Happy birthday 5 Star. How do you pick up women?
What is the meaning of life?
Aaaaannngrrrryyyyyy
“In 3rd Strike, you can’t attack low on like 90% of the cast.”
Would you mind elaborating on that? Dudley struggles against characters with a good low attack from shotos and Chun. A lot of what Urien does can be stopped with a good low attack from shotos and Chun. Are you saying all characters can’t attack low on the rest of the cast efficiently?
Did you ever feel obligated to play 3s? Have you ever felt that playing/practicing leaves you with no extra time to do other activites?
the possibility of being reversed or counter poked is too high, I think thats what he meant
What runs through your mind before each round?
Miyamoto Musashi was a samurai who wrote a book on the philosophy and practice of the sword called The Book of Five Rings (or spheres) in 1643. He was very naturally gifted and kept an open mind on the art of combat using various weapons, most often wielding two swords at once. He was a fighter who learned by duelling his way across the land and had no time for extra frills in technique, just what worked in practice.
A few excerpts from his book
Spoiler
At the end of describing his five basic techniques he says (somehow this reminds me of the five principles of 3rd Strike)…
“These five formal techniques are not to be written down in detail. To understand the use of the long sword in my school, and also generally comprehend rhythms and discern opponents’ swordplay techniques, first use these five techniques to develop your skills constantly. Even when fighting with opponents, you perfect the use of the long sword, sensing the minds of the opponents, using various rhythms, gaining victory in any way. This requires careful discernment.”
Spoiler
"-Holding Down the Pillow-
Holding down the pillow means not letting someone raise his head. In martial arts, in the course of duelling, it is bad to be maneuvered around by others. It is desirable to maneuver opponents around freely, by whatever means you may.
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Whenever opponents try to attack you, let them go ahead and do anything that is useless, while preventing them from doing anything useful.
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To manipulate opponents in this way is mastery of the art of war, which comes from practice. The act of holding own the pillow requires thorough examination."
Spoiler
Most often he ends a concept that he’s teaching with something like:
“This demands work.” or
"It should be savoured thoroughly." or
"The rhythm must be practiced well and examined carefully." or
"It is something that requires precise discernment in the course of duelling."
I’ll get to this question soon. There is a good piece I can write about defense… Be patient.
Lets see… I really enjoy both matches, they are totally different in style, but let me do my best.
Ken-Yun, one of my favorite matches to play. This is one of the few matches that Ken has to play very aggressive but at the same time stay disciplined to win. Love that, really forces you to play at a higher level. Of course, one should always ask the question… how do you stay aggressive and disciplined at the same time??? This is the key to the whole matchup. If you can master this concept, you will level up 10 times against all the other characters. Let’s go into detail!
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This is the only matchup that Ken has to constantly jump over and chase Yun around. Ken has to play at a higher pace than all his other matches. Let’s go over the keys to the match.
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Stay within low forward range to stop the divekick! In order to stop divekick, you have to be within low forward range to jump roundhouse kick him during his divekick. This is absolutely KEY! People ask me about footsies in 3rd Strike, I answer, they don’t exist. If you want to think about footsies, this is the footsies match with Ken and Yun. It’s not like any good Yun player is gonna sit there and trade low forwards with you. Your whole advantage of spacing requires you to walk into range, and react to Yun’s neutral jump. Kick him in the order and Yun can’t move forward. If you aren’t able to kick him out of the air, Yun will dive kick on your head repeatedly and move you towards your back against the wall and eventually, set you up for all his of numerous options after dive kick. Get too far and do jump roundhouse, you whiff, land in front of Yun and eat a combo.
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This is a rare match where Ken does not have an advantage of first knockdown! Yun is so active, if Ken knocks down Yun, it doesn’t guarantee that his attack on Yun waking up will be a good attack! Think deeply about this! In order to get the best percentage attack on Yun, you must consecutively knock him down maybe 1 or 2 times before you can unleash your best options. Yun is too quick on wake up and has too many escape methods that you can’t just knockdown him and go and press strong fierce. This is really important, this is discipline. I understand at times you will be losing in the match and you feel like, I gotta attack him Yun now! But that’s what Yun player will want you to do because even with knockdown, you are not at advantage and maybe not even at neutral but a disadvantage.
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Even if you get a knockdown and Yun is close to meter or has Genei Jin, don’t even bother to attack him. One of the most important things to realize is this… Genei Jin is DANGEROUS! Stay away, make Yun activate from at least half screen away. Force him to take a risk to get inside and maybe even burn some of his Genei Jin time. Look think about this… I got a knockdown, I’m going to attack and get right next to him. 90% chance your attack will most likely fail and Yun will now attack right on top of you.
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So now we have to beg this question… How do I attack Yun?? How do you stay aggressive if he is just running around getting his meter, turning on Genei Jin?? You have to be patient but you also have to be perfect on offense. Of course there will be times where Yun will force you to guess out of Genei Jin, that’s what makes Yun such a good character. I’ve played matches with Pyro where, he’s gotten 3 Genei Jins and I’ve only hit him like once the whole round. You just gotta keep staying patient, push him into the corner and attack when you have the right opportunity. Never get impatient and do an obvious move that does high damage just to make a comeback, that will NEVER work against Japanese level Yun. Always ask this question… Would this move work on Kuroda? Probably not? Don’t even try it. I have this thing where, I don’t play to win, I play to play the right way. Yeah not all players are Kuroda and I can get a win here and there if I just do the scrub move. But what do you benefit from playing and thinking that way? You’re cheating yourself out of getting better. I used to always just use moves I know will work, and that limited me into trying out new things. Once I got rid of that habit, I improved 10 times in a month.
I can obviously go on and on and on about this match. But I’ve given a lot of information that can be learned here. Work on these things, then come back and ask me some further questions! It is honestly really hard to sit down and type out this matchup, I would do much better to talk about it and explain in greater detail. Maybe even point out some match examples, but typing it out, so many thoughts escape my mind before I get to the point where I can talk about them. Really, this answer is about 15% complete about the matchup. But part of learning is to take the information and go on your own! Do your best!
Just remember, the main focus of this strategy is always DISCIPLINED AGGRESSION. Any move that gets parried or blocked, is a wasted opportunity! You are better off not attacking to gain better position!
I’d like to change my format a little bit. I can’t answer some questions because I don’t play Yang and I don’t play Sean. I’m also so detailed when it comes to strategy that some questions require me to write a book to explain. It’s hard to answer those questions because we are all on different levels in terms of skill and experience in the game. Sometimes my strategy might be really hard to understand if you haven’t experienced it first hand, especially playing against a player at the level that I’m talking about. Theory is better in the sense that all players reading it can benefit from it.
It would be better for me to answer questions about game theory and how to improve not through strategy but through mental preparation. I’d like to change the way you guys think about the game of 3rd Strike and how you mentally prepare for the game. Of course there are some questions I can answer very well only because they have to do with changing your mindset about the game. Personally, I don’t learn too much from gameplay in videos. I learn more from videos think about the mentality of the players and how they go for certain moves in situations where I’m thinking… no way I have the balls to do something like that. Anyways, I’ll do my best to answer some of the questions, while other times, I’d rather just write a piece for you guys to all think about and be able to apply to your gameplay. The mental aspect of 3rd Strike is what’s great about the game, not the physical aspect of hitting a bunch of buttons!
I’d like to write my first piece on how to get past a plateau. Stay tuned!
Let’s have some discussion on this… Because for some reason, everyone thinks low moves are better than high moves it seems. When you first play Street Fighter, whats the best move? LOW ROUNDHOUSE! lol. Bad habits carry on for years, maybe you just don’t realize it, but the logic behind it is the same. You just switched low roundhouse, to low forward.
Metric, since you’ve been playing at FFA with the gang recently, and Pherai… tell me what you think about not being able to attack low on 90% of the cast, this is a new theory probably to a lot of you, but I’ve explained this to many of the players I play with. Answer these questions for me if you can…
To give a quick explanation, answer these questions:
Can Ken ever spam low moves on Oro?
How many times have you whiffed a low move and died?
If Dudley player never hits a button, how can Ken hit him low??
Do you ever see Kuroda dash up and do low forward if it’s not a guaranteed hit?
Is hitting someone let’s say Chun Li with a low foward with no Jinrai worth the damage of getting it parried and eating a Houyousen followed by another one??
All Ken players panic when they are losing and try to go for low forward? T/F?
Let’s for just one second pretend we’re playing players that are capable of doing all that. There is no reason to practice to beat players who don’t play at this level, even if all you have to play are these kinds of players. All theory fighter theories should be made out against Japanese elite players! Like training for the marathon at high altitude! Don’t play to win, play to improve!
So I’m going to be bold and ask you what you think my weaknesses are. By the time you guys read them, I’ll have already worked to get rid of them.
Cool! I’m glad you can let me use you in breaking down players!
First off, I think you have the potential to be much much much better. Dudley players however a lot of times, take the easy way out, that’s probably your biggest weakness.
To tell you the truth everyone, Dudley is one of my most hated characters in the game. NONONONO… I HATE DUDLEY PLAYERS. I think he is able to rely too much on high low knockdown situations, using them in obvious situations that can’t really be stopped even if you know it’s coming. Of course, it is hard to always be in situations like that, Dudley is able to create them without as much effort and Dudley can also create damage without too much effort on pure high low. I’m definitely not saying that all Dudley players especially players like Aiku and Kokujin play this way, but I think mid level players are definitely the type to.
Here’s what I think you should work on:
- Being a mid level player, it is always the goal to ascend to being a high level player. But does just winning games here and there doing the most obvious moves really make you a high level player? Here’s an example of myself. I went to Japan, I was playing against Kokujin in 2010. I was ready to play my SBO grand finals give it my all do whatever it takes, use every last secret trick in my book to win. I was able to beat him about as many times as he beat me that year, but a difference I noticed was… he was playing me to humiliate me. And I’m just trying my damn best to try to steal a win or two off of him playing my dirty hardest, doing the most desperate moves. (Ken overhead super in first round! SO DESPERATE) Anyway, I started to rethink this. Socal is obviously known to have the best players. When other players from outside of Socal come to play with me or Pyro, I see so much of them in me when I’m in Japan. Trying there very hardest, doing the most desperate stupid moves that are either touchdown or turnover. And I’m doing my very best to style on them and show off. Not even really taking them seriously. My thought process is this: Even if these players come here and steal a few games off of me, I’m just not going to be impressed. Especially if the way they are winning is just doing the most desperate moves just to get a win. Same thing over and over. For Dudley players, it’s corner overhead when down in life, etc. I started to change my attitude to think, hey, this is not the way to become a high level player, just by stealing games here and there. Nobody is impressed with desperate play, we are impressed by CONSISTENT play.
I think your play a lot of times is too desperate. You try too hard to win instead of trying out new things to get better. Once you start losing a few games, you lose the discipline to try out new things and revert back to captain obvious. Overhead, short short, overhead, short short. Stay disciplined, and I’d rather you lose but learn something new about your game, then get a win streak. I’m a lot more impressed at seeing you do new things then winning the same way over and over for years.
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Your defense is rather one dimensional. You defend the same way every time. On wake up, you will either jump straight up or option select throw tech. Cmon… do you take me for an idiot? Am I not going to catch your defensive pattern? I am the Terminator on a corner knockdown. When I attack, my goal is to humiliate the other players defense. I love asking the question… “really? You think I am that stupid that I won’t make an adjustment after it worked on me once?” You defend anti air the same way. You defend wake up the same way. And when you get desperate, you wake up guess parry and pray to the 3rd Strike gods. The last thing is on my top 10 most peeved list of things players do to try to get a desperate win. Find other ways to be more consistent defensively, instead of relying on things that have no consistency against players at high level.
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The bulk of your damage always comes from the same moves. Parry into damage is one of the most over used moves in 3rd Strike. Everyone seems to think, PARRY > PUNISH is sick, but it’s not sick. It’s a huge inconsistent risk when players can play much safer to get the same damage if they had more patience and discipline. You use parry punish too much and high low mix up too much. Learn other ways to do damage! It’s like basketball, damn Allen Iverson so good at crossover and drive to the hole. Too bad he can’t hit a 3 pointer to save his life. Parry punish for damage, high low mixup for damage are just tools, whether they are the strongest set of tools or not, really depends, but you need more tools. Think of other ways to create offense. Kokujin doesn’t just rely on overhead and parry attack.
You’ve been attacking the same way ever since I remember you started playing. Making most of your damage from high low and parry punish. This is a sign of not evolving. Get creative.
- Lastly, take some time to take some supplements as I mentioned before. You are definitely one of the better players. You have good execution, you have good patience and you have a good will to win. If you feel like you’ve reached a plateau, why not try new things? Have you tried reading frame data? Go above and beyond. Learn your matchups better. Here’s something you can reflect on:
When someone once asked me, whats your best match? I answered… I only know how to play Ken/Ken, Ken/Urien or Ken/Necro lol. Those are the only matchups that I can go to Japan and say, I’m going to fucking win for sure. If I see a Ken player go up in a 5on5, I’m going to say, let me take care of this scrub. I’m not bad at Ken/Yun but it’s not enough to say, I can win for sure. If we all sit here and become satisfied with being just decent at a matchup, not only will we not try to improve on them but we’re going into those matches a little unprepared. Of course, I’ve improved a lot in other matchups now but it took me to say to myself, I’m awful at these matchups to really go and relearn them. As you all know, I got wrecked by Snowman at SBO. I really came home and really relearned the Gouki match. I realized I knew nothing about that match. I used to play against Gouki like it was Ken. So when I played Pherai, I would lose a lot cause I would try to play with no knowledge of the match just so I can learn it from scratch. I never tried anything I knew would get me damage, and I put my character in different spacing situations to see how it would work out. I had no problem losing, because now, I destroy Pherai the right way!
BONUS You should try to humiliate your opponent by breaking down there defense instead of using high low mixup for damage and parry punish for damage! Don’t you love it when I do jump in roundhouse walk back you whiff grab into punish once a round to you?? Love pointing out your defensive weakness over and over. Learn your individual opponents! If player A wakes up with crouching throw tech, then down parry him everytime, but that doesn’t mean you should do that to player B because he defends differently. Always observe and remember the players defense on wake up, players defense against air attack, players defense against etc.
I would do the same, but I’m sure I could ask Ty and get yelled at in the same way haha
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Pfft this guy is a fraud, don’t listen to him. Follow my guide if you want to get good at 3s :
Number1: Pick Ken
Number2: Blocked standing mp, wait a bit crouch mk into srk
Number3: Repeat above until it works
Number4: Learn kara srk so you can upgrade the above skills
Number5: Thats it
Bonus tip: Don’t ever play more than 1 game against anyone
Thank you for saying this stuff. Its like I have two voices.
I’ll have a question tomorrow. Thinking on how to word it.
edit: I didn’t mean the stuff about, Surewin. He’s crying, isn’t he?
Hey Surewin! I still love you, bro.
So much truth. Using Hugo against strong opponents is like trying to fly the Hindenburg through Hell.
How do you feel about playing long sets with people who turtle/plays keep away, show no signs of aggression, simply no sign of ANY initiative, with characters such as hugo/oro/ibuki ? Do you continue to play them after they’ve been 5-0’d? Is there anything to be learned? Do you mock them and beat them at their own game?