Dust is slowly setting after the post-Evo 2016 Guilty Gear Xrd -REVELATOR- patch, which overhauled the balance in the game mainly by nerfing the top characters, Sin Kiske, Johnny, and Elphelt Valentine. Many characters have seen slight tune-ups and a few, notably Jam, received a lot of buffs. The patch also introduced Dizzy.
Niconico streamed an Arc System Works Post-Evo Festival, which showcased top Japanese talent playing with the balance patch applied (which is hitting Japanese arcades August 4th).
The video shows Machabo, Omito, Rion, and Nakamura experiencing the patch changes. Notably, Machabo starts considering playing Ky Kiske again.
American player Oso created a humorous “visual” patch notes video, which doesn’t showcase every single change that’s taken place, but provides useful examples of new things.
Guilty Gear Xrd Revelator’s newest character, the returning veteran Dizzy, released last week on July 18, to much fanfare, after winning a character poll last year. As players all over the world have been searching for any and all tech they can find, a strange glitch has also been discovered.
Dubbed “Fish Install,” if a player grabs during a small window of either version of her ice fish move, “We talked a lot together,” before it hits the opponent with its lunging animation, the fish will become stuck in place, losing both its hitbox and its hurtbox, rendering it nothing more than frozen graphics filling up the screen–unless a new fish is summoned and hits within the same area, at which time the old fish will take on the properties of the newly-summoned one. The P version hits three times in front of Dizzy, but does not track the opponent, whereas the K version will track horizontally before hitting twice.
You can see a pair of videos showing off the glitch below, courtesy of ImperiousGent and yoefu02, as well as some Tweets explaining more about how this works.
Back in May, we reported that the men behind Panda X Gaming and Kumite In Tennessee, would be collaborating to bring the Mid-South Championships to Arkansas. Yesterday, the released their official trailer for the even, which will be taking place from September 10-11 in Little Rock, Arkansas. Arkansas’ first Major fighting game tournament will have the following lineup and pot bonuses:
Street Fighter V – $1,000 guaranteed pot
Super Smash Bros. for Wii U – $1,000 guaranteed pot
Mortal Kombat XL – $500 guaranteed pot
Super Smash Bros. Melee – $500 guaranteed pot
Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 – $500 guaranteed pot
Killer Instinct
The King of Fighters XIV
Pokkén Tournament
Project M
Guilty Gear Xrd -REVELATOR-
Additionally, special guests, KIT|Cloud805 and BH|Thompxson will be in attendance for UMVC3 and KI, so competitors better bring their best to unseat these challengers!
Registration is currently open at www.smash.gg/msc, with the venue fee set at $30. But hurry, as the price will increase to $35 on August 1, with on-site registration set at $40. Game fee is $10 per title, with a spectator pass costing $20.
Mid-South Championships takes place September 10-11 at the Holiday Inn Little Rock-Airport-Conference Center in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Dragon Ball Xenoverse was one of the best Dragon Ball games in a long time, channeling the spirit of the Budokai games into something loads of fun and nostalgic. And, if this new footage is anything to go by Bandai Namco and Dimps – yes, the very same Dimps that made Street Fighter 4 and V – have their eyes set on making it even better with the sequel.
Much like in the first Xenoverse, you’ll be able to create your own character to step into the DBZ universe and will be able to choose and change how they fight throughout the game. From the looks of the video below, you’ll be revisiting iconic scenes from the anime and manga, and getting involved in 3D battles that shift freely between the ground and sky. Check out the footage below for a taste of what’s to come when the game drops in October.
As a community, Smash Brothers has never done a particularly good job of letting go of the older games in the series. Super Smash Bros. Melee broke all sorts of records at Evo 2016, and as we head into Super Smash Con, another major event on the Smash calendar, some of the lesser loved games are getting their chance at the spotlight. One of those will be the granddaddy of them all, Super Smash Bros. 64, the very first incarnation of the series.
Not content with – already – breaking all attendance records for a Smash 64 tournament with more than 300 attendees registered, Super Smash Con has announced that it will be kicking off the event with a 64 Combo Contest. With some of the best and brightest talent in the scene already signed up and more than ready to strut their stuff, there’s little doubt that it is going to be an unforgettable event.
But why Smash 64? Well, thanks to the higher hitstun present in the game, Smash 64 allows for much more intricate and extended combos than later installments, which has led to a neutral heavy style of play that is frequently punctuated by long strings that end in death. Without having to worry about landing that first hit, players will be able to be much more creative and showy, which should go a long way to putting on a great show to kick off Super Smash Con, which will be running from August 11 to 14, and will feature tournaments for Super Smash Bros 64, Melee, Brawl and 4, alongside other events and panels focused on Smash Bros.
One of the best looking and most anticipated Street Fighter V characters is without a doubt Juri Han. After her teaser with the Balrog reveal, fans have been aching to get their hands on her. In respect to that, Capcom’s official YouTube channel had posted an introduction to the character.
This intro briefly goes over Juri’s personality, background, and gameplay. Some of her useful normals and specials are summarized, and her overall game plan is laid out for us. Check the video to see what our favorite Femme Fatale is working with this time around.
PokkénArena put together a podcast breaking down the upcoming dark-type pokémon Darkrai’s move set. This hour and a half discussion is based largely on what we’ve seen from Japanese location tests and players. The cast covers everything known about the character thus far, from Nightmare Mode to Combo Possibilities. Be sure to check out the video’s description, which links to various Darkrai game play videos and the currently known move list.
If you haven’t heard of FGC Raw, don’t worry – neither have we. According to FloKO, who will be making the first installment focused on LI Joe, the plan is for it be an ongoing series that zeroes in on specific members of the community. In that light, announcing that your first documentary will be focused on the man who captured America’s hearts with his performance so soon after the fact seems like a pretty smart bet, and first impressions seem to be pretty solid. Have a look at the trailer for yourself if you’re still feeling skeptical.
As the only American to fight his way to Top 8 in Street Fighter V at Evo this year, LI Joe does seem to be a logical pick – especially considering that the top 8 matches were broadcast on ESPN 2 for the first time in FGC history. It would be great if this documentary not only took advantage of that hype, but continued to uphold the excellent standard of production and engagement that Evo managed during it’s television debut.
As for the company in charge of production well, FloKO is a part of the FloSports network, which is designed on the premise of “Sports Coverage for Athletes by Athletes”. FloKO is their first foray into the world of eSports, and FGC Raw in turn appears to be their first steps into creating that content. At the moment it looks like it’d be a good plan to stay wary, but if the final product arrives in August as promised and has the same sort of production values that this first trailer, it could well turn out to be some must see viewing and, in turn, force us to keep an eye out for what FloKO produces next. Here’s hoping that it delivers.
Philipp “Liva” Bürkne is one of the leading lights in the streaming community, especially in Europe. His organisation, Geeky Goon Squad, is known for consistently high quality broadcasts and for constantly pushing the leading edge of production quality and consistency and, though it is focused on Smash Brothers streams, Geeky Goon Squad has also produced Starcraft, Street Fighter and Tekken content.
Now, he has joined mYinsanity, an organisation based in Switzerland that has teams for DOTA2 and Counter Strike: GO, among others. FGC fans will probably recognise the name as the team behind Mustafa “Ice” Akcakaya, one of the best Melee players in Europe and an up and comer on the global scene.
According to mYinsanity, Liva had this to say about joining the team:
It feels great. The idea was already floating around for the last few month but now it’s finally official. Being part of mYi is the next step for me to become bigger and being able to focus more on relevant things like pushing the production value forward.
With mYinsanity’s support of Liva and Geeky Goon Squad, Liva should be free to focus all of his energy on producing great quality content – which is great for us viewers! If you want a taste of what Geeky Goon Squad is capable of, check out a couple of his most recent VODs from Germany’s Pandali’s Pandemonium Tournament, which were uploaded while the tournament was still ongoing!
While the Modding Station at Evolution featured all the usual suspects who were quick with the soldering irons and Dremels, one name at the booth stood out above the rest. Bryan Armitage, founder of Paradise Arcade Shop, was also there, modding alongside the likes of people already discussed in a previous article about the station, complete with his own wares to sell.
Armitage founded Paradise Arcade Shop alongside his wife, Susan, several years ago, when he started buying arcade parts in bulk, and decided to make his bulk ordering services available to the public as another option. This couldn’t have come at a better time, filling the void of the now-defunct Lizard Lick Amusements in a scene that was still burgeoning due to the fighting game renaissance. What started with humble origins in Hawaii, however, turned into a trailblazer within the tech community, as the Armitages began to experiment and create new products, even working with companies such as Brook to bring out products that not only excited the community but could meet every need imaginable.
While at Evolution, I was able to sit down with Armitage to discuss what makes Paradise truly that–a gamer’s paradise.
Missing Person: You actually come out here all the way from Hawaii every year.
Bryan Armitage: Actually we moved to Minnesota this year.
MP: So Paradise is no longer palm trees but snow.
BA: Yes, six months out of the year, we’re shoveling snow instead of sticking our feet in the sand. We decided to keep the name and keep part of the team because we had so much fun with it, and people know the name.
MP: Paradise is known for constantly coming out with new and innovate products for arcade enthusiasts. What drives you to keep improving your products?
BA: For me, a lot of the fun is coming up with things that people enjoy. Nothing beats seeing someone sit down with the buttons you design, like the OBS-MX, and then come back to tell you, “I’m hitting combos that I’ve never hit. I love these, and I’m putting them in all my sticks.” We’ve come out with our LVT3 boards that people say are the easiest installs they’ve ever done and suddenly they have LED lighting in their sticks. It’s that kind of feedback that keeps me going.
MP: What is your favourite product that you’ve put out so far?
BA: I have to say that it’s our OBS-MX buttons. The buttons are great but it’s fun to sit around and tweak them. I was able to toy around and find the difference between 1.2 millimetres of activation and 0.6 millimetres of activation; it really gets me into the biomechanics side of me that likes doing those type of things.
MP: And these are actually an alternative to the GamerFinger HBFS buttons. What are some things that you learned from their design that you implemented into your OBS-MX buttons?
BA: The GamerFinger buttons were a great design and a great way to bring MX buttons to the market. But we were getting a lot of feedback that they felt soft and that the caps on top of the plungers were falling off. So what we did was use the old style of caps that Sanwa uses, and we use clips that hold the caps down. The GamerFinger buttons allowed the MX switches to travel full length, but we restrict the movement, which takes 1 to 1.2 millimetres off the travel, and this does two things. First, it makes the buttons feel less soft, and second, it keeps the caps from ever popping off.
MP: And these are just as silent as the GamerFinger buttons, correct?
BA: We were playing around with the new silencing pads, and the interesting thing is that because of how we designed the buttons, the silencing pads that work with MX keyboards work with our buttons. So when we came out with these, I joked that it was like buying a Ferrari. Because you don’t buy a Ferrari and ask if the radio is good. You buy a Ferrari because it drives fast and drives well. So I came out with these and made them the best performing buttons I could make, and didn’t worry about what they sounded like; I just worried about feel and performance, and we hit the mark. And once we did that, we started to focus on the creature comforts.
Armitage with his son, Tyler, at the Paradise Arcade Shop storefront.
MP: What drives you to come out to Evo every year?
BA: The thing we started to do this year, with us being at Combo Breaker and CEO this year, is we get our ideas from fans, from people who support the store and the community, and it’s great to just meet people, shake their hands, find out who they are, and put faces to the names of people who talk on Shoryuken. It’s a lot of fun. When we went to Combo Breaker, a lot of people asked if we had straps for the TE2. We didn’t, but a few weeks later, we go to CEO, and we had straps for the TE2 custom made. We showed up to Evo with Evo branded TE2 straps. We keep pushing forward and a lot of it comes from the feedback and questions we get. The other thing we brought to Evo is we collaborated with Brook to bring out custom PS3/PS4 to Xbox 360 converters, and that came out of all the input we received from and pushing Brook, telling them, “You have to do this. You have to do this.” And they finally actually hand-carried them over from Taiwan.
MP: So you guys are definitely driving the community forward technologically.
BA: We’re one of the players doing so, and I think that’s the neat thing about this community. There’s a couple of people that really dig in and help each other out, trying to take the technology forward. We see each other as competition but also as friends. So we come up with something, then show it off to each other to brag about, then immediately get working on the next innovation.
MP: So do you feel that this competition is great for the community?
BA: It’s great. The competition helps drive people forward. There’s a lot of room in the community, and as long as everybody remembers that and plays nice, it’s great.
(Special thanks to Armitage for providing all pictures for this article.)
