TITANIUM BEAST!!!

Eh, depends on what you like. I don't necessarily think the techroll system makes the game more interesting, cuz as I mentioned, players are just going to do their best to set up situations where someone has to tech in a certain way in order to avoid taking more damage. You end up with the same outcome, only now it's limited more by character specific options to punish techrolls. In effect, it creates a bigger divide between who has the best oki setups in the cast.

Having good oki encourages more offensive play, IMO. When your best option after taking a knockdown is simply to reset what range the fight will be at once the other guy gets up, smart players will usually just sit on their life lead and start playing really safe/defensively, depending on the matchup. It seems like some people think these games should play out like a fight in an anime, where characters go back and forth on each other. When people play fighting games at a competitive level, this generally doesn't happen, because it is not conducive to winning. You want to press your advantage for as long as possible and do everything in your power to win (or not lose). If the game rewards offensive play, players will play offensively. If the game makes offensive situations more ambiguous or unsafe, players will stick to defense. As much as new players may hate oki and losing off of a single knockdown, they hate turtles and having to fight against the timer when they are down on life just as much. A new player will hate anything that makes them lose a lot. Emphasizing what beginners like is not something a competitive player will necessarily concern themselves with, that's something for the developer to worry about. Competitive players will always exploit whatever advantage they can get, which is why a lot of the newer games just turn out lame.

The dash done after a dash cancel has a set length and cannot be canceled. The amount of frame advantage is the same after every move that can be dash canceled, assuming you cancel on the first available frame after the move connects. IIRC it's -4. If you cancel later, then naturally, you will be at less advantage (or in this case, more disadvantage).

I live in Durham, not too far from your area.

5D is risky for reasons similar to what I stated above, limited cancel options make it predictable. 5D 1 hit DC is good if your opponent is extremely defensive and has poor reactions, but it's extremely negative on block. 6D's attack level was actually buffed, BTW (went to level 5 from level 4 in previous game). 2C is fantastic.

Someone who IBs 2C is going to mash out of your 6C attempt. If you are going to use 6C in a string after 2C, try to avoid using your 5C prior. That way, you have the option of chaining to 5C to CH mashers. Example, a good lead in to this mixup is 2A-2C or 5B-2C. From here, you have 6B high, 6C low, or 5C to CH mashing. If 5C CHs and you are close enough, you can 6C for a damaging combo, or 2D RC if you have meter. You can also 3C to CH mashers, which leads to good damage on CH. 6A is another option to CH someone that leads to good damage. The issue with these options is that if you guess wrong, they all have pretty limited pathways as far as how you can continue pressure or stay safe. 3C and 6A are nice because they are JCable on block, but if you're trying to stay honest, that makes you somewhat predictable and opens up certain counters. 5C requires you to cancel into something if you are too close, it's -5 on block, so an IB will let quick characters jab you for a free combo. If the opponent stays passive in order to wait out these options, you get to mix them up more or potentially reset your pressure. This is how Ragna's offense works, for the most part. You have to be willing to take risks and do potentially unsafe things, like resetting your pressure with 6D or canceling into specials which may leave you open to be punished if you guess wrong. The main thing is to look at the numbers and try to remain aware of what your options are compared to your opponents. The IB nerf combined with blockstun increase on a lot of Ragna's weaker normals makes it a lot easier to keep people from mashing out, but you still have to take everything into consideration, such as reversals which your opponent can use. A lot of the strings I see posted above me involve moves that are mad negative on block or strings that are just not airtight (5B then dash? Really?).

Yay, Dustloop is back! I want to play some GG and BB. Hopefully those dudes from Winston-Salem start posting here so we can coordinate more gatherings.

Ditto, had a lot of fun playing someone. Hopefully we can do it again relatively soon.

What happens on the 9th? You leaving NC?

Yeah, I'm gonna be busy this coming weekend anyway, but if anyone is free during the week, lemme know.

Wow, nobody posted anything here for 4 days? Anybody up for some BB in the near future? GG would be nice too.

Sol is decent in GGX, he also has pseudo-useful FCD infinite. While everyone had an FCD infinite for the most part, most of them were way too hard to be practical, IMO. Jam is one of the only characters that you will see go for the infinite, Dizzy uses FC a lot in combos but it's more just to tack on damage with multiple heavy attacks. FCD is used more for pressure by most characters, it's basically a free RC for normals that can cancel to sweep.

Millia and Johnny were definitely top 2 characters. Millia oki was retarded, especially with X OTG system where multi-hit OTGs could not be teched, this gave you free perfect setup for disc oki every time. This same OTG system is what made Johnny top thanks to Mist Trap (OTG with coin, dash up and continue OTG combo, cancel to Bacchus Sigh, meaty 2HS -> untechable level 2 Mist Finer, throw coin to OTG and repeat). With no Burst system, getting touched once by Johnny basically meant you lost. Dizzy was top thanks to huge damage from FCD combos. FCD glitch meant everyone had an infinite, pretty much. I remember Baiken being dominant at one of the first national GGX tournaments, j.HS rocking people. Otherwise, it was basically Millia/Johnny/Dizzy. Honorable mention to Jam for being able to dizzy you off of random ground hit thanks to her FCD infinite. I remember Venom and Zato/Eddie being very good as well.

Realistically, while quality time is always greater than quantity time, if we want to get better, we need to play as much as possible. I could be wrong, but I think most of the areas that produce strong players meet up way more often. I know schedules don't line up and everyone is always busy with real life, so it's really whatever we can manage. Better to make the best of the time we have than complain about not having enough time, I suppose. Matt, I wanna main Ragna, but I feel like I have to actually think when I play him, and thinking in BB just makes my blood boil. I over-think my offense too often and end up getting mashed on. Then I rage and can't concentrate anymore. I dunno why GG is the only game where I can sorta keep my cool while I'm playing.

I'm hoping we can have gatherings whenever possible. I don't think once a month is enough for us to really level up at a good place, though everyone definitely improves at these gatherings (at least I hope so). Already working on Hazama matchup stuffz, this is assuming I stick with Ragna and don't go my previously planned route of maining Makoto for srs bidness play. Anyway, GGs to everyone I played, see you guys next time around. Won't be available this weekend.

Pretty much every character introduced after CT is fun/interesting.

I can probably make this. I have an Asus monitor and I can bring my PS3 (have all characters) if needed.

Well, if folks know in advance, someone can always bring an extra setup. I have a 23" Asus monitor that I bring to gatherings occasionally. Also, Sam didn't lie, this is the most activity this board has seen in months.

With CS2 out now, we will probably start having BB tournaments again, but there's no tournament venue in Raleigh at the moment for anything but Marvel and maybe SF4. Fayetteville has tournaments at Elite Zone, as well as gatherings every Friday, so we can probably get some BB rolling there, provided people will actually show interest. The venue doesn't have any copies of the game, so we have to bring our own setups, but it's an awesome venue in general.

Honestly, I don't have a place to host, and the only person I know of in the Triangle area who wants to pick up BB is Josiah (Cooldudenotu). He said a few posts up that he would have CS gatherings at his place every Monday. If he's still hosting, I'm down for that, but somebody needs to bring a setup because his TV is kind of laggy.

Lemme know if and when you guys get up to play, I'm up for some CS2 or Marvel.

Hey guys, we actually already have an NC thread, just nobody's posted in it for over a week. http://www.dustloop.com/forums/showthread.php?9853-The-even-NEWER-North-Carolina-Thread I believe one of our guys is having a gathering at his place in Cary tonight, though it will probably be mostly Marvel and MK, if somebody brings a setup for CS2 I'll play it.

Honestly, Ragna only looks like a guard-breaking machine, in real play it doesn't work out like that unless your opponent is just piss-scared of you. Ragna's mixup game is pretty much standard BB fare, he's like the posterboy for how the game's offense is supposed to work, which is why offensively he is actually pretty average. A good Ragna has to really mix it up to keep the pressure on his opponent, you have to be willing to be random with him sometimes. But hey, that's BB for ya.

I think we really need to stop assuming that people from SRK don't read Dustloop. You never know. Would hate to have something said on here blow up next time we all meet up IRL. GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

I'm kinda wishy-washy. It's an incredible package, but I already have AC Plus, and I'm not really into VG shirts anymore. The keychain is kinda cool and the Lost Archives book might be cool too, but dunno if I'd drop 180 bucks when I doubt the whole package really approaches that price. You can sell anything for a huge amount of money when you say it's limited edition. The BB TE sticks were numbered, limited edition, and yet I'm pretty sure you can still buy them directly from Aksys. I kinda want the soundtrack too, provided it has all the tracks from AC that I don't have (all two of them, lolololol). Competitive player's conundrum is that it's AC Plus. I actually just bought a copy of regular AC online recently, since I had sold back my regular copies when AC Plus came out, only to find out it was actually more glitchy. But of course, this isn't targeted at competitive players.