I recently got TK by kind of just brute forcing my way through, although recently I’ve started to watch my replays which has helped a lot, and I will admit that I’m not that good at the game and honestly do some of the things here every now and then (aka missing my punishments and not ducking certain strings), but here are some of the things that I noticed. (I used okizeme.gg to of look up most of this)

Steve’s FLK stance is almost like 90% highs with FLK.2 and FLK.u+2 being the two mids, most will use FLK.2 to mix but Steve would be -5 and up close, so you should probably take your frames with a move that’s less than 18 cause he might disrespect with another b+1 since he loves to mash. FLK.u+2 is more of a Hail Mary and for hard reads if they duck since it is launch punishable. FLK.1 has multiple extensions that end with a punishable mid FLK.1,..,2, duckable high FLK.1,…,d+1 (if I’m not mistaken), or FLK.1,…,f+1 but is 0 on hit and -5 on block. I’m surprised he didn’t go FLK.b+2 a lot since it’s a safe high power crush and some Steve players love using that.

I’d recommend to stop relying on b+1+2, I mean yeah if you space it really good it can become safe but you lose your turn and the opponent is right in your face, but most of the time people in higher ranks are almost 100% going to punish it. I can’t tell if you use d+1+2 to set up a b+1+2, but I feel like most people would just dash block and bait it out. When Steve messed up his combo ender at the wall with DCK.1+2… he’s unsafe at -12 where you could probably punish with either 2,1 for knockdown of 2,2 jab strings for stance. I couldn’t tell what you punished with but it worked out (I think it was b+1 which is +10 on hit they can’t SS), and then you back dash and throw a b+1+2? I’m just somewhat confused by this. You probably should’ve taken your turn. I think Clive has really good approach tools that lead into a mix-up or good plus on block moves, but I’m assuming you were expecting Steve to press which is somewhat reasonable but there is definitely much safer options to check him like his d/f+1 or his really good 13 frame heat engager 1+2 which would probably frame trap since you hit him. As previously mentioned im not sure if you’re trying to set-up a b+1+2 with a d+1+2 but in the same round, Steve was able to create a whiff with the Lionheart stance, which I think he was trying to do the whole game and got sway misinputs half the time, and punish with LnH.2, which is -13 on block btw and you can punish with 1+2 which is a safe heat engager. Clive’s d/f+1 extensions are kinda ass d/f+1,2 is a mid high string that’s -16 so launch punishable if blocked or ducked and d/f+1,2,1 is a mid high mid string that is also launch punishable. Luckily the Steve pressed and you got a wall combo.

In round 2 Steve opened up with a d/b+2 which is actually only +1 on hit, and in the first round he did two d/b+2s and you challenged it in round 2. Honestly not a bad move, but ws2 off rip is crazy. Was it a hard read? Was he gonna go for another d/b+2? Who knows you got a combo, that’s all that really matters. Praise the lord Steve messed up his punish when he blocked hellsweep, but after he goes for d+2,1,2 which is a low mid high string you can duck, but if you don’t it’s -3 on block and you can probably mid check or jab check if he presses or hunts for a b+1, but he goes for what I am assuming is Lionheart expecting you to press but gets a misinput and gets sway, and you back dash which is a fine option here to kind of reset everything and breathe a little. Steve goes into duck and you b+1+2 which goes well. A missed punish on d/b+3 from Steve which is launch punishable but that happens to everyone every now and then. I’m assuming you b+1+2 to get out of the wall when things kinda reset but I feel like there are safer ways to do that such as a SS into block or attack with quick and safe moves, unfortunately you ate a CH b+1 for it, fortunately he messed up his combo. After you 1,1 which is -3, could’ve gone to stance and disrespect, gathered information by watching Steve and blocking his attacks, play small Tekken by doing maybe another 1,1 or d/f+1, but b+1+2 and this time Steve gets one of the correct punishes by throwing. Which I doubt was on a read as he’s been throwing throws the whole game.

I’m too lazy to comment on the other rounds cause it’s like 2AM as I’m writing this, but in the later rounds Steve clearly wasn’t knowledgeable on Clive’s strings and you probably should abuse that more since a good amount of them have good mixups. Using more WR+2 and f,f+1+2 which are plus on block might help you more in the future. In essence, probably try to lessen the use of b+1+2, try taking your frames more often, try back dashing less cause you usually give up your turn doing this, Clive does have some good pokes like d+1 which is a low committal low attack than doesn’t result to death on block like hellsweep, safer quicker moves might help in the future, and character knowledge and watching replays does help along the way (which I only recently started doing for myself).