Forget World Cup, here comes EVO 2014!

[Udderdude]

Yeahhhhhh I'm going to trust FGC players who see Ultra as basically late beta quality over you guys, sorry. Capcom knew it wasn't ready but released it anyway.

Some of us here are part of the fgc dude lol. Oh and this:

http://www.eventhubs.com/news/2014/jul/ ... ne-update/

Doesn't a patch this soon just prove my point? The version they put out in Japanese arcades was even worse, too ..

[Icarus]

Loving the MAHVEL Finals right now. For a game that to the casual observer looks like uncontrolled chaos, there's a lot of strategy involved.
Great fights so far. Flocker, last year's champion, is eliminated - knocked out of winners by Justin, and cleared out by Chris G. The end of the dominant Zero teams?

[Icarus]

What the hell was that reaction X-Factor Shoryuken by Justin at 2-2 on F-Champ to take out both Phoenix and Doc Doom?! o_O

[mastermx]

What the hell was that reaction X-Factor Shoryuken by Justin at 2-2 on F-Champ to take out both Phoenix and Doc Doom?! o_O

Justin woooooong! Ahem, yeah that was pretty slick. Mahvel is always a pleasure to watch.

[Icarus]

Justinnnnnnnnnn!

[mastermx]

Dat roll tho. They see him rolling, they hating (especially fillipino champ)

Some real salty faces there

[iconoclast]

Every match in the SF4 top 8 is FT3

Fuudo is playing brilliantly against Snake Eyez. Near flawless spacing and excellent reactions. It's hard to even touch him.

[CMoon]

All the fei long players getting destroyed. All the Japanese gods are gone.

[mastermx]

Never realised how incredibly strong rose is. She's been buffed consistently through out all the versions. I wonder if bon chan can pull through with the nerfed sag.

[iconoclast]

Grand final hype: Bonchan vs. Louffy. I honestly didn't think Louffy would make it this far but he's been playing incredibly well. I'm still pulling for Bonchan, but I think this match will be tough for him. (Then again I don't know shit about Sagat vs. Rose)

[mastermx]

Bonchan out played loufy imo, I can see the balance issues udderdude was talking about. Sagat has to work so hard for a little damage. I'm surprised bonchan done so well given the match up.


Fun evo nonetheless. Good times.

[iconoclast]

What really killed Bonchan imo is how quickly Rose is able to generate her Super meter. It's as if he almost always had it ready to completely blow Bonchan up. Plus Bonchan made some mistakes in the first few matches by trying to sit back and screw Louffy up with the fireball game. By the time he realized that wasn't going to work and that he needed to play more aggressive, he was already behind. Rose's Ultra also completely shuts any momentum down, so it seems like a really tough match for Sagat. But regardless, all of the matches in the top 8 were great. Even the complete blowouts were extremely interesting to watch. Now I just need a webm of that fucking challenge mode combo that Sako busted out on Ricky.

Anyway, BlazBlue and SF4 were easily the highlights of EVO for me. Injustice and Smash were boring, but everything else was either fine or good. Looking forward to next year!

And next week I've got the Dragon Gate PPV and the G1 Climax to look forward to, so this is one hell of a month for fans of fake fighting.

[brokenhalo]

Bonchan out played loufy imo, I can see the balance issues udderdude was talking about. Sagat has to work so hard for a little damage. I'm surprised bonchan done so well given the match up.


Fun evo nonetheless. Good times.

Luffy is probably the only rose player who could make that sagat matchup look so lop-sided. It's really not that bad for sagat. Luffy just played out of his mind today. Very happy to see his years of hard work finally pay off.

[Cagar]

BlazBlue and SF4 rocked hard.

Luffy was extremely good, and I was somewhat disappoint in Bonchan.
Some things he just refused to learn during the match, he must've been tired.

I feel that the overall skill-level of the players is still getting higher and higher. The matches felt much more energetic and solid than before.

[Blinge]

God damnit hungrybox >=[

I'll break down those smash finals for anyone that cares

So Hungrybox (Jigglypuff player) hasn't been able to beat Armada for years, Armada played Young Link in losers finals because he developed that playstyle specifically to counter Hungrybox. Armada is godlike with Peach but the Jigglypuff matchup is very bad for her.

Beating Armada was a huge personal victory for Hbox, which is probably why he was so pleased in the ceremony.

I (along with every other smash fan probably) wanted to see Mango vs Armada in GFs instead because seeing them two clash is really hype, international rivalry n'all; Armada from Sweden. They've met in GFs a few times this year already and it's always been explosive. He had a much greater chance of taking out Mango, but alas.

Also: that special message from Reggie made me vomit a bit in my mouth..

[Icarus]

Now I just need a webm of that fucking challenge mode combo that Sako busted out on Ricky.

I was just barely awake for that one, but it was hilarious, Evil Ryu was just repeatedly stomping on Rufus for 10+sec. The ultimate in tournament-time disrespect. Ricky was already dizzy, it was like Sako was rubbing it in.
Seth's commentary makes it funnier.

A bit fuzzy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GemR8R_6Wd4#t=500

[Lord Satori]

That smash tournament was ridiculous. The same four or five characters out of a cast of about 20 or so gets boring after awhile. Though I understand why they stuck with the same stages (but why did they keep going to the random stage menu when they weren't even fucking using it?!) because there's only so many stages that don't have a hazard of some kind.

[Blinge]

Yep. All but 7 of the stages are banned. it's not because of hazards so much, it's because the other ones strongly favour certain characters and allow for some real BS to occur.
They went to the random stage menu because they were doing stage striking: you rockpaperscissors for first pick, then loser picks the stage for the other matches. It's counterpicking for a reason, for example; Pokemon Stadium is a great stage for fox because it has a low ceiling and his up-smash can kill people earlier off the top of that stage.

There's about 8 top tier characters iirc, so like any game those top tiers will see heaviest use, especially in finals.

[Lord Satori]

So they weren't like the brawl scrubs and banned them (you know who I'm talking about)? I suppose that's a good thing.

[Blinge]

Not sure I've understood you correctly but:

All but 7 of the stages are banned.

Stage picking out of those 7 is still done per match according to each players' strategy or whim.
There is a rule that allows a banned stage but both players have to agree to go there.

If you're talking about character bans or the brawl community banning Metaknight before: there's no characters banned in Melee.

Forgive me if i come across as a fanboy, i'm just trying to provide context or explain those aspects of the game that attract criticism

[CMoon]

What I find so interesting about balance issues is that they didn't really play out the way it was predicted in that article Cagar posted:

http://www.4gamer.net/games/225/G022539 ... SS/001.jpg

Assuming this is gospel (which it probably isn't), you do see how Sagat has moved down a tier, but we can also see how a lot of the other characters in the same tier were very competitive (Guile, Gen, Ryu). What it even more interesting though was that of all the upper tier characters, the only one that made it to top 8 was Fei-long.

Being only the most casual of player, I can't make any deep analysis about it, but if last night represents the highest level play, I'm left wondering how much these tiers actually matter. Still amazed by Snake Eyes who got so far even when it seemed like Zangief had no real options.

[Cagar]

Snake eyes became my favorite player last night

[Zapperkhan]

Felt like every match Louffy was able to take control of the pace and then just imposed his will. Fuudo did really well vs Rose and showed outstanding footsies in previous matches, but Louffy just played so damn well. I'm loving seeing all the newer faces. Seems like a lot more Japanese arcade players were in attendance.

[Doctor Butler]

[Squire Grooktook]

The same four or five characters out of a cast of about 20

Sorta like every other fighting game at high level?

[BulletMagnet]

Luffy just played out of his mind today.

My favorite part of that story was that he apparently did it with a PS1 controller, of all things.

[Lord Satori]

What I find so interesting about balance issues is that they didn't really play out the way it was predicted in that article Cagar posted:

http://www.4gamer.net/games/225/G022539 ... SS/001.jpg

Assuming this is gospel (which it probably isn't), you do see how Sagat has moved down a tier, but we can also see how a lot of the other characters in the same tier were very competitive (Guile, Gen, Ryu). What it even more interesting though was that of all the upper tier characters, the only one that made it to top 8 was Fei-long.

Being only the most casual of player, I can't make any deep analysis about it, but if last night represents the highest level play, I'm left wondering how much these tiers actually matter. Still amazed by Snake Eyes who got so far even when it seemed like Zangief had no real options.

Getting a forbidden error whenever I try to access that image.

[Skykid]

USFIV Grandfinal was tight.

Louffy's timing was a technical feat, sharp as a razorblade. I'm liking USFIV's new juggle options, just wondering when we're going to get it here, the SF arcade crowd is starving for it.

[headmasterritual]

I was rooting for Dogura, but the BB grand finals were still incredible. Amazing stuff.

[CMoon]

Getting a forbidden error whenever I try to access that image.

Here's the original article (again, posted by Cagar); the tier image is on page 2.

http://www.4gamer.net/games/225/G022539/20140704102/