Author: Ian "iantothemax" Walker

Red Bull has announced that Evil Geniuses’ Justin Wong and AVerMedia’s Bruce “GamerBee” Hsiang are the first two players to be invited to compete at Red Bull Kumite 2016 in April.

Much like last year’s invitational, Red Bull Kumite will feature sixteen competitors–fourteen through invitation, two through last chance qualifier–duking it out in a condensed, high-level bracket. This time around, however, play has shifted from Ultra Street Fighter IV to Street Fighter V, forcing even those with a storied fighting game background to adapt to what will then be a two-month old title.

Red Bull Kumite 2016 is scheduled for April 23-24 in Paris, France. Stay tuned for more player reveals as we near those dates.

Source: Red Bull eSports

Similar to what they did before Sceptile’s release, the developers behind Pokkén Tournament have dropped another phonetic teaser for the title’s next character. According to Source Gaming’s PushDustIn, the image above says that the next Pokémon will have the “ラ” kana in its name, which produces the “ra” or “la” sound in Japanese.

After doing some research, we realized that quite a few pocket monsters fit the bill. Some of the more plausible include Raikou, who is closely associated with current playable character Suicune as part of the second generation’s Legendary Beasts; Hitmonlee, Hitmonchan, and Hitmontop, whose combat style could easily translate to the fighting genre; and Heracross, who could bring some more wrestling muscle to the cast.

For a much longer list of the Pokémon who include this specific character, check out our list below. While extensive, it’s entirely possible that we made a mistake, so feel free to give us a heads-up in the comments if we missed someone. Please note that we are talking about the Japanese names here; the English names have been used below for readability.

The identity of this mystery Pokémon is set to be revealed on January 15, so stay tuned!

Source: Pokkén Tournament via PushDustIn

I think something that we can all agree on is that no game is perfect. You may have a lot of love for one particular title, but it’s safe to say there’s a degree of bullshit in even the most well-designed fighter. This, inexorably, leads to an abundance of theories as to what should be done to fix said game. Sometimes, as in the case of Super Smash Bros. Brawl mod Project M, enterprising fans take it upon themselves to craft the game to their liking.

While he hasn’t quite gone that far, Lab Zero Games’ Mike Zaimont recently dropped an extensive write-up detailing the ways in which he would change one of his favorite games. “I love Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike,” Zaimont begins (emphasis his). “However, 3s has some problems – both with balance and system mechanics.”

This hypothetical update, which Zaimont has dubbed Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike’ (3rd Strike Upper, 3rd Strike Dash, etc.), would correct what he sees as problems without fundamentally changing how the game plays. While many of his ideas boil down to fixing lingering bugs, the Skullgirls developer provides some very interesting alterations for meter-building normals, parries, and more.

For example, Zaimont details an updated system where the meter gained from whiffed normals decreases with each successive miss. Scaling would reset when a move connects (on hit, block, or parry) or if the character in question is hit, blocks, or parries. Finally, projectiles wouldn’t reset scaling for either character on block, while landed and parried fireballs would reset scaling for the defender and attacker, respectively.

“Whiffing normals at full screen to build large chunks of meter is a main part of 3s. Completely removing the metergain on whiffed normals solves the problem, but fundamentally changes the game,” Zaimont explains. “This solution reduces the usefulness of whiffing multiple normals, but still allows one or two to build up a bar when you are close to full and allows zoning to be at least as useful as before, if not a teeny bit more useful.”

Of course, this is just a small part of Zaimont’s opinion piece. As one of the foremost battle designers in the community, his thoughts make for an incredibly entertaining read, so give it a look by following the link below.

Source: Mike Zaimont

Every year, Melee It On Me releases an extensive ranking of Super Smash Bros. Melee competitors, the likes of which is unparalleled throughout the fighting game community. By pulling together some of the Smash scene’s greatest minds, they tackle the monumental task of not only providing a power ranking of the top 100 players but also naming someone the best of the year.

So who won out for 2015? That honor goes Alliance’s Adam “Armada” Lindgren.

Lindgren’s accomplishments speak for themselves. First at the Evolution Championship Series. First at The Big House 5. Second at Apex, Community Effort Orlando, and DreamHack Winter. According to Melee It On Me’s fantastic summary (seriously, go check it out), the only matches he lost in 2015 were to fellow top six placers like Team Liquid’s Juan “Hungrybox” Debiedma, Team SoloMid’s William “Leffen” Hjelte, Cloud9’s Joseph “Mango” Marquez, and Evil Geniuses’ Kevin “PPMD” Nanney. He maintained a perfect record against the rest of the top ten.

Furthermore, his overall 10 rating reveals an equally impressive feat, as pointed out by Twitch’s Crimson Blur: every single member of the 42-person panel gave him the highest score possible. How’s that for a consensus?

For more on Lindgren’s impressive 2015, as well as the full listing of the top 100 players, be sure to visit Melee It On Me by following the link below.

Source: Melee It On Me

Among video game fans, Super Smash Bros. series director Masahiro Sakurai is often called a “troll,” or one who deliberately misleads someone (in this case, the Smash community) with false information. Whether done playfully or with complete seriousness, these accusations always seem to stem from a misunderstanding of Sakurai’s statements, mistranslation by a news outlet, or other factors he himself can’t control.

In their latest article, the fine folks over at Source Gaming have tackled the notion of Sakurai lying at one time or another during Smash development, finding the original accusation, and investigating its veracity.

Some of the topics include Sakurai’s statements concerning each Smash installment being the last in the series (featured below), his opinion on introducing traditional fighting game characters, Ridley as a playable character, and more.

Even if you believe there’s some bias here, the fact that Source Gaming has revisited old articles and interviews to provide better translations definitely makes this worth a read. Check it out and let us know what you think of their findings.

Source: Source Gaming via NeoGAF, featured image c/o Polygon