Virtua Fighter 5 is coming out… again! | Set Point! November 27, 2024
Round 1!
This week : Street Fighter Leagues are starting to wrap up, we had a few Arc World Tour Events, a European Tekken Cup Event, and a new class of Capcom Cup qualifiers. Virtua Fighter 5 is being released again for the 6th time, still exciting though!
Let’s Rock!
Street Fighter League US Week 6!
FlyQuest vs. Red Rooster 40–0
Both Team’s strongest players went head to head on point with Punk vs. Uriel. Uriel played a bit lamer than normal to play Punk’s footsies and took it to the final game. Punk ended up winning and securing an early 10 points for FQ. Shine got his first win of the season going 2–1 over Red Rooster’s Ajax Fidelity. FlyQuest put ChrisCCH in the captain’s chair for the 40 bomb against Brutus. Keeping his distance and using the option select reversal on drive rush, ChrisCCH got a clean 3–0. While the points do help FlyQuest, time is running out for Red Rooster to get enough points on the board to have a chance to qualify for finals.
Cloud9 vs. Fighting Spirit 0–40
On point we had Cloud9’s JB vs. Fighting Spirit’s Oil King. It’s pretty rare we see the Rashid miror match. Each game went to last round, but Oil King took the set 2–0. For NoahtheProdigy vs. NL, the two last played at CEO of this year, where NL was running Akuma then switched back back to Luke to take NoahtheProdigey out. With a mix straight out of Street Fighter IV, NL took this league match 2–0 over Noah. Noah has yet to win a game in his first season of Street Fighter League. Probably two of the most calculated players in the league, Booce and DCQ faced each other in the anchor spot. After losing two games to Booce, DCQ switched to JP, his year 1 main. DCQ secured Fighting Spirit’s second 40 bomb of the season, taking over Cloud9’s first place spot.
Bandits vs. Shopify Rebellion 20–25
Captains were on point for the opening of this team match: Bandit’s MenaRD vs. Shopify’s NuckleDu. Du switched to his third, Dee Jay, which we haven’t seen too much of in the League, but Mena just had the right reads and threw him hard to go 2–1. Caba took game 1 of the set against Shopify’s Sayff. Sayff won the first round of game 2, stunned Caba for checkmate, but decided to DI and it did not kill. Caba came back and won the next two rounds to go 2–0. Dual Kevin knocked out Zhen in a quick 3–0. Even though the tie-breaker only gives 5 points, the twenty points for Shopify is big to keep them on the leaderboard. For the tie-breaker, Dual Kevin had to play his final boss, MenaRD. The two have played countless times at high level events like CEO, Cream City Convergence, Esports World Cup, and now for the second time in Street Fighter League this year. Their record has been back and forth, but this time Mena took the first to one with a crazy level 1 read on Rashid’s OD dp. Normally, Zangief’s level 1 is not a traditional level 1 reversal because while it is fully invincible, it only catches opponents in the air. In this case, Rashid went into an airborne state which is why it got clipped. Unfortunately for Dual Kevin, he also got caught by Gief’s tundra storm, a move that catches mid kicks, which was probably the bigger L. Still, the twenty points secured by Dual Kevin puts them 30 points away from Cloud9 which is very achievable in the next four weeks.
Here’s a list of the moves tundra storm parries
Standings:
1. Fighting Spirit 170
2. FlyQuest 165
3. Bandits 140
4. Cloud9 130
5. Shopify Rebellion 100
6. Red Rooster 40
Fighting Spirit continues to climb the leaderboard and is now in first place with 170 points. FlyQuest is not far behind with 165. At this rate, the real battle of the season will be who takes third and fourth between Bandits, Cloud9, and Shopify Rebellion. Only the top 4 teams will get a chance to play in the US finals, where the winner plays for a spot for their team in Capcom Cup 12. Red Rooster has to get at least two 40 bombs in the next four weeks to even have a chance to qualify for finals. Next week will be their most decisive of the whole season.
Street Fighter League Division F Week 10!
CAG Osaka vs. Belc FAV Gaming 30–10
This match was unfortunately does not change the placing for CAG or FAV gaming. Both teams were guaranteed to not make playoffs.
Fenritti from CAG and Ryusei from FAV both brought in their JP’s to a mirror match. Tied up 1–1, Fenritti switched to his Blanka and Ryusei could not adjust in time. Fenritti got the first 10 points for CAG Osaka. Ryuikchi cooked Eita’s Akuma four rounds straight and ended with a classic fireball trap with a drive rush twist. Ryukichi tied it up 10–10 for FAV. Only losing one round, Go1 took it 3–0 against ts.
Crazy Raccoon vs. Yogibo REJECT 25–20
Another match that was more of an exhibition, Crazy Racoon vs. Yogibo REJECT. REJECT was already in first by a mile and Crazy Raccoon was enough behind them, but clear of third place, to stay in second.
Kazunoko vs. Akira: the Cammy mirror. Both players are known for innovating the character. In a tight set, Kazunoko won 2–1. If you’re a Cammy main, you need to make sure you watch this set! Some crazy combos and tech. In the most hype Dhalsim match you’ll ever see, Shuto and Torimeshii take it to last game last round. Shuto and his balls to the wall Akuma was able to win 2–1 with a wild OD dp chase. Crazy Raccoon had the lead 20–0 Tokido tied it up for REJECT with a 3–0 over Dogura. And in classic Ken fashion ended with a CA level 3 on wake up. Gotta love it. REJECT sent in LeShar and his Ed for the tiebreaker, Dogura won both rounds with Head Press for the extra five points for Crazy Raccoon.
Varrel vs. TEAM iXA Hiroshima 10–30
The biggest match of the night, Varrel vs. TEAM iXA Hiroshima. This was the match to determine who gets third place and goes on to playoffs. TEAM iXA did go in with an extra five points, so in the case of a 20–20 tiebreaker, Hiroshima would be likely to win.
In a final game final round moment, ACQUA wins 2–1 over moke giving TEAM iXA 10 points. He went in and focused on buring out moke and it worked out. Ending with the double perfect, Hibiki gets another 10 pionts for TEAM iXA against Mizuha. Things weren’t looking so good for Varrel, Mago had to tie it up and win the five point tiebreaker to qualify for playoffs. After Mago’s strong 2–1 lead over Hikaru, Hikaru brought it back 2–3 to give TEAM iXA the 40 bomb and prove they are they team to be in the SFLJP playoffs. Mago played real clean and took advantage of Juri’s feng-shui engine, but Hikaru had better confirms and pressure to take it all home.
Division F Final Standings
1. Yogibo REJECT 305
2. Crazy Raccoon 245
3. Hiroshima TEAM iXA 230
4. CAG OSAKA 190
5. VARREL 185
6. Bel FAV gaming
REJECT, Crazy Raccoon, and TEAM iXA will be going on to play Good 8 Squad, Ibushigin, and Saishunkan Sol in the playoffs for Street Fighter League Japan.
https://sf.esports.capcom.com/sp/sfl/2024/ranking/
Road to Olympus: European Tekken Cup Major Event!
Raef, a top Saudia Arabian Jin player, swooped in to take first at Road to Olympus in Athens, Greece. Because Raef is not from Europe, JoKa from the UK brought 350 points instead of 550 back home to his region. Raef won though a grand finals reset against Joka’s Heihachi then Feng. Danielmado, a Feng and Jin player from Italy, was the one that beat Raef 2–0 to put him into losers. Danielmado ended up getting third. Raef was about to lose it all in his loser’s run to Fakepotter, another Italian who playaed Kazuya. Down to set point, Raef won 6 out of 7 rounds in a row to maintain his run. Greece’s own Kwstakis, a young Lars player, ended up getting fourth. With that, Joka, Danaielmado, and Kwstakis are now within the top two in points for each of their regions. There’s still four more major events for points and the LCQ to qualify for the finals at gamescom LAN in February 2025.
Tickets are available to purchase for gamescom LAN to watch the European Tekken Cup finals in person.
France
1. Jodd 610
2. Battosai
Benelux
1. Sin 460
2. PiKaH 190
Iberica
1. Tibetano 260
2. Oracle_99 200
IT & MT
1. Danielmado 220
2. evil46
Poland
1. Frizen 260
2. Minion Kevin 180
UK & IR
1. Gosain 900
2. JoKa 650
DACH
1. Ttesu 1260
2. Nino 790
Nordic
1. Flower 460
2. ACE 180
Greece
1. K-TOP 340
2. Kwstakis 180
The next European Tekken Cup will be at Hidden Retreat on December 1st in Winterthur, Switzerland.
Arc World Tour Updates!
There were two big Arc World Tour Gold Events this weekend, Rumble in SoCal (Granblue Fantasy Versus : Rising only), and SEA Major in Singapore.
Out in SoCal, Zane won it big again with his Grimnir. Zane has also won East Coast Throwdown, WASD, and Astral Finish just this year. Zippy, Saltz, Elsa, Silverfox, Deotay, and NieR Gojira rounded out the rest of top 8.
SEA had both Guilty Gear -STRIVE- and Granblue events. Daru_I-No won in -STRIVE- with a Grand Finals reset on Slash. Slash’s finish does put him into the running now for an AWT finals spot. Sixteen year old prodigy poka, went into top 8 on losers side finishing fourth after getting double jeopardied by Daru. In third place was Jiro with his Anji.
For Granblue, Evo Finalist Tororo won the bracket after close matches with gamera. Zenith got 3rd and is only 15 points outside of getting AWT spot. Asher, UrRequiem, Bread, WHH, and Vita were the rest of top 8.
-STRIVE- Current Standings
Tiger_Pop, Zando, sanakan, and Nitro auto-qualified through platinum events.
1. Tyurara 265
2. Rang13 253
3. GOBOU 212
4. Leffen 196
5. Jonathan Tene 165
10. Razzo 165
11. Slash 151
12. UMISHO 146
13. tatuma 136
14. Verix 128
Granblue Current Standings
Socky, Kojicoco, Aarondamac, Ryazo, and Rookies auto-qualified through platinum events.
1. Zane 453
2. Tororo 371
3. Zippy 296
4. gamera 290
5. Fitizen 267
6. Elsa 248
7. Space 228
The next Arc World Tour Events are at CEOtaku in Orlando, Florida on December 22.
SEA -STRIVE- VOD
SEA Granblue VOD
SEA Bracket Details
RiSC Granblue VOD
RiSC Bracket Details
Street Fighter League Europe Finals
I plan on doing a full recap of Street Fighter League Europe sometime next month, but we do have the final results.
No surprisingly, Ninjas in Pyjamas won finals. They had an incredible run with an undefeated Angry Bird 10–0, an 8–1 Phenom, and an 8–2 BigBird. Veggey went 0–1. Hopefully Veggey will get a better chance to play next season. Ninjas in Pajamas will compete in the Street Fighter League World Championships where they may win spots for each of them in Capcom Cup 12.
End of Season Scores
1. Ninjas in Pyjamas 360
2. Aegis 280
3. Mouz 280
4. Wolves 175
5. Reason Gaming 60
6. Guild Esports 50
More World Warriors Qualify!
You may know ChrissCCH from Street Fighter League, but he’s been a leading force in the Street Fighter world since Street Fighter 5, especially during Capcom Cup IX in 2022. He was playing Luke in Season 1, but has switched to Ed.
If you’ve been following the blog, or just Capcom Pro Tour this year, you have most likely seen Dual Kevin grinding his way through it all. Dual Kevin has critiqued the current CPT rules after his 3rd top three finish at Blink respawn, but now he gets a chance to complain while being qualified which is always a better position.
JabhiM makes it to his second Capcom Cup appearance with Terry Bogard. JabhiM is arguably the best Street Fighter player out of South Africa and is the second Terry player to make the cup this year.
Street Fighter IV Evo Champion, Xian, makes his return to Capcom Cup. Xian had an excellent performance this year at the CPT Super Premiere in Singapore, but this week he qualified through World Warrior. Xian has been in every Capcom Cup placing in the top 16. He currently makes content with Mike Ross on Versus Vortex.
19 year old Sole from Kuwait wins the Oceania Regional finals with their AKI. (Sole currently lives in Oceania)
Limestone won the South America West Regional final for his first Capcom Cup. Limestone is the first player from Colombia to make it to Capcom Cup
Virtua Fighter Returns! (And not just in Yakuza)
Following the recent official announcement of Virtua Fighter 6, SEGA this week also announced Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. The game originally released in Arcades in 2006 and will be coming back this winter (probably 2025) with rollback netcode, a balance patch, and 4K 60fps visuals. For now, this version of the game will only be released on Steam. You can buy the latest version of the game, Final Showdown, on the Xbox and Playstation marketplaces.
Virtua Fighter official also announced that the PS4 version of the game, known in Japan as Virtua Fighter esports, will be getting an update as well. Most likely to align it with R.E.V.O
Round Robin!
Here’s the news that didn’t really fit into any of the categories above.
Another round of bans in Tekken 8 went through. It includes “intentional disconnects, cheating, and innapporpriate customizations/player names/chat messages.” I hope YOU weren’t doing any of those :)
A small bug patch was released for Granblue Fantasy Versus : Rising. You can read the notes here.
PSA: The new mod for Ultra Street Fighter IV rollback that went public presents major security risks. The mod opens up all of your computer’s ports which is like having all the doors unlocked in your house. Aparently the mod was not supposed to be released like this. You can also play the game through Parsec for a rollback-like experience, which is what many players use to run Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 online tournaments.
You can now pre-order Guilty Gear -STRIVE- for Nintendo Switch.
In New York, New York, Cold Front 2024 was held. It was a regional event with a $2,000 pot bonus for Dragonball FighterZ, Tekken 8, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, and Street Fighter 6. Here are the winners:
Dragonball FighterZ: Yasha
Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Escalante
Tekken 8: Fear Of Silence
Street Fighter 6: NoahTheProdigy
AQUAPAZZA: Aquaplus Dream Match is getting a PC release on Steam. The game is an anime arcade only 2D fitgher. It’s expected to release in 2025 and you can wishlist it now. There has been no confirmation if it will have rollback netcode.
Here Comes a New Challenger!
Here are the events and news coming up this week:
European Tekken Cup Hidden Retreat December 1
World Warriors:
South Korea Regional Final November 29
Middle East #5 Big Bird already qualified through points November 30
UK-Ireland Regional Final November 30
Spain-Portugal Regional Final November 30
Asia South Regional Final December 1
France-Monaco #5 Super Region December 1
Germany Regional Final December 1
US-Canada West Regional Final December 4
Brazil Regional Final December 4
Besides Tekken World Tour and CEOtaku, December will be a slower month than what it’s been. After the new year we are going to have Frosty Faustings then tour final after tour final.
You Win!
Thanks so much for reading this post. Starting next week I’ll be streaming Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday around 7pm Eastern with the exception of holidays. Catch me on bsky too
ggs
BONUS STAGE!
I’ve been grinding a ton of Tekken lately, but found this video of PhiDX and Speedkicks discussing how to watch replays. Of course there’s a lot of Tekken Specific info, but I think most of the content transfers easily to most other fighting games. Hope you like it as much as I did.
