One of the more unique and memorable players in our community is Rise’s Martin “Marn” Phan. Known for his outspoken nature and his amusing and–at times questionable–antics, the Vietnamese American veteran has been out of the spotlight somewhat after his top 4 performance at NorCal Regionals last year. However, his recent appearance at TBS’s ELEAGUE showed us that Marn is still here, and is still up to his usual behavior.
Yahoo! Esports’ Michael Martin recently got the chance to talk to Marn, and the latter wasted no time going all in. He spends a good amount of time focusing on Echo Fox|Julio Fuentes, who just barely outranked him at ELEAGUE to send him home, saying how the latter “wasted” his slot. In addition to this, he also has some things to say about the Southern California scene–and himself as well.
It’s a New World for Guilty Gear Xrd players. REV 2 not only refreshes the cast and the game’s UI, but also adds a hotly-requested character from the past games: Baiken.
From simpler midscreen combos to longer corner ones, Kei walks through a great sampling of Baiken combos. They occasionally show a few situations where Baiken uses her parry–Azami–and turns them into punishing combos. Check out the high-damaging combos on Chipp, a command grab combo, and a few awesome Potemkin-specific sequences.
If you want to get to know Baiken a little bit better, check out our Baiken spotlight.
Novril, known for his recent “Guilty Gear Crash Course“series, is back at it with new videos. His new series tackles explaining and redefining fighting game concepts from the ground up. Open to all kinds of fighting games, the inclusive video tackles the concept of footsies.
The episode begins with attempting to define the term, and looking at already established definitions of the term. Because fighting games are so diverse–and many include simple or complex aerial movement–it’s not that easy to embrace what exactly we’re trying to say with one word. Novril recognizes this complexity, and nails it with two fundamental, conceptual goal: controlling hurtboxes and hitboxes so that the opponent overextends themselves, and preventing them from doing the same to you.
Watch the new episode below, and let us know what thoughts and advice you have about the concept!
Want a piece of that $10k floating around for Pokkén Tournament events, but not sure who your starter Pokémon should be? SKDale, a top Pokkén Tournament player from the Pokkén Nebraska scene, has put together a simple guide for picking your main.
Aimed at players of all skill levels, the video does a great job of breaking down some obvious methods (i.e. Pick the coolest looking one! Play the game with all of them!) and more nuanced discussion related to top play. There’s a great list near the end of high level U.S. tournament players to watch for every character, and a breakdown of the main goal of each character’s overall game-plan.
This remix of “Emotionless Passion” is loaded with emotion, ironically.
In the video below, you can listen to Rukunetsu’s new remix of Kazuya Mishima’s classic theme from Tekken 2: Emotionless Passion. This version rumbles deep and really builds an epic, emotional landscape over the distinctive melody, fitting for a fighter bent on revenge. Check it out!
The Super Steam Xrd Exhibition League is going strong, despite Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2’s appearance in Japanese arcades. This week’s match has already been fought, so here’s the mixup: instead of previewing, we’re going to see what the players think after having faced each other. A big part of getting better at fighting games is drawing conclusions from previous games and footage, so let’s see what each combatant has to say.
First, check out the action between rubedoe’s Ramlethal Valentine and YanuCerda’s Sol Badguy. It’s an incredibly close set. After that, TSB|Blaze’s Raven pounced on Ryan Hunter’s devious Venom.
rubedoe
Your match was extremely close, and you did win in the end, but is there anything that you think you could have done better during the matches?: “Call out more 2D, 6HS, Gun Flames, and punishing Wild Throw, instead of just focusing on avoiding it. A lot of stuff was telegraphed, but I went in pretty cold due to real life and Nier: Automata. Usually better at combos than that but it was my own handicap.”
What were your thoughts on this matchup?: “Him as a player, it was easy to tell he’s the kind of Sol that likes to force you to adapt to him, and if you don’t, you just die. Ram can beat these types of Sols, but he did do some stuff to shut down my air options, and he did block or Blitz some of my mix-ups that have those kinds of weaknesses if you recognize them, so good on him for that.
“He tended to hard call-out my going into the air too much by putting himself in the air without reacting to me being in the air myself which is the only reason I won. Once he does this, I can 2S him on the way down, or if he air-dashes above me willy-nilly, which he did. When he did get me in the air though, I was screwed, because air throw shuts Ram air neutral down.
“Sol vs. Ram is bad for Ram unless the Sol is slow to adapt, and the Ram can outplay him.”
Afterward, what lessons did you draw from the set? Did your opinion change because of it?: “Lessons I learned are mostly that I have to work on being more reactionary on my defense and not letting my opponent run his game as easily. The Arm was right, that I only Charge Blitz so I need to work on mixing that up. A big weakness I’ve always had was jumping a lot but not being proactive at defending my space from air throws so I need to figure that out.
“Otherwise, my opinion on the matchup is the same as ever. Ram has downfalls that are pretty steep, but she can outplay her opponent once, and ride the momentum to a won round pretty easily. Matchups just depend on how hard it is for her to outplay that specific character in neutral.”
YanuCerda
At one point in the set, you were down, 4-6. What were you thinking about then to motivate you to push back?: “When I was down, my train of thought was that he was showing me some patterns I should be focused on taking advantage of. I started to play specifically anticipating the patterns I was looking for, and that helped me swing back, I think. Now, that I try to remember what those patterns were I definitely have already forgotten all of them.”
What were your thoughts on this matchup?: “I have never felt very comfortable against Ram with Sol, her hurtbox is a bit strange so I can’t be as fun with my combos. Ignoring the matchup though, his style was different than I was used to… for a while, I kept getting more command throws than I thought I deserved because I felt he was passive in pressure. It started to make me more uncomfortable, as I had to rely on the risky command throw more often and once he started jumping out, I did not adapt quick enough.”
Afterward, what lessons did you draw from the set? Did your opinion change because of it?: “First lesson, my fun cross-up setup (Bandit Revolver > YRC > cross-up jK, 2HS into Riot Stomp) doesn’t work on Ram…cost me the final round I believe, and I won’t be trying that again.
“Second lesson is, I have to work on in chaotic sets to avoi making choices that end me up in the corner. It’s clear a strong Ram will make full use of any mistake that winds me up in the corner, and I will be more aware of that from now on.
“Third, make sure my next match isn’t with 5 frames of delay ;). How do you block Ram in that delay?”
Blaze
At one point, you were down 2-5. How do you think you mounted an impressive comeback?: “I had to change my strategy, Venom outdamages Raven really easily, so I started using the stance to see if the damage difference will be on par with his. Which it was!”
What were your thoughts on this matchup?: “On the matchup itself, I personally think it’s in Venom’s favor. He can control a lot of space and make Raven come at him how he wants. Also, Venom’s wake up timing is a lot faster than the [rest of the] cast, so a lot of okizeme that I usually use does not work on Venom. He can easily back dash, super jump, and even 6P me if I glide at him, which can hit me before the ball is even active.”
Afterwards, what lessons did you draw from the set? Did your opinion change because of it?: “Opinion stayed the same. Venom vs. Raven requires Raven to work in neutral a lot. Also, Ryan knows the matchup very well since he plays Mystic (Florida Raven) a lot. I have to thank Daiandoh and Grover for the experience I got from playing them here in NYC.”
Ryan Hunter declined to comment.
What’s next for the Super Steam Xrd Exhibition League? It’s time for a Europe special! On April 16th, European Guilty Gear warriors will duke it out Silva’s stream.
A player you’re hearing about with increasing frequency: Panda Global’s Punk. Having made his name at Red Bull Battle Grounds last year, he brought the point home there that he was for real. Having already secured his spot in the top 8 of ELEAGUE, he also spent his weekend taking a decisive win at West Coast Warzone over Evil Geniuses’ NYChrisG in Grand Finals.
The two players talked to Michael Martin after the event, and had a lot to say about the match. Chris discussed his mistake in allowing Punk to approach easily, and failing to too many shimmies. Punk on the other hand discussed his usage of shimmies to set up a throw game that saw Chris fail to tech four consecutive throws during the set.
At the end of the day, Punk showed respect to ChrisG, saying that he is a great Guile player–and that his defensive play is far better than Liquid|NuckleDu’s.
Magneto’s ability to carry his opponents to the corner is one of his biggest strengths in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. With just one straight hit, the “Master of Magnet” can scoop his opponent up and bring them to the corner; aside from doing this on point however, Magneto can also do this from a TAC.
In the video below, datHazy demonstrates a TAC infinite for Magneto that allows him to carry his opponent from one corner of the screen to the other. The TAC infinite itself requires a side TAC to set up. Once it is set up however, Magneto can not only carry his opponent to the opposite corner, but he can continue the infinite to eventually take out his opponent.
Magneto’s ability to carry his opponents to the corner is one of his biggest strengths in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. With just one straight hit, the “Master of Magnet” can scoop his opponent up and bring them to the corner; aside from doing this on point however, Magneto can also do this from a TAC.
In the video below, datHazy demonstrates a TAC infinite for Magneto that allows him to carry his opponent from one corner of the screen to the other. The TAC infinite itself requires a side TAC to set up. Once it is set up however, Magneto can not only carry his opponent to the opposite corner, but he can continue the infinite to eventually take out his opponent.
Moving on with the character balance changes coming to Street Fighter V at the end of this month, VesperArcade now turns his attention to Ken. Mr. Master’s patch notes are pretty light, as he only received the universal changes to his medium and heavy Shoryukens that were covered in a previous video, and his Thunder Kick going from -2 to -4 on block, making it punishable, like it was in Season 1. Though it may seem like a minor change on paper, Vesper feels it has significant ramifications for Ken, and wanted to discuss them in much greater detail.
In Season 1, Ken’s Thunder Kick was already punishable, but in Season 2 it was changed to -2 on block, making it now safe against even the fastest normal attacks. The biggest change, however, is to the advantage on hit, which was changed to +2 from 0. Now, this might not sound like much, but Ken can now combo from his Thunder Kick overhead if it hits crouching opponents, because it actually becomes +3, since it hits them meaty. To be fair, he can’t do this on Birdie, Zangief and Urien, since they’re taller characters, and he’ll only be +2 on hit.
Vesper goes on to showcase the plethora of setups this can provide Ken with, due to having 3-frame specials in his Light Shoryuken and Tatsumaki Senpukyaku, as well as other ways he can mixup with it in the corner for dangerous offense.
So, Capcom making this -4 on block but keeping its combo potential seems like a compromise, without nerfing it too hard. For one, most overheads in the game are -6 right now. You can’t combo after most of them afterwards, yet they can be punished harder than Ken’s overhead after April. You also might argue that Ken’s overhead is slower than normal, since Capcom increased the startup from 23 to 26 frames, the same as Chun-Li’s, so we could definitely spin in circles debating on how to balance this.
Lastly, Vesper provides his traditional “final verdict” on Ken’s standing.
My final verdict on Ken, based on these changes alone, is overall nerfed. Ken will still have his wold corner game, since his throw loops remain untouched, but his opponent can now punish him if he reads correctly on a blocked Thunder Kick. And Ken players might think twice now, before using it when they’re really low on health. Capcom obviously wanted to even out the risk and reward, balance out the scales a bit on this overhead attack, so after this change, I wonder where Ken will end up? I honesty think right now, Season 2 Ken is somewhere in the top 10 region. I personally think he’s the best shoto of the three. But after this change, and Akuma getting a slight buff to his HP, I’m really curious where he will land.
You can view the full video above, and if you’re curious about other changes coming to SFV, you can check out his previous coverage at these links:
