Ian Walker

Dragon Ball FighterZ Players Are Riding Vegeta Hard, For Now

Dragon Ball FighterZ has been out for less than a month, so strategies are still percolating in the competitive fighting game community. Here’s an emerging one: use Vegeta. At a recent Japanese event, every finalist’s team was anchored by the franchise’s chief anti-hero. Assist characters—a team member that’s chosen solely for the power of their…

Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite Won’t Be On The Capcom Pro Tour

Things just keep getting worse for Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite. Just days after the game was publicly snubbed by the Evolution Championship Series, Compete has learned that the latest installment of the storied Marvel vs. Capcom franchise won’t receive the same support as its sibling, Street Fighter V Capcom Pro Tour was established by the…

Punk Destroys Street Fighter V Rival, Tells Him To ‘Know Your Place In This World’

The only true way to resolve a trivial spat in the fighting game community is by squashing the disagreement in-game, with the defeated opponent getting trash talk rained upon them after. Victor “Punk” Woodley is a relative newcomer to the world of fighting game competition, but he’s quickly risen from the ranks of trash-talking netplay…

Multiple Fighting Game Tournaments Ban Competitor After Woman Says He Beat And Raped Her

Andre “OmGiTzAndre” Howard was banned from multiple FGC events following 2015 accusations

BlazBlue Comeback Reversed In Stunning Fashion At Evo Japan

The Evolution Championship Series (colloquially “Evo”) wrapped up its first trip to Japan last weekend. It was full of incredible moments highlighting the best of competitive fighting games, including a mind-blowing moment during the BlazBlue: Central Fiction tournament that saw one entrant completely reverse his fortunes in an extremely dire circumstance. As the BlazBlue bracket…

A Haywire Street Fighter V Character Could Run Amok At Evo Japan

Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition players recently discovered a serious bug that makes one of the game’s most powerful characters almost unstoppable, which could have serious consequences with the inaugural Evo Japan on the horizon. The bug’s simplicity belies its severity. By combining his V-Skill armor, which gives him the ability to shrug off one…

The Death And Resurrection Of The Fighting Game Community’s Most Beloved Message Board

The last few weeks have been a turbulent time for Shoryuken, the world’s leading fighting game website, and full disclosure, my former employer. After the outlet’s owners announced plans to shutter their message boards, the competitive community was sent into a frenzy, worried what the move meant for the future of genre discussion. And while…

Regulators In The Philippines Continue To Tighten The Screws On Esports

Competitive gaming in the Philippines was dealt another serious blow after the recent signing of a resolution by the country’s Games and Amusement Board (GAB). In addition to mandatory drug testing for THC and methamphetamines, the resolution will require esports events to ensure all participants are officially licensed by the state as well as share…

Fighting Game Legend Plays Street Fighter And Vampire Savior At His Wedding

The people who actually get married at a wedding have so much to do—write the vows, master the cadence of the walk to the altar, personally greet everyone in attendance—that it leaves a miniscule amount of time to really take in the whole affair. One iconic fighting game competitor, however, felt it was important to…

Two Japanese Guilty Gear Stars Shit-Talked Their Way Back Into The Spotlight

Fighting game veteran Daigo Umehara hosted a series of high-level exhibitions earlier this week as part of his new Kemonomichi event series, and one matchup became the perfect opportunity for two stars with personal grudges to settle their differences in Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2 While trash talk is a regular part of the fighting…

Xavier Woods’ Most Successful Tag Team Effort Last Weekend Was At A Windjammers Tournament

Xavier Woods and his WWE tag team may have failed to regain the tag titles in the squared circle at last weekend’s Clash of Champions, but Woods fared much better a few days before in some 2-on-2 Windjammers competition. The superstar jumped into the Northeast Championship fighting game tournament and, with his trademark hype levels,…

10-Year-Old Street Fighter Prodigy Pops Off On Daigo’s Show

The future of Street Fighter depends on its newcomers, many of whom come up as children that simply play fighting games for fun. One such kid, a 10-year-old named Asuna, made an appearance on Daigo Umehara’s live stream last week to test her burgeoning Street Fighter V skills. During her visit to the BeasTV set,…

The argument against the ever-controversial Bayonetta in Super Smash Bros. popped up during WWE’s Clash of Champions event last night. The same person with that sign also pushed the idea that it’s time King Dedede received some improvements Ian Walker loves fighting games and writing about them. You can find him on Twitter at @iantothemax

After A Decade Away, 31-Year-Old Tekken Pro Is Back On Top

Ten years ago, Byeong-mun “Qudans” Son was one of the strongest Tekken Tag Tournament and Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection players on the planet. But professional esports was different then, and in 2007, Qudans largely stepped away from competition as he pursued an education and satisfied South Korea’s requirement of mandatory military service. It wasn’t until…

Marvel vs. Capcom Pulls Attention From Ugly Characters With Ugly Select Screen

Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite showed up to today’s release party with a lopsided character select screen. Infinite’s latest update bolstered the playable cast to include Winter Soldier, Black Widow, and Venom earlier today. They join previous fighters Black Panther, Sigma, and Monster Hunter to comprise the game’s first roster expansion. Those familiar with the two…

DotEmu and Smash.gg have partnered to organize a $10,000 competitive circuit for Windjammers, the intense disc-throwing arcade game that received a PlayStation 4 port last summer. Flying Power League’s first stop is Northeast Championship in Pennsylvania later this month.

Smash Player Hopes To Go The Distance In Melee‘s Home Run Contest

Mike “Typo” Bassett, the devoted Super Smash Bros. Melee player who continues to shatter distance ceilings in the title’s Home Run Contest mini-game, recently surpassed another decade-old record, this time with Pokémon mainstay Jigglypuff. And now, with a massive goal within reach, he’s well on his way to becoming the mode’s undisputed champion. Typo knew…

Street Fighter V Champion NuckleDu Pulls Out Of Capcom Cup A Week Before Annual Event

As the Capcom Cup 2016 champion, Du “NuckleDu” Dang was automatically granted a spot at the 2017 event to defend his Street Fighter V title. But a recent announcement has thrown a wrench in that storyline, shaking up the established competitor lineup for the most important Street Fighter event of the year. Dang took to…

Tekken 7 Competition Concludes With Miraculous Comeback

The Japanese tournament Mastercup has few equals when it comes to Tekken competition, and the ninth installment of this annual event certainly lived up to its pedigree last weekend. The stunning conclusion saw one competitor singlehandedly defeat five straight opponents to earn his team a grand finals victory. Over the past few months, Tekken 7…

Justin Wong Gets Mindfucked By Six Straight Throws

This weekend brought some of the best Street Fighter V players in North America to Boston to compete in one last Pro Tour event before Capcom Cup next month. While there wasn’t a whole lot on the line for many of the attendees, the matches still proved to be fast and furious, with one notable…