Month: May 2017

Posted on

Facebook signs an esports streaming deal with ESL

In their ever-continuing attempts to encroach on all areas of your life, Facebook is looking for a piece of that esports streaming pie. While Twitch is still the dominant gaming service worldwide, Facebook has been getting into livestreaming here and there, be it casual family-friendly content, or Blizzard games. The social media mogul just announced a new deal with MLB and ESL to become more active in the esports streaming world.

The deal includes bringing more than 5,500 hours of esports content from ESL to Facebook, with an addition of 1,500 hours of original programming. ESL already has streaming deals with other services, like Twitter and Twitch, so in no way does this grant Facebook any exclusivity. Moreso, there’s a better possibility of catching some casual viewers, or people who normally don’t watch esports already.

“With over 1.94 billion monthly active users on Facebook, this is a huge step toward expanding the reach of esports among mainstream audiences,” Johannes Schiefer, Vice President of Social Media and Editorial at ESL, said in a statement. “Last year, ESL content generated over 2 billion impressions and reached over 200 million users on Facebook globally.”

While the current rage in ESL is mostly Counter Strike: GO, there’s no reason for fighting games to not continue rising in relevance, particularly on a platform with such a wide audience as Facebook. The 2016 global esports revenue reached $493 million, and is projected to increase by more than 40 percent this year.

Source: TechCrunch

Posted on

Somniac schools Capcom on some Austrialian FGC history in this Battle Arena Melbourne 9 interview

You might recognize Dark Sided|Somniac’s Bison from the Ultra Street Fighter IV days, but the Melbourne, Australia native has been active in his hometown’s fighting game scene since the era of Street Fighter III. Capcom was able to catch up with Somniac at Battle Arena Melbourne 9, where he took 25th place after clashing with some of the world’s best.

Somniac is actually the winner of Battle Arena Melbourne 5 and 7, and has a lot of unique insight into his country’s now prominent Street Fighter scene. A few cool pieces of Australian fighting game history were extracted for the unknown international observer in the interview–which you can view in full in the video below.

Source: Capcom Fighters

Posted on

Keep your opponent grounded with this Antonov okizeme guide for The King of Fighters XIV ver. 2.01

The literal King of Fighters, Antonov, received a number of great buffs in Version 2.00 that granted him new mix-ups and damage opportunities. With these new threats in mind, youtuber APE OF THE U N I V E R S E has put together a wake-up guide for all aspiring cigar-munching champions to study.

Most of the safe jumps and mix-ups presented here make use of Antonov’s Max Mode options. Because of the changes in his crouching HK overhead, once you’ve established your safe-jumps, you can now work a fairly oppressive mid/low/command grab mix-up on a downed opponent.

Source: APE OF THE U N I V E R S E

Posted on

Andrew David Murphy’s fan-made Street Fighter V HUD looks to make elements more discernible for casual viewers

With Street Fighter V action getting televised by mainstream media outlets like ESPN and TBS’s ELEAGUE, there are more eyes, exposure, and interest in the fighting game community than ever before. However, Andrew “nevbamshew” David Murphy feels that SFV’s current HUD display may not be doing a good enough job of conveying the action and the myriad of elements on display during the course of a match to the general viewers at home, who may be seeing the game played at high-level for the very first time.

An illustrator by trade, Murphy has provided his own example of an altered HUD, explaining that, “The brief is to improve the usability of the SFV HUD whilst retaining the original aesthetic, accentuating the branding and adding personality and style from the initial promos.”

His proposed changes include increasing the size of the V-Gauge and Critical Art meters to make them easier to see, changing character portraits, while also boldly increasing fonts and visuals, as he feels the current look is a bit too plain. The end result looks like a cross between Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike and an Arc System Works title. I can appreciate the plain, basic look of SFV’s HUD, but this redesign certainly has a certain “pop” to it. Catch the video below, and let us know what you think.

For more insight into this project, as well as some great tech videos for both beginners and experts, you can follow him on Twitter at nevbamshew.

Source: Andrew David Murphy