Category: Fighting Games

Ken has always been known to be slightly glitchy in Super Street Fighter II Turbo. In November, we reported on a glitch where the hitbox on Ken’s fireball disappeared in the ST Grand Finals at Canada Cup between Mattsun and Kusumondo. Now, there’s even more Ken glitchiness to go around.

In a match on Fightcade against well-known US player Binary, Aznpikachu215 experienced an instance where after blocking E. Honda’s Hundred Hand Slap, he had a peculiar Tatsumaki Sempukyaku come out on reversal. The move never moved forward, but stayed in the spot where it started.

While Aznpikachu has stated that he was attempting to do an air Tatsu, the common explanation is that this was caused by Ken’s Reversal Super Glitch, which causes the last special move performed to come out instead of Super. While grounded Tatsu would move forward as the Super Glitch is performed, an airborne Tatsu will not. The reason for this is that the move doesn’t have any airborne velocity to start, which is required for the move to go forward. This can also be proven by doing air tatsu off of a neutral jump–if this happens, the move only moves forward slightly.

Source: aznpikachu215

VesperArcade clarifies what the incoming changes to uppercuts in Street Fighter V will actually mean.

Capcom has given us a detailed list of upcoming changes to Street Fighter V, inbound as a balance patch due before the end of April. One of the most vocally-lamented losses from Season 1’s build of SFV were meterless reversals–specifically, invincible dragon punch-type moves that could be used on wakeup to counter meaty attacks without burning off meter with an EX special move. These were yanked out of SFV Season 2; removing that option from the fighters that possessed them.

In the new patch notes, Capcom details how these uppercut moves thus became too “risk intensive” and describes a new universal model for DPs: light Shoryuken attacks have throw invincibility, medium Shoryuken attacks have airborne invincibility, and heavy Shoryuken attacks have frames of attack and projectile invincibility. In the individual character notes, they also list what the active frames of invincibility will be for these moves, which–unsurprisingly, as DPs have already been messed with in the last major patch–is causing some players confusion as to how exactly these changes will influence gameplay when they’re introduced.

VesperArcade has taken to YouTube to help clarify what these changes actually mean. The characters in question here are Ryu, Ken, Cammy, Akuma, and Juri, because Necalli already follows this new DP model in Season 2. Light Shoryukens already have throw invincibility, meaning that on wakeup (or otherwise), a light DP will hit a throw attempt. While medium DPs will not regain their initial frames of complete invincibility, they will gain total invincibility against air attacks, cementing their use as reliable anti-airs, as well as counters for other moves that have the airborne property. Heavy DPs are getting strike/projectile invincibility starting on frame 3–meaning they still aren’t an invincible anti-meaty reversal (unless the meaty is poorly timed), but can break into a wide frame trap or “fake” blockstring, or punish a blockstring that ends in a projectile at too-close a range and has a large enough frame gap. EX DPs will be unchanged, with invincibility on frame 1–for the price of some meter.

Check out the full video for further details, and Necalli-based demonstrations of these situations!

Source: VesperArcade

Explore what the Red Cyclone needs to do to escape divine immolation.

Is it Zangief’s worst matchup in Street Fighter V? In terms of concept, what could be worse for a dedicated grappler than a character built specifically for long-range combat? Thus the “flame that lights the way” has been a tough opponent for ‘Gief since Street Fighter II.

In the latest episode of Muscle Memory, Mr. Slay n man examines how to approach this troublesome matchup with the Red Cyclone. As per usual, the lengthy exploration starts with some basic tech versus tech in neutral, and expands to general discussion of counter-strategy, closing with a look at top-level play of the matchup. Joe Munday (author of Gief’s Gym) and anhdeptrai are on deck to assist with this one.

Check out prior episodes of Muscle Memory to prepare for these other SFV matchups:

• Vega, Ken
• Birdie
• Alex

Source: MrSlaynman

Last weekend saw the conclusion of the Killer Instinct Ultra Tour and my, what a tournament it was. With players coming from North America, Europe and Asia to compete for the title of Killer Instinct World Cup champion, it was a stellar showing of both high level Killer Instinct play and of the community’s drive and devotion to their game.

The overall winner was Darnell “F3|Sleep” Waller, earning himself the KIWC Champion title to go alongside with his Evo 2016 trophy. Sleep’s run through Winners was mighty impressive, only dropping a single game to UA|Bass before Winners’ Finals. From there, he had his work cut out for him with a heart-in-the-mouth five game set with BH|Thompxson, before squaring off against Storm179 with another game 5 situation. Sleep’s nerve held, with his ARIA triumphing over Storm’s Hisako and earning him that double crown.

Storm’s second place is not to be overlooked however, as he defeated top level threats like Thompxson, UA|Wheels and even double eliminating first seed for the tournament Circa|Nicky. His Hisako is one dangerous spirit and with the upcoming release of Shin Hisako next week (possibly earlier), be prepared for more of this ghost girl at future KI tournaments. Thompxson’s third place is nothing to sneeze at either, with it taking the combined force of Sleep and Storm to stop his streak of 3-0 victories. Even then, Thompxson’s Jago took them both to game 5 so expect this tiger warrior to be hungry for more at Combo Breaker.

Elsewhere in bracket, MT|LetalisVenator pumped up the crowd with his rock solid Aganos play, earning a seventh place finish with a character dwelling in the doldrums of low tier. Some of his setups using Aganos’ walls were a sight to behold, dealing upwards of 60% damage with a single combo. His match against RavenIsRaw was particularly brutal, looking like a stone-cold killer against Raven’s poor Spinal.

While actually getting sent into bracket via DQ–and possibly due to oversleeping thanks to Daylight Savings Time– last year’s winner Rico Suave was able to make it all the way to seventh place as well, eventually falling to Nicky in a tense 3-2 set. Sleep actually follows in Suave’s footsteps with his victory at KIWC, becoming the second KI player to win both Evo and Killer Instinct World Cup.

Wheels’ vast character knowledge did him justice in top 64, with his revolving door of characters earning him victories against Selfless|Fiyah Liger, LCD and LetalisVenator before eventually falling to Storm and earning fifth. While Tusk lead the charge for a large portion of his tournament life, Sabrewulf, Orchid and even Gargos got their licks in during KIWC.

Puddle punching his way to fifth place and earning his rank as the world’s best Glacius, BH|Waterhorses defeated players like the UK’s HW|Valoraxe, France’s TDB|LeChatNoir as well as Wheels, before being sent to Losers’ by Thompxson. His final match versus Nicky was yet another close call, with the Ultratech killing machine just clutching it out over the alien iceman 3-2. For the full results and standings, make sure to look through the KIWC 2017 Challonge page for all of the action in top 64.

Overall, Killer Instinct World Cup was a phenomenal event in terms of action, production and excitement, so congrats to everyone involved for making it such a stellar event. KIWC will be returning in 2018, with the third round of the Ultra Tour starting with Combo Breaker and CEO 2017. You can watch relive all the top 8 matches by watching the videos below, with all of top 32 also available on Team Spooky’s YouTube channel. Fight on!

Sources: Challonge; Team Spooky