At last, we have some concrete information regarding the beta testing period in North America. As we already know about the Japanese version, BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle will be available in a limited capacity on PlayStation Network, with certain times for those who pre-ordered and different days for those who are still on the fence. But now, we have confirmation regarding the American side of things, and there’s lots of good news.
For the most part, the English beta of BBTAG mirrors the Japanese open beta of the game. Those who pre-order the game will have a wider window of play, starting from May 9th. Arc System Works posted useful charts that detail what are the available modes and numbers of characters and on what dates, dependent on whether players pre-order the game or not. Notably, those who pre-order can try the game three days earlier (immediately as pre-orders become available on May 9th) and have access to VS 2P Mode. Only people who pre-order will be able to compete against other human players. There will be an online “Casual Lobby” available too.
After the window of the first beta ends on the 14th, the game will be available as a downloadable, offline demo. Those who didn’t pre-order will have access to a very limited version of the game that includes just the protagonists of each universe and two modes. Pre-ordered copies permit pretty much the same access as in the beta period, but without online play.
Note: this is for PlayStation 4 users only. The Japanese beta does include a window for Nintendo Switch users; the US ASW branch will have information regarding this matter available soon. If you pre-ordered through means other than PSN, the beta will start for you on the 12th.
Here’s a full list of the 20 playable characters:
BlazBlue
Ragna
Jin
Noel
Makoto
Rachel
Hazama
Azrael
Iron Tager
Nu 13
Es
Persona 4 Arena
Yu
Yosuke
Chie
Yukiko
UNIEL
Hyde
Linne
Waldstein
Gordeau
RWBY
Ruby
Weiss
Are you ready to try your hand at Crossing Fates? Let us know in the comments if you’re planning on it, and stay tuned to Shoryuken for continued BBTAG coverage.
This past weekend, Chicago kicked off the RED BULL CONQUEST series of events, announced earlier this year. The energy drink company is energizing various regions in the United States to show their regional pride and compete in Street Fighter V, Tekken 7, and Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2. Each of the regional tournaments challenges the players to form teams that will compete at the final event in Washington D.C. in November.
Chicago’s Ignite Gaming Lounge — a typical FGC venue for the community — hosted the event. Red Bull showed off their impressive event production by creating a stage with setups for each game. A swag station sold Red Bull-decorated hats, hoodies, t-shirts, and more, and a special drink bar offered non-alcoholic beverages. Each game’s pool progressed smoothly throughout the day, giving stream time to every title on Twitch. Persia and Vicious, well-known FGC personalities, hosted the event — speaking on camera to coordinate the show for viewers from around the world.
The Street Fighter V tournament had the most entrants, with 95 players throwing their hats into the ring. The action took most of the day, making endurance a factor in the fights. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Chicago’s star SFV player, BxA|THE COOL KID93 — Marcus Redmond — squared off against Rob “RobTV” Burney in Winners Finals. Redmond barely pulled off a win with his Abigail against RobTV’s very patient Guile.
“I love Red Bull events. Before, people really didn’t look to Chicago, because we didn’t have that Alex Valle, those kinds of people, who run those local events that people really look at,” Redmond told SRK. “People started learning about us because of events with Red Bull, they give us a reason to practice and get better. These events over the past years made everybody step up.”
Then, Redmond faced Chakotay “ElChakotay” Andrich in the Grand Finals, coming out on top after a bracket reset, and becoming Chicago’s SFV representative in the Red Bull Conquest series.
“I’m feeling good. It was a headache,” Redmond said. “Normally, these Red Bull events are about points. If you lose, it’s ok, you get some points, you’ll come back next month. But this time, there was more pressure; it was just one tournament. I told my wife, we are going to have to fly to every region if I lose!”
Redmond is looking forward to the release of Cody, his favorite character, and in the coming months he will focus on preparing for the November finals.
As for Bandai Namco’s 3D brawler, attendance came close to Capcom’s game, sitting at 80. While the competition was tight as well, many people favorited Marquis “vShadow_20z” Jordan to win, and he came through. He will team up with Redmond to represent the Chicago region.
Left: vShadow_20z (Tekken 7) Center: Mr. K (Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2) Right: THE COOL KID93 (Street Fighter V)
“People consider me the best in Tekken in the Midwest, so I feel pretty good,” Jordan said. “I feel I can represent well for Tekken and Chicago. We have some great players here. We’re also professional with it. Chicago has a certain image, and not everyone fits it. Most people consider Chicago violent [politically], but it’s not all that, but as far as the fighting game community, there are some great people.”
Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2 didn’t have as many players, (33 entrants), but many of them took the effort to come from somewhat distant areas to compete in the event. The winner hailed from St. Louis, Missouri; Stephen “Mr. K” Shannon, Leo Whitefang player and pun aficionado, battled multiple Millia Rages on his way to victory and managed to best BlackSnake’s Venom.
“Everyone in Chicago is super nice. I appreciate everyone I played against, I’ve always been welcomed here,” Shannon told SRK. “This is one of my favorite places to travel to play. I know that if I wanted to drive up here for a tournament for a weekend to play, everyone has that kind of passion, they want to get their games in. I’m glad that Red Bull has Guilty Gear on the circuit, it’s the reason I’m here.”
“I think the GG community deserves a little more visibility,” Shannon added. “The people that play are very passionate about the game, they want to play the game for all the right reasons. And I think that the game is super sick. Guilty Gear is a game I can play for 30 years and never be dissatisfied with it.”
Any player can enter and win to represent any region in the United States. Not locking the rules down based on geographical location was a conscious decision on Red Bull’s part.
“We kept it open because we wanted to get maximum participation,” said Jimmy “ShinJN” Nguyen, the National Tournament Director for the Red Bull Conquest series. “We could have introduced a region lock, but we thought that maybe sometimes a person can’t play in their own region and they can compete elsewhere. I think the cool part about the FGC though is representing your region, so I mean, do you want to go play for California? If you win a qualifier? That’s up to the player, and whether they can live with that.”
This was only the first regional tournament, and there are 13 more to go. The next Red Bull Conquest tournament takes place in Seattle on May 19th. In addition, there will be an online qualifier as well as a last chance qualifier at Washington D.C. Every winner receives $500, a variety of small accessories by Red Bull, as well as a flight to the finals. What will the ultimate winner get? Each teammate competes for $1500, in addition to a flight to Evo Japan 2019.
1. Mr. K
2. kayloud
3. blackSNAKE
4. DBJoseph
5. TheArm
5. WhiteBeast
7. sweetxjam
7. Gekioh
9. M A D W A K
9. ShinSin
9. lizardman301
9. LGOD|Ken Griffey Jr.
View the full results and brackets over at smash.gg.
[Photo Credit: Red Bull Content Pool / Bryan Lamb]
It’s that time of the year again: the most popular destination on the East Coast is gathering warriors to compete in a tournament with higher stakes than usual. Super TSB returns this weekend for a must-see event of competition between Dragon Ball FighterZ, Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2, and BlazBlue: Central Fiction players.
The prizes — as well as the participants from around the country — make this one stand out. The DBFZ tournament has recently received an additional $250 pot bonus, and that’s in addition to the sum that will be coming from Matcherino. Furthermore, the top 16 is under consideration to be entered into the upcoming Summit of Power (the nomination phase). As for Xrd, there’s a hefty $500 pot bonus in that tournament, and it’s part of the Red Bull Conquest events.
Expect to see stand-out competitors in all events. For DBFZ, we’ll have Echo Fox|SonicFox, Echo Fox|dekillsage, PG|Nakkiel, LordKnight, and EMP|rogueyoshi, among others. GG will see many familiar faces, like PG|MarlinPie, Hotashi, SQ, Mynus, Shine, and many more. For BBCF, we might see PG|SKD and PAG|Grover fight it out again. Of course, many of these players overlap in different games.
Additionally, if you’re a fan of Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st], there’s also something for you; the Frencth Bread community in NYC is organizing a UNIST tournament on Friday. As for the main tournaments, they will take place on Saturday, April 28th, at 12:00 PM ET. Tune in to the TSB Twitch channel to catch the action, and also follow the TSB Twitter and Sway for updates or questions.
Arc System Works USA is speaking up about the English beta version of BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle for the first time. We’ve heard about the Japanese version of the game having a beta (a longer period for those who pre-order, but available for anyone for a limited time). The company has announced via Twitter that news regarding this is coming on Monday, April 30th.
Hold on to your butts. The North American PSN pre-order for #BBTAG is dropping THIS MONDAY (4/30).
News on the open beta (yes, it's happening) is coming early next week! We're working as hard as possible over at Arc USA to make it all happen, so thank you for your patience! pic.twitter.com/FfOfehcY5X
A recent BBTAG stream informed us about the beta test period for Japanese users. It will be available for both PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch players. Additionally, the next Character Pack will be revealed later in May, and will include the next trio of fighters.
Every fighting game has top-tier and low-tier characters, even though the specifics on them are points of contention. Here and there, we see players break the mold by winning with surprising choices. Certain people are able to push their skill to outshine the weakness of their selections. The Philocypher sits down with recent Tekken 7 winner, Azure, who triumphed at Michigan Masters 2018 with Lucky Chloe.
The discussion starts out with some general questions about Azure’s approach to fighting games, and what attracts him to the genre. The common metaphor of “high speed chess” comes up. Azure talks about creating games within games to outplay the opponent and having fun with training. The discussion delves deep into structuring your time to making sure it’s productive, and how to grow as a fighting game player. Later on, they switch to talking about the negative effects of affixed mindsets (like thinking that someone can’t win with a certain character, or making excuses).
Are you sticking it out with a low tier character? Do you believe that the player can make enough of a difference to rise to the top regularly? Let us know in the comments.
Tension Pulse, the online Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2 exhibition series, is going strong. After resuming last week, we have more fighters on deck for this Thursday. Make sure to tune in for some exciting FT7 matches with skilled players and witty, insightful commentary. It’s a great event to watch for newcomers and veterans alike.
We’re seeing lots of new faces, with one returning participant. Dekline will once again show off his skills with Sin against… wait, Potemkin? Has ZotBuster been thrown to the wolves? Or will his iron will show that he can win the match-up despite a disadvantage? Before them, Maadhum and autodidact will warm up the stage with a showdown between the two Valentine sisters, Elphelt and Ramlethal. It’s bound to get explosive!
Dekline
On his growth since participating a year ago: “I think I’ve gotten a lot more match-up knowledge since the last time I played, though there are definitely still some characters I rarely play against (Answer, Jam, etc). I’ve also moved away from always going for character-specific or max damage combos in favor of more consistent confirms that still get the job done.”
On his opponent: “I don’t think I’ve ever met or played against ZotBuster, but he has solid placements, so I’m expecting some difficulty. Although the match-up is notoriously bad for Potemkin, I feel like it requires a lot of patience from the Sin player or it can fall apart very quickly.”
On his individual style: “I tend to be more of a reactive player. I usually try to feel my opponent out and then exploit their playstyle, as opposed to going in with a specific gameplan in mind.”
ZotBuster
On the match: “I’m excited to be part of it, there aren’t a lot of Potemkin players out there, so I’m happy to represent my character as well. I’m not usually one for netplay, but given how the US is distance-wise, it’s pretty tough to do exhibitions regularly any other way. I rely a lot on Instant Block, so I’m a bit worried about changing the timings for netplay.”
On his opponent: “I’ve heard of Dekline, but I’ve never gotten the chance to see him play. I fight Kizzie Kay a lot, but he definitely plays Sin in a really specific way, so I’m curious how Dekline will approach the match-up. It’s easily one of the worst in the game, probably around 7-3 in Sin’s favor? That being said, if I get in, he has to guess like everyone else. Nothing will be as bad as Kanji vs. Margaret in Persona, so at this point, I mostly just grit my teeth and try my best.”
On his individual style: “I’m not one for labbing, so I mostly just play on gut feelings. I kind of just try things that I feel will work, and if they do, I laugh about it, and if they don’t, I also laugh about it, just slightly less. A lot of the time I’ll try to find a gap in my opponent’s flow I can exploit since my character is strong at doing so.”
autodidact
On the match: “I’m excited to be a part of this exhibition! Thanks to Silva for inviting me on. I always enjoy an opportunity to take place in tournaments; but, I tend to get quite anxious when it’s time to play. Hopefully, this experience will help me, as I’m attending Texas Showdown and Combo Breaker in the upcoming weeks, and I’ll be able to draw from this when keeping calm. I hope my practice and improvement can be shown off Thursday!”
On his opponent: “I actually have not played or seen any footage of Maadhum, so his expertise and playstyle will be a mystery to me going in. This might help give him an edge; however, I am quite comfortable with the Ramlethal match-up as I have a couple friends in Texas that grind it with me. As long as I don’t overcommit and get caught being greedy, I think I have a great chance!”
On his individual style: “My playstyle from the moment I picked up Guilty Gear was crazy and aggressive; however, this has proven to be a fault of mine as I have strived to improve. Learning to reel myself in and play more calculated neutral and defense (as well as adapting to opponents’ tendencies) has been my focus these past few months. Still, sometimes I can be an absolute nut if I fall into autopilot… Elphelt as a character can definitely lend a hand in that.”
Maadhum
On the match: “I’m excited to be able to play in an exhibition, as I’ve never had an opportunity like this before. I’m definitely nervous, but this is a great opportunity for me to work on keeping my composure in a high-tension setting, something I’m usually pretty bad at.”
On his opponent: “I’m unfamiliar with autodidact, and we haven’t played at all, so it will definitely be an interesting match. I think Ram has a pretty good match-up against Elphelt. Ram has good answers to her grounded game and can also chase pretty well. I also feel like Elphelt’s anti-airs aren’t that great at dealing with Ram’s neutral game, which is great because Ram is a lot stronger in the air. Despite all that, Elphelt’s strong ability to consistently convert and deal damage and knockdowns off stray hits will be tough to deal with. I’m looking forward to it.”
On his individual style: “I think my style is pretty interesting as Ram. I like to focus on low commitment options, staying mobile, and building meter to make a big move. Even though Ram can run a very strong offense game in the corner, I always try to keep my options simple and safe. Because I hate being wrong.”
Help keep the Guilty Gear community going strong by supporting, sharing, and watching the stream on Silva_hime’s Twitch channel. Ryyudo and BxA|dot_Nova will play hosts on Thursday, commentating the action at 9:30 PM ET/8:30 PM CT/6:30 PM PT. In case you missed last week’s Tension Pulse, here’s a video:
There’s always that one or two match-ups that just make you swell up with anger, because the designers decided to give that character strong counters to your moves. This is true for pretty much every fighting game, but it might stand out even more in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. Beefy Smash Doods now go through a few of the match-ups that might make your blood boil.
First up, they talk about Rosalina and Ness. The crux of the match-up lies in Rosalina’s ability to negate projectiles, which is what Ness frequently uses to save himself from falling. This can happen with Villager as well, who can put projectiles in his pocket. When it comes to Pac-Man and Little Mac, the latter has a ground-focused game. A good Pac-Man can steadily punish and platform-camp the boxer. Next up is Meta Knight versus Jigglypuff. This match-up is very scary for the Pokémon, who can easily get knocked out from combos.
Check out the rest of the bad match-ups in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, and let us know in the comments what other match-ups you hate with a passion!
Falke is bringing a pretty different playstyle to Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition. Those who enjoy a more defensive approach and nullifying the opponent’s advances should be quite a fan of what she seems to be bringing. Before she becomes available, get to know the character in depth with this V-Skill and V-Trigger explanation from VesperArcade.
Falke’s V-Skill is a protective move that negates projectiles, even low-profiling ones. It also hits the opponent and sends them flying back. It’s a reliable knockdown and combos well. As for the first V-Trigger, it enhances her projectiles, making them hit three times, increasing their hit stun. Also, She can still use her regular shots if she wants to.
In V-Trigger II, the activation is an attack in itself, launching the opponent high — This is something Falke wants to confirm into. It’s not an anti-air, but you can cancel it into a Critical Art to dish out some damage. This V-Trigger enables Falke to use to two new moves and enhances her V-Skill, which now starts to reflect projectiles.
Looking for more info? Check this out: The CFN Portal posted the complete SFV Falke move list.
Esports team Echo Fox is rounding out its roster of fighting game players with yet another tournament pro — Echo Fox announced via Twitter on Thursday that Jon “dekillsage” Coello is getting signed to their roster.
dekillsage has made a name for himself over the years most notably in Super Smash Bros. as well as Skullgirls. Since winning Northwest Majors in 2015 in Skullgirls, he has frequently placed in the top rankings at multiple events. Coello also will compete in Capcom’s Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite and Dragon Ball FighterZ, and he will have a chance to sport that Echo Fox gear at Naptown Clutch in Indiana this coming weekend.
In his series of video interviews with top and up-and-coming competitors, BornFree sat down with UYU|Cloud805. The conversation took place at NorCal Regionals 2018, and touches on the player’s past in Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, and future with Dragon Ball FighterZ.
Cloud805 triumphed at the Battle for the Stones event, but that’s not his favorite moment in Marvel vs. Capcom — rather, it was beating FChamp at Evolution 2013 in Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and making top 8. After some talk about his background in gaming, the conversation switches to DBFZ. Cloud805’s team is Kid Buu, Adult Gohan, and Goku Black because he feels his personality and style show in them. He has pretty strong feelings about Adult Gohan and Android 16, which he goes into about the 14:30 mark.
