MomoCon is coming back for 2017, returning to the Georgia World Congress Center for another packed weekend of fighting game tournaments alongside its regular panels and events for various games, anime and comics. As well as tournaments for non-fighting games like Overwatch and League of Legends, MomoCon will be running events for:
Super Smash Bros. for Wii U
Super Smash Bros. Melee
Pokkén Tournament (complete with $1,000 pot bonus, courtesy of Evo)
Tekken Tag Tournament 2
BlazBlue: Central Fiction
Mortal Kombat X
Guilty Gear Xrd -REVELATOR-
For Smash 4 alone, top players like TSM|ZeRo, NRG|Nairo, C9|Ally, Fatality, Ranai, 2GG|komorikiri, CaptainZack, MSF|Larry Lurr, CLG|VoiD are already confirmed to attend, so MomoCon is already set to be one exciting tournament. Registration is still open over on MomoCon’s official website if you are looking to attend. Don’t worry if you cannot make it out to Atlanta though, as all of the action will be streamed over on MomoCon’s Twitch channels.
After looking at how to properly utilize projectiles on the last episode, Genex|Frabisaur examines another concept he feels is overlooked by players learning fighting games: the proper mentality for combos. Feeling that the beginner’s combo mentality is “only half correct,” Frabisaur looks to answer the questions of “How should I practice my combos?” and “What should the goal of my practice be?” We’ve all been there. You rush home from the store, fresh off of a brand-new fighting game purchase, pop it in, and proceed to hit up the Trial and Tutorial Modes–if available–to start learning basic combos for your character(s) of choice. Or you look them up online or in a strategy guide, before hitting the lab to meticulously grind them out, all for the sweet dose of satisfaction you get by landing them against another human opponent.
Obviously, combos are an exercise in repetition and building muscle memory. The two methods Frabisaur proposes for practicing them are either working to hit a combo a certain amount of times, and perhaps even on a certain side of the screen, or practicing a sequence until it’s impossible for you to drop it–which he recommends you aim for, particularly if you have a training partner to do it alongside.
After practicing 2-3 basic combos, Frabisaur advises you to move into “mindless mastery,” the point to where you don’t even have to think about the combo anymore once the first hit lands, as you’re landing it every time from built-up muscle memory, similar to a musician playing an instrument. Doing this will lead you into the most important part of combos: context, which he demonstrates with Nash.
Combos need to be mastered to the point that you can manipulate them at will, so that once you start your combo, you can shut off your focus on it, quickly scan the scenario, think of the context you’re in and the one you want to create on the next offensive opportunity, and then end your combo appropriately.
Don’t forget to tune into the first episode of The Fighter’s Dojo Live this Thursday, where Frabisaur will host a weekly open lobby for beginners, providing coaching and application opportunities against solid players of similar skill. Separate sessions will be held for Silver ranks and below (7:30 PM to 9:30 PM ET/4:30 PM to 6:30 PM PT), as well as Platinum to Gold (9:45 PM to 11:45 PM ET/6:45 PM to 8:45 PM PT) at http://www.twitch.tv/frabisaur. You can also follow him on Twitter for more details.
With the game’s console release less than a month away, Bandai Namco Games has dropped a new trailer for Tekken 7. The trailer–which you can see below–goes over a number of Tekken 7’s current cast of characters, showing off some of the moves and combos they can pull off; specifically, it shows off Marshal Law, Feng Wei, Bob, Bryan Fury, Devil Jin, Hwoarang, Gigas, and Katarina Alvez.
Tekken 7 launches on June 2 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.
One of the more recognizable top Street Fighter V players is Red Bull & Cygames Beast’s Darryl “Snake Eyez” Lewis. Bursting on the scene as a Super Street Fighter II Turbo player, Snake Eyez successfully made a transition to playing Street Fighter IV and now Street Fighter V, recently taking a 7th place finish in the latter at DreamHack Austin.
At DreamHack Austin, Mark “BornFree” Sheridan caught up with Snake Eyez, where he got the chance to grill him on a number of subjects. One of these is his character choice, with him using Akuma in addition his traditional Zangief: something he says allows him to progress in a more consistent manner. That said, he does like to see a player who can stick to and be consistent with just one character.
Speaking of sticking to one character: he credits this as the reason why he’s never been able to transition over to the Marvel vs. Capcom series. He just has difficulty playing two characters in tandem (he’d prefer to play a team of 3 Zangiefs). With this, it’s unlikely that he’ll play Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite.
Regarding Zangief, he admits that he doesn’t really know why he ended up being a Zangief player. He recalls how he actually got his start by playing Ken in Super Street Fighter II Turbo.
In addition to all these, he also talks about working on a new product with Red Bull. As for what this is, he only says that it’s “a product that people (with Red Bull) can use” and that it’ll be “probably be better than what they are currently using.” That said, he says he doesn’t want to give too much away.
Check out the video below for more, including his thoughts on Street Fighter V’s fuzzy jump nerf, and Tekken 7.
After deciding to expand to the top 10 Street Fighter V Plays of the Week, YogaFlame24 keeps the momentum rolling–closing out his first month of clips with a variety of highlights.
From World-Combu recreating Evo Moment #37 with Alex’s Sledgehammer en route to a victory, to Panda Global’s Punk telling his fellow Karin Rithius to stop “reaching in his cookie jar,” as only he can. OddBlaze gets extremely salty after a classic Balrog comeback, while Boltstrike makes an absolutely beautiful one with Vega against the boxer. Cygames Beast’s Snake Eyez and Maoi demonstrate the true meaning of Muscle Spirit, while Echo Fox’s Momochi secures the Fighter’s Spirit 2017 Capcom Pro Tour Ranking Event so decisively, the announcers let out a yell that would make World Cup commentators blush. We also get some ELEAGUE highlights from Group C’s matches, as Razer’s Xian battled Grpt|Fuudo and Wolfkrone, and even more. You can catch the full video below.
YogaFlame24 also announced that he will be expanded this series to Injustice 2, Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, Tekken 7 and possibly even Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2, though he admits his knowledge of that game is pretty lacking.
If you’d like to see your clips featured in future episodes, you can contact him on Twitter at YTYogaFlame24, or leave a comment on the video. Let us know which of these moments was your favorite, and how you feel about him bringing this series to several of the upcoming titles, in the comments below.
Everything you need to know to help test the new Capcom Fighters Network.
Capcom has revealed the scheduled start and end for this weekend’s Capcom Fighters Network beta test; this time open to both PC and PlayStation 4 users, with active cross-play.
The test will begin on Thursday, May 11, at 6:00 PM PDT, and run throughout the weekend to end at 10:00 PM PDT on Sunday, May 14.
The beta test will include the new CFN functions and features, the upcoming balance patch, and all characters unlocked for use–including the not-yet-released “Young Commander” Ed. Only online functions are going to be available in the test. The beta test is open to all players even without a copy of Street Fighter V (PlayStation Plus is required on PS4), and is available to download now.
Keep an eye on SFV Server on Twitter for status updates throughout the test period.
As some of you may know, Lab Zero Games has been collaborating with Hidden Variable Studios to create a mobile adaptation of Skullgirls. The game is far from just a straight up port, rather combining RPG elements and a revamped combat system to better suit touchscreen play.
For those looking forward to this–or at least wondering how the adaptation plays like–wonder no more, as Lab Zero has revealed the launch date for the game. Skullgirls Mobile will be launching on May 25, 2017 for Android and iOS devices in North America, South America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and the Philippines.
Skullgirls Mobile allows players to play as Filia, Peacock, Big Band, Parasoul, Painwheel, Valentine, and Cerebella. Players can take these characters through a story mode with multiple chapters, or participate in daily events. The game will implement a currency system with both a regular and premium currency. Regular currency can be used to upgrade characters and abilities, while premium gems can be used to re-energize characters for their next fight, as well as buy relics. Despite this, the developers assure us that people can play the game without having to pay for upgrades.
The launch itself is only the beginning: Lab Zero and Hidden Variable plan to continue supporting the game, and they’re already hard at work on the next round of characters, as well as story prologue chapters for the game.
NetherRealm Studio’s Injustice 2 is only a mere week away now, and with the largest base roster in the company’s history, there’s still a few characters left to be covered on the Watchtower live stream. While Green Lantern, Green Arrow and pre-order character Darkseid were analyzed last week, today’s Watchtower will look at two of the game’s most plot-centric villains: the Collector of Worlds Brainiac, and the Clown Prince of Crime, The Joker–who was finally revealed just over a week ago.
We’ve already seen a bit of gameplay of the two, and Joker follows in his fellow veterans’ footsteps in terms of being a legacy character: operating very similarly to his previous incarnation, though with very noticeable improvements to his tools. You can see the announcement tweet below, featuring an intro between the two that sheds more light on Joker’s return. As always, the stream will kick off today, May 10th, at 3:00 PM CST (1:00 PM PDT) at http://www.twitch.tv/netherrealm. There will also be an additional stream covering the Gear System on Friday, May 12th.
Again, no specific reason for this particular batch of maintenance has been stated by Capcom; as this is the last day before the start of the new CFN beta test period, that is the likeliest culprit. Capcom still needs to restore the Temple Hideout stage to working order as well, so here’s hoping.
Although the upcoming release of Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2 might be grabbing all the headlines, BlazBlue players don’t need to worry about being forgotten about. BlazBlue’s European publisher PQube have announced a partnership with Sony and ESL to host weekly events directly from your PS4 dashboard, with the results contributing to ESL’s leaderboard. The best in Europe will no doubt be duking it out every Sunday for the top spot, and PQube are planning to reward the winner with a special prize – though we don’t know exactly what that will be yet.
A big bonus for those hoping to take part is just how simple it will be to sign up, since you can sign up online or directly on your PS4. According to PQube, all you need to do is to:
Have an active EU PS Plus Subscription
Go to the ‘EVENTS’ tab at the top of the PS4TM menu
Select ‘TOURNAMENTS’
Select an upcoming ‘BLAZBLUE CENTRALFICTION’ tournament
Select ‘REGISTER’
Create an ESL account if you haven’t got one already and link it with your PSN account
Remember to check-in shortly before tournament start in order to participate
Check the brackets to identify your assigned opponent
Follow the tournament directions to start your match
For those not able to compete – whether that’s a time or location constraint – the tournaments will be streamed live thanks to London’s leading anime fighter enthusiasts Nth Gen Interactive, who will be streaming the events on their Twitch channel every week.
With the first tournament taking place this very Sunday – May 14 – BlazBlue players can jump right into the action and start racking up points. It’s time to find out who the best BlazBlue fighters in Europe are.
