Category: Fighting Games

Editor’s note: Some responses have been slightly altered for the sake of clarity.

Joniosan is a prominent Japanese Guilty Gear streamer who regularly showcases the top talent in the country. The typical meeting ground for the exhibitions and tournaments is the famous Takadanobaba Game Center Mikado in Tokyo.

Recently, an English-speaking voice drew attention when commentating matches between players like Karinchu and Nakamura. Jonathan “2dJazz” Metoyer is an American player who moved to Japan a few years ago, and he has been putting in effort to improve communication between the two scenes.

We recently had a chance to speak with Metoyer, who shares how people started calling him “MajinObama,” what it’s like at Mikado, and voices his thoughts on the current atmosphere in the community.

Luke “Woocash” Siuty: How did your nickname in Japan, MajinObama, come about?

Jonathan “MajinObama” Metoyer: I had quite a few nicknames over the years. [2D]Jazz was the one I had the longest. Once the NESiCA ranking system came out for ArcSys and Street Fighter games, the climate in the arcades changed a little bit. Player behavior changed regarding whom they would fight. Every week, I would change my name to something goofy to get a chuckle out of the people there–they can be kinda stiff. I was going for memes, and my formula for something funny is something really hood mixed with something really anime, so one week, when I went to Mikado, I went for MajinObama. I entered the team tournament for Xrd -SIGN-, and my opponents were Roy, Taka, and Nakamura. As a Sol player in Accent Core, Roy and Mugen, those were the guys you studied and modeled.

I went over to their team and specifically challenged Roy, I was only ranked about 8th Dan. Roy, of course, was 16th or 17th at the time. I called him out and beat him, beat him bad, too. Now all the people who were there and saw that started calling me Obama-san. And I’m like, “that was a joke name for a week, please do not call me that.”

Luke: Do people play in arcades less now, since -REVELATOR- is out on consoles?

MajinObama: Since the demo has been out, people have been going the same. The reason why is because the demo doesn’t offer anything new that the arcade version doesn’t have. The demo offers playable Jam, Jack-O, Johnny, so that’s the same as the arcade version since August last year.

However, [the full console release may mean] a strong drop-off outside of the two arcades in Akibo and Mikado, until the eventual arcade update release. Most ArcSys games follow the same cycle. While there’s arcade exclusivity, the titles in the arcades are really popping. For example, BlazBlue is consistently a number 2 or 3 game in all arcades in Japan.

Luke: Could you describe Mikado Game Center? What’s it like inside?

MajinObama: Mikado is a two-story building that’s tucked away on the side of a busy station in Tokyo. Takadanobaba Game Center Mikado is located near Waseda University, it’s the next stop over, so it’s near a college-like area. From the second you walk in, if you’re someone familiar with arcade gaming, it feels kind of different, because at first you see pinball machines, which is really strange for Japan. Pinball machines are absurdly expensive in America, and even more so in Japan. Then you’ll see lots of classic arcade game setups. Everything Data East, Namco, to Tecmo, the first floor alone is just a blast from the past.

As you go up the stairs, you see these posters for events, advertisements for different games and aspects of game culture like music, it just feels a little bit different. It’s something that’s been declining a bit. They’ve had a record number of arcade closures in Japan [reportedly, over 250 arcades have closed in Japan in 2015]. Most of them were not chains. Club SEGA, TAITO Station, those are major chain arcades all over Japan, but they feel pretty commercialized. They vary in quality depending on where you go.

But Mikado is a true, grassroots arcade, and when you go up the stairs to the fighting game floor, you definitely feel a sensation like that. It’s really different, especially if you come in starting from the era when those places didn’t exist in the West. If you’ve never been in an arcade before, it’s something that’s kind of strange, in a good way.

You go up to that second floor and you literally see, on all sides of you, candy cabinets of past and present, wall to wall, around you. That’s what they call Japanese-style cabinets because of the colors. Buttons and ball-tops are light green, pink. There’s a whole row of just Astro City cabinets, and they have everything that you could want: Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo, Vampire Savior, 3rd Strike, Alpha 3, Project Justice, Garou: Mark of the Wolves, The King of Fighters 2002: Unlimited Match, ‘94, ‘98, and there’s a small section in the back of the NESiCA games, everything from past and present you can imagine is right on that second floor. They have some obscure titles off to the right as well, and then as you walk to the back, I think there’s 20 now, there are net cabinets, and it’s very rare to walk in and not see them tuned in to Guilty Gear Xrd. Typically it’s going to be that or Accent Core +R.

It might not strike you when you first sit down but definitely, if you go there on the right night, it will make sense to you. Why that place has that reputation and aura. But to me, it represents one of the last bastions of non-commercialized arcade culture. It’s very pure, genuine. You know it’s there because people just care about the game.

Luke: You’ve sort of been this liaison between the Japanese and American Guilty Gear. How did that come about?

MajinObama: To be honest, this is just wild to me. We just talked about ElvenShadow, who was here for like 8-9 years. It’s kind of weird for me to be in a leadership role because I don’t consider myself a terribly good player, at all. It didn’t start to me that way–I just wanted to put the game out there.

Social norms are a lot different in Japan than they are in the West, we know this, but it’s a different thing to experience. Between myself, Jiyuna, ElvenShadow, JamesXie, NKI, Ken I, there’s a long list of people who have had the privilege of playing here for a long time, and I think if there’s a torch somewhere, it’s about taking that further. I’ve been going to this place, playing the games for however long, I’m always thinking different things about scene and wondering why certain things are. There’s this new game, but there’s such a hole in coverage and presentation, and I’m referring to any game that came out.

I remember going to the arcade at home. People who started playing fighting games in 2009-10, when Street Fighter IV came out, missed out on a core aspect of the fighting game experience. Some things that were lost in transition from arcade units to console in the early-to-mid 2000s are perspective and experience. Let’s say you play 3rd Strike. You’re at the cabinet, you lost, you’re standing in the back of the line, but you’re also shoulder-to-shoulder with these Marvel guys. At the very least, you’ll play Marvel while you wait, so you start to make these conversations and connections and experiences with different games and different groups of players. Now, we always say “something” community, but a lot of the times people say community but that’s not what they’re talking about. They say “fighting game community” but sometimes that’s not what they mean. Back in the day, there was no “anime” community, I didn’t hear that until 2010 or 2011. Everybody was just players. There was a much stronger sense of community, and you could at least have a tangential experience with other games and groups of players.

There’s this younger generation that just doesn’t know. For smaller scenes like Tekken, KOF, BlazBlue, Guilty Gear, Undernight, for example, I think we have to work a little bit harder in terms of stepping it up with presentation and production in order to educate them.

And so, that’s sort of what got me started to drive the scene a little bit more forward, because to me, the smaller scenes don’t have the luxury to be lax in areas where the bigger scenes do have that benefit or safety net. Let’s use Street Fighter as an example. Their best international players, Umehara, Mago, Tokido, all their players are sponsored, 7-8 flown out to events, easy. Their events are going to be higher-profile, stronger presentation, more credibility. The fact that our numbers are smaller means that we have to work that much harder.

I play this game with these people, they see me, I look a little bit different, probably, in their minds, a random foreigner, but the difference to me was, I’d at least take the time to talk to them, they see my name from time to time, some were receptive, some were not. But over time, they start to come around, I think. The biggest one was obviously talking to Jonio, who’s the lead broadcaster for Guilty Gear in Japan. He’s been working for a while, a long time. I noticed he had a Twitch channel, and I’m not the only person to notice this, but I asked: you have a Twitch channel, you have all these people follow you, people watch the game and are interested, why are you still recording this at like 340p and you don’t have a subscription button?” And his answer was, “What are you talking about? What’s a sub button?”

That’s pretty much how it started, it kept snowballing, before I knew it, we were setting up exhibitions, we got a sub button, I’m doing commentary on a game I’m not even good at. We’re making that push, to make Evolution 2016 the biggest and best singles tournament for this game that you’ll ever see in this series. The fact that Tougeki and SBO was always done as a team event, which meant that the level was always really high, because you had to go through qualifiers. Or, if you were in America, or some other places, you had to win a qualifier, which has also been a source of controversy over the years.

As for double elimination/best of three, this tournament is going to be the one, the most intense Guilty Gear tournament of all time.

Luke: You have a list of Japanese players going to Evo? Did they need much convincing?

MajinObama: Yeah, I’ve been pushing it for months now. With the release of Street Fighter V, you see the huge registration numbers now, this is going to be the biggest fighting game event of all time. For me to do anything less than to push this event over here for months, that would be unacceptable for me.

You have to understand that Guilty Gear in general, especially in Japan, is a slightly older crowd. The BlazBlue scene, average age, I would venture 22-years-old. Guilty Gear, in Japan, I would say about 27-28, much older crowd, and what does that mean, they’re established in their jobs, which, in Asian work culture, means that you can’t just request a day off to play a video game tournament. Your boss will throw you out the window! Work culture is much, much more strict than it is in the West. Getting that time off and asking for that time off in general is difficult, and for some players it’s not even an option. For the ones that are paying attention and really want to go, when Mr. Wizard made the announcement, there were like at least 20, 25 players who, like the next week, were ready to go. It was a priority for them. Others, I had to do be a little more convincing, sell the event, let people know how important it was, etc. It’s a mixed bag, some of them may not have the same thirst to compete like that.

In general, I think people will be pleased with the lineup; the international presence is not going to be an issue this year. To be honest, this is something that was missing from a lot of Guilty Gear events in the past. Which is why I thought this year it’s important to make that push. Because, the truth is, when you have a strong international presence at your tournament, and you get 4-5 people who could be the best players in the game, that brings a certain level of credibility and excitement to your event.

Luke: What would you say are some differences between American and Japanese Guilty Gear?

MajinObama: There’s levels to the answer. The most obvious is that the majority of Japanese play is done in game centers, arcades. When Japanese players play, they drop a 100 yen coin into the slot, and they play with the intention of learning something, if not winning. If you’re just going to drop the coin against someone you’re going to lose, then what’s the point, you might as well have not done it. But when you drop that coin, you’re investing something. Contrast that when you play on console and you play your friend. You might still be trying to learn something, to win, but the nuance is a little bit different. You don’t have that added investment.

Some differences that we can say are, obviously because of the size of Japan and how people play there, they’re able to play a lot more and often, getting experience against high-level players in an offline environment. You can literally do it five, six, or seven days a week. For the West, we don’t have that exactly, we’re a bit more dependent on netplay, and our netplay isn’t so good. However, in contrast, the Western scene has a lot more tournaments, we travel a lot more, go to a lot more events, the nuance there is that we get a lot of experience, and having a tournament and travel mindset means we have tournament endurance. Traveling to a place, waking up a 9 AM for pools, wait eight hours, play semi-finals, make top 8 tomorrow, go to sleep early, wake up, etc. We have that, and you can see that come into play sometimes.

The difference is, that experience we have, once every week, two weeks, or a month sometimes, they’re doing every day. Five-six days a week. That’s really fun right–going to Western events is really, that’s why KSB was such a great event, cause it had that Western feel in Japan. You go to your Western event, we drink, we chill, we have fun, and then we play. We talk about it. But that’s only two days out of a month for some people. It’s easy to see how that gap can be created.

Luke: Any final thoughts to our readers?

MajinObama: There are some people I’d like to thank: Zhi, Sharpobject, St1ckbug, Jiyuna, Xie, Team Spooky, Arturo Sanchez, TheBrett, Guymam, Biscuits and “The Split,” Dosu, Baf0, GreatFernman, Ryan Hunter, Hellpockets, SuperFx, SRK, EventHubs, Dustloop, IPLAYWINNER, Twitch, Twitch Japan, Jonio, The Mikado Crew, Absol, and all major contributors to the ArcSys game scene. Shoutout to Louisiana, the South, and GoL.

You can find MajinObama on Twitter and Twitch and Joniosan on YouTube and Twitch. 

Combo Breaker 2016 was a huge event for Skullgirls. Every able-bodied member of the community that could make it out to CB16 did, and the same will likely be true for next Combo Breaker. Like was done for Northwest Majors 8, Skullgirls fan 6let felt a collection of highlights was deserved. He has crafted an intense series of amazing highlights from the event.

There was also a 10v10 Exhibition match that took place before the tournament, which also received a highlight reel from SkullgirlsTV.

Skullgirls is bigger now than it has been since launch, with Combo Breaker having more entrants than almost any other tournament to date. This led to some incredibly intense matches, which have been broken down in-depth below.

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The first match of Top 8 took place between CloudKing and cR|SonicFox. This matchup actually echoes another that took place one year before on the same stage. Combo Breaker ’15 saw Sonic face up against Cloud in Winners Bracket as well. At that time, Sonic cleanly took a 2-0 victory, moving on and leaving Cloud to struggle through in Losers. 6 months later these two played again in Winners, the match then taking place at NorthEast Championship 16. Cloud managed to take the set in an intense 3-2 victory. After this victory, Cloud was put into Losers and faced Sonic one last time, where he eventually and lost 3-2.

Despite having matched up against each other in tournament so often, SonicFox is using a brand new team this tournament. As always, Cloud is a very conservative player. He is not afraid to jump back and fish for confirms. Sonic makes a similarly cautious round-start, but very confidently makes his way in. SonicFox does something incredibly smart this round. He goes all out on Cloud, attacking almost recklessly, until Cloud’s Filia comes in with 2 bars. The reason is because Filia has access to an especially powerful, safe DHC in the form of Gregor Samson into Double’s Cathead super. Sonic successfully baits this move out and applies pressure to Double. Having exhausted all of his resources, Cloud is at Sonic’s mercy for the rest of the match.

The rest of the match follows a similar pattern. Cloud makes a few costly missteps and all around being unable to make appropriate adaptations to his play, leads to SonicFox taking a confident 3-0 victory.

The next round of Winners takes place between Swiftfox-Dash and cR|dekillsage. These two don’t often meet in tournament. Swiftfox, or TJ as many call him, has an unusually oppressive Peacock and Cerebella, though if either character dies he can have a hard time catching up. Despite not having won a Major tournament, TJ is a highly respected player for consistently doing really well. Dekillsage, winner of Evo 2014 side tournament and several other events to date, is well known for making safe setups that completely protect him from reversal attempts. This combined with Peacock’s lackluster reversals makes for a fairly difficult matchup for TJ. Brass Knuckles as an assist also is a highly effective counter call against Peacock, as it disallows many of her basic zoning patterns. TJ’s Cerebella assist usually is used to apply pressure and help hold off the opponent, but in this matchup must be used as a wall to counter call Brass, as well as to let Peacock get away, meaning Cerebella will be taking a lot of damage before she even gets a chance to play.

The match starts with TJ retreating and Sage advancing. Beowulf’s jump forward backed by the assist Brass Knuckles shuts down a lot of Peacock’s options from the start. After being pushed to the corner, Sage tries a little too hard to press his momentum and TJ slips around him. Peacock’s game centers around making space and creating a unrelenting assault of bombs and projectiles to bury the opponent in. Each projectile is intelligently and perfectly spaced out. Despite this, Brass Knuckles is a very strong counter to Peacock, as its armor and space coverage makes short work of zoning patterns. Sage eventually manages to kill Peacock, leaving Cerebella on her own. The situation seemed grim, but over the course of nearly 2 whole minutes, Cerebella inches herself closer and closer to taking the game. Against Fukua, TJ primarily uses command grabs, a smart choice due to the nature of most of Fukua’s moves losing to grabs. Clever maneuvering and placement leaves Bella besting Sage’s Beowulf as well. However, in the last moments of the match, Big Band, the apparent Foxbane of the set, punishes a whiffed command grab and finishes off the lone Bella.

The following matches proceed in much the same pattern, but with Sage proving himself to be more adaptable than his opponent. TJ is unable to deal with both Beowulf and Big Band at the same time, and focusing on one or the other opens the door for another angle of attack. Sage also makes a habit to, as soon as he catches Peacock, go for resets that tend to beat any reversal attempt from Peacock, making her an especially vulnerable glass canon.

One particularly interesting moment was the third round start. Beowulf starts with crouching short. Sage actually does this in anticipation of a sweep from Peacock. A sweep would have beaten Big Band, had the round start of the first two games been repeated. Instead though, Peacock repeats her pattern of backing up, this time walking back instead, anticipating the same round start as well. Had Sage called Big Band and jumped forward, the assist Peacock called was intended to counter it and give Peacock room to make space.

The next match is a losers finals heart-breaker. Wing Zero is a fan favorite, but so is Liam. Much of the crowd was torn over who to cheer for, but only one could progress to the next round. Liam, winner of the recent Northwest Majors 8, is one of 3 well known Canadian players. Wing is considered the West Coast Hero, being one of the only players from the West Coast that consistently places highly in East Coast events, having placed 4^th at Combo Breaker the year before. Both players are running point Parasoul, but each has a wildly different flavor. Wing’s Parasoul and assists are intent on getting in the opponent’s comfort zone and not leaving ever, while Liam’s team is set up around creating a bubble that the opponent can’t enter while poking from a distance.

As the match starts, Liam retreats while Wing holds his ground and tries to press forward. Liam consistently makes space and put ups a wall for Wing to deal with. Wing has to work around Robo Fortune’s Beam assist, giving Liam’s Parasoul more chances to apply pressure and make space. In the first match, Wing decides to make an early snap to bring Robo in. Robo is a glass cannon, without any true reversals, and Wing makes short work of her. Despite this early advantage, Liam eventually takes the set after a few unfortunate missed inputs from Wing.

As the set progresses, it becomes clear that Wing isn’t appropriately considering his opponent’s options with meter. There are several instances where he pressures Liam recklessly when Liam has 2 bars, giving him access to amazing options in the form of reversals into a safe DHC, which ends up losing him matches he could have won. After losing the first two matches, Wing eventually manages to make a full comeback and tie it up to 2-2. By this point in the set both players are mentally exhausted. Drops and missed inputs plague both players as nerves are at their highest, but Liam makes the best of the situation and takes the set.

For those following Japan as a developing meta, 159man’s (pronounced IkkokuMan) progress through the tournament has been particularly interesting. This round, 159man is up against Elda Taluda, one of the best Painwheel and Fortune players around. Taluda has won Frosty Fausting’s before, and has all around been a really solid player, having taken out Mike Z earlier in Top 16. 159 man’s unconventional a-train assist is interesting in it’s own right, but is particularly strong against characters that like to stay in the air like Painwheel. Elda’s team, however, excels once it gets in, which 159man’s team has no way of easily countering. Something worth noting is that 159man’s assists are exclusively for setups and resets, so in neutral he tends to struggle if his opponent spaces him out.

Taluda makes it a habit to call Cerecopter at the same time he goes in, ensuring that any a-train shenanigans would be stuffed. After getting an early hit and taking out Taluda’s first character, Big Band attempts to maintain incoming pressure but ultimately is unable to stick to his opponent, and lacking a good neutral assist, has a hard time keeping Taluda out. Taluda tries to whittle down the assist before going in. Like said earlier, Japanese players aren’t quite caught up to US players in terms of knowing when to and when not to call assists, on top of their unfamiliarity with picking wide use assists.

A good deal of Taluda’s time across the set is spent baiting and punishing assist calls from 159man, but seems to consistently be thrown off tempo by 159man. One downside of Squigly/Big Band is that the team has no way to safely DHC, meaning a wrong guess on a reversal ends up being heavily punished, though Taluda makes no such punishes this set. Despite his team having all of the on-paper weaknesses that it does, 159man ends up taking the set in a riveting 3-2 set.

The next match is Loser’s Quarter Finals, and it’s between two of the best players on either end of North America. Cloud’s Valentine is one of the best, with very few others even coming close. Liam is equally known for his Robo Fortune and Parasoul. Both players are calculating, and both are content to sit back and wait out their opponent. It’s an interesting match, completely different from either player’s previous match in Top 8 where they faced off against highly aggressive opponents. Robo’s assist is fairly good vs Valentine, as it prevents almost all of her forward momentum.

Both players are very cautious right from the beginning, like always. They dance around each other for nearly 20 seconds, poking with projectiles and normals when safe, with Cloud being the first one to attempt to make an opening for himself. He doesn’t push too hard, though, and backs off when no immediate reward manifests. Something important to look at is that Cloud appears to be trying to aim for both Liam and his Robo Fortune assist when Liam calls it. Cloud eventually finds his chance and lands the first clean hit of the set. After a break in Cloud’s pressure, Liam finds a moment to safely DHC out. Robo up against Valentine seemed similar to Liam’s Parasoul, where both players sat safely at either ends of the screen, poking with projectiles. After almost chipping Valentine out, Cloud manages to save her by switching in his next character. Filia applies suffocating pressure to Liam, with the change of pace eventually polishing off both Double and Parasoul. By the time Robo gets a chance to do anything, there isn’t enough time to make a comeback, and the match goes to Cloud.

Every round starts off cautiously for both players, with both players conservatively feeling the other out. Despite this similar mindset, earlier and earlier in each match one of the players will make the first move towards the other. Each match Cloud wins, the victory comes down to him at some point having Filia in against Double, or Liam using all of his resources and leaving Cloud free to do what he pleases. Each match that Liam wins, conversely, tends to come down to Cloud overextending, or making a bad call. The intense back and forth rages through the set culminating in another 2-2, though ultimately Liam takes the set and moves on.

The last match of Losers Quarter Finals is between TJ and 159man. TJ’s main, Peacock, is a fairly uncommon character in Japan, so 159man’s experience with the matchup was questionable. Squigly can be a really good counter to Peacock, being able to pull Peacock into her range from full screen. While 159man’s assist isn’t as strong against Peacock as Brass Knuckles is, it does provide a giant wall to soak projectiles while Squigly charges her stances.

159man retreats as soon as the match starts, letting Peacock make space and start her zoning patterns. 159man patiently waits for a chance and eventually finds it, using Big Band assist as a shield and pulling Peacock in range. The early use of this tactic left Squigly without resources to keep up the pressure, and a short reprieve is all TJ needs to start his pattern. After Peacock starts up, 159man is at a complete loss on how to respond. He doesn’t have the meter he needs for Squigly’s one counter until he’s already in range to be chipped out, and his assist is doing nothing to help him. After Squigly dies, Big Band faces the same treatment, with 159man being unable to properly challenge anything Peacock does.

After this point, the following matches are more of the same. Both Squigly and Big Band have an incredibly hard time against Peacock. There are short bursts where Squigly manages to land a hit, but as soon as Peacock escapes, the match heavily leans in TJ’s favor. 159Man ends up losing 1-3 against TJ. For those following Japan’s progress in the game, this match is reminiscent of a match that took place at the Evo side tournament of 2015, where SIG lost to both Sonic and TJ. SIG and 159man have together never lost a set against anyone in a US tournament other than dekillsage, SonicFox, and SwiftFox-Dash.

The next match is the one everyone expected from the beginning of the tournament. Despite seeing the matchup from these two team members fairly consistently, it’s always an exciting spectacle. They both know each other incredibly well, leading to some hard reads and conservative moves that otherwise wouldn’t be seen. Last Combo Breaker was Sage vs Sonic Grand Finals, with Sonic coming out on top that time. Both players play wildly different teams now, though, meaning a completely new matchup for spectators.

The roundstart sees an early hit for Sonic. A staple of Sage’s current team is jumping with Beowulf’s j.hp and calling Brass, a hard thing to deal with once blocked. Sonic subverts that stragtegy by getting in Beowulf’s face before he can make room, and stays on him until he’s dead. This quick start soon snowballs into a complete steamroll OCV over Sage’s whole team. The next round, however, is less one-sided. Beowulf does get a chance to breathe, showing off how powerful some of his spacing tools are when backed by Big Band. At one point in the set, after killing Sonic’s Double, Sage is at a distinct advantage over Sonic. It’s a Fukua Mirror Match, but Sage has Brass to back up everything he does, meaning for the most part he’s allowed to sit back and play the zoning game without Sonic being able to respond in any meaningful way. Any Shadows Fukua calls other than Light Shadow can be hard countered by Brass, and any punish attempts on the assist can usually be interrupted with an M Shadow or a fireball. Despite this, Sage goes in and eats an AA, making what seemed to be a clear advantage into a tense match end. Sage’s weakest character, Big Band, ultimately drops a game winning combo and loses him the match.

The final round follows a similar pattern to the ones before it. Sonic’s mobility with Filia overwhelms Sage, and Sonic eventually wins 3-0. A big factor to the loss in the final match seems to come down to how Sage chose to kill Sonic’s Double. He went for chip damage with his assist, but in doing so was unable to tag in Fukua, his strongest character. Had he found another way to chip Double, with Cymbal Clash, Beat Extend, or anything else, a switch to Fukua would have been highly favorable. Fukua with Brass Knuckles hard counters another Fukua, and is one of the best in the game to counter call the opponent’s assists with due to high damage and huge range.

Loser’s Semi Finals takes place between Liam and TJ. This is another rematch from past events, specifically Combo Breaker ’15. TJ won that set, but at the time matches were 2 out of 3, as opposed to the 3 out of 5 tournament standard that evolved later. Liam also did not have Robo Fortune on his team and had Fukua instead of Double, so the dynamic of this matchup has changed quite a bit since they last played. Robo’s Beam assist can interrupt all of Peacock’s projectile patterns, break the armor on Bella’s assist, and also be used to pressure a Peacock trying to jump. Peacock’s projectiles can hit the assist if called at inopportune times, but it does hamper her attempts at setting up.

Through the whole first match, Liam masterfully and precicely executes the game plan his team looks like it would. He calls Beam when Peacock jumps and moves in, then when he’s in he remains cautious and calls Double’s invincible assist for pressure. He repeats this pattern until Peacock has made space, then he goes back to calling Beam, making sure to defend his assist so it can disrupt Peacock. It’s a very meticulous plan, and it goes off without a hitch against Peacock. However, once Bella comes in she lands a very powerful lvl 3 on both Parasoul and Double. Liam was perhaps a little too consistent in his pressure, leading to this crushing punish, killing both characters and leaving Robo on her own versus Bella. This matchup is tense, as one wrong move from Robo will let Bella in. Liam holds up under pressure though, managing to slowly chip Bella away, and wins the match.

A consistent theme across the matches is Peacock struggling to get away, dying, then Bella coming in and putting in a lot of work. Both players tend to play more or less the same from match to match, so there isn’t much variation either way. Liam does end up taking the set 3-1 in the end, with each match coming down to whether or not Peacock could find the right spacing.

Liam and Sage faced off earlier in Top 16, where Liam was sent into losers by Sage. The same thing happened 6 months prior at NorthEast Championship 16, where Sage knocked him into losers, where he ultimately was eliminated by SonicFox. It’s been 6 months since then, with improvement from both players. As far as teams go, preemptive Robo assist calls can break the armor of Big Band, though Beo’s j.hp definitely causes trouble if not accounted for. Brass Knuckles will of course play a big role in preventing Parasoul from calling Robo haphazardly. This matchup favors Beowulf, as once he gets in he has more tools for keeping the pressure on and not letting his opponent go, but Liam’s Parasoul has slightly more trouble sticking to her opponents.

As the round starts, Beowulf appears to have control over the course of the match, but a well timed reversal quickly cuts Beowulf’s momentum off at the knees, killing him and leaving Fukua coming in against Robo. Fukua has some good options to get around Robo, like her air fireball, and slowly approaches and corners Robo. Fukua is able to whittle down both Liam’s team, though she is stopped by Robo. This match ended up down to the wire, but one wrong move at the end by Liam loses him the match.

Following this first round, there is quite a bit of variation. Liam snaps in Sage’s Big Band to deal with the most troublesome assist character. While on paper the right choice, Liam doesn’t end up being able to capitalize enough to get an early lead, losing the second round. The third round sees just how dangerous bad assist calls can be against Brass, with two wrong assist calls taking away half of Robo Fortune’s life. Sage eventually takes that round, with a score of 3-0.

Grand Finals takes place, as many expected, between SonicFox and dekillsage. After losing the set from Winners finals, Sage takes a moments consideration before deciding on a different team than before. He goes with Cerebella and Double, the team he won the Evo SG side tournament 2014 with, over his Beowulf team. While making the switch from a team that performed poorly is an obvious choice, Sage’s new team doesn’t offer any distinct advantages against Sonic’s team over his Beowulf setup.

The match starts with Bella doing a normally unsafe move, Battle Butt, and backing it with an assist. This strategy for Cerebella can be used with many assists, including the one Sage has chosen. This pressure prevents Filia from airdashing in as much as she wants, giving Sage the chance to get going, snowballing his momentum over Filia and Double. Despite this early commanding advantage, Sage’s Bella is unable to find the correct spacing to deal with Sonic’s Fukua. After taking some punishment, Sage attempts a normally safe DHC, but misjudges Fukua’s range and is punished for it. With both players at this point playing their iconic characters, a tense exchange ensued, with one wrong step from either player most likely ending the set. The player to make the mistake proves to be Sonic, letting Sage take the first round.

The following sets are similar in intensity, but play out very differently. The next round Sonic decides to snap in Sage’s Double, a good choice. As we saw with Sonic vs Cloud, Filia’s options are very powerful against Double, and this remains a constant whenever Sage’s Double is forced to face Filia. Sage has several unfortunate fumbles over the course of the set, like going for a reversal Dynamo without enough meter for a safe DHC, mashing Devil Horns at the wrong moments, or going for uncharacteristically unsafe resets in the form of Kanchou. This ultimately leads to SonicFox’s final victory in Skullgirls, taking first place a second Combo Breaker in a row.

Though the biggest Skullgirls event is out of the way, players are already gearing up for the next event. Keep an eye on Defend The North, GUTS4, and CEOtaku for more Skullgirls play in the future, and definitely join us next year for a return to Combo Breaker.

Source: 6let, Team Spooky, SkullgirlsTV

It was only yesterday that Gears of War’s General Raam was announced for Season 3 of Killer Instinct, but he’s already playable for anyone who has downloaded the game–and since he’s free for a week, we can all get our hands on him!

Trying to work out what a new character is all about can be a difficult experience at the best of times, though, and having a time limit can make that even more difficult. With only a week to decide whether or not to be a fan of the Raam, there’s no time to waste with labbing out what each of his options does.

Thankfully, Stephen “Sajam” Lyon, a well known commentator and Killer Instinct aficionado, is on hand with a detailed description on General Raam, putting each of his buttons to the test, looking over his combos and even showing off some of his more intimidating options. Check it out below.

Source: Stephen “Sajam” Lyon,  with a tip from JINXHAND

Ryu isn’t the only combatant in Street Fighter V who can pull off some impressive turnarounds with a well-timed parry; Alex’s Rage Shift V-Trigger opens up very similar possibilities–if not as often–but still leading into opportunities for painful punishment to the unwary attacker. This video brings together a collection of such moments from tournament play.

Want to “Overhaul” your own Alex game? Check out this roundup of frame traps and setups, or Viscant’s character breakdown.

The BEAST has also compiled a video of impressive Ryu parrying moments, reminiscent of the Street Fighter III parry upon which Ryu’s Mind’s Eye V-Skill is based.

Source: The BEAST