Category: Fighting Games

Canada Cup 2016 has come and gone, and with it we found the very first North American player to win a Capcom Pro Tour Premier event in Team Liquid’s Du “NuckleDu” Dang. The American player has been rising the ranks recently, and rode his R. Mika to victory against Qanba Douyu’s Zhuojun “Xiaohai” Zeng, who was en route to his third Premier title–prior to his loss.

After all the dust settled, and everyone made their way to the after party at Raiders Esports Bar in Toronto, I caught up with NuckleDu to have a brief chat about his feelings after the event.

Missing Person: First of all, congratulations. This has to be your biggest win to date.

NuckleDu: Yes, it most definitely is.

Missing Person: Take us back on the match with Xiaohai. First off, in Winners Finals, why did you choose Guile to start?

NuckleDu: I had been practicing Guile for the match-up the entire time. I was not prepared to go R. Mika against Xiaohai, but it was obvious that he was ready for the Guile match-up.

Missing Person: Do you think beating him with Mika in the 5-on-5 tournament allowed you an opportunity to get into his head prior to Winners and Grand Finals?

NuckleDu: It definitely gave me an understanding on how to approach him, but I don’t think that single game was able to give me enough advantage to think, “Oh, I’m definitely picking Mika.”

Missing Person: This month has given you some strong showings with SoCal Regionals, and now a win at Canada Cup. How do you feel going into Capcom Cup as an automatic qualifier?

NuckleDu: My first priority right now is winning the Red Bull regional finals, but winning Canada Cup definitely helped build my confidence up. I’m not normally a confident person, so this helped me a lot.

Missing Person: On that note, do you feel like that confidence helped carry you to this win, as opposed to other tournaments where you were just playing to get high finishes?

NuckleDu: The confidence factor was definitely a big asset in this win.

Missing Person: And do you feel like that confidence will help you in the long run, and help you shake off some nerves in the high profile matches?

NuckleDu: I think the confidence from this will be heavily beneficial. It’s easy for me to be confident in regionals, but usually I’m confident in one tournament and then the next I struggle, but I think this will help me to stay focused on my goals.

Missing Person: Going into Capcom Cup, is there anyone you’re looking forward to playing, and anyone that you’re scared of playing?

NuckleDu: I’m looking forward to playing Infiltration, but I’m not really afraid of him.

Missing Person: Any shout-outs that you’d like to give?

NuckleDu: Shout-outs to everyone that’s supported me this far, and big thanks to Team Liquid for bringing me here.

During Montréal’s previous weekly Street Fighter V event–Tatsumaki Tuesday–notable R. Mika main VerySausageMan delivered a short anti-Mika lecture to help out anyone struggling against the blonde-haired wrestler. [Timely, considering the results of Canada Cup 2016. – Editor]

He started this lecture discussing what to do when Mika gets you in her vortex. Once Mika gets momentum going with her brimstone (hcb+K) command grab, her two options are generally going to be dash brimstone again, or dash s.mp. He recommends just eating a few grabs until they suspect you will try to escape and go for meaty standing medium punch. If blocked, it’s now your turn. The gap will be a minimum of 5 frames which leaves you time to stick out a medium button. Mika essentially loses momentum off her EX giant swing (hcb+PP).

A jump can be anti-aired, a dash into a normal button can be counter-poked for free. Don’t automatically respect her options here. Charged dropkick can be very easily jabbed out before its active frames so don’t let her do it for free.

VerySausageMan then delves into deeper ideas—the ideal range for Mika (what range to avoid), common defensive choices from Mika players and how to beat them, how to effectively use V-reversal and even V-trigger activation to avoid some deadly mixups, and more.

Source: MTLSF

Street Fighter V on PC has seen an explosion of mods that change the look of the characters in-game. Some of these change to different characters altogether, others make them look like top players, and more than a few are dedicated to making characters look like their past incarnations. This new mod however, takes the latter route a bit further than most people would.

In the video below, we can see how bajm has created a mod for Street Fighter V’s Birdie; however, instead of using Birdie’s popular Street Fighter Alpha incarnation, bajm goes even further, by turning Birdie back to his original Street Fighter–as in Street Fighter “1”–look. That’s right, no mutton chops, no weird heart-shaped hole in his hair, just the straight up mohawk-sporting street punk look from the 1987 original. The only difference here is that he still sports his chains (originally introduced in Street Fighter Alpha) and he’s looking a bit healthier than his original incarnation, not pale because he was sick (as Street Fighter Alpha 3 would have you believe).

Interested players on PC can get the mod here.

Source: Best PC Mods

Between the big sale going on for the game through Steam, the new physical release on its way, and the big balance patch coming (under the title 2nd Encore+), there is a lot for a Skullgirls fan to get excited over. This is before getting into the Skullgirls community focusing on events, with another one coming up next month, GUTS4. All of this excitement leads to more tech videos and combo videos, which I’ve gathered for you here.

First up is a lighter video, form fan favorite Poccola, featuring a rather humorous misstep by an unfortunate Beowulf.

From Poccola as well we have an updated version of the game’s new intro animations, fully colored. He even takes the time to go through the animation frame-by-frame to get a full appreciation for the details.

Here we have a useful corner combo, from long-time Skullgirls fan Datagram. It does a healthy amount of damage and isn’t too costly meter wise, so it’s definitely something to look into if you use this team.

Next up we have an interesting CMV, focusing on crafting combos using specific palette references with particular characters. You may recognize this content creator, Salty Noob, as the person behind that lovely Skullgirls Rhythm Heaven CMV

Lastly we have a Parasoul+Eliza tech and combo video, brought to us by NanoNEVERMIND. This features some pretty oppressive setplay and interesting setups that I haven’t seen before.

Sources: Poccola_margherita0141; Salty. N; datagram; NanoNEVERMiND

When you’re playing a character obsessed with beauty and grace, you sometimes have to give opponents the old razzle-dazzle. In this highly disrespectful Vega montage, Kobra_47 shows off the assassin’s flamenco skills, by effortlessly dodging oncoming attacks with Vega’s V-Skill. As it is upper body invincible, the Matador Turn allows Vega to dodge jump-ins and incoming fireballs, giving the perfect opportunity for a follow-up after a successful Turn.

Should you get a read on your opponent’s patterns, V-Skill dodges become a legitimate strategy for defence and a perfect way to style on your enemy. Some of the dodges and V-Skill baits in Kobra’s video are downright rude, but they perfectly fit with Vega’s characteristic arrogance. Check out the full montage below and maybe start practicing your dance moves if you are a Vega player.

Source: Kobra_47