I Won the WorldGaming Street Fighter V Regional Finals in Kingston, Ontario!

Kingston was a long way from home, but the road trip was certainly worth it! By the end of the tournament, I was crowned the victor, earning a sweet Street Fighter V gi, a free movie pass and a spot in the Canadian finals at the end of the month!

Heading into this tournament, I was really nervous. So much so, that the waiters at the restaurant Steff and I were at just before the tournament asked me if I was okay due to how visibly shaken I was. Though I’ve never won a tournament before, I really wanted to do well at this one. We came from too far away for me to just lay an egg.

The theatre setup was awesome. Six slick gaming booths along with a commentator’s booth lined the front. It was surreal to see Street Fighter V on the big screen, though I spent most of my time playing the game on an Asus monitor below.

Despite the extended warm-up period we got, my jitters carried into my first match. It was a scatterbrained match where I couldn’t get a feel for my opponent. Luckily for me, I was able to win the set 2-0.

Didn’t really feel comfortable until the grand finals match. Facing off against a solid Vega player, I got into a comfortable zone and did what my Rashid does best. When the smoke cleared, I came away with the title!

From here, the next step is to compete with 31 other Street Fighter V competitors from across the country at the end of the month. The road hasn’t been easy and it’s only going to get tougher. For now though, I’m going to relish this first tournament victory before prepping for the biggest tourney of my life to-date!


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Thoughts Going Into the WorldGaming Street Fighter V Regional Finals in Kingston, Ontario


In just a few days, Steff and I will be taking a weekend trip to Kingston, Ontario. Roughly a two-hour drive from Toronto, it’ll be host to one of the Street Fighter V regional finals tournaments taking place across Canada. Having earned my spot to compete at this event, I’m excited for the opportunity to throw down with the best that the city has to offer.
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I Qualified for the Cineplex World Gaming Street Fighter V Regional Finals!

World Gaming is currently running a Canada-wide Street Fighter V tournament. Starting with online qualifiers and ending with the grand finale in Toronto, players are facing off for a slice of the $25,000 (!) prize pool. As far as Canadian fighting game tournaments go, this is unprecedented.

Of course, I participated. While the road was bumpy, I managed to win my bracket and earn my spot in a regional final!

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Kickstart Guide to Mortal Kombat X

The Mortal Kombat franchise has had its fair share of bumps over the course of its 20+ year existence. However, Mortal Kombat X isn’t one of them. Building off of the success of the Mortal Kombat reboot, this is the best iteration of the series to-date. This game may no longer be the new hotness, but it still has a large and active community that play it all the time. If you’re just getting off the ground, here’s a few tips to help smooth out the learning curve!

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Mortal Kombat X Review

After floundering for years, Mortal Kombat got its groove back in 2011. Great graphics for the time, a switch back to 2D fighting and a well-refined battle engine made it a worth rival to the likes of Street Fighter IV and Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Not willing to rest on its laurels, Mortal Kombat X is bigger, bolder, and better than its predecessor in almost every way.

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Ranking the Street Fighter V Cast Based on Personal Hype Levels

Street Fighter V Character SelectWith Street Fighter V just days old, no shortage of players will be jumping to conclusions about which characters are top tier and which ones suck. While it’s fun to have the discussion, it’s probably too early to draw any sort of conclusions. Quite frankly, where characters stand on some general hierarchy means little to me, as I’m far more concerned with the characters I use and the particulars I need to know to beat everyone else.

What I present to you is not a ranking of whose the best. This is my personal rankings based on hype levels. Who am most excited to play as? Who do I not want to touch with a 10-foot pole?

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Street Fighter V’s Bad Word of Mouth and What it Could Mean For the Future

Street Fighter V User ReviewsThe launch of Street Fighter V has been a disaster. On day one, the servers didn’t work, making the game largely unplayable. Since then, the server issues have continued to improve, though the issues with the game’s paltry feature set still exist. In particular, casual players got hit hardest, as the lack of single player content is maddening. Due to this slight, the user scores for this game have been horrendous, even though the actual gameplay is better than its ever been.

As a hardcore player, it can be easy to be dismissive of the casual gamer’s point of view. For me, it has online play, training mode and 8-player lobbies will be arriving in a few days. I’m good. But for the overall well-being of the game, I should be worried.

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Check Out My Street Fighter V Review on Biff Bam Pop!

You read that right! Thank you so much to the good folks at Biff Bam Pop for the opportunity to write their review for the game. In order to do so, they graciously provided me with their review copy, which I’ve been playing with almost every free minute I’ve had since they sent it over last week.

Want to know my thoughts on the final version of the game? Check out the full review over at Biff Bam Pop!


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Street Fighter V Final Beta Zangief Matches and Impressions

Even without his Siberian Blizzard Ultra combo from Street Fighter IV, Zangief will continue to protect the Russian Skies. This time, he has a mid-air Spinning Piledriver that can catch anyone while they’re in the act of jumping. This fundamentally changes the meta game of fighting Zangief, as you can’t simply hold up to get out of the way of a ground-based grab. His air grab is insanely powerful and can grab people out of almost everything, so it’s a real threat.

While he loses his Green Hand, he gains other tools in the transition that make him a more than worthy adversary in Street Fighter V, such as a V-Skill that allows him to walk forward while absorbing two attacks, to an armored standing medium punch, to a ground-based Spinning Piledriver that has incredible range. You should be scared every time you see this Russian wrestler on the other end of the battlefield.


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Street Fighter V Final Beta Vega Matches and Impressions

Vega may appear like the same claw-wielding combatant of old, but he’s seen some major changes going into Street Fighter V. For one, he’s no longer a charge character, as all of his moves can be done with quarter circle and uppercut motions. Two, he’s now a stance character, as his moves change depending on whether he’s wearing the claw or not.

Both changes go a long way towards making the Spanish ninja a much more viable and fun character. By having access to his special moves at all times, he’s able to act on the fly. With the stance change ability, he can switch between being fighting at a distance or fighting in close. Top it off with an awesome V-Trigger and Vega is going to catch a lot of people by surprise.


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