Month: November 2016

Smug has always had a puncher’s chance–literally. His preference for characters like Dudley in Street Fighter IV and Balrog in Street Fighter V is well noted, and it fits his personality well.

As such, when Smug takes his Balrog online in Street Fighter V, he makes it work well. For any Balrog mains looking to up their game, this is one of the top guys to watch for the character. His opponent, Brian_F, keeps it really close, and this is a great lesson in spacing and proper play for the character.

Source: XusesGB

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

Hiroyuki “Eita” Nagata of Team Hail Mary is no stranger to the grandest stage. This year, he took part in the most-viewed Evolution top 8 to date, finishing a respectable 7th out of over 5000 players. His Ken was able to do what EG|Momochi and so many others couldn’t; make it to TV in America. And the pressure was doubly heavy on him, since he had to play against America’s favorite son, LI Joe, with the whole country rooting against him.

He already has experience under immense pressure and time in the limelight. Can he return there in December at Capcom Cup having qualified by points?

The Fire Inside

One of the most tremendous attributes that Eita has is his relentless offensive prowess. With a style honed by his use of Akuma in the Street Fighter IV, Eita doesn’t let up. Once he knows that his pressure is putting his opponents into disarray, he will not stop.

This is Eita’s bread and butter. He makes his opponents panic and press buttons and makes them pay for those presses.

Contingency Plan

The problem Eita faces is that he doesn’t know how to play other than this. If an opponent plays patiently and does not get fazed by his relentless offense, he finds himself at a disadvantage. There’s no Plan B, and Eita often pays heavily for that. Part of this is his fault, as he will often throw out unsafe moves even on block, and get punished heavily for it.

Even worse, once his opponent plays his aggressive game back at him, Eita defaults toward timidity. He has major issues when he is forced to play defense, as he simply doesn’t do a good job of blocking. Without balance on offense and defense, you are just not going to win as much as you lose.

Predictable

One of the things that hurts Eita the most is his predictability. That’s not to say he’s a bad player, but he has patterns that top level players have picked up on.

One of the greatest examples is Joe “LI Joe” Ciaramelli. At the Evo Pre-party at Gameworks, Joe and Eita played a first-to-5 set, where Eita narrowly won. As coincidence would have it, the two would face again in losers top 8 at Evo. It was apparent that Joe gained the upper hand after the set at Gameworks, and beat him handily, and did so when it mattered most.

It seems that the more Eita plays against someone, the more he struggles against them. When you see players that are from Japan, they usually come out on top against him. It is also why, at the Asia Regional Finals, Eita could beat HuomaoTV|HumanBomb, but then lose to YouDeal MJS|Haitani and RZR|Infiltration–the latter of which is not from Japan, but is one of the fastest on the circuit to pick up on player tendencies. It’s also why his wins have come at tournaments with less Japanese presence. The less people that know his gameplan, the better.

Final Thoughts

Eita is one of the best Kens out there, but he’s facing everyone who knows how he plays. There’s going to be no surprises at Capcom Cup; everyone will have done their research. He hasn’t taken his game to another dimension just yet, and it may be that he hasn’t meshed with Ken perfectly. I’d expect more out of him when–and if–Akuma is available in the game, and he can open up his creative flow with a character he’s comfortable with. For now, let’s just say that I believe he may score one win against a player who’s unfamiliar with him, but lose to the Japanese players he has to face later down the line.

Rather than focusing on a single player on their roster, DMG Alliance has brought its combined might together in this third installment of its “Tons of DMG” combo series. This montage shows combos from players like Tweek, Ryuga, LordMix, 6WX, Sodrek and many more, in the typical flashy style present in most DMG combo videos.

There is a little bit of everything in this teamtage, from footstool into Rest combos from Jigglypuff, unconventional edgeguards from characters like Dr. Mario, and the occasional zero-to-death. Beware of ending up in a combo video like this, should you ever have the luck to play one of DMG’s members in a tournament.

Source: DMG Alliance

Some time back, we reported on modder fatihG_’s attempt to mod Red Bull’s Daryl “Snake Eyez” Lewis into Street Fighter V as Zangief. Now, fatihG_ has released an update on the mod in the form of a hype trailer.

Last time out, we only saw some screenshots of the mod. This time however, we have our first glimpse of footage of it in game. Alongside this, we also get to see how much the model has progressed since, with it looking much smoother, with artifacts from Zangief’s old model now gone, and with some additional detail work added as well.

No release date for the mod has been given as of yet, though fatihG_ says that it will be coming out soon. If Snake Eyez could record some special voice lines for this mod, it would make the package complete.

Source: fatihG_