With Street Fighter V confirmed to receive a second balance patch next month, VesperArcade’s latest video takes a look at some of the characters he believes are the most deserving of buffs in this update. Specifically, Vesper proposes how he would improve Alex, F.A.N.G, Nash and Ryu.
For Alex, he suggests restoring some of his neutral tools. This would such as reverting his Medium normals back to their original state and improving EX Air Knee Smash as an anti-air, and possibly restoring his previous oki setups.
In the case of F.A.N.G, he feels that his poison is a “missed opportunity for something unique in Street Fighter V.” He feels that it is not threatening right now, with many players tanking his V-Skill, just to hit him and remove it, as opposed to dodging. However, Vesper also feels that it is currently too easy for F.A.N.G to poison enemies, preventing Capcom from making it powerful. He proposes a somewhat radical change of having F.A.N.G’s V-Skill be the only move in his arsenal that can poison, but it would do immense damage in a short period. This would force opponents to play F.A.N.G’s game, as well as causing players to devise more setups to land the V-Skill, creating a sense of urgency for players and spectators alike.
Vesper acknowledges Capcom’s attempts to make Nash into a more aggressive character in Season 2, to further differentiate him from Guile, but feels his mobility options were over-nerfed. He feels his 19 frame dash should be reduced to 17-18 frames, as well as returning his Season 1 V-Trigger, so he can have a limited defensive option.
With Ryu getting significant nerfs in every aspect due to the Season 2 changes, Vesper would like to see his zoning improved by altering the speed and/or damage of his Hadoukens, on top of making them safer, so he can deal with the improved anti-projectile attacks. Lastly, Vesper would also like to see Ryu gain Dash Cancels with his charged fireballs in V-Trigger, to give him some mind games.
With Street Fighter V confirmed to receive a second balance patch next month, VesperArcade’s latest video takes a look at some of the characters he believes are the most deserving of buffs in this update. Specifically, Vesper proposes how he would improve Alex, F.A.N.G, Nash and Ryu.
For Alex, he suggests restoring some of his neutral tools. This would such as reverting his Medium normals back to their original state and improving EX Air Knee Smash as an anti-air, and possibly restoring his previous oki setups.
In the case of F.A.N.G, he feels that his poison is a “missed opportunity for something unique in Street Fighter V.” He feels that it is not threatening right now, with many players tanking his V-Skill, just to hit him and remove it, as opposed to dodging. However, Vesper also feels that it is currently too easy for F.A.N.G to poison enemies, preventing Capcom from making it powerful. He proposes a somewhat radical change of having F.A.N.G’s V-Skill be the only move in his arsenal that can poison, but it would do immense damage in a short period. This would force opponents to play F.A.N.G’s game, as well as causing players to devise more setups to land the V-Skill, creating a sense of urgency for players and spectators alike.
Vesper acknowledges Capcom’s attempts to make Nash into a more aggressive character in Season 2, to further differentiate him from Guile, but feels his mobility options were over-nerfed. He feels his 19 frame dash should be reduced to 17-18 frames, as well as returning his Season 1 V-Trigger, so he can have a limited defensive option.
With Ryu getting significant nerfs in every aspect due to the Season 2 changes, Vesper would like to see his zoning improved by altering the speed and/or damage of his Hadoukens, on top of making them safer, so he can deal with the improved anti-projectile attacks. Lastly, Vesper would also like to see Ryu gain Dash Cancels with his charged fireballs in V-Trigger, to give him some mind games.
When you think of competitive fighting games within California, all eyes typically focus on Northern California and Southern California. There is still a scene in between those, and it is now getting its time to shine.
Cen-Cal Standoff, Fresno’s very first large-scale tournament, is shaping up to be an amazing event attracting people from across the state as well as Mexican and interstate competition. Already boasting players such as EG|NYChrisG’s and Fresno’s very own WFX|XsK_Samurai, the event also has $2,500 total in pot bonuses. $1,000 will go to Street Fighter V and $500 will go to Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, Super Smash Bros. Melee, and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U respectively.
The tournament will be held on March 4th at the Bitwise South Stadium, and registration is still live. The tournament will be streamed live on Twitch on tzn_gaming, kevin_ha, cazygamer, and frederico2057.
Source: Sierra Rudolph & Mike Gonzales (via email)
Mike “Elvenshadow” Boczar has made a name for himself by carving out a niche in the fighting game community: Having built a two-day major out of his famous Frosty Faustings event that started off as a small annual event in the Chicagoland area–the event has always featured Guilty Gear as the main event, and drawn a large crowd.
While at Frosty Faustings IX, we sat down with him to talk about what makes this event tick.
Corey “Missing Person” Lanier: Mike, you had another very successful year with Frosty Faustings. How are you feeling now that the dust is settling on the event?
Mike “Elvenshadow” Boczar: It’s a unique mix of accomplishment, success, and exhaustion. I’m running on four hours of sleep, and didn’t eat on the final day of the event until 9:30 at night. The tournament ran smoothly, and everyone seemed to have fun, so I’m really happy about that.
Missing Person: Frosty Faustings is one of the few events that features Guilty Gear so prominently in main-event status. How does it feel seeing the game you love so dearly receive all the attention and hype it gets here?
Elvenshadow: Well, you obviously have events like CEOtaku and Anime Ascension, but the reason I started this event was to build the Guilty Gear scene. I always wanted Guilty Gear to be in the spotlight. We had a lot of viewers this year, we had players from ten different countries come for this event. It’s just awesome. It makes me want to keep promoting Guilty Gear and getting more people involved in the game. A lot of people that watched the stream and stayed to watch top 8 got interested in the game, so that’s success.
Missing Person: Do you ever worry about losing viewers when Guilty Gear comes on as the main event, as opposed to more popular games like Street Fighter? Or do you believe that you can generate enough hype with Guilty Gear that the risk pays off?
Elvenshadow: The risk is absolutely worth it. Guilty Gear is what our event is known for. Other games obviously come with their own crowd, and they still generate and get a buzz from our event as well. We’re happy to see numbers for every game we run–and we ran 32 this year. But every year sees numbers grow for every game, and I’m happy for it, but it’s nice to see overflow during the event for the game I love.
Missing Person: What do you feel has been the biggest obstacle in bringing Guilty Gear to the forefront and being widely adopted in the west?
Elvenshadow: I think there are a few things. A lot of people just don’t even know about it. It isn’t heavily advertised here and so when people who aren’t involved in the FGC think about fighting games, titles that come to mind are usually Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat. Within the FGC itself, I think a lot of players are discouraged to try it out due to a perceived high barrier to entry. While the game does have some difficult things to execute, people who regularly can do complex combos in Marvel or land 1-frame links in Street Fighter shouldn’t have too much trouble as long as they are willing to put in some work in the lab. It’s all about first building the muscle memory and from there applying it.
I think once people get past that point, they can really start to enjoy the game more as they see improvement. GGXrd is much easier to get into compared to previous games in the GG series. I would say if you are the least bit interested, talk to people in your local scene that play it or people online and ask for advice. There are tons of great resources out there and many people are willing to help!
Missing Person: Frosty Faustings started off small. Can you talk about that for a bit?
Elvenshadow: Well, we initially started off in a small hotel venue. It was about half the size of the hallway of the venue we used this year. The next year, we ran it in the same venue, but had a bit more space. We then moved to Nickel City Arcade for three years. Then the year after that, we ran it at a game bar that is no longer in business. For Frosty Faustings VII and VIII, we ran it at another hotel, but this year’s venue was far bigger. Every year just grows exponentially.
Missing Person: How difficult was it planning the early events with you being located in Japan at the time? How has that changed since moving back to America?
Elvenshadow: Back when FF started out, it was during simpler times. Streaming tournaments wasn’t really common and we had no sponsors involved. It was mainly a matter of finding a venue, coming up with tournament list and schedule, and assigning roles to other staff members.
In some ways, it was easier because it was a smaller and less complex event, but the fact that I was halfway across the world with a 15 hour time zone difference from Chicago made things difficult at times. I had limited opportunities to make phone calls overseas, and when I did, I needed to use a prepaid phone card. Most of the coordinating with staff happened over forums and private messages but most conversations did not happen in real time. I did my best to keep up with what was going on in the local scene, but sometimes it was hard when I wasn’t physically there all year.
I think one of the biggest challenges was trying to change venues. We ran the event 3 years in a row at Nickel City (FF III-V) even when it was clear that after FFIV we had pretty much outgrown it. There weren’t many other options I knew of at the time, and hotel-hunting without being able to easily call and physically check the venue in advance made things difficult. Game Pazzo worked well for FFVI, but closed down soon after. For FFVII I was back in the States months before the event, so it was much easier to shop around for a bigger venue.
I’d say that now there are many new challenges we face every year, which is a result of the event growing and us wanting to make improvements. I spend much more time on planning than I used to. There’s a lot of work to do but the more we do it, the better we get at doing things more efficiently.
Missing Person: How big do you think it can get? Do you think Frosty could be a three-day event at some point?
Elvenshadow: We could, but we’re not sure if we want to. We like that our format is tailored to people who have difficulties traveling. That’s why I designed the schedules so that no games overlap between Friday and Satuday. You don’t have to worry about missing a day because of the possibility of your pool landing on that day. Instead, you can come for one day, play the whole way through, and you’re done. You can carry your own momentum through the bracket.
I think our format is really unique and cool. You can also go out and party on Saturday night, and not have to worry about catching an early morning flight the next day to go back to work with a hangover. But it’s something to consider where we could even run pools for the larger games on Friday night.
Missing Person: You had probably one of the most hype matches of the event in losers bracket with PG|MarlinPie. You were so close to clutching out the set. How did you feel in that final game?
Elvenshadow: I felt like it could’ve went either way. That second round started off really bad. I was knocked down right away with the drill because I tried to play it safe by backdashing. I had to play very defensively at that point, and had a burst at the end. I knew he was going to bait it, but I still did and regret it. I can’t feel bad losing to MarlinPie. He is a great player, and we always have great sets in tournaments. I’m happy I even made top 8.
Missing Person: How do you feel the west is doing in catching up to the Japanese players in Guilty Gear?
Elvenshadow: I feel like the skill gap between US and Japanese players in Xrd has been gradually getting smaller. If you compare the skill gap between US and Japan in Accent Core, we are definitely closer now than we used to be. I think it’s also a bit hard to judge accurately at times because there are only a few Japanese players that are coming over here frequently who compete in Xrd. We don’t often get to see how a lot of America’s best players do against a wider variety of Japanese opponents. Obviously Evolution is the exception and even with that we have seen a US player in top 8 both years Xrd has been present at Evo, with several other players getting close to top 8, and many Japanese players have lost to US players outside of top 8. I think we are on the right track and just need to keep working hard to improve.
I think the biggest things we can do to close the gap is to play a wider variety of opponents and play more often. Matchup knowledge is key in Guilty Gear due to how unique each character plays. Many scenes don’t have people playing certain characters so we have to rely on net play or traveling to other regions to learn every matchup well. Playing regularly is also important. It doesn’t matter how naturally good you are, if you don’t stay in practice, your skills will deteriorate or become stagnant. Japanese players have the luxury of regularly scheduled gatherings at arcades with a wide variety of talent and character variety at their disposal.
If we want to compete, we need to do our best to cultivate our scenes and train with a variety of people as often as we can. This also means making an effort to travel to events and play new people, even if you think you are going to go 0-2, attending just for the matchup experience and practice is worth it alone. Combining all that with regularly studying Japanese match videos, as well as studying your own matches, I think we will continue to see overall improvement in the US scene as long as we stay motivated and work together to get better.
Hopefully the gap in release time between Revelator 2 on arcade and console won’t be very long, so that we don’t fall farther behind in the new version, but I have a feeling the gap won’t be as bad as previous releases. Just remember that once REV 2 drops in arcade, we shouldn’t lose motivation to keep playing just because it’s not on console yet. Just because there will be some balance and system changes doesn’t mean that staying practiced up on the version we have right now won’t be beneficial, as most things will still carry over.
Over the past few days following its announcement, ELEAGUE and Capcom have now revealed the 32 fighters who are set to compete in the first ever ELEAGUE Street Fighter V Invitational.
As seen in the Tweet above, the 12 players in gold are the top 12 placers on last year’s Capcom Pro Tour leaderboard, while the four in green being the four highest placing players from each separate region. The remaining 16 players were chosen specially by Capcom and ELEAGUE, thanks to their presence and activity within the Street Fighter V community.
ELEAGUE have also revealed details on the tournament format and the broadcast schedule for players hoping to watch. Starting on March 27th and finishing on March 30th, all 32 players will compete in a series of four preliminaries, with the top six competitors from each group advancing onto the next stage. All matches in this preliminary stage will be best of three. Following that, the regular season will begin with the remaining 24 players splitting into four groups of six, with the next four Fridays seeing those groups battling it out against each other in best of five sets. From there, the top two players from each group will advance to the top 8 playoff bracket on May 26th, to determine the ELEAGUE champion.
ELEAGUE is certainly cutting the Invitational fine with other events, with Combo Breaker starting on that Friday and Red Bull Kumite kicking off on Saturday the 27th. Players better have some back up plane tickets, just in case they wish to attend ELEAGUE and another one of that weekend’s events.
Last weekend saw players from around Europe assembling in Gothenburg for BEAST 7, the continent’s largest ever Super Smash Bros. tournament. While not having as large an international presence as at BEAST 6, this year’s event saw some fierce fighting between European juggernauts as fighters from all nations try to desperately stop Mr. R from taking yet another continental event. The tournament also raised some serious questions about the future of Europe’s three stock format, as well as potentially ushering in a ban of a certain blonde haired swordsman to stop stagnation in doubles. Where it may not have had the dramatic highs of BEAST 6, BEAST 7 marks an important landmark for the growth of the European Smash 4 community.
Sweden’s Really Feeling It!
Famous within the host nation but relatively unknown outside of the frozen north, the real breakout of BEAST 7 was M, the Shulk main from Stockholm. Despite many considering Shulk a mid-tier character at best, M’s command of advanced Shulk techniques like MALLC and SADB made the Monado master look like a serious threat. M did not drop a single set on his way to top 8, defeating players like Finland’s best Little Mac ZartZu and third seed for the whole event Glutonny.
His first match in top 8 was against the breakout player from BEAST 6, the Dutch Greninja iStudying. With the home crowd on his side, this match was a gruelling five game series, with the momentum switching as frequent as M’s Monado Arts. However, with precise use of the Smash Monado to get kills as early as 70% from center stage, M was able to clutch out the win over iStudying and guarantee a third place finish for Shulks everywhere. To see a Shulk perform that well in a major outside of Japan is quite a sight, so expect a new wave of Swedish Shulks coming out of the woodwork soon.
M’s following sets were less successful, with Mr. R mopping the floor with him before you could say Monado. While lack of match up knowledge may work on other players, Mr. R’s Sheik didn’t even give M’s Shulk the chance to get into the groove and establish a lead. This continued into M’s final set with cyve, with the German Diddy flinging the swordsman around the stage like a ragdoll. Even a hasty Sheik pick could not break through the German defence, with M earning a respectable third place and becoming a beacon of hope for Shulk mains everywhere. Hopefully, he’ll have a vision of how to beat the top tiers for BEAST 8.
The New Blood and the Old Guard
As the nation with the second most players in the BEAST top 64, the UK was poised to make quite a showing on the podium. Even though UK number one Ixis was not in the trenches with his fellow countrymen, a mix of new blood and old guard threats like BEAST 5 winner J. Miller and the UK’s best Sheik DAT|Ho were set to place well in the final 64.
By Top 12, only three UK players remained: J. Miller, Aperture and DAT|KillerJawz. Miller was soon taken out by iStudying in Winners’ and was then eliminated in a very close set with Spanish Palutena/Fox player El_Pitikla. With KillerJawz and Aperture left, it was up to the combined forces of the Brawl old guard and the new blood brought in by Smash 4 to defend the UK’s honour in Top 8.
Aperture–widely regarded as the UK’s second best Sonic and a potential successor to Ixis–has seen amazing growth over the past year or so, racking up wins against some of Europe’s best players in tournaments both in and out of the country. For KillerJawz, BEAST 7 was his first tournament entry in over two years, having retired from competitive Smash to act as a teacher for UK players on the come up. Despite his absence from bracket, his Mewtwo is regarded as one of the best on the continent, with some calling him the UK’s hidden boss.
Aperture was coming into the final bracket with some big wins under his belt, having defeated ZartZu and top Peach Meru on his way to top 8. Unfortunately, starting in Losers’ made for a short-lived run, as his Sonic could not outwit the psychic powers of S1, Europe’s best Ness. With a great seventh place finish, it was up to KillerJawz to keep the hopes of the UK high. Having defeated third seed Glutonny to get into Top 8, it was his turn to get revenge on El_Pitikla for knocking out fellow old guard player J. Miller.
Despite some nerves in game one and innumerable air dodges, KillerJawz’ Mewtwo got a foothold and was able to avenge Miller with a 2-1 victory. His next game saw him fight cyve’s Diddy, which is a notoriously bad matchup for Mewtwo. Starting off with secondary Robin did not go well, forcing KJ back onto Mewtwo for the rest of the set. While he did take a game, the psychic cat could not overcome the mischievous monkey, sending the UK’s last representative out at fifth. It seems ever since Miller’s win at BEAST 5, the UK is stuck with fifth place finishes, with ED|wilksy15 also finishing off the UK’s bracket run at fifth during BEAST 6. Hopefully, third time will be the charm and the UK will finally break through to the final four in 2018.
Dutch Dominance
Yet for all the low tier heroes and returning old players, the Dutch still reign supreme when it comes to European Smash. With the Netherlands’ top three players in top 8, it was more the matter of who would draw the short straw and face Mr. R first in his race to yet another first place win. Dutch blood was spilled in an over 30 minute long set between iStudying and S1, with iStudying having to face cyve in Losers’ Semis in order to fight M.
The lone German combatant would not relent though, 3-0ing iStudying and M on his way to fight Mr. R in Grands. In a repeat of many European finals seen across for the past two years, Mr. R took the whole event, only dropping one game to fellow Dutchmen Meru in Top 64. With a win in doubles as well, Mr. R made yet a mint at BEAST for another year. Let’s make sure some US or Japanese players make it out to BEAST 8; this constant winning is getting a bit tedious–though Mr R’s consistency is both impressive and laudable.
Serious Cloud Cover
Speaking of tedious, doubles at BEAST was an overcast affair with almost every single match of Top 8 containing at least one Cloud. Both Winners’ and Grand Finals had three Clouds feature, resulting in the same strategy of the double Cloud team camping Limit while the other racks up damage and gains Limit that way. With several of the people playing Cloud having him simply as a pocket character for doubles, it raises the question whether he should be banned in order to increase team diversity.
It’s different to seeing double Fox in Melee, where that team relies on some level of previous training and co-ordination in order to dominate; players can pick up the double Cloud team and do well with little to no practice. Camping Limit automatically slows down the pace of matches, his Limit specials allow for easy kill setups off of a throw and there is almost no reason not to pick Cloud in doubles, as he works with every other character. With Smash 4 doubles not having the same level of reverence as Melee doubles, there is a severe shortage of dedicated teams who choose to use team compositions other than Cloud and another character.
In order to keep interest alive in Smash 4 doubles, I do feel a discussion has to be had about Cloud’s future in the format. There are several characters in Smash 4 who have massive untapped potential in doubles, but Cloud’s overwhelming strength is causing a fair degree of stagnation. Whether this comes as a soft ban on double Cloud teams or a complete restriction on the character remains to be seen, but action does need to be taken to enliven Smash 4 doubles.
The Death Knell of Three Stock
Along with Texas, Europe has been the bastion of the three stock format. With players citing that it doesn’t make games that much longer, it is better for the player experience and that good TOs should be able to account for the extra time, most EU events ran three stock with no issue. Initially, I too was a champion of three stock, clinging to the notion that “oh, the extra stock will encourage aggressive play, rather than encouraging camping.” Having been in the audience for Top 8 and watching the hype drain rapidly from the room over the course of each long set, I think it’s time three stock was put to bed.
Even the two sets that were best of three in Top 8 took over 9 minutes, with iStudying and S1’s Losers’ Semis set taking just over 33 minutes. That set for me will live on in infamy as the single set that cemented three stock as a failed experiment. Neither Ness nor Greninja are particularly campy characters but when each match is over 6 minutes long, you have a definite problem with your rule set. Unforeseen circumstances had already put the BEAST schedule behind by about an hour, with the Smash 4 Top 8 adding another hour and a bit onto the run time. There were also no real delays in terms of getting the Top 8 matches ready to go, the rule set itself just causes things to lag behind.
When there is already a negative stigma of Smash 4 being a slow game, this Top 8 only helped reinforced peoples’ misjudgements of the game. While two stock, best of three is a little on the short side, I feel two stock, best of five strikes the happy medium in providing players the ability to adapt over a long set, while not boring spectators to tears.
While the lack of non-European players and the three stock issue diluted the hype somewhat, BEAST 7 acted as a suitable milestone for the continued growth of the European community. There is a still a long way to go before more players can even challenge Mr. R’s continued rule of the continent, but the mid to high level of competition is heating up with every passing event. If Europe keeps improving at its current rate, BEAST 8 will not be one to miss.
Chun-Li has had several ways to confuse her opponent by crossing over and under them in Street Fighter V. Let’s just add another possibility to do so to the list, shall we?
While we have known she can cross under after an anti-air, and can cross over their knocked-down bodies with forward roundhouse, a setup to do so has been found with light Spinning Bird Kick. While this is entirely situational–requiring not only V-Trigger, but scoring a crush counter with back fierce–by timing your SBK properly, you can either cross over or stay on the same side of a quick rising opponent. This puts them into a 50/50 mixup that can deal a mass amount of damage.
As lab monsters continue to experiment with Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, yet another weird Brawl hangover has found to still exist in the game. Called ‘Shadow I-Frames’, these instances of brief intangibility happen when a special move transitions from the air to the ground on a specific frame. If timed correctly, players can avoid being hit on landing, but the number of moves these Shadow I-Frames exist with is painfully short.
Previously observed in Brawl with Donkey Kong’s up B, Shadow I-Frames only occur when a special move has unique grounded and aerial properties. In Smash 4, characters like Shulk and Little Mac have moves which are capable of activating Shadow I-Frames, but only Shulk can really apply them in a match. In a lengthy video created by Paradigm and Erico and with the help of the Shulk Discord, they show how Shulk players can use the Shadow I-Frames of his aerial Vision Counter to create interesting baits.
If Shulk players land on exactly the eighth frame of Shulk’s aerial Vision Counter, the Shadow I-Frames will persist for the rest of the move’s animation. This creates situations where Shulk players either bait players into activating the counter, or cause them to throw out a punishable move, as they do not realisze the Shulk is currently intangible. Do note that while the first usage of this can result in up to a second of intangibility, Shulk’s counter does depreciate in length the more you use it, so the I-Frames won’t last as long.
Debow | Swillo is a top tier Pokkén Tournament player that truly loves his game. His credentials speak for themselves- 3rd at Evo, 4th at Nationals, 5th at St. Louis Showdown, and a proverbial boatload of smaller tournament wins all over the country. But it’s not just tournament play he’s good for- the man is a lab monster constantly looking to push the game’s engine. We featured his work before with his tournament main MewTwo, and now he’s set his sights on the fire starter Blaziken.
Am I allowed to say this is fire? Is that bad? Whatever. It’s too late. I did it.
Despite representation from top tier players like BadIntent and AngelDarkSong, Blaziken generally finds himself near the bottom on accepted Pokkén tier lists. But that’s only because on the attack triangle Pokkén uses (Attack > Throw > Counter > Attack), Blaziken places all his bets on his relentless attacks and high damage combo starters. On top of that, his one thing- high octane offense- costs him health to use. This video shows why he has to pay a price for his damage. He may struggle to hit you, but when he does, you’ll feel it… and as Swillo shows, he can burn you up in style.
Starting off slow with beginner combos, Swillo quickly turns up the heat with a wide variety of flashy, phase shift pushing flair. You’ll see lowest-height possible High Jump Kicks to create new combo opportunities near the wall. Execution heavy charge-release flop enders. Multiple low dive kick links in the same combo. Over half screen carrying juggles. And if you’re willing to spend Blaziken’s health currency to enhance your moves, these combos will quickly shave off 45% or more on your opponent’s lifebar easily.
As demonstrated, Blaziken’s damage output doesn’t care what tier you place him in.
The most recent addition to Brawlhalla has been reaping her way through players left and right. With such a powerful moveset, players are rushing to get the hang of her, and learn to use her to her full potential. One such player is Berthen, who has now uploaded guides and gameplay for the character.
Here you can see a short guide on her normals and spacing:
He also put together this longer guide, going more in-depth into the frame data, and all of the character’s moves:
Lastly, we have some high-level gameplay, featuring the character going through ranked online, to reach the highest rank available in the game.
