Essay

^ And that's why you respect this character or get wrecked. B+ tier my ass.

So, if I understand this right, Blitz Shield is like a quick counter stance that projects a hit back if it counters a strike? Does this mean that it can be safe-jumped like Axl's 623P counter, or is it like a better version of his 214P/K counters that immediately stuns? It at least looked like it had punishable recovery that leads to a counter hit at 2:13 of the Faust vs. Millia vid.

Looks so awesome... as awesome as I-No is apparently feeling after that Faust super.

Streams up and running fine. www.twitch.tv/krackatoa

OK. We're setting up. Room T311, a third floor computer lab in the tech building, alongside some PC marathoners. Just working with one 360 with +R for now, but we can make a quick run to grab more setups if necessary. Come on by or tune into the stream. We'll be here as long as we can hold out through the night.

Alright, going to be streamed on Bruce's channel, http://www.twitch.tv/krackatoa. I'll leave to grab Bruce and his equipment in a minute. - Should be starting after 6, going as late as we can in the spirit of Extra Life. - I'll post again here once we know which room we settle in, so wait for that before heading out, unless you want to just text me for updates. - We won't have a copy of CP, unfortunately, but if we can get someone to bring a copy, I'll post an update. More to follow once we're set-up.

Bruce is planning an impromptu anime fighters live stream at Algonquin starting sometime in the next few hours until "late". We'll need people to bring extra HDMI cables to make multiple setups happen. More details to follow shortly. Also, scan the recent posts in this thread if you haven't already for all sorts of awesome Xrd news from the new loktest! Useful tidbits like YRC's cost 25% meter possible on projectiles and specific frames of certain moves, but if you double-tap them, you will spend meter twice.

JUSTICE MATCHUP INFORMATION Poking Game Strategy Specific Punishes Setups/baits Knowledge Let's get some discussion going on Justice. This hasn't seemed like a bad matchup at all so far for me, but I'm lacking in experience. (Our local Justice prefers to play other characters against my I-No.) Anyone have any thoughts/experience on fighting the huge fembot? I'll come back later and update the first post as information comes to light.

***I figure it's about time we started some discussion around here on the new matchups, so, to try and replicate Honnou's format...*** KLIFF MATCHUP INFORMATION Poking Game Don't. Strategy The key to this match-up for me so far has been positioning. I kind of look at Kliff like a bizarro Potemkin-Axl hybrid that I constantly have to slip under to keep from getting cornered, and out-space until I can mount pressure. I end up using HCL's conservatively; he'll naturally punish them from most ranges, so I save them for halting low airdash approaches and zoning him out at super-jump height. Notes, on the other hand, I'm pretty liberal with in this matchup. They force him into predictable movement and let me better pick my battles. Be warned that once he gets in he does a good job at naturally chasing down our backdashes and 74'ing, so think in terms of establishing space in advance. Specific Punishes 214S (aka. Skull Crusher, DRILL-CRAW): My go to punish has been to instant block him in as close as possible for an air-CH 5P > 5H > tk.HCL/[j.S-j.H xx HCL]/FB.Dive. Regardless of what the wiki says, my testing leads me to believe this move is NOT -12, but rather -7 (for air-hit punish) or -8 (standing-hit punish), so I say error on the side of caution and punish with our fastest move when possible, unless you're godlike with 2-frame SB's and links. 214K (aka. Nape Saddle, pole vault): Jump and instant block. (?) 6[H]: If you manage to cross him up while he's holding this move WAIT and punish the coughing recovery. If you hit a button while he's charging he will automatically turn around to hit you (glitch?). This is also the case with his charged 6P. Setups/baits 214P (aka. Two Steps Forward, counter-stance): Don't let him think this is a free ticket out of your pressure/oki. When your hover normal wiffs through him, you want to be option-selecting a throw with c.S or 6P. Every time he performs the stance in a round, it becomes more and more likely to fail, and, if that happens, your hover normal > c.S/6P will naturally connect instead and you'll get your BnB. Sometimes you want to be safe-jumping, in which case I recommend something like: [hover j.S (hold block) > (1K >) 6P+H...]. If you end up blocking his chop follow up, punish hard before he recovers and throws you. If he stances but decides to wait, you'll (wiff 2K and) throw him before he can recover to throw you. 632146H (aka. Sole Survivor, random-ass dragon's teeth): This is what you're safe jumping for. Remember to block in advance since it's it's frame 0 after the flash. If you block and you're lucky, you'll get pushed out fast enough to place a note on his head before he recovers (notes pass through the spikes). Just error on the side of caution because spikes can appear pretty far out. Understand that, once in a blue moon, the super will launch you behind Kliff on hit and you can punish him with whatever you'd like; however, more often than not, it'll land you in front of him and he'll get a free OTG for even more damage. Knowledge - Gatling hover dash normals never hit him crouching. Even 66 j.S/K xx Fortissimo will get absorbed into the ground before it starts up if he wasn't standing. - Make sure you can tell his crouching hit animation from his standing one if you want to combo into S.Stroke (it looks like he's standing with his head flying back even though he's crouching) - Be skeptical about using Longing Desperation when he's in your face on wake-up as he has a 2-frame window to counter-stance and punish after the flash Corner BnB's I go to that allow for P-Dives: [1-hit opener]6P-5H xx tk.HCL 6FRC6 j.S xx ffVCL, j.S-j.H xx P.Dive, 66 j.H xx P.Dive, 66 j.S-j.H, c.S xx VCL (208 off j.S) [1-hit opener]6P-5H xx tk.HCL 6FRC6 j.H xx ffVCL, c.S sjc j.S-j.H xx P.Dive, 66 j.H xx P.Dive, 66 j.S-j.H xx K.Dive (219 off j.S) I'd love to hear what the rest of you have been experiencing with this match-up, so don't hesitate to chime in.

Should have a PS3 and Xbox for CP and GG tonight at Gonq once we get there. (7-ish?) Come on out for dat anime fix if you don't have halloween plans!

Watch this mysterious Chemical Love "Derivation" cancel the initial HCL into an automatic [airdash j.S xx fast-fall VCL] series, just to troll us current I-no players.

Looks like I'll get to Gonq earlier than usual with the PS3. (Making my way there now.)

Kill la Kill too godlike. What have you done to me, Montreal?

Yo, shout outs to all the Ontario GG-heads who got some games in with us this weekend, and everyone who helped CECC along. Was a sick time; totally worth the trip. Keep up the good shit.

^ Yeah, totally got over-confident and exposed by JeepChan, and then edged out by DarkDragon's Dizzy after taking out his Jam. And, to make matters worse, I previously beat Roldy, who looked like the only player who was threatening Brice in casuals. That's what we really need to do, isn't it? Collude harder next time to take out Brice? :roll: Ok, so my understanding of what happened was that we had the choice to either play GG top 4 Saturday night or Sunday afternoon, but we voted Sunday afternoon. Maybe if we had gone with Saturday we could have been streamed. On Sunday, however, we had to settle for being recorded, which I think was due to internet fluctuations and issues if I overheard mr.mortified correctly. In any event, top 4 was recorded, and they were looking to upload them to Youtube. Otherwise, trip as a whole was a total blast—everything I wanted from my first Toronto major at least. Shout outs to the giant digital traffic signs on the 401 for not letting us get stuck in the 3-hour clusterfuck that would have been the Express lane. As the king I doth decree, play the game moar randomly.

I used to really notice the frame delay on the Xbox version, jumping between 360 and PS3 often, but I'm not really feeling it anymore. I think they patched it out. (Wasn't there something about trying to fix this in the patch-notes?) Might be worth testing for screen/input lag again, if anyone still has the means to. EDIT: Also, hey, there's a new patch on the JPN PS3 version (1.02) and we can now set music to Random or Stage. Macro glitch still works, however.

Lots of I-No footage uploaded to YouTube from Goldenrody today: 2rio vs Tights(ED) and Nage(FA) @7:25 2rio vs Makki(DI) and Samitto(CH) @6:49 OSCA vs Suke(SL) and Godolphin(MA) @3:36 2rio vs FAB(PO) @2:40 Also, even if mynus is too much of a gentleman to post clips of himself cleaning up at TSB, someone's bound to benefit from seeing the I-no play: vs. KevinB(KL), vs. SuperJ(SL), and vs. A3Religion(JO)x2.

I'm probably going to have a late night out tonight, so I wouldn't expect to show up before mid afternoon tomorrow either. Does it make any sense to bring my 360? Would that help with our stick situation? (Any complaints that I used to have about 360 lag feel successfully patched out so far, unless my muscle memory is just on a whole new level than it was in August. I'm able to hit I-No's visual throw FRC on it though, which any lag should otherwise really throw-off.) I'd try and split my time between GG and Skullgirls if you came; getting curious about Squiggly again. Bruce is supposed to be coming too. How are we for setting up your PC for SG, Dev? EDIT: Sounds like the desktop is going to stay put away. Unless someone else volunteers to bring a laptop, I'll bring mine instead, but if mine crashes, we'll have to stop using it.

^ Wake me when they throw Samurai Champloo characters into a fighter that controls like Bushido Blade. (Man that'd be sick.) So who's able to confirm they're in on my car for the Canadian East Coast Championships? (I know Joe's got his own transportation set up, and Dev's out, but Bruce is in for sure.) Registration deadline is this Sunday at 7PM, so we should probably settle soon. With just three passengers, we should be able to cover the gas for $35-a-head at current prices (at worst, $40 if they jump back up to what they were last month). Could easily fit a fourth if people don't mind sacrificing elbow room for cheaper travel. Looking like a Friday night departure, returning Sunday once everyone's tourneys are done. (Expecting Bruce to make Skullgirls grandfinals. Sabotage him if you want to get home earlier. xD) If we still need to fill a seat by tomorrow night, I'll just ask around with the SRKers at Gonq.

Naw, no anime planned at the event last time we checked. Recommend saving your gas money for CECC.

FYI, I oughta make it to Gonq by 7PM with +R, but we are going to need PS3 sticks.

OMG, I actually get payoff via j.P'ing someone at the start of a round thanks to this. :D

I'm sorry man, but I think you're resorting to too much rhetorical hyperbole here and inflating your point. Your "ton" of macro Justice has been ~6 meetups over the course of a little more than two weeks. Against a sample of 6 (7?) individual players, though only 3-4 of us really getting to humour macro Justice and stick it out. While most of us have our mains and multiple subs, there has been a wide discrepancy and variance in the kind of match-up experience you have been getting, and, I'd argue, the level of focus you have been maintaining over long-sets as macro-Justice. Admittedly you haven't given me much macro-Justice experience yet personally because you seem hesitant to play Justice against I-No, and I haven't been playing my secondary characters (my original main, Zappa, and my month-and-a-half-old Baiken) against her much because they are not yet at a level where I feel they are even that competitive against your month-and-a-half-old, non-macro Justice. (That, and the nature of I-no already demands that I focus so much time on her if I want to continue to progress with the character.) From the short time I did play Zappa against your macro-Justice, however, I have to admit that it felt like the worst match-up I have ever personally experienced for myself in a Guilty Gear game. With no room to consistently summon and still block, unless I was hit and given the Ghosts (at which point I could make you deal with up-ghost), it felt completely futile. Inching forward with dashes and faultlessing was not a strong solution as Zappa's effective range and pay-off for getting in just wasn't there. Our two OG players who I know you have played macro-Justice against the most—and from whom you have collected most of your matchup data—are admittedly very different players than me, and, I would argue, the majority of players in the scene. They have a strong background in, and love for, Super Turbo, and have admitted to being more tolerant/desensitized to things like 8-2 (or worse) matchups. (This is compared to me, coming from a competitive billiards background, who's bias is clearly towards games whose discrepancies in fairness and matchup-balance don't horrify me. Hell, otherwise, I might have wound up maining 3rd-Strike, because I enjoy the tactile feel of that game, aesthetics, music and community culture at least as much as, if not more than, Guilty Gear's.) Still, one of these guys has already voiced his complete support of banning macro-Justice, and the other seemed to still be in an ambiguous stance last time I saw him. From these two players, I can confirm that you collected some Sol, Kliff, Johnny, Slayer, Dizzy, and Anji* experience, and I can probably assume some Faust, Venom, Robo, and Potemkin* experience while I wasn't looking. You also showed one of them how to play macro-Justice so as to try out your Order-Sol against it. First of all, I want to immediately remind you that, on his very first time playing macro-Justice, I saw him reach a double-digit winning streak against your HOS, at which point (possibly after eventually taking a round or two) you two switched it up to macro-Justice mirrors and he inexplicably continued to take multiple matches in a row on his first hours of playing the character. You obviously also got enough matchup experience against our (admittedly godlike) local May to hold the firm opinion that that matchup was advantage-May and you didn't like it, and I'm sure I can trust that you got plenty of Millia/A.B.A while I wasn't around. Otherwise, if you are trying to judge the Ky match up from our new Ky player and are just assuming that just because he didn't get completely steamrollered and made some intelligent decisions, that the matchup must certainly be a degree more-even for an experienced Ky player, I think you are underselling how talented a player our local Ky is. At the very least, that leaves us with absolutely no relevant data for Justice vs. Testament, Baiken, Eddie, Jam, Axl, Chipp, and Bridget, so you cannot fairly say that "Nobody in this game lacks the tools to get through missiles", and, even if that sentence was eventually proven true via technicality, it would say nothing about how a Justice that did more than hold some buttons and mashed down repeatedly would fare. I am truly sorry that you haven't yet found +R as fun as AC, but I trust you'll keep giving it a chance and that it will grow on you with time. I can imagine how much it sucks to have A.B.A and Eddie change in ways you don't enjoy, and I'd be lying if I didn't say that I didn't stick with I-No and Zappa because of the buffs I saw coming (or abandon Venom early because of the impending loss of my favourite combo). Whatever the motivation for what you called "wanting to win for the least effort possible", it still betrays something extremely healthy and useful for the scene: competitive spirit. Never let that go! However, on a bigger scale, the health of the scene is ensured primarily by the image it is allowed to convey. At the very least, AC attracted large groups of new players I talked to to the series because it had a reputation of being more "legit"/"balanced"/"rewarding" than the majority of pastimes that it attracted players from (fighting games or otherwise). For an aspiring player who (bear with me) Googles something like "guilty gear accent core matchup chart", how many "7-3's" do you expect them to find? How many multiple ones across the same column of the chart? (Try it out and see what you find!) You know enough other games to know that the answer to this is at least uncharacteristic. The thing about +R now is that, while the game still generally caters to this design goal, we start to notice that Justice could be a bit of an odd ball. Without the glitch, she may very-well have a rougher collection of bad-matchups than the series is used to. With the glitch, she may have the opposite. The question that the community has to ask is whether or not it would be good for the scene's image (which, again, I argue intrinsically bolsters or harms the scene's overall health and potential for motivating competitiveness and growth) to allow this character—one who you have personally admitted to me requires very little investment, and, although not suiting "all personality types" in her game-plan, is admittedly quicker than any other character to pick up and play—to twist the match-up charts in one direction or the other. It seems to me, if we allow macro-Justice, we are at the very least providing ~all players an easy, low-investment counter-pick for her best matchups... something which is almost unheard of in this scene. This sort of thing was a pretty common occurrence in the competitive Mortal Kombat scene, but, in the case of that game, the vast majority of characters could have been called "low-investment", and it actually created a counter-picking culture in that game that helped more characters see tournament play and tech-discovery. In Guilty Gear, this would have the opposite affect, as macro-Justice would be the only real low-investment counter-pick character... in a game that doesn't even have a problem with character-variety at high levels anyway. I'm going to stop there, and I am truly sorry to be putting you on the spot. Please trust I don't mean any personal disrespect. I only think that absolute transparency is essential here, for the community's sake. Talk soon, alright? --- *Characters generally listed from strongest to weakest in terms of the level that the two players in question play these characters at in +R.

I drilled these for awhile and compared them to my ability to escape with reversal backdashes, and found that I actually had more success with the chemical loves, for what it's worth. The directional input buffer on special moves lingers a bit, so I think it's just a matter of whether or not you're more comfortable inputting a button press or a backdash with reversal timing. Play around with the recording feature and experiment for yourself!

I need to really play around with these more in +R, but the one thing I've noticed 2rio doing is hover dash > iad > j.K j.P j.HS. I'm not 100% sure what the advantage of this is, besides the gap between j.P and j.HS will punish someone who accidentally up-backs or mashes, but I've seen it done. Eh, I don't know that it's that pointless. I'm talking about doing a little 'hop' like you say. Just do the j.D-FDC late enough so that the j.S has time to come out. (Too soon of a j.D-FDC and you're immediately hitting the ground and risk dealing with the extra ground recovery that j.D forces.) This should leave a small-enough gap that anti-air normals will get counterhit. It looks like it even has the potential to safe jump some reversals input in that small gap.