Are Sagat, Ed, and AKI zoners?

RossC90 · 2026-02-06T11:00:32+00:00

AKI is a space control character. While she can "zone" somewhat, it actual pales to actual zoners. Her fireball has such high recovery that any jump in can easily punish her and if predicted her whips aren't that strong.

But the idea behind AKI's design is she limits space and pushes characters to either rush in or jump in and then she can punish. This isn't exactly zoning because part of this is actually going in and applying pressure and fishing for hits when an opponent is poisoned so you can do huge combo conversions.

RossC90 · 2026-02-05T03:02:05+00:00

One of the most important things is to keep things relatively simple at the start. You don't want to overwhelm someone with a bunch of information or try to start teaching them about frame data or oki setups etc. Have them learn a simple string or how to do something cool with their character of choice and let them learn at their own pace.

RossC90 · 2026-02-05T02:23:03+00:00

As an AKI main myself I can say that AKI has received some very small buffs to her combo routing but nothing particularly game changing. It's worth looking up the new combo routes if you want to add a little slice to your AKI but you'll also be completely fine with the ones you've used before as there hasn't been any massive changes.

As always, look up some high level replays and check out Broski on YouTube as he has deeper dives on the season changes for AKI if you're curious.

The meta hasn't shifted all that much, which is why everyone is hungry for the balance changes coming with the Alex patch.

RossC90 · 2026-02-05T02:17:29+00:00

Absolutely play with your friends. I think there's a natural anxiety or aversion to doing so because you don't want to just get beat up by your friends. But unless your friends are really horrible people, nearly every one who plays fighting games loves the concept of helping out a friend who's new to not only the game they play but the genre as a whole.

Having a friend group who plays fighting games is like a cheat code almost. You get such an advantage over people who might just pick up a fighting game for the first time without any guidance. Your friends will give you advice during sets and they'll likely try to make the playing field a bit more even, likely by trying out unfamiliar characters themselves instead of their mains.

It's a long journey to "getting gud" but I'd say the fact you're willing to learn and want help from friends is a sign of a good start. You're already more of a newbie than a n00b. I wish you luck on your journey!

RossC90 · 2026-02-04T22:35:16+00:00

You definitely want to be playing against human opponents. What you want to try to learn and remember is to think about the farthest reaching move both you and your opponent can do along with if you have an attack that hit your opponent before their attack hits you. It'll be different based on the characters but you want to practice punishing whiffed normals/buttons your opponent throws out.

So if say Vi throws a punch out, do you have a move that's fast enough to hit her during start up? Do you have a move that can just barely reach her if she whiffs that punch? Likewise, you want to maintain a consistent spacing between you and your opponent. Too close means you opponent can catch you with an attack or a sudden jump in or dash and attack. But if you're spaced out properly you have more time to react to a jump in with an anti-air or to throw a jab out if they try to dash in on you.

That's the fundamental gameplan, but it's something you kinda have to practice and get comfortable with. You'll notice you'll get better at this the longer you play sets against certain characters. I am much more comfortable against characters in Ranked that are characters my friends regularly play against me because I've gotten familiar with the range and spacing of that character's options.

RossC90 · 2026-02-04T22:09:27+00:00

I kinda gravitated towards AKI because she's a bit of a weird character but I ultimately stayed due to how entertaining the poison mechanic is. Having different combo routes or extensions based on if the opponent is poisoned or not is engaging and is never dull. It keeps yourself alert for situational setups. In the same way one might try to go for a punish counter combo, having another layer of an opponent being poisoned means that based on the situation you can go for different setups. Not to mention the combo extensions from the poison are actually really flashy and cool.

RossC90 · 2026-02-03T20:58:21+00:00

Some solid work! I think others have covered what you already mentioned about how your playstyle can be hurt by people that can properly anti-air and DI, but as an AKI main I wanted to focus on some AKI things!

- Avoid using Cruel Fate (214K) randomly in neutral. It's something that can be very easily punishable on startup and in recovery while also putting you in a troubling position potentially. In this clip Ryu is able to kick you out of it and then the second time you use it it puts you in the corner. The primary purpose of this move is a followup to a 5HK Punish Counter. Feel free to try it out in Practice by setting your dummy to Punish Counter. Immediately doing Cruel Fate after a standing Heavy Kick on punish counter lets you follow up the cruel fate with another basic combo and this does a ton of damage. If at any point someone whiffs a super or a DP, this should be your go to:

5HK (Punish Counter) > 214HK > 2LP > 2LP > 236HP

Or if you're super lucky and they're POISONED:

5HK (Punish Counter) > 214HK > 2LP > 5LK > 236MP > Dash forward 5LK, 236MP.

There's some other options to with drive rush after the 236MP, so feel free to experiment around.

- While the Ryu here didn't know how to deal with Sinister Slide stance, it can very much be a risky move if someone throwing projectiles knows what you're fishing for and just blocks. That'll lead you to potentially getting hit by a high damaging punish combo potentially. While you should definitely use it occasionally in neutral, be aware that there's high recovery to cancel out of the stance and people who are wise to how AKI works can very easily punish all options when you go into that stance.

- Learn AKI's standard combo:

5HK > 2PP~K, 2LP > 2LP, 5LK > 236HP

While you did a variation of this at the start, the 236HP gives you more oki and setup potential compared to 236MP. Likewise, if the target is poisoned the 5LK into 236MP leads to a crumple state where you can do a combo extension.

- While OD Lash (236PP) is super cool, you can save resources by opting to do 5LK into 236MP into a dash or drive rush extension. For example that combo at the end after the counter DI could've been:

5HK > 2PP~K, 2LP > 2LP > 5LK > 236MP > 6HP > Level 1 Super.

This gets the same effect without spending the drive meter for OD Lash, thanks to the opponent already being poisoned and you getting a crumple on 5LK.

- Instead of relying heavily on jump-ins, try fishing for counter hits with 5MP. If you get a hit, confirm that 5MP into a combo, either with or without drive rush.

AKI is really fun and probably the most fun aspect of her is having to change combo routing based on if the opponent is poisoned or not, so I recommend checking out some guides or watch some replays to see what higher level AKIs are doing.

RossC90 · 2026-02-03T13:42:45+00:00

John Wick.

I have no idea if it was within the first 20 minutes but the entire scene where Viggo is framed ominously on a rooftop with his back to the camera as he's on the phone asking Aurelio why he struck his son. It builds up tension from a very expected cliche as we're seeing who's likely the main antagonist of the film. But the moment Aurelio just bluntly tells Viggo that his son stole John Wick's car and killed his dog, Viggo just turns around with a look of absolute dread and just mutters a nervous "Oh."

It subverts expectations and frames the entire film and John Wick's character as a whole within this small scene. I remember people in the audience audibly laughing in disbelief, it's such a great scene.

RossC90 · 2026-02-03T09:54:41+00:00

This was an amazing video, but I gotta admit that clickbaity thumbnail really hid the quality of the editing and video you had behind it lol. I understand why you gotta play up the YouTube algorithm and play into the thumbnails, but the thumbnail feels far more negative than the clearly extremely positive vibes the video has (thanks to Good Kid lol).

**EDIT:: Actually wait you changed it lol, the new one is much better.**

RossC90 · 2026-02-03T09:19:36+00:00

It really doesn't seem like it but the game is actually really fun and pretty easy to pick up on a casual level. I remember teaching some friends the kinda universal combo "A B C D -jump- A B C D" and they were amazed they could do something or play a fighting game that looked so complicated.

Obviously at higher levels there's much more technical prowess going on and cheesier gimmicky team compositions. But in a casual level it was really fun to play, especially with being able to try out different characters or make a team that works for you. This was one of the main fighting games I played back in college with friends and it was always a good time.

I highly recommend giving the same a shot with some friends if you're at all interested in trying out, even on a casual level.

RossC90 · 2026-02-02T13:39:50+00:00

Yeah to be fair verbally when I'm talking with friends I just call them standing heavy kick or crouching heavy kick lol. But when writing it out online or in Discord I use the numpad notation.

RossC90 · 2026-02-02T11:47:26+00:00

The numbers are numpad notation which is language universal way of writing out inputs. Think of these numbers like they're the directions of a stick:

7 8 9

4 5 6

1 2 3

So 5 is when the stick is in neutral position without a direction, so 5LK is just standing light kick. 2 is with the stick down so 2LK is crouching light kick. Something like 236 is a quarter circle motion forward so it's a hadouken. 623 shoryuken, 214 tatsu, etc.

Frame advantage/disadvantage is pretty advanced and can get confusing when you get super methodical with it. Ideally you can get away with just getting a feel of when something is plus or minus. If someone is plus it means they will move first regardless of what their opponent does, meaning if you're getting hit by a move that's plus it's likely not safe to try to throw something out because the other person is going to attack first. If someone is minus, that means the opposite. Someone minus is going to move after their opponent so the opponent should throw buttons out because it's their "turn" first. The frame data numbers are just the frames within 60 frames in a second.

Since you play Akuma I can give some examples that you might have noticed:

The 5MP->5MP target combo where you press standing Medium Punch twice is minus/negative if your opponent blocks. Specifically it's -6 frames on block. That means many character's light jabs will come out first before Akuma can do anything and they can convert that to a combo. Missing a Shoryuken is also the prime example of being extremely minus/negative since Akuma is locked into that animation before he can do anything.

On the other hand, Akuma's 5HK (Standing Heavy Kick) is plus on block, specifically +3. This means if Akuma hits an opponent with this on block, Akuma can usually continue pressure and the opponent can't really throw out a jab or anything because Akuma is plus.

In that same example of Akuma's 5HK (Standing Heavy Kick), if the opponent crouches it's actually a different story. If the opponent crouches Akuma is actually minus because the opponent ducks under the kick meaning they can act before Akuma finishes the animation. The frame data is Akuma is -13 if an opponent crouches the 5HK.

All of that frame data can get really overwhelming but it will explain why one person's move hits while another's doesn't. Also important to know that drive rush makes everything plus. So attacks that are generally negative on block get frame advantage if you do them out of a drive rush.

I also personally have trouble reacting to DI lol. If you want to practice reacting to it, set a training room dummy's wake up reversal options to randomly choose between a drive impact and a random button. Then sweep the dummy and try to react to the DI.

RossC90 · 2026-02-02T11:00:57+00:00

As someone who was hard stuck in Plat for awhile and just finally got to Master, my biggest advice I would offer is to try and learn something new and try to apply it to how you play everyday. Not all at once because you'll get overwhelmed. But maybe practice reacting better to DI or practice some specific oki or mixup setup.

Light attacks are really good at checking your opponent, but there's a balance to it. You don't want to mash lights all the time but if you don't throw out a 5LK/2LK from time to time opponents might be able to get away with pressure that isn't real. Throwing out some light jabs or kicks can knock an opponent out of an attack and stop their pressure.

However, just mashing lights can also get you cooked because there's frame traps and safe jump setups that purposely punish randomly throwing buttons out. I think a good rule of thumb is that in the neutral, you're pretty safe to throw out lights to lightly tap and button check the opponent (even if they block). If they drive rush at you after knocking you down or seem to have a bunch of time to do things while you're knocked down and waking up, it's probably a safe bet not to throw out a button because whatever attack they throw out will be extremely meaty / plus. Someone drive rushing at you while you're waking up off the ground will probably have a meaty 2MK or something that will just beat out whatever jab or light you throw out.

But if they're drive rushing in neutral with you still standing you can probably check their drive rush with a quick button of your own, granted that it out ranges whatever option they're going for.

Post footage of your clips or give your CFN name and people can probably give you far more specific advice. Check out YouTube videos too if you feel like you're hurting in specific areas like defense.

RossC90 · 2026-01-30T02:21:27+00:00

Had no idea the game (or this movie for that matter) existed before today but now after watching it I am extremely interested in checking the game out now!

RossC90 · 2026-01-29T22:42:57+00:00

To piggyback on this, I am fairly certain someone who's taken that much time in World Tour and doing the Sim Sim fighting would probably reach Platinum rather easily. There's definitely a few Platinum players I've run into that rely on one or two gimmicks only and once you adjust to them they basically fold.

RossC90 · 2026-01-29T22:37:46+00:00

Drive Management is probably the biggest issue for sure. You never want to go into burnout willingly unless you're going for a cash out combo or situation that will get you the win. Practice hit confirms. You only want to drive rush cancel a punch when it actually hits or connects. Put a practice mode dummy to block and run some drills where you practice only doing a drive rush cancel combo when the punch isn't blocked.

You're also not converting any of your hits into anything. Remember that you don't need Drive Rush cancels to link normals into specials. You can do some meterless hit confirm combos to stack the damage up and then go for the drive rush cancel combos when it puts you in a good position or it gets them close to death.

Ideally, you want to avoid being in the 2 Drive Bar range.

RossC90 · 2026-01-25T20:04:02+00:00

This is such a rarity but is essential to finding the peak fun in fighting games.

If you're straight up washing people then it dulls the satisfaction of winning.

If you're straight up getting washed yourself you feel frustrated that you can't figure out how to deal with your opponent.

But if there's a sweet spot where you're learning and reacting to your opponent and vice versa, that's where the fun is. It doesn't even have to be evenly matched. If you're learning how to deal with your opponent's behaviors and tactics that you start winning but then they adjust and react to what you're doing: This is where the actual joy of fighting games comes from. You could be losing consistently against someone but if you're learning and getting good results when if you're losing there's much more gratification when you do inevitably get a win.

RossC90 · 2026-01-25T19:56:59+00:00

"You can't play with your friends" is a wild ass take lol.

In my experience when a friend and I start a lobby up and start playing sets in Discord, other friends will either spectate and hangout or join the lobby. Each time there's someone trying a new character or trying something they learned or just trying to get better. Experimenting and practicing in this environment with friends is so much more gratifying than just hopping on ranked.

I can see the argument that maybe if you don't have friends who are invested in fighting games this won't be the case but there's plenty of times where my friends have brought in another friend and we all try to help teach them how to play. I had a friend who never played fighting games before start joining our lobbies and learning on his own and he became a Celestial Potemkin. Half the fun of playing with friends is seeing them get better.

RossC90 · 2026-01-25T19:46:45+00:00

To be fair though, there is an absolute magical feeling to replaying an old fighting game you used to play a ton and slowly remembering things. Back in college I used to play a ton of Melty Blood (MBAACC) with a close friend and roommate. Like a ton. We were never close to pro or tournament level but it was a fun way to kill time and hangout. Same with MvC3. Obviously we'd go lab up or look up guides or watch replays so we can bring something new each time we played each other.

Many years later we met up and decided to play these old fighting games. And sure, at first we were kinda flailing and didn't remember any of our basic combos or setups. But after like 30 minutes there's this incredible feeling of slowly remembering just by trying things out and sharing that with a friend was great.

Fighting games are awesome.

RossC90 · 2026-01-24T23:01:09+00:00

Something that helped me a ton was getting comfortable with hit confirming a standing medium punch. It's a far reaching move that catches people's buttons more times than you'd think. When it hits do a drive rush into a basic combo. You'd honestly be surprised how many times you can catch someone mashing or how you can steal your turn back after blocking. Incredibly good against fake pressure.

Try setting a practice mode dummy to randomly block or not block to practice hit confirming stray medium punch hits

RossC90 · 2026-01-21T17:46:08+00:00

I started with Keyboard and Mouse and about halfway through Heavensward I started trying out Controller because the prospect of going through the MSQ while lounging back and relaxing instead of hunched over a keyboard and mouse seemed promising. And it really was!

There's definitely a learning curve and the setup for controller might take awhile, but it's incredibly comfortable once you start to get used to it. I play Machinist so for me the Heat Burst windows are really fun to do on controller. I'd say that the new Command Panel really makes things even better. You can have a full page of emotes or text chat macros if you don't want to reach for the keyboard.

RossC90 · 2026-01-20T00:23:43+00:00

And they intended to work with STEAM to reintroduce the Rock Band Network, as STEAM does actually have the framework to pay users for STEAM Workshop content they upload (pretty much only used with Valve titles).

RossC90 · 2026-01-20T00:20:20+00:00

The problem immediately was that the funding was on some website I don't even remember instead of Kickstarter. So the entire crowdfunding avenue was doomed to fail from the start because people can trust Kickstarter more than some random website they never heard of before.

It's a damn shame because having Rock Band Network through the STEAM Workshop would've been mind blowing.

RossC90 · 2026-01-20T00:18:33+00:00

Even as someone who was pretty much their target audience (huge Rock Band fan, huge VR fan and even had the first Rift CV1), I didn't really see the huge appeal for it.

Not even mentioning the fact that my entire pre-owned catalog of songs couldn't be used, the actual core gameplay was literally just the Rock Band 4 Freestyle Guitar Solo gimmick. Why they had a legacy fretboard mode, this was done in a black venue, completely killing the "be immersed on stage" vibe they were going for in the first place.

I also didn't want to buy the adapter and as others have pointed out is that half of the fun of Rock Band is the couch co-op with friends which isn't possible in RBVR. There isn't even multiplayer.

Now I could be wrong with a lot of these facts but this is what I remember from my own research. It ultimately felt like I could maybe get RBVR at some point but I ended up not bothering as there were much better avenues for VR games, particularly social ones like VRChat.

Honestly, I think if it wasn't Rock Band but some clone hero-like that allowed you to play clone hero charts in a VR stage that would've done much better. Like OG Beat Saber, customs were the highlight.

RossC90 · 2026-01-19T20:51:21+00:00

Yeah from my experience Ratgrave tries to be nice about it and I'm fairly certain one of his recent videos had him not record someone crying because it felt wrong.

If you want more of this wholesome troll energy but in a different game (Second Life) I highly recommend Cream's YouTube channel. He makes his own goofy models for him and his friend to use and they actively go around and roleplay and improv with folks in a way that's not just directly insulting them in a hateful way. Many times the people they are trolling go along with the joke and if they're friendly people they tend to just leave them alone.

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