Month: December 2014

Frame traps have been hailed as one of the most important tools to learn in Ultra Street Fighter IV, and that’s a pretty understandable opinion. They blow up button mashers and poke holes in crouch-tech spam–or misplaced crouch-techs–and that’s where most of their power lies. In a game where the defensive technique has become so prominent, it is crucial to learn good ways to counter it in order to secure victory.

But without previous experience setting up a dummy to train these sorts of things, it’s difficult to actually practice frame traps outside of matches. There are a number of ways to do it–in the past, I’ve personally recorded a dummy performing a frame trap timing after a knock down with my character of choice, after which I took control of the knocked-down party to test my timing. There’s nothing really wrong with doing it that way, but all the hopping from character to character, controlling the dummy, controlling the target, flipping and flopping around–it gets confusing.

Using that pattern, becomes hard to maintain what I like to call “training momentum,” which is that state that you get in when you’re working on a combo and you just have to finish it. Do two hits, drop it, hit reload; four hits, drop, reload; one hit, reload; until you get the whole thing. Then you repeat it until your hands nearly fall off. This momentum keeps the necessary inputs and timings fresh on your mind, but when you’re constantly swapping from controlling the aggressor to the defender in frame trap situations, that momentum can never truly be gained.

To help remedy this and provide a much more fluid method of training frame traps, BLACKU STAR recorded how they like to train these necessary offensive options. It’s pretty simple: knock the dummy down, pause the game, hit “memory,” set the dummy to record, pop out a crouch tech, swap back to control of your character, hit reload, and let the fun begin!

Much like optimal combo training, you can reload the situation for easy practice reps until you’re sure that no crouch tech will ever penetrate your impeccable offense.

Source: BLACKU STAR

After taking the time to upload every first-round Capcom Cup 2014 match yesterday, the folks behind Capcom Fighters have pushed out a handful of follow-up footage that covers sets from both winners and losers brackets.

While the players have changed since the previous roundup, the pairings most certainly have, giving us a look at the dramatic matchups that sent high-level competitors like Snake Eyez, EG|Justin Wong, and MCZ|Daigo Umehara patcking. We’ve included a few of our favorites below, but be sure to visit the official playlist for more.

Full results from Capcom Cup 2014 can be found in our coverage hub.

Source: Capcom Fighters