Been addicted to this song lately: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uZWArSOmCc

Man, what a night.  I think I may have grown a bit more as a player, my playstyle has changed so drastically in the past month.  This evening I got some games in with Reece, Stefan (Dictator player who I haven’t seen in awhile), Zaine, and Louie.  Reece kicked my shit in with Gen, and I received a ton of advice from a bunch of different people.

I tried my “Bring a notebook!” thing tonight to hopefully make my blog posting a little easier to type, but to be honest it didn’t help very much.  All I did, after looking at it, was write down random tips that flew at me.  So I’m just gonna write most of this down from memory.

***

Mr. SNK

I didn’t get any specific information from SNK like the other folks I talked to, but moreso advice on how to play fighting games in general.  There’s a sense of fundamentals, such as fireball zoning and normals and the correct spacing for all of that, that I’m lacking.  This is simply because I’ve never played a fighting game at this level before.  Ultimately, SNK recommended that I drop Viper for a couple weeks and work with a Shoto (Ryu) to learn the game.  It’s kinda funny because this is pretty much what I did but on a lower level.  Whereas I learned the basics of SFIV like how to do FA’s and SRKs and correctly inputting Ultra Combos from using Ryu and then moving on to Viper, I should have stuck with Ryu and learned more about the 2D fighting genre in general.  At the moment it pains me to even think about dropping Viper (My blog is called Crimson Temptress, for crying out loud), and so I’m undecided on how exactly to move forward from here.  Perhaps I’ll end up playing Ryu more often.  Bah.

Another major tip that SNK had for me was in regards to my notetaking.  “Don’t take notes on specific people, take notes on specific matchups,” he said.  By knowing the characters and their matchups inside out, I’ll be able to know what I can and can’t do in the match.  And only then should I be able to implement mindgames effectively.  He punctuated his advice with words of encouragement and implored me to keep asking questions.  I find that to be a huge motivator.

Zaine

Zaine was a bit under the weather this evening, but he still was pretty sharp.  I chilled out with him for a bit and talked a lot about specifics for the character.  A couple of quick notes:

• After conditioning the opponent to block with TKs, only then can you jump in with little risk.  Otherwise, you’re limited to crossups after untechable knockdowns.
• j.HK is good for crossups, but it isn’t the be-all end-all air to ground attack.  j.HP is really good too, to the point where a well timed one will stuff an uppercut.
• j.MP xx h.BK is possible.
• After landing a TK, another option in the flowchart is to dash up and throw.

Those fast tips aside, I was able to pick Zaine’s brain about more of the finer intricacies of Viper play.  For one thing, after playing Reece and getting burned over and over, I noticed that I was having a hard time getting in to attack with the TK mixups.  This made me wonder about how a burning kick would work in a mixup, since it would knock them away and I’d have to get in again.  Another thing is that I can’t just go balls-to-the-wall (Zaine’s phrase) all the time, especially with TK strings because I’ll get SRK’d out of them.  Zaine plays very carefully and tries to frustrate his opponent with TKs and his ground game.  I tried to mimic this, in that rather than pressing an advantage over and over and over again until I get reversaled out of it, I poke holes in my strings and momentum deliberately to bait things.  Zaine played Akuma and Sagat against me to prove this, where he SRK’d me when I got too feint happy (I did a lot of c.MP xx TK Feints) but in return I did my fair bit of baiting Tiger Uppercuts and SRK’s.  In doing so I heightened my alertness while playing the game and did my best to look for patterns.  Another big point that Zaine made was for the Sagat matchup, where once I get a large enough lead I should make Sagat come to me.  The most he can do is Tiger Shot me from full screen and my seismos will trade/beat them repeatedly if needed.  “Sagat has no offense,” he said.  Furthermore, at full screen, DON’T FUCKING JUMP AT HIM.  Zaine’s voice saying “Don’t do it,” will forever resonate in my mind while I play that match.

Louie

Whereas Zaine’s been the technical coach for me lately, Louie’s been the mental coach.  I mentioned to him my problem with going into trance-mode while playing, where I don’t really pay attention and zone in too much.  Louie gave me some pointers to heighten my alertness further, such as making a remark (“Good shit”) every time I get hit by something to make a mental note to watch out for it.  I played with him shortly after my session with Zaine and he really did try to keep me talking, listening, and from getting too zoned in to pay attention to the match as a whole.  This was basic stuff like manipulating me in some ways and openly putting me in scenarios to get me thinking and how to keep on my toes.  As such, he definitely didn’t play his all and the matches went much slower than his usual RTSD style, but after playing with both him and Zaine I really felt a heightened sense of awareness while playing.   Afterwards we played around a little bit with some Blanka-Viper matches, here’s some fast tips:

• Punishing a blocked Ultra – TIMING, TIMING, TIMING.  I’ve got several options to punish it, all with varying degrees of specific timing.  The first  way to punish is a plain Ultra.  However, this must be timed so Blanka is about at her torso’s height, otherwise it’ll whiff.  Another option is to light Seismo, which can then go into burning kick or SJC FADC sweep.  Timing is less strict on there but still needs to be done.  Then there’s the b.HK, or the “Sit the fuck down” kick.  Probably the easiest to time, and since it’s more than likely that they won’t tech, I get a free mixup.  Finally, the hardest way is to FFF, where I need to time the Fierce to hit EXACTLY as he’s landing on the ground.  Furthermore, I need to walk up prior to the Fierce so the second Fierce won’t whiff.
• Viper Elbow is still awesome, but try using it as a crossup/repositioner after a knockdown.  It won’t combo, it might not even hit, but it’ll screw with their mind.
• I can jab out of hop shenanigans.  Here’s hoping ConQueso doesn’t pull that shit on me again.
• Rainbow ball can be FA’d, but it’s not necessarily the best option if Blanka purposefully whiffs it, lands in front of me, and throws me out of my dash.  I’ll reserve this trick for beginner Blankas who go for the confusing ass crossups, but I really do need to just learn how to block that stuff.
• Watch that fucking meter.  If he’s got Ultra, either bait it or don’t stick out limbs while he’s waking up.  Same with EX Upball, but that’s a lot less risky.

***

Getting this much advice from people is really quite awesome.  I’ve learned a lot, and as I mentioned earlier I’m beginning to feel a heightened sense of awareness while I play.  However, the more people I get advice from, the more conflicting advice I get.  I’d like to close out this entry with a listing of these.  Hopefully as time goes on I’ll be able to make my own, informed decision about who to listen to, but for now I’m neutral.

Points of contention

• Switching from Viper to Ryu to learn fundamentals.  SNK says do it, Louie (and maybe Zaine?) says no.
• Neutral jumping.  Zaine says to do it to bait a throw tech, Louie says don’t do it (Might just be for Blanka matchup)

Oh, and my stick’s 360 support is busted.  So I left it at Dorion’s house for Mike to fix for me.  So no SF tomorrow morning, but boot camp tomorrow night!  Whoo!