It’s that time of the year again. The Super Smash Bros. for Wii U scene has been turned on its head since Evo 2017, but one thing remains clear: ZeRo still reigns supreme.
Panda Global has been releasing its global rankings over the course of the last week, and with the list finalized, the Chilean superstar has remained the best in the world, with Salem — the winner of Evo 2017 over ZeRo — taking the second place spot on the leaderboard. As for the rest of the list, here’s a playlist of their global rankings.
As usual, Joniosan’s channel is a reliable source of top quality Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2 footage. Our coverage of Mikaten continues with another exciting set. World’s most famous Zato=1 player, “Lord” Ogawa, battles Herken (Haaken), who uses Sol, in a dramatic first-to-ten.
Herken’s Sol is the real king of the spectacle here. His nickname should be “one touch death” Sol. He starts off by dominating Ogawa for several rounds, showing extremely optimized combos and capitalizing just about from every hit. Practically every combo ends in a corner-carry knockdown. What’s more, Herken plays around Zato=1 and his minion like few people can; even though Sol doesn’t have too many neutral tools, the player does whatever he can to avoid getting caught in tough pressure from Ogawa. It’s definitely a must-watch. Don’t forget to adjust your system’s sound balance to hear only English commentary.
Want to pick up a powerful new character in Pokkén Tournament DX that even tournament regulars may not be ready for? Then the series’s final boss may be made for you — assuming you’re prepared to deal with his glass cannon nature.
Few players are willing to put their tournament lives on the line with a character whose health bar burns so fast. But if you think you can make use of his oppressive offensive options, then BadIntent‘s latest tutorial video is the perfect place to start learning. As one of the few willing to stick it out with the all-or-nothing Mewtwo in tournament, BadIntent’s advice will help you get the basics of this character’s options and game-plan down so that you can start mowing down the competition.
Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition is just around the corner — set to arrive tomorrow, January 16! Capcom has released the (in some respects, quite ambiguous) patch notes for the balance changes coming to the new version of SFV; if you want a hand going through the changes and how they’ll impact the game overall, UltraChenTV is here to help. James Chen examines the changes to the characters and general game system in the series of videos below. Click here to go directly to the playlist on UltraChen TV.
During a recent event, NetEase showed off the housing system in Treacherous Waters, known as Justice in the West. Players will be able to test out the feature when the second round of closed beta testing begins on January 19th.
Ever felt like you properly parried something “predictaboo” in King of Fighters XIV and Geese still got hit anyways? You likely ran into this King of Fighters XIV hitbox problem Gatoray outlines below:
As you can see, some attacks may have the right property for your counter, but won’t actually interact with your parry in anyway due to hitbox alignment. This is almost certainly so that “highs” with visually low animations don’t get caught by Geese’s high parry. Make sure you know your hitboxes before trying to make big parry reads!
King has a very interesting move in his d/f+2,1 input. While it can immediately be strung together, you can actually slightly delay the 1 input, which can either act as a frame trap or launch the opponent on counter hit. From there, you can get a juggle, but the options truly depend on what character you are facing.
J King discusses this by grouping characters into three classifications, then showing the various options King has off of the move after the launch for each classification. Some can be damaging, and others not so much — but this is a useful, yet often-overlooked tool of King’s.
With Bas hosting 72 players for Capcom Vs. SNK 2‘s side tournament at Evo Japan, it’s pretty obvious that the Japanese scene is gearing up for one of the biggest tournaments for the game in recent years. So it goes without saying that Gamespot Versus has seen regular attendees upping their play in readiness for the big event.
Thankfully, Silentscope has posted a replay of their most recent tournament — held just before Christmas — on his YouTube channel, so that we can see the level of play we can look forward to in two weeks! Will Bas hold onto his crown or will someone else become the new king of CvS2?
Kumite In Tennessee 2018 took place last weekend and was host to several “Ultra Fight Night” exhibitions between top players for three titles which were Street Fighter V, Injustice 2, and Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, streamed by Panda X Gaming. While the two former exhibitions were first-to-seven, the latter set between the Battle of the Stones champion FORT|Cloud805 and the Evo 2015-2016 Mortal Kombat X champion Echo Fox|SonicFox was a first-to-10 affair, and was an amazing treat to watch if you’re an MvC fan.
The full set below clocks in at almost 50 minutes so it’s somewhat lengthy, but it’s definitely worth the watch. With Cloud805’s explosive team play of Dante, Zero, and the Soul Stone up against SonicFox’s now-infamous setplay with Jedah, Rocket Raccon, and the Space Stone, there’s no shortage of exciting back-and-forth action between these two top contenders.
It’s high time the famous Swedish Baiken published his combo movie. This is definitely a big moment for any Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2 Baiken main, but it’s also a treat for those who main other characters or those who don’t partake in Guilty Gear as much.
Set to a fitting rock theme, Shinjin shows off some very practical punishes, which is Baiken’s speciality, after all. But what’s more, he shows some optimized combos that decimate the opponent’s life bar as long as they are close enough to the corner for her damaging Dust loops. Midscreen, Shinjin shows some special juggles with the chain and a follow-up, Tetsuzansen. What’s really informative though is the corner throw section which teaches various Burst-baiting and Burst-safe spots, making Bursting unadvisable in those moments, because it would net a punishing, damaging combo. The rest is a visual treat, as it includes some stylish set-ups, like with Faust’s black hole item.
In addition to this must-see REV 2 video, Shinjin also has some great older Accent Core Baiken combo videos — highly recommend seeing them!
