Canada Cup’s Masters Series showcased some of the toughest Ultra Street Fighter IV competition we’ve seen so far this year. While the event featured past champions from previous Canada Cups tournaments, Canada Cup Gaming also held a last chance qualifier to allow players one more chance to make it into the high-profile event.
Replays from this pre-tournament have recently found their way online, giving us some great footage of eventual champion PR Balrog of Evil Geniuses, Canada Cup Gaming’s Air, and others vie for a spot in the main bracket. Both of the aforementioned players pulled out relatively new characters, with the former trying his Evil Ryu on for size and the latter choosing to stick with Poison through much of the competition.
You’ll find footage of each finals match below; more are available on the group’s official channel.
Community Effort Orlando has consistently been one of the most exciting fighting game tournaments since it first hit the scene in 2010. And, based on official tournament lineup, this year’s iteration looks to be no different.
Hot on the heels of Evo 2015’s announcement, CEO Gaming’s Alex Jebailey recently revealed which games players will be competing in at Community Effort Orlando 2015. In addition to mainstays like Ultra Street Fighter IV and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, the event will feature a double dose of Smash with Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and Super Smash Bros. Melee, Killer Instinct, Mortal Kombat X, Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN-, Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, Tekken Tag Tournament 2, and Divekick.
Community Effort Orlando 2015 will also play host to a tag-team mystery game tournament and may feature Tekken 7 in some form.
Finally, Jebailey mentioned that Fightermania is set to return for a third outing, featuring the Ultra Royal Rumble that was cut from last year’s event.
Community Effort Orlando 2015 will take place June 26-28 at the Wyndham Orlando Resort in Orlando, Florida. Check out the official website for more details.
Although Bandai Namco Games have been incredibly silent regarding Tekken x Street Fighter, the mirrored companion to Capcom’s Street Fighter x Tekken, Polygon was able to suss some details out of Katsuhiro Harada during their Life in Japan interview with the developer.
Over the course of their discussion, Harada mentions that they had planned to release Tekken x Street Fighter much sooner, a fact I’m sure very few will be surprised by. Their decision to hold off on the title, however, had nothing to do with developmental woes, but because of the crowded fighting game market and a need to put some distance between it and Street Fighter x Tekken. While Tekken 7 is their focus at this point in time, a team of 40 is still hard at work on the crossover title.
As for how they eventually plan to reintroduce Tekken x Street Fighter, Harada has some interesting ideas. “People have been talking about the game for such a long time that they aren’t going to be surprised if you just release it normally,” the director noted, going on to say that it would be funny to announce it much like they did Tekken Revolution, which was revealed just a few days before its launch.
For more of their talk with Harada, be sure to check out Polygon’s full article.
While we already know the official lineup for Evolution 2015, this does’t mean that those are the only games at the event. Every year, we also see a good number of side tournaments for other titles, and this upcoming installment looks to be no different.
In an post over the competitive DOA Facebook group that was later shared on Free Step Dodge, Eric Small of Big E Gaming has announced that they are interested in running a side tournament for Dead or Alive 5 Last Round at Evo 2015. The series has been seeing a good amount of growth in terms of tournament attendance over the years, especially in Big E’s own Winter Brawl, Summer Jam, The Fall Classic events.
With this side tournament, Big E hopes to gives the series’ fans a reason to come to Las Vegas in June and showcase the strength of their community on the biggest stage of all.
Evo 2015 will take place July 17-19 at Bally’s / Paris Las Vegas. More details can be found through the official website.
Every year, the gurus over at Shoryuken’s Tech Talk forum hold a vote for what they believe are the best products of that year. This vote allows people in the community, including modders, vendors, store owners, suppliers, and even company representatives, to honor both new arcade and fighting game related products as well as the people and developers behind them.
This year’s awards saw some changes with the creation of a new category that effectively splits the previous “Best New Arcade Stick (Non-Custom)” category into two categories. The new “2014 Arcade Stick Revision of the Year” honors those arcade sticks that have been released within the calendar year that, while not exactly totally new designs, bring with them enough updates to an existing design. With this, the “2014 New Arcade Stick of the Year” is then reserved for fresh products that aren’t just evolutions of existing ones.
Jasen Hicks from Jasen’s Customs had this to say on winning this award.
I’d like to thank the Jasen’s Customs Family for nominating and voting the Panzer Fight Stick as the SRKTT 2014 Arcade Stick of the Year. Its been an honor to see the PFS go from a fun side project to the go-to stick for many members of the FGC. The competition in this category is tremendous with a lot of great sticks and cases from some major players. I am extremely grateful and humbled by this award.
Mad Catz’ Mark “MarkMan” Julio on the Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- Tournament Edition 2 winning this award.
Mad Catz would like to thank our customers and the community for the support they’ve given us over the years. We will continue to support fighting game fans and enthusiasts in a big way in the next few years and we hope you’re there with us for the ride. Keep fighting the good fight.
And his own personal thanks.
The SRK Tech Talk community is a vital source within the gaming community. It is because of the great minds and hard work of these dedicated individuals that we have evolved the products so much within the past few years. I am a proud member of this community and can’t wait to do more. Personally. I’m putting on my design hat (maybe for the last time) for some key products that we plan on rolling out in the future. The past 6 years I’ve spent working in capacity for this community & the fighting game community as a whole has been extremely memorable to me. I’m going to make this last fight count!
Jasen Hicks had this to say on winning this award.
Engineering and design are my passion, it’s in my blood. To be recognized by not only one but two awards is surreal. I can’t thank the community enough for supporting and recognizing the hard work I have put in over the past year to establish Jasen’s Customs. Being named the SRKTT 2014 Company of the Year means more to me than most will ever know or understand. Never settle. Keep fighting!
Here’s what UD Game Tech’s Brian “undamned” Grissom had to say on the UD-USB Decoder winning this award alongside Phreakmods’ Crossbone.
I was honored to simply be a nominee for this award. At the start of the voting I never would have dreamed my device would tie with Phreakmods’ Crossbone adapter. The UD-USB Decoder was a great benefit this summer at Evo 2014 in both the “Tournament of Legends II” and “X-Mania USA” events as it allowed players to use their personal controllers on the arcade cabinets. It was reward enough to see something I created benefit those tournaments, so this award from the Tech Talk community makes a nice crown.
Meanwhile, Phreakmod’s Clayton “Phreakazoid” Knight had this to say.
It’s an honor to receive this award for the Crossbone PCB. It’s even better that I get to share the award with Undamned, since the USB Decoder is going to be a very useful tool in the coming year. The Crossbone was designed as a way to simplify getting your setup to the current gen, which I believe has been able to help many in the community do, especially the Killer Instinct players who, until recently, have been a little limited on options. This community has given me an outlet to expand my skillset and have some fun with it. I enjoy making products that simplify things and save someone time and energy, and I’m glad that people genuinely like what I make. I look forward to finally finishing and releasing more useful things that I have in store for the community.
Paradise Arcade Shop’s Dr. Bryan Armitage had this to say on the demo stick winning the award.
It is a privilege to accept the award for Stick Mod of the Year in 2014. I am truly amazed by the creative talent in the group of people here, and to even be considered for an award is something I appreciate more than I can say. The TE2 Stick mod we presented was the evolution of the Kaimana Board that won Product of the Year in 2013. While our shop is officially just Susan and I, what we have come to love is the community and community involvement in our shop, and our lives. We hope to live up to the high expectations of the community while bringing new products out to the market, and look forward to getting to know more of the FGC ohana in the years to come. Mahalo from Paradise Arcade Shop.
Here’s what FrankCastleAZ had to say on winning this award.
Although I’ve tried my best to help people out in the forums, start SRK TT hangouts, and document some of my work including my time consuming project on revitalizing 11 TE and 2 SE sticks, I believe there are many modders out there who are better at it than I am. This is why I was blown away to have to have received so many votes from my peers in this category.
Thank you all so much. The only reason I have the knowledge and ability to customize the arcade sticks and arcade machines I love so much, is due to the resources on SRK TT and the people who helped communicate and document those resources for everyone’s benefit. I’ll continue to do everything I can on my end to help promote SRK TT, encourage people to get into arcade stick modding for the fun and experience of it, and help out those who need help as an individual here on SRK in the forums, and at convention/event panels as the owner ofAZHP Gaming Special shoutout to one of our sponsors Paradise Arcade Shop, who helped me finish a ton of arcade stick and candy cab projects with product support. There’s no way I would have been able to get as much done without their help.
2014 Tech Talk Member of the Year
Winner
Lukas “Darksakul” Peruzovic
Runners-up
PresidentCamacho
Matthew Gummo
Timothy “Moonchilde” Purcell
Victor “Vicko” Ramirez
Susan” SusanInParadise” Armitage
Darksakul had this to say on winning this award for the second year in a row.
For the second year in a row I am baffled how I even got nominated or even won.
No I am not trying to saying this just to be modest, I really don’t feel like I deserved it.
Everything I helped other people with, is built on the hard work of others
It is those other people, many who work in the background, unseen who accomplish more than I have but are not recognized.
I just happen to post more that others, that disproving glare of my Darth Vader Avatar and my cynical ways than made me overshadow these unsung heros.
2014 Tech Talk Rookie of the Year
Winner
Tim Deserada
Runner-up
PresidentCamacho
Here’s what Deserada had to say on winning this.
What an honor! Seriously, thank you all for your support. I’m glad to have helped around the forums, and I’m privileged to have gotten to know you all by way of our exchanges here and in hangouts. Looking forward to a bright future for SRKTT!
For more on the 2014 SRK Tech Talk awards, be sure to head on over to the official thread in the forums.
Earlier this month, a listing was discovered that led many to believe King of Fighters ’94 Re-Bout would eventually find its way to PlayStation Network. But I’m willing to put money down they didn’t expect it to be available in a little over a week.
A home console revision of the classic fighter, Re-Bout introduced higher quality visuals as well as additional playable characters. As a PlayStation 2 Classic, it has been ported to PlayStation Network exactly how it appeared on its original platform, which means no online play.
At this point in time, King of Fighters’ 94 Re-Bout is only available in through PlayStation Network in Japan and Hong Kong. The former will run you ¥1000 (~$8.45 USD), while the latter is a little more expensive at $70 HKD (~$9.03 USD).
No word has yet to be shared about this title’s future in other regions.
It’s never a good idea to toss out a reversal if you’re not positive that it’s going to hit. The massive recovery on these attacks combined with the relatively small amount of block stun that they cause allows defenders to perform nearly any combo at their disposal to answer for the poor decision.
Allinois Fierce of Forbidden Technique noticed that, against certain reversals, Ultra Street Fighter IV’s Dudley can not only net a major punish combo in retaliation, he can also start said combo with a jumping attack. This means that Dudley can spend a single bar and get about 400 damage–sometimes nearly 500–just because he decided to stop his pressure exactly when he expected a reversal. This makes the classy boxer’s overhead an even bigger threat; should we just eat the overhead or attempt to read it at the risk of losing half of our health? Tough call.
Since this doesn’t work against every reversal, Allinois has provided detailed text overlays to show the situations during which this jump-in punish is useful.
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, and tonight’s installment will feature competition in Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. 64.
If you’re interested in some Smash Bros. action, be sure to tune in. The stream is live below, but you can also head on over to Twitch to join the chat.
As part of their new Life in Japan features, Polygon recently caught up with a variety of Japanese video game developers to discuss their current projects.
One of these figures was none other than Capcom corporate officer Yoshinori Ono. As the driving force behind Street Fighter’s return in 2008, he has understandably been very involved with the development of Street Fighter V, though luckily it wasn’t as hard to get his fellow executives to come around to the idea this time around.
Regarding the specifics of the upcoming title, mum’s still the word, but Ono was able to relay that he’s working to bring younger players into the fold with Street Fighter V. On a more obvious note, he’s also interested in growing the tournament scene and making sure the netcode in Capcom games is as strong as possible.
One interesting tidbit he did impart is that Capcom has once again enlisted the help of Dimps in developing Street Fighter V. The studio previously lent their expertise to the creation of Street Fighter IV and its various follow-ups, as well as Street Fighter x Tekken, The Rumble Fish, and more. This time around, however, they will be utilizing Unreal Engine 4 instead of the custom engine used in earlier titles.
While we heard that Capcom and Dimps were working on a new fighting game back in September 2014, this is the first confirmation that their talents are being used on Street Fighter V.
For a full look at Polygon’s talk with Ono, be sure to check out the original article.
Street Fighter V is scheduled to appear on both PlayStation 4 and PC. A release date has yet to be announced.
This week’s installment of Next Level Battle Circuit is now streaming live courtesy of Team Spooky. As always, the event is being broadcast from its namesake, Next Level Arcade, in New York City. Tonight, they’ll be running Ultra Street Fighter IV, featuring some of the best players on the east coast.
If you would like to check out these weekly tournaments, be sure to head on over to Next Level Arcade and take part every Wednesday. The address has been included below.
4013 8th Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11232
The stream is currently live below, but you can also visit Twitch to join the chat. Full brackets will be made available through Challonge.
