Collating together results from several tournaments around the world, Panda Global and their stats team have begun to release the third PGR for Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. This ranking covers tournaments between January 7th and June 18th, with CEO 2017 being the last tournament that counted towards this list.
Tournaments were rated via the PG Tournament Tier System, and player rankings were determined by looking at their placings at various events, combined with their respective wins and losses. For a complete breakdown of the methodology for the PGR v3, check out the FAQ over on its official website.
So far, only ranks 41-50 have been declared, with the PG Stats team planning to release ranks 40-31 on June 29th, ranks 30-21 on July 3rd, ranks 20-11 on July 5th, and then the top 10 on July 7th. This means we should have an up-to-date ranking ahead of Evo 2017.
After a long road, Philadelphia’s team stood victorious in Santa Monica.
This past weekend, the top twelve 3-player teams from across North America fought it out at the Red Bull eSports Studio in Santa Monica, California to determine the winner of Red Bull Proving Grounds! The teams battled over two days, concluding with a final East vs. West fight that saw the Philadelphia crew crush the favorite, well-established Los Angeles team in a surprising upset. The champions JB, Darkchild, and PIE Kami — along with five other top-ranking competitors — will thus represent Philadelphia at Evo 2017!
The team matches indeed proved hugely entertaining and pushed hype to new levels! You can rewatch the matches leading to Philadelphia’s victory on Red Bull eSports’ Twitch channel.
Source: Red Bull; [Team Philadelphia photo by Carlo Cruz, courtesy of Red Bull]
The third issue of UDON’s crazy crossover series has arrived!
UDON’s third issue of Street Fighter vs. Darkstalkers — an 8-issue limited series — is in stores right now, available with four different covers. Here’s UDON Entertainment’s issue synopsis:
As Chun-Li loses one of her allies to the darkness, things look grim for the World Warriors. Meanwhile, Morrigan learns she’s not the only succubus in this fight, as she comes face to face for the first time with the mischievous Lilith. The crossover chaos continues in STREET FIGHTER VS. DARKSTALKERS!
Fans of the Gundam Versus series will have special incentive to go to Evolution 2017 in July, as this year will feature a special Bandai Namco US-sanctioned side tournament. Bandai Namco has announced a partnership with AnimEVO to bring the Western audience a side tournament with its own floor space, event-specific offline setups, prizes for winners, and a stream.
To help folks better understand the significance of this partnership, AnimEVO staff and NorCal tournament organizer, Brett, shared some of his thoughts on these developments:
The Gundam Versus series is a long-running series originating in Japanese arcades. It is ranked as one of the most popular arcade franchises in Japan as a whole, and not simply due to having a large fanbase, but also due to being an extremely well-made competitive game, which originally used an engine developed by old Capcom. To put it in perspective, the monthly tournaments held at Shinjuku Sportsland for Gundam — which can be viewed similar to something like Mikado for the Guilty Gear scene — often find themselves with over 500 players attending on that day.
Despite such success, lack of Western console ports and online functionality meant this otherwise solid multiplayer genre did not really take hold in the West. The advent of the Japanese PS3 console port in 2011, which included solid online multiplayer functionality, marked a new beginning for the game.
While still extremely niche, the next gen online port sparked the birth of a more competitive-oriented scene which also brought in many players from the fighting game genre, due to a lot of overlap in mechanics.
From 2012 onward, the US community continued to push the game forward from a competitive aspect, running tournaments at various events, the largest of which being Evo, and giving the game exposure through content creation. However, similar to the era of Arc System Works games of the past, Japanese Arcade versions always moved at least one, or sometimes even two versions ahead of the console ports, all the while continuing to remain Japanese-only. And while the western community for ASW games have always maintained a decent relationship with Aksys for support (at least starting in 2009), the Gundam community has never had an avenue to create similar relationships.
As such, both the release of the English port of Gundam Versus, as well as Bandai Namco’s involvement in Western community events, mark the largest step of progress the community has ever made. We’re very excited to have gotten to the point we are at now, and really looking forward to giving the game the exposure it deserves. Their support for Evo signifies more than just sanctioning an event — it is the clearest indication of their willingness to cooperate with the Western community.
Evo 2017 registration ends this Friday, so don’t forget to register now for the main event, and head to AnimEVO‘s own smash.gg registration page to check out AnimEVO’s full lineup. See you at Evolution 2017!
Players looking to take ARPG action with them on the go, may want to take a look at the upcoming Raze: Dungeon Arena. It offers a full slate of ARPG goodies including cooperative mode, questing and over sixty single player dungeons with boss battles and epic gear. For those of a more PvP oriented game style, Raze brings 1v1, 2v2 and guild battles to the forefront.
NetEase has released the Chinese language version of Twilight Spirits on Steam. Twilight Spirits blends action with an interesting component called the Dragon Soul combat system. If an attack is dodged successfully, the tables are turned and it is the enemy who is under attack without the ability to respond.
Ever since the team began aggressively creating their fighting game division in April 2016, Echo Fox has proven to be a powerhouse, committed to signing top players in a wide variety of different fighting games. Their roster already includes the likes of Julio Fuentes, Justin Wong, Yusuke Momochi, Yuko “ChocoBlanka” Momochi and Hajime “Tokido” Taniguchi for Street Fighter V, Jason “Mew2King” Zimmerman and Leonardo “MKLeo” Lopez Perez for Super Smash Bros. Melee and Wii U, and even world-class Tekken 7 players JDCR and Saint. Now they have expanded their Injustice 2 roster, as Theo will now be competing alongside Brad “Scar” Vaughn and Dominique “SonicFox” McLean in NetherRealm Studio’s DC brawler, and will be representing the team at Evo 2017.
For those unfamiliar with the self-proclaimed “defensive Injustice 2 playstyle enthusiast,” his accomplishments in the previous title include placing 5th at Evo 2013 and NEC XIV, 7th at Evo 2014, and going on a hot streak with 1st-place victories at SCR 2014, UFGTX, MLG Anaheim, and West Coast Warzone 4. After taking a three-year hiatus,he returned to Injustice 2 by getting 2nd at Week 1 of War of the Gods, and most recently scoring 5th at CEO 2017 earlier this month. You can see announcement tweets from both Echo Fox and Theo below.
An announcement video from team manager Antonio “AJ” Javier has been posted to Facebook.
The dual-wielder of Superman and Aquaman is certainly a fine addition to the team, and we at Shoryuken would like to wish and Echo Fox all the best in their future endeavors — as they undoubtedly look to have a big impact at the rapidly-approaching Evo!
Aside from the official games on the roster, Evo is also known for hosting a number of side tournaments. One of the more famous ones is the annual Capcom vs. SNK 2 side tournament hosted by legendary player Ryo “D44BAS” Yoshida.
This year, BAS returns to host another Capcom vs. SNK 2 side tournament; to up the stakes, BAS has also added a special bounty on himself. That’s right: anyone who’s able to eliminate the man acknowledged by many to be the best CvS2 player in the world will receive a $500 bonus, regardless of their placing in the tournament.
For those interested in joining, registration for the tournament is now open at smash.gg. The tournament itself will take place on Saturday, July 15 at Evo 2017’s Bring Your Own Console area. Entry fee is only $5, and registration opens at 1:30 PM with the tournament starting at 3:00 PM. Format for the tournament is double-elimination, played in best of two out of three matches.
A look at what drives four of Street Fighter V’s fiercest competitors.
In this new documentary, Red Bull Media House and STUDIO+ bring us an in-depth look into the competitive mindset of four serious Street Fighter V players: Twitch.Hx.CYG BST|Daigo Umehara, Echo Fox|Tokido, Qanba.Douyu|Xiao Hai, and RB.Method|Luffy. From Red Bull:
THE ART OF STREET FIGHTING
They are called Daigo, Tokido, Luffy, and Xiao Hai, and they are among the best Street Fighter players in the world. Whether they live in Tokyo, Paris, or Guangzhou, these new kind of sportsmen travel the world every weekend searching for tournaments and high financial rewards. Their daily life is ruled by sacrifices: intensive training, sleepless nights, and endless battles. Their status is fragile and they are aware of it: during the six months between the Capcom Cup 2016 and Red Bull Kumite 2017, cards are reshuffled.
The Art of Street Fighting premieres on Red Bull TV at 12:00 PM PDT, July 27!
Netmarble has sent word that Lineage II Revolution, its mobile title based on the Lineage 2 IP, will be launching in North America later in 2017. L2R recently launched in eleven Asian nations and is considered the number one grossing game on both Google Play and the Apple App Store.
