Korean arcade stick levers have been rising in popularity this decade. While they have always been popular among Tekken enthusiasts for their fast returns to neutral, players like Ryan “Laugh” Ahn and Team Razer’s Seonwoo “Infiltration” Lee have popularized the stick for 2D fighters such as Street Fighter as well.
Given the need for information on the newest Korean variants, IPlayWinner reviewed three of the newest offerings. In their latest video, they review the CWL-309-Helpme, the CWL-309-MJ–both designed by Crown–and the FLF-ST–designed by IST. The latter of the two levers are Japanese mounted, whereas the CWL-309-Helpme is Korean mounted with its trademark neck. The differences do not rest just at the superficial mounting level, as each lever is different in its own way.
There’s something very distinct about watching a combo video for a game that most players have moved on from. It’s a bit of nostalgia, but it’s also a rush of fun. It gives the sense that this game is being played purely for fun and love of the game, as opposed to playing a game just because it’s new and everyone else is playing it.
Today, PIE|Smug took to YouTube to show off a lot of what he could do in Street Fighter’s recent past. These Dudley combos are creative, destructive, and difficult. It’s almost a work of art, seeing a good Dudley player deliver. Smug does clarify that he is still playing and enjoying Street Fighter V, and that he’s just doing this because he wants to.
While he may not be as flashy as fellow 3rd Strike veteran Urien, an accomplished Alex can be a sight to behold in Street Fighter V. Alongside players like Gunfight, Circa|LPN and Donpachi, TheCool Kid93’s Alex is doing the Brooklyn brawler proud, as seen in his latest Alex compilation.
His corner control is what really stands out in this compilation, forcing the opponent into the corner and then not letting them free until they’re knocked out. All it takes is a single good read and it’s a round for Alex. The mega parry at the beginning of the video, where TCK93 parries two V-Trigger Fuharenkyakus and a Critical Art from Juri is pretty damn impressive too.
Editor’s note: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the writer, and do not reflect Shoryuken.com as a whole.
DNL|Chris Tatarian is one of three American players, alongside FOX|Julio Fuentes and BCW|Brenttiscool, who are considered part of the Ken Trinity. He is the second of the Trinity–after Julio Fuentes–who has found his way into Capcom Cup by way of points.
With two of them headed to Capcom Cup, will one of them take the title in Anaheim? Further, will it be Chris?
Come at Me
While Chris has great, relatively safe pressure with Ken, one of the things he does best is reacting to his opponent. You’ll often see that a lot of his damage comes off anti-airs, jump-ins over fireballs, and whiff and block punishment.
Even better, Tatarian does well at creating the illusion of opponents needing to do things he can easily react to. This is likely the thing that makes Chris most dangerous in the game; he forces others to act, then takes advantage of his ability to react. The reduction of input lag since the early days of Street Fighter V is only going to make Tatarian an even greater threat in this department.
The Brotherhood
One of Tatarian’s–and Fuentes’, as well–greatest assets going into Capcom Cup is having his brother in arms in the hunt with him. While they are still competitors whose individual aims will be to win the event, both will want to see the other do well if one of them is eliminated. They will likely be talking things over before their respective matches and bouncing theory and matchup data before they enter the fray–unless of course they are facing each other!
Further, they will likely see Brentt “Brenttiscool” Franks in attendance as well–despite him not making it into the tournament itself. The three will likely be working together to see one of the Trinity make it to top 8.
Infrequent Flyer
Chris Tatarian is ready to win tournaments. However, the tournaments he has proved that fact at are generally lower level. The events he has won have been locals–such as Wednesday Night Fights–or majors where the most international competition he faced was south of the border in Mexico. When he has faced up against players from Asia, he has not fared as well.
The only event where he has made Top 8 with an Asian player involved was a 3rd place finish at First Attack in Puerto Rico, where he lost to both HM|Go1 and /r/kappa|John Takeuchi. Despite winning against Go1 on winners side, he lost to him in loser’s finals, which implies one of two things: either Go1 picked up on some pattern in Tatarian’s play, or Tatarian lost his nerve.
It’s not just Asia that have Chris T’s number either–when he travelled to UK for VSFighting 2016 he was left stumped in Grand Finals after resetting the bracket against fellow Capcom Cup qualifier AWS|CCL. He did blaze through the rest of the bracket however, suggesting that only Europe’s upper echelons will be able to face him down come the grand event.
While his finishes just outside of top 8 at SoCal Regionals and Red Bull Battlegrounds are respectable, they are just simply not confidence-instilling going into Anaheim. Although his new sponsorship with Denial eSports will give him more opportunities to travel and play against the best next season, future holdings do nothing for his current prospects.
Final Thoughts
Chris Tatarian has a lot going for him. But he’s just not ready for the field he’s about to take on. His results at Japan Cup are a glaring reminding of how much work he needs to put in during the coming year.
Though Chris T is one of the best Kens around, Julio Fuentes is who I see having the most potential in Anaheim out of the Trinity. I honestly expect Tatarian to go 0-2 in this event, maybe 1-2 depending on who his first round match is against.
Buried in Pokkén Tournament is something akin to the instant blocking mechanic normally seen in games like BlazBlue and Guilty Gear–and it wasn’t discovered until about three weeks ago, by Japanese player Uho.
It’s easy to miss what’s happening in the above video if you aren’t looking for it. In the first example, Pikachu blocks R.Pika’s Counter Attack and grabs. Nothing special. The second clip is exactly the same situation, but Pikachu’s grab punishes the CA, causing a critical hit. The reason for this? Pikachu’s block in the 2nd example wasn’t just an ordinary block–it was a block coming from a canceled homing attack. These very specific blocks, intentional or otherwise, shave off a hefty amount of block stun.
And it works for every homing attack in the game, it seems.
Many important applications. This one isn't a punish, but leaves you at advantage in a situation where you're otherwise negative. pic.twitter.com/pCMt5ghNSs
It’s not just homing attacks, either. It’s anything that cancels into shield–for example, Machamp’s command grab. This potentially means Machamp can flat out ignore frame traps (in both phases!) from reactable counter-piercing moves, like Charizard and Shadow Mewtwo’s divekicks.
I confirmed with Thulius that the window for this frame-shaving property does not last as long as you hold the shield.
@CrowCrowters it's a small window after the homing cancel. Lenient enough to be practical, but not 100% free.
No one has sat down to find out the exact number of frames the instant block window is yet, but given the excellent documentation on the frame data in Pokkén thus far, I imagine that won’t be a mystery for much longer. This is assuming, of course, the window is the same for every character!
Here’s the latest full character tutorial hosted on ShoryukenTube as part of Rising Up, focusing on the full range of Nash’s tool set. Bread and butter punishes and confirms, counter-hit setups and damage optimization, fireball answers, frame traps listed by delay, meaty pressure, setups, and more. If you want to learn Nash, this should be a one-stop resource.
My own Street Fighter V bread and butter combo videos are by far my most popular YouTube videos. However, the vast majority of them were made during the third SFV public beta test. While almost no serious balance changes were made between that beta and release, certain damage values were incorrect and the players have had a lot of time to develop. The initial videos were made based on my own training mode findings and nothing else, and were fully featured around combos. I asked around, and have decided to flesh them into full character guides, now including a basic game plan I’ve summarized from watching a lot of pro matches. This video contains everything I’ve ever observed about Nash.
I’ll be aiming to launch a new character tutorial every Monday, until all 22 characters are covered. I intend to do the characters in order of most to least popular; next is Karin. Remember to subscribe to the Shoryuken channel, and keep an eye out for future videos!
In a post over at the Japanese CFN Portal, Capcom has announced that Street Fighter V’s servers will be going down for maintenance this Wednesday, November 30. The downtime will take place from 6:00 PM to 11:00 PM Pacific.
This maintenance comes just two days before Capcom Cup at the PlayStation Experience. Whether this means that something special will be added to the game in time for the event is unknown. With Akuma supposedly playable at PSX, this could be related to him, allowing him for their demo builds at the show. That said, there’s also the chance that this is just for the removal of the CPT and Halloween DLC items from the store.
One of the biggest complaints about The King of Fighters XIV is how the game looks–many have compared its graphics to a PS2-era fighter, and cite that as a reason to denounce the game altogether. Some fans simply think the old sprite-based artstyle did a better job.
To attempt to remedy this perception, SNK will be showing off version 1.10 at PlayStation Experience, which is bringing some significant visual overhauls to KOF XIV.
Fans have been giving this a side-by-side comparison to the current 1.05 build of the game, clearly noting the significant differences in appearance. The difference is both obvious and welcome.
Capcom Fighters took to Twitter this morning to point fans to the full Capcom Cup 2016 bracket as posted on Challonge. Now we can see how the battlefield looks:
Naturally, this bracket isn’t set in stone and is subject to possible changes before the fights start on December 3. Be sure to check out Corey “Missing Person” Lanier’s ongoing series of Capcom Cup Player Analysis features to learn more about the competitors and their chances of taking the top spot.
UPDATE: it looks like the bracket will already be changing, as AWS|CCL apparently can no longer attend:
Oh well looks like I won't be playing @XianMSG, I can't go to capcom cup after all I'm so sorry everyone @CapcomFighters
One of the big milestones at Evo 2016 earlier this year was the Street Fighter V finals being broadcast on mainstream sports network ESPN2. Now, it seems that Street Fighter will once again return to ESPN2–this time with Capcom Cup 2016.
In a recent episode of ESPN SportsCenter, an announcement was made during the shows closing giving details of the broadcast. Capcom Cup will be broadcast on ESPN2 on Sunday, at 8:30 PM Eastern time (5:30 PM Pacific).
IGN’s Senior Manager of Ad Operations Aaron “Kapwan” Smith was able to capture some offscreen footage of the announcement from SportsCenter which he shared on Twitter. You can see this announcement below.
It’s interesting to note that this isn’t a live broadcast, with Capcom Cup taking place the day before. That said, this should still help the event–and fighting games in general–reach a wider audience.
I'm so sorry everyone