Following last year’s overwhelming success which saw players from the US and beyond converge on the Puerto Rico Convention Center, First Attack is launching a pre-emptive strike by announcing that it will return this September. Releasing a short teaser video ahead of its full reveal, First Attack 2017 is set to run from September 2nd to 3rd and promises yet another action-packed weekend.
With it being a Ranking Event during the CPT 2016 season, I would not be surprised if the event keeps its Ranking status for this year. First Attack 2016 saw the West’s first real introduction to the young Rashid wonder, John Takeuchi, who took his first international tournament at the age of 18 by beating veteran Street Fighter player Go1. Here’s hoping the Turbulent Wind will return to Puerto Rico to defend his throne. With the Caribbean and Central America being full of undiscovered talent, I can image this year’s event will not be easy for any visiting challengers.
Expect more details from the First Attack team very soon and make sure to watch the teaser below in anticipation for the big reveal.
Over the past few days following its announcement, ELEAGUE and Capcom have now revealed the 32 fighters who are set to compete in the first ever ELEAGUE Street Fighter V Invitational.
As seen in the Tweet above, the 12 players in gold are the top 12 placers on last year’s Capcom Pro Tour leaderboard, while the four in green being the four highest placing players from each separate region. The remaining 16 players were chosen specially by Capcom and ELEAGUE, thanks to their presence and activity within the Street Fighter V community.
ELEAGUE have also revealed details on the tournament format and the broadcast schedule for players hoping to watch. Starting on March 27th and finishing on March 30th, all 32 players will compete in a series of four preliminaries, with the top six competitors from each group advancing onto the next stage. All matches in this preliminary stage will be best of three. Following that, the regular season will begin with the remaining 24 players splitting into four groups of six, with the next four Fridays seeing those groups battling it out against each other in best of five sets. From there, the top two players from each group will advance to the top 8 playoff bracket on May 26th, to determine the ELEAGUE champion.
ELEAGUE is certainly cutting the Invitational fine with other events, with Combo Breaker starting on that Friday and Red Bull Kumite kicking off on Saturday the 27th. Players better have some back up plane tickets, just in case they wish to attend ELEAGUE and another one of that weekend’s events.
Last weekend saw players from around Europe assembling in Gothenburg for BEAST 7, the continent’s largest ever Super Smash Bros. tournament. While not having as large an international presence as at BEAST 6, this year’s event saw some fierce fighting between European juggernauts as fighters from all nations try to desperately stop Mr. R from taking yet another continental event. The tournament also raised some serious questions about the future of Europe’s three stock format, as well as potentially ushering in a ban of a certain blonde haired swordsman to stop stagnation in doubles. Where it may not have had the dramatic highs of BEAST 6, BEAST 7 marks an important landmark for the growth of the European Smash 4 community.
Sweden’s Really Feeling It!
Famous within the host nation but relatively unknown outside of the frozen north, the real breakout of BEAST 7 was M, the Shulk main from Stockholm. Despite many considering Shulk a mid-tier character at best, M’s command of advanced Shulk techniques like MALLC and SADB made the Monado master look like a serious threat. M did not drop a single set on his way to top 8, defeating players like Finland’s best Little Mac ZartZu and third seed for the whole event Glutonny.
His first match in top 8 was against the breakout player from BEAST 6, the Dutch Greninja iStudying. With the home crowd on his side, this match was a gruelling five game series, with the momentum switching as frequent as M’s Monado Arts. However, with precise use of the Smash Monado to get kills as early as 70% from center stage, M was able to clutch out the win over iStudying and guarantee a third place finish for Shulks everywhere. To see a Shulk perform that well in a major outside of Japan is quite a sight, so expect a new wave of Swedish Shulks coming out of the woodwork soon.
M’s following sets were less successful, with Mr. R mopping the floor with him before you could say Monado. While lack of match up knowledge may work on other players, Mr. R’s Sheik didn’t even give M’s Shulk the chance to get into the groove and establish a lead. This continued into M’s final set with cyve, with the German Diddy flinging the swordsman around the stage like a ragdoll. Even a hasty Sheik pick could not break through the German defence, with M earning a respectable third place and becoming a beacon of hope for Shulk mains everywhere. Hopefully, he’ll have a vision of how to beat the top tiers for BEAST 8.
The New Blood and the Old Guard
As the nation with the second most players in the BEAST top 64, the UK was poised to make quite a showing on the podium. Even though UK number one Ixis was not in the trenches with his fellow countrymen, a mix of new blood and old guard threats like BEAST 5 winner J. Miller and the UK’s best Sheik DAT|Ho were set to place well in the final 64.
By Top 12, only three UK players remained: J. Miller, Aperture and DAT|KillerJawz. Miller was soon taken out by iStudying in Winners’ and was then eliminated in a very close set with Spanish Palutena/Fox player El_Pitikla. With KillerJawz and Aperture left, it was up to the combined forces of the Brawl old guard and the new blood brought in by Smash 4 to defend the UK’s honour in Top 8.
Aperture–widely regarded as the UK’s second best Sonic and a potential successor to Ixis–has seen amazing growth over the past year or so, racking up wins against some of Europe’s best players in tournaments both in and out of the country. For KillerJawz, BEAST 7 was his first tournament entry in over two years, having retired from competitive Smash to act as a teacher for UK players on the come up. Despite his absence from bracket, his Mewtwo is regarded as one of the best on the continent, with some calling him the UK’s hidden boss.
Aperture was coming into the final bracket with some big wins under his belt, having defeated ZartZu and top Peach Meru on his way to top 8. Unfortunately, starting in Losers’ made for a short-lived run, as his Sonic could not outwit the psychic powers of S1, Europe’s best Ness. With a great seventh place finish, it was up to KillerJawz to keep the hopes of the UK high. Having defeated third seed Glutonny to get into Top 8, it was his turn to get revenge on El_Pitikla for knocking out fellow old guard player J. Miller.
Despite some nerves in game one and innumerable air dodges, KillerJawz’ Mewtwo got a foothold and was able to avenge Miller with a 2-1 victory. His next game saw him fight cyve’s Diddy, which is a notoriously bad matchup for Mewtwo. Starting off with secondary Robin did not go well, forcing KJ back onto Mewtwo for the rest of the set. While he did take a game, the psychic cat could not overcome the mischievous monkey, sending the UK’s last representative out at fifth. It seems ever since Miller’s win at BEAST 5, the UK is stuck with fifth place finishes, with ED|wilksy15 also finishing off the UK’s bracket run at fifth during BEAST 6. Hopefully, third time will be the charm and the UK will finally break through to the final four in 2018.
Dutch Dominance
Yet for all the low tier heroes and returning old players, the Dutch still reign supreme when it comes to European Smash. With the Netherlands’ top three players in top 8, it was more the matter of who would draw the short straw and face Mr. R first in his race to yet another first place win. Dutch blood was spilled in an over 30 minute long set between iStudying and S1, with iStudying having to face cyve in Losers’ Semis in order to fight M.
The lone German combatant would not relent though, 3-0ing iStudying and M on his way to fight Mr. R in Grands. In a repeat of many European finals seen across for the past two years, Mr. R took the whole event, only dropping one game to fellow Dutchmen Meru in Top 64. With a win in doubles as well, Mr. R made yet a mint at BEAST for another year. Let’s make sure some US or Japanese players make it out to BEAST 8; this constant winning is getting a bit tedious–though Mr R’s consistency is both impressive and laudable.
Serious Cloud Cover
Speaking of tedious, doubles at BEAST was an overcast affair with almost every single match of Top 8 containing at least one Cloud. Both Winners’ and Grand Finals had three Clouds feature, resulting in the same strategy of the double Cloud team camping Limit while the other racks up damage and gains Limit that way. With several of the people playing Cloud having him simply as a pocket character for doubles, it raises the question whether he should be banned in order to increase team diversity.
It’s different to seeing double Fox in Melee, where that team relies on some level of previous training and co-ordination in order to dominate; players can pick up the double Cloud team and do well with little to no practice. Camping Limit automatically slows down the pace of matches, his Limit specials allow for easy kill setups off of a throw and there is almost no reason not to pick Cloud in doubles, as he works with every other character. With Smash 4 doubles not having the same level of reverence as Melee doubles, there is a severe shortage of dedicated teams who choose to use team compositions other than Cloud and another character.
In order to keep interest alive in Smash 4 doubles, I do feel a discussion has to be had about Cloud’s future in the format. There are several characters in Smash 4 who have massive untapped potential in doubles, but Cloud’s overwhelming strength is causing a fair degree of stagnation. Whether this comes as a soft ban on double Cloud teams or a complete restriction on the character remains to be seen, but action does need to be taken to enliven Smash 4 doubles.
The Death Knell of Three Stock
Along with Texas, Europe has been the bastion of the three stock format. With players citing that it doesn’t make games that much longer, it is better for the player experience and that good TOs should be able to account for the extra time, most EU events ran three stock with no issue. Initially, I too was a champion of three stock, clinging to the notion that “oh, the extra stock will encourage aggressive play, rather than encouraging camping.” Having been in the audience for Top 8 and watching the hype drain rapidly from the room over the course of each long set, I think it’s time three stock was put to bed.
Even the two sets that were best of three in Top 8 took over 9 minutes, with iStudying and S1’s Losers’ Semis set taking just over 33 minutes. That set for me will live on in infamy as the single set that cemented three stock as a failed experiment. Neither Ness nor Greninja are particularly campy characters but when each match is over 6 minutes long, you have a definite problem with your rule set. Unforeseen circumstances had already put the BEAST schedule behind by about an hour, with the Smash 4 Top 8 adding another hour and a bit onto the run time. There were also no real delays in terms of getting the Top 8 matches ready to go, the rule set itself just causes things to lag behind.
When there is already a negative stigma of Smash 4 being a slow game, this Top 8 only helped reinforced peoples’ misjudgements of the game. While two stock, best of three is a little on the short side, I feel two stock, best of five strikes the happy medium in providing players the ability to adapt over a long set, while not boring spectators to tears.
While the lack of non-European players and the three stock issue diluted the hype somewhat, BEAST 7 acted as a suitable milestone for the continued growth of the European community. There is a still a long way to go before more players can even challenge Mr. R’s continued rule of the continent, but the mid to high level of competition is heating up with every passing event. If Europe keeps improving at its current rate, BEAST 8 will not be one to miss.
As lab monsters continue to experiment with Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, yet another weird Brawl hangover has found to still exist in the game. Called ‘Shadow I-Frames’, these instances of brief intangibility happen when a special move transitions from the air to the ground on a specific frame. If timed correctly, players can avoid being hit on landing, but the number of moves these Shadow I-Frames exist with is painfully short.
Previously observed in Brawl with Donkey Kong’s up B, Shadow I-Frames only occur when a special move has unique grounded and aerial properties. In Smash 4, characters like Shulk and Little Mac have moves which are capable of activating Shadow I-Frames, but only Shulk can really apply them in a match. In a lengthy video created by Paradigm and Erico and with the help of the Shulk Discord, they show how Shulk players can use the Shadow I-Frames of his aerial Vision Counter to create interesting baits.
If Shulk players land on exactly the eighth frame of Shulk’s aerial Vision Counter, the Shadow I-Frames will persist for the rest of the move’s animation. This creates situations where Shulk players either bait players into activating the counter, or cause them to throw out a punishable move, as they do not realisze the Shulk is currently intangible. Do note that while the first usage of this can result in up to a second of intangibility, Shulk’s counter does depreciate in length the more you use it, so the I-Frames won’t last as long.
In their attempt to improve everyone’s tournament experience, the organizational team over at Combo Breaker have decided to trial a new pool system for Combo Breaker 2017. In order to lessen instances of double jeopardy–where players have to fight the same person that put them into Losers’–Combo Breaker will have it so two people qualify out of Losers’, instead of just one.
As explained by Combo Breaker’s competitor director Max “CurlingW” Wasserman, each tournament that has over 81 entrants will have it so the Losers’ Finals of each pool is simply not played, and that both competitors advance forward into the next phase of bracket in Losers’ side. Brackets will still remain operate within the double elimination format, but dropping Losers’ Finals reduces chances of double jeopardy matches by almost half.
Through this system, the bracket following phase one pools is 50% larger–so a top 32 bracket is now a top 48 bracket–but it ensures that everyone faces different opponents from different pools. Besides the obvious bonus of reducing instances of double jeopardy, it makes brackets go a lot quicker, as pool captains and stream runners are not waiting around for Losers’ Finals, which cannot be played at the same time as other games.
According to Wasserman at last year’s Combo Breaker, there were 60 Losers’ bracket rematches across 72 pools, with 45% of these happening within Losers’ Finals. If Combo Breaker 2016 had run the three out pool system, there would have only been 33 Losers’ bracket rematches in total, with 60% of pools having zero rematches.
This new system looks like it is beneficial for everyone involved in Combo Breaker, so let’s hope the new pools result in faster and more contended tournament goers. You will be able to see the three out pool system in action from May 26th-28th in St Charles, Illinois when Combo Breaker takes over the Mega Center.
We’ve seen AI programs in traditional fighters like Dantarion’s KenBot and ToolAssisted’s army of bots, but we’ve yet to see AIs deployed to compete in platform fighters. Well, a team of graduate students at MIT have created a special AI which, through the use of deep learning techniques, has adapted and learned to play Super Smash Bros. Melee at a competitive level.
Starting with the in-game AI as a training partner, this AI had learned to beat its computer opponent within a few hours and within a few more weeks of practice, it was able to defeat power ranked players in friendly sets. The research team, led by Vlad Firoiu, had the AI learn Melee with Captain Falcon by playing repeated sets on Battlefield. With Falcon’s lack of projectile moves and Battlefield’s simple layout, the research team was able to effectively track the AI’s progress as a player, eventually getting to a stage where it could hold its own against actual pro players.
Taking it to two tournaments, the Falcon-bot was able to beat players like fellow Falcon Tempo|S2J, Mafia, Slox, Kage, Boxr|Zhu and Gravy. While the bot was responsive when players fought it like a human opponent, the bot would often fail spectacularly if it encountered a situation it had never seen before. Against one player who simply crouched at the edge of Battlefield, the bot started to “behave very oddly, refusing to attack and eventually KOing itself by falling off the other side of the stage.” According to Firoiu, the bot had only played previous versions of itself before going into a tournament setting with a real player, so it “never encountered such a degenerate strategy” in its training. Moreover, the Falcon-bot performed noticeably worse on different stages and against new characters, as it simply had not learned the matchups and developed suitable counter-measures.
The whole report on the AI’s development is a fascinating read, as it shows just how the system was eventually able to transfer information it had learned from playing Falcon, in order to learn how to play other characters. I think the Melee Gods are still safe from the AI uprising–for now, at least.
Another landmark event of the UK’s fighting game calendar is coming back for 2017, as Electronic Dojo announce VSFighting 2017 is set to run from August 12th-13th. Returning to Millennium Point, which was the site of VSFighting 4 back in 2014, this major UK event will see competitors from all around the UK and Europe descending on the Second City to see who is the best.
So far, Street Fighter V, Killer Instinct, Injustice 2, Tekken 7 and BlazBlue: Central Fiction have been revealed as tournament games, with more announcements to come in the next few months. With a samurai from For Honor appearing in the teaser image for VSF2017, it is possible we could see this medieval battler as a potential side event. Super Smash Bros. for Wii U has had a place at VSFighting since VSF5 so it’s safe to assume it may also feature on the title card.
VSFighting 2016 featured as a European Ranking event for the Capcom Pro Tour, and with the tournament returning to Millennium Point with its giant IMAX screen, the event should be fantastic for competitors and spectator alike. Keep an eye on the VSFighting website for details on registration in the coming months.
Going all-out with the fighting game initiative in 2017, DreamHack have recently announced that their Austin event will be returning as a tournament on this year’s Capcom Pro Tour. However, rather than acting as just a Ranking event, DreamHack Austin 2017 is now a Premier event for the CPT, meaning that players will definitely be booking trips to Texas in order to win an auto-qualifier spot for this year’s Capcom Cup.
Running from April 28th-30th, the tournament will commence on Saturday 29th, with finals taking place on Sunday afternoon after some intense Street Fighter V action. The full schedule will be available on the official DreamHack Austin website soon, but just know that you have Friday free to get casuals in and to enjoy all the other events that DreamHack Austin has to offer.
DreamHack Austin 2017 will be part of this years Capcom Pro Tour as a Premier Event! @CapcomFighters#DHATX17
You do not need to purchase special tickets to compete at DreamHack Austin; buying any of the weekend passes will grant you access to the tournament. Three day passes start at $85, with special “bring your own console/controller” passes are available from $99, if you want to grind out games all through the weekend.
Street Fighter is not the only fighting game present at DreamHack Austin–with Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U also having tournaments as part of DreamHack’s Smash Championships. Both Smash 4 and Melee have $10,000 prize pools, while Street Fighter V has a grand $15,000 prize pot, so there is plenty of cash up for grabs for dedicated players.
Tickets will be selling out fast, so make sure to buy your pass via DreamHack’s official site before registering for any tournaments via smash.gg.
Following up on its success last year, DAT Team are beckoning the rest of the Smash world to the UK for the second edition of Albion, their international tournament series. Building on the experience the TO team has with running its monthly Dat Blast Zone events, Albion 2 is set to be a must-attend event in the European Smash calendar.
Held at the Bridge Academy in Hackney, Albion 2 will feature tournaments for Super Smash Bros. for Wii U alongside Super Smash Bros. Melee, with a 320-player cap for each event. With both UK Smash 4 and Melee steadily increasing in terms of skill and size, the local competition will be fierce for any attendees coming from outside of the country.
For additional information on pricing, scheduling and registration, check in on the Albion 2 event page later this week. The UK is fast becoming a force to be reckoned with in Europe, so any players looking for a warm-up event before Evo 2017 should definitely consider a visit to London at the start of July!
In an announcement that many have predicted, ever since the success of Evo 2016 on ESPN 2 and ESL’s Brooklyn Beatdown and King of the Hill series, Street Fighter V will be joining the ELEAGUE in March. For those who aren’t aware of it, the ELEAGUE is a televised esports league, shown on TBS and produced by Turner Broadcasting, which brings in CS:GO teams to fight it out across annual 10-week seasons. Now branching out into other esports, the ELEAGUE will be hosting a special Street Fighter V invitational, bringing many of the world’s best Street Fighter players to battle for the title of ELEAGUE Champion.
While details are scant on how this invitational league will play out, the competition is set to begin on March 27th, with the action continuing every Friday on TBS. Players will compete for a share of a $250,000 prize pool, with 16 players coming from Capcom Cup 2016 and the other 16 being chosen specially by ELEAGUE itself. It is unknown at this time whether the invitational will have a seasonal structure similar to the CS:GO ELEAGUE, but we will no doubt find out more in the coming month. Don’t worry if you don’t have access to TBS–you can watch all of the action via the ELEAGUE Twitch channel.
