Famous not only for his huge sword but also an elongated intro quote, where he tells the opponent their end is nigh, Hakumen has always been a popular-yet-niche character. He stands out with a different resource system and the inability to run. Instead, Hakumen players (theoretically) should apply patience and wait for the right chance to counter.
Hakumen received some welcome changes in the 2.0 version of BlazBlue: Central Fiction, as his combos have more flexibility now. The options from his Drive have greatly expanded. All in all, Hakumen remains a powerhouse. The damage goes up very fast as long as you pool some resources into it. The combo video takes you from the shorter, less resource-intensive combos to learning how to inflict misery on your friends on foes. And watch your head! All he needs in the corner is to hit you with the stomp overhead, 6B, to deal over 7000 damage. What a character!
If you’d rather cross to the dark side, enjoy these BBCF 2.0 Susano’o combos as well.
Canada Cup Gaming has finally given its official word on the incident that marred the Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite at Canada Cup 2017: Jose “PCMarvelGod” Aldape — also known as Quackbot — ended up entering the tournament twice, using the bracket slot of Lina “Holy Order-Troll” Crawford, who was unable to play due to issues with a custom arcade stick.
This double-entry, once discovered, resulted in Pool 8 of the tournament being replayed — something which cost Southern California player Eliver “KillerKai” Ling his previous placement int he top 16, and his chances at winning the tournament.
In response to this, Canada Cup Gaming has released a statement, indicating that lifetime bans have been issued to both PCMarvelGod and Holy Order-Troll; neither will be allowed to enter a Canada Cup event again. In addition to violating the rules of the tournament, the actions of both players have also undermined the legitimacy of the event, causing at least one player (KillerKai) to publicly state the at they would never again compete at the event.
Cyclops Osaka’s Ryo “Dogura” Nozaki seems to be one of the least-anticipated qualifiers for Capcom Cup 2017. Having made his name as a titan on the anime scene — carving his fame out taking Blazblue and Guilty Gear titles — he only had 11 tournaments logged in Street Fighter IV’s lifespan, and only a handful of results in Street Fighter V last year.
Given that, few would have expected to see him perform the way he has on the Capcom Pro Tour this year. Nonetheless, he has not only qualified, but catapulted into the top half of the seedings. Will we see Dogura not only dominate anime, but Street Fighter V in December?
A Year of Grinding
The first time I witnessed Dogura playing Street Fighter V personally was at Frosty Faustings IX in January of this year. While he was able to make top 8, it is worth mentioning that tournament didn’t bring out all the best players due to it not being a Capcom Pro Tour event, and that Dogura was there for the perpetual main event of Frosty — Guilty Gear. What I witnessed was more or less a cookie-cutter version of Urien, fundamental but not exceptional. I honestly assumed that he only joined just to try his hand at the game, and was relying more on fighting game fundamentals to bring him through the bracket than anything else.
What I didn’t realize at that point was his entry at Frosty was indicative of his preparation to make a run for Capcom Cup in 2017. He may have only had the basics at that point, but he was earnest in his effort to train the game and become a threat over this year. He has put in a lot of grinding, and it has clearly paid off. His Urien has become the best — not even one of the best. People will talk about Nemo until they’re blue in the face about how great he is, but his results don’t compare to Dogura’s. He may have been the inspiration all Urien players looked up to in the beginning, but Dogura has long since become the master.
Mirror’s Edge
Dogura’s choice of Urien fits him perfectly. Given his background in anime titles, it’s hard to find a character that embodies that sort of style in the Capcom universe. Given all the tools Urien has, he may be the next best thing.
And no one is using those tools better. While you will see Dogura use those crazy V-Skill combos, he has such great spacing and pressure that he relies on it far less than Nemo does. But the most telling is his use of V-Trigger compared to other Urien players.
While we’ve always known how well-rounded Aegis Reflector is in the game, it is Dogura that fully understands the characteristics of the V-Trigger, and abuses them. If you observe Nemo’s play, he primarily uses Aegis in hit-confirms or as a mix-up off of a block string. While Dogura also does this, he is far more flexible in his usage of the tool, milking it for every property it has.
If you observe his Winners Finals match with GO1 at Canada Cup, you’ll see this in full effect. Knowing the projectile reflection property of the move, and that GO1 had Ibuki’s V-Trigger at the ready, Dogura threw out a mirror, then backdashed, forward dashed, and walked back slightly. He allowed GO1 to hit him, giving him the belief that he had successfully confirmed into V-Trigger. What GO1 didn’t realize was that Dogura had just used Aegis — as well as his movement — as a trap. The confirm was a red herring; the pushback from the hit confirm put Dogura in a position where when Ibuki’s bomb came out, it would hit the mirror, and subsequently hit GO1, giving Dogura the advantage in a very high-level play that few Uriens would actually be able to set up.
These are the things that you just simply don’t see other Uriens do — and if they do, they don’t do it consistently. All through the Canada Cup top 8, Dogura was using his V-Trigger in a myriad of ways, which allowed him to take full advantage of even the slightest spacing errors from his opponents.
Hotter than Hell
Let’s face it, it’s hard not to look at the Canada Cup champion and think, “This guy’s got all the momentum.” After NuckleDu’s performance last year was parlayed into the Capcom Cup title, it’s tough to ignore this. And as much as I don’t want to base his results off of what happened to the circuit last year, you have to really examine his last month and realize that we could be looking at the same story this year.
While he only reached three top 8s at all prior to October — and one of those was an online regional qualifier — he has cranked his results up beyond 11 on the dial in the final month of the CPT. Taking two Premier events across the season is a difficult feat. Taking two in the final month,where everyone is scrambling for points, speaks volumes more than taking two spread apart a six month span. Just winning TWFighter Major is a feat to be acknowledged, as some of Asia’s best were there to stand in Dogura’s way. In that event, there were a plethora of qualifiers for Capcom Cup in that event, and he stood on top against solid players in Kazunoko, Mago, and Haitani.
But if you were to ignore TWFighter Major and call it a fluke, how do you argue against his results at Canada Cup? Around 65% of the Capcom Cup field were in attendance, and nearly every player that was on the bubble showed up for it. If Dogura was indeed a fluke, this field would have devoured him. Even more telling was that the top 8 of the event featured no players that were not qualified for Capcom Cup, and Dogura emerged victorious.
At this point it is impossible to argue against him. He is now the hot player in the circuit by far, and he has given his opponents only a month of lead time to download him prior to Capcom Cup. This is the same position NuckleDu found himself in last year. While his results were better than Dogura’s over the course of the season, people really saw his ultimate form at Canada Cup and beyond. It’s highly possible that we’re looking at a similar story for Dogura right now.
Focus
The only negative that you could look at for Dogura is something that you could’ve chided Tokido on prior to 2016. While Dogura has made a concerted effort to make Capcom Cup, he has not abandoned his main games in Guilty Gear and Blazblue to do so. Playing multiple games typically waters down your results in all titles you are playing. You can look at Tokido as the model for that, as he was able to make top 8s in multiple titles at Evo, he was not winning any of them.
This hasn’t seemed to faze Dogura at all. Looking at his results at Canada Cup, he finished first in Guilty Gear, second in Blazblue, and first in Street Fighter V. Granted, Guilty Gear and Blazblue had weaker fields in Toronto, but the exhaustion of playing multiple titles for so long could’ve finally gotten to him. While he seems to handle it well, it remains a cause for concern that too many games could ultimately be his downfall.
However, come December, you know that he will have one single title to play at Capcom Cup. Given his performance lately, you know that he’ll be focused on Street Fighter V solely in California.
Final Thoughts
I don’t like making bold predictions. Last year, I made a few and had to eat my words. But it is insanely hard to bet against Dogura right now.
He has some concerns to worry about. Sure he bested GO1 — but GO1 is not the best Ibuki, and is known more for his Chun-Li and Menat at this point. What if it was Yukadon in his place? What happens when he has to face Tokido? What happens when he has to best Punk, who has a history of cleaning house with the likes of Nemo?
Regardless, he is the most complete Urien on the circuit, and he has become that from being very linear in January. He also has the momentum, and has given people very little time to crunch the numbers on his play. Anything can happen, but he is my dark horse pick for winning the whole thing.
Recently, we got another look at Dragon Ball FighterZ via a livestream from Bandai Namco. In addition to this however, a new trailer — different from the one shown on the stream — was also released in French, one that may hint at another character coming to the game.
As Shoryuken forum member Doctrine Dark has noted, Goku can be seen shooting a Kamehameha at an unknown opponent at around 1:41 in the trailer below.
Freeze-framing and looking closer at said action sequence shows that the opponent that Goku is shooting at is a female character wearing a tube top and some baggy pants — a description that doesn’t match any of the known characters in the game.
As is the way of such things, much speculation is already being made on this character’s identity. Some have pointed out that it may be the female Saiyan prodigy Caulifla from Dragon Ball Super, since she does wear a similar tube top and baggy pants combo, and shoots red ki blasts. Others have noted her attack’s similarity to that done by Kid Buu, prompting them to posit that it is what happens when Buu absorbs Dragon Ball FighterZ‘s villain, Android 21.
Whoever this new character is, we’ll likely learn about their identity soon — what with only a couple of months left before the game’s January 26 release date.
Last Friday, the final leg of the Injustice 2 Championship Series, the Injustice 2 ELEAGUE, kicked off with play in Group A. Eight of the world’s best Injustice 2 players descended upon Atlanta, Georgia to compete inside the ELEAGUE Arena. Players were gathered from the 2017 Injustice 2 Pro Series Finals, GameStop Hometown Heroes, Liga Latina, the Path to Pro Series, as well as a Last Chance Qualifier. They fought to earn one of two coveted spots in the Championship Round where they will compete with the top two players from Group B, in order to determine the ELEAGUE Injustice 2 World Champion and overall winner of the Injustice 2 Championship Series, with a whopping $250,000 up for grabs.
Following the conclusion of that thrilling Group A — that saw undeniable favorite Echo Fox|Sonic Fox double-jeopardied by Circa|ForeverKing — the Injustice 2 ELEAGUE continues with Group B play tonight, and we now know what the lineup of first round matches will be.
First, we’ll see runner-up of the 2017 Injustice 2 Pro Series Finals, Noble|Semiij bring his Catwoman into battle against the winner of the Last Chance Qualifier, the U.K.’s PXP|A Foxy Grampa, who wields an extremely potent Deadshot. Next up, NASAR|Tekken Master will take on Vertex|Killer Xinok, who placed 49th at Evo, 2nd at Fight In Rio, and most recently picked up 1st-place victories at TRETA 2017 and the Liga Latina Finals. Then, Panda Global’s Hayatei will take on GameStop Hometown Heroes winner Emperor_Knicks, in a unique battle of Robin vs. Darkseid. Finally, Echo Fox|Theo will face HappyPow, a French Flash, Batman and Black Adam player who is coming off of getting 13th at viennality and finishing 7th at VSFighting7.
The stakes could not be higher for these eight individuals, as not only will they be competing for the lion’s share of the prize money, but only two of them can advance to the Championship Round, alongside Allegiance|Dragon and Circa|ForeverKing. You can see a tweet with the full brackets below.
The action kicks off at 6:00 PM ET (3:00 PM PT) at twitch.tv/ELEAGUETV; gaming.youtube.com/ELEAGUE and live.eleague.com, where you can complete quests for in-game prizes, such as free Source Crystals and download codes for Fighter Pack 1. Then, tune into TBS at 10:00 PM ET (7:00 PM PT) to see the top 4 matches. Who do you predict to make it out of Group B? Give us your picks in the comments below. And if you’re in the area, grab a ticket for the Injustice 2 Amateur Tournament to compete for a $300 prize pool.
Welcome to the Rollback: a frame-by-frame look back at our past week’s most notable news — and our favorite SRK articles — from October 27 to November 2, 2017!
As a devoted member of the Problem X fanclub, I can’t wait to see how the world’s best Bison will do at Capcom Cup in December. With several back to back CPT wins, let’s see if this Dictator can take the throne.
Just as Echo Fox is gathering their own FGC super team, Japan’s Team GRAPHT is also gathering their own all-star roster. Joining Yukadon, Haitani, and old teammate Fuudo, Evo 2015 champion Infiltration is now sporting the black and yellow.
With Arc System Works going from strength to strength, it was only a matter of time before they established a dedicated North American office. This branch will focus on building the ASW brand by providing a direct line of communication between it and Western fans.
THE COOL KID93 caught my eye in Season 1 with his strong Alex play, and now that he’s playing a stronger character, he’s catching everyone’s eye by taking some names. It’s always fun to see lesser-known players get some recognition, and this is a great interview.
I know I’m not alone in my excitement for DBFZ, and finding out what the Dragon Balls do has just got me more interested. January can’t come soon enough.
If you like Street Fighter and you like Red Bull — or just can’t bear to miss costume content for your favorite fighters — you’ll want to get out there and pick up some energy drinks, starting this month.
With only a couple of months before the inaugural Evo Japan, players have been waiting for more information on the event. Finally, we have a preliminary schedule for the event, which features the various games being split across two days. Day 1 will tentatively feature The King of Fighters XIV, Blazblue: Central Fiction, and ARMS, while day 2 will feature Tekken 7, Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2, and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U.Street Fighter V will be the flagship tournament, and will be featured on both days — with the preliminaries happening on Day 1.
Evo Japan also released info on securing a booth for vendors; email the Evo Japan staff at bizdev@shoryuken.com for more information.
Q: What is the schedule for each title at #EvoJapan? A: Current Schedule DAY 1: KOF14, BBCF, ARMS, SFV DAY 2: T7, GGXRD, Smash, SFV (Pt. 2) https://t.co/zpEsu86huR
In celebration of Halloween, The Nostalgic Gamer has released another episode of his “Meet The Darkstalkers” series, this time focusing on the Queen of the Soul Bees, Q-Bee. When originally designing the concept of a bee-woman character for Darkstalkers, the team’s initial idea was for her to be a type of mutated insect that uses other insects as a form of attack, however, following the submission of Akira “Akiman” Yasuda’s concept, the design was further refined until it became the character’s final design we all know and love today.
According to Haruo Murata, “Q-Bee” is meant to be more of a class type than the name of an individual character, and he originally didn’t think she needed to be added to the game because she was too creepy. However, Character Designer Bengus argued that she could be considered cute and adorable if players imagined she was designed by Shotaro Ishinomori.
You can catch the full video below to learn more about the Soul Bees, as well as the alliance they forged with Jedah Dohma in Vampire Savior to ensure the survival of their population.
You can see some of The Nostalgic Gamer’s coverage of other members of the Darkstalkers cast at the links below.
IKevinX is back with another video of manga references for the cast of Dragon Ball FighterZ. Though he originally intended to wait until more footage of the most-recently announced characters had been shown, he gave in to excitement and decided to compile a reference video for Nappa, based off of his recently-released gameplay trailer.
As it was a fairly quick look at the bald Saiyan warrior, there’s not a ton to see here, but we can tell his attacks obviously draw heavily on his appearance in the Saiyan Saga, from when he and Vegeta invaded Earth in search of the Dragon Balls, following the death of Raditz. His intro animation and several attacks draw from the original material, with his character artwork even being ripped straight out of the manga, in one of his more iconic poses.
He retains his traditionally brutal attack style, with even a shot-for-shot recreation of one of his assaults against Tien. Notable, however, is that his animation for planting Saibamen is not an exact match, though the attacks shown from the Cultivating Men certainly are, including the Saibaman Bomb. Lastly, we see two of Nappa’s supers: his signature Volcano Explosion and his Level 3, Break Cannon. You can see the full video below.
You can see IKevinX’s coverage of past characters at the following links:
Dragon Ball FighterZ will be released in North America and Europe on January 26th, 2018, on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Steam PC. A Japanese release on those same platforms will follow on February 1st.
If your hype for BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle is still in peak levels, you’re going to love this “RWBY X BlazBlue” combo video. Set to Ruby Rose’s theme, this collaboration between Koefficient and Monarch (the second does the combos) presents Es in a different light.
Es has a color reference to Ruby, and the creators take advantage of it. Fans of RWBY will recognize the scenes from the show that are interwoven with the opening of the movie. Besides that, Monarch shows his prowess with Es, giving a variety of highly-damaging combos and some stylish ones as well. There are a few cool scenes, like where Es clashes with Relius’s Ignis to escape the corner. Overall, the editing makes it a pleasure to watch, and it syncs very well with the song.
Check it out below, and make sure to watch till the very end for a very cool teaser!
The only negative that you could look at for Dogura is something that you could’ve chided Tokido on prior to 2016. While Dogura has made a concerted effort to make Capcom Cup, he has not abandoned his main games in Guilty Gear and Blazblue to do so. Playing multiple games typically waters down your results in all titles you are playing. You can look at Tokido as the model for that, as he was able to make top 8s in multiple titles at Evo, he was not winning any of them.
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Capcom Cup 2017 Player Analysis: Has Problem X solved the problems from last year?
Shoryuken interview: THE COOL KID93 on Red Bull Proving Grounds and the state of Street Fighter V
