Author: Corey "Missing Person" Lanier

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

Until KaneBlueRiver began his trek across the globe to prove himself the best at Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Chile wasn’t even on the map when it came to fighting games. He ultimately showed the world how good he was, winning at Evolution 2015 and finishing second in 2016.

Now Chile has more than just KaneBlueRiver to be proud of. Brook Gaming’s Felipe “Misterio” Torres Carvacho has enough points to make his way into Capcom Cup. Through strong showings such as 1st place at Lima Salty 3 and a 5th at Treta 2016, Carvacho has punched his ticket to go to Anaheim for the biggest tournament of the year. Is he the next national hero of esports in Chile?

Keyword: Aggression

I haven’t seen a more aggressive Karin than I have watching Misterio’s matches, or what little of them I can find online. While he knows where to pick his spots, and certainly knows when to guard, it’s clear he has a main gear in game. It is full-out aggression.

From what I can tell, this likely stems from being a King of Fighters player first. Most KOF players are known to be aggressive, because the game warrants and rewards that kind of style. The fact that he can find his spots to hold back is impressive, given his background. This will be the difference-maker as he moves forward in Street Fighter V.

While aggression serves him well, over the long haul of a match, he is patient. He applies the aggression as needed, but he is willing to let the match drag on—not fishing to end the match early. This shows a mark of skill that is worth noting. His experience in fighting games has taught him not to be careless in aggression, which allows him to not get blown up by mistakes rookies often make in being too aggressive. Rookies will get tagged with reversals on wake-up and meaties on their own wake-ups simply by not maintaining patience. This is not a problem Misterio has, and serves to his benefit over the course of the match should it come down to a battle of attrition.

Latest Results and Double Focus

The problem I see with Misterio is his most recent results. After a strong start early, Misterio has seen his results dip. Since August, he has finished no higher than 5th. He is doing this in Latin American and South American events, as he has yet to travel outside of the region to play, as opposed to Brolynho. This is a major red flag that I see when it comes to his chances in Anaheim.

What can this be attributed to? Part of it can be associated with The King of Fighters XIV being released. He clearly started off in the series, and is already doing very well in South America. This series has a hotbed of activity in this region, so it is to be expected that Misterio, who started off in KOF, would pick up and do well in the fourteenth iteration.

The question that lingers now is how much he cares about Street Fighter V when he is able to return to playing his first love. Obviously he cares enough to enter Street Fighter V at events such as Treta. But is he really putting in the time needed to hang in Anaheim? It is not looking to be the case, as his results are showing.

While he is still making top 8s despite his focus shifting to King of Fighters–a mark of a strong player, as evidenced by Tokido and Xiaohai–how much is that going to matter when facing up against players whose sole focus is Street Fighter, especially when he’s struggling against players in his own region?

Inconsistency

The other issue I see is even early into the game, he had inconsistency in execution. Forever the divining rod that separates the good players from the best, execution could be his downfall at Capcom Cup. In multiple instances, there are dropped combos and confirms from his Karin that makes me worried about how well he can do. While Misterio has done well in not going on autopilot or panicking when he drops a combo, it’s those differences in damage from a punish that can mean the difference between winning a round and losing it.

Given his changed focus to KOF, I grow concerned that those issues have not been resolved, and any dropped combo will add up against the best in the world. However, given the high execution requirements in KOF, we might have seen that alone shake off the problems he was experiencing in Street Fighter V. It is a proverbial Pandora’s Box, that we’ll see opened in December.

Final Thoughts

I don’t mean to take anything away from Misterio. He has earned his way in, so he deserves to be there. But the fact looms over his shoulder that he is a big fish in the small pond of Latin America, about to be dropped into the ocean that is Capcom Cup in December. What’s worse is he is not focusing nearly enough on Street Fighter V to prepare to take on those bigger fish.

I project that Misterio will leave California 0-2 at Capcom Cup. Better luck next year, in whatever game he chooses to focus on.

HORI’s Sako is still in the running for Capcom Cup, and he is preparing for his chance to make it to the event in Anaheim at the Asia Regional Finals in Busan. So how is he fairing in his progress?

Rintarou is a great Japanese Ken. He has little tournament experience and has only been out to play domestically. His online play has been noted as solid, and thus great practice for the best in Asia.

So when Sako’s Chun faces off against Rintarou’s Ken in a first to five, who will win? Will Sako prove that he’s ready for his shot at making it to Anaheim? Find out below!

Source: XusesGB

When I posted my editorial about NuckleDu’s chances at Capcom Cup, one of the most pertinent comments I received was that both Daigo Umehara and Tokido have stated that they have problems with Guile. While for many this would be a constant Achilles’ Heel, for the top players this is a challenge to rise above.

Daigo, the consummate pro, has taken matters into his own hands to learn the Guile match-up. In this video put together by Xuses, we see Daigo square off against one of the best Guiles in the world, Doyanbo. What happens is a long story of the Beast’s adaptation to a match-up he finds to be one of Ryu’s worst, and a lesson in how to fight the match-up for all the Ryu mains out there scratching their heads at Guile.

Source: XusesGB

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

If there’s one name that’s coming up a lot lately, it’s Du “NuckleDu” Dang of Team Liquid. The American phenomenon has taken a very aggressive approach to the latter half of the Capcom Pro Tour season, becoming the first American this year to win a Premier event, at Canada Cup. He followed up that impressive performance by winning a second consecutive Premier event at the North American Regional Finals over Hajime “Tokido” Taniguchi. He is now one of only three players to win consecutive Premier titles on the circuit this year, with only Razer’s Seon-woo “Infiltration” Lee and Zowie’s Bruce “GamerBee” Hsiang replicating that feat.

Dang is most definitely the hottest player in the lead up to Capcom Cup. But will this hot streak be enough to propel him to the most prestigious title in Street Fighter?

Author’s note: I know it’s so hard to promise, but I will do my very best to abstain from every pun I can make on NuckleDu’s name. Now’s your chance to bet on how many I make over the course of the article and see how close you are. For bragging rights only, of course. [Editor’s note: I suppose I promise not to remove any, then…]

From the Bottom to the Top

When he first emerged on the scene, NuckleDu has was a strong player. He wasn’t a closer however, and when the pressure was too high, he tended to lose his bearings and get eliminated far earlier than most other respected players did. This happened on a consistent basis–it was no one-time thing.

It wasn’t until extremely recently that we began seeing Du as the closer. With his wins in Toronto and Seattle, Dang has proven that he can clutch out events. Further, over the short lifespan of Street Fighter V, NuckleDu has won seven tournaments of any scale. He only won 9 tournaments of any scale over the lifespan of the Street Fighter IV series combined.

While this can be attributed to Street Fighter V being a game he has found himself comfortable in playing–and rightfully so, there’s more factors involved. It’s quite possible that had Du been involved in SFIV from the start, he would’ve had many more consistently strong finishes in events. But we’re talking about what is reality, and here’s the reality.

Confidence Boost

When I talked to Du after his win at Canada Cup, one of the keywords of that interview was “confidence.” When he was playing in Toronto, he looked confident the whole way through. Being the cornerstone of the American team who won the 5-on-5 team exhibition certainly helped strengthen his confidence, but even before that, he had far more swagger and confidence than I have ever seen him perform with.

NuckleDu has not been a confident person during his time in the FGC. These are words coming from his own mouth. But something has clicked recently that has put his self-esteem in a stronger place. Being rooted like that definitely plays a major factor in how you perform in competitive environments. And that is not the only thing that works in his favor.

Pro: Character Choice

Du was one of the first top players to not only have a main, but high-level pocket characters that he would bring out over the course of a tournament. For all the confidence he claims to lack, he was gutsy enough to throw secondaries out in top 8. But one of his secondaries is starting to shine to the point where you have to wonder if he has to start calling them his main, and that is R. Mika.

I won’t mince words–Du’s Mika is dang good. Du pretty much rode her to victory in the latter half of Canada Cup. Only bringing out Guile one time during top 8 against Xiaohai in winners finals [And unsuccessfully, at that. – Editor], Du wreaked havoc with players in his usage of R. Mika between singles and the 5-on-5. It was like no one knew what hit them.

But why is it so good? Says Gaston “zZInsaneZz” Reid, a prominent R. Mika player from South Korea, “His ground game is really strong, and he blocks everything well, which is what he does best.”

But let’s talk about his Guile–since we’re on the subject–as the above observation works well in Du’s Guile play as well. As a complete parallel universe to Canada Cup, Dang only played R. Mika once in top 8 against alucarD, but otherwise ran Guile exclusively during the NA Regional Finals. The characters were opposites, but the results remained the same as he ran through Hajime “Tokido” Taniguchi in decisive fashion in grand finals.

Both these characters seem to have eclipsed his presumed main of Nash in his hands, as he is taking them and dominating with them, as opposed to the lowly numbers he was putting up by maining Nash exclusively.

Con: Character Choice

One of the things that is NuckleDu’s greatest strengths can also be his greatest weaknesses. He has two characters that are strong theoretically. You could even argue R. Mika as top tier. But over the course of time, they prove to be problematic.

One of my favorite comparisons for Mika is to Sagat in Street Fighter IV. She is strong, and has taken a lot of players off-guard. But once people sit down and look at her, they start to see things that they should do differently than they do against the largest swath of the cast. Says Etienne “Cpt. Maumau” Maurin–one of ArcadeStream’s commentators–of Du’s match against Xiaohai at Canada Cup, “It was more about Xiaohai not punishing well [than anything NuckleDu was doing.]” And that seems to be the anthem of players losing to R. Mika.

Players tend to give way too much respect to Mika, while she is one of the characters whose aggression should be respected least. Once she gets going, she gets to play her game, and until you stand up to her and begin throwing out V-Reversals or wake-up DPs, she will continue to apply the pressure. Once you are able to stand up to her, she will ease up on the pressure and wait for you. Once that happens, players find that Mika’s winning game plan crumbles.

That is what NuckleDu found to work for him at Canada Cup. When he arrived to Seattle, he found players doing exactly what makes Mika not work in his favor. Thus you saw him playing Guile for the remainder of the event.

With the instant exposure he has received in the last couple weeks, people are most certainly watching his Mika now and it has been put on notice. While his Guile did the job in Seattle, he is by far the most linear character he plays. If all it took was a week to download his Mika, how sooner will they know how to play against his Guile?

He could always go Nash, but as I have already stated, his play with Nash has not garnered the results as the former two characters has. Unless he has been putting in secret lab time with Nash, players heading to Anaheim will be focusing far more on Infiltration and Yukadon (should he qualify) than NuckleDu’s Nash.

Can He Last?

Yes, NuckleDu is on a white-knuckle ride right now, riding a surge of momentum that he will try to carry into Capcom Cup. But whether he can is a big question on what his expected return from Capcom Cup will be.

The problem with trying to ride momentum into Capcom Cup is the dearth of events in the month leading up to the event. The only CPT event remaining is the Asia/Oceania Regional Finals at the end of the month. On top of that, there are no real major events to be had in North America at this point. Riding momentum requires you to continue to press on through events and keep winning. Du cannot du this, simply because of the lack of events.

If it were possible, you have to bear in mind that when you are riding momentum for this long, you have to factor in one more thing–burn out. At some point, Dang will likely burn out. It has happened to everyone, including the greats like Daigo Umehara and Infiltration, so he is not the only one who suffers to stay on top of his game. The question now is when? It could be a month from now; it could be far later down the line. The likelihood is that he will. Given his waxing and waning confidence levels, I would anticipate it being sooner rather than later.

Final Thoughts

NuckleDu has proven a lot to the FGC this year. He has proven he has a bright future within esports and he will go far. But I do not believe he is going to shine the brightest at Capcom Cup.

He picked the wrong time to peak this season, when every killer is giving far more scrutiny during the lead-up to Anaheim. This, among other reasons, is why I don’t see him making it to top 8. He can still make it, but he probably has the hardest road at this point with the huge target he has just placed on his back this month. Should he make it, I don’t see him making it in winners bracket, or making it higher than seventh place. My projection is that he makes top 12 and no higher, but look forward to what he can du next season.

(If you guessed I would make four puns on NuckleDu’s name, congratulations, you win!)

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

Hajime “Tokido” Taniguchi. When I think of him, I think of the epitome of a fighting game player. This guy has played it all, and has done well at it all to boot. It would take me forever to list off every game that he has played and done well at, and Street Fighter V is no exception.

He is one of only a handful of players who has seen his name at the top rank of a Capcom Pro Tour Premier event, having won Southeast Asia Major and Community Effort Orlando. He has had one of his best years to date, but will that be enough to allow him to win Capcom Cup?

The Utility Player

One of the most impressive things about Tokido is his ability to play multiple games well. He had a brilliant mind for being able to switch games at the drop of a hat, and making top 8s in multiple games at multiple Evolutions. However, the result of doing so was that he was always viewed as the FGC’s equivalent to a utility role in baseball. He was great at everything, but excelled at nothing.

Only once, in 2007, has he made multiple top 8s at Evolution and won a title, taking the prize in Super Street Fighter II Turbo while making top 8 in Capcom vs. SNK 2, Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, Virtua Fighter 5, and Guilty Gear XX Λ Core. This is an impressive feat–no doubt–but when you struggle to close out events due to stretching yourself too thin over the course of a weekend, when the goal is to win tournaments, most people are going to overlook the otherworldly level of skill it takes to make multiple top 8s and ask, “Well, what have you actually won?”

This year, we have seen Tokido settle himself down as far as what is he is entering is concerned. We saw him focus on Street Fighter V alone. The results have been that he made more top 8s, and won 50% as many majors this year as he has in the prior three years combined. Further, he captained Team Topanga to a win in Street Fighter V Crash. This is most definitely Tokido’s banner year, and one can only assume he has his eyes fixed on Capcom Cup to crown it.

Art of Ryu

In Street Fighter V, Ryu is often played in a very scientific way, slow and straightforward. Tokido would love to show everyone that this is not the way to play him, and I believe he has over the course of the year. Whereas players like Daigo Umehara or XSK_Samurai tend to play Ryu more robotically and in a cookie-cutter manner of merely relying on their fundamentals, Tokido has turned Ryu into an art form. You’re more likely to see him in Oddshots and Twitch clips than any other Ryu, thanks to his artistic exchanges and crazy baits–and it’s tough not to love him for it.

If you were to play Tokido with nothing more than Ryu match-up knowledge, it would take him just a few sets to deconstruct every notion that you had, and send you back to the drawing board. That is how different his Ryu is. To top all of that off, he has some of the best execution in the world, and is one of few Ryus to be able to confirm standing short into Critical Art at will. The number of tools he has in his arsenal is amazing, and makes him a legitimate threat anywhere.

The Fear of the Unknown

If I was put one thing down as his biggest flaw, it is losing to something he is clueless about. One of the specific moments showcases this failing came at Never Give Up, in the final game against Jiewa. Near the end, Tokido used a V-Trigger cancel to bait out Jiewa’s V-Reversal, then parried the V-Reversal. He then tried to Shoryuken the V-Reversal. What Tokido didn’t plan for was the fact that Ken’s V-Reversal counts as airborne, thus causing the Shoryuken to reset Ken instead of do full damage. The result of that caused Jiewa to win. When the cameras panned to the players, Tokido looked visibly shocked that the air reset happened, which leads me to believe that for all the work Tokido puts in, there is still so much that he doesn’t know about the game–and when he is playing mostly by instinct, that can lead to his doom.

Preparedness

Tokido is always prepared to cruise through the bracket. However, there is one thing I’d like to point out from seeing and talking to him; he prepares more for situations than he does the long haul. Tokido tends to focus his preparation for beating specific players than general high-level match-up situations. When it works out for him, the results are great. He spent his time preparing for Infiltration by playing against Yukadon, and went on to beat him at CEO. He stated at Southeast Asia Major that his goal was to beat Momochi, and did just that on his way to a tournament victory.

This is just taking into account grand finals, of course. He does tend to cruise by in top 8 for the most part fairly well. At no point when he has made top 8 in Street Fighter V has he finished outside of the top 4.

Outside of Infiltration, though, look at those who have defeated him on his way to those lower finishes. NuckleDu. Jiewa. Xiaohai. Fuudo (whom Tokido had dispatched of in SFV Crash). Eita. Yukadon. Mago. Momochi. These are all strong players. However, given Tokido’s consistency in numbers compared to theirs, they simply should not be beating him on a regular basis. Yet, they are. Why? Partly because he overlooks what he views as smaller fish to go hunting for sharks. But there’s more to it than just this, or else it would merely be a matter of more effort on Tokido’s part to overcome this.

All Eyes on the Murderface

With Tokido’s consistent records over this season comes the attention of everyone looking to make their mark on the world of Street Fighter. If he’s not going to prepare for them, they’ll prepare for him. The lack of attention he gives to some players while they’re studying his tapes is deadly.

Tokido doesn’t give away much with his fluid play style, but the top players are obviously finding something to abuse, because they are beating him. Further, sometimes Tokido has unwittingly given away things without knowing it. For example, he trained against Yukadon to defeat Infiltration. While Tokido–in the short term–benefited from doing so to win CEO, Yukadon has certainly benefited equally–if not more–than Tokido by being able to send him to Losers Bracket on his way to top 8 at Evolution. While Tokido was allowed to prepare for Infiltration, Yukadon was far more prepared to dispatch Tokido because he simply knew how he would approach the match–and he knew that Tokido’s focus wasn’t totally on him.

While that sort of direct download doesn’t happen often, it does factor in to his ability to win Capcom Cup, since many of those players will be there to face him. He will have to contend with at least a few players from Japan, including those from the Topanga house that he trains at. This could stunt his progress in the bracket.

Is His Training Method Right?

He has most notably said to Yahoo! Esports that his new training method–which sees him playing less and studying videos more–is correct. He claims this off a first place finish at SEAM and now a second place finish at the North American Regional Finals. That is quite the small sample size to confirm his theories, albeit good results to show for his new training regimen.

Right after he won SEAM, he took an abbreviated break. This is not the Infiltration-style break, and he has certainly continued his business as usual training regimen. But what will truly prove that he has chosen the right path is his results at Capcom Cup.

Smaller Pool

One thing that does benefit Tokido is the fact that very soon, he will know every name that will be at the tournament. Unlike larger pools—where he won’t know who will make top 32 or above—he knows this time exactly who he will face. He will have some time to research each player. While he will likely focus on players he’s found himself to struggle against, he will at least have some grasp of each player before he reaches Anaheim. His careful scrutiny of players he wants to beat may actually guide him to victory.

Final Thoughts

The biggest X-factor with Tokido is how he spends this last month before Capcom Cup. If he goes deep into research, and doesn’t overlook anyone, he has to be the odds on favorite.

With that, I would easily bet that Tokido makes grand finals. How he does from there will depend on who ends up on the other side, and how much time he has spent preparing for them.