Category: Fighting Games

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RED BULL CONQUEST rages on with qualifiers in Orlando, Florida and online this weekend

The CONQUEST continues!

This weekend is a double-header of sorts for the RED BULL CONQUEST circuit: Orlando, Florida will play host to the next big qualifier event, while the online qualifier is being held as well. The fight in Orlando begins on Saturday, August 11th, while the online battle will unfold on Sunday, August 12th; players will put their skills to the test in Street Fighter V, Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2, and Tekken 7 to earn qualifying spots for the National Finals in Washington, D.C. in November. From the press release:

Red Bull Conquest continues the search for America’s best fighting game competitors in Orlando on Saturday, August 11 and during a special Online qualifier on Sunday, August 12. As part of this national fighting game tournament, players will battle it out in Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition, TEKKEN 7 and Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2 to determine who will be crowned their regions’ top fighters. The winners (3 from Orlando and 3 from the Online qualifier) will travel to Washington D.C. this November to compete at the Red Bull Conquest National Finals and to see if they have what it takes to be crowned National Champions.

During the Orlando stream, viewers will be able to watch some of Florida’s top fighting game athletes go head-to-head against each other, including popular Street Fighter athlete CJ Truth, who recently placed 4th at Toryuken and 9th at CEO 2018. 12-year-old Tekken prodigy, King Rey Jr, will also be competing this weekend in an attempt to take home the crown. Meanwhile, during the Online qualifier stream, the hosts will walk viewers through Red Bull Conquest so far, looking at past and future events and how the National Finals might play out in November.

Red Bull has recruited a crew of FGC experts to provide commentary during the events, with YipeS sharing insight from the Orlando qualifier, and Vicious and Tasty Steve keeping fans in the loop during the Online qualifier.

Want to watch the fights? Streaming information is as follows:

Orlando Red Bull Conquest Qualifier: Saturday, August 11

Red Bull Conquest Online Qualifier: Sunday, August 12

Be sure to check it out!

RED BULL CONQUEST ~ Heihachi Mishima
RED BULL CONQUEST ~ Heihachi Mishima

Source: Red Bull Esports [press release]

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Pombear shows off the similarities between the attack animations of Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition’s G and 3rd Strike’s Q

When G was first revealed in the reflection of Menat’s orb, there was some speculation that he would be related somehow to Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike‘s Q — and only because they both share a single letter name. We now know both men are canonically international phenomenons in their own ways and have eerily similar outfits (well, G’s Story Mode outfit, at least, shares design elements with Q’s main outfit). As Pombear demonstrates, they also share an awful lot in the way of attacks:

Whether they are the same person, members of the same organization, or something else entirely remains to be seen. Of course, “remains to be seen” could be said about most aspects of these intentionally mysterious characters — but we know, if nothing else, that the similarities are far beyond coincidence.

Source: Pombear

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Shoryuken interview: PR Balrog speaks on switching to the Demon and his journey in the Capcom Pro Tour

Eduardo “PR Balrog” Perez took time from his Evo schedule to speak with SRK on the state of SFV’s netcode, his major character switch, and points distribution within the CPT.

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Known throughout the fighting game community for his performance with Shadaloo’s boxing King, CYG BST|PR Balrog has since switched characters in favor of Akuma. From this considerable switch to his performance at ELEAGUE and more, PR Balrog talked to SRK at Evo 2018 and gave us a look into his journey in this year’s CPT and beyond.

Transcending his humanity

As can be guessed, PR Balrog is so named for his outstanding accomplishments with Street Fighter’s original boxing character. However, much has changed since SFV’s release, and Eduardo is now under the sway of the Satsui no Hadou. He attributes this character switch to Balrog’s lack of viable tools, as well as Akuma’s comparatively engaging playstyle. “The reason why I changed was because current Balrog doesn’t allow me to do what I want,” he explained. “He doesn’t have a reversal in this game, so it makes it hard for me to play my game. Akuma has a fireball, which you can relate to Balrog with the rush punch, but Balrog doesn’t have a reversal, so I have to block all day. Akuma does have one, of course. I think he’s just more fun too.”

sfv_akuma_shun_goku_satsu

With Akuma sitting as the second most-used character in SFV, Eduardo’s change in mains aligns with the FGC’s movements at large. Up until Evo, it seemed as though the top tiers controlled the game’s competitive sphere — with two potential Abigails and Tokido’s Akuma appearing in Evo’s top 8, this still appears to be true (albeit Cammy and Menat were nowhere to be found, and Problem X ultimately decided to stick with M. Bison for the finals). Although the Cammy menace is still at large, PR Balrog believes that her strength — and that of other top tiers — is just part of the fighting game meta. “Every version has top tiers,” he stated. “That’s just how it is. It’s true that Cammy has not been nerfed, and she remains untouched. I think you just have to play the game.”

ELEAGUE and the console challenge

PR Balrog was seen using Akuma upon his return to TBS’s ELEAGUE, going up against the current Capcom Cup champion RISE|MenaRD and 2017’s Evo champion Echo Fox|Tokido in Group A. Although he fought hard, he didn’t make it out of the group stages, and was eliminated by Dogura’s Urien 2-3. Eduardo stated that his performance in the invitational ultimately acted as a means to gauge his strength for future competitions. “ELEAGUE to me was like a line saying, ‘This is where I’m at,’” he explained.  “I lost all my matches, but they were all 2-1’s, so I just need to do better next time.”

Eduardo likewise noted that the use of PS4s as a determining factor in his performance. With the recent news of SFV’s input delay and introduction of artificial latency in its netcode on the PS4, his PC training left him with the need to adapt to the console during his matches. “I feel that I could have won a lot of those, and I don’t want to make this an excuse, but I play a lot on PC,” he said. “So when I came to ELEAGUE and I finally played on the PS4, it felt a lot different than I was used to, and that was a disadvantage on my part. But it’s okay. I think it helped me to realize where I was and what I need to work on.”

Points distribution and Evo advice

Aside from Evolution and ELEAGUE, PR Balrog hasn’t been travelling much for competition in this year’s CPT. Part of his reasoning for this absence deals with the current points distribution within the Tour — as it places a greater emphasis on Premiers rather than Ranking events, competitors must fly their way to the Tour’s biggest tournaments to earn a meaningful amount of points. “I like streaming a lot, so I like staying at home,” Eduardo stated. “I do like going to tournaments.” It is also worth noting that Eduardo is employed full-time, with responsibilities that do not allow for frequent travel. Thus, his life outside of the game takes precedence over competing at present.

Evolution 2018 likewise marked an important Premier in the Capcom Pro Tour. As the biggest fighting game tournament in the world, it also marks the first of many players’ experiences in a tournament setting, and can inspire them to put in serious work and practice to improve. Eduardo’s advice to these new players centered on time management and a focus on enjoying their time, in order to get the most out of their tournament experience. “Whenever you go to a tournament, always take advantage of your time,” he advised. “Play as many people as you can. Ask questions — but not too many, ha ha. Other than that, drink a lot of water, and most importantly, have fun. If you’re not having fun, you should not be there.”

Eduardo’s advice comes just after Evolution’s finishing crescendo. With Problem X’s victory sending him to the second place in the CPT ranking and two new characters in the mix, the CPT could very well see more insanity throughout the rest of the season. TWFighter major is on the horizon, and SCR follows as the last Premier event in the States before Capcom Cup — who’s to say what will come next?

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Learn the story of the Evolution Championship Series, as told by theScore Esports

See the history of Evo, from Battle By the Bay to Evo Moment #37 and the rise of Street Fighter IV!

With Evo 2018 fresh in the history books as of this past weekend, theScore esports decided to chronicle the overall history of the Evolution Championship Series in the first of a two-part documentary.

Beginning humbly as Battle by the Bay in 1996, Tom Cannon, Tony Cannon, Joey “Mr. Wizard” Cuellar, and Seth Killian, whom would become the four co-founders of the Evolution Championship Series, hosted the event as a way to finally settle inter-regional trash talking between various local communities. However, B5 in 2001 marked the first time that Japanese players made the flight to San Francisco, California, cementing the event’s prominence as the number one place to compete in fighting games from all corners of the globe.

With the closure of Southern Hills Golfland in 2002, Evo as we know it today was officially created in order to preserve the spirit of the slowly-dying arcade culture in America. From the legendary Evo Moment #37, to the rise of Street Fighter IV, to a hilarious story about the Cannons driving a truck full of CRT televisions with a broken clutch through a toll road at 3:00 AM, James Chen, Antonio Javier, Aris, and Tom Cannon give viewers a glimpse inside the origins of the world’s largest fighting game tournament. This is a very informative video, that anyone who is interested in any aspect of the competitive scene should make a point to watch. Part 2 will be released on Saturday, August 11th.

Do you have any fond memories of the beginning events of Evo, or were you learning about this piece of history for the very first time? Give us your thoughts and reactions in the comments section below.

Source: theScore esports

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Dragon Ball FighterZ roundup: Explore some of the new combos and tech from base Goku, base Vegeta, & others

A new patch has arrived for Dragon Ball FighterZ. Alongside the new base forms for Goku and Vegeta, it’s also added a number of changes to the existing cast, opening up more combo routes and changing up old ones. As such, a number of folks are now working at figuring these new combos out.

First up, we have Final Showdown, one of the more influential combo video makers for the game, responsible for the discovery of a number of loops and combos used competitively. In the video below, he demonstrates some combos that base form Goku can do in Dragon Ball FighterZ. While he describes these as “day one combos”, there are already a number of interesting and likely important combos, including a few loops that we’re likely to see a lot of in competitive play.

As a bonus, he’s also uploaded a couple of follow ups to his Vegito combo video, extending the damage off his bread-and-butter combos even further. Take note, however, that these were done before the patch, so we might see even higher damage in the future.

Next up we have rooflemonger, who tackles base form Vegeta, focusing specifically on his corner loop.

We have even more base form Vegeta with this video from Sikshot Gaming, demonstrating how to keep up pressure with him on a blocking opponent.

TaihoT3 on the other hand showcases a touch-of-death combo for base form Vegeta (with help from Fat Buu and Goku).

One of the characters who’s been buffed in this balance patch is Frieza, who can now perform a reverse beat (H to M to L) chain. This has given him new combos, including a corner loop, as demonstrated by KH_Black on Twitter.

For a closer look at how Golder Frieza has changed, Cattokye has posted this comparison of his corner combos before and after the patch.

In addition to this, they also demonstrate how the faster activation of Golden Frieza allows it to be used a punish on block.

Of course, this is bound to be just the beginning of all these new combos and tech for the game’s new patch. Keep locked on to Shoryuken for more Dragon Ball FighterZ news and content.

Sources: Final Showdown; rooflemonger; Sikshot Gaming; TaihoT3; KH_Black; Cattokye

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The SRK Rollback: Best of August 3-9, 2018

Welcome to the Rollback: a frame-by-frame look back at our past week’s most notable news — and our favorite SRK articles — from August 3 to August 9, 2018!

Zavian “mushin_Z” Sildra, Editor-in-Chief:

Frame 1:
scvi astaroth 1Astaroth, Seong Mi-Na revealed for SoulCalibur VI at Evo 2018

Not totally unexpected additions (though Seong Mi-Na is a bit of a twist), but it looks like SoulCalibur VI is well on its way to a roster full of the classics. Just a few more to go.

Frame 2:
leiNew Tekken 7 Season Pass revealed, adds Anna, Lei, The Walking Dead’s Negan, and more!

Lei and Anna? About time! But Negan? As in “The Walking Dead” Negan? If you thought Noctis was from out of left field, this new bit of corporate crossover shenanigans is from another ballpark altogether.

Frame 3:
sagatG and Sagat trailers released for Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition, both available on 8/6/18

Capcom tried their best to win Evo in terms of reveals by pulling the classic (and crowd-pleasing) “out tomorrow!” maneuver. Well-played, especially since both fighters are impressive additions to the roster. Honorable mention: the hype-building campaign for G was also very impressive!

Frame 4:
evo 2018 cygames black 750x400Evo 2018 final results

Catch up on the final standings from the biggest fighting game tournament we’ve yet seen.

Frame 5:
simon belmont super smash bros ultimate ssbu 750x400Super Smash Bros. Ultimate X Castlevania, King K. Rool, new features, Assist Trophies, and much more revealed for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Nintendo saved their Super Smash Bros. Ultimate reveals for their own Nintendo Direct in the typical Nintendo fashion — and they know they can hold their own audience with this kind of content to show off! “Ultimate” is accurate.

Crow_Spaceboy, Assistant Editor:

Frame 1:
bornfree smug thumbBornFree interviews Smug at Defend the North 2018, talks Balrog, Fortnite, and more!

Smug is, now and forever, one of the best and most entertaining spokesmen for the FGC.

Frame 2:
Cooler Dragon Ball FighterZ Announcement Featured ImageCooler officially confirmed for Dragon Ball FighterZ at Evo 2018

Cooler is exactly that. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Frame 3:
Skajan_Daigo_Side[spare] crop 750x400Shoryuken interview: Daigo Umehara discusses the current Street Fighter V meta & gives advice to new players

I experienced some severe emotional whiplash when I saw that Daigo considered himself a “slow learner”.

Frame 4:
maxx punch planetSector-K Games shares top 8 footage from Punch Planet’s Evo 2018 side tournament

Punch Planet is a great game and you should play it.

Frame 5:
terryTerry Bogard, Sharon, Arcade Version, and more announcements for Fighting EX Layer

I am absolutely desperate to find out about the number of FEXL copies sold before and after this announcement.

Catch up on what you may have missed in our prior SRK Rollback compilations.

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Shovel Knight digs his way into Rivals of Aether

Players have been begging for years for Yatch Club’s Shovel Knight to appear in a Smash Bros. game — and when he showed up as an Assist Trophy, there was a disgruntled contingent flustered at the missed opportunity.

If you’re wondering why Nintendo would pass up on a hot property like Shovel Knight, well…

…they may not have. Looks like Shovel Knight was taken! (Or, at least for the platform genre — it’s not like he doesn’t already show up in every other fighting game.)

While there is no official release date yet for the Blue Shoveler, the trailer shows that he sticks pretty close to his original platformer appearance — Mobile Gear, War Horn, Propeller Dagger, and more give him a wide variety of projectiles and mobility options unique to his character.

Source: Rivals of Aether

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Neutralize Pokkén Tournament DX’s glass cannon with this anti-Shadow Mewtwo guide

The Shadow Mewtwo match-up must be approached in a fundamentally different way from anything else in Pokkén Tournament DX. Similar in design to Seth from Street Fighter IV, SM2 is a glass cannon with a wide and versatile toolkit — and it’s that glass cannon nature that should be the focus of your gameplan when against him.

No one knows that better than one of America’s strongest SM2 players, BadIntent, whom charitably breaks down SM2’s most common projectile traps, mind games, and realistic options. Regardless of which phase you’re in, if you learn to pick your spots you can out-damage SM2 and even potentially keep up with his absurd meter gain.

Source: BadIntent

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History Behind the Warrior looks at why The Walking Dead’s Negan is coming to Tekken 7

At Evo 2018 last weekend, one of the most surprising announcements was that Negan from The Walking Dead would be coming to Tekken 7 as a DLC guest character. Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s character from the hit AMC TV series (based on the comic book of the same name) was coming to the game came pretty much out of left field and had more than a few people wondering: why?

One of those is History Behind the Warrior who, in a new video, does their best to figure out why Negan is coming to Tekken 7. As part of this exploration, History Behind the Warrior dives into certain details behind the creation of The Walking Dead TV series, including the people involved. The video below tries its best to chart The Walking Dead TV series’ successful start and its eventual decline (including some high profile cast and crew departures), and how that may lead into this new cross-marketing promotion that AMC is trying with Bandai Namco.

Negan is planned to arrive in Tekken 7 on PlayStation 4, PC, and Xbox One as part of its second season pass.

Source: History Behind the Warrior

Feature image c/o AMC

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Neo Geo World Tour shares highlights from their Hong Kong tournament

The NEO GEO World Tour is an SNK-supported tournament series for The King of Fighters ’98 and The King of Fighters XIV. There was a good chance that you saw part of the NGWT if you tuned in to AnimEvo 2018, as Evo was also apart of the world tour — but just prior to that, the NGWT was on the other side of the world, having a knockout tournament in Hong Kong. Check out the highlights below to see snippets of the high level game-play and insane comebacks —

Hong Kong and Evo were the last major stops before the NGWT’s grand finals on the 25th. Make sure you keep an eye on their Twitch page to see the worlds best KOF players in action!

Source: NEO GEO World Tour