Shinobi!

That thing from last year's Final Round. Yeah, we're doing it again. But it's deeper than rap than that this time around. Xrd has gotten bigger over last year and with Revelator on the horizon, it's time I get a little more organized with this thing. If you have been following me on Twitter, you'll see that I confirmed that Final Round will be hosting a Summit. A Summit. I'm currently working with anime TOs and leaders from across the country to see that there are Summits at all 4 points of America this year. It's alot of work and some helping hands needed, but I feel I can finally see it come through this year. So what is this Battle Summit you had at Final Round last year? - It's a regional battle pretty much. Over the years, tournaments have been holding these where 5 players representing a specific region or state go against another region's 5 in an 8 team, double elimination bracket. $20/head (and higher), winner takes all. We did that last year at Final Round; it just has a name now. So 40 of the nation's best fought over 2 days of team battles. Who won last year? - Vet Coast. Daiandoh (VE)/MacBlunts (SL)/MarlinPie (ZA)/LordKnight (MI)/NerdJosh (EL) Were there anymore planned in 2015? - Yes, but Final Round was seen as a one time test run for any future tournaments we consider to hold the tournament in the future. Sans scheduling conflicts out of our control, the Summit was a success. Everyone I talked to did enjoy the screaming and pride on the line against other parts of the country. That's usually what these kind of team tournaments are all about. Who breeds the best in the country. How do these Battle Summits work? Is there anyway I can fight alongside the best? - The usual layout for these things is that there are 8 teams split up like this: 1 in-house team, 3 regional teams, 3 out-of-region teams, and 1 last chance qualifier. Take Final Round for example. It takes place in Georgia so there will be a Georgia team. Alabama, Florida, and Tennessee could be the regionals. Midwest, East Coast, and West Coast are the out-of-regions and the last team will be determined the day of. A few months ahead of the tournament, I speak with top players from each region that have confirmed their presence there. I ask if there is anyone else going with them and if so, would they participate in as well. They discuss within themselves and they send me a final lineup to enter the Summit. Once all the teams have been determined, the regions are randomized and the tournament begins. Double elim, pokemon style. The first team to beat the other 5 are determined the winner and move on. Member orders can be pre-determined or done on the spot. - Whether or not you're up to par to fight for your state or region is up to whoever your team captain is. Ask around, you might know who it is already. Wait, you said something about a last chance qualifier. What's that about? - Before the main event starts, 5-man teams are welcome to enter a single elimination tournament to cover the 8th spot in the main event. It does not matter whether you're the same region or not. Bring your best friends and play. Call it a "wild card." This tournament is free of charge but there will be a cap on signup and you must be prepared to pay for the main event if your team wins. If Final Round is just one Summit, what are the others for this year? Is there some sort of endgame? - I currently plan on 5 Summits I personally plan on being at: Final Round (1st Summit) -> Combo Breaker (2nd Summit) -> Evolution (Midway [up to 16 teams]) -> CEOtaku (4th Summit) -> NEC (Final Summit). Given the time frames and locations of these tournaments, these are the best 5 to ensure all of the strongest can participate. There may be more or less but that comes in due time. This is the plan as of this moment. I plan on the last Summit of the year to always be NEC, and I do want it to be the most hype aside from Evolution. If you ask for an endgame, it should be there. What that endgame is...I don't know but I want it to be worth alot of money and previous champions. Any information on the upcoming Summit? - I've gotten an A-OK from ShinBlanka (Final Round head TO) to go on with planning out this thing. I've 6 teams set in mind as of this moment: Bama, Georgia, Florida, Midwest, East Coast, West Coast, with possible reaction from Texas, North Carolina (last year's LCQ winner), and possibly another East Coast team. If you have any questions about Final Round's Summit or anything in general about this, you can hit me up on Twitter (@Cluckw0rk) or post here! Teams have yet to be finalized for Final Round so start asking around! Thanks for your time, and I'll see you at Final Round!

Updated with YT link of the archive.

May as well C/P here too. Origin: https://twitter.com/Cluckw0rk/status/633398150246567936 My thoughts on Arc Revo Xrd finals. (These are my opinions so you're welcome to disagree. I implore you to do so if you feel that way. This is also not a play by play and the grammar/terms might be off. I did this all on a phone during lunch.) There were 3 things I felt contributed to Machaboo's victory over Koichi I-No, Karinchu Millia, and Ogawa Zato: 1) Understanding opposing character options during neutral. 2) Punishing from an opponent's attempt to over-extend otherwise simple oki/situations. 3) Boy, did these niggas fuck up. Let me give some background. Koichi, Karinchu, and Ogawa are not only some of the best players in Xrd right now, but they are also the best at their characters (Karinchu being debatable [hi Woshige/Nakamura but he's top 3 easy]). Machaboo is arguably considered the best player in Xrd, hands down. He rarely uses his card anymore (pure fear?) and have been in 3 high profile ft10s which he has done insanely well in (FAB/Ogawa/Shanon). These people are all scary on paper. Machaboo beat them all in an ft1 setting with alot of money on the line. Pretty handily too, although you can obviously see some rather confusing decisions on the other team. Nerves? Oki that was never there in the first place? It happens yeah but if I can only sum up this grand final in one sentence, it's this: Machaboo fucked these dude's heads up to see him preparing for something that was never theirs in the first place. In other words, any chance they had to turn around matches was wasted thinking they had more time to have an advantage. Machaboo took the earliest opening out of most chances they had to start an offense. Otherwise, he either took alot of damage or lost a round. 1) vs. Koichi - A good example. He ends a ground combo into STBT which now Machaboo has to shake out of stagger. There is time for Koichi to fly in and do a mixup. Machaboo shakes it in time and 6Ps the mixup into a hard knockdown. Pretty sure Koichi could have done Chemical Love afterwards for a knockdown instead of resetting the situation. - After establishing that Machaboo was blocking notes, he moves in and lands short since he's preparing a mixup after note. Of course he goes for j.K, I-No's go-to for a mixup but a deceptive one IF someone is preparing to get mixed up after they block note. Machaboo 5H'd the attempt and it ended in a round winning counter hit combo. - Let's check the opposite. Koichi gets a good note setup near the end of round 2 that ends up with him doing 2-3 overheads within the note. Here, Machaboo was not given an opening therefore he had to take it and react accordingly. He got hit with the 3rd j.K for Koichi to take the round. - Third round is a blowup. Koichi did a combo that didn't exist. From a j.D that Machaboo blocked. Whoops. 2) vs. Karinchu - Let me first start this off by saying man did Karinchu get shat on for this one. Like bad. - This match only had one declaration revolving around it: If you don't finish your plate, I will mash on you. There were three throw attempts past what would seem to had been a knockdown combo. And all three times, Machaboo mashed 2P on Karinchu. He didn't even get a combo. He just wanted to not get thrown. The one time he /did/ get thrown in the first round, the disc setup that Karinchu used was the one that can be DP'd out of. And Machaboo did just that. - The second round had Karinchu being rather fidgety in his response to pressure, and Machaboo adjusting to what he's done in the previous round. The thing is that both of Karinchu's failed throw attempts from round 1 came from a pin confirm into 2K. This round, he's given the same situation, but instead of a throw Karinchu does 5D after the 2K to catch the mash. Machaboo sees the 5D and blocks it, feeling Karinchu wouldn't dare try to tick throw from that distance again. - Then all of a sudden, Karinchu with meter! And the fun begins! Machaboo eats 3 mixups. But what happens afterwards is rather interesting to me. Machaboo ends up midscreen and Karinchu starts up Secret Garden xx Charming Rose. Machaboo is blocking SG while Karinchu...does pressure that ends in hair car. O...kay. Machaboo blocks the car and tries to Stun Dipper to punish (maybe if car was IB'd) but is too slow and Millia dashes over. Now I believe Karinchu overshot the air dash so now he's in the corner. A stray rose from the dash actually HITS Machaboo but Karinchu is too late to confirm and then gets 2D'd into "wow I bursted on CSE." 3) vs. Ogawa - This one was good. Real good. - Ogawa fucked up the least but you can clearly see Machaboo wanting absolutely 0 to do with Eddie. What's crazy is that I'm sure he will accept the AA shark/Ky 2K trade all day over having to deal with Eddie pressure. I mean yeah Zato gets a combo but that's all he gets. You tech in the air and you start running back the neutral before Eddie gauge fills again. - The first chance Ogawa got to run game ends up backfiring when he gets too close to continue pressure. Machaboo IBs Eddie P and GRABS Zato for being too close. Even if he was out of throw range, Machaboo was still holding back so H would not have come out because Ogawa kept his distance. That got rid of Eddie and gave Machaboo a running start. Until he stopped running and jumped. - Quick lesson on YRCs in Xrd: If a move hits something other than the opponent (a normal or inanimate object), you are still viable for a YRC instead of an RC. Why? Because the opponent is not in hitstun; you rather hit something the opponent owns. This is why moves like Hammerfall are scary with 25% meter thanks to the super armor it has. It can easily be YRC'd during that armor because of the startup having armor. Near the end of the first round after Ogawa bursts mixups, Eddie is summoned on the ground near where Machaboo will land while Ogawa jumps. Machaboo lands, does SD, THEN YRCs to stop Ogawa's descent. Very smart, but uses j.K which whiffs and allows Ogawa to land and air throw. - Ogawa made some heavy misreads in round 2. 6K in neutral (misinput) at the start and the blitz shield after 6H. There was one instance here and in round 3 that he summoned Eddie from 2S. From the front in round 2 and from a puddle behind Machaboo in round 3. He Stun Dippered both of them. The front got rid of Eddie but air combo'd and the puddle equaled a free knockdown. - Aaaand round 3 was a blowup. Ogawa lands crouching to the first Greed Sever of the entire grand final. Whoops. Now there was alot of risk with all this; Machaboo had to completely disregard opponent oki at times which led to alot of CHs and bad backdashes on wakeup. A normal (and mostly sane) player's first reaction to seeing I-No's note, Millia's disc, or Eddie when they're knocked down is to block and react accordingly until you either get hit (loool), a character has ran out of options, or see openings. And I know, there was alot Machaboo did right in the neutral and a testament to how strong the foosies are with Ky but in these particular matches, they were not the only deciding factor to him winning it all.

Hi, I'm Shinobi! Long time Ky player (from #R) and ex-mod of the Ky forums. Recently I've bought a more efficient capture card and started to stream Xrd content as a means to help new and some returning Ky players in this new game. If you have any suggestions for what you would like for me to talk about (not matchup related) or any other inquiries, drop a post here or contact me on twitter @Cluckw0rk. Current: Ky Kiske Basics/Primer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsVlXubPEyM Contents: Normals - 0:00 Specials - 13:04 Supers - 40:00 Basic Gameplan and Okizeme – 44:18 Basic Combos and Round Start Confirmations – 54:55 Corner Dust Combo routes - 1:04:48 Outro/Summary – 1:10:38 Very rough cut of Ky basics stream (unedited) that was done last Wednesday on http://www.twitch.tv/donjonnetwork2nd. Follow me there for any future Ky tutorials and lobbies. Also, there may be some audio sync issues that transferred over from that stream. I refresh the Elgato output a couple times during this video to accommodate. Other than that, I do hope you find this tutorial welcoming and informational for those starting out with him in Xrd. Enjoy.

Put 'em in the dirt.

Episode 2 in full effect! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y85kad51ebk

Soon™. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLxu9gwMqL8

Episode 2 is just about ready to come out. Add music and SFX and we in there.

Crunkfest 1.5 - Hazama's Grand Fuck. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTGouanEc_M&feature=youtu.be

Updated thread title; part 2 editing has started.

The trilogy's script is done so the remaining parts will only involve the characters in part 1.

Episode 1 is up and live! Thanks for being patient. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQZlTaSZjJk&feature=youtu.be

WE GOT PREVIEWS NOW (ep. 1 will be out this week; thanks for being patient) https://twitter.com/Cluckw0rk/status/448285790112849920

KYfightfest is getting theirs uploaded on their youtube. Slowly, but they're coming. http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDtcSZr4FW4KbggA9Dgf_Sg

Guilty Gear AC+R results. 1st: MacBlunts (SL) 2nd: KyleW (MA) 3rd: SilentShinobi (KY) 4th: Da Prince (TE) 5th: ShinSyn (CH)/Skeletal Minion (AB) 7th: Ukujiku (MA)/DBC (VE)

As a definite round killer, yeah. Last hit wall sticks, but it's a very short duration. Can't follow up afterwards so it's best you confirm you'll win the round if you do RtL over VT.

Supposedly Samitto is highest ranked Chipp going hard at the moment. Just no videos out of him.

Got a custom mix made as thanks for a brilliant production at SCR. 60+ tracks from 20+ Genesis games, guaranteed to get you hype! https://mega.co.nz/#!ukh2ja4I!H2r4gDMR6Z2TunLhKRlqC_OVFmrCvAjscmo3G59-uCo

I can vouch for this. She put this on herself.

You must JI in order to do that combo. Don't know if he's actually doing the JI (which I would like to believe) or if something's changed with the system to where you can restore air options after RC. Also Scared Edge can go through a seal. It's a huge, full screen projectile (one hit) and it's super fast. There was stream footage of it from day 1 but it's not recorded.

The dirt begins. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=re8IWL4jBDI#t=19m5s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BBFi...ature=youtu.be - Mikado 2/20: Ain(?) vs. FAB (Pot)/Slayer/Sol

Yes, Xrd has JIs. Dunno if Ky has any auto-JI moves though.

Thanks for your thoughts. I'm interested in learning more about Split Ciel on whiff during pressure since it recovers very fast (say after 6H max range or f.S.) Could you try that and see how it works out?

Going with what I've seen so far in match videos in Xrd, change lists, and experience from playing both #R and AC+R. Not doing his entire movelist as there are some moves that have been unchanged over the years or too specific for the eye to catch. 6P - #R: On CH, prolonged hitstun. Same with both ground and air hit. - +R: On CH, prolonged hitstun and blows back. Same with both ground and air hit. - Xrd: Same as #R. 6K - #R: +6 on block, possible to link 5S, 2S, and 2D afterwards (this makes 5S -> 6K loop work), not special cancelable. - +R: +4 on block, cannot link 5S but special cancelable. - Xrd: Same as +R. May have more/less advantage on block. 6H - #R: Two-hit swipe. +15 on block, special cancelable on both hits. - +R: New move: one hit ranged swipe. - Xrd: Same as #R. 3H - #R: No input. - +R: Exactly #R's 6H. - Xrd: New move: one hit upward swipe. Special cancelable, gatlings from most moves; most important is f.S for max range confirms. 2H - #R: Two hits, slower, no jump cancel. - +R: One hit, faster, jump cancelable. - Xrd: Mixture of both versions. Two hits, seems to have +R startup and jump cancelable. j.D - #R: Two on the same jump possible. Prolonged hitstun on ground hit. - +R: Could not have more than one from the same jump (FB star could however) Floats on ground hit. Floats higher on CH. - Xrd: One j.D per jump; but does float on hit (might have changed from 2nd loketest?) Summons one Seal. Stun Edge (236S) - #R: One version. -4 on block(?) - +R: FRC added. Two versions: Slash (same as #R) and HS (faster, more recovery) - Xrd: FRC removed (but YRC OK) One version, may be the same as #R. Charged Stun Edge (236H) - #R: FRC added. No aerial version. - +R: Aerial OK. Command change to 236D. - Xrd: FRC removed (but YRC OK), the same as #R version; no aerial. Stun Dipper (236K) - #R: Faster startup, longer distance, combos (2 hits) better. FRC'able. - +R: Slower startup, shorter distance, a bit more difficult to combo from max ranges. - Xrd: FRC removed (YRC OK?), might have #R startup with +R distance. Greed Sever (214K) - #R: Slow startup; floats on hit. Higher float on CH. - +R: Faster startup; ground bounces on both ground and air hit. Crossup OK. - Xrd: +R startup with CH height float on normal air hit (combo possible with 2H or super jump). Floats normally on ground hit as #R. No crossup. +R Charged Stun Edge/Split Ciel (236D) - #R: No input. - +R: New input for CSE. Refer to Charged Stun Edge for changes. - Xrd: Input for Split Ciel (new move in Xrd) Will be updated when I see some more videos and data.