Usually reserved for the end of the year, Red Bull have teamed up with MeleeItOnMe to release a mid-year edition of the SSBM Rank, listing the current top 50 in the world of Super Smash Bros. Melee. Not only does this release of this ranking coincide with Evo 2017, but it mirrors the recent release of the PGR v3 for Melee’s younger brother, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U.
Much like PGR v3, entries in this top 50 will be released every other day, leading up to the start of Evo on July 14th. Ranks 50-41 have already been released, with ranks 40-31 scheduled to come out sometime today. Based on these results, I imagine some esports organizations will be picking up some Melee free agents for the rest of 2017.
While you won’t be seeing him during Evo next week, NetherRealm Studios are bringing Sub-Zero to Injustice 2 on July 11th. To show off the new tricks that the icy ninja has up his sleeves, NetherRealm hosted a special Watchtower stream dedicated to Sub-Zero.
He retains many of his few strings and the majority of his specials for Mortal Kombat X, but they are now condensed into a single character rather than being split across three Variations. His trait in this game is Ice Clone, which can be used as a projectile shield, a way to freeze your opponent or as something to throw at your enemy. In a first for Injustice 2, you can also meter-burn his Ice Clone, which creates one clone in the air and one on the ground.
The initial reveal for Sub-Zero had him projecting ice clones to perform certain attacks, similar to Noob Saibot in other Mortal Kombats. Unfortunately, these frozen clone moves are tied to Gear and are not part of his base move-set.
Zoning characters in Pokkén Tournament get an additional reward if they do their job right in its 3D roaming field phase. As YouTuber Mitchel explains:
In short, there’s a set distance that you can be from the opponent in duel phase. However, as some zoning attacks will win field phase shifts at further ranges, this gives zoner characters one time access to an even larger battlefield in duel phase.
Since this extra spacing “shrinks” as the players move closer together, this also makes walking and blocking at further ranges a safer way to get in versus these same zoners. This is really important to understand versus characters that can tag you for heavy damage for an errant jump, such as Chandelure and Braixen.
As our eyes set on the Evolution Championship 2017 next week, we can’t forget to practice as much as possible to prepare. Tension Pulse, the Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2 online exhibition series, continues with a new set of matches this weekend on Sunday. It’s not quite the same as usual, however. Expect to see double the action, because this time, we have four exhibition matches with a total of eight players!
We have many returning faces as well. Keep reading for a breakdown of who’s fighting who:
Hotashi versus Lord Knight
Hotashi, Elphelt Valentine:
On his opponent: “He’s a fantastic player, there’s nothing more to say. I play against him often, so I am mostly focused on practicing fundamentals and a stable mindset before the set.”
On playing since the last exhibition in April: “I… have had a confidence deficit for months, or years, that I don’t do enough as a competitor, or my style of play is unacceptable, and that I don’t deserve much attention or accolades compared to my peers. My objective in playing the game was mostly to play a certain way others wanted me to go about things. Since CEO, I’ve let this weight go and moved my focus away from the game even though the tournament season is in full swing. I just look forward to having as much fun as I can, no matter whether I win or lose. I feel this has improved my performance as a player or at least reduced my anxiety.”
Lord Knight, Millia Rage:
On his opponent: “Hotashi has an unorthodox playstyle, so winning against him means minimizing how many awkward situations he puts me in. On the one hand, it’s a good style against Millia, since Elphelt does so much damage and Millia has no life. On the other hand, sometimes unusual decisions aren’t so good against Millia since her knocking down can close the round.
“I don’t really do any ‘extra’ preparation for most people, since I have a holistic approach to learning and playing fighting games.”
On his own playstyle: “Millia is a low life/low damage character, so I focus on learning the other character’s tools and finding counters to them, on both offense and defense. I wouldn’t consider myself a particularly ‘aggressive’ or ‘passive’ player — rather, I try to adapt to the situation based on the resources I have and my knowledge of the opponent’s character.”
MC|GcYoshi13 versus Nakkiel.exe
MC|GcYoshi13, Bedman
On his opponent: “I initially had my doubts about Nakkiel because he chose the team “No-Pineapples on Pizza,” [at a special exhibition at this year’s Frosty Faustings] which made me question his taste. I learned later that he was actually allergic to the fruit, making him the only one on that team with a worthy cause to fight for. I learned he is a person of conviction, resolve, and honor. He will be very difficult to beat. I’m preparing for this exhibition by watching the match where he shook the man known as Kizzie “Shook” Kay. My God, what a blow up. Please be gentle Nakkiel, it’s my first time.”
On his own playstyle: “My playstyle is a mix of run-away, zoning, and opportunistic pressure. Bedman should avoid playing with risk-reward in REV 2 due to several changes, so you might see a lot more run-away from me than usual. The goal is to play safe and solid. I feel like as I’ve grown as an FG player, I’ve developed an aptitude for screen pollution. I plan to suffocate Nakkiel’s options in neutral with various projectiles and leave him with only dangerous commitments. REV 2 Bedman has a lot of negative response, but if I play solid, I’ll do well.”
Nakkiel.exe, Sol Badguy
On his opponent: “I think GcYoshi is a very solid player. He knows Bedman well and has some of the stronger training partners available in the USA (daymendou/Xcel|BjornSonOfBear) to further himself along. I’ve been reviewing the admittedly scarce match videos of Sol vs. Bedman to help plan out my general gameplan and things to look out for!”
Advice for other Sol players: “I think there’s a unique sense of patience required to really excel at Sol. Many players see Sol run over others at low to mid-level play since he can be very overwhelming and win quickly for ‘small’ mistakes but high-level play can really display how intelligent Sol can be required to play. Mix-up opportunties end quickly and Wild Throw (his command grab) has a lot of recovery and can be very risky to use. My tip is to learn your normals and their uses well and try to remove high-risk gambles from your gameplay as much as you can.”
doren2k versus CATPION|DEB
doren2k, Jam Kuradoberi
On his opponent: “I think DEB is a really good player. He switched from Pot like a year or so ago, and he’s been doing really well with Sol from what I’ve seen on netplay. DEB and I actually play like all the time. Every morning before work we would get in like a quick FT7 or FT10 against each other, even back in REV 1, so we are very familiar with each other. And I haven’t really been preparing for DEB cause he’s free (LOL I’m joking ). But we have played so many times, I honestly don’t think I can prepare for him, we both know each other so well now. Everybody is going to see some wild stuff that doesn’t look normal. LOL, it’s gonna be a hype set though!”
On REV 2 changes: “Since the last time I played in the exhibition, my character got buffed a little bit! She’s more stable now. The sweep buff was really good, 6P buff is amazing, and of course everybody knows about Puff Puff (236S+S+HS). But also, I feel like I’ve gotten better at the game in general. Goals for this week is to beat Deb 7-0 and also get top 8 at Evo, LOL. SORRY DEB!”
CATPION|DEB, Sol Badguy
On his opponent: “I think very highly of Doren. He’s for sure one of the strongest players in North America, and his knowledge of Jam is pretty impressive. His experience definitely shows itself! Me and him play a lot, so we’re both pretty familiar with each other’s playstyles and habits. I’ll know what to expect, but again, he’s an incredibly smart player who adapts very fast, so that can change within a game. I’ll have to play very well to close it out vs. him.”
On the time since his last exhibition: “In the span of time, I’ve definitely learned a lot about pacing myself in neutral and worked a lot on my mentality. The previous exhibition with DotNova taught me a lot about not just the Jack-O’ matchup, but a lot of different ways to approach matchups — as my Evo pool has a lot of varied characters and names, that for sure will help me a lot in getting through it!”
Hamad.exe versus Xcel|BjornSonOfBear
Hamad.exe, Ky Kiske
On his opponent: “Bears is a very strong player that I have had the pleasure of meeting in the GG community. It’s been great watching him grow into one of the strongest US players. As of how I prepared for the fight, it’s really hard to get good practice against strong Chipp players, so I mainly focused on situational awareness in training mode and strategy. I have a couple of ideas I hope to try out.”
On his playstyle: “Honestly, I just do what I feel beats my opponent’s character and more importantly what beats their general strategy. I can play anywhere from the lamest play you’ve ever seen to the most aggressive. I think having good fighting game sense allows me to choose how I want to approach and when during a match. It won’t be any different for the fight against Bears. I just have to capitalize on his mental state at all times.”
Xcel|BjornSonOfBear, Chipp Zanuff
On his opponent: “Hamad’s progress has been amazing to track. It’s very impressive to see just how quickly he improves, especially considering that ‘anime’ games are considered so inscrutable by a large number of Street Fighter players. Maybe it’s a consequence of his background, but I feel like he approaches the game from a direction that most people don’t, so fighting him is always super interesting and makes me change my approach as well. We played a bunch as recently as CEO, so I’ve already got a decent idea of how things are gonna go. I feel like I’d be better served by going over our recent matches in my head and trying to fix some of the things that got me punished as opposed to trying to study Japanese match videos and the like.”
On his playstyle: “I play a pretty risky style. I definitely try to take things head on and I’m almost always trying to go in. On defense I try to avoid blocking as much as I can, and I’ll gladly take a lot of damage in a bad situation if I can return to neutral at the end of it. I’m confident enough in my ability to end rounds off of one good turn in the corner that I’ll take significant risks to get it, which can be exploited by calmer people who know what I’m looking for. In general my matches tend to be very fast pace, win or lose, meaning that against me a large part of winning is either not getting caught up in said pace or imposing your own on me instead.”
Tension Pulse starts up on Sunday evening on Silva_hime’s Twitch channel. The four exhibitions will be in the order as presented in the article, so if you want to watch all of them, tune in at the beginning to see Hotashi battle Lord Knight. That will start at 9:00 PM EST/8:00 PM CST/6:00 PM PDT. Each FT7 should take about half hour. Ryan Hunter and Sway will commentate the exhibition.
Last time, SQ played against Native, while Zinac faced Mr.Dolphin. Read up on their online Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2 sets and then check out the results below.
From breaking down a match to helping bring on the hype, good commentary is an important part of what makes competitive fighting games so compelling to watch. As such, any big event needs to make sure that they have the best hype men and women behind the mic, and Evo 2017 is no exception.
This year continues on a tradition of having great commentary at Evo. The year’s lineup reads like a who’s who of fighting game commentary greats with names such as David “UltraDavid” Graham, James “jchensor” Chen, Samantha “Persia” Hancock, Michael “IFC_Yipes” Mendoza, Stephen “Sajam” Lyon, Chris “Hellpockets” Fields, Mark “MarkMan” Julio, our very own MajinObama, Steve “Tasty Steve” Scott, Street Fighter legend Seth “S-Kill” Killian, Aris Bakhtanians, Andrew “Jiyuna” Fidelis, and much, much more.
You can check out the full list in the infographic below.
Evo 2017 takes place this coming weekend, July 14 to 16, 2017, in Las Vegas, NV.
Previously covered by the Beefy Smash Doods, RCO Lag is a glitch in Smash 4 which causes some characters to experience additional landing lag whenever they are knocked out of their Up Special. Delving further into this glitch, Paradigm and Erico have discovered another RCO-related glitch which affects the airspeed of certain characters.
Dubbed “RCO Air Speed”, this glitch causes a select number of fighters to move through the air at lower speeds, after their Up Special is interrupted by being hit or grabbing the ledge. The lower air speed often means that characters cannot drift back to the stage and Up B after they have been ledge-trumped, usually resulting in them losing a stock.
All characters affected by RCO Lag are affected by RCO Air Speed. To temporarily counteract this glitch, players can either air-dodge as soon as they come off the ledge following the usage of their Up Special, or use certain aerials like Mario’s Up Air. To permanently get rid of RCO Airspeed for a stock, you first have to experience the glitch, then simply land back on stage while in your normal falling animation. As long as you don’t have your Up Special interrupted again, you shouldn’t experience RCO Air Speed for the rest of the match.
Much like RCO Lag, this glitch is a hangover from Brawl, meaning that players have been potentially affected by this for over nine years without noticing.
Happy Tekken Weekend, everyone. It’s your last Saturday before the biggest dance in fighting games, Evolution 2017! If you’re attending the tournament in Las Vegas, I hope you have your Tekken tech ready. If not, the community has a few more things to show you!
MentalFrameAdvantage shows off Xiaoyu’s ability to wiggle around Rage Arts like no other character could hope to.
King Jae, meanwhile, shows you how to escape the multiple ways to escape Ling’s combo starting “So Shoe Me” throw.
BoxeR-King shows off some King throws and the vairous okizeme options from them.
hfblade has a new combo vid for the counter-hit seeking missile, Steve Fox.
King Gaming Marks teaches you how to execute Law’s Legend Kick consistently.
And lastly, Proper Tech teaches you the gaps in Lili’s strings. You don’t need to respect a lot of her extensions if you know where to step!
“What are you standing up for!?” A phrase that has become iconic over the years in the fighting game community during post-match popoffs following an intense, high-stakes showdown during tournament play. Whether it takes the form of jumping out of a chair in jubilation, an emotional display of tears or even a heated confrontation between two rivals, these moments are unquestionably memorable for anyone who experiences them.
In the latest episode of “The Most ICONIC Esports Moments,” theScore esports takes a look at two of the most memorable streamed early celebrations, beginning with EG|Ricki Ortiz and Joshua “Wolfkrone” Philpot’s battle in Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition 2012 at Ultimate Fighting Game Tournament 8: Infinity.
Of course, the most famous recent instance of this has to be the legendary mishap by Ryuichi “Woshige” Shigeno during the Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- Top 8 at Evo 2015, when he forgot there was still one round left to play in his match against Ogawa, and the Zato-1 player ruthlessly capitalized like a shark smelling blood. The blunder was so monumental it was even covered by ESPN SportsCenter.
Relieve both of these moments with the video below.
What are some of your favorite pop-offs? Were there any others you were surprised didn’t make this video? We’d love to hear your stories in the comments.
In anticipation of the Under Night In-Birth: Exe Late[st] home console release scheduled for just after Evolution 2017 on July 20 (and the subsequent Western release), I wanted to share with you my experience at the 4th semi-annual “Over the World” UNIB National Tournament, which took place last month in Tokyo.
Over the World -Continuation-
A short walk from the west exit of Shinjuku Station, this Club Sega looks like a run-of-the-mill arcade to the casual observer…
The tournament took place at the west Shinjuku Station exit Club Sega, a popular arcade and meeting ground for several arcade scenes in Tokyo.
On the street level, this looks like a normal UFO catcher, Rhythm game arcade. However…
This arcade, dubbed the “Battle Arena” of Shinjuku, is a hub for several of the All.net scenes like UNIB, Guilty Gear, and Koihime.
A descending staircase? I wonder what lies beneath…?
The Over the World series is run as a 3v3 teams event, with qualifiers held in arcades throughout the country. In order to qualify, your team had to win one of 16 events. Even though the UNIB community is smaller when compared to Tekken or Blazblue (the most popular current fighters in Japan), it is a tight-knit, highly-competitive scene that gets good activity in certain pockets of Japan.
16 teams were placed into 4 team blocks, competing in single elimination brackets. Only one team from each group would advance to the championship bracket.
In the block stage, the most exciting matches occurred in block C. The 1st round match-up saw fan favorite Senaru’s team, “Elder Gods, ” on the verge of being OCV’d (One Character Victory) by Equal (Nanase) of team “Sega World Arukas.” Watch as Senaru attempts to rally back in the last round with corner control, only to run into Equal’s awesome abare, followed by a crisp anti air confirm into super. With this, Senaru’s (Arc Revo 2015 Champion) team would be eliminated in round one of the tournament!
After team Sega World Arukas defeated team Elder Gods, they then had to face team “Souiutokoyazo,” from Kobe, in west Japan. With the members of Sega World Arukas being east Japan representatives, this was a special rivalry match to see who would advance from the C block. Nishine (Orie), from team Souiutokoyazo stepped up and defeated Sega World Arukas’s Equal (Nanase), beckoning Toushinsai 2016 champion, Hairou (Gordeaux). Hairou removes Nishine in convincing fashion, calling Aya, whom he also defeats. Finally, Eve, a former Yuzuriha player and 3rd place finisher at last year’s Toushinsai, stepped up to challenge Hairou. This would be the start to Eve’s incredible day of Mika play.
After EXECUTING Hairou, Eve proceeed to face the opposing anchor, Red, a top Eltnum player from Tokyo area. With the winning team advancing to the final bracket, this was a tense match. In the end, Eve was able to impose his will with Mika.
Thus, Eve and the west Japan team were able to pull off a huge upset, and removed the Toushinsai 2016 champion from the tournament. Carrying this momentum into the first round of the championship bracket, the west Japan team challenged one of the most terrifying names in UNIB, Notes. Nishine would play really clean, showing great defense and conviction with punishing Notes’s gaps.
Eventually, the set came down to Fusemasuta vs Eve. This set had some awesome sequences with big swings in momentum (check out the throw tech trades in the last round!). Ultimately, Eve’s pressure, anti-airs, and throw game sealed the game.
On the other side of the championship bracket, Riputontarou (Byakuya) was fighting as anchor for team “Kinky Kids.” In his match against Hishigata’s Nanase, watch as despite having 0 health, he doesn’t give up until the very end. After putting together an awesome offensive sequence (including a beastly backdash bait and whiff punish!), Hishigata has enough. His super punish punches team UNIryoku wo Tsuketai!’s ticket to the grand final. Thus, the grand finals became a West Japan face-off between Club Sega Nishinakajima’s Team UNIryoku wo Tsuketai! vs. Team Souiutokoyazo, representing Osaka and Kobe respectively (much to the chagrin of the Tokyo-based players).
In the end, Team UNIryoku wo Tsuketai! made the winning play when they sent Lamp in first. Lamp went on a rampage, running through Aya and Nishine with ease, until he ran into Eve. Watch as he struggles to contain and, meticulously break Eve’s guard. Eve finally makes a good call-out on the dash pressure and calls Hishigata to the stand.
Finally, Hishigata rises to face Eve. Hishigata didn’t buckle when Eve gave him different looks (the 3-second stare-downs are super tense!), nailed his counter-hit confirms, and was able to use wind projectile really well to put Eve in uncomfortable positions. And with this, UNIryoku wo Tsuketai! clinched the Over the World -Continuation- national championships.
You can watch the tournament in its entirety here on YouTube.
Runner-up:【Soiutokoyazo】 Aya (Yuzuriha) / Eve(Mika) / Nishine (Orie)
UNI Power, the winners of the “Over the World” UNIB National Tournament. (left to right:) Lamp, Hishigata, and Kure
-Unreal Black Things-
“This is an event held only once a year, so it makes me happy to see players keep coming out and playing this game,” said Battle Arena event coordinator, tournament organizer, and Under Night In-Birth Fan, Mobius. As an arcade worker, there can be no doubt events like these where the community and developer can come enjoy the spectacle of a nationally organized arcade tournament, hold a special significance. As the western FGC continues to focus its attention on esports, and more devs step away from the arcade, it feels good to see groups that still have a deep appreciation for arcade culture.
I hope you enjoyed this write-up, and are as excited as I am for the July 20 release of Under Night In-Birth: Exe Late[st] for home consoles. I look forward to seeing the North American scene revisit the game, and hope that they can show the same passion for this version that they did the last (UNIB was a highly-successful title in the Western tournament scene).
If you have been in the market for a new joystick for some time, or are simply a collector, you have many opportunities to spend your cash at Evo this year. Throwing their names into the ring, two of SRK Tech Talk’s best–Gummo and Vicko–are offering up one of the best commercial sticks ever produced in limited quantities this year.
They have a limited run of 60 modified Madcatz VS sticks, which were released shortly after Street Fighter X Tekken, and were purchased as part of the Madcatz inventory liquidation following their bankruptcy. The sticks have been updated to modern standards, using Brook Universal Fight Boards and the Gum Mods Home Replacement Panel. The new panel allows for the home panel to be used in conjunction with the Brook UFB, with the LS/DP/RS switch determining whether the Turbo button controls L3, Touch Pad, or R3 respectively. The lock switch will still work on locking out turbo, home, select, and start. The player indicator LEDs have also been swapped for a possibility of blue, pink, yellow, green, white, red, or breathing rainbow.
There is also custom art designed by hibachifinal, and a limited edition numbered plexiglass panels for these amazing sticks created by Art Hong of Tek-Innovations.
Included in the box:
Madcatz VS Fight Stick modded with Brook Universal Fight Board PCB and Gum Mods Home Panel Replacement PCB
Numbered Plexi
Custom Gum Mods X Vicko Mods Artwork
Original Street Fighter X Tekken Artwork
Original Madcatz Fight Stick instructions
Brook Universal Fight Board instructions
Gum Mods Home Panel Replacement instructions
Brook sticker
As a bonus, Gummo and Vicko are offering a lifetime warranty on all 60 sticks. The sticks will cost $400 each and will only be available for sale during Evo on site and on Gummo’s website.
). But we have played so many times, I honestly don’t think I can prepare for him, we both know each other so well now. Everybody is going to see some wild stuff that doesn’t look normal. LOL, it’s gonna be a hype set though!”
