Giantbomb Preview of Third Strike:Online

Read it here. One of the game's trials is to recreate the famous Daigo parry! Also, System Direction is back. This insane option mode allows you to tweak all sorts of aspects of the game system. You can turn on chain combos, air combos, air blocking, and the ability to use all three Super Arts. Essentially, you can create a whole new game with completely different rules. I wonder if they'll be any online System Direction leagues with their own specific tweaks?

See You in July!

America owns Marvel! Does Daigo even stand a chance? I don't think so, but I welcome the challenge.

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Professor Killian @ NYU

This past week, NYU's Game Center held its second annual Spring Fighter series of events. This year's endeavor was sponsored by the folks at Capcom, who were nice enough to send Seth Killian to the three-day extravaganza. Though you might be aware of the tournament portion (thanks to Team Spooky's stream) or the fact that Arcade Edition was demoed on console, Spring Fighter comprised several amazing — but less publicized — events.

The festivities began Thursday with a screening of Ian Cofino's I Got Next, a documentary about the competition and camaraderie driving the dedicated Street Fighter community. The movie was not only enjoyable for fans like myself, but also would be a great introduction for anyone unfamiliar with the fighting game community. The night concluded with a Q&A session with Seth Killian and notable fighting game player and organizer "Long Island" Joe Ciarmelli. The back-and-forth chat with the audience of about 30 people focused on community. Topics covered included online versus offline competition, how to improve your game, and how games are evolving to meet the needs of the exponentially-expanding community. Seth and Joe were frank and honest in their answers, and you could feel their honest love of the games and the community surrounding them. It was clear that this was not a PR mission; this was for the benefit of the fighting game community.

Friday's session was a lecture on game theory in fighting games by Seth Killian. Professor Killian explained how he has a fondness of dissecting how competitive games are played, dating back to his days as a poker player. You see, before he was playing Street Fighter, Seth was trained in poker by none other than 1996 World Series of Poker Main Event Champion, Huck Seed. For Seth, the transition to Street Fighter was just a natural progression. Every action in a fighting game, he said, is like a bet. You are putting yourself at risk in order to force your opponent to react. If you play wisely, your risks will pay off and your opponent's will not. To illustrate his points, Seth presented a Street Fighter 4 match between Daigo and Nemo (viewable below) and broke it down almost frame-by-frame. He had actually discussed the match with Daigo, so he was able to tell us exactly what was going through Daigo's head at any particular moment. It was a phenomenal insight into the moment-to-moment decisions made as each successive gambit was launched. Seth literally has fighting games down to a science, and he is clearly capable of communicating their allure in a very scholarly manner. After his lecture, the audience got a chance to ask questions. Just as he did the previous night, Seth truly shined during the Q&A. This session, however, focused more on the games themselves and the mechanics that make them interesting. It was once again a friendly, PR-free chat between a room full of fans and another fan — who just happened to be Seth Killian.

Seth reassured us that the fighting games we love are only going to get even better in the coming years. Despite all of the amazing games that have come and gone, he is confident that the perfect game has yet to be created. I'm proud to have Seth Killian working for us, the fans, and cannot wait to see what the future holds.

Capcom Fighting Jam Champions

From psychorarity's YouTube channel, this is the 2005 Capcom Fighting Jam championship. Daigo and Dan face off with Mago and Tokido in this forgotten game. See below for some crazy Jedah play from the semifinals.

Japan is Serious About MvC3

Daigo and now Tokido have both announced that they plan to play MvC3 competitively. Traditionally, Marvel games have been dominated by American players. Will the Japanese be able to overcome the zealous dedication of American Marvel players?

News in Brief

(and Zangief in briefs)

A few minor news items came and went recently without any mention from me, so I wanted to try to catch up with this little news-in-brief post.

• SoCal Regionals will be attended by Japanese players Daigo, Sako, Tokido. Sako is known not only for his unrivaled execution, but also for his hesitance to attend tournaments. It should be quite a treat to see him compete [SRK].
• NorCal Regionals (and now SoCal Regionals) will have playable MvC3. Will it be a new build? For the record, the ATL build was the same as NYCC build [John Choi].
• A video of Scorpion shows off some of the possible combos in MK9 [Gamespot].
• Mago continues undefeated in the latest Godsgarden Online tournament:

Filipino Champ vs Daigo

A money match from after-hours at Season's Beatings Redeption.

Stream Monsters' Ball: Season's Beatings

UPDATES: 

The stream should start at 6 P.M. (EST) tonight. The top four of every game, along with the top eight of SSF4 will be on Sunday. There is no schedule for the special events yet.

Super Street Fighter 4 has about 400 entrants.

Keits is running a SSF4 character-auction tournament tonight. Players will bid on each character in the game. The winner gets to enter the tournament with that character for the winning bid price. Each character in the game will be represented by only one player. Obviously, this will make characters like Dan, Hakan, and Makoto cheaper to play, while Bison, Chun, Balrog, and Rufus might cost a bit more. All characters compete for the same total pot. It should be really interesting, and I'm hoping it shows up on the stream.

ORIGINAL POST:

Season's Beatings: Redemption, a massive fighting game tournament, takes place this weekend, October 15-17, in Columbus, Ohio. Though known as "the Mecca of Marvel," the event features traditional tournaments and tons of special events in other games. Here's a sampling of the highlights:

• SSF2T: High-roller, $50-entry tournament, held on arcade hardware
• SSFIV: 5-on-5 featuring Team America vs. Team International
• Team America: Jwong, Arturo Sanchez, Mike Ross, Marn, Eduardo "PR Rog"
• Team International: Daigo, Momochi, Choco (Lady Blanka), Gamerbee, Starnab (French Fei)
• MvC2: Yipes vs. Chris Schmidt Grudge Match

As soon as there's a schedule, I'll post it up. Anybody interested in having a stream-viewing party?

Wildcat's Hakan vs Daigo

If you haven't yet seen Wildcat815 vs Daigo, please check it out below. Wildcat is probably the best Hakan player on the planet, and this is one intense match.

Great Makoto Play (also: Daigo)

mak11bk plays one mean Makoto. He even gets Daigo to panic. Check it out below.

Evans, the French Fei Long

Warning: The following videos feature a screaming Frenchman by the name of Ken Bogard. Un-mute at your own discretion.

I'm not posting this first video because Daigo lost. I'm posting it because of the spectacularly-played third round.

This next match is really interesting because of the battle for proper spacing. Fei and Makoto have no projectiles and are both effective from similar ranges. They both have quick dashes that they use to rapidly dance in and out of striking range. This match is like a ballet of flying fists and flaming feet. Also, it's a match-up you don't often see.

Evans actually took out Daigo's entire team in an OCV (one-character victory). You can watch the other three videos posted at Iplaywinner, if you're so inclined.

Daigo is a Guiness World Record Holder

Daigo Umehara has been recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's most successful Street Fighter player with 15 international tournament wins. He joins Justin Wong, who holds the record for most successive Street Fighter wins with 300.

Luffy Wins Super VS Battle 2010!

Super VS Battle, held in London, is Europe's biggest fighting game tournament. It's single-elimination, so anything can happen. Daigo, who played Cammy (poorly) for most of the tournament, lost to Ryan "Prodigal Son" Hart. Hart advanced to the grand finals against French Rose player Luffy, who took the championship. Check out the videos below to see how it all went down.

UltraDavid on Spacing

UltraDavid teaches fundamentals of spacing, using Daigo vs Arturo as an example:

EVO 2010 Finals In-depth Analysis

UltraDavid describes in excruciating detail a few pivotal moments from the SSF4 EVO finals, including a devious trap set by Daigo.

Daigo vs YHC Mochi

See the full match embedded below. How well can Dhalsim handle Ryu?