Daigo’s Cammy has a TON of work. He’s yet to learn a lot of her very subtle idiosyncrasies. In particular, probably because he’s coming from Ryu, but he has yet to realize how horrid her ground to ground Cannon Spike is in terms of range. It’s so easy to whiff the Cannon Spike against a grounded opponent even if they just walk back a half step. I hate that.
Yeah, thanks to the person recording the matches with inputs on, you can see Daigo is doing that a LOT when he pokes with Forwards outside of the range. Obviously, when he’s closer, he’s not doing it, though. But against Ken, especially, he was doing it a lot. Probably to try and stuff Step Kicks, though with Cammy, Stand Strong into Drill is a MUCH better anti-Step Kick OS.
I’m not sure which Hooligan under the DP you are referring to, outside of the one where I slide under his DP. That was all complete accident. I didn’t even end up doing what I had wanted originally. LOL. Just a matter of something totally accidental looking good. 
Just like my EX Drill in the Combo. Wasn’t for extra damage, was literally my finger slipping and hitting two Kicks at once by accident.
As for reactions, the real key is learning what you wanna react to. Most of the time, when you Ultra through a Fireball, you aren’t reacting to the Fireball and doing the Ultra. What you are reacting to is seeing NO Fireball and STOPPING the Ultra. In other words, when you expect a Fireball, do the Ultra. When you see them not throw a Fireball, don’t hit the buttons. However, if they Throw a Fireball, just finish what you are already starting. It’s much easier to react to something NOT happening and stopping yourself than it is to react to something happening and DOING something. Hopefully that makes sense.
As for getting better reactions, that’s tough. Because honestly, my reactions are piss poor. You see Valle jump at me several times with me not Anti-airing him because my anti-air reaction blows. Really, the best way to gain reactions is to keep playing. Recognize the situations where you DIDN’T react to something, and learn to recognize those points. Once you see those a lot, you’ll start recognizing the situation and if you tie it to the proper reaction, it’s easier to do. For example, I’ve learned how to react a LOT better to trying to Throw, whiffing a Throw because the opponent Jumped Straight Up, and DP’ing them on their way down. I just focused on that situation and really drilled it into my head. Now when that happens, I often have the stronger reaction to DP than to block, which is what I used to do more.
And playing a lot more really just puts you in those situations a lot more so the situation becomes familiar so your reaction improves, 'cause you’ll “recognize” it quicker. Just realize when you FAIL to react.
Also, you can punish yourself another way. There are a lot of times I am playing casually or against “lesser” opponents where, if they Jump at me, even if I react to late, I’ll go for the DP. I’ll eat the Jump attack and the follow-up Combo, but I’m mostly training myself to react properly. And my punishment for failing is eating a Combo so I learn better next time, as I equate not DPing them with eating a Combo. Rather than bailing yourself out with a Block, it’s kind of a negative reenforcement method of learning to react better.
For the Hit Confirm on the Low Forward into Drill (NON OS method), there’s really no technique to it. I really compare it VERY largely to Ken’s Low Forward into Shippu in Third Strike. Many people claim that Low Forward into Shippu was hit confirmable in Third Strike, and I largely believe it is not.
What it really comes down to is two factors. The first important factor to learn is that you can cancel Low Forward VERY late. VERY VERY late. Get used to learning how to Buffer into the Drill at the latest moment possible. This gives you the largest window possible for your reaction to kick in. And, once again, as I said above, ALWAYS intend to finish the Drill and react to stopping. It’s MUCH easier to do the Drill motion and hitting Kick and then stopping yourself from hitting kick than it is to think it’s gonna be blocked and then reacting by finishing the motion + hitting Kick when it hits. So always intend to finish the Drill and react by stopping.
However, even with that, if I set the Training Mode dummy to random block, I will fail the hit confirm probably 50% of the time. In other words, the dummy on random block is impossible to hit confirm. Same goes for Third Strike with Ken. I’ve seen players try to prove to me that low forward into Shippu is hit confirmable, like with Chun, but when they set the dummy to random block, they can’t do it.
(Note: Chun’s IS hit confirmable mostly because her cancel window is gigantic.)
The second important factor, thus, really is contextual clues. I’m not reacting to the hit, I’m reacting, in honesty, to the OPPONENT and what they just did. It’s very subtle, and I probably have just learned a second sense for it these days, but I usually hit confirm off of a few factors. I’m completely unaware I’m doing this, by the way, it just has become… natural. But if I see the enemy do a move, I’ll finish it. If I see the enemy standing right before the Drill hits them, I’ll finish it. If I see the start of a Focus or a Throw whiff, I finish it. Etc. etc. So again, I’m not reacting to the hit, but reacting to what my opponent is doing.
Does this mean if someone blocks at the VERY last second from standing, I’ll throw out a Drill and they Block it and I die? Yes. 100%. You see it happen in my games allllll the time. In fact, even in that set, you see me do a bunch of accidental Drills that are blocked and I die horridly for it. It’s just part of the game, and if it gets blocked and I get punished, bad on me. Move on. Just hope it doesn’t happen too often.
I will say this, though: it’s much easier to do this off of Cammy Low Forward than most other characters because her Low Forward does have a bizarrely longer cancel window than most bufferable Normal Moves in the game. So she is definitely unique in that regard.
I really like that. Really really like that. Hahaha. Wonder if it works on Back Dashes, too…
Heh. I dunno, it’s actually a little comforting to see that good Balrogs even give Sako (and Daigo) some problems from time to time. These definitely looked like the hardest I’ve seen Sako work, compared to all the other videos where he slaughters people. Hahaha.
- James
