Week of June 9th to June 15th, 2014.
Fighting Games Weekly is the weekly discussion thread for all things fighting games. News, 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.
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 the weekly discussion thread for all things fighting games. News, 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.
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@ E3
- Various fighting games will make appearances on various streams throughout E3 this week:
- Tuesday
- Killer Instinct Season 2 [ 2:40PM EDT | 11:40AM PDT ]
- Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- [ 6PM EDT | 3PM PDT ]
- Killer Instinct Season 2 [ 6:40 EDT | 3:40 PDT ]
- Super Smash Bros. Invitational [ Thread ] [ Tuesday ] [ 7PM EDT | 4PM PDT ]
- Nintendo has set up a 16-player, single elimination exhibition tournament using notable Smash players from the community. Check out the official thread linked above for more details and discussion.
- Capcom: Play With A Pro [ 7PM EDT | 4PM PDT ]
- Capcom: USFIV New Characters Exhibition [ 8PM EDT | 5PM PDT ]
- Wednesday
- Killer Instinct: Season Two [ 2:40PM EDT | 11:40AM PDT ]
- Super Smash Bros. Wii U & 3DS [ 3:20PM EDT | 12:20PM PDT ]
- Mortal Kombat X [ 5:30PM EDT | 2:30PM PDT ]
- Mortal Kombat X [ 5:40 EDT | 2:40 PDT ]
- Capcom: Play With A Pro [ 7PM EDT | 4PM PDT ]
- Capcom: USFIV New Characters Exhibition [ 8PM EDT | 5PM PDT ]
- Thursday
- Capcom: Editor Elimination Exhibition [ 2PM EDT | 11AM PDT ]
- Mortal Kombat X [ 2:40 EDT | 11:40 PDT
- Capcom: USFIV Capcom Pro Tour Invitational Tournament [ 4PM EDT | 1PM PDT ]
- Mortal Kombat X [ 4:20PM EDT | 1:20PM PDT ]
- Tuesday
- Virgin Gaming's online Street Fighter IV tournament series kicks off in all three regions, with online players competing for a chance to go to Capcom Cup.
- Team PIE will be holding their long anticipated Topanga League-esque event for SF4, with a heap of prizes for the winner.
- Fees, prizes, format and 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 our favourite trenchcoat, QisTopTier!
What fighting games do you currently play, what are your all time favourites and why?
The games I currently play are BBCP and USF4.
My all time favorites are Last Blade 2, 3rd Strike, CvS2, and Guilty Gear Accent Core.
Last Blade 2 I loved for the art style, the combos, and the whole thing with the two different styles you can select changing up how characters play.
3rd Strike I love for the music, the parry system leading to insane comebacks that were not tied to a silly gimmick, also it's game play is fairly unique even among other fighting games due to the parry system having such a big control over the pacing of the match.
CvS2 to me is the ultimate traditional 2d fighter. Sure some silly stuff like roll canceling is in it. But the large cast, the different groves from many different games and every fighter changing up depending on what grove you picked makes for an experience that can not be matched by any other game in the genre. The closest we got to that was SFxT but Capcom messed up pretty bad :|
Guilty Gear Accent Core is the best version of Guilty Gear to me, the characters all felt like they had clear design goals based on the way players played the characters and the balance while not perfect was still very very close. To me AC+R suffered from the modern ArcSys mentality of change or add something just to change it.
What are your favorite mechanics from the current selection of fighting games and why? What are your least favorite and why?My all time favorites are Last Blade 2, 3rd Strike, CvS2, and Guilty Gear Accent Core.
Last Blade 2 I loved for the art style, the combos, and the whole thing with the two different styles you can select changing up how characters play.
3rd Strike I love for the music, the parry system leading to insane comebacks that were not tied to a silly gimmick, also it's game play is fairly unique even among other fighting games due to the parry system having such a big control over the pacing of the match.
CvS2 to me is the ultimate traditional 2d fighter. Sure some silly stuff like roll canceling is in it. But the large cast, the different groves from many different games and every fighter changing up depending on what grove you picked makes for an experience that can not be matched by any other game in the genre. The closest we got to that was SFxT but Capcom messed up pretty bad :|
Guilty Gear Accent Core is the best version of Guilty Gear to me, the characters all felt like they had clear design goals based on the way players played the characters and the balance while not perfect was still very very close. To me AC+R suffered from the modern ArcSys mentality of change or add something just to change it.
My favorite mechanics from modern fighters is the Tag Cancels from SFxT and the Overdrive / Burst combo in BBCP
I like roman cancel type stuff. I feel it let's players be creative with their offense and defensive choices but I really like the way Capcom did it in SFxT, which was perfect for a tag style game. Spend meter and get extended combos and a safe tag in, or potentialy make a move safe at the risk of having two characters get hit. I thought it fit the game perfectly without being too strong and is probably my favorite form of cancels in a fighting game.
The Overdrive / Burst combo in BBCP is a perfect balance of extreme offense and a get out of jail free card. You have the choice of entering a powered up state which amplifys your characters unique traits or escaping a combo. When in overdrive mode once you land a hit your oponent can't burst anymore as well and works well for match enders. Bursting while it's common to see complaints about it from people who don't play ArcSys games isn't really a true get out of jail free card if you use it bad. Any move that can be jump canceled or rapid canceled can be used to bait a burst which are blockable or you an bait it with an invincible move going through it and recoverying before they do, one bad burst and you can potentially lose the round as you are open to a free combo. Bursting while it doesn't sound as good with those things said above is still really powerful especially on getting out of some set ups and on characters that need space controll or against characters that rely on heavy momentum.
My least favorites are Pandora and Xfactor. Pandora is a horrible gimmick only useful for a match ending combo as if you don't kill with it you lose once it's over. Xfactor is just horribly balanced and designed, it's the laziest form of a power up I have ever seen in a fighting game.
What got you into fighting games? Are there any other genre of games you play?I like roman cancel type stuff. I feel it let's players be creative with their offense and defensive choices but I really like the way Capcom did it in SFxT, which was perfect for a tag style game. Spend meter and get extended combos and a safe tag in, or potentialy make a move safe at the risk of having two characters get hit. I thought it fit the game perfectly without being too strong and is probably my favorite form of cancels in a fighting game.
The Overdrive / Burst combo in BBCP is a perfect balance of extreme offense and a get out of jail free card. You have the choice of entering a powered up state which amplifys your characters unique traits or escaping a combo. When in overdrive mode once you land a hit your oponent can't burst anymore as well and works well for match enders. Bursting while it's common to see complaints about it from people who don't play ArcSys games isn't really a true get out of jail free card if you use it bad. Any move that can be jump canceled or rapid canceled can be used to bait a burst which are blockable or you an bait it with an invincible move going through it and recoverying before they do, one bad burst and you can potentially lose the round as you are open to a free combo. Bursting while it doesn't sound as good with those things said above is still really powerful especially on getting out of some set ups and on characters that need space controll or against characters that rely on heavy momentum.
My least favorites are Pandora and Xfactor. Pandora is a horrible gimmick only useful for a match ending combo as if you don't kill with it you lose once it's over. Xfactor is just horribly balanced and designed, it's the laziest form of a power up I have ever seen in a fighting game.
I have an older brother who was into fighting games and like a typical little brother I tagged along and wanted to play, my childhood friend's dad is the owner of our local roller rink which also had a well sized arcade so I had a large selection of fighting games to play for free growing up. In middle school my other childhood friend and I started playing a ton of Tekken and seriously trying to beat each other, which soon turned into us trying to beat each other in Guilty Gear and a little later on trying to beat my brother's friends who were really good at CvS2.
I play just about everything honestly, I love challenging things in general.
What is your favorite fighting game character and why?I play just about everything honestly, I love challenging things in general.
The Accent Core version of Ky Kiske, to me he's the most perfectly designed fighting game character. Has normals for every situation, has specials for every situation, and you can change your playstyle up with him on the fly mid match and still be effective due to his many options. His main flaw is his damage is a bit low to compensate for it. But I don't mind it's fun being able to play and be creative with your approaches.
Describe your style of play, and how do you play (local, online, etc.).
I don't think I have a set style of play, I literally do what feels right at the time and what I think will work. If I had to try and pin point it down I'd say my playstyle is to be passive aggressive and analyze how players will play before turning it up a notch myself and adjusting my style to fit the person I'm playing and start making reads based off the data I've collected in the match.
What do you feel are your biggest strengths and weaknesses as a player?
I think my biggest strength is my will to take a loss if it lets me breakdown how the other person plays and come up with game plans to counter them.
My biggest weakness I feel is the same as my strength, some players don't need that extra time to breakdown how they play and wasting it could potentially cost me the game. I also tend to have habits form when I get comfortable playing the same player.
I mostly play Online these days, it's too hard for me to go out and all my friends quit fighting games for the most part :l
Best and worst moments in the your fighting game career?My biggest weakness I feel is the same as my strength, some players don't need that extra time to breakdown how they play and wasting it could potentially cost me the game. I also tend to have habits form when I get comfortable playing the same player.
I mostly play Online these days, it's too hard for me to go out and all my friends quit fighting games for the most part :l
Best moment was when I went to a Guilty Gear tournament and everyone was laughing when I pulled out a controller, more people laughed when I asked my friend to help me plug it in. Later that day I'm in the semi finals playing the best player there having a whole crowd cheer for me and the final match, final round, my opponent is at pixel life I have about 1/5th life left. I make one bad read and eat an EX drill from eddie in the corner and he spends ALL HIS BAR on ex drills over and over and I could hear the guy muttering PLEASE DIE OH PLEASE DIE PLEASE PLEASE. The last hit of the last ex drill kills me and the guy let out the biggest sigh of relief I have ever heard. I lost but hey the guy steam rolled the other guy in grand finals I had some people buy me drinks and I had a great time! ... Oh this was after not playing the game for 1 1/2 years and going in with no warm ups 
Second best was getting the biggest win streak at my local mall in Tekken 5 with Wang at 32 straight wins I had to quit because nature called. In the process of getting that I had a guy threaten to stab me in the throat He promptly got his ass beat For the entire duration that cabinet was there you would always see... "Touch My Wang" in rank 1
Worst moment was at a Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 tournament, the place had no heating and it was already past 11pm in the winter time... I literally dropped a game winning combo because my hand locked up from the cold... then lost.
What do you want from future fighting games?Second best was getting the biggest win streak at my local mall in Tekken 5 with Wang at 32 straight wins I had to quit because nature called. In the process of getting that I had a guy threaten to stab me in the throat
He promptly got his ass beat For the entire duration that cabinet was there you would always see... "Touch My Wang" in rank 1 Worst moment was at a Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 tournament, the place had no heating and it was already past 11pm in the winter time... I literally dropped a game winning combo because my hand locked up from the cold... then lost.
Less horribly designed comeback factors and more creative characters.
Who should be on next week's GAF Player Spotlight?
Tik-Tok because he has a Q avatar
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 Cross Counter Live rises a new discussion show from Gootecks and Mike Ross!
- 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.
- 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.
- Description needed.
- 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.
HBTB Live [ 8PM EDT | 5PM PDT ]
- 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 weekly Skullgirls event hosted by members of the Skullgirls development team, often featuring preview builds of the game.
Rebel Up [ Secondary ] [ 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.
- Level|Up 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.
Additionally, if you want to really get involved, you may want to check out the various OTs for specific games:
Additionally, if you want to really get involved, you may want to check out the various OTs for specific games:
- BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma
- Chaos Code
- Darkstalkers: Resurrection
- Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate and Core Fighters
- Divekick
- Gundam Extreme VS Full Boost
- Injustice: Gods Among Us
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle
- Killer Instinct
- The King of Fighters XIII
- Marvel vs. Capcom: Origins
- Mortal Kombat
- Persona 4: Arena
- PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale
- Project M 3.0
- Skullgirls
- Soul Calibur: Lost Swords
- Soul Calibur V
- Street Fighter X Tekken v.2013
- Tekken
- Tekken Revolution
- Tekken Tag Tournament 2
- Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3
- Ultra Street Fighter IV
- Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown
- 8WayRun - Soul Calibur franchise community
- DOACentral - Dead or Alive franchise community
- Dream Cancel - King of Fighters franchise community and resource, more US-centric
- Dustloop - Forums/community for Arc System Works-developed games
- Eventhubs - Frequently updated news blog, resource and forums for all things fighting games
- FreeStepDodge - Dead or Alive franchise community
- Homing Cancel - Arcana Heart community
- iPlaywinner - Large fighting game news site and resource, and the home to Teamsp00ky and iPlaywinner
- Jet Upper - UK-centric news source and community
- Mayonaka Midnight - Persona 4 Arena community and resource
- Melty Bread - Melty Blood community
- Mizuumi - A resource for various "poverty" games
- Orochinagi - King of Fighters franchise community and resource, more EU-centric
- Reddit Fighters - Reddit's own fighting game community subreddit
- Shoryuken - The largest FG community and multigame resource on the web, with a large Capcom games community
- Skullheart - fan Skullgirls community and resource made official
- TekkenZaibatsu - Tekken franchise community
- Test Your Might - Mortal Kombat and Injustice community and resource
- UKFGC - UK-centric news source and community
- Smash Boards - The largest Smash Bros. Community
- VFDC - Virtua Fighter franchise community site
- - -
If you have any suggestions for the OP, please do not hesitate to post in this thread or PM me to let me know.
