Category: News

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Mid-South Championships 2017 offering $15 registration fee until May 10th

After a successful first event last year, the organizers behind Kumite In Tennessee and Panda X Gaming have teamed up once again to bring “the LARGEST gaming event in Arkansas,” back to Little Rock. Mid-South Championships will be held September 9-10, returning to the Holiday Inn Conference Center, conveniently located near the Clinton National Airport, in Little Rock, Arkansas.

The event’s Featured games include:

  • Street Fighter V ($1,000 pot bonus)
  • Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3
  • Guilty Gear Xrd REV2
  • BlazBlue: Central Fiction
  • Super Smash Bros. for Wii U [singles & doubles] ($500 pot bonus for singles)
  • Super Smash Bros. Melee [singles & doubles] ($500 pot bonus for singles)
  • Project M
  • Tekken 7
  • The King of Fighters XIV
  • Injustice 2
  • Killer Instinct

Registration is currently live at smash.gg. From now until May 10th, the organizers are offering a limited-time $15 venue fee, as a response to concerns of last year’s high registration cost. Afterwards, the price will increase to the early-bird price of $20, which will further increase to $30 on August 1st. On-site registration will set you back $40, so competitors should act quickly for the discount. Just like last year, the hotel room rate will be $89 per night, with a booking link forthcoming.

Source: Mid-South Championships (Facebook)

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Looking for online Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 competition? Check out reddit’s player database

Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3’s re-release on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC has undeniably sparked a revival for the franchise–with players new and old coming back to the title in earnest. However, some players may not be able to make it out to locals, instead having to rely on online play for their competitive fix. Finding a consistent source of online competition in a 6-year old title, with its players spread across a whopping five platforms, can prove challenging.

In an attempt to remedy this, trahh has created an online player database on the /r/MvC3 subreddit, allowing players to indicate their system(s) of preference, location, degrees of availability, and any other details they wish to provide in service of expanding their range of potential opponents. He has also provided a link to the Steam group for UMvC3, for any users who may want to join there.

You can fill out the form to join the list here, and can also view the spreadsheet, which has around 90 players listed at the time of this writing, here.

Source: r/MvC3

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Blink and you’ll miss The Flash’s Injustice 2 intro trailer

As a Flash main in the original Injustice, this is the trailer I have been waiting for. Showing off the scarlet speedster in action, this introductory trailer for The Flash reveals some of the new tricks he has picked up in between games. Still retaining moves like his Lightning Kick, Running Man Stance and Time Loop trait, The Flash finally has a projectile and some added anti-air options to deal with foes both near and far.

Barry Allen has even gained a dive kick for Injustice 2, with him spiraling head first towards a foe and potentially leading into a juggle when in Time Loop. Taking a tip from Kitana, The Flash has an anti-air similar to the Edenian princess, making opponents float in the air when meter-burned. He can also spin on the spot to create a tornado which can intercept jumping foes, along with an energy projectile to contest enemy zoners.

His new super is truly the star of the show, with The Flash running back in time to slam opponents into some archaeological and paleontological surprises. He then brings opponents back to the present, where they collide headfirst into an alternate timeline version of themselves–starting another beatdown in a separate universe. That’s just the right kind of overkill.

Source: Injustice

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Major Texas tournament Absolute Battle 8 registration is now live; will be held August 25th-27th 2017

Plano, TX sits around 25 minutes from Dallas, and serves as home to one of Texas’s largest fighting game tournaments: Absolute Battle. Revealing its 8th iteration, Versus Gameplay has announced that Absolute Battle 8 will run from August 25th-27th, with online registration now available via smash.gg.

Absolute Battle is run by Versus Gameplay, Dallas/Fort Worth’s largest retro arcade and one of its most active esports organizations. Absolute Battle 8 will be held at the Comfort Inn in Plano, with registration costing $45 at present. Expect news on possible hotel booking deals, additional events and exhibitions closer to the tournament. So far, Versus Gameplay has announced events for:

  • Street Fighter V
  • Tekken 7: Fated Retribution
  • Pokkén Tournament
  • Super Smash Brothers Melee (Singles and Doubles)
  • Super Smash Brothers Wii U (Singles and Doubles)
  • Injustice 2
  • Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2

Source: Versus Gameplay

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Manny Pacquiao to defend against Jeff Horn in Australia

WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao (59-6-2, 38 KOs) will defend his title against unbeaten contender Jeff Horn (16-0-1, 11 KOs) on July 2 at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, Australia.
A bout with Horn was initially scrapped because Pacquiao opted for a fight against Amir Khan in the United Arab Emirates in April instead, but the Khan deal fell through due to financial reasons.
Pacquiao, 38, the only eight-division world champion in boxing history, regained the WBO 147lb title for a third…

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Lomachenko outclasses Sosa in nine

WBO super featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko (8-1, 6 KOs) outclassed and then stopped Jason Sosa (20-2-4, 15 KOs) at the end of the ninth round on Saturday night at the MGM National Harbor, in Oxon Hill, Maryland.
Lomachenko, one of the best pound for pound fighters in boxing, dominated the entire fight before Sosa’s trainer Raul  Rivas asked referee Kenny Chevalier to halt the one-sided bout.
Sosa, who vacated his WBA ‘regular’ title in order to fight Lomachenko, showed his…

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Flanagan outpoints Petrov to retain WBO lightweight title

WBO lightweight champion Terry Flanagan (33-0, 13 KOs) defeated mandatory challenger Petr Petrov (38-5-2, 19 KOs) by unanimous decision on Saturday night at the Manchester Arena.
The Manchester man outboxed Petrov in most of the rounds and won by scores of 116-112, 120-108 and 118-110.
Flanagan boxed well behind his jab with good movement in the first round but Petrov landed some hard shots in the second.
However, the Russian could not sustain any attack as Flanagan landed punches often in the…

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Smash.gg announces major changes to its bracket generation system

Important news for anyone who organizes tournaments through smash.gg, as the tournament organizing service has announced major changes to its bracket generating system. These changes are all to help TOs run a better event and for players to avoid rematches during their time in the bracket, which is often a major complaint when people attend large events.

Seeding a tournament is one of the hardest jobs for a tournament organizer, as you have to take into account not only relative skill levels and player wins, but also regional information so two players from the same area don’t instantly square off at a big event. Smash.gg uses a snaking pool system, where the top 32 seeds are placed in a snaking pattern in order to evenly distribute players of varying skill. This works for balancing pools, but can cause problems when moving between tournament phases. The new smash.gg system keeps the order of seeding correct between phases, making sure that no potential erroneous match ups appear in later brackets.

Smash.gg has also implemented a new algorithm which splits players in a bracket into clusters, then swaps them around in order to avoid repeated match ups between phases. To cut a long story short, this algorithm should vastly decreases the chances of double jeopardy as brackets progress. It doesn’t completely strip out the problem as that is nigh on impossible, but it reduces the chances of it happening. For the layman, what you need to know is that this new system should keep seeding intact between phases and reduce the chances of you playing someone you may have lost to in Winners’. If you want to read the full technical breakdown, make sure to read the smash.gg Medium article for all the nitty gritty details.

Source: smash.gg

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Frabisaur examines frame data in Episode 4 of The Fighter’s Dojo

In the latest episode of The Fighter’s Dojo, Frabisaur takes a look at another concept that can separate lower and higher levels of play: frame data. To the uninitiated, it may just look like a series of random numbers, but knowledge of it is essential to take your game to the next level, and it’s a concept that can be applied to all titles.  Questions answered in the video include “What is frame data?” and “Why is it so important?” He also mentions that this video will have follow-ups to explain how to apply frame data both offensively and defensively in greater detail. Frabisaur begins by defining frame data.

 The simplest way I could describe frame data to you, is that it’s how we describe the animations of character’s movements. Frame data has to do with animations, and there are three things we measure when we talk about it. They are the startup frames of animation, the active frames of animation and the recovery frames of animation.

Utilizing Street Fighter V’s replay functions to look at a moment frame-by-frame, Frabisaur takes Necalli’s Standing Heavy Kick, which has 12 startup frames, 4 active frames and 21 recovery frames. Slowing the move down, he shows the entire animation of his leg at each of those three points, as well as how frame data impacts hitstun, blockstun and reeling animations.

In closing, Frabisaur emphasizes that frame data will help players have a greater understanding of the levels of commitment associated with every attack, and will also have deeper insight into what makes combos possible.

You can view the video below, and can also check out his past episodes on hitboxes and hurtboxes, as well as a mini on crossups, to supplement this content.

Though he has a schedule of episodes planned, Frabisaur is open to taking suggestions for future videos from viewers, so feel free to chime in with an idea. You can also follow him on Twitter at Frabisaur and catch his stream at twitch.tv/frabisaur for more tips and demonstrations.

Source: Frabisaur

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Humorous videos expose BlazBlue: Central Fiction Noel Vermillion’s weaknesses

Noel Vermillion has been a bit of an underdog in the BlazBlue series. Though there were some versions where she was comparatively stronger, the dominant characters in Central Fiction generally push her lower in the hierarchy.

Alizonius, who recently published a Noel combo video, has been a Tweeting a mini series of “match up” videos. Sometimes set to the X-Files theme, they humorously — but accurately — expose the weaknesses of the character.

Looks like Hakumen’s counter Astral just happens to work on Noel’s command grab.

What kind of effective tools does Noel have against Celica? Any? Anyone? Is character switch a legitimate advice then?

This Tweeted video probably hits the hardest. Or it doesn’t. It just whiffs.

To be fair, it’s possible to cancel into the Distortion Drive earlier to make this chain better, but that air Noel super is known to whiff like that sometimes.

How to Stuff Noel: A Practical Guide.

To be fair, Alizonius also puts out videos that showcase Noel’s strength, like a Fatal counter combo and a way to side-switch in a Noel combo.

Do you struggle but remain loyal to your favorite characters, or do you switch to someone else when you see them nerfed? Let us know in the comments.

Source: Alizonius