Author: John "Zidiane" Silvia

Handling stressful situations is half of playing a fighting game. No amount of fundamentals, neutral and matchup knowledge, combos or resets will be enough if you crack or self-destruct under pressure. While a lot of this pressure is found in tournaments, players certainly also feel this pressure while climbing the online leaderboards.

With this in mind, YouTuber PugilistPenguin–in his series “Two Minute Tutorials”–attempts to give some advice on using outside influence to improve your play. He gives tips on calming down, improving reaction time, and improving performance through sleep. Most of these tactics can be applied to tournament anxiety as well, so if your problem is those jitters you get before matches, than this could be very helpful for you!

Source: PugilistPenguin

SNK has been pressing forward with their esports-style World Championship series, with a handful of events distributing all-expenses-paid qualifying positions in the larger, more illustrious tournaments–competing for a real-life version of Antonov’s championship belt. These qualifiers have all concluded, but if you missed them you can thank Gato Ray for compiling the final rounds for the Korean, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Peru, and China qualifier tournaments.

First we’ll start with the Top 4 matches for Taiwan qualifier. The Top 4 was split into two videos, with one just featuring the Grand Finals; if you don’t want to be spoiled as to who’s in GF, don’t look at the title of the second video until you’re ready!

Up next is Road to Peru, compiled into one Top 4 video. Having South America represent is always great to see.

The next qualifier is something strange. The Hong Kong qualifier looks to have been recorded on a smart phone. Our only explanation as to why the tournament wasn’t recorded properly is in the video description:

“I can’t mention the reason why but you and I missed this tournament, definitely.

Please understand bad quality and I found only footage or article concerning this qualifier.”

The final qualifiers are China and Korea; China’s qualifier seems to only have the Grand final set, but Korea’s has the whole Top 4 of the tournament.

Source: Gato Ray

As you may recall, last month PR Balrog announced that he would not be renewing his contract with Evil Geniuses. This caused quite the stir, leaving many of his fans questioning why someone would give up that sponsorship, the dream of many a player. While to some this action is unfathomable, PR Balrog thought a lot about this decision before he made it, and here takes the time to bring us through his thought process.

Primarily, as a player, it seems that the sponsorship was making him lax in his performance and training. The security made him comfortable, thus driving a need to get that fire back that leads him to place highly at tournaments in the first place. He also discusses some conflict with gaining side-sponsors–which he touched on in his announcement–as well as the plan he has for himself and his brand in the coming year.

Source: PR_Balrog

Genesis 4 was an amazing weekend with a lot of clutch upsets and surprising turnarounds. While the weekend is over, nothing is stopping you from watching the whole event all over again. We’ve compiled all the Smash footage VGBootcamp has uploaded here for your viewing pleasure.

First up is the Super Smash Bros. Melee Singles tournament, which here we can see a lot of sets from pools all the way up to Grand Finals.

Melee also had Crews and a Doubles tournament, which you can see just below.

Here’s the Top 8 showing for Super Smash Bros. for Wii U:

While there was no Brawl or Project M, you can catch Super Smash Bros. 64 Top 8 in all it’s Pikachu-filled glory below.

Source: VGBootCamp

BlazBlue can be a bit of an intimidating franchise for new players: with the frequent updates, the expansive 36-character roster, and the complicated and character-specific mechanics, a lot of new players have trouble finding their footing. This latest iteration has been said to not be getting an extended title update, so this is likely the perfect time to jump in.

We have a guide today–made by Koefficient–that takes the time to help usher new players into the scene. The guide focuses on the basics: it helps advise which characters would fit your playstyle best, how to read notations, how to get comfortable with your character, combos, and some general tips on leveling up your game. If you’re looking to start playing, or just want to improve your fundamental knowledge, give this a watch!

Source: Koefficient; via tip from Chris Long

Super Smash Bros. Melee is one of the more technical fighting games out there. The game has been refined to such an amazing level of mechanical skill at its highest level, that it’s nearly unrecognizable as the game it started out as. This tendency for the game to evolve with the players has led some to talk about the fabled “20xx” scenario, where the game evolves to its highest level, Fox emerges as the best, and everyone at the top uses him exclusively.

This end-of-days scenario is discussed at length in the latest SSBM Tutorials video; they cover the basic concept, where it came from, and whether or not such an eventuality ever could come to pass. It covers the current state of the meta, regional and national placements, and the top players in the game right now–so this is a good chance to catch up on where the community is at, as far as evolving their game right now.

Source: SSBM Tutorials

With Injustice 2 trailers and announcements surfacing en masse, a lot of players can’t wait to get their hands on the new fighter. It’s not quite available yet–so why not take a moment to look back on the first in the franchise that started it all: Injustice: Gods Among Us.

This video, made by YouTuber ETCChile, features Batman–and shows off a lot of fancy confirms from the Dark Knight. There are all sorts of combos here, utilizing cross-ups, stage interactable elements, and screen transitions. While this won’t beat having Injustice 2 in our hands, it’s a good supplement to hold us over in the meantime!

Source: ETCChile

With all this revitalized hype around The King of Fighters series, it’s great to take a look back at what started it all. Fatal Fury, along with Street Fighter II, truly kicked off the genre as we know it today. Its seniority isn’t the only appeal: this game’s animations and pixel art are still looking great today.

What we have here today is a nice set of compilations of Fatal Fury 2, courtesy of 8Sin-Am. We have a Geese Howard compilation up first, featuring Korean player Somoru with some anything-but -predictable play.

We also have smooth Kim Kaphwan play from fd2, another Korean player. Despite the game being 25 years old, the fact that high-level play of this level can still be found on FightCade is amazing.

 

Source: 8Sin-Am (YouTube)

If you caught our recent article on what makes Skullgirls a great fighting game, you’ll know why Double is one of the game’s best characters. She has a great many assets to her, and she isn’t complicated or overly difficult or complicated to play, either. Now’s as good a time as any to pick her up, and a concise guide on her basic gameplan is vital to starting out with a strong Double game.

Today we learn from none-other than Echo Fox’s Dominique “SonicFox” McLean about Double, with him teaching all of her essential setups. He shows off her basic confirms off of pokes, grabs, and counter hit, as well as a side switch combo–particularly useful for happy birthday combos–and her strong reset potential. There is a lot more to Double than these combos, but these should get you started nicely.

Source: SonicFox5000