Virtua Fighter dot com

Note: This was written by Amuzan and translated by Modelah.

Amuzan's VF5FS Beginner's Blog post

Hi, I'm Amuzan. I've been playing since VF1 and have been using Shun since VF2. I pop into busy Tokyo arcades from time to time so hit me up for games if you see me around!

Shun's Characteristics, Strengths and Weaknesses
Shun is the only member of the VF cast that has a drinking system; the more drinks he has, the stronger he becomes. The number of drinks you have is displayed on the screen as drink points (X) during the match, and new moves become available as you drink more. Other characters have moves that will strip you of drink points, so managing your drinks is very important for Shun's game. As you start out with 0 you should focus more on getting drinks than damaging your opponent. This means that as Shun, not only do you have to have a sound nitaku game but you've also got to have a strategy of getting more drinks during the match. I think this extra depth makes Shun a very rewarding character to pick up.

Once in a while, it's refreshing to see unique events such as this: a 3on3 team event pitting Pai players against Lau players in Japan! This combined Pai-Lau Off event will take place on Sunday, November 3rd at Akihabara, one day after the first Railway Series team event of the 15th VFR Season on Saturday. As of now, the family feud is leaning toward Team Pai with 31 players compared to Team Lau with 27 players. Before the event begins, the 3-person teams will be randomly made before the start of the tournament. You will see the regular Pai and Lau players in the event--Shiwa and Yuutenji, for example--but also well known players of other characters participating! Team Pai has Demae and Aki (normally uses Wolf and Lion, respectively) and Team Lau has Joseph and Yogo representing (normally uses Akira and Kage, respectively)! Will Pai's Ensei-ken finally be enough to defeat her ailing father? Or will Lau's Koen-ken still be the stronger fist!?

Even though the 14th Beat-Tribe Cup ended earlier this month, the march toward next year's Beat-Tribe have started! The first event of the 15th VFR season is the 9th team battle of the 2013 Tokyo Bay Area Cup series. 93 players in 31 teams competed in the event. Below are links to the video archive and winner of the event is in the spoiler.

In this recent article on SRK, Opinion: "Toxic Community" and Building a Better FGC, the author presents their opinion on the current state of the Fighting Game Community (FGC), laments that its online and real-world manifestations can often appear at opposite ends of the spectrum, and puts forward a pretty strong case as to why "paying it forward" - or the practice of becoming better people - can lead to a bigger and better community.

Note: This was written by Joseph and translated by Modelah.

Joseph's VF5FS Beginner's Blog post

Hello everyone, I play Virtua Fighter as Joseph (but you can call me JoJo, too).
I've been playing VF for about 14 years now, and have been competing for the past 7 years or so. I've never swayed from my main character, Akira.

Akira's Charactersitics, Strengths and Weaknesses
Akira's appeal lies in the destructiveness of his attacks and overall coolness factor. Being quite different from the rest of the VF cast, he can be daunting for new players to pick up. However, once you get used to how he works you'll be able to unlock his overwhelming attacking power. In this version of VF, he's generally thought of as 'the strongest character', for reasons I will outline below.

Update: October 14th, 2013 - results and links to videos added to post. On October 13th, 2013, 600-plus players will gather in Tokyo to participate in Virtua Fighter Relationship's (VFR) 14th Beat-Tribe Cup. VFR specifically runs Virtua Fighter-only team events and is one of the longest running fighting game tournament organization, having done so for 19 years. Thus, it is no exaggeration to state that VFR is an essential part of Virtua Fighter's history. The Beat-Tribe Cup is the climax event of the VFR season and truly is a sanctuary for VF Fans (see trailer below). We will update this thread with information pertaining to the 14th Beat-Tribe Cup. In addition, during the event we will update the status through VFDC's facebook and twitter account.

天翔神 ("Tenshoushin"), equivalent to the Skylord title on PSN and XBL VF5FS Rank Mode, is a rank that only the most dedicated and elite have achieved. Since the release of the game in Summer 2010 to Japan arcades, only five players have risen amongst the field of strong players to gain this rank. The rank is extremely difficult to obtain yet easy to lose; thus, it is fairly rare to see two active Tenshoushin-ranked players at any given time. Recently, Buster (LI) obtained the title at the 2nd Hamaotsu Cup, making him the 2nd active Tenshoushin player currently. Reorao (GO) (commonly known as Gorgeous) achieved the rank earlier this year. The two players decided to wage battle against each other at the conlcusion of the 2013 Tokyo Bay Area Cup, Vol. 8 tournament. Who will come out on top and be able to keep their hard-earned titles!?

The video of the 3rd Tenshoushin Ranking Battle - ReoRao vs Buster ranking battle was originally streamed by Newton Ooyama and the archive is available in their Ustream channel. For those that don't have time to watch the video, you can click on the spoiler below for the results.

On the weekend of September 13-15, a side tournament and gathering was held for VFers at the Fall Classic Fighting Game Tournament in Raleigh, North Carolina. Props to the Fall Classic organizers, Drift, and the VFers that participated in the event!

Links related to the event:

• Results (Challonge Bracket)
  
• Youtube Playlist of the Tournament
  
• Original thread on VFDC

For those seeking to learn and improve on their VF play, there are many good resources already available. For example, video tutorials and the VFDC Wiki. However, textbook-like resources that allow people to follow chapters sequentially for effective understanding is sorely lacking. The Neko Dojo team, the makers of Virtua Wrecker 5 Final Showdown and many other videos showcasing very damaging setups, presents their textbook-like resource 2AFC Approach (see below for Table of Contents).