Ultra Street Fighter IV

[cale]

JLM! What is that BnB you kept doing to me when you were Yun?

[ah]

I think it's something like:

dive kick, anything, anything, anything (, anything) xx upkicks

[JLM]

Dive kick - > cr, jab - > stand jab - > standing medium punch - > Up kicks, occasionally with extra jabs because I don't practise Yun that often and am sloppy. The strength of the up kicks can depend on character. You may have noticed that when you switched to Adon the up kicks started whiffing, so I had to switch from roundhouse to medium because he has a skinny hitbox. There are more damaging optimised combos, but that's a solid b'n'b as long as you change up your up kicks accordingly. You can easily confirm into it from a crouching light kick as well. Oh, and you can end with EX up kicks and tag on a jab lunge punch or other juggle for a bit of extra damage if you fancy spending bar.

Oh, and the two common set ups for Genei Jin I kept going for are:

Jab shoulder - > cancel into Genei Jin - > standing roundhouse - > cancel into jab lunge punch. After that they're in juggle until it runs out and you can freestyle, but the overhead does more damage than the palm or the punch, so try to fit in a few of those at least. You can also go straight into ultra after activating Genei Jin and then continue juggling after it.

The other one is his Back + medium punch - > back + fierce - > fierce target combo cancelled into Genei Jin and then go straight into the jab lunge punch. You don't need the roundhouse here because the target combo has already launched them.

You can also cancel close standing medium kick into Genei Jin and then go straight into your juggle as well.

[carlito]

Cruel beatings at the hand of evil uncle Jellum again.

Haneke grade sadistic punishment. Black and white lingering close ups of my weeping face as each individual full punish lesson was administered to my flinching naked body.

I think I might just polish people's shoes or something at Heggfest.

[Camel]

Lads, Kineda have some sweet SF2 tees going on sale tonight, 2AM UK time if my maths are correct.

http://store.kineda....s/streetfighter

I can't decide which one to buy, I wish I could afford them all

It says 'sold out' next to all of them. I'm confused.

[mayor_mike_haggar]

I'll get a round off you jellum, one day. But not today. Or tomrorow. Or any other day.

On the plus side, I aquasilk'd donut with the focus-in-the-corner setup. Only I was using Hawk instead. But still!

[sith]

It says 'sold out' next to all of them. I'm confused.

Ignore it, says so on the actual page

[Yasawas]

I really want the Sim one but not with $40 postage. Also that time I bought a couple of a Broken Tier shirts I got slain by customs charges. Bah.

[mayor_mike_haggar]

Page 3, lads? Before EVO weekend? Honestly.

Anyway I played this game against gyrocheck last night. We had a nice little session of Ted vs Cody, which went fairly evenly. It's an interesting matchup, since cody really wants to be in and trying to frametrap, but that's really not a good idea against hawk. Cody's poor wakeup means hawk can cause him terrors when he gets a knockdown, and I'm not sure that he can deal with hawk's jab that well, and I think that hawk has better midrange footsie normals (cr.mk and st.mp were working well). Also any blocked ruffian kicks (stop throwing out ex randomly!) eat a jab spd into the hawktex.

Conversely hawk's massively slow jump arc means cody can anti-air all day with hk ruffian, the fact he an delay the stone means that can be useful to zone or even anti-air at the right distances, and blocked condor dives can be punished all day with ruffian. And without meter to ex spd/srk, cody can pressure hawk pretty well. Also the knife is actually really useful for cody in this matchup, since the extra range that it gives his normals is pretty good.

I've also got a few new hawk setups i was trying. After jab spd if you crouch and then immediately forward jump, you can time the body splash so that it either does or doesn't cross-up. It's absolutely filthily ambiguous. Not sure if it's a safejump or not, though, might test that tonight. I've been working on getting my spacing down for a whiffed jap spire into spd, and I think I got a few rounds with that. And there's a setup for hitting a crossup condor dive off ex spd which is fun to bust out. And of course I liberally used jumping d.mp into spd, because I love that mixup so so so much. I've also got one or two setups where you can guarantee ex condor dive will hit low, so that hawk stays close. People really don't expect that, so it's an excellent setup into either an spd or ultra 1.

Also, if you do the spd motion and then press lp+lk, thenn it acts as a throw tech, so you can kinda make spd's throw invulnerable. I kept forgetting to do that. But I should!

[Goemon]

EVO 2012

• The run down: EVO 2012 is taking place from July 6-8 in Las Vegas, Nevada, there's going to be tons of amazing stuff to check out this weekend. The world's best fighting game players will of course be on display, competing for over $100,000 in prize money across 6 official games, and several other side tournaments. There will also be many panels and other festivities to see, too.

• Who's expected to show: RZR|Fuudo, RZR|Latif, MCZ|Daigo Umehara, EG|Justin Wong, TH|Poongko, Hori|Sako, MCZ|Mago, AVM|GamerBee, Haitani, Kazunoko, MCZ|Tokido, MRN|WolfKrone, EG|Momochi, CVPR|PR Balrog, Uryo, FC|NYChrisG, Bonchan, WW|Infiltration, Eita, Kindevu, RZR|Itabashi Zangief, coL.cc|Filipino Champ, LU|Alex Valle, coL.cc|Mike Ross, AGE|Fanatiq, AG|MarlinPie, BT|Dieminion, BT|IFC Yipes, coL.cc|Combofiend, BT|Viscant, BT|Clockw0rk, TS|Arturo Sanchez, WW|Ryan Hart, DM|Xian, DMG|Online Tony, Flocker, Flash Metroid, DMG|Juicebox Abel, DMG|iPeru, EG|fLoE, WW|Laugh and TS|NerdJosh — and many more. Basically, almost every top player is attending this tournament.

• Who to look out for: Fuudo took home top honors last year in SSF4 AE with his incredibly steady Fei Long play. Latif grabbed second, taking out many of the world's top players in the process with C. Viper. Justin Wong is coming in hot off some huge wins at CEO 2012, and Daigo Umehara and Ricky Ortiz can never be counted out. Sako and Hatani had great showings in the first Topanga A League, and they'll be a threat to break into the latter part of the tournament as well. There are a number of players who could potentially take top honors in SSF4 AE v2012, as this is one of the deepest tournaments you will ever see, and there's no clear favorite heading into the weekend.

Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 has a few players who have stood up higher than the rest, as of late. The aforemention Justin Wong, along with Filipino Champ, MarlinPie, Fanatiq and ChrisG have all won big tournaments in the recent past, and it wouldn't be a surprise to see any of them take this one. A few players traveling from Japan will look to make a dent, including Chou who took 2nd place at KVO X GodsGarden, G.X. and Abegen, but they'll have their hands very full trying to deal with the absolute abundance of UMvC3 talent in the U.S. Kusoru is reported to not be attending this year.

• Streaming duties and schedule: Team Spooky and iPlayWinner will be handling streaming duties once again, across three different live video feeds. An HD pay-per-view option will also be available, with all of the proceeds going to a $10,000 EVO college scholarship for gamers, which is a very nice gesture.

HYPE!!!!!!!!!

[mayor_mike_haggar]

Hegg's Boson

Gluoni

Neutrino jumping

Negative charge characters

[Yasawas]

Soul Quark

Michio Kakoken

The Big Yang

Evo weekend! And a warning of torrential rain in Scotland which means I don't need to feel so guilty for lying slumped on a couch for days covered in bits of Doritos. Shame Nuki had to pull out though.

[mayor_mike_haggar]

I was going to watch evo this weekend, but instead I am wildly busy. I can't even watch any of the finals on Sunday night, due to going to a faith no more gig instead.

[Lyrical Donut]

No Shiro? Looks like it might be an all-Japan top 8, although I hope Infiltration manages to troll his way into top 8 with Hakan.

[imp]

You don't reckon Poongko will make it to Top 8 this year? I really hope Xian places well too actually. God, top 32 is going to be so very very stacked.

[Lyrical Donut]

You don't reckon Poongko will make it to Top 8 this year?

Don't think so - the Japanese have probably been doing their Seth homework this past year. Top 16 though, blates.

I forgot about Xian too - probably another top 16 contender.

[mayor_mike_haggar]

Xian made top 16 last year, I think that he's fo' sho' a good shout for top 8. As are Haitani and Sako. There aren't that many top level makoto's or Ibukis in the states, right? I think that should certainly help them out in the early going. I certainly can't wait to see what trick haitani pulls out.

[Lyrical Donut]

Disappointed by the lack of Europeans in the list, but then maybe the thing that Goemon blatantly copy/pasted was written by an American chap who doesn't know that Europe is actually a thing that exists.

Oh and Desk is there this year isn't he? Or did I just make that up?

[Lyrical Donut]

Oh, and Gootecks is back again, the tart.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mx9attmq3E4

[mayor_mike_haggar]

perhaps we will get some more cross counter one of these days

[Yasawas]

Has Sako ever been a big tournament winner in other games or is he predominantly just known for being a peerless execution monster? I love the guy but I think every SFIV tournament I've seen him in he seems to go out meekly after pools. I fancy Daigo to win again but will be happy with anything other than two American Rufae in the final.

Also hope Xian does well if he manages to get out of that ridiculous pool with Kindevu and Ryan Hart.

[mayor_mike_haggar]

Sako won the topanga league thing that they had in Japan earlier in the year. That thing which basically had 12 of Japans best players playing quite lengthy sets against one another. Which I think gives him a legit claim to be the best Japanese player, currently.

And honestly I kinda fancy kindevu and xian to get out of that pool. Kindevu made top 4 last year, don't forget, and Xian has got the complete unknown character thing going for him, plus winning the sea major recently.

[JLM]

I'd love for F-Word and Andreas to sneak through their pools. Certainly didn't look impossible from the line up.

I wouldn't be surprised if Wolfkrone made top 8 despite the stacked line up. In a two out of three setting Viper can beat anybody, and I still don't think Japan has Vipers on his level. Ricky or Justin could make top 8 as well. Japan doesn't have Rufii on their level either.

I'm curious to see how Iperu gets on. He's comfortably the best Fuerte in the world this year, and a lot of players still aren't ready for that.

Dieminion I think will be defeated just by the likelihood of running into bad match ups. I agree with James Chen's assessment that he's one of the top four or five players in America, but his character isn't top 5 by any stretch.

PR Rog is capable of top 8 on his best day, and again I think he's one of America's finest players. In his and many others' cases though, I feel that splitting time between AE and Marvel has made everyone a touch softer than they could be.

I can see Michael P. Rossington making top 32, but again I think match ups will defeat him. He's back at something approaching his best form at the moment, and he looked fantastic at both CEO and the SBO qualifiers, but Honda has issues that are hard to avoid in such a huge tournament.

Speaking of Marvel, I can't look past Justin Wong to win it. He's bitten the bullet and assembled a top tier team for Evo, and with one month's experience playing it he's got second and first in consecutive majors. To repeat myself again, the results don't always bear it out because of countless variables and because Marvel is crazy like that, but Justin is the best Marvel player in the world. Aside from that, I expect Marlinpie to do something utterly insane, FChamp, Flocker and ChrisG to make top 8, some new technology people have been saving to blow our minds and for the entire tournament to be the hypest thing that ever hyped. Marvel at CEO was incredible, Marvel at every road to evo major has been incredible, I cannot wiat for it at Evo.

Also, come September, we'll care less about Higgs Boson and be more concerned with how to beat Hegg's Bison. Bam.

[mayor_mike_haggar]

James Chen was talking about Dieminion maybe dropping guile down the line. I don't entirely understand why, but I think it was something to do with guile being very vulnerable to unblockable setups or something, and he thought that this would make him less viable down the line. He was talking about maybe picking up gouken, but I'd also really like to see him give dee jay a crack.

And, much as guile has bad matchups, they seem to be something dieminion specialises in. Justin was using Adon specifically to counterpick dieminion, but I think he's lost the last few times he's used the character against him.

I think that tatsu and andyocr are a shoo in for sfxt, unless laugh and infiltration play it, which would make for an interesting grand finals.

[themanyhs]

Though it makes me feel ill I think Justin might win AE this year. Not cos he's the best player, not even close, but Rufus is back to having the best dive kick pressure with safe chances for ultra off pretty much anything (especially that goddamn 3 bar version Justin used at CEO) and no other character really dominates as much now. I suspect as per the last few years the top 32 will be excellent viewing though! (which I think means no sleep friday evening?)

[JLM]

Yeah Dieminion is good at Guile's bad match ups, I just don't know if he can get top 8 with the character. I don't doubt that he's capable of proving me wrong though. Ultradavid always adds the caveat that he's the best Guile he's seen rather than the best in the world because people get all uppity about him saying that. People still have this tendency to believe that Japanese player X is automatically better than the equivalent well known American player and it's not always true any more. I don't think there's a better Guile than Dieminion, a better Balrog than PR Rog or a better Rufus than Justin Wong and Ricky Ortiz. When Filipino Champ played SF4 full time with Dhalsim I think he was as good or better than YHCMochi, Iyo or any other top Japanese Dhalsim too. Wolfkrone is a better Viper than Uryo ever was too, and I love me some Uryo. Oh, and Louffy is the best Rose too. Sako does more fancy stuff because he is Sako and has the hands of god, but Louffy is the most complete Rose player there is. So well versed on all of her match ups, and with a play style that shows a character specialist's understanding of his character. I'd love for him to make top 32 this year as well.

I agree that the Rufus factor would be a part of Justin doing well at Evo, particularly because Japan lacks world class Rufus players. It's also easy to not give him credit for his CEO win because grand finals was Rufus vs Cody and Cody is not good against dive kick pressure. I do think the "not even close" is very harsh though. It's easy to forget that Ricky Ortiz's Rufus couldn't beat Momochi, and that Momochi is one of the best players Japan has ever had and it takes more than a bad match up to beat him. Justin is easily one of the best players in the world at AE, and he has a complete Rufus game that has so much more to it than just dive kick pressure and ultra set ups. He can play footsies with Rufus, and could even compete with Daigo's Ryu in the mid range game where Rufus should have no chance. Rufus is strong and a lot of players still can't deal with him, but I think Justin deserves more credit than saying he wins because Rufus is an unstoppable character.

[mayor_mike_haggar]

Is louffy still playing rose, then? I haven't really seen much of him recently. The only other rose I'm aware of to any great extent is arturo. Are alioune/vryu heading over? they both have the potential to do well, surely?

I hope aquasilk makes top 8, since he said (probably lying) that he was just going to try his hardest to troll evo with as many blizzards as possible. Also he seems like quite a nice guy and is quite funny from what i've seen of his lovely little stream, and wears nice (properly nice) suits and has a very well appointed flat.

and many h's, don't worry about rufus. It's important to remember that he is very, very fat, and so consequently is probably incapable of ever winning anything. His wild fatness probably makes ibuki vortex extra lethal. Also rufus is not without his bad matchups, and I don't think that ricky has any other characters. I just hope we don't get another all EG grand finals.

[Camel]

Guys, please help out the uninitiated. How/where/when do I watch EVO?

[mayor_mike_haggar]

It's on the internet, there.

[mayor_mike_haggar]

Also this handly little widget should have basically everything you need. All 3 streams, bracket information, stream chat and a picture-in-picture livefeed from a webcam sewn directly into skisonic's boxer shorts.

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