Category: Fighting Games

Over a decade after its release, Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike competition is still going strong in Japan, and nowhere is this more apparent than Game Newton’s yearly Cooperation Cup. After wrapping up the thirteenth installment earlier this year, which broke records with over 400 individual participants, the organizers are set to return next January for yet another outing.

The 14th Cooperation Cup is scheduled for January 10, falling on the same date it started this year. While further details are scarce, the event is sure to provide some of the most exciting 3rd Strike action around throughout its team competition, with high-level players from all over Japan fighting for the championship.

If you missed out on the 13th Cooperation Cup, do yourself a favor and check out footage here. What are you looking forward to this year?

Source: Game Newton via tyokkin

After providing us with some useful ways to limit nerves in tournament settings, Evo 2015 runner-up Nage is back with another great piece, this time dedicated to analyzing losses. Much like before, TENMA has graciously translated the entire writeup to English, so let’s take a look at what this Japanese competitor had to say.

According to Nage, the most important thing to take a look at after a loss is not how to deal with difficult situations but how to prevent yourself from being put in those situations in the first place. “If you ‘overslept and got to work late,’ before thinking about ‘how to prepare faster after waking up,’ it’s better to think ‘how to avoid sleeping in,’” Nage explains with a real-world example. “You can think of what to do after sleeping in, which may calm you down a bit too.”

Nage also mentions that, instead of worrying about losing, players need to be able to recognize the improvements they’ve made, no matter how small. “Winning is great, but even if you lose again, it’s best to tell yourself, ‘I’m able to do something I couldn’t do before,’ and appreciate your own development,” he says, reiterating a key component of his previous article. “I think the mentality of ‘I’m grinding but doesn’t feel like I’m improving’ comes from the disruption of the core motivation of ‘fun’, so regardless of win/loss, being positive about your improvement is key.”

These are just two small parts of the overall article, which provides quite a few informative pieces of advice for aspiring competitors. Be sure to check out the entire piece and let us know what you think.

Sources: Nage, TENMA via Jeff Dee

With Evo over and fall quickly approaching, it’s about that time of year for the next season of TOPANGA’s Ultra Street Fighter IV round-robin competition to start up. Last Wednesday on the weekly TOPANGA TV show, it was announced that the organization will be hosting an online tournament in the near future. On this week’s show, that tournament was confirmed to be the online qualifier for B League, scheduled for Sunday, August 23.

While full details for the qualifier have yet to be revealed, the format will be similar to previous years. Entry for each qualifier is capped at 64 players. Competitors are broken into eight blocks of eight, with each block played in the in-game tournament mode using single-game format. After the block stage, matches will be best-of-three, with the finals being best-of-five. The winner will qualify for B League. Players are locked to a single character for the entirety of the qualifier.

TOPANGA director Toyota also teased some details for B League proper. While in previous years, B League consisted of 16 players, this year will have more players than ever before, with a number of them making their TOPANGA LEAGUE debut. The list of invited players will be announced on next week’s TOPANGA TV.

Look forward to more details on TOPANGA LEAGUE next week and remember to check out the qualifier on Niconico Live on August 23.

Source: TOPANGA

Thanks to the abundance of ninjas and assassins within the Mortal Kombat roster, the franchise has always had a plethora of masked fighters. While crafting actual faces under those coverings wasn’t always necessary or even prudent, the added power of recent home consoles gives developers the option to expand their game worlds more than ever before, sometimes with content very few people will see.

Such is the case with Mortal Kombat X. You may be surprised to find out that, underneath all those masks, some of your favorite fighters sport faces on par with the rest of the cast, ready to be discovered by curious fans.

Fortunately, the Mortal Kombat scene is full of such fans, prompting the arrival of an image gallery on Mortal Kombat Online that unmasks a handful of cast members. Below, you’ll get a sneak peek at what Erron Black, Jason Voorhees, Rain, Revenant Sub-Zero, Smoke, and Torr are packing under their chosen face coverings.

Be warned, some are pretty nasty!

Source: Mortal Kombat Online via GameSpot

The folks over at VG BootCamp recently went live with another installment of Smash @ Xanadu from Xanadu Games in Baltimore, Maryland. These weekly broadcasts provide a great look at the region’s Smash community, with tonight’s stream focusing entirely on Super Smash Bros. for Wii U.

The stream is live below, but you can also head on over to Twitch to join the chat.

Watch live video from VGBootCamp on www.twitch.tv

Source: VG BootCamp