Author: Corey "Missing Person" Lanier

Austin Watson, known better by his WWE stage name of Xavier Woods, is no stranger to nerd culture. We are also no stranger to him, as his YouTube channel UpUpDownDown has garnered quite a decent amount of hits from the fighting game community, due to his setting up matches between various WWE personalities. He has also made various references to gaming in his WWE promos, including one to the Georgia native’s home grown major, Final Round.

So it should come as no shock to anyone that the man who makes a living off of pro wrestling would be in attendance at the Orlando pro wrestling-themed major, CEO. While having an exhbition between himself and New Japan Pro Wrestling’s Kenny Omega in Street Fighter V, Woods also talked to ESPN, who was in attendance at the event.

In the article, Woods discusses his background with video games and how they still play a major role in who he is today. He talks about how he used games to overcome social awkwardness, which certainly aids him in being a public figure. Moreover, he discusses how he used video games to deal with being bullied in school, as well as talking about how video games have helped bring together the WWE backstage area during their down time. He even adds some encouragement to kids to use video games however they can to help them, including becoming big in the FGC.

This article is certainly worth a five minute glance, to see how a passion for games has driven someone to success on a platform that doesn’t inherently have anything to do with gaming.

Source: ESPN via RagingStormX

SNK Playmore, with Evolution around the corner and less than three months away from the release of their flagship title, is putting a lot of work into the promotion of King of Fighters XIV.  It seems like almost every week at least we are seeing more footage released by the company for the game, and today is no exception.

SNK Playmore just released a trailer showcasing the Art of Fighting Team that will appear in this iteration of this game.  Returning to the arena are Ryo, Robert, and Yuri from the aforementioned SNK fighter from the 90s. On display are their various full meter combos, showing off their full potential within the game system.  It goes without saying that within the King of Fighters system mechanics, they hit like a truck, and should have plenty of strong full punish options.

With the game set to release on August 23rd in North America, we can certainly expect more trailers to whet our palettes between now and then.

Source: SNK Playmore

Red Bull has always been known to think outside the box to find their market, so their partnership with the Capcom Pro Tour for the Red Bull Kumite came as no shock; it’s also not surprising to learn of their upcoming Red Bull Proving Grounds series.  Given gamer proclivities for drinking energy drinks, and a glowing endorsement of the drink by Team Secret’s Poongko at Evolution 2011, Red Bull and Street Fighter seem to be a perfect fit for each other.

For Red Bull, they see deeper into the relationship than most would have expected, and have joined forces with Street Fighter V producer Tomoaki Ayano to create a collaboration between Street Fighter V and Red Bull BC One, their annual international B-Boy competition which will be held in Nagoya, Japan on December 3rd.

When speaking of the collaboration, Ayano was quoted as saying, “We saw a lot of similar aspects between breakdancing and competitive fighting games. One of course being the one-on-one battle format but also the fact that there are 16 B-Boys performing and 16 characters in the game.”

While the extent of the collaboration remains to be seen, it is still exciting to see Street Fighter being fluidly integrated into other sub-cultures.

Source: Red Bull BC One, with a tip from Josh C.

Jon “jonnyfraze” Bonilla has just released a video displaying some of the changes in the recent firmware updates to Brook’s Universal Fighting Board. This board has picked up a reputation for being this generation’s version of the MC Cthulhu, thanks to its flexibility across platforms.

Version 1.5, which was recently released by the Brook team, now adds something unexpected to the mix: Wii U support. While fighting games may be limited on the platform, the team looks to make sure that, if necessary, you are prepared for any game that releases on Nintendo’s current flagship system. Also changed is the amount of latency inherent from the board between button presses and system response when being used on PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4. The results will allow you better reaction time when using the UFB when compared to other possible boards and arcade sticks on the market currently.

If you own one of these boards, this update will be a great one to flash to your current stick. If you were on the fence on these boards, perhaps all the additions in 1.5 could sway your opinion.

Source: Jon Bonilla, with a tip from Neoxon

Jon “jonnyfraze” Bonilla has just released a video displaying some of the changes in the recent firmware updates to Brook’s Universal Fighting Board. This board has picked up a reputation for being this generation’s version of the MC Cthulhu, thanks to its flexibility across platforms.

Version 1.5, which was recently released by the Brook team, now adds something unexpected to the mix: Wii U support. While fighting games may be limited on the platform, the team looks to make sure that, if necessary, you are prepared for any game that releases on Nintendo’s current flagship system. Also changed is the amount of latency inherent from the board between button presses and system response when being used on PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4. The results will allow you better reaction time when using the UFB when compared to other possible boards and arcade sticks on the market currently.

If you own one of these boards, this update will be a great one to flash to your current stick. If you were on the fence on these boards, perhaps all the additions in 1.5 could sway your opinion.

Source: Jon Bonilla, with a tip from Neoxon

After two months of intense competition, the first season of Street Fighter Crash in South Korea is coming to a close on Saturday night (in the west). After an exciting event last week that saw HumanBomb defeat RZR|Infiltration twice, we ultimately saw Team Razer defeat Team Southeast, riding off the strength of RZR|Xian’s F.A.N.G play.

In the finals, Team Razer will face Team Topanga–a team who had little issue dispatching IsaCenter–in a runback from top 8. People who tuned in during that time will remember seeing Infiltration lose to EG|Momochi when most people expected him to face Tokido at some point that day, which ultimately led to Team Razer having to fight through losers bracket to advance to top 4 play. Infiltration is seeking revenge on Topanga and Momochi in particular; will he find the retribution he so craves?

While that match will be the highlight of the event, let’s not forget that IsaCenter and Team Southeast will be playing for 3rd place money and bragging rights. Will Team Secret’s Poongko be able to overcome losing twice to Xian in Top 4? Will HumanBomb be able to ride the momentum he had last week into the finale? Or will Sandbag, 200won, and Sazabi shock the world by beating a stacked team such as HumanBomb, Poongko, and AVM|Gamerbee?  

Find out live at 10 PM PDT Saturday, June 5 (1 AM EDT Sunday, June 6) on the English Crash Twitch channel to find out!

Source: SpoTV

When a new character or a new game appears, Desk is rarely far behind. Thus, given how many games the man has tried to completely break, it’s no wonder that he would be able to draw many parallels between the recently revealed version of Ibuki and various other fighting game characters and mechanics.

While he (obviously) shows how little many combo options have changed for everyone’s favorite ninja schoolgirl between Street Fighter IV and the present iteration, he also draws some conclusions on possible inspiration for Ibuki’s design. In doing so, he found that there might be a correlation between her V-Trigger and Doctrine Dark’s Explosive in the Street Fighter EX series, and even more surprisingly, that her ability to float might have been inspired by Karnov’s Balloon Attack in Karnov’s Revenge (also known as Fighter’s History Dynamite in Japan) by Data East–a now-defunct company Capcom once attempted to sue out of fear that they had completely copied Street Fighter’s mechanics for this very IP.

Whether these parallels are intentional or not may forever be left up to the imagination, though it is hard to ignore how close they are in terms of design.

Source: Desk

One of the most amazing aspects, in my personal opinion, of Street Fighter V to date has been the crossover appeal that it has garnered within the fighting game community at large. Many games have existed in their own isolated communities over the years, with few players truly crossing over outside of casual, passing interest in other titles. Even fewer broke out in their secondary games to make an impact on the competitive scenes of those games.

With Street Fighter V, that is clearly changing. One of the most notable scenes for this to date has been Korea, which has scene an influx of players from Tekken and The King of Fighters branch out to Street Fighter V with varying degrees of success. In Street Fighter Crash, two players that got their start in Tekken–Sazabi and 200won–are on one team in the Top 4 of the event, poised to take home fight money in their first big event of the game.

With the new Street Fighter blood crossing over from Tekken, one question in Korea is whether these players who have their roots in 3D fighting will be able to be strong and competitive against players who have cut their teeth primarily on the 2D plane. While Tekken players’ results at Evo will definitely be a strong litmus test, Drakefang from ArcadeStream seeks to be the first person to answer that question.

On Friday night in Korea (Friday morning in America), ten players will converge in a 5-on-5 team battle between Team Arcade Stream and Team Tekken. While nothing is on the line, it will be an interesting test of how well Tekken players are transitioning into the game, especially with the names attending.

Team Arcade Stream:

• [TAS] RagingStormX (USA – Vega)
• [TAS] SamsonK (USA – Chun-Li)
• [TAS] Mag9xmitsuko (USA – R. Mika)
• [TAS] zZInsaneZz (Brazil – R. Mika)
• [TAS] ROF (Australia – Birdie)

Team Tekken (All Korean):

• Knee (?)
• Sazabi (Zangief)
• 200won (R. Mika)
• RedStar (Ken)
• Narak HOF (Zangief)

What is interesting to note is that each match will be played best of 3, with every team member playing one another, with the best aggregate score winning the exhibition. Also of note is that this event is not character locked like most team exhibitions, which means counter-picking is entirely possible.

Want to see which discipline stands tall at the end? Tune in at 7 AM EDT Friday, May 27th (4 AM PDT) to find out!

Source: ArcadeStream

One of the most amazing aspects, in my personal opinion, of Street Fighter V to date has been the crossover appeal that it has garnered within the fighting game community at large. Many games have existed in their own isolated communities over the years, with few players truly crossing over outside of casual, passing interest in other titles. Even fewer broke out in their secondary games to make an impact on the competitive scenes of those games.

With Street Fighter V, that is clearly changing. One of the most notable scenes for this to date has been Korea, which has scene an influx of players from Tekken and The King of Fighters branch out to Street Fighter V with varying degrees of success. In Street Fighter Crash, two players that got their start in Tekken–Sazabi and 200won–are on one team in the Top 4 of the event, poised to take home fight money in their first big event of the game.

With the new Street Fighter blood crossing over from Tekken, one question in Korea is whether these players who have their roots in 3D fighting will be able to be strong and competitive against players who have cut their teeth primarily on the 2D plane. While Tekken players’ results at Evo will definitely be a strong litmus test, Drakefang from ArcadeStream seeks to be the first person to answer that question.

On Friday night in Korea (Friday morning in America), ten players will converge in a 5-on-5 team battle between Team Arcade Stream and Team Tekken. While nothing is on the line, it will be an interesting test of how well Tekken players are transitioning into the game, especially with the names attending.

Team Arcade Stream:

• [TAS] RagingStormX (USA – Vega)
• [TAS] SamsonK (USA – Chun-Li)
• [TAS] Mag9xmitsuko (USA – R. Mika)
• [TAS] zZInsaneZz (Brazil – R. Mika)
• [TAS] ROF (Australia – Birdie)

Team Tekken (All Korean):

• Knee (?)
• Sazabi (Zangief)
• 200won (R. Mika)
• RedStar (Ken)
• Narak HOF (Zangief)

What is interesting to note is that each match will be played best of 3, with every team member playing one another, with the best aggregate score winning the exhibition. Also of note is that this event is not character locked like most team exhibitions, which means counter-picking is entirely possible.

Want to see which discipline stands tall at the end? Tune in at 7 AM EDT Friday, May 27th (4 AM PDT) to find out!

Source: ArcadeStream