Those scorpion combos remind me of E Ryu level damage.

Shame my prediction record is shot now. Still have Sonicfox as winner.

E-Sports.

So if Mortal Kombat is officially Esports, yet the FGC is somehow not Esports, does that mean Mortal Kombat is no longer a fighting game?

This is too esports... TOO ESPORTS!

WWesports

MK X is officially wrestling now.

Is one of the new fatalities strangling Sonicfox with that damn hat?

#nerfSonicfox

MKX is real! Looking forward to some more tourneys.

Congrats the 84k viewers too, that came out of nowhere.

I was excited to get the game right up until I watched this. I forgot just how much I dislike how Netherrealms fighting games flow. Still looking forward to the craziness that is sure to be in story mode, but I don't think I'll try to playing it seriously.

Anybody know where there is a full video of NCR day 3? I want to watch top 16 through grand finals in order, but I can only find individual matches and not in any kind of order.

@sinusoidal: Capcom Fighters twitch archives are paid. Your only other (legal) option is their YouTube channel.

Get hype for the final day of Topanga World League 2! As I've shown in my post on page 2, EVERYTHING is on the line!

They're really charging to watch SF online now? This seems like a poor decision on Capcom's part. Not that they don't deserve some kind of return, but the streams are already bloated with ads and the audiences aren't exactly huge.

@sinusoidal: It has only been a couple events so far, of course if it spreads to the other events that would be real bad.

Yeah, it would pretty much spell the end of my watching it. I usually just put one on and ignore half the matches anyway. There's not exactly a dearth of free streams I can put on and half-ignore. Some of them with significantly less irritating commentators to boot (thought that has improved a LOT in recent years.)

More they're trying to encourage people to watch live and/or sub to their channel. Or watch it free on their YouTube. Not sure how the streams are bloated with ads, unless you consider having things on the screen while the commentators take a break to be "bloat".

@starvinggamer: He's talking about the PPV events (which to the best of my knowledge is just Topanga and Canada Cup Master Series thus far) as far as I can tell. Twitch archives being locked behind a paywall is stupid as well but ultimately just means I'll watch Spooky more and Capcomfighters less, and that's just a good thing for everyone. Spooky is the messiah, Capcom is the big evil company.

I have to say Fatal 8 made MKX look really bland to me. Wasn't impressed with character's visual designs, play styles, anything. I guess MK really is no longer for me (I hated MK9 and never bothered with Injustice because it looked like none of the things I wanted improved were other than back to block which I know is a taste thing).

@westernwizard: MK has never looked particularly good in any way. I'm not a fan of how dark/brown everything is in MKX either.

Also congrats to Daigo for managing to recover from yesterday and pull out the win at the Topanga World League 2! I really thought Sako was going to snipe him due to their head to head record but in the end Momochi beat Sako 5-4. The competition was extremely close, just like it should be! https://twitter.com/SRKRanking has a lot of .gifs of the event and https://twitter.com/fubarduck has some handy translations. I bet Smug got some valuable experience out of it as well, on top of an amazingtrip. Commiserations to Xiao Hai. We know you're better than that man. You just couldn't land a combo all weekend.

As a side note, you can watch the first hour or so of each day for free:

1.http://live.nicovideo.jp/watch/lv214258181

2.http://live.nicovideo.jp/watch/lv214258229

3.http://live.nicovideo.jp/watch/lv214258285

4.http://live.nicovideo.jp/watch/lv214258328

P.S. The infamous Xbox 360/USFIV sound bug happened at least 4 times.

It's usually on in the middle of the night or during work hours here because of my time zone.

They're not posting all the matches on their YouTube channel.

There are ads on the screen between every game and match and even rarely during a round between the special bars or above the timer.

Don't get me wrong, I'd like to see them do well. The problem is, I don't think they're going to get many people willing to pay more than the price of Playstation Plus to watch a few tournaments a year besides a hardcore minority, and at the same time they're alienating their more casual audience like me by preventing me from watching the few tournaments a year I do catch.

@sinusoidal: Well some guy has a recording of Top 8 on Youtube. The quality isn't that great but it's something.

For Final Round they did upload entire Twitch.tv archives before. E.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZEeG6MXrQM

I hope they will do it more.

Haven't posted in GB for a while but I was at NorCal Regionals and played a bit of Tekken 7 and I have some quick thoughts.

Before I really got my hands on the game, I researched beforehand about how they got the Mad Catz TE2s to work in a JAMMA connection. Since it was PS2 padhacked onto the sticks to a Namco PS2 to JAMMA controller converter, I thought most if not all PS2 related controller boards should work. I had two Korean arcade sticks with ZD Rematch boards which features PS2 compatibility but upon plug in, it was freaking out unfortunately. I sticked to using the sticks provided. This sorta hindered my experience with Mishima characters since I only knew how to play them on Korean, not Japanese.

Otherwise, I was enjoying some of the interesting changes to the game. Since bound was nerfed and replaced with screw attack, I understood the balance to not remove the combo flow from T6 and Tag 2 but not keep it too damaging especially on walls. The change is one of the things that helps the other player on the defensive end. They are safer when knocked down but not invincible to everything. As for rage arts, I never really made use of it much except when doing Paul's back cancel after first hit rage art in which I can go for a bound style extended damage combo.

I wish I can go to Northwest Majors to play more Tekken 7 but I am preparing for EVO. If I have to test more things, I have to both watch more match videos and test on the spot at Vegas.

Oh yeah MKX looks neat!

@thephantomnaut: It's cool to have one of our members at Evo. Which tournaments are you planning to enter?

@hassun said:

I am going to enter Tekken 7 and Killer Instinct. Last year was KI, Tekken Tag Tournament 2 and The King of Fighters XIII. Oh yeah for those going, I always wear the Giant Bomb logo shirt Ryan shipped to me years ago from that Dragon Age: Origins contest on every finals day.

I luckily got in there for the SHORYUKEN chant at EVO 2012 with the shirt. Some sites use that to this day when talking about EVO.

For those going as well, we should meet up in one of the days. I also begged Jason to bring the crew since they always want to but never do.

@thephantomnaut: Pretty sure I saw your name on stream at some point.

I saw that but turned it off about ten seconds in. The frame rate is nearly in the single digits and you can see his browser window the entire time. I'd rather just not see it than endure that. I did find it with translated commentary on some site that's not Youtube, but the quality was also terrible. In the end, Capcom wants me to either pay for it, or not see it. I shall obey their wishes and not see it. There are plenty of other tournaments on YouTube. I'm currently watching the team games from the very same NorCal Regionals on Team Spooky's channel.

@sinusoidal: Just be aware that all of the Capcom Pro Tour premier event USFIV competition will be on Capcom Fighters. The ranking events are usually not though.

So, I've been busy consuming every bit of free USF4 YouTube will give me and this is the best thing I've seen yet:

Does anyone know what streams will be up for Northwest Majors?

I'm sorta surprised that Vampire Savior will have a presence there. Interested in seeing how Justin Wong does in MKX after all that streaming he did.

@thunderslash: Thanks, here's an alternate link which is actually pretty handy multitwitch-wise (assuming no GB chat). Should be a couple of non MK players in the top 8, maybe 3 or 4.

Don't forget about Double Elimination either. At least if you're into USFIV. Ridiculous amount of talent (not yet already qualified for the CapCup) on display.

They are broadcasting on http://www.twitch.tv/xsplit and http://www.twitch.tv/arcadestream.

http://gamestartasia.challonge.com/

Yun vs Gouken, a classic Bonchan vs Infiltration matchup.

@fredchuckdave: I think both of them felt that they had some leeway to experiment since the CPT Asia finals spot was already secured. Although it did show a glimpse of a dark counterpicking future. They were already negotiating for the eventuality of Bonchan resetting the bracket. They would then try to force a blind pick to keep the opponent guessing.

Either way, congratulations to Infiltration for scoring more points and to Bonchan for securing a spot at the CPT Asia finals.

Just posting an update, the next Combo Breaker focused blog will go up on Monday.

@flstyle: @thunderslash: @starvinggamer: @hassun: I have Trivia Finals and a party afterward today, let me know what streams I should rewatch when I get back in like 11 hours; and just random highlights/MKX thoughts/observations please.

@fredchuckdave: Prepare to see some Kung Jin. :V

Also, @flstyle:

@fredchuckdave: I took my kids to a carnival so I only caught bits and pieces, but so far it seems like a lot of Scorpion/Kung Jin and no one knows how to punish anything.

Fighter's spirit won't let him walk away!

@fredchuckdave: Tan the besters! Lots of crazy shit from Tom Brady Grandmaster Sub and Wonder_Chef Summoner Quan Chi. Also some Venemous D'Vorah play and I'm just like, if only you were playing Swarm Queen and had crazy execution, you could be getting SO MUCH DAMAGE. In that variation you can get an easy 34% damage off of a quick overhead that hits from starting positions and can be hitconfirmed or transitioned into pressure on block.

Glad to see that Wonder Chef is showing the folks in chat how to deal with Sub's clone BS. Maybe we'll see less complaini- naaaaah!

Also, SKULLBOYZ! Get hyped! Shoutouts to Dead Sea levels of salt in the chat.

@starvinggamer: Testers are pretty OP. Watching Tom Brady murder FChamp was pretty satisfying though, as someone who is indifferent to him. Brady won the first Injustice tourney (and then never won again maybe?) so maybe he'll repeat from losers.

Saw that someone in top 8 is a Swarm Queen player. Can't wait.

@fredchuckdave: Fchamp's Kano was clearly not very complete. He basically learned 3 moves and tried to win with it using his Dhalsim as a template. Tester or not he was bound to get blown up by someone who studied the game a bit more.

@thunderslash: Summoner Quan Chi (a fantastic zoner) being able to deal with Grandmaster Sub-Zero does not make Grandmaster Sub any less good if you ask me. I still think multiple characters are basically shit out of luck against him. Especially when cornered.

@hassun: Not very complete is a bit generous, looked like he had played maybe 10 matches with him. He had those sick 14% combos though.

Oh man good commentators!

Chris G, JWong, Footwurk; sounds marvelous.