Author: Franz "d3v" Co

Evo is finally upon us this weekend, at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. With this venue, however, comes an interesting new rule for attendees.

This Sunday, during day three of Evo 2017, no bags will be allowed inside the venue:

Absolutely NO backpacks or bags of any kind will be admitted to the Mandalay Bay Events Center on Sunday! Please leave them in your rooms!

— EVO (@EVO) July 10, 2017

This decision comes not from the Evo staff, but rather is a general Mandalay Events Center rule. Take note however that the small personal bags and purses measuring less than 12″ x 12″ x 6″ are exempt from this rule, and will be allowed in the arena. Other things that are not allowed are items such as outside food, cameras with interchangeable lenses, pets, fireworks, and more. You can check all of these out in the infographic from the official Mandalay Bay homepage below.

If you aren’t able to make it down to Mandalay Bay, don’t worry as Street Fighter V finals will be broadcast live on ESPN2, similar to last year.

Sources: Evo; Mandalay Bay via Bear

The competitive Injustice 2 landscape has been shaking up a lot in the months since its release; as people break down the game and compete in it, old assumptions on which characters are strongest either get swept aside, or reinforced.

Now, less than a week away from Evo 2017, EchoFox’s newest Injustice 2 player Theo has chimed in on what he thinks are the top ten characters in the game at the moment. The list is as follows:

1. Black Adam
2. Catwoman
3. Batman
4. Atrocitus
5. Deadshot
6. Superman
7. Aquaman
8. Red Hood
9. Scarecrow
10. Darkseid

Now, some of the placements have caused some debate in the replies to his tweet, with people saying that he should move certain characters up or down. However, what doesn’t seem to be up for debate are the actual characters in the list, which is something anyone competing in Injustice 2 at Evo 2017 should consider!

Source: EchoFox|Theo

CEOtaku, Community Effort Orlando’s big anime-focused spin-off event is returning for its third year in a row. This year sees the event grow even bigger with a new, 24-hour set up that will see the event keep its doors open from 9:00 PM on Friday, September 22 to 10:00 PM on Sunday, September 24.

In preparation for this, CEO Gaming’s Alex Jebailey has just released the full tournament list for the event. This year’s event will feature 16 different games that players can compete in. The list includes both traditional fighting games as well as some oddball (but popular) games such as Catherine and Puyo Puyo Tetris. You can check out the complete list — and the corresponding console that they’ll be played on — below.

1. Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2 (PS4)
2. BlazBlue: Central Fiction (PS4)
3. Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st] (PS4)
4. Skullgirls: 2nd Encore (PS4)
5. Melty Blood Acress Again Current Code (Steam)
6. Gundam Versus [2v2] (PS4)
7. Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite (PS4)
8. Koihime Enbu (Steam)
9. Catherine (Xbox One or PS3)
10. Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax Ignition (PS4)
11. Arcana Heart 3 Love Max!!!!! (PS3)
12. Persona 4 Arena Ultimax (PS3)
13. Puyo Puyo Tetris (PS4)
14. Guilty Gear XX Accent Core +R (PS3)
15. Chaos Code Sign of Catastrophe (PS4)
16. The King of Fighters XIV (PS4)

In addition to this, the event is also open to side tournaments for other anime-related fighting games.

All official tournaments will start on Saturday, September 23 at 10:00 AM. However, the venue itself will open the evening before, at 9:00 PM on September 22, with the possibility of exhibition matches taking place then.

For any players interested in joining, online registration will open on July 21, and will end on September 17.

Source: Alex Jebailey

Last May, it was revealed that a select number of Marvel comics titles would be receiving Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite variant covers this coming August. Now, the first of these variant covers have been unveiled.

The reveals, taken from Previews World’s monthly checklist for new comics and variant covers, so far cover four of the twenty books announced to have variant covers. Specifically they are All-New Guardians of the Galaxy #7, Champions #11, Hawkeye #9, and Spider-Man/Deadpool #20.

All the covers feature Marvel characters facing off against Capcom characters: Gamora taking on Strider Hiryu, Nova taking on Zero, and Hawkeye facing off against Dante. The most interesting one however is the Spider-Man/Deadpool cover, which features Dormammu on the Marvel side, and Firebrand on the Capcom side. Aside from looking like a match between some of NorCal’s finest (Splyce’s Ryan “Filipino Champ” Ramirez plays Dormammu, and Vineeth “Apologyman” Meka plays Firebrand), both characters have yet to be officially announced for the upcoming game.

Whether or not this means that both will be in the game, we have no idea. In the meantime, check out all of the so-far revealed covers in the gallery below.

Click to view slideshow.

Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite is set to launch on September 19.

Source: Previews World

Sanwa Denshi has become the premier producer for arcade parts, with their pushbuttons and levers becoming the de facto standard for most tournament-grade arcade sticks in the market. As such, it’s no surprise then that the company will be at Evo 2017.

For those looking to buy Sanwa Denshi arcade parts at Evo 2017, the company has released a preliminary price listing for these.

EVOのトーナメント表も発表されて、いよいよ開催間近。
そんな訳で三和電子物販予定リストも公開です。
※価格・内容は変更される場合もございます。 pic.twitter.com/tnSoOO0YAP

— 三和電子株式会社 (@sanwadenshi) July 5, 2017

Aside from arcade parts, the items on sale will also include some memorabilia: including T-shirts, stickers, a keychain, towel, and even a special joystick-shaped earphone jack cover for your cellular phone. Meanwhile, the arcade hardware itself includes some specialty parts, such as the LB-35 Hard Maple balltop, made of pure maple wood.

Take note that, according to Sanwa, these prices are still subject to change at the event itself.

Of course, Sanwa Denshi isn’t the only one selling arcade parts at Evo 2017. Arcade Shock will also have some limited edition Sanwa and Seimitsu arcade parts at the event.

Source: Sanwa Denshi (Twitter)

With the game just a couple of months old and with a heated competitive scene — fueled by a new competitive tour –now is as good a time as any to get in on Injustice 2 from NetherRealm Studios and DC Comics. For those still on the fence, however, here’s another reason to get the game: Injustice 2 is currently discounted over at Amazon.

Both the Xbox One and competitive-standard PlayStation 4 versions of the game can be purchased for only $39.99 USD over at Amazon. This represents $20 in savings, or 33% off of the regular $59.99 base price.

Take note that this only applies to the physical retail copies of the game. The digital version still goes for $59.99. Additionally, the sale is also only for the standard edition of the game, without any DLC content included.

Source: Amazon

One of the big talking points surrounding Tekken 7 is the game’s increased amount of input delay; early testing of the game on PlayStation 4 (prior to the 1.03 patch) had shown that it had over 120 milliseconds — about 7 to 8 frames of delay.

Now, both Michael Murray and Katsuhiro Harada from Bandai Namco Entertainment have made statements about this. Specifically, the statements were in response to an article on Tekken Gamer that had cited an 8 frame buffer as the cause of the delay. For those not familiar with the issue, some in the community have blamed the input delay on the supposed presence of an 8 frame input buffer — something Murray refutes.

Your info is wrong. There is no 8 frame buffer. You fail to take in to account the input delay from the hardware side. https://t.co/wufG9Gs60Z

— Michael Murray (@mykeryu) July 4, 2017

Harada continues on with this, stating that such assumptions are wrong. He also states that Unreal Engine 4 “eat[sic] 3-4 frames” and that they don’t need such a buffer. In addition to this, he also called into question the testing methods that people have used to test the game’s delay.

Yea It's wrong. UE4 eat 3-4frames & They don't know hardware side mechanism. We don't need such a "buffer". Measurement method is also wrong https://t.co/xVZMwazVFs

— Katsuhiro Harada (@Harada_TEKKEN) July 4, 2017

That last statement in his tweet has caused a fair bit of controversy. Input lag guru Nigel “Noodalls” Woodall, the man who did the early testing on Tekken 7‘s delay has brought Harada’s last statement into question, pointing out how his testing methods have been praised, and how developers have asked him to test their game for input delay.

@digitalfoundry describes my method as “amazing work.” Game developers have contacted me asking me to test their games for input lag.

— Nigel Woodall (@noodalls) July 4, 2017

What exactly is wrong with my method?

— Nigel Woodall (@noodalls) July 4, 2017

Others, such as Hit Box community manager John Grimm have pointed out that, if the issue is something with Unreal Engine 4, it still doesn’t explain why Tekken 7 has more delay than other fighting games (such as Street Fighter V, and the upcoming Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite) that are built on the same engine.

If it really was UE4 causing the lag, you wouldn’t have games like SFV completely smashing it in terms of responsiveness.

— DollarBillMontgomery (@HBJohnXuandou) July 5, 2017

With all this in mind, it seems that the input delay controversy surrounding Tekken 7 isn’t going to die down anytime soon. That said, Bandai Namco is addressing the issue, and the latest round of testing has shown that the delay on PlayStation 4 has dropped to 114 milliseconds as of the 1.03 patch.

Sources: Michael Murray (Twitter), Katsuhito Harada (Twitter), Nigel Woodall (Twitter), John Grimm (Twitter)