Based off the original 5G event from Japan, Red Bull is bringing this 5v5 tournament to the UK this September to determine which side of the UK is better at video games; the North or the South. Players choose which region they can support, as well as the game they wish to compete in with Street Fighter V acting as the fighting game of choice for this tournament.
The online qualifiers for Street Fighter V will be on the 2nd, 9th, 16th, and 23rd of September, with the top players from each of those online events going to a final qualifier on the 27th. In October, there will be regional finals in Manchester and London to determine the single Street Fighter representative for both Team North and South, with the Red Bull 5G final happening in November. The exact location and date of the regional and grand final are yet to be confirmed so keep your eyes peeled for that information. Winners of the final will get an all-expenses paid trip to Japan, the home of the original 5G event.
Additional information can be found on the official Red Bull 5G page and you can sign up right here if you want a shot at that trip to Japan. As part of this promotion, Red Bull are even offering codes for the Hot Ryu skin on special 4-packs of Red Bull. If you haven’t got the skin and are in need of some energy, Red Bull has you covered.
Shining a spotlight on top players in Killer Instinct, Ultra Combo have released another interview in their ‘Behind the Sticks’ series. In this interview, Ultra Combo sits down with one of the world’s top ARIA players, SeaDragon, to talk about what got him into KI, his advice for other players who are trying to improve as well as why he gravitated to ARIA.
To go from mainly playing online and at 8BitBeatdown, to placing third at Evo 2016 at only 16 years old is a massive achievement. Unfortunately, due to his age, SeaDragon doesn’t get to go to many big offline events and has dedicated himself to helping other KI players improve in the meantime. He has confirmed he will be attending Evo next year and hopefully, he may find the time to make his way to KI World Cup in early 2017. If you are ever looking to learn how to play the ARIA matchup or generally about Killer Instinct, make sure to follow Seadragon on Twitter and even add him on Xbox Live at SeaDragonKI if you are feeling really brave.
During the course of a gargantuan seven hour livestream, Square Enix have revealed three new fighters that are making their way to the latest update of Dissidia Final Fantasy Arcade. The first is the protagonist from Final Fantasy Type-0, Ace who is classified as a ‘Shoot’ type fighter. He fights using a deck of magical playing cards, firing bolts of energy to deal Brave damage and using a blast of flame to deal a HP attack. The other two characters are making their first appearance in Dissidia Final Fantasy Arcade, seemingly acting as the replacements of Cosmos and Chaos from the previous games.
Materia is the female goddess, wielding a staff and wearing a dress which looks like it’s made of potato waffles. The male god is Spiritus, who wields a giant sword and has flame powers. There was no actual in game footage of these two gods during the stream, fans only got to see Ace in action. The rest of the livestream was dedicated to a special Dissidia tournament, with 16 teams facing off in 3v3 battles to determine the best Dissidia team. The matches are a feast for the eyes but there is so much visual clutter during fights that it’s very difficult to actually determine who is winning or losing. Matches are four minutes long and quite a few of them go to timeout so I don’t expect Dissidia to make the snappiest tournament viewing once it comes to PS4 in the not too distant future. You can find the reveals of Ace, Spiritus and Materia below, thanks to the people over at Nova Crystallis, as well as the full livestream on Square Enix’s YouTube channel.
When Tekken 7 was first announced, one of the more interesting details to come out was the fact that it was being made not on a bespoke engine, but on Unreal Engine 4. This put it on the growing list of Japanese-developed fighting games using iterations of Epic’s engine. UK news outlet Metro recently caught up with Bandai Namco’s Katsuhiro Harada at Gamescom, where they talked about Tekken 7’s use of said engine.
According to Harada, while Japan had the lead in 3D game development in the 1990s, Western developers started to catch up during the turn of the millennium as they started to focus on development with the PC–using engines like Unreal whereas Japanese developers continued to focus on using engines built for specific consoles. As such, Western development became very strong in the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 era.
Harada continues by stating Japanese developers are now only just catching up with using middleware and engines like Unity and UE4. Off hand, he mentions only a few teams, such as the Final Fantasy team at Square Enix, some teams at Capcom, as well as Konami’s old Metal Gear team (which had at least one former Tekken developer) as being able compete with Western development.
Of course, that’s not just the only thing that they discuss. Harada and senior game designer Michael Murray also address a lot of other things, including whether or not Tekken has the longest running story in games at the moment, comparisons to Blizzard’s Overwatch, and more. You can read all of this in the full interview over at Metro.
A pair of Latin American Capcom Pro Tour events are taking place this weekend. The Geek Lounge will be hosting its Argentina Pro Gaming Series CPT event at the Tecnopolis in Buenos Aires. This is a chance for players of Argentina to show off their stuff. Twitch’s own Mike Ross will also be in town for the tourney.
Check out the stream on Twitch and follow the brackets on Challonge.
It’s no secret that impressions of The King of Fighters XIV’s netcode have been a mixed bag during launch week. Earlier this week, SNK announced on social media that they were aware of the slowdown issues in certain modes, and were already working on a patch to solve this issue.
Yesterday, SNK tweeted that the patch is already in the review process, and will hopefully be approved and begin rolling out in a few days. We already reported on some workarounds that can be used in the game’s Party Mode, but this is certainly great news for those of us looking to continue burning to fight!
NOTICE: Patch fixing issues in online mode is currently in-review. A few days may be required until its approval / launch. #KOF14#KOFXIV
The second of Europe’s two online Capcom Pro Tour ranking events is taking place this Saturday. Just like the offline events, the top 16 players will earn ranking points, while the winner of the tourney will qualify for the Europe regional finals.
Some familiar names have made their way into the top 16 bracket. Luffy, Ryan Hart, Will2pac, Problem X, CCL, imstilldadaddy, Menace, Akainu, Cobelcog and the winner of the first online event Mister Crimson are among the players remaining.
A pair of Latin American Capcom Pro Tour events are taking place this weekend. Going down in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil is Fight in Rio: Olympia. On Saturday will be Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Guilty Gear Xrd -REVELATOR-, and pool play for Street Fighter V, followed on Sunday by Mortal Kombat XL and Top 16 of SFV.
Some of South America’s finest are set to compete at the event, including Koema, Misterio, Brolyinho, BrenoF1ght3rs and Dark817. Check out the stream live from SOA Team below. If you’re looking for more play from South America, also check out Argentina Pro Gaming Series 2016.
Throughout the three Seasons of the ESL MKX Pro League, a series of videos narrated by Joshua Grey, known as Kombat Classes, would provide viewers with a look at each character’s playstyle, in addition to providing some basic combos for each Variation.
Though the league may be over, the series has continued, with the latest episode focusing on the leader of the Black Dragon clan and everyone’s favorite Australian Earthrealm mercenary, Kano. After a brief introduction of the character, Grey begins discussing his three Variations, each of which make Kano essentially a different character, with more changes compared to other fighters.
The Cutthroat Variation specializes in rushdown with his Charge Up buff (DD3) that increases his damage output at the expense of his health, as well as a variety of Overhead and Low mixups. This video will show you ways to hit confirm into it, as well as some corner juggles with Kano’s Bloody Slice, (DB1+BLK) that will allow you to launch your opponents for larger extensions, including a 2-bar, 18 hit, 57% damage combo.
In Cybernetic, Kano focuses on a more zoning-based strategy, with Eye Blast (DB3) staggers that can combo into his Gut Blast, (B23+4) which can be Meter Burned to continue the combo. Using his Kano Ball for side switching mixups off of knockdowns opens up further opportunities for his keepaway game with Mid-hitting Knives and his assortment of Eye Blasts and Upward Lasers.
Commando transforms Kano into a Grappler focused on dangerous Tick Throw setups, which were improved in XL. His Wood Chipper String (32,1+3) can be Meter Burned to increase his damage, and will combo into his Power Slam (DFB4) and Rib Strike (DBF4) to maintain position with Hard Knockdowns, or Meter Burn them for Launchers.
After showing a combo into his X-Ray, Lacerater, and his Wham Bam Brutality in the Commando Variation, video closes by noting that, “Kano is a strong fundamental fighter. His moveset may seem smaller compared to other kombatants, but his precision is deadly.”
You can view the video for yourself below. All combos are listed in numerical notation to remain universal across all platforms.
Additionally, Kano’s arch-nemesis and leader of the Special Forces, Sonya Blade was also spotlighted in a recent Kombat Class.
The Special Forces Variation provides her with a summonable Drone that provides her with new Specials. However, she cannot command the drone until she ends her combos, so you are advised to use strings with large amounts of Hit Advantage, like her Beat Down string (2,1,3,4) to maximize your summoning opportunities. Kamikaze (3+BLK) can be used as a Launcher for extensions.
Covert Ops gives Sonya her Military Stance (DB2) from MK9, affording her powerful Tick Throw setups by canceling into the Stance mid-combo. This Variation specializes in corner carry and baiting out Reversals with her Stance Cancel, which can be punished with her Garrotte Parry (DB1).
Her infamous Demolition Variation, made famous by Panda Gobal’s Scar, equips her with three grenades, which can be reloaded and detonated in a single input with Negative Edge enabled, with the video even providing a method to practice this consistently.
Watching your own replays and recognizing your own mistakes, habits, and responses to certain situations is an important improvement process in Street Fighter V; so is watching the gameplay of others objectively for comparison. James Chen provides us the best of both worlds in Almost Adequate Adventures 5.52: a lengthy set of online SFV matches, paired with his own real-time analysis and commentary on what he’s thinking as he goes up against other fighters. The result gives great insight into his own play, his opponents’, and SFV play in general.
