I don’t even know where the arcades are. I went to one in Akihabara and only played for about 45 minutes. I didn’t go to Tokyo to play Street Fighter and my wife already was pissed that I left for half a day to go to the arcades. I haven’t played SFIV in years so I was quite rusty and also did not know the changes in Ultra or the new matchups since AE. I only played 1 dude that played Oni since pretty much no one was in the arcade since it was noon. He kicked my ass.
Hey guys, came here with two first to 5’s that happened last thrusday, vs Ibuki player Jazdero (of XBL fame) and Eightgrade (best Akuma player in the country).
Watch the moment after 11:50 to watch some hype stuff from myself
Another reaction U2 at 20:38
Also, the more I get better and the more I try this stuff, the more I think that reactionary shortcut U2 is a tool that every Gief should have on his/her repertory. The matchup where I use it the most is vs Bison since it means that Bison can’t start doing his “will he or won’t he?” Demon’s reverse shenanigans to build meter/start an offense, but it’s really good vs neutral jumps and stuff like that. You guys should try it out.
Great stuff, MachoRhombus. I’ve been checking this thread regularly for some USF4 Zangief goodness.
Loved the GH-Backdash-SPD you pulled off versus the Akuma.
Have to respect those U2s as well.
Can’t really comment much, as I lack COMPLETE knowledge of this match-up, plus no time to go in-depth
Zangief VS Akuma:
General Comments:
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I have little faith with Lariat, usually doesn’t work the way you want. It really only works when they try to move into your hurt box. Range at Start up is very small. Most of your Lariat’s were punished hard by Akuma’s Far HK. cr.lk xx LK Tatsu. HP Shoryuken. If you did not use Lariat, you would make it harder for Akuma. No need to give him free damage! In those places where you can semi anti-air, retrain yourself into using Far MP, Far HK or maybe even cr.HK or even better scoop with LP SPD on their landing frames. DO NOT USE LARIAT
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LPGH back dash is unsafe. Going from -2 to -28. Expect to be punished in future, with Akuma’s option select into sweep, or bigger damage, eg Ultra or far HK. Instead, mix up with crouch block, KKK Lariat for the low, SPD or AS or their jump cancel versions for throws, FA back dash or FA Tech, KKK+Lariat+crouch+tech (I need to test it out). LPGH back dash SPD, needs to be confirmed. Don’t autopilot the SPD. Also, it is a gimmick and is unsound For example, if they cr.lp, you are -11 before the SPD comes out, or if they throw, you are -5 before the SPD comes out.
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I think you can EXGH those two EX Air fireballs. When akuma is at the top of his jump. You need to look for this. Either EXGH through the EX air fireballs and hit him while he lands, or I think… maybe EXGH warp through the EX fireball and HP SPD when he lands. I’m not sure about this, but he looks like he lands very slowly after EX air fireball.
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I would prefer far LK xx EXGH option select, instead of cr.lk xx LPGH option select for safety. But you hit all of your cr.lk xx LPGH without TRADING. Well Done. Perhaps far lk xx MPGH, may work as a surprise.
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It appears that Akuma’s U2 is hard for Zangief to deal with. It can be used to escape, but MOST importantly, he can teleport back and cancel confirm into U2 if you go for SPD. This is so much better than a back dash Ultra punish (eg. back dash U1 Demon) because of the teleport escape!!! Need to find a way to safely punish the teleport and avoid the Ultra. I think walking forward and Far Jumping HP is the answer, at the end of the teleport where he can’t cancel into U2 anymore. But if there was a way to stay close and punish him with EXGH or kara EXGH, but also need to block the start of U2 in 15 frames.
Again, Well Played and Thanks for sharing. I like your partial buffers into U2. And good to see you are embracing U2 more. It theoretically can catch all jumps, and every back dash, if done after EXGH, except for Makoto, Cody, Dan, El Feurte, who only have 4 or 5 air frames. Everyone else’s back dash averages 10 air frames.
You did good but were too aggressive on wakeup. If he’s playing UCW, he’s doing you a favor because he’s sacrificing damage in order to catch you trying to punish a teleport. And that’s something you should rarely be doing. If an Akuma is content to teleport constantly on wakeup, just let him do it. He’s just pushing himself into the corner where Gief is strong.
In the early mathes, you were better in the neutral. You didn’t do much (press random buttons, do random jump ins etc) and just punished him for bad spacing and whiffed normals. That’s perfect and it’s all you should have done. But too many times, you got aggressive and gave up the life lead on a read you didn’t need to make.
If you use DWU more and calm down a bit I think you’ll do much better. Also, U2 is good for keeping Akuma honest with demon flips, but you shouldn’t use it much to bait DPs unless you’re trying to get Akuma to waste meter since EX DP beats U2 clean. For what it’s worth, I play Fourwude (best Akuma in the U.S.) multiple times per week so I got a good handle on the MU.
EDIT: See if you can bait out the teleport cancel U2, with whiff regular throw, perform it slightly early and AT THE SAME spot you do SPD. 23 frames to complete the regular throw. Akuma has to confirm the U2 cancel, so he has to wait a bit. After his U2 cancel, he hits in 15 frames. I can see it working, if you do the whiff throw meaty by 2-3 frames, and then he takes a few frames to confirm your whiff. With some luck, you should be able to block his U2. Then he’s -27 on block, so punish with your biggest jump in combo.
Let me know if the bait work?
It should work, he needs time to confirm the SPD whiff.
Thanks for the pointers guys, yes, I need to stay more patient when I have the lifelead and I shouldn’t try to be so offensive when knocked down, that’s something I’ve noticed for quite some time and I need to work on it more.
He wasn’t using double ultra btw. And the U2 read on his DP was because he had already done it three times in a row, if it landed I won the round, if I didn’t I had already lost anyways, tbh, no real risk and all the payoff in the world, normally I don’t like kamikaze U2 either.
Also, thanks for the idea to bait U2, sounds really interesting, to be honest, I’ll try it out.
Oh yea you’re right, he was just using U2. Well, that’s even better then. U1 is far superior because it really limits you. But yea, with a bit more patience you should be winning the majority of the games against that guy.
Gief noob here, what’s the u2 shortcut? Is it HCFU, HCB KKK or something better/different?
U1 still lets Gief pressure him while U2 lets Akuma escape pretty much for free, this guy used to play with U1 but then decided to go to U2 to stop every single attempt at reading him that I used, makes the matchup much more of a grind for Gief and Akuma can still do a sweep into shenanigans.
I am doing much better than before though, theoretically I should be able to beat him, yeah. Thanks for the pointers again.
HCF > UF > HCB > KKK is right, yes.
Wow, I didn’t know of that shortcut. Nice. I guess I kind of stopped playing when the new tech was emerging.
Didn’t see a critique thread, so I guess this would go here. I recorded getting to B rank with Gief. This video was from yesterday. Some good moments and many bad ones. Still having a lot of trouble wrapping my head around this big fella but I’m loving the character.
I haven’t looked up any set-ups or things like that, I’ve just been sorta playing. Any critique/tips are welcomed and appreciated.
Jumping fierce has more range than jumping RH. You rarely see j.RH being used by gief players. I only watched the first Saget match. I don’t have much time right now. You are jumping in way too much in that mu. You got lucky he didn’t just AA you every time. Jumping every now and then is okay but you have to look for other ways of getting in too.
I hate bison lol
^ In all fairness, PxG Ice has tinfoil hat internet 
He’s a sparring partner he was trying to learn the gief match
Anyone else know about this?
I don’t think this really affects gief. It’s not so much of a nerf as it was minimizing the buff gief would get from red focus. You would rarely see people focus cancel out of exgh for an additional hit. The only time you’d ever want to do that is if it was the final round and you knew it would kill him. The other reason would be to fish for counter hits but that is very very risky and if you were already hitting them, there would be no point in ex canceling.
It’s not a major nerf for sure, but it’s definitely a nerf. It’s not minimizing a buff because it’s not red focus only. You’ve basically removed a kill option on the majority of the cast. Not a the most commonly used option but it’s used enough.
In only the handful of tournament matches with Zangief since USFIV hit I’ve seen it whiff for pros (Snake Eyez in particular). It’s happened to me a lot as well.
Yeah they really gotta change that crouching opponent nonsense. It’s not even too much to ask but I doubt they will change it.