Top 8? isn’t that pushing it a little?
you can switch version and test
Nah, not really. Abel still loses a lot of match-ups, but so does everyone else in this version. I also don’t see a horrible match yet, just a bunch of 6-4’s and 5.5-4.5’s for him. Abel has always been one of the best characters in the game in every version of SF4, but a couple of HORRIBLE match-ups prevented him from rising to top tier.
My top 8 so far (in no particular order)
Viper
Seth
Sagat
Akuma
Chun
Balrog
Abel
Blanka (yes, I think he’s that good in this game)
Good point I’ll do that in a little while.
Strider… Chun suggestions?
No Juri? She seems legit… maybe top 10 lol I dont know.
And yeah, Blanka…
Honda… lol
vs Chun…shit, I feel like I can’t cover this match-up without going into a full write-up, since there is so much to look for and you have multiple tools to deal with her shit, not only that, but the match-up changes dynamically throughout the round… I’ll just leave it simple. Learn to walk and stay just outside of sweep range while reacting to her pokes. Aka footsies. Abel’s that get blown up in this match-up try too hard to get in and just get blown up by her stupid good pokes. Respect, but at the same time don’t respect too much that you aren’t taking risks to get in dat ass…This can get confusing without the proper explanation.
Shit…I see that I have to do a full write-up to explain this match-up, since trying to summarize it quickly kinda leaves more questions than answers. I’ll do a write-up when I come back from SCR.
I put Juri at top 12 for sure, Honda is up there too.
This game is really balanced though, I noticed how balanced it was when putting up my top 8, since it was such a hard decision. Let’s see how the game evolves though, maybe it won’t be so balanced in a couple months. I still see Abel being top tier after the game matures though, this character is so damn good.
yo i hope you do well/win SCR
don’t go and killer urself by trying to give a full write up…
Just go back and supplement HAV’s write up, wouldn’t that save you a lot of work?
I really hate her… Cr jab… walk up… Overhead flip
always blowing up my cr tech.
Thanks, hopefully I don’t disappoint 
Hasanshu isn’t that hard to deal with if you look out for it, it’s actually a HUGE risk on her end, since you can either focus-dash TT or ex.CoD through that shit. I’m more scared of her fucked up frame traps into rh.legs, since they can start huge damaging combos if their execution is tight (fought against Y24, dude is the scariest person to tech against, period).
See you at Alex’s tonight though, we’ll get a couple games in if you’re there
I might just head over to Alex’s tonight after work just to check it out (that is if I don’t have to stay for work), been there once on a Thursday, lots of good players and an abundance of chimneys smoking on the outside. Anyways, peeps are going to be like what’s with all the Abels. 
YO!!!
ABEL!!! … IS CHEAP!
REMEMBER THAT! -Noel brown.
Alex’s doesn’t have 2012, right? Do you guys know if Round 1 has it yet?
My problem isn’t necessarily Hazanshu… though I think I should start focus dashing and TT’ing more. I’ve mostly been blocking them. I think if I can block them then I should be able to focus them. Don’t know why I dont :-/.
I don’t necessarily try to force my way in. st.mp seems almost worthless and that leaves my only poke with any range as st.lk. If I’m crouching I’ll punish a whiffed st.hp or hk with sweep. If chun sweeps I try to punish with st.lk.
Chun can tech trap so easily because of her fast walk and dash. dash, cr.lk, legs. Or just go for hazanshu… or fuck it just go in and throw. If she has a decent enough lead then hey, sit back and throw fbs and zone me out. The only way I win is if I get two solid knockdowns that I convert into damage. Her having a such a good focus also doesn’t help (or at least the fast dash out). It just feels like a smart chun can just keep abel out and once chun stays patient can do a lot of good damage without any worry. That buffed b.mk is also pretty helpful for her.
All that being said I’m not complaining about her. Just looking for what I may be missing.
As for Abel’s cr.hp being better than the super version or not… I tested on honda’s neutral jump hp and chuns neutral hk. I also tested a little with ken’s j.hp and j.lk. I got similar results. So for now I’ve decided that people have forgotten how good it used to be so are just getting hit by it more since they don’t expect it to work in those situations. I seriously think that the cr.hp fix alone was a huge help for Abel though. HUGE.
pool 2 eh? shouldnt be a problem right?
sure theres valle, andyocr and ricky ortiz (oh wait rufus might be a problem)
those are the names that i know of as strong players…
Good showing on the stream Strider.
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Saw your match against AndyOCR, you played well even for a loss. Kindve upset we couldnt see an abel player in the top 16 but then again ive gotten used to it recently.
Great showing dude very proud!!! We had a lot of people rooting for you in stream chat, match against Alex was great despite not quite going your way, Ibuki match against Julio was SO SICK though, double roll through into TT = so swag
Mike chow! He’s the one who posted the gief strat for you guys (he beat snake eyes) he entered under some other dudes name hahaha but he’s still in winners and daaaaamn good
wow mike chow aka ghost maker is in winners!!! That dude has an awesome abel.
So a question for strider…not Abel related.
During latif vs iperu, did u tell him to start baiting those thunder knuckles???I just curious cuz after talkin to him, iperu was just gdlk lololol
Regarding abel Though:
what do you think of dictator matchup…most good dic players seem to think the matchup is 6-4 for abel mostly due abel’s os beating wakeup options(im assuming the roll/dash os after jump mk or crossover after knockdown) but dictator can get out of the os’s with ex devil reverse.
So if the guy notices your doing an os or just gets desperate and starts doing ex devil and gets out, what are abel’s options??? is there a way to punish it or something? b/c a lot of times i know the guy is gonna do it, but i can’t help but to blankly stare at dictator running away and reseting the situation…even if i win, it bothers me -___-