Essay

Awesome stuff. See you next month, Joe. We'll do what we can to keep Rikir happy while you're with us.

Awesome stuff. See you next month, Joe. We'll do what we can to keep Rikir happy while you're with us.

So what's the plan for this weekend, 'Loo?

The trick with VF is that the game has a 10-frame input buffer built in to almost everything, so it would take pretty bad netcode to make it feel entirely unresponsive, at least, unless you're very familiar with the feel of what you can react to offline. If Xrd's netcode is at CP or Uniel's level, I don't think the game will be hurting for online players.

Show me the numbers! :D I'm under the impression that we're likely to get Waterloo players as well. Also, I'm not sure if it's still the case, but I was hearing last week that people (or at least Rigel) wanted to run GG first and then BB and UNIEL later. Do you guys have preferences?

Woah. That also explains it. Thank you.

Gameplay related question: Does anyone know what happens in this video at the 3:56 mark? It looks like FAB gets a successful Blitz Shield against Millia's H-Disc, but, after the "Rejected!" message pops up, he gets juggled by the disc anyway. The disc projectile shouldn't be two-hits, so even if the Millia punishes afterwards with a last-second j.K that I'm not seeing, it shouldn't juggle. Successfully BS'ing a projectile is supposed to neutralize it even if it leaves you vulnerable, no? I've been misunderstanding the BS mechanic I bet....

Yo, if anyone else is good to go to Gonq until late tomorrow, I'm dragging you out for pho after.

Yup, nice little bar/restaurant near campus. We went after the last tourney you guys came down for and put two tables together in the back room for two-dozen of us.

It looks like more than a dozen are looking to come up for anime games from Montreal, and maybe even a few more from the distant land of Waterloo. Should be a good time. We should see about reserving the back room at Summerhays for that evening when it gets closer to the date. (Assuming there's interest.)

Apologies for putting damper on those who were getting hype for teams, and thank you St1ckBuG for the quick resolution. If it was teams from the start, I would have been hype too. The points on the merits of team-tourneys are spot-on, especially the second one re: the strategy of it. I want to play that game and will try to make it happen if you organize a NE team tourney with enough notice. Yea, it was just an idea to kind of make the last-minute change-up go over easier. History's/tradition's sake doesn't really matter to me if there's a better solution, but I have no problem with character-lock team tourneys in normal circumstances. Which leads me to... This. Absolutely THIS.

What if they weren't? I can vouch for enough of the serious Canadian +R players competing with both a main and a counter-pick character in mind. It looks like these people are getting a big FU thrown at them for the work they've put in. Is there any reason we couldn't just allow for free-character selection (i.e. pick whoever, win or lose) for inclusivity's sake? That way, both the Japanese players can feel accommodated and so can any of the Western players who are used to playing around with subs. (I'm asking this as a character-specialist who has no intention of switching his choice up. Half the thrill for me in tournaments is overcoming my bad match-ups. I don't want to lord some win over Thelo, for example, just because he chose to run his Justice for the tournament instead of his Axl.)

I'm travelling to NEC specifically for +R and definitely am more in favour of a 1v1 tournament. 2v2 seem alright for regional monthlies where everyone knows everyone, but this is the +R tournament that has been hyped up all year, and is drawing all the international players like me, who are less likely to have a teammate, especially when some of us are travelling in odd numbers. I'll elaborate when I get off work.

Oh yeah, there will be BB. Bruce just knows that, with my fraudulent Litchi taking the last Ottawa tournament, we have no chance of bodying you in BB. What we ought to do is make BB a free tourney and GG $20 entry! Who's with me?! Kappa

Anyone else notice this? 2rio tries to Longing Desperation out of a Zato unblockable and it looks like the start-up flat out gets stuffed by meaty drill-mine. Was it already known that the overdrive is no longer invulnerable through to the active frames? Would explain why I see it less in Xrd.

Noooo. The only week I'm ever not going to have to work on Friday.

November Ottawa Anime Tournament Update Bruce mentioned tonight that the space we were reserving for Nov. 1 has been taken over by a bodybuilding competition, so it looks like we're moving the tournament to mid November. More news to come.

November Ottawa Anime Tournament Update It has recently been brought to our attention that the space we were reserving for Nov. 1 has been taken over by a bodybuilding competition. Since those guys could probably kick our asses, we are now moving the tournament to mid November. More details to follow as they become apparent.

I'm on my way now, but I'm not banking on there being room for anime. Lofo, sage and yuri are all no goes anyway.

The thing is that I'm still hoping to go for non-anime games too. Plus, I'm supposed to sell Yang the pad. Are there other options?

Oh nice. That's all it takes? I already input 2K > 6P+H in some matchups to throw hit-invulnerable wake-up moves, so what's one more button? I'm just curious what the actual timing feels like, because it's probably not the same as wiffing 2K into throw. Is it actually the 2K and 6P that are potentially getting YRC'd in that example? And thank you for translating what you could from the frame data.

Yup, that's the one. Thanks for tracking it back down.

There was a fun video floating around in the first week or two after release that showed that every character's 5A can avoid the auto-combo route and repeatedly jump-install cancel into itself on block via holding 7/8/9. Of course, the content creator wrote off the tech as impractical, as, on hit, you would just get 5A jc. j.A, which meant nothing for most of the cast. For Yuzu, however, it doesn't seem completely worthless to me. 5A 9jc. j.A-j.2C-j.B/C* combos against every character standing, except for Byakuya, Akatsuki, Linne and Vatista, and, on block, becomes 5A-5A-2C.... It still works in block-strings started with a close 2A/5B/2B too, allowing for longer low blockstrings like 2B-5A-5A-2C(-2A wiff/6C/etc...), or the the even-on-block 2A-5A-5A-2C-2B. Unless the opponent is caught by the first move crouching (the main risk, though not as bad if they're cornered), the confirms are pretty straight-forward, just as long as you realize whether or not you already used your combo's jump-cancel. Also, if push-blocked wrong so that a 5A wiffs, I believe they're giving Yuzu an advantageous rebeat. Anyone else been using this? * Use j.B for its cross-up hit-box when started from point-blank midscreen to prevent drop, at the sacrifice of a little damage. EDIT: Turns out it works on Vatista after all. :D

There are overheads in this game that out-range her flash kick though, and force her to break charge to avoid.

I think you're underestimating Vatista's mixup. She has one of the hardest overheads to block in the game (I believe it's her B dive). It hits at the same rhythm off of a blocked jump-in as her land> 2C would, and converts into almost as much damage. It takes a solid read to call out, but is thankfully punishable on block... except when used in setups covered by her exploding crystals... or when she has Vorpal for Chain-Shift, of course. My guess is that the matchup still isn't Vatista-favoured though, as our ranged game seems to be safer and easier to maintain.