Month: March 2016

Another day, another Street Fighter V roundup. Let’s get right into it.

The guys at UltraChen TV have been producing videos in their Delayed Hyper Commentary series for a while now, and their most recent session of commentary highlights how the Dhalsim vs. Ryu match plays out in Street Fighter V. Not looking at just one match, UltraDavid talks over nearly twenty minutes of high-level footage featuring names that have become synonymous with the characters in question: Mad Catz’ Daigo Umehara, Level|Up Series’ Alex Valle, and Panda Global’s Ryan “Filipino Champ” Ramirez.

It’s a pretty intense way to get the roundup going, but we think you’ll enjoy it!

With all the tech floating around, it’s easy to miss out on some truly great tactics. A video from Floe that’s been making the rounds recently falls into this category. In the brief clip, Floe shows off a setup for Karin offering excellent okizeme pressure potential against whatever tech suits her opponent’s fancy.

Up next, qBauss Essentials brings us the first episode in a new series–and, perhaps more exciting, the first video for a new channel–for today’s roundup. To kick things off, they’ve decided to demonstrate all of the buffs Birdie receives while under the effects of his V-Trigger, Enjoy Time. Setting the tone for this fledgling channel, the video remains brief with its 90 second run time, but doesn’t skimp on information.

If you’ve been shopping around for some ways to take advantage of Laura’s powerful meaty options, this next video from henqification should suit you nicely. It features options for all sorts of knockdowns and wake up timings, not to mention a surprisingly jazzy soundtrack.

You may be aware that Zangief is capable of stylishly punishing the aerial frames of dragon punches by meeting them in the sky with a Spinning Pile Driver. What you may not know, as Big Cheese demonstrates in this next clip, is that the Russian wrestler can do this to a vast number of cast members that are equipped with similar moves, not just shotos.

So, if you’re tired of the same old Crush Counter punish, switch gears and protect the skies for a while. They could always be safer.

Ever find yourself on the receiving end of Mika’s completely and totally inescapable command grab loops? ChojinLove sent in some footage of one Ryu player whodid, but check it out, this guy was smart enough to get loose. One can certainly argue that the potential loss of points and good standing in the eyes of Capcom may not be worth pulling the plug on the match, but no one can deny that Mika didn’t throw him anymore after he dipped.

We’re sorry, BuddhasWeapon, hopefully he won’t be so slippery next time!

Want to show off your new setup? How about that combo reel you’ve been putting together? Send your footage our way and it may wind up in our next Street Fighter V community roundup!

Sources: UltraChen TV, Floe, qBauss Essentials, henqification (tip via Liqos), Big Cheese, ChojinLove

Hi everyone!

If you’ve followed me on Twitter, you know that I’ve been posting long reads about fighting games. They’ve ranged from how-to guides to strategy and philosophy. This column is a continuation of that.

I want to share my experiences with both new and intermediate players who might be stuck. If you read one of these and think, “Well, that was obvious,” then good! If you take something away from these articles, then that’s good too.

If you have any questions or suggestions for topics, feel free to ask me on Twitter at @LordKnightBB. Previous articles in this series can be found here.

It goes without saying that every game has problems. It’s on me as a competitor to find a way to overcome whatever challenge a character or play may present. But when you can’t work through it, you can be caught in a terrible place mentally.

I’ll use myself as an example, as I’ve run into this before, and I’m walking through it right now. Elphelt is a unique challenge in Guilty Gear Xrd and, to be honest, if there was an exceptionally good Sin, maybe I would feel similarly about him. Losing is a normal part of growing and improving. However, you can get lost in the darkness if you have a goal of taking down X character and continue to fail.

In the case of Elphelt, it felt like no matter what I did, no matter how much I tweaked and refined my play, I couldn’t finish her off. I found myself reviewing matches, going from, “I’m playing perfectly,” to, “I slipped here,” and finally ending at, “I lost,” and became upset as a result.

Being upset at a loss with something on the line is natural, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But what happens is that losing repetitively, with the negative thoughts compounding, take away from my inherent skills as a player. While there are times I’ve returned to neutral or even feeling pretty good, I’ve been down overall.

The problem with getting caught in this negative feedback loop is that any thoughts relating to “What should I do?” will fall into the loop as well. In the end, you won’t come up with an answer because you’re already severely biased from long periods of being upset and losing. This is dangerous and hinders growth.

In my case, the progression was:

1. “Elphelt’s a problem, I should figure her out.”
2. “Wow, this is bullshit, what do you even do against Elphelt?”
3. “Well, do I really know how to deal with (x, y, z)?”
4. (After losing more) “Even after that I still lost?”
5. (Repeat 4 x N)
6. “I can’t beat Elphelt.” DANGER POINT

Steps 4 and 5 would be the negative feedback loop (the feedback being losing despite putting effort towards improving). In this case, I ignored all the effort I put towards my goal, including any potential upsides or victories. To be honest, I likely won quite a bit against Elphelt players in general, but because I kept getting eliminated by the character, the feedback loop continued.

Some people never get through this and get stuck as a result, some for long periods of time. In 2013, when BlazBlue: Chronophantasma came out, I fell into this negative thought pattern almost from the jump for about three months. I came to hate the game, I complained a lot about my character, and practically deleted anything good I accomplished from my mind. In the end, I never worked through it, and switched characters in order to get a fresh look at the game. Because I picked a new character, I turned my losses from, “How could I possibly lose?” to, “Oh, I lost. I should work on this for next time.” Using one character for so long made me feel almost “entitled” to wins.

So, in the case of Guilty Gear Xrd, I got caught again. But switching characters isn’t always the right answer, and should never be your default. With a main goal of simply performing well, my thought process looked something like this:

• Stop worrying about how hard it is to perform, because it hinders yourself from the goal.

I had thoughts like, “It’s so much harder for me to play my character because of X, while they can just do Y, and it’s easy.”

• My character is not the problem.

I internalized this long ago, since I usually only play top tier characters. However, when I’m in the negative feedback loop, sometimes I overlook this.

• Am I sure that I’m doing absolutely everything I can in regards to the problem? Aren’t I focusing way too much on X?

I make sure to ask myself this, because part of the reason I fall into this pattern of thinking is that I already know how to put effort towards a problem. When I still don’t feel like I solved the problem, I get upset and overlook points for refinement.

• At the highest level, you can’t win 100% of the time.

The negative feedback loop comes from losing, so even though I know a big part of competing at tournaments and playing at a high level is “perform consistently,” losing to the same thing pushes this understanding aside.

Point number three is the most important – because you get so caught up in whatever is causing the negative thoughts, you don’t realize there’s more you can do. You probably know if you’ve been caught in this mental trap before, so if any of this sounds familiar to you, step away from the game for a little while, clear your head, and review your problem from square one. If you’re anything like me, there’s always more you can do.

(Featured image c/o FGC: Rise of the Fighting Game Community)