Most jarring time when I get thrown is when Im playing makoto and jumping in with mk. Im assuming its the kick is pretty safe its its going to either be blocked or eaten, but somehow before the animation is if even done they grab be out of air, well it looks like that to me. What is up with this? I wish I could have saved the replay, but out of the various times it seems like they dont even block its just grabbing my jmk! wtf?
Other times is Im anticipating a throw and try to grab before they grab me. The thing is my grab animation comes out as they are doing theirs but my arm just goes through their head and they immediately grab in return.
This is really frustrating. Any insights?
If your jump attack connects with your opponent very early in its arc (you’re still high off of the ground), he can recover from the set amount of blockstun/hitstun that it causes and be ready to act again before you reach the ground. Thus, he can initiate a throw attempt during this time that will catch you the very moment you touch down. If you were playing online, factoring in a little lag could easily make this look sudden and strange to you.
(On this note, the lower to the ground you connect with your jump attack, the more frame advantage it creates for you; however, you can only wait for so long because the attack itself has a little startup time, and from high frontward angles of approach your opponent gets a little more time to cleanly anti-air you when you’re not sticking anything out. “Empty” jumps do serve a purpose when well-spaced, though! See the section on “magic jumping” in this post.)
That’s all assuming you mean that your kick did actually connect first; some characters have anti-air throws that can grab you out of the air. Abel has one where he stays grounded and reaches upward. Rose and Fuerte have ones that shoot them up into the air to grab you. Gief and Hawk’s second ultras both do this as well. Cammy and Vega each have a special move that takes them airborne and allows them to attempt a throw if they choose to; these can catch you whether you’re grounded or airborne. This is off the top of my head, I’m sure there are others too. Many characters have normal air throws as well, and they can jump up to meet you air-to-air and throw you out of your jump attack.
There are many possible reasons why your throw could whiff and then they grab you right after.
-
They were walking towards you, you tried to throw before they were within range, then they walked into range and threw you. (Note that some characters just have longer throw ranges than others anyway. This is especially noticeable with kara throws and command grabs. If they’re out of your range but you’re in their range, of course your throw will whiff and theirs will not.)
-
If your opponent was frozen in blockstun or hitstun and you tried to throw them, your throw attempt will whiff. In terms of game engine mechanics, your opponent is strictly unthrowable until he has recovered (ie. can act again). With some characters, this type of whiff can occur with overzealous tick throw attempts; you tap them and then try a throw while they’re still reeling.
-
The startup time of Abel’s command grab is specifically immune to throws. If you try to throw him at the same time that he does this, your throw attempt will whiff and he will toss you right out of socks.
-
If your opponent is invincible or airborne, your throw attempt will whiff. It doesn’t sound like this is what’s happening based on your description, but if you haven’t noticed by now in this post I am trying to be thorough.
Edit:
already answered above
Thanks for the replies. I was assuming a bit of lag frame issues since it looks really crazy when it happens. I’ll read up more and try different tick throw timing, since there are a few instances where I whiff the throw afterward.
could be the lag from your tv/monitor combined with online lag also.
Naw, I doubt that. Tv/monitor lag tends to be a relatively steady/consistent overall delay–you’re literally seeing everything a split second later than you should be–and so it will not cause any disturbance to the smoothness (in terms of progress through time) of video animation, ie. no skips, breaks, jumps, teleports, freezes, etc. This doesn’t fit his description very well. I guess if you wanted to make up a term for the TV’s lag, you could call it local output lag. It’s very different from online latency and any resulting netcode/network bullshit.
Regarding the second part, don’t forget that your whiffed throw extends your hitbox, putting you in range for your opponents throw.