According to RX

Classic Fighting Games Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike
1

The best Akuma players in Japan are Uraken and Yuki Otoko. The players there have that opinion because those two can beat all other Akuma players in mirror matches. Apparently even Match has trouble getting any wins on them.

Just thought I’d let you know :bgrin: Also one of Hong Kongs top players that studies in London (Sean) says that he played against the Australian lot recently including PaulT. It was interesting to hear his breakdown of PaulT’s game compared to my own :bgrin:

TSC - do you know anything about the Australian players playing against the Hong Kong lot such as Carmen, Sean, Gary etc?

2

Hey Naz… actually that was Kokujin’s opinion, not RX’s. Yeah Paul mentioned on our forums he played Sean and had some positive things to say about him. As for how the Aus players in HK are doing in HK at the moment… well you can check out this thread for a report from several of them: HK Report! (I think the report speaks for itself really as to how they are doing)

3

Yuki Otoko would definitely have to be my favorite. I love Jiro, but I think he plays too flashy which isn’t necessarily the best way to win.

What did Sean say about you compared to PaulT?

4

best gouki mirror match player =/= best gouki player. but hey, that’s only my opinion.
but it’s still interesting to know.

5

Yuki Otoko is definetly the best! His style is so solid, safe and pressuring at the same time. Playing against him makes others feel themselves helpless and hopeless! Match and Jiro arent that good, their style is weaker, they try to adapt themselves to opponents style, not to play their own!

6

Adapting to your opponent’s play style is probably the most important thing you can possibly do in a fighting game.

That being said, I still think that Yuki Otoko is the best Akuma player I’ve ever seen.

7

well mirror matches prove you know your character better than the opponent.

they do not prove who is better in various matchups, but they do show which person actually knows their character inside and out the best.

matchups are knowing your character and how to apply your tools versus the opponent’s character. in a certain context, mirror matches do prove who is the best akuma, or urien, or dudley. but being the best akuma doesnt mean you are going to win the most tournaments.

8

The mirror match argument has always confused me because of what Henaki just said.

The reason I like Yuki is the way he always chooses clever options in certain situations, and his mixups are always out of the ordinary. I think he has an incredible shoto ground game.

Uraken is just bonkers. I think he is the Deshiken of Akuma playing. He’ll come at you full blast and either you know how to defend or you’re dead. That sort of mental pressure is just too dope!

Thanks for the link TSC :tup: EDIT - damn, some of that sounds like the polar opposite of what I’ve been hearing from the HK crew :xeye:

9

speaking of the akuma mirror match, I have a hard time with it sometimes. Is there anything you guys do specifically in the mirror match? Maybe post it in Jida’s matchup thread tho.

10

Lol weird - I always feel like I do well in mirror matches, yet I can’t actually think of any specific tactics except - REVERSE BLOCKED HURRICANES WITH YOUR OWN HURRICANES :rock:

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Well, I dont know if anyone besides Sean is in HK from the UK but maybe its cause he is only 1 guy back there where as 5 or so Aus players have been back there and Japan recently for a couple of weeks on holiday now playing. Just a thought.

Here is one of the HK top tier Shinshoryuman vs Boss from the recent trip there by some of Aus and HK top tier: [media=youtube]FVROaM9Uvts[/media] More will be released soon featuring Jiro, Match and other JP’s against IXL, Kechu (Aus) and Ricky, Shinshoryuman, Joe (HK) and some others.

12

That is exactly what I was thinking. Just because one person can read his own character better doesnt mean he knows how to fight anything else. The same goes for the actual players themselves. It all comes from experience. If one person plays mirror matches all day of course he might be more comfortable with it then the next guy. Doesnt mean you cant beat his face in with genei-jin, fake him out all day or keep him on lock from across the screen. Example, good headgames and reaction to beat one character doesnt mean you have the patience or experience to beat another.

13

Exactly. And Match may not be able to handle Uraken (someone needs to record this; it’s killin’ me) but he may have less trouble with other characters (like Makoto).

Looking forward to it. :tup:

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Halo this is Paul… I havent make post in SRK for a long time but I really love this topic.

My favourite akuma is Yuki Otoko as many would agree. I actually played with Jiro and Match one year ago in Newton. I didn’t find much difficult to beat Jiro and Match (I am no way better than them), but my win-rate against them is around 30/70 with Ryu.

Yuki Otoko is actually insane when I went to G-vision and see him keep rushing down/pressuring Nuki for the whole god damn game. Yuki actually leading for the whole game but eventually suffered Nuki SA2 and died. When Nuki had 30wins steak against G-vision crowd (include Issei, Narchan, Roshikikari, etc), Yuki Otoko finally beat Nuki at his third attempt and finished Nuki with cr-mk > light hurricane > jap > KKZ.

IMO, Yuki Otoko has the most offensive Akuma in the world. Different from Uraken, Yuki always attempt to get to opponent and seek for an opportunity, and his demon setup which mixup with up/low buffer is really effective and crazy (check A-cho Yuki OCV KO’s team). Uraken zoning’s, attack variation/intention is real great. When Uraken is “flying” around through the whole screen, his opponent is actually impossible to predict his attack as Uraken hide his attack intention so well. It is really hard for one to defense if an Akuma can really hide his attack intention.

In compare to Uraken and Yuki Otoko, Jiro and Match’s gameplay is more tactics/strategy oriented. If you watch enough Jiro’s video, you will find he has his clear tactics against different character. Match, imo has best defensive style of akuma. I saw match in Youtube that Match can use jump fire-ball to interrupt Yun(KO)'s dive kick. That is a really techinical skill as akuma will die once a Yun is right under you and do some highjumpcancelbullshit. Match put massive effort on spacing, and he always keep himself out of his opponent’s attack range.

Too much to say lol, anyway I think Yuki chose a really hard path of playing an Akuma. I think everyone will agree if akuma is being predictable, he will be gamble by strong damage potential character and die easily. And I think thats the reason Match chose to play Akuma in a more defensive way- rely on mobilty (in compare to Yuki, Uraken and Jiro).

For techinical and tactical issue, there is no evidence that Akuma should play in an offensive way, as akuma need to take certain risk (that risk is comparatively much bigger than Yun) before obtain the reward, but irony many akuma play in an offensive way.

Hope my opinion doesn’t make any trouble :slight_smile:

Cheers.

15

SOoOo true! Yuki’s Gouki never stops, he always doing something to make his opponent start panic not knowing what to do! And I must say he mistakes VERY seldom - he always gets 101% out of the current situation! His exp is HUGE!

16

Hmm, hide attack intention… I like the sound of that. Its such a shame that there arent any Uraken vids out there :sad: Apart from the few from co-op4…

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It seems we’re in luck, thanks to TheShend.

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I’m not sure I agree with this… some mirror matches are just really gay and random like makoto mirror matches or chun li and have little bearing on anything else. Others such as Ken v Ken provide the crutch of what 3rd strike is all about. But yeah, I dont’ play akuma, but when I think of it, it sounds really stupid.

19

What’s so random about a Chun Li mirror match? And a Makoto mirror match should be a test of who’s more random, and who can outwit the opponent. Henaki hit the nail on the head.