This year is going to be big | Set Point! January 8, 2025
Happy New Year everyone. I don’t know about you, but I am PUMPED for 2025. I think it’s going to be a good year for fighting games. The meta is really maturing for this generation of games, and we also got some new ones coming out: Hunter x Hunter: Nen Impact, Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, and 2XKO.
To start this year out strong we got announcements from the US’s biggest tournaments, Combo Breaker, CEO, and Evo. That and more in this week’s Set Point! Your weekly FGC news recap with me, NormieNick.
Let’s Rock!
World Warrior Update!
Two more World Warriors enter the Capcom Cup. One from Japan and the other from France-Monaco.
Japan #5
Being the most consistent player in the hardest World Warrior region, Kakeru won 2nd to Momochi in the 5th Japan World Warrior. With this, he qualified for Capcom Cup through points. Kakeru, known as the perfect parry god, won Gamers8 in 2023. At Gamers8 he demonstrated the utility of perfect parry at a rate the world had not yet seen. His main character is JP and he also plays Akuma and M. Bison at a top level. According to liquipedia, Kakeru began competing as far back as 2011, but became known as a top Ryu player in Street Fighter V. Earlier this season he got 9th at the Esports World Cup, 2nd at the Topanga Championship, and 2nd at Evo Japan. He is definitely in the highest echelon of Street Fighter 6 players.
France-Monaco
Mister Crimson won the spot for France-Monaco. The french player began competing in 2014/15 in Guilty Gear Xrd. With the release of Street Fighter V he became a well known Dhalsim player getting up to 4th place in Capcom Cup IX, the last for Street Fighter V and getting top 8 at EVO that year. He contiued to play Sim in Street Fighter 6, and won Ultimate Fighting Arena in 2023. This will be his fourth Capcom Cup
With just two more World Warrior Events, Capcom announced the group drawing event on February 13 with Brian_F and Hollywood RobTV. The two used to host a show, No Neutral produced by Capcom. RobTV was one of the best Street Fighter V players, but now focuses on hosting a myriad of events. I’m sure you know content creator Brian_F for his tournament recaps, podcasts, and YouTube content.
Summer Tournament Announcements!
The Chicago major returns this year May 23rd-25th, Memorial day weekend, and it’ll be celebrating its 10th Anniversary. This comes first in the series of North America’s biggest tournaments: Combo Breaker, CEO, then EVO Las Vegas. The event will have the biggest games you’d expect, but notably Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O, and Rivals of Aether 2 make their first appearances. In a welcome return, Mortal Kombat X will also be a mainline game. As far as we know, beloved anime fighter Blazblue Central Fiction will not be making an appearance at the event this year.
You can find more info for Combo Breaker at combobreaker.org
And with that, the next big Major, CEO (Community Effort Orlando), also revealed it’s line up of games and opened up hotel registration. It has all the big games with the exception of King of Fighters, but that could be added later on. There will also be tournaments for Blazblue, Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R, and CotW. No Virtua Fighter here, but we could also see that announced later. The event will be June 13–15.
More info can be found at the new(!) ceograming.org website.
Then the year’s biggest tournament, Evo, will be having an announcement next Tuesday, January 14th. While I do agree announcement announcements are kind of lame, fans are expecting to hear the line up of main games at Evo Las Vegas.
Rounding out our tournaments, Frosty Faustings released it’s full schedule of games and where to watch them. Frosty Faustings is known for it’s anime tournaments and this year is no exception. It is a platinum level event for Granblue Fantasy Versus : Rising, Guilty Gear -STRIVE- and Under Night In-Birth II. Platinum events are auto-qualifiers for the winners for the Arc World Tour, and give lots of points to those that place high. King of Fighters XV will be a qualifier for the SNK World Championship. There will also be a special Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O bracket presented by SEGA and be a part of the VF Open Championship.
Round Robin!
The new Virtua Fighter gets yet another preview! It looks like this is part of what was leaked a few weeks ago, but jokes on them, this isn’t actual gameplay rather a concept of what the game would be like. It was part of Nvidia’s direct this week. You can see some cool stage interactions, slowdowns, movement, and unique blocking animations demonstrated.
The SOOP TEKKEN League 2024: Champions was held this weekend. It was the finale of a Tekken tournament series held in South Korea. The series was formerly AfreecaTV TEKKEN League if you are familiar. This top 16 event had Korea’s Best Tekken players. Ulsan won the event, and we even got to see his Clive for a minute.
Pre-orders are now available for the Nintendo Switch Edition of Guilty Gear -STRIVE-. The port releases on January 23rd and comes with the Season Pass 1–3 plus Queen Dizzy, the game’s newest character. Arc Sys ports are known for their quality, and I’m betting that other than a few resolution changes this will be a fully acceptable port for casuals, practice, and possibly online play with rollback netcode.
Here Comes a New Challenger!
Invictus European Tekken Cup Major Tournament January 11–12
FAV CUP Special Match January 11
Topanga Charity Cup January 12
World Warrior Asia East Finals January 12
Bonus Stage!
Enjoy this picture of Tokido with a Camel in the desert.
I unerthed this classic Mega64 sketch from their IGN days. It’s the story of a man who played Street Fighter IV for money like Tiger Woods…
