Everyone has a fighting chance
Vega was relatively strong in Season 1 of Street Fighter V–but grossly underrepresented, and still suffering from flaws. However, the character received a lot of key buffs in Season 2, and is thus looking even stronger this time around.
In this video, Apolo shows off some of the changes to Vega in this version, and how to use them to your advantage. There a lot of new setups that require little to no risk to Vega that make him even deadlier than before.
Source: Apolo Loussalier
We’ve heard about Mango’s path to Genesis 4; now let’s here about Armada’s. The Best of All Time to Mango’s Greatest of All Time, the Genesis rivalry is currently at two tournaments to one going into next week, as Armada was able to snatch victory at last year’s event. With Hungrybox seemingly out of commission for really threatening the top spots, it may be fate that Mango and Armada are set to clash in the Grand Finals of Genesis 4.
Even nicknamed “The Terminator” by Mango, Armada can seem absolutely unstoppable when he is on form. His lowest placing in 2016–not including the one forfeit at EGLX 2016–was fifth, and he is currently on a tournament winning streak, winning the last five tournaments back-to-back. Having said this, Mango and Armada have traded sets throughout 2016, so any potential clashes will be explosive.
There isn’t long to wait, with Genesis 4 kicking off next Friday, so get ready for a jam-packed weekend of sensational Super Smash Bros. Melee.
Source: finallyjames
With Final Round XX, which takes place March 10-12 in Atlanta, Georgia, announcing that they will officially be a part of the Capcom Pro Tour 2017 Season in two months, many within the community are wondering if Street Fighter V needs a second balance patch–following last month’s Season Two update–before the competitive Season begins.
Citing characters like Nash, Ryu, F.A.N.G and even Rainbow Mika receiving a heavy amount of nerfs–while already-powerful characters like Guile and Urien were given a hearty amount of buffs–as possible justification for another round of tweaking, as well as Battle Director Woshigie’s comments to Yahoo! Esports that the Season Two balance changes would not be “What players are expecting,” (which could be seen as a contradictory statement, as Capcom had been promoting that SFV’s balance philosophy would be to focus primarily on buffing weaker characters to the level of the top tiers, as opposed to hitting them with heavy amounts of nerfs to bring them down closer to the middle of the pack). One of the slides at their Evo panel even stated that one of their “Lessons Learned,” was to “Don’t greatly nerf characters, buff the weaker ones instead,” to ensure that there is “large character diversity in each tournament.” Additionally, we have Akuma, as well as the other five yet-to-be-revealed new challengers for Season Two, who will automatically alter the meta and tier lists simply with their presence alone.
While balancing a fighting game is certainly not an easy–or enviable–task, VesperArcade suggests that perhaps Capcom should utilize a public test server (similar to what can be seen in games like Overwatch) to allow players to try out potential changes that Capcom wants to make, and having the opportunity to leave their individual feedback for the development team to take into consideration; as similar to what they did on the Capcom-Unity Forums for the creation of Ultra Street Fighter IV.
“It just looks like Capcom has their own agenda when it comes to balancing, and I think we have some very smart people in our community that can give very valuable feedback and insight on making all the characters fair, and especially, fun. That is the key word: fun,” Vesper said. You can catch his entire video on this topic below.
So what are your thoughts on this hotly-debated topic? Do you feel Capcom should stick to their word of only doing balance patches in-between CPT seasons, and that we need to let everything play out before jumping to conclusions, or do you think there are some balance concerns with the current version of the game that should be addressed before the Pro Tour starts heating up? Feel free to let us know in the Comments below!
Source: VesperArcade
Regaining your composure during a close set is one of the hardest things to do at the highest level of competition. With all eyes on you–with money and prestige on the line–coming back from that mental brink can be almost impossible. In the latest episode from Last Stock Legends, the crew document the case of how putting on headphones and immersing yourself in an album can leave you jamming your way to victory.
The set in question is the Losers’ Finals of The Big House 3, where Super Smash Bros. Melee gods Hungrybox and PPMD battled for third place and their relative positions within the Melee pantheon. It was a southern showdown that had played out over several events, with Hungrybox taking the initial wins until PPMD finally cracked the Jigglypuff/Falco match-up, resulting in a series of wins for the doctor. So, with a convincing loss in game 1 of Losers’ Finals, Hungrybox was at the precipice of this mental break.
Delving into his pocket, he pulled out his headphones, whacked on “Yeezus” by Kanye West and the rest is now history. Delivered from the perspective of Hungrybox, as well as from commentators Scar and Toph, the three recount the rest of this historic set and how heavily amping yourself up can effect both you and your opponent’s performance over the course of a long set.
Source: Last Stock Legends
There were a batch of free themes that were made available recently, but there are still more themes coming in. We now get access to the Psychic Girl, Mai Shiranui and Mexican Fighters themes, which were initially only available in PlayStation Network stores outside of the US.
In addition to these, we also got a pretty slick Samurai Showdown VI theme a few days back, going nicely along with the recent port of that title to PS4. All of these themes are free, bringing the total free King of Fighters XIV themes up to 13; be sure to snap them all up while they’re available.
Source: PlayStation Network
There’s always something sad about a final episode of anything. It’s a time for reflection and gives a sense of completion to our journey. Today, we witness the completion of one of the most helpful Guilty Gear resources active today, a series that helped many get a better grasp on their fundamentals. The series creator, novriltataki, also put his efforts into Guilty Bits for the pre-Xrd Guilty Gear scene. He had Airdash Academy as another project for general anime fighter mechanics, along with a Killer Instinct Mini Guide, all of which are available in YouTube playlists on his channel.
The final episode in the Guilty Gear Crash Course series covers Blitz mechanics in -REVELATOR-, and only -REVELATOR-. The previous version of Xrd works differently, and the video focuses solely on the latest version. Blitz Shield is essentially a parry that costs meter, one that needs to be used very carefully in order to get its full benefits. Blitz Attack is the same way, but with a slew of other functions to memorize.
And with that, Guilty Gear Crash Course comes to a close. If you’d like to go back and rewatch old episodes–or maybe experience them for the first time–be sure to follow this link to the Crash Course playlist. The end of the video promises a new series starting soon, so we do have more to look forward to.
Source: novriltataki
If there’s any player primed to take Ibuki to new heights in Street Fighter V’s second season, it’s Majorboy. We’ve already showcased some amazing play from this amazing player in a previous article. However, it seems that one article isn’t enough to showcase his talent!
In this new video, once again from XusesGB, we see Majorboy taking on Poongko from Team Secret, as well a Yu5ririn. Along the way he showcases some amazing combos and tech, the highlight of which may be a 3-bar V-Trigger combo that he does on Yu5ririn at around 9 minutes and 56 seconds into the video. That said, both Poongko and Yu5riri are no slouches either, themselves showing off some amazing moves with Urien.
Source: XusesGB via r/StreetFighter
If there’s any player primed to take Ibuki to new heights in Street Fighter V’s second season, it’s Majorboy. We’ve already showcased some amazing play from this amazing player in a previous article. However, it seems that one article isn’t enough to showcase his talent!
In this new video, once again from XusesGB, we see Majorboy taking on Poongko from Team Secret, as well a Yu5ririn. Along the way he showcases some amazing combos and tech, the highlight of which may be a 3-bar V-Trigger combo that he does on Yu5ririn at around 9 minutes and 56 seconds into the video. That said, both Poongko and Yu5riri are no slouches either, themselves showing off some amazing moves with Urien.
Source: XusesGB via r/StreetFighter
A new year, a new series of the Jump-In Podcast. To kick off a year’s worth of FGC discussion, Kim1234 and Logan Sama are joined by French Laura main Saunic to talk mainly about how the elder Matsuda sibling performs in Season 2 of Street Fighter V, among other subjects. Seeing as Wolfkrone just took KiT 2017 with her, there is certainly the potential for this character to do major damage in this season.
Along with talking about the changes to Laura from Season 1 to 2, the group talks about general Season 2 changes, who to look out for in 2017 on the Capcom Pro Tour, who are the potential threats coming out of Saunic’s current home of Hong Kong, as well as a quick discussion of Cooperation Cup and the super-engaged crowd watching 3rd Strike. Let’s hope that the new characters in Season 2 can bring some of that energy to Street Fighter V.
Source: The Jump-In
The Street Fighter series is no stranger to unusual interactions due to weird hitboxes; as such, this new glitch discovered in Street Fighter V should come as no surprise.
In the video below, none other than Echo Fox’s Justin Wong himself demonstrates how, after blocking Nash’s crouching roundhouse sweep, Akuma’s Raging Demon critical art will somehow not connect. Akuma just stands there in his teleport pose in front of Nash.
Can someone explain this to me? Why did my Raging Demon whiff against Nash? Capcom PLZ!
https://t.co/N6lXnBvj5N
— Echo Fox Justin Wong (@JWonggg) January 9, 2017
Exactly why this happens is unknown. The theory is, however, is that Nash is being put into pre-jump frames by the recording. This theory is supported by this video by Tanim Ahmad showing how you can avoid the Raging Demon simply by inputting a jump as soon as Akuma speaks during the pre-critical art animation.
Other folks have theorized that it may simply be due to throw invulnerability, as a number of moves in the game do have throw invulnerability on recovery which in turn affects other moves aside from the Raging Demon.
If either of the above is the case, then this really isn’t a glitch, but rather the game working as intended, but in a way that players may find odd.
Sources: Justin Wong, Obi Sikder via Tanim Ahmad