After a brief stint in Thailand last year, South East Asia Major returns to Singapore for 2016 and promises a weekend of top Street Fighter V action in the Lion City. Talent from all over Asia will congregate at the Suntec Convention Centre to earn a top 32 spot for Capcom Cup 2016 in December. Acting as the Premier event for the Capcom Pro Tour in Asia, expect players from the Philippines to Vietnam to Indonesia coming out of the woodwork to win that trip to the final 32. You may also see players making a desperate trip to Singapore, to make that last ditch attempt to earn enough points to push them into the running for the title of Street Figher V World Champion.
For more information on SEAM 2016, as well as other tournaments in South East Asia, check out BEast of the East’s official tournament page. It has information about getting to the event, hotels to stay at and will have registration details nearer the time of the tournament.
One of the best looking and most anticipated Street Fighter V characters is without a doubt Juri Han. After her teaser with the Balrog reveal, fans have been aching to get their hands on her. In respect to that, Capcom’s official YouTube channel had posted an introduction to the character.
This intro briefly goes over Juri’s personality, background, and gameplay. Some of her useful normals and specials are summarized, and her overall game plan is laid out for us. Check the video to see what our favorite Femme Fatale is working with this time around.
PokkénArena put together a podcast breaking down the upcoming dark-type pokémon Darkrai’s move set. This hour and a half discussion is based largely on what we’ve seen from Japanese location tests and players. The cast covers everything known about the character thus far, from Nightmare Mode to Combo Possibilities. Be sure to check out the video’s description, which links to various Darkrai game play videos and the currently known move list.
Ready the defences as the Americans are coming! A US invasion is on the way to Birmingham as Evil Geniuses’ K-Brad, EVB Chris Tatarian and Brenttiscool are making their way to VSFighting 2016 to take our precious CPT Ranking Points. Along with this announcement, Electronic Dojo has confirmed that Juri will be legal to play at VSF, so prepare for random Juris floating around bracket.
Along with the Americans in attendance, PXP Problem X, PXP A F0xy Grampa, Ryan Hart, ED Jinty and UM imstilldadaddy will be defending the house for the UK, so expect some great matches in top 16. Sign ups close on the 29th of July, so you could see some more European talent sneaking onto the registration page in an attempt to get on the CPT Rankings. Brackets will be available on the 1st of August so start planning your runs through bracket for then.
For anime fighter fans, BlazBlue Central Fiction will be making its UK debut at the tournament so look out for PQube’s booth to play this sneak peek.
If you haven’t heard of FGC Raw, don’t worry – neither have we. According to FloKO, who will be making the first installment focused on LI Joe, the plan is for it be an ongoing series that zeroes in on specific members of the community. In that light, announcing that your first documentary will be focused on the man who captured America’s hearts with his performance so soon after the fact seems like a pretty smart bet, and first impressions seem to be pretty solid. Have a look at the trailer for yourself if you’re still feeling skeptical.
As the only American to fight his way to Top 8 in Street Fighter V at Evo this year, LI Joe does seem to be a logical pick – especially considering that the top 8 matches were broadcast on ESPN 2 for the first time in FGC history. It would be great if this documentary not only took advantage of that hype, but continued to uphold the excellent standard of production and engagement that Evo managed during it’s television debut.
As for the company in charge of production well, FloKO is a part of the FloSports network, which is designed on the premise of “Sports Coverage for Athletes by Athletes”. FloKO is their first foray into the world of eSports, and FGC Raw in turn appears to be their first steps into creating that content. At the moment it looks like it’d be a good plan to stay wary, but if the final product arrives in August as promised and has the same sort of production values that this first trailer, it could well turn out to be some must see viewing and, in turn, force us to keep an eye out for what FloKO produces next. Here’s hoping that it delivers.
RZR|Infiltration, the Champion of Street Fighter V Evo 2016, sat down to record and share some of his thoughts on the overall tournament, his fellow players, his mind frame, and the future of the game. He touches on the player LI Joe, the “Captain America” of the US as he puts it, as well as his mentality going into different matchups. He also volunteers some opinions on Ibuki, and how he feels she isn’t strong enough to be a serious threat, as well as characters he feels are worth picking up.
One of the more interesting bits of this video is how he describes sizing up opponents based on their demeanor after a match, using his match against Gamerbee in 2012 as an example. He also shares a detailed breakdown of the Grand Final set, giving some great insight into how a Champion looks at a match.
One of the most exciting reveals for Ryu when Street Fighter V was still in it’s fledgling stages was that he and he alone would be able to parry attacks, Street Fighter 3 style. Since the initial hype however, we’ve not seen much beyond people showing off their timing in parrying a full super, or the occasional flash of brilliance from Tokido. Evo Moment #37, it was not.
Youtube warrior pdcsky wants to change that though. He’s putting together a comprehensive guide of the moves that Ryu can parry, the timing of doing so and, best of all, the optimal punishes that he can get from a successful parry attempt. Since you can only know the opponent once you know yourself, he’s kicked things off with a Ryu video. Other characters are still in the works, so don’t be too disappointed that your personal bane hasn’t been broken down just yet – and as a bonus, you get to see what moves an opposing Ryu player won’t be able to punish, even off a parry.
The answer might lie in the heart of battle, but doing your homework doesn’t hurt, so be sure to check out the video, after which you can join us in awaiting the next installment with bated breath.
Philipp “Liva” Bürkne is one of the leading lights in the streaming community, especially in Europe. His organisation, Geeky Goon Squad, is known for consistently high quality broadcasts and for constantly pushing the leading edge of production quality and consistency and, though it is focused on Smash Brothers streams, Geeky Goon Squad has also produced Starcraft, Street Fighter and Tekken content.
Now, he has joined mYinsanity, an organisation based in Switzerland that has teams for DOTA2 and Counter Strike: GO, among others. FGC fans will probably recognise the name as the team behind Mustafa “Ice” Akcakaya, one of the best Melee players in Europe and an up and comer on the global scene.
According to mYinsanity, Liva had this to say about joining the team:
It feels great. The idea was already floating around for the last few month but now it’s finally official. Being part of mYi is the next step for me to become bigger and being able to focus more on relevant things like pushing the production value forward.
With mYinsanity’s support of Liva and Geeky Goon Squad, Liva should be free to focus all of his energy on producing great quality content – which is great for us viewers! If you want a taste of what Geeky Goon Squad is capable of, check out a couple of his most recent VODs from Germany’s Pandali’s Pandemonium Tournament, which were uploaded while the tournament was still ongoing!
While the Modding Station at Evolution featured all the usual suspects who were quick with the soldering irons and Dremels, one name at the booth stood out above the rest. Bryan Armitage, founder of Paradise Arcade Shop, was also there, modding alongside the likes of people already discussed in a previous article about the station, complete with his own wares to sell.
Armitage founded Paradise Arcade Shop alongside his wife, Susan, several years ago, when he started buying arcade parts in bulk, and decided to make his bulk ordering services available to the public as another option. This couldn’t have come at a better time, filling the void of the now-defunct Lizard Lick Amusements in a scene that was still burgeoning due to the fighting game renaissance. What started with humble origins in Hawaii, however, turned into a trailblazer within the tech community, as the Armitages began to experiment and create new products, even working with companies such as Brook to bring out products that not only excited the community but could meet every need imaginable.
While at Evolution, I was able to sit down with Armitage to discuss what makes Paradise truly that–a gamer’s paradise.
Missing Person: You actually come out here all the way from Hawaii every year.
Bryan Armitage: Actually we moved to Minnesota this year.
MP: So Paradise is no longer palm trees but snow.
BA: Yes, six months out of the year, we’re shoveling snow instead of sticking our feet in the sand. We decided to keep the name and keep part of the team because we had so much fun with it, and people know the name.
MP: Paradise is known for constantly coming out with new and innovate products for arcade enthusiasts. What drives you to keep improving your products?
BA: For me, a lot of the fun is coming up with things that people enjoy. Nothing beats seeing someone sit down with the buttons you design, like the OBS-MX, and then come back to tell you, “I’m hitting combos that I’ve never hit. I love these, and I’m putting them in all my sticks.” We’ve come out with our LVT3 boards that people say are the easiest installs they’ve ever done and suddenly they have LED lighting in their sticks. It’s that kind of feedback that keeps me going.
MP: What is your favourite product that you’ve put out so far?
BA: I have to say that it’s our OBS-MX buttons. The buttons are great but it’s fun to sit around and tweak them. I was able to toy around and find the difference between 1.2 millimetres of activation and 0.6 millimetres of activation; it really gets me into the biomechanics side of me that likes doing those type of things.
MP: And these are actually an alternative to the GamerFinger HBFS buttons. What are some things that you learned from their design that you implemented into your OBS-MX buttons?
BA: The GamerFinger buttons were a great design and a great way to bring MX buttons to the market. But we were getting a lot of feedback that they felt soft and that the caps on top of the plungers were falling off. So what we did was use the old style of caps that Sanwa uses, and we use clips that hold the caps down. The GamerFinger buttons allowed the MX switches to travel full length, but we restrict the movement, which takes 1 to 1.2 millimetres off the travel, and this does two things. First, it makes the buttons feel less soft, and second, it keeps the caps from ever popping off.
MP: And these are just as silent as the GamerFinger buttons, correct?
BA: We were playing around with the new silencing pads, and the interesting thing is that because of how we designed the buttons, the silencing pads that work with MX keyboards work with our buttons. So when we came out with these, I joked that it was like buying a Ferrari. Because you don’t buy a Ferrari and ask if the radio is good. You buy a Ferrari because it drives fast and drives well. So I came out with these and made them the best performing buttons I could make, and didn’t worry about what they sounded like; I just worried about feel and performance, and we hit the mark. And once we did that, we started to focus on the creature comforts.
Armitage with his son, Tyler, at the Paradise Arcade Shop storefront.
MP: What drives you to come out to Evo every year?
BA: The thing we started to do this year, with us being at Combo Breaker and CEO this year, is we get our ideas from fans, from people who support the store and the community, and it’s great to just meet people, shake their hands, find out who they are, and put faces to the names of people who talk on Shoryuken. It’s a lot of fun. When we went to Combo Breaker, a lot of people asked if we had straps for the TE2. We didn’t, but a few weeks later, we go to CEO, and we had straps for the TE2 custom made. We showed up to Evo with Evo branded TE2 straps. We keep pushing forward and a lot of it comes from the feedback and questions we get. The other thing we brought to Evo is we collaborated with Brook to bring out custom PS3/PS4 to Xbox 360 converters, and that came out of all the input we received from and pushing Brook, telling them, “You have to do this. You have to do this.” And they finally actually hand-carried them over from Taiwan.
MP: So you guys are definitely driving the community forward technologically.
BA: We’re one of the players doing so, and I think that’s the neat thing about this community. There’s a couple of people that really dig in and help each other out, trying to take the technology forward. We see each other as competition but also as friends. So we come up with something, then show it off to each other to brag about, then immediately get working on the next innovation.
MP: So do you feel that this competition is great for the community?
BA: It’s great. The competition helps drive people forward. There’s a lot of room in the community, and as long as everybody remembers that and plays nice, it’s great.
(Special thanks to Armitage for providing all pictures for this article.)
Got a New 3DS? Got fond memories of playing Street Fighter on your Super Nintendo? Live in Europe? Well, Nintendo and Capcom are bringing you a pretty hot deal on the SNES Virtual Console.
The SNES versions of Street Fighter II Turbo, Super Street Fighter II, and Street Fighter Alpha 2 will be up for purchase this Thursday, July 28th. If you’re on the fence it’s worth noting that through August 11th you’ll be able to snag all three games for the price of two. There’s no guarantee that this VC release will revive the Street Fighter Alpha 2 SNES tournament scene, but all three games were landmark titles for the series. With the bundle deal and the convenience of portability, it’s certainly worth considering bringing these historic Street Fighter entries into your digital collection.
