Category: Videos

Liquid|NuckleDu was easily one of the favorites going into Capcom Cup 2107, due to his consistency on the Capcom Pro Tour this season. However, the 2016 champion has bowed out (for reasons that are currently not publicly known) — this blew the door wide open, as last year’s runner up EG|Ricki Ortiz steps in to fill his slot.

Not much has been seen of Ricki this year. How will she stack up in this year’s competition?

Character Crisis

After being one of the strongest Chun-Lis in the world last year, Ricki found herself struggling in 2017 after the changes to the character in Season 2. After Ricki finished outside of top 32 at Final Round XX, she expressed her concerns with the character’s viability in an interview with Red Bull, later going as far to say that she would look into learning Cammy if she continued to feel unconfident with Chun.

While we saw glimpses of her Cammy at ELEAGUE and Toryuken, the character never really took hold, and she continued to gut it out with Chun. But the lack of confidence was obviously still there, as we saw her fall out early in far more events than her status at the end of 2016 would allude to.

One thing that you can remark on was the nerfs to Chun-Li’s instant air legs, a tool that Ricki was notably adept at using. Ricki and Humanbomb both used this tool well in 2016, and while Humanbomb adjusted to the changes, Ricki saw herself get punished often for her usage of it. But probably the most-damning of nerfs was to her standing light kick — her best anti-air by a long shot. While Ricki has had experience with Chun-Li — and her bevy of situational anti-airs — in Street Fighter IV, the changes to standing light kick made players lean even more on situational anti-airs than ever before. What was worse was that these situational anti-airs were far less reliable than ever. When you look at it this way, it’s no wonder Ricki’s confidence waned: she really was at a loss for how to play this character, and yet couldn’t find anyone that fit her playstyle.

The Tale of the Tape

While we saw far less of Ricki than we have in previous years, what we did was enough to make people worry about her coming in to Anaheim this weekend. In the entirety of the CPT this year, she didn’t make a single top 8 in ten attempts. When she finished just on the cusp at DreamHack Austin, she offered a glimmer of hope that she would return to her former glory, but the rest of the year turned out to be a wash.

With many lower echelon placings, she further saw a lot of confidence drop at Toryuken, where she was eliminated in pools by two Toronto locals: VastEnd and L.E.S. While anyone who has followed Toronto players would know that there’s no shame in losing to these two — VastEnd would later upstage Punk at Canada Cup, while L.E.S. would go on to take a laundry list of names such as Justin Wong — for Ricki, it further set a slide in her confidence. This was a confidence level already shattered by posting a 0-7 record at ELEAGUE, in a pool that featured a Julio Fuentes bouncing back from injury.

Silence

After Defend the North, we saw Ricki take a break. While a break typically looks bad, for her, it seemed necessary. Whether she was dealing with personal issues or trying to work out the holes in her game, it was needed. While the season was at that point becoming a wash for her, time would tell how she would bounce back.

We got our answer at Canada Cup, where she was able to find her way out of pools, but narrowly finished outside of top 16. As bleak as this would look for someone who finished second last year at Capcom Cup, for her — given her struggles on the tour this season — it totally looks like the breath of fresh air she needed.

However, her losses in Toronto came at the hands of Problem X — one player poised to be a major problem at Capcom Cup — and NL, who just narrowly finished outside of the event.

Final Thoughts

As much as I’d like to find a reason to put faith in Ricki to be another hope for America to take it all again, it’s really hard to. She may have worked some things out recently that would put her in a better spot come Anaheim, but it’s really hard to know until we actually see her in action. But facing facts, she didn’t even come close to earning this spot into the event: if this were to go by points, it would have gone to the #31-ranked NL, not the #84-ranked Ricki Ortiz. Further, you can’t discount what these strings of losses can do to you mentally, when you know what you’re usually capable of.

Between her character and her results this year, I would be surprised to find her going anything but 0-2 in this event. Anything can happen, so she could easily surprise me. But hopefully Season 3 gives her a new lease on life in the game, and she shows her true mettle in 2018.

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

Additional source: Masked Gaming Entertainment

Looking to add a Vice to your life? Well, don’t. That’s bad. Unless it’s The King of Fighters XIV‘s Vice. Then, sure, go ahead!

While it may be billed as a quick combo video, Coliflowerz’ latest Vice Guide is actually an excellent primer for new players looking to pick up this Orochi descendant. This video breaks down this mobile grappler’s move-set and options thoroughly before moving in to beginner-to-intermediate combos. Included with these combos are tips for spacing and meter requirements.

Source: Coliflowerz

While Cyclops Osaka’s Goichi “GO1” Kishida may have been a surprise to people in his success last year, no one could be surprised at further success this year. Having reached top 8 in both Evo and Capcom Cup, he made a name for himself within the FGC as one of the most-respected new players in the circuit.

Despite character changes over the course of the year, GO1 again finds himself in the thick of things. While he missed out on a repeat Evo top 8 performance, he has a chance to reach top 8 once again at Capcom Cup. Will he be able to cap off his season with the biggest prize?

Changes in Programming

GO1 was well known for being a highly-technical player last year. Using surgical precision with his Chun-Li, he rarely missed a confirm or a combo. This could be owed to his play in anime fighters, where that sort of precision must be possessed to be competent.

With the changes in Chun-Li in Season 2, GO1 sought out other characters that fit the mold. While Ibuki was an easy fit, there was one Season 2 character that caught his eye. We have seen flashes of his Menat on the circuit — as well as in his online matches — and it looks solid. With the character having precise combos and mix-ups, GO1 makes her look easy.

This is a character that is not only able to stonewall characters, but also able to tear down walls that other characters present. GO1 does this well, and switches between both mentalities quickly. This is a character that fits him well, but that’s not to say his Ibuki is a slouch. He possesses every single solid trait that an Ibuki player needs to have, which also falls in line with his strength with Menat.

Running the Gauntlet

I’ve talked a lot of about players who have traveled extensively this season, but when I looked at GO1’s results, my jaw dropped. This man has played a staggering 21 events over the course of 2017 on the CPT — not even counting the Red Bull: Tower of Pride event he just recently competed in. In these events, he was able to make the top 8 seven times. He was also in the top 16 an additional 10 times. These are huge results, given the amount of time he’s spent traveling.

It’s also worth noting that during this exact same time span, he also made top 8 in five Guilty Gear Xrd tournaments, winning one, and three Blazblue top 8s. This shows some amazing focus that despite playing multiple games, he has been on when it counts in all three games he’s been playing. While some players who split their focus between games falter, he hasn’t.

Desire

One story I’d like to relay, that I don’t think was touched on after Canada Cup, was that after he fell in second place to Dogura in Street Fighter V, Goichi was near inconsolable. He was actually hunched over on the stage tearfully. People were confused by his display of emotions, and without looking at the list, were remarking erroneously that they thought he was out of Capcom Cup with second place.

Obviously, this wasn’t the case. But if you look back on his results, you can probably guess why he was so upset. He had a string of top 8s, but never anything higher than fourth place to hang his hat on. When he made Grand Finals, you could tell he wanted to win. That loss hit him hard, and it showed.

When you look back further, outside of smaller local events in Japan, he has yet to win anything. You can tell the pressure is on for him to win something, and he has fallen short every time. It’s grating on his confidence, and this is a cause for concern going into Capcom Cup.

Final Thoughts

GO1 is going to get there one day, but things are going to have to change. One of the things I mentioned about Tokido last year that he rectified, was his diversification into other games affecting his performances. While he was making top 8s, he wasn’t winning. This is also something GO1 is falling victim to.

If he wants to be a winner and truly call himself a champion, and Capcom Cup truly means this much to him, he’ll have to shy away from his other games to really focus on SFV. If he is in it to have fun — then by all means, keep playing what he wants. But when your focus is to win, you need to do whatever it takes to get there.

Right now, he wants to win, but isn’t going all out to get there. If he makes top 8 again, expect his road to end there until he makes a decision about which game deserves all his attention.

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

We’re on our third video roundup of videos for Tekken 7‘s DLC2 character, Geese. The previous two roundups have been largely centered around combos and options, predictably so.  But any new character in any game is going to have a bug or two, and if glitches are your favorite things in fighting games, this post if for you.

Let’s just go ahead and get the biggest one out of the way, from Sodusthepock. Devil Jin, you no longer rule the skies of Tekken 7:

Geese became a burd. And something more.https://t.co/BjoTAqN7St pic.twitter.com/HZRWPUWGlv

— Seltekh (@Sodusthepock) December 1, 2017

You may remember that Akuma can trap opponents on the ground by FADCing his Red Fireball over their body, then sweeping them OTG into the fireball. Well, Geese thinks that’s too much work, and just opts for his EX Fireball to pick up grounded opponents in this video from Peter Souvannarath. No other tricks required!

Also from Peter, we have an impressive wall-to-wall combo:

Louis Lee found out that there’s no electrical activity in Geese’s Raging Storm. It makes sense that Geese didn’t get hit, but how did Kazuya survive? Is there a dead spot in the eye of Geese’s storm?

From ShiningFace, here’s a 3-bar death combo that, though it requires the Rage damage buff, does not use any Rage Arts.

Just like Akuma, Geese is able to throw a fireball from upstairs, then juggling into it post-balcony break. art_adriano says it’s his first Geese combo: it’s a good one.

My first Geese Combo #tekken7 #snk #bamco pic.twitter.com/0NwXs8smev

— Adriano Lopes (@art_adriano) December 4, 2017

And last but not least, cutcc has some quick educational Geese tips, both for playing as and against SNK’s most famous big-bad.

Sources: Sodusthepock; Peter Souvannarath; Louis Lee; art_adriano; shiningface; cutcc

Following on from his Venom character breakdown, Maximilian has set his sights on the Winter Soldier for his next Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite DLC character preview. Playing like a hybrid of Captain America and Chris Redfield, Winter Soldier’s strength lies in his ability to soak through enemy attacks with his Metal Shield stance — rather than in his zoning.

While the Metal Shield stance sounds overpowered at first, it does have some noticeable drawbacks. It can be beaten by low attacks and Winter Soldier is forced to walk when using it. However, Winter Soldier can attack when in the stance, either with his pistol, his rifle or a variety of punches, and still keep the damage nullification active. One great strength of Winter Soldier will be being able to walk straight through lockdown Supers like Dante’s Million Dollars, and start up a counter-attack. The Tag combo potential from Metal Shield looks equally appealing, as Winter Soldier can keep an opponent occupied while your teammate goes for a mix-up.

His zoning is still effective — especially his jumping Rifle and Pistol shots — but the utility of Winter Soldier’s Metal Shield will be where Max reckons the character will shine. With Winter Soldier, Black Widow and Venom all coming out tomorrow, you won’t have to wait long before you can put this soldier through his paces.

Source: Maximilian Dood