Are you the worst Sakura Player? Vent here

urgggh I cannot use U1 for my life. The shit that I’ve seen come out after it is driving me nuts. EX tatsus at least make some sense, though I had a jumping foward EX tatsu that did not(a jump back one maybe would?), EX otoshis(no fucking clue how this comes out), just a plain HK that whiffs, etc. It’s even worse going left, I can’t even get the dash to come out. I’d like to have it as an option against people where I don’t need the AA threat of U2 but the extra damage is negated when I can’t get it to come out :confused:

U2 is always better IMO, great oki after U2 to continue the pressure. U1 has really shitty oki if it doesn’t kill.

I still prefer U1 over U2, especially for :

1 - Higher damage. This helps a lot, especially when damage scaling comes into play. U2 damage scales a lot compared to U1. So in a hit-confirm combo (e.g c.Short>c.Jab>c.Fierce xx EX Tatsu > Ultra), U1 does a lot more damage than that of U2. Only downside of more damage is the versatility that U2 has over U1.
2 - Against fireballs. U1 can punish fireballs about little over c.Forward-length away on reaction. U2 is too slow and can only punish fireballs around little over c.Strong-length away.
3 - Oki is still decent. After the animation, it lands the opponent about mid-screen.I find this a decent spot to be in after U1 considering if you want to try to zone from that length, or do more rush-down. Only thing bad is that the opponent can wake up faster than when using U2.

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I agree.
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Ugh even without the ultras I’m just all around awful at playing people offline. My nerves were calm but I just can’t do basic stuff, when I’d land cl.hp/cr.hp I couldn’t even cancel them into tatsus, I couldn’t do the cr.hp bnb link after l.tatsu despite even being on my own console/monitor I brought from home. I’m fine online and fine in training mode, but as soon as I start playing another person I for whatever reason lose any ability to combo that I might have.

I was bad when I first started going to tournaments, but you’ll learn how to have nerves of steel. Just go to more tournaments and casuals.

I imagine myself playing with me and the opponent only. No background noise, just the sound of the fighting. If it’s easier for you, bring a set of head-sets and a playlist so you can tone out all of the outside noise.

I have terrible tourney nerves, I still get nerves in casuals as well. I don’t get to play offline as much as I would like to.

That was the weird part, like previously at casuals/tourneys I’ve noticeably felt nervous. Felt cold, my hands were cold/shaky, I was sweating, increased heart rate, etc. Yesterday I felt extremely calm and comfortable, I was just not executing. I think that I was just pressing buttons too early, like hitting :d::db::k::b: and hitting cr.hp too early for it to come out. I definitely did punishes too early, which killed me many times against a T.Hawk where I’d s.hp right before he landed, he’d air recover and land before I recovered from my move and command grab me.

getting my ass kicked in local tournaments…Time to start learning option selects.

Yeah those tourny nerves destroy me as well.

Mine have finally started coming around, the tourneys I’ve been doing our small weeklies but I finally feel comfortable offline. I’m dropping less combos, and even when I do I’m doing a better job of recovering defensively rather than just spazzing out and having my hand fall off the stick.

That said, the number of times I do something like land h.dp > FADC > s.hp but somehow drop the l.tatsu cancel is astounding, lol.

I do the same thing! LOL

Good christ I wish I had some consistency. Every time I think I’ve improved some and get some confidence, the next day that I play I just get wrecked by everyone I face. Dropping simple combos, missing techs/blocks when I know 10000% what move is coming next but just somehow mess it up, mis-timing cr.hp AAs, all kinds of shit. Yesterday I was pulling off dp FADC combos and resets, perfecting people left and right. Today I can barely win a round.

I think I realised my problem not only with Sakura, but with this game. I play way too defensively and have no faith in my offense.

I was watching my matches back yesterday and I realised I always start out matches trying playing footsies to get a feel for my opponent and once I get a knockdown, I go for some pressure. If that pressure works out great, combo into a knockdown into some more pressure or bait. I never go full in or do something crazy to throw off my opponent.

I get reversaled or that I can’t open my opponent up that I freeze up. I was playing a Bison yesterday who always reversaled me when I knocked him down but instead of baiting and trying to punish, I either backed off after a knockdown and tried to play footsies or got hit by it. It’s like, I can’t think of something to counter this person’s move or tendencies so I either go crazy and do unsafe stuff or just try to play footsies against characters I know I will lose against (I also got destroyed by Bison st.mk, nothing I could seemed to work.) I know I have problems to work on but I think I’m playing Sakura in an unefficient way.

Bison is an awful matchup, so don’t feel too bad there. IMO, Sakura is primarily a footsies character, that’s the way she should be played, bar the matchups where you just can’t win a footsies/zoning battle(Rose comes to mind first). You don’t need to learn to rushdown just for the sake of being able to rush people fulltime, but there’s times where you have to be able to force your way in. Most importantly, even if it isn’t rushdown, it’s important in general to just have at least one backup style of play so that you can play the first round using your primary tactics, then switch it up, even if you win. This can be going from footsies trying to poke with s.hk/cr.mk swapping to chucking plasma with AA shou followups, or it can even be as simple as changing what your mixup after you land or ex tatsus or what you do on wakeup.

So I just came so close to winning two hundred some dollars. I had my opponent at like half of my health, after I had already eliminated everyone else I played. Finals, my distinct advantage, and I… Oh, this isn’t the “Are you the worst Texas Holdem player? Vent here” thread?

Losing $40 dollars isn’t nearly as bad when you’re not actually half a stone’s throw from winning over 200…
Fuck poker.

Last night I decided to stick to easier 2-frame links since I’ve been having a lot of trouble dropping combos offline at our local weeklies…in 5 hours of play I did not land one single cr.hp xx l.tatsu > s.lk link, dropped literally every single one I attempted. I somehow had no trouble landing the 1-frame cr.hp link when I tried it. Lost an incredibly winnable match on my second one, I’m now 0-16 overall in tournament play. I even fucked up shit like not getting dashes to come out after crumples and landing a cr.hp between j.hp and h.dp.

I can tell I’ve made incredible amounts of progress in the last couple of months, my defense has improved immensely, I can do all kinds of combos that I could never execute before…and all of that still goes completely out the window when I play a live person. Sucks that the improvement has not translated into wins in the slightest.

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Try practicing plinks and double tapping. 100% execution leads to winning.
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Wow, I really feel like selling my shit and giving up…

That’s about where I’m at this week too, lol. I was godlike last week and this week I’m not sure if I’ve won a single match, be it online endless, ranked, casuals, or tourney, and I’m at least a couple hundred in for the week.

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You getting spanked?
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