Coliseum

Welcome to the Rollback: a frame-by-frame look back at our past week’s most notable news and our favorite SRK articles from September 30 to October 6, 2016!

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Zavian “mushin_Z” Sildra, Editor-in-Chief:

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Street Fighter V’s “Illuminati Secrets” Mystery Solved: Capcom Pro Tour and Swimsuit Costume Easter Eggs Found

This was a nice little surprise from Capcom for SFV; little touches like this make a big difference in engaging a game’s audience. Secrets don’t live as long as they used to, but there’s a definite “classic gaming” vibe to SFV gaining hidden costume codes.

Frame 2:
The Pulse of Pokkén: Top Players Talk Present and Future of Pokkén Tournament’s Scene, Part 1

Pokkén Tournament has grown fairly dear to my heart, and I hope to see it last, in spite of no clear console DLC drop and the impending arrival of the Nintendo NX.

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Street Fighting in Montréal, Part 1: Interview with Chi-Rithy, Snafoo, & Rami Rammal

It was a pleasure getting to know these players better, and of course also Lord Jimmy Bones, JakyoManor, and WoolieWoolz in Part 2. Nice to see Canadian players placing well in major events. I hear Toronto has a pretty big scene too…

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Sam “Trilby” Foxall, Assistant Editor:

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Leffen’s United States Visa Approved at Last

Gods beware, the Godslayer is coming back to the USA. With this news, Leffen fans can look forward to the villain of Melee causing some tension in brackets at future events. He will be attending The Big House 6 this weekend, but don’t expect the comeback just yet.

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MarlinPie Talks about CEOtaku 2016, Guilty Gear, and Going to Toushinsai

Our very own Woocash was at CEOtaku this past weekend and got the chance to talk to the runner-up, PG|MarlinPie about all things Guilty Gear. You’ll find thoughts on meta shifts, other US players and more in the full interview.

Frame 3:
Colossal Changes Come to Mortal Kombat X in Today’s Balance Patch

Alien’s reign of tyranny may finally be over! With serious nerfs and buffs across the board, as well as some general system changes, this new Mortal Kombat X patch seeks to inject some new life into the current meta game.

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Keegan “Interrobang!?” Spindler, Features Editor:

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2016’s Last Chance Saloon: Eight Players to Watch Out for at The Big House 6

The Big House 6 is looking like Smash’s last big event of the year, and it looks absolutely stacked. There is plenty going on over the weekend – which is why Trilby’s breakdown of who to keep an eye on is much appreciated.

Frame 2:
Canada Cup 2016 Is the First King of Fighters XIV World Championship Qualifier

I love playing King of Fighters XIV, and it’s a great game to watch. Having high stakes can only make that better, which is why it’s very exciting to hear that the KOF World Championships are about to get underway, with the announcement of the first Qualifier.

Frame 3:
James “Swedish Delight” Liu and Samuel “Dabuz” Buzby Join Renegades as Their First Super Smash Bros. Players

Smash Bros is one of my favorite games to watch – and I love hearing about players getting the recognition that they deserve. Swedish Delight and Dabuz are both well loved characters in their respected communities, and some would argue that this announcement is long overdue.

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Editor’s note: The views expressed in this article and the selected posts are solely those of the writers, and do not reflect Shoryuken.com as a whole.

The Middle East is getting into some Capcom Pro Tour action with Geek Weekend 2016 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. A number of high-level players from the region and Asia will be competing, including BigBird, Fruit Damascus, MOV and Jiewa. The players will be competing for ranking points, a spot in the Europe regional finals, and a prize pool of 10,500 Dirham (~2850 USD).

If you want to catch out the event, head over to Falcon Arena’s Twitch channel, and follow the brackets on Challonge.

Watch live video from Falcon_Arena on www.twitch.tv

Source: Capcom Pro Tour

One thing that anyone who travels regularly to fighting game events and tournaments has to deal with is finding a way to transport their arcade stick. Arcade sticks are substantial pieces of equipment, and finding ways to carry them around is always a priority for players on the go. In response to this, there have been many efforts at providing options for players: both MadCatz and Qanba have their own line of arcade stick bags, and even before then, Evo actually came out with an exclusive Evo Stick Sack some years back.

The latest company to introduce a line of arcade stick bags is Splitframe with their FS Transporter series. Introduced last year, the FS Traveler series differentiates itself from other bags by the fact that each bag is lined with a thick layer of ballistic padding, providing extra protection to any arcade stick contained within.

To give us a chance to test out one of these bags, Splitframe sent us their Street Fighter Psycho Shadaloo Transporter XL.

The Basics

The Street Fighter Psycho Shadaloo Transporter XL is a pretty large bag.  Designed to hold HORI’s Real Arcade PRO Premium VLX line, the bag measures 63 cm long, 32 cm wide, 20 cm across. Part of the reason for this size is the ballistic padding, 5 cm thick on each side (save for the slot for the lever).

Click to view slideshow.

This Shadaloo version also features embossed Street Fighter artwork, namely the Shadaloo logo embossed on the main flap and a smaller Street Fighter logo near the bottom. Flipping open the main flap reveals the words “Psycho Crusher” printed out on the protective pad.

Design

The main draw of the Street Fighter Psycho Shadaloo Transporter XL is the padded compartment for carrying a HORI VLX. The compartment itself is made to hold the VLX quite snugly, with the padded main flap slotting into the compartment. The fit can be a bit too snug though–even with a slot, the stick’s lever still ends up pressed to one side. To help alleviate this, the padding in the slot can be removed (it’s attached via velcro), but this does lessen the amount of protection given to it.

We did also try out other sticks, including a MadCatz Arcade FightStick Tournament Edition 2, older Hori Real Arcade PRO 3, and even a custom built Art Hobbies TEK case, but obviously the bag wasn’t tailored for these.

Click to view slideshow.

In addition to the main inner compartment for the arcade stick, the Street Fighter Psycho Shadaloo Transporter XL also has two additional pockets for carrying miscellaneous items–one on the front face of the stick, and one on the side. The pocket in the front is large enough to carry the bag’s extra strap, as well as any miscellaneous items a player might need, including a game on disc if necessary. The pocket on the side is smaller and tighter though. Players can store things like IDs and their passport in it, but not much else. This is somewhat disappointing, considering that the original FS Transporter XL had a larger pocket that could carry a smartphone or music player (with matching headphone port).

As for carrying, the Street Fighter Psycho Shadaloo Transporter XL comes with a detachable shoulder strap allowing it to be carried as a messenger. However, hidden in a compartment in the back of the bag is a set of straps that, when assembled, transform the bag into a proper backpack. The ends of these straps attach to the bag via a set of metal carabiner clips for extra ruggedness.

Ergonomics

Aside from the layers of protective padding, one of the unique draws of the FS Transporter line as a whole is the unique side loading system. Unlike similar arcade stick carrying backpacks such as the Qanba Defender that have you load the arcade stick from the top, the FS Transporters have players load their sticks from the side. This actually makes loading and unloading a stick as hefty as the HORI VLX much easier.

This side-loading functionality compliments the bag’s ability to be carried via a single strap on one shoulder, similar to an athletic bag. However, prolonged use this way may lead to some discomfort due to the weight of the stick carried inside. With this in mind, wearing the bag as a backpack makes much more sense for traveling long distances.

Functionality

The big draw of the FS Transporter line is the protection afforded by the 5 cm of ballistic padding in each bag. While Splitframe gave us no details on what the padding itself was made of, the material is strong enough that the Street Fighter Psycho Shadaloo Transporter XL maintains its shape even without a stick inside it.

As for the amount of protection it offers, while we refrained from doing any destructive testing, we did test it against some light impacts, (including some “love taps” with a metal bat) and it performed fairly well.

There some possible weak points in the bag though. As previously mentioned, the main compartment has a slot for the VLX’s lever. The padding here is substantially thinner than anywhere else (the smaller FS Transporter and Transporter 2 do not have this issue, due to a different design to accommodate the lever). The padding is also thinner in one of the sides, on the opposite end of the bag from the main opening. This means that players need to be wary of impacts from this direction, or worse, dropping the bag if it’s being carried in the messenger configuration.

Value

The Street Fighter Psycho Shadaloo Transporter XL is currently the only arcade stick bag of its kind on the market. No other arcade stick bag can fit HORI’s Real Arcade PRO Premium VLX. The only other bag that could carry the VLX was previous incarnation of the FS Transporter XL, which is no longer in stock as of this writing. For any VLX owners looking for a safe way to carry their baby around, there’s no other option aside from spending $119.98 on one of these.

Conclusion

As a bag for carrying the the HORI Real Arcade PRO Premium VLX, the Street Fighter Psycho Shadaloo Transporter XL currently has no equal. While it does carry a hefty pricetag, the Street Fighter Psycho Shadaloo Transporter XL does, for the most part, live up to Splitframe’s promise of a secure bag to carry arcade sticks. It’s a strong, smartly built bag that we would readily recommend to any VLX owners.

As for players with common sticks such as the MadCatz Tournament Edition 2 and HORI Real Arcade Pro V, the same ballistic padding is also available in the smaller FS Transporter 2, and your needs are likely better served by that one.

Pros

• Perfect fit for the HORI Real Arcade PRO Premium VLX.
• Ballistic padding will absorb most everyday impacts.
• Modular design allows it to be carried both as a messenger and a backpack.

Cons

• Some areas have thinner padding.
• Smartphone/music player pocket from the original FS Transporter is gone.
• VLX-centric design means that other arcade sticks wont fit as well inside it.