Everyone has a fighting chance
Kotaku is reporting that Riot Games’ COO Scott Gelb is suspended after an investigation into allegations of workplace misconduct. The writer’s sources have said that Gelb will be suspended for two months without pay. The information was disseminated to employees earlier in the week.
Anyone who loves Final Fantasy XV but is only interested in the multiplayer component will be happy to hear that the Comrades standalone version is now available on PSN and XBox Live. Those who already own the Season Pass (including ALL PC owners) have access to Comrades and there is no need to repurchase it. Those who will be buy it are in for cheery news: Comrades is only $9.99 and comes with 10 bosses to duke it out with.
Amazon has posted a brief note on its Facebook page to let fans know that a fresh round of New World alpha invites is out in the wild. Interested community members are also invited to sign up for the chance to be selected for the alpha as well.
Momochi is now the lone representative of Kolin. While she may have had a strong start early in the season, the character’s popularity at the latter half of the season waned. But with his ability to play the character, he has earned a Capcom Cup berth yet again… Will this year be different than last?
Last year saw Momochi in the midst of a character crisis. Bringing out Zeku and Bison in Winners Bracket, he put his back to the wall and ran Ken all the way through Losers Bracket. The result was a disappointing top 16 finish for the former Capcom Cup champion.
One of the things that Momochi was famously chided for by Punk was that he should pick a “real” character: someone whose deficiencies didn’t put him at a disadvantage. Momochi did so with Kolin, whom he was able to use to create the very aggressive style he was known for while also using amazing reactions to cause people to be afraid to push buttons against him. His usage of parries and mixups has made her very dangerous in his hands.
I think one thing that surprisingly works in Momochi’s favor is that he famously lost his sponsorship with Echo Fox near the end of the season. While it can be demoralizing to lose a sponsorship, for Momochi this could be a blessing in disguise. The pressure is off to prove yourself in front of your sponsor. Now it’s about just playing for yourself.
Many top athletes always feel like they play better when they don’t feel any major pressure to win. Some of the best underdog stories come out of just going out there and doing your best, and being shocked at your best being better than everyone else’s. Certainly, Momochi hasn’t been winning lately, but being able to just play for himself could be a benefit for him that he hasn’t had since signing with Evil Geniuses in 2010.
The problem with that pressure coming off could be that Momochi does exactly what he did last year, and use Capcom Cup to experiment with new characters. He no longer feels like he has to prove himself, which could make him even more loose in his choices. This is something he has done throughout his career. 2014 saw him using Cody, Juri, and Ken all in Evo top 8, making his choices more erratic. It was only 2015 onward that saw him more steadfast in his picks until last year changed that.
Any evidence you need that Momochi could knee-jerk back to his old main — or anyone else, for that matter — would be on display at SoCal Regionals against Chris Tatarian. While running the mirror may have been a respect thing, it’s that lack of cutthroat attitude from Momochi that makes me wary.
To top it off, his school and his newly founded esports team shows how many coals he has on the fire to begin with. Competing is starting to take a back seat. He’s still a loose cannon that will be fun to watch, but he’s definitely a long shot at the title.
BioWare is ready to break out the fireworks in honor of the seventh anniversary of Star Wars: The Old Republic. From now through January 15the, players can head into the game to claim celebratory rewards, some of them brand new for 2018. Players will receive the Commemorative Statue: Return of Malgus, Weapon Display: Satele Shan, Weapon Display: Darth Malgus and some fireworks! Players can also claim a Dromund Kaas or Coruscant Stronghold for only seven credits!
Michael Chandler is set to exact his revenge on Brent Primus, with the latter defending his lightweight belt for the first time against the man he toppled to win it.
We will have to wait a little while longer for the welterweight battle between Robbie Lawler and Ben Askren, which has been relocated from the cancelled UFC 233 card to UFC 235 in March.
According to Kotaku, Twitch is selling off Curse Media to “Fandom”, once known as Wikia. “We’ve signed a definitive agreement to acquire Curse Media from Twitch, Inc., including all media assets and employees,” a letter to Kotaku reads. Fandom will be folding all of the Curse assets into its Gamepedia section. One site many of our readers will be familiar with is MMO-Champion, one of the largest World of Warcraft fan sites on the Internet today.
Bellator MMA will be taking a trip back to the Pechanga Resort Casino in California, with an event headlined by Andrey Koreshkov vs. Lorenz Larkin.
Itabashi Zangief started off the season with ranks 1-10 of Top Ten Anime Betrayals of All Time. Having for years been a steadfast Zangief main, the massive nerfs the character saw in Season 3 forced his hand in switching to Abigail. For the most part, he has stood pat on his switch.
The character certainly helped him get into Capcom Cup. Now will he be able to reprise his role in the top 8 with a big body?
One of the most exciting things about watching Itazan play last year was how aggressive his Zangief was. Well, when you take that aggression and multiply it, then you get Abigail.
This is one of the reasons why Itabashi Zangief’s transition to Abigail has been so smooth. He has few problems getting in, while also hitting like a truck any time he gets a touch. He also adds a few additional mixups beyond what Zangief ever had. This has been a great thing for Itabashi Zangief, who has always been able to condition people to fall for the few mixups that Zangief did have. The ability to do this in a myriad of ways has made him especially dangerous.
The problem is that with a big body character, you run into so many problems. While Itabashi Zangief has done well with the character, the problems are inherent. Characters like Rashid do well, given his multi-hitting projectiles cause issues with Abigail getting in, while its upward arc also shuts down his air game, where the character has jump arc issues. Zoners also still reasonably well, with Guile holding down the fort very well.
This is reasonably what we can expect in his very first round, and he’s paired up against NuckleDu. While Du has lost to Itazan this year, one could expect that his Guile will be prepared to go up against him now — or at the very least, He’ll bring out G to cover the neutral at the beginning of the match, then level up in order to deal with the end game to out-hit Abigail with his V-Trigger I.
But even worse is the army of Menats that Itazan could face… he’s only beaten one out of seven. While he may have time for that — unless of course he ends up having one in his way in Losers Bracket — he still has to get through possibly Akuma, Rashid, Kolin, all with decent multi-hitting and zoning moves that can cause Abigail problems. Given his narrow win-rates against all of them, save for Kolin (a character we haven’t seen him face) this could be an ugly road for Itazan.
He’s got a character that can plow through people, provided he gets in. Against characters that make him struggle in that respect, the only character he can switch to is a character that suffers in the same regard. For him to also be facing one difficult character right out the gate makes me pessimistic about his chances.
It’s hard to count Itazan out, but the odds are he doesn’t make top 8 based on the road he has ahead.