It’s another busy week in the fighting game community. We’ll cover the new Street Fighter V update, Evo Japan dates, and a preview of Frame Perfect Series 2 in Orlando, Florida. The Killer Instinct World Cup also wrapped up last Saturday, we’ll take a look back at the KI community’s biggest event.
The rumors of a possible patch before the start of Season 2 were (somewhat) true. A week after Final Round 20, Capcom released a patch with minimal nerfs. As expected, Capcom essentially went through and adjusted the smaller aspects.
Accordingly, the game has seemingly shifted towards grappler-type characters. There’s no overarching mechanical changes outside the fact that the risk-reward system is now amplified with no jump back option select. The direction of how Capcom wants players to play this game is clear: BURST DAMAGE ABOVE ALL (sorry for yelling)!
It’s likely that this will be Capcom’s last patch in Season 2. Players will now have the rest of the season to refine their characters. Ibuki won the first major CapCup event, but Mike and Guile had a strong showing. Balrog seems unexplored and ready to become a real tournament contender.
The date is set and it’s actually happening. Evo is going across the pacific to Akihabara, near Tokyo. The wait will only be a full-year, but Evo will once again expand into a two-event circuit. Japan is also an obvious choice for the next Evo as a large population of the country plays fighting games.
It’s an ode to the strong Japanese community that has spent years flying west to the United States. It will be the first Evo outside America and should display the quality depth of Japan’s street Fighter V, anime, and 3D fighters. Many top players are already considering making the trip to Evo Japan.
FPS2, a Smash event in Florida, will host four of the Melee gods and a litany of other top players from the region. The majority of the Smash 4 top 15 will also be in attendance to face the strong Florida Smash 4 scene. The tournament will feature runner-up at Frostbite 2017 Tsu and his Lucario.
Additionally, the Japan crew will be making an appearance in Smash 4. The event will be focused on top player vs. the field. Is it possible anyone outside of Armada (Adam Lindgren) and ZeRo (Gonzales Barrios) win in either game? The last five months say don’t take the bait, pick the favorites. Players have gotten close, but just haven’t finished the job.
The event will feature eight top-20 Melee players. Unfortunately, aMSa (Misaya Chikamoto), the popular Japanese Yoshi, can’t attend because he has the stomach flu. The field isn’t as deep as Smash 4, but the names at the top make this a major event. Winning this Melee tournament will require running the gauntlet of Mango (Joseph Marquez), Mew2King (Jason Zimmerman), and Hungrybox (Juan DeBiedma).
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Despite missing out on making it into Evo, the KI community is going strong. After another average attendance year, the future of KI was in the balance. The community responded with a well-funded and represented tournament.
Regardless, Sleep (Darnell Waller) was able to continue his run of strong play with his win at KO cup. He couples this win with his Evo title, which makes him the undisputed number one. The Ultra Tour will continue into Season 3 with Combo Breaker on the horizon.
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