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V. Character Parameters All character parameters will eventually have descriptions to help people discuss stuff as well as help newcomers to the thread, but it will be a day or two before I finish it. If people post on it, I will make those my priority to fill out. A lot of the current parameters are decided on my whims, so they will be updated accordingly. By examining character parameters, we will likely be able to find things to talk about, and we will likely be able to move characters around with greater ease if we can compare individual parameters on a regular basis versus the overall strength of a character. You will likely find yourself discussing individual parameters for a worthy length of time before characters can actually be moved from one Rank to ano Character Parameters: Will be rated from C- to S+. Each parameter is weighed in its own category, so please take a look at each description to fully understand how the assessment was made. Reward Assessment: A general outlook on a character’s average damage and heat gain, taking into account how often maximum or minimum damage situations can occur. Also assess other potential rewards. Neutral Viability: A review of how well the character fairs in neutral situations, especially in respect to how the character can shift into an offensive or damage dealing state, as well as avoid being put into a defensive or receiving damage state. Offensive Viability: An overview of the character’s ability to create damage opportunities when they have the advantage, as well as prevent the opponent from escaping or safely retaliating. Defensive Viability: An evaluation of the character’s ability to escape from situations where they are at a disadvantage or create opportunities to retaliate. Versatility: A flavorful descriptor with little impact on tier placing, a brief assessment of how many options the character has at any given time. Ranks: Very Specialized > Specialized > Well Rounded > Very Well Rounded One-Chance: A flavorful descriptor with little impact on tier placing, an assessment of how well the character can make a comeback in a one-chance situation. Takes into account meter availability, potential mixups, useful reversals, and damage. Current Assessment: General assessment of all factors. Current placement on the list Ragna Reward Assessment: S+ Rank - Ragna can deal consistently very high damage in many situations, such as during mixups, anti-air, and in general spacing battles. His ability to adjust combos and improve random damage output by using heat is also among the strongest in the game. Neutral Viability: A+ Rank - Ragna is largely a mid-close range type character with very dominating screen presence, especially against other mid-close or close type characters. Between Jump A, Jump C, Jump D, 5B, 5C, and 6A, he can excel in any standard spacing situation, often winning outright or forcing the opponent to block. Offensive Viability: A- Rank - Ragna has access to multiple multi-ranged high and low attacks, as well as multiple options to continue offense and prevent an opponent’s escape. His combos often end in forced emergency tech, low air tech, or forced stagger state, allowing him to continue his offense with fewer guessing games than most other characters. Furthermore, escaping opponents are often forced back into his powerful mid range game. Defensive Viability: S+ Rank - Ragna currently possesses the most useful DP type attack in the game, Inferno Divider, which is strictly a level above other DP type attacks in terms of speed, hitbox, reward, and availability. The very existence of the attack passively weakens an opponent’s offensive viability, especially when Ragna has 50 heat to Rapid Cancel. Combined with system defensive options (jumping, barrier, ib, normals, and backstep), Ragna has one of the best defensive plans in the game, and is complemented by his ability to go back into offense or neutral immediately if he succeeds. Versatility: Well Rounded One Chance: S Rank Current Assessment: S Rank - Ragna is a superior spacing character with few flaws. Valkenhayn Reward Assessment: S+ Rank - Extremely high damage output and heat gain on many confirms. Many combos often leave the opponent in the corner, which often can lead to another high damage combo on the next hit. Neutral Viability: S+ Rank - Human mode has some fairly usable normals at mid-long range, but as a Wolf, many opponents have difficulty performing even basic movement options safely when being watched by Valkenhayn. Extremely high mobility and proper anti-airs in both forms greatly aids Valkenhayn's neutral game. A mistake in neutral will immediately allow Valkenhayn to land a hit or force an opponent to block an extremely fast mixup. Offensive Viability: A+ Rank - Extremely powerful mixup options and good knockdown setups in the corner, but limited blockstring potential stifles the character's ability to have overwhelming offense at all times. All mixup options also force Valkenhayn to guess somewhat, though the guess is largely in his favor. Defensive Viability: B+ Rank - Possess one of the most powerful backsteps in the game. While not normally good enough to receive a B+ Rank on its own, the addition of instant barrier allows Valkenhayn to escape back to neutral (where he is excellent) easier than other characters. His guard point is not very strong, but allows him to beat certain offensive tools on reaction. Versatility: Very Specialized One Chance: A Rank Current Assessment: S Rank - Valkenhayn is a technical, high damage character that takes good situation recognition to play. Hakumen Reward Assessment: S Rank - Damage output and meter gain are both very high from many traditional starters, especially in terms of meter spent in this version. Combos often carry full screen, which can often lead to economical corner combos or extremely high damage metered mixup combos. His combos have the added bonus of having only one or two viable burst points, which adds to his offense. Neutral Viability: A+ Rank - Hakumen can gain the advantage by waiting in a neutral defensive state and without committing (by passively increasing his potential reward by building meter), something most characters cannot do. He has access to many powerful Neutral tools that strong deter an opponent's approach, whether it be from ground or air. Jump B's improvement lets him also go on the offensive if the opponent does not quickly respond to an IAD. Offensive Viability: B- Rank - Hakumen does not have many mixups and many of the ones he does have require meter to perform. Because of this, opponents are often able to return to neutral fairly easily compared to other characters, but this situation is still somewhat favorable for Hakumen, who is powerful in Neutral. Defensive Viability: S Rank - Hakumen does not have an invincible Backstep, but instead uses his Drive as his primary defensive option. Though not strictly favorable to a backstep in some situations, there are many situations where the presence of his Drive completely nullifies some character's offensive options. The presence of his Drive also passively weakens an opponent's defensive viability simply by existing - opponents may not be able to afford to take the damage and positioning trade that may occur from a successful Drive attempt. Fear of the drive also gives Hakumen the ability to reversal with the invincible Hotaru, which is not invincible due to the jump startup, but is completely safe on block and difficult for most to punish on whiff. Versatility: Specialized One Chance: B Rank Current Assessment: S Rank - Hakumen is an extremely powerful defensive spacing character with an extremely safe game plan. Arakune* Reward Assessment: S Rank - A complicated assessment. This is largely interpreted as the average damage dealt by an Arakune based on the number of openings per round and how curse meter is technically a reward for combo completion. It is possible for Arakune to kill with two corner combos or four midscreen combos, which actually makes him extremely very powerful. Once Arakune has 50 meter stocked, F of G can make it extremely difficult for an opponent to make a comeback if Arakune is not pressured to use it on defense. Neutral Viability: A+ Rank - Another complicated assessment. Arakune does not play the neutral game like most characters, but does control space in certain ways. He can create projectiles to take up space and can safely move around by canceling his airdash into a barrier very quickly. While he has a lot of trouble against very mobile or characters with lots of projectiles, he is completely overwhelming when the opponent is cursed. Offensive Viability: S+ Rank - Does not have very good forward mobility, but at close range, he has a very complex mixup using rising j.B into IAD j.B, which is extremely powerful when executed properly. Outside of j.B, he has a high reward overhead and numerous jump cancelable attacks, which allow him back off anytime if necessary. While curse is active, he can essentially do anything he wants and the opponent has extremely few options but to guard successfully against very difficult to see mixups. Defensive Viability: C+ Rank - Perhaps among the worst defensive options in the game, Arakune does not have access to a meterless reversal of any sort and has fairly weak applications of even system defense mechanics. Though in some matchups his backstep may come in handy, it is one of the most unsafe in the game if the opponent is prepared to deal with it. However, his high resource/risk manuvers (Gold Burst, Counter Assault + Super, Wakeup Spider) are all very extremely high reward, and force the opponent to be very wary of overcomitting, which can sometimes allow Arakune to escape. Versatility: Very Specialized One Chance S Rank Current Assessment: S Rank - Arakune is an unconventional character with many explosive strengths accompanied by particular weaknesses. *All values are an average of curse and non curse situations Taokaka Reward Assessment: S- Rank - Taokaka's damage from her neutral game and hit/throw mixups is fairly high, but she cannot combo standing opponents unless they are somewhat close. She can perform AB2 combos form many situations, all of which lead to a devastatingly high amount of damage and also leave her with some extra AB2 meter for another oncoming mixup for even more damage. Neutral Viability: S+ Rank - Taokaka's mobility is completely unparalleled in BlazBlue. Combine this with a fairly strong ground based anti-air and a very large tool-kit of different normals, Taokaka has every tool to defeat any character in a standard neutral battle. Offensive Viability: A- Rank - Taokaka's mixup game relies mostly on the speed of her mobility to create unpredictable throws and cross-ups. She lacks traditional okizeme, but the air tech situations she places her opponents in often gives her an advantageous position that can be seen somewhat like an oncoming mixup from a blockstring. Defensive Viability: B- Rank - Taokaka relies mostly on system defenses combined with her mobility to escape from pressure. She can also take advantage of low profile attacks such as 2b and low invulnerable attacks like 6b as highrisk escape tools, but largely lacks reliable defensive options as her Counter Assault is also extremely weak. Her backstep is above average, but Taokaka's low health can also mean that she can die in but 2 or 3 mistakes, whereas other characters would often get maybe 1 or 2 more attempts. Versatility: Specialized One Chance A Rank Current Assessment: S Rank - Taokaka is the most powerful mobility oriented character in the game. Hazama Reward Assessment: A+ Rank - Damage is extremely low without meter or certain specific situational starters. However, once 50 meter is obtained, Hazama can deal huge damage and rebuild large amounts of heat from many different starters. Neutral Viability: S Rank - Hazama can control large amount of space with his projectiles. has access to good movement options, and even to fairly strong anti-air attacks, making it difficult for characters to approach Hazama to begin with. Hazama can even use these combined tools to shift into an offensive situation just by controlling spacing correctly. Offensive Viability: A- Rank - Hazama has numerous blockstring and mixup options, though many are low reward without any heat to back him up. Once an opponent is spooked by his more basic options, he can start doing some more complex movement options with his chains which are virtually unseeable unless one is also a Hazama player. Defensive Viability: B Rank - Though the risk/reward nature of Houtenjin as a reversal has been greatly altered by his character design, it remains a viable and fearsome reversal attack that can instantly change the flow of an entire round. Versatility: Well Rounded One Chance: A Rank Current Assessment: A Rank - Extremely versatile projectile character that is slow starting at first, but quickly turns into a very deadly foe. Tager Reward Assessment: S- Rank - With magnetism, Tager's average damage output and heat gain far outclasses many other characters in Extend. From a single hit, he can build over 50 heat and turn his next combo or mixup attempt into an extremely painful one. Without magnetism, he will need to spend resources to deal big damage from everything, but is still far from a weak character in terms of reward and due to overal meter availability. Neutral Viability: C- Rank - Tager lacks mobility options and possess very few methods of pinning down very mobile or long-ranged opponents. He has options to allow him to fight mid-close and mid-far ranged opponents with defensive spacing tools, but is completely lacking in safe or effective offensive spacing tools. Spark Bolt is a very powerful one chance spacing tool, but because everyone is prepared for it, it is less effective. Offensive Viability: S Rank - All of Tager's combos can now end in Gadget Finger, a point blank forced Emergency Tech, or some kind of air reset. These are all situations that heavily favor Tager in terms of mixup potential and a moment of hesitation or fear can cause an opponent to take a huge amount of damage, often putting them back into another really bad situation. Because some of the mixups are strictly 1 shot guesses however, they can allow the opponent to escape back to neutral, where he is the weakest. Defensive Viability: B- Rank - While Tager has high health and access to powerful defensive options that allow often him to go straight from defense to offense, they are somewhat high risk and often cause him to take big damage if they fail. He also is vulnerable to rising overheads and forced to block blockstrings and mixups that otherwise do not work on other characters. Versatility: Very Specialized One Chance: * Rank Current Assessment: B Rank - Tager has lots of trouble getting in, but once in, he can win by forcing an opponent to make only a few mistakes. Bang Reward Assessment: A Rank - Bang has very respectable damage in many situations and but can spend heat and nails to increase his reward in very meaningful ways. He can also carry opponent's very far with his combos and can perform corner combos from a fairly long distance from the corner. During FRKZ, average damage greatly increases, but taken into account that 50 meter was already spent to create the opportunity and a combo was used as a seal combo instead of damage combo, it cannot always be strictly seen as an increase. Neutral Viability: A+ Rank - Bang possess a wide variety of tools for neutral game play. He has good movement and a fair assortment of good spacing normals, but lacks a strong anti-air and often comes out as the underdog in mid-long range ground battles. He has a very powerful limited resource in nails which can use to overcome differences in spacing strength, but because it is a limited resource, there is additional risk of running out each time it is used. However, the very existence of nails renders certain options that opponents possess into unsafe actions, so certain players may find themselves unable to use certain options, despite nails having not yet been thrown. Guard points can be used in specific situations to create one chance momentum swings, and their existence increases Bang's neutral viability in certain cases. Using nail bumpers, he can match the timing of a very mobile foe, but it takes openings and resources to do so. During FRKZ, netural gameplay becomes much more unsafe, but has the potential to overwhelm opponents with its increased mobility power. Offensive Viability: A Rank - Bang has numerous offensive tools, with multiple relatively safe overheads and a fairly good damage command throw that can be Rapid Canceled for high damage. Nails can also be spent to increase his offensive abilities on tools such as D nails or on bumper arrangements. During FRKZ, he trades his normal mixup abilities for FRKZ specific mixups, which are very fast, but very unsafe compared to his normal offensive tool set. Defensive Viability: A Rank - Bang does not strictly have any powerful reversal options without meter, but the existence of Guard Points makes certain offensive options from opponents seem far less attractive, especially when faced with the possibility of the big damage a successful hit will cause. Furthermore, once he reaches 50 meter he has access a variety of different defensive options with varying effectiveness and risk. FRKZ activation as a reversal is likely the most powerful reversal in the game, allowing him to deal huge damage against otherwise relatively safe offensive options. During FRKZ, he cannot normal block, which greatly lowers his defense against many different types of mixups, such as ambiguous crossups, but can potentially allow him to escape from pressure more easily. Versatility: Very Well Rounded One Chance: A Rank Current Assessment: A Rank - Bang is a versatile character with a toolbox of special ninja tricks. *FRKZ is taken into account for all assessments. Carl Reward Assessment: S Rank - Carl is a very damaging character in many situations regardless of screen positioning and starting even in solo situations. Though largely not necessary, he can spend heat set up guaranteed unblockable setups for extra damage or beef up the damage of his normal combos. Neutral Viability: B- Rank - While Carl possess very powerful defensive spacing tools, his ability to chase down characters is relatively weak. He also possess limited movement in this version having lost his kara fastfall, so he is reliant on his sister to help him move safely. Because constantly attacking with the sister consumes her gauge, there are moments where not using her is the correct course of action, which gives him a huge drop in neutral power for those moments. Offensive Viability: S Rank - Carl possesses powerful repeating pressure at the expenditure of sister meter, and can set up extremely difficult to block high/low or left/right mixups in the middle of blockstrings and during okizeme situations. He can also spend meter to create a variety of extremely difficult to see high/low mixups or unblockables. Defensive Viability: B- Rank - His backstep and Vivace are both decent tools for escaping back to neutral, but are both somewhat unsafe against a well prepared opponent. Carl has low health and no real reversal option what so ever, so he is very reliant on successful Counter Assaults to escape very strong pressure. Luckily, he is not reliant on meter to deal good damage, so he can make use of Counter Assaults quite often. Versatility: Very Specialized One Chance: B Rank Current Assessment: A Rank - Carl is a character with difficult means of capturing opponents, but a very powerful offense if he can force an opponent to block. Mu Reward Assessment: A Rank - Mu's damage output is fairly high in many situations. Her ability to carry from midscreen into a corner combo is also very high compared to most characters. Neutral Viability: A+ Rank - Mu has among the strongest Mid-long range normals in the game, combined with multiple anti-air options and good projectiles. If an opponent hesitates too much in confronting Mu, she can forcibly enter the fray with good stein formations and protect herself in guaranteed ways. Offensive Viability: B+ Rank - Mu lacks particularly strong mixups and blockstrings in a vacuum, but coming from okizeme or a good Totsuka setup, she can create traps and mask her overhead attempts. Her overhead 6B is relatively fast for a standing overhead, and is also largely safe. Her ability to remove primers is also fairly strong. Defensive Viability: A+ Rank - Mu's DP, Tsunugui, is extremely strong as it is not a normal invincible move, but a Super Autoguard that cannot be thrown. This allows Mu to beat safe jumps and clip attacks that would otherwise be safe to DP attacks. Combined with Mu's long backdash and other system defense mechanics, she can make it difficult to pressure her safely. Versatility: Very Well Rounded One Chance B Rank Current Assessment: A Rank - Mu is a setup oriented character that also packs good neutral, defensive, and offensive tools.

IV. The Current Tier Lists No order in list unless indicated by ">>" symbol Current Dustloop Assessment List: 5/XX/2012 S Rank: Ragna, Taokaka, Arakune, Hakumen, Valkenhayn A Rank: Bang, Carl, Lambda, Hazama, Mu, >> Noel, Rachel, Litchi, Platinum, Relius B Rank: Jin, Tager, Tsubaki, Makoto Characters are listed in Cast Order, No difference in rank unless specified by >> April Arcadia (Satoshi) 4/2/2012 S Rank: Ragna, Taokaka, Arakune, Hakumen, Lambda, Mu, Valkenhayn, A Rank: Everyone Else Characters are listed in Cast Order, No difference within rank Current JP BBS Assessment List: 5/XX/2012 S Rank: Ragna, Taokaka, Arakune, Hakumen, Valkenhayn A: Carl, Hazama, Platinum, Mu, Noel, Bang, Lambda, Noel, Litchi, Rachel B: Everyone Else No difference within rank Old Lists Current Dustloop Assessment List: 1/23/12 S Rank: Ragna, Valkenhayn, Hakumen >> Arakune, Taokaka, Hazama A Rank: Tager, Bang, Carl, Mu >> Relius, Noel, Platinum, Lambda B Rank: Rachel, Litchi, Jin, Tsubaki, Makoto Current JP BBS Assessment List: 1/23/12 S Rank: Ragna, Valkenhayn, Hakumen A Rank: Arakune, Hazama, Tager, Taokaka, Bang, Carl B Rank: Relius, Mu, Noel, Platinum, Lambda >> Rachel, Litchi, Jin C Rank: Tsubaki, Makoto Current JP BBS Assessment List: 3/27/2012 S Rank: Ragna, Taokaka, Arakune, Hakumen, Valkenhayn A: Carl, Hazama, Platinum, Mu, Noel, Bang B: Everyone Else No difference within rank Satoshi List: 1/9/12 S Rank: Ragna, Valkenhayn, Hakumen, Arakune, Taokaka, Hazama, Carl A Rank: Everyone Else FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions 1. What's the point of tier lists? I just wanna press buttons. Character strength, especially in BlazBlue, does not have particularly strong meaning in high level gameplay, as player skill is far more important. Nevertheless, because differences DO exist, it is worth examining them so we can better learn what makes strong characters strong and safe characters safe. 2. What's the point of this thread? No one in the universe can agree on anything. I think that's probably the point. No matter what happens, two people rarely have the same opinion on anything, especially when it comes to their assessment of what's good and what's bad. But rather than just cross our arms and just shit on everyone else in the back of our minds, why not take a step towards reaching a general consensus? The goal of this thread is not to eventually discover THE INDISPUTABLE PROOF OF PROPER CHARACTER STRENGTH ORDERING, but to discuss and evaluate our opinions on character strength. 3. Why are the rules for this thread so harsh? It takes too much work. In the past, a vast number of Tier thread discussions quickly devolve into really bad argument poop fests that eventually renders a thread unreadable. The formatting rules exist to stifle the ability to make a stupid post and force a potential poster to think. Less is more in a thread like this. I, as well as other mods viewing this thread, are very lenient towards intelligent posts not following the proper formatting, but there is absolutely no mercy otherwise. Surely, there is more to come as this thread develops. Enjoy!

0. Rules For the love of god, read the rules of the thread before posting. Any post made in this thread that does not follow the clearly outlined rules will result in an infraction. Your post will probably be edited or deleted. The Rules Are Intentionally Harsh To Prevent This Thread From Becoming Shit Rule #1: If you are not a discussion moderator, any and all posts must be outlined in the following format or extremely close, based on context: I believe that <your opinion on a subject matter of your choice> is <true/false/contestable> based on <empircal data, logical reasoning, tru fax>. OR I <agree with/contest> the notion brought up by @<poster name> with regard to <subject matter> on the grounds that <empiral data, logical reasoning, tru fax>. OR Question: <Your question>. <the reason you want to know>. OR Attempted Answer: <@Person's Name>: <intended answer to question> <based on information you know>. OR <@Person's Name> has made a good point regarding <subject>. I <yield on this point of discussion for now/do not agree, but will continue to find more evidence to support my claim>. Lastly, if you need to have random shit you must to say before or after you make your correctly formatted post, say it in italics. Rule #2: Do not post if you do not have something that falls into one of the two formats above. Rule #3: Do not post unless you intend for your post to incite discussion of some sort Rule #4: Do not use bullshit in any of the above categorical areas Rule #5: Stay on topic I. Foreword In an effort to combat ignorance on the internet, welcome back to Dustloop's BlazBlue Tier List Thread! In this thread, yes, we will delve into the mysterious concept of "character strength" and what that entails! First and foremost, the general top level Japanese consensus on character strength in BBEX with a (paraphrased) quote from Satoshi: Okay, okay, I took like a 15 minute discussion from him and boiled it down into a two sentences. But the take home lesson is, characters do differ in strength, just not to the extent where characters can't win particular matchups. To fully understand this assessment, continue reading the next section. If you're okay with just believing me, feel free to skip down to the next post where we'll start talking about tiers for real! II. Understanding Tiers The following is slightly WIP, I wrote this in one sitting, so it's bound to have some errors or incomplete thoughts. I'll be updating this as time goes on. In this thread, and in this thread alone, a character strength is determined by a character's collective available options in each of the constantly shifting game states. In BlazBlue, this is very complicated as characters have numerous particular options that can influence the game state in a way both players probably can't realize until it actually occurs. The stronger an option is, as in, the chance for it succeed versus the chance for it to fail, the better off your character is if your character has access to it. From that, you can extrapolate that the more strong options a character has in any given situation, the stronger the character is in that given situation. Thus, if a character is strong in many situations, that character is likely to be a strong character in BlazBlue. Let's think about this in terms of Rock-Paper-Scissors. Character A can use Rock, Paper, and Scissors. Character B can use Rock, Paper, and Rock(2). In our model game of Rock-Paper-Scissors, it only has a single game state, which is where both players have made their choice and thrown Rock, Paper, or Scissors. Of course, Rock beats Scissors, Paper beats Rock, and Scissors beats Paper. In this model, Character A has more options that do different things, and given the game state situations that could possible occur versus Character B, the Paper option has a good chance of succeeding, and absolutely no chance of losing. Between the two characters A and B, because Character A has more options, we may draw the conclusion that Character A is the stronger one, given he has more strong options in the same situations. Of course, in this model, because Character B has access to both Rock and Paper, he can actually still win as much as Character A. How can he do so? Well, that's something that will go unsaid for the time being, but it's extremely obvious, so please think about it on your own time for the time being. The next point of particular interest is the amount of reward a character receives upon choosing a correct option. The term "reward" is extremely loosely defined, as a reward can be something simple, such as dealing damage and building heat, something complex, such as being able to make an easier choice in an upcoming situation, or often times, a combination of the two. Being rewarded is essentially the way you win a game of BlazBlue, as you must deal damage to your opponent in order to win a round. The better the reward a character gets from an option, the more useful that option is in terms of any particular game state. Thus, characters who receives high or powerful rewards from their options tend to be strong characters in BlazBlue. Looking back to our Rock-Paper-Scissors game model, what if Character B was rewarded twice as much for winning with Rock(2) versus just Rock? Given Character B gets a higher reward for using Rock(2), he may actually gain the edge over Character A in terms of who the stronger character is, as we now have one character with higher rewards and one character with better options in the given situation. Empirically, there is certain to be a stronger character, but no need to do all that complex numerical analysis, the only thing that's important here is that we realize that rewards matter as much as options do. Of course, we can confound our model even more by asking the question, "What if Character B lost twice as badly for losing with Rock(2) versus just Rock?" Fighting games are complicated aren't they? That said, this is the end of the brief explanation on character tiers and strength. After reading this short exposition, you are intelligent enough to understand the abstract mechanics behind our tier list discussion. III. The Existence of Opinion and Need for Assessment The "strength" of an option is never absolute, given that players are making choices with incomplete information in real time. Thus, intelligent discussion and assessment of characters is an absolute necessity in order for progress. I'll probably write something more long winded about this in the future, but that made sense right?

Hakumen is probably the most common character I saw in Japan during gatherings. Like no matter what there's always a good number of 500-700 PSR Hakumen players playing anywhere I went. That said, I ran the entire spectrum of good to bad Hakumen players, the best ones I faced personally being PRFARMY and Blacky. Frankly, the matchup isn't particularly fun to play as Platinum, so I mostly avoided players that were well below the 700 range. Against players in the 500-600 range, I actually felt like it was a waste fighting them because I often ended up just rolling dice instead of playing the matchup, so I often opted to play against the plethora of other players who were just 1 or 2 cabs down. Edit: It's probably the graphics card... will try to RMA and or fix, but the issues are reallllly weird. I might do a casual Japan recap stream sometime later this week.

@Polka he introduced himself to me as Jager. I don't actually remember his card name lol. I would describe a strong Rachel player as someone who is just unforgiving. They always want you to be blocking, getting mixed up, or dead.

Does everyone really just prefer to be spoon fed from Japan and Arcadia? :< It's interesting, I left this thread open specifically to allow people to discuss whatever they thought about match-up numbers, but whenever anyone presents an assertion no one actually talks about it in an intelligent manner. Combine that with a lot of the general assertions also containing general trolling with no intellectual backup, it's easy to see why this thread ended up a failure. As a whole, I believe both Tier and Diagram threads are a necessary evil. People keep expressing their opinions on tiers and matchups in places where they can't be intelligently (or unintelligently) discussed, and we end up with a lot of players, especially newcomers, unsure of what characters are good, bad, and why they are believed to be so. Like how many times have you talked to someone outside of the screen who asks "Is X still bad in the next version?", then you being only half sure on what to tell him because your last list was like 8 months ago? I believe having Tier and Diagram threads, as shitty as they may end up, is the key to having more people collectively informed. That said, the structure of these threads needs to probably be adjusted to allow for actual discussion. They'll be back sometime tonight or tomorrow, WITH A VENGEANCE.

@TD: I played Jager (Kouhatsu) and N-Otoko (A-cho). I can't say I really understand the matchup, so I don't know who is better between the two. Especially because I would lose to this really solid 600 PSR rachel at A-cho, then watch him lose to this really bad platinum who would just flail and do shit. Jager is probably the more well known one though, he was on the ballot for GODS, so it makes sense. Edit: Ram was not the issue. Now I gotta figure out if it's the graphics card, the drivers, or my configuration.

When I think of Arakune, I sort of think of him as kind of a game plan oriented character. His spacing and screen control are really unique in that how you plan to take advantage of normals, projectles, clouds, and eventually bugs are based on real time plans you hatch dependant on the situation and what kinds of landing recovery you'll end up in. That said, Souji is like the man with infinite perfect plans. Like no matter what is happening, he is calculating some way to kill you. He often intentionally leaves gaps that are actually full on traps with his timing and spacing. So yeah, there's nothing most humans can do, lol. At shinjuku sports land, he beat dora like a bunch of times. I think the only person he lost to that night was Mitsurugi, and heseemed to win more than he lost.

I said I'd write up everything I was thinking about in terms of the Japanese scene... but in the end I feel like I'm starting to generalize a little too much. I feel like I could answer someone if they asked me "What makes X player so good?", but I don't know if I could tell you exactly why we think differently, or what people think in general. That one may be for a real article I'd have to write. Anyhow! The show is gonna be back eventually. There's a lot going on at work and I'm still playing catch-up, so I don't know exactly when I'll have free time. If anything, I may just run an informal show for a little while, since people are bound to be backed up with their Q&A needs... except that my rig has been freaking out lately, and it might be bad ram or the graphics card, which has also put a damper on making the show work. But yeah, I really want to talk about Makoto, Tsubaki, and Tager, and what makes the good players so good, but we'll see if I can get this shit fixed.

I'm coming. Prepare yourselves.

The post itself says it says it's just a compilation of posts from the Diagram thread and some are from Character Threads, and that posts without fully understood match-ups just became 5.0. Not only that, but the diagrams with the "n" at the end are either characters with no diagrams of their own or had a small sample size. Stemming even further from that, they are basically completely anonymous posts, so maybe you shouldn't draw too many conclusions from it? Edit: I'm not adverse to you guys discussing it, but please keep these points in mind when you do so.

I'm going to be creating another Danisen-like event pretty soon, but I can no longer host ever again (long story). The goal is to make the game more accessible to the general public and reach a bigger audience with the stream to get more exposure for the game.

I've been in direct contact with each person who has applied as a qualifier. In general, the hold up on info is more or less something hasn't been 1000% confirmed. I don't want people to travel to X event thinking its Y date/time with Z rules and have it be something else. That would be bad. Regarding UFO's event, Fubar said he'd be talking to me today about it. So you can more or less hold off on it, unless you specifically really want to know from him.

No other side games will be hosted. However, as it is an arcade, you are not banned from playing another game or anything like that. Regarding qualifiers, they are still planned, but each venue has not fully specified a date yet, which is why there is not thread or mention just yet. They should be fully finalized early on this week, including one in Texas for Arcade UFO.

Regarding the term BYOC, it does mean "Bring your own controller". I apologize for the confusion in not fully clarification which C it was. Pad is indeed banned as the finals in Japan will be run on an arcade cabinet. Thus, for various reasons, it would not be conductive to our own qualifier if pad were allowed. Furthermore, it does mean full airfare from wherever you are. So if you are a Canadian player, we will fly you to LA first, then fly everyone to Japan.

BlazBlue Revolution US Finals The BlazBlue Revolution US Finals will take place on February 25, 2012, in Walnut, California at the well known Super Arcade game center. BlazBlue Revolution is your chance for an all-expenses paid trip to Japan to compete against the most powerful player is the world. Don't miss it! Pre-Event Details On Friday, 2/24, there will be a pre-event gathering at Super Arcade. For a mere $5 venue fee, you can pretty much bring whatever you want and play whatever you want, but we'll be there playing BlazBlue until we decided to go home. Venue Super Arcade 1211 N Grand Ave Walnut, CA 91789 Free Parking within plaza. Venue Fee: $0 Entrance Fee: $0 per player Due to space and size constraints, the tournament will be run on Playstation 3 hardware and run on Asus VH236H monitors. This makes this a BYOController event, but a fight stick will be provided in the event that a player or team does not have one available for use in the tournament. As with accordance with the tournament rules, usage of pad or alternative controllers is strictly prohibited. Single player entry or incomplete entries are not allowed, but if you are in either situation, please make sure to show up! There will be plenty of other players in the same situation, so if you are wiling to participate, we will find you a team. As for spectators, they are all welcome! Super Arcade has a spectator area just outside the front area, so even if it gets too antsy inside, there's plenty of space outside for spectators. Time 1:00 BlazBlue Venue Opens/Sign-Ups Begin 5:00 Tournament Begins Rules Tournament Format Match Rules Tournament Rules Stream Powered by Level|Up. http://twitch.tv/leveluplive Prize The winning team will receive a tournament spot in the BlazBlue Revolution World Finals on March 24th, 2012. The team will receive all expenses paid airfare from their own home town to the tournament site in Japan to compete. The winners will also be accommodated with full hotel as well. The full itinerary will have you traveling from Wednesday 3/21 to Monday 3/26 out of your home town. There may be an emergency change of plans, but we will inform players of such issues immediately. Each player on the qualifying team will receive $500 in spending money for the duration of the trip. The North American team is also eligible to win $2,500 per player, if they are able to take first place in the Japanese Finals! Bonus Tournament Events King of the Hill Start Time: As soon as the stream is live, until the qualifier starts Rule Set: Single Match, Winner Stays, when the final match is called, the remaining player is the winner Pad IS allowed Prize: Choice of Xbox 360 or PS3 BlazBlue Continuum Shift Extend fight stick Let's Get Ready For Japan Start Time: After Teams Rule Set: Single Match, Single Elimination Tournament, Character Lock Pad IS allowed Prize: Choice of Xbox 360 or PS3 BlazBlue Continuum Shift Extend fight stick Prize Support Hori will be providing us with two Xbox 360 BlazBlue Continuum Shift Extend and two Playstation 3 Continuum Shift Extend fight sticks, which will be given away at the event and ALL attendees are eligible to receive one! To find out how you can win one of these fight sticks, stay tuned! Web (US): http://www.horiusa.com Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/HORIUSAINC Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/HORIUSAINC

My Japanese is "useable". My pronunciation is correct, but I use words and mannerisms in a somewhat unnatural way. Communicating ideas and meaning was no problem, but I didn't seem like a native speaker for obvious reasons. Some people like Akira are super nice and speak in an extra simple way. Reading was hard if it was kanji only. If you want me to ask a question, make sure it is very, very specific, if not for the sake of asking a meaningful question. I don't have any contact info for Akira. Sorry lol. He seemed to know some basic English, but I don't know how fluent he is. I played sakamoto ryoma and he wrecked my shit. It's hard to say who was better between him, satoshi, or lucky, but they were all very strong with very contrasting styles. My greatest regret was that I didn't fully master this matchup before I left, as I'm sure it'll come up often in America.

With regards to Tsubaki, is a lot more like a normal character in terms of spacing. I could write you a long winded response about it, but just trust me that between 5a/5b/22a combined with her move speed and anti-air game gives her plenty to work with when she has no install. When she has one install stocked, her options greatly increase to auto win levels vs some attacks; food for thought. Skye, Akira is the commentator for tachikawa and has been for years. How the fuck did that rumor even start. Atdsutm, he does not speak any English as far as I know. His twitter Id is nao_isloved. C0r, I would have said just watch the tachikawa vids, but they lost the recordings of everything except semi and grand finals. Well, keba is still in the finals though.

Last post before I make a fully reflective post. Tachikawa tournament just ended and I am on the long train ride back. In the tournament, it was 3v3 random teams, and I was teamed up with Jun mu and shouta hazama. I went first and lost to Keba mu. My lack of that extremely high level mu experience really showed there, as I played fine the first round when he did normal mu stuff, but then as his choices became more strange to me, I was sort of lost as to what to do and lost the next two rounds pretty badly. Keba was paired up with yenge jin and kuresu tsubaki, after a couple close games kuresu won it for his team vs Jun mu. They went on to take 2nd, but I can't but feel it was my fault there. I played a lot of games vs various people to round out the night. Akira tager is really scary as hell. He is always on point in his decision making, making him very scary for any player who isn't an S class player. I fought some litchi who used a black color with 730 psr and did decently, winning twice before losing once. I don't know if i really understand the match up better or anything, but those were probably my best games of the night. I'm still not fully clear on what happens when I instant barrier certain attacks, like litchi 6d, so something I want to try immediately when I get back. I have a lot of trouble with Hakumen still. Peoples play style with him varies so much and everything can lead to game changing damage, so that's a match up I need to look at carefully in the future. As for Jin, I can't say this match up is very good for Platinum, as its largely unchanged since CS2. Jin is a character I definitely don't sleep on at high level, and his reset and plain mix up game still lets him play relatively safe, forcing the opponent to kind of go out on a limb to get out.When cornered by him, hirensou is super scary, so switching sides becomes kind of a game of life or death. As for the best Jin, I have no idea. I faced plenty but the one that stood out the most was the player at Game Sky. I didn't catch his name, but he probably gave me the most trouble. As for who the japanese thing is the best jin, I also don't know. All in all, Japan BlazBlue is great. I wish I had mastered my character before I came, as I drop games to dropped combos and messed up mixups and blockstrings, but I learned a lot about mentality and my general spacing laws. I finished at 600 per with like a 40% or lower win rate, so its fairly clear the types of opponents I forced myself to constantly play. I think if i continued to play until about 1000 or so games, I could have reached a much higher level of play, but I did what I could in 3 weeks. Great fun was had!

Still sick. Alpha yesterday was fun as always, after the tournament we went to a family restaurant and ate. In the tournament, I actually got 2nd. I beat kazehira and a tager, then lost to ryuusei in the finals. I played like shit in the finals as I just finished a fit of sneezing, so given I even took a round was a bit of a miracle. Ryuusei is still in high school apparently, you other high schoolers need to step it up! Met up with stunedge and mynus and played a few games. Syunedge easily caught me the most with all these crazy unsafe Jin tricks, which made me a little sad. Hirensou into the corner always incited a rage burst from me, lol. Mynus played very well considering the time he put into the game. I definitely had the advantage in terms of matchup exp, but man, I still can't block 6a. Dinner had some good topics. It was funny listening to satoshi talk about how he and kazunoko go out to eat about once per month and try to convince each other to play each other's games. He shit on sf4 a lot, I gotta type that up when I'm not on a smart phone. Met Yoshiki, who is probably the best lambda in kanto. He sad goro is better than him, but yeah, who knows. If you lambda players have questions, he is on twitter~ I'm on the train to Tachikawa right now. This will probably be my last tournament before I return. I will probably make one more post then write a long reflection post. If you have any further questions you would like me to address, let me know.

I am sick as hell. I went to Goi Game Chariot against my better instincts and almost died. Its bad to go places where it snows when you are sick. I lost to Buppa first round. His ragna is solid but not the best I've faced in japan or anything. I beat his lambda in casuals. He had an outrageous 790 psr, but yeah, not overwhelmingly strong in terms of lambda. In terms of recording footage, its no go mostly, I have no camera, so do the math there. I'm still sick and I'm at alpha again. I'm vs kazehira first round, apparently stunedge and mynus are coming, so it should be fun.

Now you can play dumb yomi games with 3c(1) for big damage~!

@atdsutm: The best Lambda player I have fought is probably one in the Kanto region. Actually I didn't really catch his name, but he plays the slate color and he has like 790 psr. The way he moves and throws swords is probably the best. After that is probably Tsukasa, Tsukasa is pretty much a "Just Do It" playstyle, but it lets him play very confidently, so facing him and his custom combos is pretty scary (when he finishes them). @Syke: I've played Fumo and Souji, and like a bunch of random ones from 150~600 psr. Souji doesn't play in tournaments, but he's a god. Fumo is also very good, but mortal, so he's defeatable. Today's Post: I went to freeplay time at Port24. Some good players like Whistler and Maven showed up, so I ended up throwing away like 20-30 games to them trying to get better at the respective matchup. Again, I feel like I'm just a little bit behind these players and I could start winning more matches if I could just make my gameplay slightly better, but I keep failing to clinch the win in the end. Whistler says after I remember the EX combos, I'll probably be more equal on footing, so maybe I should just buy a console version today and grind netplay today? Ragna is still a matchup that remains a mystery for me, especially in terms of neutral. I was doing okay against most of the Ragna players, including the WORLD CHAMPION JIYUNA (AMERIKAJIN), but there was this random 600 psr Ragna that I couldn't even take a round off of. Something about the way he played the neutral game prevented me from doing like, anything. There's probably some kind of distancing that greatly favored his gameplay that I wasn't able to make sense of. Next time, I'll try to create more space and/or shorten the gap to see if I can get better results in neutral. I've noticed a bad habit in myself, which is when I use 6a sometimes, I will dash into it, causing it to whiff. 6a is really meant to be used from a hanging back position, so I really need to fix that to make my anti-air game better, especially vs IAD attacks. The Tager matchup has really shown itself to be a really annoying one, and I think it ends up as one regardless of what character you play. I've more or less gotten the hang of it now having played infinite 700 PSR tagers nearly the exact same way, so maybe when I head back to Tachikawa, I can fight Akira and see how much of that matchup I really understand. Today, I have absolutely no plans. I woke up late on top of that. So... maybe I will just grind netplay and combos today in preparation to return to Tokyo. I'm going to do Game Chariot on Wednesday, Alpha on Thursday, no plan on Friday right now (but maybe Tachikawa again?), then return to the US on Saturday.

Did I close my own thread after that post? No idea. Anyhow, Game Sky yesterday was good. We got yakinuku afterwards. Actually I have no idea what most of the things I put in my mouth were, but it was delicious enough. I can't really say I actually played that many games because there were a ton of people. I stayed away from the stream setup after dying once horribly to the jin player. I couldn't IB jin's 6b on the blue viewlix, so I was pretty much doomed. In thinking about my progress as a player since I've gotten here, I feel as though I've matured a lot in applying my own thinking paradigms, but I haven't fully matured in a way that will allow me to clinch full games versus extremely strong players. Yesterday, I had no problem taking it to the 3rd round down to the wire versus some very strong players, but in those situations I tended to still lose in the end. A missed opportunity here or there due to my immature offense/defense/neutral game often ended up costing me the match. Well, with little less than a week remaining, I don't think I'll be able to fully mature as a player, but I can at least see the afterimage of the player I hope to be someday. Kubo plays Relius now. He's pretty good, but I don't think he was overwhelmingly strong. Well, I only got to play him once so I can't say much more than that. Tsujikawa is into Umineko, also his Tao is strong. Tao as a whole is still a mysterious matchup to me, given we have few in America. After between all of the Tao players I've played though, he is definitely the most solid overall. MAVEN is a pretty strong Platinum player, I definitely was able to see practical combo theory application by watching him, though not much else in terms of matchups and spacing/defense. Our actual matches were close, but I never actually was able to clinch a game from him in the couple that we played. It seems we make a lot of the same mistakes in certain situations, so I wonder if we are seeing the same thing in the same situations? In any case, there's a huge stream archive now, so I'll probably timeshift it when I get back to America and rewatch it. Never got to fight Mame Valkenhayn or Aru Hazama. Didn't play Chou either, but he's a super cool guy. Maybe today they'll show up at Port24? There's a freeplay time from 5:00 to 10:00 for only 500 yen, given I'm running pretty low, I'm gonna hop on that.

Kouhatsu last night was fun. I think I lost over 30 games to the top players in total, lol. In the tournament, I beat utero ragna, then lost to gareo tager (777 psr lol). Overall, jäger Rachel, pet tager, bob bang, Tsukasa lambda were all very strong. I went around 4-5 games before winning one. Also, it was good seeing HeartNana at the event. He beat me twice before I had to leave, I wanted to stay longer to understand the matchup better, but I had to catch the last train bak to Nagoya. As I write this, Im waiting for my turn at game sky. I missed the tournament cause I overslept, so I'm just gonna focus on casuals.