Author: Sam "Trilby" Foxall

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Top Japanese Street Fighter V players start a special mentoring program for aspiring pros

Hoping to raise the next generation of Street Fighters, a collection of Japanese esports team have come together for a special mentoring scheme. This will see various pro Street Fighter V players coaching a player in order to compete in a grand showdown later this year. The plan is to then have the winners from this rising star program fight against other talented players from other countries.

As you can see from the above Tweets, many of the selected students are already great players, with Moke making to all the way to top 8 at this year’s Evo. Here is a rundown of each mentor and their coach:

  • Cyclops Osaka – Dogura and GO1 mentoring Moke (one of Japan’s best Rashids and top 8 Evo 2017 finisher)
  • DAIGO THE BEASTV – Fuudo mentoring Hatsume (top Cammy player)
  • DetonatioN Gaming – Itazan mentoring fellow teammate Tachikawa (one of Japan’s best Ibukis and rank 68 on the Global CPT leaderboard)
  • GODSGARDEN – Kazunoko mentoring Mizuha (the first Chun-Li to hit Master Rank in Season 2)
  • GameWith – Eita mentoring Nauman (up and coming Japanese Ken, almost beat Tokido at Taiwan Cup 2016)
  • YOUDEAL – Haitani is mentoring Osayu (Master Ranked Cammy player and nicknamed ‘the Destroyer’) while Yukadon is mentoring John Takeuchi (another top Japanese Rashid and winner of First Attack 2016)

There is an odd exclusion from this mentoring scheme, as Momochi’s Shinobism program is nowhere to be seen on the roster. Who knows, we may see a potential protege from that school coming to interrupt the eventual mentor tournament later this year.

Source: jiyunaJP

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SaveAsUntitled breaks down how far Plup is from becoming one of the Gods of Super Smash Bros. Melee

If you’ve ever brushed up against competitive Super Smash Bros. Melee, you will have heard about the Gods — five players who had periods as the lord of the Melee mountain. More recently, pundits and players have started using the term ‘demi-god’ to denote the class of players who are just underneath the Gods in skill. You also have Leffen as the ‘Godslayer’, who was the first player to take a set off all of the Gods and the current 5th best player in the world, since EG|PPMD is still on his competitive hiatus.

Well, there is the potential for a sixth God of Melee, with Panda Global’s Plup. Not only has he taken sets of every God besides Armada, his recent victory at DreamHack Atlanta saw him with a tournament where two of the Gods were in attendance. With this landmark win in mind, SaveAsUntitled has created a statistical analysis of Plup’s recent performance, to determine how far he is from becoming one of the Melee Gods.

Source: SaveAsUntitled

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The FUSE: Doubles Circuit returns for a second second, now includes Super Smash Bros. for Wii U

With the first season of FUSE wrapping up earlier this month, the Genesis Smash team have announced that they will be running a second season of the Super Smash Bros. doubles circuit. Along with Super Smash Bros. Melee, this second season will include Super Smash Bros. for Wii U as well.

Season 2 will kick off on August 1st, with it running until sometime in December. Low Tier City 5 will be the first event on the circuit, with it acting as a Bronze level event for Melee and a Gold level event for Smash 4. All events are graded based on their final attendance numbers, with The Big House 7 being the only fixed Major event. Any open Smash event is available to join the Season 2 circuit, as long as they are an open event with at least 16 teams in attendance.

Like Season 1, the top teams from both the Smash 4 and Melee circuits will be invited to the final invitational, where pride and prizes will be up for grabs. For all the information on rules, tournament registration and bracket seeding, check the FUSE smash.gg page.

Source: Genesis_Smash

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Street Fighter V is coming to the BBC, courtesy of the Gfinity Elite Series

We’ve had Street Fighter on ESPN, and now it’s coming across the pond to the BBC. As part of a deal between the British broadcasting giant and Gfinity, the Gfinity Elite Series will be streamed via the BBC online channel, BBC Three. Broadcast live from the Gfinity Esports Arena in London, viewers will be able to watch players from esports organizations like Method, Infused, EnVyUs, and Endpoint battle it out in CS:GO, Rocket League and most importantly for the FGC, Street Fighter V.

Top European players like Packz, Luffy, imstilldadaddy, and Cobelcog are all present on the Street Fighter side of the tournament, along with some lesser known talent from around the UK. If you want to tune in to the competition, the first BBC stream goes live tonight at 9:00 PM BST/1:00 PM PDT, with commentary provided by top UK commentator Logan Sama.

Hopefully, this will result in a big influx of support for the UK FGC and inspire more FGC-related programming on the BBC. Who knows, we could see Street Fighter or Marvel get its own “Match of the Day” style review program.

Source: BBC Sport

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Play a test demo of Fantasy Strike for free this weekend!

Need something to play this weekend? Sirlin Games are running a free test period for their under-development fighting game Fantasy Strike, running from July 28th to 30th. This build will feature eight characters and four stages, along with online cross-play between PC and Mac users. There is also local versus, arcade, and a fully-featured training mode for players who want to delve deep in Fantasy Strike‘s easy-to-pick-up, hard-to-master combat system.

Do keep in mind that this build of Fantasy Strike is pre-alpha, so there will be bugs that need ironing out, features that need tweaking, and characters that need balancing. Treat the weekend as a tasting session so you can see if its pared-back fighting system clicks with you.

You can download the Weekend Test build right here, with it activating at 1:00 PM PDT on Friday. The full version of Fantasy Strike is set to launch on PC, Mac, Linux and PlayStation 4 in late 2018. If you want to get ahead of the curve before Friday, look below for the character spotlight for Grave, the electric swordsman:

Source: Fantasy Strike

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Both Dragon Ball FighterZ and Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite will be playable at VSFighting 2017

Along with it being a Ranking Event on the Capcom Pro Tour, a Premier event in the Injustice 2 Pro Series and a Master even on the Tekken World Tour, VSFighting 2017 will have both Dragon Ball FighterZ and Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite playable at the event.

This will act as DBFZ’ first public European appearance, making it the perfect chance for players from across the pond to get their hands on the game With the recent news of the closed beta’s delay, this should at least keep die-hard Dragon Ball fans hungry for more. The build shown off at VSF will most likely be the E3/Evo demo, so don’t go in expecting to play as Future Trunks, Krillin, or Piccolo. As for MvC:I, it will most likely be using the Comic-Con build, so you’ll be able to play around with Gamora, Haggar, Frank West and Spider-Man.

Sign-ups are still available for VSFighting until August 1st, so don’t delay if you want to get your hands on Dragon Ball FighterZ and Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite!

Sources: Electronic Dojo; Bandai Namco UK

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Capcom Fighters run down their top five moments from Evo 2017

We’ve had some time to recover from Evo 2017 and take stock of the amazing finals we saw at the Mandalay Bay. After a lot of deliberation, Capcom Fighters have compiled its list of the five greatest moments from the Street Fighter V top 8.

To be honest, the list should really be called “The Tokido Hype Reel,” as there is only one moment on this list that doesn’t feature the world’s best Akuma player. Besides Grpt|MOV’s psychic air grab against Moke, every other clip features Echo Fox|Tokido in some way, shape or form. Liquid|NuckleDu does get his time in the sun, with his magic pixel comeback against Tokido featuring at number three, but the Raging Demon is definitely the star of this particular highlight reel.

Source: Capcom Fighters

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Learn everything you need to know about DI traps with the Beefy Smash Doods’ latest Super Smash Bros. for Wii U guide

In Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, getting grabbed at high damage percentages usually means certain death, due to a large portion of the cast having a kill throw. For other characters, they need to rely on DI traps to secure that killing blow. In their quest to teach players more about Smash 4, the Beefy Smash Doods have dedicated a video to the ins and outs of DI trapping your opponent.

For those who don’t know, a DI trap is where you put an opponent in a situation where DI-ing a certain way may lead to a combo or to their death. In most cases, players will use a DI trap when their opponent is expecting them to use a certain follow-up, and pre-emptively DI in order to avoid it. If you catch onto their pre-emptive DI, you can set up a kill which wouldn’t normally work.

Some throws are so slow that you can actually react to their animation and avoid the trap, while others require you to option select your DI. With a DI OS, you simply input one direction before the throw begins, then quickly switch once the animation begins. This can be beaten by your opponent simply waiting before they start the throw, but you could always mash out in that small window.

Source: Beefy Smash Doods

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Amaterasu and Moses join the Fight of Gods roster

PQube and Digital Crafter have announced the next two characters that are joining the heavenly Fight of Gods roster. From Shinto legends comes the sun goddess Amaterasu, and from the Abrahamic religions comes the prophet Moses. Last time I checked, Moses wasn’t a god — but he looks prepared to go a few rounds against the likes of Odin and Athena here, anyway.

The liberator of the Hebrew slaves actually fights using a copy of the Ten Commandments, along with his staff and water magic. As long as he doesn’t kill his opponent, he’s still following the rules that he himself set down. I wonder if “thou shalt teabag thine salty foe” has been added as his personal 11th commandment?

Amaterasu is a ranged specialist, who uses her bow and sun shield to keep her enemies at bay. The shield serves as a reminder of that other incarnation of Amaterasu seen in a fighting game, namely in Marvel vs. Capcom 3 via Capcom’s Okami.

You can see the two fighters battling it out in the trailer below — and you can play Fight of Gods yourself when it launches August 22nd on Steam.

Source: PQubeGames

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Dragon Ball FighterZ beta sign-ups are delayed until August 22nd, with the beta running from September 16th-18th

Well, this probably isn’t the news you wanted to hear. Bandai Namco have just announced that they are delaying the closed beta for Dragon Ball FighterZ to mid-September, so that more players can participate in the program. Sign-ups for the closed beta will now go live on August 22nd, with the closed beta running over four 3-hour time slots from September 16th-18th.

To account for this delay, Bandai Namco and Arc System Works are trying to add at least one more character to the beta, bringing the beta roster up to 10 fighters. They are also hoping to get part of Dragon Ball FighterZ‘ online lobby system working for the closed beta test as well.

The new closed beta period is just before the launch of Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, which can’t possibly be a coincidence. While DBFZ will be available on PC, PS4 and Xbox One, the closed beta is only available on PS4 and Xbox One.

Source: Bandai Namco US