Sophisticat

Since I subscribe to The Economist and actually follow politics, markets, and world news... North Korea is in the midst of changing its leadership because of Kim's sudden ill health. His youngest son (the 3rd, the other two have been... disappointments) has taken on the title of General and been appointed as the DPRK leader. Now, China has usually been seen as NK's ally, but this isn't really the case, their relationship is a bit more complex and has to do with China not wanting US troops near their border (SK has US bases, taking over NK implies a close US army and this makes China nervous). Or that's what I gather, at least. What's for certain is that even China is wary of NK for being very erratic in behavior. That said, Kim had 10 years to establish his position as Dear Leader, whereas not so with his relatively unknown 26y-old kid, so there is internal strife. From articles I'm reading, it's being speculated that the attack on SK was either the ol' chip of the block flexing his muscles or the result of internal disputes. If it's the latter, NK is done for. Famine, poverty and a now acknowledgedly disgruntled population will turn on the ruling party any time soon. The recent economic crisis and collapse of the NK currency in 2009 does not help. But if it's the kid flexing his muscles, then it's a new set of penor~waving to get concessions. Kind of a petulant act to get the country's way with the rest of the world (which has, let's admit, worked well for NK in the past). Whatever the case, I doubt WWIII is on our doorstep -- NK is too disorganized, disunited, and poor to sustain an assault. They do have nukes, and that's the big worry. But whether or not WWIII will happen is another thing entirely. This isn't the machiavellian Germany of WWII, more like a formerly fat kid who used to be bullied in HS and who now waves a gun in the hallways. Crazy and dangerous, but not for long. Of course, take the above with a grain of salt since I'm just reiterating what I read. I'm no expert.

Woot, we'd be glad to have you Tofu. :D We should be saying that! It's our first time hosting in a major, so hopefully we can pull it off. I think you know Kirbster, he was there at T11. Short guy with dark hair in a ponytail, played Rachel? Also, do let us know if you have any trouble getting around MTL. We know the area, so we can help out with your planning. I think we can expect ~20 people to show up. Hopefully. We thought monthly tourneys would bring in the crowds, but apparently not right off the bat. We'll see how it goes.

^ You need to lose twice before being kicked out of the tourney. It also means there's a "winner's" and "loser's" brackets. Grand finals is winner of losers vs. winner of winner's. Also: Eb, the location this time isn't the HQ, it's some downtown location that hasn't been announced. Might want to update that info.

How to pressure with Haku, for the most part.

I think trying to counter Valk is much too risky outside of his overheads since he can just vary the timing for his wolf cancel stuff. I've not found his moveset easy to counter in general outside of specific stuff. Thanks for the rest, though. I'll try it out if I find another good Valk to play against.

A-cho updated earlier with some new vids. What's interesting is that the Haku play in there is directly relevant to our discussion! Some samples: Red Haku: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UarKDBuw_hg White Haku: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqsTewan1V8 If that's the kind of pressure you're talking about Ryoko, I think CS Haku is finally clicking with me. Might have some new vids up in just 2-3 weeks with the new stuff. One more thing, would you have anything to add about combo selection? I see these JP Hakus use some interesting variants I've never seen before. Is there anything in particular that would be good to know? Also, I see that they sj. in corner combos right after a 5b. I thought an sj. would carry you too high to keep comboing?

I'm actually not looking for specific Haku stuff, just general guidelines. Like, "IB this, punish X, you can react to Y", stuff like that, which is why I posted the vid here. I suppose I should have worded that better. :P

Suddenly, walls of text! No, I wasn't nervous. It's actually my first match(es) against a Valk who really knows his stuff, so I was trying stuff out. Random 5c and 4c was to see if it would hit his wolf dash, for ex. But yeah, I do need to work on hit confirms, especially non-CH stuff that gets a hit in. Counters against Vice were more bad habit than anything. Playing online, you get a feel for tendencies people go for. I got too used to that. Going to have to rectify it. ._. I think I might ditch wakeup TK Hotaru for the remainder of CS, though. If you saw a random renka in there, I was going for it. You'll also notice no TK Hotaru I did get out actually hit. I think I'll stick to stuffing people with hop Hotaru until they fix renka's input. Point noted for the low j.(2)c's, I'll work on those too. Yes! I've started using 5c ender in the corner for a while now, and it's awesome. You get plenty of time to set stuff up, but as Ryoko says, it has to be done right with the right spacing. As for pokes, now that you mention it, I might be guilty of mashing 2a for no reason. I'll have to work on that too. I think I recall Spark saying that he uses 2a mash to think about what he wants to do next, and that's kind of what I do, but I don't think I actually do much with it other than try to stuff moves or set up tick throw. Lol, I don't do empty Tsubaki. If I did, I did it on reaction without thinking or it was mis-inputed, I wouldn't do it that high unless they block low after a j.2c or something. I usually only use Tsubaki if they're blocking low in front of me or in the corner. Thanks for all the responses, lots of good info in here. Hopefully Haku's pressure will be a bit more intuitive in CS2 so it's not something patchwork like it is currently.

So what do ya'll who play Valk suggest I do against him? It seems he outclasses everything Haku has. v. GuardianSTL (VK) Great Valk, by the way. He steamrolled everyone in my room. First time I've witnessed a Valk who really knows his stuff, too.

Hey Ryoko, nice to have you back. Okay, lag wasn't bad, but might have been there because we were 4 in the room. The guy lives in my city though, so it shouldn't really apply here. His Jin is his sub, and it's the first time I went against him, so I wasn't sure what to expect. His Litchi is otherwise fearsome. IB point noted, though. Yes, correct spacing on knockdown needs improving. I've been focusing more on mixup options, but that should be fine now. I'll get to working on spacing. Didn't know that. I thought 5b was just for better corner positioning. Good to know. I do mash jabs too much these days. What do you suggest I use instead? You can kishuu under D DP? Awesome, I'll be using. I usually always jump out or barrier, but I wasn't sure if he'd do full charge or not. Got hit anyway. :\ I'm not sure what you mean about your last point, though. I do use 3c (or random pokes as you say) too much, which pushes out. Am I about right? I have been working on getting better, more focused pressure with Haku recently, so it's a work in progress. Your advice is just what I needed.

Pardon the double post, but I finally got around to recording some of my matches after who knows how long since my last. 1) v. GuardianSTL (VK) 2) v. Vice-Taicho (JI, LI) Critiques are welcome! I think my only really glaring flaw is that I overuse 3c instead of going for a safer poke or better mixup. Anyway, tell me what you think.

Ground game is about maximizing the uses of Haku's tools to promote pressure and mixup. He sucks in those categories, but he's not a lost cause. For example, one thing I really like is the stagger off 4c and 6a CH. In stagger, you can't tech like on the ground, so it's the closest you'll get to GG oki. You see where I'm going with this. It's up to you to choose what you want to go for. J.C is also great for different reasons. It pushes into the corner and creates space around you. You can also do a low j.C for safe poking. On CH, you can gurren -> enma for free. It's not just j.C, though; all of Haku's normals serve a purpose (except 6b, that god-awful move), they're just situational. With j.2a you can stuff air entries, and 5a is actually a decent anti-air if used smartly. Know your normals! For counters, learn to j.D overheads and you take a huge load off your back. Since overheads are strong in this game, countering them makes it harder for others to find solid, damaging options against you and makes them scared to try to pressure. Don't try to counter everything, just what's guaranteed. That alone is sufficient for counters to serve you without actually using them. Last, but not least, throw setups. You have tick throw, kishuu -> grab, hop/poke/grab guessing game (unsafe! But can be effective), and I forget what else. The "gaps" in Haku's pressure should be filled with uncertainty (he can special cancel hops, for ex.). It's one of Haku's most under-appreciated aspects, as I have discovered. Of course, these tips are kind of general. How you pressure each character will differ. With Ragna for ex., you have to watch out for ID. But it's also something you can bait. Experiment and find out what works best. The only thing you have to keep in mind is that pressure with Haku should be constant as much as possible. It's what makes others fear him. And with this I have made it look like I know way more about Haku than I actually do.

Okay, I see some good stuff in there like voiding his nails and knowing your combos. No comment there, keep it up (though you might want to learn [stuff] -> gurren -> hop 5a/b -> staircase stuff if you haven't already). Your biggest weakness here is over-reliance on counters. Bang is not a character I'd say is easy to use counters on, so you might as well forget them except to j.D his overheads, which can be done on reaction. In fact, I didn't see a single counter catch him. Bad habit. Second, you might want to improve your ground game. This is hard to tell though, since Haku is in the air more often vs. Bang due to the way the match-up goes. However, having a solid ground game nets you better pressure and a more focused gameplan. And speaking of the latter, I'm not quite sure what you were attempting to do most of the time. Do you have other vids to offer? Now, ground pressure is about want to make Bang block. His offense is very strong, but he's a bit lacking in the defense department. His only "reversals" are his drives, which can be beat just by blocking or low pokes (2a/b or 3c) depending on where he decides to appear. In general, try to get him into the corner, then work that TK Tsubaki or other mixup for massive damage. I'll stop there because I don't know how to fight CS Bang all that well, he's not one of my best matchups, so I leave the stage to someone who knows the matchup more than I do. But to recap: 1) less counters, more poking. 2) Work that ground pressure. 3) Crank dat TK Tsubaki in the corner.

Speaking for MTL here, I'd just like to say that we'd like to come out in droves as much as possible. T11 was awesome, we met some great people and the level up was fantastic. Only problem is that T11.5 happens just when a lot of us are finishing exams, so we're really limited by that. So far, only three of us can make it. Just wanted to say that so we don't inflate expectations or anything. ... Ft5, 20$, no character switching, no items, final destination only. Get at me. :bad:

Would it? They're developers; they have to have their own frame tables just to stay organized. A valid reason, but I doubt it's all there is to it.

Kind of off-topic, but I've wondered at this: why don't FG companies release all the frame data, changes, properties, etc.? Wouldn't it make testing stuff go much faster and reduce the spread of misinformation?

Reposting parts of a Litchi v. Haku convo in the PSN thread: There you go, good info supported by none other than Lord Knight himself. :3 For you PSN guys, he's been going online recently, so hit him up for some exp. with possibly the best US Litchi. I'll be doing that later in the week myself.

^ ... Huh? Please clarify, I've no idea what you just posted.

^ Also, you can't immediately barrier after a jump if I recall. Cool. New Haku got his damage nerfed, but I don't care since it's an across-the-board move. Dunno about the rest, will have to see it in action.

@Shinkada: If Stunedge said so, then it's the case. Speaking of whining, no one's said why 4.4k for that Haku combo was worthy of a "wtf?". Please explain.

So I've been periodically keeping up with MvC3 info, but not really in-depth. Thing is, it looks like a fun game, but I also hear they're going the route of SFIV-ing the mechanics. Is this true? If so, is it as bad as SFIV? No game deserve the SFIV treatment. :\ But that said, currently looking at a tentative team of Wesker, Ammy (Amaterasu), and Viewtiful Joe/Arthur. I've always wanted a pet God to go with my trusty sidekick.

It's not nonsense, he really is OP. I won't list the reasons since you know them already, but he currently is too strong. I've seen plenty of reputable posters on here say the same, too, so it's not just a couple random scrub comments.

I don't get all this gripping about Haku. Counters aren't too hard to use (especially not j.D. Goddamn, but I love that move), they simply have really skewed risk/reward ratios because of the high recovery. Whiff a 2c and you're in for 30f+ of recovery at least, which is an eternity to get CH'd. Reaction j.D is quite strong, though, which is why I've advocated in the past that it should be nerfed. The other counters are not threats in terms of damage, but they do offer better positioning. Overall, I'd say that his counters are being overestimated because people don't know how to bait them and get countered since they're playing predictably. Tager is excused from this since he's just slow in general (easiest to j.D in the game, baby!). Also, why wtf? at 4.4k for j.2c -> 5c -> renka -> etc.? That's low-end damage for a 4-star combo... you should be getting 5-6k+. But of course, no one uses 5c x2 - 5/2c links.

Looks like new Haku is going to be about single hits mid-screen that push into corner. Then the mixup rape begins. I might like this new version. :3 4c being super fast and cancellable is lol, it just makes it easier to push into the corner (blocked 4c -> kishuu -> throw -> ???? -> profit!).