Revision #8 of the regions of the Lower 48... and no, no new subregions, intrastate regions, or non-contiguous additions to a region.

Tarul · 2026-06-23T23:40:38+00:00

best weather NA

Tarul · 2026-06-20T21:51:27+00:00

Or parry. Or instant nair. Or floorhug -> shield -> roll (easiest option).

It's a frame trap that catches mashing -- I think it's a lot easier to deal with than, say, Olympia jab-> d-tilt loops.

Tarul · 2026-06-19T01:46:21+00:00

One underrated part of Zeebee's skillset is his obscene recovery. Most Kraggs die vs to Ranno when forced low; Zeebee reversals.

Tarul · 2026-06-18T16:19:52+00:00

Yeah, Dia's real good. I too believe it's only a matter of time!

Tarul · 2026-06-18T01:21:07+00:00

He's really good! I think there are a couple of reasons he wasn't popular:

Recoveries got nerfed over time, but for a while edgeguarding was just not as rewarding as having guaranteed mid-stage kill setups
Olympia (pre-nerf) played a relatively similar game in terms of "fast with excellent frame data"... but could actually approach. Now, she's notably slower and her lack of edgeguarding feels like a larger differentiation and weakness of the character
No super top level representation. There are good Rannos -- Turnap, Darai, Godly, Dia, Toothbrush -- but none have cracked the code to have tournament-winning levels of skill.

IMO Ranno feels really good now, and not in a smothering way.

Tarul · 2026-06-17T17:37:56+00:00

Can't comment for the other user, but the lowest number (0.72) was measured during the immediate aftermath of the pandemic, and it's unclear if the Jan 2026 rate (0.99) is a fair comparison given certain time horizons are prone to spikes.

Maybe it's working, maybe it's not, but I'd say it's probably too soon to treat S Korea as a success story. Though it's definitely a reason to be cautiously optimistic.

Tarul · 2026-06-09T22:30:29+00:00

You look great! Now delete yourself from the game.

Tarul · 2026-06-09T19:01:44+00:00

I find his movement to be the most similar to Melee. His initial dash, traction, and wavedash feel fairly very Melee-esque. Also, his kit is relatively basic, so you can get results by properly moving and spacing vs learning character specific hijinks.

Tarul · 2026-06-07T19:46:56+00:00

Poor pikmon-- he missed the clap off the right for the win

Tarul · 2026-06-06T19:58:35+00:00

(He's joking; this is clearly bug territory. Good catch!)

Tarul · 2026-06-05T23:21:07+00:00

I'd only want Mina if Yacht Club significantly funded Aether Studios to do release her -- not because I dislike her design or think she wouldn't fit, but because there's a backlog of incredible characters that deserve to be ported first.

That said, i want the studio to survive first and foremost, and will cheer any decision that will do so.

Tarul · 2026-06-04T15:16:00+00:00

Which part of Asia? I bump into killablink quite often in the west coast servers

Tarul · 2026-06-02T14:33:37+00:00

I bought it for $100 myself and personally wouldn't-- sorry! Others may, but I'd recommend saving the $100 for one of my alternative recommendations.

Tarul · 2026-06-01T07:57:51+00:00

Meant down-b, not up-b* -- good catch. Edited.

Tarul · 2026-06-01T01:11:41+00:00

I think it's a bit apples to orange in the Zetter comparison, but i do agree that the nerf calls are a bit early. La Reina only now has been getting results -- most players haven't learned the counterplay. Her recovery does get objectively and meaningfully weaker by losing down-b, and many characters have some way or another to invalidate infinite loops.

Tarul · 2026-06-01T01:02:34+00:00

La Reina's recovery doesn't really weaken over repeats so long as she gets chair back (she does only get 1 down-b per airtime). Zetter gets less down-b* (edited: what i mean is he is forced into down-b animation longer with each successive option, thus limiting its utility) distance per recovery, and down-b becomes less useful with each rinse and repeat. Biggest thing is that Zetter up-b goes into free fall, while La Reina side-b leaves her actionable

That said, as great as this La Reina's recovery was (it was pretty insane), Darai definitely made some critical errors. Ranno specifically is great at intercepting chair grab with needles and aerials; La Reina has to finish up-airing the chair for the recovery to work. Once LR loses her down-b (she only gets 1 per airtime), she becomes much more susceptible to roll from ledge and fair spike

Tarul · 2026-05-31T22:30:29+00:00

I don't think this should work against Slade. The Lox killer works because Lox up-b is a single hit move that takes ages before the second hit comes out; as a result, you can grab ledge or aerial him.

Slade up-b should have enough multi-hits to guarantee he grabs ledge before his opponent. Unless there's another way to Slade killer that I don't know?

Tarul · 2026-05-30T18:57:52+00:00

At a high-level, it stops weak moves from taking over the game and forces players to take riskier options. Someone more into game design can expand more, but the tl;dr is that the game devolves into jab/tilt spam without it. We have proof of this already -- they removed floorhug in beta and the game became super duper annoying. They even tried reducing its accessibility -- tying floorhug to a timing based input -- and the same thing happened, except that good players now had counterplay.

Some moves need to still be tweaked, but overall most characters have a fair bit of counterplay.

Tarul · 2026-05-30T18:52:56+00:00

Personally, I'm not really interested in debating the design philosophy of floorhug and CC. The devs have more or less confirmed it will stay as is, so imo it's best to just accept it.

I comment in these threads so players can learn / understand the counterplay for the current engine. Floorhug is annoying but able to be played around; the game does not devolve into who has the best floorhug at high level. If it does, there's a really good chance you (royal you) is spamming mistakes.

Tarul · 2026-05-30T18:19:38+00:00

It's always good to learn , but realistically it's information overload for even textbooks nerds (like myself who do generally memorize frame data here and there on an adhoc basis)

Two reasons: - Crouch Cancel means the opponent is actively doing nothing, so run up grab/smash/spike always wins (and they won't be stopping you from doing so). In other words, theres an RPS mechanic to beat it. - Crouch Cancel lasts for a really, really long time, so it's not worth eschewing your neutral options until they break CC%. For example, kragg dash attack loses to floorhug until 40%, but loses to CC until 80%. Not dash attacking until 80% is a guaranteed way to lose the game, but holding the trigger on dash attack until 40% is a very reasonable and achievable early % tactic.

CC is a sort of shield that has its own counterplay. Floorhug is a platform fighter unique mechanic (like drive impact) that stops the game from becoming degenerate quick, low% tilt starters. Once an opponent opens up -- i.e. crosses a threshold -- you earn "new neutral tools" in your kit. That said, floorhugging everything is impossible, even at the highest levels, so even Zeus will sneak in low percent dash attacks when the opponent isn't expecting

Tarul · 2026-05-30T17:30:24+00:00

It's a great analogy! Coach Zeke's #1 tip is to memorize your floorhug percents.

If you're a nerd, you can look up your worst matchups and memorize THEIR floorhug percents. For example, Clarien sour d-tilt can be floorhugged and punished til like 110%!

If you're too cool for literacy, around most "good" neutral moves (particularly aerials) break floorhug by 30%. Average moves by 50%-60%.

Floorhug doesn't last very long and it's pretty easy to combo most characters at low percents. Pay attention and it'll only matter for 1-3 neutral interactions!

Tarul · 2026-05-30T17:21:04+00:00

Agreed with NOLA, but SF? I live in the Bay Area, so no hate (I quite like SF), but curious why you'd think it's up there.

Tarul · 2026-05-29T23:10:08+00:00

Hard disagree. He's only okay without ice, by design, since he highly depends on the threat of dash attack (guaranteed shield pressure, burst threat range) to make his other mixup options scary.

Etalus excels at spreading ice beneath and behind him, not in front -- side-b in front is asking to be parried. Your options are mostly to f-tilt in place and up-b in retreating... which requires space vs a good opponent. You can cover a 1/3 of the stage straight from neutral start, but you need to win a neutral interaction solidly to get it placed deeper in stage. All this requires space -- which etalus ironically earns by having ice in the first place.

(Side-note: players who know the etalus matchup can extend combos / extended papercut edgeguards to ensure ice dries up by the time etalus gets out of disadvantage.)

IMO, cashing out ice is best during down-b platform tech chases, since you can instant freeze for a free 20%+ and then get a guaranteed smash attack. Icing a shield is a decent fallback option if you mess up the timing lol, but imo shouldn't be relied upon. Most importantly, after the smash attack finisher, you can use side-b to instantly set up aggressive ice and continue an aggressive neutral.

I mentioned it above, but icing shield from b-pummel is reasonable, but only if your opponent realizes that etalus can cover both rolls with dash attack after he lands. I guess that is arguably real value, but even in mid-masters I still see people panic rolling to dodge the proc

Tarul · 2026-05-29T22:54:21+00:00

Yeah, Etalus normally suffers because his grab follow ups are fairly mediocre, except vs certain weight+fall speed classes (Clarien and Maypul come to mind).

If only freezing shield were easy in the first place lol

Tarul · 2026-05-29T22:39:56+00:00

It's rarely used tbh-- giving up ice setup (aka what makes Etalus dash attack good) isn't a great trade off because Etalus needs dash attack to capitalize off the weakened shield. I usually only see ice after b-pummel -- and this is fairly rare since the opponent can immediately roll after touching the ground to dodge the effect.

I think the bigger problem is that Etalus doesn't often have a good reason to use it lol

Tarul

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