1324

took a long break from sakura to play some dudley which I won alot more with now im back with sakura and the low pp .__. but shes also so fun to play

1325

What is an empty jump low, and how do I do it?

My winning rate is 19.77%. after 349 online matches total. I am a C rank player after only a month (I started the game about a month ago). but I think that doesn’t mean anything. Most C players I can’t beat, some just do combos, and don’t know what to do if you block their attacks, then again others don’t know anything and just do one special attack after another independent of what you are doing.

I have to say though, one thing I am starting to get the hang off is crouch HP when people are jumping toward me. And I’ve defeated four other Sakura players in a row. Other than that, I lose quite often.

1326

An empty jump low is when you jump at an opponent but instead of attacking with an obvious jump-in attack which must be blocked standing, you do no attack until you hit the ground then do a low hitting attack (e.g. Sakura’s crouching light kick).

This catches a lot of people standing and you can confirm the hit into a combo. e.g. you jump in and hit crouching.lk, then crouching.lp (or two of them depending on your reactions) so you can visually confirm if you have successfully landed the hit and can then extend the combo with maybe cr.hp or cr.mk cancelled into heavy shouoken (which is otherwise an unsafe move but because you confirmed the combo then you are free to finish with heavy shouoken).

Empty jump lows are a pretty powerful tool when mixed with Sakura’s excellent pressure on your opponent’s wakeup and you can keep people guessing which side to block or if they have to block high or low.

1327

That is really helpful, thank you.

1328

After losing to 3 different Roses within 30 minutes, I realized that I have no clue about a fourth of the matchups and that I have a little idea about an additional fourth. On the bright side I finally started watching my own replays.

1329

I’m the new worst Sakura.

Can’t anti-air.
Can’t avoid command throws.
Can’t consistently Ultra.
Can’t punish correctly.
Can’t stop other people’s rushdowns.
Can’t apply pressure.

1330

How can you not anti air?? As a sakura player you should already be pressing hp all the time it does everything. If ur in any kind of pickle hp will probably get you out of it. Thou will press hp to apply pressure. To jump in. To combo. And to anti air. Fuck it if sakura didnt have dhalsim legs you would be pressing hp to play footsies all the time too.

1331

Im in the same boat i dont really have any fancy mixups i kinda just know when to jump in for super ambiguous sonetimes i use mk sometimes i use hp and shit just happens. I have tried the cr.lk after empty jump only to get thrown out of it 9 out of 10 times. My friends are jab happy and throw happy so i have to adjust to just frame traps since my jump in times are awful. I recently went back to ibuki and i cant even do her kunai vortex at all. I think sakuras j.hp has spoiled me. Just jump and press it and throw all worries out the window lol who cares what side it lands on who cares if they block it.

1332

I’m just straight hot garbage at this game. I get beat by random nonsense all the time because I expect better, which makes me worse all the same.

1333

Dont worry i lose to players who are flat out worse than me only because i expect them to respect me. They just mash and jump like mad men, so you need to adapt and learn to beat that retard style, its the same as learning to beat someone who plays footsies except this person dont give one fuck about you they just wana punch shit in the mouth. Keep playing until you adapt i eventually somewhat figured it out. I still lost to a fuerte that did walk up throw over and over and over i think he presssed an attack once. I kept expecting him to do fierte shinanigams and he didnt i never adapted and forced him to switch it up. I felt like a super duper noob laughed it off told my self my mistake and took a break. Came back with a cool head and focused on adapting and learning.

1334

I got Ultra for PC and started playing again. Still terrible, but at least now I’m terrible for a whole new audience! Strangely I’ve been winning some. I credit the laggy netcode for all my wins.

1335

I think I am the worst Sakura player. Have played 50+ matches and have only 1 win.

But then again I am just terrible at the game in general. Must train harder

Edit: Holy crap, sorry for the necro :confused:

1336

I feel I’m definitely up there among the worst. I’ve practiced so many times and still can’t properly hit confirm either of the basic basic BnBs.

:frowning:

Terrible awful player I am.

1337

My problem with Sakura is I can’t open up my opponent to perform her BnBs and I have a hard time get in on some characters (screw you Sagat :arazz:)

What really grinds my gears is how many times I try lk or cr. lk xx anything and the move simply doesn’t come out (it’s like 60% of the time). I lose a lot of damage because of that. :bluu:

1338

Went to a small local tourney… O thought my sakura was decent if not acceptable and then i went 0-2 got shot on so hard people felt bad and played characters they never use in casuals and i still maybe won 40% at that point. I realized again i have been playing this game for 4 years now and learning frame data punishes and trying really hard to improve my fundamentals, which they have improved but i still suck dick at fighters. Makes me wana go back to my roots and play shooters where im the one shitting on everyone but i cant and will not hold the L. I feel like i will lose sleep until i improve. Knowledge can only get you so far:(

What set me off and made me extremely angry was the mother fucker who won the tournament. Note this was like a 20 person tournament or so, so it was really small. The dude took his money and was like i just wana sayi was trolling you all that character wasnt even my main! I just think to myself shit like this does not happen in competitive shooters where as in my area all the “good”/“decent” players are fucking assholes and cocky ass bitches yet they cant keep up at a big tourney with the big name players who are more humble. I want justice to be served and sakura will be my hammer of justice! I wana shit on the cocky players and then go help players who are not that good help them get better. /rant xD i need to relax lol so much salt after that day

1339

Ok i have not played online in probably over a year because i cant stand the lag after getting shit on at that tourny and my local friends being useless for learning i have taken matters into my own hands and then i lost to a geif who neutral jump headbutt and like the ultra super arcade 2014 scrub i am i tried to hit him and that shot heat all my attempts he dizzied me twice in both rounds by doing that… Beat shoryu beat antiair and it beat air to air… After that match i thought i knew this game well enough maybe didnt have the execution or the fundamentals but i have knowledge. But i have decided i am not only the worst sakura player in the world but the worst street fightet player. 4 years practicing my combos reading info on the met durring work hours (shhh just pretend i dont :wink: ) and trying to play clean smart and respectful. I have gone full circle from point a to point a never actually leaving point a… I am defeated. I feel like i should at least be able to beat some scrubby strats but i get hit by everything. Also doesnt help my non exsistinf confidence that you block stuff but somehow still get hit. Fuck online but i cant improve with my local friends, they dont teach me anything they never give me any tips. When i picked up sakura they were blown away about how good her cr.mk was i gave them info on how to beat it because in turn i will have to learn other aspects of matchup except they never return the favor. Hey buddy, you just beat me 50 times in a row. Can yoi give me any tips i say. Idk i just press buttons and shot happens. They say. Your full of shit and a shit training partner. No more info tech or frame data share for you, you go do your own fucking research.

Yes i do believe i have snapped i cant take this “i wana win at all costs” mentality in casuals im surrounded by. i wana level up i dont just wana remain at the same scrub level im apparently at. God damn it i cant vent enough my sakura is apparently awful and im a terrible player >:( shoudl just stick to my gimmick scrubbuki for online and do dumb random neck breakers and press random buttons because thats online lets get good!!!

Well imma go slam my head into this desk over and over after every embarrassing loss. Wonder how long until i get a concussion.

1340

Maybe they are actually only pressing buttons? lol I don’t know the level of your friends, but its possible they don’t actually know how they beat you, or can’t tell you because they don’t know how to say it in proper English. Also with the new ultra record feature its much easier to upload your matches on youtube now, maybe upload a few and post them in the critique thread in either this forum or the beginner forum.

1341

If your friends aren’t at a good level or can’t help you then it’s gonna be much harder to level up. Honestly if your offline scene is stagnant like that it’s gonna hinder you more than playing online can help you so maybe it’s time to get back online? People give online shit but there’s lots of good players amongst the bad ones with all kinds of different strategies and skill levels. It’s also pretty good for learning basic matchup knowledge.

Also people tell you to watch high level gameplay to improve but I find you need to get to a certain level to use those videos properly, yeah you can get basic combo/setup ideas but you have to look at what these players are doing and understand WHY they are doing everything they do, it’s not a case of just seeing Daigo or whoever throw a fireball and think “ok, throw fireball with Ryu” you have to see the bigger picture.

Personally I would start playing at least a little online (as long as you have a stable connection) and learn some matchups better, maybe play some better Sakura players than yourself and take notes of what you can learn by playing against them, then lab it up with high level vids and vids and tech from around the Sakura forums and just grind it out if you really want to level up, anyway playing SF4 is still about having fun in the end so make sure you’re enjoying it or there’s no point.

1342

Thanks for the tips guys. I honestly dont know i have one buddy who has 0 footsies and pretty mych scubs it up all day. No combos inly raw reactions and reads. Its hard to learn the basics of the game that way.

I find my strong points are being able to walk people into the corner oddly enough there are very few players who i play even when at the tournament that were able to make me the one scared of moving forward. And i can sometime be really good at holding someone in the corner but then i eat a random sweep or some random special. Or i get impatient and try to cross them up.

Here when i get home ill see if i can grab the last 10 matches and just take the ones i lost and upload them so you guys can critique i can remember how long ago those local matches were tho.

Thanks again for the advice! Sakura army unite.

1343

Uryo’d myself in tournament last night, tried to get too flashy and go for midscreen l.shou > U2 after ex.tatsu when it wasn’t needed and totally got the round run back on me and lost the set, lol :confused: