It can just take a moment to shake off the salt and make better choices in the next fight.
Tavian “The Philocypher” Napier continues the FGC Philosophy series with a third talk with r/StreetFighter’s Joe Munday, this time discussing the changes and additions made to Munday’s excellent Street Fighter V study guide, Gief’s Gym. They also chat about Capcom’s questionable choices in nerfing/buffing SFV, playing as/against Balrog (and how character selection will alter your best options), and how it’s important to keep a level head–and not let too much salt get in your eyes–to maintain effective decision-making.
Gief’s Gym: A Guide to Street Fighter V (Second Edition) is available as a paperback or on Kindle from Amazon. Check out The Philocypher’s prior talks with Joe Munday here and here.
Sean English offers here an in-depth breakdown of Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2’s defensive options, as based on the current demo for PlayStation Plus users. Note that it’s aimed at players of at least an intermediate skill level. If you’re very new to the game or series, you’ll want to check out some of the Guilty Gear Crash Course series!
We start with neutral, which is posited here as largely being movement. Good movement keeps you unpredictable, out of threat range, and all the forward movement will be building your meter. From here we see a summary of tools to reduce risk and slow the match down: FD brake, YRC as a neutral tool, and defensive air throws to stop your opponent from getting away with murder.
Next is the inevitable situation: blocking. One of the more difficult parts of the game—especially when you’re new—is escaping pressure. The example used here is a long string into Carcass Raid, a move from Venom that has tons of frame advantage on block. You want to escape before it connects, and this well-edited video gives you a tree of options that set a framework for how you should be looking at escaping from pressure.
The rest of the video delves into the mechanics of instant block, faultless defense (FD), blitz shield, and burst. Most importantly it shows you how to use these effectively, including a little breakdown on good places to burst—another difficult thing to learn if you’re new to games with a burst mechanic.
Guile may be known primarily for his slow, long-distance projectile wars, but that doesn’t meant he can’t apply some sick pressure after the right knockdown.
NurseLee‘s “SFV Guile’s Flying Mare Setups -Season 2-” explores meaty setups off of Guile’s air throw. In it, NurseLee first introduces you to meaty options to beat a quick rise. What’s so clever about this is that without deliberately stating it, he shows how these same setups can be used to also beat delayed wake up. He also explores some V-Skill setups, demonstrating that it’s possible to turn this normally unsafe move into a frame trap after an air throw.
On his Twitter bio, S.T.L considers himself the “combo craftsman of the Tekken world.” After seeing his latest combo video, which makes extensive use of counter-hit-only standing links, off-axis hits, and odd wall re-splats, it’s easy to see why he’s earned this title.
“S.T.L COMBO MOVIE 8” features combos for Bob, Law, Josie, Devil Jin, Nina, Master Raven, Feng, Lili, Claudio, Yoshimitsu, Leo, Paul, and Bryan. For me, the show-stealer is Nina’s link off CH b+4 (a move many people may not know is an astounding +18 on counter-hit) into a frame tight uf+2,1. There aren’t many links in Tekken, and Nina’s b+4 isn’t the most iconic move in the world. It takes a real student of the series to put together, and pull off, combo demonstrations like this.
While the Marvel vs. Capcom series has always been associated with America, that doesn’t mean other countries haven’t been competitive with the game. In Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, a number of Japanese players picked up the game, ready to upset the established order.
At this year’s KVO x TSB, a number of these players were on hand to put on a show and demonstrate that there’s still love for the game over in the land of the rising sun. Team Spooky has shared the top 3 matches from the Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 tournament at the event. Featured here are matches with BlackEye’s Takumi, Chan-C, TMP’s Cross, Mabushin, and more.
In addition to this, Spooky also shares some impressions of the Japanese UMvC3 community, based on his own conversations with BlackEye’s Abegen.
Recently, we’ve taken a quick look at Elphelt’s REV 2 changes, but there’s a lot more coming from Guilty Gear’s flagship bride. Her changes aren’t as easy to recognize, though. There’s still a way to set up the corner unblockable, and her 6P has gained some… interesting invulnerability.
First up, check out a couple more combos from The Prince:
Next, here’s a handy explanatory video about setting up the corner unblockable:
Building on the success of Mortal Kombat X’s Pro League, Injustice 2 is getting its own international championship series. Run in partnership between ESL, PlayStation 4, GameStop and Gamelta esports, this program will offer chance for both pro and amateur players in North America, Latin America, and Europe to compete for a prize pool of $600,000.
The main event in the Championship will be the Injustice 2 Pro Series, which will kick off at Combo Breaker on May 26th. This series will comprise of both online and offline events, with pro players from all regions fighting to reach that final 16-man bracket. At the end of the season, the 16 finalists will advance to the Injustice Pro Series Finals, taking place on September 17th in Los Angeles. There will also be a Global Grand Finals in October, but details have yet to be confirmed about this event. For more details on all events in the Pro Series, click here.
For those who don’t wish to compete in the Pro Series, each region will be holding its own tournament series for players who might not be quite ready to hit the big time. In North America, GameStop and the ESL will hold the Hometown Heroes series, starting on June 4th. Beginning with open online qualifiers, the top placers from these events will then progress to one of eight Regional Finals on August 12th, held at various GameStop locations around the country. The eight victors from those Regional Finals will then meet at the Hometown Heroes Finals, held at the GameStop Consumer Expo in Las Vegas on August 27th.
In Europe, players from France, Spain, the UK, Germany, Italy, the Benelux Union, and the Nordic territories will compete in the Path to Pro Series. Online tournaments start on May 20th, leading up to the Path to Pro Finals on August 19th between 12 finalists from the various countries.
For Injustice 2 players in Chile, Argentina, Mexico, and Peru, there is the Injustice 2 Liga Latina. Beginning in May, each region will get its own series of online and offline qualifiers. The best players from each region will then go onto compete in the Liga Latina finals on August 13th. Don’t worry, Brazilian Injustice player–a tournament is in the works and will be announced soon.
Infused with Psycho Power and trained in brutal boxing techniques by Balrog… Ed looks like a force to be reckoned with.
As promised, we’ve finally got our official confirmation of Ed as the next DLC fighter for Season 2 of Street Fighter V. He’s all grown up and bulked up since his appearances in the prior story modes–watch him bring some Psycho Powered pain in the trailer below:
Possibly the most notable aspect to Ed’s playstyle is the absence of quarter-circle, DP, or directional charge imputs; all of his special moves are performed by pressing multiple buttons, holding a button (i.e. TAP), or rapid button presses (i.e. Lightning Legs). His Critical Art will be his only move with a “traditional motion” as the input.
The announcement also showed off Ed’s V-system and Critical Art:
V-Skill: Psycho Snatcher
Ed uses Psycho Power to pull himself or opponents around, based on the charging time.
V-Trigger: Psycho Cannon
Ed releases a big and slow Psycho Power projectile, that can be followed to link attacks hits if it connects.
Critical Art: Psycho Barrage
Ed unleashes a barrage of Psycho-punches!
Naturally, Ed will launch with a Story and Battle outfit:
The Battle costume is included for Season Pass holders. Capcom also mentioned that Season Pass holders on Ps4 will be getting a new free theme.
Ed will be playable as part of the upcoming CFN beta test. His official release date remains unrevealed, with more information promised within the next few weeks.
Can’t get past fireballs as King of Dinosaurs? Pop Max Mode and say goodbye to all your projectile-based worries!
One of the buffs that Version 2.00 of King of Fighters XIV brought the prehistoric wrestler is projectile invincibility on his jumping command grab, “EX Assault Raptor”. While it’s unlikely Joe will spend his entire meter full screen, Gatoray’s most extreme examples are an entertaining look at just how strong Dinosaur’s Max Mode options are now. Between this and normal Assault Raptor’s new ability to grab crouching opponents, King of Dinosaurs has real uses for his big, leaping bites.
Thanks to a recent visit to Bandai Namco’s US offices, notable FGC YouTuber Maximilian got the chance to record a playthrough of Tekken 7’s Arcade Mode. Using Jin for the duration of the session, Max ran through the five fights you will experience on a standard Arcade playthrough, complete with a final battle with Akuma.
For most of the video, Max provides his thoughts and impressions of playing Tekken 7 before its official June 2nd release. His first impressions are extremely positive, praising the game’s movement and neutral game. Unfortunately, he was not able to get any information from the Bandai Namco staff about Tekken 7’s netcode, so we will have to wait closer to launch for news on that. As for the Arcade Mode itself, Max reckons that he did not unlock everything during his recorded runs, as he did not encounter the signature final boss fight you usually get in most Arcade Modes. You do get different final fights depending on the character you pick, so expect there to be some special unlock conditions to access a potential secret fight.
Expect more Tekken 7 news to be coming as we get closer to its June 2nd release.
