Author: Corey "Missing Person" Lanier

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CEO Gaming Announces CEO 2017 Dates, Hotel Registration Coming Soon

Alex Jebailey has been keeping himself busy. While he is already sitting on the doorstep of the beginning of this month’s CEOtaku event, he is continuing to pound away on his flagship event–Community Effort Orlando.

Tonight, word broke of the dates for CEO 2017, with Jebailey taking to Twitter to officially confirm the dates of June 16th through the 18th at the Wyndham Resort in Orlando. It was further stated that hotel registration for the event would be available following CEOtaku.

He also took to his personal Twitter to assure people that there would be “plenty of rooms,” as there would be registration options available both at the Wyndham and the Hawthorne Suites, which is next door to the venue.

On a bittersweet note, however, Jebailey stated that this would be the “end of an era,” as it would be the final year that CEO will be held at the Wyndham, which has housed the event since its inception following the demise of the G.A.M.M.E. event that sparked the creation of CEO.

While it is sad that it will be the final year at the Wyndham, we can only expect an upward trend for CEO, and expect bigger and better things than the Wyndham could contain in 2018. Get ready to register, and mark June 16-18 red on your calendars!

Sources: CEOGaming; CEOJebailey

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Smash Scenes Takes on the Rise, Fall, and Rise of Houston, Texas in Third Episode

After tackling the competitive Super Smash Bros. Melee scene of Seoul, South Korea, GosuJasu has moved on to cover Houston, Texas. The motto of everything being bigger in Texas holds true here. Houston has a big, vibrant Super Smash Bros. for Wii U scene, with five weekly tournaments every week, and a welcoming community that enjoys time even away from the game. It was, however, a scene that almost wasn’t.

The scene suffered several setbacks, including tournament issues that caused fallings out as well as factioning that caused major rifts between players within the scene. When contacted for clarification beyond the video, GosuJasu explained:

Houston Sm4sh is the perfect example of what happens when you let things build up without keeping them in check. The online interaction definitely came to a boiling point, and some really terrible things were said. However they’ve been able to move forward past the drama and remain a very strong scene. Shortly after the filming for the episode, the Houston Facebook group instated a few rules that would prevent these sorts of toxic exchanges in the future.

And with maintaining a welcoming community for all who want to play being a top priority, the Houston scene will recover and become more vibrant than before.

Source: GosuJasu

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“Upload Complete”: Infiltration Talks About His Evolution 2016 Championship with Core-A Gaming

Razer’s Seonwoo “Infiltration” Lee shocked the world with his determination and skill to topple his teammate, Keita “Fuudo” Ai, coming from Loser’s Bracket in Grand Finals at Evolution 2016. What further shocked the world was his interview skills, giving the now famous, “Download complete,” response to Ryan “Gootecks” Gutierrez’s question about his adjustments heading into Grand Finals.

Today, Gerald “mintcheerios” Lee from Core-A Gaming uploaded a video, where he sat down with the Evo 2016 champion to talk about his experience at the biggest fighting game tournament ever. In the video, Infiltration opens up about why he uttered that line, and also talks about how he felt watching the Cinderella story of the tournament, Joe “LI Joe” Ciaramelli and his relationship with his father. Going further, Infiltration talks about what he believes to be the core differences between competitive play in Street Fighter V and Street Fighter IV, and whether he will be continuing with his tradition of maining the entire cast.

This is definitely an interview you won’t want to miss.

Source: Core-A Gaming

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Arc System Works Releases Second Japanese Trailer for BlazBlue: Central Fiction

With the Japanese release date of October 6 right around the corner, Arc System Works has activated promotion mode for the console release of BlazBlue: Central Fiction by releasing a second trailer. While the trailer is in Japanese, it does shed some light on what is included within the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3 release.

Featured in the trailer is the boast of 34 playable characters. Further on in, they go over Story Mode, which is touted as being bigger than anything the series has seen so far. Also featured are modes such as Practice Mode, Score Attack Mode, Grim of Abyss Mode, and online play.

What’s more is that the PlayStation 4 version of the game will feature legacy controller support:

It is also worth noting that pre-orders of the Japanese PlayStation 4 edition of the game will get access to a demo of the game, making that–along with getting earlier access to the game than the American holiday release date allows–potentially worth the purchase.

Source: Gematsu

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Evo Japan, LLC Now a Registered Legal Entity in Japan, Has Huge Media Conglomerate Backing

Before the Top 8 of Street Fighter V at Evolution 2016, we were treated with the announcement of Evolution Japan. While details have been scarce since then, we were promised more details at Tokyo Game Show.

With Tokyo Game Show looming on the horizon, we were treated to information in the affirmative that Evolution Japan was indeed moving forward swimmingly. 4Gamer, a Japanese gaming publication, released information–translated by Ryan “Fubarduck” Harvey–that Evo Japan, LLC, has been registered as an official legal entity in Japan as of late September. It is a joint venture of SRKX Productions–our parent company and operator of Evolution Championship Series–and three Japanese companies who have split a $1,000,000 stake into the company: Hearts United Group (a subsidiary of Aetas, owners of 4Gamer), Shochiku Broadcasting, and Aetas.  With Hearts United Group owning a 45% stake of the company, and Aetas owning an additional 10%, this makes Aetas majority owner of Evo Japan, LLC.

While this may mean little on the front end of the operation to the competitor planning to travel to the land of the rising sun for the event, what it does mean is that Japanese conglomerates are putting stock in Evolution Championship Series, and are willing to take a chance on striking gold with the tournament’s Japanese presence.

After news broke from 4Gamer, Mark “MarkMan” Julio took to Twitter to announce this was not the only information we should expect, and that he believed that Evo Japan is “the future of gaming.”

With news like this, Tokyo Game Show is shaping up to be an event you do not want to miss.

Source: Ryan Harvey/Mark Julio

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Evo Japan, LLC Now a Registered Legal Entity in Japan, Has Huge Media Conglomerate Backing

Before the Top 8 of Street Fighter V at Evolution 2016, we were treated with the announcement of Evolution Japan. While details have been scarce since then, we were promised more details at Tokyo Game Show.

With Tokyo Game Show looming on the horizon, we were treated to information in the affirmative that Evolution Japan was indeed moving forward swimmingly. 4Gamer, a Japanese gaming publication, released information–translated by Ryan “Fubarduck” Harvey–that Evo Japan, LLC, has been registered as an official legal entity in Japan as of late September. It is a joint venture of SRKX Productions–our parent company and operator of Evolution Championship Series–and three Japanese companies who have split a $1,000,000 stake into the company: Hearts United Group (a subsidiary of Aetas, owners of 4Gamer), Shochiku Broadcasting, and Aetas.  With Hearts United Group owning a 45% stake of the company, and Aetas owning an additional 10%, this makes Aetas majority owner of Evo Japan, LLC.

While this may mean little on the front end of the operation to the competitor planning to travel to the land of the rising sun for the event, what it does mean is that Japanese conglomerates are putting stock in Evolution Championship Series, and are willing to take a chance on striking gold with the tournament’s Japanese presence.

After news broke from 4Gamer, Mark “MarkMan” Julio took to Twitter to announce this was not the only information we should expect, and that he believed that Evo Japan is “the future of gaming.”

With news like this, Tokyo Game Show is shaping up to be an event you do not want to miss.

Source: Ryan Harvey/Mark Julio

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Hungrybox Talks about His Rivalry With Leffen for Cultivation: Leffen Resurrection

Team Liquid’s Juan “Hungrybox” Debiedma’s stock has risen dramatically over the years.  Having never finished outside of top 3 in Super Smash Bros. Melee at Evolution, Hungrybox cemented his legacy within the game with his championship-earning performance at Evolution 2016.

Although Debiedma currently sits on top of the world with his performance this year, there’s yet another who stands out as his own star in the Melee universe–Team SoloMid’s William “Leffen” Hjelte. Hjelte–who was noticeably absent from Evolution 2016 due to visa issues, has been somewhat of an Achilles’ Heel to Hungrybox, having knocked him out of events before. In this addition to Red Bull’s Cultivation: Leffen Resurrection video series, Hungrybox talks about his rivalry with the man who put him out of APEX 2015. He further goes on to state that he noticed that Leffen changes his grip when he performs Up-Airs, leaving players with an advantageous tell on the Swedish phenom.

Source: Red Bull eSports

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“Neither of My Characters Do Well Against Chun”: Shine Talks about ECT and Counter Picks

After East Coast Throwdown, FloKO caught up with Olympic Gaming’s Shine to talk about his fourth place finish. While it is the highest that he has finished in a major to date, he is ultimately unsatisfied with anything but first place.

One of the biggest problems that OG|Shine faced in the top 8 was Chun-Li, having to face and ultimately fall to both Coin Up’s Ludovic and Panda Global’s RayRay. He states that his two characters–Karin and Juri–are not equipped to handle Chun-Li, and states that he going to be working on a counter pick for Chun-Li: Cammy.

For more from Shine, follow the link above to catch the full video interview on FloKO.

Source: FloKO

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Watch ArcadeStream’s Charity Cup Finals: Winner Receives Limited Edition Evolution TE2

For four weeks, Hyounoo “DrakeFang” Sung has run a tournament series at Korea’s well-known Street Fighter stomping grounds–ArcadeStream. The series acted as a qualifier, with the top two of each week qualifying for the final top 8. While the proceeds of the ₩10,000 went to charity, the final event itself has something extremely coveted by its participants.

DrakeFang is offering a limited edition Evolution 2016-themed Madcatz Touranment Edition 2 fightstick to the 1st place winner in the winner take all grand finals. Many of ArcadeStream’s mainstays, and some of Korea’s best players, have taken part in the series to get this gem–numbered 27 out of the 30 in existence. Here is the list of the players participating in the finals, to be held on Saturday, September 10th at 5PM KST (1AM PST):

  • [TAS] ROF (Birdie -Australia)
  • [TAS] zZInsaneZz (R. Mika – Brazil)
  • it_g_ma_yo (Rashid – Korea)
  • diabloDOC (Ryu – Korea)
  • nakodid (M. Bison – Korea)
  • BreastPantyHip (R. Mika – Korea)
  • crazyforsf (Dhalsim – Korea)
  • Dunhill (Karin – Korea)

Tune in to ArcadeStream’s Twitch channel to watch the finals live from Seoul!

Source: ArcadeStream

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More Korean High Level Play in SpiritZero’s Road to Southeast Asia Majors Replay

Team SpiritZero has been busy as a bee lately. They recently held a qualifier for Tokyo Game Show, and now they have doubled up their exposure of Korean players to the world by hosting a Southeast Asia Majors qualifier as well. On Saturday, September 3rd, 52 of Korea’s best gathered in the city of Anyang, just south of Seoul.  The result was a relative unknown outside of Korea–a Ryu player known as Jungjil–narrowly edging out the people’s champion of Street Fighter V Crash, Sandbag, to take the entry to SEAM 2016.

SpiritZero has posted the replay of the tournament on Youtube, which features some of the usual suspects in Korea. As well as the aforementioned Jungjil and Sandbag, look for matches from 200won, Nin (again registered as Parkhyunkyu), M. Lizard, Jun8, diabloDOC, Xyzzy, and many more. This event again features Korean commentary by murderK and Razer’s Infiltration.

Source: SPIRITZERO