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Editor’s note: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the writer, and do not reflect Shoryuken.com as a whole.

Keita “Fuudo” Ai was on a tear in the beginning of the season. At Street Fighter Crash, he was the player on Team Razer to beat. He then took his teammate Infiltration to the limits during the Grand Finals of Evolution 2016.

With him getting into Capcom Cup on points, what will become of Fuudo when he hits Anaheim?

The True Pro Wrestler

Fuudo has made huge changes in style between Street Fighter IV and Street Fighter V. In the former game, the 2011 Evolution champion was almost boring to watch, with a very rigid and straightforward Fei Long. He was a great player, but it was almost too difficult to watch–unless you were looking for a masterclass in spacing and stage control.

In Street Fighter V he has proven his versatility by switching to a very mix-up heavy character in R. Mika and not just making it work, but becoming one of the most successful proponents of the character. While Liquid|NuckleDu may be the Mika taking the titles, Fuudo was the originator of many of the setups and mix-ups and traps that all R. Mika players are working with now.

The man is the walking compendium of Mika play, and can hit you with anything out of his arsenal at any given moment. Just as an example, during one salty suite at ArcadeStream after Street Fighter V Crash, Hyunkyu “Nin” Park (Yes, the Nin from Tekken fame) was sitting behind him the entire night, taking notes on his play as an aspiring Mika player. By hour two, Nin had taken at least ten pages of notes regarding Fuudo’s play.

That is the amount of approaches and match-up dependent plays that Fuudo has and makes on a regular basis. When you have that sort of depth of understanding, you are going to see solid results.

The Infiltration Influence

Much like Infiltration, Fuudo has taken it easy since his crazy performance at Evo. Although he has played more tournaments than Infiltration has since July, he has only played four, and three of them were smaller Japanese events. While one of those, he won, the players he had to face are players such as Itabashi Zangief, and GGP|Kazunoko–both great players, but only one of them has a shot of making Capcom Cup, and is the lowest seed in the bracket currently.

One thing that Fuudo has got going for him is his respectable 5th place finish at ESL’s Brooklyn Beatdown. This bodes better for him than Infiltration’s results at the same tournament. However, beating players like YouDeal MJS|Haitani and Arturo Sanchez–who aren’t in the playoff picture–and dropping games to EG|Momochi, and losing in the runback against Haitani–does not instill confidence in Fuudo going into December.

Further, he has been noticeably absent in the tournament scene since that very tournament, which occurred at the beginning of October. If this continues until Capcom Cup, there is a very real risk of rust going into the tournament.

Never a Long Shot

Here’s the thing though; Fuudo is never the odd one out. He came out of virtually nowhere (though players that followed the Japanese scene in SFIV closely would beg to differ) to win Evo 2011 when he was more known for his Virtua Fighter play. He was always on the cusp of a top placement after that win, staying within the top 32 every year before getting third place during RB|Luffy’s warpath to the championship at Evolution 2014. These results came despite the waning strength of Fei Long in the SFIV series after the 2012 and Ultra updates. Fuudo, unlike some other Fei Long players, simply adapted.

At this point, as everyone is getting force-fed their collective dosage of Mika match-up experience from NuckleDu, one thing cannot be discounted: Fuudo does not care how much you understand about his character. He does not care whether the character stays popular or high in the tiers. If there’s a way to make it work, he will make it work. While Mika may be under fierce scrutiny thanks to her mix-up oriented style, Fuudo will go into Capcom Cup confident that he has the tools, and understanding of the tools at his disposal, to make them work.

Download Complete?

How much has Fuudo been tooling his game since Evolution? Obviously he has not on the tournament circuit as much, but this is a player who will no doubt be in the lab practicing. He knows how Infiltration got into his head that night in Las Vegas. He knows that Infiltration won by reading him like an open book. Fuudo is not the type to just resign to that fate. He has likely been working online and offline, making sure that mistake doesn’t happen again.

Should he face Infiltration again, will the results be different? It’s quite possible, given Infiltration’s slump and Fuudo’s ability to adjust to the meta.

Final Thoughts

It’s very hard to judge Fuudo’s chances because, much like GAM|DR Ray, Fuudo hasn’t been traveling enough to draw conclusions from. He has all the experience at the highest level to pull off a win, but with not a lot of tournament and international experience, it could be hard for him to capitalize on player knowledge, which could be costly. We’ve seen his ability to adapt well in the past, however, and that may well come into play.

Despite the problems he potentially faces, I still like Fuudo’s chances enough to see him make top 8. Like what Mika’s going to do after a knockdown: it’s really an unknown from there.

Novril’s guide to explaining the intricacies of Guilty Gear Xrd -REVELATOR- is back this week with a new episode. This one covers something that separates the good from the great: air throwing effectively.

Air throws may seem like an “offensive” technique, since it damages the opponent, knocks them down, and sometimes even opens up opportunities for combos, but it really shines in Guilty Gear as a defensive asset that can surprise the opponent and shift momentum immediately. As Novril explains, even characters with great anti-airs may find some dead zones in their coverage, so a good air throw helps as a universal tool. Furthermore, the opponent could try to bait out anti-airs with delayed attacks, additional jumps, and special moves, so an air throw may be the better answer.

The episode finishes up with a few execution tips, and advice on figuring out how to incorporate more air throwing in your gameplay.

The previous lesson from the Guilty Gear Crash Course covered the essentials of Instant Blocking.

Source: Novriltataki