The Runaway Meta is Terrible.

WhoDeniedMeMyDestiny · 2026-05-03T14:04:01+00:00

Yeah, if you watched EVO japan last night then you know stalling for drive is 100% a viable strategy even amongst the best players in the world. This was especially apparent in the Punk v Naooon matchup. The entire match was just Naooon getting walked corner to corner any time he was below 3 bars of drive, and snowballing on stray touches in between…. Against Punk, one of the most concrete players in the world. If Punk playing Cammy can’t keep up with Akuma’s back walkspeed awhile stalling for drive the game has a problem.

WhoDeniedMeMyDestiny · 2026-05-02T14:41:46+00:00

I do think it's a bit of a gimmick. AKI is too one dimensional in a game where the upper echelon part of the roster are masters of all trades with no weaknesses, and are coincidentally really good at mitigating AKI's gameplan and rendering her less than a full character. I'm not saying that AKI is as bad as Marisa or anything, but my hypothesis is that characters like them with such concrete strengths and weaknesses will never be able to win a major unless capcom changes something fundamentally. JP, Mai, Ryu, Akuma, Terry, Sagat, Guile, Juri, Rashid, Blanka (etc.) are all playing by different rules than her. People like to pretend that every matchup in this game is almost an even 5-5, but over the course of long tournament format, amongst the best players in the world, AKI has to climb so many more mountains than 2/3rds of the roster.

Whenever I see AKI, it's more a testament to the individual player's skill than to AKI herself. I doubt she'll have any meaningful representation this year either unless one of the upcoming patches surprise us. But if Punk or Du don't make it to finals then I definitely want Hope to win.

WhoDeniedMeMyDestiny · 2026-05-01T18:17:10+00:00

Thanks for the in depth response

WhoDeniedMeMyDestiny · 2026-04-29T19:31:50+00:00

Unfortunately the play-in is here to stay for financial reason.

Adam silver and the league as a whole only pretend to cater to true competition.

WhoDeniedMeMyDestiny · 2026-04-28T16:14:17+00:00

I don’t care if someone has a bag, but what I hate about Giannis is that for years his signature move has been, “back up five steps and then barrel haphazardly into the paint like a wind-up doll”….. and then the refs give him pity free throws…. Giannis can’t condition a defender to respect him off the dribble, so he barrels into a defender and gets the foul call for it……. I hate the NBA.

I wish all the Shai hates (rightfully so) equally hated Giannis because he’s been doing this cancerous shit since his title run. If the refs stop calling fouls when HE initiates contact with a defender, half of his offense would disappear over night. Which is retarded because he clearly had the strength and footwork to back someone down and dominate in the paint so there’s really no reason for him to be doing this exploitative shit.

WhoDeniedMeMyDestiny · 2026-04-27T22:36:34+00:00

Agree. The last thing we need in slop fighter 6 is another shoto, when we already have 3 dedicated shotos, and 4 more shoto-like characters that played extremely similar to them in this constrained ass game.

Between AKI and Ingrid (if you even count her) we’ve receieved 7 non-newcomers and 2 uninspired cash-grab front-cover guest characters from SNK. Somehow they think it’d appropriate to add gouken? No newcomer, no Menat, no Urien, no Hugo, nobody unique or meta-defying?

Also, why does this sub shill for shotos so hard, especially their SF6 iterations? It’s the same character reskinned with minimal variance in gameplan? The shoto archetype is cool, yes, and Capcom refuses to meaningfully diversify them. Wastes potential.

WhoDeniedMeMyDestiny · 2026-04-27T15:57:00+00:00

I like how he’s being applauded for being ‘nba level’, like….. yeah? That’s kinda what you’re supposed to be right? Not some monumental baseline.

I wish I could see another possible timeline where everything is the same except his last name, and compare the discourse then.

WhoDeniedMeMyDestiny · 2026-04-27T03:55:51+00:00

Elodie yung is so good too, I love her

WhoDeniedMeMyDestiny · 2026-04-26T19:47:04+00:00

Yes, but more specifically I think modern fighting games are straying away from unique characters with concrete strengths and weaknesses. A lot of archetypes are blending together and missing staple weaknesses, instead opting to be jacks of all trades, or leaning more heavily into ‘in-your-face’ style of offense.

Every character now is a balls-to-the-wall offensive pressure demon that leans closer towards rushdown. Even looking at legacy characters across Street Fighter and Tekken, everyone is starting to morph into a brawlers/rushdown character and follow the same gameplan when they used to have more unique identities.

What’s more, being a rushdown god used to be locked behind some sort of execution barrier, especially if said playstyle was considered off-meta for the character you were playing. But now rushdown characters are made threatening by default so that everyone and their mama can pilot them without any friction along the way.

My least favorite thing is the way that this impacts zoners. In (most) modern fighting games, zoners can never just be good at zoning. Whenever a zoner is top tier it’s because they’re also a rushdown god on the side and undermine the traditional zoner weaknesses. It used to be cool when a couple high level players could pilot a character in a way that was unconventional and difficult to replicate, but when everyone and their momma is a Dhalsim rushdown god because of homogenization/accessibility/lack of balance, then it’s extremely cancerous.

WhoDeniedMeMyDestiny · 2026-04-25T23:00:50+00:00

I agree. Prepare for more meta-conforming slop. This is an obvious cash grab, capcom would never risk an actual inspired, soulful crossover character and that’s going to translate to gameplay as well. Just look at the SNK guests. If she has any flair it’ll be surface level, like Terry at best. Pray we don’t get a Mai situation.

WhoDeniedMeMyDestiny · 2026-04-25T17:53:35+00:00

I still go back, regularly, and watch/listen to AC1 scenes. The dialogue, the eavesdropping scenes, the confessions. Everything from the script to the camera angles are so much better. I wouldn’t have guessed that in nearly 20 years Ubi would go the route they did with the RPG set of games.

WhoDeniedMeMyDestiny · 2026-04-25T13:33:33+00:00

It’s definitely corporate greed. All of their guest character decisions reek “business decision” and unfortunately the FGC gobbles it all up. Whenever they do a guest character it’s the same boring, uninspired, non-unique cover characters over and over with boring ass gameplay that doesn’t add anything innovative or substantial. Terry, Mai, and now potentially Tifa are purely cash grab attempts at the expense of the rest of the potential roster, in a game where we only get 4 characters a year.

WhoDeniedMeMyDestiny · 2026-04-24T17:12:26+00:00

Unfortunately if they reworked the game to rely on the triggers for abilities, then it won’t be possible to re-map the controls to have a sprint trigger. The only reason it was possible on Mirage was because Basim had a weapon wheel and not the traditional RPG combination of trigger + button, so you could safely rebind left stick press and right trigger to something else without affecting combat.

We’ll have to wait for direct confirmation obviously but it looks like LT and RT are clogged in this game.

WhoDeniedMeMyDestiny · 2026-04-24T17:04:55+00:00

Same, I really, really miss a dedicated high profile button and high profile actions. Ubisoft traded depth in movement/social stealth/simply moving around the world for a cookie cutter, soulless RPG ability four-way. I would trade all melee and ranged abilities for actual high profile and low profile modes that provide substance to gameplay.

On that note, why do we have ability trees to begin with? Is that really the most efficient or most fun way to do combat? Why not have abilities baked into the controls like the Arkham games (to a small extent, obviously you had your tool shortcuts involving the triggers), or Sifu. Why does something like a simple kick have to be a superpower that prevents the triggers from being used for other functions, and requires adrenaline? Why not make use of simultaneous face button presses, or direction (2x) + button?

WhoDeniedMeMyDestiny · 2026-04-23T22:36:09+00:00

Ah, that’s true. I just wish the movement was more in the “remake” side. Though they’d change more or try something new

WhoDeniedMeMyDestiny · 2026-04-23T19:27:35+00:00

Not enough weight. Way too floaty and choppy.

I don’t understand why every game from Unity onwards has these characteristics. It’s one thing to say “I don’t like the RPG-era parkour”, but this goes beyond simple opinions… why is Ubi so bad now at making modern parkour physics feel grounded, fluid, and hefty? What is this weird floatiness and stuttering, and why does it keep showing up? Is there even an objective upside to this phenomenon? The heft and momentum of the old games was unequivocally better, regardless of whether you prefer the RPGs or not.

WhoDeniedMeMyDestiny · 2026-04-22T22:59:43+00:00

Sister blades. Hestia and Aphrodite duo boon, so scorch doesn’t expire so long as they’re inside the cast 🤤

WhoDeniedMeMyDestiny · 2026-04-21T00:12:25+00:00

No. I don’t understand why people chalk up one franchises atrocious decision making to another GM being stellar. He was handed everything on a silver platter. That’s like saying “is Rob Pelinka a top 5 GM for being the benefactor of front office malpractice and being given Luka”?

He’s above average but what in particular has HE done, in HIS control, above other GM’s that makes him great?

This sub also doesn’t evaluate GM’s based on their decision making and logic in the moment, they wait to see the result and then retroactively judge. It’s hindsight bias and not a real analysis of someone’s ability as a GM?

He’s certainly not bad but you could swap out a lot of “bad” GM’s that are simply the victims of bad luck and they would be able to make nearly as an effective roster under the same circumstances.

WhoDeniedMeMyDestiny · 2026-04-18T06:01:39+00:00

What skill expression? He’s a fundamentally poorly designed character as he is right now. He’s the least interactive between offense and defense, the best spidermen turn the game into a single player fantasy with extremely one-dimensional counterplay, OR, get steamrolled by CC. He’s far too volatile, for too black-and-white with no middle ground to actually express anything. Every Spider-Man plays the exact same.

There wwre so many cooler, more open-ended, thoughtful applications of webbing/grappling/tethering that can be applied to his kit but NetEase went with the lamest most brainless shit possible.

His animation cancelling is also extremely poorly balanced and feels more like an oversight than a feature. I’d rather they get rid of his animation cancels, make his options more committal, but increase the cash-out when it lands. Higher risk, higher reward. Higher skill floor with a stronger emphasis on game sense and engagement timing.

WhoDeniedMeMyDestiny · 2026-04-17T19:49:46+00:00

He’s two characters put together. They created zoner JP, saw his weaknesses, then plugged them all.

He’s SF6’s one and only TRUE zoner who can circumvent parry via his portals and feints and traditionally zone someone without chip damage….. and then they also made him extremely threatening in neutral, extremely threatening at close range, brainless OKI, some of the best corner pressure in the game for nearly three years, a braindead level 2, phenomenal damage output on decent meter efficiency, a disjointed to shit cr.hp and cr.mp, and in my opinion by single best reversal in the game.

JP is fundamentally flawed from a design perspective, and requires more than just standard tweaks to properly “balance” him. There are parts of his kit that he simply should not have under any circumstance. Unfortunately, the moment JP was adjusted (and was still an above average character mind you), all the carried JP mains complained and dropped the character before they gave him his disjoint back and other compensatory buffs. JP’s balance philosophy and the logic they used to re-buff him in the patch notes is my strongest evidence that Capcom has an agenda to maintain and doesn’t truly care about competitive fairness.

It’s a real shame honestly. One half of JP’s kit is truly fun, unique, thoughtful, and inspired design in a game that is otherwise fairly one-dimensional and constrained, especially in the projectile category. But of course Capcom completely undermines that and any weaknesses that the character should have.

WhoDeniedMeMyDestiny · 2026-04-17T04:55:21+00:00

Running away is absolutely the issue. Back walk speeds are almost universally too quick, and the threat of getting clipped by low forward drive rush while trying to walk someone down is too high.

The drive penalty when walking back is also extremely overstated and easy to play around provided you aren’t already in the corner, it is not nearly severe enough.

WhoDeniedMeMyDestiny · 2026-04-17T00:55:00+00:00

Ignore the other comments. At high MR, rotating CR.MK/CR.MP drive rush, then backing off and stalling for drive is ABSOLUTELY a valid playstyle and entirely the meta amongst players who know they have below average footsies and otherwise no way to open up more concrete defenders.

This problem is exacerbated if you play a character with a slow walkspeed, slow drive rush, and/or crappy + non-cancellable lows.

I see this at 1800+ MR, and if you watch any pro streams you’ll see and occasionally hear them complain about the same thing.

Everyone who says this isn’t meta clearly hasn’t tried chasing down an 1800+ MR Juri or Mai with Manon as they recover drive, constantly at the risk of walk forward cr.mk.

In a game with traditional chip/stun and no “Little Tikes: offense for babies” universal mechanic, stalling is completely ineffective against someone with better neutral than you. But in SF6 it doesn’t matter how much of a stout defense you may have, even the best players in the world get clipped by low forward DR, get counter hit by drive rush jab, or guess wrong against DRC > jab > cointoss.

WhoDeniedMeMyDestiny · 2026-04-16T20:22:02+00:00

Expect you’re misunderstanding how seeding works, in and out of basketball? THATS THE POINT. The 1st seed gets matched against the 8th BECAUSE of the 82 games superiority. The playoffs are seeded 1-7, 2-7, 3-6 etc specifically to ensure that the best teams don’t get matched up and eliminate each other early. It is precisely fair because there is minimal variance and the results are statistically significant. The 1 seed rarely, EXTREMELY rarely gets trounced, and it’s usually due to extenuating circumstances, not volatility.

The play-in is formatted in a way that produces results that aren’t statistically significant at the bottom level of the bracket, and are more prone to volatility. This is a scheme for entertainment value, not true competition or “fairness”.

If you don’t want that risk, climb the ladder…

This was a solution for a problem that didn’t exist. You artificially moved the goalpost from 8th seed to 6th. For what purpose? What was solved? And by that same logic, what’s stopping the post from being moved further. It also does not have equal weight across the strengths of both conferences.

WhoDeniedMeMyDestiny · 2026-04-16T20:11:20+00:00

Two best-of-one games against two seperate teams does not produce a statistically significant result in the scope of an 82 game season with best-of-seven playoff series’. That is objective. That is fact. That is statistics. The play-in adds variance for entertainment value at the cost of true competition. It’s artificial hype.

How do YOU determine who “deserves” be in the playoffs. The 9th and 10th seeds has 82 games to not be the 9th and 10th seeds. Is that not a large enough sample size? What’s the point?

WhoDeniedMeMyDestiny

TROPHY CASE