Author: Lance "Tarnot" Hood

Back when NetherRealm Studios revealed Ermac’s variations in Mortal Kombat X, Spectral looked to have plenty of potential thanks to its added flight ability. Any sort of flight mode stands to give a fighter a distinct advantage over their opponents, but the degree of (and even the existence of) that advantage depends entirely on how the mechanic works within the game and the sorts of options that it affords its bearer.

When the game launched, Spectral Ermac didn’t get that much attention, and a lot of that (likely) had to do with his flight lacking realistic applications. Thanks to the most recent Mortal Kombat X patch, the red ninja’s flight mode has become something more than just an excellent way to get punched.

In the video below, That1Guy discusses how to take full advantage of the new hovering strings to keep the pressure on opponents as well as mix them up with high/low options from the air.

For reference, you can check out the patch’s full list of Ermac changes here.

Source: That1Guy

When Most Valuable Gaming’s Jason “Mew2King” Zimmerman faced off against Team SoloMid’s William “Leffen” Hjelte in Super Smash Bros. Melee at Super Smash Con, things didn’t go quite so well. Out of the matches that they played, Hjelte came away with only a single loss. In an interview directly following that tournament, Cloud 9’s Joseph “Mango” Marquez spoke to Leffen about the win and mentioned that Mew2King “is usually getting destroyed by one person at [any] period in time…you’ve definitely had his number the last few tournaments.”

Fast forward to last weekend when Mew2King and Leffen met in winners finals at PAX Prime. Viewers, as well as Mew2King himself, had to be wondering if Mango’s words would continue to hold some true–would Leffen again walk away with a resounding victory, perhaps even a flawless 6-0?

The set started out with a Fox mirror that went down to the wire as both players struggled to keep their final stock, but Mew2King was able to put the threat of being beaten out of his mind when he closed the first match, setting the tone for the rest of the tournament. Adding Sheik and Marth to his arsenal over the course of the set, Mew2King was able to secure victory over Leffen time and again, walking away with six straight victories himself.

If you missed the matches live, be sure to check them out below. In spite of what the numbers may say, these are some intense Smash matches that no Melee player will want to miss.

Sources: VGBootCamp, Challonge

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U has plenty of heavy hitting attacks: Falcon Punch, Shield Breaker, anything involving Ganondorf…the list goes on. But what’s the biggest hit in the game? In their most recent video, the Beefy Smash Doods set out to find just that.

To prove that they have indeed discovered the strongest attack in the game, the video goes through some of the bigger hits available and why they didn’t quite make the cut. In this process, they cover damage caps on things like counters, reflectors, and Villager’s pocketing ability.

Sadly, just because the hit piles on the percentage doesn’t mean it’s practical. This sort of thing will never happen in a one-on-one setting, so the Doods included a small segment dedicated to the largest hit possible when going up against a single opponent as well.

Source: Beefy Smash Doods via Smash Boards

Last weekend, Seattle hosted PAX 2015. This massive event held plenty of standard convention fare, but most notably it housed tournaments for popular and forthcoming fighting titles. One such tournament was, as you might expect, Street Fighter V.

The build used for the tournament included the game’s current full cast, right down to recent addition Rainbow Mika. Sadly, many of the players stayed well within their comfort zones, as seen through the abundance of Ryu and Chun-Li.

You can check out the full tournament playlist here, or you can use the video we’ve included below to navigate through the bracket. If there’s a particular match that you’d like to see, click on where it appears in the bracket and you’ll be on your way to watching the fireballs fly.

Source: Khaos Gaming

As patches tend to do, the most recent adjustments to Mortal Kombat X stand to grab hold of the current tiers of the game and give them a firm shake. While the update itself will need time to settle in order to reveal where everyone stands, j360 believes that Reptile is a contender for top tier placement–most notably his Deceptive variation.

This hypothesis comes with plenty to back it up: more consistent combos, more mix-up potential, and safer options across the board. Of these changes, perhaps the most important comes due to the tweaks to Deceptive’s invisibility. Thanks to its faster recovery and the fact that it no longer triggers a block on activation, Reptile can use the move to turn nearly any connected button into a freestyle combo. In addition, the green ninja can now make any cancelable button or string that he throws out safer thanks to the speed with which his EX invisibility takes effect.

To hear more about why we’ll likely be seeing more Reptile in the near future, check out the video below.

For reference, you can check out the patch’s full list of Reptile changes here.

Source: j360 via Test Your Might

By now you’ve certainly heard about the first-to-ten (and subsequent best-of-five) between Dominique “cR|Sonic Fox” McLean and Carl “RZR|Perfect Legend” White at last weekend’s Summer Jam 9.

It’s obvious that Sonic Fox enjoyed his perfect showing against White, but now that he’s had some time to process the event, how does McLean feel? The folks at The Daily Dot recently spoke with him to learn just that. In addition to speaking about the event itself, Sonic Fox goes on to break down the history between Perfect Legend and himself, a rivalry that has strong roots in Injustice: Gods Among Us. Sonic Fox also discusses the latest changes to Mortal Kombat X and why he feels that some of them–specifically buffs to Quan-Chi–aren’t the best idea.

The video below also contains information regarding Bonchan’s recent sponsorship by Red Bull as well as some Street Fighter V beta matches. We’ve timestamped the video to jump directly to the Sonic Fox interview.

If you didn’t catch the set between Sonic Fox and Perfect Legend, you can check it out here.

Source: The Daily Dot

Late last week, the Beefy Smash Doods released a video breaking down just how many inputs it takes for a top Super Smash Bros. Melee player to win a high-stakes competitive match. In their example, the numbers that Alliance’s Armada put up were impressive, but were sadly not entirely accurate due to the inability of the human eye to track things like DI and SDI as they happen. But what if there was a way to use hardware to keep track not only of inputs, but of a host of other data? Thanks to a player named Fizzi, we may eventually be able to do just that.

At the moment, Fizzi’s hardware setup can determine things relating to player deaths, like how long it took them to die, which move sent them to their doom, and other similar information, but the potential applications go well beyond that. In the video below, Fizzi discusses a world where this sort of hardware could be used to automate tournament results, track stats like longest combos or favorite kill moves, and yes, even keep track of inputs as they happen.

Of course, any project of this nature will face hurdles; this could even go the way of Project M before it fully makes it off the ground. Even so, this shows the dedication that some players have to their community, and even if the project never sees use on the tournament floor, it’s nothing short of impressive.

Source: Fizzi via Smash Boards

One of the first names that any new fighting game player with aspirations to do more than spam buttons against the AI will likely learn is that of Victor “Spooky” Fontanez. Over the years, Spooky has become a household name in the fighting game community, and with good reason. Esteban Martinez recently released another short segment from his upcoming documentary FGC: Rise of the Fighting Game Community wherein Seth Killian talks about why Spooky is such an important piece of the scene that we all love.

Among other things, Killian says Spooky “isn’t looking to build some elaborate franchise or sell you some slick thing or anything like that. He’s just a guy, like a lot of us, who loves what he does.” And that love for what he does transmits though his quality streams, helping our genre of choice grow by reaching a much wider audience.

To check out the full, unedited clip, be sure to watch the video below.

Source: Hold Back to Block

Yesterday, David “UltraDavid” Graham uploaded a video exploring Street Fighter V option selects relating to the game’s V-Reversal mechanic. The idea goes that any special move ending in a forward input can be used alongside a V-Reversal, and the appropriate attack will come out depending on whether or not your character is in block stun.

As tends to be true with option selects, the layers of these inputs go quite a bit deeper. In order to fully explore the, well, options that this option select affords, Zissou has broken down how Street Fighter V prioritizes buttons, throws, Critical Arts, and everything in between. With this knowledge, players can pile on a variety of inputs to create option selects ideal for a variety of situations.

Source: Zissou