With what has been a great year so far capped by an amazing tournament at Evo 2017, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3‘s competitive scene shows that there’s still life in the 7-year-old game. Part of this is due to the community-lead “Curleh Circuit” competitive tour.
Now, another major tournament has joined the Curleh Circuit. In a recent tweet, Big E Gaming has confirmed that, after some discussion with the Curleh Circuit’s Samantha “Persia” Hancock, Summer Jam XI will now be added to the year long tour.
Summer Jam has always been on of the biggest tournaments in the East Coast. With the announcement of that the tournament there will now be part of the Curleh Circuit, this gives East Coast UMvC3 players another chance to earn points towards the Curleh Mustache Finalé at the end of the year!
Summer Jam XI takes place from August 11 to 13 at Crowne Plaza: Philadelpha-Cherry Hill, in Cherry Hill, NJ.
Throws in BlazBlue: Central Fiction aren’t quite the same like in Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2. They’re not as much of a defensive tool, but they can result in damaging combos — depending on how much resources you put in. Because throws in BlazBlue have start-up, they can’t be used while getting up, and it’s tough to use them in the middle of enemy blockstrings.
And yet, there are many moves in the game that can be interrupted with a sneaky throw. Warui Neko-kun put together a creative video with some surprising grabs that can easily reverse the situation. Usually, those punishes revolve around knowing when the opponent will use some kind of special move. A couple of these aren’t that realistic — because normally, a player wouldn’t do two small jabs, which apply very little blockstun, into a move that’s slow to come out.
However, most of these are really good to know and not as obvious as they seem. You can grab Lambda out of her overhead attack, 4B; same with one of Mai’s overhead and Ragna’s; Valkenhayn is surprisingly vulnerable to a grab; you can punish Noel for using 2D in her Drive chains, and so on. The video also shows sample combo punishes.
The latest patch to The King of Fighters XIV was not particular kind to the popular Kyokugen girl, Yuri Sakazaki. Ryo’s daughter suffered meter, damage, and health nerfs — but that doesn’t mean she can’t still hit like a truck.
playergodaines‘s latest combo video not only shows off Yuri’s absurd damage output, but also demonstrates some of the ways she can take advantage of character hurtboxes. The character specific mid-juggle option of EX Air Fireball only work on Sylvie, Mian, Kensou, Athena, Meitenkun, Mui Mui, Nakoruru, Chang, and Yuri. It’s a nice, flashy alternative for Yuri players looking for a little combo finesse.
When we were still in the Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- era, there was one New York City player whose name echoed overseas: PAG|LostSoul. His terrifying command of Xrd’s new character, Elphelt, became particularly famous after beating CO|Dogura’s Sin in 2016 (check out the match below). His play even earned him a spot on the Japanese fighting game player wiki, something few US players have achieved.
LostSoul has been missing a bit from the scene due to personal circumstances, but he resurfaced at this year’s Evolution. It was a great opportunity to hang out with the player who had many Japanese visitors lining up to play him and learn more about him. To my knowledge, this is the first interview he’s ever done about his Guilty Gear play, so it’s a rare highlight of his impressive abilities. Responses have been edited for clarity.
Luke “Woocash” Siuty: How was your Evo? Is Guilty Gear the only game you entered?
LostSoul: Yeah, it’s the only one. I made it up to the 17th place, two spots away from top 8. And I believe that’s a great accomplishment for being out of the game for eight months due to life problems. Going to Evo, which was my first one, as well as my first major after coming back, I think that’s a great achievement.
Woocash: Walk us through some of the matches.
LostSoul: The first match in winners was against Omito. Knowing that he’s a great Johnny player, that was one of my great concerns — after coming back to majors — that I would have this tournament stress going on. I couldn’t have performed as well as I did [later], but he has great movement, great offense, and I just couldn’t keep up with that. Soon after I lost the winners, I managed to do very well against him, I took games off of him, after the tournament, even got a perfect in there. I managed to get him to do what I wanted him to do. Everything that I wanted to do I was able, no second thoughts, no nerves, my execution was there. I was basically me at that point. But what really counts is the tournament.
And of course, I lost to him on stream badly. And in losers, I lost to XCEL|BjornSonOfBear. I feel kind of bad, I have some rust on his character Chipp. Back before the break, we used to netplay a lot. I used to be the one winning, in tournaments also. In this case, not only I lost, but he also has greatly improved. Him getting the Overdrive series and winning the trip to Evo and CEOtaku, he has definitely improved on that. At the end, it was 2-1 his favor, last game, last round, and sadly, I lost to the only other American between us.
LostSoul: Yeah, I still have Jack-O’ on the side, because Elphelt has, ever since the patch came about, changed somewhat. She got new unblockables with Roman Cancels, so I had to practice that. Practice my match-up experience against characters again since I was gone eight months, and change what was her unblockable route into a mix-up route. But Jack-O’ didn’t really change after the patch, her move set and combos are nearly intact. I’m planning to get back into Jack-O’ and dual main.
Woocash: Any further thoughts on REV 2 balance?
LostSoul: Some of the changes were a little questionable. Especially on my character, Elphelt. Her 6P has no hurtbox on her upper waist, so it’s like an anti-air and an overhead from 6P. Some supers actually whiff. Of course, as an Elphelt player, I’ll take it. It’s kind of weird. I know people hate it because it’s kind of half-assed, but personally, I’m indifferent to it.
Woocash: Are you comfortable to talk about why you were out of commission for eight months?
LostSoul: I was out of commission due to family problems. My family was being evicted. We had to live in my sister’s house for a good month or two. Since then, I was unable to play Guilty Gear. My main concern was to save up money to get back into the house. We managed to do that after 3-4 months with the help of the anime fighting game community. My friend, Mr. Bisonopolis, helped me set up a GoFundMe. This also helped set up to pay the first month’s bills. At first, it was 2000-3000. Within a couple hours, after he tweeted it out, the goal was met substantially, in two hours, flat. I was speechless. I was able to get back my house, and now, I am still there, being supported.
My new goal then, after four months, was to find a new job. I wanted to find a new job to support it. I thought I would be out for one more month, but job searching was more difficult that I imagined, so it took an extra four months. I promised myself not to touch video games until I got that done. I put priorities in life, Guilty Gear later. This was before REV 2 came out, so after this eight month period, that’s when I finally touched Guilty Gear again.
Woocash: I saw you play a lot of Japanese players, lining up to fight you at the ASW booth. Tell me more about this relationship with the Japanese scene, because they definitely talk about you a lot, and I know you’re on their fighting game player wiki.
LostSoul: I know that Japanese players have a totally different mindset from what we have in America. There’s a style to it, I can’t really explain it. They know what to do to avoid certain situations. They noticed me probably when I beat Dogura, the first time, back at Final Round, I believe. I got first place, beating him not once, but twice. From that time, that’s when on Twitter, I saw that the Japanese were surprised Dogura. That was my first event. But Dora was also there, another native from Japan. I beat Dogura in a FT5 and Dora came by, and I guess he spread my name, but Dogura definitely spread my name around. So I’ve been on the radar right around that.
Even now, a lot of Japanese want to fight me and after fighting me, they told me I’m very strong, so I guess I succeeded in meeting their expectations. I fought Haaken, Kedako, Fumo, Tomo. With Tomo, I kind of destroyed him at the first set, but then he got the next two. He said I was very strong and he had a difficult time beating me. I was going pretty even with Fumo in the mirror match. Maybe even stronger. I also beat Zadi 2-1. I’m definitely a “player vs. player” type of guy. Despite not knowing how they play and them trying to download me, I could also download them.
Woocash: What are your plans moving forward? How interested are you in esports, or becoming a sponsored player?
LostSoul: Yes, I am interested I guess in esports, but mostly, I’m interested in going to more majors after Evo. I want to go to every major that’s available. The next issue for me is taking days off my job to go those events. I’m even missing my locals, TSBs, because they happen on Saturdays, and my job happens on those days.
Woocash: And would you ever want to be a sponsored player?
LostSoul: Here’s the thing. I could say I’m interested, but the one I’m in now, PAG, already hosts me. It’s more like a group, they’re not like Fable or XCEL. But PAG does help me travel, just like Justin Wong sponsored me for this Evo trip. If I could have more opportunities like that, then yeah. Yeah. I’m definitely interested in esports.
Long Vo’s new artwork really compliments the Panthera’s design.
As we previously covered, Razer had a special Street Fighter V-themed Panthera fightstick planned for release in July. It missed the July mark by a little, but the new stick — featuring new Street Fighter Alpha 2-inspired Street Fighter V artwork by Long Vo, is now available to purchase on Razer’s website!
You can read all about the inspiration for the new artwork — and grab one of these sticks for yourself — over at Razer for $199.99 USD. Read our review of the Razer Panthera here.
Recently, we shared some extensive gameplay notes for Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite by veteran player Olaf Redland. In this notes, he detailed an interesting new armor property for Nemesis. In the test builds, Nemesis’ moves have a sort of “light armor” property where they can absorb a number of light attacks, but not heavy attacks.
Now, ChromeAlchemist has put out a new video further detailing this new “light armor.” In the video below, he demonstrates just how Nemesis’ normals work, tanking any number of light attacks from his opponent, but not heavy attacks. In addition to this, he also demonstrates how using the Space Stone’s Infinity Surge produces the same armor effect, again absorbing light attacks, but not heavies.
Here's how armoured attacks work in #MvCi, and their weaknesses (the Space Stone has armour properties in its Infinity Surge) pic.twitter.com/y031D7aUVm
Take note that this does not totally replace the regular the armored states as seen in the previous games. While ChromeAlchemist hasn’t tested Hulk, Olaf Redland has stated on the r/MvCI subreddit that Hulk’s specials still do have more traditional armor.
Earlier this week, NetherRealm Studios released patch 1.07, the August update, for Injustice 2. Whereas the game’s last few updates mainly focused on bug fixes and quality-of-life adjustments for the title, this patch provided us with our first set of balance changes for a large majority of the cast — particularly the heroes and villains who had been deemed early top tiers.
As he did for the July update (that brought us DLC character Sub-Zero, as well as a variety of bug fixes and the removal of Trait combos off of throw techs for certain characters), PND|Ketchup continues his “What’s Changed?” series, by looking at every single character that was directly altered — either positively or negatively — in this patch, and explains what the overall changes will mean for each of them going forward.
In the video’s comment section, Ketchup provides timestamps for all 21 characters who have been impacted in alphabetical order.
What are your thoughts on Injustice 2‘s current balance following this update? Were any of your characters impacted? Have these changes caused you to switch characters or to pick up a few new ones? Let us know in the comments section below.
Welcome to the Rollback: a frame-by-frame look back at our past week’s most notable news — and our favorite SRK articles — from July 28 to August 3, 2017!
The rumors are circulating… is Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers Capcom’s “true” 30th anniversary release, or is there something more interesting not yet officially revealed? I would love arcade-perfect (but with online play) versions of 3rd Strike or the SFA series, so please Capcom: don’t let your fans down!
Cliffdog’s path demonstrates how rewarding involvement in the FGC can be if you dedicate yourself, and his outlook and approach to fighting games in general is inspiring! He’ll make you want to get back into the grind.
X-Kira’s latest datamining efforts have revealed material that makes the rumored “Super Street Fighter V” look like a reality to come, at least in function if not name. Promising additions to SFV — if they see the light of day.
EiC mushin_Z got the chance to chat with Daigo during this year’s Evo, and was able to ask The Beast about his manga, what he thinks about Season 2 of Street Fighter V and what Evo means to him as a FGC veteran.
Bandai Namco and Arc System Works will be at this year’s Gamescom, showing off a new build of Dragon Ball FighterZ. We expect to see Piccolo, Krillin and Future Trunks taking the stage, alongside some brand new mechanics and engine tweaks.
If you’re hankering for more information on ARIKA’s new fighting game, the developers will be showcasing the game on BeasTV next Tuesday. Fingers crossed for some Darun Mister and Skullomania gameplay!
Although I’m still not convinced by For Honor‘s esports ambitions, the game itself is very fun. I’m pleased to see continued support from Ubisoft, and hopeful for the future of the game.
MvC:I has had a somewhat lukewarm reaction from the FGC thus far, but if there is one person who has been consistently excited about the upcoming release, it’s Olaf Redland. In these notes, the enthusiasm is palpable, and they’re well worth a read.
Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 saw its tournament landscape turned on its head this year with the Evo 2017’s top 8, and the players in that group are certainly reaping the benefits. After a solid year that saw him finish 5th in the game’s final appearance at Evo, Chicago native Joey “Joey D” D’Alessandro has found himself picked up Circa eSports.
With eyes fixated on games like Dragon Ball FighterZ and Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite in 2018, the signing of this midwestern Marvel titan is bound to bring excitement to the community as he travels more.
Perfect to wear to Yoga practice, or your local SFV tournament.
Eighty Sixed has debuted a new Street Fighter V T-shirt, this time for fans of the mysterious Yoga master Dhalsim. The new design is appropriately titled “Mandala”:
To celebrate the new shirt’s arrival, Eighty Sixed presents this video to help get you in the Yoga frame of mind:
Seems Dhalsim even gets bored with Yoga asanas now and then, since he snuck some Tai Chi forms in there at the end! The cosplayer is Hex of Nein & Hex.
You can pick up the new Mandala T-shirt design from Eighty Sixed for $24.00 USD.
Shoryuken interview: Daigo Umehara on his manga, reaching for Capcom Cup, and the meaning of Evo
Season 3 of For Honor announced, introduces Highlander and Gladiator, rebalancing, and more
Learn more about how Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite actually plays with Olaf Redland’s detailed notes
First BlazBlue: Central Fiction 2.0 gameplay footage shows patch changes, Jubei matches
Evo 2017 “by the numbers” infographic displays totals for attendance, viewership, and more
