Tekken stories
Negan and iconic Julia screenshots in Tekken 7 released by Bandai Namco
As many of us already know by now, Julia Chang and the Walking Dead's Negan are the final two fighters of the Tekken 7 Season 2 pass. They'll be made available on February 28th.
For $29.99, they can be added to your roster along with Lei Wulong, Anna Williams, Craig Marduk, and Armor King.
Fans of Julia may may have noticed that Julia is sporting a different look this time around. She's apparently a streamer who fights for an audience now.
Typically, she has fought in a Native American outfit as her default appearance in previous Tekken titles. Now she appears to be wearing more casual clothing including a reforestation shirt.
Worry not though. It appears that she'll still have access to her Native American attire. To many, this appearance is too iconic to choose her default appearance.
Bandai Namco recently released brand new screenshots of Negan and Julia Chang in her classic costume. They're definitely worth checking out.
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More Tekken stuff is being worked on that Bandai Namco is looking forward to announce — does this mean a Season 3 for Tekken 7?
The announcement at EVO 2018 of Tekken 7 receiving new DLC characters, as well as the reveal of who three of them were — the much-requested veterans Anna Williams and Lei Wulong, alongside extreme surprise guest character Negan from The Walking Dead, was met with amazing fanfare.
A few months later, we got to see who the rest would be at the Tekken World Tour Finals, when we were treated to the brand new designs and trailers for Craig Marduk and Armor King, as well as a brief glimpse at Julia Chang.
Finally, at EVO Japan last week, we got the full skimmy on Julia as well as Negan, and the reveal that they'll be out by the end of this month.
After showing us these trailers at the latest event, Season 2 was officially wrapped up, but we got some promising words from Tekken series producer Katsuhiro Harada.
As translated by game designer and constant companion to Harada at big announcements Michael Murray, the official word regarding Tekken moving forward was this:
That completes the DLC Season Pass for this season, but we're not finished with Tekken as a whole, we plan to have a whole lot of cool other stuff coming up that we're looking forward to announce.
This was obviously welcome news to anyone who's a big fan of the game, and while they didn't outright say "Season 3", that's definitely where the mind wanders. So what exactly supports this being a Season 3, and if we're getting a Season 3, what seems likely to add?
Tekken 7 ver. 2.20 patch notes translated
Bandai Namco has released the list of patch notes for Tekken 7's ver. 2.20 update. This update is set to bring a batch of character balance changes, add some general tweaks, and will add new DLC characters Julia and The Walking Dead's Negan.
The company shared the list of changes over on their Japanese Tekken website, so English-speaking readers might have a little trouble sifting through them. Thanks to the efforts of our very own Nicholas "MajinTenshinhan" Taylor, however, we have the full translated Tekken 7 patch notes for you to read over.
In the upcoming update, players can look forward to some changes to certain Rage Arts when they strike airborne opponents. Additionally, a handful of quality of life changes have been introduced, including the ability to change characters without going back to stage select.
Ver. 2.20 will add DLC 8 and DLC 9 — Julia and Negan, respectively — and we'll also see the "Last Day On Earth" The Walking Dead stage added to the game, as well as new versions of existing stages.
You can check out everything the next Tekken 7 update has to offer in our patch notes below.
Here's a recap of everything that was announced over the EVO Japan 2019 weekend
EVO Japan 2019 ended up making this a particularly busy weekend. The tournament has been wrapped up and champions for each game played at the event have been decided.
Of course, there were also a number of announcements that may catch the interest of fighting game enthusiasts. It appears that developers are using this as an opportunity to build up hype about specific events for their games.
Although Street Fighter 5: Arcade Edition was one of the main tournaments with over 1,000 entrants, the competition was actually not part of the Capcom Pro Tour. As a result, Capcom had no announcements to reveal over the weekend.
Likewise, Nintendo also had no presence at EVO Japan this year. Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate were not played. Still, it is worth noting that a 3.0 update for Spring 2019 was announced a few days prior for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
Not surprisingly, there were no signs of NetherRealm Studios titles either as Mortal Kombat and Injustice don't tend to be very popular in Japan. Jade's announcement should tide us over in the meantime.
Let's take a moment to recap everything that was announced at EVO Japan 2019 for those that may have missed them.
Negan's Tekken 7 trailer has him breaking the fourth wall and paying a couple of homages to game director Katsuhiro Harada
Late last night, it was announced that the final two characters of Tekken 7's Season 2 — Julia Chang and Negan — would be releasing on February 28th. Initially, it was only revealed that Julia would be released by this time but Tekken 7 game director Katsuhiro Harada was... "pressured" by Negan to release him at the same time.
Needless to say, Negan's time in the spotlight might be one of the coolest fighting game trailers I've seen in the last few years. Somewhat fitting to Negan's character, he was breaking the fourth wall and paying homages to Harada himself.
As a famous game designer, Harada is known for poking fun at his fans. In particular, you might be familiar with an image of Harada wearing a shirt that says "Don't ask me for s---."
During the trailer, Negan was speaking with Master Raven while using walkie-talkies similar to his conversations with Michonne in AMC's Walking Dead program.
Before stomping on the communication device in a fit of rage, he screamed "don't ask me for s---" while paying no mind to what Master Raven was saying. Clearly this is referencing the meme with Harada.
At the very end of the cinematic, we see Negan walking up to the camera and speaking to an unknown figure.
"You the developers?" asked Negan. "The ones that pull that s--- releasing characters one at a time? You going to put me in the next update, right Harada?"
Indeed, during the middle of Negan's lines, we pan to an in-game version of Harada on his knees. Hilariously, Harada responded with a defeated thumbs up. There obviously wasn't an alternative here.
Be advised of NSFW language in the clips below.
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Wild mind games and Arslan_Ash's fantastic losers bracket run: EVO Japan finals highlights for Tekken 7 and BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle
EVO Japan gave us the announcements of when we'll be seeing Julia and Negan join Tekken 7's roster plus showed off four new characters for BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle, but we also saw quite the competition go down.
Both franchises were once again represented on the EVO mainstage where the best players from around Japan and the whole world came together to show who is the strongest and has the best nerves out there.
Pakistan-native VS|Arslan_Ash made an amazing and potentially historic run through the losers bracket in Tekken 7 taking home the championship with Kazumi while Tsurugi|Tomo/Relo beat back to back team scythes to win his title.
We've collected some of the best highlights from both tournaments' top 8 runs.
Mind games, repeated run-up command grabs, perfect rounds, full life comebacks and more can all be found below plus we also detailed potentially the best sets of this weekend in Guilty Gear's finals.
Let's start things off with Arslan_Ash's huge day coming from the losers side using Kazumi and her Tiger landing a perfect on Jimmy J Tran to go up to match point. That wouldn't stop J Tran from staying alive, however.
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EVO Japan 2019 results
Update: This story has been updated with final results.
The second installment ever of one of the biggest tournament expansions we've seen is here this weekend, namely the expansion of the EVO brand to Japan, with EVO Japan 2019.
This year, it's taking place in Fukuoka rather than Tokyo, and although entrants aren't as high as they were in last year's monumental premier year, the entrants certainly aren't anything to scoff at.
Over 1000 players are participating in Street Fighter 5: Arcade Edition, over 500 in Tekken 7, and roughly between 200-300 each for Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2, BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle, Soul Calibur 6 and King of Fighters 14, respectively.
While these 6 games are the main titles at the event, there'll be an absolutely insane amount of side tournaments as well, so make sure you keep in tune with all of the action.
Players participating are a bit too plentiful to list, but just count on the vast majority of Asian top players — and many other top players from other regions of the world — being present and competing.
Streaming is being done at EVO, EVO 2, EVO 3 and EVO 4.
Side events are set to be streamed at KVO Japan 01, KVO Japan 02, KVO Japan 03 and KVO Japan 04.
Julia Chang and Negan trailers released for Tekken 7, both characters out on February 28th — Tekken World Tour 2019 details also shared
Today, right before the Top 8 was set to take place for Tekken 7 at EVO Japan 2019, we got a little surprise.
Tekken series producer Katsuhiro Harada and game designer Michael Murray stepped up on stage for an announcement.
First, Harada told everyone about the recent announcement that he will be in charge of eSports for all of Bandai Namco's fighting game titles, meaning Tekken 7, Dragon Ball FighterZ and Soul Calibur 6, moving forward.
They then went on to explain that the Tekken World Tour will receive a number of changes this year, saying that the Tekken World Tour will begin this year at The Mixup in Lyon, France on April 20th, and that they will have many new tournaments added to the circuit. It was also said that the points structure will be changed, with more details to come later.
Another point that's been brought up in the past is the prize money pool for the world tour finals, which Harada said has a lot of obstacles to it because of legal restrictions in Japan, but that they're working their best to be able to increase the prize money this year.
They announced that on March 12th, they will be revealing the full details of the Tekken World Tour, and to please look forward to that. Finally, he also noted that this year, the Tekken World Tour Finals will be held somewhere to-be-announced later in Asia (after being held in North America 2017, and Europe 2018).
Of course, this wasn't all, as they then proceeded to show us a Tekken 7 trailer for the next upcoming character, Julia Chang, and then another trailer for Negan, who hijacked it by threatening Harada to release him alongside Julia. Both characters are set to be released on February 28th.
You can find images here, and the trailers below.
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What possible fighting game announcements might we expect for EVO Japan 2019?
EVO Japan 2019 is a major event that will occur over this weekend. Since this tournament is relatively new, it won't be quite as big as the yearly EVO.
This year's lineup includes Tekken 7, BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle, Soul Calibur 6, King of Fighters 14, Street Fighter 5: Arcade Edition, and Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2.
As far as potential announcements are concerned, this means we might get news from Capcom, Bandai Namco, SNK, or Arc System Works.
Note that Injustice 2, Mortal Kombat X, Dragon Ball FighterZ, Super Smash Bros. Melee, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate will all be absent. In other words, it's extremely unlikely that we'll get any sort of announcement from NetherRealm Studios or Nintendo.
Of course, there's no guarantee that there will be any announcements at all. It certainly isn't an impossibility though.
Keep in mind that not a lot was announced for last year's EVO Japan weekend. With that said, let's consider what content might be announced at EVO Japan 2019.
Professional Tekken player Kazuaki 'BKC' Tsukagoshi has passed away
It is with heavy hearts that we report the loss of professional Tekken player Kazuaki "BKC" Tsukagoshi who passed away over the weekend.
The Namco Sugamo arcade — an establishment where BKC was employed — shared the unfortunate news yesterday morning on their Twitter account. They released a series of statements, and translated versions of them can be found here courtesy of StealthGaijin on Twitter.
According to their report, Tsukagoshi was discovered deceased by his family on the morning of February 9th, 2019, after he did not come down for breakfast. He intended to compete at the Strong Style Japan tournament that took place in in Tokyo, Japan this past weekend, as he had told his family about it the day before his passing.
BKC was a sponsored Tekken player, representing Walker Gaming. He was most well-known for playing Bryan Fury, and in recent times competed in Tekken 7 at major events such as EVO 2018 (tied for 49th) and Strong Style 6 (tied for 5th).
Numerous members of the fighting game community took to social media to share their condolences for BKC, including Walker Gaming and the official Tekken Twitter page.
Losing a member of our FGC family is never easy. Our thoughts go out to BKC, his family, and friends.
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Via Avoiding The Puddle. Photo source: BKC on Twitter.
Strong Style Japan results
Update: This story has been updated with final results.
Strong Style Japan is happening today, and it's taking place in Tokyo, Japan.
This is a 3v3 Tekken 7 event, with lots of Japan's best players showing up to compete, as well as some non-Japanese powerhouses.
The winners of this event will receive better seeding at the main Strong Style event later this year.
It's a one-day affair, so you can look forward to non-stop stream action once the event hits and just stick around and enjoy it.
Players attending include Fursan|Rangchu, Jimmy J Tran, Yamasa|Nobi, Book, Yamasa|Take, Ulsan, Yamasa|Yuu, UYU|Yuyu, RB|Tanukana, YoujinBoy, Chikurin, Rickstah, Rip and more.
Streaming is being done by Walker Gaming and Anime Illuminati.
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.
EVO Japan's prize pools reach over $90,000 for the mainstage titles with Tekken 7 payouts larger than the World Tour Finals
EVO Japan is returning for its second year with the action starting a month from now, and it appears as though Tekken, Street Fighter and other mainstage game players have even more reason to check out the free major this time around.
The prize pools for EVO Japan 2019 have now been revealed for Street Fighter 5, Tekken 7, BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle, The King of Fighters 14 and Soul Calibur 6 where a total of 10 million yen or around $92,000 will be available for players to take home for placing in the top 8.
All games at the inaugural tournament featured a base 1 million yen prize pool — except for Nintendo's titles, but both SF5 and Tekken 7 have been majorly bumped up this year to 3 million yen — $27,600 — which is actually larger than the Tekken World Tour Finals' pay outs for 2018.
The Tekken World Tour Finals last year featured a $20,000 prize pool where first place took home $7,500 though the money was split between each of the top 20 competitors instead of just top 8. Grand finals winners for both Tekken and Street Fighter will each take home over $13,000 — which is higher than the standard Capcom Pro Tour major winnings of $7,000 but less than EVO's now $20,000 for SF5.
Each of the other four mainstage titles will feature 1 million yen prize pools like 2018 though Soul Calibur 6 and BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle are new titles for this year in place of Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, BlazeBlue: Central Fiction, and ARMS.
There are two notable titles that have been left off of EVO Japan's roster with Dragon Ball FighterZ and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate not making the cut for unannounced reasons though DBFZ has faced some cancelled events in recent months.
A big venue change has also occurred for EVO's expansion as it has moved over 670 miles from Tokyo, Japan down South to Fukuoka where numbers have seen an apparent decline for attendees from 2018 though that could still change. EVO Japan is scheduled to run from February 15–17 at the Fukuoka Kokusai Center, and you can take a look at the full prize pool breakdowns for the six mainstage titles after the jump.
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Only The Best II results
Update: This story has been updated with final results.
A pretty big event is happening this weekend in Naples, Italy.
This is a one-day event, but it's a pretty damn stacked one with over 200 players participating.
Only two games are being played here — Tekken 7 and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
With over 170 players participating in Tekken 7, it's bound to be stacked with most of Europe's finest players fighting it out. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has a pretty good showing as well, with over 60 players set to battle.
Some of the notable names present at the event include UYU|Fergus, DG|Asim, 4G|DevilKazuya, Exeed|Ghirlanda, SignorFarfalla, 4F|Rikimaru, DG|RooKang, HG|DanielMado, HarryPotter, DG|ThePhantom, HarryPotter, Mitrust-Storm, FakePotter, Haroun and of course many more.
Streaming is being done at Bode78 and ManaSkill.
People say CuddleCore's breakout moment was her ELEAGUE win, but that's not the answer she'd give; get to know one of Tekken 7's fastest rising stars
If you ask around the Tekken 7 scene as to what the breakout moment for Jeannail "EQNX|CuddleCore" Carter was you'll probably hear about her team victory at ELEAGUE last year, and while that certainly got a lot of eyes on the Alisa player, she'll tell you it's not the most significant timestamp in her competitive career thus far.
Carter recently granted an interview with Disrupt Gaming FGC wherein she discussed her backstory as a gamer, her experiences in the Tekken scene and what she deems her real breakout moment to be.
Since starting in the competitive world back in 2013, CuddleCore has achieved multiple top eight placings at a handful of major events. These include her aforementioned ELEAGUE first place team finish, a bronze trophy from Kumite in Tennesse, and then fourth place finishes at both Canada Cup and the Tekken World Tour Finals Last Chance Qualifier.
She has also placed 13th at Combo Breaker and 17th at EVO, effectively rounding out her resume to be reckoned with. When she's not traveling or training, Carter is also an avid illustrator with a growing portfolio of very intriguing pieces.
Check out the interview below, where you'll also find a CuddleCore highlights compilation from Bigdaddyjende which features some of Cuddle's best moments at the Tekken World Tour Last Chance Qualifier event.
Here's a quick snippet of domination against fellow Equinox player EQNX|Dimeback. With successive heavy blows, Cuddle lops off huge chunks of life bar, then eventually closes things out with one last hit:
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'Everyone is Here', SonicFox and Go1's rivalry, Tokido's emotional bout with Daigo and more: Here are the best fighting game moments from 2018
2018 will likely go down as one of the best years for fighting games as a genre since its renaissance a decade ago beginning with the launch of Street Fighter 4, and that momentum appears to be carrying through into 2019 as well.
We're here today to go over the best announcements, the hypest matches and the strongest games to release last year with Steven 'Dreamking23' Chavez, Jonathan 'Catalyst' Grey, Nicholas 'MajinTenshinhan' Taylor and myself each giving our thoughts of our favorite moments from 2018.
Dragon Ball FighterZ was a great way to start off the year with a title that would essentially unite the entire fighting game community in a way that no other fighter had essentially managed to do before leading to some of the best EVO numbers ever and a great rivalry between FOX|SonicFox and CO|Go1.
The other monster reveal / release for the community came by way of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's announcement and lead up that gave fans almost every thing they've been asking for for almost 20 years — besides Waluigi.
Outside of those two behemoths, we saw an enormous amount of other titles come out during the calendar year including Soul Calibur 6, BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle, Under Night In-Birth Exe: Late[St], Fighting EX Layer and smaller games like Blade Strangers plus many more.
Continued developer support was also a major theme of 2018 where Street Fighter 5: Arcade Edition launched along with Tekken 7, The King of Fighters 14, Injustice 2 and more all receiving new DLC and pro circuit support to keep games and scenes alive. You can check out our full (semi-ranked) list after the jump, and let us know your favorite moments of the past year in the comments.
Kumite in Tennessee 2019 results
Update: This story has been updated with final results.
We've just barely entered the new year, and we already have a slew of events upon us.
Kumite in Tennessee is one of them, and as you'd expect, it's taking place in Tennessee — more specifically, Franklin, Tennessee.
With Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Tekken 7 both having over 100 entrants, and Soul Calibur 6, Dragon Ball FighterZ and Street Fighter 5: Arcade Edition all being above 50 entrants each, respectively, this is going to be a pretty loaded event.
The games being played besides the aforementioned five are BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle, Injustice 2, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Mortal Kombat XL, King of Fighters 14, Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, Killer Instinct and Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2.
Some of the notable players attending include Lil Majin, Disrupt|Shadow20z, BC|Biohazard, CuddleCore, SB|JB, W2W|KnowKami, Neon, Pokchop, BC|HoneyBee, MnT|Trungy, SperoGin, KoDee, TS|Arturo Sanchez and of course many more beyond that.
Streaming is being done at Team Spooky, VG Boot Camp, NYC Furby, HXC Gaming Events and TNEA Live.
