Category: Fighting Games

Editor’s note: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the writer and do not reflect Shoryuken as a whole.

“So, wait. How would you even run a tournament for Pokkén?”

This has been the question that has plagued this game pretty much since its inception. Frankly, this was my thought, too, despite my place as a more vocal supporter of the game. It is no secret at this point that the game has a very experimental way of being played, one which causes a particular set of hardware hurdles for tournament organizers, small and large.

There were lots of little things that DreamHack did for the streamer and spectator that really showed they were trying to run the highest quality event they could for this odd sport. These little things–like the switching player perspectives on the main stage between rounds–are great, but they are not the focus of this article. I want to document, instead, how they tackled Pokkén’s penultimate rival: logistics.

Prior to DreamHack, I can only think of two Pokkén events post-launch that I would qualify as majors: Final Round, which ran so soon after release that almost no one had time to actually study or play the game, and Texas Showdown, which had a comparatively smaller, and less publicized, 31 man tournament.

Pokkén’s stage being setup up minutes after doors opened on Friday.

DreamHack’s 105 entrants are 1/10th the size of those that have already signed up for Evo. So, while only a microcosm of what’s to come, it’s an important one. You can, in a lot of ways, consider this a experiment for all other future big Pokkén Tournament, well, tournaments.

DreamHack is obviously a company with a long history and strong reputation, so while I was certainly expecting them to be able to at least run a competent tournament, I was not expecting 32 monitors and Wii U’s at the ready, all LAN’d in pairs, all equipped with Pokkén controllers.

A row of casual setups as the doors opened on Friday.

The sight was disarming.

Considering this was advertised as a BYOC event (and still is, in fact, as of this writing), you can imagine my surprise. GamingGenerations partnered with Dreamhack to provide the setups for Pokkén (and SFV, too!), and this expenditure saved DreamHack a lot in the way of headaches.

The man in charge running the tournament, Mr. CEOJebailey himself, seemed to think so as well. He would later go on to tweet about the event:

Contrary to popular belief, Pokkén Tournament is pretty easy to run once you get past the equipment hurdle. Community has also been great.

— @CEOJebailey May 8, 2016

 

There’s something of a marketing genius to be mentioned about the Pokkén controller. It’s unique enough and comfortable enough to at least entice a purchase, but, well, I never went that far. I just use the Wii U GamePad at home because I already had it and just never really bothered to set aside the time to investigate the controller further. I adjusted to the controller on-site very quickly because, let’s be fair, it’s not that much different. It’s lighter, smaller, wired, and has huge shoulder buttons that you can’t miss. That this thing doesn’t work with other titles seems criminal, as I think I would probably play the Wii U a lot more with it as an option.

But, I digress. The decision to cover every station with controllers meant that anyone at anytime could play. There was no waiting for people to bum controllers off others, and matches never slowed down because a stick broke.

If anything, in that light, they were over-prepared. It was wonderful.

But not every hardware related decision was a good one.

Since the real tournament didn’t begin until Saturday, DreamHack treated Pokkén delicately, sweeping it constantly with employees to ensure everything was running smoothly. In light of the game’s hardware, this was important for obvious reasons. However, DreamHack decided to make things harder on themselves by removing the Wii U GamePad from every station, so if a LAN acted up or if the system had to be restarted for any reason whatsoever, they would have to go fish for a wireless Wii U controller to sync up. 

DreamHack’s Champion “Bim?”, standing, was one of the first players to arrive for casuals.

At a later point someone had used a Wii U controller to play during LAN mode, instead of the Pokkén controller. How do I know this? Because once you are in LAN mode, any other controller other than the one you are using becomes inoperable.

That’s one way to prevent wireless controllers from pausing tournament matches!

But because all Wii U GamePads were inaccessible, you would have to wait for an employee to get a controller, sync, restart, etc. Unless other events, too, manage to have a Pokkén Controller per setup at the ready, I can see this being very difficult on organizers. 

Still, there may be a bigger problem than controllers themselves: LAN mode.

Crowd watching Pokkén during top 16 on Saturday.

Pokkén finished on time and was a great experience for a lot of reasons, but one of those reasons was definitely not LAN mode. Now, DreamHack cannot be held responsible for the mode itself. It’s not their fault that sometimes you are just sitting there staring at “Searching!” on a screen for up to a minute or more. (Bizarrely, my experience playing online is that I almost never spend longer than 5 seconds before a match appears. Go figure.)

Adding on top of that was the actual LAN adapters for the Wii U. The Ethernet cables from each machine were plugged into the adapter, which rested on the table itself, and then the cables were zipped neatly into holes that lead underneath the tables. Sure, this solves a clutter problem, but having the adapters sit on the table is worrisome. I wondered why I occasionally saw matches drop during casuals. I think I found out why, later.

I was labbing with one of our locals, Slippingbug (Shoutouts to you for getting top 16, bro!), and we found some cool tech. I let out an “A-ha!” and palmed the table with not a particularly large amount of force. I’m animated, okay? The game didn’t appreciate that. It dropped us both immediately the moment my wimpy hand touched the table. It happened again later when I found something that made me erupt in table-slapping laughter. We investigated the LAN adapter, which as far as we could tell, had not actually been impacted in any way. 

I am 5’4” and 135 pounds. You would not mistake me for Rico Sauve. I hope you understand my point.

I do not believe this happened for any tournament matches, though I can easily see an emotional player having something not go according to plan, then inadvertently rage quit with a bump. There were connection issues multiple times during even top 16 and 8, though nothing as monumental as a connection dropping mid-game. Between the very real problems of waiting for LAN to find opponents, and the hint of a possibility of a game dropping mid match, I believe future events must be prepared for anything like this if they want a memorably smooth tournament.

Which, ultimately, DreamHack was. I got hilariously sick, had to take an alternate route to the event because Mo-Pac was shut down, lost my parking pass, and didn’t make it out of my pool. Yet, the tournament organization, the staff, the people I met, and the games I played and watched were so great that I wouldn’t have traded it in at all.

Sources: DreamHack, CEOJebailey, GamingGenerations

SNK recently uploaded a King of Fighters XIV gameplay trailer featuring “Team Japan.” This iconic team consists of series staple characters Kyo Kusanagi, Benimaru, and Goro Daimon.

All three fighters in the video below show off some of their special moves, Max Mode combos, Super Special Moves and their Climax Cancels while offering a look at the current state of the game’s visuals.

The title of the video includes “Trailer #1” so it’s safe to assume that there will be more “Team” trailers on the way soon. If the first US trailer is any indication, “Team Yagami” might be the next one in line.

Source: SNK

Recently Duckator sat down with Skullgirls Slapfest, a prominent Steam group in the Skullgirls community that regularly posts educational content. In this particular meeting, Duckator gave a Valentine tutorial for players considering picking up the character. The tutorial is a little on the long side, running just over ninety minutes total, but it includes everything you’ll need to know to go from a brand new Valentine player to a champion.

This content is obviously amazing for anyone looking to learn Val, but there are plenty of other characters out there. If you fancy a different member of the cast, check the Slapfest YouTube channel. They currently have a total of 7 character guides created by high-level players like cR|Dekillsage, KPB|McPeanuts, and Skarmand rounded up in a playlist.

Source: Skullgirls Slapfest

Despite its cute theme, Pokkén Tournament has plenty of mechanics in place to give those looking to master deep gameplay the option to get a leg up on the competition. One such mechanic is the stance system present in Duel Phase–a system Shofu explored a while back–but even though we know exactly what each stance does, there is still much to be said about how each of these stances can be applied in-game.

Enter gooberman220, who has hit the lab for everyone’s favorite fire lizard and has put together a comprehensive guide to making use of Charizard’s high stance. We already knew that it acts something like a parry for grabs and certain normal attacks, but this video explores the stance in greater detail, covering what moves can be parried for each character and even looking into whether or not the hits that are parried contribute to the phase shift system.

If you’re a fan Charizard in Pokkén Tournament, or just want to know whether or not your favorite move is able to stand against the dragon, check out the video below.

Source: gooberman220

Just prior to the release of Street Fighter V, old-school Street Fighter player Graham Wolfe emerged from a long period of relative obscurity to show players the strength of classic Street Fighter fundamentals in Capcom’s newest title. Since then, Wolfe has made relatively few tournament appearances on the grand stage. However, he has remained hard at work behind the scenes digging into the fine details of Street Fighter V and posting his findings to Twitter.

In these Tweets, Wolfe focuses on common gameplay situations that many players continue to fail to punish, whether through lack of practice or simple lack of knowledge.

For example, Chun-Li’s instant air Lighting Legs can be hit clean with a delayed crouching jab by most characters (with Zangief and Birdie using crouching strong). Jabbing too early will whiff, causing the attack to hit you, so head to training mode to work on the timing.

Despite its slim, low-profile appearance, Karin’s sweep leaves a 4F hurtbox during its recovery, allowing it to be punished on block with a variety of moves, such as a reversal Dragon Punch. In addition to worthy matchup knowledge, this is a great lesson on the abstract nature of hitboxes and hurtboxes versus the appearance of a character’s model.

Continuing down the list, Necalli’s fierce Dragon Punch is invincible on startup, making it his go-to meterless reversal. However, the attack can actually be low-profiled on startup with moves such as Chun Li’s slide, or a well-placed crouching forward. This allows you to apply safer pressure, and force Necalli to take some risks or spend meter if he doesn’t want to block.

Wolfe has created a blog that collects this great information in one place. Pay a visit and check out his Twitter page to keep up with the latest tricks that can keep you from letting damage slip through your fingers.

Sources: Graham Wolfe

During my time playing and exploring Namco’s experimental hybrid fighter, I have become fascinated by one of its quirkiest system mechanics: the Phase Shift. When Namco first advertised this game’s switching phases, I believe most gamers (myself included) were focused on the phases themselves. How does each phase play? Do the buttons change for the same move? How will you play the game with one Wii U? Etc., Ad Nauseam, forever and ever until the end of Pokkén.

At the time, what got lost in the noise was the switch itself. Phase switching isn’t just a simple swirl of the camera; it is, more and more, the meta-defining mechanic that determines your combo length, pressure, wake up timing, and other options. It is, perhaps, the very heart of this game’s future.

And Psyant seems to believe this too, making an incredibly in depth video covering the subject!

A Phase Shift is far from a random chance occurrence. The game employs an invisible point system of “phase points” that accumulate every time you hit an opponent. If you’ve explored Pokémon games down to their nitty gritty details before, this may bring back memories of IVs. IVs were invisible stat points in those games, and it’s possible Phase Points are some sort of call back to this secret depth.

All Pokémon have a 12 point limit in each phase, and once one Pokémon reaches 12 points, the Phase Shift occurs. Different moves get different knockdown properties once the shift takes place, so knowing your safe jump timing off of, say, a charged Field Phase Counter Attack vs. a charged Duel Phase Counter Attack is a big deal.

You can also reset the phase points to 0, as demonstrated in this silly (but useful for demonstration purposes) Blaziken setup. It turns out that the windbox from Burst Mode activation always resets the phase points to 0. Another thing that causes Phase Shifts are combos that reach 21 hits, and this is a (very expensive) way to circumvent that.

Keeping track of your phase points will help you maximize your knockdown and damage opportunities. This is powerful information, particularly if you like to employ okizeme-heavy gameplay (read: Lucario, Garchomp, Machamp…) But how can you keep track of that which cannot be seen?

Thanks to Pokkén player SSJ-Luffy, this information is now readily available for the whole cast. Cozy up with this excel sheet, grab a cup of coffee, and get to work on manipulating those phases to last as long (or as short!) as you need them to.

Sources: Psyant, Monkey D Vegetto, SSJ-Luffy