Category: Fighting Games

Posted on

TSM|ZeRo Draws First Blood for 2017 at 2GGC: Genesis Saga

Starting as he means to hopefully go on, TSM|ZeRo has claimed the first spot in the 2GG Championship Finals, with a victory at 2GGC: Genesis Saga. With no Saga Curse to work against him, ZeRo was operating at his max power for this tournament, taking the event from Winners’ Side. For the most part, his path to victory was unopposed, defeating eM|Elegant, SS|Mr. E, eM|Zenyou, CLG|VoiD and 2GG|komorikiri in top 48 to take the whole tournament. His only close match was against Zenyou in Winners’ Semis, going to game 5 and clutching out the win with a crucial edgeguard against the SoCal Mario. Mario players seem to have ZeRo’s number as C9|Ally, IMT|ANTi and now Zenyou have all given the current world number one a fair share of trouble in recent tournaments. Zenyou seemed to be channeling ANTi during the set, even landing ANTi’s infamous ladder combo from The Big House 5 to take game 3 against ZeRo. Watch out for this plumber next week, I tell you.

His opponent in Grand Finals, 2GG’s own komorikiri, had a dicey run to reach that final match, dropping down to Losers’ bracket uncharacteristically early on after losing to Fox main Eon. He then had to battle through an absolute onslaught of players, taking down 2S|Scizor, FS|Fatality in an explosive five game set, RNG|Dabuz, MKLeo’s cousin Javi, fellow Sonic player Circa|6WX, Zenyou, Tweek and VoiD to make it all the way to Grands. His final two games versus Tweek and VoiD were particularly close, with komorikiri squeaking out 3-2 wins over both US contenders. In the Cloud mirror versus Tweek, it was all down to who kept stage and Limit advantage the longest, with komorikiri eventually taking control and closing out the set with a two stock in game 5.  While he may not have won Singles, at least he and FOX MVG|MKLeo took victory in Doubles, with their dual Cloud team looking borderline broken in the face of the competition.

Against VoiD, he switched off Cloud by game 3, opting to use the Blue Blur Sonic for the rest of the set. Even with this character switch, VoiD remained relentless with a two stock victory in game 4 to force yet another game 5 showdown. It looked like VoiD was set to guarantee a second place finish, with komorikiri being at over 105% before VoiD took any damage on the final stock of the set. Unfortunately for Hawaii’s hero, Rage looks fit to swap VoiD’s fourth place curse for the third place curse in 2017, rewarding komorikiri with the victory as VoiD died to a Sonic up air on the center of Duck Hunt at 64%.

The Duck Hunt stage seems to like VoiD in one set, then despise him in the next. VoiD racked up another win against MKLeo in Winners Semis, with the set being decided by VoiD’s decisive victory on the stage to clinch the series 3-2. VoiD is now positive in sets against MKLeo, with one win here and another at 2GGT: ZeRo Saga.

MKLeo was looking quite comfortable before facing VoiD, winning against Mewtwo main Rich Brown 3-1 in the first round of top 48, before having to fight against his cousin Javi in Winners’ Quarters. There was no familial mercy in this set, with Leo defeating his cousin 3-1 before his fight with VoiD. In Losers’, it was another Cloud mirror as Leo had to fight off Tweek to stay alive in bracket. After some back and forth for the first three matches, Leo decided to switch to his other swordsman Marth to try and claw back the set. While his Marth has worked wonders before, Marth’s Falchion could not match Cloud’s Buster Sword, with MKLeo losing 3-1 to Tweek and finishing at fifth place.

Cloud players were definitely acting as gatekeepers for the whole of top 8 of Genesis Saga, with both 6WX and YG|JK losing to Cloud in Losers’ Side, earning them both seventh place. While he may not be breaking his Limits in winning a US major anytime soon, he’s certainly going to stop anyone else from doing it.

With top threats like Mr. R, ANTi, MSF|Larry Lurr, NRG|Nairo and more absent from 2GGC: Genesis Saga, Genesis 4 still remains anyone’s game. The spirit of Smash 4 remains as mischievous as ever, with the convergence of global talent guaranteeing upsets at the supermajor. You can check out all the top 8 games, as well as a smattering of Doubles match by watching the below playlist from 2GG’s YouTube channel.

RESULTS:

1. TSM|ZeRo (Diddy Kong, Sheik/USA)
2. 2GG|komorikiri (Cloud, Sonic/Japan)
3. CLG|VoiD (Sheik/USA)
4. Tweek (Cloud/USA)
5. FOX MVG|MKLeo (Cloud, Marth/Mexico)
5. eM|Zenyou (Mario/USA)
7. Circa|6WX (Sonic/USA)
7. YG|JK (Bayonetta/USA)

Sources: smash.gg; 2GGaming

Posted on

Unleash Your Inner Beast with This Valkenhayn BlazBlue: Central Fiction Tutorial

As BlazBlue: Central Fiction properly acclimated in the United States very recently, there’s still plenty of time to decide on another main or to consider a sub character. Since the cast is so large, it also pays off to learn another character just to get acquainted with their options.

Valkenhayn R. Hellsing is a character that intimidates most people, whether it comes to piloting the Hero or fighting him. He’s considered one of the stronger characters, considering the BlazBlue tier list by SKD. His wolf form allows quick traversal on the screen and to attack in an unpredictable manner, making it very difficult to react and block correctly. A good way to get started on controlling the character is by getting into his combos. BlackJaguarXD compiled a useful combo tutorial video which tells exactly how to perform a wide breadth of attack strings involving both forms.

Here’s some more advanced Valkenhayn combos; ArmorKiba is the person who did the video above.

Sources: BlackJaguarXD; @ArmorKiba; @DolfyIB; @dfaxcalamity

Posted on

Filipino Champ Continues to Stretch His Understanding of Yoga in This Street Fighter V Dhalsim Compilation

Panda Global’s Filipino Champ is the perennial Dhalsim main. He has yet to be pushed off this pick, and he is taking this horse far. As one of only two Dhalsim players in Capcom Cup, he still always manages to impress with the character.

In SFV Season 2, not much has changed–or has it? Has FChamp adjusted to the changes to Dhalsim, and will it be enough to make him an even bigger threat in 2017?

Source: XusesGB

Posted on

Panda Global Begin Listing Their Top 50 Super Smash Bros. for Wii U Players, with the Panda Global Ranking v2

It’s finally here folks. After a slight delay in proceedings, Panda Global’s second world ranking is finally being released for Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. Starting with numbers 50-41 today, the rankings will be released with a new batch of nine players being released every day until January 19th, the day before Genesis 4 kicks off.

These early rankings will be particularly volatile, with only four of the nine players in ranks 41-50 listed on last year’s PGR, with the rest being previously unranked. Two of the new contenders are Kirihara and Taiheita, Japanese players who really made an impact on both their local and international scene this year. As Japan becomes a more prominent region, it’s fair to expect more Japanese players creeping onto this list.

Check out the video below for a detailed explanation of each player pick and look out for continual updates to the PGR v2 as we approach Genesis 4.

Source: Panda Global (YouTube)

Posted on

PlayStation Teases Details on Injustice 2’s Story Mode

With the recent announcement of the Injustice 2 release date, and the reveal of Darkseid as a pre-order bonus on PSN, fans have even news to look forward to; more details about the superhero-themed fighter will appear soon on the PlayStation Blog. The console company tweeted out a small teaser:

By the looks of it, the tiny clip featuring Super Girl in a CG sequence could be either a teaser to a story trailer or an opening animation to the game. The “new threat” likely refers to the main villain of the game. A blog post is planned on the official PlayStation site.

The Injustice 2 account also shared a teaser with the same date, but a different graphic:

Stay tuned to Shoryuken as we provide coverage for the NetherRealm Studios title.

Sources: PlayStation; Injustice 2

Posted on

Did Ultra Street Fighter II’s Announce Trailer Sneak in a Peek at a New First-Person Mode?

One of the things that people are wondering about Ultra Street Fighter II is if there’s anything more than just what has already been shown. While a brand new, rebalanced, Street Fighter II revision is interesting, it’s not exactly something that people feel is worth the expected $40ish price. That said: the game’s launch trailer may have actually dropped a hint at other additional content that Ultra SFII might have.

It seems that some interesting footage was snuck in by Capcom at the 2 minutes and 8 seconds, mark, right before the words “a classic is reborn” appear. The footage shows Ryu taking on what seems to be a Shadaloo trooper. What makes it interesting is that the footage is from a first person perspective–Ryu’s, to be exact. Additionally, the action seems to be taking place in the Secret Laboratory stage from Street Fighter IV.

Is this a secret new gameplay mode that Capcom is including into Ultra Street Fighter II? Or could it even be a hint at another game that Capcom’s releasing for the series’ 30th anniversary? (With the various VR hardware options on the market now, maybe this is a new VR game?) Stay locked on to Shoryuken for more on this story as it develops.

Source: Street Fighter via Jared Gropper

Posted on

Rising Up: Season 2 Roundup — Important Changes for Ibuki, Balrog, Juri, & Urien

With Season 2’s release, most players payed close attention to the buffs and nerfs their main character received; but with 92 pages of notes, it’s quite time-consuming to go through every single character. So, I’ll be making some short videos demonstrating some of the important changes to each character, to allow players to more rapidly brush up on their new mains and opponents.

This is the final series of videos, with the final batch of characters not already addressed in my first four roundups: Ibuki, Balrog, Juri, and Urien. All four of these characters were DLC characters, and they were also the most recently-added characters, so they had the least amount of time to develop. Most of them saw very little play in both tournaments and online, so balancing them against the rest of the cast seems daunting. This is not a comprehensive list of all changes, simply the ones I deemed most significant to gameplay. I might have overseen the ramifications of certain minor changes, however, so if you feel I left out something important, feel free to leave feedback on the video for me and other viewers.

I’ve now covered every single season 1 character, so I’m done with this series until the next balance patch. Expect character tutorial videos and the next Rising Up video in the weeks to come, and subscribe to the Shoryuken YouTube channel.

Posted on

Tafokints Goes Over the Implications of a Super Smash Bros. Melee Port for Nintendo Switch in Melee Science

With the excitement of the Nintendo Switch reveals yesterday, the FGC is actually fixing its eyes on a new Nintendo system for the first time in ages. Most notably eyeballing the system is the Smash community, who can always expect something from Nintendo regarding the cherished series.

There are rumblings of a port for Super Smash Bros. Melee for the console. Whether it is a Virtual Console release or a physical release remains to be seen. However, Tafokints talked about the implications of a port on Melee Science, talking about how a port, if done properly, could not only revitalize the scene, but make it easier for Melee to be accommodated at events by making the game not dependent on CRT TVs.

Source: Yahoo! Esports

Posted on

Justin Wong Tweets His Impressions and Information on Ultra Street Fighter II

With a new iteration of the Street Fighter II series being developed and released by Capcom for the Nintendo Switch, a lot of the old school players are popping their heads out of hibernation with wonder about the game. Will they maintain what was already established through the numbered updates before? Will it be a good game? Will we get burned like a lot of people felt after the release of Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix?

Echo Fox’s Justin Wong was at the event and able to get his hands on the game. As he played, he was gracious enough to tweet out what he learned about the game. Some things that he noted were that you can tech throws instead of soften them as in Super Turbo, characters will have alternate costumes available on the select screen, Evil Ryu has a Raging Demon, and Violent Ken has a command dash. He also noted that the execution barrier has been lowered compared to Super Turbo, and that the old character codes do not work from Super Turbo, which may denote that old characters–versions of the cast that were from Super Street Fighter II instead of Super Turbo, changing some characteristics of the characters–are absent from the game altogether.

Source: Echo Fox|Justin Wong

Posted on

How Do You Like Me Now? Comparing The King of Fighters XIV’s Graphical Updates

Now that The King of Fighters XIV’s patch 1.10 is out, we can finally have a look at the changes that have been made to the graphics and lighting. There’s plenty to see, but thankfully YouTuber drawohkan has done the hard work for us, putting together a quick compilation of how each characters’ Climax move looks in the new patch.

With more than 50 characters to get through it’s just a quick glimpse of the change, but it should give you a good idea of just how much better KOFXIV is looking after the recent patch–which didn’t even include any balance changes. [And at least one soon-to-be-fixed bug. – Editor]

The focus was entirely on making sure it looked like a whole new game, and if you ask me, they nailed it.

Source: drawohkan