Category: Fighting Games

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.

Watch live video from TeamSp00ky on www.twitch.tv

Sources: Team Spooky

Moving into Ultra Street Fighter IV, Guy received some slight frame changes surrounding his Sudden Stop special. While a frame or two doesn’t seem like much on paper, this has worked to not only make the ninja’s previous counter-hit combos just a little bit easier to pull off but has also opened up some paths that weren’t previously available.

In the video below, Ricardo Roman explores the impact that these frame tweaks had on the purveyor of the Bushinryu, with a heavy focus–no pun intended–on netting serious damage off counter-hits. Since the target combo that gets things going hits twice, Roman has highlighted the ease with which Guy can turn poorly timed focus attacks into a rather nasty situation for his opponents.

Source: Ricardo Roman

CorkyJay is one of those players who’s known more for his online performance in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 than offline. His unorthodox team of Jill, Iron Man, and Sentinel has quite a few tools that can catch players not used to fighting it off guard.

Now, with the help of Flying High, he’s recorded a video showing off some new advanced tactics that he’s developed for his team. These include touch of death combos for each character, meterless Sentinel throw pickups, Iron Man guard breaks, and more.

The amazing part is that all of this footage was recorded online, demonstrating how these tactics are viable even in the game’s sometimes spotty netcode.

Check out the video below and see if you can’t learn a thing or two from it; for reference, we’ve added the timestamps for specific sections below the video.

Source: Flying High, thanks to Zerms4 for the tip

Properly incorporating frame traps can change the way that you look at opening up opponents. High/low or left/right mixups and tick throws are great options to crack defenses, but it’s more rewarding in terms of damage to give opponents just enough room to get caught in a counter-hit combo when you stuff their crouch tech. In the video below, EG|Justin Wong offers up some advice for Rufus players who are looking to add a little more variety to their pressure game in Ultra Street Fighter IV.

While this video has some great information, it’s also a testament to how difficult it can be to practice this sort of thing in training mode. As Justin notes, landing a frame trap can vary from player to player depending on when they’re prone to tossing out those crouch techs.

Don’t forget to check out the previous tutorials from this series that explain Rufus’ normals and setup options.

Source: Cross Counter TV

With the inclusion of Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- in the official Evolution 2015 lineup, now is the perfect time to start training for the big stage. If you’re just now getting started with Arc System Works’ latest offering, this combo tutorial for Sol Badguy from Shibai bōya will steer you in the right direction.

These combos start out at the most basic level and gradually increase in length as well as input requirements. And since this is only the first two of four parts, there’s reason to believe that things will only get fancier from here on out. And if you’re like me and still haven’t tired of “Heavy Day,” that’s playing in the background as well!

Source: Shibai bōya via Highwinddv

UltraChen TV is back with yet another broadcast, and a whole new slate of topics to discuss. Tonight, UltraDavid and James Chen will be discussing a variety of topics, including Evo 2015’s lineup, the recent Alex Strife controversy in the Smash community, and more.

The stream will be live in this article, but you can also visit Twitch to join the chat.

Watch live video from ultrachentv on www.twitch.tv

Source: UltraChen TV, featured image courtesy of Kara “Karaface” Leung

Ken’s dragon punch is legendary, and it’s pretty easy to see why. Sure, there are other characters that possess similar moves–some of them even have their own take on the rising uppercut–but none of them capture the imagination quite like that of Mr. Masters. It’s probably the fire.

That Shoryuken also affords him some options that other purveyors of the move don’t have due to the way and number of times that the fierce version of the attack hits. In the short video below, Bafael demonstrates a handful of ways that Ken players can take advantage of these properties and use them to net some staggering damage output, as well as how defenders can avoid these situations outright with a well-timed focus attack.

The video’s description says it best:

This is safe(ish) on block, leads to ultra if it hits, full ultra if it counter hits, catches backdashes, and beats most reversals. However, if you absorb the 1st hit with focus, you can backdash later than normal, allowing you to dodge the 2nd and 3rd hit by invincibility and range, respectively. This removes the 2nd hit from ever connecting, and thus Ken can’t FADC it even if he has the bar to do so.

This is the sort of information that many of our readers have undoubtedly known for quite some time, but it’s also easy to overlook. If you’re new to Ken or don’t have much experience fighting against him, check out the video below to get some ideas.

Source: Bafael