Street Fighter 5 stories
How long until the next character reveal for Season 4 of Street Fighter 5: Arcade Edition? Reviewing the previous release schedules may give us ideas
Kage was released as Street Fighter 5's first Season 4 character on December 16, 2018 following the events of the Capcom Cup 2018 competition. As of today, it's been 39 days since then.
It's been noted that Capcom is "doing things differently" this year with Season 4. Could this have an effect on the overall release schedule? We currently have no idea about this.
Notably, Alex — Season 1's first DLC character — was released on March 30, 2016 while Guile — Season 2's second DLC character — was made available on April 28, 2016. That was a 29 day difference.
When Akuma of Season 2 was released, it was December 20, 2016. Kolin was playable 70 days later on February 28, 2017
Finally, there was a 35 day difference between Sakura — January 16, 2018 — and Blanka's — February 20, 2018 — release dates.
On average, there has typically required Capcom 44-45 days in order to release the second DLC fighter of a season after the first combatant was released. As of right now, we know nothing about the existence of the next Season 4 character.
Someone put a Resident Evil 2 twist on Street Fighter 5, watch as Wesker and Jill duke it out in the Raccoon City Police Department
Capcom's third best selling franchise of all time meets its top selling franchise of all time as Street Fighter gets a Resident Evil makeover thanks to Vietnamese modder Monkeygigabuster.
Not only has MGB turned Cody into Albert Wesker, Cammy into Jill Valentine and Falke in Ada Wong, he has also re-created the Raccoon City Police Department lobby — a key location from RE2.
There's a really good chance you've heard about the Resident Evil 2 remake that's officially dropping tomorrow, as the fighting game community has long had pretty close ties to the RE franchise.
Characters such as Chris Redfield, Jill, Nemesis and Wesker have appeared in the Marvel vs. Capcom series more than a few times, and we're still holding out for a fighting game with Leon Kennedy in it.
Indeed Capcom even featured Wesker, Jill and Ada in a fairly recent crossover costume batch wherein Urien, Cammy and Kolin take on the roles respectively. We're going to go ahead and say that Cody seems like a better fit for the RE antagonist than Urien, but that's just us.
You'll see footage of the RCPD stage along with the modded characters in action after the jump thanks to RAFAEL LORENZO. Here are the official SF5/RE crossover costumes (and their Easter Egg changes) as well:
'Is this gonna be the darkest Street Fighter 5 timeline?' - Vesper comments on the drought of Season 4 news and drop in Fight Money
It's been over a month since Street Fighter 5's fourth Season dropped and while fans have been enjoying the new balance update and new character, Kage, they also seem to be getting restless.
We know approaches aren't going to be quite the same as in years past as Capcom specifically noted that there would be no Season Pass and directly stated they'll be "doing things differently," but that's about it.
It's 2019, and fans have become accustomed to regular updates in development goings on for titles that are billed "as a service." Despite this, the SF5 community is starting to feel relatively left in the dark, especially coming off a year where communication and reveals were regular and promising.
Vesper Arcade comments directly on this in his latest video wherein he and Mir express a bit of distaste for the current situation that has thus far offered no new mechanics, no new stages, no new modes, no additional Story Mode, no season pass and less Fight Money.
While the balance patch is, of course, appreciated, developers aren't doing all that much in driving continued excitement for the game. As Mir puts it, "the big problem with the S4 changes is that they're just boring."
Hear all of what the pair have to say and let us know in the comments if you're getting particularly antsy, or if you think Capcom's return to radio silence on this front is fine for the time being.
How Mortal Kombat 11 killed its reveal and why I think Street Fighter 5 feels like a sinking ship right now
As if NetherRealm Studios' massive Mortal Kombat 11 reveal event wasn't enough, we got a pretty massive news drop over this last week from seemingly all corners of the fighting game landscape.
We kick off this week's podcast with Steven "Dreamking" Chavez as he was able to make it to said MK11 reveal in person and got firsthand experiences with the upcoming title while the rest of us merely got to watch from afar.
Steven helps break down how the game feels, how the game looks, what its new mechanics seem to bring to the table and one or two small details that gave him some hesitation. All in all we're very excited for the next Mortal Kombat, and would go as far as to say it could threaten to become the top fighting game dog.
Catalyst and I then jump into some recent happenings in Dragon Ball FighterZ, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Street Fighter 5 as there are developer-driven tours and/or leagues for all three at this point.
After a month with no direct SF5 Season 4 news, I'm starting to feel less and less motivated to play. While this may not be representative of the entire community by any means, I have heard others share similar sentiments.
We close things out with a discussion of why SF5 is feeling somewhat like a sinking ship at the moment, and what Capcom needs to start doing to bring it fully back up to the surface.
How does the FGC feel about Capcom's new Street Fighter Pro League featuring character bans? UltraDavid, Justin Wong and others share reactions
We got word earlier today that Capcom would be putting on an all new Street Fighter Pro League here in 2019, pitting three-player teams against one another in Street Fighter 5.
The very prospect of another competitive event has fans excited and eager, but one bullet point in particular seems to have community members a bit hung up: Before the fights actually begin, each team will be able to select one character from the roster to ban.
It's no secret that Street Fighter 5 is built to be an eSports entity, and the concept of banning characters is commonly built right into the set up of many MOBA (a genre that heavily dominates the current eSports space) titles.
There's certainly some validity to this idea, given the fact that bans add an extra layer of depth to a team-based competition. It seems as though, however, that the fighting game community might not be all that keen on forcing players to use characters that aren't their first choice.
We've seen reactions from a handful of community figures already, including Ultra David, UYU|BrianF, Javits and Justin Wong, some of whom appreciate the idea more than the others. From what we've seen in these first few hours, the general sentiment amidst the community is something to the effect of "we're happy to have an event, not happy about the bans."
You can see the aforementioned figures had to say via the gallery below, and then we'd like to direct your attention over to a thread from three weeks ago posted by Jay "Viscant" Snyder about a Marvel vs. Capcom 2 eSports proposal from years ago. Please chime into the comments with your personal thoughts on the matter.
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Will Guile still be a top five character in Street Fighter 5? Vesper shows off and discusses his Season 4 balance changes to help find an answer
There's no doubt Guile has seen better days in Street Fighter 5, as he received a handful of nerfs in last month's Season 4 balance patch. That said, we're fairly hesitant to say he'll be plummeting all the way down tier mountain.
There are many parts to the answer of "how strong is Guile in relation to the rest of the roster?" here in Season 4, but the best place to start is a close look at the particulars of what has changed.
Enter Vesper Arcade, (or more accurately for this video, Mir) as he shows us each bullet point on Guile's long list of changes and then offers a bit of commentary as to the further implications of them.
A big part of our answer here will be determined by competitive play once we get a healthy amount of 2019 major events under our belt, and see if players like NuckleDu, Rise|Caba and CYG|Daigo are still able to make the American Hero work.
Developer Notes: Guile's ability to control the mid-range was a little too good, so his primary moves for mid-screen control have been weakened a bit. Primarily he's getting more recovery on whiff, so Guile players will need to exercise more caution when trying to lock their opponent down.
Additionally, he can now cancel into V-Skill from his target combos which weren't getting much use, and we've increased his combo options at mid-screen while giving him combos that can be used in the corner as well.
Street Fighter Pro League coming to North America in 2019 featuring 3v3 team play of professional players
Capcom is pushing their eSports initiative forward in 2019 with the newly announced North American Street Fighter Pro League which is tentatively set to kick off later this April to run alongside the Capcom Pro Tour.
There will be six teams in the league made up of three players each battling it out to take home the championship prize. Team captains will be chosen from the top ranked players from the CPT North American Leaderboards. The second slot of each team will be filled by top players from special online qualifiers, and the third and final spot will be made up of players voted in by the community at large.
Team captains will have the opportunity to draft their prospects at the start of each season which will require more strategy to help with the unique feature of the league.
The North American Street Fighter Pro League is introducing a "character ban" rule where teams can ban any one character at the beginning of each match. Players on the same team must also select different characters from their teammates during matches, so competitors who can balance multiple fighters may be at an advantage over character specialists for an added level of strategic play.
Competition will be split into two seasons with the first scheduled to begin in April 2019 where tournaments will be held every Thursday through the end of May. The season one finale will then take place in June where the top two teams will advance to the second leg.
A second season will pick up in August with another draft followed by more tournament play with the new teams until November leading to the first North American Pro League Champion.
Just how far down the Street Fighter 5 tier list did Menat fall? Justin Wong offers a few thoughts, then lets Menat do the talking
There were very few in the Street Fighter community that felt Menat was not due for a good handful of nerfs in Street Fighter 5's latest balance update, and the young fortune teller got just that in the Season 4 patch.
Menat's zoning and space control were rivaled only perhaps by Guile, and her offense became insanely strong once her two bar V-Trigger one was engaged. While not an easy character to play by any means, Menat quickly became a pro favorite as a significant number of the world's strongest competitors began using her with great success.
Justin Wong was one such professional, taking the Egyptian fighter all the way into top eight at Capcom Cup 2018. With a few of Menat's key normal attacks nerfed along with her VT1 being extended to three bars, will Justin be able to replicate his success here in 2019?
Wong takes his main character online in a series of matches as he explores Menat's potential here amidst this new landscape.
Capcom didn't only nerf the orb-wielding fighter, however, as they made a clear attempt to make her V-Trigger two more appealing to players. Indeed, Justin utilizes this seldom seen tool over V-Trigger one for the entirety of his video.
After playing through, Justin offers a few final words on what he thinks of Season 4 Menat. We'll have to wait for further data before coming to a full conclusion, so we look forward with great interest to see how she winds up performing in high level tournament play.
How good might Alex be in Season 4? An in-depth look at his changes and what they might mean for the character in 2019
Capcom Cup has come and gone, and right after it we got a brand new patch and a full list of notes to go with it.
When such changes are sprung on a game, it obviously takes quite some time to digest everything that's going on with your character, and far longer to figure out the changes to all the other characters and where everyone now falls in the tier list.
We probably won't have that good of an idea of how the Season 4 tiers shake out until a few months from now, when we've seen a few tournaments happen and what players have managed to develop with their tried-and-true or brand new mains.
That said, one of the big topics of conversation ever since the patch hit is the buffs Alex got, and if this character who has often been considered one of the worst in the game both in Season 2 and Season 3 (with a strong lack of tournament results to back that assertion up), and what position he's in after these changes.
While we can't really talk about tiers for him yet, at least not in a productive manner, what we can do is look over the changes he got and what they might mean for his general game, how they've addressed his weaknesses, and how some of his challenging matchups are looking now.
Since I've been using Alex in Street Fighter 5 ever since he was released, I have a decent grasp of the character, and decided to explain exactly what changed about him, and how much I think it might change for the 3rd Strike protagonist.
Leaving academics for video games, going from 'good' to 'legendary' and trying to escape Daigo's monstrous shadow; this is the story of Tokido
There are certainly a few names to be tossed around in the discussion of the world's strongest Street Fighter 5 player, but there's little doubt that the most common of those names has to be Hajime "FOX|Tokido" Taniguchi.
Perhaps the best-known competitor in the Street Fighter community right now, Tokido was traditionally a jack of all trades in the fighting game genre. He holds many first place trophies across many various game titles, but has decided to double down on the eSports entity that Street Fighter 5 has proven to be.
The Japanese god has actually spent a significant portion of his gaming career in the "good, but not quite great" category, consistently climbing the ranks only to have his victories cut short at the last minute.
Tokido's dedication and abilities have unequivocally placed him in the upper echelon of the competitive Street Fighter scene, but such a placing also means living under the shadow of CYG|Daigo "The Beast" Umehara.
In some ways Taniguchi has already surpassed Umehara, especially during this latest chapter of SF history, but still doesn't quite have the same reputation. Their highly emotional first to ten bout at Kemonomichi 2 is one evidence of their rivalry that still favors The Beast.
A recent publishing from theScore eSports gives us a seldom seen look into the beginnings, recent history and inner monologues of Tokido himself, and we're excited to share it with you here today.
What makes Zangief such a threat in Street Fighter 5 Season 4? HiFight shows us with this one-minute demonstration of his changes
Street Fighter 5 Season 4 brought with it a slew of balance changes with every character on the roster seeing some alteration. In this update, some characters who previously sat on the lower end of the tier list were given significant tweaks that seemingly helped to pull them out of the dark depths of the low tier category.
Among the weaker fighters who was improved in Season 4 was powerful wrestler and Street Fighter 2 legend, Zangief. After struggling for pretty much all of Season 3, a number of quality of life changes and more opportunities for okizeme seem to have made the grappler a formidable foe this season.
The overall consensus about Zangief in Street Fighter 5 Season 4 seems to be that he's an overall better character, and even DNG|Itabashi Zangief — who literally has "Zangief" in his handle — noted shortly after the Season 4 balance patch was released that he aimed to start playing the character again after maining Abigail all last season, and plans on using Zangief 60% of the time with Abby taking up the other 40%.
So what did Zangief get in Season 4 that makes him so much better than he was before? HiFight has the answers in his latest "Just A Minute" video.
Reading over the patch notes is undoubtedly informative, but it can be difficult to visualize the changes in action without seeing them in-game. HiFight's video gives us a demonstration of Zangief's changes, running through the various buffs and nerfs he received.
What's best about this video and HiFight's Just A Minute series is that each installment is just as the name suggests — you get a look at what's changed in a quick, one-minute segment. So, if you're short on time, but you want to see how Zangief has improved and what to potentially look out for when fighting him, you're in the right place.
Will the Season 4 changes for Nash make a difference in Street Fighter 5: Arcade Edition? SonicSol gives an overview for the character
Nash is a character that appeared to have a very strong start in Street Fighter 5's lifespan. Like Ryu, he ended up falling hard ever since Season 2 rolled out.
We're currently figuring out the Season 4 meta. For Nash, he is allowed a greater amount of pressure after successfully hitting with medium and heavy versions of Tragedy Assualt and his V-Trigger 2 has overall been buffed.
Will these be enough to propel Nash into the higher tier rankings? Recently, SonicSol (via VesperArcade) did an overview of the character's Season 4 changes.
Overall, it looks like Nash's damage output has been improved somewhat. This is thanks to the additional 10 damage on his standing medium kick and the additional frame advantage for his EX Moonsault Slash and V-Trigger 2 options.
Unfortunately the shortened separation distance of medium Tragedy Assault is barely noticeable. SonicSol demonstrates how this is a very negligible buff. The heavy version is much better for pressure though as the distance allows Nash to punish back dash attempts, but be aware of its long start up time.
It seems that SonicSol believes Nash will ultimately be the same character that he was in Season 3. Hit the jump to check out the video.
Tired of getting caught by random hits in Street Fighter 5's neutral? Alex Myers' new tutorial will help a lot
Street Fighter 5 is a very unforgiving game as just one slip up or unfortunate interaction can be all it takes to send you down the path being KO'd. All of us are inevitably going to find ourselves on said path from time to time, but minimizing these experiences will very quickly and obviously lead to more wins.
Enter Tempo|Alex Myers and one of his latest videos wherein he teaches the finer points of the simple, yet very important, art of walking and blocking.
After you learn the basics of this lesson, you'll immediately find that you're getting tagged by normals with less frequency. Once this happens you can then begin to move on to the second part of the process, which involves observing your opponents' neutral habits with intent.
A strong walk and block game unlocks the potential for other aspects of your game to grow. Once you're relatively comfortable being within your foe's attack ranges, you'll be able to take note of the when, where and what of their attack patterns.
If you're able to download this information, you'll be next to unbeatable unless your opponent makes a quick change in their approach. Obviously, many opponents will not be able to do this in just a round or two, hence why this tech is so powerful.
This idea applies across most fighting games, though the particulars of footsies and frame data certainly alter the importance and gravity of such concepts as walking and blocking from title to title.
Frosty Faustings XI results
Update: This story has been updated with final results.
Frosty Faustings XI is taking place this weekend — or to be more specific, this Friday and Saturday — in Illinois.
This is a pretty huge event with more than 1200 entrants total, so the competition is going to be off the charts for several of the games present.
Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2 and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate both have over 200 entrants, while BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle, Dragon Ball FighterZ, Soul Calibur 6, Under Night In-Birth EXE: Late[st], Tekken 7, Street Fighter 5: Arcade Edition and the event's Mystery Tournament all have over 100 entrants each.
Besides these titles, you can also expect tournament play to be streamed for Skullgirls: 2nd Encore, Street Fighter 3: 3rd Strike, Vampire Savior (Darkstalkers), Windjammers, Super Smash Bros. Melee, Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars, Pokkén Tournament DX, King of Fighters 14, Guilty Gear XX Accent Core +R, BlazBlue: Central Fiction, Melty Blood: Actress Again Current Code, Super Sailor Moon S, Fighting EX Layer, Super Street Fighter 2: Turbo, Injustice 2, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and Killer Instinct.
Players set to attend include NuckleDu, REC|Punk, NRG|HookGangGod, LostSoul, UYU|Cloud805, EG|NYChrisG, BC|LordKnight, 1UP|PepperySplash, PG|MarlinPie, Teresa, Disrupt|Shadow20z, BjornSonOfBear, FF|ElvenShadow, Jona, FOX|Dekillsage, TS|Arturo Sanchez, Mr. K, Hotashi, NRG|Supernoon, Brian_F, Disrupt|Joonya20z, BxA|Blaze, ITS|ShinBlade, ITS|Mak, UYU|BeautifulDude, Foo, JodyThaGreat and many, many more.
Streaming is being done at BG Callisto, Low Kick Tournaments, Team Spooky, Will English IV, rs Blackrose and Unrivaled Tournaments.
Fuudo, Haitani, and Bonchan edit Tokido, Gachikun and Mago's Street Fighter 5 Season 4 tier list
Not too long ago, FOX|Tokido, RB|Gachikun and Mago worked together to create a Street Fighter 5: Arcade Edition Season 4 tier list.
Notably, characters like Birdie, Ibuki, M. Bison (Dictator), Akuma, and Rashid sat at the very top of their list. Fighters like Nash, Ryu, Alex, Blanka, Vega (Claw), Ed, and Laura ended up being at the very bottom. Strangely, G was also considered to be one of the worst characters by the group.
Although it had been close to a month since the release of Kage, they were unsure of where to place him. Cody fell into this "unsure" category as well.
Recently, CYG|Fuudo, FD|Haitani, and RB|Bonchan decided to make a tier list of their own that rearranges the list that the previous three came up with. Most notably, Guile, Boxer, Nash, Blanka, G and Cody all moved up a tier.
Just like before, Kage's true potential is still pretty much unknown. Fuudo ended up erasing his name from the whiteboard.
You can check out both versions of the tier list by either clicking the images below or hitting the jump.
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Dear Capcom: Communication about Street Fighter 5 Season 4 is lacking and it leaves very little room for excitement
Following the conclusion of Capcom Cup 2018, we got the reveal that Kage was immediately available. Not only this, but Season 4 had begun and the patch notes were live.
That's cool. But then... there was nothing else.
Traditionally, this was the part where the roster for the next season would be revealed. At the very least, we'd get a tease of the silhouettes. This didn't happen.
Days later, we learned that there were no plans to offer a season pass in 2019. I'm sure there were many who refrained from purchasing Kage by this point as they were holding off for the season pass to reveal itself.
We know that Capcom is "doing things differently" this season. Having said that, we've yet to get any confirmation as to what this actually means.
Much to the disappointment of many, Fight Money rewards were effectively nerfed with no reasons given. The weekly missions that gave 5,000 2,500 Fight Money simply don't exist anymore. The rewarding Extra Battles now only allow for one attempt instead of three.
Capcom, where is the communication that came about during Season 3 when the entire DLC roster was revealed up front?
Defense 101: when to interrupt pressure; Chris T teaches an extremely important Street Fighter 5 lessons most of us just gloss over
You don't get to ninth place at Capcom Cup with Ken without understanding the finer nuances of Street Fighter 5 better than most everyone else on the planet, and one competitor that actually can boast as much is freely sharing his wisdom to help the rest of us grow.
Chris Tatarian has kicked off a series titled "Chris Tips" wherein he delves into and explains the more fundamental (and often overlooked) aspects of the SF5 push and pull.
On a personal note, I can vouch for Chris' insights as I've experienced many a Wednesday Night Fights bouts where he personally came over to whisper in my ear a simple little adjustment that would help me instantly turn the tide of whatever match I was in the midst of.
Today we're looking at the less glamorous, but oh so important, art of downloading defense. The concept of strike/block/throw is fairly obvious, but quickly becomes a deep and intense mind game when players focus on it with intent. Falling into the ever so easy autopilot can get you KO'd right quick, so it's best to be ever aware of what you're doing and why.
A certain component of the defensive interaction does come down to a guess, but there's usually a ton of data on the table that you can use to inform yourself as to whether you should be blocking, interrupting or trying to evade.
Continue on to see Chris' video and let us know if you learned anything new, or if you were already implementing tactics such as micro-step blocking before watching this.
