Ibuki Critique Thread ver.2

Classic Fighting Games Ultra Street Fighter IV
261

In reference to my earlier post, here is the video link for those who missed it or want to watch it again:

Ok so here is the play-by-play now that im home from work:

0-15: Looking for an opening - tried a jump in but got hit, so back off again.

**15s: **Thought i saw a gap in Fei’s pokes - not too familliar with what i can punish and what i cant, so went for cr.mp OS neckbreaker - got lucky and caught the neckbreaker

19s: Blocked vortex attempt, continued with my ground pressure of TC4 into a sweep. Was expecting him to keep blocking so i went autopilot on myself and the full combo connected along with the Cr.HK xx HK TC. Too slow to react to the hits to cancel into NB (doh!)

**22s: **Realised i had launched him and decided to jump in. Timing was far too slow - allowed fei an easy reversal. I should have walked up or done nothing.

**26s: **Tried to catch another poke or walk forward with cr.mp OS again… missed, ended up blocking a FA, back dashing and getting neutral space again.

30s: Launcher combo again, past experiences have taught me i usually see a FA + dash forward or FA crumple if i poke at that distance. I guess im scared of the FA?

failing to block and or teching and getting hit for the next 10secs or so

42s: Tried to anti air, ended up trading. Practically no health left at this point so dont know what to do. Ended up just being jumped over and poked. (when opponent has around 50% i tend to give up when im this close to death - not purposefully but that’s a reality)

**1:00 - 1:08: **Trying to get in my own counter pokes, end up landing cr.mp OS again after a few unsuccessful attempts

1:08 - 1:15: My standard auto-pilot ibuki vortex. Have practiced it alot and perfected some people just doing it over and over. End up failing as i got excited, rushed the neckbreaker inputs and did it waaaaaaay too quick that it never came out (hence the st.hp after TC4). This is something i’ve lately been doing more and more frequent and i have to consciously say to myself that it’s OK to slow down. I used to think it was a fast input when i learnt it, not it feels normal than i end up doing it too quick.

Playing “safe” for the next 6-7 secs

1:22: My neckbreaker was on reaction to his cr.hp as i knew that had decent recovery. While it looks like it was to beat the chicken wings, sadly my reactions are not that godly. I got lucky here, that’s all :frowning:

Had a slight life lead, figured there was no point rushing in so i created space, kept it and waited to see what Fei did

1:34: Ex NB was an attempt to punish a whiff’d chicken wing as he was throwing them out to get closer. It was a risky guess, not entirely ‘random’ but probably not the best choice to do here.

1:40: Again, not a random NB, he started to FA so i tried to catch him with NB - like i’ve said, my reactions arent the best i guess lol.

1:45: Poorly spaced cr.mp OS, got lucky he didnt punish. I knew as i pushed the buttons it was bad. Not really sure what else to do in this position. My footsies game is horrible and i usually rely on that OS as you notice.

1:52: This one WAS a random neckbreaker. Got extremely lucky. Again, footsies issue - if im being pressured in a corner, i find it hard to get out and to think of what options i have, so i do things like this as a 50/50 get out of jail free card. Not good i know, but its what i do when i panic as i havent trained myself to do anything else :frowning:

1:53 Blocked kunai but hitting TC4 again. Same as before, wasnt ready for it to hit so went autopilot. This time i jumped back expecting the reversal (which came) but in hindsight i should have jsut walked forward - punished - and ended the round there.

the next few seconds of me jumping backwards doing HP was actually me failing at doing EX kunai’s for chip damage lol. I guess in the end it baited him into think i would jump up again? I dunno, just fail inputs as i got excited for being so close to winning the round

1:58: Reaction Neckbreaker to punish his landing recovery and secure the win (yay i got one right for once lol)

I could go on but round 3 is just more of the same… If you really want a critique of it i will do it, or if there is a specific time stamp just let me know, but i think you get the general thought process for this match

Thanks again, Ibuki forums are the best - main reason im willing to stick with her… Wouldn’t get this help and support at a different character forum and i probably would have quit the game 3 times by now :wink:

262

[media=youtube]7TS2V6aLFiQ[/media]
Alright so i finally recorded a match. I am still super new and trying to practice things during a live match just as much as i do in training for actual experience.

I know I am in the bad habit of random NB, so im trying to pull back on that. I normally am very aggressive, and usually lose. ha!. So I decided to slow it down and see what options I had. I know I whiffed on a bunch of opportunities to TC into a nice combo and the one time I tried to vortex I timed it really wrong. I can normally TC4 xx NB pretty good btu for some reason was off this match, but i also rely to heavily on that combo so i have been trying to not use it to use tsumuji more often.

263

I’m back with another video! You’ll never get rid of me! Ahahaha!

[media=youtube]LMMUm5duv4o[/media]

[LEFT]I actually talk in this one and will continue to do so in the future since there is some demand to know what I’m doing at any given moment. This might help you decide on just how horrible I’m doing a little more accurately![/LEFT]

264

Looking at the whole match, these two things are certain:

  1. You don’t know your cr.MP range very well.
  2. You don’t hitconfirm your TC6 very well.

Blocked cr.MP into accidental option select Neckbreaker (which also gets blocked) is very very bad. Keep in mind that Neckbreaker is so punishable, most characters can punish you with raw ultra.

To help practice learning the range of cr.MP, I would go into training room and then record the dummy doing random movements back and forth; not too random, but try to simulate how someone might move during a match (ie: not jerky). Start with a slow dummy like Dhalsim and then work your way up to Akuma. You should also probably utilize the full 10 seconds of record time so you can get the most random playback.

On playback, you (initially standing still) will practice whiffing cr.MP. At this point you should ONLY try to whiff it. After you get acquainted with how much range it has, then you can refine it by hitting your opponent with it. The safest way is to watch your opponent’s movement. This is crossing into the footsies zone of SF. Previously you only cared about the spacing between you and your opponent, as the dummy on playback randomly changes up the spacing for you. You expect the dummy to walk into your cr.MP so you stick it out pre-emptively and catch them as they walk into range.

When you are familiar enough with this exercise, then you can do movements of your own to really test your spacing ability and of course, mastering the range of cr.MP.

For number 2, I would first learn how to do TC6 xx SJC cd. Once your execution is good enough, turn on random block for the dummy and then pick one option to do if it hits, such as SJC cd, and a (safer) option if it is blocked, such as SJC jump back kunai. Also notice that the dummy will sometimes block the st.LP xx st.MP, but then get hit by the cr.HK, specifically if you have the dummy initially standing. At first I would start with the dummy crouch blocking to give yourself the most amount of time to hitconfirm. When you are comfortable enough, then you can move onto stand blocking, which simulates the situation of you catching your opponent trying to mash something or just simly not blocking low.

Another thing I noticed was that your antiair game is very poor. I don’t know if it’s just because you’re too focused on the ground game, but you definitely should be antiairing your opponent everytime they jump at you, assuming you’re not already pushing a button.

For now, I would suggest simply trying to focus on zoning (keeping your opponent out) than trying to get in, even if it means sitting there blocking more.

At the very least, you should have command dash buffered. After every single b+MP attempt this should be buffered, in case your timing was perfect and you got the juggle hit, you’re able to get big damage and knockdown and/or mixup, which is what makes b+MP such a great antiair; not the measly 90dmg + reset you get off of plain b+MP.

And if you always go for the Kazegiri followup, this makes reacting even easier. Have the command dash buffered, and then reaction Kazegiri the correct direction whether or not the b+MP trades.

After you jumped over him, this is a situation where you should have made a decision based on your opponent. It seems like you were still unsure of yourself so you just simply blocked. He did dp xx FADC , jump, while you’re still sitting there blocking. Did you have any idea what might have happened in this situation? What were you expecting from your opponent? It’s near the end of the round, surely you have some information downloaded from your opponent that you could formulate a read, even if it was a wrong one. But you just sat there, blocking, unsure of yourself as Fei attempts a slow jump over you into cr.LK which magically whiff punishes your cr.LP.

I completely agree with this. Do you know why it was a good idea to play safe?
-you have a life lead
-Fei just knocked you down
-Fei has full super
-Fei has you in the corner, so mistakes are easily made, and easily punished (heavily, now that he has super)

Fei’s cr.HP is not punishable with Neckbreaker. If it was, it would also be punishable with U2, which would probably make Fei almost never use it in this matchup.

Don’t try to whiff punish with Neckbreaker. First of all, Neckbreaker is a terrible move to whiff punish something, as it has huge 15f startup. Second, you should never ever simply “guess” with Neckbreaker, or do a random Neckbreaker (which is basically what you’re doing) unless you really have an epic read or you know what you’re doing. Again, you need to get into the mindset that Neckbreaker = punishable with raw ultra. Everytime your Neckbreaker gets blocked, you should pretend that you just whiffed a fierce dp and expect to get punished up the ass for it.

Again see above.

If you’re not sure, just block. Blocking never hurt anybody. Unless your opponent is a grappler and/or has huge damaging command grab combos.

You weren’t in the corner yet. This is a bad panic button, for reasons stated above. If you must have a panic button, let it be downback on your stick/pad.

Yes you should have punished. Whenever you make a read you should be aiming to capitalize on it, in some form or another.

Let’s say you make the read, like you did, that your opponent will jump at you but outside of your antiair range, like he did. As soon as you make that read, you should be cycling through all of your options and pull out at least a handful of options that could be suitable.
-Neckbreaker trip guard
-EX raida far antiair
-cr.MK or cr.HK trip guard
-defensive nj.MK
-jump at him for the surprise crossup
-block and do nothing

Yes Neckbreaker trip guard is an option, but look at how risky it is in comparison to the rest of your options. You may have made the correct read, and picked a choice that won you the round, but I really think you should have put more thought into it than that. If he did an empty jump, or worse empty jump into ultra, you would have lost, despite having a life lead. Always consider risk/reward for every option so that you can stay as consistent as possible.

265

So:

  • About your Oni match:
    You actually have some nice basics.
    What I’d advise you - AGAIN - is to FORGET ABOUT cr.HK HK. I know it’s hard, I also know this is the ultimate sign of the Freebuki community. Whenever I see a guy online doing that, I immediately think “okay, he’s a total Freebuki”.
    Consider one thing: With Ibuki, a big part of your game is centered on how to get your opponent dow. Why would yo use cr.HK HK then? It doesn’t put him down and, even worse, it throws him far from you and gives him some room to breath. Exactly what you don’t want.
    You could’ve stopped at sweeping him and then start a kunai vortex
    Nice reactions against fireballs & for anti-airs
    Watch out about your kunais: at one point you do slide - j.kunai. It’s pretty hard to time this one to combo after kunai, train a bit more (he Reversal’d, you got lucky to counter hit him)
    Yeeep, you jump a bit too much, but at least, you always try to go crossup. If you REALLY want to jump against DP characters, you absoutely have to go for a crossup as it will usually make a shoryuken whiff.
    at the end, bad choice: he’s a scrub. He has zero vital. He has a full super/ultra. Don’t do such unsafe stuff ^^. And when he mashes ultra, you should’ve mashed your ultra, or EX neckbreaker, during the freeze, so you get out without chip damage

-About Rose:
Stop random neckbreakers. If you don’t know what to do fullscreen… don’t do anything, you’re better off with this
Stop random Hiens as well. Hien is good at very close range, ending a combo with LK Hien often works. Otherwise you should forget about it. You don’t know how to burn your EX Meter? Me neither. I usually just go for an EX ender to add a new mixup possibility (EX Tsumuji or EX neckbreaker). Or sometimes I like to stay crouching, watching my opponent in the eye, and EX kazegiri as soon as he starts something, makes me improve my reaction tome (beating Abel’s or Guy’s wheel kick is a delight, really)
Stop jumping. You spent the whole first round mindlessly jumping at her, good for you your opponent wasn’t aware of having antiairs lol.
after EX necbreaker, you did MK command dash - SJ. Go rather for LK command dash - SJ LK (very ambiguous crossup) or MK command dash - j.MK
A little bit of combo dropping, but well, it comes with time.
At least, you went for sweep instead, and started a vortex. I’d advise you to forget a bit about neckbreaker - slide - j.kunai as it is pretty hard to connect. If you want another ambiguous stuff, go for MK Tsumuji - LK command dash - j.kunai, easier to combo and very safe.
Against a backdashing Rose, you should sometimes stop kunai’ing and go for safe jumps with option select, if you know how to do them, it catches her backdash very easily :slight_smile:

Keep it up! You’ll improve fast if you can just remove this unsafe stuff from your game and play more patient

266

Yeah I did that stupid launcher TC twice and just backed off, each time I did it I almost slapped myself. I go for a sweep sometimes and hit the button twice not really thinking. Not to mention I could have just walked up and did a more punishing combo.

The last part of the Oni match when he did wake-up super, I almost slapped myself again. Mistakes like that cost me half my life, but at least I didn’t lose that match.

I spent most of last night’s matches trying to jump as little as possible. I got owned pretty hard but at least it’s allowing me to learn anti-airing, blocking and footsies a lot more. I also pretty much scream out loud at myself every time I do a random Neckbreaker. Really trying hard to stop doing that.

Anyway, thanks. I appreciate the advice.

267

As an example, I’m training my little brother and his friend who just started playing street Fighter IV.
What I do against them is: I just take Ryu, and punish every jumpin with a shoryu, continuously telling them to find another way to get in. It’s pretty efficient as in two days, they completely stopped jumping and learned how to get through Hadokens :slight_smile:
If you can try to do the same thing, you’ll improve a lot :slight_smile:

268

It’s a classic training method. Limit what they’re able to do, either by telling them or by example (preferable), and see how they’re able to adapt and adjust to a new play style. It’s weird and awkward at first, but ultimately, it’ll lay a solid groundwork for their future training by starting with the basics, and working their way on up.

Too many new players do the complete opposite by learning advanced techniques, terminology, and execution tricks, instead of focusing on the basics.

269

So apparently your advice sunk in quite a bit Damascus, I won 6 matches in a row right off the bat this morning just going over my ground game and anti-airing. I still jump too much sometimes and throw out the occasional random Neckbreaker, but I can see things coming along a lot better. Hovering around 1200 PP instead of 700 (not that points really matter but for now it’s the only way to really track my progress).

I did what eltrouble mentioned as well, just jumped right into vortex, combos and trying to SJC U2 when I should have just been focusing on being patient and learning more about the game in general. I also did the same thing during Super when I played Cammy.

I’ll get some more replays when I can actually find some matches on the PC, not really having any luck today. I have quite a few losing ones on my battle log, but most are pretty embarrasing. :stuck_out_tongue:

270

Glad to hear things are starting to come together for you. Continue to work at it, and you’ll soon start to erase your bad habits.

Any and all replays that you want us to critique you on can only help you. It’s not like we’re a bunch of assholes who are going to make fun of you. Watching ANY of my replays is always super embarassing, but it also gets me motivated to do better, and really shines a light on my most glaring errors.

271

Glad to see that =)

I’d say that PPs actually matters, at this level.
Unless the guy is playing many characters, I think PPs are kinda representative
Little summary:
< 500PP : Rookie, just discovering XBL
500 - 1000 PP : rookie training, or scrub if he has been playing for months
1000 - 1500 PP : about to stop being a rookie and start being an almost decent player
1500 - 2000 PP :about to reach medium- level
2000 - 2500 PP : starts to be good, has basic knowledge of the game but still, looses too much
2500 - 3000 PP : kinda good player, needs a bit more to be a good player
3000 - 3500 PP : good player, has a good knowledge of the game and should be able to zone pretty well
3500 + PP : good player who spends hours of his life beating medium players on ranked matches just to get more points

Of course, this is valid only if you play one character only ^^
It’s actually kinda good to locate you on a skill level. Same usually for your opponents, if your opponent is > 3000 PP, he should be a decent player (although there are some exceptions).
Since i took time to train I now spend terrible time playing ranked and just stopped. I just played to farm the symbolic 3000 PP, took me one afternoon of continuously repeating the unblockables on the endless flow of Ryus out there who don’t know how to escape a kunai. I stopped right after getting 3000 PP, I don’t like to play “seriously” against lower level people as I usually just have to play without having fun (sticking to unblockables/safe stuff, no craziness allowed as he’ll just mash DP if I try a command dash mixup -_- )

272

I am an asshole and I make fun of everybody.

273

Oh we all are, but he doesn’t know that yet, lol. I’m trying to encourage him to come back, and I don’t think he’s truly seen any of us at our meanest yet.

But how about the next time we get somebody to ask us to do a critique of his matches, we’ll just quote his post and just respond with a "HAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAH ROFLMAO

274

Video 1:

You dropped several of your bnb combos, do try your best to practice that combo. You also tend to do simple attack strings when you do a cross-up. Usually you do a series of low jabs, followed by st.mk xx tsumuji. That, or you go for another cross-up, which is fine, however you mis-spaced it and ended up whiffing the j.lk. You also did the HK launcher combo, without much of a follow-up, but as you mentioned, you know this. You should either learn to SJC command dash out of her launcher, or just do a simple dash follow-up. Against your average scrub, they’ll usually try and mash DP out of this, so you just need to block and punish.

The second round was pretty textbook Ibuki. You landed a solid knockdown and followed it up with the kunai mix-ups, which worked beautifully. The Oni clearly didn’t know how to block it, and you punished it by repeating a simple vortex. While it was great that you tried to bait out his desperate reversal, it was unfortunate that you backdashed into his demon grab, lol. Against this matchup, if you want to bait something like that, you should back off during his wake-up to avoid throws, but at the same time it leaves you leave to any of his reversals. This way, if you him do a wake-up demon, you can just jump back and punish. Great job not being tempted to do a wake-up move when Oni randomly did an Ultra (wtf).

Video 2:

You definitely appear to be less comfortable in this match-up. You allowed Rose to jump in you once or twice without an anti-air, which is a big no no. You also allowed her to whiff a soul spiral in front of you and you didn’t capitalize on it with a simple knockdown or combo that ends in neckbreaker. What really threw you off was that Rose knew how to escape the kunai, at least the obvious kunai setups, which kind of threw off your game. Gratz on landing your instant air kunai mix-up in her wake-up game, it paid off in spades and you got a good chance to land some damage there.

Overall, you performed fairly well. You did a few random neckbreakers against Rose, but I think that was the nerves. I feel like most people believe (at some sort of subconscious level), that since you’re not really able to get into your offensive groove, and you can’t land any damage, you feel like a desperate neckbreaker might catch them off guard. This is usually a dangerous attitude to have, because it means you’re starting to clutch at desperate opportunities to land a random knockdown. Not only that, but you let your opponent know that you’re on edge, and he’ll feel more confident in his abilities to zone you out. Be sure to throw in some more mix-ups into your offense. You rarely went for any sort of throws or overhead combos. You played pretty conservatively, which is a good thing imo if you’re starting out as a new Ibuki, but eventually you’ll need to learn to inject some creativity into your offense once you learn the basics. You do a GREAT job of landing EX neckbreaker against fireballs though, you seem to have a pretty good knack for that. Do practice your basic hit confirm combos, as well as your punishes, because they’ll mean the difference between a close-loss, and a well-earned win.

Also, when you land a j.lk against their jump-ins in the air, and you land on the ground first, you tend to dash. Just walk forward or backwards, which will affect which side of your opponent that you’ll land on. It’s very tricky to block, since you usually have enough time to walk on the other side, and then walk back to the front of your opponent before he hits the ground, so they’re often forced to guess which side they have to block. The more guesses they have to make, the better.

275

You are definitely a very aggressive player, lol. It seems like your problem stem mostly from execution. You get some execution errors, you drop basic combos, and you tend to do some random NBs. You landed a nice Ultra 2 against Ken’s unsafe fireball, which is great, but overall it seemed as if you were playing scared of Ken. Despite how fast-paced this Ken wants to play, it should be your goal to slow it down, and keep his movements under control. Be sure to anti-air his jump ins, and stuff his step kick with a st.lp or st.mp. Once you’ve slowed down the match to a pace where you’re controlling your zone, most Ken players aren’t really sure what to do, and they’ll tend to commit to more aggressive play and risky moves. It’s important to know which of your moves are a true blockstring, and which ones are just a string of attacks, otherwise Ken will land random DPs all day long. Against the shotos, I recommend doing the cr.jab hit confirm combo, since TC4 tends to whiff on crouched shotos.

I’m glad to see you practicing your combos. TC4 xx whatever is a very basic, and easy to learn combo, you just have to get it locked down into your muscle memory. What threw me off is how slow you need to press the lp, mp, hp. When I first started, I would tend to hit those buttons VERY quickly, because it feels like a combo that should be performed fast. However once you slow it down and fine a very even rhythm, it’s a piece of cake. Just press the buttons, lp, mp, hp, hp in a perfect rhythm, 1,2,3,4. After that it’s just a matter of knowing when to start moving your left hand for the neckbreaker, or tsumuji, and it’s a cake-walk. Just keep in mind that this combo only works up close, if you start the combo with a far st.jab, it’s not going to work. Also realize that the 2nd part of TC4 whiffs on certain crouching characters, including the shotos, so be aware of that.

If you want to start learning another combo, I recommend a simple cr.jab, cr.jab, st.mk x special move. The timing is more difficult, but it works universally on all characters, although sometimes you’ll need to use only 1 or 2 cr.jabs depending on the spacing.

Yeah, we all love that corner combo that ends with EX tsumuji x raida. It also sets up for an easy-to-do safe jump against any character that doesn’t have a dragon punch.

276

So, little video of me playing, any critique is welcome. Don’t mind my matches against rekkaTEC’s Seth as we were having fun on micro giving us challenges and playing as lame as possible lol.

[media=youtube]LAe2nw4Ucfk[/media]

4:20 : Me loosing to a Claw, mostly due to the fact that it was my first match and I was not ready yet to be patient (footsies for the lulz)
19:12 - little win streak ended with a lame Seth match =)

And:

[media=youtube]_Nh55doI2h0[/media]

3:38 : me again

I autopilot’d a whole lot lol. I usually keep throwing kunais if my opponent does not know he can just backdash. And sometimes I mix things up.
Your opinion is welcome!My weakness relies on footsies right now as I still have a hard time mastering the space around me. Tell me what ya think =)

BTW, I don’t know why I wasn’t able to link st.MP st.MP st.MK this day. The connection was good, guess I wasn’t.

277

Got another video, this time with live commentary! Warning: I am a casual (and frequent) swearer.

[media=youtube]iOn_L8WbIF8[/media]

278

That was quite entertaining, lol, wouldn’t mind seeing more of those.

Round 1:

You let him jump on you for free, be sure to do a b+mp anti-air to stop him. You miss a lot of easy punishes throughout the match, and this is primarily because you’re trying to do your TC4 xx neckbreaker combo that you want to do. This combo only works when you are close up, so in this case, you should use a different combo. Try a simple one, like cr.mp xx neckbreaker, or st.mk xx neckbreaker, to start you off, and then later on you can learn stronger combos. After your first knockdown, you dashed up and did lk, mk, tsumuji. Actually in this case, it was a good idea. The reason this worked is that he was probably crouch-teching, and so you caught him first, the only problem is that you didn’t end the tsumuji into the low version, which knocks him down. ALWAYS go for the low tsumuji ender when you connect. Also your kunai vortex timing is slightly off, and that’s how he was able to punish you everytime you went for it.

And wake-up Ultra 2? Be careful of those. I know you’re doing it because you’re nervous, but you’re literally giving away a free win, when it was still possible that you could’ve won.

Round 2:

Great cr.HK x st.HK into walk up. I’m not a fan of doing launchers without a strong follow-up, but in this case, it worked. He did a random fierce, which I’m sure was supposed to be a dragon punch, but in any case, you didn’t punish it when you were in a good position to do so. A simple cr.RH would’ve done great.

Great trip to punish his random st. fierces. However you missed several opportunities to land a good punish combo.

Honestly, your bigger problem is your basic execution on your combos and anti-airs. You should work on those first, before attempting to master the kunai vortex, imo.

279

I did feel like the combo wasn’t connecting because of the distance but I thought I was just nubbing it up. I’ll work on those simple combos with longer range you mentioned to make sure I’m throwing them when I’m supposed to be.

Punishing air has always been one of my weaker points so I’ll make that a focus, too. Gonna set that dummy to jump kick!

280

Yup, you can tell because when you first start the combo, you get standing far jab. You can’t do TC4 off of a far jab, it has to be the close version…which of course requires that you be close. I think there was once or twice you did start off TC4, but then you dropped the combo.