One important thing with the Ryu matchup, which you noted but without enough emphasis imo, is that Ryu’s cr.hk is very important as it blows up any of chun’s slower long range pokes/cr.mp and forces her to crouch block in neutral. To this extent I think it is important for Chun to be prepared to make use of her own sweep – it acts as a great punish for whiffed sweeps, and its fast startup (relative to st.hp) demands different counterpoke timings than does st.hp. Most Chuns play overly safely – never using sweep except when blocking another sweep – and although she does have exceptional safe pokes, given Chun’s generally underwhelming conversion off of stray hits, effectively used cr.hk is very rewarding and overlooking it can be a real flaw in your game particularly in this mu.
With regards to your bit about crossups, I personally favor ex sbk or dash-unders, depending on how quickly I can react (that said I do downback and conserve meter probably more often than most players). I’m sure there are ranges where there is merit to j.lp but with Chun’s jump it seems quite counterproductive for it to be your first option.
Another noteworthy but not game-changing interaction in this matchup is in Chun’s wakeup game. Early (as opposed to delayed) jump tech cleanly air throws raw tatsus, which a Ryu may incorporate in order to specifically start blowing up delayed techs. Obviously an early jump tech is susceptible to typical meaty normals, but it’s useful to know your options and mix things up.
Yes I agree with using Chun-Li’s cr.HK as it is a great pressure tool at max range. It allows for some easy hard knockdowns as well.
I find dash unders are very useful when dealing with crossups, however I would argue that the go-to tool that works almost 100% of the time is a backwards j.lp. Comes out super fast and is very reliant. To reiterate, crossups on wakeup can be hard to deal with when Chun-Li has no meter, making this an easy tool. However, it is important to be careful if Ryu is trying to crossup on wakeup in any proximity of the corner due to Chun-Li’s floaty jump, making it easy to be punished by a DP.
Your jump tech bit I found interesting. Perhaps not a game changer, but could potentially take away a tool from Ryu depending on the player.
Can anyone give me some pointers on Rog. I find a super patient Rog to be very hard to deal with.
It doesn’t look like you can throw projectiles vs him almost at all.
Are we supposed to poke him to death? I don’t find it easy to get in on him since I have hard time using Kioken as a shield and his cr.MP, cr.Mk and St. HP are all decent counter pokes by the looks of it.
I started using air legs from further distance but his cr.MP will beat it clean everytime. It looks even better than Nash’s cr.mp at beating air legs.
Also dealing with his V- trigger is something I would like some pointers on. I tried stuffing his v-skill punch variant but I ate a CH and he managed to combo from that.
What should you be doing in general when he is dash punching in my face in V-trigger. I don’t know if a V-reversal is worth it at that point.
So far my best answer to him has been switching to Mika and destroying his helpless ass with her.
I know I am doing better with Mika cause it is way easier to force my gameplan on him and I am not yet able to do that well with Chun.
I always found the Balrog matchup pretty simple but quite a few people have asked for help here and I happened to fight two decent Balrogs in a row last night which made me start thinking more about it (Vid of fighting the first one below ft5, hope it helps ).
You’re right that you should throw fireballs very sparingly and be careful about dashing up afterwards. I’m a pretty fireball-heavy player so I still throw more out than I should but I’d say you should only do so either for corner pressure (in which case it’s generally still good) or on a read that Balrog will go for a counterpoke.
Your best friend in this matchup (which I actually discovered during my games) is f+hk. It’s safe on block no matter what (-2) but if you space it correctly it’s actually positive on block so Balrog has to respect it. It can advance you forward and push Balrog into the corner and it’s super strong at the dead range where Chun is too close to dominate with her pokes but too far to actually start her offense. Harder to jab you out of it than a dash because one you start moving with f+HK then it’s already active. If he reads that you want to throw it out then he generally has to preemptively throw something out which opens him up to your traditional poke game.
Once you have the offensive then it’s pretty straightforward. Note that I start pressure quite often off of a sweep so as in my last post I’d emphasize that you shouldn’t be afraid to throw them out at certain ranges (against lesser Balrogs you can even just throw them out midscreen and they’ll eventually dash into one). Go to 7:42 if you want a good laugh.
Also personally I don’t really think of Balrog’s pressure as particularly good (as in, it’s usually easy enough to just wait it out without using V-Reversal) so I generally just downback whenever he’s on me and conserve resources for V-Trigger.
Yeah down back and stand up for overhead stops his mix up for the most part. His frame trap shimmy game is scarier, but every character does that any way.
I don’t use fireballs much since I feel they’re too risky for the lack of reward unless you’re fighting like Gief. Rog you just have to act like you don’t have them and you’ll be alright. Goal is definitely to get in and rush him down since he has no special reversal. Has a 3 frame button but its short and can’t really rapid fire it
Have s.lk to legs ready to punish any poorly spaced dash punches and I like using b+hp to counter abuse of his dashes or buttons and get meter off the CC.
I’ve recently been trying to break down the Birdie matchup, which might seem like a waste of time considering the nature of the matchup, but I ran into a ton of them at Canada Cup and got caught off guard a ton.
You always need to anticipate him diving in with his chains (qcb+k), especially when you are knocked down. Because of this, I would not recommend quickrising against Birdie except backward quickrising to create distance. Use st.lk to counter this or even cr.lk works at certain distances. This matchup seems to be pretty scrappy in my opinion and will be reliant on using your pokes effectively.
Don’t throw fireballs too much. A good Birdie player will utilize his qcf+k to punish Chun-Li’s slow moving fireballs. Even better, just don’t use fireball pressure at all. Very similar to the Balrog matchup. Just forget you have it. It’s not worth the result even if it does hit and should only be used in combos.
Instant air legs is the tool Birdie will have trouble dealing with until he either has EX or CA. He gains armor on EX moves and of course his CA deals a shocking amount of damage.
With that being said, I still need more knowledge on this matchup. I was freed up from Birdie players at Canada Cup during casuals and don’t want that to happen again.
Gief isn’t that hard. S.HK can stuff a lot of his buttons from a far range and force him to jump which s.HK also beats jumping. S.HP as you get a bit closer in and throw fireballs from far away to keep the space flooded and force more jumps out of him.
Midrange and fireballs. Against Gief, I utilize her S. HP/HK, And her MP/MK pokes, as well as her kikoken. And everytime I see the hopping knee, I either jump, or EX SBK. But use your midrange and kikokens to keep that distance before he closes in and uses that knee
I’m not the best or have a good record on this match up, but these have gotten me a long way:
Good match I had against a Nash:
Vary your dodging of sonic booms with air legs and sliding strong so they don’t get a read on you and counter.
Most of Nash’s anti airs are basic ground attacks. Use your air legs while falling to mess up their timing. This also works wonders when they are trying to AA you with their Super.
All of your meaties will be safe. He only has a 4 frame with no reversals. Rush him down when you knock him down with SBK or EXLL.
His MK Scythe is -6. Punish with EXLL
95% of Nashes follow up the pile driver throw with f.HK. Wake up EXSBK seems to help me a lot.
90% of Nashes follow up the rear naked choke throw with Sonic Boom. You can quickrise, dash and c.MP to VT to counter, or Super if you have it.
Jumping forward on his VT avoids all of his options. If you wish to counter, I’ve noticed that most Nashes do the same side air option.
Don’t bother with the fireball game. Chase him to corner and keep him there at a 3 character distance. Wait for the jump. If he is doing nothing in the corner he is waiting to VR out of the corner. Go throw him.
After blocking his moonsault, he is +. Don’t hit any buttons and prep for the tech throw. Same goes with his c.MP, c.HP blockstrings.
Throw out empty c.LP and c.MK to occupy space around his dashing distance since Nashes like to dash throw like scrubs. Confirm into c.LP, c.MK, MKSBK or c.MK, EXLL when you hit.
You can low-pro Nashes j.HK with c.MP but a bit risky.
-Use st.LK to interrupt his moonsault. There is almost zero reason for you to ever block this move. It is a low commitiment option that will beat it.
If you find the Nash player too crossup happy, you can jump back and do MP into air legs or even better just jump back air throw.
If you use a block string of cr.LP, st.MP into a F.MP then you will end up at the sweet spot where his sweep will crush counter any normal you do, and the sweep will be too far for you to sweep it back after blocking it.
Nash’s V-trigger starts after 1 frame so if he have a V-trigger available, i would suggest not going for a high commitment setups. Things like throw into dash forward buttons or SBK ender double dash into st.MP might very well allow him to escape.
His Back fist F.HP is punishable by EX LL even at long range so keep that in mind.
Most Nash players will like to backdash after a blocked F.HK so i suggest using st.HK after blocking it to catch the backdash or maybe just EX legs if you want a safer option.
Speaking of safe, Nash CAN PUNISH EX legs if he decided to V-reversal the first hit early so keep that in mind.
Nash has a very strong answer to IALL in his cr.MP so i would suggest testing your opponent’s reactions first and also mixing between LK IALL since it falls really fast or MK IALL since it has better frame advantage but falls slower.
If you decided to throw a fireball i recommend walking behind it and not dashing cuz he might do a MK sycthe and the trade won’t be in your favor.
His overhead is punishable. Be ready for it and punish with a st.LP into HK legs.
Don’t jump or throw a LP kikoken if he have super stocked. It could lead to giving him a free super.
Hope it all helps. My main nemsis is a Nash player and we play against each other all the time, hope that these info along with the ones before would help you against him. Patience is the key in this one. Don’t over commit and wait for a slip up from the Nash player and once you knock him down, go all in on him.
For those of you guys who still play with Chun-Li, how do you feel about her matchup with Akuma? Any tips and advice against him? Any pitfalls to avoid or moves to punish?
I feel it is tricky to talk about this matchup as of yet because everyone i have played play him a bit differently. Regardless, here is my experience on it.
1- Air fireball is hard to deal with especially if they are spaced well. You will most likely have to block on this one or dash forward under it and punish it but that is easier said than done.
2- The neutral is awkward. Chun obviously out footsie Akuma but what i found is that most Akuma player aren’t even interested in playing footsies here. They will either stand at a range where they can throw hadoukens and red fireball and you won’t be able to punish it with jump, slide or st.HK, meaning that they will usually keep themselves either 3/4 of screen away or rush you down.
3- It can be hard to deal with Demon Flip Shenanigans. This one really suck as B.HK is slow and st.LK is unreliable upclose. Also the delayed divekick will beat any of your regular normal anti-airs even B.HK because Akuma really delays his landing by a LOT.
4- He is extremely dangerous with super. He can connect the regular CA very easily and his Raging demon will punish almost everything you do.
5- Make sure to punish his teleport, it is really easy to do so.
6- He has only one tick throw that he can do without walking forward and that is from his st.LK so keep that in mind.
7- Poorly spaced regular fireballs can punished with EX legs just like the other shotos so be ready to take advantage of that.
That is just what i have on him as of yet. I think it is probably even. His low HP makes you feel like you are doing damage. However, me personally would use R.Mika against him because her cr.MP, EX airplane would easily stop his air fireballs and demon flip shenanigans plus her damage means i can kill him very easily with only couple of clean hits.
Not going to get into detailed matchup stuff for Balrog (not yet anyway) but here are a few strings that Balrog can’t V-Skill through if you get him to start blocking up close. Posting this because I got annoyed playing a Rog who kept v-skilling through my close range FB pressure. No one should have to put up with that shit:
-cr. LP x 2, cr. MK xx HP Kikoken (Will counterhit v-skill attempt)
-cr. LK x 2, cr. MK xx HP Kikoken (Will counterhit v-skill attempt)
-cr. LK, cr. LP, cr. MK xx HP Kikoken (Will counterhit v-skill attempt)
-B+HP, cr. MK xx HP Kikoken (Latter part is a true blockstring)
-cr. LP, cr. MK xx LP Kikoken (Will counterhit v-skill attempt)
-cr. LP, cr. MK xx HP Kikoken (Latter part is true block string)
Keep in mind if he has super he can use that to punish the ones that aren’t true blockstrings. I also tested and made sure he can’t EX upper through these either.
hi,
I’m having trouble with the bison match recently, a couple of weeks ago I was doing just fine. The one thing I hate the most is his st.hk CC, that thing is + on block and if he dashes forward and does it and i try to tech a grab I get CC. One thing that i learned is that I can poke him out of it with cr.lk, any other tips?
Any tips against vega? Playing against him in the beta now and I’m outpoked, can’t really fireball well and can’t really jump at him either. Making space just gets me walked into the corner… iall is how we used to deal with him but now that that is shit… idk.
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