Method|REO has consistently been one of the most active content creators for Injustice 2‘s competitive scene since launch. Beyond that, this sponsored pro has provided invaluable tech and insight for NetherRealms games for years, and can easily be considered a specialist for what makes a NRS game work in high-level play.
So, it’s no surprise that his thoughts on the current balance in Injustice 2 is focused on the tournament environment right now. He has a few reasonable nerfs for the bottom tiers he’d like to see, and buffs for bottom tiers like Wonder Woman and Captain Cold.
Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite‘s aerial movement continues to be the source of some interesting advanced options. This time, Ravoz11 demonstrates some things that can be done with the way the game handles instant air dashes.
Similar to other games, Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite allows you to instant air dash by tapping up-forward, then tapping forward. What’s interesting, however, is that the game allows you to buffer a normal after hitting forward, canceling the dash and making the character fall down immediately. However, before landing, you can buffer another instant air dash input. This leads to some interesting movement and pressure.
You can check this out in the video below. In addition to this, Ravoz11 also shows a bonus short hop setup with Rocket Raccoon using the Time Stone.
Cross Counter TV’s GFinity Elite training series for Street Fighter V Season 2.5 rolls on, as Alex Myers now steps up to the plate to instruct players on how to more efficiently punish their enemy’s mistakes during the heat of battle. With Street Fighter V being an extremely momentum-based, high-damage game, maximizing each and every punishment opportunity is very easily the difference between victory and defeat for players of all skill levels.
Aware that many players who may just be beginning their fighting game careers could be among this video’s viewership, Myers — using the classic examples of Ryu and Ken — begins by showing off the simple action of a sweep into a forward dash, to initially set up the future punish opportunity, before blocking Ken’s attempted wakeup Shoryuken. He then advances to the next level by connecting with a Crush Counter combo into the Wandering Warrior’s Critical Art, which will net significantly more damage than just going for a simple throw or another sweep. Alex also demonstrates some buffering techniques and shortcuts that can be used to ensure your attempted punish combos are always consistently on point. Check out the full video below.
If any European fighters are looking for an online arena to test their skills, you can find out more about the GFinity Elite Series, featuring SFV, at www.gifinityelite.com.
Fans of the Gundam Versus series will have special incentive to go to Evolution 2017 in July, as this year will feature a special Bandai Namco US-sanctioned side tournament. Bandai Namco has announced a partnership with AnimEVO to bring the Western audience a side tournament with its own floor space, event-specific offline setups, prizes for winners, and a stream.
To help folks better understand the significance of this partnership, AnimEVO staff and NorCal tournament organizer, Brett, shared some of his thoughts on these developments:
The Gundam Versus series is a long-running series originating in Japanese arcades. It is ranked as one of the most popular arcade franchises in Japan as a whole, and not simply due to having a large fanbase, but also due to being an extremely well-made competitive game, which originally used an engine developed by old Capcom. To put it in perspective, the monthly tournaments held at Shinjuku Sportsland for Gundam — which can be viewed similar to something like Mikado for the Guilty Gear scene — often find themselves with over 500 players attending on that day.
Despite such success, lack of Western console ports and online functionality meant this otherwise solid multiplayer genre did not really take hold in the West. The advent of the Japanese PS3 console port in 2011, which included solid online multiplayer functionality, marked a new beginning for the game.
While still extremely niche, the next gen online port sparked the birth of a more competitive-oriented scene which also brought in many players from the fighting game genre, due to a lot of overlap in mechanics.
From 2012 onward, the US community continued to push the game forward from a competitive aspect, running tournaments at various events, the largest of which being Evo, and giving the game exposure through content creation. However, similar to the era of Arc System Works games of the past, Japanese Arcade versions always moved at least one, or sometimes even two versions ahead of the console ports, all the while continuing to remain Japanese-only. And while the western community for ASW games have always maintained a decent relationship with Aksys for support (at least starting in 2009), the Gundam community has never had an avenue to create similar relationships.
As such, both the release of the English port of Gundam Versus, as well as Bandai Namco’s involvement in Western community events, mark the largest step of progress the community has ever made. We’re very excited to have gotten to the point we are at now, and really looking forward to giving the game the exposure it deserves. Their support for Evo signifies more than just sanctioning an event — it is the clearest indication of their willingness to cooperate with the Western community.
Evo 2017 registration ends this Friday, so don’t forget to register now for the main event, and head to AnimEVO‘s own smash.gg registration page to check out AnimEVO’s full lineup. See you at Evolution 2017!
With a new game featuring a control scheme and combo system reminiscent of games prior to Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, many players are wondering what veteran characters from that game will play like in Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite. One character in particular, Dante, with his numerous special moves and cancels, raises the question in particular.
The Legendary Dark Knight breaks down the differences between how Dante plays in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and the Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite Story Demo; the most noticeable thing is how much easier Dante is to use in MvC:I compared to UMvC3. A good part of this is due to the fact that he no longer has bold cancels. Instead, his moves — such as Stinger — can now be canceled and used in combos more easily. The video below covers most of these, going beyond bold cancels and into the strict timing required to connect certain moves in UMvC3, and showing how these combos are pulled off in the older game.
Persona is back with yet another The King of Fighters XIV combo video. This time he focuses on on longtime Orochi team member, Mature.
While she’s a pretty strong character overall, Mature’s combo routes really tend to go in one direction only in terms of optimization. It’s this trend that Persona tries to go against in the combo video below, using the crumple off her CD attack to get some interesting juggles.
You may remember some time ago that Pokkén player Shadowcat discovered a strange glitch with Braixen’s air fireball in Pokkén Tournament. For whatever reason, an opposing Gardevoir or Charizard could tank the hit, bypass the air tech state and immediately preform an air action of some kind.
Well, the glitch has been pushed to new, strange territories. Since Charizard can glide in the air, an immediate glide cancel allows him to do some very silly combos. Take the above option for example: gliding allows him to clip down under the earth, making his jump 6y hits from underneath. It’s then that the game realizes that the fire not-dragon is so grounded as to be within it, and immediately aligns him back onto the surface.
That’s one way to link into 2Y, I guess. But is it even a link? Charizard flashes white before the 2Y, implying he somehow canceled j.6y into a grounded 2y.
And then there’s this insane thing above, with a glitched Charizard being able to combo into his burst off a phase shift. This shouldn’t be possible at all, but yet, here we are.
Braixen’s air fireball recovery is nerfed in the latest version of Pokkén Tournament in the arcade. So if this glitch still exists, this potentially means Charizard could get guaranteed — and hilarious looking — damage for getting hit.
Ever since the team began aggressively creating their fighting game division in April 2016, Echo Fox has proven to be a powerhouse, committed to signing top players in a wide variety of different fighting games. Their roster already includes the likes of Julio Fuentes, Justin Wong, Yusuke Momochi, Yuko “ChocoBlanka” Momochi and Hajime “Tokido” Taniguchi for Street Fighter V, Jason “Mew2King” Zimmerman and Leonardo “MKLeo” Lopez Perez for Super Smash Bros. Melee and Wii U, and even world-class Tekken 7 players JDCR and Saint. Now they have expanded their Injustice 2 roster, as Theo will now be competing alongside Brad “Scar” Vaughn and Dominique “SonicFox” McLean in NetherRealm Studio’s DC brawler, and will be representing the team at Evo 2017.
For those unfamiliar with the self-proclaimed “defensive Injustice 2 playstyle enthusiast,” his accomplishments in the previous title include placing 5th at Evo 2013 and NEC XIV, 7th at Evo 2014, and going on a hot streak with 1st-place victories at SCR 2014, UFGTX, MLG Anaheim, and West Coast Warzone 4. After taking a three-year hiatus,he returned to Injustice 2 by getting 2nd at Week 1 of War of the Gods, and most recently scoring 5th at CEO 2017 earlier this month. You can see announcement tweets from both Echo Fox and Theo below.
An announcement video from team manager Antonio “AJ” Javier has been posted to Facebook.
The dual-wielder of Superman and Aquaman is certainly a fine addition to the team, and we at Shoryuken would like to wish and Echo Fox all the best in their future endeavors — as they undoubtedly look to have a big impact at the rapidly-approaching Evo!
Last weekend, we saw the second Capcom Pro Tour online Ranking event for the Asia region play out. Amongst a bracket of heavy-hitters from Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong, and South Korea, only Red Bull’s Bonchan, DetoNation Gaming’s Tachikawa, Poongko, Cyclops Osaka’s Go1, moke, Inuchiyo, Echo Fox|Momochi and GodsGardenPro|Kazunoko would emerge to make up the top 8.
For those who may have missed these great matches — or simply want to watch them again — Capcom Fighters has officially uploaded a full playlist of all the top 8 matches, featuring commentary from RZR|Xian and Cameraman, which you can see below. With Evo drawing near and Capcom Cup looming later this year, the competition promised too fierce as players raced to improve their standing on the global and regional leaderboards.
You can also check out our full event coverage, which includes results, battle logs, and a link to the full bracket, here.
Aside from the official games on the roster, Evo is also known for hosting a number of side tournaments. One of the more famous ones is the annual Capcom vs. SNK 2 side tournament hosted by legendary player Ryo “D44BAS” Yoshida.
This year, BAS returns to host another Capcom vs. SNK 2 side tournament; to up the stakes, BAS has also added a special bounty on himself. That’s right: anyone who’s able to eliminate the man acknowledged by many to be the best CvS2 player in the world will receive a $500 bonus, regardless of their placing in the tournament.
For those interested in joining, registration for the tournament is now open at smash.gg. The tournament itself will take place on Saturday, July 15 at Evo 2017’s Bring Your Own Console area. Entry fee is only $5, and registration opens at 1:30 PM with the tournament starting at 3:00 PM. Format for the tournament is double-elimination, played in best of two out of three matches.
