The creators of XSplit, SplitmediaLabs, have acquired both Challonge and Player.Me as part of a $10 million investment deal to create a unified platform which connects players and streamers with content they want to see. This creates a grand triumvirate of products under the SplitmediaLabs banner as Challonge creates the tournament brackets, Player.Me helps players find said tournaments and then XSplit streams the whole thing to the world.
The main goal out of these acquisitions is to drive discovery–things like viewers finding tournament streams that they may not have seen before, or linking tournament organizers with streamers so that they can stream their next event to a wider audience. It will be a while before we see the tangible effects of this new partnership but it should help TOs market their events to a targeted audience while giving players more places to compete and tournaments to watch.
Despite joining Panda Global just before CEO, the team has not had the chance to officially introduce their latest signing to the world, that being the Ryu specialist Alberto “Trela” Miliziano. As such, they’ve created a short video interviewing their newest player, talking about his competitive drive, his connection to the traveling karate master, as well as some of his previous characters that he has to draw from should the need arise.
He makes it clear that he is not dropping Ryu any time soon, despite his shaky performance at CEO. Much like Trela wanting to see Ryu evolve and grow as a character, Panda Global wants him to mature and improve as a player, with this attitude being one of the main reasons Trela agreed to join up with the team. Despite being known for his Ryu, Trela states in the video that he has actually returned to playing Shulk, using the Bidou controller style to hopefully crack that character open like he did with Ryu. He even says that he’s been messing around with using Bidou with Cloud, Robin and even Charizard so you may see them sometime in the future.
In my Evo preview for Smash 4, I tipped Trela as one of the 8 players to watch so keep an eye on this Texan during the coming weekend.
In some bitter news for TSM fans looking for the Godslayer to make some heads roll at this year’s Evo, William “Leffen” Hjelte will, sadly, not be able to make it to the event. In a press release on TSM’s website, it has been revealed that while Leffen’s visa application had finally been processed and he had been successfully screened by a US embassy, his previous deportation when he last tried to enter the US meant that his application was subject to additional background checks.
These additional checks could take up to 60 days and unfortunately, Leffen did not receive his letter of approval in time to compete at Evo. While this is incredibly disappointing for Melee fans heading into the weekend, Leffen will be able to attend US tournaments as soon as he does receive his letter of approval. Expect his possible return at Super Smash Con in August, should all the paperwork go through.
As a way to beta test their new Bits and Cheer system which they are planning to fully implement in the near future, Twitch is enabling viewers to Cheer for their favorite players during the Evo 2016 finals on Saturday and Sunday. For those who aren’t fully up to date on what Bits are, they are a special currency you can buy on Twitch which, when used, donates a certain amount of money to the streamer in question, as well as showing a cool chat emote called a Cheer based on the amount of Bits used.
The way this Cheer system will work at Evo is as follows: say Daigo is playing Infiltration’s Chun-Li and he manages to full parry Chun-Li’s Critical Art, you can then Cheer to celebrate this hype moment. To do so, you’d type Cheer1000 (if you wanted to donate 1000 Bits) and then use #daigo to register your support. You should be able to Cheer on all the finals on Saturday and Sunday on the main Evo stream so have your Bits in your account should you wish to Cheer your favorites. The cash generated from Cheers has 70% attributed to the streamer/player while the remaining 30% is given to Evo itself, with a Bit being equal to 1 cent per Bits used in a Cheer. So, if Daigo does said parry and you did an 1000 Bit Cheer, he would receive around $7.
At the moment, the money donated via Cheers will only go to players with a Twitch partnership but as this featured grows and evolves into something greater, any player who is Cheered for should receive that money. Again, this system is still in beta and you can consider Evo as its first test run, ahead of it rolling out for other big streamed events. For more information on the general Cheer and Bits system, check out Twitch’s big FAQ for all the gritty details.
Anyone who has played Super Smash Bros. for Wii U for a decent amount of time has had the displeasure of playing against Rosalina and Luma. The duo can set up a defensive wall against approaching opponents, with Rosalina commanding from the back while Luma does damage out front. The key to defeating this pair is to kill the tiny star as fast as possible, with Rosalina becoming much easier to fight when she doesn’t have her little bodyguard with her. To help everyone in the fight against the cosmic pair, My Smash Corner has compiled a list of every character’s best moves for killing Luma.
The general criteria for these moves is that have to have enough range and speed to knock Luma out of position, while also allowing the attacking player to stay out of range of a counterattack. If Luma is put in a freefall state offstage, it cannot be called back by Rosalina, so My Smash Corner has also listed certain combos which are great for carrying the little space demon to an early demise.
Joining the ranks of eSports organizations dipping their toes in the waters of the FGC, the European based G2 eSports has signaled their entry into the fighting game arena by signing Weston “Westballz” Dennis as their first player for Super Smash Bros. Melee. This signing comes as quite the shock, as Westballz was previously signed to Tempo Storm and seemed fairly content to stick with the team through Evo 2016. However, I imagine the aligning planets of Westballz’ contract expiration and G2 wanting to make a big entrance to the FGC on the world’s biggest stage made for quite the convincing counter offer.
Tempo Storm have made a statement regarding Westballz’ departure, wishing him all the best at his new team and thanking him for his service and growth under their banner. G2 eSports have said that Westballz “[has] our mentality, he is a born winner and a competitive beast but still has a really likeable personality.”Known for his explosive Falco play and solid placements over the past year or so, both parties are looking to make their mark at Evo with a possible top 8 finish. With G2 having arguably the best League of Legends team and one of the best Counter Strike: Global Offensive teams in Europe, having a top 10 ranked Melee player as their first signing is a great place to start. Also, with Westballz having some vicious sets against players like TSM|Leffen at BEAST 6, he is happy to play the bad guy, lining up perfectly with G2’s current reputation as the villains of the EU LCS. Watch out for the Falco rocking a brand new grey jersey during the Evo weekend.
The FGC, unlike other eSports, hasn’t quite caught up when it comes to hiring professional coaches to help bring out the best in their players. More often than not, it’s a friend whispering a quick word of encouragement or telling you to be aware of that one move you keep getting hit by. Very rarely do you see a trained professional crouched next to someone’s chair, fanning them between rounds and telling them to anti-air more. In some cases, like at Evo this year, coaching is actually banned beyond pools, so don’t expect your mate to quickly run on stage to tell you that you’re getting bodied.
Despite the embargo on coaching at Evo, Team Liquid is attempting to raise their game by hiring their first coach, specifically for Super Smash Bros. Melee. Luis “Crunch” Rosias has joined Team Liquid to help bolster the performance of their Melee players, specifically after he helped coach long time friend Juan “Hungrybox” Debiedma to victory at DreamHack Winter 2015. Crunch’s coaching seems to have worked for the world’s best Jigglypuff over the past year or so, taking Hungrybox to several first place victories, thanks to his analysis and feedback. This new addition to Team Liquid may be the thing that pushes Hungrybox to victory at Evo this coming weekend and may cause other eSports teams operating within the FGC to consider hiring coaches to help their players finish on top.
Evo has some special resonance for certain competitors, being the place where they were enshrined as the greatest player of their specific game. Legends are written in Las Vegas and one Melee player is on the cusp of three Evo crowns, that being Cloud 9’s Mang0. Having won in 2013 and 2014, the Kid is eyeing up his 3rd victory after a successful win at WTFox 2 this past weekend and his recent work to beat personal demon, Team Liquid’s Hungrybox.
As a way to get the Mango Nation hyped up for this possible historic victory, Mang0 has put together his own hype video, piecing together some of his historic 1st place wins to get his fans believing in the 3vo. However, with the best of 3 format up to winners, losers and grands at Evo, all it takes is someone to get the initial momentum on Mang0 to make him buster out in losers. However, Mang0 is known for gaining power at Evo and in the losers bracket so expect plenty of USA chants over the Evo weekend, no matter what the outcome.
With many characters getting major damage off grabs in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, being released from a grab can sometimes be exactly what you want. However, with proper knowledge of how grab releases work, and the properties of certain grab escapes, you can actually manipulate opponents into favorable situations or even kill via a grab release. In their quest to educate and explain the finer details of Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, the Beefy Smash Doods have stepped into the breach to tell players everything they need to know about grab releases.
The team goes over what causes an air grab release and a ground grab release, as well as certain situations with characters like Megaman, Wii Fit Trainer and Yoshi where players are released in the opposite way to what you would expect, based on the grab animation. They also explain how to force either a ground or air release, as well as debunking the theory that pummeling a grabbed opponent will actually shorten the length of your grab. Along with showing you how to exploit grab releases on the ledge, by catching a recovery opponent just above the ledge to stop them getting their double jump back, the Beefy Smash Doods tell players what they should do as soon as they are grab released in order to stop follow up attacks. It’s an incredibly comprehensive guide and for players who play characters like Ness or Cloud, who can be killed by getting grab released on the ledge, this video is one to take notes from.
Billed as a more precise way of playing Super Smash Bros. Melee, Hit Box Arcade has announced a prototype controller known as the Smash Box, designed to make techniques like shield dropping and waveshines a hell of a lot easier. The control layout will look alien to your typical Smash player, but once you wrap your head round how you manipulate diagonal movement, it seems like a great way of playing Melee without flubbing inputs.
Rather than having the Analogue Stick used for diagonal inputs, you combine a cardinal directional input (as seen with the red Analog buttons) with either the Tilt Y or Tilt X Axis buttons located in the D-Pad area. This then makes doing an angled forward tilt, for example with Fox, a matter of holding the top Tilt Y Axis button down while pressing either Up on the Analog buttons to angle upward, forward to do a standard forward tilt, or down to do a down tilt. It’s much easier to see in the short demonstration video, but using this new input method, it makes basic movement options like wavedashing and dashdancing much easier to perform. There are even separate buttons for light shields and normal shields, as seen with the special Shield Tilt button.
This new combination input system will make precise movement much easier, as well as less taxing on your wrists, but there is the whole question of whether this input method will be allowed. There is a history of controller modifications in Smash, like changing trigger heights to do light shields and full shields, as well as putting in notches on the Analogue Stick bumper for precise shield drops, but this drastic of a controller input shift may raise some questions as it makes previously complex inputs much easier to perform once you’ve passed the initial barrier of the new control method.
This may be the perfect way for traditional fighting game players to transition into Melee, as well as for veteran players who are beginning to struggle using a GameCube controller for long periods of time. In any case, it’s certainly an interesting development and I do like the look of the Smash Box itself, complete with full Sanwa Denshi arcade buttons which are all color coded like a GameCube controller.
The controller is in the early stages of development yet, but keep your eyes peeled on the Hit Box Arcade official page for more details, as they are hinting at a Kickstarter campaign in the near future.
