My main is sektor and his standing 1 is a huge part of his pressure game. Today I ran some tests to see which characters take hit stun while crouch blocking and the results were surprising.
Whiff
Kung Lao
Reptile
Cage
Mileena
Sektor
Jax
Kabal
Quan Chi
Blocked
Scorpion
Liu Kang
Ermac
Jade
Noob Saibot
Stryker
Shang Tsung
Baraka
Raiden
Cyber Sub-Zero
Sheeva
Kratos
These are tier groups, not a tier list. The whiff frames vary in the second group quite a bit. I’m not sure how this effects the other characters yet, but as a sektor player it really limits your rush down options on most of the cast.
really I’m kind of stunned that certain moves are whiffing a crouch block. I was in the lab with Reptiles 1221 mixup and the first hit will completely whiff a crouching opponent with no block. Just tested it on Reptile who you listed as a whiff for sektors s.1 and it still connects for the mixup on crouch block.
It’s really dependent on the move it seems; a large part of the metagame will probably be analyzing common pressure strings and knowing the state (stance, crouching, crouchblock) to make them ineffective. That stance change video recently posted is a huge change to the kung lao matchup if that’s what his bnb starts with.
It seems to me that just crouching is almost a better defensive option than blocking. Almost all projectiles whiff, you’re immune to throws and a few bnb (such as Sektors and Reptiles) starters will completely go over your head. If you block Rep’s 1221 you’re opening yourself to a crazy mixup game that could end in a 30%+ combo or another reset. Just crouching gives room for the first 1 to whiff and the 22 mixups just wont come out, leaving him vulnerable. Reptile has to switch to 321 if he notices you crouching, which leads to better damage on hit but that string has very little opportunity to mixup other than tacking on slide or green hand at the end.
It’s the same with Kano. his 2,1,2 can lead into a juggle, but the first 2 hits can be crouched and crouched blocked under. but his b+1,1,2 hits crouch and crouch blockers but it’s slower.