Category: Fighting Games

A slightly different way to get your SFV DLC…

Red Bull started their big energy drink redemption rollout last month; if the promotion is available in your region, you should be seeing the special Street Fighter V Red Bull cans on store shelves in your neighborhood. The codes printed on the tabs of these cans are redeemable online for exclusive costumes that can be used in the Street Fighter V game itself — at least on the PlayStation 4 version, anyway.

There are sixteen available outfits; they are Red Bull colored/branded variants of either the default, Story, or Battle Costume for the respective character. (The characters that you can unlock outfits for are Zangief, Chun-Li, Nash, M. Bison, Vega, R. Mika, Rashid, Karin, Cammy, Balrog, Ken, Kolin, Ryu, Laura, Guile, and Akuma.)

If you want a closer look at them in motion, you can see them in all their Red Bullish glory in this promotional trailer!

Source: Street Fighter

Raiden, Big Bear, NUMBAH WAN. Whatever you want to call him, this poison spewing, drop-kicking wrestler from the Fatal Fury series shows off ample amounts of both techniques in the latest combo video from King of Fighters YouTuber Persona Entertainment.

Almost every one of these combos kill, a few of them stun, and all of them test your button dexterity with Raiden’s charged dropkicks. Don’t miss the 100% combo that intentionally whiffs a command grab super mid juggle- in true heel fashion, Raiden can showboat his way to a brutal, flashy victory.

Source: Persona Entertainment

Latin America has seen a surge in presence at international Street Fighter events. While they have sent at least one entrant to Capcom Cup every year since 2014, this year sees them sending three. RISE Nation’s Saul “MenaRD” Segundo has quickly risen in the ranks with his brutal Birdie play, to make him one of two entrants from Latin America to get in on points.

Last year’s Dominican representative DR Ray shocked the world by putting Tokido into losers bracket in the first round of play. Will MenaRD continue the trend this year?

YOLO

When I talked to fellow Birdie main ROF in March of last year about approaching the game with Birdie, he talked about how many risks you must take in order to succeed with the character. While he was talking about his own play, he ultimately also described Segundo’s play as well. MenaRD is known to take risks, utilizing EX reversals in a way that can rattle his opponents. This is not an easy feat. It’s expected that players will use EX reversals to escape pressure. MenaRD, knowing how difficult the path of Birdie can be, has calculated when to take those risks with aplomb.

Using some heavy gambles, including well-timed Dolphin Dives, has made him very hard to read for many players, leaving them only trying to apply the pressure to prevent him from being able to play his game. But given that he maintains composure even under pressure, preventing Segundo from playing his game is no easy feat.

Go for the W

MenaRD holds the second-most wins on the Latin circuit by a wide margin. While Brolynho may have had a chokehold on the region, MenaRD was not far behind, usually taking events that Brolynho failed to win. Out of ten events he played, he was able to reach top 8 in six, and win twice.

Further, while I may have chided Brolynho for his lack of travel outside of the region, Segundo did exactly that, and showed what he could do facing the best in the world. With several top 8 finishes in North America, including fourth at Brooklyn Beatdown, he has shown that he has the chops to take out the big names.

Laundry List of Victims

If we’re looking at some of the people MenaRD needs to face down to win this event, he certainly has a few names to boast about beating. At Brooklyn Beatdown, he bested Smug and Haitani. At SoCal Regionals, he beat Verloren and Punk. At CEO he bested Daigo Umehara. At Combo Breaker, he was able to beat Verloren yet again, as well as Momochi.

This is a confident Latin American player, that has the potential to literally beat any top player he comes across. He has been a demon to a couple of these players I’ve listed off, so the sky is the limit.

Final Thoughts

I feel like MenaRD is the Latin region’s best hope at doing well, but I hesitate at giving him the top slot this year. His Birdie can be insanely dangerous, but it can also pose dangers to himself, as the character does carry inherent risks. When his risks pay off, he excels. When they don’t, you tend to shrug him off as incapable of closing it out at the higher ranks.

With Birdie, every tournament is a crap shoot, and you have players specifically training characters to beat characters like Birdie, as evidenced by Mago’s pick of Rashid at OHN. He has a tough road to go down — but if anyone can do it, MenaRD is the man to walk it.

Check out our prior articles in the Capcom Cup 2017 Player Analysis series!

Bryant “Smug” Huggins wasn’t seen much last year on the CPT. While the first half of the season saw him focus on his studies, the latter half saw him adjusting to a new character, in Balrog. The Dudley main in Street Fighter IV was merely biding his time.

This year saw RISE|Smug bloom into one of the strongest players in North America, earning him a place in the Capcom Cup 2017. Will the mayor of Duff City upgrade his status to president of Duff Nation…?

Duff

While it could be assumed that any solid Balrog player on the CPT this year would ascribe their success to the buffs the character received in Season 2, this would be doing a disservice to Smug. If you look back on his success in Street Fighter IV, Huggins was known for dealing out massive amounts of damage and disrespect with his mix-up-heavy Dudley. In that game, Balrog was far more linear a character. Come Street Fighter V, those same traits that made Smug strong with Dudley allowed him to shine with this iteration of Balrog.

His mix-up game has always been his biggest asset, and being able to deal massive amounts of damage from any given touch makes Smug a beast. Further, Smug is one of the best players at reading player tendencies on the circuit. While he will often be seen doing seemingly-random EX uppercuts and dash punches, these moves are often calculated on the belief that his opponent will be pushing buttons. He’s right more often than he is wrong.

More Duffs

Since the start of the year, he has taken his beatdowns on the road, and it has proven profitable for Huggins. Having entered 13 tournaments solely in North America, he has eight top 8s and one win to his name on the CPT this year. When you also factor in top 8 appearances at Brooklyn Beatdown, Northern Arena Knockout, and E3, as well as just narrowly missing the cut at ELEAGUE, Smug has had a banner year.

Less Duffs

One of the biggest challenges Smug faces is his own character. It’s argued across the world that Balrog is one of the strongest characters in the game, if not the absolute best. Much like Sagat in Vanilla SFIV — or Yun in SFIVAE — when you are the best, people are dissecting their personal match-ups against that character to learn how to beat them. In Vanilla SFIV, you never really saw a Sagat win a major, and in Arcade Edition, only a scant few Yuns made that ascent. This is because despite tier lists undisputedly ranking them tops, the true competitors will learn to exploit everything there is to exploit about the character.

To date, there is only one Balrog in Capcom Cup — although the Last Chance Qualifier could change that. But make no mistake: the world is ready for Smug, as he is widely accepted as the best exponent of Street Fighter V’s best character.

That’s why we’ve seen him struggle with the likes of Phenom, MenaRD, and Fuudo. While he has a habit of beating top players like Daigo Umehara, there are still demons left in the bracket that will make it tough for him to progress.

Final Duffs

Smug has the potential to make it to top 8 — even win it all if he pulls out all the stops. There’s still a swath of Japanese players that struggle against Balrog, and some of them reside in the Capcom Cup bracket.

The problem is the Western players are overall ready for him. He’s got a tough hill to climb to put himself in the position to take it all.

Check out our prior articles in the Capcom Cup 2017 Player Analysis series!