Climax of Fighting Games [fgc + recap] | Set Point! October 30, 2024
Helloooooo Everyone! To help round out spoooooooky season we had Climax of Night 6 this past weekend. It’s an annuuuuual convention and tournament for the anime French Bread games. We alsooooooo had eight players qualify for Capcom Cup 11 through World Warrior results. Beware the blog below! (okay, I’ll stop)
Feel free to use ctrl-f to find the games/news you are looking for.
Climax of Night 6: [strong + hold]
In a stacked 400 person bracket, Defiant wins Under Night In-Birth II and takes the 5th spot in the Arc World Tour Finals. Defaint is a consistent top Under-Night Player having won CEO, Combo Breaker, Frosty Faustings, and Dreamhack Dallas all in the past few years. He also got 2nd at CEO this past year and 4th at Evo where Under Night was a main stage game.
Another player, Redblade, had an unstoppable losers run and gave everyone hell with his Wagner. It was a sight to see.
Here are the results of the other main events:
- noddy wins Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax Ignition
- Melty Blood: Type Lumina 2023 Evo Champion Moai wins Melty Blood Actress Again Current Code
- Shijo wins Melty Blood Type Lumina after getting fourth in Fighting Climax
- Start.gg Full Climax of Night Results
The first Capcom World Warriors qualify for Capcom Cup XI
There were a ton of Week 4 and Week 5 World Warrior Events this past weekend.
Here’s who qualified from the Super Regions standings:
- Brazil: JUNINHO-RAS
- Europe North/East: Phenom
- Europe West: Takamura
- US/Canada East: NuckleDu
- UK/Ireland: Lexx
- Middle East: Big Bird (This is based on Week 4 results, Big Bird had enough points to qualify)
- South America East: Blaz
- Asia Southeast: Bravery
Another player from each of these regions will qualify through a Top 8 Regional Finals.
Regular Regions having Finals coming up:
- Asia South
- South Korea
- Central America East
- Central America West
- Mexico
- South Africa
- Germany
- Oceania
Asia East and France-Monaco are the Super Regions that are going into Week 5 and will qualify one person each before their regional finals.
You can find more info on liquipedia and Capcom’s Website
Street Fighter League US Week 2
With the week 1 jitters out of the way, we see the adjustments each team made from last week to this week. Our first forty bombs, and rookie premiers as well.
Flyquest vs. Shopify Rebellion 40–0
Psycho (Kimberly) vs. Hotdog29 (Bison): Pyscho again closes It out 2–0 over Hotdog29. Pyscho had the right reads and made Hotdog press so many buttons.
ChrisCCH (Ed) vs. Sayff (Ken): In a tight 2–1 set, Chris was able to bait Sayff’s reversals just enough to get the win.
Punk (Cammy) vs. NuckleDu (Guile/Cammy): Recently, Punk has been stumped by Du’s Cammy in the mirror match. In the first match against Du’s Guile, everyone knew it was a wash so that Du could switch over to Cammy. After losing the second game, Du went back to Guile and it just didn’t work out. Punk went 3–0 and secured the 40 bomb (40 points) for Flyquest, the first one of the season.
Bandits vs. Cloud9 25–20
Bandits probably has the most diverse team out of anyone. While Mena is rotating a number of characters, you have Zhen with his Dee Jay and Bison, Caba’s Guile, and Luiman’s Dhalsim. Luiman didn’t get a chance to play this week, but looking at the team as a whole they are definitely a threat.
Zhen (Bison) vs. JB (Rashid): After a rough start, JB’s rushdown locks in and Zhen plays just a bit too defensive in the last game to go 2–1.
MenaRD (Blanka) vs. Booce (Ken): Booce has been destroying top players left and right in World Warrior tournaments all year. His Week 2 game was no exception going 2–1 over Mena. Last time the two played like this was at World Warrior East back in July where Mena was still playing Luke. Mena made the decision to play the set with Blanka, which was working out for most of the time. Booce’s strong defense and a clutch back throw catching an overhead from Mena secured the win for Cloud9.
Caba (Guile) vs. NoahTheProdigy (Luke): In Noah’s Street Fighter League premier, he overextended his pressure and lost 3–0 to Caba. Caba is known to play a rushdown-centric Guile, but this set he played just defensive enough to not get run over by Noah and bait out a number of reversals. This tied up the score it up for Bandits.
Caba (Guile) vs. Booce (Ken): This can be a difficult matchup for Ken until he can get Guile into the corner. Caba got the right presses and won the game for Bandits.
Fighting Spirit vs. Red Rooster 30–10
Oil King (Rashid) vs. Uriel Velorio (Ken): Oil King was the favorite to win this match, especially after Uriel’s 2–0 loss last week against Flyquest’s Psycho. After losing game 1, Uriel made adjustments, got the read on Oil King and secures the win 2–1.
NL (Akuma) vs. Brutus (Zangief): In one of the most volatile matchups of the game, NL plays just defensive enough to go 2–0 over Brutus. Brutus made a lot of smart adjustments in game 2, but it just wasn’t enough.
DCQ (Bison) vs. Ajax Fidelity (Ed): DCQ abused Bison’s quick drive rush through the whole set, winning 3–0. At the end of the second match, DCQ went for the jump heavy kick, and instead of continuing the pressure on the ground with a button, he baited a throw from DCQ with a shadow rise and punishing with Head Press. It was nasty.
Street Fighter League Current Standings:
- Flyquest 70
- Cloud9 50
- Fighting Spirit 40
- Bandits 35
- Shopify Rebellion 30
- Red Rooster 20
It’s still way too early to tell how the rest of the season will go. Each team is very strong and we saw a lot of adjustments from each player last week. I’ll keep the coverage up for next week’s SFL US so stay tuned!
Street Fighter League Division F
CAG Osaka vs. Crazy Raccoon 0–40
When the two played in week 2, CAG Osaka was the one that got the 40 bomb. Now they are no longer in top 3. Here’s how each set went:
Fenritti (Blanka) vs. Dogura (Bison): Dogura won game 1 with crazy optimized combo and did wake up level 1 twice in a row to catch Frenritti off guard. game 2, shuts down Fenritti 2–0.
Eita (Akuma) vs. Bonchan (Akuma): Bonchan won game 1 with lots of patient footsies. Eita clapped back in game 2, but when Eita got to set point in game 3, he over extended his fireball pressure to get punished by Bonchan’s own demon flip. In the last interaction, Eita threw out a tatsu to possibly low crush bonchan, but the hard read was wrong and Bonchan won the set 2–1. This was looking to be rookie Eita’s second win of the season.
Uryo (Jamie) vs. Kazunoko (Cammy): Round 1 was looking strong for Uryo with 4 drinks, but after not correctly confirming a counterhit crouching light punch, Uryo did Drive Rush Cancel into Overdrive command throw that was too plus. Uryo came back hard round 2 after getting corner carry with level 3, building up level 1 again and with Kazunoko in the corner gets the stand medium punch confirm close the round with level 1. Kazunoko ended up securing game one with excellent footsies. Uryo won game 2 abusing Jamie’s back heavy punch and instant dive kick. Kazunoko would have had it in round 2, but went for a mix up instead of Critical Art. In game 3, Uryo after getting cornered, landed an air to air to escape, lands a back throw and while Kazunoko tries jumping, Uryo goes for the hard read with Critical Art and it lands. The dream died when Kazunoko took game 3 with an instant dive kick. Kazunoko won the set in game 4 by catching Uryo mashing on wake up with a dive kick. Both players played incredible in one of my favorite sets of the week. Uryo got every reversal perfect on his part and blocked every reversal from Kazunoko as well. Kazunoko was #1 on ranked a the time of the game.
Yogibo REJECT vs. Varrel 40–0
Varrel continues to unfortunately be the worst team in Street Fighter League Japan. REJECT now has hit 205 points with a 35 point lead.
Tokido (Ken) vs. Mizuha (Cammy): During round round 1, Tokido threw out Ken’s crouching medium punch to catch Mizuha pressing then baited the level 3 in round 2 for game 1. Tokido took game 2 as well taking advantage of Ken’s strong OD jinrai chip sequence. Mizuha made adjustments and was able to punish counter the medium punches with instant dive kicks and jabs, but it wasn’t enough.
Akira (Cammy) vs. Moke (Chun-li): Akira got the confirm from Cammy’s hooligan overhead to take game 1. For game 2, Moke punishes Akira’s whiffed dive kick throwing him into the corner and taking the game. Akira went for the dive kick again and immediately lets it rip with the critical art and it catches Moke going for the punish again. Akira won 2–0.
LeShar (Ed) vs. Mago (Juri): LeShar in a rare moment, drops his combo and gets dp’d by Mago for Game 1. LeShar son game 2, with a nasty level 2 confirm. Mago took game 3 with an air game LeShar did not respond to enough. Leshar took game 4 to tie it up after Mago dropped level 3 and almost going to set point. After doing two level 2’s in a row, LeShar goes for a throw, to get reversaled by Mago again going to final game, final round. LeShar finally brought it home to REJECT getting a 40 bomb with a strong last round against Mago.
Hiroshima TEAM iXA vs. Belc FAV gaming 25–20
When these two teams last played in week 2, TEAM iXA was able to secure the 40 bomb on the away side. Team iXA wins, but Belc FAV didn’t let them take it easily.
Jazzy (Akuma) vs. Ryukichi (Ken): In game 1 Ryukichi, caught Jazzy with jab anti airs, and mixed up his pokes in neutral to get the win. After Jazzy making some adjustments and took game 2 to the last round. Patiently, Ryukichi slowly chipped away when Jazzy burnt himself out to take the win. Ryukichi 2–0.
Acqua (Blanka) vs. ts (Akuma): After a big whiff, ts took game 1. ts used a strong fireball game and anti-aired every attempted jump in. With enough checks and Blanka’s level 2, Acqua adjusted to secure game 2 in another final round. Ts took game 3 in the final round using smart conversions and a tick throw at the end.
Hikaru (AKI) vs. Ryusei (JP): Hikaru won game 1 by keeping a perfect footsie distance from Ryusei and serpent lash outpoking JP. Hikaru continued lamed out all of game 1 to take both rounds to the very last second. Hikaru again took game 2 after baiting out a parry using AKI’s stance. Game 3, Ryusei was able to retake control, zoning out hikaru then playing much more aggressive and getting in much quicker. For Hikaru, he quickly turned the game around by going to the skies and jumping over Ryusei’s pokes to tie up the score for iXA and FAV.
Hikaru (AKI) vs. Ryukichi (Cammy) Tiebreaker
In an nailbiting final round, both players played extremely defensive until the last ten seconds when hikaru buffered medium kick into level 3.
1. Yogibo REJECT 205
2. Crazy Racoon 170
3. Hiroshima TEAM iXA
4. CAG Osaka 135
5. VARREL 125
6. Belc FAV gaming 70
While Belc did play well this week, they still have the lowest amount of points and the potential for them going to playoffs keeps getting lower. They will most likely need a 40 bomb in order to even have chance. REJECT defines their lead with a substantial 40 bomb over VARREL. Crazy Racoon leaps to second after 40 bombing CAG Osaka.
Street Fighter League Japan S Division Week 8
FUKUSHIMA IBUSHIGIN vs. Shinobism Gaming 30–10
Sasamo (Ed) vs. Fujimura (Akuma): Sasamo killed it with parrying Fujimura’s fireball game in round 1 and twice checked Fujimura’s follow up drive rush after a fireball. He kept up the momentum it in the next round to secure game 1 with a level 2 combo. Sasamo won game 2 with a dream combo, just dropping it at the end but luckily picking up a throw.
Cosa (Ken) vs. Momochi (Ed): Momochi expertly ued flicker to push cosa back to the corner and got game 1 by baiting a jump in from cosa. Momochi played extra patient to get game 2 after confirming a counter hit medium punch into level 2 dream combo.
Kakeru (Akuma) vs. Yamaguchi (Ed): Round 1 Kakeru check Yamaguchi’s fireball set up twice with sweep to get the advantage and win. Yamaguchi brought it back in round two with a counter hit OD blitz, but in the final round Kakeru won game 1. Yamguchi ducked under Kakeru’s heavy kick to take game 2. After dropping a game winning combo, Kakeru clutched it out to take game 3 with a crouching medium kick drive rush cancel. Yamaguchi tied it up in the final round of game 4. In the final game, Kakeru drops a game winning combo again and gets clipped by Yamaguchi in a BNB confirm getting to the final round. Kakeru again used sweep to knockdown Yamaguchi, into a drive rush throw, into drive rush overhead and combos into level 3 for the set.
Saishunkan Sol Kumamoto vs. Nagoya NTPOJA 40–0
Fuudo (Ed) vs. Tachikawa (Ed, but modern): Fuudo did crouching medium kick into OD blitz, since it was -3 he expected a throw attempt from Tachikawa. Tachikawa instead shimmied and baited the tech to bring the game to the final round. After some well done conversions and a punish counter to cap it off, Fuudo took game 1. Fuudo took it all in game 2 after checking Tachikawa’s drive rush.
Nemo (M. Bison) vs. otani (Ken): otani got clipped with a drive rush overhead with a bomb planted on him. Instead of going for the level 3 to kill, Nemo planted another bomb and on oki did OD devil’s reverse bating a drive reversal from otani, landed headpress, and ended game 1 with a simple Bison BnB into level 3. After a side switch checking devil’s reverse, otani unfortunately got hit by Nemo’s level 1 reversal on wake up. Nemo won 2–0.
Higuchi (Guile) vs. KEI.B (M. Bison): Higuchi played a zoning for game 1, perfect parried KEI.B’s OD Psycho Crusher and punished it into a level 3 combo taking game 1. A patient Higuchi also takes game 2 after burning KEI.B out with level 2, and a boom loop to build enough bar back into level 1. Playing much more aggressive in game three, KEI.B started to get some momentum back. He planted a bomb, and did a meaty back heavy kick combo using the timing of the bomb to route into level 3. At the end though, in an amazing chip out sequence, Higuchi took game three to secure a 40 bomb for Saishunkan.
DetonatioN FocusMe vs. Good 8 Squad 25–20
During week 3 Good 8 Squad 40 bombed. This week, while getting the extra five points isn’t a lot, it helped DetonatioN get out of being in last place and made Good 8 Squad’s first place lead a bit more narrow.
Nauman (Ken) vs. Kawano (Akuma): Nauman won game 1 in the final round. He perfect parried Kawano’s fireball game and somehow checked a crouching medium kick drive rush with a jab. Kawano played a bit more aggressive in game 2 and checked drive rush with OD dp twice to tie up the set. In a final round in game three, nauman went for a Drive Impact expecting a fireball from Kawano, but kawano backdashed to get it to whiff for the game winning combo.
John Takeuchi (Rashid) vs. Pugera (M. Bison): Pugera won gaming 1 after confirming into OD Psycho Crusher with a bomb planted on Takeuchi. Pugera continued to play with great defense and took advantage of Takeuchi not throw teching. With an overhead in neutral, Pugera also took game 2.
Itabashi Zangief (Zangief) vs. gachikun (Rashid): Itabashi won game 1, jumping over gachikun’s fireballs and getting the right read with his SPD. Itabashi also won game 2 playing footsies and catching gachikun pressing buttons. Gachikun brought in a win for game 3, finally getting some damage after letting ysaar rip. In game 4, gachikun used ysaar, Itabashi walked up, SPD’d, went through the tornado, then after gachikun tried to use level 1 to reversal. Itabashi in reaction used Zangief’s level 1 to catch it in the air to take round 1 for set point. In the final round, Itabashi got a DI wall splat to combo it out into a tiebreaker between DetonatioN and Good 8 Squad.
Itabashi Zangief (Zangief) vs. gachikun (Rashid) — tiebreaker: Itabashi continued to play footsies, pokes gachikun out and took a perfect to win the tie-breaker.
Current Street Fighter League Division S Standings
1. Good 8 Squad 200
2. Saishunkan Sol Kumamoto 195
3. Shinobism Gaming 190
4. FUKUSHIMA IBUSHIGIN 175
5. DetonatioN FocusMe 115
6. Nagoya NTPOJA 115
While Good 8 Squad still in first, they are not quite as comfortable after Sol’s 40 bomb. The spread is not quite as narrow as in division F for scores these next few weeks’ performance will matter a lot for IBUSHIGIN, DetonatioN, and NTPOJA.
Evo France Announced Main Stage Line-up
Evo France, a new Evolution Series tournament in Europe, announced it’s main stage games this week.
The games include Street Fighter 6, Tekken 8, Guilty Gear Strive, Dragon Ball FighterZ, Granblue Fantasy Versus : Rising, and FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves.
https://x.com/Evo_France/status/1850499354714316988
France has a huge DBFZ scene which is why it was selected as a main stage game.
The event will be held in Nice October 10–12 2025
Arc System Works Updates: Characters, and Patches, and Rats. Oh my!
The pop idol rat, Vikala joined the Granblue cast! She has some setplay and a Faust-like projectile game. While not shown to be top tier yet, she has an amazing presentation as all of the Granblue characters do. She is available now! This is the final character of the season 1 DLC.
A patch also released along with Vikala, adding some training mode settings, DLC characters not purchased as opponents in Arcade mode, and minor character balance changes.
Geuilty Gear -STRIVE- fully revealed Dizzy in her gameplay trailers. She retained a lot of her zoning capabilities of previous games, but she can now turn the floor into ice, use Justice’s Michael Sword, and use Wings of Light that once set off, drains tension for big proximity damage to the opponent.
Coming with Dizzy is the new major season 4 patch which Arc Sys thankfully released before release. Blowbacks, Guts Ratings, and Defense Modifiers have been adjusted for each character. There were major character balance changes you can look through in the patch notes.
Arc System Works also announced playable character Razor for the upcoming HUNTERxHUNTER NENxIMPACT.
Tekkeeeeeeeeeen 8 News
European TEKKEN Cup 3 continued with two events this week: EGX Arena in London and Fighting Games Challenge in Poznan.
Gosain, Jodd, and KaneAndTrench took top three at EGX Arena. At Fighting Games Challenge Nino, DBP, and K-TOP were top 3.
EGX Arena Top 8 and Fighting Game Championship VOD
Tekken 8 also got a minor patch this past week. The patch made some changes to ranked, fixed bugs, and had some balance changes to some of the characters people consider top tiers.
Tekken 8 also released a statement about player Ilias in the North & East Africa Tekken World Tour Regional Leaderboard. Ilias won the top spot to qualify for the World Tour Event in December, but he did not actually live there. Bandai decided the runner up, deadakari will represent the region instead. Ilias made a statement on Twitter apologizing for the mistake.
Random Select
Other FGC related news:
Rivals of Aether 2 released on Steam and is 10% off
MultiVersus is testing out shields as a new mechanic very much inspired by Super Smash Bros.
Maximillian Dood streamed a Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite update and gameplay demo this week.
Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero got a patch this week. Yajirobe was nerfed along with other changes. There were no patch notes released. https://x.com/dragonballgames/status/1849287649573626083
Street Fighter League Europe announces its teams. https://x.com/CapcomFighters/status/1849850913923408263
Mortal Kombat 1 released the trailer for Ghostface coming out for Early Access November 19.
HDGG Konquest of the Titans fully unveild the team roster and schedule for the 5v5 Mortal Kombat 1 team event.
Badge prices for Frosty Faustings increase on Friday, November 1
Cream City Convergence announced it’s date for 2025: August 30.
During the Evo France announcement, a trailer was released for Kim Dong Hwan in FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves.
Brant_xinzhi won Week 7 of the SNK Championship Series. Top 8 VOD: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkzq-ERipbc
NuckleDu announced Season 2 of Arm the Rebels, a large online monthly for Street Fighter 6. The first tournament starts November 2.
Missed this last week, but in Dallas, TX the first Third Strike Open was held. It was about an 80 person bracket for Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike. Japanese players Shinta and Genki were invited to the event.
Knock Off: The Battle for Imagination, a 2D fighting game based on 80s and 90s toys, released a demo to promote their kickstarter. You can download their demo PC from their website directly.
Here Comes a New Challenger!
Upcoming news and events for this week:
- Guilty Gear -STRIVE- Dizzy and new patch October 31
- SNK Championship Series Week 8 (Online KOF XV Event, final qualifier) November 1
- Street Fighter League Japan Division F Week 8 November 1
- Please Show Up (Utah Regional) November 2–3
- Capcom Pro Tour Japan Super Premier November 2–3
- Street Fighter League Japan Division S Week 9 November 5
- Street Fighter League US Week 3 October 30
You Win!
Thank you for reading through this week’s blog. I will be taking next week off the blog as I will be helping with my local’s charity event, Gamers On the Edge 25 Hour Stream Start.gg/hr24, and election day on November 5.
If you made it this far follow be on bsky or twitter because I’ll keep posting even though there is no blog!
ggs
Bonus Stage
I really enjoyed listening to Trash Talk, Brian_F’s new podcast. He interviewed iDom and gave a really well done overview of his FGC pro career.
