Category: Fighting Games

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Panda Global announces PG FighterZ League for Dragon Ball FighterZ

A New Challenger has entered the Dragon Ball FighterZ competitive arena!

It looks like the Summit of Power isn’t going to be the only competitive Dragon Ball FighterZ circuit raging this year, as the road to Evo 2018 now runs through Panda Global’s newly-announced PG FighterZ League.

Beginning this past weekend and running through July 15th, this community league — spanning local tournaments, online events, and Twitch sub-only tournaments, including some run by Panda Global themselves — will look to award the top 3 placers with temporary sponsorships and flights out to Evo 2018 this August as members of PG.

Any tournament organizer can get their event approved on any of DBFZ’s three platforms, simply by organizing it within smash.gg, gaining enough registered participants to meet one of the stated tier requirements, and gaining the stamp from PG. TOs will be limited to only two events per tier each month, however.

Tier and point distribution are as follows:

  • pgZ Tier: PG’s nakkiel_pnw twitch sub only Online Monthlies: 1st: 600 Points 2nd: 300 Points 3rd:225 Points 4th: 150 Points 5th place tie: 75 Points each 7th place tie: 40 Points each [15 Points for coming below Top 8]
  • LocalZ Tier: Offline Events with 16+ Players: 1st place: 240 Points 2nd place: 120 Points 3rd place: 90 Points 4th place: 60 Points 5th place tie: 30 Points each 7th place tie: 15 Points each [5 Points for coming below Top 8]
  • SubZ Tier: twitch Sub Only with 16+ players: 1st place: 160 Points 2nd place: 80 Points 3rd place: 60 Points 4th place: 40 Points 5th place tie: 20 Points each 7th place tie: 10 Points each [5 Points for coming below Top 8]
  • LobbyZ Tier: online tournaments with 16+ players: 1st place: 80 Points 2nd place: 40 Points 3rd place: 30 Points 4th place: 20 Points 5th place tie: 10 Points each 7th place tie: 5 Points each

The top 3 placers by July 16th will receive a flight to Evo 2018 and swag from Smash.GG, while the Top 2 also have their entry fees paid for and the Champion receives additional swag from Panda Global.

This past weekend’s Rose City Ascension 3, The Arkansas Special – April Edition, Week 4 of the #CellGames, TallyTown Throwdown, “Way of the Wolf,” Super TSB 2018, and the EU’s BORN TO FIGHT – Shenron Challenge results will count towards the rankings. Upcoming events include:

  • Texas Showdown 2018
  • Caliburst May 2018
  • Northern Conflict XVI
  • Manga Pop Gaming Tournament
  • Spanish Masters: The Iberian Showdown
  • PG FighterZ League: PGz May-July (for PS4, Xbox One, and Steam PC)
  • THE FIGHT 2018
  • Smash-Mex 2018

For more information on the event, and to check out the current standings, head over to smash.gg and follow PandaGlobalPG on Twitter.

Sources: smash.gg; PandaGlobalPG (Twitter)

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New Fighting EX Layer trailer show off Hokuto and the title’s “Standard” and “Light” versions

A returning fighter and the multiple layers of Fighting EX Layer showcased.

ARIKA and PlayStation have dropped a bunch of new trailers for Fighting EX Layer today. The first of these trailers focuses on Hokuto, the game’s first DLC character available through its “Standard” version.

As veterans may already know, Hokuto is one of the original characters from Street Fighter EX. Specifically, she’s the former identity of Shirase — formerly known as Bloody Hokuto in those games — before the Seal of Blood on her was undone. As such, Hokuto in Fighting EX Layer seems to play more like her original Street Fighter EX incarnation (while Shirase plays more like Bloody Hokuto).

In addition to this, they’ve also released two trailers for the game’s “Standard” and “Light” versions. For those who aren’t familiar with these, the Standard version will retail for $59.99 and comes with the 12 base characters, 15 Gougi decks, and Hokuto. The Light version, on the other hand, will only retail for $39.99, but will still come with all 12 base characters (sans Hokuto), but only 5 Gougi decks.

Standard Version

Light Version

Fighting EX Layer will release on PlayStation 4 this coming June.

Source: PlayStation Japan

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New Fighting EX Layer trailer show off Hokuto and the title’s “Standard” and “Light” versions

A returning fighter and the multiple layers of Fighting EX Layer showcased.

ARIKA and PlayStation have dropped a bunch of new trailers for Fighting EX Layer today. The first of these trailers focuses on Hokuto, the game’s first DLC character available through its “Standard” version.

As veterans may already know, Hokuto is one of the original characters from Street Fighter EX. Specifically, she’s the former identity of Shirase — formerly known as Bloody Hokuto in those games — before the Seal of Blood on her was undone. As such, Hokuto in Fighting EX Layer seems to play more like her original Street Fighter EX incarnation (while Shirase plays more like Bloody Hokuto).

In addition to this, they’ve also released two trailers for the game’s “Standard” and “Light” versions. For those who aren’t familiar with these, the Standard version will retail for $59.99 and comes with the 12 base characters, 15 Gougi decks, and Hokuto. The Light version, on the other hand, will only retail for $39.99, but will still come with all 12 base characters (sans Hokuto), but only 5 Gougi decks.

Standard Version

Light Version

Fighting EX Layer will release on PlayStation 4 this coming June.

Source: PlayStation Japan

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Rock out to this combo music video for Menat, Dizzy, Nine, and Android 21

Throw down “to the beat of the rhythm of the night”

One particular sub-genre of combo videos is the “combo music video” where the creator does their best to make the combos on screen match the beat of a song being played. It’s an art that requires both impeccable timing as well as good video editing skills.

The latest creator to attempt one of these is Yi Xiao who started with what was supposed to be a combo video for Street Fighter V‘s Menat but ended up expanding it with more characters. Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2’s Dizzy, BlazBlue: Central Fiction’s Nine, and Dragon Ball FighterZ‘s Android 21 all join in on the combo music magic.

The video is set to the song 白い花 (Shiroihana) by Zone, from the soundtrack of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, and features a number of editing tricks and transitions to do its best to match the song. Do they succeed in their effort? Check out the combo music video below to find out.

Source: Y. Xiao

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BornFree catches up with HookGangGawd at Super TSB to talk about Piccolo and all things Dragon Ball FighterZ

Some words on his game of choice from one of Dragon Ball FighterZ‘s rising stars!

DBFZ PiccoloNRG|HookGangGawd is rapidly becoming a household name in Dragon Ball FighterZ circles — while holding the top spot on the PSN online leaderboard, HookGangGawd is now far more than an online warrior. A regular second-place finisher to Echo Fox|Sonic Fox at NLBC, HookGangGawd is qualified for Summit of Power, and has rapidly gathered a strong following for his Dragon Ball FighterZ skills with his Piccolo-centered team.

In the interview, they discuss what HookGangGawd would like to see changed in DBFZ’s mechanics, the difficulty of running a team based around Piccolo (who is his favorite Dragon Ball Z character), and the differences between playing offline and in person.

If you enjoy BornFree’s interviews, why not check out his channel and subscribe to his content on YouTube?

Source: BornFree

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Fans show their love for Rival Schools in this huge 20th Anniversary Art Tribute

Over 200 pieces of spectacular fan art to peruse!

Following the success of their fan art collection to honor Street Fighter’s 30th anniversary (which gathered a massive amount of impressive artwork), Instagram’s @streetfighterlegacy decided to follow up with the same gameplan for the 20th anniversary of Capcom’s other fighting game franchise: Rival Schools. And the results are equally — if not more — spectacular. The love for this Street Fighter sister-series is going strong!

Availible Now RIVAL SCHOOLS promo

You can view the RIVAL SCHOOLS 20TH ANNIVERSARY ART TRIBUTE as a digital artbook over on issuu. It features 204 slides of Rival Schools greatness. Here are some words from StreetFighterLegacy’s Pete Pearce about the project:

After the success of our “Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Art Tribute”, an also-beloved Capcom fighting game “Rival Schools” is in its 20th anniversary year. I felt we needed to celebrate this often-forgotten and underappreciated game. As my inbox fills up with artwork from our users daily for reposting, I decided to set a challenge to our followers to create an online art tribute. This tribute will only available online, and will be FREE for everyone to view. For the moment we will not be producing any physical copies.

Like with the “Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Art Tribute”, our ethos for this was all-inclusiveness. So every person that submitted a piece that adhered to the rules was included. (Rules being that it had to be “family friendly”, that was not a redrew or reproduction of existing art and created specifically for this project, and not available online before.) I didn’t want this to be elitist. Everyone was welcome, no matter of style or skill level. This has brought in a wide rage of art.

I was a little worried that this project would not reach the volume of submissions like we had for the “Street Fighter” one, but to my pleasant surprise the art came in waves and has exceeded the amount of submissions from its predecessor. This in turns warms my heart, as I have a great affinity for this retro gem of a game, and the number of artists who backed this project proved I am not alone.

Feast your eyes on these samples of the work on display in the RIVAL SCHOOLS 20TH ANNIVERSARY ART TRIBUTE:

David Dominguez 1 promo

Absolum Promo
picassodularart Promo
loic 1
Peach momoko
Promo mauroalbatros
Dieter Miller Promo

RIchardsuwono

Source: issuu via StreetFighterLegacy

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Dragon Ball FighterZ Summit of Power nominations now open; Talent lineup announced

Yesterday, Twitter voting for the Dragon Ball FighterZ Summit of Power nomination phase was opened. As previously reported, Beyond The Summit is allowing any unqualified players who’ve placed within the top 32 of Winter Brawl 12 or Final Round 2018, or made top 16 at either NorCal Regionals 2018, Anime Ascension 2018, Brussels Challenge: Major Edition, Michigan Masters 2018 or Super TSB 2018 to opt-in to the nomination process.

Each nominee will have a unique tweet button, with each tweet counting as a vote, limited to 1 vote per Twitter account (though you can connect your Twitter on smash.gg for 10 nominations). The top 20 will advance to the final round of voting, of which only 5 will emerge to fill the remaining spots in the Summit of Power. Eight players have already been invited, with another pair qualifying on the East and West Coasts. There will also be a Last-Chance Qualifer at Combo Breaker 2018, in St. Charles, Illinois May 25-27. The Summit of Power will take place June 8-10th in Los Angeles, California, and will be streamed on twitch.tv/beyondthesummit.

The full list of nominees and current vote standings (as of this writing) are as follows:

  • Echo Fox|dekillsage – 3,128 Votes
  • CLN|Yohosie – 2,311 Votes
  • Kane Blueriver – 1,353 Votes
  • Lord Knight – 1,229 Votes
  • Teemo – 1,184 Votes
  • PsrK|BeyondToxin – 1,153 Votes
  • NRG|Supernoon – 876 Votes
  • PONOS|Moke – 854 Votes
  • FP|Chavo – 803 Votes
  • UYU|Kizzie Kay – 793 Votes
  • CE|Doza – 654 Votes
  • EMP|RogueYoshi – 561 Votes
  • PAG|Fame96 – 540 Votes
  • NinjaElephant – 534 Votes
  • UYU|Cloud805 – 443 Votes
  • Toki – 402 Votes
  • Ebonic Plague – 391 Votes
  • brkrdave – 358 Votes
  • PAG|LostSoul – 331 Votes
  • SQ – 290 Votes
  • IG|Zer0q – 257 Votes
  • PGTV|Lowry – 250 Votes
  • Kudaytaa – 236 Votes
  • Psyken – 235 Votes
  • ZomBmu – 206 Votes
  • CDV|WhiteBl4ck – 204 Votes
  • NecroUndine – 197 Votes
  • Roman Healey – 178 Votes
  • ABEGEN – 151 Votes
  • ScrawtVermillion – 133 Votes
  • EMP|KN.KDZ – 128 Votes
  • Echo Fox|Punk – 126 Votes
  • Mikeand1ke – 113 Votes
  • AnBi – 110 Votes
  • PsrK|NicoMaki – 103 Votes
  • Eifi – 98 Votes
  • PAG|Grover – 96 Votes
  • Randomfiend – 91 Votes
  • CSE|Hidan – 65 Votes
  • JaazzRap – 58 Votes
  • Zero_Hour – 56 Votes
  • ASAP|R1CKY – 48 Votes
  • CLN|IronGod – 36 Votes
  • PONOS|Garireo – 31 Votes
  • GREATFERNMAN – 28 Votes
  • TempleNut! – 22 Votes
  • Papa Leo – 17 Votes
  • TSB|Drunkenchicken – 15 Votes
  • Method|Flux – 2 Votes
  • EyECoNiC – 1 Vote

The Voting Phase for the top 20 will begin on May 7th at 2:00 PM PT (4:00 PM CT, 5:00 PM ET).

Finally, the talent lineup for the Summit has been revealed, as Beyond The Summit announced that they’ve used the Dragon Balls to wish IFC|Yipes, Chris Matrix, Rynge, Sajam, Zhi, LI Joe, and HellPockets to the Kame House to call all the action in Los Angeles. You can see the announcement tweet below.

Who would you like to see make it into the Summit of Power? Are your favorites doing well? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Sources: smash.gg; BeyondTheSummit (Twitter)

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AnimEVO 2018 registration is now open on smash.gg!

Sign up to compete in your favorite side events now!

AnimEVO has just opened online registration for the side events they’ll be hosting at Evo 2018. How many side events, you ask? Let’s just say there will be a lot…

Head over to the AnimEVO 2018 event page on smash.gg for more information — and to sign up, of course. Note that as AnimEVO’s side tournaments are hosted in Evo’s BYOC area, you need to register for Evo 2018 to gain access! Some other points to note:

  • BlazBlue: Central Fiction, Koihime Enbu, Melty Blood, UNIST and The King of Fighters XIV will not offer on-site registration, so be sure to sign up online if you want to play. (Bijousho Senshi Sailor Moon S will have on-site sign-ups, but you will not be seeded if you do so.)
  • Gundam Versus registration will be going live at a later date — so sit tight, Newtypes.

Source: AnimEVO (Twitter)

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SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy adds Sylvie and Zarina to the dress-up bash

The cheerful shocker and the toucan protector join in on the fun.

NIS America has released a character announcement trailer for SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy showcasing two new characters for the title: the former NESTS Agent, Sylvie, and the Colombian dancer, Zarina. Both newcomers were introduced in the previous main entry, The King of Fighters XIV, and offer both unique playstyles and strong personalities.

SNK and NIS America recently discussed the character customization feature as well! Be sure to take a look at all of the ways you can perfect the look of your ladies-only tag team!

SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy releases on PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch on September 7.

Source: NIS America

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Three representatives rise from Red Bull Conquest in Chicago: Tournament results and interviews

This past weekend, Chicago kicked off the RED BULL CONQUEST series of events, announced earlier this year. The energy drink company is energizing various regions in the United States to show their regional pride and compete in Street Fighter V, Tekken 7, and Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2. Each of the regional tournaments challenges the players to form teams that will compete at the final event in Washington D.C. in November.

RED BULL CONQUEST logo

Chicago’s Ignite Gaming Lounge — a typical FGC venue for the community — hosted the event. Red Bull showed off their impressive event production by creating a stage with setups for each game. A swag station sold Red Bull-decorated hats, hoodies, t-shirts, and more, and a special drink bar offered non-alcoholic beverages. Each game’s pool progressed smoothly throughout the day, giving stream time to every title on Twitch. Persia and Vicious, well-known FGC personalities, hosted the event — speaking on camera to coordinate the show for viewers from around the world.

The Street Fighter V tournament had the most entrants, with 95 players throwing their hats into the ring. The action took most of the day, making endurance a factor in the fights. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Chicago’s star SFV player, BxA|THE COOL KID93 — Marcus Redmond — squared off against Rob “RobTV” Burney in Winners Finals. Redmond barely pulled off a win with his Abigail against RobTV’s very patient Guile.

RedBullConquest_Chicago1

“I love Red Bull events. Before, people really didn’t look to Chicago, because we didn’t have that Alex Valle, those kinds of people, who run those local events that people really look at,” Redmond told SRK. “People started learning about us because of events with Red Bull, they give us a reason to practice and get better. These events over the past years made everybody step up.”

Then, Redmond faced Chakotay “ElChakotay” Andrich in the Grand Finals, coming out on top after a bracket reset, and becoming Chicago’s SFV representative in the Red Bull Conquest series.

“I’m feeling good. It was a headache,” Redmond said. “Normally, these Red Bull events are about points. If you lose, it’s ok, you get some points, you’ll come back next month. But this time, there was more pressure; it was just one tournament. I told my wife, we are going to have to fly to every region if I lose!”

Redmond is looking forward to the release of Cody, his favorite character, and in the coming months he will focus on preparing for the November finals.

As for Bandai Namco’s 3D brawler, attendance came close to Capcom’s game, sitting at 80. While the competition was tight as well, many people favorited Marquis “vShadow_20z” Jordan to win, and he came through. He will team up with Redmond to represent the Chicago region.

RedBullConquest_Chicago3
Left: vShadow_20z (Tekken 7) Center: Mr. K (Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2) Right: THE COOL KID93 (Street Fighter V)

“People consider me the best in Tekken in the Midwest, so I feel pretty good,” Jordan said. “I feel I can represent well for Tekken and Chicago. We have some great players here. We’re also professional with it. Chicago has a certain image, and not everyone fits it. Most people consider Chicago violent [politically], but it’s not all that, but as far as the fighting game community, there are some great people.”

Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2 didn’t have as many players, (33 entrants), but many of them took the effort to come from somewhat distant areas to compete in the event. The winner hailed from St. Louis, Missouri; Stephen “Mr. K” Shannon, Leo Whitefang player and pun aficionado, battled multiple Millia Rages on his way to victory and managed to best BlackSnake’s Venom.

“Everyone in Chicago is super nice. I appreciate everyone I played against, I’ve always been welcomed here,” Shannon told SRK. “This is one of my favorite places to travel to play. I know that if I wanted to drive up here for a tournament for a weekend to play, everyone has that kind of passion, they want to get their games in. I’m glad that Red Bull has Guilty Gear on the circuit, it’s the reason I’m here.”

“I think the GG community deserves a little more visibility,” Shannon added. “The people that play are very passionate about the game, they want to play the game for all the right reasons. And I think that the game is super sick. Guilty Gear is a game I can play for 30 years and never be dissatisfied with it.”

Any player can enter and win to represent any region in the United States. Not locking the rules down based on geographical location was a conscious decision on Red Bull’s part.

“We kept it open because we wanted to get maximum participation,” said Jimmy “ShinJN” Nguyen, the National Tournament Director for the Red Bull Conquest series. “We could have introduced a region lock, but we thought that maybe sometimes a person can’t play in their own region and they can compete elsewhere. I think the cool part about the FGC though is representing your region, so I mean, do you want to go play for California? If you win a qualifier? That’s up to the player, and whether they can live with that.”

This was only the first regional tournament, and there are 13 more to go. The next Red Bull Conquest tournament takes place in Seattle on May 19th. In addition, there will be an online qualifier as well as a last chance qualifier at Washington D.C. Every winner receives $500, a variety of small accessories by Red Bull, as well as a flight to the finals. What will the ultimate winner get? Each teammate competes for $1500, in addition to a flight to Evo Japan 2019.

Results

sfv ae results banner

Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition

1. BxA|THE COOL KID93
2. ElChakotay
3. HZRDS|RobTV
4. SoliD|Bcuzimbatman
5. MatteYo
5. Brian_F
7. Stack Bradford
7. RandomHighFives
9. MikeYaru
9. EricC
9. DiabloBison
9. Aftaburn

tekken7-results-banner

Tekken 7

1. vShadow_20z
2. Beast Infection
3. Jody Tha Great
4. Joonya_20z
5. Mateo
5. Rock_Tha_Rular
7. The Realyst
7. Aftaburn
9. Fab_Will
9. Gold Diamonds
9. Blackchon
9. Chitowns Deuce

ggxrdr2-tournament

Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2

1. Mr. K
2. kayloud
3. blackSNAKE
4. DBJoseph
5. TheArm
5. WhiteBeast
7. sweetxjam
7. Gekioh
9. M A D W A K
9. ShinSin
9. lizardman301
9. LGOD|Ken Griffey Jr.

View the full results and brackets over at smash.gg.

[Photo Credit: Red Bull Content Pool / Bryan Lamb]