Ultra Street Fighter IV

[mayor_mike_haggar]

You pefected T.Hawk with Blanka, Nathan, you counter-picking bastard. I hate that match so incredibly violently.

And yes, you're right, I never really got in enough to spd you about. That and I've not practiced my tick setups of late, so kept whiffing spd when you were in blockstun. I think my hawk is slowly improving though, certainly much more patient with him than I used to be.

[imp]

Yay, ragemail!

[mayor_mike_haggar]

You were playing ken, weren't you?

[Camel]

You're not meant to use throws. Capcom left those in by accident.

[imp]

I wasn't using Ken actually!

I went into his lobby, and used Ryu, he uses Vega. To be fair, in the second round I had him in the corner, and I did j.HP cr.MP (blocked) then threw him three times in a row. Then on the fourth time the combo actually hit so I did a combo which was nice.

Second match, I pick Viper, and he makes a point of baiting me on my wakeup and then throwing over and over. Haha, very good, message received. Oh, actual message received. So third match I go Viper again, and I proceed to beat him by doing stupid corner pressure with her, then baiting out two flash kicks and an ultra and throw him the first two times, and end on something of a Viper combo. I also did some tick throws. It was fun.

[Nate Dogg III]

Back on topic, how awesome are these new Marvel infinites? A fortnight before Evo as well, amazing things.

It's going to make a massive difference to Phoenix especially. Maybe Viscant has a chance after all.

[mayor_mike_haggar]

Can't believe the infinite aren't banned. It's probably going to make marvel much less interesting to watch, though. Dominant strategy immediately becomes defending against the TAC which leads to the infinite, because all other outcomes are much less bad by comparison.

That and I'd imagine that people will get very bored of seeing the infinites very quickly.

[Nate Dogg III]

Given the number of drops in pressure situations at ECT4 and CEO, I don't think they're going to be that much of a problem, to be honest.

And how do you ban them? At what point does it become an infinite - if it kills? What if you stop at 99%, or 20%?

[nuskool]

Heads up for my fellow Street Fighting peeps... Zavvi have UMvC3 (360) for £12.95. It says delivery "within a month" but I've found Zavvi actually do eventually deliver.

[JLM]

Given the number of drops in pressure situations at ECT4 and CEO, I don't think they're going to be that much of a problem, to be honest.

And how do you ban them? At what point does it become an infinite - if it kills? What if you stop at 99%, or 20%?

Previously when infinites have been banned they tend to place a limit on how many reps/loops you're allowed to do, which limits thier usefulness and usually persuades people to go back to their regular combos and set ups. It's far from a perfect solution to the problem but it's hard to know what else to do if you're going to have a rule on them.

[joeplus]

I'm hoping to play a load of this tonight after several nights of exhausting flat-hunting. I might just practice though, I would like some new mans to play with and it's very dispiriting staring at the character select and thinking "nope, not a clue".

[mayor_mike_haggar]

Anyone but sodding blanka.

I should really work on my blanka matchup knowledge but FUCK HIM.

[ah]

Previously when infinites have been banned they tend to place a limit on how many reps/loops you're allowed to do, which limits thier usefulness and usually persuades people to go back to their regular combos and set ups. It's far from a perfect solution to the problem but it's hard to know what else to do if you're going to have a rule on them.

In this case I think you could ban exploiting the glitch, seen as the thing that permits the infinite isn't an element of any other combo in the game. It'd be easier to police. Like I said in my last post last night, though, I don't think it would break the game it leave it in.

Anyway speaking of police apparently the FUN POLICE are working on potential ways to "fix" this due to lots of people complaining about it.

[mayor_mike_haggar]

It's a pity one of the top players didn't secretly discover it and bust it out in finals.

[Lyrical Donut]

Evo stream is live!

With obesely old Evo footage

http://evo2012.s3.amazonaws.com/live/index.html

[nuskool]

I noticed from that they used to produce DVDs of the events... wish they still did I'd love some of the ones from recent years

[Yasawas]

Yeah I'd buy a thing like that. I'm just delighted we get what we do though, so can't grumble. I don't think there was any live stream even in 2009, and I definitely remember that there was some kind of deal with IGN where they were putting the matches up in a subscriber area incredibly slowly weeks after the event. IGN still send me emails to this day thanks to that Now it's three free streams, archives, YouTube highlights and all the money match stuff that gets done on the sly out of hours too. Sweet.

All that prep and organisation and thought and still somehow there's a pool with Xian, Ryan Hart and Kindevu in it though. That's a sore one for whoever flies thousands of miles to not get out of it.

[Qazimod]

I bought Vanilla today, I don't really know why. It does have this though which I'd totally forgotten and is so good I let it loop for several minutes before starting. Also hitting people after KO and flags on the pre-fight screen, they were weird things to take out of Super.

I still don't have a boxed AE and I'm trying to fight the temptation to complete the set.

Also, we should have a divekick character lobby sometime just to see how long people last before going insane.

[cale]

Anyone about right now?

[mayor_mike_haggar]

There's a playlist here from a texas tournament called barfights. It's mostly notable due to the fact that it was won by a Hakan player (who also dominated an episode of excellent adventures), and there was some pretty stiff competition I think.

Loooooooook

[joffocakes]

Texas is oil rich.

What's the latest AE 2012 Hakan tech'n trickery? I might start playing him for fun times.

[mayor_mike_haggar]

I don't think anyone really knows. they changes quite a lot. There's a man who puts up loads of hakan tech onto youtube, I'll try to find a link somewhere. There's loads of wild stuff that he's found.

[JLM]

Hakan tech (Player 2 side only set up):

At the character select screen, hit down, then left, left, left, left, left, left, left, left and then press A several times. The A presses can be chained so there isn't specific timing. When the fight starts you'll be playing as Rufus, and in prime position to win a U.S. major.

[nuskool]

Haha, I played a Hakan last night that basically beat me with repeated slides/body splashes. That sent me slightly mad/insane.

I started to have a mess with Rufus the other week. What's best to combo with after a drive kick?

[mayor_mike_haggar]

I think this is the man. He's got some wild meaty setups.

I always try to combo into throw with rufus after a dive kick

[joffocakes]

The best combo after dive kick is couching light kick up to five times in a row.

The actual best combo is standing light kick, close standing hard punch, HP.Galactic Tornado, but it's a one frame link. The reason it's best is because it's safe even when blocked, right up to the end of it. It does decent damage, pushes them toward the corner where you want them, lets you chip away and keep up the pressure.

Standing light kick, close standing medium punch into galactic tornado is an easier link, but it whiffs on some crouching opponents like Blanka and Chun Li.

Or you can, it you have ultra 1, just do lk>hk, which is his target combo. That'll launch them into the air so you can catch them with Ultra 1.

Use EX Messiah Kick a lot. Always use Ultra 2 against Blanka, Honda or Akuma and use it every time you block a blanka ball or headbut, or any time Akuma does an air fireball.

Catching someone air to air with jumping hard kick lets you follow up with Ultra 1. In some cases, especially against larger characters, you can use EX Snake Strike instead for damage that's stupidly high for only one bar of super meter.

If you HP.Galactic Tornado someone toward the corner you can do Ultra 1 and catch them in mid air with it. This also works anywhere in the screen against Balrog, Sagat and Vega. Not certain about Vega, but I'm sure I did it.

After a HP.GT in the corner when you have no Ultra you can to lp.Galactic Tornado for a cheeky extra hit.

Ultra 2 is invincible against fireballs, so you can choose it to deter folk. If they still throw some, you can catch them from about 2/3 of a screen away if you're quick. It's also a good Ultra to use against Ibuki as it makes her vortex nonsense more risky and might stop her trying it altogether.

Crouching Medium Punch is great anti air; spend a few fights getting a feel for its timing. Also, make sure you appeciate how excellent, fat and lazy Rufus looks when doing it.

If you've got three bars of meter and you're being attacked, shamelessly mash out EX Messiah kick, press LK for the combo finish and FADC out of it. If the EX Messiah hits, dash forward from the FADC and do ultra 1. If it's blocked or if you have no ultra, FADC backward to safety.

If someone does a stupid jump in you can catch them with a raw EX Snake Strike sometimes. It's good to learn the spacing for that; it's more generous than it should be, but sometimes you'll sail over them and get beaten up. Loads of damage.

[joffocakes]

Another wee thing: You can Safely jump in on Ryu after a throw if you space and time it right. I can't remember which throw, but I think it's Rufus' forward throw (which I'm sure also does more damage than most characters' throws), you then do standing hard punch into mid air as soon as you recover and hold upforward to jump toward him, this should ensure safe spacing and timing.

Near the end of your jump, tap hard punch while holding downback. If he crouch blocks you'll hit him (you can raw Ultra 1 if you react to this), if he tries to dragon punch, and most do, your punch will miss, you'll block in time, and he'll go sailing into the air, and be too far away to FADC out of it. Punish with your favourite flavour of attack at your leisure.

EDIT: reworded for clarity.

[Camel]

^ can someone explain why that works? Why does the hp not come out if ryu DPs?

[joffocakes]

It still comes out, but it's hitting meaty during his wakeup frames, so if he does the dragon punch he'll be invicible, your attack will whiff and you'll instantly hit the ground to recover before the dragon punch is able to hurt you. Also, as Rufus' jumping hard punch only hits with the tip and has a lot of range, you'll be so far back that he won't even connect.

Maybe if you train them to expect that they'll wise up with standing block and you'd be able to mix it up with downfoward medium kick to roll in and hit low. Maybe it's too slow to be much use though, and I'm sure it only combos on counter hit (I usually go for cr.lp x EX Galactic Tornado, but I usually end up going cr.lp x EX Snake Strike and get destroyed).

[Yasawas]

Nice science sir.

I've been meaning to ask this for a while but who all has 3-frame DPs? I assume Ryu and Ken but not sure about the likes of Akuma, Cammy or Sagat. There's a really simple safe jump setup with Cody* I use a lot which can only be beaten by them apparently. I tend to do it against every character anyway but it would be useful to know who can beat it.

* Back throw, then immediately jump in with HK.