It’s a great time to be a Tekken player. Whereas the majority of sponsorships were awarded to Street Fighter players for a while, Tekken players are now seeing a cut of the cake, with many players getting scooped up as of the last year.
This time around, Emirate-based Fursan Esports have made their stamp on the FGC by picking up Korean Tekken great LowHigh. The Shaheen player has been well known within the Tekken community for a long time, and his presence will most definitely be felt on the 2018 Tekken World Tour.
We're very proud to announce that our First representative will be @TekkenLowhigh. We wish him all the best in Tekken World Tour 2018. Good luck Champ! pic.twitter.com/nBSctY459I
What better way to start off the New Year, by looking back over those who made their mark on the year before. Set to launch ahead of the first major tournament of the year — Genesis 5 — MIOM has partnered with Red Bull to release the 2017 edition of the SSBM Rank. This new list will rank the world’s top 100 Melee players and will become the yard stick for measuring upsets over the next six months.
The rankings will be released over the course of three weeks, usually in batches of nine players at a time. Ranks 100-91 will be released on January 3rd, with the top ten being formally announced on January 16th. There’s set to be quite the upset at the top of the rankings this year, as Hungrybox’s successes may have finally allowed him to overthrow Armada as world number one.
If you want to find details on how the top 100 are decided, as well as a list of those who missed out on this year’s honor-roll, mosey on over to the official Red Bull SSBM Rank site.
You’ve got the limited edition 30th Anniversary coin, now it’s time to get the stamp collection. In a collaboration with Japan Post, Capcom have revealed a Street Fighter-themed stamp set, complete with a commemorative stamp book and a limited edition red Chun-Li figure. The ten stamps depict character artwork from different Street Fighter games, starting with the original 1987 Street Fighter and finishing with Street Fighter V.
For that small number of Street Fighter fans who are also philatelists, this stamp collection is the perfect thing to complete your 30th anniversary collection. If you’re looking to get this piece of unique memorabilia, the stamps, stamp book and Chun-Li figure cost 12,800 yen — which is around $114. When you consider you will be paying for postage from Japan, this could end up being quite the expensive set of stamps.
‘Tis the season for sales, and Sony — alongside Arc System Works — is not finished with putting things on discount. If you are a PlayStation Plus member and looking for a fighting game to try on the cheap, BlazBlue Central Fiction could fill that need in your life. From now until January 2nd, the game is 70% off on the PlayStation Store if you have the aforementioned premium membership.
With BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle on the horizon, now would be a great time to pick up the game to bone up prior to its 2018 release.
Automatic Replay Viewer has been a godsend to the Skullgirls community. Allowing PC players to rewatch long sets without recording every single match while playing, this has benefited the growth in their abilities in numerous ways.
Now, that same functionality has crept its way into Rivals of Aether, as the most recent version of the program has added support for the game. While certain other functionalities — such as hitbox viewers and attack data — have yet to be implemented, players will for now be able to enjoy the ability to rewatch their matches with ease.
The newest version can be found on Github, alongside the changelog for the program.
A short while back, we got word that Bandai Namco were looking to include characters in Dragon Ball FighterZ‘s upcoming open beta that weren’t in the previous closed beta tests. Now, we know who one of those fighters will be.
In a recent issue, Weekly Shonen Jump has revealed that one of the playable characters in Dragon Ball FighterZ‘s open beta will be none other than Beerus. Universe 7’s God of Destruction will be filling out one of the 11 character slots for the open beta coming this January.
The rest of the issue features the information about Beerus and Hit that we already got earlier on from Bandai Namco. You can check out a a translated scan from ShonenGamez below.
Dragon Ball FighterZ‘s open beta will start at 12:00 AM PST on January 14 (with early access for those who pre-ordered on 12:00 AM PST on January 13) and will run until 12:00 AM PST on January 16.
Here’s a handy source to stay on top of Dragon Ball FighterZ announcements.
The release — and first, the open beta — of Dragon Ball FighterZ is creeping ever closer, ready to hit the FGC with the force of a Spirit Bomb. DaPurpleSharpie wants to help us all keep track of the regular barrage of announcements coming out of Bandai Namco for the title, and has thus launched West City Weekly, a news digest show for Dragon Ball FighterZ, set to run every Monday at 8:00 PM ET (5:00 PM PT) on Stream.Me.
You can check out the first episode — which covers the recent new fighters revealed for the game, lots of gameplay discussion, and more — on YouTube below, and check out DaPurpleSharpie on Stream.Me for the next episode.
With SNK’s recent addition of support for The King of Fighters XIV esports tournaments, it’s no surprise to see the world’s best become involved across esports teams. As such, the Middle East has now found KOF representation on the pro level.
Waqas “White-AshX” Ali of the United Arab Emirates has found himself recently signed by Vslash Esports to represent the brand in The King of Fighters XIV, as well as Street Fighter V. Earlier this year, Ali earned a fifth place finish at Evo 2017 in The King of Fighters XIV.
Even though KOEI Tecmo and Team NINJA has ended support for Dead or Alive 5 Last Round doesn’t mean the end of competitive play for the game. There are still things happening in the world of competitive Dead or Alive 5!
One of the places where competition in Dead or Alive 5 Last Round will continue to play out is in the ESL. While their efforts were mostly focused overseas, ESL Dead or Alive has recently announced that they will now be hosting weekly Online ESL Cups for Dead or Alive 5 Last Round on PlayStation 4, starting next week.
The first of these online tournaments will begin on Saturday, January 6, 2018 at 6:00 PM ET/3:00 PM PT. At stake are DLC season passes that will allow players access to some of the numerous costume packs released for the game.
Interested players can sign up via ESL’s PlayStation dashboard. More information can be found here.
Arc System Works is looking to kick off the new year with a bang next month with the Arc System Work Fighting Game Award 2017. The second installment of this now-yearly event will feature two double-elimination, eight-player tournaments in both BlazBlue: Central Fiction and Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2, with each lineup being filled by a collection of past champions from various events throughout the past year.
To give fans a better look at these 16 competitors, ASW has released a pair of “Entries’ introduction” videos, showcasing the players and their characters for each game — as well as interviewing them about their thoughts for the upcoming battles. For those of who don’t speak Japanese, you can see English subtitles of the interviews by turning on closed captions. It’s also great to see some of these players going about their daily lives outside of the games, with a style of presentation very reminiscent of New Japan Pro Wrestling’s pre-match video packages. You can catch both videos below, along with the full list of participants and first-round brackets.
BlazBlue: Central Fiction:
“He Who Devours Everything” Monster/iGS|Kaibutsukun (Izanami, Nine The Phantom, Ragna the Bloodedge) – Co-Champion of Braver’s Rebel 2017
“The Dancing Dragon” Meister (Lambda-11) – Gateway to BlazBlue Champion
“Master of the Marionette” Grover (Carl Clover) – Highest-placing American player at Evo 2017, tied for 9th
“Pioneer of Mix-Ups” Matoi (Kokonoe) – Online Qualifier A
“The Divine Kabuki Artist” BE|Dora (Bang Shisigami, Mu-12) – Online Qualifier B
Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2
“The Super Ninja” Samitto (Chip Zanuff) – Pre-Evo Japan: 賽 [sài] Champion
“The Leader of Naniwa” Omito (Johnny) – Evo 2017 Champion
“The Indomitable” Nage (Faust) – GodsGarden #12 Champion
“Wings of Talent” Ruki (Dizzy) – Co-Champion of Toushinsai 2017
“Tyrant of Darkness” Digital Hearts|Ogawa (Zato-1) – Co-Champion of Toushinsai 2017
“The Furioso” Daru (I-No) – Co-Champion of Toushinsai 2017
“Super Fingers” Takehara (Ramlethal Valentine) – Online Qualifier A
“Invisible Thunder Thrust” Rion (Ky Kiske) – Online Qualifier B
The Arc System Works Fighting Game Award 2017 will take place on January 13th, 2018 at the e-sports SQUARE in Akihabara. You can find more details about the event in our previous coverage. You can also catch all of the action at either twitch.tv/arcsystemworks, with English commentary, or on Nico Nico Douga. Who do you believe will take the crown in both games? Give us your picks in the comments below.
