The closest Street Fighter V can get to try-before-you-buy.
Street Fighter V received a big batch of new premium outfits yesterday, providing Nostalgia costumes for Chun-Li, Birdie, Karin, and Balrog, while also adding Holiday outfits for Alex, Cammy, Kolin, and Menat — and a couple more Chun-Li designs from Akiman, too. RektScrub has compiled this collection of online matches featuring the new threads in action, so you can see what they look like in battle before spending that hard-earned real money.
(Chun-Li’s Alpha-era Nostalgia costume didn’t make the cut for this compilation — though she’s already included for her other two Akiman outfits.)
Michael Martin offers a quick breakdown of what’s new on the agenda for Capcom Cup.
Another week brings another Wake Up Wednesdays recap show from Capcom Fighters, featuring Michael Martin. In this week’s installment, Martin goes over new details for Capcom Cup 2017, confirming best-of-five matches throughout, and noting that the action will be broadcast on two streams this year.
He then goes into the recent shake-up caused by the withdrawal of last year’s Champion Liquid|NuckleDu from his auto-qualification spot; the Succession rule passes the auto-qualification to 2016’s runner-up EG|Ricki Ortiz. However, even though Ortiz is replacing NuckleDu in the tournament, she will actually be placed in the 31st seed position due to her CPT points being less than the other qualifiers. Meanwhile, the winner of the Last Chance Qualifier will take the 32nd slot. Watch the full video — and see the planned brackets — below!
Echo Fox’s Justin Wong holds an unfortunate record in competitive fighting game history: having taken part in every single Capcom Cup since its inception, he has not won a single match in a Street Fighter title in the event. Given that Capcom Cup started in 2013, this makes his competitive record at the event 0-8.
While we could go on indefinitely about why this is the case, the fact is that every year he puts on a strong showing on the Capcom Pro Tour, only to find his results at the final event to be lackluster — far below what we know he is capable of. Yet again, he finds himself in the thick of things at Capcom Cup, with a #14 seed. Will we see Justin break out of this losing streak — or will he extend his losing streak to 0-10?
True Character
If there are two things that Justin has done since last season, he has definitely worked on both perfecting his Karin play, and finding a secondary to do damage with. While not a particularly popular pick on the CPT, his Ed has become a serious threat, with Justin bringing out the character many times — including at Evo, Northern Arena Knockout, and the CPT North American Finals.
The patient play that he has patented with Karin — using spacing instead of a bevy of setups to his advantage — also fits well with Ed. He also uses some of Ed’s tricks and gimmicks (including fake fireballs) to his advantage to bait players into playing into his reactionary, defensive style. He also has the execution and spatial awareness to throw in some of his more situational combos, all of which rely on understanding exact spacing and timing to pull off.
Karin and Ed complement each other well. While Karin dominates much of the cast with her superior footsies and spacing game, she struggles against characters who can either build a wall to prevent her from spacing, or can punish her for being in that range. His Ed takes over in those matches, where he can both zone and hold grapplers out of their proper ranges — ranges that would otherwise favor them over Karin.
This combination of characters should give Justin an advantage, where he will fear very few — if any — character match-ups.
Strength of Schedule
It’s hard to say that other players put in more work on the circuit than Justin. That’s simply because he is one of few players to literally go everywhere. Over the course of 2017, he was able to make the top 8 in three out of six Premier events, while also winning ranking events at Toryuken and Buenos Aires True Salt. Further, he was able to make top 8 at a grand total of five out of seven ranking events, and narrowly missed the top 8 at Evo. This has been one of Justin’s best years in a long time.
In all fourteen events he competed in, he missed top 16 only twice: once at the start of the season at Final Round XX, and again at NorCal Regionals. It’s hard to debate his consistency this year, and he only got stronger as the year progressed.
Returning to His Throne
As the long-crowned King of Marvel, the release of Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite could be Justin’s biggest nemesis to glory at Capcom Cup. Not just a part of the Capcom Cup, he must also concentrate on succeeding in the Battle of the Stones tournament, which he received an invite for.
There’s zero question which game series has brought him more success. Both tournaments have a ton of acclaim attached to victory. The question comes down to focus. Will he be fighting harder in the game he’s worked hard all year to qualify for, or the one that he was handed an invite for, but loves more? This will be answered come Capcom Cup, for sure.
Matching Up and Stacking Up
Looking at the current standings, it appears that Justin will be facing GO1 first round. This could prove a difficult match-up for Justin, as both Ibuki and Menat can cause problems for Ed and Karin. While Karin against Ibuki isn’t the worst match-up, it can still be difficult. Ed against either character is problematic, effectively neutering his secondary. Karin can also struggle in the spacing game against Menat, which is something that Justin relies on. This makes his first round look bad from the start.
Let’s just say that Justin survives. There’s a wealth of players in the bracket that Justin has struggled against all year, including Punk, whom Justin has a losing record to by a long shot. Justin has constantly tested Punk’s reactions, only to see Punk pass every test. This shows some stubbornness in Justin to continue to try a failing strategy, but also shows that he hasn’t quite figured out enough to take it all the way in Anaheim.
He further has difficulties with his turtle approach to Karin facing up to Punk’s aggressive approach. We have thus seen him switching on the fly, utilizing both Chun-Li and Ed with no answer to Punk’s equation yet.
Final Thoughts
Justin has all the tools to do it, but the split in his attention may cause him to falter even more this year. Regardless of how long Justin has been in the game, everyone is prone to nagging doubts, and the pressure of not wanting to post another 0-2 record is probably hanging in the back of his mind.
While it’s easy to dismiss Justin and say that he will do so again, I believe he will finally break his cold snap to at least post one or two wins this year.
Whining fools, begone! Geese Howard has almost arrived.
With a new patch out in the wild introducing “DLC2” to Tekken 7, Bandai Namco has revealed some more footage of incoming Fatal Fury guest character Geese Howard’s gameplay, the new Howard Estate stage, and two new costumes in Geese’s official launch trailer:
While erroneously appearing as available now in the game menu, Geese will become available over tonight and tomorrow, depending on your platform.
Currently, you can see the display "Geese Released" after applying the latest patch, but this is incorrect. "Geese Howard" will be released from November 30th (release time will vary according to each PF). We apologize for any inconvenience. Plz wait for a while.#TEKKEN7
Electric Wind God Vids is back and we’re picking up where we left off: picking apart Eddy’s stances. Last week we gave an overview of the very annoying Relax stance. Today, we’re covering his Handstand stance: a larger stance that serves as a more transitional state then an all-out mix-up stance.
Despite the lack of a un-seeable power low, though, Handstand can murder you with crushing mids and fast power crushes if you aren’t careful. Learn when the gaps appears off his transitions and Handstand becomes more liability than leverage for Eddy’s mix-up game.
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!
Fierce fights rage on across the world in The King of Fighters XIV!
While we await the arrival of the new combatant and stage for The King of Fighters XIV, check out the action happening at various events around the globe!
What’s at the top of the list for needed changes in Street Fighter V?
Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition is coming in January 2018, promising the addition of an extensive Arcade Mode, and a second V-Trigger for all characters — as well as what may be some glimpsed new moves for some fighters, and almost certainly a heavy round of gameplay balancing.
In his latest video, VesperArcade has started to discuss what such changes he wants to see in an upcoming patch. For the first major offender, VesperArcade adds his voice to the chorus proclaiming that Crush Counters are too powerful in the neutral game, and need to be addressed for better risk/reward balance. He explores why they are too strong, and what design tweaks could mitigate that — or perhaps they should be removed from the game entirely…?
With their schedules becoming much clearer over the course of this month, top-level UK NRS commentators and content creators PND|Ketchup and Mustard are looking to return to the world of Injustice 2 by streaming a series of high-level online first-to-ten sets — featuring some of the top players and character-specialists from around the world — as chosen by the viewers and fans.
With the recent November update shaking the meta to its very core, there have been a wide variety of lesser-seen players and characters on display in these matches.
Notable encounters include: Bdon’s Dr. Fate taking on Atai’s Blue Beetle, UndeadJim’s newly-minted Hellboy squaring off against Yammini’s Green Arrow, Vertex|HeyGeorge’s (who nearly eliminated Echo Fox’s Sonic Fox from ELEAGUE) freshly-buffed Joker against CrazyFinger’s Swamp Thing, Method|REO’s Bane vs. Buffalo’s Sub-Zero, OmegaK’s beastly Gorilla Grodd opposing DizzyTTT’s Black Canary, Echo Fox|Theo’s Superman/Bizarro against Emperor Knick’s Darkseid, and many more. We’ve embedded a few matches below for your viewing pleasure, but you can catch all of the other sets on their YouTube Channel, or watch them unfold live, at https://www.twitch.tv/pndketchup, every Wednesday at around 12:00 PM CT (10:00 AM PT).
What do you think of these FT10s? Which players and characters would you like to see in future installments? Let us your thoughts — and which matches were your favorites — in the comments below.
While North America has been studying the game engine of Sailor Moon S and developing a meta in the game for a handful of years now, Japan has been doing the same since the game’s 1994 release. While a lot of what the west knows about this game overlaps with what Japan knows, there is still much to learn, and the Japanese scene is working to give their western counterparts a leg up.
Japanese Street Fighter III: Third Strike legend Koushun is one of the biggest players of the game in Japan, and has recently released some of his footage — formerly only found by hunting for it on Niconico Douga — on Youtube. He also includes captions to explain the tech found in English. In it, you can see various setups and option selects used to blow up wake-up backdashes and guard cancels as well as to punish trades in some situations. He also shows off some amazing ambiguity with crossups, including some with Uranus that sets up her infinite.
Want to play a meter-using character in the Tekken 7 but not sure if Akuma’s stubby limbs will work for you? Worried about how new Geese will be, and just want to jump in to a character that’s already understood? Maybe Tekken’s Mistress of the Dark, Eliza, will compliment you.
Tekken player UFOrange has put together a great Eliza combo showcase to show off what the immortal seductress is capable of. This dive-kicking, fireball-chucking monster has no lack of versatility or punishment options, and can dump her meter into many situations for big damage.
The patient play that he has patented with Karin — using spacing instead of a bevy of setups to his advantage — also fits well with Ed. He also uses some of Ed’s tricks and gimmicks (including fake fireballs) to his advantage to bait players into playing into his reactionary, defensive style. He also has the execution and spatial awareness to throw in some of his more situational combos, all of which rely on understanding exact spacing and timing to pull off.
As the long-crowned King of Marvel, the release of Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite could be Justin’s biggest nemesis to glory at Capcom Cup. Not just a part of the Capcom Cup, he must also concentrate on succeeding in the Battle of the Stones tournament, which he received an invite for.
