Month: May 2016

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DreamHack Austin Runner-Up DTN8|Cat Fight Aims for Pokkén World Championships

Coming off his second place finish in Pokkén Tournament at DreamHack Austin, Team Detonate’s  Wesley “Cat Fight” Garland is planning to continue dominating this year’s Pokkén Championship Series. DreamHack was the first of six events in the Championship Series, which boasts a prize pool of more than $100,000.

Using only his Chandelure, DTN8|Cat Fight fought his way to the end of the bracket before losing to Bim?’s Sceptile 3-2 in Winners Finals and again by a score of 3-1 in Grand Finals. With the win, Bim? qualified for the Pokkén World Championships, which will be held in San Francisco on Aug. 19-20. 

While he may not have been the weekend’s champion, the result was still satisfying for Garland. The 26-year-old player began his fighting game career around age 10, learning infinites in the arcade version of X-Men vs. Street Fighter. Having run the gamut from Marvel Super Heroes to Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, Cat Fight is a fan of fighters in general, but has narrowed his competitive focus to Pokkén alone.

Competitive Pokkén continues to grow, building on an influx of new players while drawing more and more attention from the larger fighting game community. Based on pre-registration numbers, CEO 2016’s Pokkén tournament will be more than twice the size of DreamHack Austin, and is the fourth most popular game overall.

“There is an overlap from [other] games for sure, mostly from the Smash side of things, but then you have Coach Steve and Chris G who’ve been entering tournaments as well,” DTN8| Cat Fight said of the burgeoning community. “It’s pretty awesome to see people from all over the FGC pick up the game.”

He added, “the Pokkén scene itself is growing every day with players who consider this their first venture into competitive gaming. I think we’re gonna see a lot of dedicated, solo Pokkén players pop up in the near future.”

DTN8| Cat Fight has certainly dedicated himself to learning the game, having played Chandelure since the game’s release. The ghost pokemon is considered to be one of the stronger among the cast, but is not without its flaws. Garland said he was concerned about Suicune going into DreamHack, but managed to find a new assist (Electrode) to develop a new zoning pattern in the matchup. He managed to overcome DreamHack’s fourth place finisher, Circa|Suicune Master, on the way to top eight.

“I feel like this game is so balanced that I can’t say there is any singular dominant character currently. Tourney results are everywhere, even in Japan it seems,” DTN8| Cat Fight said. “There are some matchups that I shake my head at, but nothing that can’t be overcome.”

Garland was the first in North America to achieve S-Rank online in Pokkén, but his Chandelure was not built on netplay alone. As a New York-based player with roots in New Jersey, Garland has no shortage of live competition in his area, and he works to make the most of it. Within the tri-state area, Pokkén has grown enough to have an event almost every day. Cat Fight told Shoryuken that he attended a dozen tournaments in the month before DreamHack.

“Grassroots tournaments are still just as exciting and motivating to win in,” Cat Fight said. “ As long as there’s good people and I get to play, I’m happy.”

Prior to being sponsored, DTN8| Cat Fight was affiliated with ESE Gaming, a group that runs weekly tournaments for Smash and Pokkén in Middletown, N.Y. He also attends local weeklies at Hitbox Arena in Kinnelon N.J., No Pause Tournaments in Stroudsburg, PA and Bros. Calamity in Hatboro, PA.

In preparation for the Pokkén Tournament World Championship DTN8|Cat Fight plans to attend CEO 2016, Evo 2016 and the Pokémon US National Championships. The top two finishers at Evo and the nationals will automatically qualify for the 64-man bracket at the World Championships in August.

Source: DreamHack, and you can keep up with Cat Fight on Twitter @DTN8_CatFight

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Add Some More Setups to Your Rainbow Mika’s Repertoire

Through the use of her unique assist calling V-Trigger, R. Mika has access to some of the dirtiest setups in Street Fighter V, including a style of “unblockable.” This nearly unavoidable setup involves Nadeshiko covering one end with a hit, while Mika goes for a command throw. The timing is such that if the defender chooses to block, the throw catches them before they are actually in blockstun. If they try to back dash or jump out (with some exceptions), Mika’s tag team partner hits them before they can escape. Characters without invincible reversals will find themselves with particularly limited options here.

Whether you play R. Mika or just want to be able to recognize the setups when facing off against her in the ring, below are some video examples, which include tips for escaping as well as applying these powerful setups.

First up, here’s a reset off of Passion Press, her irish whip wall bounce (f+mp):

Here’s a setup off of a knockdown, from various command grabs:

How about a blocked crouching fierce?

Last but not least, we see the same reset situation as the first video, but utilizing Critical Art as the command grab to deal some insane damage:

Due to the fact that command grab Critical Arts can be used in combos–a new concept to SFV–you can’t just take the hit from Nadeshiko in an effort to avoid the grab for less damage.

Sources: zeroaxion, Sixfortyfive, TheSassageKing

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Battle Arena Melbourne 8 Streaming Live From Melbourne, Australia!

This weekend is Battle Arena Melbourne 8, the second of 14 qualifier events for Capcom Pro Tour Asia. The event will take place at the CQ hotel in the Melbourne CBD in Melbourne, Australia. BAM8 is a Street Fighter V Capcom Pro Tour 2016 ranking tournament so in addition to Australia’s best SFV players, you can expect to see strong international players like RZR|Xian, EG|Momochi, MJS|Haitani, and Mago attending to try and earn ranking points and qualify for the Asia regional finals. Along with SFV, BAM8 is also a Worldwide Tournament Qualifier for Team Ninja’s global DOA5LR event, Battle Royal 2016! Team Ninja are supporting the tournament with a $1,000 Prize Bonus and the 1st place winner of Dead or Alive 5 will receive travel and accommodation at December’s NEC XVIII finals in the USA.

With a $1000 pot bonus for DOA5LR, $500 pot bonus for SFV, $500 pot bonus for Smash 4 and Melee for top 3 Australian players, $1000 pot bonus for T7, and $300 pot bonus for BBCPEX, we can expect to see many heavy hitters joining each of these tournaments. For Smash 4, you can expect to see international players like Umeki, 9B, Abadango and Mr. R appearing thanks to a community funding drive.

New Game Plus will be providing the main stream for the event. Along with New Game Plus, you can also find streams from GooGieGaminG, ZeroX_FGC, SASMelbourneSmash, and MelbourneMelee.

You can find the brackets for the event here.

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SMITE: Dark Horse to Publish Game-Based Graphic Novel

Hi-Rez Studios and Dark Horse Comics have announced that a new graphic novel based on SMITE will be available in late December 2016. Called SMITE: The Pantheon War, the graphic novel will be created by John Jackson Miller (Star Wars, Mass Effect), cowriter Jack Banish, and artist Eduardo Francisco.