Category: Fighting Games

With last year’s landmark victory for Liquid|Hungrybox at DreamHack Winter 2015, all eyes were on him to see if he could repeat his success on Swedish soil. With over a year to prepare and to shore up their defences against the devilish puffball, Sweden was able to hold the fort, resulting in this year’s DreamHack Winter going to Alliance’s Armada.

Both finalists went through their brackets relatively unchallenged, putting them on track for a real clash of the titans. Hungrybox did not drop a single game on his journey to Winners’ Finals, while Armada dropped one match to Crunch on his trip through bracket. When they finally came to a head, Armada was able to defeat Hungrybox 3-1 in both Winners’ and Grands, with his Fox making quick work of Jigglypuff. He’d had quite the warm up for his Fox going into Winners’ Finals, facing TSM|Leffen in Winners’ Semis and smashing through him with a clean 3-0.

With his substantial time away from top level tournament play, Leffen does have some catching up to do compared to the four Gods who are still on active duty. He and COG|Wizzrobe looked fairly shaky in their set, with it eventually going to game five where Leffen managed to regain his composure to take it against the paragon of 20GX. Having said this, he did make it all the way to Losers’ Finals, running over C9|Mango’s Falco in Losers’ Semis with a 3-0 of his own before Hungrybox just pipped him to the post, preventing an all Swedish Grand Finals.

As for the other Europeans, VwS|Professor Pro narrowly defeated Luminosity’s Ice in an absolute nailbiter of a Fox mirror, sending Ice out at 7th place. Spain’s leading Peach, Trif, had quite the run, taking out fellow Peach main Splyce|MacD in Winners’ Bracket and then defeating Armada’s brother Android in a tense 3-2 set in Losers’ round 7. He would eventually lose to Wizzrobe in an equally tense set in Losers’ Quarterfinals, getting 7th place alongside Ice.

DreamHack Winter is really starting to establish itself as the premier major to finish a year of Melee, so let’s hope for an equally dramatic tournament in 2017. This tournament acts as another victory for Armada in his ongoing battle with Hungrybox ever since this year’s Evo. Will this victory finally cement Armada’s position as 2016’s number one Melee player?

RESULTS:

1. Alliance|Armada (Fox, Peach/Sweden)
2. Liquid|Hungrybox (Jigglypuff/USA)
3. TSM|Leffen (Fox/Sweden)
4. C9|Mango (Falco/USA)
5. COG|Wizzrobe (Captain Falcon/USA)
5. VwS|Professor Pro (Fox/UK)
7. LG|Ice (Fox/Germany)
7. Heir|Trif (Peach/Spain)

Sources: dreamhacksmash; smash.gg

Just before the serious competition of Smash Summit 3, Mango and many of SoCal’s finest Melee players hosted a special event for some casual practice time ahead of the main invitational. Creatively titled Smash Summit 2.5, this event saw players like Alliance|Armada, TSM|Leffen, Liquid|Hungrybox, Tempo|S2J and many more descend on Mango’s house for almost two solid days of Melee.

To celebrate this jam-packed Melee session with some of the game’s greats, editor turndownforwalt has compiled a sort of video storybook of this massive stream, showing some of the best moments over the course of the event. With slick play and even slicker editing, it results in quite the combo video.

Source: Cloud 9 Mang0

Editor’s note: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the writer, and do not reflect Shoryuken.com as a whole.

Goichi “Go1” Kishida of Team Hail Mary was a complete unknown until Street Fighter V released–in Street Fighter circles at least. With his only listed tournament experience being in BlazBlue Chronophantasma prior to 2016, Kishida lit up the world with his stellar Chun-Li play, making his first sanctioned Evo top 8.

He has kept up his presence in the game, and earned his way into Capcom Cup via points. Now, can Goichi go on to become number ichi?

Transition from Anime

Probably the best thing that Go1 has done is choose Chun-Li as his character in Street Fighter V. Coming out of a background of aerial-heavy games like BlazBlue, this was probably the best pick he could have made, as Chun-Li has similar strengths when she takes to the air. This helped mitigate any form of a learning curve that he may have had.

His experience with anime fighters showed, as he was one of the first players on the circuit to effectively use instant air legs. Thanks to dealing with some of the more execution-heavy games in the scene, he made the move look effortless. The pressure he applies with instant air legs has become a staple part of Chun players’ arsenal since he made his presence felt.

But if it were only that, then Kishida would be a one-trick pony, and wouldn’t be anywhere near the top of the rankings. He has also shown off a strong ground and reactionary game that can only come from talent, understanding, and acceptance of the different nuances in his original games du jour and Street Fighter V. He has made his mark as one of the first players to show off Chun-Li as the nuisance that she is.

Evolution

If anyone is worried that he can’t beat the best players in the world, look no further than Evo to prove them wrong. To be honest, I would not have put money on Go1 making top 8, despite his talent. He not only did he do so, but managed to put the sort of indelible footprint on the event that only the strong thighs of his Chun-Li could leave.

Outclassed only by Yukadon, RZR|Fuudo, and RZR|Infiltration, Go1 managed to beat Alienware’s Nemo and followed that up by crushing fellow Capcom Cup-qualifier MOV by a score of 3-1. My money at the time of that match was on MOV due to experience, but Go1 proved that he can outclass one of the best Chun-Li specialists in the world.

It was this moment that proved that, despite his inexperience, Go1 would not be shaken by the pressure of the occasion. That alone makes him deadly.

Passing Him By

The problem now is staying on top. He made it there, but like every other player considered an apex predator, he has to worry about the bloodthirsty sharks below him ready to feast on his success. And already we are seeing that happen.

Since Evo, he has struggled to maintain his level of success. At other high profile events, he hasn’t even come close. At Japan Cup, he finished 13th. At Southeast Asia Majors, He finished 17th. At SoCal Regionals, he finished a paltry 49^th, which makes me wonder if he can handle North American players’ different playstyles, if that is his lowest finish since Evo. At the Asia Finals, he finished on the low end of top 16.

Like a lot of Japanese players, he is always a threat. But it’s quite possible that as players have leveled up, he has not changed much about his play. Is it possible that this has led him down a road to mediocrity? This is possible if he has been focused on other games, so hopefully he readjusts his focus heading to Anaheim.

Final Thoughts

This is a guy who could be anyone’s dark horse pick to win. I won’t count him out, and have Go1 making it to top 16. The biggest question mark will be how ready he is in comparison to how ready everyone else is. If he doesn’t find the clutch factor he had at Evo, look out for people who begin to put the unfair label of fluke upon him; he will have to have a stellar season next year to prove them wrong.

Ever since Daigo’s run in with Nuckledu’s Guile back at Red Bull Battle Grounds, he and the other Japanese Ryus have been working tirelessly to discover how to beat the all-American hero. After doing some extensive training by himself, Daigo has been fighting online against Japan’s best Guile, Esuta, ahead of Capcom Cup next weekend.

As is the way with online bouts, XusesGB has been on the case, bringing these best of three sets together to show everyone how Daigo has been progressing in his journey to beat his demon. Based on the results of these matches, he may be prepared should he face Guile on his way through the Capcom Cup bracket.

Source: XusesGB

It’s obvious from a glance that Super Smash Bros. is truly unique among the library of competitive fighting games. Aside even from the gameplay mechanics, win conditions, and control scheme, simply the way players treat the game outside of the game itself stands out among fighters.

Competitive Smash relies on manipulating the standard set by the game itself, by removing removing items and specific stages from play, but the standard 1-on-1 that is very familiar to the rest of the FGC isn’t the only way to play. There are multiple ways to have a competitive match, the most notable outside of the 1-on-1–commonly called “singles”–is a team 2-on-2, called “doubles.”

Here, we have SSBM Tutorials–a YouTube channel dedicated to educating on Smash mechanics and methods–explaining the point and practice of doubles matches.

Source: SSBM Tutorials

Laura is often an underappreciated character in Street Fighter V, but with the right offensive prowess, she can still be a threat. Due to her placement in tiers, most people don’t fully prepare for her–and are left devastated in the wake.

First off, we have an example of Daigo Umehara against Edwow, a top Laura player who is able to wrestle the beast into submission.

But in this feature, we have not one, but two examples of Laura doing work. Next, we have Wolfkrone–most famous for his Street Fighter IV play–using Laura to his advantage against NYChrisG’s Urien.

Source: YogaFlame24

Peculiar interactions and fighting games go hand-in-hand. There’s a certain magic behind watching something occur that wasn’t at all intended, or just looks wonky. All games have them–we even did a roundup of several from classic titles–and the latest Street Fighter installment is no exception.

Here we have Alex using his V-Trigger to charge his lariat while Ibuki uses her V-Reversal. Apparently, the collision box for the lariat would normally disappear, but Ibuki freezes Alex before it goes away, meaning that while Ibuki would normally teleport into place, she instead drags Alex the maximum time she can before appearing again.

Source: TOOLASSISTED

Smug has always had a puncher’s chance–literally. His preference for characters like Dudley in Street Fighter IV and Balrog in Street Fighter V is well noted, and it fits his personality well.

As such, when Smug takes his Balrog online in Street Fighter V, he makes it work well. For any Balrog mains looking to up their game, this is one of the top guys to watch for the character. His opponent, Brian_F, keeps it really close, and this is a great lesson in spacing and proper play for the character.

Source: XusesGB

Editor’s note: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the writer, and do not reflect Shoryuken.com as a whole.

Hiroyuki “Eita” Nagata of Team Hail Mary is no stranger to the grandest stage. This year, he took part in the most-viewed Evolution top 8 to date, finishing a respectable 7th out of over 5000 players. His Ken was able to do what EG|Momochi and so many others couldn’t; make it to TV in America. And the pressure was doubly heavy on him, since he had to play against America’s favorite son, LI Joe, with the whole country rooting against him.

He already has experience under immense pressure and time in the limelight. Can he return there in December at Capcom Cup having qualified by points?

The Fire Inside

One of the most tremendous attributes that Eita has is his relentless offensive prowess. With a style honed by his use of Akuma in the Street Fighter IV, Eita doesn’t let up. Once he knows that his pressure is putting his opponents into disarray, he will not stop.

This is Eita’s bread and butter. He makes his opponents panic and press buttons and makes them pay for those presses.

Contingency Plan

The problem Eita faces is that he doesn’t know how to play other than this. If an opponent plays patiently and does not get fazed by his relentless offense, he finds himself at a disadvantage. There’s no Plan B, and Eita often pays heavily for that. Part of this is his fault, as he will often throw out unsafe moves even on block, and get punished heavily for it.

Even worse, once his opponent plays his aggressive game back at him, Eita defaults toward timidity. He has major issues when he is forced to play defense, as he simply doesn’t do a good job of blocking. Without balance on offense and defense, you are just not going to win as much as you lose.

Predictable

One of the things that hurts Eita the most is his predictability. That’s not to say he’s a bad player, but he has patterns that top level players have picked up on.

One of the greatest examples is Joe “LI Joe” Ciaramelli. At the Evo Pre-party at Gameworks, Joe and Eita played a first-to-5 set, where Eita narrowly won. As coincidence would have it, the two would face again in losers top 8 at Evo. It was apparent that Joe gained the upper hand after the set at Gameworks, and beat him handily, and did so when it mattered most.

It seems that the more Eita plays against someone, the more he struggles against them. When you see players that are from Japan, they usually come out on top against him. It is also why, at the Asia Regional Finals, Eita could beat HuomaoTV|HumanBomb, but then lose to YouDeal MJS|Haitani and RZR|Infiltration–the latter of which is not from Japan, but is one of the fastest on the circuit to pick up on player tendencies. It’s also why his wins have come at tournaments with less Japanese presence. The less people that know his gameplan, the better.

Final Thoughts

Eita is one of the best Kens out there, but he’s facing everyone who knows how he plays. There’s going to be no surprises at Capcom Cup; everyone will have done their research. He hasn’t taken his game to another dimension just yet, and it may be that he hasn’t meshed with Ken perfectly. I’d expect more out of him when–and if–Akuma is available in the game, and he can open up his creative flow with a character he’s comfortable with. For now, let’s just say that I believe he may score one win against a player who’s unfamiliar with him, but lose to the Japanese players he has to face later down the line.