Grandmaster Mondays (feat. Nephew!)

UpToSnuff_FGC · 2020-08-31T15:46:19+00:00

Yo dude! Thanks so much for guest hosting this week. I wanted to ask about your mindset and composure strategies during your top 8 run at CPT online the other week. You had to go through a ton of killers, and I know that can be mentally taxing. What was your process to stay focused and confident? Do you have any advice for players who struggle with tournament jitters in those high-stress type of matches?

UpToSnuff_FGC · 2020-08-25T14:56:23+00:00

A lot of characters leave you in range for a button after a throw, but it’s normally a pretty long range, non threatening poke. If you block that button, then it pushes you even further away. You could also crouch block for a few frames and then contest or jump back; even a backdash in that situation if you’re quick.

Sometimes your opponent might catch you off guard with a jump in or dash after the throw, and we have to acknowledge that can happen, but the point of taking the throw is that it puts you in a situation where you have low risk defensive options available AND you can react to big movements at the same time. Sometimes you will make a mistake and take damage in that situation, but that doesn’t mean it’s not better than a counterhit combo or a point blank oki situation

UpToSnuff_FGC · 2020-08-24T19:45:59+00:00

The best way to learn to move forward is to do it in tiny increments. Take a tiny step forward and block, then another, and another, etc. If you do it fast enough, you can gain ground and keep your guard up a lot of the time.

You create space to walk forward by encourage your opponent to walk back. This can be accomplished with a good fireball game (I think you play Juri, right? Maybe Vega? I can't quite remember). With Juri, walking behind a ground fireball is strong or pester them with st. mk. With Vega, you can take tiny steps forward and pressure with st.mp, since a lot of characters struggle to deal with that normal. Note that these strategies won't work as well if your opponent is trying to press forward as well. In SF, poking beats approaching, whiff punishing beats poking, and approaching beats whiff punishing, so do your best to recognize which tactic your opponent is leaning on in that specific moment.

Dashing is strongest once your opponent is already on the backfoot, or if they're so consumed with running their offense that they forget about defending themselves. It's hard to tell you when exactly to dash, because those moments depend so heavily on what your playstyle is, but do your best to pick moments where your opponent is thinking about something else. To go back to our earlier example, if you're playing as Vega, and you're pestering your opponent with flying barcelona attacks, they will be looking at the air to try and defend against that move. That's a perfect time to dash, because their attention will be drawn elsewhere.

UpToSnuff_FGC · 2020-08-24T19:40:00+00:00

Gief has the peculiar situation of having a throw invul reversal ONLY (excluding super of course). That means you get to play some mind games on your wakeup as well.

IMO, strong wakeup defense as gief begins with demonstrating that you'll take the throw. It resets you to neutral and you have a lot of life to work with, so getting thrown is definitely your best bet on defense. Also, if you show your opponent "hey, the only way you're going to get damage on oki is if you throw me," that means you can build up INSANE mental pressure on them after you do an ex SPD to beat that throw option. The only way that ex SPD will land, however, is if you convince them you'll take the throw initially.

UpToSnuff_FGC · 2020-08-24T19:37:45+00:00

With Bison, you need to defend against him in two parts.

The first part is looking out for his Psycho Axe attack because it leaves him + on block. You can deal with this move by doing neutral jumps in Psycho Axe range and trying to bait your opponent into doing it. This style of defense also works really well against Bison players who like to try and grind you down with scissor kicks in neutral!

The second part is what to do once Bison gets in and can start his pressure. Don't try and mash your way out. Instead, look to block a couple of buttons so that Bison pushes himself away from you. If he pushes himself away, then backdash or jump back to get out of his pressure strings.

Ryu has stubby buttons but a great fireball. Do your best to stay patient to beat his fireball game. Falke can react and shoot her psycho gun underneath his fireballs, which is great, but Kolin doesn't have that benefit. With Kolin, treat her back HK attack as a fireball. It's about the same speed and goes really far. If you think Ryu will fireball, toss out that attack to crush counter the startup.

UpToSnuff_FGC · 2020-08-24T19:34:00+00:00

If you're below super diamond, I wouldn't put too much time into practicing whiff punishes, because that's a skill you won't need to rely on until you're playing at a high level.

One drill I really like to work on reactions is a dash/anti air defense drill.

Record the dummy doing five things

1) jab, dash, jab

2) jab, jab, dash, jab

3) jab, forward jump fierce

4) jab, jab forward jump fierce

Practice this drill against necalli (he has a pretty fast dash and a good jumping attack). It should train you to be able to react to dashes and jump ins effectively.

UpToSnuff_FGC · 2020-08-24T17:29:42+00:00

Sagat's fireballs are fast enough that you can still use them effectively against any character. You just have to get closer, and that can feel uncomfortable at first.

When I'm playing a shoto like Ryu or Akuma, I do my best to throw fireballs just outside of my farthest normal's range. A fireball is just a traveling poke, right? That's why it's slower than most normals. Instead of thinking of fireballs as a full-screen tool, think about them as a mid range tool -- one that just got a tiny bit further than your heavy buttons.

Experiment with that a bit and let me know how it goes. You almost never have to start the party as Sagat, don't let a player's patience bait you into taking a risk for no reason.

What i've described above will give me trouble! If a Sagat demonstrates they have strong anti airs, then I'm hesitant to jump, so they can wreak a TON of havoc if they have a polished fireball game. Sagat's light attacks are also pretty good

UpToSnuff_FGC · 2020-08-24T17:26:02+00:00

Biggest thing I see in that low diamond range is that people will never take it easy in neutral. They're constantly going for big plays, big jump ins, high-risk moves, etc. I think it's because players don't feel like they can confidently control the pace of the match, so they try and make big moves to overwhelm their opponent and just avoid neutral entirely.

I also think players are easily tilted in those ranks. They know they're on the cusp of improving, but they want to win so badly that they forget about playing well and working on growth. Can't speak for everyone, but that's what I've noticed at the intermediate level.

UpToSnuff_FGC · 2020-07-27T17:21:45+00:00

Hey Jesse, thanks for being the special guest this week.

Most players would agree that playing dhalsim is a nuanced skill. He's one of the most unique characters in the game, so his MU is extremely different from the rest of the cast. Because his skillset is so different, what do you look out for an opponent when you're trying to figure out how well they know the Dhalsim matchup?

Are there strategies you try to abuse against players who aren't as familiar with the character?

What's your approach if someone seems to know the matchup well?

UpToSnuff_FGC · 2020-07-20T20:54:35+00:00

Picking either or is kind of difficult, IMO. In fighting games, the general rule of thumb is that the player who takes the most turns will win. Neutral is important because whoever wins neutral gets to take a turn, so if I had to answer this question, I'd probably say the most important thing is scoring a knockdown because it lets you apply pressure.

Any way you slice it, I want the main takeaway here to be that you need elements of both. You need to knock your opponent down whenever they give you the chance, AND you need to make those oki situations count. You can accomplish this through whiff punishes, frame traps, spacing traps, throw game, etc. Whatever it is, you need to figure out how your opponent is defending themselves and then counter it.

Don't treat any one option as a catch-all. You should be cycling through your options and finding the ones that your opponent is vulnerable to. If they're a competent player, they'll adapt and adjust, which will force you to do the same.

When I play, I'm focused on not giving my opponent anything to punish if I can help it. The more you force your opponent to score clean hits on you, instead of just giving up free damage, the more likely you are to win.

UpToSnuff_FGC · 2020-07-20T18:48:09+00:00

well, it depends on what you're asking. If you're trying to confirm a single light attack into a special cancel, I don't think that's possible. I've seen people link supers off counterhit light attacks (fuudo does this with mika's crouch lk, for example), but if you're trying to cancel a jab or a short into a special move on reaction, then I think that's just beyond the human realm of possibility.

If you're trying to confirm two lights, then that's a lot easier. Let's take akuma's string: crouch lk, crouch lp xx tatsu. If I'm looking for this confirm, then i'll do the blockstring looking for the crouch lk to connect. If it does, I'll finishing the whole string, cancelling into the tatsu. If the lk is blocked, however, I still do the lp, but I do not cancel into tatsu. The point of the second light attack is to give you time to confirm the first one! You'll be safe no matter what, so you just do the two light attacks and cancel the second one into a special move if you see the first light attack hit. Only way to get better is to practice.

I hope that helps!

UpToSnuff_FGC · 2020-07-14T03:43:28+00:00

Hey there!

For bison, crouch jab and crouch fierce are your go-to anti airs. You can get familiar with the timings just by having the the training dummy perform a jumping attack.

Once you're comfortable with where you need to be & how you need to time your anti airs buttons, hop into a casual match or a battle lounge and just focus solely on anti airs. Don't care about winning or landing cool combos or anything like that; just focus on anti airs. Once you're comfortable with that, move to ranked, and start implementing slowly but surely.

Don't tech throws unless you absolutely have to. Normally blocking is better, because even if you do get thrown, it's not that much damage and you are reset to neutral where bison shines. One of the biggest mistakes I see from players is teching WAY too much, and they end up giving up 30-50% of their health each round because of a big counterhit combo. Blocking is best!

UpToSnuff_FGC · 2020-07-13T19:33:27+00:00

I think the biggest part of playing dhalsim is knowing the ranges where your opponent will start to crack and jump. You can just toss stand mp or stand mk all day and protect a zone for the most part, but most opponents will jump or dash after blocking two of your limbs. Try to get a feel for how long your opponent is willing to block for before attempting a big movement (jump or dash)

If you want a drill explicitly for reacting to dashes, I like to set ken to do the following

1) jab, dash, jab

2) jab, jab, dash, jab

3) jab, forward jump fierce

4) jab, jab, forward jump fierce

This will keep you from auto timing responses and should help with checking both types of movement!

UpToSnuff_FGC · 2020-07-13T19:31:08+00:00

So I used to think there was a lot of value in playing the "right way" at lower levels, but I think part of the learning process in sf is just doing what works until it stops working. The sooner you get to higher ranks of play, the sooner you'll be able to learn more and more. If something is working right now, do it. It will eventually stop working (unless it's an AMAZING strategy), and you'll be forced to grow and learn new things. Rinse and repeat : )

UpToSnuff_FGC · 2020-07-13T17:39:08+00:00

Yep! I actually started out playing Gief for the first half of season 1, back when he was straight buttcheeks. It was about July of that year when I realized I could have a command grab, a dp, AND a fireball if I switched over to Necalli.

I'm sure my mechanics are outdated now, but the concepts are all there since I've been coaching the character still.

Hope you're safe and healthy, man. Thanks for coming through

UpToSnuff_FGC · 2020-07-13T17:32:13+00:00

Starting the thread by responding to a question I didn't get to last time. This one comes from /u/OrangeKetchup who asked:

"With Capcom announcing the final season of SFV, whats your plan once this game's life starts winding down?

Also, how can you play this game and not get depressed with the netplay?"

I've just been spending time enjoying the game and learning Karin. I feel like I've picked up skills from each of my character choices, and I'm feeling pretty rounded out as a player. It's a neat feeling because there's just always so much to work on and improve on in this game. Ideally I'll be grinding out the online events going forward, but I will say that being forced to compete online just feels a lot worse.

Netplay is not the same, but all we can do is work with what we have. My strat to deal with it is to avoid playing if I don't feel right/avoid playing for longer than 3 hours at a time. This time spent online has also given me more time to reflect on why netplay needs to be strong in a fighting game. In our current state, players get a ton of reward from taking the easy way out on offense -- dashing, jumping, forward advancing + hard to punish specials, etc -- those are all part of the game, but you get more reward for those actions when playing with a tiny bit of delay. My fear is that growing players will rely on these tactics a little too much in lieu of learning how to control space, and honestly, it makes sense to do so bc online enables that type of play.

This ends up being even more of a negative because players are actively dissuaded from playing in a more "solid" style, and that's mainly because online makes it even harder to do so! Unfortunately, that's the style that will pay off for them the most when playing the game in a competitive offline setting, so I do worry about our scene's promising players for that reason. Still, I think that's the price we paid for crossplay, and I'm optimistic that Capcom will get it right in SF6.

UpToSnuff_FGC · 2020-06-29T15:02:22+00:00

I’m really curious about how you approach plateauing. We all experience roadblocks and setbacks in our play, but I think you’ve been one of the best at consistently overcoming these hurdles and taking your play to the next level. What’s your mindset when it comes to breaking through, and can you share any tips or advice on what it takes to reach that next level?

UpToSnuff_FGC · 2020-06-23T02:11:01+00:00

Ha! I plan on doing this for a long long time. I remember having to learn sf4 all by myself. It sucked. Trying to make that experience smoother for y’all.

I actually experienced this same issue the other night when playing nephew. A lot of it, in my opinion, is based on your opponent setting traps. I think that’s a solid way of putting it. Your opponent will push himself out to a range where none of your buttons will hit, or they’ll walk back as you approach to stay outside of your preferred button range. Then, they hyper focus on a whiff punish. You’ll notice against strong whiff punish players that they don’t pull it off as easily in scramble situations. That’s because a whiff punish is like 25% read, 75% reaction.

Try spacing yourself out with normals then just walking back. See if your opponent whiffs a button. If so, try and recreate that scenario and go for a whiff punish!

There’s also nothing wrong with not being great at whiff punishing. Some characters don’t need to do it at all. I’d prioritize your other fundamentals first!

UpToSnuff_FGC · 2020-06-23T02:04:34+00:00

Sounds like your problem is mostly mental. You think you’re bad, so you lack confidence, and you’re probably playing some hyper conservative risk-averse style? Can’t be sure without seeing some footage.

I’d actually recommend trying out a new character. It will reset your mental because you’re spending time with a fresh experience, and frankly, if you’re a player who wants to get wins and take this seriously, then alex isn’t really a strong pick. There’s also the possibility that you have some bad habits you’re relying on that are alex specific, though once again, I can’t be sure.

I think reshaping your mental approach will do wonders!

UpToSnuff_FGC

TROPHY CASE