Fighting Games

Evo 2015 Match Highlights Salty Suite - Smug vs ImStillDaDaddy (guile) FT10

2015-07-19T15:13:00.001-07:00

Evo 2015 Highlight - Latif vs Filipinoman

2015-07-18T14:57:00.001-07:00

UMvC3 - Ruin (zero may cry) vs RoBoT SheKeiB (zero,wes,doom) Match 1

2013-04-10T14:55:00.001-07:00

Yall know the drill, playin a las vegas native tonight. OG player from guilty gear, I think.

UMvC3 [COSMIC LORD] Bestplayername (trish,vip,morr) vs RoBoT SheKeiB (0,...

2013-04-03T08:21:00.001-07:00

Heres a long set of high lord BESTPLAYERNAME off xbl. I think he needs to switch viper for doom, even though he gets the viper lvl 3 focus with this team. Doom missiles would help trish and morrigan plenty, but we all know that.

UMVC3 [HIGH LORD] (Vergil, Morrigan, Doom, + Wesker) vs RoBoT SheKeiB (0...

2013-03-22T13:55:00.001-07:00

Hid the names because I don't want anyone to be upset with their performance.

[HIGH LORD] SeoulJer (dead,dant,strid) vs RoBoT SheKeiB (zero,wes,doom) ...

2013-03-20T20:41:00.001-07:00

more of this dude, at least i start gettin some combos online. I can get rid of deadpool now if I'm careful, but dante with the strider mixup is proving to be too much.

[HIGH LORD] SeoulJer (dead,dant,strid) vs RoBoT SheKeiB (zero,wes,doom) ...

2013-03-13T10:00:00.001-07:00

atleast i started blocking a little bit of the mixups, and this shit is online so respec dat shit bro

RoBoT SheKeiB (zero,wes,doom) vs m rice82 (she-hulk, c.vip, jill) Match 2

2013-02-27T04:24:00.001-08:00

This guy is probably the best jill player I've seen online, ggs to him. I think i can punish that cartwheel super if i am in the air, but it has to be spaced right.

GOOD TUNES

2013-02-19T09:33:00.003-08:00

ah thom yorke, RHCP flea, REM's drummer, and Nigel radiohead music producer/engineer and 6th member among other things brings you AMOK the album that real music has been waiting for

AMOK - Atoms For Peace

UMvC3 - RoBoT SheKeiB (zero,wes,doom) vs BIFU Insaynee (wes,doom, ammy) ...

2013-01-28T09:31:00.001-08:00

Droppin lightning loop on wesker can come back to haunt you. Doom gives wesker a nice beam to teleport behind and ammy gives wesker all the time he needs to set up his incoming mixups with command grabs. Also, wesker can combo off of the team super with ammy just like marlinpie does with doom, and insaynee still has doom to do that cheap stuff with if you somehow manage to kill wesker. Overall, it's a very solid team that even if you do snap in ammy and kill her, you'll have to deal with wesker and doom beam. Each pairing goes well together so losing 1 character isn't a big deal...(wes/doom, doom/ammy, wes/ammy)

This guy is a next level regular, probably the best place for east coast competition in both marvel and ssf4AE. Head out to NextLevel Arcade in NewYork next time you are there for the best in east coast fighting game competition.

UMvC3 - [HIGH LORD JILL] jsoledout1 (jill, frank, strid) vs RoBoTs (zero...

2013-01-14T01:21:00.001-08:00

I learned the matchup a lot more as I played, it's fun playing against characters you don't see often, maybe that's why fighting games are usually the most fun in the beginning, when you have to learn all the matchups.
Check out my youtube channel for more at www.youtube.com/shekeib , I just got some nice phoenix wright matches up! You don't see high level vids of that character often.

Some Personal Xbox Live Match Analysis for UMVC3

2012-05-09T13:32:00.002-07:00

Although the online realm of UMVC3 is one filled with a gelatinous, molasses type substance we all notoriously know as lag, there is still much that can be learned from online play. With the Peaceful Jay lobby always being full of high level players, it's not too hard to find some decent competition online. Dios X and Viscant are two top level players that have a very high amount of online play under their belt, proving that while online UMVC3 has its obvious faults, it's still a very valuable tool for a competitive player. Now, to the match analysis for the video below.

In the beginning of the match I move back because I need space to set up my Dr. Strange with Dr. Doom assist teleport traps. He's also closing the distance because he, like most people, don't want to give Strange any room to set up his many projectiles. However, this is a mistake because Dr. Strange can fairly easily choose between an air throw at the start of the match or jump 6-frame Impact Palm. Both of these options can result in a dead character. If Strange chooses to kill off a throw, he must use meter and x-factor. However, X-factor isn't necessary if the Impact Palm connects because it is possible to build your meter up to 3 bars with Strange and his Flames of the Faltine Loop. This means that an option selected jump forward H (to get either an air throw or an Impact Palm) at the start of the match can almost always lead to a 1 million plus damage combo. I didn't go for this in this instance though, because I'd rather go for the teleport mix-up than risk getting too close, especially on a player whose habits I'm unfamiliar with.

@ 0:01 I choose to do the H teleport with Strange because I noticed he had Dr. Doom beam assist as well, so I didn't want to teleport onto the ground where I'd be in a good position to get hit by it.

@ 0:22 he calls in Wesker and still doesn't kill the low life Dr. Strange. I'd suggest putting Dr Doom second so he could have made sure he could kill about a third of the cast if he ended his combo with Dr. Doom's up ball super instead of Maximum Wesker (Phantom Dance). If he wants Wesker second, he can always do Dr. Doom's Laser Fingers Hyper into Maximum Wesker to switch the order mid-match and also have a pretty safe way to get Wesker in without his glasses for the damage and speed boost.

@ 0:32 he goes for the teleport mix-up with Wesker and Dr. Doom assist, but he does it a little late and I can tell he's going for it so I hold up back, hoping the beam will miss me and it does. Now that Wesker is not being covered by a beam and is directly underneath me, there is no reason not to go for S foot dive, I can still air dash to safety since I haven't used my airdash yet, but the foot dive connects. I activate X-factor not because I wanted to kill Wesker, I could've done that without X-factor, but because I wanted to kill his Wesker while also getting my own no glasses, X-factor Wesker with Dr. Doom assist on his next incoming character. My plan worked perfectly and I take out two characters in an instant. Activiating X-factor early was risky but crutial. Since I had already lost a character, I wanted to get as much momentum as I could to comeback, and that's what scrub-factor was made for.

@ 0:50 I do the teleport set-up late because I'm aware Dante is coming in and can do air S into Hammer, delaying his hangtime to avoid the beam while also getting a chance to clock anyone underneath him. I wait for him to do Hammer on the way in, he double jumps instead, but it ends up putting him in the same situation anyways. I do this on aggressive Dantes, Wolverine, Zero, Dr. Doom, and Sentinel because of their strong incoming attack options.

@ 1:04 I give myself time to confirm Dr. Doom's beam assist hit before I dash in and press neutral M into neutral H, this ensures that Wesker auto-corrects his attacks to the right direction. I know Wesker's level 3 will not kill him so I go for the mix-up which was a mistake that could have cost me. I already used my assist so it wouldn't be available for the mix-up and he still has X-factor. Because of these things I should have backed off after the OTG gunshot and only attacked whenever I had Dr.Doom's beam assist ready so he can't guard cancel X-factor and kill my Wesker.

@ 1:36 I do a bad S foot dive because I already used my airdash to throw my finger lasers at the top of the screen. I couldn't safely airdash to the ground after he blocks my foot dive. Doom is very vulnerable after this, but luckily he doesn't punish me.

@ 1:43 He does a Spear Flame Hyper, maybe by accident, but I know that it takes a second for the Spear Flame to come back down, just enough time for a normal throw. With Doom, I've gotta be very close to grab him in this situation, but if I had Wesker or Sentinel out, I could cancel a fairly far away dash into a command grab to get maximum damage.

@ 2:04 I do a series of; green butter gun, land, super jump back up to him, air combo into foot dive, air dash into an attempted standing M OTG. All if this is combo-able, even at that high up on the screen, and even starting with the butter gun. While there are other characters that can land a hit at the top of the screen and convert it into a combo, Dr. Doom has one of the easiest times doing it. Air to air M with Dr.Doom can easily be confirmed into an air S foot dive. Although you may have already used your air dash so you can not make it to the ground as fast as your falling opponent, you still have enough time to triangle dash for the OTG. I miss it in the video, but it's still much easier than say, Magneto or Zero.

The rest of the match is me making sure that I don't get underneath his Doom to get hit by a cross-up Foot Dive. I've got the life lead and meter to burn, so I burn it and force him to come to me. GGS.

Well, that's a lot of info for one match, I could have put some more tidbits in there but I'm sure I already bored the hell out of the 2 guys that read this. I'll most likely do this again, so have you guys got any suggestions? Please leave a comment if you do and check more matches of me against this guy at my youtube channel here and I'll start streaming sometime soon on my new own3ed.tv streaming account here.

Cross Assault Day 6 END.... Dr. Sub-Zero is BACK!!!

2012-02-27T19:44:00.000-08:00

Dr. Sub-Zero's Cross Assault Reality Show Submission

The two people I wanted to win the whole tournament, with $25,000, are now on the same team! Tonight's episode had a twist, an eliminated member had a chance at returning into the competition. When Dr. Sub-Zero was paired with NerdJosh, one of the best players on the show so far, I knew he had a good chance at winning a spot back. Whenever I realized he only had to play against the worst two players on the show, yes they were both girls, I knew he had a good chance. Sure enough, he won the first match with ease against Sherry, and the second match SuperYan just forfieted! I guess she didn't want to be on the show due to Aris pulling some creepy antics on her, but there's enough info on that spread around the internet already, so I won't get into it.

This means that TastySteve, my hometown favorite to win, and Dr. Sub-Zero are on a team together since Sub-Zero will take SuperYan's Team Tekken spot. I hope they practice a lot since I know NerdJosh and Renic have some pretty good strategies. Good Luck Team Tekken!

Online Matches From Last Night

2012-02-26T22:40:00.000-08:00

Play the video on the right to watch me play some pretty high level online competition in the premier fighting game Ultimate Marvel VS Capcom 3. I'm looking for a new team in UMvC3. I picked Dr.Strange when the game was released and stuck with since I wanted to make sure I wasn't missing anything that could make him better. I tried everything I could to make him viable, and although I have won plenty of matches with him, he is surely the weakest link on my team with Dr. Doom and Wesker.

I played Magneto in vanilla Marvel Vs Capcom 3, but he's worse in this version so I'm not sure if I want to pick him, even though I currently do better with him than I do with Dr. Strange. Either way, Magneto's new moves do make him fun to play. Hit the jump to read more.

Magneto's gravitation moves, new to this game, give him a lot of new options, especially with select assists. Sentinel drones assist with gravitation forces the opponent to block the drones. This is especially good for characters like Trish and Zero who stay up in the air all day. I also figured out how to do the new ROM combo with Magneto, a combo that only uses hard punch and while it's very difficult, it can kill a character using only 1 meter. That's some effective meter management.

As much as I like playing Magneto, I might have to go with Zero as my new point character. Zero has new cancel-able moves off of his buster shot, making him even better than the last version. Zero's buster cancel into lightning make him viable without an assist, but man does he shine with something like hidden missiles assist. The hitbox on Zero's normals are very effective with this assist, unlike most characters who have a difficult time keeping combo's going with Doom's missile assist. Since Zero usually attacks from high above the screen, the missiles act as a pseudo shield for him, very useful since he's got such low life. Another problem is that he requires a lot of execution to be able to take advantage of his damage potential. I'm working on his lightning loop combo, but I'm wondering if it's even worth trying to go for online with the horrible lag.

Now that Street Fighter x Tekken is almost out, maybe I should just stick to Magneto since I'll probably be spending the majority of my time working on that game. Wow, only a week until another AAA fighting game comes out. Hopefully Capcom has figured out how to make these newer 3D fighting games feel like the 2D fighting game masterpieces they've made in the past. I've been disappointed by Capcom recently though, Street Fighter IV series and the Marvel 3 series just don't feel nearly as fun or satisfying as the older fighting games. Ricky Ortiz, top ranked player, did say that SFxT feels like the older fighting games, I just hope he's right.

Unfair Future Tournament Advantages in Cross Assault Reality Show

2012-02-25T15:21:00.000-08:00

Top players (FC Jago, EG Ricky Ortiz) getting early and unfair advantage access to SFxT

For those of you who don't know, Mike Ross has been an avid Street Fighter and Marvel player for the past 3 years. He has also starred in the hit Youtube series Cross Counter. He also has been getting unfair advantages in the competitve fighting game scene. He's not the only one either....

What has been going on for the past 3 years since SF4 came out is that certain players have been unfairly playing new fighting games before they come out. Why does this bother me? The fact is when a player gets to play a fighting game for 3 weeks before the release date, they automatically have an unfair advantage over other professional players in tournaments. Mike Ross, who is well known in the community, will have a definitive advantage over most players in the new game to be released March 6, Street Fighter X Tekken. I have no animosity toward Mike Ross, in fact, I love watching him play and goof off during tournaments. However, just because he's a known pseudo-celebrity, doesn't mean he should be able to play on the online reality show Cross Assault sponsered by Capcom. Right now he is getting free practice for tournaments that many people will be practicing all day and all night once the game comes out.

Now some of you are probably going to think that it won't make that much of a difference. But the fact is, Mike Ross is a professional player at the highest level. He is already at the top level, why does he have another advantage on top of that? Wow, I'm currently watching the Cross Assault Live stream (which is on just about all day in case you are interested) and they just announced that about 5 of the top competitive fighting game players are going to also get to play this game before release. Man, I really feel bad for some of those players who have to go up against these guys during the first few weeks this game is out and being played at major tournaments for major prize money.

Check out the live stream here, here, and the last stream here.

Explanation for some of my UMvC3 tiers

2012-02-18T13:07:00.000-08:00

-Zero vs Wesker, check a few posts back where I ask who is better.

-Spencer has crazy damage and can get in easily with an assist and air forward grapple. Basically what Combofiend does to get in. His damage is crazy, his overhead and throw make him have scary mix-ups.

-Skrull has always been good, but a sleeper. His command air throw has crazy range and can be very hard to get out of with select assists. His combo's are fairly short and easy with very high damage yield. If you DHC into Hulk's upward hyper from Skrull's ball of flame hyper, you can pretty much kill half the cast with a magic series herp derp combo.

-Wolverine got nerfed but not enough in my opinion, people that dropped him would do well to pick him back up. Noel Brown is a good example of how effective Wolvy still is.

-Dante also got nerfed but his hammer is still effective enough and even though there is more hit-stun deterioration, it helps some soap dropping players go for shorter, more consistent combos.

-Hulk isn't used by enough top players to show what he is capable of, youtube search Zangiefan. Super armor, high health, OTG, crazy damage, a beam like assist that can OTG, a get off me assist, and a hugely damaging DHC.

-Felicia is highly slept on. Her movement feels fast and natural (easy to maneuver). Her dive kick is slow but hard to stop unless you wanna burn the meter. She has a great air throw because I think she might have an increased air throw range compared to other characters, plus you can combo off of it.

-Dr. Doom is great, but I think he loses to almost everyone in A tier, so I couldn't put him there even though I wanted to.

-Phoenix would be A tier if it weren't for the anti-phoenix tech with the x-factor meter stealing trick (which can still be countered.) When she goes dark, she doesn't feel that much different than her Vanilla counterpart. Her biggest hurdle is the meter gain nerf all characters received but it hurts her the most.

-Firebrand might be better than I listed, I don't think people have taken that character to his full potential. His unblockable can't be slept on, especially when a Japanese player in a recent tournament was setting up the situation on the fly with select assists.

-Ryu is in front of Akuma because of all the buffs Ryu got and his jump H into L air hurricane. The arc of the hurricane makes it very hard to tell what side Ryu will land on if done properly and can now lead to great damage with his ability to crouch dash cancel. Add that to his cancelable overhead, and we have 2 solid shotos in an MvC game.

-Chun-Li, in my mind, should have shown up more often in tournaments with her new OTG in Ultimate and her new EX moves that make combos a lot easier and a lot more damaging. For some reason, Chun-Li hasn't been used often but once she is, I think her speed and her air dash pressure can get her far.

-Rocket Raccoon is another character I didn't feel was C tier when I first saw him but I haven't seen anything particularly great about him for a while So I'm waiting until a great Rocket Raccoon player shows us all how it's done so I can edit this post and put Raccoon in B tier like I really want to.

-Hsien-Ko is D tier, but has the best assist in the game if you can get her gold, this moves her up to C tier.

-Dr. Strange may have a teleport, but nothing he has is safe. On top of his horrid movement, it's an uphill battle if you play this character. I've mained him since release and nothing good has come out of it, except being one of the only competitive Strange players. Without Doom assist, he'd be almost useless, but everyone is better with Doom assists. His normals have horrible recovery, so do his specials. People think his light swords are safe, but they aren't. Many characters can just crouch under the last few hits and punish easily. Good thing most people don't realize that and push block it. His impact palm is hard to hit on grounded opponents since it has horrible range. His combo's aren't easy, especially if you want to be able to build 2 meters for a lvl 3. His homing projectiles are easily avoidable and have heavy start up. The projectiles also disappear as soon as he gets hit. His glyphs have too much start up to use effectively, especially against rush down characters and they usually whiff on anyone. His ability to randomly do his extremely fast hyper (which isn't at all safe), x-factor, and kill any character keeps him from being D tier, but that's all he really has going for him. There are far better teleport characters in the game.

-Storm may be lower than I even expected but I think she was only viable when she had her DHC trick available to her. She doesn't seem to have a good option against normal jump-ins which is why you see Fanatic go for a very early launcher on Magneto players because he is predicting the tri-jump overhead. She does have hailstorm into x-factored hailstorm which is a great assist blow up tool; Fanatiq usually gets that at least once every time he plays a two out of three.

Thanks for reading! Please comment if you have questions about my reasoning for the current tiers. Many more posts to come!

My "subject to change" UMVC3 Tier list

2012-02-18T05:24:00.000-08:00

So this is MY tier list, not your tier list, not what Justin Wong said, but my own thoughts that I can not be wrong on cause MY tier list is 100% accurate for ME, not for you. I put the best of the tier first, but it's hard to say in the B and C tiers. Yes, I think Zero is better than Wesker.

S: Zero, Wesker

A: Spencer, Dormammu, Skrull, Wolverine, Taskmaster, Dante, Felicia, Hulk

B: Phoenix, Dr. Doom, Hawkeye, C. Viper, Virgil, Morrigan, Strider, Magneto, Amaterasu, Ryu, Nova, Akuma, X-23, Trish, Deadpool, Captain America, Frank West, Sentinel, Nemesis, Jill, Firebrand

C: Chun-Li, Spiderman, Viewtiful Joe, Rocket Raccoon, Storm, Dr. Strange, Ghost Rider, Iron Fist, Iron Man, Shuma, Hsien-Ko, Tron

D: Chris, M.O.D.O.K., Arthur

Well, I hope I didn't forget anyone. Remember, this is my tier list, not the agreed upon list (if that even ever exists in a fighting game.) I'll go over some things I was thinkin' while making this in my next post.

Winners of Cross Assault

2012-02-18T04:10:00.000-08:00

The Winners have been announced

If you haven't heard yet, the winners of the competitve fighting game online reality show, "Cross Assault", have been announced. Among the people that I'm most excited about are Dr. Sub-Zero for team Street Fighter and Tasty Steve for team Tekken. I know most new players don't even know who Dr. Sub-Zero AKA Rockefeller is. He was the best Urien in America when he played Street Fighter 3: 3rd Strike in his prime. On top of that, he has to be one of the best commentators I've ever heard and I'm so upset that he didn't commentate for any of the new fighting games. His 3s (third strike) commentary was very R rated and with on the spot wit that is only rivaled by stand up comedians, IMO. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if one day he decides to do comedy and makes it big. His self-loathing style is too funny to miss out on. Trust me, after this show, everyone will know who Dr. Sub-Zero is, especially the girls on the show that are gonna have to take all of his triple x humor.

The other person I'm excited about is Tasty Steve because he's a friend of mine. He used to live in St.Louis and play a lot of Tekken and Guilty Gear so he's much more OG than the Wednesday Night Fight stream tends to make him look. I remember when he was about to leave STL sayin, "Man, I'm gonna be at every WNF, believe me man, I'm gonna be all over that shit." Sure enough, as soon as Steve got out there, he's already commentating with James Chen and Ultra David. I was pretty nervous for him at first and I was thinking, okay Steve, just be you and say all the funny ass shit you usually say. Once Steve felt comfortable (didn't take long) his tounge started flying and he was making Ultra David and James Chen laugh so hard, you could hear them blowin their mics out trying to catch their breath. The stream chat then blows up with LOL's. After thirty minutes, people wanted more and more Steve, and I knew he was an instant legend. However, Steve isn't just a commentator, he's a solid player too. Regardless of who wins the show, I hope to see Steve become a top player at this game. He's got an EVO champ on his team, I hope he picks the shit outta KOR's brain. GOOD LUCK STEVE!!!

UMVC3 Top Tier Discussion - Wesker or Zero?

2012-02-14T01:58:00.001-08:00

If you have been watching any tournament stream of UMVC3 lately, you've noticed Wesker getting picked a crap-ton. Of course Wesker is top tier, no one is arguing that, but is he the best character in the game?
I've been playing Wesker since the early days of vanilla. He's got that natural fighting game feeling to him; good low medium, easy bread and butter combos, and good damage potential off of any touch or throw. His gun and teleport give him a zoning and mix-up game, although he rely's on an assist to really make his teleport mix-up game shine.

I've always hated playing against Zero. He's a damn walking sword, how are you supposed to beat his jump H? On top of his great buster shot, he can cancel in and out of it. This basically means that he is his own assist. For example, Zero can do M SRK in the air, immediately cancel into buster shot, then L SRK. This shuts down the opponents ability to jump while also allowing for a cross up that can lead into a full life combo with only 1 meter. Wesker needs an assist to get the cross up mix up and a reset to kill a character with 1 meter. Wesker on the other hand has the best level 3 X-factor in the game, almost like a psuedo vanilla dark phoenix without the meter requirement.

Overall it comes down to easy execution. In this early stage of the game, Wesker is picked a lot more because it's simply easier to pull off a 3 character reverse OCV with X-factor 3 Wesker than it is to pull of 3 lightning loop full life combos with Zero. However, I predict that we will see a lot of Zero players once everyone catches along to how powerful his mix-ups are. As with all fighting games, execution becomes less and less of a barrier as time passes.

Overall, after playing both characters pretty heavily, I have to give it to Zero. Even with his lower life, Zero is still the better character. His offense comes from many different angles in the air, a place many charcters have trouble controlling effectively. On top of his aerial attacks, he doesn't require an assist to create opportunities, unlike Wesker. Another good reason for Zero being above Wesker is because the match-up is in Zero's favor. Wesker has to predict when Zero is going to land to set-up a mix-up situation or Wesker can go for a risky air grab. Zero on the other hand can dodge gunshots easily by staying where he functions best, the air, and still lives after most Wesker combos, an unusual occurance for Zero against many characters because of his low health. To top it all off, Zero's incoming character mix-up with buster shot into air L SRK (lightning) is such a safe, brain dead mix-up, I wonder why any Zero player would do anything else on an incoming character.

FGTV live stream Impressions

2012-02-13T03:05:00.003-08:00

So I've been watching the FGTV Live stream lately and what I predicted has pretty much happened already. I thought it would take like a few months for Ricky Ortiz to get on everyone else's level in Marvel, but I was proven wrong.

Ricky was beating champ about sixty percent of the matches and Filipino champ was using both his Phoenix and Dorm teams. Champ was being such a baby about losing, calling Ricky, the newer player, cheap whenver Champ is the one using herp derp dark phoenix. It shows how far behind champ is in the whole phiosophy of fighting games. He will keep hovering around top sixteen until he learns to calm down and act his age.

I also recently saw a fake cross assault audition for filipino champ that shows how annoying he can be. He says Kazunoko is a bitch, MOV should stick to third strike, and RF being real free. I thought he acted that way because he wanted to be entertaining like a pro wrestler might do, but I think he isn't acting, his real personality is so childish... it's sad. I feel bad for champ, he's like an annoying fat kid that you want cheer on to get better, but he never matures or raises his skill level. He's one of the new school players that have no idea what 2d fighting games are really all about. If he hung around the Nebraska Crew and acted that way, he wouldn't be a pro fighting game player cause they'd would kick the shit outta him everytime he came into the arcade.

Fighting Game TV, A live stream of fighting games 24/7

2012-02-06T20:12:00.000-08:00

If you don't know already, four of the Fighting Game Community's (FGC) best players are living together and streaming all of their action here. The players are Filipino Champ, Shady K, Ricky Ortiz, and PR Balrog. While they are all great players, I'm excited to see Ricky Ortiz level up in UMVC3 because from the limited matches I've seen him play, he's got great potential. If he and PR rog play a lot of marvel, I predict that Ricky will become one of the top players at the game, consistently getting top 8 or ,dare I say it, top 3 at all tournaments he enters. I believe that Shady K and Ricky O. will gain the most from this since filipino and PR are already well known at both popular games. Even though Shady K is great at marvel, I think he'll gain a lot from playing PR rog. Maybe I'm totally wrong, but I hope this stream is on all day all night, because I'm sure that there will always be at least one of them playing something. Now I don't have to watch peacefuljay or SRKlive anymore.

The playability of new fighting games

2012-02-06T13:45:00.000-08:00

I want to play them, but will these games last in the FGC?

As more and more fighting games get released, trying to score on the comeback of fighting games since SFIV reopened up the market, it gets hard to tell which ones I should practice and play competitively. For example, I hate Mortal Kombat. Ever since the beginning of the series, I thought it was a cheap way to try to make money off of the 2d fighting game. Controls are clunky, animations aren't fluid, and the selling point is the gore; not the actual mind game you and another player have. Of course you can make any video game competitive, so there are gonna be MK heads saying there was mind games in whatever MK iteration. But the designers have no idea what makes a good fighting game, they don't even know basic fighting game terminology, they just copy pasted what they saw in other games but added blood.

So, when MK9 came out with a huge $10,000 tournament to stir up competitive play, I was reluctant. I had many top players say the game was good, but this was still too early in my opinion to rate the game on a competitive level. After it seemed to be getting notoriety in the fighting game community, I gamefly'd it, felt the clunkiness, weird hit-box animation, and the bad load times. I sent that shit back, don't care if people are playing it competitively, it plays too slow and jagged. As I continued to spread hate of MK9 I found that people started developing distaste for the game. The reason being, all the fucking patches. MK9 uses a system where the game patches its bugs and overpowered characters with ONLINE ONLY patches. Meaning if you go to a tournament and you can't plug in every console to XBL or PSN, you will have to play the un-patched version. On top of that, patches get released often enough to where you wouldn't want to learn a good character cause he or she is bound to get nerfed. The FGC (fighting game community) has since had problems with MK9 and it's dying in popularity as it should. This verify's that my decision to not play it was a smart one. I invested my time in other fighting games and if I had spend time on MK9, I most likely wouldn't have placed in the tournaments I've been at recently.

This brings me to my point of this post. What is the point of buying KOFXIII and Soul CaliburV if I think those games are going to die out after their initial popularity? KOF and SC are definitely better than MK, but is it worth the time to spend learning these games at a competitive level? Especially when the level of skill in UMVC3 and SFIV 2012 are getting higher, why waste time with games that haven't proven themselves worthy to be a long term fighting game? KOF has it's fan base, pretty much everywhere but US. I think the game looks great, and I've been fiendin' for a real 2d fighting game, but I just don't see the point in spending my time on something I don't think will last, KOF has always seemed to lose interest after 6 months or so. I hope it changes for KOF and SC, I hope they are played for years to come, but until then, I'll be workin on my UMVC3 Dr. Strange team.

What do you guys think about newer fighting games and their expected lifetime?

Cross Assault Video Contest.... Worth even applying?

2012-02-03T19:23:00.000-08:00

Online Reality Show

If you haven't heard there's going to be an online fighting game show, kind of like "The Ultimate Fighter" on SpikeTV. There will be two teams, one Tekken team and the other Street Fighter. You can submit your video to apply for the show. But I've been wondering....

I wonder if there will actually be anybody that isn't well known that gets chosen for the Street Fighter X Tekken Online reality show. I wonder why they even asked for submissions if most people are just gonna be top tournament placers anyways.

If unknowns do end up on the show, I'll probably regret not applying.

Competitive Fighting Game Critique Guy

2012-01-30T02:09:00.000-08:00

I decided to make a blog to just talk about what I think is right and wrong about fighting games on a competitive level. I'll probably end up talkin about other video games that kick ass as well.

I guess I should say why I think I'm qualified to talk about this in general. I live where there is no top level competition for fighting games but I've been to japan four times and played Third Strike with the best of the best at Gamers Vision arcade and the same for SFIV. I've gone to one real major and that was Final Round in ATL a long time ago. My brother and I placed second and third behind Justin Wong in 3s. I've won a lot of local tournaments in my area, but those don't really matter do they? I may not have been to many majors lately, but that's because I don't like being a room with 299 guys for a whole weekend where winning the tournament wouldn't pay for the hotel and ticket out there. I've been to three Evo's but all before SFIV. I've been to SBO too. I've got family on east and west coast so I've gotten to play at Familiy Fun Arcade and Denjin and at hookups all over the east coast. My views are old and stubborn, because I've been around the scene for a while. I don't play much but online anymore, but I can still hang with the best in the Midwest whenever I do make a trip.

So, first of all, I'd like to talk about the gap between new school and old school players. New school is anything from SFIV vanilla and on. New school players are very different than old school players in that their fundamentals come from SFIV while old school fundamentals come from, usually, SF2 series. The most glaring difference this creates is preciseness of timing execution. In most 2d fighting games, especially sf2, there were constantly situations where timing inputs was much better than mashing them out. With the leeway given in SFIV's reversal timing and the length of the option select crouch tech window, SFIV has mostly ruled out this precision of timing a player needed back in the 2d age, with the exception of frame traps in SFIV. This makes defense feel very strong in the game when you can mash reversals in the middle of someone's block string. This forces the game to be played at a defensive level most of the time, especially with the safe reversals with 2 bars and the invincible backdashes. You lose a lot of the in your face, fast paced decision making you would get in a more offensive based fighting game like Third Strike.

Also, another big problem is that combo's in SFIV are too hard. Trust me, I'm all about hard combos, I practice the hardest combo's for fun but bread and butter combos are usually inefficiently too hard. For example, Rufus's bread and butter requires a tough link of lk to hp, which is easier if plinked and doesn't seem to be missed too often by most good Rufus's, but it still doesn't mean it makes sense, especially when you think about the reversal timing the defending player has where he can just uppercut or SPD through a very hard timing link. 3s didn't really have hard bread and butter combo's. I mean, think about how often Daigo misses his Ryu forward fierce into low fierce SFIV combo. It's not that often but it's way more often than he has missed a combo with Ken in 3s. 3s had easier timing on bread and butter combo's but harder timing on where it really mattered and made it fun, defense. You couldn't just mash throw tech while crouching, that's too easy for 3s. You had to predict the opponents timing in order to parry, and actually react to throws instead of crouch tech option selecting all day.

What I'm trying to get at here is that new school players really don't know what a good fighting game feels like and I feel bad for them for that. It's weird when I hear a new school player say they really really like SFIV. I wish they could feel what the 2d fighting games felt like, how adaptive and strategic they felt. The spacing, timing, and strategy in games like ST, CvS2, and 3s have a totally different feel than SFIV. It makes me realize, I've lost a lot against top level players in both 3s and SFIV, but I most definitely felt outplayed in 3s a lot more often than I felt outplayed in SFIV. Probably because I'd lose half my life getting reversal ultra'd in the middle of middle of my post-stun, 1-frame link combo.

Well, that's pretty damn long for a first blog post. Until next time check my vids @

My Youtube channel
My TwitchTV channel

- RoBoT

This Privacy Policy governs the manner in which Fighting Game Critique Guy collects, uses, maintains and discloses information collected from users (each, a "User") of the robotshekeib.blogspot.com website ("Site"). This privacy policy applies to the Site and all products and services offered by Fighting Game Critique Guy.

Personal identification information

We may collect personal identification information from Users in a variety of ways in connection with activities, services, features or resources we make available on our Site.. Users may visit our Site anonymously. We will collect personal identification information from Users only if they voluntarily submit such information to us. Users can always refuse to supply personally identification information, except that it may prevent them from engaging in certain Site related activities.

Non-personal identification information

We may collect non-personal identification information about Users whenever they interact with our Site. Non-personal identification information may include the browser name, the type of computer and technical information about Users means of connection to our Site, such as the operating system and the Internet service providers utilized and other similar information.

Web browser cookies

Our Site may use "cookies" to enhance User experience. User's web browser places cookies on their hard drive for record-keeping purposes and sometimes to track information about them. User may choose to set their web browser to refuse cookies, or to alert you when cookies are being sent. If they do so, note that some parts of the Site may not function properly.

How we use collected information

Fighting Game Critique Guy collects and uses Users personal information for the following purposes:

- To personalize user experience
We may use information in the aggregate to understand how our Users as a group use the services and resources provided on our Site.
- To improve our Site
We continually strive to improve our website offerings based on the information and feedback we receive from you.
- To improve customer service
Your information helps us to more effectively respond to your customer service requests and support needs.
- To process transactions
We may use the information Users provide about themselves when placing an order only to provide service to that order. We do not share this information with outside parties except to the extent necessary to provide the service.
- To share your information with third parties
We may share or sell information with third parties for marketing or other purposes.
- To administer a content, promotion, survey or other Site feature
To send Users information they agreed to receive about topics we think will be of interest to them.
- To send periodic emails
The email address Users provide for order processing, will only be used to send them information and updates pertaining to their order. It may also be used to respond to their inquiries, and/or other requests or questions. If User decides to opt-in to our mailing list, they will receive emails that may include company news, updates, related product or service information, etc. If at any time the User would like to unsubscribe from receiving future emails, we include detailed unsubscribe instructions at the bottom of each email or User may contact us via our Site.

How we protect your information

We adopt appropriate data collection, storage and processing practices and security measures to protect against unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure or destruction of your personal information, username, password, transaction information and data stored on our Site.

Google Adsense

Some of the ads may be served by Google. Google's use of the DART cookie enables it to serve ads to Users based on their visit to our Site and other sites on the Internet. DART uses "non personally identifiable information" and does NOT track personal information about you, such as your name, email address, physical address, etc. You may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy at http://www.google.com/privacy_ads.html

Changes to this privacy policy

Fighting Game Critique Guy has the discretion to update this privacy policy at any time. When we do, we will post a notification on the main page of our Site. We encourage Users to frequently check this page for any changes to stay informed about how we are helping to protect the personal information we collect. You acknowledge and agree that it is your responsibility to review this privacy policy periodically and become aware of modifications.

Your acceptance of these terms

By using this Site, you signify your acceptance of this policy. If you do not agree to this policy, please do not use our Site. Your continued use of the Site following the posting of changes to this policy will be deemed your acceptance of those changes.

Contacting us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, the practices of this site, or your dealings with this site, please contact us at:
Fighting Game Critique Guy
robotshekeib.blogspot.com

This document was last updated on February 05, 2012