5 Star Teaches 3rd Strike!

Wow… these are really difficult questions here. I’ll try my best…

  1. Usually towards the end of the match when players are at low life, they play more cautious, using power moves like Roundhouse or Fierce punch would be harder to land because your opponent will be playing safer. I’m not saying this is a rule to abide by, but power moves are easier to parry and easier to react to as well as harder to hit the other player with because they may be slower, etc. This is more of a discussion of, how to finish off your opponent. How many times have you been in a match where you almost HAD the player, when he was in no life, but you just couldn’t hit him to kill off that last bit of life. I believe strategy completely changes from full life, to mid life to low life to no pixel. You should think about that deeply, and then ask questions that may further your understanding.

  2. This is a really tough one… Tournament nerves no matter at what level will always exist. I still get nervous when I play. But sometimes, it’s more about my lack of preparation. I’ll feel nervous when I’m playing someone who I think has a shot at beating me. I don’t get nervous when I play someone better than me. That has more to do with self ego than anything else. I want to maintain that I’m better than this person, whereas playing someone who is better, you can go all out because maybe you are meant to lose, playing with house money.

These days however, 3rd Strike has become more of a spiritual experience for me. I’ve become a 3rd Strike monk. I care about becoming a better player for myself, more than showing people what I can do or my skill level. When you stop caring about what other people think, and how they see you as a player, you stop being nervous and you can perform the way you want to perform. This is obviously, a lot easier said than done. I guess I’ve become more comfortable with myself as a player in my role in the 3rd Strike world. You ever watch that movie The Last Samurai with Tom Cruise? He’s practicing the wooden samurai swords and he keeps getting beat, but Katsumoto’s son watches him and knows he is capable of doing much better. He goes to him and he says… “no mind, no mind the people watching, no mind what you’re thinking, just no mind.” I think a lot of times, we care so much to try to impress the people around us, to show our peers, hey I’m good at this game too. You just need to be more calm, don’t think about those things, play your game. Some people suck, some people are good, accept where you are and go from there. How many times have you gotten nervous and played worse cause someone good is watching? Or even someone shitty is watching? Think deeply on that.

3 I’m a fanboy too, but I’m also a constant student of the game.

  1. Do you feel like… you’ve witness me beat someone so bad it’s like they offended my family and temple? If so… just ask yourself this question. How can you lose… if you know exactly what your opponent is going to do? Not only do you not lose, you know how to counter every move, and create a sick punish. I hate it when people don’t watch matches when it’s not there turn to play. I always watch every match, because I’m observing players. I hate it when people distract and talk about nonsense during the middle of other peoples matches or go smoke cigarettes or ask me nonsense questions. PAY ATTENTION! It is the worst when players who talk the most and think they’re really good do this. They expect top players to watch there matches but when others are playing, they go and do whatever they want. I guarantee you you will learn more from watching a match then going to go play someone on the scrub cabinet. When I was in Japan, the players will sit and just watch for hours and not play, but it seems like the players in America lack the discipline to do that. Maybe sometimes, watching closely will be more beneficial than playing and losing badly, I CANNOT express this enough. If there is someone you want to beat that badly, then study everything they do. Defense, knockdown defense, anti air defense, etc. The best players have multiple ways to defend and attack. The easy players defend and attack the same way against every character the same way against every player the same way.

Kokujin beat me so bad in Japan once, I told myself I’m either never going to play this game again when I go back to the States or I’m going to work so hard that I’ll be the best here.

  1. Touch of death.

  2. Touch of death.

Ahh, cool question.

I definitely use more training mode now than before. Before becoming a 3rd Strike monk, and this is when I first started playing, the only thing I knew how to practice was combos, working on my execution but that gets really boring for me after like 10 minutes. Most people ask me, what should I do in training mode and it’s a really difficult question to answer.

Now that I’m a lot more honest with myself and my abilities, I’m able to go into training mode and practice exactly what my weaknesses are. I’ll set up the dummy in situations that I’ve lost in before. Some examples:

  1. Pyro loves doing Ex Dash Punch to kill. I set Yun to Ex Dash Punch and tried to figure ways to punish it.

  2. I was really impressed with Japanese players always parrying Makoto’s axe kick in all situations. In America, Makoto can get away with doing a jumping axe kick and get block stun almost 100%. In Japan, you get punished. I would set the dummy to Makoto axe kick and practice parrying it.

Now, I’m able to pinpoint exactly what I need to work on. Ok I’m weak here, I’ll practice this this and that. Take some time to figure out what you’re weak at, go into training mode and work on that. What do you lose to? Practice it.

I also like to practice little things that nobody does, so the crowd that’s watching can go… woowww sick. I definitely spend too much time doing that.

Parry wake up fierce Shoryu, jump straight up RH, low foward, Shoryu Jinrai. 5 Star punish! Get creative!

by touch of death do you mean

  1. aegis reflector, or
  2. im not gonna bother giving you a serious answer

its cool either way, Im just wondering what you meant

Urien pretty much has one way of beating a good Ken player. One hit kill.

thanks man, I remember you mentioned that before

LOL @ Hot Box Time Machine

Which differential equation would you use to analogize 3s?

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When will IG make this game work properly again, so I can waste night after night on it?

You say Ken is All-American, did you know he’s 3/4 Japanese?

I’ve forgotten how to play this game - how to do well with Yang?

I know some players are misers when it comes to preserving their meter at the end of a round. Others prefer to burn the meter to “guarantee the KO”, stating that they’ll build it back. What’s your take on this? Like, I can understand a Yun burning his Genei-Jin since chances are he’ll get it back. But for other characters, like Chun? Is it worth it for her to burn super if the opponent’s at, let’s say, 15%, and she lands cr.forward from max range?

What’s up I love the game of Third Strike and I’m pretty much new to it in fact I can really only play online. I was wondering in your 11 years of playing Third Strike what are some of the most important things you’ve learned? Sorry if this is a bad question but it’s not everyday I get to pick the brain of 5 star lol.

When will Kuroda get a girlfriend?

Maybe he has one but secretly? Who know??

general suggestions for improving defense? kinda broad but… i dunno

Bump and just in case one other question:

How to get better at parrying jump ins and when you’re jumping in? Is it all high-level Jedi mind reading or is there a system you guys use?

Have some time before lunch to answer this. Also… some questions… I can’t answer :frowning: So if I don’t answer a question, just means I don’t have a good answer lol

First off, stick to one character. Never even play a secondary character until you win a tournament with Pyrolee or Amir in the bracket, not me, I’m garbage. Not even casuals! This is one of 5 Stars 10 Commandments.

I think Hugo is the coolest character in 3rd Strike. He requires the most patience, most discipline, best reaction and really really high execution to play. It’s funny growing up in the arcade, most Hugo players you see are these fat people who just mash 360 or like just really ugly 3rd Strike players pick Hugo, that is like the stereotypical Hugo player when you think of a Hugo player. I think Hugo players should be good looking with a really sick life and drive a really fancy car lol.

Anyways, in order to be successful with Hugo, you need to be perfect. I can actually teach a lot with this question. Let’s go from here. Low level Ken player vs low level Hugo player, Hugo has a high chance to win. Mid level Ken player vs mid level Hugo player, Hugo has a chance to win. High level Ken player vs high level Hugo player, Hugo almost has no chance to win. Really think about this with any character actually. A good example that this works really well with, is the Ken Necro match. Ken Necro, low and mid level, Necro will most likely win. He will out defense and make the Ken player impatient and win. High level Ken vs high level Necro, Ken will almost win 90% of the time, because Ken will know how to play this match correctly and Necro won’t have many options to win. This is a really important thing to consider in 3rd Strike, think deeply about this, everyone should.

Back to the topic at hand, the Hugo player MUST have more skill then the Ken player. You have to red parry, your reaction needs to be sharp, you have to block everything and be really really patient and disciplined. One of the first things you HAVE to understand is there is 99 seconds on the clock, you don’t need to win in 20 seconds, you can win with 2 seconds left and it’ll still count! Punish everything with MAX damage, that is second most important. Defense Kens won’t give you many chances to hit them, so you pretty much have to make full advantage of everything. Third most important is to understand that a knockdown doesn’t mean you should attack, sometimes you may need a second knockdown to close the space to do the best moves possible. Sometimes if you get the first knockdown and go for it, it might be a really desperate and obvious move, easy to parry or just block or anything.

Anyways, this is a lot of information, if you can truly understand these 3 points, you will become twice the better player you were before.

And lastly, the answer to this question applies to almost every player looking to get better at 3rd Strike. Don’t just ask your question and wait for an answer, read my responses to other people, they will help you. This answer has a lot and I mean A LOT of information in it. It will take like honestly, a year to truly master these and put them into your play. I hope everyone reads all the answers.

Ah! Forgot last point. You have to use Moonsault Press like it is just one press of a button. Think of it like this, you press low forward to do the trip kick move, right? One press of the button. Moonsault Press needs to be mastered at the same level, like pressing a button. That’s how quick you have to be with Moonsault Press. Don’t think of Moonsault Press as a command grab or a special move, think of it as just another move, your best move. Your best move needs to come out like pressing a simple button.

im curious to know what do you personally think about the matchups ken-yun , ken-q ( very detailed if its possible :s)

Have you read The Book of Five Rings? If you have read it then what are some lessons you can transpose onto the practice of 3s?
The way you end some of your paragraphs is very Miyamotoesque.

No I haven’t, I’m a little bit interested now. Tell me more about Miyamotoesque.