DaFeetLee

Cammy Matchup List (AE2012)

2012-02-13T23:34:00.003-05:00

Cammy matchups in my opinion (Cammy on left):

Abel: 6-4
Akuma: 6-4
Adon: 5-5
Balrog: 4-6
Blanka: 7-3
C.Viper: 7-3
Cammy: 5-5
Chun-Li: 6-4
Cody: 6-4
Dan: 6-4
DeeJay: 5-5
Dhalsim: 7-3
Dudley: 6-4
Hakan: 6-4
E. Honda: 6-4
El Fuerte: 6-4
Evil Ryu: 5-5
Fei Long: 5-5
Gen: 5-5
Gouken: 6-4
Guile: 5-5
Guy: 5-5
Ibuki: 6-4
Juri: 6-4
Ken: 5-5
Bison: 5-5
Makoto: 6-4
Oni: 5-5
Rose: 5-5
Rufus: 5-5
Ryu: 5-5
Sagat: 5-5
Sakura: 5-5
Seth: 6-4
T.Hawk: 5-5
Vega: 7-3
Yang: 6-4
Yun: 6-4
Zangief: 5-5

Cammy vs E.Honda

2012-02-05T05:41:00.004-05:00

My opinion: 6-4 in Cammy's favor

Recommended ultra: U1

Max damage combos: (Credits to Alioune for the list)

Legend:
cl. = standing close
far = standing far
cr. = crouching
LK SA = light kick/short spiral arrow (qcf+lk)
MK SA = medium kick/forward spiral arrow (qcf+mk)
HK SA = heavy kick/roundhouse spiral arrow (qcf+hk)
HK DP = heavy kick/roundhouse cannon spike (dp+hk)
EX CS = ex cannon strike (j.qcb+kk)

Standing (no jump-in): cl.hp > cr.hp > cr.mk > MK SA 297 (+HK DP in the corner 357)

cl.mp > cr.hp > cr.mk > MK SA 282

cl.mp > cr.hp > cr.lk > LK SA 268 (+HK DP in the corner 328)

Jump-in: jump hp/hk/ex cs > cl.hp > cr.hp > cr.mk > MK SA 363 (+HK DP 413 harder,jump-in must hit not too close, after close strike don't walk forward)

jump hp/hk/ex cs > cl.hp > cr.mp > cr.mk > HK SA 355 (recommended outside corner)

jump hp/hk/ex cs > cl.mp > cr.hp > cr.mk > MK SA 348

jump hp/hk/ex cs > cl.mp > cr.hp > cr.mk > LK SA 336 (+HK DP 386 easy )

Crouching (no jump-in): cl.hp > cr.hp > cr.mk > MK SA 297 (+HK DP 357) (recommended in the corner)

cl.hp > cr.mp > cr.mk > HK SA 286(recommended outside corner)

cl.mp > cr.hp > cr.mk > MK SA 282

cl.mp > cr.hp > cr.mk > LK SA 268 (+HK DP 328)

Crouching Jump-in: jump hp/hk/ex cs > cl.hp > cr.hp > cr.mk > MK SA 363 (+HK DP 413 harder,jumpin must hits not too close,after close strike don't walk forward)

jump hp/hk/ex cs > cl.hp > cr.mp > cr.mk > HK SA 355 (recommended outside corner)

jump hp/hk/ex cs > cl.mp > cr.hp > cr.mk > MK SA 348

jump hp/hk/ex cs > cl.mp > cr.hp > cr.mk > LK SA 336 (+HK DP 386 easy )

Safejumps on Honda:
back throw > walk slightly back > jump hp/hk OS HK DP (beats all his options on wakeup)
back throw > whiff cr.mp > jump hp/hk OS HK DP (beats all his options on wakeup)
sweep > slight pause > jump hp/hk OS HK DP (beats all his options on wakeup)
after any combo ending with MK SA > jump hp/hk OS HK DP (beats all his options on wakeup)

Tips:
- Use far hk a lot in the mid-ranged game. It beats a ton of Honda's ground buttons and a lot of the times, the Honda player will start either trying to focus the far hk (because far hk is huge focus bait; be careful with abusing it because it's a free level 2 focus for your opponent) or jumping in if they anticipate the far hk and getting a full jump-in combo. Use far hk sparingly and bait the jump-ins so you can cr.hp/hk dp them.
- Delayed strikes are the best against Honda because they beat out his headbutts if timed correctly. Delayed EX CS stuffs all his headbutts (even ex headbutt) if done correctly.
- Empty jump cr.lk is a very powerful tool against Honda because his fastest reversal is ex headbutt (at 8 frames startup) so you can block in time if he decides to wakeup reversal with anything.
- Reversal Super punishes all his headbutts on block (even ex headbutt). HP headbutt is -16 on block so if you have U1, punish with reversal U1 and if you don't have U1, punish with HK SA. MP headbutt is -13 so you can also punish that with reversal U1. However you CANNOT punish LP/EX headbutt with reversal U1.
- Butt drop is a very annoying move with Honda because they're all -2 except for HK butt drop which is -3. Honda players will either try to do another butt drop/ex headbutt to hit your punish attempt or ochio if you're caught there trying to block. I usually focus their butt drops on the second hit where he's falling down and get a crumple. If you have good reactions, you can punish any whiffed butt drop with U1.
- Always try to recognize if the Honda player has charge or not. If the Honda player doesn't have charge, then that's cue to jump-in and mix it up between delayed strikes and regular jump-ins (especially if he doesn't have meter).
- Also try to recognize if the Honda player has 2+ bars of meter because they will sometimes try to fadc their hp hands and ochio afterwards. If you know they'll ochio after a hands fadc, neutral jump and punish hard. If the Honda player is smart, they'll try to neutral jump hp to catch your neutral jump so be sure not to be too predictable.
- Don't make your blockstrings into ex cs too obvious. If the Honda player recognizes when you're going to jump ex cs in your string, he'll just reversal ex headbutt during the gap. Try to bait the ex headbutt a lot because Honda players need that move to get Cammy off of them.
- The most important tip is just to be patient. Cammy does a lot more damage than Honda does and he has a much harder time anti-airing her than the other way around. If Honda has full super meter, then he will definitely be trying to hit confirm cr.lp hp hands into super. If I notice a Honda has full super meter, then I will try to bait an ex headbutt/ex butt drop because taking damage from those moves is infinitely better than taking damage from a hitconfirm into super (which does around 50% to Cammy).

Match videos:

Cammy vs Ryu

2012-01-08T06:13:00.008-05:00

My opinion: 5-5 with slight advantage to Cammy

Recommended ultra: U1

Max damage combos: (Credits to Alioune for the list)

Legend:
cl. = standing close
far = standing far
cr. = crouching
MK SA = medium kick/forward spiral arrow (qcf+mk)
HK SA = heavy kick/roundhouse spiral arrow (qcf+hk)
EX CS = ex cannon strike (j.qcb+kk)

Standing (no jump-in): cl.hp > far hp > HK SA 261
cr.hp > far.mp > HK SA 256
cr.hp > cr.mk > HK SA 251

Jump-in: jump hp/hk/ex cs > cl.mp > cr.hp > cr.mk > MK SA 348 (combo for near corner)
jump hp/hk/ex cs > cl.mp > cr.mp > cr.mk > HK SA 340 (recommended outside corner because of HK SA positioning)

Crouching (no jump-in): cl.mp > cr.mp > cr.mk > HK SA 271(recommended)
cl.hp > cr.mp > cr.mk > MK SA 272

Crouching Jump-in: jump hp/hk/ex cs > cl.hp > cr.mp > cr.mk > HK SA 355
jump hp/hk/ex cs > cl.mp > cr.mp > cr.mk > HK SA 340
jump hp/hk/ex cs > cr.mp > cr.mp > cr.mk > HK SA 335

Unblockable after backthrow: (Credits to Alioune again)
back throw > forward~mk (this part is to fix the timing for the unblockable and get the right distance, you have to pretty much move forward a very slight bit and press mk (plink mk~lk)) > j.lk or j.lp(can be ducked)

Cross up HK CS after backthrow:
back throw > slight walk forward > whiff s.lp > HK CS (if you want non-cross up, use MK CS)

Cross up HK CS after HK SA
Immediately after HK SA, do an early HK CS to cross over the opponent's body if they quick rise. To get a cross up CS if they don't quick rise after the HK CS, do a delayed MK CS right after.

Ryu safejumps against Cammy:
Sweep > immediate jump uf > j.hk OS sweep/tatsu/DP/U1
Back throw > whiff cr.mp > j.hk OS sweep/tatsu/DP/U1
Forward throw > walk back > j.hk OS sweep/tatsu/DP/U1 or cross up j.mk/jump HK Tatsu
Forward throw > back dash > j.hp OS sweep/tatsu/DP/U1 or cross up jump HK Tatsu

Tips:
- cr.mk > hadoken is not a true blockstring. If you have U1, buffer it during the cr.mk and if you see the fireball, press all three kicks.
- You can also fadc forwards inbetween the cr.mk and hadoken and grab Ryu. This can be punished with ex hadoken though so be careful while doing this.
- From far range, avoid fireballs with LK cannon strike to build meter safely.
- Mid range, you should learn how to weave around and buffer cr.mk with HK SA to punish whiffed cr.mks and cr.hks from Ryu. You can also use s.hk.
- After an ex cs on block, if you know the Ryu player likes to mash dp afterwards, do a chained series of lights to push him out and make him whiff the dp and punish hard. Or, after the chained lights, if he decides to neutral jump, you can walk up and antiair him with cl.hp.
- Autocorrect dp against cross up tatsu attempts
- Punish whiffed tatsus with s.hk
- Punish bad sweeps (cr.hk from Ryu is -14 on block at point blank) with cr.mk > HK SA or U1
- Don't needlessly jump at a competent Ryu player. Learn to slowly make your way in and once you're in cr.mk/cr.hk range, you can either jump if you have a good read on a fireball and get a full damage combo or go for jump ex cs to catch him pressing a button during footsies. Remember to convert accordingly depending on if he's standing or crouching.
- As a general tip, always stay away from the corner, especially against Ryu because that's where his combos become more damaging, especially when he has meter and U1 stocked. His cr.mk > ex hadoken leads into U1 and he can do any combo into ex tatsu that leads into U1. Ryu also has a setup in the corner after a forward throw where he whiffs far hk and can either go for j.rh (cross up) or j.lk (fake cross up). Remember, if he goes for j.lk early as a jump in, it'll be a fake cross up and if he does it later in the jump in, it'll be an actual cross up.

Match videos:

My AE2012 Early Tier List

2011-12-25T02:30:00.003-05:00

A = C.Viper, Seth, Sagat, Fei Long
A- = Adon, Ken, Ryu (changed my mind), Akuma, Balrog, M. Bison, Rufus, E. Honda, Cammy
B+ = Yun, Yang, Zangief, Sakura, Rose, Makoto, Juri, Ibuki, Guy, Cody, Evil Ryu, Oni, Dudley, Abel, Blanka, Dhalsim, Gen, Gouken, Chun Li
B = Guile, Vega, T. Hawk, Hakan, El Fuerte, Deejay, Dan

Of course, this should be taken with a grain of salt because it is in my own opinion and from what I've been seeing so far. As you can see, I think the game is pretty well balanced and a lot of characters are tournament viable now. I believe that characters in B+ and B tier are not going to be winning any majors but I also believe that every character in the game can make it to top 8 in big tournaments/majors.

Here are some cool combos courtesy of Javits the scientist:

Coming soon are posts about Cammy, Cody, and Evil Ryu.

Haven't been keeping my promise

2011-12-12T21:43:00.002-05:00

Ugh finals and final papers. I'm probably not going to do the rest of the cast. I'll post my predictions for the 2012 "tier list" soon. The game drops tomorrow!

Cammy and Evil Ryu notes probably coming soon too.

Post NEC and Final AE2012 Patch Notes Part 3

2011-12-06T07:14:00.000-05:00

NEC has passed and I have to say, I'm not too happy with how I did. I went 0-2 in UMvC3 (which is what I kind of expected but hoped wouldn't actually happen). My first match was just complete slaughter; I went up against a Spencer/Wesker/Hawkeye player and everytime he got a hit, he would do a max damage combo that pretty much one hit killed anyone on my team. It also doesn't help that I have zero spencer experience. My losers match didn't happen until Sunday morning and I actually did pretty well in that one. I went against a Nemesis/Taskmaster/Dormammu team (team everyone is above 1mil hp -_-) and I managed to get a happy birthday in the first match with Taskmaster against his last two characters, Nemesis and Dormammu. However, Nemesis managed to survive with a magic pixel after I hit a Task bnb into air MH super xf MH super. He immediately xfactors and when I try to jump away, he hits a random launcher and kills my Taskmaster :(. I then went on to lose the second match due to bad execution errors as well. I didn't think too much about my performance though because I knew that I didn't spend too much time practicing the game.

As for AE singles, I pretty much got what I hoped wouldn't happen at a major; I lost to two NY players that I always face. My first match was against a Rose player who was actually really good and managed to beat my Yun in a close first match. I thought about it and decided to switch to Yang because I felt more comfortable with Yang against Rose. Shoutouts to sk because without the experience against his Rose, I would've probably lost my first match. I managed to steal the two wins and move on to the next round. I walked over to Min to tell him the results of the match and took a peek at his laptop to see who I would be facing next. Lo and behold, it was Lincoln "DragonGod" Morris, a player I always see at Next Level. What's funny is that a few Guard Crushes ago, I had to face Lincoln in the second round of winners as well. This time, I felt that I had gotten better since then and could take him on. My first match started off great as I took the first round with near perfect health. I felt the momentum and tried to ride it to finish the first match quickly but due to an execution mistake (I tried to ultra an obvious overhead from Ibuki but I got a super activation instead and lost all my meter going into the third round), I lost the next two rounds. I had lost all my momentum after that first match and Lincoln was just too solid and took the second match as well. I really wanted to beat Lincoln this time but it just wasn't my day. I feel like I did do pretty well against him though despite losing to him 0-2 because the rounds weren't as free as last time and after the match, he told me that my Yun was scary to face.

In losers bracket, I found out that my opponent would be Capcom's Hero (yet another Next Level player I see all the time). I knew the Gouken match because I played Capcom's Hero a couple time in casuals and I had experience against Osiris and Chris Hu. The first match started off slow but Capcom's Hero decided to go really aggressive and I couldn't adapt fast enough so he took the first match. I calmed down before going into the second match and when it started, I decided to take his route and go really aggressive as well. I took the second match in convincing fashion and it all went down to the final match. This is where I usually get really nervous because if I lost that match, I would be out of the tournament. We both took a round from each other and when it came down to the final round of the final set, he managed to get me with a back throw after he did EX demon flip kick on wakeup and finish me off. I ultimately went 1-2 in the tournament, losing to two NY players that I always see which is what I hoped would not happen. I wasn't salty about my losses; moreso, I was salty that we weren't separated far enough from each other. I had found out that after my pool was done, the tournament organizers had swapped some of the later pools around because there were too many NY players in one pool. That definitely made me feel better /sarcasm

I also joined the team tournament with Henry Cen and Li on a last minute decision in the car. We decided to name our team Big Two (lol). We actually got a bye for the first round of winners so we started of our first match in the second round of winners and it was against an unknown team (I can't remember the players at all). Li pretty much OCV'd them with Akuma (which was pretty hype), earning him the nickname OCLi. Our second match was against the team of DRS Shakugan (Ibuki), DMG Insaynne (Blanka), and TPH Lionheart (Sagat). I went up first and beat Shakugan pretty soundly by playing the lamest I have ever played with Yun. DMG Insaynne went up next and I felt really confident in this match because I knew the Blanka matchup like the back of my hand. First round, DMG Insaynne went nuts and perfected me, finishing off the round with his favorite trick (forward throw into whiff RH upball which never crosses up into electricity). Adnan had told me about this trick before the match started and said you should just block or try to DP out of it. Since the round was pretty much going to be his win no matter what, I went for the DP and it failed sadly. Second round, I started to play how I normally play against the Blankas I face and won. It all went down to the third round and I had pretty much won the match but I missed my combo after zempo tenshin (c.mpx2 c.mk ex shoulder which only works on Blanka) and lost. I was sad but Henry Cen managed to take out DMG Insaynne and TPH Lionheart by himself to move us on to the next round. Our next match was against the super powerful team of Sherryjenix (E. Honda), Wolfkrone (C.Viper), and PR Balrog (Balrog). Li went up first and beat Sherry pretty badly but then lost to Wolfkrone Viper (although Li did really well at first and took a round from him). I went up next and my match was actually really close but in the final round, Wolfkrone did a clutch backdash on his wakeup when I went for an ex command grab and took the game. Henry Cen went up and we thought he would win because he was talking about how he played Wolfkrone for NEC training and did well against him. Henry managed to get his signature turnaround U1 against a wakeup burnkick from Wolfkrone in the first round but he ultimately lost to him as well. We were sent into losers bracket from an OCV from Wolfkrone but we were fine with it because that's obviously a really good team and we were pretty much in Top 12 by then.

We started losers bracket on Sunday and our next team was against the powerful team of Dr.Chaos (Ken), LuckyD (Dhalsim), and Demon Hyo (Blanka). I wasn't there when the matches started but when I got there, Li had already lost against Dr. Chaos. We decided to send Henry next because we wanted to save my Yun for LuckyD's Dhalsim. However, Henry managed to OCV the entire team and managed to hit all of them with an ultra: he hit an U1 on Dr.Chaos when he tried to do a crossup tatsu on his wakeup, he hit an U1 on LuckyD when LuckyD stuck out a random far s.mk, and he hit an OS c.lk U1 on Demon Hyo when Hyo tried to backdash on wakeup. I felt that if Henry had lost against LuckyD, I could've taken LuckyD and Demon Hyo but I was glad that Henry managed to OCV them. Our next match that we ended up losing was against Team Adnan which consisted of MarlinPie (C.Viper), Chris G (Sakura), and Adnan (Dhalsim). Li went up first against Marlinpie and pretty much had the game but he missed one combo (c.mp c.mp lk tatsu) and lost his match which got him really salty. I went up next and with all the Viper experience I had, I managed to beat Marlinpie convincingly (although I thought I would lose the second round when I tried to do a safejump after a forward throw and ate an EX seismo U1 from him). Next up was against my personal demon, Chris G. The last time I played against Chris G was in a Big Two tournament and I just barely lost to him back then. This time, I wanted to win so bad but he played so solid and beat me pretty convincingly. I feel like Chris G has improved so much throughout AE's lifespan (a lot of people have said the same thing) and I can only imagine that he will get even better in 2012. Our anchor Henry Cen went up and I thought that he could easily beat Chris G and Adnan by himself but he ended up losing to Chris G as well. We ended up getting Top 8 which I was happy with but I really thought that we could have beaten Team Adnan if Henry or I had beaten Chris G.

Now on to the next 5 characters:
http://static.capcom.com/streetfighter/downloads/SSFIV%20Arcade%20Edition%202012%20Final%20Change%20List%20-%20US.pdf

11) Sagat - Sagat only has two changes for 2012. The first one is an Angry scar buff, which increases the damage for all his uppercuts after an angry scar by 10 damage. The second one is a cr.mp hitbox buff which isn't much of a big deal. Since Sagat manged to go into 2012 with no nerfs, I feel that he will definitely be one of the top characters because his worst matchup (Akuma) got nerfed and I can't think of a character that will give Sagat anything more than a 4-6 matchup. Overall, I believe that Sagat will be an A character because he doesn't have any terrible matchups that go beyond a 4-6 and he already beats a number of characters.

12) M. Bison - M. Bison also got only buffs for 2012 (although Kim1234 believes that there are hidden changes that aren't listed in the changelog, like EX psycho crusher whiffing full screen and headstomp losing some priority, making it susceptible to more trades). The first buff is that all his scissor kicks do 50 more stun which pretty much means that we will see much more M. Bison stuns in 2012. The hitstun for the first hit of all his scissors got lengthened by 1 frame which means after the fastest possible FADC, M. Bison will be +5 which allows him to get more damaging FADC combos. The second buff is that both his standing roundhouses got their shallow hit damage increased by 10 damage (from 80 to 90) which I'm sure makes a difference because M. Bisons use that normal so frequently. Overall, I believe that M. Bison will be a A- character because he has always been a powerful character in SFIV but he has always had bad matchups like Guile, E. Honda, and Abel. Despite these bad matchups, he's done pretty well and in 2012, we'll see a lot of M. Bisons.

13) C.Viper - Ahhh C.Viper, the largest problem of SFIV in my opinion. This character has dominated ever since Vanilla and they finally decided to attempt to nerf this character for 2012 after seeing what she can do at very high level play (thanks to players like Wolfkrone, Latif, and Kyabetsu). Her U1 got nerfed from 480 damage to 441 damage but in return, it's hitbox got enlarged so it's easier to connect in combos now. Her U2 got buffed up to 410 damage from 380 damage but I feel that C. Viper players will still only use U1 in every matchup. Her EX TK starts up 2 frames faster and has 2 extra frames of hitstun if it connects. Her MP TK got nerfed by 10 damage and her HP TK is now unthrowable until the first active frame which is an attempt to make up for the next nerf. Her EX Seismo finally got nerfed and it now does 100 damage from 120 and has LOST ITS THROW INVINCIBILITY. This is huge because in all the past iterations, Viper players would abuse that throw invincibility during their wakeup or after an overhead/blocked burnkick. Now C. Viper players will have to think before abusing that move because they can be thrown out of it now. Her burnkicks now do 90 damage instead of 100 damage which does add up because C. Viper players are always using that move. Finally, her EX burnkick can now be followed up with HP TK or U1 after it fully hits which can be very dangerous now because Viper players might start using that move more on wakeup because of the EX seismo nerf. Overall, I believe C. Viper will be an A character because although Capcom did attempt to nerf her, I feel that it wasn't enough because she will still have the same gameplan and she'll only have to hit you a couple more times to kill you. Capcom seems to have forgotten that C.Viper can do that stupid HP TK feint on wakeup which has invincibility and they decided to buff her other wakeup moves like HP TK and EX burnkick to make up for her EX seismo nerf.

14) Rufus - Rufus got only buffs as well going into 2012. His U2 can now antiair again but this time, it only gets a maximum of 10 hits. His MK messiah kick can now combo into its LK follow up which is pretty big because MK messiah kick is the version Rufus players use to punish bad fireballs. Now Rufus can punish fireballs with MK messiah fadc U1. His TC got buffed and can hit characters while they're crouching which is definitely good for Rufus players. His last buff and a pretty odd buff is that Rufus can now FADC his EX Galactic Tornado and end up +8 afterwards. This lets Rufus do some new combos like s.hp ex GT fadc s.hp hp GT or s.hp ex GT fadc TC U1. The last combo actually scales the U1 a lot and it's better to just do raw TC into U1 but I believe that Rufus players will use this new property when they're hitconfirming EX GT from cr.lp/cr.lk and get that extra bit of damage or want to finish their opponent off with an ultra. Overall I believe Rufus will be a A- character because Rufus has always been really powerful in the past iterations and I personally believe he doesn't have any matchup worse than a 4-6. He only got buffs and all those buffs help his overall game a lot.

15) El Fuerte - El Fuerte got only buffs going into 2012 much like the rest of the cast. His tortilla got its invincibility from Super returned and this means El Fuerte players can now use it much more as antiair. EX Quesadilla Bomb has a shorter charge time (210 frames from 390 frames) and if it hits counterhit, El Fuerte gets a wallbounce which he can follow up with HK/EX Guacamole for massive damage. His Run Slide after a RSF got fixed against certain crouching characters like Balrog so it hits properly now. His cr.lp is now rapid-fire cancelable and his Guacamole Leg Throw has reduced landing stun (10 frames from 13 frames) which I believe will allow him to have more freedom in his safejump OS setups after a successful Guacamole. Overall, I believe El Fuerte will be a B character because although he only got buffs, he still has the same problems like being very weak to throws on wakeup and overall having a very inconsistent gameplan (relying on random hits and having no real hitconfirms/footsies game). Despite being a B character however, El Fuerte is still very dangerous because of his ability to punish extremely hard and his ability to set you up in a ton of ambiguous situations after all his moves. I've learned from the NY Fuerte players like Spore, Spabrog, and Manny that El Fuerte is not a character you should sleep on.

AE2012 drops next week and I'm patiently waiting for its arrival. I have a ton of school work to finish up and finals to study for but once winter break starts, I will definitely train hard and start joining tournaments again. I also have a new character I want to work on more for AE2012 (Evil Ryu) and I'll try to make a post with a bunch of Evil Ryu technology soon.

Training for NEC and Final AE2012 Patch Notes (Part 2)

2011-12-02T13:51:00.001-05:00

I missed a blog post yesterday because of school+work and I'll probably miss a few more because of NEC this weekend but I doubt that's a big deal because I don't think many people are excited to read my opinions and predictions for AE2012 anyway.

Today is the day before NEC and it is going to be a serious training day. That means NO BIG 2 and playing AE and UMvC3 until my hands bleed. I haven't played AE since last Friday and I've only touched UMvC3 training mode for a few hours this week so I can only hope that I will hit my combos on Saturday. I've been working on a 1mil bnb for my zero which is very hard to do consistently so I'll have to dumb it down for tournament. I also have a 900k bnb for taskmaster which is actually pretty easy to do and of course I got my doom loops down (in the corner). Doing buktooth loop twice isn't so hard anymore either so I pretty much have all the combos for my team down. I just have to pray that I don't lose to random bullshit (who am I kidding...it's MvC3) and that I can one touch kill Wesker if I get a hit on him (because Wesker is the bane of my existence). As for AE, I'm pretty much going to use Yun/Yang exclusively in tournament (it's the last time I'm going to seriously use them) and the only wish I have is that I don't play anyone from New York because that would be so depressing to travel out to a major to lose to someone I play locally.

On to the patch notes. I'll be covering the next 5 characters on the list:
http://static.capcom.com/streetfighter/downloads/SSFIV%20Arcade%20Edition%202012%20Final%20Change%20List%20-%20US.pdf

6) Zangief - Zangief got pretty much got only buffs for this patch. Despite that, I still don't think he'll be a very powerful character because they still have that one huge nerf that they gave him for AE: his EX banishing flat still doesn't knock down which, in my opinion, was a massive nerf to Gief as a character. For 2012, they increased the stun values for his HP SPD and his EX banishing flat to 150 from 100 which means it'll be much easier for Gief to stun people now. They shrunk the hitbox of his cr.rh which I believe is so he has an easier time going under pokes that hit Gief even if he's crouching (i.e. Sagat s.rh and Chun s.rh). They also fixed an odd hitbox issue with his cr.lp where if Gief splashed a character like Chun and tried to link a cr.lp, the cr.lp would completely whiff and would not combo. One final buff that they gave Gief which is going to be awkward to use effectively is that his far standing hp knocks down on hit. I rarely ever saw this move used before and I believe that Gief players will definitely start using this move during blockstrings when they believe the opponent would try to jump out in fear of getting SPD'd. Gief players back then would do a block string and end in f+rh to try to catch people trying to jump out but now they can use far standing hp to get a knockdown instead of just resetting the opponent. Overall, I believe Gief will be a B+ character because I never believed that Gief was a powerful character in AE. He has a large number of bad matchups and the only bad matchup getting better for him in AE2012 is Akuma. He'll still lose to characters like Chun Li, Honda, and Sagat especially which is bad because I believe the AE2012 metagame will be full of Sagats.

7) Guile - Most of the buffs given to Guile in 2012 are just reverting of nerfs that were given to him in vanilla AE. They took away the stupid ch hurtbox that stayed after Guile already threw a boom. Now Guile can only get ch out of a boom if you hit him before he releases a boom. They increased the damage for deep hits for all his flashkicks which imo isn't that great a buff because most of Guile's flashkicks in a match don't really hit deep enough to begin with. They also reverted the frames for both his air throws back to their Super versions (3 frames instead of 4 frames in vanilla AE). Spinning back knuckle (f+hp) does 10 more damage now which is pretty much just reverting the nerf that it got in vanilla AE. His U2 now has its damage distribution altered so that it does more damage in combos from flashkick fadc which is always good because that ultra does a ridiculously low amount of damage in vanilla A2. The only real new buff that Guile received is that his b+rh or upside down kick is throw-invincible from the 6th frame-landing and it has an extra frame of hitstun making it possible to get +5 on a hit now. This pretty much makes all of Guile's b+rh much easier and I can see Guiles going for max damage punishes using that move now. Overall I believe Guile will be a B character because he still has the same problems he's always had in SFIV. His reversal is absolutely terrible and Guile suffers from having almost no defense against a hard knockdown. A good Guile player has to play perfectly on defense because if he gets knocked down once, he can lose the entire game. Guile will still lose badly to characters like Akuma and Abel and won't really win any matches except for his obvious advantage against M. Bison.

8) Dhalsim - Dhalsim pretty much only got buffs as well for AE2012 (I'm seeing a pattern here...). His s.lp got a cute little buff where it has an extra frame of hitstun so he can poke better without using his more riskier pokes like s.hp and s.rh. His U1 got buffed by 30 more damage which is great for Sim because that ultra is such a huge part of his gameplan. The only special move that got buffed (considerably) is his Yoga Blast. The EX yoga blast has its damage distribution changed so that the first hit does more damage now. This is probably because when EX yoga blast trades with an air attack, Sim only gets the first hit. They decreased the post-hit recovery for all his yoga blasts and they made them all hard knockdowns which is great because Sim can setup his fireball->teleport mixup game afterwards. They also allowed any followup after the heavy version of yoga blast which means Sim can follow up with moves like s.hp afterwards. Overall I believe Sim will be a B+ character because the number of twin players in 2012 will drop dramatically and that is pretty much amazing to any Sim player. However, despite the lack of twin players in 2012, Sim will still lose a number of matchups like Viper, Abel, Cammy, and Rufus. This is expected because Sim has always been a polarizing character where he has a large number of good matchups and also has a large number of bad matchups.

9) Balrog - Balrog got a number of buffs for 2012 but they're pretty much reverting him back to his Super version. All of his headbutts got changed back to Super damage which is expected because in vanilla AE, all his headbutts did the same amount of damage (yes even EX headbutt...). Balrog's U2 got buffed and now has an easier motion and does 99 more damage than it did before. This is useless though because Balrog's U2 is so bad (he gets no okizeme whatsoever after he hits U2 and his U2 starts up in 2 frames which means it's easily jumpable). The only way a Balrog player will ever hit U2 is if he uses really gimmicky setups and his U1 is way too good so there's no reason that a Balrog player should ever choose U2 unless they want to troll. Balrog's overhead got buffed as well (shoutouts to Ben Fong and Mike G) where he ends up closer to his opponent after it hits and it's easier to connect moves like cr.mp afterwards. PR Balrog tweeted that he hopes this buff means Balrog can do super damaging overhead combos like overhead, cr.mk, cr.mp xx hp headbutt/dash punch. Also the hitbox for his close standing hp got expanded downwards so he can hit more crouching opponents which is a good buff because his cl.hp actually force-stands his opponents so he can do combos like cl.hp, cr.jab ex rush etc. Overall I believe Balrog will be an A- character because he is pretty much being returned to his Super version with a better overhead (but he doesn't have his old godlike standing jab that hit large crouching characters). Balrog doesn't have many bad matchups and he does really well against the entire cast. The only thing that's preventing him from being an A character is that his wakeup game is still pretty bad because his ex headbutt still has god awful recovery and he is still susceptible to being low meatied all day.

10) Vega - Vega also got only buffs for 2012. His cr.rh (sweep/slide) does 20 more damage now (from 90 to 110) which is a pretty decent buff so I can see Vega players trying to use that move more where the sweep isn't so easily punishable. His cosmic heel (f+rh) has 1 extra frame of blockstun so he is going to be at -3 at most on block which lets Vegas use this move a lot more now without fear of getting punished really hard. His U1 got fixed where sometimes if it hit with the initial hit, the opponent would randomly fall out and Vega got fucked over. Also Vega can combo into U1 now which is so sick and I can see Vega players using this ultra more now instead of using U2 in every matchup. Speaking of U2, the ultra got faster by 1 extra frame (from 9f to 8f) which allows him to punish more moves now. His sky high claw now knocks down for all versions (though I doubt any Vega players will ever use this move except when they want to go for a gimmick kill). His EX version now has its hitbox expanded downward so he can hit characters like Chun Li while they're crouching. In vanilla AE, the move would completely go over her head and she would be able to punish hard. Overall, I believe Vega will be a B character because I believe that he actually does well characters like Sagat and Fei Long but he'll still lose a number of matchups like Rufus, E.Honda, and Akuma and he still has terrible wakeup and no real answers to divekicks.

Hopefully I can move on to the next 5 characters tomorrow but NEC will probably take up my whole day. I'm excited though! Can't wait to blow up nguboy ahhhhhhh

RIP sksksksksk222 and Final AE2012 Patch Notes (Part 1)

2011-11-30T16:11:00.001-05:00

First of all, I was informed last night that a member of the NYC fighting game community died last night. It was Joshua Colon (otherwise known as sksksksksk222) and he was only 20 years old. He was one of the best if not the best East Coast Rose player in a game that pretty much demolished his character. He continued to main her despite her being one of the worst characters in the game and he was one of the smartest and lamest (in a good way) players I've ever played. He was a huge fighting game fan and he would play any kind of fighting game he could find; he was frequently on PSN and Xbox Live playing AE or MvC3. Despite him being an online warrior, he would sometimes come out and I would play him at the 8 bit dojo or at Next Level and we would play long sets and have a bunch of fun. Just last week, we both entered the Big 2 tournament and met each other in the first round of losers bracket. He handily beat me 2-0 and I was salty after the loss but I promised myself that I would beat him the next time we met. It looks like that won't happen anymore...

He posted a status on his facebook just on Monday about being accepted to CUNY Hunter and getting the financial aid he needed to attend. He actually graduated from high school the same year as me and was Valedictorian of his graduating class but he couldn't get the financial aid to attend college so he took a break from school and looked for jobs in the mean time. Before his acceptance to Hunter, he landed an internship and he was always posting statuses about how things were looking up for him at work and life. It's a tragedy that death took his life at such a young age when things were going great for him...

On a less depressing note, the final patch notes for AE2012 were just released last night at 8PM EST. Capcom even made a nice pdf file to make it easier to read all the changes:
http://static.capcom.com/streetfighter/downloads/SSFIV%20Arcade%20Edition%202012%20Final%20Change%20List%20-%20US.pdf

I want to touch on every character and put in my thoughts on how the changes will affect them in the overall balance of the game. I'm going to do 5 characters a day which means it'll take me 8 days to go over the entire cast.

1) Ryu - Ryu pretty much got buffed all around as a character. His fireballs got more powerful by 10 damage which is a bigger change than most people think (just imagine how many times you get hit by fireballs against a Ryu player). His cr.mk got its active frames upped to 5f as opposed to 3f which I'm sure Ryu players are happy about because of how frequently they use that normal in footsies. His HP shoryuken got completely changed and I have to say, it's for the better. Now it does 1 hit now for 160 damage in the 1st and 2nd active frames of the move (basically you want to dp as late as possible for antiair for max damage) and you cannot FADC or super cancel it. This is going to be Ryu's main meterless antiair now. His U2 got slightly buffed as an antiair and now Ryu can do ch ex fireball fadc into U2 for a whole lot of damage (granted that's not going to happen frequently but it's still good). Overall I believe Ryu will be a solid B+ character because he will still have some bad matchups (like Dhalsim, Adon, etc) but he will pretty much go even against most of the cast now.

2) Ken - Ken got some buffs and one nerf. His target combo (MP-HP) got an odd buff which basically lets him delay cancelling into the hp portion to allow for a possible counterhit frametrap (much like a Fei Long delayed rekka). It also connects more frequently against crouching opponents. I don't see this being used much by the top Ken players though but it's better than nothing. His EX shoryuken does 20 more damage now which lets Ken really punish your mistakes hard now with s.hk ex dp. His far standing roundhouse got slightly buffed so I expect Ken players to use it more but I don't think it'll be a big part of his gameplan. I still expect Ken players to use cr.mk, s.mk, f.mk, and s.mp in footsies. His sweep is 1 frame slower now which means he can't connect stand jab into sweep. Hard knockdowns are really good in SFIV but Ken still gets good okizeme from after a hp dp so that nerf isn't too big. Overall I believe Ken will be a solid A- character because I already saw Ken as a powerful character with very little bad matchups in AE and he pretty much got only buffs (and one small nerf).

3) Chun Li - Chun Li pretty much got only buffs. Her sweep does 150 stun as opposed to 100 stun which is pretty huge seeing as how Chun Li players love that button. Her U1 doesn't randomly drop against certain characters (like Rose) anymore which is great. Her U2 got 1 frame faster which I guess they buffed for antiair purposes? Her crouching short has a larger hitbox now and her EX legs move her farther forward now which means she can get c.shortxn ex legs on characters like Blanka now? Overall, I believe Chun Li will be a solid B+ character because she still has bad matchups like Rufus and Akuma but she will pretty much go even against most of the cast (and she does really well against Zangief and E. Honda who I expect to see a whole lot of in AE2012).

4) E. Honda - Oh boy E. Honda. He pretty much only got buffs as well. His LP Headbutt is now back to Super status and can be used as an antiair again. His MP Headbutt is now completely low invincible and is projectile-invincible from frame 1- frame 10 which means he'll have an easier time during fireball zoning. His Heavy HHS which is the one used during all his hand combos has a larger hitbox at the end, which means he has an easier time connecting the s.rh link afterwards against everyone now. His EX Ochio does 150 stun now as opposed to 100 stun so I can see Honda players using that move more frequently when they know their opponent is close to being stunned. His U2 got its motion reverted to an easier command so maybe Honda players will use that ultra now in certain matchups where U1 isn't really useful. Overall, I believe E. Honda will be a solid A- character now because he pretty much got reverted back to Super status (though he doesn't do as much as he did back then). He'll still have his bad matchups (like Dhalsim, Sagat, and Chun Li) but he'll definitely do a lot better now with these buffs.

5) Blanka - Ahhh Blanka (the literal red-headed stepchild of SFIV). Capcom decided to finally buff this character. They increased the damage on all his horiballs and now his hp and ex horiballs knockdown when they're in FADCable range so I expect Blankas to go for hp horiballs now when they have charge as opposed to always doing electricity combos. His pretty much useless overhead got buffed and now I think it'll be much more useful now because Blanka will be +5 afterwards which means he can combo into either s.jab or cr.short now and he could possibly even connect his U1 if he's close enough. An odd nerf that most people won't know much about is that they nerfed Blanka's back throw by 1 frame which is actually pretty huge. I frequently chat with a Blanka player from SoCal named Veserius who is pretty much a Blanka scientist and he pretty much discovered a large amount of Blanka techniques (including unblockable setups after a back throw). Capcom pretty much took his unblockable findings and said fuck you by adding that 1 frame. I'm sure Veserius will find other unblockables with Blanka if he adjusts the timing of his setups but as of now, he's salty. Blanka's ex vertical ball got a huge buff now because it knocks down now on hit which is pretty huge because in the older versions, Blanka could be punished ON HIT if he tried to do an ex vertical ball against certain characters. However, it's a double-edged sword now because on block, they increased his landing frames by 5 frames which makes it easier to punish him if you do block the vertical ball. Overall I believe Blanka will be a solid B+ character now because although he did get a bunch of buffs, he'll still have a number of bad matchups like Balrog, Abel, Cammy, and Sagat.

That's it for now. I'll cover the next 5 characters in the change-log tomorrow. The AE2012 patch hits Japanese arcades on December 2nd and hits consoles on December 13th. I can't wait!

It's been a long time

2011-11-29T03:14:00.000-05:00

I've decided to revive this thing for no real reason except that I feel the need to write down my thoughts.

For anyone who actually reads this blog, my twitter is @DaFeetLee. Follow me if you want to because I usually just retweet random tweets from the FGC or just tweet about random things in life. As for my youtube channel, it's DaFeetEX. I haven't uploaded anything in a long while but hopefully when AE2012 drops, I'll find some cool things to post up if I can. I'll also try to record more matches from Next Level that don't get to be seen because they're offstream.

Speaking of AE2012, the patch notes are pretty much expected to drop late tonight or tomorrow at the latest. I'm pretty excited to see what the final changelog is going to look like, especially after all the loketests and feedback Capcom got back. Personally, I just hope they don't keep Yang's changes because I feel that he was the only character that got nerfed way too much. If Capcom keeps his nerfs, then nobody will feel the need to even pick him anymore and he'll be a waste of a character slot. I'm pretty much soul-searching once 2012 drops because I don't think I'll have the drive to main Yun anymore, especially after hearing how the top Japanese players feel he's going to be too weak. I've been looking at a Cody/Cammy duo main but that's not guaranteed. Hopefully, I find a way to settle down on a single character (I've had trouble picking a single character to play for all of SFIV because I'm always trying to learning new characters and so I pretty much know how to play the entire cast at an average to above average level).

As for UMvC3, I've been trying to learn that game a lot more than I tried for vanilla MvC3. I definitely like the new game a lot more (even though the online netcode is still terrible and pretty much unplayable). I'm trying out a whole bunch of different characters but my main team is Zero/Taskmaster/Doom for now. This team has proven pretty effective in casuals and I hope to bring it pretty far. I have a pocket Vergil and Nova that I hope to make a secondary team out of.

NEC is coming up this weekend and I've already paid my entry fee + AE + UMvC3. I'm definitely excited because it's going to be my second major (my first being ECT3). I have high hopes for AE and I hope to see where I stand in UMvC3. I wish I had the time to play KoFXIII but I've decided to put that game aside for now because I just can't juggle schoolwork + real life + 3 main fighting games. Hopefully I can try to sit down and learn some of the game during winter break.

As for the future, I'm pretty much going to start blogging about all the events of the FGC and some random setups/combos/etc for the characters I'm playing in AE and UMvC3. I've been training a lot with Henry Cen and the Next Level crew in NY so I'll try to post my thoughts about my progress and the advice I'm given and how I personally interpret them.

Capcom Fight Club NYC

2011-08-19T13:29:00.004-04:00

I arrived to line up for the event at around 12:30PM (The event started at 6PM) and I saw my friend Jae there so I decided to sit with him and chat about how SFIV is so stupid lol. Eventually more and more people began arriving and before I knew it, the line for the event stretched so far that I couldn't even see the end of it. A whole bunch of people I knew came to where we were and I remembered that I brought my laptop because I had GGPO on it. We found two sticks and went to town playing Alpha 2, Third Strike, and even Super Turbo. Time went by so fast that before I knew it, they were calling us to move up the line. They had given us red bands to wear before, which we thought they would check when we were going in (but they never did). One guy on line didn't get a band so he started cutting off parts of the bands that everyone else got and made his own band by tying the cut off pieces together with rubber band (he was on some MacGyver shit lol). We got into the venue right around 6PM and it was definitely spacious, unlike the last Fight Club which was basically a hole in the wall.

Inside, there were around 14? stations. I know 4 of them were for 3sOE and then it was split between SFxT and UMvC3. There were 4 DS stations in the middle for SFIV3DS but who cares about that game. I decided to try out UMvC3 first. The lines were already pretty damn long and there were no rules set so winners would just stay on however long they wanted. There was one guy on our line who was just destroying people with his Doom and I was worried that I would never have my chance. Thankfully one of the capcom people came and told everyone that it was 1 game win or lose for everyone. When I got on, I went straight to Dr. Strange and Hawkeye because they're the two characters that I really wanted to try out. Here are two of my matches:

I'm really liking how Dr. Strange plays. I was trying to test out all his moves but it was difficult when the other guy was just trying to win. I couldn't figure out the motion for his crumple move which I really wanted to know because I could've done some really damaging combos with it. Hawkeye seems super crazy too and definitely doesn't feel like a Taskmaster clone (although it really should be the other way around...). Pretty much all his specials shoot out different kinds of arrows and they all do different things. I also did some kind of electric throw move? in one of those matches which I couldn't replicate. I really wanted to play more but the lines were only getting longer so I decided to move on to SFxT.

I had only played SFxT once before at ECT3 and I didn't really understand how to play back then. This time, I decided to rock Hugo/Poison for my first match and I actually did pretty well. I just went off what I knew about Hugo in 3s and what I saw in the preview gameplay videos for both characters. Empty jump SPD is still a powerful tactic and I was resetting people with Hugo strings into EX running grab which HURTS. Hugo does hella damage but I was having trouble starting combo chains on people. I was also trying out switch cancel combos but I couldn't do them when I wanted to so I just went for the standard launcher combos. I would do Hugo chain combo into Poison LMH QCB KK which did pretty nasty damage. As for Poison, I really like her fireballs and DP (which knocks opponents full screen when it hits). I was trying to figure out her rekka motion but I never did it successfully. All I know is that Cross Assault is super crazy and I feel that once people figure out, there are going to be some super crazy sandwich combos ala Jojos.

They were also giving out free shirts out but the catch was that you had to LEAVE the event to actually get one. I decided to check out the shirt which looked like this:

I decided it wasn't worth it to leave the event for so I didn't get one sadly. They were also giving out some square pizzas and Diet Coke which I scarfed down because I hadn't eaten anything for the whole day. By the end of the event, I was beyond tired because I didn't even sleep the night before and I had been awake for basically the whole day. I slept on the train ride back and once I got home, I didn't even turn on my laptop and went straight to sleep. All in all, it was a pretty fun day.

EC SBO Qualifiers and Yun Safe Jumps

2011-08-07T23:49:00.000-04:00

Well the EC qualifier team has been determined and it's the team of EMP Dieminion (Guile) and LI Joe (Sagat)! Congrats to the both of them.

On the other hand, the event itself was pretty lackluster seeing as how there were only 15 entrants for the first tournament and 6 (yeah...) for the second tournament. However, there were some pretty sick matches being played and some great hype moments. Tinshi's comeback against Mike G. one round, LI Joe's clutch ass ultra against Arturo, and Henry Cen's yomi U1 against LI Joe's backdash. Dieminion played super solid the entire tournament and easily took the first ticket. The second tournament had Arturo picking Rose because of being matched up against KDZ's Yun again but that didn't stop KDZ from beating him pretty bad. The second tournament ended up being LI Joe (Sagat) vs KDZ (Yun) in the Grand Finals and things were looking pretty bad for Joe because KDZ was 1 match away from resetting. Luckily, Joe clutched it out and ended up winning the second ticket. Personally, I think we have a pretty solid team (Guile and Sagat) and I hope they rep EC well.

I think the issue for EC qualifiers having so little entrants has to do with the fact that most of EC just doesn't have the money to pay for the trip to Japan. TwitchTV ended up donating $1000 to the winners which is good shit; $500 to each person. Coupled with the entry fee money ($35 for the first tournament and $25 for the second tournament) and we're looking at about ~$900 for each player. However, a ticket to Japan these days easily costs >$1000 and food/housing isn't included either. With how weak the US dollar is in Japan and the fact that most of EC is poverty, I understand why we didn't get as many entrants as we did. Why must money always be a problem!

In other news, crushingyen on SRK was kind enough to make a topic of Yun safe jumps that are easily seen when you watch the top Japanese Yuns play like Daigo, Kazunoko, Kindevu, Momochi, etc.

A. Safe Jump Setups

1. After forward throw:
i) Dash forward twice, st.lp, neutral jump normal attack
ii) Empty forward jump, forward jump dive kick
iii) LK DP, forward jump normal attack
iv) MP Shoulder, forward jump normal attack

2. After U1:
i) Forward jump fierce, st.hk, neutral jump normal attack
ii) Forward jump fierce, cst.mk, forward jump LK dive kick

3. Near the end of Genei-Jin:
i) Sweep, dash forward, cr.lk, neutral jump normal
ii) Sweep xx LP Lunge Punch, cr.mk, LK dive kick

B. Specifics About the Empty Forward Jump, Forward Jump Dive Kick Safe Jump

This safe jump can cross up on certain characters in the cast (it even beats 3F reversals):

- Abel: LK (corner only), MK, HK
- Adon: LK (corner only), MK, HK (corner only)
- Akuma: LK, MK (midscreen only)
- Balrog (Boxer): None
- Blanka: All dive kicks
- Cammy: None
- Chun-Li: LK (corner only), MK, HK (corner only)
- Cody: LK (corner only), MK, HK (corner only)
- C. Viper: MK
- Dan: All dive kicks
- Dee Jay: MK
- Dhalsim: LK (corner only), MK, HK (corner only)
- Dudley: LK (corner only), MK, HK (corner only)
- E. Honda: LK (corner only), MK, HK [Note: The setup in the corner requires the dive kick to be performed via DB+K]
- El Fuerte: LK (corner only), MK (midscreen only)
- Evil Ryu: LK, MK, HK (corner only)
- Fei Long: LK (corner only), MK
- Gen: LK, MK
- Gouken: All dive kicks (corner only)
- Guile: LK (corner only), MK, HK
- Guy: All dive kicks
- Hakan: LK (corner only), MK, HK
- Ibuki: LK, MK, HK (corner only)
- Juri: LK (corner only), MK, HK
- Ken: All dive kicks
- Makoto: LK, MK, HK (corner only)
- M. Bison (Dictator): LK (corner only), MK, HK
- Oni: LK, MK
- Rose: None
- Rufus: LK (corner only), MK, HK
- Ryu: All dive kicks
- Sagat: None
- Sakura: LK, MK, HK (corner only)
- Seth: LK, MK (both corner only)
- T. Hawk: None
- Vega (Claw): LK (corner only), MK, HK
- Yang: LK (corner only), MK, HK
- Yun: LK (corner only), MK, HK
- Zangief: MK

Note that the dive kick may hit, but it doesn't necessarily mean that the dive kick is safe.

Evo day 1 (Stream Monstering)

2011-07-30T08:29:00.000-04:00

My throat hurts like hell but damn those were some hype matches all around. I started watching the evo stream at home on my laptop until around 7PM when I decided to head out to Next Level to watch it with my NYC peeps. The pool matches weren't anything really hype so I just played some casuals in ST and even played some KoFXIII (which I suck horribly in). I definitely need to wait for that console version to drop before picking it up.

The real hype matches started when Quarter Finals began and I must say, there were so many blow-ups on and off-stream that I can't even begin to list all of them. I was screaming my head off with the Next Level bros and having a good time cheering on Aquasilk and Chris Hu, our local boys. Too bad they got blown the fuck up on stream by Mago and Infiltration respectively :(.

In the end, top 8 ended up being Winners: Daigo, Latif, Fuudo, Poongko Losers: Tokido, Wolfkrone, Flashmetroid, Kindevu

Oh and by the way, top 32 consisted of 13 Fei Longs and 8 Yuns, which isn't looking too good for the balance discussions for AE lols. Also New York terribly sucks at AE atm and we need to step our shit up because we got straight up embarrassed at Evo. We need to get hungry and level up, real talk. Can't wait for Sunday to watch the finals at Next Level!

King of Fighters motherfucking XIII

2011-07-29T00:57:00.002-04:00

My body is ready. Color Edit? Saiki? 98 FUCKING IORI?! I'M IN THERE

NSB x NSB Online Event

2011-07-23T09:16:00.003-04:00

So just now, the Nagoya Street Battle x Niconico Stream Battle ended and boy was it an enjoyable watch. Here's the top 16 out of 377 entrants (!):

top 16

Aブロック代表　milk0118"豪鬼 Akuma"
Bブロック代表　zubonc"アドン Adon"
Cブロック代表　nico2TENSHI"バルログ Vega(Claw)"
Dブロック代表　yellow_1986"ザンギエフ Zangief"
Eブロック代表　ro-zutukaidesu"ローズ Rose"
Fブロック代表　egu1127"ベガ M.Bison(Dictator)" <--- kuma
Gブロック代表　momokamo"ユン Yung" <--- momochi
Hブロック代表　Dogenzakaue"まこと Makoto" <--- shiro
Iブロック代表　acqua0316ps"ヤン Yan"
Jブロック代表　koujiKOG4010"ホーク T.Hawk"
Kブロック代表　aponstick"豪鬼 Akuma"
Lブロック代表　gatikun"サガット Sagat"
JUN-HAZURE　"豪鬼 Akuma"
katsuo0423　"ユン Yung"
meso0616　"いぶき Ibuki"
K_Camirico　"セス Seth"

And here are the results:
AQCUA (yang) vs milk0118 (gouki) 2-0
Momochi (yun) vs koujiKOG (Hawk) 2-0
Katsuo (yun/sagat) vs Meso0616(ibuki) 2-1
yellow1986 (gief) vs ro-zutukaidesu (Rose) 2-1
kuma (vega) vs nico2TENSHI (claw) 0-2
JUN HAZURE(gouki) vs zubonc (adon) 0-2
aponstick (gouki) vs k_camirico (seth) 1-2
shiro (makoto) vs GATIKUN (sagat) 2-0
shiro (makoto) vs k_camirico (seth) 2-0 (can't remember if the Seth got a win)
acqua (yang) vs momochi (yun) 0-2
zubonc (adon) vs nico2TENSHI (claw) 2-0
yellow1986 (gief) vs katsuo(yun/sagat) 2-0
momochi (yun) vs yellow1986 (gief) 2-0
shiro (makoto) vs zubonc (adon/yun) 2-1
momochi (yun) vs shiro (makoto) 2-0

Winner: momochi (yun)

Momochi easily tore KojiKOG's T. Hawk apart which was definitely a surprise(even perfecting him one round). It was pretty gruesome to watch, especially when most people believe that T. Hawk is one of Yun's bad matchups. When he faced Acqua, one of Japan's best Yangs, he completely dominated him, doing ume hk upkicks after a divekick which is definitely a mindfuck. Then, he had to face yellow1986's Gief, which was a monster. Yellow had defeated another Yun before this fight, against Katsuo, and even handily defeated the counterpick Sagat. I thought Momochi was going to run into trouble in this match but he played so patiently and punished every whiffed spd with s.mp hk upkicks and ex lunge. People believe that Gief has the advantage in this matchup but I believe that it's truly 5-5 if the Yun stays put on the ground and doesn't take risks with upkicks when Gief has U2.

On Shiro's side of the bracket, he was doing his own beasting. Shiro is definitely one of the most exciting Makotos to watch and he was doing insane shit with her f.hp and c.mp buffer hayate. His yomi is definitely on point with her and he was baiting shit all day. His most notable match was against Zubonc's Adon, which was....kind of ridiculous. Zubonc was not depending on Adon's footsies at all and instead was mashing out jaguar tooth and jaguar kicks, hoping his opponents pressed buttons (which they did...). Zubonc actually got Shiro to match point, stunning him the round before and beating him pretty bad. I thought it was over for Shiro but Shiro straight up beasted the last two rounds to win the match and stay alive. Zubonc went and counterpicked with Yun (lol) and that didn't help because Shiro knew the matchup this time. F+hp > Yun, seriously. And after f+hp, he would buffer c.mp ex hayate if Yun pressed a button (which he did) and that just took out all his life. The last round was absolutely ridiculous, with Shiro almost perfecting Zubonc and Zubonc making an insane comeback, stunning shiro and hitting him with a jump-in into U1. I thought it was all over until Zubonc missed the ex lunge, ex shoulder follow-up after the U1 and Shiro stole the round back.

Grand finals ended up being Momochi's Yun vs Shiro's Makoto, which was the predicted grand finals. I thought Shiro was going to keep his momentum and give Momochi a run for his money but Momochi was way too strong and mixed him up too many times to win the set 2-0 handily.

I stayed up all night to watch this shit and I have to say, it didn't disappoint. I do see why people complain about Yun though because he really does have way too many tools. It's that fucking command grab man. They really need to nerf that and his s.mp because that normal is way too amazing. Oh, and make EX Lunge less derp I guess.

This is probably the cutest thing ever ^^

Yun notes

2011-07-21T23:19:00.004-04:00

Just dumping some Yun notes from my iPhone

U1 after Zempo Tenshin:
lk dp: Sakura, Ibuki, Makoto
walk forward 3/4 frames, s.lp, lk dp: Akuma, Yun, Yang
s.lp, lk dp: Gief, Hakan
c.lk, lk dp: Claw, Rufus
c.mp, s.mp. lk dp: Viper, Rose
c.mp, c.mk, lk dp: Abel
c.mp x 2, s.mp, lk dp: Boxer (corner only), T.Hawk
c.mk, lk dp: Sagat, Juri, Cammy

C.mp c.mp c.mp s.mp mk dp:
Abel
Balrog
Deejay
Dhalsim
Dudley
El Fuerte
Guile
Juri
Rufus
Sagat
T.Hawk

Zempo Tenshin c.mp c.mp s.mp mk dp:
Abel
Balrog
Deejay
Dhalsim
Dudley
Guile
Rufus
T.Hawk
Sagat (corner only)

Yun fuzzy guard setup:

TC1 (j.lp xx j.f+hp) jump back mp

Yun wake up dash punch OS to punish backdashes/teleports:

Input: c.lk/c.lp, roll qcf motion, s.lp

Yun wake up s.mp OS on C.Viper:

Input: c.lk, s.mp+s.lp

First blog post :O

2011-07-21T07:58:00.002-04:00

It's 7:28 AM and I decide to spontaneously create a blog to throw all my fighting game thoughts into. I seriously need to find better things to do with my time but whatever.

Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3
I'm hyped for this edition but at the same time, I know I'm just gonna end up disappointed just like I was with "beta" MvC3. I'm such a sucker for new characters in my fighting games and news of "balance" changes. To be honest, I was so hyped for MvC3 that I bought it before its street date release and pretty much abandoned my time with SSFIV to focus on it. I was enjoying the combo system and I was actually doing well seeing as how it was the first VS game that I was taking seriously. I was beating people and thought the game was the absolute shit. I followed almost everything about the game daily and I was watching video after video of new discoveries found.

It wasn't until I actually played real good players and saw the atrocities that were Wolverine (and Akuma best friend)/Phoenix/Wesker as well as DHC glitches that I realized how terribly designed the game was. To be honest, if you didn't have any of those three characters mentioned in your team or a proper DHC glitch setup, you were trying way too hard to accomplish the same results that any of those 3 characters or DHC glitch teams can do. I also constantly saw matches where one person completely outplayed the other player until they got stopped by the wall called x-factor level 3. The game was just so scrub friendly and pretty much devolved into the mess that it is now. That is why capcom decided to release another version of the game priced at $40 only a few months after MvC3 was released. I bitch about the game a lot but goddamn it, I'm hyped to play some ghost rider/strider/phoenix wright/iron fist. SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY CAPCOM.

Guard Crush 20
Damn Guard Crush number 20. I don't even remember there being that many Guard Crushes. Then again, I didn't start entering them until a few Guard Crushes ago when I felt confident enough to be a pot monster. I actually did fairly well the last Guard Crush, placing 17th out of 63 entrants in GC16. However, this GC was just a disaster as I went 0-2, losing to Wayne's Blanka and Aquasilk's Gief. The worst thing is that I got to point match against both players and in typical fashion, choked it up hard. That's definitely my weakness right now and I have to find some way to get rid of my tournament nerves. I usually go even with Wayne but everytime I play him in tournament, I come so close to beating him and then just start fucking up until I realize that I lost two matches already. He told me that he barely even practices the game at home which was pretty disheartening to me :(. As for Aqua, I was actually surprised that I got him to point match seeing as how I usually have a lot of trouble against his Gief but I chalk that up to me using the cheap ass character called Yun and him being unfamiliar with the matchup.

After my disappointing performance, I decided to enter the japanese style tournament for fun and lo and behold, Rico Suave is my first match. Living in NYC is definitely both a blessing and a curse. I have so many great players to play with but come tourney time, I become an absolute pot monster because of how many killers we have. I swear if I moved to another state, I would certainly place higher than I do in NYC tournaments -_-. Moving on to the match, he beats me first round pretty convincingly and I decide to turn it up. I dive kick and cheap my way out to actually win the second round. I get more confident going into the third round and I start off strong until I miss an ex zempo tenshin and pretty much fall apart afterwards, getting hit by a CoD fadc U1 for all my life. I can't even count how many times I have choked in tournament but I can tell you that it's been a lot. I guess it's just a hurdle I have to get over as a fighting game player.

I'm probably going to stop entering tournaments for a while and lab it up with Yun/Yang before I feel confident enough to enter another tournament. It'll also help if there's more than 40+ entrants so I don't end up playing the same people I always play -_-.

Oh Capcom...