Street Fighter x Tekken Started ReveLAtions 2012 Off To A Good Start

Day one of ReveLAtions: the smell of battle is in the air as competitors flock to the Santa Monica Place in search of opponents to test their skills towards. Many fighting games such as Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Super Street Fighter 4, and Persona 4 Arena are going to be present but today was the day where BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend, Skull Girls, and Street Figher x Tekken reigned. This segment will focus mainly on the details of Street Fighter x Tekken.

Street Fighter and Tekken by themselves have a standing in the video game community. But together, they have not been so hot. According to my assistant Daniel Gomez, “Street Fighter x Tekken has been a black sheep…Will the inclusion of DLC characters help his lackluster game?” From the looks of the teams, I would say so. Some teams competed included characters such as Cody and Bryan, whom were recently released a couple weeks prior to ReveLAtions. But will this bring some excitement for a game that hath been doth the title “anti-hype?”

There was actually a pretty decent turnout for this particular game. Big names such as Justin Wong, Combofiend, and EVO’s champion in UMVC3 Filipino Champ were competitors in this division and did well. There were two sides of the venue where a big screen was put up and games were streaming, one of this was playing SFxT. So it comes as no surprise that whenever a big name competitor was playing, they went on the big screen. This added to the excitement for this first day of the tournament. The matches on the big screen were as follows:

First major match-up was Combofiend vs. RockinRoll, whom was cosplaying as Rolento. Combofiend ran a Julia and Marduk team, while RockinRoll was rolling with Rolento (big surprise) and Bryan, a new addition to SFxT. The first match named Combofiend the victor and seeing as how this team was not going to work out, RockinRoll decided to switch it up. He switched out Bryan for Ryu and began match two. However, this proved to be futile as Combofiend just rocked it with this team. This sent Combofiend one-step closer to being top 8.

The next match-up on the big screen was CCG Jozher vs. Kenneth Pope. Jozher was running a Vega and King team, while Kenneth was running with Hugo and Rufus. The team of Hugo and Rufus has been making its way as top tier characters, but it still takes a skilled individual to use them. The first match named Kenneth the victor, while the second named Jozher. It was now the tiebreaker and the Hugo and Rufus team held its own as it crowned Kenneth the victor for that match against Jozher. But Jozher did put up one hell of a fight against a top tier team, considering it was a back and forth team and every evenly matched.

The next match-up had EG PR Balrog and OFC Salty Santa pitted against each other. Balrog was rocking a Ryu and Kazuya team, while Salty Santa was rocking a Cody and Brian (again, both from the latest DLC for the game). This game, unfortunately, proved to be too much for Salty Santa as Balrog ran through him like a hot knife through butter with a 2-0 victory. Since he used new characters for this tournament, it makes me wonder what Salty Santa’s team was before. Oh well, maybe next time.

Balrog had no time to rest because his next match-up was against TFA RZR LPN on the big screen. Balrog kept his same team of Ryu and Kazuya and TFA was playing with Juri and Kwoarang. The first match gave Balrog the victory, which made TFA rethink his strategy a little bit. Instead of keeping that team, he completely 180-ed and switched his team entirely. His new team was now Sagat and Zangief and the second match began. This time, it led to TFA being the victor, with a super to finish it off. Now it was tied and the next match would decide it. The teams remained the game and…TFA was the victor yet again, with another finishing super. The audience “ooohhh”-ed when TFA landed that and knocked Balrog out and into the loser’s bracket. Balrog later secured his own spot in the loser’s bracket with his victory against Johzer.

Now this match-up you don’t see everyday, at least not so early on in the game. It was Justin Wong vs. Combofiend. Justin was running Rufus and his faithful Chun-Li, while Combofiend stuck with Julia and Marduk. During the first match, both players were very patient. Each one waited for their opportunity to strike rather than be aggressive. After doing a little dance on screen, the first match belonged to JWong. But victory was shortlived as Combofiend claimed the second match. Now it was tied and the match point went all the way down…literally. Justin Wong was able to claim the victory of the entire match due to time running out. That is the only downside to SFxT that I will go into later. Combofiend later secured his spot in the loser’s bracket with his victory against Kenneth Pope.

The next match-up pitted EG Ricky Ortiz and AGE Snake Eyez against each other. Ricky Ortiz was rocking it with a very familiar looking team of Rufus and Chun-Li. Snake Eyez was playing with Kazuya and Zangief, which had already made their appearances in previous matches. Ricky Ortiz did not seem to be on top of his game today as Snake Eyez took both victories and moving up into the top 8. But he was not out yet; he secured a spot in the loser’s bracket.

A familiar face made his way up the stage as EVO’s champion for UMVC3 Filipino Champ was pitted against Assassin. Filipino Champ played one hell of a zoning game with Rolento and Dhalsim, while Assassin was having a tough time getting in there with Zangief and Hugo. Needless to say, Filipino Champ poked him many times from afar and secured a spot in the top 8, alongside Justin Wong, RZR LPN, and Snake Eyes.

One more spot was open in the loser’s bracket and Clim and Assassin were going to fight for it. Assassin kept his same team while Clim was running Zangief and Hugo. This was an interesting game to watch, considering it was a mirror match. It was tough to follow which character was which, aside from the change in underwear on Zangief. Ultimately, Clim clenched the victory for both matches, although it was a tough one. He is now in the loser’s bracket, alongside Ricky Ortiz, Combofiend, and Balrog.

Upon watching all of these matches on the big screen, there seems to be a huge glaring issue with SFxT. The use of time does play into many strategies, especially when one is winning and that time is running out. It was very common to see players who were winning to play defense and runaway until the time ran out.  But it is a strategy nonetheless and without a real comeback mechanic, it gives the players a reason to think moves out accordingly.

While the DLC was released not too long ago and there were individuals rocking with them, there were four characters that stood out. These four characters seemed to be the most popular, in the big matches and the smaller pool plays. These characters are: Guile, Rufus, Zangief, and Hugo. It comes as no surprise the last three, but it was interesting to see Guile so often, yet he was not played by any of the bigger names.

Recap – the Street Fighter x Tekken top 8 finalists is as follows:

Losers bracket:                     Winners bracket:

Ricky Ortiz                            JWong

Clim                                     RZR LPN

Combofiend                          Snake Eyez

PR Balrog                             Filipino Champ

How will they fair against each other, especially when some competitors are potentially playing another game? We will find out on Sunday when the finals will be taking place at 11am. Stay tuned onto Velocity Gamer for coverage on ReveLAtions and finals on Sunday!