tolore

I'm in the middle of the first video, so far it seems pretty good. A couple things though, you waste a lot of meter in your combos. Sometimes you do blue romans that you can't combo off of, and some times you roman stuff during combos and get only a tiny bit of extra damage. Meter is REALLY important for baiken, without blue romans you can't pressure very long, and without red romans you don't have good mix up. So once you're looping them in the corner doing a blue roman to extend the combo is often not worth it, and using 2 blue romans is absolutely not worth it. 5A is an awesome tool for wake up that I haven't seen you use at all. It's low/throw mixup when you're low on meter. If you have 50% for TK yozansen red roman it's high/low/throw completely unreactionable mixup. It's super cool. I'll edit/post again when i'm done watching. edit: Beggining the round with suzuran is high risk low reward, don't do it. wake up super is also usually not that good. Most of the stuff it beats is also beaten by block counter/block run away. Also if you tag someone with a j.d and roman and air dash, if it's going to kill them do AD->j.s->j.d It's guaranteed to work while AD->tatami is harder to time and won't work from some spacings. edit again: Just finished the second one. More on wasting meter. You need to learn your spacings so you know when you need to FRC/RC and what to follow your FRC/RC's with. there's a lot of times where you FRC when you could have combod them without spending meter at all, and there were times when you FRC/RC'd and followed upwith something that didn't work. Your pokes also need a little bit of work, sometimes you throwout moves when the enemy is really far away from you that have very little chance of hitting. edit the 3rd: use your anti air(6p) more often, it's an excellent anti air that nets pretty good damage, it's very useful against ino. Gold bursts in general aren't very useful, your bursts in general are in weird places. work on your IAD tatami's.

the gg example was to show that i was bad at predicting throws(since that's the only way to avoid them in GG), I also do not have great reflexes, but I break a decent amount of green throws. IMO if I can do it, other can do it VERY consistently(and from my experience they can indeed). That's not to say throws never work, but it's pretty uncommon.

Most of the better players I play with almost never get thrown, I have sucky reaction times and am bad at avoiding throws( I got raped by throws in GG because I played baiken, never really got over that weakness) and I still break green throws some times.

the time's i've seen the actual hiragana it's been ソウジ, but I don't pay a lot of attention. As for the nu thing, it's the same thing I was talking about earlier with the 6A->6B, you can train your opponent to do things, but if one options beats both ways you have of doing it there's no reason not to do that. If I'm understanding what copper dabbit said correctly when you teleport then she can just 2C at you, and even if she guessed wrong and the 2C whiffs, she recovers and can then do ANOTHER 2c and still get you. I personally have not had very good experience messing with teleports against Nu's that are decent. IMO the only legit ways to use teleports are for mix up while they are cursed or cloud positioning, but I will also admit I have not experimented as much with them as I could. In my experience though teleports are not all that useful. As a random note I watched a random one of the vids matt just posted(great job linking all those vids for us, it'd be nice if you had made the first post instead of the guy who no longer edits it), and every single one of Souji's teleports was horribly punished. I know that's not necessarily indicative of their uselessness, but it does show how risky they really are. Random Edit from way in the future: Abstract, you truly are a king among men

The problem with teleporting(ESPECIALLY against nu) is that it's punishable, the reason you aren't getting punished badly for it is that they are punishing the wrong way. You use the teleport forward->teleport back tele a lot, and they try and hammer you hard for it, miss and then you're safe. what they SHOULD do is jab hit confirm, if they throw out a jab or 2 and you teleport away and they miss most characters can chase you down and get you in the recovery. So if you teleport there's a few things that can happen if they do the jabs. 1. you get jabbed and combo'd when you teleport next to them 2. they miss the jab when you go next to them and they chase you down and get you when you pop up again 3. they miss the jab and don't manage to chase you down Lets analyze the telports that happened in that match. teleport 1, about 40 seconds in: you do the fake teleport forward when she is airdashing with an attack face first into your cloud. Gain from teleporting nothing. Gain you would have had from just blocking the air attack: a chance for a combo or more time to set up positioning after she got hit by cloud instead of recovering from teleport. Risk taken: Had she done anything NOT air dashing into your cloud she could have punched you when you appeared next to her, or done any of her long range normals to catch you out the other end and probably got a combo. teleport 2, about 1 minute in: you do a back dash followed by a fake forward dash. She jumps after you to follow the back dash, then jumps again to follow the forward dash and runs face first into a bug. This was her being dumb, the exact same thing would have happened had you not faked the teleport and just straight up dashed away from her again. Heck it might even have happened had you stood there doing nothing, and even if you stood there doing nothing she would still have to block blogs and then you can pressure her. As with all teleports, you take the risk that had she not instantly chased you down she could have done basically whatever she wanted to to you while you were recovering, as you had already thrown all your bugs out while teleporting in a way where they wouldn't have really covered you. teleports 3 and 4 at about 1 20: This mainly worked because she threw out a jab that had no chance of hitting where you teleported too and then threw out a move that actually would hit you. Had she thrown out the longer ranged move first she would have likely recovered in time to hit you when you popped back to your original position(which was RIGHT next to her). The second one was alright, it caused the staff to fall down far away from you which was nice, but it again has the problem where it was a risk, if she hadn't chased after your teleport(which she didn't necessarily need to since the staff was about to drop there), she would have been able to punish you, and for that risk you gained basically nothing(in fact she was still right on top of you after the teleport and you got hit almost immediately after it). teleport 5 at about 1 36: This one was almost good, if you had placed c bug properly it could have been a nice cross up(one of the few actual good use of the fake out teleports). But instead none of your bugs even forced her to block, which meant she could easily have hit you when you came out the other end OR punished when you reappeared. So basically you took another risk without gaining anything(if you were TRYING to do a cross up with bugs you get some credit for the attempt, if you weren't than that was a horrible teleport). teleport 6 at about 2 04: you did another back dash fake forward dash. The only reason you got away with this one is again because your opponent is basically doing things at random. when you back dashed for whatever reason she jumped straight up and through out a high in the air poke horizontally even though you were on the ground. Then you fake teleport RIGHT next to her, this leads to the options above where if she jabbed and payed attention to what happened(instead of hopping around for no apparent reason) your BEST case is going back to neutral. this time it's HIGH risk for a best case of no reward. teleport 7, 8, and 9 at about 2 30- 2 40: Air to ground teleports. The first couple teleports do basically nothing, one baits an anti air that wouldn't have hit you anyway and doesn't punish it in any way shape or form, the second one did basically nothing, the third one got you hit. Litchi is always gonna kick the staff low like that since it'll come back to her and get you on the way back that way she covers the ground while she goes up to get you(she has to go up because the cloud is down low). You teleport straight into her stick The stick being there was basically inevitable, but let's just pretend she didn't throw the stick out right there, what do you gain out of those teleports? Again I'd say basically nothing, if she goes up to get you you'll just not be there, she doesn't lose anything like that(if anything she GAINS position/mobility advantage), if she attacks low she gets you, if she does nothing then you get slightly closer? diagonal down air dashes with block would have gotten you towards her faster and safer. teleport 10 at 3 26: great use of teleport, that's exactly what it's supposed to be used for, you got a pseudo cross up that even if it hadn't worked would have been protected by bugs and allowed for pressure. It was still kind of risky because of her dragon punch, and also would have been a bad idea had she not stood up into your cloud immediately before hand. I believe that's it. Basically all of those were a risk with a very low chance for a not very good reward, high risk + low reward and bad odds is not at ALL worth it. as for nu, here's a quote from copper dabbit, probably the most experienced arakune vs. nu fighter in america

you shouldn't take things to personally Skye, we're all here to help eachother learn and get better. Some of us are just too lazy to make our advice sound all nice and flowery.

I feel like this should be some sort of childrens book

The real scary part about litchi though is her corner pressure, which I basically saw none of. It's pretty hard to block her mix up hidden behind that staff, and she can keep you there pretty well, you tried to roll out that one time in there, but she only poked you and didn't get nearly as much damage off it as she should have.

I don't really know a whole lot about online play, I have like 60 matches under my belt from when I first got the game, but I haven't really played since. I just look at all match videos as if they were offline. IMO if I can't use my offline strategies then the online might as well be worthless, although I have live comp so I have room to be picky(I know others aren't quite as lucky ).

that litchi wasn't very good, had like no corner pressure and threw out a lot of stuff at random, also ran face first into clouds/other cursy stuff basically at every opportunity. The biggest thing I can say is capitalize, you hit her with a lot of stuff that could have netted you lots of damage(i'm not talking entirely about whiffed combo's there's stuff where you just don't go for anything off a hit). You also don't seem to have a plan of attack, once you get her cursed(which basically only happened because she was running face first into stuff) you seem to just do moves randomly and hope the move or the bug hits em. Several times you jump air dash downwards with j.b when she is no where near you, or even way above you, or jump forward and 6a/b/c way above her head and then do a dive way over her to the other side, or just start teleporting randomly. Basically it seems like you are just doing stuff and praying she runs face first in to bugs(to be fair the litchi DOES run face first into a bunch of bugs but that's still not a good strategy). Additionally you positioned yourself in such a way that when she DID kill herself on bugs you couldn't capitalize off of it. That litchi's pressure was really bad which means you don't even have to instant block or really do anything at all if she's cursed and your blocking to release C and get a free counter hit C bug. C bug in the middle of other peoples pressure is AMAZINGLY good. The bell was... gutsy i'll give it that. Bell is very punishable from most ranges, but she was pretty far away. If you had someone really on the ball they would've been able to get you for that, but even against good players they may have missed that opportunity because of the range(although litchi's normals are REALLY long). Litchi is one of the people you can use 5C against a little bit more effectively, but it's still pretty dangerous, she can still safe jump her normals, and I think she can stop her air momentum and throw her staff diagonally down at you to punish our horrifically slow anti air. it's tough to say, arakune's 5C is such garbage, but it's so good if it actually lands. Learn dive cancels, unless that was a tournament match every single one of those dive attacks should be an attempted dive cancel. Yes, I know they are hard, but really I got em to about 90-100% accuracy in training mode(including varying the height I hit them at) in 2 training session each less than an hour(I still am only about 30ish% in real match for getting a 5.b dice cancel but a lot of my misses still give me a 2B dive cancel). Dive cancels are ridiculously important, you could have gotten a ton more damage/better pressure with it. you teleport way too much, it's fine occasionally, but you teleport a lot and the only reason you likely get away with it is online+scrubby opponent.

2D is really dangerous if they are looking out for it, though if you have the 6D bell out it's pretty safe. I need to practice using 2B some more, but 2B is awesome, although it's out for such a short time and has such a wierd hit box so it's semi difficult to use(also requires knowledge of what exactly it beats). It's stupidly safe(it's + on block!), leads to good combos, and basically rules your opponents face. 5C i have very little respect for as an anti air, it literally doesn't work against hakumens who pay attention(counterable on reaction, IAD moves can land and block 5C). It does have a great hit box and is super awesome if you hit them, but it's too easy to stop. Your defensive options are basically 100% correct, IB 5a->6B is a great option if you know where to throw it out. It doesn't just break pressure it SHATTERS it, at mid screen or greater you get a cloud and knock them hella far away, and if they are near the corner you get a combo into curse. counter assault->super is also unbelievably amazing, it's really funny because it can basically kill the opponent, end a combo in knockdown then throw bugs at them on wakeup and watch them chip to death. i wouldn't say j.b is a good way to approach ESPECIALLY with mind games, it HAS to have mind games. It is pretty easy to anti air it, although you can clash and beat some anti airs at some distances if you are too predictable with the j.b's you'll get wrecked. Most efficient range depends on whether they are cursed or not, what clouds you have out, and who you are fighting. As for matchups, good luck on nu 13, as far as I'm concerned that matchup is unwinnable(I know it's not but I absolutely cannot figure it out). Hakumen is a lot better off than people give him credit for, but people suck so they think hakumen can't win(it's still a rough match for him but it's not even CLOSE to unwinnable). Tager on the other hand is free, you just gotta learn his blockstrings(he's got a lot of frame traps but if you're used to it you can get out of them easy). IF you are paying attention you can anti air rachel out of her pressure strings when she jumps and tries to drop on you with the pyramid thing. Rachel can also kill your clouds with her godly godly anti air(as a random note her anti air beats your 2A), but if she does you can snipe her with j.d(you can also snipe random cannons with j.d). I haven't really figured out Tao yet, mainly because I don't think our tao player has figured out arakune yet. She has really good/annoying pressure and mobility, and good air to air, but once you've got her cursed, or got some clouds and bell bugs out she has a really hard time actually getting you as long as you play conservative. Litchi's dragon punch is really good/annoying, and stay out of the corner unless you like mixup that's almost completely blocked by a spinning staff. For ragna keeping him out and having a good defense in general is really important(it's always important but ragna's pressure basically never ends unless YOU end it). Jin is tough, his A dragon punch is IMO one of the most irritating/good moves in the game, I can predict it, instant block it, and still not be able to punish it in any way. It makes jin really hard to approach from the air(and thus really hard to approach at all because our ground game sucks so much). He can also bait anti airs if he has 25% meter by IAD then using the triple ice shot. 2B is really good in the jin matchup I believe, I haven't gotten used to using it though.

I'm confirmed, i'll be there! bb and gg teams and singles!

i'd like double, more playing = more better!

I'll have to check the dates, but if I can I'll be there, i'll be back later this week or next with something more definitive. Green Man redmond washington GG singles, teams(if anyone will have me) BB singles, teams(if anyone will have me)

because they are obviously safe jumped, the grab works, but it's throw techable, it still works most of the time, but i've had someone watching for it.

it can also happen if they do low aerials and land in the middle of the active frames, just random stuff to watch out for.

if they are REALLY looking for it they can throw break it, that's pretty hard though(had it happen a few times).

5a(1-3 times)->6B->jump cancel->j.6a/b/c(depending on distance)->jump cancel j.6a->236 c->RC->j.c->j.d requires 50%, only close to corner

Yeah I already use those(sometimes jump throw also), but in general I get nothing but going back to neutral, with him much closer to me than he was before.

yeah, he's a jerk like that!

yeah I can't wait to start trying that out in real matches, I imagine it'll take me a little bit to get it down outside of training mode, but it's such a powerful tool. It's also great that 5b does more guard damage than most other moves.

I have a hard time gauging my own pressure without watching video's, and these are the only videos I have, so I'll have to say I don't know on that one. I also haven't gotten to play since I learned how to dive cancel into 5.b(I can do that consistently in training mode now). edit: I'm really gonna have to say probably yes to the prssure thing though, just because I'm in general better at everything than I was then.

the problem is he doesn't do the counter till he see's me 5C, he's not predicting my 5C he's reacting to it. He does something different if I try any of the other stuff as anti air(usually he blocks and breaks throws as that covers all the bases). Mixing up my anti air options was the first thing I tried when he started doing that, I can for the most part avoid getting owned when he does it, but i almost never land a successful anti air against him.

here's some of my vids. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DcAQFx4AdM My combo level is embarrassing in this one, I had no idea how to pick up combo's off of countrhit dives(and i definitely didn't know how to dive cancel yet). I also do some really stupid stuff like wtf random air spider legs, and random 2a->2c on block, I also don't break a purple throw at one point . here's two more against a hakumen player, I usually lose against him . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJwL-tn9J6A http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdEH84cH-q0 I lost and ended up in 5th place, not too terrible. edit: my combo execution is pretty embarassing in that second one too, I'm a lot more solid with my combo's now. edit again: actually watching the rest of the video i think i was comboing bad evern for what i normally did back then. I'm gonna blame the 2 hours of sleep and 1 hour car drive it took to get there. My poor v-13 combo's make sense since she's awkward to combo and i hadn't really practiced combo's at that point, but i play h akumen basically constantly i shouldn't have been dropping NEAR that many. Any advice other than 'stop dropping combo's' would be greatly appreciated though!

If it'll win the round and if it's GUARANTEED I guess it's alright, but it's a bad habit to get into to use it, as it's only guaranteed when you could do other, better stuff, or it's UTTERLY trash. Unless people you are playing against don't know how to hold up during super flash.