The fighting game community takes a big pit stop this week in the land of Lady Bird.
This weekend’s NorCal Regionals features all the basic fighting game staples you would want, from Street Fighter and Tekken to ARMS. After Infiltration’s win at Final Round with Menat, I really want to see if he can keep the streak going faced with even stiffer competition.
Personally though, I’m just hoping he breaks out his Juri a little more often too. While I’ve followed the games for years, I still mark Infilitration’s Evo set against GamerBee in Ultra Street Fighter IV as the moment I got hooked on the fighting game scene. Infiltration’s Juri was a big part of that, watching the way he moved and zoned, adapted and reacted throughout the set. Seriously, if you’ve got time today to watch it, do so:
If you’re looking for what’s live and fresh this weekend, here’s the games to watch.
NorCal Regionals 2018
The aforementioned Sacramento fighting game tournament has a bevy of games. It’s a stop for the Street Fighter V Capcom Pro Tour, the Tekken World Tour, and a major event for Dragon Ball FighterZ. That’s not even counting the other tournaments and side events. Find a list of everything, including schedules and streams, over on the Smash.gg tournament page.
League of Legends
The LCS is coming close to the end of playoffs, as Europe and North America head into the semifinals today. The second semifinal for the former gets underway right now, while Echo Fox and Team Liquid scrap later in the day at 5:00 p.m. ET and 100 Thieves take on Clutch Gaming tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. ET. Follow it all over on the Riot Games Twitch channel.
Overwatch
The league may be on a break before stage 3, but Overwatch Contenders is underway almost every day of the week. Games are about to wrap for today, but tomorrow you can catch games throughout the day from different regions starting at 4:00 a.m. ET with T1W E-Sports Club and Lucky Future Zenith on the Contenders Twitch channel.
Rocket League
The Rocket League Championship Series rolls on this week, with Cloud 9 and Rogue kicking things off in North America at 3:00 p.m. ET. Europe gets underway at 12:00 p.m. ET tomorrow, with Complexity and Fnatic. Find the rocket-powered matches over at the Rocket League Twitch channel.
Dota 2
The Dota 2 Asia Championships have been going for a few days now, with group stages set to wrap tonight. Games start at 12:00 a.m. ET with Vici Gaming and TNC, headed into the wee hours of the morning where Team Secret and Virtus.Pro close things out. Grab some coffee and first-pick-or-ban Chen on the PGL Twitch channel.
Call of Duty
If you’re in Birmingham and love competitive World War II shooters, have we got news for you. Games are underway at the Call of Duty World League event in Birmingham, with pool matches underway. The historic warfare is live on Twitch on the Call of Duty channel.
Anime Ascension
If you like your fighting games a little more anime, NorCal isn’t the only tournament that can make that happen. Over in Irvine, brackets will be underway for Dragon Ball FighterZ, Guilty Gear, BlazBlue, and Under Night In-Birth. Find the schedule and streams on the event’s Smash.gg page.
Did we miss any events? Got a local tournament you want to shout out? Want to reminisce about the Ultra Street Fighter IV days? Drop something in the comments below.
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