Month: November 2016

With last year’s landmark victory for Liquid|Hungrybox at DreamHack Winter 2015, all eyes were on him to see if he could repeat his success on Swedish soil. With over a year to prepare and to shore up their defences against the devilish puffball, Sweden was able to hold the fort, resulting in this year’s DreamHack Winter going to Alliance’s Armada.

Both finalists went through their brackets relatively unchallenged, putting them on track for a real clash of the titans. Hungrybox did not drop a single game on his journey to Winners’ Finals, while Armada dropped one match to Crunch on his trip through bracket. When they finally came to a head, Armada was able to defeat Hungrybox 3-1 in both Winners’ and Grands, with his Fox making quick work of Jigglypuff. He’d had quite the warm up for his Fox going into Winners’ Finals, facing TSM|Leffen in Winners’ Semis and smashing through him with a clean 3-0.

With his substantial time away from top level tournament play, Leffen does have some catching up to do compared to the four Gods who are still on active duty. He and COG|Wizzrobe looked fairly shaky in their set, with it eventually going to game five where Leffen managed to regain his composure to take it against the paragon of 20GX. Having said this, he did make it all the way to Losers’ Finals, running over C9|Mango’s Falco in Losers’ Semis with a 3-0 of his own before Hungrybox just pipped him to the post, preventing an all Swedish Grand Finals.

As for the other Europeans, VwS|Professor Pro narrowly defeated Luminosity’s Ice in an absolute nailbiter of a Fox mirror, sending Ice out at 7th place. Spain’s leading Peach, Trif, had quite the run, taking out fellow Peach main Splyce|MacD in Winners’ Bracket and then defeating Armada’s brother Android in a tense 3-2 set in Losers’ round 7. He would eventually lose to Wizzrobe in an equally tense set in Losers’ Quarterfinals, getting 7th place alongside Ice.

DreamHack Winter is really starting to establish itself as the premier major to finish a year of Melee, so let’s hope for an equally dramatic tournament in 2017. This tournament acts as another victory for Armada in his ongoing battle with Hungrybox ever since this year’s Evo. Will this victory finally cement Armada’s position as 2016’s number one Melee player?

RESULTS:

1. Alliance|Armada (Fox, Peach/Sweden)
2. Liquid|Hungrybox (Jigglypuff/USA)
3. TSM|Leffen (Fox/Sweden)
4. C9|Mango (Falco/USA)
5. COG|Wizzrobe (Captain Falcon/USA)
5. VwS|Professor Pro (Fox/UK)
7. LG|Ice (Fox/Germany)
7. Heir|Trif (Peach/Spain)

Sources: dreamhacksmash; smash.gg

Just before the serious competition of Smash Summit 3, Mango and many of SoCal’s finest Melee players hosted a special event for some casual practice time ahead of the main invitational. Creatively titled Smash Summit 2.5, this event saw players like Alliance|Armada, TSM|Leffen, Liquid|Hungrybox, Tempo|S2J and many more descend on Mango’s house for almost two solid days of Melee.

To celebrate this jam-packed Melee session with some of the game’s greats, editor turndownforwalt has compiled a sort of video storybook of this massive stream, showing some of the best moments over the course of the event. With slick play and even slicker editing, it results in quite the combo video.

Source: Cloud 9 Mang0

Editor’s note: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the writer, and do not reflect Shoryuken.com as a whole.

Goichi “Go1” Kishida of Team Hail Mary was a complete unknown until Street Fighter V released–in Street Fighter circles at least. With his only listed tournament experience being in BlazBlue Chronophantasma prior to 2016, Kishida lit up the world with his stellar Chun-Li play, making his first sanctioned Evo top 8.

He has kept up his presence in the game, and earned his way into Capcom Cup via points. Now, can Goichi go on to become number ichi?

Transition from Anime

Probably the best thing that Go1 has done is choose Chun-Li as his character in Street Fighter V. Coming out of a background of aerial-heavy games like BlazBlue, this was probably the best pick he could have made, as Chun-Li has similar strengths when she takes to the air. This helped mitigate any form of a learning curve that he may have had.

His experience with anime fighters showed, as he was one of the first players on the circuit to effectively use instant air legs. Thanks to dealing with some of the more execution-heavy games in the scene, he made the move look effortless. The pressure he applies with instant air legs has become a staple part of Chun players’ arsenal since he made his presence felt.

But if it were only that, then Kishida would be a one-trick pony, and wouldn’t be anywhere near the top of the rankings. He has also shown off a strong ground and reactionary game that can only come from talent, understanding, and acceptance of the different nuances in his original games du jour and Street Fighter V. He has made his mark as one of the first players to show off Chun-Li as the nuisance that she is.

Evolution

If anyone is worried that he can’t beat the best players in the world, look no further than Evo to prove them wrong. To be honest, I would not have put money on Go1 making top 8, despite his talent. He not only did he do so, but managed to put the sort of indelible footprint on the event that only the strong thighs of his Chun-Li could leave.

Outclassed only by Yukadon, RZR|Fuudo, and RZR|Infiltration, Go1 managed to beat Alienware’s Nemo and followed that up by crushing fellow Capcom Cup-qualifier MOV by a score of 3-1. My money at the time of that match was on MOV due to experience, but Go1 proved that he can outclass one of the best Chun-Li specialists in the world.

It was this moment that proved that, despite his inexperience, Go1 would not be shaken by the pressure of the occasion. That alone makes him deadly.

Passing Him By

The problem now is staying on top. He made it there, but like every other player considered an apex predator, he has to worry about the bloodthirsty sharks below him ready to feast on his success. And already we are seeing that happen.

Since Evo, he has struggled to maintain his level of success. At other high profile events, he hasn’t even come close. At Japan Cup, he finished 13th. At Southeast Asia Majors, He finished 17th. At SoCal Regionals, he finished a paltry 49^th, which makes me wonder if he can handle North American players’ different playstyles, if that is his lowest finish since Evo. At the Asia Finals, he finished on the low end of top 16.

Like a lot of Japanese players, he is always a threat. But it’s quite possible that as players have leveled up, he has not changed much about his play. Is it possible that this has led him down a road to mediocrity? This is possible if he has been focused on other games, so hopefully he readjusts his focus heading to Anaheim.

Final Thoughts

This is a guy who could be anyone’s dark horse pick to win. I won’t count him out, and have Go1 making it to top 16. The biggest question mark will be how ready he is in comparison to how ready everyone else is. If he doesn’t find the clutch factor he had at Evo, look out for people who begin to put the unfair label of fluke upon him; he will have to have a stellar season next year to prove them wrong.

Ever since Daigo’s run in with Nuckledu’s Guile back at Red Bull Battle Grounds, he and the other Japanese Ryus have been working tirelessly to discover how to beat the all-American hero. After doing some extensive training by himself, Daigo has been fighting online against Japan’s best Guile, Esuta, ahead of Capcom Cup next weekend.

As is the way with online bouts, XusesGB has been on the case, bringing these best of three sets together to show everyone how Daigo has been progressing in his journey to beat his demon. Based on the results of these matches, he may be prepared should he face Guile on his way through the Capcom Cup bracket.

Source: XusesGB