Monthly Archives: April 2010

Proper Turtling Philosophy

The way i see it, defensive success boils down to two tasks: capitalizing on opportunities and maintaining a realistic gameplan. Defense has always been clearer than offense, and always more reliable in tournaments. It doesn’t take as much practice to win with defense.

Imagine you’ve got two evenly experienced players. The offensive-minded player’s job is to create openings and capitalize on them. The defensive player’s job is to minimize damage at every opportunity while gradually chipping away at the opponent’s lifebar. If they’ve both been swamped at work for the past month, the defensive player comes out way ahead because the offensive player will fail to capitalize on an opening – drop a combo, mistime a crossup, get too close on a throw attempt, whatever. Generally speaking, you have to be more on-point to win with offense.

More specifically, the term “capitalize” conveys a different meaning to a defensive player than it does to an offensive player. It’s not simply a matter of dealing damage. Let’s say you bait an uppercut. From a rushdown standpoint, you want to punish with the most damaging combo possible, which also gives you the best chance of maintaining momentum. Depending on your opponent’s habits, sometimes it’s better to sacrifice a little guaranteed damage in order to set up an immediate throw mixup. Chaos favors offense.

Conversely, turtles should generally avoid ambiguous situations. Structure favors defense. If you’re confident in your ability to counter everything your opponent does, then you shouldn’t be gambling with offense, right? Thus, the defensive definition of “capitalize” is all about inflicting as much damage as possible while maintaining superior positioning.

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Weekly Screenshot: Acid Burn

Here’s one of two Night Warriors screenshots left over from before. Whoever comes up with the best title gets to choose the character paired with Sakura for the next SF4 Biweekly TACV! As always, the rules are one entry per person and i’ll choose my favorite on Monday.

nwarr-elemental-damage-01

NW Demitri’s LP air Chaos Flare burns an air dashing Hsien-Ko as he lands on his own LP Chaos Flare reflected by Hsien-Ko’s LP Reflect Gong. Each of Demitri’s palette options has a different fireball color which causes a matching flame animation, but Hsien-Ko’s reflect reverts the damage animation to the default orange flame.

SF4 Biweekly TACV 11: M.Bison / Akuma

Despite apperances, M.Bison and Akuma both obey strict combo limitations. Neither character has much that could be considered an x-factor, apart from Akuma’s strange Shakunetsu Hadoken juggle behavior and Bison’s interrupted ultra. As a result, most of these combos contain only one interesting detail. Still, this episode turned out better than i expected.

0:11 Bison’s EX Head Press slams grounded opponents straight down, but acts as a standard knockdown on air hit. Cammy is considered airborne during the last stage of lvl2 Focus Attack crumple fall, with her hitbox as low to the ground as possible. EX Head Press connects deep enough to follow up with EX Somersault Skull Diver, which has a juggle potential of one. Unfortunately he needs to float forward to reach her, making it impossible to charge for ultra.

0:19 Bison’s lvl3 Focus Attack trades with Dhalsim’s vertical j.LP, creating enough elevation to allow for F+PPP Bison Warp and lvl1 Focus Attack startup. There’s plenty of time to charge before backdashing, and then the LK Knee Press Nightmare input is executed slowly to outlast the backdash. It would’ve been possible to juggle Bison’s ultra after forward dash, but it’s far too slow to connect after backdash under these circumstances.

0:27 With the right corner spacing, Bison’s HK Head Press can trade with Gen’s HP Zan’ei and result in Bison landing behind Gen. This setup pulls Gen closer to Bison instead of pushing him away. Light attacks combo into MK Scissor Kick but not HK Scissor Kick, so the MK version is used both times. The c.LK -> s.LP link requires c.LK to land meaty, which it does at far range due to Gen’s c.LP hit stun. The rest is straightforward, with a focus on variety. I had to get rid of the First Attack message using a single hit of Gen’s LP Hyakurenko, because there was no other way to avoid it and it looked terrible. This combo deals 391 damage and 565 stun.

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CV Spotlight: gilley’s SF4 Guile Sequel

Alright, does it come as any surprise to anyone that i’d spotlight this combo video as soon as it was released? Somehow i seriously doubt it.

Street Fighter 4 Guile combos 2

The much-anticipated follow-up to last year’s wildly successful original video (807,131 views and counting!) certainly does not disappoint. Once again, gilley comes through with an assortment of highly technical – not to mention incredibly difficult – advanced Guile combos. Perhaps the most amazing thing about this video is that nearly all of its contents were manually executed; but if anyone can do it, it’d be the charge master himself.

Obviously that five-Focus combo at 2:41 stands out, as does that great finishing combo. Not everything is Sonic Booms and Flash Kicks, though. How cool is that normal move sequence on Abel at 0:50 or the fiercefest at 1:53? Personally, i always enjoy seeing Sonic Boom canceled into super before impact, so i’m glad he snuck that in at 2:16 as well. It’s a great video all around, and gives us a glimpse into Guile’s true combo potential in SF4.

Suggested Reading, Vol. 2

It’s been approximately five months since the last time i did this, so let’s see what some of the strategists around the fighting game community have been writing lately.

Thelo’s Quick Guide to Reaction-Based Defense at Shoryuken

At some moments, your opponent is much, much more likely to act than at others. For instance, at the start of a round, right after a knockdown recovery or a jump, or right at the end of a move’s recovery, many players will immediately act – they are much less likely to stay standing for 0.3 secs, and then act. Accordingly, you can concentrate all of your focus in these very short moments where you’re likely to need to react.

 
Counter-Trijump at Long Island MvC2

The counter-trijump is an advanced MvC2 technique that can give you a fighting chance after flying screen and wake up situations. It’s not something you can depend upon all the time but it is very useful. Going from a defensive position to an offensive one, this technique (when used properly) can have a major impact on the battle.

 
Beginner’s Guide to Tournaments at OzHadou

The number of rounds/games may also be increased during semi-finals, grand finals, or top 8s. The player at end of the left side (losers bracket) will be in the grand finals with the player at the end of the right side (winners bracket). The losers bracket has to win twice as much in order to win the tournament.

 
Once again, if you find these articles insightful and informative, leave them a polite comment to show your appreciation or better yet ask a question to further the discussion.