how do you "read" opponents?

[BlazGear]

Now I've been playing BB on and off sin 09' and well I've been playing Ragna on and off. And one of the problems i've been facing every time is that I'm just no good at reading opponents or i rarely ever learn how to counter what another player throws at me aside from the average Ragna player. And to be completely fair I'm not the best at this game, i consider myself Average. I don't have trouble with 90% of Ragnas combos, I just don't seem to pick anything up after playing countless matches in BBCSEX.

I do have a friend here who comes over and is really good at the game, he's just bad at explaining how he goes about playing this game. So I am wondering if any of you have any helpful advice, I enjoy the crap out of this game. I always enjoyed watching other play it, and even when I'm no good it's fun to play. I've been a follower of FG's for a while and I really do want to be more of a player than just watching my friends or videos online.

[Dr.Patient]

Just watch what they do, and how they play as you fight them, each person has a signature way of playing, for example, I'll sometimes drop a combo and watch the way a person techs so I can set up tech traps, once you get an idea of what that person likes to do, set up things that will punish someone for doing that specific thing.

[Manta]

Pay attention to the in game variables. How much heat do they have? What's the life difference between you and them? How much time is there left? Does Tager have spark bolt ready? How much Wind does Rachel have available?

These are the things that people base their decisions on, and you can predict them using this information. For Ragna, you often don't see random risky inferno dividers, unless they have 50 heat or more, then you see them all of the time. Similar, people who are losing a match badly may resort to much more risky tactics, whereas someone with a comfortable life lead may stick to low-risk strategies.

[Fluck]

A good bet is that if someone is doing something a lot, he'll keep doing it until you make him stop.

This doesn't just apply to obvious stuff like 'he likes to air dash on me so I should probably AA him' or 'he likes to DP so I should probably block more'. There are ways to call out almost anything, even usually safe stuff like jump back, IAD backwards (air throw/IAD forwards air throw), DP RC (backdash), jump-in into normal (DP in between) etc, as long as you know he will do it. Every human has patterns, watch out for them. That's how you make a read.

Edited June 7, 2012 by Fluck

[YukiBlue]

Making a "Read" is just another term for taking an educated guess. You look at the variables, and look for what he is "Most likely" to do.

For example, lets say you are fighting me. I love to jump and IAD around as Bang. You're playing as Tager and you Gadget Finger me. From what you've seen, I like to jump a lot, so using Atomic Collider would be a great "Read" on your opponent (This is just an example, by the way)

So lets say you're fighting a really grab happy tager, you would suspect he is going to grab you after Gadget finger right? Jumping then coming down with a CH combo is a solid read.

Educated Guessing.

[BlazGear]

alright I think I get the picture now, thanks a lot you guys.