Category: News

One of the best ways (perhaps the best) to up your skill in fighting games is playing against other people. It helps you understand how a human reacts to certain situations, raises your knowledge of matchups you may not have been able to fight otherwise, and more. Unfortunately, our local areas often don’t have enough of a community offer regular play, and travel may also be out of the equation.

That’s where online play comes can fill the gap.

While not perfect, seeking competition in an online environment allows players who may never meet in person to face off in their fighting game of choice and trade information at the same time they are trading blows. In the case of Xbox Live, however, a monthly Gold subscription is generally needed to access online multiplayer, adding yet another barrier to those who may not have much excess cash to spend.

This weekend, Microsoft is prepared to let everyone with an Xbox Live account experience what a Gold subscription has to offer during their Gold Unlocked event. From now until 11:59 PM tomorrow, October 12, players will be able to jump into netplay without any restrictions and test their skills against any and all comers.

If you’ve been left out in the cold until now or haven’t seen much in the way of competition in your favorite fighter, this weekend may be just what you need to push your training forward a couple of steps or more. Hell, it may even be the perfect opportunity to get a long-distance friend to interested in the genre themselves.

Please be aware that this free weekend only pertains to Xbox 360; sorry Killer Instinct players!

Source: Xbox

While we’ve been enjoying a year’s worth of great Street Fighter competition courtesy of the Capcom Pro Tour, one question has continued to linger in our minds: when will the finals event take place? Fortunately, Capcom recently went live with a number of details pertaining to the spectacle they have in store for the fighting game community.

Capcom Cup 2014 will take place at San Francisco’s historic Warfield Theatre on December 13. A regular stop for musical acts of all kind, The Warfield is a legendary venue that should be more than capable of providing a great space for the scene to revel in our shared interest.

In addition to the sixteen-player Ultra Street Fighter IV action, Capcom has a variety of other activities planned for attendees, including live performances of the Street Fighter franchise’s most iconic music by The Megas, sponsor booths, signing sessions, an appearance by producer Yoshinori Ono, and more.

Much like past installments, Capcom Cup 2014 is set to be quite an event for us fighting game fans. Be sure to check out Capcom’s official announcement for more details.

Source: Capcom Pro Tour

The weekend, the fighting game action moves to the US East Coast with The Fall Classic 2014. Streaming live from Raleigh, North Carolina, TFC 2014 will play host to a couple of important tournaments. First up is the final North American Premier tournament of the Capcom Pro Tour for Ultra Street Fighter IV.  As such, multiple top players  such as RZR|Xian, EG|PR Balrog, EG|Ricky Ortiz, EG|KBrad, Twitch|Mike Ross, eSports Max|Tampa Bison, MOR|Rico Suave, and r/Kappa.FGC|Pepeday will be in attendance, fighting for that final guaranteed slot for the Finals this December.

TFC 2014 also hosts the culmination of Koei-Tecmo’s “Road to the Fall Classic 2014″ tournament series for Dead Or Alive 5 Ultimate. As such, top DOA5U players such as RG|Sonic Fox, MC|Kwiggle, HajinShinobi, ElectrifiedMann, lopedo, Master, and more will be fighting for the championship.

In addition to these, a plethora of other games will be played at the event.

Tournament Games

• Ultra Street Fighter IV (Capcom Pro Tour Premier)
• Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate (Road to the Fall Classic Final)
• Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3
• Blazblue: Chronophantasma
• Tekken Tag Tournament 2
• Injustice: Gods Among Us
• Killer Instinct
• Mortal Kombat
• Super Smash Bros. Brawl
• Super Smash Bros. Melee
• Project M
• Soul Calibur V
• King of Fighters XIII
• Under Night IN-BIRTH Exe:Late
• Guilty Gear XX Accent Core +R
• Arcana Heart 3: Love Max
• Street Fighter III 3rd Strike

The brackets for all these games are available over over at the official Challonge page.

Stream Schedule

 

Streams

Team Spooky

Watch live video from TeamSp00ky on www.twitch.tv

Bifuteki

Watch live video from bifuteki on www.twitch.tv

FunkyP

Watch live video from FunkyP on www.twitch.tv

Kombat Network

Watch live video from KombatNetwork on www.twitch.tv

Sources: The Fall Classic, Team Spooky, bifuteki, Kombat Network

 

Due to yet another round of issues on Microsoft’s platform, Eliza’s appearance in the Xbox 360 version of Skullgirls Encore called for a slight delay after her debut on PlayStation 3 and PC. Fortunately, those circumstances have been cleared up and the folks at Lab Zero Games have announced that she will be available for download next Tuesday, October 14.

Lab Zero’s Earl “render” Gertwagen relayed to us that the indie fighter’s Required Compatibility Update will be revised on the same day, which means player need to be sure they redownload that content so they can play with Eliza. Much like past characters, she will be free to download for a period of three months after her launch.

For a look at what this spooky diva is capable of, feel free to check out her release trailer below.

Source: Skullgirls

After successfully reaching their previous goal, Capcom’s partnership with Teespring continues today with a brand new line of Capcom Pro Tour merchandise. As with the first round, part of the proceeds collected from these sales will go towards the prize pool at Capcom Cup. The opening line of apparel boosted the pot by over $1800, so let’s see how much the community can contribute this time around!

This second helping of Street Fighter-inspired clothing features designs created for two events going down this weekend, The Fall Classic 2014 and Taito Arcade Nationals, as well as Capcom Pro Tour Asia’s finals event, which is set to take place later this month.

All of these items will be available through Teespring for the next 20 days.

Source: Capcom Pro Tour

If you’re among those players still in the market for a physical Ultra Street Fighter IV guide, BradyGames’ bible recently dropped way down in price at GameStop. While the strategy book was originally priced at $24.99 at the time of release, you can now grab either online or through a brick-and-mortar location for only $9.99.

Be aware that, as a printed product, much of the information contained within is at risk of becoming obsolete should Capcom release subsequent patches for Ultra in the future. Still, the basic character knowledge could be just the thing a non-competitive friend or family member needs to jump into Street Fighter wholeheartedly, so it could still have its uses as time goes on.

Should you be interested in purchasing this item online, you’ll find its official GameStop listing here.

Source: GameStop, tip via SOR_CX

Before their resurgence over the past couple of years, the Apex tournament series served as the Smash community’s equivalent of Evo as an event that surpassed even the hefty qualifications reserved for majors to put on a tournament like no other that could be found throughout the year. That’s why it comes as no surprise that the folks behind these huge competitions have announced their very own World Circuit in preparation for Apex 2015.

Much like Capcom’s own pro tour for Ultra Street Fighter IV, the Apex World Circuit brings together a variety of Smash Smash Bros. Melee majors in order provide a more cohesive sense of competition leading up to the main event and reward players who are able to perform at each stop. With help from Twitch, Apex will be providing $1000 to each qualifying tournament’s prize pool as well as airfare and hotel for the first place winner at every stop.

Tipped Off 10, whose grand finals of saw Cloud9’s Mango overcome Mew2King and earn the very first guaranteed bracket spot at Apex 2015, got the World Circuit started on the right foot back in September and Justice 4 looks to keep that excitement going this weekend in Scarsdale, New York.

A preliminary list of qualifying events can be found below, but be on the look out for more to join this group as time goes on. More details can be found through Apex’s official announcement.

• Justice 4 (10/11/2014)
• NorCal Qualifier (Mid-November 2014)
• KTAR XI (11/22/2014)
• The Come Up (12/6-7/2014)
• The Smash Academy (12/13/2014)
• Pacific NW Regional (12/20-21/2014)
• Forte 2 (12/20-21/2014)
• Sumabato Melee #13 (12/27-28/2014)
• B.E.A.S.T. 5 (1/9-11/2015)
• Super Smash Sundays (TBD x2)

Apex 2015 is scheduled to take place January 30 – February 1 in Secaucus, New Jersey.

Source: Apex

Are you in the mood to support fighting game streamers (perhaps Level|Up Series, Team Spooky, or VG BootCamp), but all your cash is tied up in pesky Subway gift cards? Well, you’re in luck, because Twitch recently expanded the amount of options community members have to choose from when subscribing to their favorite channels.

This development is a continuation of their new partnership with Xsolla, a “cross-platform payment and billing solution” whose other clients include Valve, Ubisoft, Kongregate, and more. Essentially, they integrate with an existing website or service to give users across the globe access to payment options that suit their needs outside the normal collection of credit cards and PayPal.

Some of these new choices for subscriptions include Bitcoin, MoneyGram, Skrill, Dwolla, a variety of gift cards courtesy of Openbucks, and many more. The whole host of options will be visible when subscribing to channels by way of the More Methods option.

But don’t get too excited. Broadcasters will need to manually opt-in to this service to make it available to their subscribers.

One prominent fighting game streamer in particular, Team Spooky’s Arturo “Sabin” Sanchez, was kind enough to speak to use and provide some insight from the perspective of a producer. His belief is that, despite the high fees attached to some of the options, these should carry at least some benefit to streamers as it will entice viewers who may not have subscribed before the expanded payment methods were made available.

As of now, the entire breadth of benefits and disadvantages to streamers have yet to be made readily apparent, and will remain as such until usage of these new tools becomes more widespread. We may see its use spread over the next few months or remain confined to a small subset of high-profile entertainers; only time will tell.

Source: Twitch