Console

Sega's finale to its first Challenge Cup will be streamed on October 10, 2022 2 PM JST (12 AM CST or 6 AM GMT+1). While the qualifiers and playoffs were done online, the two U19 and 16 FREE finalists will compete in an offline environment with no audience (due to the Covid-19 pandemic). The finals will be a single elimination, first to win two games tournament.

From the Tokyo Game Show, Sega announced additional customize items will be available in the game. Additional details will be announced at a later date.

VF5US is getting an update on September 30, 2021. Version 1.20 update includes the weekly Tournament mode that was originally intended to be part of the large summer update. Full patch notes from Sega's website are posted below for your convenience.

If you missed out on the free game offer of VF5US to PlayStation Plus subscribers, the game bundled with the Legendary Pack is available for a discount until the end of September. This is part of the PlayStation Plus Double Discounts Promotion.

Many of the events, but not all (apologies!) that occurred from August 6 to August 23. Whether the event is offline or online, small or large, please share your events that you organized, participated in, or watched!

VF5US Version 1.10 has been released which includes a new Team Battle mode, stage setting feature in Room matches, simultaneous matches for League and Tournament modes, a new color for Side Counter Hits and, oh yeah, new VFDC titles!

Which characters are being played the most? How many people are playing the game online? Those are some of the questions I tried to address by collecting and summarizing data from the in-game PSN ladders. This article is divided into three parts: 1) Survey of the characters used; 2) Survey of the player accounts; and 3) Now that free PS+ period has ended, what is next?

Summary and results of events that occurred between July 27 and August 5. I will try to find a more efficient way of summarizing events as this got posted much later than I had hoped!

For veterans of the VF series this is going down memory lane; and for a new generation of VF fans, a story worth telling. This is about the Tetsujins in the 1990s before the internet and the term "esports" was commonly known. Sega officially named Shinjuku Jacky, Kashiwa Jeffry, K.K. Yukikaze, Ikebukuro Sarah, Bunbunmaru, and Kyasao as Tetsujins. The latter 3 had a roundtable discussion with Den Faminico Gamer (in Japanese) about a week after the release of Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown (Virtua Fighter esports in Japan).

For players new to the Virtua Fighter series, the game may be overwhelming or feel very different from other games they have played. WireMan, who recently finished his A-to-Z of VF5US, has started a tutorial series for new players based on Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution in-game tutorials. Evolution's tutorials was the starting point for many VF fans and is still highly regarded by many.