The Raven RepublicThe Japanese Armored Core community just concluded an intense and very entertaining tournament for Armored Core: Verdict Day. Check out their recording, and congratulations to the winner.
On January 28, 2023, the Philippines’ newly-revived Gundam EXVS community held a monthly play-off at Playbook Circuit Makati, with nearly two dozen participants in a community meetup on a mock tournament. The Gundam EXVS Philippines community reached out to us, as they have an interest in Armored Core as well, so we had to go check their community out.
The EXVS mini-tournament used an MMA-style ladder bracket with a round-robin system and will move on to a double elimination format later. PS4s lined the venue setup with an equal number of flatscreen TVs, a giant projector on the wall to view matches, and Playbook’s own streaming channel online on Twitch for anyone to view online.
The event was well-organized and serious, but also had a fun atmosphere. There was also a PS3 set up with a copy of Armored Core for anyone to play, which this author gladly tinkered with outside viewing matches.
The community is also excited for the release of Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon and can’t wait to create their own ACs.
Congratulations to the winners, and may fortune be with you in Rubicon 3 when Armored Core VI is released!
You can find the Gundam EXVS community page here if you’re interested in joining. If you’re interested in booking your own game event, check out Playbook’s socials here.
As the title implies, this post is quite the change of pace from all the mecha stuff we’ve posted these past few months. You see, Doom Trigger over at the forums just announced that he and AEA1 will be hosting a Super Street Fighter 4 tournament with actual money at stake! That’s an RR first.
More details below.
From what we gather, From Software’s Armored Core corporate mascot the self dubbed “Black Torrent” Aaliyah Kawate, will be making an online appearance this coming August 20 Japan time on player matches in Armored Core: For Answer. The Black Torrent will be making an online appearance for all AC fans to basically beat him up, and you can tell everyone that you’ve played an online match with an Armored Core celebrity. Essentially a guy in an Aaliyah helmet and a suit, he’s From’s company representative in recent officially sponsored tournaments, as well as various player meetings over the past few months.
Select matches will probably be broadcast live on Ustream on that day as well. Check out Aaliyah Kawate’s awesome looking AC emblem after the jump:
The results of a Japanese nationwide Armored Core: Last Raven Portable tournament held last May 29 are finally in, gathering 8 ravens from all over Japan to one tournament to find out who is indeed the Last Raven.
A Dengeki Online coverage of the tournament noted some observations from PS2 PvP games of ACLR, most significant is the greater difficulty of aerial battles due to the limitations of the PSP’s button configuration, making the look-up and look-down functions a bit more awkward compared to the PS2 version.
In addition, there is greater emphasis on range control, or darting in and out of one’s effective weapons range to dish out damage instead of short range slug-fests. Much of the player victories are attributed to AP lead instead of destroying an opponent’s AC.
In line with the celebrations, a web poll was conducted asking fans who they think will win the grand championship. Fan speculations turned out accurate, with the winner of the fan poll also being the winner of the tournament as well. Hit the jump to find out who the champion is and watch the fight videos:
The official From Software sponsored Armored Core Championship Tournament has completed its preliminary round for its 3rd season and uses the recently released Last Raven Portable on the PSP platform. The well documented tournament has a wonderful set of videos coming from the Kinki and Tokai prefectures of Japan as of the moment.
A quick look on the new videos reviles the absence of new parts included by From from any of the Portable series releases, which leads us to think that the top players in this tournament prefer tried and true formulas rather than embark on a risky experiment with their designs. In addition all the designs used the very powerful TP booster, which was banned in many tournament circles outside Japan as well as our very own Philippine Armored Core Tournament for the past 5 iterations. Much of the fights also boil down to a war of attrition, with hangared pulse weapons and handguns taking center stage.
Video links to the Armored Core Championship Tournament Season 3 after the jump:
Update: Results for Kanto area included
Now that Armored Core Silent Line Portable has been released in English, people might wonder how different Silent Line is compared to its predecessor and the rest of the Armored Core games.
As evidenced by the videos above and to follow, a lot has changed from the days of Armored Core 3 Portable. These videos were taken from Naitoh’s AC site some time around 2003-2004 during various sparring sessions or actual tournaments on the PS2 version.
These featured are probably among best Ravens to ever pilot an Armored Core, so its worth watching them. Maybe these fights might inspire some people to play AC more often and learn a couple of things in the process. One important thing to note: all these videos are played in hard mode, meaning all the lock boxes are much smaller.
More videos after the jump.
The results of the recent Armored Core Championship Tournament sponsored by From Software was recently released in the official Armored Core website. The tournament winner is a pilot named “ame” from the Tokai prefecture while the second placer is “naname” from the Kanto area which come from their respective regions in the preliminary round. Final AC designs and final match videos after the jump. Please note that the designs posted are based off the videos. There is no official documentation of the player AC designs, and their internals are based on speculation.