-
Esports
Mew2King Wins Smash Invitational, Can’t Believe It
Jason “Mew2King” is a legendary Super Smash Bros. Melee player with not one but two eras of dominance. His competitive results in 2007-2008 and 2013-2014 are a litany of first-place finishes, with some streaks stretching for months at a time. And while he has continued to be a regular sight in tournament play, these kinds…
By Ian Walker -
Esports
Hawaii’s Big Island Is Building A Fighting Game Community From The Ground Up
The fighting game community has never been as expansive as it is right now. Just a few years ago, it would have been impossible for players from regions like the Caribbean and the Middle East, for instance, to make a name for themselves on the global stage. Despite the explosion of popularity driven by the…
By Ian Walker -
Esports
Bayonetta Dance-Off Backfires During Crucial Super Smash Bros. Match
Bayonetta might be too strong to live forever as a Super Smash Bros. character, but she’s been a fantastic addition to the cast for at least one reason: players have a ton of fun with her, sometimes even at their own expense. At last weekend’s Glitch 4 tournament, notable Bayonetta players Zack “CaptainZack” Lauth and…
By Ian Walker -
Esports
Pokkén Tournament Competitors Flew In Two People Who Ended Up Beating Them
A Pokkén Tournament event at SwitchFest in California crowdfunded travel for two internationally elite competitors, Tsubasa “CrossIgarashi” Igarashi of Japan and José Manuel “XAbsoluted“ Sanjuán Carreño of Spain. Curiously, it wasn’t just fans and spectators supporting these players, but also their direct competition. Like much of the community, Allister Singh—a high-level player from California that…
By Ian Walker -
Esports
Even In A Fursuit, SonicFox Keeps Winning Fighting Game Tournaments
Keeping his promise from two weeks ago, Dominique “SonicFox” McLean showed up to the Clutch 2018 fighting game tournament last weekend in a custom-made fursuit. Naturally, he continued to kick everyone’s asses. As a member of the furry community—a broad subculture built on a common interest in anthropomorphized animals—SonicFox’s attire served as the ultimate representation…
By Ian Walker -
Esports
This BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle Comeback Is Incredibly Dumb
Over the past few months, Arc System Works has been traveling the globe and showing off its next fighting game, BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle. Competitors have had a chance to try out the game before its May 31 release, which also means they’ve had a chance to produce footage where they abuse the upcoming title’s…
By Ian Walker -
EsportsCrossfire Tournament Proves Fighting Game Fans Will Play Anything Competitively
This weekend, a fighting game tournament called Michigan Masters wrapped up an expansive event in Farmington Hills. In addition to Dragon Ball FighterZ, Street Fighter V, Tekken 7, and over 20 other fighting games, a dark corner of the venue played host to a physical board game known as Crossfire The entirety of my Crossfire…
By Ian Walker -
Esports
SonicFox Completely Switched Out His Dragon Ball FighterZ Lineup, And It Worked
After a few weeks away, Dominique “SonicFox” McLean returned to New York City’s weekly Next Level Battle Circuit tournament series Wednesday night for a bit of Dragon Ball FighterZ competition. The king of fighting games had taken a few recent losses to rival Goichi “GO1″ Kishida, and was ready to throw down with a new…
By Ian Walker -
Esports
Tekken 7 Competitor Gets So Mad He Has To Spike Someone Else’s Controller
A recent Tekken 7 exhibition ended in carnage as the match’s loser trashed multiple peripherals in a hilariously childish display of anger. Body Count Fighting is a Southern California-based operation that brings together some of the best fighting game players in the competitive community for slick show matches at the Machinima studios. Last week, competitors…
By Ian Walker -
Esports
Persona 4 Arena Player Wins Tournament In The Flashiest Way Possible
Over the weekend, Anime Ascension hosted several anime-styled fighting game tournaments. Although Persona 4 Arena Ultimax was was relegated to side tournament status in favor of newer games, its ending was one of the most exciting moments of the entire event. Based on the role-playing game of the same name, Persona 4 Arena Ultimax takes…
By Ian Walker -
Esports
Injustice 2‘s New Tutorial Mode Is Unusually Clear For A Fighting Game
Picking up a fighting game is never easy, and few releases do anything to help new players acclimate to the genre. The developers behind Injustice 2 are hoping to buck that trend in its latest revision with something they call the Learn Hub. When Injustice 2 launched in May 2017, it included a bare-bones tutorial…
By Ian Walker -
Esports
Dragon Ball FighterZ Shows Its Versus DNA With The Discovery Of Infinite Combos
Despite using a different property, Dragon Ball FighterZ is probably the closest thing that fighting games have to a true Versus title at the moment. These ties recently became even more apparent with the discovery of infinite combos. These infinite combos, or strings of attacks that can continue indefinitely, first started popping up on social…
By Ian Walker -
EsportsMajor Fighting Game Tournament Completes Its Final Round
In a lengthy announcement, Final Round tournament organizer Larry “Shin Blanka” Dixon revealed that the flagship event series will come to an end. After two decades, the fighting game community has lost one of its most prominent competitive arenas. When Dixon took to Facebook after wrapping up the twentieth installment of Final Round this past…
By Ian Walker -
Esports
Weak Pokémon Evolves Thanks To Possible Pokkén Tournament Bug
Croagunk is the closest thing the Pokémon fighting game Pokkén Tournament has to the prototypical fighting game joke character, but the character’s stock rose dramatically over the weekend when a player discovered something new about its Gunk Shot. Some of Croagunk’s most important skills involve randomness: its most versatile attack throws out several beneficial items, but…
By Ian Walker -
Esports
BlazBlue Producer Is Wrong About Why Japanese Players Dominate His Games
During a recent press event, Arc System Works chief development officer Toshimichi Mori sat down to discuss his team’s next fighting game, BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle. The upcoming release’s simple controls, he said, are a way to make the game more accessible to newcomers as well as Western competitors who can’t keep up with their…
By Ian Walker -
Esports
Dragon Ball FighterZ‘s Magical Wish-Granting Dragon Actually Made A Tournament Appearance
A recent Dragon Ball FighterZ event saw one competitor summon Shenron, the manga and anime series’ wish-granting dragon deity, during a tournament match. Despite being right there in the game’s name, the Dragon Ball orbs aren’t a common sight in competition. The mechanic required to activate them is complicated—Dragon Ball FighterZ players can acquire these…
By Ian Walker -
Esports
Someone Finally Beat SonicFox In Dragon Ball FighterZ, But He Won The Tournament Anyway
Dominique “SonicFox” McLean is the greatest fighting game player of the modern era, and was at the height of his powers in Philadelphia this past weekend. The twelfth and final installment of the Winter Brawl event series attracted over 700 competitors, 316 of which made the trip to compete in Dragon Ball FighterZ. SonicFox was…
By Ian Walker -
Esports
Street Fighter‘s Pro Tour Keeps Squeezing Out Its Middle Class
Over the past few years, Capcom Pro Tour has evolved from the collection of direct qualifiers organized for the Street Fighter 25th Anniversary Tournament in 2012 to something much more inclusive. In order to ensure global representation at Capcom Cup, leaderboards were established in four distinct regions—North America, Asia, Europe, and Latin America—allowing players from…
By Ian Walker -
EsportsMarvel vs. Capcom: Infinite Belongs To The Fighting Game Community Now
Last week, the Evolution Championship Series announced the main lineup for its 2018 event won’t include Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite; I was able to confirm just a few days later that the game will also be left off this year’s Capcom Pro Tour. These developments have left Marvel vs. Capcom on life support and its…
By Ian Walker -
EsportsFighting Game Tutorial Is Brutally Honest
Last week, Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st] (yes, that’s its real name) found its way to PlayStation 4. Despite working with a smaller budget, this obscure anime fighter does a much better job teaching newcomers about the genre than most major releases. Its greatest accomplishment, however, is not sugar-coating the truth: you simply aren’t good enough…
By Ian Walker
Ian Walker
Ian Walker's posts