Ground Game Guide (courtesy of Shie)
Shie on his blog writes neat entries about 3rd strike. I’m not going to go through the hassle of translating it word for word, but thought this would be beneficial to new or players who just haven’t learned/realized it yet. Pictures also lifted from his blog post. http://shie0721.blog2.fc2.com/?no=32
What is ground game (footsies)?
Ground game is one of the simplest forms of battle within the game. It’s the battle of controlling your position on screen and the space between your characters. To describe this, if you think the opponent is going to back away, you step in and attack. from the opposite perspective, if you think your opponent will stick out a move to attack, you place a move to beat it, or step back to make it whiff and throw out a counter attack
The 3 main elements of the footsie game are:
Attack moves
Placed moves
Counter Attack moves
Attack moves
These are moves you use to attack the opponent. By hitting them, you are not only forcing them to block/freeze up but stepping into their territory. By stepping into their territory, they are forced to keep blocking or to step back, giving up their space. these are essentially pokes to attack them, ideally without much risk attached to it. (moves they can’t easily punish on block or hit).
Placed moves
These are moves you place in the space in front of your opponent. unlike attack moves, these do not make contact with the opponent unless they move toward you (walk/dash) or do a move that pushes them forward. Aside from them walking or dashing into your placement move, they can be used to crush the start up or active frames of their move. therefore, it’s ideal for these moves to be quick in their recovery and or have high priority.
Counter attack moves
Counter attack moves are used to punish a whiffed move. By visually reacting to the motion and the recovery of the move they whiffed, you can take damage from them.
*note: attack moves, placement moves and counter attack moves are not limited to normals. for example, uriens tackle, and yangs slashes can be used effectively to attack, or counter attack whiffed moves. Some supers can be used to punish whiffed moves.
counter attack moves beats placed moves by whiff punishing
placed moves beats attack moves by beating their start up/active frame of the move.
attack moves beat counter attack moves by forcing the opponent to block and prevent them from moving.
The motives behind using these 3 elements of ground game can be summarized to things like
Placement moves -
You don’t want the opponent to come closer. This is a way of holding your territory and space.
Attack moves -
You hit them to make them freeze up. By doing so, you make them feel uncomfortable in their position and walk back away from the situation. You want to take damage and screen position away from them.
Counter attack moves -
You want to pretend to attack them. By doing so, they are likely to use a placement move to keep you from moving forward, this is when you can react to their move to counter it. By counter attacking them, not only do you take damage from them but often create a knockdown or a scenario where you have the offensive advantage.
So how do you practice ground game?
Ground game and footsies take time and experience to master. Know all the moves in the game, what they can beat, what they lose to, and what their distances are. Training mode can be a great tool to familiarize yourself with the moves and can even be used to practice ground game.
An example is recording ken to wiggle back and forth while doing low mk’s here and there. familiarize yourself with the range of the move, and practice counter attacking it. this won’t replace playing ground game with a real opponent by any means, but it does help.