Posts

Posted on

Ricki Ortiz Talks Training for Capcom Cup, Street Fighter V Season 2, Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, and More with Yahoo! Esports

While much has already been said about Capcom Cup 2016’s finals and its winner Du “NuckleDu” Dang from Team Liquid, that’s only half of the Capcom Cup story. The other half involves Du’s final opponent, fellow American Ricki Ortiz from Evil Geniuses, who helped make history by giving Capcom Cup 2016 an unprecedented all-American grand finals set.

In this new interview, Yahoo! Esports’s Zorine Te talks to Ricki Ortiz regarding her performance at Capcom Cup. Specifically, they focused on how she prepared for it, leading her to go from being just a regular top 8 finisher at tournaments, to a strong contender to take Capcom Cup. According to Ricki, the change in her performance comes down to having structured training sessions (with Panda Global’s Ryan “Filipino Champ” Ramirez) for two-and-a-half weeks in preparation for Capcom Cup. Prior to this, having to travel to a lot of tournaments prevented her from getting in any proper practice time.

“I promised myself that for two and a half weeks straight I would practice hardcore with [Filipino Champ] and just focus on practicing completely to get the sharpest I could in the game,” Ricki states. “I wasn’t sure how much I could improve until Capcom Cup, but I knew I had to put my all into it.”

As for having an all-American grand finals at Capcom Cup, Ricki describes it as “monumental.” In addition to this, she states that she feels that this means that America is catching up to Japan. While she won’t say that America is better than Japan, she says that at the top American players can compete with Japan’s best players, and the latter won’t automatically be favored. “It’ll be a fifty-fifty toss up” says Ricki.

In addition to Capcom Cup, Ricki also talks about Street Fighter V’s second season. This includes the possibility of dropping her main character, Chun-Li. According to her, she likes the character and, if she remains competitive, she will definitely be sticking to her.

That said, she’s definitely taking a “wait and see” attitude. Looking to see how Capcom changes the balance and how the tiers stack up. She also wants to see who the new characters are, and she feels that these characters “have to be really cheap” if Capcom is doing a lot of tweaking and buffing.

Finally, she talks about the upcoming Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, with Street Fighter V possibly taking a back seat to the former when it comes out. Ricki points out that she got her start playing competitively in the Versus series. She plans to get sharp enough in Street Fighter V so that she can then focus on Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite when it comes out, putting the former in the back-burner somewhat. This, she says, should allow her to juggle both games.

Of course, that’s just part of what Ricki talks about in the interview. Head on over to Yahoo! Esports to read the rest.

Source: Yahoo! Esports

Photo c/o Yahoo! Esports

Posted on

Ricki Ortiz Talks Training for Capcom Cup, Street Fighter V Season 2, Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, and More with Yahoo! Esports

While much has already been said about Capcom Cup 2016’s finals and its winner Du “NuckleDu” Dang from Team Liquid, that’s only half of the Capcom Cup story. The other half involves Du’s final opponent, fellow American Ricki Ortiz from Evil Geniuses, who helped make history by giving Capcom Cup 2016 an unprecedented all-American grand finals set.

In this new interview, Yahoo! Esports’s Zorine Te talks to Ricki Ortiz regarding her performance at Capcom Cup. Specifically, they focused on how she prepared for it, leading her to go from being just a regular top 8 finisher at tournaments, to a strong contender to take Capcom Cup. According to Ricki, the change in her performance comes down to having structured training sessions (with Panda Global’s Ryan “Filipino Champ” Ramirez) for two-and-a-half weeks in preparation for Capcom Cup. Prior to this, having to travel to a lot of tournaments prevented her from getting in any proper practice time.

“I promised myself that for two and a half weeks straight I would practice hardcore with [Filipino Champ] and just focus on practicing completely to get the sharpest I could in the game,” Ricki states. “I wasn’t sure how much I could improve until Capcom Cup, but I knew I had to put my all into it.”

As for having an all-American grand finals at Capcom Cup, Ricki describes it as “monumental.” In addition to this, she states that she feels that this means that America is catching up to Japan. While she won’t say that America is better than Japan, she says that at the top American players can compete with Japan’s best players, and the latter won’t automatically be favored. “It’ll be a fifty-fifty toss up” says Ricki.

In addition to Capcom Cup, Ricki also talks about Street Fighter V’s second season. This includes the possibility of dropping her main character, Chun-Li. According to her, she likes the character and, if she remains competitive, she will definitely be sticking to her.

That said, she’s definitely taking a “wait and see” attitude. Looking to see how Capcom changes the balance and how the tiers stack up. She also wants to see who the new characters are, and she feels that these characters “have to be really cheap” if Capcom is doing a lot of tweaking and buffing.

Finally, she talks about the upcoming Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, with Street Fighter V possibly taking a back seat to the former when it comes out. Ricki points out that she got her start playing competitively in the Versus series. She plans to get sharp enough in Street Fighter V so that she can then focus on Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite when it comes out, putting the former in the back-burner somewhat. This, she says, should allow her to juggle both games.

Of course, that’s just part of what Ricki talks about in the interview. Head on over to Yahoo! Esports to read the rest.

Source: Yahoo! Esports

Photo c/o Yahoo! Esports

Posted on

Channel the Power of the Aura with IzAw’s “Art of” Lucario Tutorial for Super Smash Bros. for Wii U

Working his way through the Super Smash Bros. for Wii U roster, the time has come for Lucario to get his own “Art of” tutorial. One of the most polarizing fighters in Smash 4 due to his Aura mechanic, playing Lucario involves riding the line between deliberately taking damage to boost your Aura and actively losing the lead due to mismanagement of your stocks.

For those who aren’t aware, all of Lucario’s moves gain power as he takes damage. While he starts off fairly weak, getting him to around 100% causes his Aura to become extremely powerful, meaning that a command grab or a back air could kill at around 50%. Lucario’s Aura also gains a natural boost if he is a stock down, meaning he starts off his next life with his Aura already boosted.

Due to Lucario mains having to keep track of Aura, his combos require players being able to react on the fly to the increased knockback of certain moves to keep their attacks going. As such, much of his neutral game is based around tricky aerial movement by B-reversing his Aura Sphere and other specials, while looking for that one grab to finish up a stock.

As with most of his “Art of” tutorials, IzAw goes through all of Lucario’s specials, normals and some starter combos to help get you started with this steadfast Pokémon. With Aura and Rage mixed together, Lucario is an absolute beast at higher percents, so choose your moves carefully.

Source: IzawSmash

Posted on

Panda Global Announces Key to Genesis 4 Online Qualifiers for Super Smash Bros. for Wii U

Following on from their previous online qualifiers for Shine 2016 and The Big House 6, Panda Global are partnering up with smash.gg yet again for another set of tournaments to award one lucky player with a trip to Genesis 4. Much like the other events, this “Key to G4” series is for North American residents only, so don’t expect any Europeans winning that golden ticket to San Jose.

Seeing as Genesis is less than a month away, there will only be two individual qualifiers on New Year’s Day and January 2nd, with the top 8 to be held later in the week as the top 4 from each event go forward. As with previous events, the top three placers will get prizes, but only the winner will receive that flight and entry to G4.

Registration will open on smash.gg tomorrow and the rules regarding connection quality and so on will be the same as previous qualifiers, so read up on their rules to get a feel for what you need to compete. In general Genesis 4 news, while registration is now closed, players can still choose what events they wish to play in, as well as who they want as a teammate for select doubles events. This information must be decided by January 2nd and if you are just wanting to watch the finals, there is now a special Top 8 Spectator pass available for purchase.

Sources: BearUNLV; Genesis_Smash

Posted on

Get Eaten Alive by this Mileena Mortal Kombat XL Combo Video

Think you could survive five minutes with a literal man-eater? Neither could I, but that’s the challenge posed in this Mortal Kombat XL combo video.

Today, we have a combo video of none other than Mileena, who travels through her Ravenous, Piercing and Ethereal variations to devour her competition. It also flows through a few stage-specific interactable combos as well.

Source: Robert Cullen

Posted on

Star Wars: The Old Republic – Players Gather on Alderaan to Mourn Carrie Fisher

Today marks a sad day for fans of all things Star Wars with the passing of Carrie Fisher, most famously known for her portrayal of Leia Organa, a princess, rebel and general. Fisher suffered a cardiac arrest on December 23rd and succumbed earlier today. Players in Star Wars: The Old Republic are gathering on Alderaan, the location of the Organa estate. Imgur Bericurra has posted lots of images and a Reddit thread has opened for players to post other gatherings.