Enjoy all of the special interactions and Astral Heats for the new DLC characters in BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle

Following the conclusion of the BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle tournament at Evo 2018, Producer Toshimichi Mori stepped on stage to officially announce that the remaining nine DLC characters: BlazBlue’s Izayoi, Nine The Phantom, and Mai Natsume; Persona 4 Arena’s Mitsuru Kirijo, Akihiko Sanada, and Labrys; and Under Night In-Birth’s Yuzuriha Sougetsu, Merkava, and Mika Returna would all be arriving to the game this week. And with a new wave of characters comes more special interactions, and they’ve been compiled here for your viewing pleasure.

There’s also a compilation of all nine of their Astral Heats, each retained from their respective games.

Finally, Arc System Works America has officially updated the English dub version of the character reveal trailer played at Evo, which was the “World Premiere” announcement the company teased for the Bar Fights event last weekend. This marks the first Character Introduction trailer to receive an English dub.

Cross Character Pack 4 (which contains Izayoi, Mitsuru Kirijo, and Merkava), Cross Character Pack 5 (which holds Mai Natsume, Akihiko Sanada, and Yzuriha), and Cross Character Pack 6 (which adds Nine The Phantom, Labrys, and Mika Returna) can all be purchased individually for $4.99 each, and are also included in the All-In-One Pack, which also gets you the previously-released Platinum The Trinity, Orie, Kanji Tatsumi, Aegis, Carmine, Jubei, Naoto Shirogane, Vatista, and Hakumen, for $19.99. Team RWBY’s Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao Long are also permanently available for free.

Sources: JROKGaming; JustaPeanut; forced memes; Punchy777; Arc System Works America

alb3530 breaks down G’s and Sagat’s hitboxes in Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition

For those lab monsters out there, alb3530 has all the hitbox and hurtbox data for SFV’s two newest characters.

With G and Sagat’s recent release, players have been scrambling to gather all the tech they can on these two fighters. From optimal combos to punishes and more, tons of tech has been uploaded to the internet in the hopes of making the most out of SFV’s newest characters. alb3530 is no different: he’s uploaded two full-length videos breaking down their hitboxes and hurtboxes, allowing prospective players a chance to get a better grasp on the characters’ strengths and weaknesses.

For those unsure of how to read this data, alb3530 has likewise created a guide explaining the hurtbox/hitbox meta. Be sure to check out his other hitbox breakdowns on his YouTube channel for optimal character usage.

Source: alb3530 (YouTube)

20th Anniversary tournament series, “The Jazzy Circuit”, announced for Street Fighter III: Third Strike

A new tournament circuit has been created in honor of Street Fighter’s most celebrated title.

Prepare for battle! There’s more than Cooperation Cup for fans of Street Fighter III: Third Strike to test their mettle. A brand-new tournament circuit was created for the classic fighting game title, and it starts on August 25th — dubbed the Jazzy Circuit, this tour takes 3S on a trip across the United States in celebration of the game’s 20th anniversary.

Japn logo

Players can qualify for the tour in one of three ways:

  • Winning one of six Jazzy qualifying events in Season One
  • Being one of six players to earn the greatest amount of points in the tour
  • Taking one through fourth place in the circuit’s last chance qualifier

Events within the circuit lie on three different tiers, and will be fought on both arcade cabinets and consoles alike. The console iteration of the game will be played through Street Fighter’s 30 Anniversary Collection, while the CPS3 cabinet will be used for the classic fighters. MSF-Tier events will reward players with the greatest amount of points, while S-Tier and A-Tier events will reward fewer.

The circuit’s first event takes place on August 25th in Lacross, WI, at the Paradigm Grand Prix. Be sure to follow the circuit’s Twitter page to keep up to date with the action!

Source: The Jazzy Circuit (Smash.gg)

Kinetiquettes opens pre-orders for “War Heroes” diorama featuring Street Fighter’s Nash and Guile

Zoning fans, unite! Kinetiquettes has returned with a sonic boom-fueled diorama featuring figures for Street Fighter‘s Guile and Charlie Nash:

The “War Heroes” diorama is the latest in a long line of limited edition Street Fighter figures produced by the company. These exquisitely detailed, Polyurethane resin statues don’t come cheap, though — each statue can be purchased separately for a one time payment ($449 for Nash, $429 for Guile) or 6-month installments ($74.83 for Nash, $71.50 for Guile). If Guile and Nash’s jet-destroying spar session is a must-have for you, you can head over to Kinetiquettes site to pre-order here (for Nash) and here (for Guile).

Both figures are estimated to be released in the 2nd Quarter of 2019.

Source: Kinetiquettes

Gather your Spirit Energy with Maximilian’s base Goku character breakdown for Dragon Ball FighterZ

Following up on his recent breakdown of base Vegeta, Maximilian returns with another breakdown, this time focusing on base Goku. Noting that a lot of his neutral and normal attacks are “fairly Goku-like,” and will be familiar to players of his Super Saiyan and SSGSS incarnations, Max feels that base Goku really distinguishes himself in his unique combo routes, making note of his ability to seemingly get multiple Smashes per combo with one of his unique normals, as well as his interesting downward Ki blasts that can be launched into the sky, held, or extended into his medium Auto Combo, providing him will full-screen conversations if they hit.

After a basic overview of his specials, Maximilian transitions into discussing his Spirit Bomb, which sees him gathering energy which can be charged to unleash a long-range, launching command grab that can knock opponents further into the air the higher its level, which can set up big combo opportunities.

Moving on to his super special moves, specifically his Level 1, the Kaioken, Max shows off some of the currently-optimal pathways for the rekka-style attacks, though he feels the best aspect of base Goku is his Level 3 Super Spirit Bomb, which inflicts a notable amount of damage on both hit and block, in addition to catching Vanishes, so it may be best to try and Reflect it if you see it coming. Max feels this could be the strongest aspect of this Goku, due to its ability to set up near touch-of-death situations, especially from his fully-charged Level 3 Lend Me Your Energy special. You can see the full video below.

Have you found any good tech with base Goku so far? If so, feel free to share it in the comments.

Source: Maximilian Dood

Novriltataki takes a look at Street Fighter’s constant reinvention, and how it tends to over-emphasize its new features

If there’s one thing that’s been consistent with Street Fighter throughout its history, it’s been how it tends to change almost wholesale for each new installment. The changes in each mainline installment make it so that each new game often feels very, very different from the last.

In a new video, Novriltataki takes a look into this phenomenon, and how it tends to lead to each installment unfortunately being focused on the new changes and mechanics to the point of feeling “gimmicky”.  It’s something that many veterans are already familiar with, and Novril does list out some of the most egregious examples, such as Street Fighter III‘s parries, and Street Fighter Alpha 3‘s V-ISM and ineffectual projectiles.

In addition to all this, Novril also points out how some other games have been able to implement new mechanics into a Street Fighter-style, grounded non-airdash fighter without them being as dominant.

Source: novriltataki

WWE Superstar Xavier Woods expresses his love for the fighting game community in an interview with ESPN

ESPN sat down with the WWE’s Xavier Woods to discuss his history with fighting games and the community’s growth at Evolution 2018.

Austin Watson, Ph.D, more commonly known by his ring name Xavier Woods, is a man of many backgrounds. Holding a doctorate in educational psychology, a master’s degree in psychology, and a bachelor’s in philosophy, Woods is as educated as he is eclectic: With a long history in wrestling leading up to his current status as a two-time Smackdown Tag Team Champion, Woods also hosts his very own gaming show and is heavily involved in the fighting game community. Woods’ show, appropriately dubbed Up Up Down Down, covers multiple gaming genres, and has even been the platform for important reveals: like Street Fighter V’s Team Battle mode. Woods’ love for gaming came to a head at this year’s Evolution Championship Series, where he sat down with ESPN to discuss his history with the FGC and how it has grown throughout the years.

Woods explained that his love for Windjammers ultimately brought him to Las Vegas’s fighting game celebration. Due to his efforts, Windjammers has grown from a side-tournament to a legitimate competition: while, initially, the game had 26 players on the spot, all of which were paid out of his own account, Windjammers has since grown to greater heights. “I was telling people, ‘In the next couple of years, Windjammers is going to be on one of these stages,’” Woods recalled. “One year later, Windjammers is going to be on stage. We have 256 competitors — that’s unreal.”

Xavier_Woods_bio--6a08a58df4c51eb3820cee77eb06db97

Image Credit: WWE.com

Woods likewise covered his history with gaming in general. “I was a very awkward child,” he explained. “I didn’t go out, I didn’t have buddies, so my mom bought me a Nintendo and I loved it. But I had a problem: I thought that if you died in the game, you died in real life, so I didn’t want to stop playing.” Woods realized that video games were his forte once he began to play them with friends, and it soon became his safe space. “I still go back to games as my first basic need,” he stated. “You have the need to breathe, the need to eat, and games on top of that.”

Another topic of discussion was Woods’ recent scuffle with NJPW’s Kenny Omega at E3 2018. Team New Day and Kenny Omega’s crew went head to head in a series of tag-team battles using SFV’s team battle mode, which ultimately ended in hot pepper consumption and a quick trip to the toilet. “We wanted to get his camp and my camp together doing something,” Woods explained of the battle. “The way that we see what we do… is that it’s for everybody. Many times in our industry, there’s companies or performers who don’t communicate or cross lines. We wanted to start trying to do that a little bit more. We knew that our way to do that was video games.” After a three year rivalry between the two wrestlers within the game, their dream was finally made a reality, and the battle made it onto the CapcomFighters’ Twitch channel.

Fans can catch more of Xavier’s fighting game story on ESPN’s YouTube channel, as well as stay tuned to his latest gaming antics through his channel, Up Up Down Down.

Source: ESPN

Capcom Pro Tour Online Ranking Event Latin America North 2 results and replays

Yesterday, the online portion of the 2018 Capcom Pro Tour continued its steady forward march with the Finals of the second Online Ranking Event for Northern Latin America. Eligible regions included Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, the Republic of Panama, and Puerto Rico. With 101 registered entrants, it was certainly going to be a tough time to crack into the top 8 and score some precious Ranking Points.

Though this event was played to top 8 on its originally scheduled date of Saturday, July 28th, a PlayStation Network outage forced the top 8 matches to be temporarily postponed and rescheduled until after Evo 2018. A Champion has now been crowned, though — and we have results and replays here for you.

Results

Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition

1. OWL ALLIANCE|Crossover (Akuma) – 150 Points
2. Mono (F.A.N.G) – 70 Points
3. TIGERS|LuiMan20 (Dhalsim) – 40 Points
4. RH|Zeromex7 (Balrog) – 20 Points
5. Lilo24k (Balrog, Abigail) – 10 Point
5. Jochy (Akuma) – 10 Points
7. MGR|NovaMage (Kolin) – 1 Point
7. RD_EricKOF1 (R. Mika) – 1 Point
9. RISE|Caba (Guile)
9. DR Ray (Ibuki)
9. PXLN|Roberto (Ryu)
9. FS|Fraud0noko (M. Bison)
13. Infused|Droker (Akuma)
13. -Starlight- (Nash)
13. Juanfraroth (Alex)
13. Taker (Ibuki)

We’ve got replays of the top 8 action below, featuring commentary from LevelUp’s Alex “Calipower” Valle and Godspeed, below.

The next Capcom Pro Tour Online Ranking event will be the second event for Eastern Europe, next Saturday, August 18th. Eligible regions include Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, and the Ukraine. The tournament will begin at 10:00 AM BST, with the top 8 being streamed at 4:00 PM BST at twitch.tv/capcomfighters, as well as the Capcom Fighers YouTube Channel and Street Fighter Facebook page. Registration is currently live at smash.gg.

Source: Capcom Fighters

Learn about Evo’s modern evolution with Part 2 of theScore Esports’ Story of Evo

From the fall of Marvel vs. Capcom, to the rise of Super Smash Bros. and Street Fighter V, Evo shifts into the modern esports era!

After detailing the origin point of the Evolution Championship Series, theScore esports returns with Part 2 of their documentary on “The Story of Evo.”

Following Daigo Umehara’s back-to-back victories in Street Fighter IV and Super Street Fighter IV in 2009 and 2010, Capcom made the pivotal releases of Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 in 2011, ushering in what would become a new 7-year era for the Versus Series — that would sadly end with 2017’s Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite being excluded from this year’s main lineup of titles.

In the meantime however, another force was slowing rising up, Super Smash Bros. Melee, which made a triumphant return to the Evo main stage in 2013 after raising a whopping $94,683 for breast cancer research, ending a five-year streak of absence. Notably, they trumped Lab Zero’s Skullgirls, which to this day has yet to taste main stage glory. However, as noted by James Chen, Maximilian, Liquid|Daniel “ChuDat” Rodriguez, and Joey “Mr. Wizard” Cuellar, they first had to combat Nintendo’s attempts to shut down that portion of the event.

However, the Smash community would not be denied, as Evo 2015 and 2016 played host to the four biggest Smash tournaments of all-time between Melee and Wii U. In more recent times, we’ve had the controversy of BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle being added to this year’s lineup months before release, to the massive 5,065 player debut of Street Fighter V in 2016, to last Sunday’s Dragon Ball FighterZ Grand Finals between Echo Fox|Sonic Fox and Cyclops Osaka’s GO1 being the most watched set in the history of Evo. There is also the rise in developer support, with new characters, entire games, and tournament circuits being announced in Las Vegas, not to mention the expansion into the East with the debut of Evo Japan.

The video closes with a rundown of all past and current Battle by the Bay and Evolution Championship Series Champions. You can enjoy the entire video below.

Feel free to share some of your favorite Evo moments in the comments.

Source: theScore esports

Learn about Evo’s modern evolution with Part 2 of theScore Esports’ Story of Evo

From the fall of Marvel vs. Capcom, to the rise of Super Smash Bros. and Street Fighter V, Evo shifts into the modern esports era!

After detailing the origin point of the Evolution Championship Series, theScore esports returns with Part 2 of their documentary on “The Story of Evo.”

Following Daigo Umehara’s back-to-back victories in Street Fighter IV and Super Street Fighter IV in 2009 and 2010, Capcom made the pivotal releases of Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 in 2011, ushering in what would become a new 7-year era for the Versus Series — that would sadly end with 2017’s Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite being excluded from this year’s main lineup of titles.

In the meantime however, another force was slowing rising up, Super Smash Bros. Melee, which made a triumphant return to the Evo main stage in 2013 after raising a whopping $94,683 for breast cancer research, ending a five-year streak of absence. Notably, they trumped Lab Zero’s Skullgirls, which to this day has yet to taste main stage glory. However, as noted by James Chen, Maximilian, Liquid|Daniel “ChuDat” Rodriguez, and Joey “Mr. Wizard” Cuellar, they first had to combat Nintendo’s attempts to shut down that portion of the event.

However, the Smash community would not be denied, as Evo 2015 and 2016 played host to the four biggest Smash tournaments of all-time between Melee and Wii U. In more recent times, we’ve had the controversy of BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle being added to this year’s lineup months before release, to the massive 5,065 player debut of Street Fighter V in 2016, to last Sunday’s Dragon Ball FighterZ Grand Finals between Echo Fox|Sonic Fox and Cyclops Osaka’s GO1 being the most watched set in the history of Evo. There is also the rise in developer support, with new characters, entire games, and tournament circuits being announced in Las Vegas, not to mention the expansion into the East with the debut of Evo Japan.

The video closes with a rundown of all past and current Battle by the Bay and Evolution Championship Series Champions. You can enjoy the entire video below.

Feel free to share some of your favorite Evo moments in the comments.

Source: theScore esports