Acting as one of the East Coast’s premier fighting game events, East Coast Throwdown is returning for another round this September. Moving proceedings to the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Fairfield, New Jersey, this year’s event acts as both a Capcom Pro Tour Ranking Event, as well as a stop on the Curleh Circuit.
Alongside both Street Fighter V and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, ECT 2017 will played host to tournaments for Tekken 7, Injustice 2, Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2, The King of Fighters XIV, and Killer Instinct. While it is locked in as just a Ranking Event in this year’s CPT, ECT 2017 has the potential to become an S-Tier event on the Curleh Circuit if over 100 Marvel players sign up, so get registered now.
Currently in the early bird pricing phase, attendees can now sign up to East Coast Throwdown for the low price of $40. It also comes with a free T-shirt, showing Urien and Nash fighting it out. This budget pricing only lasts until April 25th, so sign up now if you are definitely planning to attend this year’s event. For more information on registration–along with a special discount hotel code for the Crowne Plaza Fairfield–check out the ECT 2017 website.
After the short exclusivity period to help raise money for the KI Ultra Tour, the prototype Ultratech robot Kilgore has returned to the Killer Instinct Store. Now costing only $4.99–down from the original $9.99 asking price–it is the best time to get to grips with this heavily-armed automaton.
As for the actual Kilgore Community Fund, Iron Galaxy have run the numbers and calculated that over $56,000 has been raised for 2017’s Ultra Tour. This will go to help increase production values and pot bonuses at various Killer Instinct tournament throughout 2017, starting with Combo Breaker in May. This will eventually lead into the Killer Instinct World Cup in 2018, which should be even bigger and better than this year’s event.
If you’re interested in giving this overheating robot a whirl, head on over to the Microsoft Store to download him right now. For a full character breakdown of Kilgore, check out the Iron Galaxy developer walkthrough below.
Following a popular talk at this year’s GDC which discussed the art direction for Street Fighter V, Capcom have released part of their internal anatomy guide for everyone to read. Called “Anatomy: a strange guide for artists,” this document was designed during the height of the pixel art era, showing artists at Capcom the most important areas to exaggerate when creating character sprites.
The portion of the guide mainly focus on the male body, showing artists how to draw and animate characters. Focusing on specific body parts like the arms, shoulders and legs, the document shows how artists can elongate, shorten or otherwise exaggerate these body parts to create art which is both informative and cool to look at. While it is all in Japanese, the very existence of this guide shows just how much care went into designing character sprites for games like Darkstalkers and Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike. Even though Capcom has left sprite art behind, the document is still used to teach new artists about Capcom’s “house style” when it comes to animating characters. The guide was actually created around the time of the Street Fighter Alpha series, and the first Darkstalkers game, explaining why Demitri is on the cover. Several famous Capcom artists collaborated on the guide, with Akiman acting as the editor.
The whole GDC talk is a must-watch if you’re interested in character and art design for fighting games, as it tracks Capcom’s process in refining Street Fighter V’s character art. It also touches on how Capcom’s artists would carefully exaggerate certain elements of character anatomy–a length of an arm, size of a muscle, the curvature of a spine–in order to present as much information to the player as quickly as possible.
Hoping to put to rest one of Melee’s longest-running feuds, Yahoo! Esports has announced a special 16-player invitational, titled Smash Rivalries. Ever since the early days of Melee back in the mid 2000s, there has been a fierce rivalry between the East and West Coast. Bringing together players from both sides of the USA, this invitational should hopefully end a beef which has been raging for nearly 15 years.
This event will run this coming weekend from April 8th-9th, with a main 8v8 crew battle, alongside a doubles and singles bracket. The teams are as follows:
East Coast
Juan “Hungrybox” Debiedma
Jason “Mew2King” Zimmerman
James “Swedish Delight” Liu
Justin “Wizzrobe” Hallett
James “Duck” Ma
Ryan “The Moon” Coker-Welch
Sami “DruggedFox” Muhanna
Daniel “ChuDat” Rodriguez
West Coast
Joseph “Mango” Marquez
Zachary “SFAT” Cordoni
Weston “Westballz” Dennis
Jeffrey “Axe” Williamson
Dajuan “Shroomed” McDaniel
Kevin “PewPewU” Toy
Johnny “s2j” Kim
Joey “Lucky” Aldama
The commentators for this tournament are well versed in this long standing rivalry, with veteran commentators Wynton “Prog” Smith, D’Ron “D1” Maingrette, Brandon “HomeMadeWaffles” Collier, Phil DeBerry and Kris “Toph” Aldenderfer lending their voices to the proceedings. All the action will be streamed live from the Yahoo! Esports Twitch channel, with games kicking off at 12:00 PM PST on April 8th.
Teased over the weekend, NetherRealm Studios have released a breakdown trailer for Gotham City’s infamous jewel thief, Catwoman. A returning cast member from the original Injustice, Catwoman’s kit remains much the same for this edition, complete with her Cat Dash and Feline Evades. Her Cat Scratch trait seems to have been replaced, however–with Catwoman now summoning a friendly feline to scratch the eyes out of her enemy.
Catwoman mains from the original Injustice should be right at home with this iteration of the character. For those looking for a new cat to play with, Cheetah‘s command grab and mixup-heavy play style might be just the thing. Besides seeing Selina Kyle in action, this trailer also gives us the briefest glimpses of Poison Ivy in battle. Based on the five or so seconds of footage, one of her specials is reminiscent of Shinnok’s Hell Sparks from Mortal Kombat, and she seems to have some kind of stance switch.
Working through some of Super Smash Bros. for Wii U’s most powerful characters, EG|Zinoto has set his sights on Fox for his latest episode of Cram School. While not as deadly as his Melee iteration, Smash 4 Fox has some of the best burst damage out of the entire roster, thanks to his blinding speed and great combo game. Due to his ability to quickly close gaps and start a combo, players must practice spacing around Fox’s dash attack and dash grab. Once you master outspacing these moves, you can begin to punish the pilot.
While great at center stage, Fox really struggles to get off the ledge without committing to an easily punishable option. To beat Fox in the neutral, Zinoto suggests that players try to push him to the ledge, either to force an unsafe escape option like his side B or to set up a ledge trap. Fox also struggles to deal with grabs at lower percents, so pivot grabs are a good way to catch out someone who is always going in.
Fox’s weight and fall speed mean that you can combo him for days and potentially, kill off of a single interaction. Unlike Zinoto’s advice when dealing with Mewtwo, Fox is easy combo food so try to maximize every opportunity to put him out of commission. Fox’s vortex means he can take you out just as easily, so never give him the chance to set up his up air strings or even worse, hit you with the footstool to fair instant kill.
Even then, Fox’s linear recovery means that he is one of the easiest characters to punish off stage. Much like a real dogfight, never let him out of your sights.
Hoping to defend its honor from all comers yet again, New York is throwing open its doors to all comers with Defend the North 2017, from July 28th-30th. Taking place at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in White Plains, New York, and forming part of this year’s Capcom Pro Tour, DTN 2017 is a must-attend event during the packed summer of FGC events.
So far, 10 games have been announced as main events at DTN 2017:
Street Fighter V
Injustice 2
Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2
Tekken 7
The King of Fighters XIV
Super Smash Bros. for Wii U
Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3
Killer Instinct
Pokkén Tournament
For Honor
Following in the footsteps of Chicago’s famous mystery game tournament, DTN 2017 will be holding a similar event, alongside a special Overwatch tournament for FGC heads looking to show their shooting skills. Defend the North 2017 will also be replete with legacy game tournaments for titles like Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Capcom vs. SNK 2, Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, Ultra Street Fighter IV, and Super Street Fighter II Turbo, along with side-events for games like Super Smash Bros. Melee, BlazBlue: Central Fiction, and Skullgirls 2nd Encore, to name a few. There will be no shortage of games to play at DTN 2017, so there’s no worries about getting bored if you go 0-2. Its Pokkén Tournament event is on the list to receive a $1000 pot bonus from Evo, as well.
Registration for Defend the North 2017 is available on its official website. A $40 early bird rate is being offered until June 28th, when prices will increase by $10. Spectator passes are available for $30, and it covers the whole three days of the event.
Speaking of deals, Defend the North also has a special discounted room rate at the Crowne Plaza Hotel until June 28th. Again, check out the official DTN 2017 website for all the details, including news on planned exhibitions and an eventual schedule.
Casting a spotlight on the villains playable in Injustice 2, NetherRealm have released a new trailer showing off Gorilla Grodd, Bane, Captain Cold and Scarecrow in action. Hinted as a playable character in a previous story trailer, this video shows off the first gameplay footage of Captain Cold, while acting as Scarecrow’s grand debut.
While Gorilla Grodd is roaring in peoples’ faces and Bane is flexing on his opponent, Captain Cold spends this trailer skating around his foes and shooting them with his freeze ray. As you can guess, most of his moves revolve around putting enemies on ice, before unleashing a barrage of blows. His super is quite the display, with Captain Cold skating up a frozen spiral before hurtling to Earth on a massive icicle.
Speaking of villains that will send a chill up your spine, Scarecrow’s design is pretty damn scary. Wielding a huge meat hook, Scarecrow has been taking lessons from Jason as he rips and tears at his adversary. His super is particularly spooky, pulling poor souls into a gas-induced nightmare before slamming them into their own grave.
Bringing together gods from the pantheons of various world mythologies, PQube and Taiwanese developer Game Crafter have announced a new fighting game titled Fight of the Gods. Set for release on Steam this summer, this mythological fighter has figures like Zeus and Odin battling it out for the fate of the world.
So far, only Zeus and Odin have been shown off, but silhouettes in the announcement trailer hint at figures like Medusa and Athena also joining this clash of the titans. According to Fight of the Gods’ Steam page, it will be “a four-button fighting system with tremendous depth,” with players fighting in locations like the slopes of Mount Olympus, or the Garden of Eden.
From first glance, the art style is divisive–with Odin looking more like a generic beefy evil villain, instead of the knowledgeable and mysterious All-Father. The graphics also aren’t going to set the world on fire, currently looking more like an up-rezzed mobile game than something specifically designed for PCs. Hopefully, this is still alpha and Digital Crafter have some time to give these gods more of a polish befitting their divinity.
Even before bracket had started, 2GGC: Civil War had set the world of Smash 4 aflame. With players split into two factions—Team Ally and Team ZeRo—the first season finale of the 2GG Championship Series was set to be the most stacked Smash 4 tournament of all time. Most of the PGR Top 50 were in attendance, along with hidden bosses and local talent from around the world. It was fate then, that Civil War turned out to be the most exciting and volatile event that Smash 4 has ever seen.
Every Pool a Death Pool
With such a high concentration of Top 100 players at one event, each pool could have been the Top 48 of a big regional. Many potential Top 16 contenders were sent into Losers early, thanks to every pool being flush with talent. TSM|ZeRo was one of the first to sink into the depths, losing to SoCal Fox Xzax in Winners Finals of his pool, adding one big shark to the loser’s side. Genesis 4 champion Echo Fox|MVG|MKLeo soon followed with a 2-0 loss to Sonic main Meteor, proving that no-one would be spared a tough trip through pools.
Shulk mains were on pool cleaning duty with Nicko sending IMT|ANTi to Losers with a 2-0, while Kome from Japan was able to dispatch fellow blonde-haired swordsman user P1|Tweek with an impressive 2-1 victory. It seems after the success of M at BEAST 7, Shulks are really starting to come out of the woodwork and show their stuff.
Starting to pick up speed after his tournament absence, FOW was able to send MSF|Larry Lurr into Losers while the newly sponsored curse struck EG|Zinoto, losing 2-1 to the winner of the PG Key to Civil War online qualifier, Sonido. With other PGR players like RvL|Mr E, InC|Wadi, Ned, Mew2King and Samsora also in Losers, the chances of a historic run throughout the lower bracket looked impossible for any player.
The Rout of the Generals
With many of Team ZeRo’s heavy hitters already in Losers after the massacre in pools, it was looking grim for the bookie’s favorite going into top 96. MKLeo was the first of ZeRo’s lieutenants to fall, going out at an unheard of 65th place after losing to Falco and Meta-Knight main, AC, 3-2. The next round would actually see ZeRo himself go out at his lowest ever placing, losing to Arizona Zero Suit Samus player Luhtie 3-2. ZeRo’s Diddy was uncharacteristically aggressive, refusing to set up traps with the banana and running seemingly headfirst into Luhtie’s ladder combos. The final match saw Luhtie ripping victory from the jaws of defeat, with a Rage-boosted ladder combo sending ZeRo out at 49th place and catapulting Luhtie into the hall of ZeRo slayers.
This victory was a betrayal, since Luhtie had sided with Team ZeRo going into the tournament. This twist of the knife soon sowed the seeds of a rout, with other notable Team ZeRo players like ANTi, FOW and CLG|VoiD going out in quick succession. While Team ZeRo did look in tatters, Team Ally’s commander was not fairing too well either.
In top 96, C9|Ally was on the receiving end of yet another series of Dragon Punches by UBCEA|Locus. The iron forehead of Nintendo’s plumber could not beat the battle-hardened fist of Capcom’s world warrior, as Locus sent Ally flying into Losers’ 3-1. Much like Luhtie’s elimination of ZeRo, Locus had also sided with Ally, making him another unwitting turncoat in the Civil War. Ally would hold out longer than ZeRo, losing in the first round of Top 32 to PG|ESAM’s Samus. ESAM’s pop off was like something out of a sports movie, with him flinging his Pikachu plush into the crowd in triumph. Whether this is symbolic for his dropping of the electric mouse, who is to say.
Both Luhtie and ESAM would only last another round following their victories, the Saga Curse having outseen their usefulness. With this event, the curse continues to persist as neither Ally nor ZeRo were able to take the event for their chosen team. The Top 32 bracket began split perfectly between the two teams; 16 for Team Ally and 16 for Team ZeRo. However, outside of the two major teams, there was one group of players who had been slowly chipping away at both sides.
Go Team Japan!
14 Japanese players attended Civil War Saga, with representatives from Kansai, Kanto, Kyushu and Chubu acting as foreign detachments for both Team ZeRo and Team Ally. With players like Kirihara and Tsu getting quite the warm up at Frame Perfect Series 2 the week before Civil War, the Japanese contingent were prepared to perform well for their respective sides.
Of the 14 players, 12 of them made it to Top 32. 11 of them started off in Winners, while 9B tried to make the long fight through Losers to Top 8. Three of them made it through, leaving a trail of devastation behind them. Team Japan dispatched players like Larry Lurr, VoiD, ESAM, Trela, Zinoto and FOW on their way to Top 8, with a fair few teamkills peppered along the way. Surprisingly though, none of the usual Japanese titans made it to Top 8.
2GG|komorikiri, Ranai and LG|Abadango? Ranai was eliminated by 9B 3-2, komorikiri fell to Larry Lurr 3-2 while Abadango’s tournament life ended at the hands of DNL|Marss 3-1. It would be up to the newer crop of Japanese players to keep the flag flying and boy, was it an eclectic bunch of characters players in that Top 8.
The Next Generation Arises
Besides the eventual winner, seven of the eight players in top 8 were players who had come to the series with Smash 4. The Brawl gods had given up their seats on the pantheon and it was time for the new generation to strut their stuff on the main stage. The character spread was one hardly anyone expected, with a Captain Falcon and a Link in Winners’ while a Donkey Kong sat in Losers. For the first time in two years, a Sheik had missed Top 8, the nearest Diddy player had gone out at 17th and there wasn’t a Cloud in the sky. There was still top tier representation with a Bayonetta, two Rosalinas, a Zero Suit Samus and a Ryu in the mix but the lack of usual suspects like Diddy, Mario, Cloud, Sheik and Fox at the most stacked major of all time is worthy of note.
My personal favourite player of the tournament, Hikaru, had defied almost all expectation by making Top 8 with his DK. Defeating players like VoiD, Tsu, ESAM and Mr. R on the way, his DK flung the competition around like a ragdoll. Carefully using the power of Rage to guarantee kills off of a grab, Hikaru was able to conquer match ups that DK usually struggles with. Opponents were in a constant state of fear, as one grab would mean instant death past around 60% if DK had Rage. While eventually thwarted by Kirihara’s Rosalina—DK’s absolute worst match up—Hikaru proved that he is the leader of the bunch.
Speaking of characters defying expectation, T’s Link tore through bracket on its way to Top 8. His impressive bomb play and control of neutral saw him defeat players like K9, Tsu, Abadango and Fatality on his way to Winners’ Finals. Some of his recoveries using Link’s bomb were unbelievable, coming back from the bottom of the blastzone and weaving through edgeguard attempts on his way up. I’m sure Nintendo will be selling a few extra copies of Breath of the Wild after T’s performance. Expect plenty more Links trying to do that bomb recovery on For Glory for the next week or so.
While not the winner, the true breakout player from this tournament has to be FS|Fatality. Defeating players like Trela, komorikiri and NRG|Nairo is impressive enough, but doing it with Falcon is astounding. Falcon is already dangerous when a player is scared so combine it with the pressure of a grand stage like Civil War, and Fatality’s Falcon was untouchable in some situations. His use of Falcon’s dair footstool combos would rack up damage in an instant, meaning that he’d only need to land a single back air or knee to finish off a stock. Every match seemed to only give him more momentum, with his intense 3-2 with Kirihara turning into back to back 3-0s against CaptainZack and T to make it to Grand Finals against RNG|Dabuz. Having triumphed against arguably the second best Rosalina in the world and a previous win on Dabuz at Super Smash Con 2016, it could have finally been Falcon’s time to win a super major in any Smash game. Unfortunately, the stars had aligned for his opponent.
A King of Consistency
A presence in the Top 8 of almost every major he has attended, Dabuz has remained one of Smash 4’s most consistent players. However, he has never pushed through that barrier and took home the gold at a super major. With a second at Genesis 3, second at Super Smash Con, third at CEO 2016, seventh at Genesis 4 and third at Frostbite, Dabuz has always been the bridesmaid, but never the bride.
However, with the majority of the pressure on both Ally and ZeRo, Civil War gave Dabuz the chance to reach his full potential. He only dropped one game in his run to Top 8, defeating the world’s best Olimar in Shuton and second best Rosalina, Kirihara, on his way there. He even bested Kirihara in the Rosalina mirror, proving he is the world’s top space princess–at least for now. A close 3-2 victory over CaptainZack gave way to a 3-0 over T, placing Dabuz in the Winners side of a supermajor Grand Finals for the very first time.
Despite a previous loss to Fatality at Super Smash Con, Dabuz was able to put down the Falcon with a 3-1 victory, making him the winner of the most stacked tournament in Smash 4 history. Without his usual demon ZeRo blocking his path to Grand Finals, Dabuz finally notched up that first super major win.
Team Ally Reigns Supreme
Following the conclusion of the singles bracket, it was time for the final showdown between Team Ally and Team ZeRo. This grand 10 versus 10 crew battle saw Team ZeRo take the day, winning with three stocks to spare. The man of the hour was most definitely komorikiri, bringing Team ZeRo back from its two stock deficit by dispatching Mr. E, Mr. R and leaving final Team Ally member DNG|Kameme with one stock to fight against MKLeo.
However, this victory was not enough to win the whole war. With one of his compatriots winning the entire tournament, a point victory in the singles bracket and a point victory via the online ladder, Team Ally were crowned the ultimate victors of the Civil War. It will be up to Team ZeRo to regain their honor at 2GGC: Infinity Saga, which was announced as a future event in this Marvel-themed arc of the 2GGC.
Civil War is only the first season finale for the entire 2GGC Series, with there being nine other events left to go. With Ranai’s Greninja winning the April Saga round robin decider, next month’s event will be dedicated to the ninja frog. 2GGaming also announced that summer’s season finale will be 2GGC: Nairo Saga, giving another top player a chance to finally conquer the Saga Curse.
Civil War represented a new benchmark for Smash events, in terms of excitement, quality of play and production values. 2GGaming and Esports Arena have set a high bar both for themselves and other Smash TOs out there, and I hope they can repeat their success with future events. With ZeRo’s streak of winning 2GGC Sagas finally over, the new age of heroes can finally begin.
RESULTS:
1. RNG|Dabuz (Rosalina and Luma, Olimar/USA)
2. FS|Fatality (Captain Falcon/USA)
3. T (Link/Japan)
4. CaptainZack (Bayonetta/USA)
5. Kirihara (Rosalina and Luma/Japan)
5. DNL|Marss (Zero Suit Samus/USA)
7. HIKARU (Donkey Kong, Little Mac/Japan)
7. UCBEA|Locus (Ryu/Canada)
