[Video] Blade Arcus matches from Tokaigi 2015

Matches video from Blade Arcus tournament at Tokaigi 2015 (Jan 31).

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Semifinals

[Final] Panpiina (Sakuya/Rage) vs. SpinKing (Altina/Sakuya)

Panpiina is an old school player who played both Darkstalkers and 3rd Strike. No wonder he's good at this game which is footsie based. He's currently No.1 on Blade Arcus CL ranking (CL is rating or Street Fighter's BP). But most importantly, he has 94% win rate over 1,871 matches played.

SpinKing, as mentioned before, played various games, but Blade Arcus is his main game now. He's Japan's No.2, right behind Panpiina, but played more matches than anyone in Japan.

French Bread's Serizawa to compete in Blade Arcus tournament in Tokaigi

It was revealed tonight that French Bread's battle planner and programmer Kamone Serizawa (Melty Blood, UNI, DBFC) will compete in Blade Arcus tournament in Tokaigi on January 31.

Serizawa already showed some interest in Blade Arcus by participating in location test and playing until late around the launch.

See also:

• Introduction to Blade Arcus

[20150116] Blade Arcus casuals featuring #1 Altina player

This is casual matches video featuring SpinKing (Kaitenou) from Game Chariot game center from January 16.

SpinKing played various games (DBFC/BlazBlue/P4U/UNI/Marvel/etc) but his main game is now Blade Arcus. He's currently Japan's No.2 overall and is No.1 Altina player. He plays more Blade Arcus matches than anyone in Japan, with 2,498 matches (73.57% win rate) as of today.

Altina, the projectile specialist, may look powerful but she's a charge character, so she can be exploited. Altina can also be counterpicked with Pairon and Roselinde.

See also:

• Introduction to Blade Arcus

Chain Chronicle V's Shining Blade collabo starts

From January 27 to February 3, Chain Chronicle V players will be able to obtain five of Shining Blade characters in the game.

Four out of five (Rage, Sakuya, Altina, Rick) are playable in Beast Note's greatest fighting game of generation Blade Arcus.

Originally a cellphone game, Chain Chronicle V is a free-to-play game on PS Vita. Both Chain Chronicle and Shining series are Sega's flagship games in their respective genre.

See also

• PSO2es Chip collabo announced
• PSO2 costume collabo announced
• Introduction to Blade Arcus

[20150127] Blade Arcus Tuesday at Ko-Hatsu

Blade Arcus Tuesday at Ko-Hatsu tonight featured Japan's No.5, 7, 8, 10 player from CL ranking.




See also:

• Blade Arcus Tuesday
• Introduction to Blade Arcus

[20150124] Blade Arcus tournament at Try Tower

Try Tower game center held its 2nd Blade Arcus tournament yesterday. It featured Japan's No.1 and No.4 player (but he had to quit shortly due to appointment).

00:00:15 - Roselinde/Xiaomei vs. Pairon/Roselinde
00:02:50 - Roselinde/Xiaomei vs. Melty/Rage (JP's #4)
00:07:05 - Melty/Rage vs. Roselinde/Sakuya
00:10:35 - Rage/Pairon vs. Roselinde/Sakura
00:13:30 - Rage/Pairon vs. Rage/Melty
00:17:10 - Pairon/Xiaomei vs. Xiaomei/Rage (JP's #9)
00:22:10 - Sakuya/Pairon vs. Pairon/Xiaomei
00:26:20 - Pairon/Sakuya vs. Xiaomei/Rage (JP's #9)
00:31:30 - Rage/Altina vs. Rage/Sakuya
00:35:50 - Sakuya/Rage (JP's #1) vs. Rage/Sakuya
00:38:25 - Sakuya/Rage (JP's #1) vs. Rage/Altina
00:41:35 - Melty/Rage vs. Pairon/Xiaomei
00:44:40 - Sakuya/Rage (JP's #1) vs. Roselinde/Xiaomei
00:49:05 - Melty/Rage vs. Roselinde/Xiaomei
00:54:00 - Sakuya/Rage (JP's #1) vs. Pairon/Xiaomei
The rest - Casual matches



See also:

• Blade Arcus tournaments
• Introduction to Blade Arcus

Umehara's 100-man kumite returns in next Shotenkaigi

Due to the overwhelming success of the talk show and 100-man kumite from The Fifth Shotenkaigi on January 18, Niconico has announced that Daigo Umehara will do the 100-man kumite again at The Sixth Shotenkaigi on January 25 at WonderGOO Moriya (Ibaraki Prefecture). This time Bon-chan will also join him as a commentator (but expect some casual match).

The event will be streamed live here.

Niconico Shotenkaigi is a series of fan events held in ten book stores around the country. It's a way to get in touch with the Niconico users who live far away.

Buy Pairon figure get mini wall scroll at Amiami

Amiami just announced today that it will offer mini wall scroll (picture, 36.5cm long) as shop exclusive bonus with the purchase of Alphamax's Pairon figure.

Figures from Shining series is one of the most successful line in the Japanese bishoujo (beautiful girls) figure business. Pairon is an original character designed for Blade Arcus by the series' character designer Tony–one of the most famous illustrator in Japan. Tony himself also has his own line of figures, and, coincidently, new figure of his design from another series was just announced for preorder yesterday.

See also

• Shining "figures" get their own photobook
• Alphamax Pairon preorder starts 
• Kotobukiya announces Roselinde
• Kotobukiya announces new Sakuya
• Kotobukiya announces new Xiaomei
• Pairon figure revealed at Wonder Festival
• Introduction to Blade Arcus

Message from Hatoko to Evo organizer

What's the true standard of choosing a game? Is it based on tournament players or fanbase? Is it based on American scenes or international? Do you also request number from Japanese organizers? Do you count sales? Do you accept unlocalized games since you accept unfinished? Why is it inconsistent? How do you explain some games with smaller and less active scenes than others getting the spots? If money hatting is OK then why don't you let subcommunities have a donation drive and pay for the spots? What's your target audience? What's the point of "world largest" when you don't consider international scenes? Do you think you can get away with the side tournament trick AKA throwing a bone to please the scenes you dishonor? How do you feel now more than 20% of Evo isn't a fighting game? Why don't we call it Neuro already? Why don't you add LoL if you care that much about viewers? You hate being called e-sports because you want to feel independent so why you act like a tool? You hate being called e-sports because you want to retain that precious influence from simply being the old gen so why make yourself irrelevant? Can't you use that negotiation power and come up with a better solution? Why are you holding back the community? What's your escape plan if Nintendo decides to pull out and hold its own tournament while the rejected and legit fighting game scenes also do the same?

KEEP

BUILDING

A SCENE

THAT

DOESN'T

BELONG

TO

THE FGC

WHY?

なぜ？

わかんないよ

[Video] All of Umehara's Raging Demon at Master Series

This is a good video showcasing all Raging Demon Daigo Umehara made at Canada Cup's Master Series.

Umehara is now used to Evil Ryu as you can see almost no combo drop in an entire tournament (very different from mid-2014). He started using kara RD (cancelling hop kick into RD) in a real match since Capcom Pro Tour Asia, and the technique now plays an important role in his gameplay.

With how he plays the character now, the fans slowly forget about his Ryu, because his Evil Ryu still shows strong footsie and his main source of damage comes from open play (as opposed to set play such as okizeme cross-up).

Although Umehara's Evil Ryu is already impressive, and is the best Evil Ryu ever, perhaps it's too early to say it's at full potential, knowing how good he is.

See also

• Canada Cup's Master Series summary
• King of Round-robin's new record breaking
• Sako: Umehara has the best Evil Ryu

Nintendo party game tournament organizer steps down amid sexual harassment allegations

From Kotaku

Influential Smash Bros. tournament organizer Johnathan "Alex Strife" Lugo will no longer be involved with this year's Apex 2015 tournament following a string of allegations involving sexual harassment and other wrongdoing, an Apex representative said today.

See also

• Tales from the Creep: Capcom Pro Tour Asia
• The Cross Assault Incident

[20150120] Blade Arcus Tuesday at Ko-Hatsu

Blade Arcus Tuesday tonight featured Japan's No.3, No.5, No.7, No.8, No.9 player.

(turn volume down at 00:39:00)



See also:

• Blade Arcus Tuesday
• Introduction to Blade Arcus

French Bread apologizes for inappropriate tweet

French Bread's Nobuya Narita* and Kamone Serizawa** had apologized yesterday for an appropriate tweet made by Narita after the Under Night In-birth national tournament (Jan 18).

*representative and a cofounder
**battle planner and programmer

Narita's tweet in question was

"It may sound like trolling again to say it's good that Gordeau and Merkava didn't win (laugh), still I'm glad that character such as Waldstein and Yuzuriha won. Thank you all the participants for the good games. (bow)"

(The winning team used Waldstein, Yuzuriha, Hyde. Other teams in semifinals have Gordeau.)

That apparently made fans angry because it's inappropriate in every ways. Narita later apologized and explained that since people think those two characters are over the top, he felt that the result was preferred.

Serizawa also apologized for the incident. He said that he gave the person some serious advice, and they'll prevent something like this from happening again.

Please note that Serizawa himself also has his own problem. The man is seen from time to time doing indirect negative campaigning, by tweeting or retweeting a picture or video about a bug or flaw of other fighting games.

French Bread is the developer of Melty Blood, Under Night In-birth, and Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax.

See also:

• Under Night In-birth developer interview

[20150118] Blade Arcus tournament at Akiba LL

Leisureland Akihabara game center held its 5th Blade Arcus tournament on January 18.

The tournament featured Japan's No.1 player who is a Sakuya player (also a veteran/Darkstalker player). He played almost 1,500 matches now but his win rate is still 93%. He was on 182 wins win streak until Japan's No.1 Pairon stopped him on that day.

http://www.twitch.tv/llakb/b/612629193

01:16:30 - Pairon/Altina vs. Isaac/Rage
01:19:55 - Pairon/Altina (#1 Pairon) vs. Sakuya/Rage
01:22:40 - Sakuya/Rage (JP #20) vs. Pairon/Ryuga
01:25:30 - Xiaomei/Pairon vs. Sakuya/Rage
01:30:25 - Isaac/Rage vs. Sakuya/Rage (JP #1)
01:33:30 - Xiaomei/Pairon vs. Sakuya/Rage (JP #20)
01:37:40 - Pairon/Altina (#1 Pairon) vs. Sakuya/Rage (JP #1)
01:41:00 - Xiaomei/Pairon vs. Pairon/Altina (#1 Pairon)
01:45:05 - Sakuya/Rage (JP #20) vs. Sakuya/Rage (JP #1)
The rest - Casual matches

See also:

• 1st tournament
• 2nd tournament
• 3rd tournament
• 4th tournament
• Blade Arcus tournaments
• Introduction to Blade Arcus

New Umineko manga coming Jan 20

Umineko WHEN THEY CRY Episode 4: Alliance of the Golden Witch, Vol. 3 will be released on January 20.

This's the official English release of the manga, and the 9th volume.

Umineko no Naku Koro ni is a popular visual novel game that inspired anime (26 episodes), manga (45+ volumes), and one of Beast Note's greatest fighting games of all time Ougon Musou Kyoku.

For those who missed the previous releases, here are the links. Each volume has around 500 pages or more. They are available in both paperback and Kindle format.

1. Umineko When They Cry, Episode 1: Legend of the Golden Witch, Vol. 1
2. Umineko When They Cry, Episode 1: Legend of the Golden Witch, Vol. 2
3. Umineko When They Cry, Episode 2: Turn of the Golden Witch, Vol. 1
4. Umineko WHEN THEY CRY Episode 2: Turn of the Golden Witch, Vol. 2
5. Umineko WHEN THEY CRY Episode 3: Banquet of the Golden Witch, Vol. 1
6. Umineko WHEN THEY CRY Episode 3: Banquet of the Golden Witch, Vol. 2
7. Umineko WHEN THEY CRY Episode 4: Alliance of the Golden Witch, Vol. 1
8. Umineko WHEN THEY CRY Episode 4: Alliance of the Golden Witch, Vol. 2

[20150117] Blade Arcus tournament at Ko-Hatsu

The tournament today featured Japan's No.1 Roselinde player, No.1 Rage player, and No.1 Fenrir player.

00:00:45 - Xiaomei/Rage vs. Altina/Rage (Japan's No.5)
00:05:55 - Melty/Pairon vs. Roselinde/Xiaomei (JP's No.3)
00:08:25 - Fenrir/Ryuga (JP's No.8) vs. Rage/Altina (JP's No.5)
00:14:25 - Xiaomei/Rage vs. Melty/Pairon
00:18:15 - Fenrir/Ryuga (JP's No.8) vs. Roselinde/Xiaomei (JP's No.3)
00:23:30 - Fenrir/Ryuga (JP's No.8) vs. Melty/Pairon
00:26:10 - Altina/Rage (JP's No.5) vs. Melty/Pairon
00:29:25 - Xiaomei/Rage vs. Fenrir/Ryuga (JP's No.8)
00:33:05 - Xiaomei/Rage vs. Roselinde/Xiaomei (JP's No.3)
00:35:35 - Rage/Altina (JP's No.5) vs. Roselinde/Xiaomei (JP's No.3)
The rest - Casual matches



See also:

• Blade Arcus tournaments
• Introduction to Blade Arcus

Blade Arcus nationals qualifiers schedule revealed

The schedule of Blade Arcus national tournament qualifiers is revealed today. (This does not include the tournament at Tokaigi which is also a qualifier)

Feb 7: Nanba Hills (Osaka)
Feb 7: Sega World Kurashiki (Okayama)
Feb 8: Game Corner Toubu (Miyagi)
Feb 8: The 3rd Planet OZ Hamamatsu (Shizuoka)
Feb 8: Sega World Narita (Chiba)
Feb 8: Sega Nanba Albion (Osaka)
Feb 14: Hi-Tech Sega Niihama (Ehime)
Feb 15: Sega Hiwada (Fukushima)
Feb 21: Sannomiya Sanx (Hyogo)
Feb 22: Nagoya Leisureland Sasashima (Aichi)
Feb 22: Sega Akihabara 1 (Tokyo)
Feb 22: Sega World Shizuoka (Shizuoka)
Feb 22: Hyper Messe (Fukuoka)
Feb 28: Game Silk Hat Kawasaki Dice (Kanagawa)
Feb 28: Hi-Tech Sega Toyota (Aichi)
Mar 1: Club Sega Shinjuku West (Tokyo)
Mar 8: a-cho (Kyoto)
Mar 8: AmiPara Technoland (Okayama)
Mar 8: Sega Kagurazaka (Tokyo)
Mar 14: Ikebukuro GiGO (Tokyo)
Mar 14: Club Sega Nagoya Fushimi (Aichi)
Mar 14: G-COM Wajiro (Fukuoka)
Mar 22: Dinos Park Sapporo Chuuou (Hokkaido)
Mar 28: Pink Panther Tsukuba (Ibaraki)

Is this the weirdest bug? P4U2 is now Play4U2

A Japanese player reported that a weird bug is found in the arcade version of P4U2 (Persona 4 The Ultimax Ultra Suplex Hold) after the latest update which arrived today (version 2.0).

The bug caused the CPU to take control of the player's character after the victim tried to challenge someone. A hundred yen was lost in the process.

In other news, Arc System Works already issued a statement regarding a known bug from today's update which prevents PSR from working properly when using new characters (Rise, Amada, Adachi, Marie, Margaret).

Girl banned for violent conduct during Guilty Gear match

A girl was banned from Kumite in Tennessee fighting game event (Jan 9-11) for grabbing a guy who was popping off during a Guilty Gear match.

See also:

• Noel Brown arrested for hitting ex-girlfriend

WECG2015 indefinitely postponed

Nishikin revealed today that World e-Sports Championship Games grand final tournament in South Korea is being postponed indefinitely due to Chinese sponsor pulling out.

Nishikin, the well-known Blanka player, qualified as Japan representative for the USF4 tournament.

This news reminds us that there is another shady large scale e-sports tournament called Video Games World Cup that is scheduled to take place (or be cancelled) this year.

Umehara confirmed for SF5 stage show in Taiwan

Tip from Mad Catz Japan. It was announced yesterday that Daigo Umehara will go to Taiwan to participate Street Fighter V stage show (with GamerBee, Ono, Ayano) at PlayStation booth in Taipei Game Show 2015 on January 31. There will be an exhibition match.

Note that it is most likely that Umehara will fly back to Japan immediately after this event to play the exhibition match in Tokaigi on February 1.

[20150113] Blade Arcus Tuesday at Ko-Hatsu

See also:

• Blade Arcus Tuesday
• Introduction to Blade Arcus

The King of Round-robin has set a new record!

From the result at Canada Cup's Master Series, Daigo Umehara has now become the first fighting game player in history to win FOUR consecutive round-robin tournaments of HIGHEST COMPETITION LEVEL.

TOPANGA World League

	Player	P	W	L	GD
1	Umehara	7	6	1	+21
2	Xiao Hai	7	5	2	+8
3	Bon-chan	7	5	2	+13
4	Wao	7	3	4	+2
5	Xian	7	3	4	-1
6	Fuudo	7	3	4	-8
7	PR Balrog	7	2	5	-18
8	Infiltration	7	1	6	-17

Capcom Pro Tour Asia Finals

	Player	P	W	L	GD
1	Umehara	7	6	1	+13
2	Xian	7	5	2	+6
3	Gackt	7	5	2	+5
4	Poongko	7	5	2	+4
5	GamerBee	7	3	4	-3
6	Humanbomb	7	3	4	+0
7	Leslie	7	1	6	-12
8	Dark Jiewa	7	0	7	-13

The 4th TOPANGA League

First Stage

	Player	P	W	L	GD
1	Umehara	11	10	1	+17
2	Sako	11	8	3	+15
3	Michael-tan	11	8	3	+11
4	Uryo	11	6	5	+1
5	Momochi	11	6	5	+1
6	Nemo	11	5	6	-3
7	Tokido	11	4	7	-1
8	Kazunoko	11	4	7	-6
9	Pugera	11	4	7	-6
10	Bon-chan	11	4	7	-7
11	Santarou	11	4	7	-11
12	Fuudo	11	3	8	-11

Final Stage

	Player	P	W	L	GD
1	Umehara	5	5	0	+22
2	Momochi	5	4	1	+7
3	Sako	5	2	3	-1
4	Bon-chan	5	2	3	-3
5	Uryo	5	2	3	-9
6	Michael-tan	5	0	5	-16

Canada Cup's Master Series

	Player	P	W	L	GD
1	Umehara	7	6	1	+14
2	Kazunoko	7	5	2	+10
3	Xian	7	4	3	+4
4	PR Rog	7	3	4	-2
5	Snake Eyez	7	3	4	-7
6	Xiaohai	7	3	4	-8
7	Pepeday	7	2	5	+0
8	Louffy	7	2	5	-10

Some of old records.

• The only player in history to reach top 8 in Street Fighter IV series tournament four consecutive years at Evo.
• The only player in history to win both Capcom game and Arc System Works game at Evo.
• One of two player in history to win both Tougeki and Evo in the same year on the same game.

Canada Cup Master Series summary

Info
- Canada Cup's previous champions are invited (Umehara (2010), Kazunoko (2011), Xiaohai (2013), Pepeday (2014)
- Louffy is invited as Evo 2014 champ
- Snake Eyez qualified from winning Wednesday Night Fights Season 3
- PR Balrog qualified from winning tournament in Day1 (Jan 9)
- Last two days is pay-per-view ($14.95)
- Stream Day 1 (Jan 9)
- Stream Day 2 (Jan 10)
- Stream Day 3 (Jan 11)
- Due to terrorist attack in France, flights were delayed and Louffy arrived on the last day

Prizes (Canadian $)

• $10,000 for 1st place
• $4,000 for 2nd place
• $2,500 for 3rd place
• $1,000 for 4th place
• $750 for 5th and 6 place
• $500 for 7th and 8th place

[20141108] Blade Arcus tournament highlights from Port24 Yagoto

These are highlights from Blade Arcus tournament held at Port 24 Yagoto game center on November 8, just 3 days after the game was released.

Kubo (Marvel/UNI/P4U player), Tsujikawa (BlazBlue/P4U player), and Cho (BlazBlue/Marvel player) also participated.

Kubo (Pairon) vs. Cho (Isaac)

Tsujikawa (Xiaomei) vs. Yukihime-tsukai (Rage)

[Semi-final 1] Yukihime-tsukai (Rage) vs. Masao (Altina)

[Semi-final 2] Heihoo (Rage) vs. Cho (Isaac)

[Final] Yukihime-tsukai (Rage) vs. Cho (Isaac)

See also:

• Introduction to Blade Arcus

[20141124] Blade Arcus highlight (Roselinde)

This's a casual match before tournament at Akihabara Leisureland on November 24 last year.

The Roselinde player is Tahichi. Some people probably know him as a Yukari player in P4U.

See also:

• Introduction to Blade Arcus

[20150103] Blade Arcus tournament at Ko-Hatsu

This's video of Ko-Hatsu's 4th Blade Arcus tournament held on January 3.

3:50 - Roselinde/Xiaomei (Japan's No.3) vs. Pairon/Ryuga
8:35 - Roselinde/Xiaomei (JP's No.3) vs. Sakuya/Xiaomei (JP's No.5)
13:20 - Pairon/Ryuga vs. Sakuya/Xiaomei (JP's No.5)
17.50 - Pairon/Ryuga vs. Roselinde/Xiaomei (Japan's No.3)
21:10 - Pairon/Ryuga vs. Sakuya/Xiaomei (JP's No.5)
26:00 - Roselinde/Xiaomei (JP's No.3) vs. Sakuya/Xiaomei (JP's No.5)
31:10 - Roselinde/Xiaomei (JP's No.3) vs. Sakuya/Xiaomei (JP's No.5)
The rest - Training

See also:

• Blade Arcus tournaments
• Introduction to Blade Arcus

Shosen Book Tower promoting UmeBooks

Tip from Mad Catz Japan. The 8th floor of Shosen Book Tower bookstore in Akihabara currently has a whole shelf of Daigo Umehara's related books. (Willpower to Keep Winning, Match Theory, Umehara Column, To Live Is To Game, Fighting Gamers, Tonari no Pro Gamer)

[20150106] Blade Arcus Tuesday at Ko-Hatsu

See also:

• Blade Arcus Tuesday
• Introduction to Blade Arcus

Umehara: Button mashing is the real fun

Daigo Umehara dropped some wisdoms again in the talk session in the Niconico's "Challenge Umehara" event yesterday.

During the talk about Street Fighter V and an ideal fighting game, Umehara pointed out that the real fun in a game lies in pushing buttons (lever/stick doesn't count).

Umehara explained that it all comes down to the fact that people want to push buttons and get some reward. A game is more fun when they can do this as much as they want. As a result, a game is less fun if it promotes defensive play style–because they are given less time to push buttons.

Umehara also added that you will be penalized for doing nothing in other games such as mahjong and poker. That makes him wonder why it is viable to do nothing in fighting games. He suggested that a fighting game should promote play-making, for example, by limiting how many times you can block (10 times) or escape a throw (5 times) and reducing timer from 99 seconds to 40-50 seconds per round.

Umehara said that, just like in real world, people who work deserve recognition, regardless of their skill. Beginners should be able to win simply because they work harder in a match.

As for Street Fighter V, Umehara feels that the game's pace is too slow, as there was nothing else to do during the long block stun. He suggested that players should be able to perform something, not just waiting for the sequence to finish. He understands that it is still in development, but warned that Capcom definitely don't want to launch the game without some tweaks.