Topics

1

Videos / Evo Moments -- Singapore

« on: September 22, 2011, 03:19:43 PM »

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xUsgBPowOM[/youtube]

Found this. Not sure if it's anywhere else. Im sure a coupla people would still be interested

2

Strategy (SSF4:AE) / Wuzzyman Special - Defense and the Mid-Range

« on: August 07, 2011, 03:31:18 PM »

After 2 years of playing this stupid game, trying to figure out what's happening, and experiencing the demoralising comments of all the top players (lol) (who do have problems of articulation), I have spent much time on my bus ride and mrt rides contemplating and organising what actually happens at mid-range. I think I've got down the defensive side of it down, and i think many players who are good are being held back because they ill understand this.

So yeah, here's my organisation of my thoughts and the community's views. Sorry if it sounds pretentious. This was done in one go but i had a lot of fun =D


Defense and Mid-range

General

I.   If a distance is always kept, less random or definite damage would be eaten. Therefore, a proficient defence in the mid-range is the most important in building consistency in a random game.

II.   But ‘staying away’ does not imply a purely passive action.

III.   Defense is not the only sound direction. Offense is important, but I will not speak of it because people on our island understand offense more than defense - though I feel that their understanding of it is not clear enough. Still I only wish to speak of that which is more needful.

IV.   Offense or defense… … That which is chosen is up to your strategy, which is a reflection of your personality, and judgements of your match and opponents.

Defensive

I.   The most important rule is to keep a certain distance – let us call it X.

II.   X must be kept even if the corner is close.

III.   If jumps can get punished, and many ground normals and specials can be seen and punished in time, X is good.

IV.   If the opponent is close, and he has you on guard, and you wish to keep the defense, look immediately to return to X. Fast walkers may throttle back, slow ones should employ other moves (FA LVL 1 back dash). Back jump attacks are universal. Always look to return to X.

V.   There is no reason in playing a defensive mid-range game where the things you have to guess are many, and the damage is measly.

VI.   That may be dealt with. Research and exert your creative facultes. From X, know all that might come, and discover how each of them might be punished the hardest on reaction, and find ways to kill several options in one go. Don't not do a low forward when a sweep will strike; sweep not if you can do a special move. Keep the low risk, but heighten the reward. Make playing safe hurt -- This is the essence of consistency.

VII.   If your character does not allow a consistent mid-range game, you might as well play it offensively at mid-range. I may speak of this one day.

VIII.   It is foolish to keep at X always. A good opponent will predict that and see no reason to attack, but bravely walk you into the corner. Defensive approaches then become purely ineffective.

IX.   Therefore, a form of irritant must exist to press them to perform jumps or normal/special moves. You need to engage them. This may take the form of

i)   Pokes or strings that push out (Shoto cr.MK fireball, Claw st.lk cr.mk cr.mp). They should be unjumpable. I call this a defensive-offensive approach: it keeps out, yet it hopes to hurt.

ii)   Offensive approaches

X.   Offense can kill; This gives them reason to jump, or do things that you can punish within the limits of reactionary response.

XI.   Offense and Defense are bound as one, like the Yin and Yang; one must be with the other in either half.

XII.   The weak whine and whimper against turtles. This is what happens with poor offense; the defender sees no need to attack or jump.

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Strategy (SSF4:AE) / Beauty of Beauties, Beauty of Beauties; All is Beauty

« on: December 22, 2010, 06:04:23 PM »

Foreword

The following will be written less for Vega players, and more for others, so that they can beat Vega. Why? Vega is unpopular here, and I can only think of two players who want to take him to the top, and the only way I and these two players can really improve, is to tell everyone else how to hit us as hard as possible, so we can learn to hit back even harder... ... if we can, since Vega already hits so hard. Lol.

Bio

The mad Catalonian Noble. He had a Spanish mom who married again to an ugly Spanish Stepdad because the daddy was rich as hell.

When our clawed warrior was still a teen he learnt bullfighting, and then he went to Japan to learn Ninjitsu. That suited his natural speed and grace really well. When he returned, he could speak Japanese and he fought and dominated in the Spanish underground fights, deep in the shadows of Catalonia.

One day the ugly step dad killed his wife. We don't know why. Our masked warrior grew crazy with rage and that day he wasn't quite beautiful. So he killed the man and tasted his blood and developed a personality disorder or something. Not quite sure how that works.

He turned nobleman by day, and mad masked killer by night.

Bison of Shadaloo grew impressed of Vega's skills, and hired Vega. Vega saw its as a good oppurtunity to further his inscrutable purposes, and till this very day, Vega looks over all assasinations.

He used to fight bulls a lot but he doesn't do it anymore, because Catalonia wanted to be autonomous and to enforce their stand they banned bullfighting last year.

4

Super Street Fighter 4 / Australia and Everything Else Before It

« on: October 06, 2010, 11:33:54 PM »

Got things to share and I think It'd be useful.

I've played since I was 14; this may seem short to some who have played since they were bloody babies, but I've been to places, played almost every single fighting game out there and been involved in several major local communities.

Firstly, I believe that you might be slightly interested in

The Level of Australia's Play

To say that Singapore is better than Australia or Australia is better than Singapore  or that they are the same is stupid because there are too many variables for fair judgment. For one, the size of the communities is different and the terms 'better' or 'worse' are too broad for such a context. They'd be understood in many different ways by many different people.

So I'd say if they are 'easier' or 'harder' to beat.

The average Aussie player is easier to beat than the average Singaporean player, because they have weaker instincts. Aussie players play more 'proper', meaning that most of them don't do things for the sake of doing them; an attack has to be thrown with an understood reason. Many players won't know many of these reasons if they are learning. This leaves patches in the play of average Aussie players, and makes them appear 'rigid' or 'static' because they, consciously and unconsciously, let many key moments pass by.

On the other hand, Singaporean players can fill these gaps in logic with stuff they feel will work, and have seen working, whether it makes sense or not. They do not care, as long as they kill the opponent. The opponent can end up raging at this, while said player gives a sick 'tyco' smile and provides a nonsensical reason for his/her success. They end up being more active, and the senselessness can be bewildering to new or more methodical/logical players because they do not have the foundation to understand such behaviour. They then might begin to assign curious names to such tactics such as 'poh'. This way, Singaporeans seem harder to beat.

However, the top Aussie players are harder to beat than the top Singaporean players. For example, I found Humanbomb's Ryu and Chun Li more difficult that Gackt's Ryu and Tommy/Rodney/Kennifer's Chun Li. I have observed his guile as well and its clearly more developed. He is very solid, but I will avoid using the term 'solid' abstractly. His set play is very consistent. Everything is tight. He punishes things as hard as he can as consistently as possible. He hits crouch techs very well with all his characters. His footsies are very strong. He does not tech mindlessly. It reminds me of the highest levels of SF I have seen in the Japanese.

What I have written would not allow smooth swallowing. It is tough to imagine something more consistent than the top players we have for some of our characters here. However Moca has given me permission to say that he feels the same as me. You could watch his videos in the latest BAM tournament I attended. Yet I doubt it would sway your opinion because good set play is hardly entertaining to even veterans.

If we really want to take part in overseas tournaments we would meet beastly players like him so we need to

Become More Competitive

This seems obvious enough but some of us would only become painfully aware of how uncompetitive we are when we start to play overseas. I myself have become conscious of this after my imperfect experiences in France and Australia. Thank goodness I'm still young to have recognised this and I'm sure the following would be of benefit to some of you.

Firstly, we need to

Play 2 Characters or More

The first reason for playing 2 characters is to help each other with match ups in our small country. This has been well raised by Spore so I will not reinvent the wheel. In fact the explanation to playing two characters is so commonsensical that I don't think you need to read what Spore said to make an accurate inference.

The second reason is for dealing with bad match ups. Twice I have gone to play in majors and twice I have been knocked out by bad match ups in solo tournaments. This stinks because the solos are usually where the money is at because you don't have to share it with your friends and you get a big nice trophy all for yourself. Also you travel one or two or even three bloody oceans away to lose to a honda/chun li or whatever. International tournaments for SF seem to be dropping character locks due to the harsh implications of match ups in the game. Many of those counter-pickin' westerners are the organisers and the bulk of the players and the legends you have to beat to establish yourselves and they sure as hell won't stick to one character. Ricky Ortiz was counter-pickin' Wilson in Japan. Lets not handicap ourselves.

We also need to

Look More to the West

There has been a Japanese obsession in the SF community in Singapore. There are many good reasons for this: they are very well established in 2D fighting and their culture is fascinating, besides others.

As a 3D gamer, I've been there, done that, and moved on. I used to adore the Japanese players and my style of play in SC was heavily influenced by them. I hardly imagined the US or Europe to be as strong after that.

I was wrong.

Now I see that the Japanese style of play has its flaws, and Western styles of play have their merits as well.

Japanese play is generally heavy on knowledge, and the obvious flaw is that ignorance can cost them. They can play low risk - medium/high reward because of their knowledge. Japanese players who continue playing obscure characters safely against unknown match ups will die because they do not have the knowledge to manipulate the situation for more effect.

Western play is in general, mix up heavy because they meet less, since they live further. Solid 50/50 games can allow one to play less but win more, at a quick pace. It can appear boring and too simple to watch and learn from, but this style of play is surprisingly effective for tournaments. They tend to develop tournament ready characters more quickly even though they might seem half-assed.

An analogy I like to draw is that of medicine. My layman observation tells me that Asian medicine, like Chinese medicine, is more interested in slowly weeding out the illness with as little side effects as possible. However, Western doctors tend to give prescriptions where the solution is quick, but with side effects, which can be dire if not properly mitigated. Both have their good and bad points.

Also playing in the west would help us market ourselves. Go to Evo or Europe, do well and you become a God, at a much faster pace than in Japan.

On a player level, we have to persistently

Fight Abstractions

What are abstractions? I shall bring up one that has confounded me.

"Vega now faster leh".

Yes, I know this is quite extreme; the statement is factually wrong, but I want to highlight... what in blazes does 'faster' mean? To extend this, what are 'footsies'? What does it mean to 'poh' (Which is popularly termed 'abare' in Japan or 'active defense' in the west)? What does it mean to 'pressure' someone? What does it mean to 'zone' someone?

We cannot have vague understandings of why some things work. We must understand why an option works, why we can do it, when we can do it, and what it leads the opponent to do. Every option must be in harmony with one another.  I am not exhaustive enough so let me give an example.

I do a Vega 2MP at tip.

Reason: To keep my opponent there; it will keep him there because 2MP is so far and so fast and it will prevent them from walking forward. You can't walk forward and block simultaneously. Even Daigo can't do that. I have more life anyway and I do not want to take too much risk. I could kill myself! In fact he would be pressured to get in. So his options are to jump, do special move 1/2/3, do a certain normal or make me look out for any of the already mentioned so he can dash in. Then my job would be to predict his action at that range and prepare to punish that option so hard he won't think of doing it agian.

An abstract version would be:

Oh just spam 2MP to pressure him to get him to do something stupid.

Do you see how this does not really help?

I feel that many methodical/logical/technical players here are handicapped because Singapore has a very established bunch of instinct based players. These methodical/logical/technical players, like me for example, find it hard to do moves for vague reasons.
So we are driven to ask the better players, who usually tend to be instinctive players. These instinctive players then give very abstract advice which then dissapoints the methodical players because they are still left with a great gap in knowledge. They then look for videos and what not for knowledge. The process is long and dangerous (due to the danger of copying and Japanese worship) but necessary, for without knowledge, there cannot be logic in their play.

Well I know some (a lot maybe) would disagree with me for I am very obsessive about these details. Yet I'm sure there would be some like me. And that's good because its always great to be more like Raymus.

There we go.

All this has been said because I love the SF community. I have scene the fall of many once passionate communities and its always been sad. SF has a vast impression on me and I'd love to see hard work rewarded.

Please discuss! Feel free to disagree. Its good for my opinions to evolve. The post is unedited and long because I have little time.

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Strategy (SSF4) / Spanish Beauty Parlor - The Vega/Claw Thread - (Only beautiful people allowed!)

« on: April 25, 2010, 09:34:00 AM »

Hey all! Discuss all SSF4 Vega strats here!!!

I've tried him already, and I need to confirm more stuff...

Its really great to have an uninterruptable roll.

Ultra 2 is awesome. Its like full screen. So the opponent cant be whiffing stupid shit out of range once you have a charge. Really wicked. A lot of applications for this.

His offense is still good, possibly even better considering that his links might be easier... ( not sure about this, since ive been able to link at about the same consistency.

6

Soul Calibur IV Archive / Session on 060410 at Rii's

« on: April 06, 2010, 07:03:49 PM »

Hey all!

There would be games at Rii's!

Date: this coming Sunday, the 11th of April!

Time: 1200 - 2200

Food: Pack your food if you wanna have lunch at his place! Dinner would most likely be together nearby. His place has a lot of awesome food nearby.

Getting there: There can be a pickup at 1145, at parkway parade. So if you are going, please indicate if you can be at parkway parade by then. However, if you are unable to make it, indicate this, and I will sms/pm you his address!

Specific house rules: Do not sit on the bed.

Indicate if you are  ATTENDING or NOT ATTENDING on the forum or by sms.

any Queries?

Yuan

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Strategy (SF4) / The Akuma Thread - Ultra Raging Demon

« on: April 13, 2009, 02:17:47 AM »

Hello all! Ill let the OP be an introduction of the basics of the character. It would be really nice to have a discussion of advanced/matchup specific strategies with other interested SF4 players in this thread.

AKUMA

Strengths:

He is badass
High damage output
Good normals (Better than average shotos due to St.HK and cr.HK)
Delicious focus attack
Good assortment of defensive options
Strong zoning ability
Good variety of offensive options
Strong anti-focus tools
Can split ayer's rock into half, destroy submarines and crush islands

Weaknesses

Low health. He cant take damage for shit
Can take little stun...
Very strict execution (mess up and then his low health will make punishment really painful)

Akuma is a really strong character IMO but his learning curve is pretty steep. I hope my research will help aspiring akuma players

Basic zoning:

Anti-air: HP uppercut. HP upper cut is the uppercut with the most invincibility, tied with Ken's MP uppercut.

Anti-crossup: cr.HP

Footsies:

When opponent recovers after you... like after jumping over a fireball, or walking into you.

HK: Good against focus attack. Neutral recovery on block, meaning that both akuma and the opponent recover at the same time. This is best used against characters that cannot duck the second hit at tip (Sagat, Zangief, Abel). Jumping back or backwalking/backdashing after it is very safe.

cr.HK: Great sweep. Safe against most characters at tip. With meter, you can cancel it into super or ultra, if it gets focused. So yes, you can use it as an anti-focus.

cr.MK: 5 frame low kick that goes really low. Its got good properties, and can combo into a fireball on CH, when it hits at tip. It makes akuma go low, so things like tiger knees and devil's reverse miss.

Jump up EX zanku: This murders attempts to focus through things like 2HK or 2MK. Its very safe.

Fierce fireball: Up close, people cannot jump this on reflex, so it acts as a limb. Its good in the sense that it builds meter and does block damage. IF they start focusing through it, do, HK, 2HK ultra EX fireball or EX zanku. If they jump, anticipate and then uppercut.

When you recover later, after you jump over a fireball, or you are moving into your opponent.

Zanku/EX zanku: After you jump over a fireball at mid range, you can do an EX zanku to kill any attempt to poke you while you land. If they are trying to bait it to make you waste it, throw normal zankus to control their movement.

FADC: You can uppercut sweeps or fireballs if the opponent does them.

crMK: To go under stuff like Sagat HK.

Uppercut: VERY risky but might be important sometimes.

Setups:

1.HK (2): This means getting the second kick of HK guarded. Akuma is at neutral frames, so a perfectly plinked cr.MK is uninterruptable by almost everyone. If you know the opponent will not interrupt, you can go for a block string or an overhead. This can also set up cr.MK mixups.

2.cr.MK variations: Against opponents who expect the fireball after cr.MK, you can choose to not do the fireball, and take advantage of the opponent's later reaction.

Against opponents who look for the fireball and continue to guard, only to realise there is no fireball, and then poke back: cr.HK will trip them.

Against opponents who look for the fireball and do a FADC to punish the fireball with uppercut: cr.MK into a 2 hit or 3hit shakunetsu hadoken or cr.HK into ultra or HK into a combo.

Against opponents who just guard passively: Play tatsumaki cross up(will be mentioned below),  HK with the second hit blocked, demon flip mixup (will be mentioned below).

Against opponents who poke back immediately: do the fireball.

Against opponents who uppercut or do ultras that beat fireballs: Guard and punish.

3. Akuma's tatsu crossup is very powerful as it can combo into  HP uppercut for chunky damage, or sweep for a reset. It is mixed up a normal j.HK. The tatsu cross up is done by jumping forward and doing a HK tatsu when at the peak of the jump to hit the back of your opponent.

4. Demon flip mixups work best at the distance after cr.MK is blocked IMO.

If you know your opponennt will uppercut a demon flip, do the HK demon flip into a dive kick to bait the uppercut.

If you know he will not uppercut because he stinks in doing anti-air or because of the first option, do a MK demon flip into a throw, crushing palm, late divekick, or a whiffed crushing palm into a throw mixup.

Crushing palm leads to obscene blockstun, allowing akuma to continue blockstring pressure.

Late dive kick will beat mashy attempts to tech throw. The delay in mid air will prevent you from landing immediately, allowing the opponent to whiff his throw for you to kick him.

The throw will hit them as long as they wish to stay on the ground and guard.

A whiffed crushing palm into a throw works if they don't tech it at the right time. If they tech it at the right time, you can do a cr.LK cr.LP cr.LP tatsu to punish them.

Also, if you know your opponent is not going to uppercut, you can do an empty jump-in for mixups.

4.. Jump forward and EX zanku is an excellent but expensive (1 meter) way to get in to your opponent. you can play an overhead mixup or go to play another block string game.

5. Throw mixups on the ground. In the middle of blockstrings, you can mixup your throw with a delayed cr.MP, uppercut or EX tatsumaki. You could also bait whiff and then HK.

Okizeme

When the opponent is waking up at a distance, forcing them to block a HP shakunetsu hadoken is ideal becuase it does great chip damage.

On wakeup, demon flip and tatsu cross up is very strong. You could also go for a meter cr.MP or an empty jump- into throw or 2MK hadoken FADC HP tatsu uppercut.

Defense:

Teleport: Teleport is EXTREMELY important for Akuma because of his low health and his great command of space. Its also really good because it travels really far and can only be punished if the opponent fully commits to baiting it. At the same time, some characters can punish it well only if they have meter. When in a block string or when in the corner, and you need to regain the space to begin the dynamic of his zoning game, teleport is a very good answer if the opponent chooses not to prepare punishment for it.

Jump RH tatsu to fly away!: Very strong tool to get out of corners. Opponents have to commit to a jump attack with a vertical hitbox to catch you.

Uppercut: Standard shoto answer when under immense pressure :/ If up close, HP uppercut is strong because it is hit checkable. If slightly further, LP uppercut is more suitable because it launches on a single hit.

Jump back: Jumping back is good since Akuma can throw a zanku.

Backdash: Akuma's backdash is meh but it does the job of getting out of pressure.

Basic combos:

st.HK (link) cr.LP LK tatsu HP shoryuken

st.HK st.LP st.HK st.LP LK tatsu into uppercut/sweep (works best against abel, boxer, guile, sagat. These guys can be swept after a regular LK tatsu too.)

cr.MP hadoken

cr.LP st.HP/cr.MP LK tatsu HP shoryuken (VERY important off demon flip divekick. Hitcheck it. If its guarded throw a hadoken to make it safe. If it hits, do a LK tatsu. Don't worry if they are crouching/standing since the dive kick FORCE stands.

close st.HP LK tatsu HP shoryuken (Best punisher at close range. HP comes out at 4 frames which is the speed of cr.MP). If you have meter, do HP Hadoken EX cancel, dash forwad, HP light tatsu HP shoryuken, End the combo with HP shoryuken immediately after HP if they are crouching.

Everyone plays a character differently! So feel free to use different methods to defend and offend!

Disclaimer: I know these but I can't do them (yet). LOL. Still I hope it helps players who will be able to take Akuma to a good level.

Please feel free to discuss matchups!

Matchups

Ryu: Ryu vs Akuma is even but it is not easy. You must have strong fundamentals because Ryu punishes mistakes very hard. Mistakes must not be made even though ryu can dictate a quick pace because of his movement and efficient means to force mixups.

At the moment, I believe in pressuring Ryu with fireballs while he has little meter, and try to force in some setups; especially Tatsu crossup, demon flip mixups and HK setups.

The moment ryu has that ultra, and has the meter, its time to play a lot more defensive and let him throw the fireballs or walk in. If he throws fireballs, jump up over it and mixup between a regular zanku and an EX zanku. A low EX zanku eats up attempts to move in, focus or sweep.  So to beat that, ryu has to jump back to make akuma waste the meter. Thats where Akuma should use the normal zanku to push his position forward, to bring ryu a little bit closer to the corner.

If ryu knows you are looking out for the fireball and moves in, throw fireballs or sweeps to push him out.

DO NOT throw a triple shakunetsu on wake up when he has ultra. You are asking to die.

Be very very careful when Ryu has ultra and super. Your air fireball game becomes risker the moment he has those. Stock up one meter to have an EX tatsu to avoid those in the air. Also when Ryu has super, do not sweep him. A sweep equates to a free super. Throw a fireball or a cr.MK.

If you do not have a life lead, throw fireballs to get into sweep range to start some offense. If the ryu refuses to jump them, throw out shakunetsu hadokens. Mixup the LP and HP shakus. Punish Ryu's tatsu with an Ultra/Super or uppercut.

Sagat: Yay! We use a character that makes Sagat come to US. You MUST make sagat come to you. Do so by destroying his fireball game with Shakunetsu hadokens. Footsies with sagat is very simple; it is a matter of whether to HK or not. Sagat's most damaging and most consistent answer to a well placed HK is uppercut, but that is very risky. If you are certain that sagat will just guard, try to play a tatsu crossup or a demon flip mixup. Those are more effective because of his size. Not to mention, Sagat has more difficulty in dealing with crossups.

Against sagat, you would like to learn combos that end with st.LP because st.LP links into st.HK. Ending a combo with sweep after a tatsu is great too because it allows us to cross sagat up again.

This matchup is really annoying for Sagat if played right, but its still even because of the difference in vitality, and Sagat's crazy damage output from one right guess.

ANTI-AKUMA (If you want to know more counter strats that i know, please feel free to ask! I'd like to make it harder for akuma players like myself so that we can develop our game further ):

Versus jump up air fireball: Jump attack or dash under and sweep.

If akuma knows that you are going to jump attack immediately, he can just jump up vertically at distance, bait your jump attack to whiff, and then punish you with cr.LP the moment you land. If he knows that you are trying to get under him to sweep/focus, he will do a low double fireball.

versus fireball: Jump in! Or do a tatsu/EX blanka ball or something.

st.HK... YOU MUST punish ST.HK if you duck it. Ryu can do stuff like cr. MP cr.MP HK tatsu. Characters can even land ultras if they duck it!

cr.HK. If you can punish it, do it! Ryu gets a free super.. Chun li gets a free super/ultra. So yeah find out what you have to punish it even if blocked at tip!

If you see demon flip, and you have no choice but to guard it, crouch guard. The dive can be blocked low. Also if you crouch, you cant get thrown easily. At the same time, you will block the sweep.

Akuma's Tatsu is very punishable on block. Its not like ryu's or kens.

Learn how to bait teleport and find out how you can punish it very hard.

Shen Yuan

8

BlazBlue / The Jin Kisaragi Players Thread

« on: April 08, 2009, 04:17:57 AM »

Hello fellow singaporean Jin players! (If there are any atm :X I only know one other guy who plays Jin for now). Lets fill this thread with

1) Ideas about Jin's basic strategy (Zoning/setups/dealing with disadvantage)

2) Matchups!

Ill start with what little i know :/

Zoning:

So far, 5D seems great in making people want to jump or IAD into you. Its got good range, is safe on block, and on hit i guarantees a 214C. 6C can link but its shakeable if you shake really hard.

623A (Fubuki) at 5D distance, is a consistent anti air. It must be barrier guarded in the air or you'd get knocked out. I realise that on CH, 632146C can link, and at the corner, you can connect a combo. I have a feeling that if opponents want to IAD/jump in and barrier guard, air throw will work. Im not very familiar with the system so i'm wondering if someone can help test.

Setups:

So far 6B seems really really good to me. It has lower body invincibilty, so low pokes and sweeps will get CHed, allowing a link with C 6C into juicy damage. On guard its neutral so 2A and A can beat out a lot of things. I realise that for characters that can out poke Jin with faster pokes, 6B J.236A/B/D MIIIGHT connect.

IAD B C in also works. I saw from vids that if the opponent happens to jump and barrier guard it, a 623A will hit the opponent.

5C seems really really good to use when approaching via the ground at a distance. It has really good range, and on guard, it can link into a 6B, 5D, IAD. Im starting to think that its one of the primary ways to get into the opponent to start block strings.

Im not sure if using ice car to get into the opponent for blockstrings is efficient. So yeah im wondering if mixing up 214 A and 214 B is feasible. Also i kinda felt that 214B/C is unpunishable when used at tip? Or  when the opponent barrier guards. need some one to help check.

2D is another nice tool to begin blockstring mixups. It pushes the opponent into Jin, allowing him to start blockstrings safely. I think only reversal specials or uppercuts can deal with this. Its very punishable on whiff but it has high reward when it hits/gets guarded. I also used it to stuff IAD a few times since the angle is diagonally upwards, towards Jin!

I find jumping in with Jin quite strong because his air 236D DESTROYS anti air attempts. The 236D floats Jin and 6As and what not will whiff, allowing you to freeze the opponent and combo him.

Blockstrings:

Currently i use 2B 5B(2) C 5D.

I am having relative success in counterhitting people with 6B/2A after 5B. Any ideas for this, I'm quite lost about this ATM. It really stinks that 5B is only 0 on block. And its really easy to IB imo.

When i manage to get a mixup..... i think 6A mixed up with 2B and throw mixed up with uppercut (Must have 50% gauge to cancel), is really juicy.

Oh ya btw i noticed that buppa Jin does 5C into 5D then into Fubuki when 5D gets guarded! Also he does projectile or Ice car at times after 5D gets guarded. Im really wondering what the reasons are lol.

Combos:

6A -> CX8 dash C SJ BCD AD BC 214B
    -> 6A 214D 6C SJ C D AD BC 214B (near/at corner, needs 25% meter)

2B -> BX2 C 9B C D land 214B
    -> Bx2 C 9B C D land C 3C (236 C for pressure)

Those are the ones i can think of right now.

All Jin players please contribute

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Soul Calibur IV Archive / Match Video Discussions

« on: March 05, 2009, 04:22:06 AM »

Hey guys!

This thread is for players to discuss Soul Calibur 4 matches that they have seen online. This means that if you wish to clarify things you don't understand in a video, or just want to evaluate the choices made in the match, you can post up here. Recommendations and positive comments are encouraged.

If you do not understand any of the terminology used in the discussion, please direct your questions here: http://forums.round1.sg/index.php?topic=26.0

Video sources and players that i recommend watching are:

The Koreans:

http://www.youtube.com/user/TheKura0611

Players to look out for: UFO (voldo), ChaosCube (Setsuka), Kura (Kilik/Nightmare/Talim).

Korean players have aggressive styles in whichever game they play. In SC they are proficient at staying at a good distance from the opponent while applying highly effective pressure. Not to mention, they have excellent execution and knowledge.

The French:

http://www.youtube.com/user/soularchivefr

http://www.youtube.com/user/GnouzCorp

Players to look out for: DTN (Siegfried), Keev (Nightmare), Kayane (Xianghua), Cdric (Cass, Mitsu), Dina (Sophie, Cass), Saitoh (Astaroth), Hayate (Kilik), Yota (Yunsung), Humphrey (Lizardman).

The french have many players and they are of a very good standard; they play effectively at a high level with interesting setups. Personally, I am very impressed by the knowledge of their matchups. Their hardwork and cooperation has advanced their standard of play rapidly in the SC4 era. They update their videos regularly, so you get to see new strategies often.

Hong Kong:

http://www.youtube.com/user/lks9413

Players to look out for: LAU (nightmare), Chang's Friend (Setsuka), Knightspirit (Mitsurugi).

Hong Kong has LAU and Chang's Friends as their top players. Both are of a very high calibre. LAU, having played in many countries, is a very experienced player. He plays a very dynamic nightmare. Chang's Friend is a wicked Setsuka player. His execution is just whack; if you take a look at the rest of his characters and their crazy just frames you'd get what i mean. Knightspirit has improved tremendously since i last played him. I actually enjoy watching his matches because he comes up with a lot of nice anti-character strategies and setups for Mitsurugi. Hong Kong matches are entertaining to casual and competitive players.

California:

http://www.youtube.com/user/offlinesemi

Players to look out for: Aris (Cassandra, Siegfried), Vicioussuicide (Lizardman), Alex J. (Amy), Hates (Cervantes), Motempest/Linc (Taki), Spman (Cervantes), King Salmon (Mitsurugi)

Personally, I find American matches boring to watch. However, their style is very effective. Its clean, clear and gets the job done. They don't need to go for the most damaging option, or the coolest looking set up, they just need options that are consistent and help to preserve their initiative. They are just plain solid. Motempest's Taki is pretty flashy though.

Singapore:

http://www.youtube.com/user/ReignRii

http://www.youtube.com/user/ikillbutterflies

http://www.youtube.com/user/MSLlednar

http://www.youtube.com/user/Aheda86

Players to look out for: Shen Rii (Nightmare), Shen Yuan (Xianghua/Hilde/Siegfried), Shen Ou (Kilik), Shen Chan (Yun seong, Talim, Mitsurugi), Taxi (Amy).

Singapore has very few but very fine players. I am very sure that our top players here do not pale in comparison to the greats mentioned above. We'll be putting more videos of our players up soon. For now, try to watch the Shen Rii vs Shen Ou first to ten that is being released match by match. It is very recent and entertaining.

Some general guidelines about watching videos:

1. Look at the date of the video. The more recent it is, the more relevant the strategy is. People play very differently as time passes and their gameplan develops.

2. A video is just a video. A player's performance in a certain match video does not clearly indicate how good he/she really is. Like you can't say LAU's nightmare is worse than Keev's/Your's/Whoever's by just looking at a video. None of the parties have played each other before. So yes, don't let a video paint a picture of the strength of a player. Learn from them in an objective manner.

3. It is very dangerous to take a strategy from a top player like its law. It has the effect of painting a definite picture of how a character is played. Players who do this might get discouraged by thinking that character X must be played in X way, where X way is unattractive to the player. This will cause the player to drop character X and eliminate all possibilities of developing a different and yet effective gameplan.
Post Merge: March 05, 2009, 06:00:35 AMI'll do up a review on a recent soul singapore match between Shen Ou and Shen Rii. I hope that the review, which shows how I look at and learn from match videos, will help new players learn how to look at them objectively as well. I'd like to add that the way i view matches is not the one and only way to view them. It works for me, but i don't think it would work for everyone; I tend to overthink. So please don't be afraid to look at match videos in a different way; the key is to learn something useful from them in the most effective way possible.

Shen Rii (Nightmare) vs Shen Ou (Kilik) Part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TH2PjXvSOzM

I'll only review Ou's choices for now.

Some contextual knowledge: Nightmare excels in close and far range combat in the Kilik matchup. He has decent tools for mid range, but kilik owns him in this respect.

Ou:
In the first round, Kilik does a 2A+K as Rii backsteps and it lands on a sidestep counter hit. I am pretty sure that Rii wanted to backdash into far range and then 8wayrun in the 3 direction to bait for a whiff from Kilik to move in to start pressure. Its a pretty good idea actually, because 33B is a stupid whiff punisher from far range. Not to mention, the distance between the two characters in the beginning of the round makeup for nightmare's poor backdash, and hence allows him to move into far range a lot quicker. Also, very few of kilik's moves reach THAT far. So what Kilik needs is a very long range horizontal attack to hit nightmare. Guess what? Kilik has one! Its called 2A+K. Kilik's 2A+K is a terrific answer to nightmare's game at far range. Kilik 2A+K catches step and it has excellent range. Because of these two properties, Ou managed to counter hit Rii as Rii's nightmare 8-way ran sideways, as he baited for a whiff. Even if Rii knew a 2A+K was coming, and guarded it, nightmare cannot punish kilik at that range. His best answer would be to jump it on anticipation. As such, i really like Ou's decision to throw out a 2A+K at the beginning of the round.

At 0:40 Kilik did a 3A. Ou managed to land it near its tip, while Kilik was at far range. Personally, I don't think that was a good option. I think 3A is a decent move for this matchup, but not at far range. Being at far range gives nightmare a lot of confidence to attempt a 33B to whiff punish. Actually Rii was ABOUT to go for a 33B punish. If not for the mistake in his execution, the 33B would have landed. What mistake? Rii tapped the B in 33B too early, causing the 3A to track and hit him, even though he stepped to the correct side. In SC4, if you step a slow attack, try to make sure that you have completely stepped it before you go for a punish. If you step and attack before hit activation of a slow attack occurs, the slow attack would track and hit you the moment you key in an input (Yes even Guard), regardless of how much you stepped it to its weak side. Personally, i felt that Ou's should have moved into 2A/22A range which is more favourable.

0:44 is what can probably happen a lot if you try to poke nightmare at mid-far range

At 0:49, im very interested in what went through Ou's train of thought after eating NSSA, that caused him to do an Asura.. which worked. I find it very queer, especially when NSSK/bA could have been guaranteed.

0:51-0:54, I like the way Ou Asura's after a throw whiffs. It makes failed throw punishments so dangerous against Kilik. Basically this means that if the opponent is late on the punishement and fails to land a free hit after ducking a throw, the opponent stands a very high chance of eating an Asura, which has a high chance of auto-GIing the late punisher. Not to mention, most punishers are middle attacks. BUT in the case of Nightmare, i think its a pretty risky idea because nightmare's consistent and best throw punisher is while standing B. Asura does not auto-GI kick class attacks like nightmare's while standing B. So if Nightmare was late in his WSB, Asura will get counter hit and kilik will eat big damage. However, Rii decided to go for a throw punish, which is not so bad an idea, because in that situation a B throw could have led to a wall splat which still leads to massive damage.

After the 2A hit at 1:14, Kilik did 46B. Nightmare blocked it. At this juncture, what should kilik have done if he knew that Nightmare was going to block. There are 3 meaty options in my opinion. First of all Kilik could have stepped backwards a BIT to move into the tip of 2A's range, where Kilik is really good at against Nightmare. Secondly, Kilik could have stepped forward to play a MO (236) game. Thirdly, Kilik could have thrown in a setup (3kB spacing, 4K string variance). Im sure Ou knew about these options, but I am raising this up to let newer players be aware of the dynamic of the mindgame in that situation.

(TO BE CONTINUED. ITS 6AM. I NEED SLEEP)

I highly recommend that players put up their thoughts and feelings about matches and also evaluate the opinions of other players about other matches as well. Even if the input seems too simplistic or inaccurate, the thoughts of other players can help correct and add depth to it. This way, a player's learning processes and understanding of the game can be improved immeasurably. 

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Soul Calibur IV Archive / Newbie Question Thread

« on: March 05, 2009, 04:20:32 AM »

Terminology

Mixup/Nitaku/50/50: An element of play where you force your opponent to make a sharp guess between an invisible mid/throw or a mid/low. It is a mixup/nitaku/50/50 because a mid and a throw/low require different responses to defend against them; to guard a mid, block standing, to beat a throw, duck and guard. Good players are able to make very accurate readings consistently.

Okizeme/Wakeup: An element of play where a player aims to gain an advantage as the opponent gets up. An example of a wakeup game:

If the opponent stand guards immediately: Play a mixup

If the opponent tech rolls: Catch tech

If the opponent lays still: Do a move that hits grounded.

If the opponent rolls in a direction: Use a ground hitting move that covers the same direction.

This will be expanded in time.

Please post up any questions you have about the definitions or significance of the terminology you encounter when learning soul calibur. Don't be shy! The good players are very willing to help newbies

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Soul Calibur IV Archive / Introduce yourself!

« on: March 05, 2009, 02:44:19 AM »

Name/Ringname: Raymus Chang Jin Yuan / Shen Yuan

Been playing Soul Calibur since Soul Calibur 2, 2004 March.

Currently: Waiting for Army. Was in ACJC.

Hobbies: Cooking, Reading, Anime, Manga, Playing other games.

Favourite shows: The Green Mile, Finding Forrester, Ip Man, The Chinese Connection, The Master of Tai chi.

Favourite music: Yuki Kajiura, Yasunori Mitsuda, Michiru Yamane, Motoi Sakuraba, Beethoven, John Williams.

Character(s): Xianghua