Hey, first post on the forum, and finally getting serious about SFV despite playing it since launch.
Chun is one of my mains, but I’m having a hard time figuring out what to do against people who just like to sit and wait. I struggle against Alex, Gief and Balrog when they just sit down and crouch and spam the same moves over and over. I try to stay out of range and poke with HP, crouching MK or forward MP, but they beat me out every time. I try to jump in, but it’s so easy to react to Chun that I just get anti-aired. When I get V-Trigger, I might be able to catch them with the overhead, but if they’re spamming, I get hit out of it every time. Even if I do get a hit, that one combo’s all I can get off before the Trigger’s almost done.
It seemed a lot easier to attack in Season 1 when air legs had advantage and LK was more consistent as a last-resort anti-air if they try to jump. Now, though, it feels like I’m completely at the opponent’s mercy.
Any advice? Thanks
If they are actually spamming a button, then work on whiff punishing that button rather than challenging it head-on. Unless you know you’re at enough of a frame advantage to outpoke them/counterhit, you generally shouldn’t do something like F+MP/st. HP/cr. MK -> poke again right away, because most players will have a faster poke to beat that. Instead wait a split second for them to whiff and then either whiff punish or poke to make them block and build up white health (if you notice they are pressing nothing in between these, then you can harass more with your pokes). Also fireball is your friend in the poking war as long as you don’t over-telegraph/mind your anti-airs and act accordingly.
If you’re closer or just outside of B+HP range, you can use that as part of the pressure to build up white life and/or fish for a counterhit conversion. It should go without saying that knowing the frame advantages on block will help a lot in this. Example: on a crouch blocking opponent do this sequence: B+HP, st. MP, F+MP as a safe set of frame trapping normals that also build up white health and you can convert into EX legs (and VTC if you have it) if any of them counterhit.
If they don’t flinch, keep building up the white life to put them in a position where they eventually have to do something to avoid you taking all that white health away through either overhead or walk/dash up throw or cr. LK/st.MP/B+HP/F+HK/shimmy to beat a throw tech attempt. Dash up to instant stomp xx air legs is dirty too for erasing that white health away real quick.
Unfortunately, without the threat of an easy tick throw/frame trap like some other characters (Karin/Cammy/Urien etc), you’ll have to commit a lot more to your pressure attempts and go for a bit of a read when you really want to open someone up… but that’s Chun in this game. Poke poke poke, go for the opening and pray.
Thanks! That really helps a lot!
If I’m understanding you right, my primary goal should be to whiff-punish if I see a poke miss, then harass with frame advantage to build up white life?
To break it down even further, it seems like my goal is to back away far enough that their spammed normals whiff, then punish with my own. Alternatively, use fireball to discourage them from doing so. Then, if I read that they’ll stop spamming, I need to guess whether or not to move within B+HP, st. MP, F.MP range to build white life, or wait for them to try and jump in and punish that.
I’ll have to work at hit-confirming, too. Aside from st. HP, I suck at hitconfirms in general.
I agree with you one thousand percent and the higher you go up in rank the lamer people will play which in turns makes it harder and harder for Chun. It is easy for me as Chun when i play against aggressive players but lame ones are hell.
A Balrog or Ken who will just lame you out and keep pressing crouching medium punch or something the second you try to get close is extremely annoying. These type of players makes me thank god that i also play Mika because she can demolish that.
Here are some general tips.
Use the fireball, especially the EX or LP one to force your way in. They will either block it and you will get in or they will jump or something giving you a chance to anti-air. Sadly, Chun’s shimmy game is absolute garbage now but you can still do work with a delayed st.MP pressure. so you do a block string and walk forward as if you are going to throw then wait just a bit and do st.MP instead of throwing, this might catch some people off guard. Also dashing up cr.MK into EX legs or even throwing out EX legs in the neutral isn’t a bad idea since it is super fast and is safe on block.
Notice their pattern in the block game. If they are holding down back when you are trying to throw them, then delay st.MP or air legs should do the trick. If they are walking backwards then walk forward and do a cr.LK or a cr.MK into EX legs just to be safe.
I think i am guilty of auto-piloting too much with Chun-Li and i fear many of us are like that. You can’t really auto-pilot with her any more and she requires lots of work but she is super satisfying.