The modding community for Street Fighter V has come on leaps and bounds since the game’s launch on PC, with some standout mods like the multitude of Overwatch character swaps or Zangief being redone to look like Snake Eyez. While some modders focus on making new costumes, others are focused on bringing fan favorite costumes back for SFV.
While known for making more revealing costumes for Juri, Brutal Ace has recently released a trailer showing Juri in her original costume from her first appearance back in Super Street Fighter IV. If someone had been shown this trailer without a channel name underneath it, you would honestly think it was an official costume made by Capcom.
The mod is still a work in progress but expect a complete version of the legacy costume to appear on PC versions of Street Fighter V in the very near future.
Order versus chaos. Night versus day. Floe versus Mike Ross. These are some of the which will be eternally remembered by humankind. With the loss of Capcom Pro Talk and their friendly banter over who is better at Street Fighter, Floe and Mike Ross are back at it again for yet another first to six set in the arena that is Street Fighter V online.
Much like Floe and Mike’s conflict battle, the grand keeper of the CFN replay compilation XusesGB will always be there to bring these matches together into one collection for our viewing pleasure. This set is a close one in particular, as Floe’s Necalli takes Mike’s Laura all the way to game 11. You can only imagine the rage spewing forth from both sides of the screen as this struggle goes back and forth.
Guilty Gear is known for its creative and diverse cast, and Bedman is no doubt keeping that dream alive with his unique design. Being the only character with an 8-way airdash, ground dashes with autoguard, and two walkspeeds to choose from, maneuvering him can be difficult.
It’s important for such a bulky character with a lack of reversal options to keep his flow going. Bedman main TiamatNM continually provides a helpful collection of tech for this character.
We see some simpler concepts and combos above. Beyond that, there’s time stamped match videos of notable players, hard reads off a predictable opening gambit from Jack-O, and more.
For players who might be hitting a skill plateau with the character, there’s great ideas for some of the struggles of getting to higher level play:
Burst baits that cover several different burst timings:
After recently covering Bred, Dug, Jake and Simons, the CFN Portal site continues the Shadaloo Activity Report’s coverage of the members of Mad Gear seen in Final Fight, with Private Nakagawa now taking a look at the Gang’s pair of “knife nuts,” who would later go on to serve Rolento in the Street Fighter Alpha series following the organization’s fall, El Gado and Hollywood!
Private Nakagawa: Mad Gear’s knife nut. He’s fast and agile, and his Sliding Kick is sudden and unexpected. Before coming to Metro City he participated in guerrilla warfare.
Basic Info:
Name: El Gado
Height: 201 cm
Weight: 83 kg
Blood type: B
Birthday: May 2nd
Home Country: South America
Likes: Knife Throwing, Ajiaco
Dislikes: A certain Man [Rolento. They’re taking Final Fight Revenge’s story into account.]
Private Nakagawa: He competes with his friend Hollywood in the art of knife throwing. He’s feared even by his friends, because he always sleeps with an eye open. He doesn’t speak about his past, but it seems he has his reasons to be a member of Mad Gear … . [Namely, Rolento was responsible for the death of El Gado’s family, so El Gado infiltrated Mad Gear only to confront him.]
In addition to his appearance as an enemy in FF1, El Gado also appeared in Final Fight Revenge, a 1999 3D fighting game that was released to Arcades in July of that year, before being ported to the Sega Saturn in Japan on March 30th, 2000. The title saw ten characters from the original Final Fight (Cody, Guy, Haggar, Sodom, Poison, Hugo Andore, Damnd, Edi E., Rolento and El Gado) returning to Metro City as the result of the threat of a resurrected and zombified version of the gang’s leader, Horace Belger. In El Gado’s ending, he holds a knife to Rolento’s throat as he seeks to make him pay for the murder of his family and comrades. However, the general uses his silver tongue to talk his way out of the situation, offering to make El Gado “a very powerful man.” He seems to successfully name the guerrilla’s price, as he can be later seen assisting him with his Take No Prisoners when he makes his debut in Street Fighter Alpha 2 and even later during Ultra Street Fighter IV. We’ve included an arcade playthough of Final Fight Revenge with El Gado, so you can see how the Cuban knife-wielder fully translated to a fighting game, as well as his confrontation with Rolento in his ending.
This brings us to his partner, who also joined up with Rolento’s army and can also be seen during Take No Prisoners, Hollywood!
Private Nakagawa: Holly Wood is another knife nut. He is a cruel guy with a brutal personality who was charged with murder and sent to prison, but he escaped from jail and joined Mad Gear.
Basic Info:
Name: Holly Wood
Height: 202 cm
Weight: 85 kg
Blood type: AB
Birthday: January 3rd
Home Country: America
Likes: Knives, Dancing
Dislikes: Cops
Private Nakagawa: He’s surprisingly good at singing and dancing. He’s earned the name Holly Wood because of this. He’s skilled at handling knives against various opponents, raising a bloodbath. Apparently, murder is his art.
That brings us to the end of another pair of CFN Portal profiles, as two more members of the Mad Gear Gang are on the books! Stay tuned to Shoryuken for more CFN Portal profiles in the future! You can check out other members of the Mad Gear Gang here, as well as the lead-up to 200 Profiles, which included J and TWO.P.
Editor’s note: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the writer, and do not reflect Shoryuken.com as a whole.
Ryan Hart has been around the scene for as long as Evolution has existed, and even longer than that. The Prodigal Son has always returned stronger and stronger every time he’s seen in a tournament, proving to be arguably the United Kingdom, as well as Europe’s best player.
There were questions early on as to whether Hart would make it into the field of 32 at Capcom Cup this year. But now, with the perennial powerhouse making his way through via the European Leaderboard, how will Ryan fare?
Strength
There are so many strengths I can count toward Ryan’s favor. First, he has yet another out of the list that has played multiple games amazingly well. From Street Fighter, to Tekken, to The King of Fighters, to Virtua Fighter, Ryan has a history in some of the most competitive and technical fighters available. This automatically counts for something, as a lot of the skills translate over to various titles. Not only that, but having that experience allows Hart a smaller learning curve when training a new game.
And he has already proven that his prowess to learn a game is strong. Already he has bested some of the best in Street Fighter V, using a character with similar spacings that his Sagat required in Street Fighter IV. His Ken has already toppled great players such as Itabashi Zangief, OR|Nuki, CCL, and Daigo Umehara. If this shocks you given Ryan’s lower rankings in Street Fighter V, then you don’t know Ryan. He is a well-traveled player, and has seen and played these titans before in other games. He knows how to keep himself calm, and play his game.
One of the most notable moments of this was at Final Round 2014, where Ryan Hart toppled PR Balrog, after PR Balrog reset the bracket. Instead of getting inside his own head, Ryan Hart quickly made the adjustments he needed to counter his opponent, and take the title.
Let’s just say this, when his back’s to the wall, Hart is unfazed. He’s been around for decades. He knows this pressure, and can handle it. That alone could be an asset, but having a strong grasp of your character as well makes Ryan Hart a viable dark horse at Capcom Cup.
Travel
This is a double-edged sword, whereas with others, I would point this out as a flaw. Ryan has barely traveled this season like he has the other seasons. Much like most of Europe, he has only really shown up to the biggest events in America, such as Evolution. The rest of his tournament results have been in Europe, with one exception sending him to Kuwait.
However, when foreign players have made it to Europe, Hart has bested most of them that have lied before him in his path. While he has missed out a valuable international experience by not traveling this season, he is still a man capable of ruining a lot of brackets for people in Anaheim if they bet against him versus Japan, Korea, Taiwan, or China.
Tournament Wins, or Lack Thereof
While all these factors contribute to Ryan doing well, one thing is pause for concern. Out of fifteen events, Ryan has only won one. The one he did win was a local event in London. While this alone doesn’t say that Ryan cannot win, it does not bode well for his chances. He obviously has the tools to go deep into the bracket, but to win? The odds are stacked against him.
Final Thoughts
I love watching Ryan play and hate rooting against him. I have no doubts that he’ll turn some heads as the Prodigal Son returns to America to dole out more punishment to the unsuspecting victims left in his wake. I do have doubts that he’ll close out the entire tournament.
He is a definite wildcard, and a dark horse pick for me. He has the capabilities to make top 8, and the unknowns to go 0-2. I’m going to close my eyes, grit my teeth, and say that he makes top 16. I would love to see him travel more next season, and bring his amazing flair to the world.
Based the assumption that Akuma is joining the SFV roster soon (as this was recorded before the Famitsu interview linked above, casting doubt on that) Maximilian took to his YouTube channel and added this video as a follow-up to his recent video outlining what changes he wants to see in Street Fighter V–describing at length why he feels the addition of Akuma to SFV is so important, and what shape the Demon’s gameplay might take based on his previous incarnations. This is basically an open letter to Capcom to keep Akuma impressive and interesting, and not disappoint the players and fans by utilizing the V-system for a potential Akuma in the most boring, predictable ways.
Do you think Maximilian is on the mark, or way off? If we get an Akuma with a teleport V-Skill and a basic Raging Demon Critical Art, we’ll know Maximilian was right–in the worst way.
Unfortunate news for fans looking forward to see Brook|Misterio’s Karin in action at the Capcom Cup Finals next weekend, he is unable to make the event due to visa issues. As a result, the third place placing on the Latin America Points leaderboard, EG|K-Brad will take his place at the world finals at Capcom Cup 2016.
As a result of this player swap, only two Latin American players will be present at Capcom Cup; GAM|Dr Ray from the Dominican Republic and F3|Brolynho from Brazil. With K-Brad now tagging in for Misterio, he will face BST|Daigo Umehara in the first round of the top 32 bracket. The last time they fought was at OzHadou Nationals 14 back in August, where Daigo took it with a clean 2-0 victory.
Remember to keep your eyes locked on Shoryuken for all the details of Capcom Cup 2016, as it goes on next weekend from December 2nd-3rd at the PlayStation Experience in Anaheim, California.
Has Alex, as the first of Street Fighter V’s downloadable fighters, been forgotten admidst the hype over the Balrogs, the Guiles, the Uriens? Definitely not–the Street Fighter III favorite still has his supporters.
Xuses continues to find examples of impressive play from the Capcom Fighters Network–this time turning the compilation spotlight on Gunfight, to showcase some high-level Alex action. Aspiring grapplers: watch Gunfight’s Alex go up against Narikun’s Ibuki and ZOWIE|GamerBee’s Necalli–among others–in the video below.
Capcom Cup is almost upon us and soon, we will be seeing the world’s best Street Fighter V players compete for the largest prize pool this year. That said, just how much will the top placers at Capcom Cup be making?
For those wondering about this, Capcom has released the official breakdown of Capcom Cup’s prize pool on the Capcom Pro Tour site.
As they’ve previously announced, there will be $250,000 from the Capcom Pro Tour and its sponsors alone. On top of this, there is also the over $100,000 extra coming from sales of the game’s CPT downloadable content. Of the initial prize pool, $120,000 will be going to this year’s champion. On top of this, they will also be getting an as of yet undisclosed amount from the CPT DLC sales.
Meanwhile, second place will be receiving $60,000 and third place $25,000. As with the champion, they will also be receiving an undisclosed bonus from the CPT DLC sales.
How the CPT DLC prize pool bonus will be broken down is as of yet unknown. This is likely because the items in question are still available for purchase, and will be so until November 29.
Capcom Cup will be taking place on December 2 at the Esports Arena, before moving to the Anaheim Convention Center on December 3 as part of the PlayStation Experience. For those interested, tickets for day one are available at Ticket Fairy, and PlayStation Experience tickets are available over at the PlayStation website.
In my last article, comparing the balance of Street Fighter V and the King of Fighters XIV, it was pointed out in the comments (by Lab Zero’s Mike Zaimont, no less) that we may not have yet had enough time to fully judge the balance of both games. He has a point, and indeed fighting game history is full of games that took years before their true balance was figured out. That said, there were also those who pointed out that with today’s technology, metagames are being figured out faster than they used to be.
In a way, this is true, with today’s internet, games get much more exposure. High-level matches are seen by more people, thanks to live streaming and compilation videos. Meanwhile, any new things that people discover about the games are quickly disseminated through the same sites.
The question is then, how much faster are the metagames of fighting games being broken down? This is an interesting question as these days, updates and new versions of fighting games are also coming out much more quickly. Whereas ten or so years ago, when a fighting game would get played competitively for years, now they’re much more easily set aside for new and updated versions. The real question is whether or not fighting games are broken down and figured out fast enough before new versions come out, or if they’re put aside before their true balance is known.
The Three Phases of a Metagame’s Evolution
Before we even begin to answer this question, we need to first break down how a metagame evolves. We can usually break down the evolution of a game’s meta into three phases. The first phase occurs when the game has just come out. These are the first days, weeks, and months a game is in our hands, where we’re all testing and figuring stuff out–mostly using the genre’s basic conventions. There usually isn’t a tier list yet at this moment, or if there is one, it’s wrong–because at this point, the game is so new that its true balance has not yet been figured out, no matter how strong or weak certain characters may seem.
Phase two of a the metagame’s evolution happens when the game’s most obvious strategies have been figured out. At this point, we’re starting to get more creative in looking for tech; this is either to determine how to handle the current meta, looking for ways to counter top tier characters and strategies, or to find ways to bolster those same top tier characters and strategies. Now a good deal of a game’s competitive life can be spent in this phase, and depending on circumstances, its metagame may not move beyond it at all.
The third phase of the evolution of a metagame is something that’s a bit harder to reach: it’s where the game’s meta has evolved so much that it’s very different from what our initial impressions of the game were. In fact, it may even be beyond what the developers initially envisioned, which contributes to why some games may not reach it–the developers simply patch it before the game gets there, resetting the meta back to phase one. Here, the game’s balance and its tier list is nothing like what it was during the first two phases of its development. The game, played at its highest levels, might as well be a different game from what we originally thought it was.
A good example of a game whose metagame reached its third phase is Marvel vs. Capcom 2. If we look at tier lists and character guides from earlier on in the game’s life, we’d find that it’s much different from what we see today. Instead of the currently known top tiers such as Magneto, Storm, and Sentinel, characters such as Iceman and Dr. Doom were the ones that ruled the roost. However, as players broke the game down and more tactics and exploits were discovered, MvC2’s tier list (and its meta) changed until it became the game as we know it today.
Magneto wasn’t “god” tier during MvC2’s early life.
MvC2 itself isn’t an outlier in this case. There are other examples of games from this era that saw shifts in their tier list as they were broken down, and their metagames moved on to the third phase. Capcom vs. SNK 2 for example saw significant changes to the meta once the Roll Cancelling exploit was discovered and applied to the game.
Of course, the above examples are all games from a certain era–this was the time before tools such as Twitch and YouTube, after all. At most, you’d have to look up guides posted in various forums, and track down match and combo videos hosted in various sites and servers–if they were online at all; sometimes you’d have to resort to obtaining physical copies of these on tape or DVD.
Street Fighter IV, Looking Beyond Vanilla Sagat
What then, if we had a game from an era where we did have all these tools? What if we had an example of a game whose metagame either did or did not evolve into the third phase before its update came out? Fortunately for us, we may have a game that fits the bill–the original Street Fighter IV.
One of the first fighting games that benefited from online video and streaming from nearly the start.
Released in arcades in 2008 and then on consoles in 2009, Street Fighter IV may be the first big fighting game that benefited from all this new technology we have today. Even before it hit consoles, we already had some bits of footage from either location tests or actual arcade play. After launch, many streamers and content creators got their start by streaming or making videos for this game. In fact, all this new content helped push Shoryuken itself into becoming an actual news site for fighting games.
Regarding balance however, there was one character that tended to dominate most of our discussion on the game–Sagat. Called vanilla Sagat for being in the original, or “vanilla” version of the game, this character was one that we all remember as being the best character in Street Fighter IV. While he wasn’t as dominant as prior top tiers–a then-unsponsored Daigo Umehara has won Evo 2009 with Ryu, and Gosho and Kyabetsu had used Rufus and C. Viper respectively to win 2009’s Tougeki 2009–he was still a dominant force in tournaments. At Tougeki for example, there were 11 Sagat players, the most of any character, 10 of which made it to the semi-final round.
Sagat is who we remember as being the “King” of Street Fighter IV.
Despite all this however, there is some question of whether or not Sagat was clearly the best character in Street Fighter IV. While we tend to just accept that he was, there may be enough evidence out there to show that maybe he wasn’t.
The first example of this is Akuma: the Raging Demon was already considered pretty strong back in the day, he didn’t however garner the same attention as Sagat. That said, with as high up as he was, we can’t help but wonder if he couldn’t have moved up higher had the game been given more time to grow. In fact, a few tier lists had already placed him slightly above Sagat.
The other set of characters that may have come into play are the (originally) console-exclusive characters. When Street Fighter IV came to console in 2009, it added a bunch of extra playable characters; of these there are three who many will point to as possibly having the potential to become top tiers–Seth, Cammy, and Gen.
Seth was already pretty dangerous in vanilla Street Fighter IV, being the game’s boss after all. But he never really dominated early on. That said, he was starting to show the potential that would lead him to be a strong pick in later iterations.
Cammy and Gen, on the other hand, were seen by some as weak when the game first hit consoles. However, as the meta around them was further developed for later, we started thinking of them being much stronger. Cammy in particular was considered stronger in later versions of the game, and was actually top tier in the Arcade Edition 2012. The thing is however, a lot of what was being applied to Cammy in later installments can possibly be applied to her vanilla incarnation, too.
As for Gen, it’s interesting that for how much as he was perceived as a weak character, Capcom actually nerfed Gen coming into Super Street Fighter IV. This makes us wonder if the developers at Capcom knew something about Gen that players had yet to pick up on. Certainly, his array of tricks, including a deadly 50-50 cross-up setup, could have possibly pushed him to being a dominant force had more players picked him up and developed him further.
Now, we could argue that the fact that these characters were made playable later in the game’s life, means that of course they were explored less before Super Street Fighter IV supplanted the game. However, this actually makes this more relevant today, when we often get new characters as DLC for games (without them moving up to a new version)–characters that may not be fully explored by the time a new version of sequel comes out.
What Does This Mean for Us?
Now that we do have a viable case for a game whose true balance we may have never fully explored during its time in the competitive spotlight, the question now is: what does this mean for us now? Well, on the surface, it seems that it really may not mean much–most of us are better served just by going with whatever the latest version of the game that’s being played competitively is.
Even if a game doesn’t really move on to the third phase of its metagame’s evolution, as long as the balance in the second phase is decent, then that may be good enough. In a tournament, the state of a game’s metagame at that exact point in time is more important than any possibility of what it may evolve into down the line.
That said, there’s still merit to understanding that there is space for a game’s metagame to evolve far beyond what we may be seeing at the moment. At the very least, we should take it as a sign to not dismiss a game’s balance as already being set after a certain amount of time. Rather, we should take this as inspiration to try to look beyond the current meta of any game, and try to push it further. With today’s technology, any new discoveries that can affect a game’s balance and move its metagame forward can easily be disseminated to the rest of the community.
Additionally, anything new that may have been discovered too late to affect a game’s meta by virtue of a new iteration coming out can sometimes still be applied to the new iteration. A new patch or update may not necessarily change the game to the point that late discoveries in the previous version cannot be applied to the new one.
Finally, this should also serve as inspiration for those who prefer the older version of a game: we don’t necessarily all have to move on to newer versions. Sometimes, if there are enough players still actively playing and studying it, an older version or even numbered iteration of a game can survive even when a new version or sequel has already come out. After all, our fighting game community is built on people playing, studying, and enjoying the games that they love; just because we’re getting new games and updates at a much faster pace, that shouldn’t change.
