is the shit
Regardless of your preference between the Budokai games and the Budokai Tenkaichi games, both of them fall short of what a DBZ-style traditional fighting game should be. Hyper Dragon Ball Z on the other hand has no such problems. I hope it's completed one day, even if it won't see a traditional release.
Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist has a May 23rd release date
Whenever I get the chance to talk about SF of MK live action web series I will always take the opportunity! As I've mentioned in previous blogs, the concept short Mortal Kombat: Rebirth was awesome and lead to Mortal Kombat: Legacy, which has spawned 2 web series. And following the Street Fighter: Legacy short comes Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist. I've had nothing but good things to say about these faithful live-action releases which surpass any million dollar Hollywood film. Possibly with the exception of the first MK movie.
Assassin's fist will tell the tale of two time periods, the one in which Gouken and Gouki (Akuma) train under Goutetsu and the one in which Ryu and Ken train under Gouken. Back-stories will be explored, things only mentioned of in passing during the video games will be given spotlight and from what I've seen, we'll get some quality action scenes.
Thanks for reading!
I'll be back next month for the CEO 2014 blog in which USFIV will have officially been released to the masses. The build up to EVO 2014 will be getting serious!
It's time once again for the 2nd longest running FGC tournament event in existence, Final Round 17! In addition to Final Round being a Capcom ProTour event (more on that before) Yoshinori Ono has tweeted Capcom's intention to announce something Ultra Street Fighter IV related at the event. With Ultra Street Fighter IV's Edition Selection announcement this is likely going to be the 5th character announcement. I hope it's not underwhelming. It's going to be underwhelming isn't it?
FR is where the Curleh Mustache Battle Royale debuted, one of the most exciting 5 v5 UMvC3 tournaments ever. CMBR2 actually took place at the end of 2013 at North East Championships, so whether the Curleh branding is attached to FR's 5v5 again this year I'm not sure.
Tekken fans! Are you sad that Tekken Tag 2 has not been picked up for EVO 2014? Well stay tuned this weekend because Final Round is the home of Tekken and will feature the best matches you're likely to see this year! Tekken will also feature a 5v5 tournament.
07:00-12:00 - Super Street Fighter 4 Arcade Edition v. 2012 Top 16
News
Capcom announces the Capcom ProTour
Leading up to the Capcom Cup in December, Capcom will partner with Twitch, tournament events and conventions alike to form the Capcom ProTour. The ProTour will assign seeding points to specific Super Street Fighter IV: AE 2012 and eventually Ultra Street Fighter IV tournament results.
Placing Points
EVO Tier
Premier (Tier 1)
Ranking (Tier 2)
1
1024
256
128
2
512
128
64
3
256
64
32
4
128
32
16
5-6
64
16
8
7-8
32
8
4
9-12
16
4
2
13-16
8
2
1
Premier refers to the tournament events that form the upper tier of FGC events such as EVO, Ranking events refers to conventions such as E3. More events and Online tournaments are said to be named in the future.
Current Premier Tier events (The winners of these events gain automatic qualification for the Capcom Cup and give out Premier ranking points with the exception of EVO) -
Capcom is once again working hard for the community with a limited budget to give a good show, complete with sending out their own streaming team including Lord Haunts. I personally hope the November North-West England convention event PlayExpo is included again because I had a lot of fun and definitely intend on going again whether the fighting game tournaments are there or not.
Iron Galaxy announces Divekick: Addition Edition
Get it? Divekick: AE?
This year Final Round takes place Mid-March whereas PAX East has slipped to April, so there's no amazing Divekick convention coverage to show you this year. But what we have in its place is a new version of Divekick, balanced, retooled and free for current owners. PS4 and XBox One owners will not have to buy two versions of Divekick because Divekick: AE is the only version of the game releasing for those consoles.
The biggest change character-wise is The Baz, who's dead.
The Baz
The Baz has essentially been removed from the game and replaced by New Baz. Think of him as a brand new character. Below, you’ll read about how The Baz transformed into New Baz.
Mighty Swing and Bazkousen have been swapped. Mighty Swing is now his normal kick button action and builds meter. Bazkousen is now his air special and costs meter.
The Baz can only use two mighty swings per jump.
Bazkousen now starts at a 40 degree angle, rotates 15% faster, and maxes out at a 105% degree angle
Baz’s Kickfactor is no longer invincible.
Kickfactor lasts the full 8-second duration and has speed bonus of 30%.
The Baz jumps higher. He also jumps farther and higher when using kickback.
Hit this link to watch the full show in which Dave Lang and Keits debuted the game. Keep an eyes out for more Divekick characters and stages to be announced for Divekick: AE!
Persona 4 Arena Ultimax gains momentum with its story reveal
A few days after the events of Persona 4 Arena a Red Fog descends upon Inaba. Mitsuru, Akihiko and Aigis have been captured and displayed on the midnight channel, which announces a new tournament. Each of the Investigation Team have imposter Shadow versions of themselves to deal with while Charlie Tunoku/Yu Narukami/Souji Seta has an enemy of his own to defeat. Plus the return of Persona 4 antagonist, Adachi!
This new enemy, Sho Minazuki, has several resemblances to Persona 4 minor characters like Old Man Daidara, the anti-shadow weapons Aigis and Labrys and Yu himself. There's also two versions of him playable, a bratty non-persona version and a cold, calculating persona version. Whether these are two different beings or a storyline change remains to be seen.
P4AU is billed as the final chapter to the Persona 4 and 3 stories, does this mean there won't be anymore Persona fighting games? Will these characters never be seen in Persona 5? I don't think either of those is likely, but they certainly won't be the main cast anymore.
Ultra Street Fighter IV Edition Selection looks amazing
If this isn't taken on as a tournament or at least used for exhibitions at events I'll be really disappointed, there's so much potential for seeing all these different versions of characters squaring off against each other. Show me how powerful Vanilla Sagat and AE Yun truly are.
BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma looks beautiful
I never really paid much attention to fighting game visuals until KOF XIII took EVO 2012 by storm. Now I love watching it in HD in addition to the great matches and commentators, be it the EVO commentators or some hype gent speaking Spanish.
Now that BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma is at EVO 2014 this year I thought to at least keep up with it and see what its going to be like. You should too!
Thanks for reading
Hope to see you all tuning in to Final Round 17 this weekend!
It's that time once again where I steal Patrick's Worth Reading idea, voice some opinions and point you in the direction of cool stuff!
Making Points
RIP Screened.com
Remember this image from the last blog? Well I'm afraid the husk could function no longer because BermanBraun, the company who bought Whiskey Media, its Top Men, Tested, Screened and Anime Vice, have announced the imminent closure of screened.com.
In my opinion Screened would have the hardest time out of all the Whiskey Media websites trying to succeed when it and Tested launched in 2010. Even with Alex and Rorie, the movie industry is a different beast from video games, anime, comics and tech/coffee/Will Smith memes.
By far, Screened was the site that had the least access to the medium, or rather the industry itself, that it was covering and therefore the most issues with making content and gaining views and users. I always thought that Screened's most prominent and funny content was its presence in the Big Live LIVE Show: Live! and the Whiskey Media Happy Hour.
Joey Fameli's excellent mash-up videos not withstanding.
I do recommend looking up Rorie's Remake Rematch videos also!
Good Tweets
RT: After failing to win an #Oscar, Leonardo Di Caprio has gone on an all night coke binge and ended up in Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/W3qW0ZCeRx
I pretty much agree with everything said in this video.
Classic Devil May Cry please.
DmC Devil May Cry, no thanks. Didn't enjoy the new versions of Dante, Vergil and Mundus at all.
DmC wasn't bad, in fact it was a pretty good action game.
Ninja Theory would be better served working on a new action IP.
My personal DMC preference is DMC3, DMC1, DMC4, DmC, DMC2.
I have an awesome story in my head involving Mundus, Nero, Dante, Trish and Vergil that would make for an amazing DMC5 story.
Watching this video once in a while is keeping my GoT withdrawal symptoms in check until Season 4 starts next month (season 4 next month?! Hurray!). It's hilarious and takes clips mainly from Season 1 and a few from Season 2.
The impression is spot on and makes plenty of amusing points about games like Wonderful 101.
This is why we don't need battle threads in forums, DEATH BATTLE is a good series that features high level production and animation.
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