Crew battles are becoming more and more popular in the Pokkén community. Cat Fight hinted as much in our interview with him, and it’s easy to take his word on it: this is the man that was ultimately responsible for securing the narrow 5-4 victory over Japan at Evo’s 5v5 crew battle.
NEC ’17 is approaching, and Japan has announced they are ready for revenge!
In a interesting role reversal from the last 5v5, it is Team USA with the more diverse character roster. Suicune Master has chosen to go with his recently acquired Lucario, and Coach Steve has seemingly all but abandoned his Garchomp in favor of Weavile’s option heavy rushdown. Meanwhile, Sasahune and Apollo will be making their US debut as a wall of Gengars.
If the intention is to surprise Team USA with strong players playing unusual low tiers, it could be a risky gamble. Sasahune in particular is an accomplished Gengar loyalist… but so are American players Madluk and Mah Man Jesus, both of which many players on Team USA have experience playing against in tournament. Then again, when your anchor is (likely) Potetin, maybe it’s no gamble at all!
On Team USA, any gaps in knowledge on Gengar or Pikachu Libre are easily filled between Cat Fight and Slippingbug. Likewise, Potetin, the current VGC World Champion, has played Weavile and Chandelure at their highest levels- there’s probably not a better team captain for Team JPN then the champ himself.
Noticeably absent from both teams? The almost universally agreed-upon top tiers: Sceptile and Braixen.
Will Team USA secure another victory, narrow or otherwise, over Team JPN? Or will World Champ Potetin lead Team JPN to their first 5v5 victory? Find out at NEC ’17!
Once again, it’s almost that time of the year when families get together and bum rush stores to get the best deals. Luckily, gamers can avoid the Black Friday crush by getting their discounted games digitally.
The Steam versions of two of the biggest fighting games around are currently part of Black Friday sales from a couple of online retailers. First up, Street Fighter V is on sale as part of Green Man Gaming’s Black Friday sale. The game can be had for only $27.51, 57% off its $59.99 regular price, just by entering the code BLACKFRIDAY10.
Meanwhile, for those who want a bit more brutality in their fighting, Mortal Kombat X is currently part of Bundle Stars’ own Black Friday sale. The regular version can be purchases for only $4.49, while the premium edition can be had for only $8.89, both 78% off their regular prices of $19.99 and $39.99 respectively. In addition to this, the Komplete Edition of its predecessor, Mortal Kombat 9, is also on sale for $4.44 as well. Interested players must use the code BLACKFRIDAY11 to receive these discounts.
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 “Filipino Champ” Ramirez is perhaps the best villain in Street Fighter. The Panda Global representative is a polarizing figure in the FGC. People love him. People hate him. People love to hate him. People hate to love him. And FChamp appears to love being hated.
Love him or hate him, FChamp has proved himself, finding his way into Capcom Cup through points. Naturally gravitating toward the heel role of the community, can FChamp feed off the boos all the way to glory?
Namaste
Champ has stuck to his roots in Street Fighter V. A dedicated Dhalsim main in Street Fighter IV, he has not budged off his man in Street Fighter V. And what a great time to pick Dhalsim.
Of all the original characters, no character changed more than Dhalsim in Street Fighter V. Despite having the floatiest jump in the series, Dhalsim has always been mobile. Between his dive kicks and teleports, he can move around the screen fast. But in SFV he adds fast normals, arced projectiles, and a V-Skill that keeps him in the air for longer than usual, the recipe for a fast-paced guessing game.
This is what the best Dhalsims show off in SFV, and Champ is no exception. Having already solid fundamentals, adding the sort of gimmicks that brought such success in the Marvel games has made him a true monster. Furthermore, like in most Street Fighter iterations, Dhalsim isn’t a popular pick, allowing Ramirez to test his opponents with character unfamiliarity. The combination of these factors is why Champ will often find himself deep in every tournament he goes to.
Impervious
If there is one thing that doesn’t bother FChamp, it is nerves. He has experience in dealing with a plethora of circumstances. He has dealt with the inherent bad matchups that come with his character. He has dealt with crowds being against him. He has been in high pressure situations, on the verge of cracking, and held it together all the way to an Evo title in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3.
At this point, Ramirez isn’t merely unfazed by what happens at events, he embraces it. He embraced his role as the heel of the community; the boos feed his ego. Confidence of any sort helps to breed champions, just like practice. Champ has found his confidence, and flaunts it.
Transparent
Dhalsim is always an overwhelming character at the onset. When players find their usual methods of approach being shut down by Dhalsim’s unique style of play, they become frustrated and crack. That’s one of the greatest assets of the character, and Filipino Champ takes full advantage.
The problem is, with time, players will learn the matchup. Once they are no longer stymied by Dhalsim’s superior poke game, Dhalsim now has to rely on gimmicks to win. Eventually, the best players learn the predictability and the ease of reaction to these gimmicks. Once that equation has been solved, it’s lights out for all but the top Dhalsim players.
I don’t feel like any Dhalsim player can call themselves a cut above the rest just yet. Nobody has added any additional equations to the problem of winning as Dhalsim. All the top players can assess exactly how to approach, and how to react to Dhalsim mixups. It makes winning as Dhalsim a very daunting task, and FChamp faces that task.
Middling
Facing that very task, Champ has faltered. Without going to Google or searching his name in our rankings list, how many tournaments has Filipino Champ won? It’s shocking that out of 19 events, he has won two. This is not to insult FChamp, but just to speak of the incredibly uphill battle Dhalsim mains face in any given tournament.
Sure, he has made a lot of top eights, but were they where they count the most? When you look at the most stacked events, the answer is no. At SoCal Regionals, Brooklyn Beatdown, and Evo, he was unable to crack top 32. At CEO, he didn’t make Top 16. At Canada Cup and Red Bull Battlegrounds, he just narrowly missed out on top eight.
Those latter tournaments suggest he is elevating his play to compete. But given how stacked the bracket is at Capcom Cup, will he be able to replicate that success?
Final Thoughts
Filipino Champ is arguably the best Dhalsim player right now, but just being the best at your weapon of choice isn’t going to propel you to the top spot at an event like Capcom Cup. Especially given that no one else playing your character is even coming close, and you’re just barely cutting it at times yourself.
I expect Filipino Champ to go 1-2 at Capcom Cup. I’d love–or hate to love–to see him bring more innovation and work into Dhalsim next season to make an even bigger splash on the circuit. But as always with Dhalsim, that’s a hard road to traverse. If there’s anyone with thick enough skin to do it, it’s FChamp.
In addition to the changes to ledge invincibility and the advent of maneuvers like ledge trumping in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, players need to take into account the “one second rule” which stops people continually regrabbing the ledge. Unlike in Melee, where you can stall at the ledge by grabbing it as many times as you want, Smash 4 makes you wait 55 frames before you can regrab the ledge.
With this knowledge in mind, the Beefy Smash Doods have made a new video tutorial, detailing how players can utilize this “one second rule” when it comes to ledge-guarding. By using low knockback moves like Megaman’s Mega Buster or Pikachu’s Thunder Jolt, on-stage players can cause opponents to recover just above the ledge, teeing them up for a forward-smash or to take the opponent’s double jump and causing them to fall to their doom. If your recovering opponent isn’t aware of this quirk in Smash 4’s ledge mechanics, it means you can have a lot of fun setting up stage spike setups or early-percent kills.
Over the course of the past year, Capcom has been steadily doling out DLC for their latest fighter. Between costumes, stages, and colors–not to mention the new characters–there was a lot to maintain player interest. Particularly, 30% of the proceeds from the Capcom Pro Tour downloadable content purchases are going directly into the pot for Capcom Cup, which has so far received a $100,000 bonus from those DLC purchases alone, pushing it from the base $250,000 to over $350,000.
Since this DLC isn’t going to stay permanently, however; Capcom is urging players one last time to pick up some of Street Fighter V’s downloadable costumes before they’re gone for good: As previously reported, both the Capcom Pro Tour content and the Halloween costumes will be no longer available after 8:59 PM PST, November 29, 2016. If you want to support the Capcom Cup and don’t already have these DLC skins, now is the time to act.
NetherRealm Studios’ Ed Boon has been quite busy hinting at possible additions to their upcoming Injustice 2, via Twitter polls. Previously he hinted at possible guest characters, including some from Mortal Kombat. Now he’s back with another poll that’s somewhat closer to home.
Ed Boon’s latest Twitter poll is asking if fans wanted to see characters from Watchmen, the groundbreaking graphic novel from Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, in Injustice 2.
You wanna see Watchmen characters in Injustice 2 ?
For those not familiar with it, this classic graphic novel was one of the works that helped usher in the so-called “Dark Age” of comic books, elevating superhero comics through its deconstruction of the medium. More importatly however, the characters from this book were recently added into the mainline DC comics continuity as part of their ongoing DC Rebirth initiative.
If a Watchmen character does make it in, it will be only the second time characters from the book will make it into a video game (the first being the Watchmen: the End is Nigh tie-in game to the 2009 Zack Snyder film).
Much like its fellow DLC stage, Kanzuki Beach, Capcom decreed last night via Twitter that it will be banned from competitive play, due to being deemed “too distracting for tournament play,” beginning at Capcom Cup and continuing throughout the entirety of the 2017 Capcom Pro Tour season. While this is unfortunate–as this downloadable locale boasts very unique visuals, as well as an awesome theme–players will still be able to enjoy battling upon Rashid’s plane casually with friends, as well as using it in the online realm. You can see the tweet from Capcom Fighters below.
Due to being too distracting for tournament play, the #SFV Skies of Honor stage will not be used for Capcom Cup 2016 and the CPT2017 Season.
Talk of Street Fighter V’s poor start never seems like it’s that far off. Such talk only became more unavoidable after news of the game’s struggling sales figures were announced, which is disheartening, to say the least. The neglect of the casual crowd left tangible scars on the title which persist despite the success of the Capcom Pro Tour.
In the face of all of this bad press for the game, fans have been revitalized by the mere hint of the longtime favorite boss, Akuma. This air of change means a potential second wind for the title, which Capcom is building up to be a longstanding platform for the future. This in mind, Maximilian attempts to tackle what he feels the 5 biggest potential changes that Capcom could make to turn SFV around for good.
Frame data knowledge is some of the most important knowledge in any fighting game. It’s the difference between knowing when you can be punished, when you can’t, and how quickly you can attack. With the massive roster in The King of Fighters XIV, gathering these hidden numbers was quite the task. However, thanks to some very dedicated KOF players, an entire compilation of the frame data has been compiled.
The data is compiled on Orochinagi’s site here, with the specific players who gathered the info listed here, and is also contained in a handy smart phone app. For those unfamiliar, the frame data may be a bit intimidating. If you need a bit of help understanding the basics of frame data, feel free to brush up on this explanation here.
Comedian and actor Tom Arnold is older than most of us, and was alive to see the first wave of video gaming in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Now, he is exploring the modern era of gaming, and how far that has come from its predecessors in a documentary called Unlocked.
In this clip that will be sure to excite fans of the series to watch the rest of the documentary, Arnold talks to Capcom’s marketing manager Matt Dahlgren about the company’s most storied franchises. The topic then shifts to what is considered by most of us to be the most storied of all–Street Fighter.
The entire docu-series will be released on Decmeber 15th, and will feature celebrities such as Penn Jillette and Zelda Williams.
Graphic courtesy of Burnside.