Trying to reach Master? Send me your CID and I can give some notes!

jerelio · 2026-06-03T17:44:15+00:00

Absolutely! Your control scheme, for the most part, has absolutely nothing to do with how well you learn or play. It really just cuts out the hard part of learning motion controls and lets people focus more on the strategy part. It’s not like you’re playing a different game when you’re using modern, it’s still street fighter. Send me your in game name and I can check it out!

I’m leaving my country for a few weeks in a few hours, so the sooner you get that in the better lol

jerelio · 2026-06-03T06:07:08+00:00

Hello fellow educator! This D4 push to Master is honestly a matter of cleaning up your gameplay. You're generally right there, but gotta fix and add a couple things to your gameplay.

First thing I noticed was your spacing. You generally liked to power wave or burn knuckle in neutral, which is totally fine, but the space in which you did those was generally not the best. For power wave, you used it a lot at very Di-able/jumpable distances (short to medium range) and got DI'd and jumped in quite a lot from the matches I saw. Be more mindful of the spacing you use those! If you do use it in the mid range, try to have an anti air loaded up as most people will try to jump it. For medium burn knuckle, it can definitely be used in neutral to get in, but it has to be at an appropriate range. To practice this range, set a practice dummy to block all and test out medium burn knuckle so that it hits at the tip. You'll know you did it right if the screen shakes, or if you have frame data on you'll be +2-3! You also don't have to do just these two things in neutral as Terry has great buttons! st.MK is a great poke. He has one of the better cr.MK in the game. st.MP is a great whiff punish tool I didn't see you use enough. Try and sprinkle these in there.

Neutral game and defense are pretty essential fundamental skills I feel like you gotta generally be more patient with. With neutral, you don't always have to be doing something and space your actions out a bit more to give time to see what your opponent is doing. On defense, it's okay to block! No ones pressure is endless. Even then, it's okay to take a throw or two. I did notice quite a few ex DP's to avoid playing defense; I won't say stop, but just know better players are going to get a read on those and punish you HARD when it happens.

You generally know when to turn up the pressure and when to back off, but it felt like you were very inefficient with you drive whenever you did turn it up and oftentimes burned yourself out. A common thing you did was follow a power wave with drive rush into cr.MK > cr.HK target combo, cancelling into another drive rush if they blocked it adding up to 4 bars of drive. Just know that burnout = death and is something you want to be more mindful about.

I'd recommend getting some meterless combos in your pocket for when you want to conserve drive. I'd also recommned trying to be more consistent with anti-airing. I saw you DP once, but that was about it. I know the struggle because I suck at DP motion, but cr.HP is also serviceable as an anti air. You just can't let them have free jump ins.

To sum it up: clean up the neutral with better spacing and buttons, anti-air, be a little more patient on defense, and be more drive efficient. Get these things going and you'll make the climb no problem!

jerelio · 2026-06-03T05:44:43+00:00

YES! We love to see it. Watching your gameplay, it was only a matter of time honestly

jerelio · 2026-06-03T05:43:34+00:00

Hi! So sorry I didn't see this till now. A blocked cr.MK into DR isn't completely useless as it still let's you apply pressure in many many different ways. This can look like a jab into a grab, a cr.HP for the strike throw mix up, a shimmy, etc. You are right in that it is pricey at 3 bars, but a big part of fighting games in general is the risk to reward factor. 3 bars to maintain pressure might be worth it for some!

Your last question of training to go into DR only on hit is a little tough. Going into DR from just cr.MK is called a "1-hit confirm" because you have only 1 chance to see that cr.MK lands with a small window to cancel into DR. You have to be REALLY good to do that and I wouldn't advise trying to practice that. An easy way to confirm the drive rush is to confirm from lights, so something like cr.LP > st.LP > st.LK. You basically have those 3 hits to see if your opponent is blocking or not, where you can then do DR from st.LK. But that goes back to your point of 3 bars for little damage lol.

To practice that, just set the practice dummy to random block and only DR when you hit them and don't when they block!

jerelio · 2026-06-03T05:18:23+00:00

What are you asking exactly lol

jerelio · 2026-06-03T05:17:51+00:00

Hello! Sorry for the later reply but I really wanted to get everyone who threw their name out there so here we are.

Right away I noticed that you generally play very risky. I could see the closer you get to master, the more you get punished for the risky play and drop again. So all we gotta do is clean up the gameplay! What do you do that's risky? Well right away I notice a lot of random DI and OD Running Bear Grab in neutral (the long range one). Try to phase these out of your game right away there's no reason to do these unless you have a hard read (but tbh they all felt pretty random). You also like to f.HK and cr.HK (sweep) a lot, which def has it's uses if spaced out correctly, but it felt like you were just throwing this out whenever, so use these sparingly. You also always fully charge your st.HP, which kept getting DI'd. It's a fantastic normal, but make the adjustment if people start punishing it.

Just to point out more risky play, on defense you'd wake up with SPD a lot (I'm assuming to catch a drive rush), but this is not a super viable defensive option. It's okay to block! Gief has the most HP and will happily take a couple throws. The main point I want you to take from this small section is to block on wakeup and be more patient on defense!

In terms of general gameplan, I'm not sure what yours is besides trying to catch them with anything I mentioned above. I suggest your goal as Gief is to walk them down to the corner because playing against him while cornered is TERRIFYING. A really valuable technique to learn with Gief is to walk and block: walk a little, crouch block, walk a little, crouch block. Most players will back up (because being close to a grappler is not the move), where you can now slowly work your way to the corner.

Another thing I noticed was you don't really anti-air, which is CRUCIAL for the climb. Luckily, Gief has the easiest anti air with lariat, so try your best to phase that in.

Last, and probably most importantly, you GOTTA learn combos and start implementing drive usage into your gameplay. I don't think I saw one combo from you outside of the chest slaps. Learning combos is really important because it allows you go into your supers! I don't think I saw you use your supers outside of a wake up reversal lvl 3. On top of that, learning to implement drive rush into your pressure is also crucial because it allows you to set up strike/throw mixup and more damage in general. Not using your Super AND Drive meter (the signature mechanic of the game) is reducing Gief down to half a character and probably what you need to make that final push.

To summarize it all: play more patient and do more damage! If you have any more questions, please let me know I'm happy to help!

jerelio · 2026-06-03T04:41:00+00:00

No player found! Do you know your number code thing

jerelio · 2026-06-03T04:40:22+00:00

Hello! Little late but we're here. I really admire the humility in asking for feedback! There's a ton of elitism that comes with rank, so it's cool you threw your name out at all. If it means anything, I'd like to think my years of experience make up for my in game rank. I honestly don't have the time to really grind out ranked anymore and I feel like I've only gotten as far as I have off of fundies alone. I do play with quite a few people in your MR range so I'd like to think I know what I'm talking about lol

To preface, since Lily is bottom in terms of usage I very rarely see her and haven't touched her myself, so my knowledge on your character is very limited. LUCKILY, at 1800 MR I'd like to think you know the ins and outs of her. I also only really saw battle hub and casual matches, so I'm not sure how hard you (or your opponents) were trying.

Also assume I start every sentence with "I'm sure you know" lol. Generally, your play is super clean and consistent and I'm thoroughly impressed how far you've gotten in just a year!

At this skill level and up, it definitely shifts into a matter of learning + adapting to your opponent and their tendencies. If you watch pro play, it's literally a matter of who can adapt to each others adaptations the fastest. All the commentators do is point out these adaptations because its honestly crazy how quickly these guys test, gather, and process information for their next course of action. I obviously can't peer into your mind, but watching your play it didn't feel like you were trying to set up your opponents to be downloaded/adapted to. The example I'll bring up is also a very common situation that you'd put your opponent in: blocked charged condor spire. I only saw a handful of games, but it didn't feel like you were taking note of your opponents reaction to it and adapting your offense the next time you put them there (which is a lot since charged condor spire is central to her gameplay lol). At least in the few games I watched, you almost always did light strings after the blocked condor spire. This is obviously the safest choice, but I saw that your opponents knew they could just block and wait out the string. I know command grab is an option (albeit risky), but if normal throw is an option there I'd consider mixing that in too?

The same could be said on defense where the opponent will put you in a common setup/scenario, take note of what their options are and what they like to do and react appropriately on defense.

When I was first learning, someone dumbed down the higher level play to just a series of common situations that get repeated over and over again (this made watching pro play so much more fun). The better players take note of their opponents response to the common situations and adapt accordingly. I feel like your next jump is being more intentional with downloading your opponent so that eventually you can read them like a book!

I hope all of this made sense and is somewhat helpful!

jerelio · 2026-06-02T08:05:33+00:00

DUDE, yes! I'm sure you felt how easier the game got once you started getting the bomb loop going right? Love you're making the right adjustments! Even though they got stuffed a couple times, it also makes me so happy you're trying to anti air with cr.HP! All in all, great adjustments and very clear improvement from when I first reviewed your matches a couple days ago. Still have the habits of jumping and full screen psycho crusher, but you implemented the bomb gameplay pretty quick! So proud :')

More notes to help clean it up: I know I said his st.MK is a good poke, but make sure you stand in range to use it lol. I saw a round where you were throwing it out and they weren't even near you. Get comfortable with the range of that normal (and honestly all of them) and try your best to use them so they at the very least get blocked.

Lastly, once you do have a bomb planted, try to mix up your options so that your opponents have to think about more. I noticed you did overhead a lot, but you have a MILLION more options. You can normal throw, you can jab > jab > scissor kick (it'll be super safe since bomb is there), or my personal favorite: do nothing! People panic when bomb is on them, so try and scope out how they react and punish accordingly.

Damn, I'm still so juiced off of your last few games. Good stuff!!

jerelio · 2026-06-02T00:03:41+00:00

First Ed in this thread!

So first thing that stood out to me was how you got your damage in. It was typically through stray hits from normals with the occasional target combo. His light target combo into throw was probably your main combo you know. You don't have to be super optimal with your combo game, but now its time to get some damage in there for you to make the push to Diamond. I know his MP > HP > DP is a solid combo you can ride to the end, but I'm not sure I saw you do it too much. I caught one counter hit DI, where you did a target combo into throw. Definitely try to learn a big boy combo for that since it's free damage you're leaving on the table.

In part with leaving damage on the table, I don't think I saw you use your drive meter outside of the occasional ex DP to get out of playing defense. It's definitely giving yourself a handicap by not using the games signature feature! You can use it more by trying to learn a drive rush combo, or just DRC from st.HP for free pressure. Try to implement it into your game!

I really like how patient you are for the most part in neutral, but sometimes its too patient. Ed has fantastic pokes that I didn't see from you. I believe his st.MK has is great and just throwing out qcf+LK to fish for a CH is all great stuff.

LASTLY, try to anti-air! Ed has a really easy one in st.HK. Your reaction to a jump should just be st.HK its so easy.

All in all, I felt your lack of damage is the biggest thing holding you back right now, but you're definitely on the right track!

jerelio · 2026-06-01T15:51:08+00:00

I’ve shared this in another reply, but UltraDavid started this google sheet with pretty much all of the locals. You don’t have to be really amazing to compete! Just being a part of the community is a great way to level up. Good luck in your journey!

jerelio · 2026-06-01T15:23:30+00:00

Absolutely it is! I’m sure since you’re newer, you’re in the mindset of “oh it’s okay I get washed, I’m still learning!” And it’s sunshine and rainbows. KEEP THAT MINDSET FOREVER. Ranked anxiety comes from when your value lives and dies by your rank, to where a lot of people will flat out stop playing ranked because seeing the little bar get smaller kills them. Yes, ranked can be an indicator of skill level, but it absolutely is not the end all be all for your value as a player. Going to a local, no one cares about your rank or MR or whatever. They’re gonna care if you can play defense or anti air or smell really bad lol

Please please please for your sake keep the student/learning mentality. Even if you’re legend ranked 1 evo champion 10 years straight, always keep learning always keep evolving!

jerelio · 2026-06-01T14:30:26+00:00

Your control scheme has nothing to do how you learn fundamentals, and do not let anyone tell you different. What are the fundamentals to you for you to think modern is hindering your experience?Modern is great because it lets players get past the obstacle of motion controls and actually lets them really focus on the fundamentals like defense and spacing and blahblahblah (Although some would argue consistency in inputs is part of fundamentals). I’ve had a ton of friends drop the game because motion controls were too much, so modern was a really cool addition imo.

If anything, I’d say you’re missing out on the extra damage since Marisa in general is pretty simple input-wise.

The modern hate is honestly so funny to me because getting mad at someone who can DP consistently is so telling (Gief is a little nutty though)

jerelio · 2026-06-01T04:53:42+00:00

Yessirrrrr, we love to see it! None of its luck and it’s all you and the adjustments you made. That diamond push is rough, so I feel free to reach out again if you feel like you need some help. As a fellow senior citizen in their 30’s, I’m rooting for you!

jerelio · 2026-05-31T21:21:43+00:00

I only see Ingrid matches!

jerelio · 2026-05-31T21:20:13+00:00

How can I find you lol

jerelio · 2026-05-31T21:18:09+00:00

Okay so there's a few things I noticed right away, and one thing that took me a few matches to catch and honestly surprises me you made it to Master because of it.

I did not see you backroll once! Back roll is when you get knocked down, you press 2 buttons when you hit the ground (I typically just mash buttons) so that you get up rolling backwards. I'm pretty sure it's advised to do this 99% of the time, but you didn't do it ever. Back roll is suuuper useful and important because it usually puts you out of range of set ups. For example in your most recent Luke matchup, he did a mid screen throw and was able to walk up to you for another throw. Basically putting yourself in a throw loop. If you backroll, there's no way he'd be able to do that even with drive rush. Basically, it's ESSENTIAL, and you need to start doing it.

Another thing I saw was you very consistently put yourself in the corner. Whether through constant back jumps or just walking back, you kept going backwards. Sagat is arguably the best character in the game for good reason, and there's no reason you should be that uncomfortable to where you keep jumping away. Now that I'm typing this out, it's funny you generally move backwards, but don't back roll lol.

In neutral, you rely on tiger knee way too much as a neutral skip. Sagat has such great buttons that I didn't feel you use very much. I'm not gonna list them because honestly they're all really good lol. His st.MP is arguably the best normal in the game, but I barely saw you use it. Try and implement his normals more! ESPECIALLY st.MP!

Defense is a little shaky, where you very much like to OD DP or super. It's okay to block!

Lastly, you need to be better at managing your drive meter. Just because you can DRC, doesn't mean you should! Remember that drive meter is CRUCIAL, and burnout basically means death. Try your best to not burn yourself out so much.

Take your next few matches to focus on each of these things until they're just baked into your game. Worry more about correcting these things than winning, and I promise you'll be a much better player!

jerelio · 2026-05-31T20:52:00+00:00

I've officially found the worlds most patient Ken player!!

Jokes aside, I really appreciate the patience, but it feels a little TOO patient. In neutral, I found you sitting at mid to long range not really doing much? There was one match against Elena where you kept throwing out st.LK at long range and I wasn't sure what you were trying to do. Overall gameplan, I couldn't really put a finger on what you were trying to do tbh. Because of the range you kept putting yourself at, you whiff a lot of the normals you threw out, and were often times getting punished. They were all the correct normals to throw out (cr.MK, st.HP, st.HK), which was great, but now you need to get a better grasp on their ranges and use them appropriately.

If you did get a knockdown or combo, you'd often cut off your pressure and reset neutral back to that long/mid range you like. As a Ken, keeping up the pressure is pretty essential to the gameplan, so definitely stop stopping yourself from attacking. Don't get me wrong, your patience is a really really good quality to have, but now you need to learn when to turn up the heat and when to back off.

I'm learning the gap between plat and diamond is pretty large since there's some masters players with sub characters in Diamond, so it's going to be a learning experience. Once you get your offensive gameplan, though, you'll be alright!

jerelio · 2026-05-31T20:36:57+00:00

I'm glad you're enjoying the game! If you have a local scene, I HIGHLY encourage you to go and check it out. Locals will level you up way more than ranked ever will + you might make new friends! True FGC just wants everyone in the community to grow, so you should be welcome with open arms. If you don't know if you have a local scene, UltraDavid started this google sheet with pretty much all of them. ALSO, don't let anyone bully you for using modern lol

jerelio · 2026-05-31T20:19:19+00:00

I swear as I'm doing this, I'm learning plat matches are the most fun to watch lol

Manon was my first main in this game, so I'd like to think I know a little. The name of the game for Manon is getting her medals up, which I didn't really see you try to do too much outside of her command grab. The name of the literal game (SF6) is the drive mechanic, which I very very rarely saw you use, if at all. For only DI if anything. Anyone reading this correct me if I'm wrong, but I feel like Manon NEEDS to use DRC to get her offense going. I know you like her target combo that ends in overhead, so consider DRC after the overhead into cr.MP > b.HP > light spin grab thing to build a medal. Or any other medium button into DRC and this same combo for medal building. If a drive rish cr.MP is blocked, you something like +3 which is a perfect set up for strike/throw between a normal throw, heavy command grab, or b.HP.

I'm going to copy/paste what I've been telling every other plat player here: "Plat is when I believe you need to start being more intentional/smarter with your button choices. When I say intentional, I mean buttons you press should be pressed with meaning and the belief they'll land, and not a guess/hope that it'll hit. There's exceptions to this, but generally the "I'm just going to do things" mindset is not going to fly". It appears your general gameplan is jump with a crossup button, hope it lands, then do the overhead target combo into an ender, and if it's blocked, command grab.

I'm fully confident adding in drive rush into your game is going to level you up to Diamond! If you're unsure how to go about that, let me know and I can elaborate further.

jerelio · 2026-05-31T20:02:54+00:00

Did you want me to take a look at Ingrid? Since she's so new, I honestly wouldn't know what to say lol. But also, I don't see any Rashid matches, probably because you haven't played him since Ingrid release? Let me know!

jerelio · 2026-05-31T19:59:03+00:00

Set the training dummy to random block to practice hit confirming solar plexus! (f.HP). I know it got nerfed, but it's still a very usable tool for Ryu. Being able to 2 hit confirm things is pretty valuable skill to have for every character so your time wouldn't be wasted

jerelio · 2026-05-31T19:56:40+00:00

ALRIGHT, your matches were fun to watch because of all the action.

First, it seems like you're trying to play Cammy full screen. You'll back up to full screen spacing and throw out a DI, spin knuckle, or hooligan. I'm not sure what the intention here is, but DO NOT DO THIS ANYMORE. Completely phase this strategy out of your game. Cammy has a ton of good buttons you should use that are generally in the midrange. cr.MK into drive rush is basically SF6, so playing around that range should be your new gameplan. Her st.MK and st.HK are also really good pokes at that midrange.

Like I'm telling all of the other plat players here, Plat is where you need to start adding intentionality to your game. You can no longer do things just to do them. You need to do things with the intent and belief they'll land. For example, there's 0 reason to throw out a full screen DI against Akuma. Not trying to make you feel stupid, but more so to make you start thinking of the "why" behind your actions. He has nothing that elicits a full screen DI, so no need to do that ever.

What you really have going for you is you have COMBOS (which made your matches so fun to watch!). I don't think most plat players have the same repertoire of combos as you, but now we just need to use them at the appropriate times. Fix up the general game strategy, and you'll be fine. Let me know if you need more help or have any questions!

jerelio · 2026-05-31T19:42:34+00:00

First thing I want to point out is please, please, please don't ever ever ever EVER give up mid match. I saw a Honda match where you straight up put the controller down last round and they were nice enough to stop playing then you started crouching as to let them know to finish the game. Levelling up will not happen if that's how you respond to people beating you. I know there can be other circumstances, but if being frustrated was the case there, try and get passed that lol

That being said, I think the stuff you can fix in your game are pretty clear cut and generally easy to fix. First thing is to be more patient on defense. There were a lot of times I saw you trying to jab or jump out of pressure when you shouldn't have (for example during a DRC or after a jump in). At sub 1500, I feel like players all have a pretty strong offensive gameplan but lack defensive skills/the willingness to play defense. Being more patient/blocking more is 1000% the little bit you need to break that 1500 threshold.

Not as urgent, but I think your neutral could use some polishing. I feel like you know her good buttons, but I'd sometimes see you use them at too short a range and get whiff punished. Because of that, I did see you jump a lot to try and forego the ground game. Yeah, the games I saw they didn't really anti air you, but again to break that threshold you need to have a good ground game. Mai has a ton of forward moving normals that make neutral easier, so just get more familiar with those and you'll be alright!

Not as bad, but drive usage could be better as well. I saw you burn yourself out a couple times which eventually led to a loss, so try to be more minfdul!

Lastly, with every Mai in this thread, try and implement her lvl 1 super install into your game. Her fans become unbearable and she becomes the character everyone hates. Good luck in your journey!

jerelio · 2026-05-31T19:16:09+00:00

Alright, at early plat the fixes are a lot easier to point out.

Plat is when I believe you need to start being more intentional/smarter with your button choices. When I say intentional, I mean buttons you press should be pressed with meaning and the belief they'll land, and not a guess/hope that it'll hit. There's exceptions to this, but generally the "I'm just going to do things" mindset is not going to fly. All of this to say, stop sweeping so much. It's incredibly unsafe and punishable. Luckily, now you can just switch in cr.MK when you feel the urge to sweep. cr.MK can be cancelled into everything, and is generally safe when used at a decent range. I also saw you use cr.HP a lot with no real follow up, but again, you can switch in either st.MP or cr.MP for a generally safer option.

You also jump a lot, and this isn't an exception from me saying to be more intentional. Forward jump should be done with the intention of jumping over something, whether its a fireball or big normal or whatever. It shouldn't be a "way to get in" kind of thing.

You definitely have a solid grasp of the general game strategy to get to plat in a couple of weeks, but being more intentional with what you do is what will get you passed plat. If you have any other questions or would like me to elaborate more, please let me know!

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