Author: Ian "iantothemax" Walker

If you know anything about the Smash community, you’re familiar with Team SoloMid’s Gonzalo “ZeRo” Barrios. Widely regarded as one of the best Super Smash Bros. for Wii U players, ZeRo’s long list of accomplishments includes first place finishes at Apex 2015, Evo 2015, and The Big House 5.

To cut a long story short, when ZeRo talks Smash, people listen. That’s why his latest video, a breakdown of Cloud Strife’s recent appearance as a downloadable character, is invaluable for folks looking to take the Final Fantasy protagonist far in competition. Below, he provides his early thoughts on Cloud’s wide array of moves, setups you’ll want to look out for, and various other strategies for aspiring Buster Sword wielders.

Source: ZeRo via EventHubs

This week’s installment of Next Level Battle Circuit is now streaming live courtesy of Team Spooky’s Arturo Sanchez. As usual, the event is being broadcast from its namesake, Next Level Arcade, in New York City. Tonight, they’ll be running Ultra Street Fighter IV and Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN-, 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. Full brackets will be made available through Challonge.

Watch live video from nycfurby on www.twitch.tv

Sources: Arturo Sanchez

This week’s installment of Next Level Battle Circuit is now streaming live courtesy of Team Spooky’s Arturo Sanchez. As usual, the event is being broadcast from its namesake, Next Level Arcade, in New York City. Tonight, they’ll be running Ultra Street Fighter IV and Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN-, 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. Full brackets will be made available through Challonge.

Watch live video from nycfurby on www.twitch.tv

Sources: Arturo Sanchez

After taking last week off, the folks over at VGBootCamp 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 Super Smash Bros. Melee.

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.

Watch live video from VGBootCamp on www.twitch.tv

Source: VGBootCamp

No matter how old a game is, there’s always more to learn. Seven years of gameplay have solidified absolutes in our mind about Street Fighter IV, but certain situations still have a bit of tweaking left even as the game enters its twilight.

In their latest video, Core-A Gaming teams up with Ryan “Laugh” Ahn to demonstrate a sneaky technique that allows characters with air throws to bait out an opponent’s anti-safe jump setup, such as an EX Tornado Throw from Abel, and punish accordingly. The solution? Simply whiff an air throw as close to the ground as possible.

By doing this, the character performing the air throw remains in the air slightly longer than usual due to the whiff animation, causing the above setup and any others that require a grounded opponent to become ineffective.

Be sure to check out the video below for Laugh’s full explanation.

Source: Core-A Gaming via Sean Gilley, James Chen

Editor’s note: Due to various circumstances, North America is currently one week behind Europe, while the Commonwealth of Independent States are one week ahead.

ESL’s Mortal Kombat X competition returns for another installment of its second season. Similar to the previous season, the first few rounds of this online tournament have narrowed the playing field down to eight competitors in each region, who will be going at each other’s throats today to earn their way towards the grand finals event next year and its $100,000 prize pool.

Some of the more notable players you’ll see participate this week include Dab, UA|Scar, Xarakamaka, Mitsuownes, FLET, and Arzu, among others.

The stream is live below, but you can also visit Twitch if you prefer to chat with fellow viewers. You’ll also find a table of start times for each of the three regions involved further down.

Watch live video from NetherRealm on www.twitch.tv

Schedule

Results

North America – Week 6

First Round

Dab vs. SenorAbram
Killstreak vs. Ditty Foster
UA|Scar vs. hurtfulbadger87
Nubcakes vs. KOREYTHEDRAGON

Europe – Week 7

First Round

Xarakamaka vs. Mitsuownes
LLL|Taco vs. STB|MrAquary
Undeadjim vs. UsedForGlue
Mr. Clean vs. st9rm

Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) – Week 8

1. FLET
2. Sakr0n
3. xReseTx
3. Arzu
5. MaXWelL
5. Dangos
5. Kewdzo
5. Harry NightMare

Sources: ESL, NetherRealm

Despite being revealed almost two weeks ago, gameplay footage of Street Fighter V’s F.A.N.G has been incredibly hard to come by. With only a quick exhibition by associate producer Peter “Combofiend” Rosas to glean information from, Capcom’s Tomoaki Ayano and Koichi Sugiyama provided another glimpse of the newcomer during a recent Capcom Channel broadcast.

In addition to talking about their recent appearances at Capcom Cup, current champion Ryota “Kazunoko” Inoue and Kentaro “Misse” Nakamura were invited onto the program to demo F.A.N.G and various other members of the Street Fighter V cast. With examples of his normals, specials, and early gameplay strategy from two of the best competitors in the world, this sneak peek provides a bevy of information for this fresh addition to the Street Fighter universe despite its short runtime.

If the timestamp below doesn’t work, the segment in question begins around the 1:38:35 mark.

Source: Capcom Channel via Furious

UltraChen TV is back with the season finale of their Tuesday talk show. Tonight, UltraDavid and James Chen will be discussing a variety of topics, including Northeast Championships 16, Akuma’s appearance in Tekken 7 Fated Retribution, upcoming Super Smash Bros. characters, and more.

The stream will be live in this article, but you can also visit Twitch to join the chat.

Watch live video from ultrachentv on www.twitch.tv

Source: UltraChen TV, featured image courtesy of Kara “Karaface” Leung