After a long series of tournaments across several continents, it is almost time to crown the first King of Fighters for the latest edition of SNK’s long running team fighter. The contenders have been locked in, and the KOFXIV final is going to be held at the Akihabara UDX Theater in Tokyo on February 18th. Coming from five continents, the final 16 players are:
Alioune (France)
Frionel (Morocco)
Cipher (Mexico)
Kane Blueriver (Chile)
Toshi (Peru)
AS|Reynald (USA)
DBJ-EIT (Taipei)
gxbridget (Taipei)
KTB|Ball HK (Hong Kong)
MADKOF (South Korea)
Douyu Qanba|Xiaohai (China)
Panda Dakou (China)
Panda TV|Lancer (China)
Panda TV|Naiwang (China)
Picnic (Japan)
Sanwa|M’ (Japan)
With producer Yasuyuki Oda present at the event and “some of the latest new info from KOF” promised to be announced during the course of the finals, this will be an absolute must watch for any King of Fighters fans. The tournament is set to kick off at 3pm JST on February 18th, and you can watch live via Team Spooky’s Twitch channel.
One of the most influential members of the Marvel vs. Capcom community is none other than Michael “IFC Yipes” Mendoza. From being a memorable competitor and commentator in Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Yipes has emerged as something of a leader for the community in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3.
With this in mind, many players were looking towards how Yipes would respond it was announced that Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 would not be automatically guaranteed for Evo 2017, instead relegated to being a “Players Choice” possibility. And respond he did, in a recent stream on his Twitch channel.
Though the game is still leading the Players Choice vote (with $18,456 as of writing this article), he still feels that Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 should have been given a guaranteed slot as a proper send-off for the title (with Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite coming next year). As part of this, he points out how the series has been a cornerstone of of Evo, even before it took on that name and was still known as B4.
You can check out the entirety of Yipes’ stream below.
Fans of GWENT: The Witcher Card Game will be pleased to hear that the game is growing, this time with the release of the Nilfgaard faction. Over sixty new cards have been released that includes faction-specific cards for Northern Realms, Scoia’tael, Skellige and Monsters, as well as neutral cards.
Square Enix recently provided some (rather vague) updates regarding Dissidia Final Fantasy and its single-player story mode when it hits consoles in the future. That said, the company is still focusing on the game as a multiplayer, team battle Final Fantasy, and may even be looking to bring it into the esports circuit.
In a recent interview with Weekly Famitsu, director Takeo Kujiraoka stated that “If we can export it to the world as a high-proficiency, competitive fighting tool, while also an enjoyable team battle Final Fantasy, it might even rise up as an e-Sports event.” He follows that up by stating that, “If that happens, then next will be a global tournament, right? I can’t say too much, but I want to use these sorts of ambitions to make Dissidia Final Fantasy an even better game.”
So it seems that Square Enix may be considering something along the lines of the Capcom Pro Tour for Dissidia, if the game does garner a competitive following on consoles.
The latest patch for Gunjack 2: End of Shift brings a number of requested features into the game including leaderboards, new challenges, weapon upgrades, weekly missions, the new loadout system, an updated progression system and much more.
The London Stock Exchange is reporting that Frontier Developments, the studio behind Elite: Dangerous, has licensed rights from a movie studio for an as-yet-unnamed IP in order to create a third game title. All that is known is that the game will be based on an “enduring movie franchise of global renown”.
After nearly five years in development, it appears that Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is now complete. The news comes by way of an image posted to Twitter during a wrap party for the entire crew who had been working on Zelda up to now.
Recently, TOPANGA announced Season 6 of their League, featuring Street Fighter V Season 2. The competition will run from Friday, February 10th, to Sunday, March 5th. This competition will feature 21 of Japan’s strongest players, separated into 3 blocks of 7 competitors each, who will battle in a series of online matches, then the top 4 players will face off, until we are down to just the final 6, who will fight an offline round robin to determine the final champion of the League. The blocks, participants and characters are as follows:
Block A:
CO|Go1 (Chun-Li)
FOX|Tokido (Akuma)
ISM|Haku (M. Bison)
AW|Nemo (Urien)
MJS|Haitani (Necalli)
BST|Daigo (Ryu)
GGP|Kazunoko (Cammy)
Block B:
ORTV|Nuki (Chun-Li)
FOX|Momochi (Ken)
Galtu (M. Bison)
Inaba (Urien)
Gachikun (Rashid)
DNG|Itabashi Zangief (Zangief)
RB|Bonchan (Nash)
Block C:
TG|MOV (Chun-Li)
Eita (Ken)
HORI|Sako (Akuma)
YHC-Mochi (Dhalsim)
Storm-Kubo (Alex)
Mago (Karin)
TG|Fuudo (R. Mika)
Though this is traditionally a character-locked event, TOPANGA has said that if there is a balance patch before or during the competition, they will allow competitors to switch characters form the one they have currently registered.
In total, we have 15 of the current 23 characters seeing some action, with, most surprisingly, Chun-Li seeing the most representation with 3 players. Considering that many Chun players from Season 1 have complained that she was over-nerfed–with some even feeling she is too weak to be competitively viable in the current season–it will be interesting to see how G01, Nuki and MOV fare in the upcoming League. We also have 2 Akumas, 2 M. Bisons, 2 Uriens and 2 Kens, showing that the four of them are on solid ground so far in the sophomoric season of the game. We also have a single Alex, Necalli, Karin, Cammy, Dhalsim, Nash, Rashid, Ryu, Zangief and even a Mika. It should also be noted that there aren’t any Birdies, Vegas, F.A.N.Gs, Ibukis, Juris, Lauras, Balrogs or even Guiles in sight.
You can catch the official trailer for the event below, which features player interviews (if you can understand Japanese), and will be able to see this event in its entirety, for free, on OPENREC.TV!
Who do you believe will come out on top? Let us all know who you’re rooting for in the comments below!
While everyone generally seems to be enjoying the recent PS4/PS Vita port of SNK’s feudal fighter The Last Blade 2, a patch was made to address a few of the imported title’s less enjoyable aspects. Announced on the SNK Facebook page KOF WORLD, the patch is intended to improve the games input lag and and fix specific bugs. Two bugs that stands out is the game either freezing or completely crashing on the Large Fire at Wadamoya stage and the lack of strong netplay.
While there are no notes to verify which specific bugs are fixed, the patches are live now, so owners of the game can check it out for themselves. You can purchase a digital copy of The Last Blade 2 for both PS Vita and PS4 in the Playstation Store.
Evil Geniuses’ K-Brad had a pretty difficult week. Joining former teammate, Echo Fox’s Justin Wong, on ESL’s King of the Hill, the two were left decimated by east coast Balrog player Smug.
There is nothing more frustrating than a loss like that, and K-Brad and his Cammy will certainly be looking for redemption. When he goes up against friendly rival Mike Ross and his Laura, then it is sure to be fireworks as he looks to shake off the salt from the ESL match. However, based on certain infamous matches from Twitch’s Capcom Pro Talk, these two competitors are certainly not going to give the other an easy time of it.
