Category: News

The Smash Summit returns for its fourth installment, simply rebranding itself as “Smash Summit Spring,” suggesting that this invitational may become a seasonal event in 2017. Of course with every new Smash Summit comes a new round of voting to see which six fan-selected Super Smash Bros. Melee players will join the ten pre-invited players for a weekend of top-level Melee.

The opt in stage is currently open, where players within the top 70 of the current MIOM ranking can put themselves for possible selection for Smash Summit Spring. Twitter nominations will begin on February 6th, with 20 possible players going forward to the voting stage on February 10th. From there, the fierce player voting period with begin on February 13th with the final two players being voted into Smash Summit Spring on February 17th.

In order to close the voting loopholes which caused a significant amount of controversy at Smash Summit 3, players can only get extra votes by buying items from the Smash Summit 2017 shop, rather than from any tournament compendium. This is to clamp down on fans having a large stock of votes available to use, due to purchases made via other tournament compendiums.

So far, players like LG|Ice, Duck, MSF|The Moon, VGBC|Chudat, MIOM|Kirbykaze, Android and Syrox have opted into the Summit voting, with more being added in the coming days. Keep checking the smash.gg page for Smash Summit Spring for the up to date player lists.

Sources: r/smashbros; smash.gg

It’s a big day for Injustice 2 fans: as alongside the confirmation of characters like the Flash, Bane, and Poison Ivy on the roster and the reveal of Black Canary, additional characters are being added to the Injustice 2 beta. In a not-so cryptic tweet from Ed Boon, he states that Blue Beetle will be joining the Injustice 2 beta later today. By this logic, it’s possible to expect other characters like Gorilla Grodd or Wonder Woman to also join the beta in future updates, as they have been playable in previous pre-release builds.

More great Injustice 2 news! Looks like today the BETA will be updated, adding another character. Guess who?! pic.twitter.com/159lp9n1Xq

— Ed Boon (@noobde) February 2, 2017

Don’t worry if you haven’t made it into the Injustice 2 beta, as Boon also announced that another wave of codes will be winging their way to certain lucky Injustice fans as well.

And yes! Another wave of Injustice 2 Beta codes will be sent out as well !!pic.twitter.com/wtMcBBEjug

— Ed Boon (@noobde) February 2, 2017

Source: noobde

Getting back into the world of traditional fighters after a brief absence, Elevate has announced their return with the signing of Joseu “Grief” Herrera to the team. Having previously been a part of Mutiny eSports, Grief racked up some stellar placings in 2016, getting second at East Coast Throwdown, seventh at Evo 2016, fourth at CEO 2016 and fifth at Killer Instinct World Cup 2016.

We're proud to welcome @KillerInstinct professional @ElevateGrief to the #RedRebellion! pic.twitter.com/Heb1XL6YSP

— Elevate (@ElevateGG) February 2, 2017

He has yet to get on the board in 2017–but with a new sponsorship behind him, expect Grief to be tearing up brackets very soon. As players like F3|HollywoodSleep, Circa|Nicky, Thompxson and UA|Bass are establishing themselves as the combatants to beat in what remains of Killer Instinct Season 3, Grief has to be ready for anything as we head towards Killer Instinct World Cup in March. With a character pool including ARIA, Arbiter, Orchid and Sadira, Grief should be well equipped to fight anything that may come his way in 2017.

Source: ElevateGG

It seems that HORI isn’t the only company releasing an arcade stick for Tekken 7. Mad Catz has also announced that they are collaborating with Bandai Namco for their own take on a Tekken 7 arcade stick.

Mad Catz’s Tekken 7 offering is based on their Tournament Edition 2 Arcade Fight Stick–now Tournament Edition 2+. This means that it will contain the same features as the Street Fighter V original such as the touch pad, opening top panel, foam padding, Sanwa parts, and easily swappable top panel art. That said, players might not make use of the latter–since the Tekken 7 TE2+ variants from Mad Catz will feature some amazing art on their own.

Both variants of the Mad Catz Arcade Fight Stick Tournament Edition 2+ feature slick, hand-drawn character art. The red version focuses on series antagonist Heihachi Mishima, with the rest of his dysfunctional family on the side. The white version, on the other hand, has Tekken 7 boss (and Heihachi’s estranged wife) Kazumi Mishima, with Heihachi off to the side instead.

Mad Catz is still mum on details–such as when it’ll come out, and how much it will cost. That said, those interested can register over on Mad Catz’s official site for these. In the meantime, check out some of these images of these sticks.

Click to view slideshow.

Source: Mad Catz

Acting as NorCal’s premier fighting game tournament, NorCal Regionals is returning for 2017 on April 14th-16th. Held at the Holiday Inn in Sacramento, NorCal Regionals 2017 promises three days of top-quality fighting game action, for a whole host of games.

Much like last year, NorCal Regionals will be a Premier Event on the Capcom Pro Tour, so expect talent from around the world to descend on Sacramento to fight for one of those auto-qualifier spots. Currently, there is no news on whether the infamous “death pool” will return, but based on the excitement it generated last year, I would not rule it out. The games that will feature at NorCal Regionals 2017 are:

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

There will also be a community choice game, where the game with the most signups will also feature on the NorCal Regionals stream. The community choice games are Super Street Fighter II Turbo, Killer Instinct, Guilty Gear Xrd -REVELATOR- and BlazBlue: Central Fiction. There are tournaments running for these four games, but only one will be officially streamed by the event, so rally the troops to get your game on the main stage.

Early bird registration is available now, along with hotel bookings, so head over to the NorCal Regionals website to ensure your place at one of California’s most prestigious events.

Source: NorCal Regionals

A closer look at four upcoming fighters for the new Injustice.

Three denizens of Gotham City and one of Superman’s classic deadliest foes now have official character profiles on the Injustice 2 website, giving fans a closer look at their reimagined looks and personalities for the upcoming game. Bane’s new look is drawing particular attention, increasing desire for a better look at what his Venom-fueled beefed-up form might look like in this game.

Poison Ivy’s mention of “the green” makes me hope for a future connection to Swamp Thing, but… probably not. You can check out these profiles–and all the others revealed to date–on the official Injustice 2 website.

Check out the story trailer that first teased these fighters here. Injustice 2 will be released May 16, 2017.

Source: Injustice 2

These new threads are now available to US and Canadian players.

After first becoming available in Asia, two new costumes for The King of Fighters XIV have made it stateside for US PlayStation 4 users. You can now get Nakoruru’s Kamuikotan Girls’ School Uniform and Shun’ei’s Kung-Fu Suit each for $2.99 USD (or $3.99 CAD) from the PlayStation Store.

These join Athena and Kyo’s classic costumes, as well as “Nightmare Geese.” For a closer look, here’s the image gallery for these new outfits from our previous post:

Click to view slideshow.

Source: PlayStation Store