Author: Kevin "Forte" Webb

This morning Capcom announced on Twitter that a new stage called “Skies of Honor” will be added to Street Fighter V on Tuesday. The stage appears to be set on the wing of an aircraft owned by Rashid, with the fighters battling in mid-flight above a city. Like prior downloadable stages, Skies of Honor will be available for either 70,000 Fight Money or $3.99 USD.

Take flight with Rashid when “Skies of Honor” stage comes to #SFV tomorrow for 70k FM/$3.99! pic.twitter.com/LVCSorlxeL

— Street Fighter (@StreetFighter) November 7, 2016

 

Source: Street Fighter (Twitter)

The Fighting Game Community is mourning the passing of Daniel “Mobstaz” Frontera, who passed away on Monday at the age of 25. Frontera was a relative newcomer to the scene, but had already endeared himself to many with his positive attitude and strong work ethic. In less than a year within the scene, he helped organize major events like The Brooklyn Beatdown, and has contributed as a member of our SRK writing team.

A GoFundMe to cover the costs of Frontera’s funeral was launched on Tuesday, and all venue fees collected during this Wednesday’s Next Level Battle Circuit will be donated to Mobstaz’s family.

Frontera shared his passion for gaming as a member of several different communities. He began working with ESL’s Halo community in 2014, and after making the jump to Street Fighter V, he helped oversee The Brooklyn Beatdown and New Legacy, bringing the East Coast fighting game community some of the esports attention it has lacked.

“Although he has only been involved with the FGC for under a year, Mobstaz has contributed so much of his value time and effort to make sure our events run as efficiently as possible,” New Legacy organizer Dwayne D’Nyce Buchanan said. “He was my partner in crime for New Legacy and if it wasn’t for him, the event wouldn’t have become a success.”

He added, “Words cannot describe how kind and unselfish he was. Always willing to go above and beyond.”

Walter Padilla was a friend to Frontera, having worked with him on several events. He too was touched by Frontera’s selflessness and determination.

“He was known as the 24-hour man because he was seriously available 24/7, whenever and for whatever you needed him for, and he never said no,” Padilla said. “The FGC needs more young people like him who step up and look to push the scene towards great things.”

Sources: GoFundMe; Walter Padilla; D’Nyce

Croagunk has been revealed to be the newest playable Pokkén Tournament character, as shown on a livesteam earlier today. The fourth generation Pokémon was already considered one of the game’s stronger support characters, but Croagunk will now have his shot at the center stage. In footage from the livestream Croagunk appeared to have a projectile heavy play style, with some projectiles relying on RNG (Random Number Generation) in similar fashion to Guilty Gear’s Faust.

The reveal certainly is a shock to the Pokkén Tournament community, which had been anticipating the announcement of a different Pokémon, Empoleon. Data referencing Empoleon was found within the same patch files that hinted at the addition of Darkrai and Scizor to the game’s cast, but in an ironic turn, the data miners who discovered the update data dismissed new files referencing Croagunk, as it was already a support character. Players had gone so far as to piece together a movelist for Empoleon, making Croagunk’s announcement even more of a surprise.

Along with the new character the new arcade patch will bring nerfs to Sceptile and Braixen, along with changes to Chandelure, Gengar, and Darkrai and potentially more. The patch notes were released during the livestream but have yet to be translated. So far it has been reported that Chandelure’s Minimize will no longer dodge grabs, and several Pokémon will lose the ability to create unblockables using throws alongside projectiles.

There is still no word on when or if Darkrai, Scizor or Croagunk will be available on the Wii U version of Pokkén Tournament.

Sources: Pokkén Livestream; Circa|CatFight; Jetsplit

The latest post-release balance patch for King of Fighters XIV will arrive later today at approximately 6 p.m PDT (9 p.m. EST) as announced by SNK Playmore’s official Twitter account. While the game is still young, several characters including Nakoruru, K’, Love Heart, Mai, Mature and Athena have been clear standouts during the game’s early months.

【Important Notice】
KOF XIV’s latest patch（ver.1.03）is scheduled to be released on October 18th, 2016 from 6pm PST. #KOF14 #KOFXIV pic.twitter.com/9vtDZmM0Ri

— G-Mantle (ゲーマント） (@SNKPofficial) October 18, 2016

This patch will be game version 1.03, following a day one balance patch and an update focused on the game’s netcode. With a cast of more than 40 characters, the community will have to wait and see how SNK chooses to create parity between them.

Source: SNK Playmore (Twitter)

Brooklyn, New York’s Next Level arcade is partnering with ESL Gaming to host a special Street Fighter V exhibition and side tournament on September 30. The event will serve as a prelude to The Brooklyn Beatdown, a $75,000 tournament being hosted by ESL Gaming at Brooklyn’s Barclay’s Center on Oct. 1.

The Beatdown has attracted a number top SFV contenders to New York, including reigning Capcom Cup champion GGP|Kazunoko, NS|Ludovic, Wolfkrone, Twitch Ambassador Daigo Umehara, and more. But before they face off at the Barclays Center, they’’ll have a chance to show off their stuff at New York’s premier fighting game hub.

New Legacy will consist of six exhibition matches with a first to seven match between GGP|Kazunoko and F3|Alucard serving as the main event. Next Level will also run a side tournament for attendees to get a taste of the competition as well. Check out the scheduled list of matches:

1) Danslip vs. cR|Footwurk – First to 3
2) NS|Ludovic vs. Commander Jesse – First to 3
3) Igotdembombs vs. Circa|LPN – First to 3
4) OG|Shine vs. WOLFKRONE – First to 5
5) PG|RayRay vs. SOA|Brolynho – First to 5
6) GGP|Kazunoko vs. F3|Alucard – First to 7

TeamSp00ky will be streaming the exhibition, and ESL|Zowie, Hyper X, Arozzi and G Fuel will provide prizes for the participants, win or lose. The confirmed commentators for New Legacy are IFC|Yipes and Moons, though you may see some other familiar faces behind the mic. D’Nyce of Fly Nation will serve as the event’s host.

 

Sources: D’Nyce; Mobstaz

Street Fighter V players will have multiple opportunities to qualify for ESL’s Brooklyn Beatdown tournament, including an online tournament series for North America, Brazil and Europe.

Southern California’s Wednesday Night Fights will host their own series of qualifier tournaments, with the winning player earning a fully paid trip to New York City for the October event.

The top eight participants of WNF each week will each receive ranking points towards the finals event. Last night’s tournament was the first qualifier, and the series will culminate the final event deciding the winning player on September 21.

Brooklyn’s Next Level Arcade also announced that they will be giving away weekend event passes–for ESL One and Brooklyn Beatdown–to participants at their weekly Next Level Battle Circuit tournaments and weekend events. Based on tweets from the arcade, the passes wont be given exclusively to the winners.

Thanks to ESL @ESL & Daniel Frontera @Mobstazzz, We'll be giving away at least 1 ESL Brooklyn Beatdown weekend pass every Wednesday!

— Next Level (@nycnextlevel) August 2, 2016

ESL’s Brooklyn Beatdown Open Cups–their series of online qualifiers–will continue online, with the top two placers each week earning a spot in the regional finals later this month. The North American final will be held Aug. 23 and includes four qualifiers so far: Chris Tatarian, XsK Samurai (winner of Capcom Pro Tour Online Qualifer #1), MikeandIke12, and Yuudai.

The European and Brazilian regional finals will be held online August 28 and August 31, respectively. For the full schedule of Open Cups ahead of the regional finals, visit ESL’s website.

Brooklyn Beatdown will be held at the Barclays Center October 1-2, during ESL One New York. The tournament will be open entry with a player cap of 1024, and a prize pool of $75,000.

Sources: ESL; Next Level (Twitter)

Japan’s Rage eSports recently held the final event for volume two of their Street Fighter V tournament series. Eight qualifiers from Tokyo and Osaka were chosen through ranking tournaments leading up to the Rage League Grand Finals last weekend.

Among the qualifiers were Evo 2016 runner-up RZR|Fuudo and third place finisher Yukadon, along with Tokido, GGP|Kazunoko, HM|Eita, OR|Nuki, Cojiro and StormKUBO. All eight were placed into a best of three double elimination bracket, with only the grand finals being best of five games.

A pair of international visitors made appearances for special exhibitions as well, with South Korea’s RZR|Infiltration facing off against RZR|Fuudo in a rematch of the Evo 2016 Grand Finals and USA’s RB|Snake Eyez playing against Tokido.

The Rage League Grand Finals are rather production heavy, coming out to nearly seven hours of footage. but you can find the complete event here with English commentary and time stamps below.

Source: KarinSF4

The English language version of Daigo Umehara’s book “The Will to Keep Winning” is now available digitally through Amazon’s Kindle service. Originally published in 2012, Daigo’s book focuses on his path to becoming the world’s most recognized Street Fighter player, as well as his competitive philosophy.

Umehara’s rise to the top of the fighting game pantheon has been well documented; at age 17 he was thrust into international competition, facing off against a young Alex Valle at the Street Fighter Alpha 3 World Championships in 1998. For nearly two decades Daigo has maintained a level of dominance across multiple games that players across the world aspire to.

Earlier this year Daigo launched his stream BeasTV and was recently named Twitch’s first global ambassador in addition to his Red Bull partnership. Once known for his steely demeanor, Daigo now plays hosts to Japan’s top fighting game players every week, exhibiting top level play and strategy tips. BeasTV streams in English and Japanese each Friday on https://www.twitch.tv/daigothebeastv and replays are available on Youtube.

“The Will to Keep Winning” is available through Amazon for $14.99, and can be read through the Kindle app on most mobile devices.

Source: Amazon.com

The English language version of Daigo Umehara’s book “The Will to Keep Winning” is now available digitally through Amazon’s Kindle service. Originally published in 2012, Daigo’s book focuses on his path to becoming the world’s most recognized Street Fighter player, as well as his competitive philosophy.

Umehara’s rise to the top of the fighting game pantheon has been well documented; at age 17 he was thrust into international competition, facing off against a young Alex Valle at the Street Fighter Alpha 3 World Championships in 1998. For nearly two decades Daigo has maintained a level of dominance across multiple games that players across the world aspire to.

Earlier this year Daigo launched his stream BeasTV and was recently named Twitch’s first global ambassador in addition to his Red Bull partnership. Once known for his steely demeanor, Daigo now plays hosts to Japan’s top fighting game players every week, exhibiting top level play and strategy tips. BeasTV streams in English and Japanese each Friday on https://www.twitch.tv/daigothebeastv and replays are available on Youtube.

“The Will to Keep Winning” is available through Amazon for $14.99, and can be read through the Kindle app on most mobile devices.

Source: Amazon.com

The next stop on the North American Capcom Pro Tour will be New York’s Defend the North. Things will kick off on Friday, July 29 with team tournaments and special exhibitions including Battle of the Boroughs, a special 5-on-5 Street Fighter V team tournament. Now in its third year, Defend the North will host official tournaments for 10 different games over the course of the weekend.

Defend the North is the East Coast’s first CPT ranking event of the season and will feature much of New York’s top talent, such as Evo Finalist L.I. Joe, F3| Alucard, OG| Shine and PIE| Smug. They’ll do their best to protect their home turf against a list of confirmed attendees that includes Fox| Julio, EG| KBrad, EG| Ricki Ortiz, Liquid| KnuckleDu, RB| Snake Eyes, Ronin| Alex Myers and NYChrisG, who returns New York from Southern California.

As a North American Ranking Event, the winner of Street Fighter V at Defend the North will qualify for the 16-player Regional Finals and earn a free trip to the event later this year.

Exhibitions

Friday night will be an evening of exhibitions capped off by Battle of the Boroughs. Organized by Dwayne “D’Nyce” Buchanan and sponsored by Sennheiser, the exhibition will feature 8-teams led by area captains. The winning team in the single elimination bracket will take home $1,000 and the title of “Kings of the North.”

The full team lineups will be announced prior to the start of the event tonight. TeamSp00ky will be streaming the event and you can find the bracket here. Four teams have been announced so far via Youtube (captains in bold):

• Team Long Island: L.I. Joe, Marvisto, Moons, OG Shine and F3| Alucard
• Team Bronx: Coach Steve, Dieminion, Kreymore, Lionhart, Hiro
• Team Queens: TS| Sabin, PIE Smug, NL DaFeetLee, Jav1ts, BS Dang
• Team New Jersey: Shakugan, KDZ, NS Raoh, HD Cloud, CornFGC
• Team Manhattan: IFC Yipes
• Team Brooklyn: Henry Cen
• Team Connecticut: FreeJay
• Mystery Team (Replacing Upstate): ????

In other exhibitions, former New York resident ChrisG will face off against “new” New Yorker F3| Alucard in a first to seven Street Fighter V match on Friday night.

PAG| Pink Diamond will face off against PIE| Daffy in a first to seven Killer Instinct exhibition as well. Pink Diamond has built a reputation as one of the country’s strongest Killer Instinct players, earning Top 8 finishes at Winter Brawl, Combo Breaker and CEO this year. Defend the North will also serve as a qualifier for the Killer Instinct World Cup.

Johnathan “Bum” Farley will host a special “Underground Fight Club” on Friday Night as well, and will be organizing even more exhibitions and high stakes matches for Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 and Street Fighter V. Those matches will be streamed by the King of the House of Chaos himself.

Tournament Schedule/Brackets

Saturday will serve as the main event, with the player pools for each game working down to their finalists. Pokken Tournament will finish on Saturday, while Top 8 for the other titles, and Top 16 for Street Fighter V, will be held on Sunday. Be sure to check the full schedule for the weekend below, as some times may conflict:

Brackets are being handled through Smash.gg and will be updated as the tournament progresses. Check back for results as they happen!

Streams

The tournament will be spread across three streams, with the House of Chaos streaming the Underground Fight Club:

Team Sp00ky

Watch live video from TeamSp00ky on www.twitch.tv

Kick-Punch-Block

Watch live video from KPBLive on www.twitch.tv

House of 3,000

Watch live video from HouseOf3000 on www.twitch.tv

House of Chaos

Watch live video from Bum1six3 on www.twitch.tv

Source: Defend the North, Andy “CitiofBrass” Dumornay