Been wanting to teach everything I’ve learned and discovered and gathered in my 11 years of playing 3rd Strike. Obviously there are better ways to go about this then typing on a forum… but maybe if this is successful, we can be more technological.
Ask me anything!
*What do you think are some of the most useful things to know how to red parry outside of Yun 123, Ken Shippu and Akumas tatsu? *
on the podcast you did with Gootecks a few years ago you said something like “I don’t know shit about footsies and I refuse to play them. I’ll just jump, Ken is really good at jumping.” do you still agree with this?
Red parry is more of a supplement, I hope that you can understand this as the most important thing. Your ground game is solid, your execution is solid, your knowledge is good, etc, then you work on red parry. I think red parry is more instinctual than anything else. I find myself doing red parries on instinct. Or I am just trying to show off… knowing, this player will now do this chain, even though I can just parry the first attack, I choose to wait to red parry the 2nd hit to be more sick.
But to answer your question… any move that doesn’t cause you to die if you miss lol. Red parry Yun 123 is a bit risky, if you miss, you may die. It might be better to go to red parry during the 2nd hit of Yun’s shoulder during Genei Jin. I like to red parry moves that can’t be canceled into a special after. Such as Ken overhead, Makoto toward fierce punch, Dudley low 123, Oro toward fierce overhead, Ryu and Gouki overheads, etc.
Always go for red parry on Ken’s Shippu on the 2nd hit, even final round of a tournament in Grand Finals and if you miss you’ll lose the game. ALWAYS. This will make you a sicker 3rd Strike player.
Why are you called 5 Star?
Why Ken?
Who was the toughest opponent you ever played?
Ah! Very good question! My thoughts on this have definitely changed since whenever that podcast was from!
I don’t believe in footsies. 3rd Strike is not ST, footsies is a ST term. I don’t ever use footsies to describe 3rd Strike.
Footsies don’t exist in the world of 3rd Strike. Footsies as in low attacks with kick buttons. In 3rd Strike, you can’t attack low on like 90% of the cast. This obviously needs more explanation, which I don’t have time to go into full detail right now, but just try to think about this concept.
At the time of the podcast, I wasn’t very good at zoning and spacing with Ken. So most of my offense would come from knockdown attacks and jumping. I lost SBO quals 2008 because of my poor zoning and spacing. So I made a big effort to be as strong as possible at this. I’ve definitely studied zoning and spacing with Ken, maybe even dedicated a whole year to winning with just zoning and spacing. I would purposely play all matches just by trying to hit my opponent with zoning and spacing moves, instead of going for attacks that I’m already good at. I definitely lost matches this way, but for me, it isn’t about winning or losing, I care more about my improvement as a player. And yes I know shit about it now, it’s very important for Ken players lol, and it is definitely now one of my biggest strengths. I like it when I get compliments about how good I am at walking back and forth.
Biggest lessons from this answer…
Acknowledge your weaknesses, admit it to the world, then work on it. One of the things that helped me the most in my improvement was saying… “this RIVAL player is stronger than me” or “I am fucking awful at this…”
Try to learn these tips I’m giving with a blank mind. Start fresh. 5 Star will show the way!
What is a good car for a 3s player to drive??
Cool thread. Any advice to improve my air game (jumps, anti air, air-to-air etc…) ?
Great question Jon!
The best players walk or take the subway.
Boss san rides a motorbike.
Kokujin drives a BMW.
Kuroda rides a bicycle!!
Pyrolee used to drive a 1970s Dodge Challenger!
Frankie3s drives the weedmobile. (Hot Box Time Machine)
Pherai drives a Camry with bullet holes in them.
I would definitely say walking or taking the subway is at the top tier of 3rd Strike player vehicles.
Anything but an eco friendly car like the Prius or an electric vehicle. I think it would take a lot of badassery away if we found out Koshun drove a hybrid…
lol hilarious
No lie, Rikimaru’s #12, 13, 14 made me not want to ask anything here. Still came up with too many.
Gameplay
pherai’s answer to my “can’t teach clutch,” well yes and no! He mentioned 5Star taught him to use moves with lower risk near the end of a match. Expand on that a little bit maybe.
So nowadays where its
99% Casuals
1% Tournament
How do you put together the mean streak, or tournament nerves, when there’s like no tournaments to get that experience now?
How do you straddle the fine line between “this guy is so good I will never be able to beat him without hella money and time committment” & how you can just learn from the video and not be a fanboy?
3s has been called Bruce Lee’s fighting game
How do you get to the point you can beat someone so bad, its like they offended your family and a shaolin temple.
More specific to you but maybe we all go thru it too, then a super nonsense one Don’t answer
How did you grow him to not be racist? Blackuma, I bet.
How do i get my hair as pretty as Pyrolees
Fun Questions!
I got my name back in 2003, when I was a little known scrub at FFA. I just beat Mike Watson in a tourney. At the time there was no youtube or anything, just an HTML site called Denjin Video. Shogo had recorded my video and put it on the site, it was like the match that made me into a somebody. It got linked onto a Chinese website at the time that also had 3rd Strike videos, and my video got 5 Star rating! I felt like I was making my motherland proud, so I told everyone to call me 5 Star from that day on.
Ken is All American. I believe Ken fits my personality and fits my strengths. Also, Shoryu is also the strongest move in the game if used correctly.
Pyrolee is easily my toughest opponent. Have I played better players? Of course. But everything that I’ve done to become better, was because of Pyro. He always overcame everything I did to try to beat him. All my strategies that I think of, is to beat Pyro. One week, I’ll have it all figured out, I’ll go the arcade, stomp on him, but he will comeback the next week and have a counter for the things I created. I never have had a rivalry with any other player that had the dedication to beat all the strategies I came up for him specifically. I almost never strategize for any players, most times, I just strategize for a character, only Pyro. Because of his dedication, it made me continue to get better. I always ask myself… how does he guess so good on wakeup? How does he do this so well? How does he do that so well? Oh… I see how I can get around that. And then the next week, he’s found a way around it, so I gotta go back to the drawing board again. STRONG!
This question is a little difficult to answer, it’s a little too broad. I’m not sure the answer I provide will help much to exactly what you are looking for.
Also… 1 or 2 questions at a time lol. A little difficult, I have so many thoughts about 3rd Strike that so many questions will stray me from giving a complete answer. I will want to frantically answer the next question because of my excitment about the topic.
what are urien’s best options against a defensive ken?
what are urien’s best options if ken does a meaty s.mp on wake up?
How helpful would a Guccin playing in the background of your match be?
Damn, that means I’m already halfway there in becoming a professional 3S player. Sweet.
Serious note: I’m buying a car this year. 
How many hours were you spending in training mode back when you were actively competing?
How do you beat defensive/zoning Kens? Asked Duralath, curious on what your take is.
My main characters are: Alex, Dudley, and thinking of maining Hugo.
Off topic: I know the interviews w/ Pyro & Mr. 5Star are on TheShend’s channel, but where did Gootecks hide the other ones? I want to hear the evo2k7 special, where Pyro reminisces about Tackle Maeda at SBO and Mago not caring about his dick hanging out as he plays CvS2 w/ his boxers only.
Is it worth playing 3S if I don’t live in Japan or SoCal? I love the game but I have no choice but to play online, which really blows as we all know.