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Hadouken: Quality Street Fighter 4 Practice: Ryu vs. Blanka Corner Ultra Situations

ryu-ultra

I got asked a question recently about what I consider to be “good practice.” Earlier tonight I was playing Ryu in Championship mode and played a Blanka in one of the rounds. I’m trying to learn Ryu to complement Balrog and counterpick certain bad matchups that Balrog has. I was in the corner with my back to the wall and blocked Blanka’s Ultra. I held Up Forward as I blocked so that I would jump as soon as the block stun was over and then cross him up with MK. The only problem was, I didn’t know what to follow up with because:

  1. I wasn’t paying attention to my meter because I’m still a Ryu noob
  2. I didn’t know if a combo existed that would allow me to end it with an Ultra in the corner

What ended up happening was that I did something to the effect of D+MK xx Fireball and probably ended up losing the match. But afterward, I still wanted to know if I could end the combo with an Ultra so I went into Training Mode to find out. This was the hourlong process:

  1. In Training Mode, I set the Action option to Record and then did an Ultra with Blanka.  Then I changed Action back to Playback and then got ready to try out a combo with Ryu.
  2. I blocked the Ultra and then started holding Up Forward when Blanka was on the second half of the Ultra (when he’s rolling toward you) so that Ryu would jump as soon as the auto-block finished.  I crossed up with MK and then tried to do D+LK, D+LP, D+LP, D+MK xx EX Fireball -> Ultra.  I tried it a bunch of times and couldn’t get the D+MK to connect.
  3. I decided to try it without the D+LK and was then able to get the D+MK to connect.  Unfortunately it was still hard for me to connect the D+MK reliably even after several minutes of trying.  I then decided to look at the Frame Data. I saw that both D+LK and D+LP had the same Start-Up and Hit Stun so I knew that in addition to it being easier to do two D+LPs, it wasn’t making anything more difficult.  Using D+MK, however, was making things more difficult.
  4. I looked at the Frame Data for D+MP and saw that it actually starts up in four frames as opposed to D+MK which starts up in five.  One frame may not sound like a lot, but when you think about it, that’s a 25% increase which means that doing D+MK instead of D+MP after two D+LPs is actually harder because you have to be 25% faster.
  5. Once I knew that I had a solid cross-up combo on Blanka I worked on getting the EX Fireball attached to the end of the combo.  (It might sound silly to you that I had to figure all of this stuff out but I’m not a Ryu player so combos and I don’t have a lot of really situation-specific knowledge with him such as this Blanka Ultra situation.)  I spent at least 15-2o minutes working on getting the combo down to a rhythm where I wasn’t actually registering the button presses in my head.  I don’t know about you guys, but generally I say the combo in my head as I’m doing it, as weird as that might sound.  But I actually got this combo to the point where I didn’t have to do that anymore, it was just a reflex, similar to playing a short guitar riff.
  6. The last step was to just Ultra afterwards which worked.  Whee!

But then after that I wondered what I would do if I was in the middle of the screen or too far away from the corner to just tack on the Ultra at the end.  The obvious choice was to do the same combo with the EX Fireball ender but to Focus Attack Dash Cancel (FADC) into Ultra.  The only catch is (aside from requiring my to step up my execution) that it takes three EX Meters to do so instead of the one you would need if you were closer to the corner.  Here was the process:

  1. I started out with the same combo (D+LP, D+LP, D+MP XX EX Fireball) and then hit Focus after.  It took a few tries but then I was able to do it every time.
  2. Then I just tried to get the dash in after the Focus by holding MP+MK, dashing, then releasing the buttons.
  3. Once I was able to do those additions to the combo, I tacked the Ultra on to the end.  That took a while (maybe between five and ten minutes).
  4. After I could get that down most of the time, then I added the crossover jumping MK at the beginning and the whole thing came together

After I felt comfortable with the combo, I went back into Championship Mode and of course my first match is against Blanka.  I tried to do the combo every opening I got.  Before I would always try to do D+MK because it felt more natural but now that I knew I was making my life 25% easier because of the difference in Start-Up, I was landing it a lot more!  Unfortunately, when I finally got the opportunity to do the combo, I messed it up, so that just goes to show that Training Mode is no substitute for a real match.  But now it’s only a matter of time before I’ve had to do it enough times when it counts that I can hit it every time.  Overall, I feel like it was a productive session.

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gootecks 19 May 2009 Blanka, Quality Practice, Ryu, sf4, Strategy, Training Mode , , Comments Off

Hadouken: Understanding Why You Lost: Part I

This is part one of an ongoing series that will last as long as I have ideas for it called Understanding Why You Lost.  I’m going to write about reasons why players including myself lose and what we can do about it.  Enjoy!

Part of becoming a better player is understanding why you lost so you can learn from your mistakes.  If you don’t take the time after every lost to really think about why you lost, you’re doomed to continue repeating the same mistakes, probably against the same player, for much longer than you really need to.  Plus, learning from your mistakes will force the other player to change their game, which will force you to repeat the process and come up with another idea, and so on and so on…Here is a short list of reasons you may have lost along with some ways to get past them after the jump…

  1. You got baited
    It sure looked as though you could jump over that Fireball safely and combo them, but then you got a Shoryuken to the face.  If this is the case, learn exactly what went wrong.  Did you misjudge the distance?  Did you think he was going to attack on your wakeup?  Well, now you know, so write it down and don’t make the same mistake again!
  2. There is an information gap
    This is usually an easy one to fix.  Maybe you didn’t know that Ryu’s LP Shoryuken will trade with a Blanka Ball, but his FP Shoryuken will beat it clean.  That’s okay, now you know!  Or maybe you don’t know what to do about Vega’s Wall Dive; that’s okay too.  Chances are someone you play with regularly knows and if not, for sure someone in your character’s thread or sub-forum on SRK knows.  All you probably have to do is ask and someone will probably know and tell you.
  3. You have bad execution
    Having bad execution is sometimes hard to realize.  It’s easy to blame moves not coming out on the controls, but if it’s happening more than every once in a while, chances are your execution could use some work.  If your moves outside a combo aren’t coming out the way you want them to 99.9% of the time, you have bad execution and need to put in the time in training mode until you’re there.
  4. You don’t know the match
    This one can definitely take a lot more time to fix.  In your area, there are probably several players that use the same character, a couple that use everyone else and one or two that use a few obscure characters, depending on how large your local community is.  Chances are, though, there are at least a few characters of the cast of any game you’re playing that nobody uses as their main, or at least competently.  Because of this, if any of you guys run into a player that is even halfway decent with one of these locally unplayed characters, you could easily have some serious problems beating him.

    The only thing you can really do is to take inventory and really see what characters are underrepresented and then either:

    • Make an effort to watch videos of that character versus your main character
    • Learn that character yourself so that you will at least have a firsthand understanding of how he works
    • Convince someone else to learn that character so that you won’t have to, but you’ll all benefit
  5. Time ran out
    Time running out can definitely be a frustrating way to lose.  But you really have to look at whose “at fault” here.  Did you turtle really hard for most of the match and then make one mistake that your opponent capitalized and then he ran away and turtled?  Did the other guy turtle really hard and by the time you got your opportunity, you didn’t have enough time to do enough damage to get the life lead?  Either way, get to the bottom of it and make it a point to correct it next time.

    A pretty good example of this is a match I had with Mike Ross a few months back.  He was using E. Honda and I was using Balrog.  I won the first round by turtling and staying patient.  At the start of the second round, he decided to sit there and not move or press any buttons.  After walking back and forth for a little bit, I decided to do the same.  So we sat there for the ENTIRE round, up until about 93 seconds had passed, at which point I started walking backwards since I knew that he could chip me with a Headbutt unless I was able to dodge it.  Lucky for me he waited until I was already far enough away so that I would see the Headbutt coming and have enough time to do a Jump Back FP right before timeout.

    In this case, Mike was “at fault” so to speak because he was the one who had to make a move first since he was down one round already and if the round ended in a draw, he would have lost the game because Street Fighter 4 gives both players a round and so I would have won since I was already up a round.  Since then, Mike has never turtled against me again and changed his game :) and now he’s beaten me the last few times we’ve played in tournament. :(

Stay tuned for part 2 coming soon…

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gootecks 31 January 2009 Mike Ross, Strategy, Street Fighter 4, Understanding Why You Lost , , Comments Off

Hadouken: Top 10 Street Fighter 4 New Year’s Resolutions

With 2008 coming to a close, what blog would be complete without a post talking about 2009?  Therefore, I’ve created this list half-jokingly to hopefully spark a little interest in really stepping up your game in 2009.  Getting good at Street Fighter 4 in 2009 should benefit you for years because as we all know, Capcom is bound to at least make SF4: Champion Edition and SF4: Hyper Fighting and you know you’re going to be playing all of them!

So here we go:

  1. Quit whiffing throws
    This is probably the number one thing most players can do to improve in Street Fighter 4.  Even though whiffing throws doesn’t usually lead to death as it does in 3rd Strike, characters like Balrog can still do a huge chunk of damage for whiffing throws if you’re not careful.  Instead, learn to Option Select Throw, which means to input LK + LP while blocking.  If they throw, you’ll tech, if they don’t throw, you get a jab.  Either way, you’re not going to get whiff, so you’ll save yourself a lot of life over the course of 2009.
  2. Learn an alternate character
    Simply put, learning an alternate character will not only help you understand the matchup between your main and your alternate better, it will give you a semi-secret weapon to use in a tournament to catch someone by surprise and steal a win or two.  Or you can use your alternate character to counter-pick someone else, such as using Vega against Sagat or Dhalsim against Balrog.
  3. Do your part to strengthen your local community
    What good is being the best at Street Fighter 4 if you’re sitting at home by yourself in training mode?  Get out there and help run tournaments, make friends with more people, become better friends with the guys you already play with.  By strengthening the community, more people will be playing more frequently which will make everyone level up.
  4. Start double-tapping
    This might be a new one for most people.  For those not familiar, double-tapping is where you hit buttons twice very quickly instead of once.  This doubles your chances of the game accepting the input, as well as makes timing links and chains easier.  The most common way of doing this is to do a scraping motion with your index and middle finger, then scrape so that your middle finger is a split second ahead of your index finger.
  5. Start taking notes
    I’m pretty positive that doing this has been one of the best improvements I’ve made to my game in a long time.  I feel like I was able to learn the game a lot easier because I wrote down moves I had trouble with, outcomes of situations I hadn’t seen before and what worked/didn’t work against difficult opponents.  I started off using a small $.99 pocket-sized notepad, but now I use my iPod Touch because it’s easier to find stuff.  Whatever works for you, just try it out!
  6. Break bad habits
    This ties into the whole “not whiffing throws” thing.  You should recognize your bad habits by analyzing why you are losing.  Are you doing wakeup uppercuts too much?  Whiffing throws?  Jumping in and getting anti-aired?  Make it a point to go a whole round without doing one of your bad habits and see how your game changes, even if you lose.
  7. Improve your weaknesses
    Analyze your game and see what your tendencies are.  Maybe you primarily play rushdown style or you’re content to turtle out most matches.  Make a real effort to learn how to play the opposite style.  You never know when you’ll benefit in an important match by being a more versatile player.
  8. Stop taking it so seriously/Start taking it more seriously
    Remember, it’s just Street Fighter!  Or, consider that it’s NOT just Street Fighter.  Many players could benefit from taking it less seriously (myself included) because after all, it’s just Street Fighter and it’s supposed to be fun.  No sense getting all worked up over nothing.

    On the other hand, there are also those who could probably benefit from taking it more seriously.  If you’re going to spend several nights a week playing Street Fighter and you’re not seeing gradual improvement, maybe you need to think about what you want to get out of this.  If you’re just playing for fun, that’s cool and there’s nothing wrong with that.  But if you are really trying to get better, maybe you need to start putting in a little extra effort by starting to take notes, watching more videos or analyzing your play by recording your own matches.

  9. Create written goals for yourself
    This ties in with taking notes on your game.  Since you already have a notebook that you’re writing in regularly, you might as well write down some goals to keep yourself focused.  If you’re serious enough to take notes, you are serious enough to set written goals.

    I set a goal for myself this year that I would go to Japan for SBO and that I would win one match while I was there and I did it.  I also set a goal to get 1,000 listeners for The Street Fighter podcast and now even if it takes a few weeks, most episodes get over 1,000 plays.

  10. Put in more hours
    Maybe you’ve been inches away from getting Top 8 at your local tournament and if you just put a little bit more time and effort into it, you’d be able to do it every time.  Set aside a little extra time and see if you were really that close all along.  Maybe it only takes one more session a week to get that breakthrough.

Phew!  Well there you have it.  There are some potential resolutions for levelling up in Street Fighter 4.  Good luck and Happy New Year!

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gootecks 1 January 2009 Strategy, Street Fighter 4 , , Comments Off
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