Thought I’d use this old SRK account to ask for help. I’m stuck in Bronze - Super Bronze and I’m not sure what I’m missing, I know the fundamentals and everything, only thing I could really think to improve on is teching throws but other than that I have no idea what I’m missing, I just lose all the time. If someone were to look at my replays and tell me what I’m missing from my gameplan? Just be warned, you’re not going to see any skill at all, just a lot of loss. If you’re susceptible to cringe, stay away from my replays or your face might fall off before you can give me advice.
I also main Akuma and I sub Ryu, just for reference.
CFN: BubbleButtSFV
EDIT: Forgot to mention, this is related to SFV if it wasn’t obvious
Well, one immediate thing I can notice from watching like 10 seconds of footage is that you’re not punishing Cammy’s brainless DPs at all.
Gotta practice getting some real damage off of those when you block one, otherwise your opponent will have a huge advantage over you.
Edit: Hrm, just watching more and your punishes in general are awful, like just punishing with throw when you can get full combos. Also you misconfirmed into tatsu on block, which you have to make sure you don’t make mistakes like that, otherwise a more competent opponent would’ve eaten you alive for it. Anyway, really have to work on those punishes to keep stupid opponents in check otherwise they’ll just get away with murder all day.
Honestly after like 1 round you should be thinking: “Oh, this guy’s an idiot. I’m just gonna block DPs and kill him for it.” Because keeps doing the same thing over and over and I haven’t seen him go for a throw once. Just block man.
At 4:58 you stun the guy despite only punishing badly and dropping jump-in combos, before going for some combo into super? I don’t play SF5, so I’m not sure what combo you were trying to do, but with your questionable execution you should’ve just stuck to something easier (haha, easier, in SF5…) that would’ve killed anyway. Cammy was counter-hit afterwards, so the only reason the guy got hit was because he’s dumb and never blocks. What’s more interesting though is what occurred immediately before that at 4:56. You felt so threatened that you had to DP? Against this guy? He’s not doing anything, hasn’t gone for one throw ever, and you have a considerable life lead, so why do such a risky move? Gotta learn to just calm down and observe your opponent. If you’d taken the time to pay attention to what this guy was doing, you’d realize he was a goddamn moron. At that point you could’ve probably just killed him by crouch blocking outside his throw range, since he’d either DP or Spiral Arrow himself to death.
Very true, I feel like I still have to work on that somewhat, I have a habit of throwing whenever I get the chance 90% of the time instead of going for a CC combo. Still happens to me now too, I just wasn’t bringing much attention to it, I’ll try to work on that. As for that dropped combo, I was fighting my controls when I was playing at the time. Sadly I didn’t realize that using the joysticks was a terrible idea. I usually use a claw grip on my pad now. For why I never bothered to punish Cammy’s DP was because I thought that her recovery made her bounce out of range at the time (I was a retard) so I kept trying to walk up instead of just using crouching HP or something.
Anyways, new footage of me playing Akuma, Zeku, and Ryu (in that order) is gonna be uploaded here when it’s finished processing:
That Zeku doesn’t stay on the ground at all. You anti-aired him well like 3 times in a row in the beginning, and he showed no signs of stopping. Again, this comes down to a lack of observation. You literally didn’t have to do anything but just anti-air that guy to death. Furthermore I’m not sure why you’re jumping around back and forth in this match when you have no reason to do anything but stand your ground and slap this guy out of the air.
1:42, stop cancelling into punishable stuff on block. You need to hit confirm properly.
1:50, you hit him with the air fireball but fail to capitalize. Yet you see him clearly do an attack (and therefore be completely vulnerable) before the fireball is about to hit him, so at that point you should already be ready to follow up.
2:01 you try to anti-air super but fuck up. That boils down to not knowing your ranges/when that attack will whiff, but furthermore I have to ask why you even bothered? This guy is completely one-dimensional, and all you have to do is anti-air him consistently to completely shut him down. Again, it’s taking a big risk (in terms of meter and punishability) for no real reason. Same as that panic DP when you messed up your combo before and whiffed tatsu. Just stand at a range where your anti-airs work, and this guy would’ve practically done all the work for you. Earlier in the match you also failed to punish his anti-air move well, so that trend continues even to now. You have to learn to just simplify your thought process, find an effective answer and just hammer it in. When X happens, do Y. If you block a DP, do your hardest hitting combo. If you have to just practice that in training mode to stamp that into your brain as a go-to response, then do it. There’s no reason to try to outsmart someone that’s not thinking, just do what’ll shut him down and keep doing it. By doing more you’re really just opening yourself up.
I see, so I’m being too complicated. All I really need to do is anti air and punish instead of doing all the fancy stuff. I feel like if I did that super a little bit earlier at 2:01 then I would of hit but, you’re right, I should have done B+HP and then super or something like that. I feel like at 1:50 I just wasn’t thinking of what to do after air fireball and was just throwing it out to shut down an anti air or something. 1:42 I can hit confirm I just think my repetition took over my reactions during that string.
It’s about matching your mindset to your opponent. The fancy stuff is fine against someone smart enough to get hit by it, lol, but these guys are a bunch of brainless idiots, like 99% of people in low ranks. If you try that stuff, it’s like you’re on square 5 and they’re still on square 1, and you just get end up screwing yourself because they do some dumb shit that you normally wouldn’t have to worry about because only an IDIOT would do that in that situation. Well, these guys are straight Australopithecus motherfuckers. You can treat people like human beings when you reach those levels.
All you need to do is just exercise your basic knowledge. You can’t go past the beginner level without having all of that basic stuff down, because any higher level play is going to rely on the assumption that both you and your opponent know your shit.
Aside from just playing online against randos, you should also play long sets against people too. It helps build your ability to observe people, or pick up on their habits.
Remember, observe your opponent and respond accordingly. Observation doesn’t mean passive watching btw. You should enact your default gameplan and see how your opponent reacts to it, then adjust as you see fit. Like adjusting a recipe for different tastes.
For example, if you’re pressuring up close and they dp out, this is a sign that you should leave a gap next time and see if they fall in.
If they’re trying to stay away like that Nash, don’t give them what they want, which is attempting to get in sloppily. Hold your ground and steadily work your way into a range where it’s risky for them to throw fireballs. If they’re thinking, they’ll probably back up to create space, which is what you want. Eventually you can walk them into the corner. If they don’t, then one solid read on a fireball can turn the tide in your favor. Lastly, if they’re dumb they’ll jump at you and that’s also your opportunity to AA and take control.
Effectively, it’s learning to be conditioned, but the line between getting conditioned and adapting in the match is a thin one, and in an online environment where you’re constantly fighting new people it’s easy to get caught off guard. That’s why you need to gather info as quickly as possible. Learning to do so under pressure can be tough, but that’s why your basic knowledge needs to be solid. If they’re a step ahead of you every time…well then they’re just better than you, lol.
Deal with each situation as they come. Sounds like to me they didn’t really mix up their plans much right?