Category: Fighting Games

Even with Street Fighter V looming in the distance, folks are continuing to push out unique content for Ultra Street Fighter IV. Case in point, freeno0b recently provided us with a helpful video that shows how Cody can use his knife pickup to instantly block armored moves after they’ve absorbed a fierce from the handcuffed brawler.

This is accomplished by inputting back and jab after a knife input. If the opponent does nothing, you can confirm the fierce into a full combo, but if they throw out an armored move, you will immediately block the attack after your fierce connects. This happens because the game allows Cody players to block during knife pickup, in this instance canceling the action and preventing the jab from coming out due to blockstun.

The video below demonstrates this technique being used against Balrog’s EX Dash Straight and Abel’s EX Change of Direction. And if that wasn’t enough, you’ll be able to learn a couple of knife combos as well.

Some of you out there may have already incorporated this technique into your repertoire, but aspiring Cody players should definitely take notice.

Source: freeno0b

There’s a thrilla in Manila going down this weekend at the Imperium e-Sports Bar and Video Game Lounge in Pasig. The Manila Cup, brought to you by Beast of the East, is the Philippines’ first major fighting game tournament and will feature BlazBlue Chronophantasma, Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN-, Mortal Kombat X, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and Ultra Street Fighter IV. The event also is a part of the Capcom Pro Tour as a ranking tournament, giving points to the top 16 placers in Ultra Street Fighter IV.

Players from across Asia will be attending, including Itabashi Zangief, r/Kappa|stormKUBO, Ikatsui Yarou, Reiketsu, NISHIKIN, YBK|Shiro, YBK|Kim1234, TONPY, Gonzalez, BE|ABEGEN and TAKA of Japan; DouYuTV|GOD OF SKY and Jiewa of China; CCG|Humanbomb and GL|Saunic of Hong Kong; and Chuan of Malaysia.

Live broadcasts of Manila Cup will be brought to you by Xsplit (main stream) and Capcom Fighters (USFIV).

Xsplit

Watch live video from Xsplit on www.twitch.tv

Capcom Fighters

Watch live video from CapcomFighters on www.twitch.tv

Schedule

Friday August 28

Event	PHT (Local)	EDT	PDT	GMT	Stream
SSBWiiU	6:00 PM	6:00 AM	3:00 AM	10:00 AM	Xsplit

Saturday August 28

Event	PHT (Local)	EDT	PDT	GMT	Stream
SSBWiiU Top 4	11:00 AM	11:00 PM (Fri)	8:00 PM (Fri)	3:00 AM	Xsplit
BBCPEX Top 4	12:00 PM	12:00 AM	9:00 PM (Fri)	4:00 AM	Xsplit
UMVC3	1:00 PM	1:00 AM	10:00 PM (Fri)	5:00 AM	Xsplit
USFIV	2:00 PM	2:00 AM	11:00 PM (Fri)	6:00 AM	Capcom Fighters

Sunday August 28

Event	PHT (Local)	EDT	PDT	GMT	Stream
UMVC3 Top 4	11:00 AM	11:00 PM (Fri)	8:00 PM (Fri)	3:00 AM	Xsplit
MKX Top 9	12:30 PM	12:30 AM	9:30 PM (Fri)	4:30 AM	Xsplit
GGXrd Top 8	2:00 PM	2:00 AM	11:00 PM (Fri)	6:00 AM	Xsplit
USFIV Top 8	3:30 PM	3:30 AM	12:30 AM	7:30 AM	Capcom Fighters

Sources:  Xsplit, Capcom Fighters

TOPANGA LEAGUE 5 (B) is a pay-per-view series of broadcasts. See our preview thread for more information.

This Friday is the start of the fifth season of TOPANGA’s high-level Ultra Street Fighter IV league competition, TOPANGA LEAGUE. As usual, this season starts off with the lower B League. Over the course of ten days, twenty of Japan’s strongest Street Fighters will take each other on for a chance to ascend to the high-profile A League. Seasoned veterans, rising stars…and a Dee Jay player? This year’s B League is looking to be as entertaining as ever.

B League Competitors

Commentary

Schedule

B League
Sep 4 (Fri)	Sep 5 (Sat)	Sep 6 (Sun)
Sep 11 (Fri)	Sep 12 (Sat)	Sep 13 (Sun)
Sep 21 (Mon)	Sep 22 (Tue)	Sep 23 (Wed)
A-B League Replacement Battle Playoff
Oct 4 (Sun)

Rules & Format

Players will be broken up into two groups of ten. To prevent repeated match-ups, players using the same character will be separated into different groups. The remaining rules are the same as previous years: B League will be played online in best-of-five game matches. Players are ranked by win-loss record, or in the case of a tie, by game win-loss difference, followed by head-to-head match-up results.

First and second place in each group will be promoted to A League. Third place in each group will join BE|Nemo and MCZ|Tokido in a four-player offline playoff league for a shot at promotion. Each match there will be a best-of-thirteen game set, with deuce rules to ten wins. The top two players will be promoted to A League.

Results

ULTRA STREET FIGHTER IV – TOPANGA LEAGUE 5 (B)

Black Group

Current Standings

Rank	Player	Team	Character	Wins	Losses	Game ±
–	NINOMAE		Rose	0	0	±0
–	SANTAROU	YBK	Sagat	0	0	±0
–	Wanchantarou		Makoto	0	0	±0
–	Pepeday	FGC	El Fuerte	0	0	±0
–	aiai		Juri	0	0	±0
–	Matsuri		Chun-Li	0	0	±0
–	Kenzo		Akuma	0	0	±0
–	Mago	MCZ	Yang	0	0	±0
–	Kitasenju DJ		Dee Jay	0	0	±0
–	Fuudo	RZR	Fei Long	0	0	±0

ROUND 1 – September 4 (Fri)

aiai (Juri) vs. Kenzo (Akuma)
Kitasenju (Dee Jay) vs. SANTAROU (Sagat)
SANTAROU (Sagat) vs. Fuudo (Fei Long)
Wanchantarou (Makoto) vs. Matsuri (Chun-Li)
NINOMAE (Rose) vs. Mago (Fei Long)

ROUND 2 – September 5 (Sat)

Wanchantarou (Makoto) vs. Pepeday (El Fuerte)
Kitasenju DJ (Dee Jay) vs. Matsuri (Chun-Li)
SANTAROU (Sagat) vs. NINOMAE (Rose)
Pepeday (El Fuerte) vs. Kenzo (Akuma)
aiai (Juri) vs. Fuudo (Fei Long)

ROUND 3 – September 6 (Sun)

aiai (Juri) vs. Mago (Fei Long)
Wanchantarou (Makoto) vs. SANTAROU (Sagat)
Kenzo (Akuma) vs. SANTAROU (Sagat)
Kitasenju DJ (Dee Jay) vs. NINOMAE (Rose)
Fuudo (Fei Long) vs. Matsuri (Chun-Li)

Red Group

Current Standings

Rank	Player	Team	Character	Wins	Losses	Game ±
–	Kawaguchi		Rose	0	0	±0
–	Gachi-kun		Sagat	0	0	±0
–	Shiro	YBK	Abel	0	0	±0
–	Hagejin		Zangief	0	0	±0
–	MDR		Rufus	0	0	±0
–	NISHIKIN		Blanka	0	0	±0
–	6		Poison	0	0	±0
–	Pugera	FGC	Ibuki	0	0	±0
–	Sasaki		Cody	0	0	±0
–	Dashio	YBK	Seth	0	0	±0

ROUND 1 – September 4 (Fri)

Hagejin (Zangief) vs. Sasaki (Cody)
MDR (Rufus) vs. Gachi-kun (Sagat)
Dashio (Seth) vs. Shiro (Abel)
Dashio (Seth) vs. Kawaguchi (Rose)
Shiro (Abel) vs. Sasaki (Cody)

ROUND 2 – September 5 (Sat)

Hagejin (Zangief) vs. 6 (Poison)
6 (Poison) vs. Sasaki (Cody)
Gachi-kun (Sagat) vs. Shiro (Abel)
MDR (Rufus) vs. Dashio (Seth)
Kawaguchi (Rose) vs. Shiro (Abel)

ROUND 3 – September 6 (Sun)

6 (Poison) vs. Dashio (Seth)
Hagejin (Zangief) vs. Shiro (Abel)
Dashio (Seth) vs. Sasaki (Cody)
Gachi-kun (Sagat) vs. Dashio (Seth)
MDR (Rufus) vs. Kawaguchi (Rose)

Sources: TOPANGA LEAGUE, Niconico

The folks behind Churning the Butter have just gone live with another installment of their weekly tournament series.

Tonight, they have once again taken over Folsom Street Foundry in San Francisco, California to put on an Ultra Street Fighter IV tournament for the regional players. Attendees include EG|Ricki Ortiz, Julio, DM|El Cubano Loco, pH|Jame, G-Dragon, and more.

If you’re interested in seeing what the NorCal cats have up their sleeves, be sure to check out the stream below and show your support. You can also head on over to Twitch if you prefer to chat.

Watch live video from showdowngg on www.twitch.tv

Want to check these tournaments out for yourself? Well, you’re in luck, because even if you missed out this week, Churning the Butter is held every Thursday at 8:30 PM PDT during ShowDown’s game night at Folsom Street Foundry.

Source: ShowDown

A few days ago, Ryan “Prodigal Son” Hart returned to his native United Kingdom to visit the latest WinnerStaysOn Session and get his hands on Street Fighter V for the first time. Due to his focus on preparing for Capcom Cup in December, the longtime competitor had absolutely zero experience with the upcoming title, and was able to sit down with it for an hour or so and see what it’s all about. Afterwards, he picked up a headset to share his thoughts.

“I think it’s got enough variety to really surpass Street Fighter IV over time,” Hart shared. “I think that’s gonna take some time though.”

In this build, Hart believes both M. Bison and Ken are looking very strong, but had some difficulty getting in on Vega as Necalli, though he did admit that it was probably due to a lack of knowledge more than anything else.

“I heard a lot of things about the speed: people didn’t like the tempo, it was too slow,” he continued. “I think that with how the moves work–frame advantage and disadvantage, block stun, things like that–you kind of don’t want it to be too all-over-the-place. At this speed, it’s a stable game.” Despite being a high-level competitor, Hart believes that keeping Street Fighter V at the pace it is now will help players without crazy reaction speeds enjoy the title while also appealing to folks who come from faster, classic games.

For a look at what Hart was able to coax out of this early build, check out the footage below. The discussion detailed above occurs near the end of the second video.

Source: Capcom Fighters, image via Mad Catz

As patches tend to do, the most recent adjustments to Mortal Kombat X stand to grab hold of the current tiers of the game and give them a firm shake. While the update itself will need time to settle in order to reveal where everyone stands, j360 believes that Reptile is a contender for top tier placement–most notably his Deceptive variation.

This hypothesis comes with plenty to back it up: more consistent combos, more mix-up potential, and safer options across the board. Of these changes, perhaps the most important comes due to the tweaks to Deceptive’s invisibility. Thanks to its faster recovery and the fact that it no longer triggers a block on activation, Reptile can use the move to turn nearly any connected button into a freestyle combo. In addition, the green ninja can now make any cancelable button or string that he throws out safer thanks to the speed with which his EX invisibility takes effect.

To hear more about why we’ll likely be seeing more Reptile in the near future, check out the video below.

For reference, you can check out the patch’s full list of Reptile changes here.

Source: j360 via Test Your Might

By now you’ve certainly heard about the first-to-ten (and subsequent best-of-five) between Dominique “cR|Sonic Fox” McLean and Carl “RZR|Perfect Legend” White at last weekend’s Summer Jam 9.

It’s obvious that Sonic Fox enjoyed his perfect showing against White, but now that he’s had some time to process the event, how does McLean feel? The folks at The Daily Dot recently spoke with him to learn just that. In addition to speaking about the event itself, Sonic Fox goes on to break down the history between Perfect Legend and himself, a rivalry that has strong roots in Injustice: Gods Among Us. Sonic Fox also discusses the latest changes to Mortal Kombat X and why he feels that some of them–specifically buffs to Quan-Chi–aren’t the best idea.

The video below also contains information regarding Bonchan’s recent sponsorship by Red Bull as well as some Street Fighter V beta matches. We’ve timestamped the video to jump directly to the Sonic Fox interview.

If you didn’t catch the set between Sonic Fox and Perfect Legend, you can check it out here.

Source: The Daily Dot

Like much of the Mortal Kombat X cast, Ferra and Torr received a handful of changes in the latest patch. While the standard damage and frame adjustments were present, they were also given the ability to dash cancel Pain and Gain, the Ruthless variation ability that sees the diminutive Ferra stab Torr for an attack boost.

This technique gives the duo a slightly wider range of damage avenues, as you’ll see in the video by THE COOL KID93 we’ve featured below. These options include both mid-combo buffing and devastating reset opportunities, greatly increasing the hurt these two can dish out.

Source: THE COOL KID93