Of course you do, but you also have to make sure you are okay with fighting… “not stronger players”. At some point we all reach this exact level in which we kinda do nice against good players and even top players, but we just can’t beat flowchart players or button mashers. If I take my personal example, a few months ago I was able to play against France’s top player and win an occasional match or two, but I couldn’t beat any SPD-happy Zangief, because I was assuming that people should not do stupid things.
Playing XBL ranked is actually a great way to improve this imho. You’ll most likely meet people who don’t care about having a gameplan, they just want to win a FT1 lol. Playing ranked mode helped me a lot dealing with this kind of players, and I think that if you want to be considered as a decent level player, you definitely need to win against these guys.
Of course I cannot say that you’ll literally “get better”, but at least you’ll learn to deal with people who apply “non-logical” game plans
I’ve been trying to learn Ibuki, and was watching some of your videos. Sadly, all I ever see from you is mashing ex up kicks when you’re supposed to be blocking and vortexes. You should probably learn some fundamentals with the character or just in general. You’re on your way to being a good player, though.
Thanks for the critique but I’m sure I’m not a shining star to learn Ibuki from.
edit: If you are looking for Ibuki videos to learn from, I’d look for videos of either Sako or Iyo.
i finally got some recording equipment set up, hoping to start playing ranked with ibuki soon, (startin to get the hang of her)
looking forward to posting some videos of my fails here!
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Hey guys, I got some more footage captured by my friend Tfx Blaze again and I was using another handle simply because I don’t have her alternate on mine 
I know as an Ibuki player most of us tend to not block in a situation that clearly requires a little patience. We have a vortex that can change the tide, blah blah, but no need to look like a freebuki. Try your best on working on patient knockdowns and clean punishes while avoiding unnecessary movement and whiffing things that could potentially lead your demise. I posted up a few gen matches to show just why it’s so fucking crucial to learn patience and good buffer distance and then she just gets in there!
[media=youtube]srGGa8AuauY[/media]
I decided to use my capture card for my matches to document my progress so i’ve made a playlist ill update with matches. Would like some feedback and suggestions.
I do know i have a rather autopilot mentality im trying to break out of, and my execution is lackluster, but dont refrain from saying so. i also panic when pressured for some reason.
[media=youtube]hZnbvIbOCVM[/media]
i think the quality of the vid suffered greatly in the transfer from twitch to Youtube, sorry about that.
OK, so I’ve only watched about half of the above video and these are the things that I noticed (though keep in mind that you’re a much better player than I am, so I could be wrong on any/all of the points):
Jumpins and jumping in general is probably the biggest thing I’d point out. Jump-ins at the start of the match, jumping to escape pressure, etc etc. Worse, you always seemed to always use a kunai instead of occasionally biting the bullet and going for a combo off of an actual hit. At the start of the video you seemed to jump in absolutely every situation, even responding to jumps with jumps instead of simple AA-ing (though this happened less as the video went on).
Expanding on this, I think you need to work on your game vs. fireballs/projectiles. Every time you needed to avoid a fireball you just tried to jump over it, and only very rarely did you try anything else I think I only saw Neckbreaker and Sazan used once each, and there were a bunch of places where I think a FA absorb -> dash forwards would have been really effective. Of course each of those options has their weaknesses, but mixing things up a little can’t hurt - especially when the alternative is being predictable. I think that the Ryu match where you were more or less spamming FA was hoping for a projectile to absorb, but you just ended up eating damage because of that.
Also, there were a couple of places where you just did crazy stuff instead of responding logically - example of this would be where Ken was charging up a FA, and you just stood there at midrange playing chicken with him, when you could just dash in and throw him or w/e. Also at the start of one of the rounds against a Ryu, where you landed a Hien that got punished on recovery, which you followed up with a Hien that got punished before hitting, which you followed up with yet another Hien that got punished again. I know it’s different when you’re actually in the match, but I can’t help feeling that you deserved every bit of damage you got there. If a move gets punished you don’t need to abandon the tactic completely, but trying it again straight away is generally not a good idea.
In all, I think your pressure game is decent enough (that seems to be where you won most of your rounds), but when you’re either being pressured yourself or in a worse position (e.g. full-screen against a fireball character), you seemed to have no real plan. I’d also suggest you have a closer look at the match vs. Cammy - I’m not able to really deconstruct the match but I think you could still learn something from that one.
EDIT: It also seems like every match you use Hien xx Kasumi Suzaku. It’s not necessarily a weakness, but you might want to use that a little less frequently so that the opponent can’t just watch and try to AA the Hien.
Well, the first thing I noticed you’re doing wrong is hosting your own games. You’re not going to get any better that way. Good players wont join your room at all, and you get to play only noobs that won’t challenge you or know how to block. And that you did get.
So let me start there, DON’T HOST YOUR OWN ROOMS. I usually go and look for players with “more skill” than me. I find someone who can kick my ass and then play him until he stops hosting. You usually won’t get opponents like that, especially at your level.
I felt that the only reason you kept winning and vortexing your opponents easily, is because they don’t know how to play the game. You CONSTANTLY did alto of unsafe things, and never get punished. Your jump-ins aren’t good or well timed, your kunais aren’t properly timed or spaced, and your auto-piloting keeps giving you wins. At your level I guess that’s fine, but until you start fighting better players that can kick your ass, you will never break your habits.
Get your combos down, you are dropping very simple ones and yet try to go for 1-frame links. Learn the basics first, and get your simple combos AND DONT DROP THEM. Also, when you do decide to go back and try 1 frames links, learn to hit confirm them, don’t just mk tsumuji the loop, you don’t get any set ups afterwords, even if you do land it. If you miss it, don’t press anything, or lk command dash. But don’t just auto pilot into the mk tsumuji, unless you are actually hit-confirming it.
Stop going for the unblockable every single time, that’s the auto piloting I’m talking about. Don’t use it unless you are low on life or in a tournament, you wont learn anything from it. Try to use XBL as a tool to learn.
Stop doing shit on wake up. Learn to just block or at least FA backdash. I constantly see you back dash on wake up and then get mad you didn’t get option selected. Just stay calm. And try to see when the tick grab is going to come.
You have no footsies. The way you keep getting is from un-safe jump ins that you never get punished for, and until you play better players, you won’t be able to get rid of that habit. I can’t help you out there since you haven’t really shown your footsies. So I can’t give you any tips there. The only thing I did see you do that is kinda footsie-ish was your random focus attacks, but you don’t really go anywhere with them and doing them at the COMPLETELY wrong time.
Stop punishing with target combo 10. Punish properly, or at least just press one HK. And start your vortex from there.
You never applied any good pressure, other than your vortex. And by pressure I mean frame traps, overheads, tick throws, etc. Everyone dies to your vortex, not because its gdlk, but because they suck.
Good things so far though, is that you got your unblockable sort of down, your anti-airs are there (most of the time) and you aren’t ridiculously aggressive. (not sure if its because you don’t know HOW to be aggressive, lol)
But seriously, stop hosting your own rooms.
thanks for the feedback. will take all to heart. for the TC10, I kept doing the 2 hit because i was practicing the sjc dash, (and failing). I will def work on hit confirming, and yea my footsie game is non existent.
I havent really thought about the hosting my own rooms bit. thats good to know.
thanks for the insight, i really appreciate another set of eyes on it. ill try to drop another vid in next week to document the progress.
Just like I tell every Ibuki in training, for your next set of matches, try to see if you can win without using a single vortex setup or unblockalol. Limit yourself to safe jumps or meaties.
And like Waffle pointed out, play to learn first, then play to win later.
for somthing like that tho, would it be better to play like that in endless? or is there a benefit from playing self controlled like that in ranked?
Depends on if you think points matter or not I guess.
for what its worth, i played for a few hours ranked without using kunai at all (and trying less jumping), and its good to win without resorting to autopilot antics. it definitely does help with my footsie game. forcing me to find new ways to get in. i won some and lost lots more. my points will suffer but if it makes me a better ibuki overall, i am totally fine with that.
^ Study those games HARD. Find out what actually works and what doesn’t, and you’ll save hours of trial-and-error learning.
Doesn’t really matter imo. Disregarding points and people possibly taking ranked more srsly because of that, ranked is good for quick adapting skills, like in a tournament match, whereas endless is better for general adapting skills to adapt over longer sets, and also get more matchup knowledge (since you’ll be grinding it out).
People caring about points online = lol anyway. Most high-ranked XBL players are just using Xbox Live tactics (dash forward throw, mash buttons all day long…) because they just want points. In the end, they end up not learning anything (and even worse, their level even goes down because of those bad habits).
I am personnally usually trying to play in ranked mode without any offense or vortex. Mostly because I know that people ranked just don’t care and will often use stupid strategies/mashing, unless I actually know the player (bottom note: I played Jaycetheace’s Yun yesterday in Ranked, I realized that I absolutely hate Yun).
As a result I can’t reach 4000 PP because I often end up losing, but at least, I get to learn how to keep those players away 
[media=youtube]I5E9u20tVHY[/media]
An ode to me being free.
This is a FT3 I played against Aquasilk, offline, in one of the SFIV sessions I host at my place (if you’re from NY and you’re okay at this game… Join us! )
My opinion: Except the occasional execution errors (backdash after blocked overhead missed, an OS neckbreaker missed, fancy U2 for style points missed as well), I believe I don’t look that free in this match. I mean, my spacing/anti air do not look that bad. It all comes down to me making a bad read, getting caught by an SPD, and Aquasilk then reading me like a book on wakeup. I may be too easy to read? I’m also very bad at reading the opponent
What should I add? Time for me to step up
Game 1, Round 1
0:17 - Gief does j.LK and you try to trip guard with cr.HK, end up eating SPD. Don’t ever bother trip guarding, especially if you have every reason to believe your opponent won’t just simply SPD you, like Aquasilk did here.
0:21 - wakeup Raida. Never a good choice. Very high risk for very little reward. Don’t do it unless you are feeling yourself.
Notes: you only hit Gief twice with cr.MK the whole round. This is why I think it’s not a good poke (despite having good priority). It simply does not land you a knockdown (actual reward), meanwhile putting you at risk. Also I have no idea wtf you were doing when Gief hit you with headbutt. Frantic much when you’re in the corner?
Game 1, Round 2
0:52 - Gief does anticipation EX GH. This is exactly why I don’t believe Gief can punish backdashes on reaction, especially not with U2. If that were the case, then Aquasilk would not have to resort to guess EX GH like he did here.
0:53 - worthless punish. cr.LP cr.LP stMK MK Tsumuji (not even Neckbreaker!!!). It’s almost like you weren’t even sure if GHand was punishable (I sure hope you do). If a shoto whiffs a dp in your face, would you punish with this same combo? No; work on your punishes and at the very least go for like a TC4 or st.MP st.MK. I always go straight to st.MP into Tsumuji loop.
0:57 - This is a clear example of why you play Aquasilk too much and/or your overheads are too telegraphed. You can see it, can’t you? Gief was already blocking high in anticipation of the overhead, which you didn’t even do yet! Then he crouches, then you do it, then he goes back to blocking high.
1:09 - Gief jumps in with j.HP. I have no idea wtf you tried here, but at this range Ibuki does not have any antiair options besides EX dp. To stay safe, I’d recommend simply backdashing.
1:27 - blocked TC4 xx LK Tsumuji is actually punishable by jab SPD on block. It’s fortunate that most Gief players don’t know this, and lucky you didn’t get punished here, but just something to note. In case you test it, I should add that Gief has to block it standing.
1:35 - Gief does whiffed j.LK into SPD, and you do absolutely nothing. This is what I mean when I say you have a bad antiair game. Just like I saw in the Sakura matchup vs ChrisG, and the Cammy matchup vs KBrad, you just absoutely freeze up when your opponent jumps in. This is opposite to Sako, for example, who always always does something besides block and give them a free safe jump.
Game 2, Round 1
2:18 - you go for HK cd crossup into overhead on Gief’s wakeup, followed by cr.LP. This is absolute terrible adapting. Gief has mashed SPD every single time (like 5 times so far?) when you went for overhead. Why you haven’t noticed this yet instead of autopiloting doing the same thing, is beyond me.
2:26-2:45 - pretty lackluster combos and predictable strings. When you land a hit, you need to do more than just cr.LP cr.LP st.MK Tsumuji (again… you’re not even using Neckbreaker). When you punish something, you need to do more than just cr.LP cr.LP st.MK Tsumuji. It seems almost like that is the only combo you know, and that is the only blockstring you know. Next thing I’ll see is CViper whiff her U1 in your face and then you punish with cr.LP cr.LP st.MK Tsumuji. Lastly you should have SJC U2 for the post stun combo to finish the round, instead of letting Gief live and taking a risk with that safe jump.
Game 2, Round 2
3:28 - Gief whiffs j.LK and you try to antiair with cr.HP, both whiff, and then you eat an SPD. Why would you think cr.HP would work at this range? Pretty much any character could have empty jumped at this range and Ibuki’s cr.HP would whiff. The problem isn’t Gief being somehow un-antiair-able, it’s you not knowing your ranges.
Game 2, Round 3
3:48-4:07: Zero whiff punishes on Gief’s Lariat? This is something you absolutely need to be doing. You seemingly punished it perfectly some rounds before. Gief getting away with mass meter building like this also sends the message that you are much much too turtley, which would convince any Gief player to spam moar Lariats for meter.
4:28 - Dunno wtf that wakeup command dash was for.
Game 3, Round 1
4:53 - always go for full TC4 in combos. Did you forget that Gief is a big character, and therefore full TC4 works on him crouching?
5:05 - Raida , backdash , jumpin safe jump does not work on Gief. And the most important thing was that at this point, you should have just tried to keep Gief in the corner and/or chip him to death. I have no idea wtf you were trying to do, doing a safe jump into cr.LP cr.LP st.MK (again with this stupid string). You have Gief in the corner, you have full life compared to his any-hit-will-kill life, and most notably, you have the entire screen to walk back.
At this point, I don’t believe Gief is truly a hard matchup for Ibuki. It’s simply a hard matchup for your playstyle. You just want to go in on Gief at every chance you get, no matter if you are already at a huge advantage and favorable position. I’m all for taking risks when you have to, but this is just a completely unnecessary risk that just leads into costing you the (already guaranteed) round.
Game 3, Round 2
5:45 - don’t super jump backward unless you have a reason for it. Since you were most likely just trying to escape, if you did regular jump back, you could have gotten a free juicy punish on Gief’s whiffed GHand. Also the Golden Rule of Superjumping: never empty super jump. Whiffing any normal during a super jump will reduce your landing recovery to that of a regular jump.
Now I can see why you think Gief vs Ibuki is like 7-3 Gief favored. Not to poop on your parade, but you looked very free in this match, and Aquasilk was noticeably sandbagging/trolling. At midrange, you have no real zoning game going on. Gief jumps in all day because you’re too hesitant to choose the wrong antiair and eat a combo, or choose nothing and eat an SPD. And even if you land that antiair you don’t always take advantage of it (saw this against ChrisG as well).
Some of the things you did had terrible risk/reward. Wakeup Raida is not a good option. Don’t forget the power of simply blocking. You only know one combo for every situation, including blockstring, pseudo frame trap, and punish. You only went for Tsumuji loop once, meaning you lost out on a lot of damage potential; and you don’t even go for full TC4 or TC4 , st.LP, so you definitely lost out on a lot of damage potential.
When you vortex Gief, it’s usually something like kunai crLP crLP stMK MK Tsumuji (167dmg). When I vortex Gief, it’s almost always kunai into stMP Tsumuji loop (324dmg). This is almost twice as much as your damage output! And when you punish Gief, it’s even worse.
I’d say the best thing for you to practice right now is a keepaway and zoning game. Find some rushdown happy players/characters, and focus on keeping your opponent out. Pretend that they are unvortexable so you won’t put any attention on the knockdown, allowing you to focus. Gief, THawk, Hakan, Cammy, Yun, Makoto, Sakura, and Abel are prime characters to practice against; with Abel/Hakan being the easiest because they are already Ibuki favored matchups to begin with.
Sako vs Itabashi Zangief - 00:00 to 11:00
[media=youtube]BuQp2PDg9RY[/media]
This is a good example of Ibuki zoning Gief to death, and not letting Gief get away with Gief’s little gimmicks. Use this video as reference.
Jab SPD punishes on standing hit as well if the Ibuki player tries to walk back (not that you should) but good to know since it’s possible to drop your combo there.
Mingo has been playing Zangief against me in our games lately and I have trouble with that matchup. I watched that Sako video twice already, planning on trying to figure out that matchup better and working to get more damage when I get the chance.