APEX 2015 Preview (Jan 30 - Feb 1) PLUS EVO, Curleh, Reptile & PR Balrog retiring

2015! Let's do it big! With a 2001 GameCube game!

APEX 2015 Preview

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:

Super Smash Bros. Melee

SSB Wii U

SSB Brawl

SSB 64

Ultra Street Fighter IV

Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3

Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN-

Killer Instinct (Season 2)

Streams and schedule (All times in EST)

http://www.twitch.tv/vgbootcamp

http://www.twitch.tv/teamsp00ky

http://www.twitch.tv/bifuteki

http://www.twitch.tv/screwattack

Click for larger resolution

Reptile is revealed in Mortal Kombat X!

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?

EVO 2015 line-up discussion thread on Giant Bomb

Over on Shoryuken, Joey “Mr. Wizard” Cuellar has discussed why the line-up is what is it, why games like Persona 4 Arena Ultimax and Killer Instinct are in but BlazBlue and King of Fighters XIII are not.

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.

Also this is happening http://www.giantbomb.com/evo-championship-series/3015-7054/forums/jamie-lee-curtis-mains-cammy-is-taking-son-to-evo-1762090/

Curleh Mustache East Coast 5 playlist!

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!

It must be a lot of pressure on NRS to know their game made it to EVO when it is not even out yet.

@flstyle: Joey is full of it ... then why the fuck is Smash Melle again at EVO? Why is MVC3 at Evo then? huh? HUH?... sorry to snap at ya but I just hate hate hate that melee is back (which is incredibly lousy and boring to watch) and the 2 games that had the hypest moments arent in.

Updated the OP with the full schedule and times

I'm sure it'll be fine, I think they've got it covered. And it prevents having to add Injustice and then MKX at a later date.

Couldn't have put it better myself!

Personally I always considered Marvel boring as hell to watch, but because it's even now one of the biggest games in the U.S. it makes sense that it's there.

Similarly with Smash. Though at least I can stand watching Smash 4, easier to follow than MvC2/3. The way I see it, the most entrants are going to be for USF4, the second most will be for Melee, and 3rd place will either be Smash 4 or MvC3. That's why there's 2 Smash games there: it's the second largest fighting game community currently in the U.S. right now after SF (maybe biggest if you count "serious" casuals who play the games for years), if a game has a big following, that's why it ends up at EVO.

I think it's kinda dumb that Tekken 7's going to be there considering no one outside Japan will have good practice time with the game, but I think it's a chance for Namco to show they care about the community.

If at some point Microsoft says "Ok, fine, whatever, release KI on PC, not like we don't own Windows as well anyway," then suddenly people will start playing that game. No one has an XBone, especially fighting game players who still are on their 360's with their 360 sticks.

Guilty Gear has no finals apparently. Might be worth mentioning that it's in EST.

May Balrog have a Jeterish retirement with Jeter cowboy boots and Jeter Canoes.

All I know is there's a picture of Halloween: Resurrection on the front page so I clicked to it see at least some Busta saying "Happy Halloween Motherfucker" while doing karate kicks but alas I'm out of luck.

Good thing I own two copies of it.

Done!

Wow, things got weird.

In summary, someone triggers a fire alarm, fire marshall comes and inspects venue, notices structural damage from the blizzard a few days ago, brands the site a safety hazard.

What?

Wow, that's seriously fucked up. Definitely real fortunate that someone pulled that fire alarm, that might have saved lives.

Sp00ky couldn't even get in there to turn his stream off so it was running for a while, must've turned it off from a different location.

tl;dr: Twitch saves the day, new venue, Friday cancelled. And this makes shooting and editing a Top 10 video at PAX South seem like child's play.

Do you believe in twitch miracles!?

@gaff: That's still nothing compared to the miracles Richard Li pulls off at every Evo. Still, amazing turnaround on this fucked-beyond-belief situation. Glad to hear that Apex is back on track, sorta.

Thank you for putting this together!

I wouldn't have found it otherwise and now I'm watchin' some smash.

This all sounds pretty nuts, glad everyone is safe and that the event looks to be going ahead.

No problem! Thanks for checking it out.

Can't link properly on my phone but here's a good rundown of the #Apexodus (portmanteau courtesy of the legendary Seth Mussey)

http://www.reddit.com/r/SSBM/comments/2u7f1a/apex_on_hold_sources_for_updates/

Thank you Our Lord and Saviour Meik Russ.

WE LIVE!

Melee > http://www.twitch.tv/vgbootcamp

Wii U > http://www.twitch.tv/teamsp00ky

Yipes/Bum commentating on Bifuteki for Marvel.

HYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

If Prog and D1 do Melee top 8 for EVO then I demand MVG_EE and Coney to do Sm4sh top 8!

Word has it that Sanford threw his stick again. I feel pretty bad for KBrad after that loss against that Fuerte. Made him look free.

Saltford returns!

Xrd is actually really watchable so should have a pretty good showing at EVO. I think it's just the character designs beat the ever living shit out of the ones in BBCP and even if I don't know exactly what's going on I have a general idea.

I say this all the time but I really wish gb chat was always on for fgc stuff, as unrealistic as that demand is... @unastrike ... <.< >.> O.o

Screw Attack's competitive Smash newcomers stream from Apex is live!

I'll have to check out the archive, I haven't been over to Bifuteki's stream this weekend.

It would be nice, but to be fair fighting game event streams got a large amount of GB chat time last year compared to every other competitive game. I guess we're just lucky to have several staffers interested in it.

@flstyle: The Snake Eyez/Nuckledu matches were really excellent in the USFIV Top 8 as well, plus you get to not have to look at twitch chat.

https://twitter.com/AlzarathEX/status/561710288735854593

Anyone who watched top 8 go down and still doesn't get why Smash is a good competitive game... I dunno man. I'm not sure what more you want!

Those Melee Top 8 Finals were amazing. Videogames are awesome.

Sad about PR, he was always fun to watch play. Like someone else said though: a year is a long time to potentially change your mind.

Can someone confirm these numbers for me? Sm4sh peaked at 98k viewers and Melee peaked at 116k?

@flstyle: Can't link or embed but here's the tweet from VGBC_GimR last night on numbers: https://www.twitter.com/VGBC_GimR/status/562173463805583360

@l1ghtn1n: That's amazing for a fighting game stream that isn't EVO. I don't think Capcom Cup got that high, definitely past 70k, but not over 100k.

@l1ghtn1n: All joking aside I'm happy for Smash's fanbase, but 3 AM still seems really crazy to me; how long was the top 8?

Did the Smash 4 showing get archived anywhere? I was on Nightshift all weekend and missed it all.

Team Spooky!

@flstyle:

Thanks man, tried looking for Team Spooky earlier as I knew they were in charge of it but kept getting back to the Melee tournament somehow.

@pierre42: No problem!