Seasons Beatings V: Redemption Recap!

Well, SB5 has come and gone, and the results have left many people, including myself, surprised. Here are some of the highlights of the weekend in SSF4.

To begin, let's take a look at the top 8 spots.

1. GamerBee (Adon)
2. Momochi (Ken, Akuma)
3. EG.Justin Wong (Rufus, Makoto, Balrog, Cammy)
4. TS.Arturo "Sabin" Sanchez (Dhalsim, Rose)
5. Mike Ross (E. Honda)
5. EMP.Sanford Kelly (Sagat, C. Viper)
7. EMP.Dieminion (Guile)
7. FYC.MarlinPie (Cammy)


Wow. First of all, note that Daigo "The Beast" Umehara, who has been dominating the US major tournament scene for the past few years isn't even in the top 8. If memory serves me right, he placed 24th this year after being knocked to losers bracket by Andre "TwistedJago" playing as Bison, and then eliminated by Martin "Marn" Phan, playing a surprisingly well polished Dudley in one of the most exciting matches in recent memory. 


Gamerbee had his rematch with Mike Ross from Evolution 2010, and Mike Ross came out on top once again, pulling through with E. Honda to beat Adon in what was, once again, a very heated match. As a fan of both Mike Ross' play and of E. Honda, I was very happy with this turnout. Mike played some very smart matches against characters he has a natural match up disadvantage with, so it's always good for me to take notes on things like this.


Also worth noting is that FYC.MarlinPie ranked 7th, which is amazing. MP is a somewhat local player to the area, and its great seeing him rank so well in a tournament. He really is a fantastic Cammy player, and I look forward to both him and FYC.KDZ playing in larger tournaments. Best of luck to both of you.

Let's Begin: Special Attacks

Special attacks, more commonly referred to as "specials", are an integral part of Street Fighter, and are ultimately the most defining aspect of a character. Some characters have special attacks that are more well oriented for rushing down your opponent with a well thought out offense, while others may be more suited for playing defensively and punishing your opponent for a mistimed or unsafe move. Other characters still are somewhat of a balance between the three. To be honest, this is just barely scratching the surface.

Now, as I went over in a previous blog, special attacks are attacks that require simultaneous input on both the joystick and buttons. For the most part, there are three separate types of joystick inputs for special attacks:

• Command Input: Movement on the joystick is a sequence of directions, most of which are quarter circles. For example, moving the stick from the down position to down-forward, and then forward while pressing an attack button.

• Charge Input: Movement on the joystick is held in one direction for approximately one and a half seconds, and then moved to the opposite direction.

• Grappling Input: A certain type of Command Input, grapples (most commonly referred to as throws) are performed by rotating the joystick a certain amount of degrees and then followed up with an input on the joystick. Some characters, such as Zangief, revolve completely around their grapples, and a majority of their moves can be used to set up a grapple.

Favorite Matches #1

One of my favorite matches from SF4. Shine (Gouken) vs Sanford Kelly (Akuma) at Battlefield Arcadia #9, December 2009.

Now, this match is good for a few reasons. Up until this match, virtually no one had ever heard of Shine. Shine was, at this point, a 15 year old kid playing on a 360 controller, and he placed second in a monthly NYC tournament that would often have some of the best EC players in it. In addition to playing at such a high level at such a young age, he was suing a standard 360 controller, widely thought of being the worst thing to use for competitive fighting games. Obviously, this is no small feat. 

What else makes this match so amazing is that up until this point, there was very little play of Gouken seen or heard of. No one really played him competitively, and not many people seemed to stick with him long enough to care until this video came out. Although there aren’t a ton of Gouken players now, there are definitely more, a few of which inspired by this video to give the character a chance.

Both players exhibit a very good amount of skill and knowledge of game mechanics and theory, such as spacing, pressure, and execution. Although this version of the game is no longer played, this remains one of my favorite matches. The video is a bit long, but it’s worth watching for a very intense match.

Shine (Gouken) vs. Sanford Kelly

Let's begin: The basics.

I've decided to start upon the monumental task of me beginning to explain the very basic ways of playing Street Fighter 4. I know that sounds immeasurably pretentious, and it is. I realize how it sounds, but I'm going through with it anyway. What makes the game so interesting to me is how deep the system for such a seemingly simple game can be. There's so much going on and so many things to be thinking about that it's important to understand some of those more obscure elements in order to compete on a higher level.

I'll be explaining some key terms now. Use this picture of an arcade stick as a visual aid.

The Basics

• There are two different types of input. Movement and blocking is done by the joystick on the left, and attacks are handled by the red buttons on the right.
• The joystick has eight directions, the four cardinal directions and four diagonal directions.
• In order to block, hold the joystick in the direction opposite your opponent. To block high or mid attacks, hold back. To block a low attack, hold down and back.
• The top row of buttons are designated for punch attacks, and the bottom row of buttons are designated for kick attacks. They increase in strength from left to right, and are commonly called weak, medium, strong/fierce.
• The fourth button in each row, when pressed, gives the same output as if you had pressed the other three buttons simultaneously. This is useful for certain types of attacks which will be explained in full later on.
• Each character has anywhere from six or more regular attacks that are performed by pressing a single button from either a close or slightly farther away distance. Some attacks do not change with distance. Attacks that are performed without additional input on the joystick are referred to as normals
• Normals typical do less damage than specials, attacks that require specific input on the joystick followed immediately by input by using specific buttons.
• Normals also are much faster than special attacks, and are generally safer to use than special attacks because the time it takes for your character to be able to block again is much faster.

That's all for now. Expect another tutorial entry sometime over the weekend.

Focus.

Focus.


This blog, while it is active for the duration of this semester (Fall 2010), is going to deal with my experience and knowledge in the semi-professional fighting game scene. I have been competing in Street Fighter games for 2 years now, and making some spare change along the way from it. Currently, I find most competition to be in the most recent game Super Street Fighter 4, although I'll readily and happily play some of the older games in the franchise for a change of pace.

My name is Nick. The topic I have chosen is one that is very familiar for me. I have written about it on my own personal blog occasionally, as well as co-author another blog that deals on the subject, Oh He's So Pringles, it's very name being a reference to a certain fighting game (Expect me to explain that one in the near future. Trust me, it's a video worth watching). Anyway, I bring this up because I plan on bringing over a few posts that I may have already written in the past, as well as write up new posts and publish them across all blogs on which I'm active, instead of just recycling older articles onto here.