Week of June 1st to the 7th, 2015.
Fighting Games Weekly is a place for all things fighting games. News, game discussion, events, streams, videos, players, drama, everything fighting game related.
Don't know what to watch right now? Check the FGCPros Twitch Group or Jaxel's Stream Viewer. If you want to watch multiple streams at once, you can use Jaxel's customizable multiviewer as well. If you are looking to see what events are coming up past this week, check out the FGC Event Calendar that our own Malice215 put together.
New to FGC-GAF is the FGC-GAF Index which lists the fighting games GAFers plays as a neat reference with some rough statistics to boot. To add yourself to the index, quote this post and use the survey link below. Please remember to save/bookmark the "Edit your response" link so you can edit your responses if/when you buy a game already on the list or a new game that releases in the future.
Last week's thread. An archive of previous FGW threads is available here.
Fighting Games Weekly is a place for all things fighting games. News, game discussion, events, streams, videos, players, drama, everything fighting game related.
Don't know what to watch right now? Check the FGCPros Twitch Group or Jaxel's Stream Viewer. If you want to watch multiple streams at once, you can use Jaxel's customizable multiviewer as well. If you are looking to see what events are coming up past this week, check out the FGC Event Calendar that our own Malice215 put together.
New to FGC-GAF is the FGC-GAF Index which lists the fighting games GAFers plays as a neat reference with some rough statistics to boot. To add yourself to the index, quote this post and use the survey link below. Please remember to save/bookmark the "Edit your response" link so you can edit your responses if/when you buy a game already on the list or a new game that releases in the future.
Last week's thread. An archive of previous FGW threads is available here.
Last year, GAFer Shouta helped organize donations from various FGC-GAF members to send fellow member QisTopTier to EVO. Q suffers from Facioscapulohumeral Muscular Dystrophy, but has always wanted to go to EVO and we're looking to double up this year and send him to EVO again!
If you want to help out, you can check out the details and pledge on this spreadsheet.
The Common Wealth [ Additional streams: nycfurby, Kombat Network, ST Ultimate, That Game Store, DC eSports LANs ] [ Saturday ]
- Various Virginia FGC organizers come together for a multi-game event.
- This event continues through Sunday.
- More information is available here.
- After the postponement of SCR, the team put together two prelude events featuring USFIV, MKX, Xrd and UMvC3 to lead into SCR proper. The second prelude event is scheduled to take place some time in August.
- More information is available here.
Every week, FGW will spotlight one GAFer to get a better picture of their history with fighting games, their preferences, and much more. For this week's FGW Player Spotlight, we will be taking a closer look at Nabster92!
What fighting games do you currently play, what is your all time favourite and why?
The only fighting game I've seriously gotten into has been Super Smash Bros. ever since Melee. I currently only play Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. I think I have the fondest memories with Melee since I played it the most with friends locally during college, but at the moment I'd have to say my favourite is the current version since I can't go back to playing Melee or Brawl anymore.
What are your favorite mechanics from the current selection of fighting games and why? What are your least favorite and why?
Since I know pretty much nothing of other fighters, I also can only speak for Smash 4's mechanics. I think my favorite new mechanic in Smash 4 is ledge trumping. I love the offstage fighting aspect in Smash and ledge trumping just adds so much more to it without making things too easy by removing ledge invincibility after the first ledge grab. It makes gimps feel much more earned than just edge hogging like the previous games.
My least favorite new mechanic is probably the rage effect. I can appreciate the change in strategy that it adds to the game, but seeing someone die from the middle of the stage at 30% to someone at 180% because of it just feels dumb, especially with the focus on typically only having 2 stocks.
What got you into fighting games? Are there any other genre of games you play?My least favorite new mechanic is probably the rage effect. I can appreciate the change in strategy that it adds to the game, but seeing someone die from the middle of the stage at 30% to someone at 180% because of it just feels dumb, especially with the focus on typically only having 2 stocks.
I enjoyed casually playing fighting games since I was a kid and was first introduced to smash 64 briefly during high school. Found it really fun just playing casually with my friends then, but never got it myself until I got a GameCube and picked up Melee along with it. Played that a bunch with that same friend that introduced me to Smash 64 since he lived just down the street. Then he went to college two years before I did and played a lot with people in dorms there and brought all that experience back with him to me whenever he came home. So through him I got a lot of experience playing against a bunch of different characters since he pretty much just played as everyone, and he also introduced me to more advanced techs like wavedashing and L-canceling. Then when I went to college myself, I started going to some tournaments and fell in love with the community and stuck with it ever since.
I play a pretty wide variety of other games as well. Last few generations, I've pretty much just stuck with Nintendo and Sony consoles and PC. Also got into Starcraft II for a while around when it first came out and got pretty close to Diamond before they introduced Master and Grand Master. Before Smash had online play, I pretty much never had any games in my backlog and finished tearing through anything I got right away. Once Brawl came out though my backlog has steadily increased, and I've begun to get games I know I eventually would want to play, and regularly ignore them in favor of playing more Smash.
What is your favorite fighting game character and why?I play a pretty wide variety of other games as well. Last few generations, I've pretty much just stuck with Nintendo and Sony consoles and PC. Also got into Starcraft II for a while around when it first came out and got pretty close to Diamond before they introduced Master and Grand Master. Before Smash had online play, I pretty much never had any games in my backlog and finished tearing through anything I got right away. Once Brawl came out though my backlog has steadily increased, and I've begun to get games I know I eventually would want to play, and regularly ignore them in favor of playing more Smash.
I've been a Marth main through Melee and Brawl, but was most excited to play Rosalina and Luma when she was announced for Smash 4. I still like Marth as a character being a swordsman and a Fire Emblem character, but I really hated the changes made to him in Smash 4 and don't really enjoy playing him at all anymore in it. Rosalina on the other hand I feel like I can play in a similar style to my Marth from previous games but with even more options and a much better offstage game with her recovery. Her being a character that I like in general and wanted to play regardless just makes that frosting on the cake. As for other fighting games, there was a brief period of time where I tried to get into vanilla Street Fighter 4 and during that time I enjoyed playing as C. Viper.
Describe your style of play, and how do you play (local, online, etc.).
I play very aggressively and especially so offstage. I also play pretty instinctively, so it's pretty hard for me to put some things I do into words. I mostly play online on Anther's Ladder (smashladder.com), with other GAF members, and occasionally For Glory.
What do you feel are your biggest strengths and weaknesses as a player?
My biggest strength is definitely my offstage play and keeping up putting pressure on people. My weaknesses are very solid defensive play styles and characters that force me to play more passively (Sonic)
Best and worst moments in the your fighting game career?
Best moments performance wise are mainly online things. Won a few GAF tournaments I've played in, and have gotten to top 10 on some ladders like the gamebattles.com ladder when it started one for Brawl, and Anther's ladder at the moment. The best moments in general for me in Smash have been the big tournaments that I was able to attend like the first Genesis tournament in Northern California (that we actually rented a charter bus for and filled with smashers from San Diego and LA to go to), and the last two years at Apex in New Jersey. Just being in that environment for those weekends were just enjoyable experiences overall full of great memories.
Also, going on a slight tangent back to my friend that got me into Smash in high school. After playing with him a lot, I felt pretty confident that I could at least beat most people within my high school, so one day in senior year we had this Multicultural fair which essentially gave us a two hour lunch period and had all the clubs put out some sort of booth to showcase something relevant to the club. Most places just sold food or something of the sort. Being in the Anime Club we used that to put out obviously the most relevant thing and got two TV set ups with Melee out for people to play. One TV we just had as a 4 player free for all station that we charged $1 to play on and if you won you could stay on. The other TV we had as a challenge to everyone for $1 to play a game against me and if they won they would get $3 back. I managed to go the whole time only losing to one person, and even that person took 5 games to do it so he didn't really make anything out of it and it brought an even bigger crowd to us, so I kinda consider that a win anyways. Yea I guess I hustled a bunch of kids in a sense, but everyone seemed to enjoy it at least.
I don't really remember anything in particular as a worst moment. Plenty of times that I know I could've done better at local tournaments if I didn't do something stupid to kill myself.
What do you want from future fighting games?Also, going on a slight tangent back to my friend that got me into Smash in high school. After playing with him a lot, I felt pretty confident that I could at least beat most people within my high school, so one day in senior year we had this Multicultural fair which essentially gave us a two hour lunch period and had all the clubs put out some sort of booth to showcase something relevant to the club. Most places just sold food or something of the sort. Being in the Anime Club we used that to put out obviously the most relevant thing and got two TV set ups with Melee out for people to play. One TV we just had as a 4 player free for all station that we charged $1 to play on and if you won you could stay on. The other TV we had as a challenge to everyone for $1 to play a game against me and if they won they would get $3 back. I managed to go the whole time only losing to one person, and even that person took 5 games to do it so he didn't really make anything out of it and it brought an even bigger crowd to us, so I kinda consider that a win anyways. Yea I guess I hustled a bunch of kids in a sense, but everyone seemed to enjoy it at least.
I don't really remember anything in particular as a worst moment. Plenty of times that I know I could've done better at local tournaments if I didn't do something stupid to kill myself.
Good DLC that keeps up hype and interest for the game and balance changes that aren't too hasty with nerfs unless it's something really obvious.
Who should be on next week's GAF Player Spotlight?
Cyberman65
Since Dahbomb strongly encourages pre-orders, what games do you plan to buy that have been officially announced?
Already pre-ordered Splatoon after the first Global Testfire demo. Other than that...only thing I'm sure I'll get is the new Zelda.
Code:
06/30 BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma Extend (NA)
SUMMER Skullgirls 2nd Encore
2015 Rivals of Aether
Q1/16 Street Fighter V
TBD Beast's Fury
TBD JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Eyes of Heaven
TBD Next The King Of Fighters Title (tentative)
TBD Pokken Tournament
TBD Rise of Incarnates
TBD Tekken 7
TBD Tekken X Street Fighter
TBD Yatagarasu: Attack on Cataclysm
TBD Yatagarasu: Legend of Raven
Super Desperation Radio [ 9:30PM EDT | 6:30 PDT ]
- Hellpockets and various other members of the KoF community discuss KoF and happenings in the FGC.
- Out of the ashes of The BOX Arena, comes the San Diego FGC's newest organized weekly for UMvC3.
- Weekly FGC show dedicated to match analysis, teaching, commentary, news, debates, and more! Hosted by UltraDavid and James Chen.
Kachitagari TV (JP) [ 9PM JST | 8AM EDT | 5AM PDT ]
- Bon-chan, Kazunoko and Fuudo's new show, focusing primarily on SSFIV AE ranked matches but is branching off into other games as well.
- Logan Sama, organiser of the old WSO weeklys in London, invites some of London's finest to Capcom UK HQ for first to 5 sets in USF4.
- NYC VF crew presents VF5:FS tournaments casuals out of The Next Level arcade in Brooklyn.
- New Jersey's largest weekly featuring UMvC3 and Injustice.
- JamessMK & DarKNaTaS host a raw and uncut weekly talk show discussing events in the FGC with various FGC personalities.
- Weekly FGC show dedicated to match analysis, teaching, commentary, news, debates, and more! Hosted by UltraDavid and James Chen.
- iPlaywinner hosts a weekly talk show featuring alpha stream monsters Harrison and Honzo Gonzo.
Game Spot Versus KoF Casuals (JP) [ 7PM JST | 6AM EDT | 3AM PDT ]
- KoF 1998UM, KoF 2002UM and KoF XIII C action from Japan.
- A weekly show featuring Mago, Tokido, and Momochi. They go over the tournaments they will participate and have participated in overseas and in Japan, as well as the general news in SF. For long periods of the year, there is a student-teacher session involving one of the 3 Topanga members taking a player under their wing and teaching them how to play SF. The show features rank matches (sometimes random char. matches) and ends with a 8 man online tournament featuring players around 4.5kpp such as Poongko, Inco, and more.
- NYC's biggest weekly at The Next Level Arcade in Brooklyn featuring SSFIV AE, UMvC3 and TTT2. If the Teamsp00ky link is not working, it is likely on the backup stream on Arturo's channel.
- Often, WonderChef will stream Injustice pools up until Top 4.
- SoCal's biggest weekly at Super Arcade in Walnut, featuring Injustice and SSFIV AE. Season details are available here.
Fraud City [ 7:30PM EDT | 4:30PM PDT ]
- Bifuteki streams tournaments for 4 games (UMvC3, USFIV, MKX and KI) in pairs on a rotating week-to-week schedule.
- Hold Back To Block hosts a weekly roundtable discussion of various happenings in the FGC.
- A bi-weekly Smash podcast discussing recent events, news and issues in the Smash community, hosted by Scar, Prog, Cactuar and Sheridan.
- Galloping Ghost Arcade presents an Injustice weekly out of Chicago.
- A weekly FGC talk show hosted by iPlaywinner, featuring a varying, ensemble cast of prominent members of the fighting game community.
- Aris' new weekly show, discussing whatever he wants to! The format resembles old ATP podcasts.
- The UMvC3 and KoF XIII branch of Wednesday Night Fights also hosted at Super Arcade in Walnut, California.
The Smash Break Bi-Weekly [ 6PM EDT | 3PM PDT ]
- The Break hosts a new Melee bi-weekly to replace Rokunaya Bi-Weeklies which are ending.
- Arturo streams a BlazBlue and Guilty Gear bi-weekly out of Next Level arcade in Brooklyn.
- For those who know how to use Nico Live, also join the GODSGARDEN community page on Nico to know when Ura KaoTV! goes live.
- A bi-weekly Skullgirls event hosted by members of the Skullgirls development team, often featuring preview builds of the game.
Rebel Up [ 7PM EDT | 4PM PDT ]
- Super Arcade's anime bi-weekly, featuring GG, BB, P4A, SG, Gundam and older anime games as well.
GGPO VanBats [ 4PM EDT | 1PM PDT ]
- Weekly GGPO Vampire Savior ranbats streamed by GAFer Rotanibor.
- SuperDojo and Team OXY partner up to create a new weekly for the SoCal Melee community, featuring doubles and singles.
On GAF we have various members that stream fighting games from time to time too. If you would like to add your channel to this thread, send me a PM.
Often, some fighting games can seem intimidating to players new and old. Below are a bunch of resources that may be of aid to new players, or handy as references.
- Learn How To Play Fighting Games Free eBook from Shoryuken is a fantastic primer for new players to the genre.
- Footsies Handbook is a guide to the potentially elusive, but integral part of doing well in any fighting game.
- NeoGAF's Arcade Stick Thread is the place to go for questions about anything arcade stick-related.
- Step Up Your Game is an editorial series by Justin Wong that covers a multitude of topics, notably focusing on strengthening your mental game and playing smarter instead of harder.
- Tips for first time competitors will help you straighten out those nerves and expectations when you head out to your first tournament.
- Domination 101 is almost a cult classic article in the FGC, which has Seth Killian telling us how he really feels about the idea of "cheapness" in fighting games.
- Team-building Guide by our very own Karsticles, which helps make it easier to approach team-building in MvC games, and games with similar synergistic elements.
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If you have any suggestions for the OP, please do not hesitate to post in this thread or (preferably) PM me to let me know.
