Jump to content
IGNORED

Ultra Street Fighter IV

JLM

By JLM
in Discussion

 Share

Recommended Posts

JLM

JLM

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Great play fron Snafoo there. I'd say he's the third best Sim in North America behind FChamp and Arturo, so it's not surprising he's an expert at this match up. I've seen Itazan beat some great Sim players though, so it was a shame he got frustrated here and went a bit reckless. Good set though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
imp

imp

Posted
Posted

OH MY GOD. Fuudo. PR Balrog. Amazing. Fei Long is actually much more fun to watch now in 2012. Players like Fuudo who can hit confirm off of only one rekka makes the whole match so much more interesting.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
JLM

JLM

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Top 64 down to top 16:

PR Rog vs Fuudo in top 32 was further evidence for PR Rog being one of the best players in the world. He got a a perfect against Fuudo's Fei Long. That is ridiculous. Amazing reads, patience, reactions and comprehensive knowledge of his character. So, so good.

Dieminion vs Uryo was amazing. Dieminion continued his tremendous form from the SBO qualifiers and showed some world class reads, blocks and baits to beat Uryo in impressive fashion. Uryo went back to Viper for it and was more than ready for it. He also hit a gorgeous corner combo:

Upside down kick - > cr. MP - > sonic boom - > cr. lk - > cr. jab - > cr. mp - > sonic boom - > sweep. Crispy.

He kept the form up later on by absolutely destroying Mago. I've never seen Mago look so free. Straight rounds, fast rounds, Dieminion with 60% life left in most of them. He was a step ahead of Mago at every turn, fierce punching and flash kicking everything that came his way. He was flash kicking Fei Long Chicken wings before they even left the ground because he just knew Mago would do it at that moment. I expected Dieminion to take some names this year and he certainly didn't disappoint.

Mr. Naps vs John Choi was a great match, and played out exactly as the match does on paper. Ryu is a much more solid character who wins the mid range and fireball game, but Evil Ryu can kill Ryu in three combos. The players are the same, in that John Choi plays Super Turbo Ryu in the most old school and traditional fashion, whereas Mr. Naps is a tehcnique heavy execution monster who only needs to land a handful of hits to kill you. He was routinely doing 35-45% damage with every combo, but Choi outlcassed him and his character at mid range, and also had the stronger reads and baits that come with his years upon years of experience. I didn't want either of them to lose and was sad they met before top 32.

Evans vs Poongko was a heartbreaker for Evans. He played fearlessly and went for some great delayed throws and other risky stuff people don't go for against Poongko. He ended up losing after a couple of hugely costly failed punishes. He got Poongko to whiff a massive EX uppercut, then punished with close standing fierce into nothing. It looked like one of those situations where he had too much time to think about the punish and was going to go for rekkas, then noticed he had two bars and could do flame kick fadc chicken wing and ended up doing neither. Still a strong showing, but if you let Poongko off you'll invariably pay for it.

Justin Wong suffered in quarter finals for having to run the best Japanese Yun and the best American Yun back to back. He overcame Kazunoko, but Hsien Chang was smarter with the reads and knows Justin's playstyle better and was able to get it. Crazy set between Justin and Hsien though, including a round where Hsien had it won, then got hit out of the air by Messiah kick in such a way that he got hit by the first hit, juggled with the flash kick ender and then FADC ultra'd for the win. So clutch from Justin, but Hsien outplayed him for much of the set and deserved to take it. Justin pulled it together to beat MOV later on though, and once again showed that the EX GT FADC buff is huge for Rufus, and particularly for Justin's Rufus with that amazing mid range game that Rufus shouldn't have.

Great to see John choi and Alex Valle make top 32, but my hopes of seeing them fight each other or Daigo were sadly dashed. Valle got mixed up by Sako, and Choi lost to Dogura's Bison who went surprisingly gimmicky for the first game and rhen stayed solid in a close second one. Very smart approach to the two out of three format from Dogura; milking any shenanigans that worked to get a one game cushion and then playing nice and relaxed in the next one. He got blown up by Poongko, but aside from that you can see why he's the top ranked Japanese Bison.

Fuudo and Justin meeting in top 32 losers shows how strong the bracket is. Justin played brilliantly and made some clutch comebacks but Fuudo was too strong. I loved how calm and controlled he was in the face of Rufus' up close pressure, knocking his dive kicks away with pre-emptive standing jabs and refusing to get flustered.

Gutted to see Mike Ross eliminated at top 32. Much like against john Choi, Dogura's outright weirdness in his approach was too much for Mike to deal with. Cross up psycho crushers all over the place, meaty EX scissors FADC as pressure, going for the whiffed head stomp into throw trick, but charging so he can land with EX crusher or scissors to blow up the tech. Teleports scattered in, odd movement. Neurosis plays a near perfect traditional Bison, and Dogura puts a spin on the character that's completely unique to him.

3
Link to comment
Share on other sites
JLM

JLM

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Top 16 ramblings:

Infiltration vs Dieminion

I was worried that Dieminion might hit a bad match up before top 8, and this counter pick is one of them unfortunately. It's amazing how much better Dieminion is against Gouken since last time he fought Infiltration, but there was still some unfamiliarity there and it proved costly. The second game was the most tense, edge of the seat game of day 1 by far. A double K.O. in the first round, and then both characters on even life and no meter with 15 seconds left in the final round. Amazingly clutch play from Dieminion, but even moreso from Infiltration, who quietly remains one of the best players in the world despite not getting quite the same hype as his Japanese counterparts.

Gamerbee vs Daigo

The set where Daigo would not die. Gamerbee had explosive starts to almost every round, taking Daigo down to 10% health, sometimes less, but Daigo would not die and staged two of the finest comebacks you'll ever see. Gamerbee didn't do anything wrong and even got a perfect in one of the rounds, but Daigo decided he was going to be in top 8 winners and wouldn't hear otherwise.

Humanbomb vs Poongko

Humanbomb kept flip flopping between first rate Sakura play and insane decisions and drops caused by nerves, as is often the case against Poongko. He had great option selects, frame traps and reads, but then he'd get a kill combo opporunity and just not do it for no discernible reason. Poongko then made rare drops on the lifelines he was given, culminating in a near miraculous comeback opportunity dropped when he misjudged the chip on his fierce uppercut and got punished for the loss. He looked completely broken after the loss, but in truth HumanBomb didn't need to make it as close as it was.

PR Balrog vs Xiaohai

Another classy, near flawless performance from PR Rog here. I can't use enough superlatives to describe how good he is. Extra props for using the Gootecks shimmy towards the end of the last round, and stopping to give Gootecks appropriate credit after the win.

Dogura vs Gamerbee

Clean, patient performance from Gamerbee, who had presumably seen Dogura's wonky Bison style earlier on and wasn't going to take too many chances.

Dieminion vs Fuudo

Clutch, thy name is Dieminion. Yet another stellar showing from one of the best three players in North America. He's always been outstanding, but during this Road to Evo season (and since the AE bullshit era ended) he has stepped up another notch, building steam right on through the SBO qualifiers where he beat everybody. Fuudo looked frustrated and completely lost for ways to get in. You don't often see him thrown off his game, but Dieminion did it.

Xiao Hai vs Haitani

Very sad to see Haitani out before top 8. Makoto clearly has problems dealing with Cammy's rushdown even with her excellent back dash, and Xiao Hai made some great reads and adjustments to get out of Haitani's mix ups. I wonder what it'll take for James Chen to admit that cammy is one of the best characters in the game. The top 16 had an amazing character variety, which is a credit to AE's rebalance making it close to Super as one of the most finely balanced fighting games ever, but the only repeated character in the entire 16 was Cammy. Banbaban's showing at Shadowloo Showdown is good evidence for it too.

Kindevu vs Poongko

Close set here, and once again Kindevu made weird decisions and odd drops that you wouldn't see from him otherwise thanks to the Poongko/Seth factor. Cammy's damage and range of options give her a better fight against Seth than most characters, but Poongko was able to clutch it out and pulled off a couple of tremendous comebacks to sneak his way through here.

4
Link to comment
Share on other sites
JLM

JLM

Posted
  • Author
Posted

It does appear that you need to subscribe to view the archives. I thought this might happen, which is why I am now in desperate, desperate need of sleep.

Top 8 list/thoughts

Winners

Infiltration (Akuma)

Daigo (Ryu)

HumanBomb (Sakura)

PR Balrog (Balrog)

Losers

Gamerbee (Adon)

Dieminion (Guile)

Xiao Hai (Cammy)

Poongko (Seth)

What a wonderful top 8 that is. Eight different characters, a whole range of styles represented and a great mix of nationalities represented as well. No Vipers, one Seth (and it's Poongko so that's OK) and NO FEI LONGS! Three characters all agreed to be top five in the game, all represented by world class players, and only one of them makes top 8, and in losers at that. AE2012, you so balanced!

The two American players I wanted to see in top 8 both made it, and no two American SF4 players are more deserving. I've maintained for a while that they're as good as anyone in Japan or the rest of the world, and it's great that they've made it through a field of 1,500 players to prove it. Again, having those two on the SBO team gives America its best chance of making decent progress at SBO in forever.

How the top 8 unfolds depends greatly on the match ups from here. I feel like Dieminion and PR Rog both want to avoid Infiltration if at all possible as he has made quick work of both of them in the past. Aside from that it's hard to say. HumanBomb will struggle if he has to fight Dieminion, PR Rog is exceptional at the Ryu match up and has beaten Daigo before, Adon is a hard counter ppick for Guile but Dieminion has stepped up his game in that match up. So many variables. I'd love it if they went to three out of five sets for the entire top 8 and am sad that they won't.

I think Infiltration to win, Daigo second and PR Rog third. I'd love to see PR Rog or Dieminion win, though a Dieminion win would be soured a bit by his legion of haters and critics suddenly changing their tune and reveling in the YOU ESS AY victory like the dirty glory supporters they are. That's not his fault though, so I'm still rooting for him.

1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
JLM

JLM

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Finals for all games are Sunday. Friday was AE from pools down to top 8, today is Marvel. KOF and the other less popular games have been running their pools on the second stream, SFXT hasn't featured on either stream and will only have its finals streamed on Sunday with all the other games. Oh, and the Super Turbo tournament of legends is tonight too.

I don't think Desk was there. I'd have liked to see him on one of the panels doing amazing feats of execution rather than in tournament if he was there, as he says himself he's not that strong a competitive player.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Yasawas

Yasawas

Posted
Posted

If anyone else has paid the $12 then you probably want to go to this page rather than the videos page - http://www.twitch.tv/srkevo1/videos?kind=past_broadcasts

On the videos page they've separated a number of matches and titled them, which is handy but a shade spoily. I think the 5 hour+ video on that page includes everything that happened beyond the point I gave up at 1.30 when they took a wee break.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. Use of this website is subject to our Privacy Policy, Terms of Use, and Guidelines.

  I accept