Category: News

At the end of the 2016 Capcom Pro Tour season, there was a lot of speculation about what direction Capcom would take regarding the circuit’s qualification process in 2017. Many people were notably dismayed with the process used last year, which added a lot of confusion. Capcom vowed to look into changing their direction this year, and as recently as last month alluded that they would likely not diverge from automatic qualification.

However, the recent announcement of Combo Breaker as a Premier event on the Capcom Pro Tour may show that they took the polar opposite direction. As stated on Combo Breaker’s website, the event will “earn you valuable ranking points that put you well on your way to qualifying for the Capcom Cup.”

While this statement on its own could be meaningless, the fact that Combo Breaker is a Premier event on the tour is significant. In 2016 and the past, Premier events have always been a direct qualifier into Capcom Pro Tour. This time, however, unless this is bad wording on the Tournament Organizers’ part, it could well mean that all upcoming events are now points only.

Source: Combo Breaker

Recently, Street Fighter V’s matchmaking servers underwent a short maintenance period. While this was meant to address a few issues, it inadvertently caused a few more issues as well–some players had difficulty logging in and, more importantly, some had their League Points reset to zero.

Capcom however was quick to respond to this and have now stated that the issues have been fixed. The login issues caused by the update have been addressed, and players shouldn’t have trouble doing so.

We confirmed some login issues after the 1/17 PST (Tues) maintenance which were addressed and users should be able to login normally now.

— SFV Server (@SFVServer) January 19, 2017

More importantly, those players who had their League Point reset to zero after the maintenance should now find that these points have been restored to them.

Thank you for your patience and continued support. We have restored players’ LP that was reset to 0 following recent server maintenance.

— SFV Server (@SFVServer) January 20, 2017

Performing updates on a system is always a tricky thing, and occasional bugs and glitches are somewhat unavoidable. In times like these, a swift and timely response and resolution is the best thing to hope for–something that Capcom has done in this specific instance.

[Editor’s note: since this maintenance, I still have personally experienced the temporary version of the 0 LP glitch a couple of times in the last few days. Keep an eye on your LP, as this might not be completely fixed yet…]

Source: SF Server

Capcom kicked off the 30th anniversary of Street Fighter with the announcement of Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers. While they had said this was the first of the surprises for the 30th Anniversary, no timeline on other announcements had been made known.

While we could’ve assumed this at least, now it’s made official: IGN asked Yoshinori Ono about any new announcements for Street Fighter, and he said, “Around E3 timing, maybe even San Diego Comic-Con, we have one or two surprises we hope our fans will look forward to.” He also assured that there would be more on the updates for Street Fighter V later.

Unfortunately for Rival Schools fans, Ono said that there were no plans for the title this year, despite easter eggs found in Dead Rising 4.

Source: IGN

In September, we reported on Super Smash Bros. Melee player Aziz “Hax” Al-yani, and his hand injury. As was reported then, he has been suffering from a calcified flexor carpi ulnaris in his forearm, and it has been a long road back since.

Hax, however, has refused to give up. Having found a surgeon that would operate on his wrist, Al-yani has made adjustments to alleviate the strain placed from the GameCube controller for Smash players. His most notable adjustment has been to not only adopt the Smash Box, but contribute to the development of the controller.

However, unhappy with the pace of development of the Smash Box, he has since forked the project into his “B0XX” project, with the help of engineers from Rutgers University.

Sources: theScore esports; Hit Box Arcade

PR Balrog is certainly benefiting from the changes in Street Fighter V. His Balrog has gotten stronger, and with the buffs that the boxer has received, he can be predicted to be a dangerous individual in the 2017 Capcom Pro Tour season.

Chris Tatarian was already dangerous last year, as one half of the Ken Trinity that made their way into Capcom Cup. Easily becoming one of the plethora of American players now viewed as a threat worldwide, how will Tatarian respond when the old guard takes him to task?

Source: YogaFlame24

Team SoloMid’s Gonzalo “ZeRo” Barrios has had one of the strongest couple of years in fighting game history. He’s had a dominating performance within Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, winning an unprecedented 56 events between 2014 to 2015. But his legendary performance wasn’t an easy road to pave.

A writing team from Smashboards published a deep retrospective on ZeRo–just in time for Genesis 4–that starts with his humble origins in Chile, where his mother nurtured his passion for Smash. He then talks about the difficulty in moving on past Melee, with Brawl being particularly difficult because he and his friends couldn’t afford a Wii to practice the game. But most notable is his talk of the pressure he faced to remain on top, and the relief he felt when his win streak finally ended, saying, “A big part of me was extremely relieved such big weight was off my shoulders.”

Source: Smashboards

Next month is going to be a big month for competitive King of Fighters, what with The King of Fighters XIV World Championship Four Kings Tournament taking place in Tokyo, Japan. However, the action doesn’t stop with that event. Tokyo Button Mashers will be coordinating the official after party, called the KOFXIV Dreammatch Party, to to take place on February 19–the day after the tournament.

The KOFXIV Dreammatch Party will take place on February 19 at Studio Sky in Tokyo’s Toshima Ward. The event will feature a 2-on-2 team tournament, in addition to stations for casual play.

Being the afterparty for the KOFXIV Four Kings Tournament, a number of top King of Fighters XIV players are expected to be in attendance. Arcade Shock has already confirmed that Evo 2013 The King of Fighters Champion Reynald Tacsuan, who is qualified for the KoFXIV Four Kings Tournament, will be at the event.

“I’m also looking forward to playing with Japanese players at the next-day event,” states Reynald, who want to take this chance “to learn more about the game and other people’s mindsets outside of the US.”

Source: Tokyo Button Mashers, via the MadMan’s Café