With work on Eliza finished and Beowulf currently in development, Lab Zero Games wrote a lengthy update collecting a number of pertinent Skullgirls Encore news topics, including the former’s recent release on various platforms and what the latter is looking like in early builds. While much of the information isn’t new for those who regularly follow news on the game, they did provide something cool for folks who like to get a work-in-progress look at their favorite games.
This glimpse came in the form of a handful of concept images for Eliza. From unused attacks and sketches of future moves to fun interactions between her and the rest of the cast, these pieces of art share some interesting perspectives on the new character that you may not have received from her final release.
We’ve included a few of these images below, but you’ll find many more over in Lab Zero’s official post. Be sure to follow the links below each image if you like the artist who created it, and let us know which are your favorites.
This week’s installment of Next Level Battle Circuit is now streaming live courtesy of Team Spooky. As always, the event is being broadcast from its namesake, Next Level Arcade, in New York City. Tonight, they’ll be running Ultra Street Fighter IV, featuring some of the best players on the east coast.
If you would like to check out these weekly tournaments, be sure to head on over to Next Level Arcade and take part every Wednesday. The address has been included below.
4013 8th Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11232
The stream is currently live below, but you can also visit Twitch to join the chat. The full bracket will be made available through Challonge.
Video enthusiasts, rejoice! Today, YouTube has followed through on their plans to add support for 60 frames-per-second footage to their hugely popular platform. While this is obviously great for anyone using or planning to use the service, who cares about cute cats and skydiving videos when there’s fighting games to be watched?
(Full disclosure: I’m still very much interested in cute cats, please include them in your combo videos.)
At this point, there are still a few stipulations. First off, you need to be using Google’s Chrome browser to access videos of this caliber, and be sure to bump up the quality of the footage you’re checking out to YouTube’s high-definition options (720p, 1080p, etc.) if you aren’t already doing so.
Okay, enough words. While it doesn’t appear as if this bump has been applied to older videos uploaded to the website, new gameplay footage has started to make its way online. Feel free to check out the beautiful Mario Kart 8 video below (hey, Mario Kart’s been at Evo!) and let us know what you think. We’ll be sure to highlight some fighting game footage as soon as it becomes available.
Though not a fighting game, watching the above footage should make it super clear why this is a big deal for our community. The added smoothness and clarity afforded by the 60 frames-per-second video will allow viewers to see the game much closer to how it appears in real life and, hopefully, learn a few more things in the process.
With Capcom Cup growing closer and closer, the folks over at Capcom have released three more player spotlights.
While they may not be playing in the main event, Ari “fLoE” Weintraub, YUBIKEN’s Jason “Jayce the Ace” Nghe, and Chris “CJ Truth” Jayson provide an interesting at the overall fighting game community from two very different perspectives: the grizzled veteran and the hungry up-and-comers.
All three videos touch on topics similar to past interviews, like each player’s favorite game, greatest achievement, and worst loss, but also delve into more personal topics. Weintraub, for example, talks a bit about his love for Vampire Savior as well as his tendency to choke in big tournament matches, while Nghe touches on his respect for Justin Wong’s patience.
Miss the previous entries in this series? Follow the links below to find interviews with PIE|Smug, EG|K-Brad, LU|Alex Valle, and many more.
As many of you probably saw over at UltraChen TV, the folks behind the Evolution Championship Series released the very first trailer for next year’s event. While sparse on details, we now have enough to start planning our trips to Las Vegas.
That’s right, Evo 2015 will take place July 17-19 at Bally’s / Paris Las Vegas, returning to the hotel it called home back two years ago.
Details on the tournament lineup will be announced sometime at the beginning of next year, so stay tuned!
UltraChen TV is back with yet another broadcast, and a whole new slate of topics to discuss. Tonight, UltraDavid and James Chen will be debuting the very first trailer for Evo 2015, as well as discussing Capcom Pro Tour Asia’s finals, their thoughts on Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, and more.
If you’re interested in this topic, be sure to tune in and check the show out. The stream will be live in this article, but you can also visit Twitch to join the chat.
Capcom Pro Tour’s presence throughout the year has given players from a number of unconventional locales the opportunity to throw their lot in with the rest of the world and prove Street Fighter is still the global phenomenon it was decades ago. From up-and-coming regions like Brazil, Hong Kong, and Mexico to the more unexplored talent pools of Portugal, Thailand, and Poland, competitors the world over have been able to secure their own ranking points through in-person events, likely in the face of visiting talent looking for easy victories.
Unfortunately, traveling to tournaments, even those in your own backyard, is a luxury not everyone in the world can afford. Whether it’s taking time away from your real job or just doling out piles of cash for airfare and a hotel stay, it sometimes just isn’t an option. That’s why, this year, Capcom partnered with Virgin Gaming (now known as World Gaming) to hold a handful of online tournaments for folks in the Americas and Europe, giving those who found themselves unable to get away the opportunity to earn points through netplay instead.
Though they haven’t affected the overall rankings in a hugely meaningful way, one player in particular has found regular success in these online competitions, and thus kept himself in the running for one of Capcom Cup’s coveted qualifer positions.
Eric “ChuChu” Silva, who hails from Brazil and represents CNB e-Sports Club, has competed in ten such tournaments since April, accruing 358 ranking points in addition to the 208 he earned at Revox 2014 (which was giving ranking status retroactively), FNF Championships, and Brazil Game Show 2014.
While far from a household name, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen Silva compete on a large stage and prove he has what it takes to hang with the best. Like many, I first heard of the Brazilian competitor during the lead-up to Capcom Cup 2012. He, along with other strong regional players like BrenoFight3rs (who took home first with a close win over Hajime “Tokido” Taniguchi), CNB teammate House, and Lord Saka, proved that their country’s qualifier was no fluke.
Silva also gained more recent, first-hand success playing foreign competitors at Revox 2013, where he and House teamed up to face (and ultimately defeat) visitors Infiltration and Ryan “Laugh” Ahn in a quick Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition ver. 2012 team battle. As you can see in the video below, Silva’s Sakura deservedly dispatched Infiltration’s Akuma, a feat that, no matter what character you play, is not easy.
Now, you may be asking yourself, “Ian, what prompted this ChuChu history lesson?” Well, now that Capcom Pro Tour has begun to wind down, we are starting to get a sense of the players who are definite shoe-ins for qualification through point totals alone. Silva is one of these players; after taking out competitors who have already earned a spot at Capcom Cup by winning a premier tournament, he sits at fifth in the overall rankings, nustled snugly between more well-known figures Ricky Ortiz and Du “Nuckledu” Dang. This, combined with the fact that he has earned a little over 60% of his points from online tournaments, has raised some concern as to if he “deserves” to compete at the prestigious event or not come December, mainly from eSportMax’s Dexter “Tampa Bison” Jackson.
Hopefully you’re thinking the same thing as me: “Of fucking course he does.”
I’m not going to sit here and say online play can be held to the same standards as offline, but it’s become increasingly clear that we can no longer count out netplay warriors just because of their arena of choice. When Street Fighter x Tekken was struggling to gain ground at major events around the world, its online community kept it living much longer than many would think it “deserved” to. Capcom paid their respects to that scene’s devotion by offering up half (that’s four out of eight) of Capcom Cup 2013’s spots to those who were able to qualify online. One of them, a player that will go unnamed for the time being (I have a good reason, don’t worry), was able to make his way to the grand finals and eventually take second place over players like Nuckledu and Alex Valle.
To me, this type of mentality is grouped with other sentiments that blame certain characters, archetypes, or attacks as cheap, unbeatable obstacles. It’s this type of self-defeating thinking that keeps players from achieving greatness for themselves, no matter what their definition of greatness may be. Have a tough time against Rose in Ultra Street Fighter IV? Use every opportunity to play against her not as one where winning is the only thing to achieve but also as a way to gain knowledge for future matches. Think charge characters are braindead? Pick one up to put in your own back pocket; you may learn that it takes a lot more effort to play them correctly than you thought.
The idea of not “deserving” a spot at Capcom Cup simply because you took a different path to get there is, to put it frankly, misguided at best and idiotic at worst. To put it in an arcade perspective, it’s like looking down on a player because, instead of having a full quarter to play with, they had to turn in a couple of dimes and a nickle to the cashier before jumping in line. It’s a means to an end; complaining that they were able to scrounge up the change they needed while you failed to find a quarter for yourself reeks like a weird mixture of ignorance and jealousy.
Back before Capcom Cup 2013, we here at Shoryuken put together a trio of fun polls for the community to take part in, giving us a good idea of who the favorites were as we headed into the major event. You’ll remember me mentioning that half of Street Fighter x Tekken’s bracket was made up of online qualifiers, two of whom had also found success in offline play: Sareth “Sethlolol” Sok and (gasp!) Dexter “Tampa Bison” Jackson. While the former lost out only to Infiltration in our poll, it was the latter who would go on to face the Korean master in grand finals.
And so, I have a question of my own: if Jackson deserved a spot at Capcom Cup 2013 for winning a single online qualifier, why doesn’t Silva for taking four times that many, not to mention his first-place finish at Brazil Game Show 2014?
“Good luck to you ChuChu,” Jackson quips to close out his article, “for if you lose, the viewers will quickly find out if you drop Chu Jelly upon defeat.”
That may end up being the case, but you know what we’ll find out about Jackson at Capcom Cup 2014? Nothing, because he’ll be in the audience.
The folks over at VG Bootcamp recently went live with another installment of Smash @ Xanadu from Xanadu Games in Baltimore, Maryland. These weekly broadcasts provide a great look at the region’s Smash community, and tonight’s installment will feature competition in the latest version of popular Super Smash Bros. Brawl mod Project M.
If you’re interested in some Smash Bros. action, be sure to tune in. The stream is live below, but you can also head on over to Twitch to join the chat.
It feels like just yesterday that we saw Evo 2014 wrap up in Las Vegas, but the organizers behind the largest fighting game tournament in the world are set to begin the latest round of hype-building for the next installment.
According to Joey “Mr. Wizard” Cuellar, the first official Evo 2015 teaser will be unveiled later tonight during UltraChen TV. Much like past trailers, it was put together by the fantastic Seth Mussey.
As for what kind of details you can expect from this trailer, you’ll have enough information to start planning for your trip, specifically what weekend Evo 2015 will occupy and where it will take place. Game announcements are scheduled for the beginning of next year.
If you want to catch this premiere live, be sure to tune into UltraChen TV at 8:30 PM PDT, 11:30 PM EDT.
Super Smash Bros. occupies an interesting space in the fighting game genre when it comes to combo videos. Due to the flexibility of its engine, strings are generally done on the fly, allowing players to use their improvisational skills to adjust their attacks depending on the situation. Because of this, however, exhibitions feature combos mostly from competitive play instead of against a computer due to defensive techniques like air dodges, directional influence, and more.
With Super Smash Bros. for 3DS now in the hands of fans across the world, we’re starting to see more and more of what its cast is capable of thanks to the more ingenious members of the Smash community.
Taking inspiration from Desk, VG BootCamp mastermind Calvin “GimR” Lofton released a brand new combo showcase earlier today that focuses on Dr. Mario. Much like his precursor, Lofton focuses mostly on impractical combos in the video below, but he’s also hoping it gives other players the itch to put together their own creative combos as the competitive game continues to be fleshed out.
