Author: Franz "d3v" Co

In my last article, comparing the balance of Street Fighter V and the King of Fighters XIV, it was pointed out in the comments (by Lab Zero’s Mike Zaimont, no less) that we may not have yet had enough time to fully judge the balance of both games. He has a point, and indeed fighting game history is full of games that took years before their true balance was figured out. That said, there were also those who pointed out that with today’s technology, metagames are being figured out faster than they used to be.

In a way, this is true, with today’s internet, games get much more exposure.  High-level matches are seen by more people, thanks to live streaming and compilation videos. Meanwhile, any new things that people discover about the games are quickly disseminated through the same sites.

The question is then, how much faster are the metagames of fighting games being broken down? This is an interesting question as these days, updates and new versions of fighting games are also coming out much more quickly. Whereas ten or so years ago, when a fighting game would get played competitively for years, now they’re much more easily set aside for new and updated versions. The real question is whether or not fighting games are broken down and figured out fast enough before new versions come out, or if they’re put aside before their true balance is known.

The Three Phases of a Metagame’s Evolution

Before we even begin to answer this question, we need to first break down how a metagame evolves. We can usually break down the evolution of a game’s meta into three phases. The first phase occurs when the game has just come out. These are the first days, weeks, and months a game is in our hands, where we’re all testing and figuring stuff out–mostly using the genre’s basic conventions. There usually isn’t a tier list yet at this moment, or if there is one, it’s wrong–because at this point, the game is so new that its true balance has not yet been figured out, no matter how strong or weak certain characters may seem.

Phase two of a the metagame’s evolution happens when the game’s most obvious strategies have been figured out. At this point, we’re starting to get more creative in looking for tech; this is either to determine how to handle the current meta, looking for ways to counter top tier characters and strategies, or to find ways to bolster those same top tier characters and strategies. Now a good deal of a game’s competitive life can be spent in this phase, and depending on circumstances, its metagame may not move beyond it at all.

The third phase of the evolution of a metagame is something that’s a bit harder to reach: it’s where the game’s meta has evolved so much that it’s very different from what our initial impressions of the game were. In fact, it may even be beyond what the developers initially envisioned, which contributes to why some games may not reach it–the developers simply patch it before the game gets there, resetting the meta back to phase one. Here, the game’s balance and its tier list is nothing like what it was during the first two phases of its development. The game, played at its highest levels, might as well be a different game from what we originally thought it was.

A good example of a game whose metagame reached its third phase is Marvel vs. Capcom 2. If we look at tier lists and character guides from earlier on in the game’s life, we’d find that it’s much different from what we see today. Instead of the currently known top tiers such as Magneto, Storm, and Sentinel, characters such as Iceman and Dr. Doom were the ones that ruled the roost. However, as players broke the game down and more tactics and exploits were discovered, MvC2’s tier list (and its meta) changed until it became the game as we know it today.

MvC2 itself isn’t an outlier in this case. There are other examples of games from this era that saw shifts in their tier list as they were broken down, and their metagames moved on to the third phase. Capcom vs. SNK 2 for example saw significant changes to the meta once the Roll Cancelling exploit was discovered and applied to the game.

Of course, the above examples are all games from a certain era–this was the time before tools such as Twitch and YouTube, after all. At most, you’d have to look up guides posted in various forums, and track down match and combo videos hosted in various sites and servers–if they were online at all; sometimes you’d have to resort to obtaining physical copies of these on tape or DVD.

Street Fighter IV, Looking Beyond Vanilla Sagat

What then, if we had a game from an era where we did have all these tools? What if we had an example of a game whose metagame either did or did not evolve into the third phase before its update came out? Fortunately for us, we may have a game that fits the bill–the original Street Fighter IV.

Released in arcades in 2008 and then on consoles in 2009, Street Fighter IV may be the first big fighting game that benefited from all this new technology we have today. Even before it hit consoles, we already had some bits of footage from either location tests or actual arcade play. After launch, many streamers and content creators got their start by streaming or making videos for this game. In fact, all this new content helped push Shoryuken itself into becoming an actual news site for fighting games.

Regarding balance however, there was one character that tended to dominate most of our discussion on the game–Sagat. Called vanilla Sagat for being in the original, or “vanilla” version of the game, this character was one that we all remember as being the best character in Street Fighter IV. While he wasn’t as dominant as prior top tiers–a then-unsponsored Daigo Umehara has won Evo 2009 with Ryu, and Gosho and Kyabetsu had used Rufus and C. Viper respectively to win 2009’s Tougeki 2009–he was still a dominant force in tournaments. At Tougeki for example, there were 11 Sagat players, the most of any character, 10 of which made it to the semi-final round.

Despite all this however, there is some question of whether or not Sagat was clearly the best character in Street Fighter IV. While we tend to just accept that he was, there may be enough evidence out there to show that maybe he wasn’t.

The first example of this is Akuma: the Raging Demon was already considered pretty strong back in the day, he didn’t however garner the same attention as Sagat. That said, with as high up as he was, we can’t help but wonder if he couldn’t have moved up higher had the game been given more time to grow. In fact, a few tier lists had already placed him slightly above Sagat.

The other set of characters that may have come into play are the (originally) console-exclusive characters. When Street Fighter IV came to console in 2009, it added a bunch of extra playable characters; of these there are three who many will point to as possibly having the potential to become top tiers–Seth, Cammy, and Gen.

Seth was already pretty dangerous in vanilla Street Fighter IV, being the game’s boss after all. But he never really dominated early on. That said, he was starting to show the potential that would lead him to be a strong pick in later iterations.

Cammy and Gen, on the other hand, were seen by some as weak when the game first hit consoles. However, as the meta around them was further developed for later, we started thinking of them being much stronger. Cammy in particular was considered stronger in later versions of the game, and was actually top tier in the Arcade Edition 2012. The thing is however, a lot of what was being applied to Cammy in later installments can possibly be applied to her vanilla incarnation, too.

As for Gen, it’s interesting that for how much as he was perceived as a weak character, Capcom actually nerfed Gen coming into Super Street Fighter IV. This makes us wonder if the developers at Capcom knew something about Gen that players had yet to pick up on. Certainly, his array of tricks, including a deadly 50-50 cross-up setup, could have possibly pushed him to being a dominant force had more players picked him up and developed him further.

Now, we could argue that the fact that these characters were made playable later in the game’s life, means that of course they were explored less before Super Street Fighter IV supplanted the game. However, this actually makes this more relevant today, when we often get new characters as DLC for games (without them moving up to a new version)–characters that may not be fully explored by the time a new version of sequel comes out.

What Does This Mean for Us?

Now that we do have a viable case for a game whose true balance we may have never fully explored during its time in the competitive spotlight, the question now is: what does this mean for us now? Well, on the surface, it seems that it really may not mean much–most of us are better served just by going with whatever the latest version of the game that’s being played competitively is.

Even if a game doesn’t really move on to the third phase of its metagame’s evolution, as long as the balance in the second phase is decent, then that may be good enough. In a tournament, the state of a game’s metagame at that exact point in time is more important than any possibility of what it may evolve into down the line.

That said, there’s still merit to understanding that there is space for a game’s metagame to evolve far beyond what we may be seeing at the moment. At the very least, we should take it as a sign to not dismiss a game’s balance as already being set after a certain amount of time. Rather, we should take this as inspiration to try to look beyond the current meta of any game, and try to push it further. With today’s technology, any new discoveries that can affect a game’s balance and move its metagame forward can easily be disseminated to the rest of the community.

Additionally, anything new that may have been discovered too late to affect a game’s meta by virtue of a new iteration coming out can sometimes still be applied to the new iteration. A new patch or update may not necessarily change the game to the point that late discoveries in the previous version cannot be applied to the new one.

Finally, this should also serve as inspiration for those who prefer the older version of a game: we don’t necessarily all have to move on to newer versions. Sometimes, if there are enough players still actively playing and studying it, an older version or even numbered iteration of a game can survive even when a new version or sequel has already come out. After all, our fighting game community is built on people playing, studying, and enjoying the games that they love; just because we’re getting new games and updates at a much faster pace, that shouldn’t change.

Some time back, we reported on modder fatihG_’s attempt to mod Red Bull’s Daryl “Snake Eyez” Lewis into Street Fighter V as Zangief. Now, fatihG_ has released an update on the mod in the form of a hype trailer.

Last time out, we only saw some screenshots of the mod. This time however, we have our first glimpse of footage of it in game. Alongside this, we also get to see how much the model has progressed since, with it looking much smoother, with artifacts from Zangief’s old model now gone, and with some additional detail work added as well.

No release date for the mod has been given as of yet, though fatihG_ says that it will be coming out soon. If Snake Eyez could record some special voice lines for this mod, it would make the package complete.

Source: fatihG_

Zangief is a character who has had trouble finding success in high level play in Street Fighter V. This has led meany to feel that he’s lower end of the game’s tier list, with better grapplers in the game’s cast. As such, it’s always nice to see players doing well with him.

For those looking for some high-level Zangief footage, the E-Sports Fighters channel has put together a video showcasing matches from some of Japan’s top ranked Zangief players. The video below shows highlights matches featuring KBTIT810, hotaru23, Yubiken’s Kenjiru, and of course DNG’s Itabashi Zangief. To make these highlights sweeter, these matches feature them going up against other top players, including Saulabis, NL, and even the Beast himself, BST|Daigo Umehara.

Source: E-Sports Fighters

The corner is always a good place to have your opponent in any fighting game, and Street Fighter V is no exception. Putting your opponent’s back to the wall can give you control of the match–if you can keep them there.

For Vega players, this new video from JOZHEAR should help them keep their opponents pinned to the corner. As the video below demonstrates, some of Vega’s knockdowns (with his claw equipped) can allow them guaranteed meaty setups here. With this, they can keep their opponents on the defensive, stopping most of their attempts to get out.

Source: JOZHEAR