Category: News

Here’s the first piece of Evo’s promised support for competitive Pokkén Tournament in 2017!

Pokkén Tournament didn’t make it into the ninth slot at Evo 2017 in the Player’s Choice donation drive; however, in honor of the effort made by the Pokkén community in trying to beat Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 to the main stage–and the generous amount of donations gathered for Make-a-Wish International in the process–Evo pledged to support Pokkén Tournament events in 2017 with $10,000 in pot bonuses.

Today, we’re glad to announce the first of these pot bonuses for Pokkén in 2017: Evo will be throwing in $1000 to Pokkén Tournament‘s prize pool at the upcoming NorCal Regionals.

NCR 2017 is a Premier Capcom Pro Tour event, offering tournaments for the following games (in addition to community choice titles):

• Street Fighter V
• Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3
• The King of Fighters XIV
• Super Smash Bros. Melee
• Super Smash Bros. for Wii U
• Pokkén Tournament

NCR 2017 takes place in Sacramento, California on April 14-16, 2017. Pre-registration is currently open!

Evo’s Joey “Mr. Wizard” Cuellar is currently polling the FGC for opinion on which future events should also receive part of the remaining Pokkén pledge:

Let me know what Pokken tournaments would like some of the $10,000 bonus money we allocated after the donation drive for Evo!

— Joey Cuellar (@MrWiz) March 3, 2017

Sources: Evo; NorCal Regionals; Joey Cuellar (Twitter)

In an editorial published on the Japanese Alienware Zone blog, Echo Fox | ChocoBlanka wrote in detail why she, as well as her husband Echo Fox | Momochi, continue to game overseas instead of in Japan. While most competitive gamers in the American fighting game community are aware that tournaments in Japan are not monetized, Choco explains that there are other factors that make competing in the United States the obvious choice for a Japanese player hoping to maintain their professional status.

In her article, Choco affirms that she did come up in a competitive gaming scene where the bottom line was “it is not about the money”, which generally was a positive attitude. She also point out how lack of monetary motivation is only one of many reasons why Japanese pro gamers flock to the US for success. She breaks down the issue into five main parts, which, written in her own words, are the following:

1. The Japanese Market does not have matured “e-sports” market. 

2. “E-sports” has low visibility in Japan.

3. The larger the “population” of the target audience, the better

4. Event Selection as Pro Gamer 

5. [She and Momochi] want to continue promoting professional gaming to a wide audience

The post is noted to be a “Part 1”, with Choco saying she will speak more extensively on the matter in a second part. There is still a lot of information in this first part; Choco elaborates thoroughly on each of her five point and shares her personal history with the arcade scene in Japan as well as her insight as a pro gamer.

You can read the full English article here.

Source: Alienware

For players looking forward to playing Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 on PC on March 7, here’s some great news that can help you play the game as soon as it’s available. The pre-load for UMvC3 is now available on Steam.

For those who don’t know what this means, pre-loading allows players to download all the files necessary for a game to their hard drives before the game’s official release date. This means that the game become available for players who pre-load as soon as it’s out.

Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3’s pre-load requires 3.5 gigabytes of hard drive space. While this isn’t large by today’s standards, it can still take awhile to download, especially for those on slower connections. Pre-loading then can help players get in game without having to wait on launch day.

Source: Steam via r/MvC3

In a huge, nationwide collaboration with Marvel community leaders like IFC Yipes, Persia_xo, AZAngelic, kbkinderparty and ThaGaGaGuy and with help from smash.gg and Bear, Marvel is getting its very first year long community circuit. Titled the Curleh Circuit, it will track results from weeklies, regionals and major events across North America, with the hopes of crowning a grand Marvel champion after a year’s worth of competition.

Players can track their progress on the Curleh Circuit leaderboard, with the top placers at the end of the season being invited to the Curleh Mustache Finale to decide the overall victor. While most players will qualify for the Finale via leaderboard points, special exhibition events, social media contests and other activities will award players with spots at the Curleh Mustache Finale.

Points allocation will be determined by the size of the event, with events ranking from C Tier to S Tier. S Tier events have 1000 points to share out between the Top 8 placers, while C Tier events having just 200 points to parcel out. You can find all of the information concerning events, including how to make your local or regional a Curleh Circuit sanctioned event over on its dedicated smash.gg page. From there, you can also check upcoming tournaments and the current standings on the Curleh Circuit leaderboard. Marvel is more than just living, it’s thriving.

Source: smash.gg

Training Day begins now!

The Red Bull Proving Grounds tournament returns in 2017 and this time, even more players will have the opportunity to take part in the competition thanks to additional regions and two tournament seasons. Amateur players will test their skill in Street Fighter V to prove they have what it takes to go toe to toe with the pros at Evo 2017.

Red Bull Proving Grounds is back with qualifiers in 11 cities!

Get all the info: https://t.co/H4kFXoVWfG pic.twitter.com/E0f7Ug7nUB

— Red Bull eSports (@redbullesports) March 4, 2017

The new tournament will consist of events taking place in 11 locations across the US and Canada. Returning venues include Seattle, WA, Los Angeles, CA, Chicago, IL, Philadelphia PA, Atlanta GA, and Toronto, ON. New locations include Houston, TX, Orlando, FL, San Francisco, CA, Vancouver, BC, Montreal, QC. Those unable to attend the qualifiers locally will have the chance to compete online to take their place among the greats.

East vs. West

To qualify for the finals, players must place among the top three in their respective region. This is decided based on one’s Regional Ranking Points. Those players will be flown to the Red Bull eSports Studio in Santa Monica, CA to compete in the finals. The top 8 winners of the Spring Season will earn their spots to compete at Evo 2017 in Las Vegas.

Today marks the beginning of the Spring Season and is considered to be a training day for the tournament. The Proving Grounds officially begin on April, 1. The full schedule and registration information can be located at the Proving Grounds page on smash.gg.

Sources: Red Bull Proving Grounds; smash.gg

The King of Fighters XIV director Yasuyuki Oda took to Twitter to remind fans that details about KOFXIV’s DLC characters–previously promised at the KOF World Championships–would still be coming in the near future: by next week, in fact.

For more information about DLC characters, please wait one more week! https://t.co/nQoWb0waba

— Yasuyuki Oda (@snk_oda) March 3, 2017

At this point we don’t know anything concrete about who will be joining the KOFXIV roster–or even if it will be three or four new additions. Stay tuned!

Thanks to NightmareStream for the tip.

Source: Yasuyuki Oda (Twitter)