For some reason, people keep asking me who my favorite Street Fighter players are. I watch matchvids and root for certain individuals just like everyone else, so i guess it wouldn’t hurt to write out an (overly complicated) answer. At least the examples should be entertaining, right?
The obvious choices are CaliPower, ChoiBoy, and watts. They’re the first names to pop into my head because they were at the top of the game when i first discovered the tournament scene. They placed 1st, 2nd, and 3rd overall at B4 – the precursor to Evolution. I’ve always admired their playstyles and i still think nobody in the world has more sophisticated Shotos.
Unfortunately, it’s been a while since the days when those three were winning literally every tournament they entered. That’s partly because in their case, the complete answer has slowly become: prepared Valle, losers bracket Choi, and angry-enough-to-practice Watson. By the way, the amazing thing about watts is how he takes everyone out of their element. Look up some matchvids of your favorite players facing him. You’ll barely recognize their play.
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Instead of writing another serious strategy article, i hope nobody minds if i take a break today to share this dumb list i’ve been working on. Here are my official nominations for the category of worst slides in fighting game history. Ready?
#5: Evo2k5 ST 3on3 Grand Finals – CaliPower vs Gian
At the 5:02 mark, Gian’s Dhalsim throws out a desperation c.HK slide to escape the corner, but Valle’s Ryu sees it coming and lands c.MK xx Shinku Hadoken for 60% damage.
#4: SoCal SSF4 Winners Finals – ComboFiend vs Shizza
At the 2:44 mark, ComboFiend’s Guy gives up a 25% lead by whiffing a mistimed c.HK slide to punish Chun Li’s whiffed c.HK sweep. Shizza happens to be standing just outside Guy’s slide range, so he responds with c.LK xx EX Lightning Legs, Kikosho to take the round.
#3: a-cho SFA3 2on2 – Shinya vs Crusher
At the 2:40 mark, Crusher’s V-Sodom tries to apply some lazy pressure with two consecutive c.HK slides, while sitting on a comfortable 30% life lead. Except the second one barely misses Shina’s A-Guy and the round abruptly ends.
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If there’s one thing we’ve learned about the SF4 generation through two years, it’s that they love their wakeup uppercuts. The goal of this article is simple: to convince you to stop.
Think about who has the advantage in knockdown situations. The character on his feet can move around, establish his desired spacing freely, then attack at will. He can choose from his entire arsenal of moves, because he can perform slow attacks such as overheads without worrying about being interrupted during startup. He even gets to decide whether to hover inside or outside throw range. Simply put, he single-handedly controls the initiative.
By contrast, the character on his back can’t move and can’t attack until a specific, predictable moment. The only advantage he has is that he remains invincible before that instant, which isn’t a real advantage because it’s only passive invincibility. As soon as it ends, he has to deal with whatever attack the opponent has prepared.
The key here is realizing that your goal isn’t to punish your opponent for knocking you down. Your goal is survive the wakeup game so you can regain all your options. Don’t get suckered into playing the majority of the match from an unfavorable position.
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Thinking back on how i learned to play Street Fighter, it was definitely a long progression from reading the Sega Genesis SF2: Special Champion Edition manual to writing footsies articles for a revitalized community. However, certain breakthrough moments immediately spring to mind.
The first milestone is obvious: learning how to do special moves. This is the wall everyone has to climb over in order to get into the fighting game playground. It’s harsh to expect newcomers to learn so much before they can enjoy the genre, but that’s just the way things are. You may as well not be playing Street Fighter until you make it past this point. I still remember the first special move i learned to execute consistently (Psycho Crusher) and the last remaining special move i dared to attempt (Spinning Piledriver) after weeks of practice with other characters.
The second milestone is learning how to defend yourself against basic attacks. Matches simply can not become strategic while “jump kick, trip” is considered an unbeatable loop. Until you’re able to block high and low as needed at will, offensive momentum is unbreakable. Once you feel comfortable with blocking, the next invincible tactic is “low short, throw” and so the next hurdle is learning how to escape and reverse throws. Then it’s on to crossups, mixups, etc.
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Being part of the fighting game community and having internet access, it happens to all of us from time to time. We all get sucked into heated forum arguments about which character is superior in head-to-head battle.
Instead of playing the matchup in real time for twenty minutes, we sit around debating every possible move and its flowchart of counters for hours. This bizarre turn-based text RPG version of Street Fighter is such a common activity that we’ve coined a name for it: Theory Fighter.
The whole idea behind it is that breaking down the risks and rewards of each action helps both sides understand the matchup better. Furthermore, it highlights a character’s problem areas and directs the community’s attention toward finding new solutions. Lastly, it helps us develop a more nuanced and sophisticated tier structure.
However, the curse of theory fighter is that it almost always devolves into trite internet arguments. Both sides quickly forget they share a collective goal, common courtesy goes out the window, and everyone tries to win at all costs.
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