Ronove

I haven't faced that many Carl players hence my experience on this matchup isn't as deep as in others, but it looks to me that staggering with 2A from 236A range (hitting with the tip of 2A) works really well on Carl if you manage to pressure him before he can shield himself with Nirvana. Also, j.4D~C to bait his antiair and potentially create an opening. And yeah bowling balls can be useful if Carl is just turtling and you want to distract him/put Neesan on block for an instant. I've gotta try if the corner crossup trick works on him (opponent at the corneron block 2A/5B > IAD j.B > 214D > 5A > mixup), it should work though...

This a hundred times. I am still salty over the fact that we're still stuck CS1 coin-op over here, only because of that dumb online system. :\ I hope it's on Sega RingEdge, though our arcade doesn't have the machine (yet) I heard good stuff about it.

That throw range...

HUD and sprite art really do have the typical French-Bread style. However the HUD could still change during the course of developement, this one might just be a temporary solution they came up with. I wouldn't mind if it's "HD melty" in terms of gameplay, but I think they'll surely try some other new ideas with this game (else there would be no point in starting a brand new franchise, they could just focus on the real HD melty conversion instead).

Time Akane can set up some nasty oki with the Time super and Time's projectilve move + her teleports. Depending on how the opponent reacts you can obtain unblockable setups as well. Also, Time super let her charge kotodama for free which is really good since Time is an arcana that heavily relies on meter usage. Tone Akane is good mostly for the damage you can get. Plant Akane is good for being able to deal good damage without spending any meter at all (Vine is GDLK) and for pressure/spacing, and doesn't rely at all on EFC combos. Fire Akane is good for abare, she can pick up into good damage off aerial hitconfirms, though it is not "easy" as it looks to be in videos. Still, if you often land air vs air j.B/j.A and are too distant from the ground to be able to land and do 5B, that's where Fire's 236E comes in and make her abare really scary. So yeah, she is a character that can do well with almost any arcana, with her it's not about covering her weaknesses but more like getting the kind of buff that suits one's personal way to play a character (like having strong oki, or easier neutral approach, or damage, or better abare, whatever).

Good job! It's wiki no hito, btw, not "nin"

Akane's good with any arcana, though IMO Time, Plant or Tone make her outright ridiculous.

Yeah, I guess that's why she's able to get full damage even when hitconfirming off 2A, the buff at her drive's untechable time prevents opponents from being able to tech too soon. This coupled with the IB nerf is making her pressure really scary. She's become sort of like Makoto, in the sense that any hit of her regular blockstring leads to the same setup/combo without having to worry for the opponent to tech when the combo is hitconfirmed off 2A or 2B starters. The only thing that changes is obviously damage depending on what the first hitconfirmed normal was, but still being to able to fully capitalize off ANYTHING is going to be sweet. Her style overall hasn't changed that much, but atleast now Tao has less worries about trying to forcefully create gaps to get her best hitconfirms in and instead she can take almost any opportunity. I say almost because clearly the vids have shown that are still occasions where even if a blockstring was hitconfirmed she can't go into her regular BnB path (like when 5B is hit too far and the 236A could whiff, I've seen some Taos use the bowling ball or use [2]8D to atleast keep the pressure on the opponent's wakeup). But it seems to be rare compared to the times when she was in the range to go into her j.8D loop.

Not really... your best bet is to to use CAT2 as you're falling down after ~C canceling on block, but it's VERY risky against a lot of characters that do have good and fast antiair. Tao can break two primers with hexaedge though, so if the opponent has bursted and has only two or one primer left and you have 50% meter you can try guard crashing them (if you lock them down in a blockstring first). Anyway, I'd almost dare to say that CS2 Tao looks better than CS1. Why? Because now Tao is able hitconfirm into good damage off her regular blockstrings, which she couldn't do before unless we used RC at the end to close the distance. Now Tao is able to cancel 3C into 236A which extends her range meaning you can hitconfirm from 2A > 5B and the chances that it'll whiff are much less compared to CS1. The other cool thing is that at the corner she can also link 3C > 2C (and 2C has freaking good range) into 236C. I was initially doubtful about 3C being special cancelable but looking at how it's helping her out a lot in terms of extending her range... it's really damn good! If in CS1 it was more about trying to create the right gap with her pressure mixup, now hitconfirms off regular blockstring 2A > 5B > (2B) > 5C all lead to the same setup as hitconfirming off jump-in j.C or neutral 5B. The other good thing is that her pressure seems to be more tight in CS2, 214D autoflipping is amazing, she hasn't lost her previous tools for pressure mixup and she gained one more to mentally condition the opponent. Staggering seems still good and new j.B looks good for pinning down opponents that are trying to jump away. I'm loving what I'm seeing from Izayoi Matoi and the other japanese Taos because it all looks definetely more interesting. There's even cool shit like having the opponent at the corner during a blockstring and doing on block 2A > 5B > airdash j.B > 214D > 5A > mixup, while crossing them up! Can't wait to play CS2 Tao.

Is this the video discussion thread or is this an other "rant about a character" "tier placement" thread'? :\

He doesn't live in that area. You can't expect people who are spread across a country to be at every local tournament held in every single city. Japan is not exactly that small, you know.

Practice 5B > 3C > 5D~B > 22C Once you can do that most of the times, you'll realize that putting the taunt or doing dash > taunt instead of 22C has the very same timing.

Pressure Mixup. Staggering as well, if done properly. By the way, you can taunt loop on Litchi midscreen off 5B > 3C if you hit them really deep, like [neutral] or j.C/j.B > dash 5B > 3C > 5D~B > taunt If you don't hit the 5B deep you can still do 5B > 3C > 5D~B > dash taunt The timing is the same as 22C combos. It's really good because TL midscreen off the 5B > 3C route leads to really big damage, carries to the corner and allows you to either end with oki ender or AB2 ender if you have meter.

Tao doesn't really need to guard break, her pressure is already pretty damn good, plus if it's true that her 5B has been brought back to CT level (more blockstun/hitstun) it makes pressure staggering even better. She's looking pretty damn fine imo, even if her CA assault has been changed it still pushes the opponent far away. She's looking really solid to me, if there are characters better than her it's likely only because they get a far better reward with each hitconfirm and better meter gain.

I really like the fact that her 214D finally auto-flips.

Almost 4K off midscreen 5B > 3C route? That's pretty damn nice. By the way, I've been trying to mess with j.8D~A combos in CS1 but it's not as easy as it looks (though we have to take into account the changes from CS1 to CS2), it seems to be character specific. Like for example landing it on Hazama doesn't seem to be easy at all, the first j.8D~A has to come out at the very first available frame and you have to make sure you hit 5C as high as possible. Though it is possible to buffer the jump cancel input during the 5C if you anticipate the D input too early you'll end up doing a 5D instead of j.8D since the jump still takes 4(?) frames to activate. In CS2 it doesn't seem to be that character specific, atleast when looking at the vids we've got so far. On the other hand it's pretty ironic that CH 5B only hitconfirms into an other 5B for less damage than a regular 5B. I was expecting to see CH 5B > 6C combos. the j.C corner combos are good but I take it that they refer to jump-in j.C. I'm curious to see how much can Tao capitalize off anti-air j.C (AA CH j.C for instance) anywhere on the screen.

I don't mind this thread, some people may be specifically looking for AB2 infos, it's not bad to have a separate thread for this. It's not like the Tao forum is crowded with threads anyway.

Gagaga plays at Wakayama's game center (Kinki region) it'll be hard to see him play with the people you mentioned who live in an other region of Japan, unless he purposely travels to Kantou region (and it's not like they're that "close" either).

"Definite" as in? You mean the combo bluebeats or the opponent recovers before the taunt connects? You don't have to mash the taunt right after the j.2D~B since you can't buffer it, there's a small window of time (really small) you have to wait for (basically when Tao is standing up again) and then press the taunt. You'll find it by practicing, most of the times it's just a matter of execution speed/rhythm.

Thanks, that's what I wanted to know! (although I somehow wished that you would do everything on Saturday, less money spent but whatever) ;D

@Kurama but that's exactly where the inconsistency is: That's taken from the tournament page. Could you please clear this up? Is BB 1v1 tournament going to be played only on Saturday or are you going to have the finals on Sunday as well?

That Tsubaki player in the 5 on 5 was truly impressive

They're discussing over a j.B > j.2B > j.C loop. Basically it's a loop that apparently works on certain standing characters. First poster said it works on Tager, Hakumen, Bang, Litchi and Valk. An other poster said it doesn't work on Bang but it does work on Jin (midscreen) and on Ragna as well. Loop apparently only has two reps if you use 5B > 5C > loop, and it bluebeats even when trying to end it with a 3C (bluebeats at third hit). An other poster suggested to omit 5C and j.C and instead go for 5B> j.B > j.2B > 5B loop up to three reps. Damage isn't that high but it builds meter.

Goro doesn't live/play in that area Goro -> Kantou region Nagoya Street Battle -> Nagoya, Chubu region (though there are also Kansai/Kinki players who joined this event)