Ultra Street Fighter IV

[JLM]

Nate started an Endless battle and was prepared for the commitment such a battle entails.

Lots off GGs again today. Fun randoming with Haggar and Alistarr. Resetting my router seemed to solve the sudden inability to play against Mister Samuel, so I should be able to play Joffo again now too. I only have these magic internets for a short while longer, so it's a good thing I'm playing Streetfighter all the fucking time at the moment.

Played against lots of randoms of varying skill level too. I don't like it when the lobby says "everyone welcome" or "let's have fun" and then they remove me when I Dudley them up a bit.

Best set against non-'muk folk was a six game session against Techtun's amazing Cody. My Dudley got utterly, utterly destroyed by him last time we played, so I thought I'd better go with the main chicken this time to at least put up a fight. He has great pressure, maximises his damage off every opportunity and is extremely consistent with that terrifying Momochi b'n'b of Towards + MP - > close standing MP - > crouching fierce - > criminal uppper. Chun vs Cody ended up 3-3 and I don't think I blinked or breathed for the majority of it. Pleasant messages and friend requests were sent afterwards, so hopefully we'll do a full FT10 soon. My inability to stick to a character has left my Chun very rusty, so this sort of practise is very welcome.

Oh, and I got slapped about my Madbeats' Ryu a bit too. I think that ended up about 8-2 to him.

[Lyrical Donut]

Happy Birthday Plop!

Nate still grinding for heggfest at this hour?!

[Nate Dogg III]

Well I hope I'm winning.

[jiroczech]

JLM -inspired me to try out that Cody combo in training. 337 damage!? Will have to get that down as a bnb... Linking from the cl.MP to the c.HP is the trickiest bit but it's not too hard... I really should watch more videos of people playing at high level for inspiration and something to aim for but I can never be arsed.

[Qazimod]

Thanks for coming to SF25th anniversary Asia qualify! I could met to a lot of SF fan's people! I had fun time!

Ono you fucking legend. (sauce)

[mayor_mike_haggar]

Nate, seriously, give yourself a break.

[JLM]

Allystarr I missed you being online. Come back and do Marvels.

Or someone play AE with me.

Somebody do something at least.

[imp]

Try inviting Nate? I might be on later tonight depending how far down the toilet my plans go.

[JLM]

Nate needs to his rock bottom on his own before he can start to rebuild. I heard he got chipped out in round two of game 968 and murdered his hamster, and he doesn't even own a hamster so he had to go and buy one for the purpose and name it and bond with it and buy hamster bedding and get to the point where he really felt like it wwas his hamster before dropping his TE on it. That's what I heard.

[Nate Dogg III]

Hammond, we hardly knew ye.

[ah]

Sorry I missed you Mr LM - I sadly have a prior engagement this evening so was just sneaking 20 minutes of training mode.

[mayor_mike_haggar]

which came first, sf4 or nate playing it?

[JLM]

Ggs Joffles and Donut.

How godlike is my Seth Donut? On a scale of Tony to Poongko?

Also also, Tomas Hawk FADC-ing through a tiger shot and then ultra-ing through the next one was the best SF thing I have done today.

[sith]

I beat the world number one T-Hawk 5-0!!

My life is complete, it can only get worse after this.

[joffocakes]

T Hawk Mirrors? Impressive. Give us some replays, Sith sir! I'm not sure I've even seen a T Hawk mirror before.

Also, good work Double O! Let us know what we can train you up on next!

I had some brief but entertaining games yesterday with Jellum and Donut. My connection was a little wild. JLM was on a pretty generous run of characters in Random Select. That Focus absorb dash as Hawk through my Tiger Shot, and then ultra grab through my next one was so, so beautiful. I laughed. Nice Makoto FADC glitchin' reset against my 'rog too!

[ah]

I am playing Demon's Souls today but if anyone wants to play fighting games (or indeed join me in cutting up getting cut up by dudes!), just post up here and I'll shimmy on over.

[joffocakes]

With Ryu it's pretty important to make sure you can cleanly and calmly do his crouching medium kick and cancel it into his fireball.That works wonders for keeping people at a distance. A useful combo to learn links with as Ryu is probably his crouching medium punch, crouching medium punch, crouching hard kick. It can help you learn the difference between chains and links. To make sure you're doing it right go to training mode and set the dummy to "auto block". If you time it right you'll hit twice. Too early and you'll only get one punch, too late and the second will be blocked. Auto blocking dummy is useful for learning when a combo has actually connected.

Chains are normal moves which can cancel into themselves or another normal move. An easy example of this is Ryu's crouching light punch. You'll notice that if you mash the punch button you'll constantly jab; the second jab starting before your first's animation ends. This means you don't have to bother timing anything, really.

Links are different; you do not cancel the recovery animation at the end of your move for a link, but rather time your next attack to come out as soon as your first ends. If the first attack put your opponent in enough 'hitstun' (meaning they're still reeling from the initial hit, unable to act) so that your next is quick enough to hit before they recover, then the moves 'linked'.

The reason it's important to know the difference between these in SSFIV is this: chained moves cannot be cancelled into special moves (there are some character specific exceptions; usually target combos), wheras links can. That double crouching medium punch combo with Ryu is a satisfying and relatively easy link that can help you get a feel for these. You can even change the crouching hard kick at the end for a crouching medium kick into a fireball to push the opponent further back. You'll see a lot of Ryu players use this, but be wary as it's not a "true" block string, meaning the opponent does have a very small opportunity to move in between the cr.mk and the fireball if they're full distance away. This is only really a concern when fighting an opponent with an Ultra or special move which goes through fireballs; they'll usually still get hit otherwise if they try to escape.

Um, yeah. I'm just rambling really. I'm in work on a Bank Holiday.

[ah]

I am playing Demon's Souls today but if anyone wants to play fighting games (or indeed join me in cutting up getting cut up by dudes!), just post up here and I'll shimmy on over.

Haha, I loaded this up and found that I'd done the first couple of areas in NG+ last time I played so I loaded up that dude again, went into 1-3, wandered around, remembered the controls, felt all pleased with myself for spotting a crystal lizard and killing it, then a regular joe with a shield burst through a gate, kicked my shield away and cut me in half with his axe, killing me with one hit.

[joffocakes]

I've been doing that thing where I constantly tell people that Dark Souls is amazing and they have to stop playing what they're playing and buy it immediately even though I've barely played it myself because I always end up on Street Fighter. I might get back into it on my day off.

Also... is this Heggfest thing happening on the 8th of September or not then? It's less than two weeks away, so I'll need to figure out what I'm doing soon. Excited/worried.

[mayor_mike_haggar]

And so begin a Street Fighter training/arms race in Double O's flat. You've adapted to him and started training a bit, if he's competitive just wait until he starts adapting to your adatptions and hitting you with wakeup throws as you cleverly think you're going to block his wakeup dragon punch. that's when the game becomes the best.

Also well done Sith. Was it that wild spanish #1 T Hawk? Was he good? How did you beat him? koujikog is only 18 in the world, which surprises me a bit, since he's meant to be the best hawk of all the hawks.

Oh and I had a nice set with donut and jay ell emm last night. I took more than one match from jellum, which never happens, and I was happy. The fact I now have crossup divekick setups from a few different knockdowns helped a bit, I think. Also useful was jellum inexplicably whiffing an lp machine gun blow in front of me so that I could ultra him. Useful also was the discovery that gouken's ex tatsu beats out an attempted bipson ex headstomp for chip finish.

[ah]

Also... is this Heggfest thing happening on the 8th of September or not then? It's less than two weeks away, so I'll need to figure out what I'm doing soon. Excited/worried.

Yes, seconded. I want to fight you all in real life bruv.

[joffocakes]

Haha, excellent. Vega isn't too bad if you manage to knock him down; there's very few things he can do when getting back up to stop you putting more pressure on him. I'd imagine the quality of Vega player in that arcade is a damn sight higher than most anyway, though.

[Yasawas]

I am playing Demon's Souls today but if anyone wants to play fighting games (or indeed join me in cutting up getting cut up by dudes!), just post up here and I'll shimmy on over.

I started getting back into this over the weekend. Isn't it amazing how many times in the Souls games you both get down to pixel health and you can either attack or heal and whichever one you pick turns out to be the wrong one? Fuck you Flamelurker, probably won't even find him again.

[ah]

I always attack, and usually die.

Going back to Demon's Souls I'm especially likely to take risks on low health because I don't want to use up healing items - there are no bonfires to replenish them :-(

[cale]

Yes, seconded. I want to fight you all in real life bruv.

Thirded!

[mayor_mike_haggar]

really nice set with joeplus just then. your rose has improved a lot sir. I think if you'd punished more of my blocked spiral arrows with cr.mpxsoul spiral you'd have taken many more games. the timing on that is a bit funky to get used to though.

some of those ultra 2 finishes were quite amusing.

[lewismistreated]

What a trooper.

[joeplus]

Aye, GGs! I was wailing and gnashing my teeth a bit with the spiral arrows, don't think I punished a single one properly, when I've done it plenty before. My execution is so wildly up and down, I really need to actually use training mode. Don't think I teched a single one of your bloody tick throws either. I tried to once, and you instant dive-kicked instead.

I hardly ever run a long set with the same characters, was very refreshing (for the record it was something like 11-2 haggar). And Ultra 2 is the bestest. A solid punish ultra might be more useful, but definitely less fun.

[lewismistreated]

Just had a tortuous hour or so on ranked with Rose myself. Over sixty hours on the clock with AE, most of those spent playing as her, lord knows how many on Super/vanilla, and I'm still so, so, so, so shit. I think I had one win in that sixty minutes against a particularly awful Guy player, and even that was riddled with dropped punishes and needless EX usage.

I know exactly what it is that I'm doing wrong, but there are some bad habits that I just can't seem to shake. Firing off mid-range Soul sparks which are easily punished? Check. Trying to use Soul throw as a pre-emptive anti-air against opponents who never jump? Check. Using Ultra II as a pitiful excuse to try and walk up to a blocking opponent and pull off nothing but a measly throw? Big ol' check. Aaaarrrggggghhh.

Fuck off, Rose.

I didn't mean that. I'm sorry. Come back.

[JLM]

Allystars, let's do Marvels.

Also I watched the Revelations top 8s despite all the scandal.

Was disappointed that Vangief and Snake Eyes had to play each other at the beginning of the bracket, though it was also cool to see a clash of the titans mirror match between two of the top three American Zangiefs. So glad that Vangief is back. Even though the AE changes don't suit his style he's still a great player, and he's always been the strongest user of Gief's buttons and most consistent with his combos. If he gets a counter hit standing roundhouse you'll always see him link standing medium punch into light kick into EX green hand for maximum damage when most Giefs don't.

Snake Eyes is great as well though, and has arguably taken Vangief's title of best Zangief on the West Coast since Vangief's temporary retirement. The more godlike Giefs in tournament top 16s the better, particularly as he's still one of Rufus' tougher match ups and has a good shot at preventing those all EG Rufus mirror finals. In fact, at this tournament Vangief and Snakeyes but Ricky and Justin in losers before top 8.

FChamp vs PR Rog was a tremendous set between two players who I think are the best in the world with their respective characters. It's a shame Champ doesn't take SF4 as seriously as he used to because his use of 'sim is so creative and intelligent that it's a joy to watch. He has such distinct and specific playstyles for each match up, has the perfect balance between pure defense and going in for mix ups (maximising his damage whenever he lands one) and when he does get cornered and put under pressure he has that Dieminion-like ability to fight with his back to the wall. Only YHCMochi and Arturo have comparable mastery of the character, and I still think Champ's is better than both when he's on top of his game. Great set between these two in losers' finals as well.

The inevitable Ricky vs Justin Rufus mirrors was much like the others, though I still find them quite fun in a two out of three setting. Justin definitely has the edge at the moment though, and Ricky had to make quite a comeback to take the second game and remain competitive.

Happy Medicine vs combofiend was a fun set. Combofiend currently has five main characters and used four of them in this tournament and I love watching all of them. He went for Cammy here, and it turned out to be a good call as he caught Happy Medicine twitching and getting crouching short happy on multiple occasions. Happy Medicine is a strong player though, and it's cool that he has a sponsor and is able to get to West Coast tournaments now. On current form he's the best American Bison, and there are lots and lots of good ones.

PR Rog tends to get edged out in big matches against Justin, so I was happy to see him get the win here. He refused to take any of Rufus' pressure and did a great job of bullying Rufus with his excellent corner control.

I like that the top 8 up to this point had Dhalsim, Zangief, Bison and Balrog all winning their matches. Good old fashioned Streetfighter characters getting to the final stages, and a nice mix of characters as further testament to AE 2012 being amazingly well balanced for a game with such a huge roster.

Vangief vs Combofiend was tremendous. Two masters of spacing and the mid-range game battling for every inch of space on screen. Vangief trying to pick his way in, and Combofiend using Oni's standing roundhouse and towards + roundhouse to make life as difficult as possible for him and anti-airing everything when Vangief tried to change up his approach. Can't stress enough how good it is to have vangief back. He still has the most distinctive looking Gief playstyle, using Gief's normals and very rarely going for SPD but always threatening it, which allows him to hit his crispy links to punish their attempts to jump away. It's the complete opposite of Aquasilk's style but is just as great to watch. Watching Zangief played well is the greatest thing. I always root for Combofiend in any given match up though, so I was still pleased to see him take this.

Combofiend vs PR Rog looked very frustrating for Combofiend. I really think Balrog wins that match up. He can fight Oni in the mid range and he can fight his way out of Oni's close up pressure and mix ups very effectively. Not sure what Oni is meant to do against a top class Balrog player.

Vangief and Snake Eyes having the same sponsor and sitting down to pool their Gief knowledge before Snakeyes had to fight FChamp was great to see. This alliance of Giefs must surely give him his best chance of finally taking a Streetfighter 4 major. If Aquasilk switched to pad and got an AGE sponsorship they would be my favourite team by some distance.

FChamp vs Snake Eyes in Winners and Grand finals were the best sets of the top 8 for me. Gief vs Sim is one of my favourite match ups, and this showcased everything that's good about it. Justin Wong's commentary for the grand finals set added a lot to the match as it usually does, and I think his point about Zangief players struggling to win long sets due to pure mental exhaustion was spot on. I felt like snake Eyes needed to win the first set and take it there, and that if Champ reset the bracket it'd be Champ's tournament. It ended up being the case, but Snake Eyes somehow still took a game in the second set despite appearing to crack completely just after the reset. So Zangief still hasn't won a major, but a Dhalsim/Gief/Rog top 3 is a very welcome result.

Marvel top 8 was lots of fun too but I've already rambled too much nonsense. I hope Fanatiq doesn't really retire after Summer Jam, JWong and FChamp are still in a class above everyone else and Zero is too good. The best individual bits were KillerKai rolling into perfect range to throw Sentinel out of Hyper Sentinel force and the insane exchange that followed, and Forward using Strider's wall cling to shimmy away from Hyper Sentinel force like the ninja that he is.