Author: Corey "Missing Person" Lanier

Devil May Cry may have started it all, but Dante at this point has Devil Triggered everyone in the Marvel Vs. Capcom series. As one of the more interesting characters of the series due to his very technical moveset, he has become one of the most popular characters in the franchise, owing mainly to his origins.

XusesGB takes us back to his origins from the very first Devil May Cry, following Dante’s adventure to become the top tier menace he is now in Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite. And yes, this list does include DmC: Devil May Cry as well.

Source: XusesGB

Who says you need Excel to play Street Fighter EX 2+? Given the fact that ARIKA’s new title doesn’t feature this mechanic, now would be a good time to start practicing not using it, and this combo video show you just how beastly your characters can be without using Excel.

In this video Doctrine Dark and Cracker Jack show off their combo capabilities. While Dark has less damage, his mix-up potential off any normal combo is much greater. He also has a nifty win pose that only happens if he wins without using meter, and if he wins off of a chip damage explosive. Jack, on the other hand, doles out heaps of damage off any Excel-less combo, including a horribly impractical one that features only two hits and requires the use of two final charge punches.

Source: Shin Tanimoto

Cyclops Osaka’s Ryo “Dogura” Nozaki seems to be one of the least-anticipated qualifiers for Capcom Cup 2017. Having made his name as a titan on the anime scene — carving his fame out taking Blazblue and Guilty Gear titles — he only had 11 tournaments logged in Street Fighter IV’s lifespan, and only a handful of results in Street Fighter V last year.

Given that, few would have expected to see him perform the way he has on the Capcom Pro Tour this year. Nonetheless, he has not only qualified, but catapulted into the top half of the seedings. Will we see Dogura not only dominate anime, but Street Fighter V in December?

A Year of Grinding

The first time I witnessed Dogura playing Street Fighter V personally was at Frosty Faustings IX in January of this year. While he was able to make top 8, it is worth mentioning that tournament didn’t bring out all the best players due to it not being a Capcom Pro Tour event, and that Dogura was there for the perpetual main event of Frosty — Guilty Gear. What I witnessed was more or less a cookie-cutter version of Urien, fundamental but not exceptional. I honestly assumed that he only joined just to try his hand at the game, and was relying more on fighting game fundamentals to bring him through the bracket than anything else.

What I didn’t realize at that point was his entry at Frosty was indicative of his preparation to make a run for Capcom Cup in 2017. He may have only had the basics at that point, but he was earnest in his effort to train the game and become a threat over this year. He has put in a lot of grinding, and it has clearly paid off. His Urien has become the best — not even one of the best. People will talk about Nemo until they’re blue in the face about how great he is, but his results don’t compare to Dogura’s. He may have been the inspiration all Urien players looked up to in the beginning, but Dogura has long since become the master.

Mirror’s Edge

Dogura’s choice of Urien fits him perfectly. Given his background in anime titles, it’s hard to find a character that embodies that sort of style in the Capcom universe. Given all the tools Urien has, he may be the next best thing.

And no one is using those tools better. While you will see Dogura use those crazy V-Skill combos, he has such great spacing and pressure that he relies on it far less than Nemo does. But the most telling is his use of V-Trigger compared to other Urien players.

While we’ve always known how well-rounded Aegis Reflector is in the game, it is Dogura that fully understands the characteristics of the V-Trigger, and abuses them. If you observe Nemo’s play, he primarily uses Aegis in hit-confirms or as a mix-up off of a block string. While Dogura also does this, he is far more flexible in his usage of the tool, milking it for every property it has.

If you observe his Winners Finals match with GO1 at Canada Cup, you’ll see this in full effect. Knowing the projectile reflection property of the move, and that GO1 had Ibuki’s V-Trigger at the ready, Dogura threw out a mirror, then backdashed, forward dashed, and walked back slightly. He allowed GO1 to hit him, giving him the belief that he had successfully confirmed into V-Trigger. What GO1 didn’t realize was that Dogura had just used Aegis — as well as his movement — as a trap. The confirm was a red herring; the pushback from the hit confirm put Dogura in a position where when Ibuki’s bomb came out, it would hit the mirror, and subsequently hit GO1, giving Dogura the advantage in a very high-level play that few Uriens would actually be able to set up.

These are the things that you just simply don’t see other Uriens do — and if they do, they don’t do it consistently. All through the Canada Cup top 8, Dogura was using his V-Trigger in a myriad of ways, which allowed him to take full advantage of even the slightest spacing errors from his opponents.

Hotter than Hell

Let’s face it, it’s hard not to look at the Canada Cup champion and think, “This guy’s got all the momentum.” After NuckleDu’s performance last year was parlayed into the Capcom Cup title, it’s tough to ignore this. And as much as I don’t want to base his results off of what happened to the circuit last year, you have to really examine his last month and realize that we could be looking at the same story this year.

While he only reached three top 8s at all prior to October — and one of those was an online regional qualifier — he has cranked his results up beyond 11 on the dial in the final month of the CPT. Taking two Premier events across the season is a difficult feat. Taking two in the final month,where everyone is scrambling for points, speaks volumes more than taking two spread apart a six month span. Just winning TWFighter Major is a feat to be acknowledged, as some of Asia’s best were there to stand in Dogura’s way. In that event, there were a plethora of qualifiers for Capcom Cup in that event, and he stood on top against solid players in Kazunoko, Mago, and Haitani.

But if you were to ignore TWFighter Major and call it a fluke, how do you argue against his results at Canada Cup? Around 65% of the Capcom Cup field were in attendance, and nearly every player that was on the bubble showed up for it. If Dogura was indeed a fluke, this field would have devoured him. Even more telling was that the top 8 of the event featured no players that were not qualified for Capcom Cup, and Dogura emerged victorious.

At this point it is impossible to argue against him. He is now the hot player in the circuit by far, and he has given his opponents only a month of lead time to download him prior to Capcom Cup. This is the same position NuckleDu found himself in last year. While his results were better than Dogura’s over the course of the season, people really saw his ultimate form at Canada Cup and beyond. It’s highly possible that we’re looking at a similar story for Dogura right now.

Focus

The only negative that you could look at for Dogura is something that you could’ve chided Tokido on prior to 2016. While Dogura has made a concerted effort to make Capcom Cup, he has not abandoned his main games in Guilty Gear and Blazblue to do so. Playing multiple games typically waters down your results in all titles you are playing. You can look at Tokido as the model for that, as he was able to make top 8s in multiple titles at Evo, he was not winning any of them.

This hasn’t seemed to faze Dogura at all. Looking at his results at Canada Cup, he finished first in Guilty Gear, second in Blazblue, and first in Street Fighter V. Granted, Guilty Gear and Blazblue had weaker fields in Toronto, but the exhaustion of playing multiple titles for so long could’ve finally gotten to him. While he seems to handle it well, it remains a cause for concern that too many games could ultimately be his downfall.

However, come December, you know that he will have one single title to play at Capcom Cup. Given his performance lately, you know that he’ll be focused on Street Fighter V solely in California.

Final Thoughts

I don’t like making bold predictions. Last year, I made a few and had to eat my words. But it is insanely hard to bet against Dogura right now.

He has some concerns to worry about. Sure he bested GO1 — but GO1 is not the best Ibuki, and is known more for his Chun-Li and Menat at this point. What if it was Yukadon in his place? What happens when he has to face Tokido? What happens when he has to best Punk, who has a history of cleaning house with the likes of Nemo?

Regardless, he is the most complete Urien on the circuit, and he has become that from being very linear in January. He also has the momentum, and has given people very little time to crunch the numbers on his play. Anything can happen, but he is my dark horse pick for winning the whole thing.

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

Benjamin “Problem X” Simon barely made it into Capcom Cup last year. Having been on the low end of the leaderboard, his qualification was relegated to getting in via the European leaderboard. At Capcom Cup 2016, he only managed to let out a whimper instead of a roar — losing to Xiaohai and Mister Crimson in his only two sets, while only managing to win two games.

What a difference a year makes, as Mousesports|Problem X now finds himself nestled in a very comfortable #6 rank on the CPT standings. Exactly what has changed so drastically in his game? Is it enough to carry him to the top?

All Warmed Up

Last year, we saw Problem X only run Alex at Capcom Cup. While he started the year strong with M. Bison, the latter half of 2016 saw him only using Alex. While the character was able to bring him to Capcom Cup, he wasn’t closing out tournaments either. You can’t fault him for picking the character he was most familiar with at the time, but ultimately the character pick was costly at Capcom Cup. His tools and his unsafe aggression just simply proved no match to more stable characters like Cammy and Laura.

Do note what has happened since he returned to M. Bison in Season 2: while you can’t discount that Bison’s meaty pressure became far stronger with the loss of safe normal DPs, the character was less inconsistent in Season 1 than Alex, and it is only more true now. Out on the pro circuit, nobody is doing it better with Bison than Problem X. While there will be some argument overall as to who is the best Bison player right now, Problem X is definitely showing that Bison fits his tag well — becoming problematic enough to take two Premier events and three Ranking events over the course of the season. Given that the last known instance of him running anyone else was in May, it seems like his character crisis is over.

The Dictatorship

If anyone wanted to look at one of the most slept-on characters in Season 2, Bison would arguably be in the running. While he does not have the mobility of previous titles — while still suffering from the lack of a solid reversal that has plagued him since Super Street Fighter II Turbo — he now hits like a tank. He also — as mentioned above — was one of the biggest beneficiaries to losing invincible normal DPs, as his meaty pressure has some of the best ranges in the game, that can now only be stopped via V-Reversal or EX bars. This forces you to take everything he has and anticipate punishing something unsafe, while hoping he doesn’t mix it up with a shimmy, or take the risk on an EX DP that could simply be blocked.

It is enough of a change that we’ve seen top players struggling against the character. Previously lesser-known Canadian players like L.E.S and Sin have taken out the likes of K-Brad, Justin Wong, Alex Myers, and LPN at Toryuken and DreamHack Montréal. We’ve seen Problem X himself dispatching players like Jiewa, Gachikun, and Phenom with the character. It’s also enough that we’ve seen Problem X get that sponsorship from Mousesports, which has only added fuel to his fire.

It’s fair to say that M. Bison is not top tier by any stretch of the imagination. However, given the way the season has played out, it’s no wonder that the meta has shifted to the point that the character is wreaking havoc. Problem X is reaping the benefits of this shift in meta, and if players don’t catch up by the end of the CPT season, he could be having the last — maniacal — laugh.

The Skill Disparity

We have already discussed who “Lord” Problem has beaten to win his Premier events, and it’s a solid list of players. However, when you look at events in Europe, there hasn’t been that huge swath of international players challenging the locals. And it seems to be partly an unknown factor that gets to him, as he lost at Evo to Ever — whom I’ve never heard of — and was eliminated by Jibrill — who is primarily a Marvel player. At Combo Breaker — his only other tournament outside of Europe — he lost to fellow Bison main Pnoy, then was eliminated by Sethlolol. But even more telling is the fact that at Ultimate Fighting Arena, he was sent to losers bracket by Bonchan before being eliminated by fellow European Takamura.

While all of these tell the tale of someone who struggles at times, the fact is that just one of these is a player that he’ll have to worry about in December. His victories in Europe are great, but he is doing this against primarily Europeans. When he has been tested by international players and come out on top, it’s typically players that have issues in closing out themselves — as we’ve seen with Gachikun’s impressive string of top 8s this year, without actually winning an event.

Final Thoughts

Problem X has one of the best tools on his side right now — character unfamiliarity. A lot of top players struggle with Bison because they just simply don’t have the high-level experience against him. This is his biggest tool right now.

He has also done extremely well within Europe, dominating nearly every event against Europe’s best. Saying that he’s only doing well against Europe doesn’t discount the fact that Europe is a really strong region right now. Between Phenom, Takamura, Mister Crimson, and Luffy, he has amazing players that are threats at every event they play at. To stay consistent in any region is no small feat.

However, he still struggles against players he doesn’t play a lot, making it hard to bet on him despite his ranking on the CPT. I definitely see him doing a lot better than last year, given the tools he’s using right now. I would expect him to make top 16 at least, to show that his hard work has paid off over this year.

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

Last year, Haitani was one of the hardest players to pin down on the Capcom Pro Tour. While I was able to correctly predict him making top 8 at Capcom Cup — he ultimately finished in fourth place — his results were erratic enough to make it very difficult to guess. He was certainly capable of winning everything, but his travel and burnout was evident enough to make him the second biggest question mark in my book, outside of Infiltration.

Now in 2017, he finds himself once again making his way into Capcom Cup in decisive fashion — currently holding the #3 spot. The big question surrounding him now is: Has GRPT|Haitani found consistency this year?

Commuted Schedule

One of the things I noted in 2016 was how busy his tournament schedule was. He had endeavored to travel the world in search of Street Fighter success, and did just that. His results given his travels were astounding — in sixteen Capcom Pro Tour events, he only missed the top 8 in two of them: G-League and Evo 2016.

His travel schedule was, however, starting to take a physical toll on him. While it should be noted he did win a Ranking event at Battle Arena Melbourne 8 last year, the rest of the year saw him struggle after making top 8. I’m almost sure that this was due to a combination of jet lag and burn out.

This year has seen him pull back on the reins a bit when it comes to flying out to events. He has only competed at 11 events — 12, after Canada Cup concludes — and nearly half of them were in his home region of Asia. Even culling four tournaments from his list has made a difference. Whereas 2016 saw him only win one ranking event, this year has seen him win two premier events: Japan Cup and Ultimate Fighting Arena. He also traveled far less outside of CPT events, making two stops outside of that circuit compared to eight last year. In those two events, he finished third at RAGE v.4 and ninth at Brooklyn Beatdown. He is showing far more stable results as of late, and part of it likely boils down to his focus on quality over quantity.

Climbing the Rungs

Last year, I suggested that he had perhaps plateaued with Necalli, leading to him autopiloting through several events. With his underperformance in Capcom Cup, he definitely made me think physical exhaustion was the reason. Haitani apparently agreed, as he stuck to Necalli in Season 2.

Whereas I compared him to GamerBee and Phenom last year, no Necalli comes close to Haitani’s performances this year. There’s a reason why there’s a 13 rank disparity between himself and Brolynho — or even a 21 rank disparity between himself and Phenom. The fact is, he is that much better than them. Last year we saw shades of his play being performed better by other Necallis, but this year he is not just the origin of Necalli play — he is the standard.

This just shows how much stronger he has become. His spacing game is immaculate, using his V-Skill at the right times to zone. He is also really adept at using his V-meter — something that is a true testament to a real Necalli player. Most players will save up, waiting for the big hit into V-Trigger into full on pressure from a V-Triggered Necalli. But Haitani has fully grasped what the risk and reward is for it in a given situation, and reacts accordingly — using V-Reversal when he needs to and going into V-Trigger when he’s sure it’ll work. These are the traits that truly set him apart from the pack, and why this character in his hands is an absolute threat.

When It Matters

We have seen far more of Haitani’s clutch factor this year than ever before. He has won when it counted — something that he struggled to do last year. While he has only won two out of fourteen events thus far, he has won in some pretty stacked fields. Outside of Evo, one of the toughest CPT events on the calendar is Japan Cup; Haitani won with authority, and he did so against the best R. Mika in the world by defeating Fuudo twice. At UFA, he won out of Losers Bracket, eliminating FChamp, Tokido, and Itabashi Zangief twice — the person who put him in Losers Bracket to begin with — to take the title. If this doesn’t speak to his clutch factor, I don’t know what does.

However, this clutch factor doesn’t necessarily come out every time he steps up to an event. At Dueling Dragons Dojo, he fell to both Gachikun and Dogura — two players he’ll likely have to think about at Capcom Cup, especially considering they have been coming into the event strong and will likely be lower seeds. While he was able to stamp out Gachikun’s Rashid at TWFighter Major, he was still found struggling to Dogura, who eliminated him on his way to the championship. More worryingly, his worst performance came in the latter half of the season, when he fell to MenaRD in the winner’s bracket of SoCal Regionals and was eliminated by XSK_Samurai. And again, MenaRD finds himself on the bottom half of the Capcom Cup seeding, thus making him — along with Dogura and Gachikun — another potential road block for Haitani’s run to top 8 at Capcom Cup.

While the odds are low that either of these three will be his first-round matchup, they could eventually come up. What happens to Haitani then?

Final Thoughts

It’s hard to talk down one of the gods of Street Fighter. We all know Haitani can do it, and there’s no doubt in my own mind that he’s capable. The question lies in if he’ll be able to have the clutch factor — and the stamina — on hand in December.

While he has answered the questions about jet lag and plateauing, the fact that he’s struggling against what will ultimately be early to mid-round opponents at Capcom Cup leaves a few questions left over from 2016 about his consistency. Getting top 8 is great, but that’s not enough to make a championship a foregone conclusion.

While I anticipated at least top 16 last year, I’m expecting a top 8 showing from Haitani this year. But he could make last year’s predictions come true again this year, if he falters against the lower seeds.

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