A few KI-related PSA's, because I don't think I've seen them posted here:

• Shadow Jago is currently being sold in the Xbox store for $10, in a bundle which also includes $5 worth of KI's in-game currency (KI gold) which you can blow on unlockables such as costumes and whatnot. Because Shago was conceived as a stupid exclusive promotional bonus, they're pulling him from the store on January 15th, and there's no telling when he'll be accessible again, so anyone who plays KI (or plans to when the PC version hits, since all KI content is cross-buy) should strongly consider buying this bundle.
• KI Season 1 Ultra Edition (that's KI1 classic and all the season 1 content, sans Shadow Jago) is one of the free Games with Gold games for January. I'm not sure how that'll work -- I assume if you have the game downloaded in January then all the season 1 ultra content will just magically unlock, or you might need to boot up the game as well. Keep in mind that XBone games that you gain via games with gold require a current gold subscription to play, so this may not be the best option if you're just hanging out for the PC version (which MS has claimed will not require any kind of subscription to play online), unless it turns out that they haven't built the hooks into KI to cut off access to games with gold content when your gold subscription runs out.

Merry Christmas from Netherrealm:

@hassun The giant K-Brad face watches over us all.

K-brad and Yung Art are the sun and moon of the east coast FGC.

Umehara Fighting Gamers anime. Make that shit happen, Japan!

@hassun: Wait is this just a thing some person made? Holy shit.

@starvinggamer: Not sure if it's just a fan or if it was made to promote the manga but it's neat nonetheless. (I'm guessing it's a fan creation.)

But back to the business at hand. We have another tournament coming up!

KOF GCC Dubai

What:

• It's a fighting game tournament.
• In Dubai.

When:

• December 25, 14:00 - 22:00 (Time converter)
• December 26, 12:00 - 20:00 (Time converter)

Where:

• Dubai, UAE

Streams:

• http://www.twitch.tv/kofgcc
• http://www.twitch.tv/kofgcc2
• http://www.twitch.tv/fahadouken
• http://www.twitch.tv/almajlisgames

Brackets:

• http://kofgccdubai.challonge.com/

Additional info:

• Website: http://www.kofgcc.com/
• I'm pretty sure both Haitani and Xiao Hai will be there.

That first Japanese SFV tournament I mentioned a while ago is happening now: http://live.nicovideo.jp/watch/lv245417154

@hassun: Thank you sir.

@fredchuckdave@hassun Dafeetlee is restreaming from the minimally better quality paid stream: http://www.twitch.tv/dafeetlee

Oh boy that Hagejin. I get the feeling that the top grapplers are going to make Birdie very scary indeed.

Edit: The whole SFV tournament is now on YT.

Pools: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0A22rK8nEK8

Top 8: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPRvCV8VMJc

MKX ESL Season 2 Finals trailer featuring final boss Sonicfox: https://youtu.be/OlsRa4Z7aGM

(GB is hella busted right now so I can't embed.)

According to this french site Michael Murray says Tekken x SF is still in development.

http://www.gameblog.fr/news/55532-tekken-x-street-fighter-michael-murray-donne-des-nouvelles-e

Merry Christmas my GB Illuminati brethren.

@starvinggamer: They also said that they are not looking to blend the SF and Tekken universes. Yay!

Speaking of good stuff, check this shit out: http://topanga.co.jp/topanga_sf2_2016/

TOPANGA "Street Fighter II" National Convention 2016

What:

• 16-player SFII tournament

When:

• February 11, 2016 from at 14:00 (Time converter)

Where:

• Red Bull Studios Tokyo Hall, Tokyo, Japan

Additional info:

• Check out those hot prizes! Scalp cream and "men's protein"!
• I'm seeing 8 players on that website but I'm not entirely sure what the deal is. The players shown are Itazan, Choco, Tokido, Haitani, Fuudo, Bonchan, Momochi and Mago. Not exactly names I immediately connect to SFII but like I said, I'm not really sure what the details are right now.

Tomorrow's USFIV top 8 at GCC Dubai is looking pretttty good. http://kofgccdubai.challonge.com/

Merry Christmas, KBR:

Happy Holidays from Gootecks and Mike Ross.

Merry Christmas from Mike & Floe.

@l1ghtn1n: Dammit, for all of 5 seconds I thought you said from the samsho series and I got excited. Turns out it's a nobunaga's ambition character, good series from what I know but people don't really know the characters, I guess this one would fit pretty well with DOA?

There are quite a few things I like about DOA, the movement feels really good, the combos are fun, and the VF characters in it are great. Unfortunately the PC version really sucking, me lacking a PS4 stick, the overall creepiness it has sunk to, and the way everyone online just spams jab has made me not do more than casually try it out.

Next level savagery.

Shoryuken was kind enough to translate a 4gamer article about FANG and other SFV stuff: http://shoryuken.com/2015/12/29/capcom-devs-talk-street-fighter-vs-depth-plans-for-2016-and-more/

Sugiyama: I want to to convey to the Street Fighter II generation, “It’s okay to come home now.”

Shit legit got me misty

@starvinggamer: My heart be still.

Please let that quote be accurate.

@hmoney001: Considering that Graham Wolf beat Poongko at PSX, sounds pretty true to me.

That's great news. Now the past 6 years of playing SF4 like it's SFII will finally pay off!

@starvinggamer: That's not really indicative of much. Wolfe had been grinding on the cracked PC beta for ages while Poongko was there to play in the USFIV Capcom Cup Finals.

There was also a recent interview with Graham where he talked about his intent to make a comeback in SFV.

Anything less than top 8 at Evo 2016 and qualifying for Capcom Cup 2016 is “a failure”, according to Graham.

That being said it's becoming pretty clear what kind of game they are making with SFV and I do think it will bring back a few "old timers". The question is, how many SFIV players and -more importantly- new players they will manage to attract. I still have questions about how interesting it will be for spectators for example.

@hassun: More talking about his enjoyment of and apparent ability to mesh well with the SFV engine which his victory over Poongko and the other stuff you mentioned alludes to.

China somehow managed to squeeze in another tournament before the end of the year. (Although the tournament actually straddles the year and of course Chinese New Year is not happing any time soon.)

Canton Cup 2015

Oh hey I forgot the site is still totally busted for me and I can't embed images so here is a link: https://i.imgur.com/O1Ths5W.png

More info: http://www.orochinagi.com/2015/12/qanba-douyu-dakous-canton-cup-the-literally-last-tournament-of-2015-usf-kofxiii

You can expect players like Infiltration, Poongko, Xiao Hai, Kindevu, Nemo and of course Dakou since he actually organises the event.

Stream: http://www.panda.tv/221689

Japanese New Year's parties are going strong.

http://www.twitch.tv/topangatv (Including a Momochi vs Mago match)

Shiro bringing the Sukiyaki and batsu game.

USFIV: CPT 2015 Closing Comments

https://youtu.be/D0KA_0nSUEE

Not surprised. With his level of achievements it's only natural that he would be looking for a bigger sponsor. Kind of like Nemo.

Yomi Luffy, bookmark it.

I've been getting multiple questions about when Giant Bomb is going to open its chat for a fighting game stream/tournament again. Final Round/CPT2016 is quite a ways off and I thought we might be able to set something up a little earlier than that.

Options I'm currently looking at:

• Kumite in Tennessee: Friday 15 January - Sunday 17 January. (Tentative schedule.)
• Frosty Faustings VIII: Friday 22 January - Saturday 23 January.
• ESL Mortal Kombat X Season 2 Finals: Sunday January 24.

I think putting the MKX Season 2 Finals in the GB chat would be a good idea. It's kind of like the Capcom Cup Finals for MKX and the entire thing takes place on 1 day which is a day Giant Bomb doesn't normally stream themselves.

Feel free to share your thoughts and recommendations in this thread.

@l1ghtn1n: The problem with Faustings is that is that it starts on a Friday so it will most likely only be streamed on Friday evening/Saturday due to the GB Friday streams.

@hassun: I think your logic makes sense in terms of including ESL MK X Season 2 on that day due to the scheduling. All I can say is I'm not sure if people would want to watch that. I certainly don't care at all about it but I gave up on watching competitive MKX months ago.

Frosty Faustings has more variety, but I personally don't really care about watching those games either. After Capcom Cup last year I think I'm done watching USFIV as well. I'm ready to move on to SFV. The same goes for GGXrd as well, I'm not too interested in watching it with Revelator on the way.

I'd say I'd be most interested in watching KiT mainly for the Tekken 7 competition, but if I'm being honest with myself I'll probably be too busy to watch it live that weekend. I'm not sure how difficult it is to set up the GB chat but I'd feel weird recommending that if I didn't show up myself, and I have no idea how many people would be interested.

I think competitive fighting game coverage is in a weird place this year (for me at least). I'm waiting for the new shit. I'll probably be excited to watch the first big SFV tourney but until then I'm not very invested.

@technician: Well I don't want to go through the process of asking the staff to open the chat for us and having moderators on deck and everything when nobody is actually going to show up so it does matter if anyone actually wants to see the events I've proposed. Your input is definitely appreciated.

Final Round is the first CPT event of the year and I'm definitely going to push for that one to get some GB love. I'm just thinking of trying to set one up before that one because that tournament takes place 18-20 March which is quite a ways off.

Bonus: https://www.vice.com/read/meeting-yoshinori-ono-the-man-who-brought-street-fighter-back-from-the-dead-925

Bonus bonus:

Luffy has already signed with another team, they have SF players and they are probably from Europe.

• Red Bull?
• Team Liquid?
• ... ?

I'm definitely leaning towards Red Bull.

Cooperation Cup vol. 14

Stream:

• http://www.twitch.tv/gamenewton

Additional info:

• Teams: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Tz-VdyCNlTfVxJPLOmbYkVgqkj1IAnwMAd4KidRXSW8/edit
• Website: http://www.cooperationcup.com/
• This is the biggest SFIII tournament in the world and this edition of the tournament will be be the biggest SFIII tournament in history.

-

-

-

Red Bull has announced its first 2 contestants + some additional info for Red Bull Kumite 2016:

http://www.redbull.com/uk/en/esports/stories/1331769425173/red-bull-kumite-2016-players-gamerbee-and-justin-wong

https://www.facebook.com/events/1627871747476028/

The Red Bull Kumite, the international competition where the most prestigious vs-fighting players in the world will fight each other, will be back in Paris the 23th and 24th of April 2016 !

Official 2016 game : Street Fighter V
#redbullkumite

Red Bull Kumite 2016 - The Roster :
1 - EG Justin Wong (USA)
2 - GamerBee (Taiwan)
3 - ?
4 - ?
5 - ?
6 - ?
7 - ?
8 - ?
9 - ?
10 - ?
11 - ?
12 - ?
13 - ?
14 - ?
15 - ?
16 - ?

Saturday April 23rd 2016 : Last Chance Tournament!
- 256 seats.
- Livestream ENG/FR/JAP.
- 2 best players will join the Red Bull Kimite Top 16.

Sunday April 24th 2016 : Red Bull Kumite!
- 14 prestigious players from all over the world.
- 2 players from the Last Chance Tournament.
- Broadcasted live in multiple languages.

Registrations open on February 20th 2016, be ready!

So it seems like the (Monster-sponsored) EG players are eligible now?

Let's see if I can guess the competitors:

1. Justin Wong
2. Gamerbee
3. Bonchan (Winner of last year + Red Bull sponsored player. UNLESS they are not going to accept RB players.)
4. Snake Eyez (Red Bull sponsored player. UNLESS they are not going to accept RB players.)
5. Luffy (Best in Europe + maybe a Red Bull sponsorship forthcoming?)
6. Momochi (If Justin is allowed...)
7. Daigo (The GOAT, unless he doesn't want to come.)
8. Tokido (Last year's runner-up and coverage star.)
9. Kazunoko (Capcup winner)
10. Infiltration
11. Xian
12. Problem X (Replacing Ryan Hart as the top UK player)
13. Keoma OR Xiao Hai OR someone else for regional variety.
14. Nemo, Poongko or Nuckledu maybe?
15. Qualifier
16. Qualifier

-

-

-

I sure hope Disney got permission for this one:

Hitbox training hour one:

• already more consistent with double QCF motions
• working on getting 360s down only at like 70% right now
• relying on ring finger for all left inputs seems really dicey
• left arm feels like fuck

@starvinggamer: Awesome dude.

Keep at it. Reminds me of the one summer I taught myself how to juggle.

I recently went to a local tourney and entered myself in GGXrd brackets with Bedman, then got promptly destroyed by a Millia and later a Sol who both kept me in the corner for most of the match. In theory I might have been able to either teleport out or use that clock-burst super move, but it just didn't happen. That was pretty fucking demoralizing, especially after finding out later that there was another Bedman who snagged third place in the same tourney.

@dochaus said:

Did you take the effort to reach out to these players for guidance? I would ask that Bedman player for advice.

Pre-coop cup starts in a little over an hour, super stoked to see some real high level 3S action. I believe also 28 foreign players made it out to Japan, rooting for them too

Anyone know when the new TE sticks are supposed to come out? Is it too late to pre-order? I'm getting tempted to give trying out a stick a shot for SFV and possibly Tekken 7 down the line and I like the look of the new sticks.

On a related note has anyone here made the transition from pad to stick and have gotten their execution to the point where they can do exactly what they want with a stick? How long did it take you to get to that point and how much would you say you practiced to get there?

For me personally I didn't play much of SF4 so I don't think I would need to really "unlearn" habits from using a pad. I'd be starting basically from square one. For Tekken however I played almost every Tekken on pad. I feel like it would be a very rough transition for me to stick for that game. However one thing I always struggled with on pad was advanced movement like the Korean backdash and wave dashing. I could do the motions but not fast enough for doing the movement to make any real difference. I'm certainly no Tekken pro but I think it would be cool to be able to do the complete range of movement in that game competently. I'm wondering if a stick could help in that regard. If anyone has any thoughts on this please let me know. Would switching from pad to stick be a great idea for SF but a not-so-great idea for Tekken?

@technician: No specific date announced but they're supposed to be timed for the release of SFV. Preorders look like they're available on the site.

For me, I picked up my first stick when SFIV came out after playing a lifetime on pad. I'm still not quite as accurate when it comes to directional inputs but way better with multiple button inputs and stuff like plinking. That said, it seems like SFV is doing away with all the really tough advanced button techniques so I don't know that there's any significant reason to use either pad or stick outside of personal preference. Also Tekken players tend to favor pad in general so that's another thing to consider.

Or be like me and buy the one true fighting game controller.