Body Count Fighting has built themselves into a major force for the Los Angeles FGC scene with their fun, championship-centered event series “BCF.” But earlier this month, they pivoted into a new format, running their first-ever online tournaments for Injustice 2, Tekken 7,Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, and Street Fighter V.
Linked above are playlists of the VODs for each tournament, and you can click here for a look at each of the brackets. The winner of each tournament will get flown to the next BCF live event to compete in a feature match for their respective game against California’s best.
The Tournament of Legends was one of the most epic tournament series on the circuit in 2012 and 2014. It was the proving grounds for Super Street Fighter II Turbo players young and old, and showcased some of the world’s best talent in their penultimate tournament at each year’s respective Evo events.
After a four year hiatus, ST Revival has now hinted at the series’ return. They posted on their Facebook page a simple graphic featuring the roman numeral III, and no accompanying text. There have been mutterings that the ToL would return without much word, but this post makes it apparent that the series will be returning, with more info to come soon.
Bandai Namco is continues with their character breakdown series for Dragon Ball FighterZ; this time, they have Chris “Hellpockets” Fields breaking down the fused terrible twosome of Goten and Trunks: Gotenks.
According to Hellpockets, Gotenks is one of the more fun characters to play in Dragon Ball FighterZ, just because of how obnoxious he can be in the right hands. Aside from this, Hellpockets focuses on Gotenks combo ability in the corner, showing his combo options off his spinning kick move. He also showcases his mouth blast and the fact that he can cancel it on startup, allowing him to set up some quick dropdown mix-ups when used right.
Dragon Ball FighterZ is coming to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC in North America and Europe on January 26, followed by Japan on February 1. Prior to this, an open beta will take place from January 14 to 15 (unless you’ve already pre-ordered, then you’ll get to try it a day early on January 13).
While NEC XVIII raged in the United States, Paris got its own dose of 3D fighting competition with the FDJ Masters League Tekken 7 Edition. Previously holding a Season of Street Fighter V competition, FDJ eSports has recently turned their attention to the King of Iron Fist Tournament 7 over the past two months, providing us with six qualified players who were joined by two Last Chance Qualifiers for a final eight-man bracket — with €20,000 on the line, as well as a trip to next month’s Evo Japan in Akihabara. With this also being a single-day event, it also served as a tough test of endurance for all competitors involved.
1. Crazy|SuperAkouma (Akuma) – Qualifies for Evo Japan
2. CCG|Tissuemon (Master Raven)
3. mYi|KiraKira (Eliza)
4. DG|KaneAndTrench (Yoshimitsu)
5. RTFM|Asim (Katarina, Dragunov)
5. TDG|Fergus (Asuka, Katarina)
7. Harry Potter (Heihachi, Devil Jin)
7. DougFromParis (Steve)
Following Crazy|SuperAkouma’s victory, the Evo 2017 Champion — Echo Fox’s JDCR — showed up as the World Boss to challenge him to a first-to-five Boss Battle.
One unique thing with Nintendo’s ARMS is the regular Party Crash events that the company holds for its online players. This is a time limited event that replaces the regular party match option in online play.
Now, with the New Year upon us, Nintendo is planning to celebrate with a Party Crash event set for the New Year’s weekend. From December 30 to January 2, there will be a special Party Crash event called “That’s a Wrap”. This event pits Twintelle versus Master Mummy.
Players who participate in this event, can earn both in game cash and points towards in-game badges. Those who use either of the featured characters, or any of the featured ARMS (which change every 15 minutes) will receive a 1.5x bonus towards the points they earn.
Within the NRS community, there is growing support for a return to Mortal Kombat 9. Regardless of whether or not you like it more then the most recent title Mortal Kombat X, it’s easy to see how support for MK9 is gaining traction: MK9 is now on the main stage of Combo Breaker, and it has its own community-driven re-balance mod:
Created by Futuretime23, the modded MK9 “Tournament Edition” hosts a wide array of character changes including hitbox fixes, move property changes, and even rebalancing for Tag mode. You can read more about the specific changes and find out more information about MK9 Tournament Edition at its thread on TestYourMight.
One of the more misunderstood parts of Pokkén Tournament DX is its “Cheer” system. Prior to a match, you can choose between one of six cheers, each of which can give you a variety of effects that either grant you burst meter or support meter.
Pro Braixen player Double_FGC covered each cheer and its effects in his latest tutorial video. There’s been heavy debate in the Pokkén community lately on what is and isn’t a viable cheer, and it’s a complicated subject due to the impact it has on character match-ups. As a tournament vet, Double has valuable insight on which selection may be right for a particular situation.
Bandai Namco have released a character breakdown video for SoulCalibur series mainstay Sophitia, which also covers the development of the character. SoulCalibur VI producer, Motohiro Okubo, brings many interesting details to light in this video. Okubo states that Sophitia and Mitsurugi were the first characters to be designed and that all other characters within the game were built to match these two SoulCalibur icons. Okubo also mentions that Sophitia’s play-style symbolizes everything the series is about, making her a great character for returning veterans and newcomers to try out.
SoulCalibur VI is already looking fantastic and seeing the series return in such a glorious way is something truly wonderful. SoulCalibur VI sets out to reinvent the series, taking the franchise back to the events of the original title. Sophitia has been in the series since the days of Soul Edge before the franchise was even called SoulCalibur. She might have taken a break in SoulCalibur V, although her appearance was adopted by the character, Elysium.
Hopefully, Bandai Namco keeps these videos going and we get to catch a glimpse of all of the characters and their development. SoulCalibur VI is set to release in 2018 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. Mitsurugi, you’re next!
As we near the end of the Fighting EX Layer beta run, we have seen a number of different play-styles arrive for different players and characters. One of the more aggressive strategies to arise from the beta stems from the ‘Shinobi’ Gougi, which most notably allows players to turn invisible while dashing.
Pichy‘s latest combo video not only teaches you various combo routes and how they work, but demonstrate the power of Shirase’s use of Shinobi. Because of Shirase’s various cancels, overhead/low mixups and command grab, this mobile grappler has a powerful synergy with this Gougi, and it’s worth exploring its setups while you still can.
While many players were focused on the fierce competition and massive Season 3 reveals at Capcom Cup earlier this month, several of the top players in attendance also had the chance to test out the new V-Triggers, specials and even some balance changes, that will be coming in Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition.
Though this was a special build, created solely for demonstration at this event — meaning any changes found within it are NOT final — that didn’t stop a myriad of character specialists from taking to social media to share news, both good and bad, about their favorite fighters.
Compiling posts from the likes of Ricki Ortiz, LPN, Alex Meyers, Nemo, Mago, Kyle P and others, DeadAceBS has compiled a list of the known changes for Ibuki, Karin, Vega, Akuma, Chun-Li, Laura, M. Bison, Balrog, Juri, Ryu, Zangief, Urien and Cammy. Throws also appear to be universally nerfed across the entire cast, with throw loops being entirely removed.
Most characters now lose knockdown advantage, after landing a forward throw and dashing up, and all command grabs will supposedly have an extra 15 to 20 frames of whiff recovery. You can see all gathered info in the video below, but keep in mind that’s all still subject to change, as full official, patch notes for Season 3 have not yet been released by Capcom.
What do you think about these changes? Do you think Capcom is heading in the right direction if most of these stick, or do you hope some are dialed back before January? Let us know your feelings in the comments below.
