550 players register for 4th TOPANGA Charity Cup

TOPANGA revealed today that 550 players, 98 teams have registered to compete in The 4th TOPANGA Charity Cup. (And players can still register until 1 hour before the tournament starts on Saturday.)

For reference

1st TOPANGA Charity Cup - 24 teams
2nd TOPANGA Charity Cup - 47 teams
3rd TOPANGA Charity Cup - more than 400 players, 90 teams

TOPANGA Charity Cup is Japan's biggest community-organized fighting game tournament in term of number of well-known players.

GODSGARDEN plans offstage PPV stream at Evo2014?

A six part (1,2,3,4,5,6) stream was planned yesterday by GODSGARDEN. The show, titled "EVO offstage stream in Las Vegas," will be streamed via GODSGARDEN's premium channel on Niconico. All of the stream pages have "Buy Ticket" button. While the button doesn't necessarily mean the shows are pay-per-view, they can kick non-ticket buyers out whenever they want to. (And we think they will.) (Update July 10: Yes, it's PPV)

We aren't sure if Evo organizer knows about this. Is this a collaboration and money will be split between GG and Evo? Or is this just a new scheme of GG's aggressive monetizing, and money is made behind Evo's back?

We wrote about GODSGARDEN's aggressive monetizing before, and this could be their new low. If it's as what we suspect, someone need to tap their shoulder and speak up.

GODSGARDEN founders are Hiroaki Inaba and KSK. Who's responsible to this downfall? We really hope it's not KSK.

KSK was once a homeless man in early 2011, due to the closing of Gamer's Vision–the game center (no longer sustainable then hit by earthquake) that is said to have caused him 90 million yen debt. He slept in his car that was given by someone at the hard time. He briefly worked as a bartender at a small bar where he met a rich businessman who then picked him up because of his fame. This's because he got a lot of supports from JFGC.

KSK is now living an upper middle class life. Beside GG's streams, he cohosts PPV Internet talk show "Mada Hashiritai" ("I Want to Keep Running") and sometimes game promotions. He also recently appeared on ads promoting highend PC brand as "the man who pioneered game streaming" "from the popular gaming stream on Niconico that has more than 25 million unique views."

Again, we don't want to write about this, but GG is biting the hands that feed them. They use the fame for various collaborations (which make them more famous itself), they get money from the companies, and still want fans to pay for something that should be free.

433 players register for 4th TOPANGA Charity Cup

TOPANGA revealed today that 433 players, 81 teams have registered to compete in The 4th TOPANGA Charity Cup. (And players can still register until 1 hour before the tournament starts on Saturday.)

For reference

1st TOPANGA Charity Cup - 24 teams
2nd TOPANGA Charity Cup - 47 teams
3rd TOPANGA Charity Cup - more than 400 players, 90 teams

TOPANGA Charity Cup is Japan's biggest community-organized fighting game tournament in term of number of well-known players.

[PS3 P4U2] Kanji & Naoto PV posted

PS3 version of P4U2 will be released on August 28.

Tokido's autobiography coming July 16

Tokido's autobiography is coming out on July 16. The book title is "Todaisotsu Pro Gamer (Tokyo University graduated pro gamer)." It's priced at 821 yen.

[Evo2014] Let's look at the USF4 Pools

Notable Japanese players and their opponents in the pool (if nothing changes).

Pool A42
Yossan (Juri)

A43
Koji KOG (T-Hawk)

A45
Acqua

A49
Kazunoko
R (Guy player, commentator)

A53
Shinba

A55
Eita

A57
Tokido

A59
MOV

A61
Cabbage

B48
Soushihan KSK
Ryan Hart

B54
Sentosu

B56
Haitani

B63
Momochi

C46
Fuudo

C53
NeroBlanka (female Blanka player who's now using Yun)

C55
Nyanshi (Sagat player, TOPANGA founder)

C58
Oep

C62
Sako

D42
Kok

D53
Mago

D56
Misse

D60
Dogura
Justin Wong

E43
Bon-chan
Nuki

E45
Kokujin
Alex Valle

E47
ChocoBlanka

E59
Daigo Umehara

E63
RF
Smug

New Shining Resonance information

New Shining Resonance information from Famitsu.

Yuma Ilban (human form)
- His class is swordman.
- He doesn't excel in any type of magic.

Half-awaken Shining Dragon Ilban
- This form (called "Progressing Form") isn't the final form as it's described as "inexperienced legendary dragon" and "half awaken." This form is stronger than human form but has limit. When crossing the limit, he won't be able to control the power and will go "Rampage."
- His weapon is horns and claws.
- His class is dragon.
- (Dragon's) Breath attacks is counted as his main magic.
- His horns can sense the music from the Armonix.

Fromage
- She's voiced by Ryo Hirohashi.

Battle System
- You're given a total control to one character in the party. The rest will be controlled by AI.
- Similar to Final Fantasy XII's Gambit, you can give direction such as "Priority to Attack" or "Priority to Healing" or "No Attacking" or "Do as You Want" to the characters you don't directly control. (The battle is in realtime and happens on the field.)
- Giving directions is done by playing the music using Armonix.