Become New York’s strongest fighter at TSB’s special Dragon Ball FighterZ launch tournament

The hype for Dragon Ball FighterZ is reaching a fever pitch, with the open beta just over a week away and then the full release not long after. With so many people looking to compete, Team Stickbug are planning a launch tournament for DBFZ for those who want to hit the ground running.

It won’t just be Dragon Ball FighterZ though, TSB will also be holding tournaments for BlazBlue Central Fiction and Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2, with 2Old2Furious also running a Vampire Savior tournament. All of this high-intensity anime action will take place at Next Level in New York, and registration is available right now over on smash.gg.

Do note that while registration is free on smash.gg, you will have to pay at the venue. If you cannot make it to New York for the event, Team Stickbug will be streaming the event via its Twitch channel — so you can steal any Day 1 DBFZ tech!

Source: TSB_FGC

More leaks look to the future of SoulCalibur VI, Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, Dragon Ball FighterZ, BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle

Last year, we had a big set of leaks from reddit poster “Vergeben” that detailed a lot of information — not the least of which was the reveal of SoulCalibur VI less than a month before Bandai Namco officially announced the game. Now, the same poster has come out with another set of leaks.

The leaks in question cover SoulCalibur VI, Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, Dragon Ball FighterZ and BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle. Of these, only BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle wasn’t addressed by the previous leak.

For SoulCalibur VI, the leak details the possibility of  Nintendo Switch port, specifically the fact that it seems that it’s not happening at this time. Prior to this, there was some rumbling of the possibility of one, with some guest characters as well (specifically Link and a Fire Emblem character). However, Vergeben states that their source has stated that while it is “likely,” it won’t be happening for a while.

Some more interesting information reveals some details about SoulCalibur VI‘s development — including that the game wasn’t originally slated to be a reboot of the franchise, but that this all changed after a shakeup at Project Soul. That said, with the status of the game set as going back to the series’ past, characters that are supposed to be appearing in it are Kilik, Xianghua, Maxi (who is apparently now unambiguously presented as homosexual), Siegfried, Nightmare, Taki, Talim, Ivy, Cassandra, Astaroth, and Tira. Zasalamel is also being considered, but he may end up being DLC. Amy might appear in all future installments as Viola (confirming a long-held fan theory). Finally, the character teased at the end of the reveal trailer is supposedly a male character (some have speculated to it being female): an assassin, and Kilik’s rival.

Meanwhile, moving on to Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite: the big leak is that, despite the Fox buyout, season 2 will still not contain any X-Men or Fantastic Four characters. Now this somewhat makes sense, as the buyout only happened recently and the DLC was likely in development for some time now. Instead, the season 2 characters are supposed to be Star-Lord, Ms. Marvel, Asura, Lady, Gill, with the final slot being a toss-up between Rashid or Vergil.

More important, however, is the bit about the game’s future past season 2. Right now, the game is apparently in a state of flux, and what will happen after season 2 is up in the air. The two options are to either just end support for the game, or continue on with it. If the latter happens, then it’s likely that we’ll see more characters and a possible Capcom Pro Tour-style deal for it.

Moving on to Dragon Ball FighterZ, Vergeben states that the DLC characters that he’s been informed about are Broly, base form Goku, base form Vegeta, and Bardock. They also have a source stating that Raditz and Zarbon are in, though they consider this source an outlier, since those are the only two characters the source knows about. As for why we’re getting another Goku and Vegeta, the reason is apparently because of demand from the Japanese fanbase — especially with how good those characters supposedly were in Dragon Ball Z: Extreme Butoden on the 3DS.

On top of this, there are apparently still hidden playable characters that have yet to be revealed, the least of which is Android 21, who so far has only been advertised as an NPC. Android 21 apparently has an “Ultimate Form,” though it’s unknown if this is an install type super, or a new character outright.

Finally, moving on to BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle, as previously reported, Arc System Works has debunked that previous leak as well. Now this new leak says the same, and then gives out some more info. Specifically, the leaker states that Kanji Tatsumi, Naoto Shirogane, Mitsuru Kirijo, Aigis, Hilda, Merkava, Taokaka, Litchi, Blake, and Yang will be part of BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle‘s roster. The supposed character picks do seem to make sense, and may be pretty “safe” with some almost being guaranteed (by being members of Persona 4‘s  team, being half of Team RWBY, etc.), that said, we’ll see if Arc System Works won’t debunk this as well.

Of course, all of the information above has not been confirmed by the publishers. As such, be sure to take it all with a grain of salt!

Source: Vergeben (reddit)

VesperArcade analyzes Necalli’s new V-Trigger specials & reported balance changes in Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition

We’re now less than two weeks away from the dawn of a new era (for SFV, at least!) with Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition, and VesperArcade continues his analysis videos covering each character’s new V-Triggers and reported balance changes — while we await Capcom’s release of the full changelog. This time, Vesper examines “The Soul Consuming Darkness”: Necalli.

Given that his V-Trigger, Torrent of Power, is arguably one of the most unique — and most powerful — in the entirety of the game, and the title’s only “permanent” Trigger (providing the ancient warrior with a multitude of passive buffs in exchange for merely being locked out of his V-Reversal for the remainder of the round), many were curious about how they would top this with anything close to an enticing alternative.

Fortunately for him, Capcom decided to merely give Necalli access to a pair of new specials tied to his Trigger choice, as opposed to altering or forcing him to give up his powerful transformation. TOP will now grant him access to a new attack known as Clouded Mirror, which can be charged by holding down the heavy buttons to increase the length of his new forward leap — which appears to serve as a way to avoid projectiles, bait throws, and further close the gap on his foes, something that has proved problematic for him in certain match-ups.

His new V-Trigger, Explosion of Power, replaces Clouded Mirror with another new attack, the Heart of Gold, which sees Necalli spit out a short-range fireball that hits five times and is plus on block — seemingly compensating the spirit-consumer for the upcoming loss of his throw loops and knockdown advantage following forward dashes in Season 3. You can see the full video below for more details, and visual demonstrations.

You can find links to Vesper’s previous AE coverage at the following Links:

Source: VesperArcade

Mad Catz is coming back to the gaming market under new management

After declaring bankruptcy less than a year ago, Mad Catz is rising from its grave to return to the gaming peripheral market. This comes after the brand’s acquisition by a Chinese company, who previously worked with Mad Catz in manufacturing its products — but were not a part of the old management team.

To announce this revival, Mad Catz will be making an appearance at CES 2018, exhibiting new versions of old products like the R.A.T gaming mouse, S.T.R.I.K.E keyboard and F.R.E.Q headset. No word if Mad Catz will be diving back into the controller/arcade stick market — this will no doubt depend on the success of its starting peripherals.

Mad Catz were certainly a massive part of the FGC, being one of the biggest arcade stick manufacturers and at one point fielding an esports team composed of legends like Daigo Umehara, Tokido, Xian, and Mago. With brands like Razer, Qanba, and HORI stepping into the void left by Mad Catz’ bankruptcy, it’ll be intriguing to see if this new-era Mad Catz takes another chance on the FGC.

Sources: GamesIndustry.biz; Mad Catz UK

Registration for Evo Japan is re-opening for a limited time

For those who want to attend Evo Japan but missed out on registering, here’s some great news: registration for the inaugural Evo Japan is being re-opened, but only for a limited time.

On January 5, registration for Evo Japan will be re-opened for only 12 hours. Registration will re-open at 7:00 AM Pacific (10:00 AM Eastern, midnight on January 6 in Japan) and will close at 7:00 PM Pacific (10:00 PM Eastern, 12:00 noon in Japan). This is a great chance for any players who missed the previous deadline. If you’re one of these players, you should head on over to the official registration page on smash.gg during that window.

Evo Japan takes place in Tokyo from January 26 to 28.

Source: Evo Japan

X-Kira reveals the Illuminati course of Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition’s “Boss Rush” mode, possible Gill Character Story

Fresh off of his recent datamining bombs about the rapidly-approaching Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition, X-Kira has uploaded a video of him running through the Illuminati course of the supposedly-upcoming Boss Rush mode.

Over the course of the run he takes on Nash, Helen (Kolin in her default attire, without a character portrait), Urien (in both his default and “Easter Egg” attires), Kolin (in her Nostalgic Costume) and… Gill (who, despite currently using Urien’s voice clips and possibly his moveset, lacks a character portrait, and appears to be the model seen in the post-credits stinger of A Shadow Falls, not Urien’s 2017 Halloween costume designed to resemble his brother… though it could just be a Urien utilizing Extra Battle-exclusive abilities to simulate a clash against the President). Also surprisingly, X-Kira utilizes Decapre inside the Underground Arena, perhaps suggesting that the Shadaloo Dolls may be playable in this mode once it becomes available.

X-Kira also mentions that there are at least nine paths to Boss Rush, with the first being against Shadaloo, the second being this one against the Illuminati, a third featuring S.I.N., a fourth going up against Neo Shadaloo, a 6th where we’ll battle civilians (likely including Brazilian police officer Peter…), and a seventh path where we’ll face off with members of Mad Gear, which in-game notably only includes Abigail, for the moment. The contents of the fifth, eighth and ninth paths are currently unknown.

On the subject of Gill’s appearance, X-Kira noted the following: “The script calls the character Gill, but I did a patch to complete the mode. I do not think it’s just a reskin, however the mode leaves Urien reskin naked too, it means Gill will have clothes like Urien and will have the Easter Egg naked…”

Lastly, X-Kira posted a second video showing what appears to be a slot for an eventual Character Story for Gill, appearing in the spot directly underneath Menat’s, after Zeku’s. Though this spot will obviously go to Sakura once AE is officially released, Gill’s tab could certainly be moved into another row when/if it releases. Perhaps these are two indicators that the cult leader could be making an appearance in Season 3, either as part of the rumored second Cinematic Story Mode, or as a Secret Boss in the Street Fighter III Arcade Ladder? You can see both videos below.

Source: X-Kira

Incorrect patch notes for Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition released (and removed) by Capcom

It seems that Capcom really did try to live up to their promise that Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition‘s patch notes would be released “soon.” However, it seems that in their rush, they made a bit of a mistake. Early this morning, Capcom uploaded patch notes for the Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition update — then subsequently took them down. It appears that they uploaded a set of patch notes that was not the final one.

Capcom subsequently issued a tweet regarding this: in it, they acknowledged their mistake in posting patch notes that weren’t final. That said, they did promise that they would post the actual finalized patch notes for Arcade Edition soon.

Despite them taking the notes down, players were already able to create a copy of the notes and share it on the internet. You can check out the un-finalized patch notes in this Google Doc.

Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition hits PlayStation 4 and PC — regardless of whether or not we get the final patch notes — on January 16.

Source: SF Community (Twitter) [thanks to brainfraud for the patch notes link]

– Suspect in Call of Duty ‘Swatting’ Death to be Extradited to Kansas to Face Charges

Rolling Stone is reporting that Tyler Barriss, a 25-year-old Californian, has waived extradition to Kansas and is headed to Wichita to face “making false alarm” charges as a result of a false 9-1-1 report to local police that a hostage situation was in progress. As a result of the “prank”, all based on a feud within Call of Duty, a local resident named Andrew Finch was shot and killed by police.

Deadline approaching to apply for the NYU Game Center Evo Scholarship

So many gamers aspire to working full-time in the video game industry, and would be living a game design dream come true. For fighting gamers, a great inroads to achieving that dream is the NYU Game Center Evo Scholarship, which this year will be offering a full ride scholarship to someone in the FGC who has a passion for game design.

As mentioned by Daigo Umehara recently — who in 2015 donated $60,000 to the scholarship fund after his 2nd place finish at Capcom Cup — the deadline to apply is fast approaching. If you are interested, please make sure you visit the application page and put your name in.

Source: Daigo Umehara (Twitter)

UYU.gg signs BeautifulDude for BlazBlue, Guilty Gear, and Tekken

UYU.gg — an international esports team — has been busy signing on new players. The organization isn’t taking much of a vacation; 2018 just got started, and they have already announced another teammate: UYU|BeautifulDude.

Julian “BeautifulDude” Franco is known mostly as a competitive anime player in both BlazBlue: Central Fiction (Relius Clover) and Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2 (Zato=1). He’s had numerous placings at majors over the last year, notably winning SoCal Regionals 2017 in REV 2. He also has shown versatility by adding Tekken 7 to his repertoire (Claudio Serafino).

Previously, BeautifulDude was signed to In The Skies.

Sources: UYU.gg; @BeautifuldudeGG