Posts Tagged ‘ken’

Execution Woes, Frantic Play

admin Posted in Blog，Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
01 February 2010
0

Went to Dorion’s again tonight.  I’ll keep this short (You know you play SF too much when you see/type the word short and an image of Ryu doing a c.lk pops in your head).

Started out playing against a Ken player who really wasn’t very good, but neither was I.  I don’t know if it was because I was using Reece’s stick and not my own (His is much looser, even for a TE), but none of my shit was working.  This wasn’t like I couldn’t do my normal SJC FADCs, it was more like I couldn’t even do my burning kicks, or I couldn’t get my Fierce Punch to come out after a jump in.  My fingers were overly frantic, I suppose.  Maybe it also has to do with the game being played on a non laggy TV, whereas mine is pretty bad.

So anyway, it took a couple hours and me running through training mode to get going for real.  I didn’t really spend a lot of time learning new shit tonight, more just playing for the sake of playing.  This doesn’t necessarily help me grow as a strategic player, but it does improve my reaction time.  I played Zaine (He was fooling around with Dan, though), then Shane’s Boxer (Got wrecked), then Reece’s Akuma (Did okay), then Juicebox’s Akuma (Got wrecked), then Juicebox’s Ken (Got wrecked), then Louie’s Guile (Wrecked him!), then Reece’s Blanka and Bison (Got wrecked), then Louie’s Blanka (Got wrecked).  A couple of major points resonated with me tonight, though.

  • I deal with rushdown very poorly.  When Juicebox was rushing me down, he could tell I was mashing throw tech.  To summarize his advice, I should make a conscious decision on whether or not to just block or to throw tech, not try to guess on the fly.  Also got a quick lesson in footsies from him.
  • I can punish Blanka balls better now.  It’s all about paying utmost attention.
  • Louie says I’m hesitant while I play.  I don’t know exactly what that means, maybe I’ve been playing too cautious like Zaine lately.  I’ll need to watch Zaine play more so I can understand how exactly I should be playing.

Matchup problems / Improvement?

admin Posted in Blog, C. Viper, Matchups, Techniques，Tags: , , , ,
21 January 2010
1

I really took a lot of time to study what I posted about last time.  The main points I’ve focused on are

  • Use more thunder knuckles / Improve my ground game / Jump less
  • Backdash to bait attacks or on wakeup

These are techniques that I”m learning to incorporate into my game, and in addition to that I’ve also been trying to pay more attention while playing and sense patterns.  Because of this, however, my reactions are slower and I end up losing more than I usually do.  I imagine these are just growing pains for refining ‘dat Yomi.

I recently moved to a different PSN account and levelled it up to G2 in Championship mode, just because G1 is virtually empty and impossible to get a good connection.  While in G2 the players will be a lot less skilled, at least I’ll get to play.  I intend to visit Dorion’s more often too to substitute for online, so Dorion = Quality and Online = Quantity.

The most notable of my sessions recently is a session I had with ConQueso, online.  He played various characters that I pretty much tore through, except for Blanka and Honda.  For some reason (and this applied to ST/HDR and Alpha), I do terrible against downback characters.  Honda is already a terrible matchup for Viper, but Blanka I really shouldn’t be having so much trouble with.  Most of the problems I have with Blanka involve wakeup.  And while the three Blankas that come to mind all have ways of attacking me when I’m knocked down, each one has a different strategy and thus a different counter I need to be mindful of.  Louie = Backdash, ConQueso = Neutral jump (?), Eric = Block.

Going back to how I’ve been trying to improve lately, I have been playing online a lot against beginner players like Nathan and Austin.  Following Zaine’s advice, I’ve started utilizing TK rushdowns.  Rather than focusing on knockdowns and okizeme games via burning kicks, I’ve found that pressuring and overwhelming the opponent with Thunder Knuckles, feints, c.MKs, and Viper Elbows results in lots of dizzies.  I have various strings that I’ve been utilizing after landing the initial m.TK:

  • Feint
  • Viper Elbow (High)
  • c.MK (Low)
  • Jump over, reverse Burning Kick
  • c.MP
  • Crossup BK (If spacing is correct)

Each of these can be done one after another or strung together at random.  A sample string that I like using is c.MP xx m.TK, c.MK xx Feint, Viper Elbow, c.MK m.TK, repeat.

If I can get into a situation where I can execute a string like this, I’ve pretty much won the round.  It nearly always results in a dizzy, which then leads me to either a FFF or an Ultra combo.

Speaking of FFF, I’m sad to say that my progress in it hasn’t been the greatest as of late.  I resolved myself to learning FFF over winter break, but the most I’ve got is a 30% chance on the 2P side and an 80% chance on the 1P side.  I need to go back and practice this more.  Also, my SJC FADC works the majority of the time on the 2P side, but while I can execute it flawlessly on the 1P side, I nearly always screw it up in a real match.  In short, execution-wise my two areas of focus need to be

  • FFF, 2P Side
  • SJC FADC, 1P Side
  • And while we’re at it, practice plinking the sweep after the SJC FADC.

In other news, I’ve been fooling around with Ken recently.  I learned to Kara Throw (It’s basically plinking!) and learned a worked on of Ken’s combos/links:

  • c.LK, c.LK, c.LP, h.SRK <- Link
  • c.LK, c.LP, s.LP, c.MK xx EX Tatsu
  • c.LP, c.LP, c.MK xx Hadouken
  • c.LP, c.LP, c.LP, Kara Throw

Dorion and Sabre have instituted a new training regimen that will begin next week.  I’m excited to participate in it: http://www.shoryuken.com/showthread.php?t=222828

Eric

admin Posted in Blog，Tags: , , ,
11 November 2009
0

I took the time to write this as a comment to one of Andrew’s blog posts regarding our friend, Eric.  I figured since it was so long (Much longer than I expected, yikes) it wouldn’t hurt to post it here, especially since I’m going to start keeping tabs on all my friends.

I’ve got a lot of theories about the kind of player Eric is. While you’re right, he’s not quite the “jungle style” I was yelling about while you guys were fighting, there is a certain degree of randomness in his game that makes him difficult to read. He does indeed have several predictable strategies, though. For example, he loves his j.HK, c.HK no matter which character he uses (Though he does it a lot less with Ken since we’ve really started playing), and his entire nature is “flow-breaking.” I’m sure you remember that he would love to just back up with Blanka and get a charge, and then he’d get away and you’re at full screen again, totally boned. By backing up like that, he effectively breaks the flow of the match, whether it’s because he’s getting whaled on, or, strangely enough, if he’s at the advantage. My first reaction to this was that he needed his charge, but then I observed him doing this with Ken during your Ryu sessions. There’s absolutely NO reason he should back off on the pressure when he’s at the advantage, example would be when he’s got you in the corner and then he jumps back to Hadouken. This leads me to believe that, while his combos (which are nowhere near as complex as they should or could be) are not necessarily random, his game plan in general is completely random. This applies to any and every game that Eric plays: CvS, SFII, Alpha, Marvel, even Smash Bros.. I’m sure you remember those nights a couple years ago where there’d be a big clusterfuck of three people kicking each others’ asses and a lone Marth on the complete other side of Final Destination.

That said, I also think that Eric plays much more reactive than proactive, and while his punishes may not be efficient and it definitely becomes quantity over quality, the way to screw up his flow is to do the same thing to him but with quality over quantity. My fights with him nowadays ultimately become trading hits until he makes one mistake, and then I punish it with whatever I can, most of the time a combo into Ultra. From there, I simply out-turtle him and that causes him to make the same mistakes. So if I’ve got a life lead on him and he starts backing up to reset the flow, I’ll just let him. I’ll time him out if I need to, and that’ll punch him into action and make him several times more likely to make a further mistakes. The fight will either play out like that for the entire time, or he’ll get reckless and my rushdown will continue due to, yes, my greater amount of experience with the game. Thus, matches outside of SFIV are more even, but all it takes is me to learn one good, punishing combo and I can apply that strategy (Remember Garou?).

TL;DR version: Either take his strategy and send it back to him with a little ribbon, or out-knowledge him with the game (This includes knowing the matchup! For example, jab him out of that Blanka ball and then throw him once he gets surprised and starts turtling again).