Month: December 2017

What a way to catapult your career. No one would have put Renato “DidimoKOF” Martins on any list for Capcom Cup. But after winning the Latin American Regional Finals, the Brazilian is one of three Latin Americans making his way to the event this weekend.

Much like DR Ray last year, very little is known of DidimoKOF outside of the fact that he won in Brazil last month. What are his chances now that he’s on his way?

Feel the Burn

When you watch footage of DidimoKOF, you could easily dismiss him as just another Dhalsim — but that would be a disservice to him. This is one of the most aggressive Dhalsims out there. When you look at some of the Dhalsims, they all tend to have their own style. While Filipino Champ tends to weave in and out a lot more, and Gllty has often played the more-conservative route, DidimoKOF manages to use Dhalsim’s tools in the most aggressive way possible.

He further is a believer in abusing tactics that are working but shouldn’t, and is quick to adjust when they stop working. He did this against Caba during Grand Finals of the Latin American Regional Finals by doing near-point-blank Yoga Fires, stopping only when Caba started to punish the attempts. This also shows on-the-fly adaptability from DidimoKOF beyond his tournament results.

Low Records

Martins was one of the lowest-rated players to get in, with only 131 points on the CPT prior to his win in Sao Paolo. While he was able to make four top 8s out of seven events prior to his win at the finals, his results weren’t the most stable.

Moreover, if you look over his career in Street Fighter V, DidimoKOF had never won a tournament until it mattered most. His only other time in grand finals was an online ranking event, and given what we can see on his ranking page, he has not had a chance to show himself otherwise. People will be quick to dispute his win as a fluke, but it could just be that he figured out what it takes to win at the right moment.

Unknown Factor

Last year, I dismissed DR Ray as the metaphorical Oscar nominee who has zero shot of winning anything, but was just happy to be there. That was a huge mistake on my part, as DR Ray was able to best Tokido in the opening round and bust a lot of people’s fantasy brackets.

A lot of this could be attributed to DR Ray’s low status. Because he was unknown, very few players could scout him, but he could scout literally everyone. This is the same position that DidimoKOF is in. There’s very little footage of him circulating, which could be to his advantage this weekend.

Final Thoughts

I’m not going to be on the wrong side of this one this year, hopefully. I have a feeling that DidimoKOF could come in and do what DR Ray did last year, and pull an upset first round against Yukadon. While Ibuki is an aggressive character — and he will have to adjust fast — it’s quite possible that Yukadon will be taken aback by an aggressive Dhalsim, to his detriment.

I’m not going to sit here and say that DidimoKOF wins Capcom Cup. But this could be a tournament where he gives at least one upset, and makes a name for himself in Street Fighter V.

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Check out our prior articles in the Capcom Cup 2017 Player Analysis series!

It’s been quite the year for Evo 2017 Street Fighter X Tekken (version 2013) Champion Aaron “Psychoblue” Pinsky. In addition to hitting his professional stride outside of the game, he was able to unseat one of the strongest SFXT players on the planet, Esuta, ending his three-year, consecutive reign as the king (pun intended) of the 2D crossover fighter, in addition to winning six additional tournaments this year, he was also interviewed by Red Bull for a feature article on their website, as part of their “Mind Games” series. Though SFXT has certainly faded from the limelight these days, it still holds an extremely passionate community of players who bring the game to events for side tournaments whenever they can.

In order to celebrate this wave of success — and test out his freshly-upgraded PC — he’s created his first combo video, “The Deadly Alliance,” focusing on his signature team of M. Bison and Heihachi and utilizing the Meter Gems preset, which has become a favorite among competitive players in version 2013.

You’ll see the dirtiness of the Dictator’s cross-up J. HP, full corner-carry combos, stylish Rising Uppercut juggles, raw launcher setups to beat wake-up reversals, including Dragon Punches, and, of course, practical-yet-fancy Pandora sequences for each warrior.

To close things out, Psychoblue acknowledges some of the friends and rivals that helped him reach this point, by spotlighting their teams, in their signature colors and costumes. You can catch all the action below. (Be warned, the song used does contain a bit of NSFW language.)

Do you have any fond memories of this crossover battle? Perhaps you still play it to this very day? Share your experiences with us in the comments section below.

Source: PsychoblueSFXT

Red Bull and Team Method’s Olivier “Luffy” Hay just narrowly missed out on the top 8 of Capcom Cup last year. For him, it was a hard road only to find himself on the losing end. That failure made him more determined to end up on top this year.

With yet another berth into the event, will he put his loss last year aside and finally be the best in the world?

Bosom Buddy

Last year, I commented on not only his affinity for large-breasted characters, but the striking similarities of Rose against R. Mika under the surface. One thing I mentioned was how safe Mika’s buttons are. That is still slightly true, despite some of the nerfs.

Luffy took full advantage of nearly every button Mika had, with everything outside of sweep being relatively safe. Losing the crouching fierce safety hurt, but he has still managed to optimize his play to work around it. He without question has made the character continue to work, and is likely the second-best Mika on the planet — maybe third, when NuckleDu brings her out.

Euro-trip

Luffy has always been a player that has prided himself as one of the best in Europe. In the last two years, he has found his way into Capcom Cup by cutting his teeth on the best Europe has to offer. With the only international event he’s attended this year being Evo, he has made six top 8s out of the twelve European events he’s played in, and won one European online ranking event. He also had a solid showing at Evo 2017, making the top 48 of the field and showing he is a force to be reckoned with.

Off the CPT circuit, he recently wowed the competition in Japan at Red Bull’s Tower of Pride event. This is a pivotal tournament to do well in, as there was a solid contingent of Japanese players in attendance that he will have to contend with this weekend. Last year, I commented that he wasn’t fully tested against the rest of the world. This time, he has shown that to be untrue.

Endurance

The problem is that Luffy has been streaky. Only winning an online ranking event is not the best indicator of confidence, and suggests that either he has confidence issues that are preventing him from winning events, or that Europe has him figured out. Does Luffy have patterns and tendencies that could come back to bite him in longer sets, which the entirety of Capcom Cup will be?

Tower of Pride was probably the turning point of the year for him. In other invitational events such as Red Bull Kumite and ELEAGUE, he was unable to capitalize and make it into the top 8. The latter event saw him fall to Xiao Hai whom he previously beat at Capcom Cup, and Red Bull Kumite saw him struggle as well.

Probably the most telling of how Luffy will do was his statements after Capcom Cup last year, where he argued that the wait time before playing exhausted him, causing him to perform badly. While they have made steps to address this issue, time will tell if that continues to be a problem at Capcom Cup this year.

Final Thoughts

I’m not sure where to place Luffy. On some days, he looks poised to do well, and on others, it looks like he’s banking on the next event to do well.

I’m usually wrong on estimates for him, and he thus becomes my Achilles’ heel to analyze. I would warrant a guess that he’ll make it to top 16, but suffer much the same fate as last year in falling short of top 8.

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Check out our prior articles in the Capcom Cup 2017 Player Analysis series!