First it was Balrog, then it was Laura and now it’s Abigail. Ever since Street Fighter V‘s second season, there has been a character that has quickly become public enemy number one among the competitive scene. With his Arcade Edition buffs increasing his already high damage and expanding his combo potential, the Canadian motor-head is causing no end of strife both in-game and on social media.
Seeing as Abigail complaints have become so ubiquitous, VesperArcade has decided to delve into the changes he received in Arcade Edition to explain why he is as powerful as he is. It mainly comes down to his plethora of tools, which allow him to deal with almost any situation. Whereas other grappler/big body characters struggle with range or projectiles, Abigail’s huge attack range, armored attacks and oki potential means that once he gets in, the opponent is already dead.
Following Frosbite 2018’s top 8 where Bayonetta made multiple appearances, the Smash 4 community has taken up its torches and pitchforks to go on a bit of a witch hunt. Despite her being able to kill off a single touch, Bayonetta is not unbeatable — as many pro Bayonetta players will attest to. While her combos may look inescapable, careful use of SDI will have you popping out of her combos and living to fight another day.
In order to show people exactly how to escape Bayonetta’s combos, Rush Hour Smash’s Keitaro has drafted in the help of Phoenix1’s Tweek and top Corrin main Cosmos for an hour long anti-Bayonetta masterclass. This guide will tell you exactly how to SDI/DI out of Bayonetta combos, as well as potential follow-ups you should look for if you manage to escape.
At least if you now face a Bayonetta in bracket, you’ll be better equipped to deal with her nonsense.
Ahead of the third season of the Gfinity Elite Series, various esports organizations are gathering up players to represent them in this televised esports event. Having spent a fair few years out of the FGC, UK based esports team Fnatic are returning to the world of Street Fighter by signing Shakil “Shakz” Ghazi, Christ “Akainu” Onema and Evan “Brick” Slabic to their roster.
Fnatic’s new team is a pan-European affair, with Shakz hailing from the UK, Akainu from France and Brick from Sweden. All three players are familiar faces to seasoned Gfinity Elite Series viewers, with Brick playing for Epsilon in Season 2, Shakz playing for Infused and Akainu playing for Prophecy.
These three will be representing Fnatic not only during the third Gfinity Elite Series, but through the whole of 2018’s Capcom Pro Tour. Gfinity Elite Series Season 3 will begin on March 9th, so expect more roster reveals as we get closer to the series opener.
Ahead of his release next week, Capcom UK are going to show off Blanka tonight during their regular Tuesday night WSO Sessions. As normal, expect a full breakdown of Blanka’s normals, specials and both of his V-Triggers from Capcom UK’s Matthew Edwards and Logan Sama, before some of the UK’s best Street Fighter V players show off the electric beastman in some live matches.
For those wanting to watch live, this Blanka showcase will be over on the Capcom Fighters Twitch channel at 8:00 PM GMT/12:00 PM PT. Don’t worry if you don’t catch this stream, as Capcom Unity will also be running its own Blanka showcase stream at 3:00 PM PT.
As Japan goes all-in on esports, Capcom have announced that they will officially be entering the Japanese esports market in 2018. According to an official press release, Capcom are looking to hold more tournaments within Japan in the coming year, to compliment “its existing North American esports business activities”.
The expansion in the world of Japanese esports will begin on February 17th, with the opening of the Capcom Esports Club at the Plaza Capcom arcade in Kichijoji, Tokyo. From this starting location, Capcom is hoping to expand into arcades across the country, with the view of holding regular qualifying tournaments for Japan’s new pro licenses.
This press release also confirms that Tokyo Games Show 2018 will be a Premier event on the 2018 Capcom Pro Tour, with Capcom hoping to “offer pro licenses to the winners of this event.”
While it certainly bodes well for the future of Street Fighter V in Japan, the worry is that the introduction of pro licenses will sharpen the division between those with licenses and those without. Capcom have stated that all Capcom Pro Tour events will remain as open bracket tournaments, but there is the fear that pro-only invitationals may become the norm in Japan.
Happy Birthday Blanka! Just as the Brazilian beastman turns 52, Capcom have announced that he will be joining the Street Fighter V cast on February 20th. Retaining his primal and electrifying fighting style, Blanka comes to Arcade Edition with a brand new command grab and a special crouching stance.
His new command grab is called Wild Hunt, causing Blanka to leap forward and scratch at his opponent with his claws. His V-Skill is Coward Crouch, which has Blanka ducking down before returning to his neutral position. Blanka can low-profile fireballs while in Coward Crouch and he can act out of the stance by hitting either a Punch or Kick button. Wild Lift happens when you hit Punch, and it has Blanka swinging his arms up to launch his opponent. You can then follow up with either a normal, a special or even Blanka’s Critical Art. If you hit Kick, Blanka does his Raid Jump, causing him to leap high into the air.
His V-Trigger I is Jungle Dynamo, which increases the power of his rolling attacks and gives you access to additional follow-ups. His Electric Thunder also gets an attack boost and an animation change, having Blanka step forward before he discharges electricity. He also gains access to Ground Shave Rolling, which can be performed by hitting HK+HP and is a great combo extender.
Blanka’s V-Trigger II is Lightning Beast and gives Blanka access to a new special called Rolling Cannon. By pressing HK+HP and a direction, Blanka can roll in any direction he wants. You can combo into Rolling Cannon from any of his rolling attacks, turning Blanka into a deadly electrified pinball.
If you have the Season 3 character pass, you’ll get access to his Story, Battle and Nostalgia costumes. The Battle costumes will look very familiar — it’s the toy Sakura has hanging off her belt in her Story costume!
With the upcoming release of the OST for Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition, online sites have been uploading samples of the songs available on the soundtrack. Hidden within the various track listings are two interesting songs — the character themes for upcoming characters Blanka and Falke.
Falke’s theme is a great chill-out track, in the same vein of Tekken 7‘s Infinite Azure. Blanka on the other hand has gone full metal-head for Street Fighter V, no doubt in relation to his more animalistic design. The track previews are only short, but you can get a flavor of Falke and Blanka through these samples.
As part of NIS America’s annual press event, fighter fans got a brand new trailer for SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy. This trailer mainly focuses on Tag Team Frenzy’s extensive costume options, where players can dress their favorite SNK heroines in all manner of cool outfits.
Alongside some of the more revealing costumes, this trailer showed that players can dress characters like Nakoruru, Mai Shiranui and Athena in their classic costumes — as seen in other games like King of Fighters or Samurai Shodown.
This was not the only major Tag Team Frenzy announcement though, as producer Yasuyuki Oda teased the next fighter to join the roster will be a grappler. Seeing as she was in SNK Gals Fighter and has grappler-style moves, the most likely candidate is Shermie, who first appeared in King of Fighters ’97.
Twitch Japan are bringing together two esports legends for a mysterious livestream next week. Daigo “The Beast” Umehara will be meeting up with Faker, the god of League of Legends and the world’s best mid-laner. Called a “dream-like meeting of two living legends”, Twitch Japan hasn’t made it clear exactly what these two will be doing when they meet on February 12th.
If I were to guess, I imagine the two will be teaching other their respective games — Daigo showing Faker how to play Street Fighter and Faker teaching Daigo the basics of LoL. I’d imagine there may be some kind of Q&A based on questions from the stream chat, as well as maybe some fun side activities for both Daigo and Faker to engage in.
Following Nairo’s departure from Team Liquid to join NRG, the esports organization took a bit of a hiatus from the world of Smash 4. Now, they are making their grand return by signing the world’s best Bayonetta and current rank two on the PGR, Saleem “Salem” Akiel Young.
A string of huge victories in 2017 — including Evo, 2GGC: Fire Emblem Saga, DreamHack Atlanta and Smash 4 Boot Camp — helped Salem carve out a position as one of the titans of the Smash 4 world. Now that ZeRo is on a competitive hiatus, expect this Bayonetta main to be gunning for that world number one spot.
Salem will be representing the blue and white at Frostbite 2018 this weekend, hoping to rack up his first gold medal of the year. Should Hungrybox hold his position at the top of the Melee foodchain, Team Liquid could have both the Melee and Smash 4 world number ones by the end of 2018.
