Dusty

C0R you should print out the combos and keep them in the freezer so they are fresh for evo. The Mu god will need his set ups nice and fresh for evo. Guard Crush ftw NO RESPECT.

On the bright side he doesn't get very much off command grab without 50 heat.

Correct Fluck. Well mostly, Hazama's pressure is very bullshit (very strong), but only as bullshit as you let it be. There are ways to get out of Hazama's pressure but you have to make a good guess or a read. I'm not saying you'll make the correct read every single time, and if you guess wrong you take 7-8K, yeah its fucked up i know, but hey it's a fighting game you have to take risks to win, playing safe the whole match will get you killed. Characters with very strong and easily resettable pressure (Staffless Litchi, Makoto, Hazama) will force you to literally make a guess to get out of their pressure. But this BS can be handled in the simplest of ways outside of guessing. 1. Look for patterns in the opponents pressure and blockstrings and choose the correct counter measure accordingly. (If Makoto has made you scared to push buttons by staggering 5CC and now does 5C dash 2A to reset pressure, punch that squirrel in the face or SJ out.) Always keep your opponent guessing on offense, your opponent can never cover every single option on offense there's always a way to get out. Don't let them set the pace or you'll die. If your opponent is good and stays unpredictable well shit you have to guess, sucks I know. 2. Okay the super simple stuff. Which some of you may have overlooked. The game itself has defensive mechanics, VERY STRONG DEFENSIVE MECHANICS, that will help you get out of pressure for almost free, almost. ORE GA BARRIER!!: Barrier defense is very strong in this game, the added push back from barrier defense will push the opponent back to where if they aren't paying attention their move will wiff and you can either jump out or hit them in the face for wiffing their move like a dumbass. Barrier defense also forces you opponent to make an unsafe decision to re-apply pressure, for example, Hazama will only get 2 good normals max before he is forced to do a stance overhead reset to get back in. 2A > 5B against a barrier will already have pushed him too far to dash 2A reset, he could do 2A > 5B > 2B > 3C and cancel into stance overhead after 2B or 3C (3C stance is bad) to reset, but ofcourse he could just do it after any normal as good players will to stay unpredictable, but stance overhead to sorta reactable to if your looking for it. The point is by using barrier you are forcing the player to use a more unsafe option to reset their pressure by using the games natural defense mechanic. BACKDASH YO: Most backdashes are decent (minus hakumen lol) and can get you out of pressure in some situations. It's risky but it is a tool and it's there to use. Backdashes can get you out of late chains (depending on the move you backdash), dash resets, and sometimes IAD's (I wouldn't recommend backdashing that). But yes if you feel pressured sometimes a well timed backdash can get you out. If you backdash a gapped blockstring and the try to chase you down stick out your normal before they can. If you backdash and they wiff a move you could try to punish them or you could back off and play neutral. Yes backdashes are risky but the strong part about them is your opponent most of the time will have to call out your backdash just to punish you for trying it (most backdash call outs being unsafe) and you usually will get out anyway if they try to call out a backdash and you don't do it. 3. DEAD ANGLE (AKA Counter assault): 50 meter to get your opponent the hell off of you sounds pretty good to me, especially if you can play the better neutral game. Yeah if can be baited but it's kinda hard to do. This is everyone's, man i don't want to block right now mechanic. Building and keeping 50 meter if you play confidently isn't too hard to do. 4. FLASH BLOCKING (lol huey253): Instant block enough said, create your own gaps in pressure. IB hazama's 5B and now he's -1 and now you don't to be afraid of the dash reset and he has to go into another gatling or get counter hit. Huey253- I flash block all the time. The games natural defense mechanics won't 100% get you out of every single situation, but they sure do help ALOT with breaking out of pressure. Try using some of these mechanics and I guarantee you'll be surprised with what you can get away with, seriously. Side note: Command grabs are scary

Word of advice from a Hazama player If he gets a knock down in the corner his 2A>5C OS will beat everything (2D, 4D, 5D, Jump, throw) except wake up super so keep that in mind if you're getting pressured really bad and you see him doing 5C meaties. As for neutral game this can be very annoying for noel, hazama can run away from noel for poke her with chains but if you make a good read and IAD you can slowly close the gap. Pay attention to his chain gauge and try to rush in when he has 0 stocks (most hazama's don't pay attention to their gauge and will try to run away when they have no stocks punish them HARD). Play patient, noel does more damage overall and and has better abare so this is a very winnable match.

Buppa sucks that guy didn't even qualify for SBO, stop using him as a hazama role model your wasting your time watching that BS. Hazama isn't an easy character to play at a high level Litchi says hello LOL America holding 7 to victory.

Naww he's way more boring, not enough ice in his combos imo.

HELLLLOOOOOO Rachel Forums

I will most likely be attending unless something comes up. I will also be bringing a monitor, it's not an ASUS but it's a pretty good monitor without any noticeable lag, if you guys don't want to use it it'll stay in the car then. Also I would prefer PS3 ofcourse, but i wouldn't mind 360 if PS3 doesn't have CS2, and I could just let my PNW buddies use my stick 360 stick all tournament.

IMO I like all the changes that Hazama got (except the 1 chain back on block, but i can't complain about that, i feel that it was needed with the buffs he got). I defiantly believe that he got buffed ALOT more than he got nerf'd. I think he's better in CS2, he has better chain zoning, once he gets 50 meter he's not playing CS2 anymore (His relaunch combo doesn't have to come from unsafe moves if you can hit confirm), he gets to do whatever he wants in a match due to chains and his buffed normals that were already really good (2A +1, 6B +3 jesus was this necessary?). Honestly Ark system works messed up on the balance of this character, 6C pinning to the ground and not having same move poration was a mistake, but hey they can't predict everything and everything can't be discovered in the loketests. Eventually there will be another patch and the tiers will most likely flip flop again. But for now Hazama isn't the best but is pretty broken. All in all I am happy because he's better, a minus is he's a bit more Auto pilot with his new normals, a plus he's a bit harder to play due to hit confirms and chain stock management. I'm quite happy to main the man with the TOP HAT

Your doing it wrong. Tested it and you dont need lvl2 214D~c connect all the chains. You probably started doing something different to make it connect.

Reactable J.a?

Obiviously.....JUSTIN WONNNGGG!

I agree this argument is over as you could not give me any good counter argument on why my reasons were false. It is more tiresome when the other side cannot hold up a legit argument or give you any reasons on why yours aren't relevant. I think you should learn how to play valk instead of doing combos and set ups in training mode and saying this character will be good without taking other characters into account which is how a tier list is set up OR you should learn to play this game because obviously you think its about valk but its valk vs. the cast. but hey this argument is over, good job getting bodied

I said you should have decent yomi, if he changes into wolf form your going to get command grabbed but if you have decent yomi is won't happen as often and it won't be as big of a treat, same goes for bang,hazama, and plat's command grab, BUT valk has to change into wolf form to do his meaning they don't have to worry about it until they see wolf or they have low wolf meter meaning your command grab is ALOT more telegraphed that the rest of the cast's. and yes your wolf mix up is slow because if i SEE you transforming into wolf I have a free chance to mash out and there's nothing you can do about it unless you back off and bait it. Yeah the wolf mix up is hard to block but turning into wolf and mixing me up with me still respecting you is a problem. Valk non wolf mix up IS BAD there's a SLOW overhead that i can hit you out off on reaction to seeing it, if i do block it and you turn into wolf for a second overhead then hey look he's turning into wolf 5A him out of it it's that simple, but you do have rising j.C but you need 50 meter to combo off of it. Bangs pressure was nerfed but he can still go all in with some of his new gatlings plus he still has nails even though they're not as good, i'm sure those bang players will figure it out. Plus like I said before valk CANNOT instill the fear of YOUR GOING TO DIE IF YOU DON'T BLOCK THIS into players alos against valk you can take more risks because it's not going to hurt as bad as some of the other cast. Also so we agree that valk does not have true oki so how can he be upper tier in a more pressure based game where other characters have true oki and output more damage than him?

Bang's pressure is far superior with nails as he can force you to sit there atleast in CS1, i believe D nails was nerfed in CS2 but bang gets frame advantage in CS1 even if you IB TK D nails, then he can 5A which MAKES you sit then go for a frametrap, overhead that can gatling into another overhead, or command grab, bang obviously has more options than valk. valk cannot make you sit there. The other main difference is YOU HAVE TO RESPECT BANGS MIX UP, even if you try to mash out of bangs overheads he'll counter hit YOU, you don't have to respect anything about valk's mixup. If he's pressuring you and you see him transform into wolf mash that 5A or GTFO, his overheads are slow and he can be hit out of them regardless of what valk does. (Or you can play SF4 and uppercut when you smell bullshit and hit valk) Ragna can mixup under the safety of dead spike Hazama can mix up of 5B (it's +2) or he can jabaki and Rapid cancel for safe mixup Litchi has staff oki Rachel has George and instant overhead J.A Makoto has orb Plat has bubble and hammer...goddamn that hammer...... I could keep going All of these set ups for mix ups you HAVE to respect or else guess what your gonna get counter hit, Valk doesn't have anything like these to make the opponent respect you on offense. VS. wolf mode pressure block low and react to that thing flying at you for the overhead which is pretty slow. Command grab? Just have decent yomi which is required for high level play. How hard is it to block the wolf mix up again? Btw you shouldn't be guessing on blocking mix up you should be REACTING.

In CS2 the top tiers WILL take away half your life if you get hit by them. So the damage reduction as it may be need FOR CS1, some characters in CS2 can do about the same bullshit damage output he could do in CS1 but now he cannot, dropping Valk in tiers. Valks mixup in NOWHERE rear the best in the game. Valk's pressure cannot keep you shut down nor is it SAFE TO DO, Valk can be hit out of ANY of his mix ups while other characters can mix you up safely behind frame advantage or set ups and they can get BIG DAMAGE off of hitting the opponent behind this safety. When you have a character who you can beat by mashing when you SEE their mixup cannot have the best mixup in the game. Also I guess you'll have to quit then Orion cuz I've seen Spark block the Valk/wolf mixup then disrespect it and kill Valk. There are a lot of characters that have solid oki and footsies, except other characters get more reward for it. Just about any character can be relentlessly pressure people in the corner if you are doing it right, but if a upper tier character pressures you, mixes you up and if you get hit you just don't eat shit, YOU STRAIGHT UP DIE, valk doesn't have the ability in CS2 to instill this fear into an opponent in CS2 (God forbid you get hit by hazama mid screen when he has 50 meter). The risk reward for mashing out a valk is nowhere near even, some characters can mash you out and take 50% life for getting that sweet counter hit, this can happen every time you try to pressure them, this is not even. The same can go for an opponent who is mashing and gets CH by valk but hey learn to mash at the right times. Why I feel like Valk is low mid - mid tier at best is because sure he's a good character and yes he has tools and options, its just other characters do it better. I feel like you guys only rate Valk as you seem him by himself but you have to take into account the other characters options, because it's a fighting game which i feel like you guys forgot about. One of Valks weaknesses is having no reversal while other characters for example Jin does have a reversal and can do damage and have good oki. When you take other characters options into consideration vs. Valk options seems to be lacking in some area's Your doing it wrong.

I would put valk in lower mid-tier or mid-tier AT BEST. Orion has some very valid arguments like valks footsies as the range on those normals can zone some characters by themselves and moving around with wolf form can make valk very agile and attack from anywhere on the screen. But valk has too many flaws in CS2 to make him a heavy contender in B tier and defiantly not A tier. 1. The damage has been reduced across the board (minus makoto,noel,jin, and hazama), you may not see this as a flaw specifically for valk at first but this leads to my next reason. 2. His mix up and pressure as good as it may SEEM TO BE is unsafe. Sure alot of moves are plus on block but that have a long start up and if you get predictable to CAN be hit out of your mix up/pressure (unless you are using completely safe pressure but then you can't open your opponent up). 3. The reason why valk is so good and borderline broken in CS1 is because of his FRAME ADVANTAGE FROM HIS NORMALS AND DAMAGE COMBINED (And 4k off counter assault but that's just my gripe). When you take away the fear of getting hit for 6k+ players are more confident in taking the risk of pushing buttons to get out of valks mix up or pressure, which is valks main weakness as valk can be hit out of many things. 4. CS2 is a more pressure and offensive based game (at least in the corner) and since valk has no way of getting out of pressure he will mostly get pressured and oki'd to death. (my advice to valk players learn to block and COUNTER ASSAULT IS GOING TO BE YOUR FRIEND IN CS2!!!) 5. Plat is really good. She has just about every tool and will very likely be one of valks worst match ups as she has the tools to out zone him but more important bubble oki. Plat can keep valk stuck in the corner and mix him up til death. Valk will still be a very viable character in CS2 but only if you valk players learn to PLAY VALKENHAYN instead of playing combos (<----- Thumbs up if you know what this means)

But Dacid has horrible nerves when he does MM I've seen it first hand, so how do you fix that? I know BET MORE MONEY!

Shoutouts: Dacidbro for being a cool guy and living up to his hype IRL. Copperdabbit for taking the time to play me in some casuals and teach me the arakune match up. Chun for one of the best tournament organizers I've ever seen. All of Cali for being down with the PNW hype and smack talk (It was all in good fun, we have nothing but respect for you guys) shoutout to my hazama t-shirt :3 and shoutouts to GRAVITY SQWEEEZZE!!! SPREAD DEM BUTTCHEEKS WE GOIN' IN!

Dat nigga famous

[1] Personally I prefer the RC j.6D I consider it the cool guy combo as it looks the most stylin'. Only use the 632146C super if it will kill them and YOUR OPPONENT HAS NO BURSTS! As the super is burstable and Hazama is left helpless waiting to get hit in the face by your opponent who will have their way with you. Dash 3C to jayoku is only good midscreen off fatal counter jayoku or fatal counter 6C (lol challenge mode combos), otherwise the poration will be really bad and it won't be worth the meter. [2] 2B pick up will work on the whole cast, 5C pick up will only work on the characters with big/weird hitboxes for example tager, rachel etc. You could go into training mode and test what works on each character.

Looks like I'm heading to GameWorks.

1. Practice 2. Whatever feels the most comfortable to you.

To get the (Dash) 5B you have to link the dash right after the 214D~C, it helps if hazama is close to the opponent when the 214D~C hits. As for the j.214B# part that gets a little bit complicated, the way i get it to work is i start to mash j.C early so i hit them while i'm a bit below them and when I JC he goes to the other side. (I can only get it to work about 70% of the time as it makes it harder to complete the J.214B# because they might fall out)

Dusk explained it wrong, it's an option select and the input is, 236236B while the opponent is in the corner (assuming haz is on the P2 side while it's happening) if the opponent rolls out of the corner they will get hit by jayoku if they don't roll out of the corner, 5B comes out. Ofcourse the opponent could always just quick get up, roll REALLY late, or just not roll at all and punish 5B wiff, but Hazama will usually have time to recover and meaty the opponent. If you're really scared of getting hit for wiffing 5B, OS 2362363AB will work as well, if they roll out of the corner they will get hit by jayoku and if they don't you get barrier. Dusk that really wasn't a good example of explaining oki or punishing rolls as Hazama is the only one in the game who has a OS that hits rolls (that we know of). The simple answer to his question is rolls are punishable if you look for them. Oki is not strong in BB but it's decent in the corner. If you get a knock down in the corner you can do a move early to pick them up off of the ground and combo (IF THEY ROLL OR DON'T TECH) for example Hazama's 2A, and still have time to meaty them if they neutral tech. That doesn't mean you can't punish someone for a roll in the middle of the stage, you still can, but it depends on what your character can do.