Category: Videos

It’s been quite the year for Evo 2017 Street Fighter X Tekken (version 2013) Champion Aaron “Psychoblue” Pinsky. In addition to hitting his professional stride outside of the game, he was able to unseat one of the strongest SFXT players on the planet, Esuta, ending his three-year, consecutive reign as the king (pun intended) of the 2D crossover fighter, in addition to winning six additional tournaments this year, he was also interviewed by Red Bull for a feature article on their website, as part of their “Mind Games” series. Though SFXT has certainly faded from the limelight these days, it still holds an extremely passionate community of players who bring the game to events for side tournaments whenever they can.

In order to celebrate this wave of success — and test out his freshly-upgraded PC — he’s created his first combo video, “The Deadly Alliance,” focusing on his signature team of M. Bison and Heihachi and utilizing the Meter Gems preset, which has become a favorite among competitive players in version 2013.

You’ll see the dirtiness of the Dictator’s cross-up J. HP, full corner-carry combos, stylish Rising Uppercut juggles, raw launcher setups to beat wake-up reversals, including Dragon Punches, and, of course, practical-yet-fancy Pandora sequences for each warrior.

To close things out, Psychoblue acknowledges some of the friends and rivals that helped him reach this point, by spotlighting their teams, in their signature colors and costumes. You can catch all the action below. (Be warned, the song used does contain a bit of NSFW language.)

Do you have any fond memories of this crossover battle? Perhaps you still play it to this very day? Share your experiences with us in the comments section below.

Source: PsychoblueSFXT

Red Bull and Team Method’s Olivier “Luffy” Hay just narrowly missed out on the top 8 of Capcom Cup last year. For him, it was a hard road only to find himself on the losing end. That failure made him more determined to end up on top this year.

With yet another berth into the event, will he put his loss last year aside and finally be the best in the world?

Bosom Buddy

Last year, I commented on not only his affinity for large-breasted characters, but the striking similarities of Rose against R. Mika under the surface. One thing I mentioned was how safe Mika’s buttons are. That is still slightly true, despite some of the nerfs.

Luffy took full advantage of nearly every button Mika had, with everything outside of sweep being relatively safe. Losing the crouching fierce safety hurt, but he has still managed to optimize his play to work around it. He without question has made the character continue to work, and is likely the second-best Mika on the planet — maybe third, when NuckleDu brings her out.

Euro-trip

Luffy has always been a player that has prided himself as one of the best in Europe. In the last two years, he has found his way into Capcom Cup by cutting his teeth on the best Europe has to offer. With the only international event he’s attended this year being Evo, he has made six top 8s out of the twelve European events he’s played in, and won one European online ranking event. He also had a solid showing at Evo 2017, making the top 48 of the field and showing he is a force to be reckoned with.

Off the CPT circuit, he recently wowed the competition in Japan at Red Bull’s Tower of Pride event. This is a pivotal tournament to do well in, as there was a solid contingent of Japanese players in attendance that he will have to contend with this weekend. Last year, I commented that he wasn’t fully tested against the rest of the world. This time, he has shown that to be untrue.

Endurance

The problem is that Luffy has been streaky. Only winning an online ranking event is not the best indicator of confidence, and suggests that either he has confidence issues that are preventing him from winning events, or that Europe has him figured out. Does Luffy have patterns and tendencies that could come back to bite him in longer sets, which the entirety of Capcom Cup will be?

Tower of Pride was probably the turning point of the year for him. In other invitational events such as Red Bull Kumite and ELEAGUE, he was unable to capitalize and make it into the top 8. The latter event saw him fall to Xiao Hai whom he previously beat at Capcom Cup, and Red Bull Kumite saw him struggle as well.

Probably the most telling of how Luffy will do was his statements after Capcom Cup last year, where he argued that the wait time before playing exhausted him, causing him to perform badly. While they have made steps to address this issue, time will tell if that continues to be a problem at Capcom Cup this year.

Final Thoughts

I’m not sure where to place Luffy. On some days, he looks poised to do well, and on others, it looks like he’s banking on the next event to do well.

I’m usually wrong on estimates for him, and he thus becomes my Achilles’ heel to analyze. I would warrant a guess that he’ll make it to top 16, but suffer much the same fate as last year in falling short of top 8.

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

Scarz.HORI|Naoto Sako has long been the standard of excellence in execution across fighting games. He has long sought out the most technical characters and broken them wide open, using every possible trick to his advantage. Akuma’s creativity seemed a natural match for him Season 2, and has once again found himself in the thick of things for Capcom Cup.

As the #29 seed for Capcom Cup, Sako squeezed in at the cusp. Will he parlay that low seed into a win?

Selling Your Soul for the Win

Last year saw Sako take a strong Chun-Li into battle. Her combo abilities suited the execution specialist well, and he was able to make her work. However, execution alone couldn’t help Sako in the bracket last year, as he finished outside of top 16.

With the nerfs on Chun-Li in Season 2, Sako migrated to Akuma this season, taking his execution talents to the dark side. The character is forever creative, and has a lot of situational combos, all of which Sako is capable of performing. He also has years of experience playing characters like this, making him incredibly dangerous at every point.

On top of these, we’ve seen him experiment throughout the year, even on the circuit, with new characters like Abigail and Menat with differing levels of effectiveness.

Where Are the Results?

For all the experimentation, we haven’t seen much in the way of results from this master. His low seed is suggestive of the problems he’s faced on the circuit this year. It took him a whopping twelve events to even be on the cusp of Capcom Cup, and despite five top 8s, that was obviously not the strong finish he’d want in the season to exude confidence in Anaheim.

Beyond top 8s, he was only able to secure three top 16 spots, and while one of those was at Evo 2017, his play has been streaky at best. He does well one week, then derails and his play makes it hard to believe we’re looking at Sako. He often seems to hit walls when he comes across players who are higher seeds than he is. This bodes even worse for Sako, given his low seed guarantees the players he’s playing against right out of the gate will be among the strongest. This is going to be a hard road no matter what for Sako.

Final Thoughts

It feels like age may finally be getting to our god of execution. He has become a family man. It’s obvious where his priorities are going to lie, and he comes from an older generation where making a living off playing video games was unthinkable.

While he’s fought hard to get into Capcom Cup, he’s probably not fully concerned with hoisting the trophy, but will at least give it a college try. I would expect him to finish no higher than 17th at this event, much like he did last year.

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

Additional source: XusesGB

Utah’s Gustavo “801 Strider” Romero is a player that can simply wow with his clutch play. First making his name on the scene with his insane Abel in Street Fighter IV, 801 Strider has since made a number of solid tournament appearances, and has even won a berth into Capcom Cup 2015.

While last year saw him struggle, he found his footing with Laura in Season 2 and hasn’t looked back. What a difference the year has made, as he finds himself back in the hunt for Capcom Cup, with a glowing endorsement from Dogura after Canada Cup. Will Romero electrify the crowd this weekend?

Starting Fights, Finishing Quickly

For all the gripes the western world has had with Laura over Season 2, only one has made it into Capcom Cup this year, and that is Strider. This pick, coming from an Abel main in Street Fighter IV, makes a lot of sense. She shares similarities with the character, with many of the same ranges and mix-ups available. This has worked to Strider’s advantage, as he has been able to frustrate his opponents in the exact same ways he did in the game that made him famous.

Add to that the same patience that he used to set up his trademark Abel play in Street Fighter IV, and you see a different breed of Laura. He also has done well against Japan, who has struggled with the character due to their dismissive stance toward Laura on the tier lists. This underutilized character in Asia has the potential to bracket bust — his first round sees him playing Japanese Haitani.

Second Verse, Same as First

801 Strider making it to Capcom Cup this year is not too shocking, as his season this year is totally comparable to his 2015 run. In 12 events, he was able to top 8 seven of them while winning one online qualifier. His play also saw him earn solid wins against some of the best in the world, including Moke, Sako, and Daigo Umehara at Canada Cup alone.

But Can He Win?

While it’s true that a large swath of Japanese players struggle against Laura, this is not the case across the board. At Evo, he fell to both Bonchan and Tokido — two players that, should he beat Yukadon, he should expect to face at some point. If this is on winners side, he’ll have the unenviable position of going through the bracket the hard way in losers bracket.

However, in the deep end of the pool is a swath of Western players who have plenty of experience in dealing with Laura, and would have no trouble dispatching him. He has already struggled against Smug and Punk, and these will be players he’ll likely have to focus extra hard on should he pair up with them at any point.

Final Thoughts

He is unquestionably the best Laura on the planet, but the argument between Japan and America on where she sits on the tier list has me wondering where she really sits. It’s possibly somewhere in the middle, but arguments on her placement aside, he has a load of players ready to play him. This is the dangers of playing a character who is overplayed on this side of the pond, regardless of how good you are or how much you can draw from your existing skill sets.

He may finish just outside of top 16, but expect some excitement from Strider.

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

SRK’s Electric Wind God Vids is back with another episode! We’ve just finished discussing Eddy’s Relax and Handstand stances. But that was just a warm up: we have yet to talk about one of the scariest low stances in all of Tekken, Ling Xiaoyu’s “Art of Phoenix” stance.

AOP combines the low evasive state of Eddy’s “Relax” with the odd frame data and push-out of his Handstand’s transitions. On top of that, Ling also has a built-in sidestep when she goes into AOP — so when you go searching for an answer to this state, you have to keep in mind range, speed, and hitbox level.

For more TEKKEN TRAINING, be sure to subscribe to ShoryukenTube! And if you have any specific questions about Tekken gameplay you’d like covered in a future video, let us know in the comments!