PLAYER CHOICES vs BANDWAGONING



This brings me to my next point of discussion which is player choice vs bandwagoning. What this means is that how does a player who comes up with his own team and set ups compare with another player who just simply "picks the cheap stuff of the day and abuses it".



Most people will think that bandwagoning gets you easy wins and they may be right to some extent but easy wins is all you are going to get. At the higher level, it's the players who have constructed their own team from scratch and stayed away from the bandwagon characters of the time who have won tournaments.



There are numerous examples that I can list to prove this but I will start from the beginning. In the beginning the bandwagon character was Sentinel. According to Marn and many other players, every match until EVO in MVC3 was going to boil down X/X/Sentinel vs X/X/Sentinel. He was the S tier character, he was the "best". Bandwagoners flocked to Sentinels where as players like JWong and Combofiend stuck to their guns. She Hulk/Amaterasu/Tron/Spencer/Taskmaster/Wolverine/Akuma/Magneto technology emerged and destroyed the Sentinel bandwagoners. JWong and Combofiend were the front runners in anti-Sentinel technology and their combined efforts saw through to there being NO SENTINELS in the grand finals at Final Round (when Sentinel was at his peak with 1.3 million health).



After that there was a surge of She Hulk and Akuma players with a dash of Wolverines, Trons etc. Magneto become a quick bandwagon character in the East coast thanks to his legacy from MVC2. The combination of Magneto/Sentinel became a winner in the East. However, players like ChrisG were going to innovate. He played Wesker/Ammy/Ryu and Ryu at that time was considered the WORST character in the game and "no reason to pick him over Akuma". Now, ChrisG is considered the BEST player in the East Coast coming fresh off his win at ECT3. He innovated the game, put out new technology with Ammy/Ryu/Wesker that shook up the MVC3 scene. He destroys Magneto/Sentinels, destroys Wolverine/Akuma and destroys Zero. And guess what... Ryu makes an important aspect of his team and something that many players have underestimated time and time again only to lose 2 of their characters to SHINKUU HADOUKEN.



Bandwagoning happened again, more Weskers/Ammy popped up. And then it happened... Justin Wong declared Wolverine#1 at Power Up and everyone lost their shit. People started picking Wolverine like it was going out of style. Tournaments flooded with Wolverine/Akuma as bandwagoners decided that XF LVL1 Wolverine + Akuma was GODLIKE. I will remind people that JWong was the ORIGINAL innovator of the Wolverine/Akuma combination and everyone who uses that combination after him is bandwagoning off of him.



Then came the Phoenix surge and she over passed Wolverine for quite a bit. Viscant/Clockwork/Filipino Champ advanced the technology for Phoenix to the point where she became the most feared character in the game. And then it happened at CEO... Tokido did the inevitable of putting the 3 characters that were the most feared of their times (Wolverine/Sentinel/Phoenix) and started using XF LVL1 with Wolverine + Meter on a PHOENIX TEAM. Ever since Tokido used this new configuration (and yes people this IS an innovation, at this time most people thought that Wolverine outside of Akuma was stupid) he has been undefeated in a major MVC3 tournament.



Bottom line: The trend for this game is that smart players who developed their own technology and innovation are the current top players in the game (JWong, Combofiend, Tokido, ChrisG, Viscant). The bandwagoners (who will not be listed) are on no one's radar despite making some waves here and there.





WOLVERINE.... THE BEST THERE IS?



One fine tournament morning, Justin Wong and crew declared Wolverine as the #1 character in the game. Now Wolverine was always considered a good character in this game and definitely tournament viable but an outright statement like this was "WTF". Mostly because everyone knew about Wolverine and knew that he didn't really have any tricks that were undiscovered up to the point. His game plan was straightforward and one dimensional plus he didn't have some of the tools that other characters had. He also needed an assist to really shine.



As tournaments passed on this statement became more and more a reality until the climax reached at CEO where the grand finals basically boiled down to Wolverine vs Wolverine. Players who sort of ignored Wolverine before now were raising their eye brows. Once people put it all together... it became crystal clear. The braindead easy yet high damaging bread and butter combo, the imperceptible mix ups, safe on all normals, godlike dive kick, deaths off of throws, priority on almost all special moves, a utility hypers that makes him even faster.



All of these attributes were maximized when combined with X factor LVL1 usage and mix ups on incoming character. Wolverine killed characters so quickly in LVL1 XF that he had enough time to mix up and kill the next character too. Very few other characters had A) Mix ups good enough to 50/50 an incoming character and kill them outright B) Had combos in XF that killed a character in as little time as Wolverine or as easy as Wolverine. The best part about Wolverine was that all of this came at an EASY LOW RISK cost. A few hours in training was all you needed and you could tear it up in tournaments. Word got around and people took it as the gospel truth.



Next element of Wolverine that people brought up was his reliant on assists most particularly those like Akuma's. It was a MYTH until then that Wolverine needed Akuma to be a killing machine. Pairing up Wolverine with Sentinel proved to be just a lethal enough combination to bring down teams as Tokido proved. Many assists allowed Wolverine to left/right character on incoming including Daigo's patented Jam Session/Berserker Slash cross up. Many assists also allowed Wolverine to insta-overhead follow up or OTG follow up which allowed for more versatile team constructs (like PRBalrog's Wolverine/Ammy/Tron which was when JWong declared Wolverine #1 after losing many sets to PR).



Another myth about Wolverine that was rectified was the belief that some characters could zone him out. Dormammu and his flame carpet was brought up but what good is his flame carpet against an invincible Berserker Slash? What good is Magneto's Disruptor against the Dive Kick? What good is Haggar's lariat/Tron Gusfaff against Wolverine when he can just cr.L underneath it? Only two characters who can safely engage Wolverine are Trish and Phoenix yet both of them succumb just like any other character when they are brought in as incoming characters after death/snapback.



Is Wolverine unbeatable? Surely not. Players like ChrisG have adapted to the Wolverine meta by ALSO burning X Factor early to kill Wolverine. It is a given now at tournament play that Wolverine as point character = X Factors will get burnt quickly. Space filling assists keep Wolverine honest and his Dive Kick can be punished accordingly. Unfortunately the characters with favorable match ups against Wolverine are also some of the more high execution ones. Zero is very favorable against Wolverine but one messed up input and he is dead. Wolverine has no wrong inputs, everything he has is good that's why he doesn't mess up.



We don't know if Wolverine is the best character in the game yet. Certainly with a character like Phoenix on the roster and up and coming top tiers like Dante it's hard to tell. However, these facts are hard to argue against:



*Wolverine has the highest kill/death ratio on average in the game.

*Wolverine has the highest "happy birthday" rate in the game.

*Wolverine has the highest Perfect rate in the game.



He is a menace and you can damn near bet your balls that he will be a menace at EVO. You shouldn't be surprised to see a Wolverine vs Wolverine grand final.





THE BEST TEAM IN MVC3?



I have discussed Wolverine and I have discussed Phoenix. We have all seen the terror of Wolverine and Phoenix on a team and the current status of the meta game. It is no surprise that a team of Wolverine + Phoenix is destroying in tournaments played by Tokido. He is undefeated in all majors ever since he used this configuration. It is safe to say that in the current meta game of MVC3, Wolverine and Phoenix on a team qualifies for a Best Team.



The problem however comes with coming up with a 2nd character for that team. That character needs to provide Wolverine with a means to left/right a character and control space. He already has the ability to OTG follow up with Phoenix's assist. Tokido smartly has placed Sentinel in that role. The problem with Sentinel is that if Wolverine dies, Sentinel can only space it out and get some blocked normals in to provide meter for Phoenix. He will rarely get the kills without meter and X Factor. When stranded like that, Sentinel's weaknesses become even more obvious. Despite it may appearing so... Tokido does NOT have the best team in MVC3.



The next candidate for the best team was another obvious choice... Akuma. However this team configuration presented the same problem. In fact, Akuma's Tatsu being able to OTG follow up was redundant with Phoenix's assist. It also didn't control space like Drones and Akuma is not that good without meter and X Factor. Another character choice shot down.



This next segment is going to cross the territory into theory fighter but I am going to cross the line anyway. After observing Daigo and his Wolverine/Dante play I was convinced as to what the best team in MVC3 right now is: Wolverine/Dante/Phoenix. There is only one area where Wolverine is weak at and that is the vertical axis, something which Dante's assist Jam Session excels at covering. It locks down opponents long enough for Wolverine mix ups. Best of all, Wolverine can do Berserker Slash against an airborne enemy and the cross up with allow for Jam Session to trap the opponent long enough for Wolverine to Dive kick and combo them. This set up is especially deadly on incoming characters. Daigo used the patented LVL1 X Factor and combined it with this set up to pretty much guarantee 2 characters dead.



If someone were to acquire this technology or if Daigo just put Phoenix on his team then it would be the best team in MVC3. Dante is a great solo character and can build meter from a far AND from fancy combos. His assist is great for Wolverine and he can clutch it out with X Factor if both Phoenix and Wolverine were to fall. He also has no unfavorable match ups and on paper he is one of the best there is.



Whether or not someone will use this team set up in EVO is a mystery. Most players will stick to their guns rather than experiment. However I am entitled to give my opinion on what I believe to be the best team in MVC3 is currently and I have to give the nod to Wolverine/Dante/Phoenix for EVO.





TOP 5 PLAYERS TO WATCH OUT FOR EVO



1) JUSTIN WONG



MR Marvel himself. Justin Wong IS Marvel and he has supplanted himself yet again as the #1 Marvel player in the world. With the most USA majors under his belt, he has the most solid chance at the EVO title. He is a legitimate innovator in the game and has developed tech for characters who are now considered to be top or near it. He plays multiple teams most notably his Wolverine/She Hulk teams and he likes to adjust to the matchup with different team set ups. He has stated that for EVO he might have a "stylish" team but he has been sticking with Wolverine for the most part so we don't really know how that's going to pan out. He has knowledge of a lot of characters so he isn't really going to be blind-sided by some unknown technology from a lesser used character. He also has the strongest anti-Phoenix tech out there as he was the one who the main promoter of "snapping that bitch in". Justin Wong isn't unbeatable and certainly his few loses have come at the hands of Phoenix players or just general very solid play. It is no secret that in terms of Marvel knowledge, experience, fundamentals and clutch factor... he is the best there is. He is the man to beat in MVC3 at EVO and he is going to make it hell for his opponents. Wolverine is now a mainstay in JWong's team but what partners he pairs him up with is going to be match up dependent so his matches will definitely be exciting to watch. JWong levels up like crazy with "prep time" and 1 week for him in the lab is months for others. Expect legit anti-Wolverine and anti-Phoenix technology from him at EVO and he wants the salty runback against Tokido. JWong's only real weakness is that he becomes much less of a threat when Wolverine dies however he knows this and he has leveled up with his secondary characters too (like Storm).





2) TOKIDO



Tokido is the one player that has the chance to strip away the American dominance of Marvel once and for all after 10+ years. In over a decade of Marvel hype, no non-American player has had such a chance at the title and Tokido is not shaking at all. He leveled up like crazy after his debut at Final Round and since then he has never looked back. With his new take on the Phoenix team by burning early X factors with Wolverine and meter if he has to, he has taken the world by storm in MVC3 (France, USA, Australia, Japan). He is the player who can take away Justin's crown, the player who can end the American reign and the player who is ahead of the curve as far as meta game is concerned. And the scary part is that he has at least 2 technology up his sleeve for EVO in case his current set up gets exposed. Expect him to stick with his patented Wolverine/Sentinel/Phoenix team for EVO and go to town. His team weakness is his Sentinel who gets stranded if Wolverine/Phoenix succumb to early deaths. Other than that, his team is both terribly front and back loaded with very little room for error from the opponent's side.





3) COMBOFIEND



Mr Bionic Arm himself. Combofiend has made quite a name for himself in MVC3 and looks as solid as ever. He is a massive innovator in the MVC3 scene putting out new technology for She Hulk/Taskmaster/Spencer almost every time we see him. He has perfected his team and no one on the planet can play this team better than him. All his characters are equally as effective and capable of TODing from numerous set ups. He is a solid contender to the crown and his comeback/clutch potential is immense. His Phoenix tech is a bit shaky and having no top tier assist backing him up makes him weak against Wolverine teams so that is going to be an area he needs to work on for EVO.





4) CHRIS G



Chris G aka Chris Godlike aka Geesus aka Genius. Call him whatever you want but this guy has STORMED the East Coast MVC3 scene. He has upsetted all the local Marvel legends with his new age style of play. THCs, slow down hypers. Shoryukens with Ryu... he will bust out with the craziest technology and you will confuse them for gimmicks. Chris G has turned almost every one of his gimmicks into deadly set ups that will mess up any team. His Ryu is solid and puts in more work than most people's Akuma. In fact most people mistake Ryu as a weakness on his team when Ryu makes a very fundamental part of the team (meter user, assist killer and being a solid assist himself). Chris's Wesker and Ammy are no joke either and he has secret Zero technology up his sleeve too. What makes Chris G stand tall as one of the best players is that he is smart and adapts to the situation. He is also one of the early adopters of early X factor usage and mix ups on incoming characters using slow downs. Plus he has massive clutch factor. Expect him to stick it out with his classical Ammy/Ryu/Wesker team although the team order is entirely match up dependant. Chris G's only weakness is that since he is from the East Coast he doesn't have a lot of match ups against great Wolverine/Phoenix players and that is a very important match up come EVO to learn. At CEO Wolverine/Phoenix ended up being a bit more than he could handle but he put up a great show.





5) VISCANT



Viscant goes WAY back (like MSH old) and brings immense experience to the table. He has been playing MVC3 since day 1 relentlessly and has been upgrading a lot. He has great knowledge of the inner mechanics of the game and his general macro/micro awareness in MVC3 has put him over a lot of the top players. He is a forerunner in Wesker/Iron Man/Phoenix technology and you can bet your money hats that he will be sticking it out with this team. His weakness as he has mentioned it many times is Iron Man as once Wesker is out of the picture Iron Man is left defenseless. He has leveled up his Iron Man but it's still far below the character's potential (ie don't expect him to bust out fancy high level fly/unfly combos with Iron Man). The main threats on his team are Wesker and Phoenix. He appears to handle the Phoenix mirror match well enough so that's one thing going for him. He has mentioned that he might be experimenting with a Trish/Morrigan/Phoenix team for the Wolverine match up so we'll see if he uses that for EVO or not.







EAST COAST VS WEST COAST & USA VS THE WORLD



The captains for WC and EC have been decided and they are Justin Wong and NerdJosh respectively. I am going to be blunt and say this outright... East Coast is going to be FREE to West Coast. West Coast is just simply ahead of the meta game right now with their armies of Wolverines and Phoenixes. East Coast is generally the Magneto/Dante/Wesker land and although there are some very solid players from there you can just tell from my top 5 list that 3 players are from West Coast and one from East Coast. It's going to be a tough battle for EC going up against the likes of JWong, Combofiend, Viscant, Filipino Champ, Clockwork, Floe etc. EC has some killers no doubt but a lot of them have been inconsistent. The most solid of them ChrisG has to play anchor on that team as he is by far the best player from East Coast. It should be a good round of matches, but I expect WC to take it.



As far as USA vs the World concerns, this isn't America's game anymore. The vast majority of great players of MVC3 are housed in USA but there are legitimate killers from abroad most notably Tokido. He has burnt through the best of the best in the USA (JWong, NerdJosh, ChrisG) with relative ease and has put USA on official notice. Then of course there is the Mr Daigo "The BEAST" Umehara. While he had a lackluster debut in USA at NorCal Regionals, there has been some whispers about withholding tech/skill and just attending the tournament to gauge skill level and test the waters. There is also the possibility of Daigo running a Phoenix team. Whatever the case, Daigo is interested in MVC3 and he could be a potential dark horse at EVO. There are other international players of note in MVC3 (like Alioune) but Tokido is America's biggest threat to the title.