Category: Videos

The unique qualities of Tekken 7‘s Howard Estate allows nearly the entire cast to get either close to, or over 100% damage combos by way of its multiple breakable walls. But what if the character doesn’t even need all the walls to do that?

Certainly, Akuma is a case study in how damage cannot be the only factor when ranking a character’s overall effectiveness in a game. Despite his widely known damage potential, the Ansatsuken user is a niche pick in tournament play at best. But it’s hard not to see how a stage like the Howard Estate plays directly to his strengths, giving him potential death combos in multiple rounds.

Source: HapkidoRed

There’s few players, if any, pushing the Zeku meta quite in the way AutoMattock has. You may have seen AutoMattock’s numerous mixup and safe jump setups, but were daunted to jump into the ex-Bushinryu Master’s gameplay without knowing his fundamentals.

Well, that’s where AutoMattock’s Survival Guide comes into play. Covering both Old and New forms, AutoMattock’s new series is something of a ‘Zeku Bible’ for new players to efficiently learn the character from. This is the first part of what will prove to be a long and informative series, covering Throws, Anti-Airs, and winning the neutral.

Source: AutoMattock

In Pokkén Tournament DX, Garchomp’s Burst Attack breaks several of the games “rules” for Synergy Bursts. It breaks your shield if you block it, it has super armor on frame 1, and although technically unsafe, it pushes out so far that most characters can’t punish it properly without a wall.

It is, however, possible to use a backdash’s invincibility to go through the last (and most important) hit. But if you’re even slightly off on the input, you’ll take the hit and completely unnecessary damage.

Depending upon your character, the timing on this can be very difficult, as some characters have a very small amount of invincibility on their backdash. Gardevoir main H2 Who has broken down the move’s extended block-stun properties, and has found a backdash timing that gives us a guard if we mess up the backdash timing, and a proper backdash if we don’t.

Source: H2 Who

Did you think that Excels were the only source of truly disgusting damage in Street Fighter EX2+? Then you haven’t been watching the Excel-less Combo Series from Shin Tanimoto!

With Fighter Layer EX not far off, it’s both entertaining and enlightening to see the various ways you can manipulate ARIKA’s combo systems. As you can see from the infinites and meter-positive loops, juggle states are very flexible, and the game has some… creative interpretations of what counts as a cross up on wake up.

Source: Shin Tanimoto

“Super Street Fighter Carnival 2017” marches on! SSFC2017 is the currently-ongoing Japanese tournament series at Mikado Arcade for a wide variety of classic (and sometimes, obscure) arcade titles. If you missed the first few tournaments from SSFC2017, there’s a lot to catch up on!

Last week’s game was the classic Vampire Hunter: Darkstalker’s Revenge. I doubt anyone needed a run-down of Capcom’s fighting pedigree, but this week’s game (and developer) are a little bit more on the obscure side.

Far East of Eden: Kabuki Klash was a 1995 2D fighting game by developer Racdym (now ‘Racjin’). It’s presentation contains bright colors, slick sprite animation and chaotic item interactions. The game’s interesting character designs are based on the “Far East of Eden” RPG series, which is more then a little ironic since the RPG series has never been released outside of Japan while Kabuki Klash has.

Enjoying SSFC2017? You can follow the action by subscribing to Mikado’s official YouTube channel, or you can even try to catch Mikado Arcade when they livestream!

Source: Mikado

As part of Sony’s PlayStation Experience Opening Celebration, the company showed a number of trailers and videos for games coming to the system. One of these videos was some actual gameplay from Bandai Namco’s SoulCalibur VI.

The footage showed Mitsurugi and Sophitia in action against each other. Now some of the footage isn’t exactly new, bits of it can bee seen playing in the background of Bandai Namco’s official website. Still, there’s much to dissect here, especially with what we know about the game’s new “Reversal Edge” mechanic.

For those who missed the video, GamersPrey has shared a recording of it from the PSX stream. You can check this out below.

Of course, that isn’t the only gameplay we’re bound to see this weekend. A gameplay demo for the game is set to happen today at 10:30 AM Pacific on the PSX stream.

SoulCalibur VI launches on PlayStation 4, as well as PC, and Xbox One sometime in 2018.

Source: Gamers Prey

If Urien is the Matrix, Nemo is the source. The internet has looked at Alienware’s Naoki Nemoto as their inspiration for Urien tech since the very beginning of the character’s existence in Street Fighter V, and while he has played an abbreviated schedule of events during the Capcom Pro Tour this year, he now finds himself sitting in Capcom Cup after a grueling 10-hour last chance qualifier to enter the bracket.

Today, he finds himself up against none other than the Alpha, PG|Punk. Will he be able to overcome the first — most difficult — hurdle, on his way to a Capcom Cup title?

The Source

Let’s face it, we know who the original Urien is. Everyone else feels like copycats. They may be solid copycats, but they can’t fully replicate the soul that Nemo has put into this character. Nemo’s usage of space and V-Skills are hard to reproach. His V-Trigger setups are things of beauty, and few players have fully replicated everything he has brought to the table.

But Nemo is more than just a technician. His understanding of match-ups, and his adaptability to his opponents’ shifts in play have made him hard to beat when he has shown up to events.

Statistics

If you wanted a valid reason that Nemo wasn’t already in Capcom Cup outright, his abbreviated schedule was certainly it: he only played five events across 2017. But of those five events, he finished top 8 in three of them, including a top 8 in a star-studded Japan Cup.

In his brief travels to the United States, he has been able to find success with top 8s at both East Coast Throwdown and DreamHack Montréal. In between those, he also decided to come to New York and take people’s money at Next Level Battle Circuit. It’s without question that his tournament prowess will come in to play at Capcom Cup, and he has some solid experience both West and East to give him clout.

The Anomaly

The next thing that stands in his way? If Nemo is the Source, his biggest fear is the One. The One this year has easily been Punk. And America’s (or Zion’s, if I have to keep The Matrix comparison up) best hope at winning it all this year has had a solid track record against Nemo over the year, having beaten him at East Coast Throwdown in tournament after also defeating him in a money match the night before top 8.

Also waiting in the ranks of players that have beaten him this year are Justin Wong, who defeated him at DreamHack Montréal, Phenom, who eliminated him at LAN Story Cup, and Oil King, who put him into Losers Bracket at Japan Cup. While these are totally situational, this factors in that Nemo does have some demons to watch out for in this tournament. These are also three completely separate characters with totally different playstyles, which means that Nemo definitely struggles with those he is unfamiliar with.

Has he had enough time to really study who he might face at Capcom Cup? Surely he has looked at Punk, since he previously went on record to say that Punk is the best in the world at NLBC, but who else did he study? It’s possible that LCQ was taxing enough for him to not have time to research the entire bracket for Capcom Cup, should he make it in.

Final Thoughts

Nemo has a couple of big wins under his belt in stacked brackets at Tokyo Game Show and Red Bull Kumite. Is that enough to ensure success at Capcom Cup after the difficult climb he had to get there? Definitely not. But just Punk and a handful of players who have outwitted him isn’t enough to say he won’t.

He likely won’t finish any lower than top 16, but you should seriously expect fireworks when he plays Punk. This match alone will be the make or break for either player.

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Check out our prior articles in the Capcom Cup 2017 Player Analysis series!

Additional source: Jacked23

What a way to catapult your career. No one would have put Renato “DidimoKOF” Martins on any list for Capcom Cup. But after winning the Latin American Regional Finals, the Brazilian is one of three Latin Americans making his way to the event this weekend.

Much like DR Ray last year, very little is known of DidimoKOF outside of the fact that he won in Brazil last month. What are his chances now that he’s on his way?

Feel the Burn

When you watch footage of DidimoKOF, you could easily dismiss him as just another Dhalsim — but that would be a disservice to him. This is one of the most aggressive Dhalsims out there. When you look at some of the Dhalsims, they all tend to have their own style. While Filipino Champ tends to weave in and out a lot more, and Gllty has often played the more-conservative route, DidimoKOF manages to use Dhalsim’s tools in the most aggressive way possible.

He further is a believer in abusing tactics that are working but shouldn’t, and is quick to adjust when they stop working. He did this against Caba during Grand Finals of the Latin American Regional Finals by doing near-point-blank Yoga Fires, stopping only when Caba started to punish the attempts. This also shows on-the-fly adaptability from DidimoKOF beyond his tournament results.

Low Records

Martins was one of the lowest-rated players to get in, with only 131 points on the CPT prior to his win in Sao Paolo. While he was able to make four top 8s out of seven events prior to his win at the finals, his results weren’t the most stable.

Moreover, if you look over his career in Street Fighter V, DidimoKOF had never won a tournament until it mattered most. His only other time in grand finals was an online ranking event, and given what we can see on his ranking page, he has not had a chance to show himself otherwise. People will be quick to dispute his win as a fluke, but it could just be that he figured out what it takes to win at the right moment.

Unknown Factor

Last year, I dismissed DR Ray as the metaphorical Oscar nominee who has zero shot of winning anything, but was just happy to be there. That was a huge mistake on my part, as DR Ray was able to best Tokido in the opening round and bust a lot of people’s fantasy brackets.

A lot of this could be attributed to DR Ray’s low status. Because he was unknown, very few players could scout him, but he could scout literally everyone. This is the same position that DidimoKOF is in. There’s very little footage of him circulating, which could be to his advantage this weekend.

Final Thoughts

I’m not going to be on the wrong side of this one this year, hopefully. I have a feeling that DidimoKOF could come in and do what DR Ray did last year, and pull an upset first round against Yukadon. While Ibuki is an aggressive character — and he will have to adjust fast — it’s quite possible that Yukadon will be taken aback by an aggressive Dhalsim, to his detriment.

I’m not going to sit here and say that DidimoKOF wins Capcom Cup. But this could be a tournament where he gives at least one upset, and makes a name for himself in Street Fighter V.

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Check out our prior articles in the Capcom Cup 2017 Player Analysis series!