Month: September 2016

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King of the Riptors Fiyah Liger Talks Character Choice, Killer Instinct History and Mastering Matchups in the Latest Behind the Sticks Interview

In their regular ‘Behind the Sticks’ interview series, Ultra Combo chatted to Selfless Gaming’s Fiyah Liger to talk about his development as a player, how he came to play Riptor and his personal history with Killer Instinct as a franchise. While he did play KI as a kid with his dad and brother in arcades, Fiyah Liger actually started in the FGC playing Marvel 3. It was after seeing Killer Instinct top 8 at CEO 2014 that he really considered playing the game, and he only got stuck into the actual competitive scene after watching ChrisG mess about with Riptor on her release.

While Sabrewulf did seem like a suitable pick for his playstyle, Fiyah (as his name suggests) always had an affinity for flame-based characters so playing a fire-spewing, genetically engineered raptor seemed like the perfect fit. After training for about four months and attending tournaments like Texas Showdown, Fiyah deems his placing at last year’s Combo Breaker as his breakout performance, where he made top 16 and had to fight his Riptor mentor, PaulB, in his first match. From that initial experience, it has been a matter of grinding online, competing in tournaments like 8BitBeatdown and attending offline events wherever possible in order to get where he is today.

The whole interview is a good read, as it goes through how to improve as KI player, as well as his thoughts on what helped him smash through that mental block in his play, and allowed him to place consistently in top 8 at the majority of tournaments.

Source: Ultra Combo

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Warner Bros Interactive and NetherRealm Studios Add $10,000 to the SCR2016 Pot for Mortal Kombat X

To sweeten the deal for any Mortal Kombat players thinking of attending this year’s SoCal Regionals event, NetherRealm Studios and Warner Bros have added a $10,000 pot bonus to the Mortal Kombat X prize pool. This cash injection should help entice any players who were on the fence about attending SCR to start planning where they are going to be staying during that October weekend.

The winner of the Mortal Kombat X tournament at SCR2016 will be going away with at least $5,000, not including the actual money generated from signups so quite a lot of cash is on the line for this year’s event. Mortal Kombat is not the only game with a sizeable pot bonus though, as Street Fighter V has a $15,000 pot bonus as it is the last US Premier event before Capcom Cup, while Tekken 7 is getting $3,000 for being part of the road to the North American King of the Iron Fist Finals.

There will also be tournaments for Killer Instinct, King of Fighter XIV, Super Smash Bros. Melee, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 and Guilty Gear Xrd -REVELATOR- so get signed up at the official SCR2016 smash.gg page to ensure your spot at one of the biggest tournaments of this year. SCR2016 will be held at the Esports Arena from October 14-16th and it is not one to be missed.

Sources: smash.gg; SoCal Regionals 2016

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Challenge the Kanzuki-ryu “one hundred-man Kumite” in This Next CFN Profile

Taking a break from their coverage of the Street Fighter EX Characters, the Shadaloo Activity Report’s next bit of research focuses on a Character Profile for the Kanzuki Ninja Legion. You may have seen some of these ninja at the end of Birdie’s Character Prologue, where Karin forced him to take the challenge after allowing him to be a house guest, in order to, “help [him] digest.” They can also be found in background of the Lair of the Four Kings We previously covered the kunoichi of the Estate here.

Private Nakagawa: Today I introduce the Ninja Legion, the honorable guards of the Kanzuki household. A while back, we introduced you to the Kunoichi guard, but it’s the legion who is responsible for guarding the mansion.

kanzuki-jonin

Basic Info:

Name: Jonin
Equipment: Ninja sword, Headband, Chainmail
Duties: Mansion Security, Sparring Partners, Kumite Opponents
Techniques: Katon Goendan, [Fire Release: Great Flame Bullet] Kanzuki-ryu Suiryugeki [Kanzuki style: Water Style Strike]

kanzuki-chunin

Basic Info:

Name: Chunin
Equipment: Ninja sword, Headband, Chainmail
Duties: Mansion Security, Odd Jobs, Chores
Techniques: Katon Gohidan [“Fire Release: Great Fire Bullet”]

Private Nakagawa: The extent of their fighting power becomes apparent in a sum as opponents during the Kanzuki-ryu 100 man Kumite. They use ninjutsu as depicted in the picture, such as: Katon [“Fire Release”], Suiton [“Water Release”] and Doton [“Earth Release”. All full under Ninja Tactics.] The Genin-chan looks like this.

kanzuki-genin

Private Nakagawa: They appear in the Kanzuki family mansion, they’re the ones hanging from the ropes. They are a puckish group of playful people.

So ends another CFN Profile, as more of the Kanzuki Zaibatsu gets fleshed out further. Keep your browser locked right here on Shoryuken for more Profile coverage in the coming weeks!

Source: CFN Portal

 

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The Saga Curse Strikes Again at 2GGT: Abadango Saga

The cycle remains unbroken. With Abadango Saga coming to a close last night, the Saga curse still persists. Not a single one of the nine players who have had sagas named after them have succeeded in winning their eponymous event. Many people were betting on Abadango to finally break the streak but unfortunately, fate and the Mario brothers conspired to send him out at 13th place, after losing to B7Games’ Dr Mario and eM|Elegant’s Luigi. Abadango’s brother in arms Komorikiri did place higher, achieving 5th place but failing to take a saga title home for Japan. It may be up to Kamemushi in a future Kamemushi Saga to finally break the curse and bring the a title back to Japan.

Top 12 of Abadango Saga was a nest of vipers, with big names like Team eLevate’s Larry Lurr, IMT|ANTi, CLG|VoiD and C9|Ally sitting in Losers’, while TSM|Zero, Komorikiri, NRG|Nairo and Rich Brown remained in Winners’, making the struggle for those final positions an absolute bloodbath. In Winners’, ZeRo started to pick up steam in his journey to Grand Finals, taking out Rich Brown with a swift 3-0, before edging out Nairo with a 3-1 victory. ZeRo only dropped three games in his path through top 48 and he seems to be returning to his 2015 state with every passing tournament.

Elsewhere in the bracket, Larry Lurr was putting on the Losers’ run to end all Losers’ runs. After being sent into the lower bracket in pools, Larry began to smash his way through everyone that stood in his way. The man looked unstoppable, racking up successive wins against Komorikiri, K9 and WaDi before cruising into Losers’ side of Grand Finals with back to back 3-0s against Ally and Nairo. Larry’s Fox was moving at near enough the speed of light when heading into Grands, resetting the bracket 3-1 against ZeRo for a final showdown between the two, reminiscent of their set at 2GGT: Mexico Saga. Unfortunately, this legendary run was not to be completed, as ZeRo regained his composure and won 3-1 in the bracket reset, claiming first place at Abadango Saga.

Alongside the blistering action on stage, congratulations must go to the 2GG team for holding a 500+ man major with singles and doubles event in a single day, without any major holdups. The TO team is running with military efficiency at this stage so major kudos to all of the behind the scenes staff who made this event happen within 24 hours. All of the VODs are available on the 2GGaming YouTube channel and check out Losers’, Winners’ and Grand Finals below.

RESULTS:

1. TSM|ZeRo (Diddy Kong)
2. eLv|Larry Lurr (Fox)
3. NRG|Nairo (Zero Suit Samus, Lucina)
4. C9|Ally (Mario)
5. Komorikiri (Cloud, Sonic)
5. Rich Brown (Mewtwo)
7. eM|Elegant (Luigi)
7. SS|WaDi (Mewtwo)

Sources: 2GGaming; smash.gg