Given the post-Evo 2017 lull, you might have missed the latest exciting entry in the “2Old2Furious” tournament series, brought to you by Min, Arturo Sanchez, Team Sp00ky, and the crew at Next Level. The event was just as awesome as ever, showcasing tournament play for titles like Super Street Fighter II Turbo, Street Fighter Alpha 2, Street Fighter EX2+, and even a new addition in the form of Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers.
There was plenty of awesome play showcased from the NYC scene across all titles, but legendary Japanese SFII Honda player, Kusumondo, stole the show!
Having such a prestigious guest come out and compete at 2Old2Furious was a big treat for the New York Crew, and who knows, maybe in the future we could see even more international competition at 2Old?
In SFEX2+, Marsgatti helds on against Hardbread, capitalizing after a bad drop and parry attempt!
In Alpha 2, Manny Blaze rose through the bracket to challenge NY legend, Jeron Grayson (a.k.a. EMP Hiro). Jeron managed to prevent “Godslayer Emmanuel Blaze” from resetting the bracket, taking the tournament with his Chun-Li.
This 2Old2Furious also featured another guest: RetroRGB, a renowned figure in the retro gaming community, decided to stop by and cover some of the technical aspects of the event. He focuses a lot on arcade hardware, and showcases the technology that goes behind organizing and streaming an event like this, that gathers so many different kinds of classic machinery.
RetroRGB’s perspective on matters like this is important when we consider the lengths that some players go through to use their own hardware at the event.
RetroRGB also interviewed Arturo Sanchez recently, discussing a variety of topics like streaming, hardware and fighting games. If you are into tech talk, this video will be interesting for you.
Please check out the archive from the entire event right here!
After stepping into the ring with Meterorito Jr. and Antler Inoki, the new CFN character profiles continue, as the Shadaloo Combat Research Institute releases more Activity Reports on the various persons of the Street Fighter universe. As per usual, Private Nakagawa is back to provide narration for these profiles.
First up, the “Super Heel” and another superstar of the Squared Circle, Demon Machami!
Private Nakagawa: “We keep on introducing the pro-wrestlers. A skilled worker who uses powerful moves. She chose a ‘heel’ way of life for herself, and will continue until she burns out. A heel amongst heels, a super heel!” [“Super Heel” was the last gimmick of Devil Masami before her retirement.]
Basic Info:
Name: Demon Machami [Based upon Devil Masami.]
Height: 168cm
Weight: 90kg
Blood type: B
Birthday: January 7th
Country of Origin: Japan [All copied from Devil Masami’s real stats from the Japanese Wikipedia (in her English page, her weight is 70kg).]
Likes: Tsukemono, [With her real name Masami Yoshida, Devil Masami is the shop manager in a traditional Japanese tsukemono restaurant in Kokurakita-ku, Kitakyūshū, named 小倉城 糠蔵 Kokura-jō Nukagura (“The rice bran granary of Kokura castle“). Catering industry is a common activity for retired professional wrestlers all over the world.] Musical Activities
Dislikes: Hairy Caterpillars [“Hairy caterpillar” in Japanese also stands for “pest, irksome person”.]
Private Nakagawa: “The boss of her inherited female heel stable “Demon Army.” [Devil Masami entered the female heel stable ブラック軍団 Burakku Gundan “Black Army”, whose “boss” was Yumi Ikeshita, in 1979. After Ikeshita’s retirement in 1981, Masami took over as the boss of the newly renamed デビル軍団 Debiru Gundan, “Devil Army.” Hence that “inherited.” ] “The match between ‘Shocking Demon Machami’ and Rainbow Mika saw the then-newcomer Mika stormed by fouls, run-ins and all sorts of turbulent violent actions. Mika’s seconds tried to enter the ring to help, but Mika stopped them from interfering. Mika’s resolution to a fair-and-square fight deeply impressed the crowd and Machami herself. Mika won the match, pinning Machami with her Dream Driver. After the match, Machami built a good friendship with Mika. She’s a very good singer.” [Devil Masami was also an enka singer, and released an album (“Rain of tears”) and various singles such as Silent Goodbye and 燃えつきるまで Moetsukiru made (“Until I burn out”). The last one is referenced in her description.]
Next up, we have Street Fighter’s original Korean Taekwondo practitioner, from 2008’s Street Fighter Online: Mouse Generation, Shin! Released only in Japan and developed by Capcom subsidiary Daletto, which was a joint venture between Capcom and Games Arena (in association with Revoltech) was released for PC, and was designed to be able to be played with a computer mouse. It also featured character customization for its roster, which consisted of Ryu, Chun-Li, Zangief, and Ken for the Street Fighter series, as well as an assortment of characters from Louis Cha’s novels, Cyborg 009, Rival Schools, and even a fictionalized caricature of then-United States President Barack Obama, among other things! Shin served as the title’s only original character.
For those who may not remember the game, here’s a demonstration video, courtesy of Machinima, as well as the title’s official trailer.
Private Nakagawa: “His father is a karateka, and his mother comes from a lineage of Taekwondo masters. Inspired by the Vale Tudo he saw in America, he aims to become a fighter.”
Basic Info:
Name: Shin
Height: 178cm
Weight: 77kg
Blood type: AB
Birthday: July 9th
Country of Origin: South Korea
Likes: Music, Showy Things
Dislikes: Sober Things
Private Nakagawa: “A handsome young man with gorgeous eyebrows. He has great confidence in himself and is a bit of a narcissist, but is a legitimate taekwondo expert. He’s studying in America, searching for his way in music and painting. During his stay at the dormitory, he saw by chance the Vale Tudo tournament “Eternal Fighting,” and the match between Alex and Gerald Golby shocked him. Inspired, he returned immediately to his home country and resumed his taekwondo practice.”
With that, another pair of CFN Portal profiles is now complete. Would you like to see either of these characters possibly appear in Street Fighter V in the future? Do you happen to have any fond memories of playing Street Fighter Online: Mouse Generation? Let us know in the comments.
After a two-year journey, Tim “HoneyBee” Commandeaur has announced his departure from Critical Reaction, following Evo 2017, on Twitter.
Known as the “Flash Lord” in Injustice: Gods Among Us — and as the top D’Vorah player in Mortal Kombat XL, with multiple top 8 finishes in both titles — his Injustice 2 career, though short, has been extremely explosive. After winning Toryuken 6 in May with Deadshot and Aquaman, the Canadian player finished 2nd at Evo 2017, with his Flash and Aquaman falling to eventual champion Noble|Dragon. Though along the way, he managed to defeat BxA|StarCharger, T7G|DR Gross, Echo Fox|Sonic Fox, and eliminate Echo Fox|Theo, two of the clear favorites to win the entire tournament.
With Bee now a free agent, and Injustice 2‘s first balance patch on the horizon that could potentially strengthen the Scarlet Speedster, it will be interesting to see what this Canadian’s future holds as the Injustice 2 Pro Series marches on. You can see his Tweet announcing his departure from the team below.
I began my journey with @Team_cR at EVO 2015 and it's at EVO 2017 where my journey with them has ended. I wish them the best.
Regardless of what his future holds or on what team he’ll end up a part of next, we at Shoryuken wish HoneyBee all the best in his future endeavors within the fighting game community.
Persona Enterainment’s latest combo video shines the spotlight on Maxima, the patriarchal cyborg slugger of The King of Fighters XIV. Players seem to be turned away from the character for his slow walk speed and high start up frames, but the big guy has a lot of potential — as the combo video clearly demonstrates.
One thing that has never been called into question is Maxima’s ability to deal big damage. A well-executed string followed by a Max Cancel finish can easily deplete an average character’s life bar. While it’ll be up to you to develop a strategy to execute these combos successfully, Persona’s combo video shows potential Maxima mains what they have to look forward to.
Though Street Fighter X Tekken would only grace the Evolution main stage twice — in 2012 and 2013 — Aaron “Psychoblue” Pinsky has made it his mission to keep the 2D tag team crossover title alive, by personally organizing side tournaments for the game at each and every event he attends, including the last four years of the Evolution Championship Series. He even recently organized a Discord server for fans of the game to convene and seek out competition. Side tournaments for titles left out of the main lineup are fairly commonplace now, but it is perhaps rare to see Japanese players travel across the planet for the sole purpose of entering one of these unofficial competitions. But such is the case with Esuta, who has reigned over the SFXT competition at Evo for three consecutive years, utilizing a wide variety of characters. He even tied for 7th in 2013.
This year, 8 warriors arrived to “cross the line” in Las Vegas, for a round robin-style tournament, to crown the newest Evo champion. With each player facing one another for points, with the two highest-scoring players meeting each other in the finals, play was expected to be sharp — as these fighters, which included the likes of Esuta, Hazama, Roknin, and even Psychoblue himself, battled it out for crossover tag team supremacy. Would Esuta retain his crown for the fourth straight year, or would we crown a new SFXT champion? You can find out for yourself with the full playlist of matches below.
If you’re interested in more high-level SFXT 2013 action, check out his channel.
We’re getting closer and closer to the release of the BlazBlue: Central Fiction 2.0 arcade patch, which is dated for August 3rd. It will introduce Jubei as well! Although we don’t know a console date yet, Arc System Works has addressed a few of the unusual patch notes in a stream.
As translated by fans, here are the patch notes that ASW explained, with screenshots of the upcoming version:
1. Bang’s command throw super
“Now able to grab opponents who’ve just started jumping/landing.”
This Distortion Drive can now indeed catch someone who is already off the ground. They stressed, however, that if you jump after the freeze, you will not get caught by Bang.
2. Nine’s Kunzite tracking
“The projectile’s positioning has been adjusted. It’ll appear right in front of Nine in the ground version, while the aerial version now has a fixed minimum range, and it won’t appear any closer to Nine than the specified minimum range.”
Kunzite can no longer track an opponent that’s behind the witch. The picture above is the aerial version — now, that is the closest it can appear to Nine, so there’s a definitely a blind spot. There’s nothing to worry about in the ground version of Kunzite, it will still hit someone right in front of her.
3. Valkenhayn’s j.D landing state
“Whenever you land during the active frames while in Wolf form, you’ll always go back to Human form when landing.”
Pretty self-explanatory — whenever Valkenhayn lands on the ground from j.D, he is forced into human form, unlike before.
These were all the changes shown on video. For a few more screenshots and explanation, check out HiagoXYZ’s Evernote, who kindly translated the BlazBlue Twitch stream.
At San Diego Comic Con 2017, Ed Boon did a video interview in which he was asked about Injustice 2’s next batch of DLC characters. When the topic of new gods entering the arena is brought up, he becomes visibly excited when saying he has already seen an unfinished cut of the next DLC trailer himself, and that the upcoming reveal will receive, in his words, “The biggest wow.” The NetherRealm developer goes on to say that the most “unexpected character” will be introduced in the next set, but did not give any character-specific clues.
A clip of his response can be seen in the video below.
While the video goes on to speculate about the chances of Spawn and Hellboy making it into the game next, fan front runners still include members of the Watchmen series, which DC comics currently hold the rights to. The Starfire reveal set the bar pretty high, so if Ed Boon is excited for what’s next, Injustice 2 fans should be as well!
Amidst the announcements made at the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary panel at San Diego Comic Con this past weekend — including a new set of premium sports costumes for Rashid, Laura and Ibuki (arriving today), as well as a special method to play as Shin Akuma in Ultra Street Fighter II — it was also announced that in celebration of the franchise’s 30th anniversary, Street Fighter V players would be awarded with a whopping 30K of free Fight Money.
Players cabn grab this Fight Money during the month of August — provided they log into the servers on or around the special date. The original Street Fighter was first released in Japanese Arcades on August 30th, 1987, so the promotion will likely run for the entire last week of the month; though no official dates have been provided by Capcom yet. With Abigail, his story costume and the new Suzaku Castle and Metro City Bay Area stages coming to SFV with today’s update, this free chunk of change couldn’t come at a more perfect time — so be sure to log in and reap these rewards! You can see a tweet from JardFGC, who attended the panel, confirm this information below:
30,000 bonus fight money awarded to anyone logging in close to anniversary date. #sfv#sdcc
There’s certainly some palpable hype behind the BlazBlue: Central Fiction‘s cat samurai. Many folks– on Discord, for example — have already declared themselves as Jubei mains. Soon, the long-awaited character will increase the already bulky roster by one.
Recently, an image surfaced that reveals all of Jubei’s special and Distortion attacks:
GREATFERNMAN posted an Evernote that translates the moves into English characters, and explains some of their functions:
Specials
Rekkouzan: 236A or 236236A (Stylish: 5S)
Ichinokata Kagerou: 236B (Stylish: 6S)
Ninokata Onigitsune: 214B
Sannokata Ranjishi: 214C (Stylish: j.6S)
Yonnokata Kurohyou: 632146C (chargeable)
Ginshuukyuu: 236C (Stylish: 2S)
Shitenjin: j.236D or j.214D
1) Rekkouzan: (After using Fudou Sharenjin) 236A (Stylish:5S)
-> 2) Followup: A during 1 (sorry I can’t make out the kanji in the photo)
-> 2) Launch: B during 1
-> Ichinokata Kagerou: 6B during 1 or 2
-> Ninokata Onigitsune: 4B during 1 or 2
-> Sannokata Ranjishi: C during 1 or 2
-> Yonnokata Kurohyou: 646C (chargeable) during 1 or 2
-> Shitenjin: 6D or 4D during 1 or 2
Distortion Drives (requires at least 50% heat gauge)
Senju Kousetsura: 236236D (Stylish: 4S)
Niou Kigantotsu: j.236236D (Stylish: j.4S)
Fudou Sharenjin: 214214A (can only be used once per round. After using this super, Jubei’s special moves are permanently upgraded)
We don’t know yet when Jubei will be available on consoles, but keep an eye out for him when he drops in arcades on August 3rd. Check out the Jubei reveal trailer to see him in action, and we also have a breakdown of his game plan from Famitsu.
There’s certainly some palpable hype behind the BlazBlue: Central Fiction‘s cat samurai. Many folks– on Discord, for example — have already declared themselves as Jubei mains. Soon, the long-awaited character will increase the already bulky roster by one.
Recently, an image surfaced that reveals all of Jubei’s special and Distortion attacks:
GREATFERNMAN posted an Evernote that translates the moves into English characters, and explains some of their functions:
Specials
Rekkouzan: 236A or 236236A (Stylish: 5S)
Ichinokata Kagerou: 236B (Stylish: 6S)
Ninokata Onigitsune: 214B
Sannokata Ranjishi: 214C (Stylish: j.6S)
Yonnokata Kurohyou: 632146C (chargeable)
Ginshuukyuu: 236C (Stylish: 2S)
Shitenjin: j.236D or j.214D
1) Rekkouzan: (After using Fudou Sharenjin) 236A (Stylish:5S)
-> 2) Followup: A during 1 (sorry I can’t make out the kanji in the photo)
-> 2) Launch: B during 1
-> Ichinokata Kagerou: 6B during 1 or 2
-> Ninokata Onigitsune: 4B during 1 or 2
-> Sannokata Ranjishi: C during 1 or 2
-> Yonnokata Kurohyou: 646C (chargeable) during 1 or 2
-> Shitenjin: 6D or 4D during 1 or 2
Distortion Drives (requires at least 50% heat gauge)
Senju Kousetsura: 236236D (Stylish: 4S)
Niou Kigantotsu: j.236236D (Stylish: j.4S)
Fudou Sharenjin: 214214A (can only be used once per round. After using this super, Jubei’s special moves are permanently upgraded)
We don’t know yet when Jubei will be available on consoles, but keep an eye out for him when he drops in arcades on August 3rd. Check out the Jubei reveal trailer to see him in action, and we also have a breakdown of his game plan from Famitsu.
(@HoneyBeeCMNDR) 
