I'm gonna bite your FACE! (official blanka thread)

Classic Fighting Games SSF2T: HD Remix
381

Personally I think there would be quite a few people that could potentially be called “the best Blanka” in the US but the issue is that US players play a more matchup oriented version of ST and Blanka simply doesn’t win as many matchups as other characters. I’m sure there’s quite a few top players that are rather adept with Blanka but just choose only to save him for certain matchups or play other characters. The only seriously good strictly Blanka player I know of in the US is Nohoho. All other Blanka players that I’ve met usually main other characters (like DSP) and just save him for random matches or certain matchup situations.

Japanese has many more grandmasters of Blanka since in Japan the idea is more to stick to a character and to define your reputation and play style with that character. Their ideal is more about learning all of your matchups with the character you use than simply resorting to what characters are the best. In that sense any match is theoretically winnable. Especially with the single match, single elimination format that is more often presented in Japanese tourneys.

382

Blanka’s all about gimmicks. I hate playing the “matchup” textbook bullshit, and I think this is also why Japan is better in most fighters than we are. Very few people here are adept to fighting in a versatile manner (this is one reason why we’re REALLY good at MvC2 - that game isn’t about playing textbook, in fact, there IS NO textbook definition on playing that game. You play counters, you play gimmicks, you need to work on reaction). You have players like John Choi, the Wolfe brothers, Afrolegends, and Jason Cole who will innovate their game and use all that textbook knowledge, but you’ll play them and get hella fucking confused because they’re not predictable. You can’t read these players just from their footsies.

This is what Blanka needs to be good. I mean, when you’re 100% focused and shit, you can be AMAZING with his balls. There’s been several times where I’m putting pressure on a Ryu or Dhalsim in the corner, two obviously bad “textbook” matchups for Blanka, but I’ve worked off of reaction, saw what they do, took note of the patterns I saw, and countered them. They jump immediately I’d have a vertical ball in their face, they walk forward BAM. I’ve reacted on Honda’s HP headbutt too from half screen. If they both start around the same time, Blanka ball will get to Honda before the headbutt comes out, so you win the exchange. Unless they’re on point with their charges, they can’t really punish you except to mash HP and hope that the thousand hands come out.

The only two matches that Blanka can play textbook is vs. Gief and T.Hawk… s.mp, c.mp, c.mk, s.lk, jump straight up hp, where it’s like… you don’t let them get in, and you win the match.

As far as a “top Blanka” it’s hard to define. The players that I mentioned use Ryu, Boxer, Claw, Dictator, Dhalsim, DJ, etc… Nobody really mains certain characters in the states. It’s hard to find a GOOD (like Kusomondo good) Honda player or a GOOD (like Komoda good) Blanka or even a really good Guile player. In Japan, they’re frequent.

The fact that Japan is more versatile with their characters also does something. Look at 3S for example, they pick EVERYBODY… In the states, I see a million kens, half a million Chuns, and quarter million Yun… then a few Ryu, Akuma, Dudley, Urien, and Makoto… Where’s the amazing Hugo, Alex, Twelve, etc. players? Very few. I think Japan uses this and they become more versatile because they’re forced to learn every matchup all the time, rather than just get really good at fighting top tiers alone.

383

Decoy probably has the most shennanigany blanka on xbox live. When we play mirrors he hops around doing all this crazy shit, i just try to grab him!

nohoho doesn’t play online does he?

384

i never understood why people say this. I don’t do anything gimmicky with blanka, well nothing more ‘gimmicky’ than zangief or hawk does to land a throw.

What is a blanka gimmick, just so i can understand.

Also, vS BALROG: is cr.mk used? i don’t have a cr.mk on my joystick, and this is my toughest matchup. I’m just wondering if i’m missing out on something useful.

385

c.mk and slide are good vs. balrog

2 things

  1. slide beats his dash punches (most anyway)
  2. if you work on reaction, you can ball his dashes.

also, slide is a good counter to a whiffed headbutt

gimmicky meaning, you need to earn your hits. you need blanka trickery to get hits on a lot of characters, (safe hits that is)

a good gimmicky… aka, innovative

blanka gimmicks are crossups, pretty much. and stupid shit like his s.lk beating dps and shit.

386

in my head:

gimmicks are doing punishable things to get damage.

strategy is punishing things.

hopping around, empty rolls, rainbow rolls, psychic jumps, psychic uppercuts etc.

strategy is upball on reaction to a jump, s.strong to punish a jump, stuffing pokes with s.lk, l.forward etc, baiting a bad fireball then jumping, footsies etc.

basically

if we consider reaction time on a linear time scale :

situation----- before we know------>CPU reaction time----------------human reaction time----->

basically in a given scenerio, we can guess our opponents action which is cpu reaction time or faster, or we can wait til we actually perceive his action. As educated as your guess might be, anything faster than CPU reaction time (which is as soon as their input finishes or 0-1 frame reaction time) is a guess and shenanigan. Anything afterwards where you’re 100% on the outcome is a strategy.

my blanka is very much strategy based, and all my shenanigans are safe. s.lk, crossup dashes, safe jump crossups, tight ticks that are usually outside your grab range etc.
you’re not going to see me dash too much, if i do dash in front of you, it’s cause it’s a tick and you have very few options, or it’s a footsie and i’m probably dashing over your whiffed low poke.

you’re never gonna see me do anything in a decoy video, that rainbow roll gets dped every time by a good player. you don’t even need to dp it, you can just walk back half a step then sweep with any other character.

387

my HP button works, so i already use the slide from time to time but im’ wondering what use cr.mk is in the fight.

My definition of gimmicks are techniques that are, for average players only, difficult to get around. Good players don’t fall for gimmicks.

I don’t find stuff like st.lk gimmicky because it’s simply a good hitbox. If you position yourself properly it isn’t something that good players can get around. There’s no gimmick to it. The downside is to use it and keep your vulnerable hitbox safe you have to do it at such a distance that on block you’re out of tick range (which is contrary to your best offensive plan), but otherwise it will either hit or whiff vs a handful or reversals allowing you to sweep.

Same thing with his crossup and his bite range. His bite game isn’t gimmicky, People can’t reversal 100% of the time and don’t even attempt to so it’s actually greater than a 50/50 mixup. It’s very measured, statistically hard to escape when done right and is definitely not gimmicky.

I find rainbow roll gimmicky because it only works because people get surprised by it and have crap reflexes. I find hop buffering in block strings a little gimmicky because its not safe (but people mashing on throw often get crossed up and whiff a standing normal as you cross them up.) I find hopping into bite gimmicky in the same way i find whiff lk hurricane > throw gimmicky.

Blanka can try a lot of risky stuff but most of it isn’t a good idea a lot of the time so i don’t think it defines his play style just because it’s an option available to him and a lot of scrub players use it. Blanka is pretty crap outside of point blank range, and getting past fireballs often makes players resort to rainbow rolls, random ball, random jump, random leap and that sort of risky, gimmicky play.

I don’t so much see gimmicks when i watch komoda/AFO/etc play, i see an extremely deliberate and measured approach, maximum capitalisation on very few openings, and pinpoint use of his extended throw range.

EDIT: jusr read khiem’s post after posting mine and agree 100%. Whats your gamertag, i’d like to play your blanka

388

Nohoho doesn’t play online AFAIK. He’s particularly picky about ST (much like any high level ST player) and I’m sure the HD Remix changes along with online play would just not appeal to him.

I find c.MK and sweep to work against Balrog rush punches done from a far distance. The problem mainly for me seems to be that once he gets in close with low rush punches Blanka doesn’t seem to have a single poke that’s effective. I have to random electric or just hope I can beat him to the punch but that’s harder to do at close range.

389

so then we all mean the same thing, but we have different meanings for the word “gimmick”

390

Hey guys I just wanted to thank you all for the incredible amount of knowledge that you all provided here. I just got into STHD and since I started reading this thread my game has improved so much it’s incredible, make no mistake though, I’m still as scrubby as they come.

A few questions though, my hardest matches are against claw, boxer and (to show you how scrubby I am) Guile and the Mirror match, could you guys give me any tips? Especially on the later two I just get sonic boom’ed + tick thrown to death, and in the mirror match I can’t seem to punish any balls and get electrified on all my jump in’s.

And finally my scrubbiest question (I’m a bit ashamed about posting this), last night I was playing this Ken player that kept jab DP’ing non stop and I coulnd’t do any about it, It beat all my attacks! What should I do in this situation?

Thanks in advance guys, you all rock.

391

I feel the same as you sir. Get on ps3 so we can play against each other.:nunchuck::karate: I hate mirrors, but I want to fight against some good blanka’s so I can learn how to beat him when using him.:wink:

Oh shit I just noticed your in europe. :sad: We might have a shit connection. I don’t have a 360 so ps3 is my only option.

392

Regarding the best Blanka, thanks for the responses. It is interesting to note the difference between the cultures. I may have to check out some AFO vids.

393

I would say Nohoho hands down is the best U.S. Blanka player. After that, it’s anyone’s guess.

Although I started out offline since back in '92, the past few years I’ve been strictly an online player. If EVO qualifiers ever make their way back east, I’ll be there for the first time playing only Blanka.

I’ve been exclusively a Blanka player since WW days. Even though I’ve dabbled with Guile and Chun Li I’ve always been a Blanka player first.

I agree with the others, Komoda and AFO are on another level with Blanka. They are your best bets for learning some rock solid Blanka play.

~Decoy

394

One more thing…

I respectfully disagree with those that say that the Rainbow Roll is bad and can be punished easily. Sorry, I don’t buy it. The Rainbow Roll only gets punished if it’s done in situations where you actually give your opponent an opportunity to easily punish it. Duh. Outside of that, I find it’s incredibly useful for many situations as demonstrated in the video.

And what I say next I say with nothing but love for the Blanka playing community…

I think most Blanka players are in a rut. They are stuck playing Blanka the same way because that’s all they know. They see what works and what doesn’t work and the innovation in terms of gameplay has become stagnant. Blanka is a dynamic character. He’s fast, powerful and he has some unique properties. I DO NOT believe that we have truly tapped the real potential of this character. I find new things very frequently with Blanka because his design allows me to do so. Think outside the box people. Tricks/shenanigans are like theories until they work so much we make them law.

I don’t know about you guys but I’m gonna keep pushing until I breakthrough some walls with Blanka. So I say to you, do the same. Start REALLY looking a bit deeper than what we already know and let’s find some cool shit that works.

To me, Remix Blanka is a totally different beast than ST Blanka and we need to start finding his true potential.

Again, no disrespect to anyone in this thread because I think the knowledge you guys have shared is fantastic. Keep it up and let’s go bite somebody’s face!

~Decoy

395

decoy’s the man

396

Blanka for top tier.

Nigga is just crazy.

397

i dunno man, sweeping a ‘rainbow roll > bite’ attempt is pretty easy, you tried it a bunch of times in our set yesterday evening. And i’m not even used to people using that move since you’re the only blanka i see do it. The roll has a fair few landing frames of recovery and the startup is still slow. However, If i block a rainbow roll is it punishable?

I felt less lost against your blanka than i normally do but i was struggling with neutral j.hk when i got close since i never have down charge available. I’m guessing you picked fei to see what it’s like to try to counter my fei strat! You like that dont’cha :wink: to be fair, need to play chem to test it’s worth.

It’s not that i think blanka players are in a rut, i just think to beat good players requires more patience and timing than most people have.

Also who is srk mac on here?

398

I do lots of RR’s in casual play because I’m always testing to see what works and what I can get away with. Also because it’s just too damn fun for me lol. I’m not trying to win a tournament when I’m playing casuals so I take a more reckless approach when I play. Hence, I get punished for my own foolishness.

Playing vs top players definately requires a deep focus so I usually change my game when I play them. But, I do throw in some different things in there just to see if they can stop it.

Jumping LK is good vs Fei but I was trying to test something out that Chemistren does. Play him to see how j. LK works vs his Fei. I’m sure I was not doing it properly because I’m not a Fei player.

Anyway, all this Blanka talk is definately a good thing. We can benefit from each other and step our games up so that’s cool in my book. :tup:

399

i meant to ask, when you do elec on my wakeup how is it your elec recovers fast enough that i can’t sweep you? I always get 2 hits of elec and i’m left buzzing and i get sweeped

400

I’d like to say that I agree with Decoy, and I think that even when something is risky, it can be useful if it makes something the opponent does risky too. I can talk about RR against Ryu. Ryu always could fireball at large distance without even think against Blanka, but if Blanka does RR he needs to fake sometimes to punish, and even if it is in Ryu’s favor, its harder than before.

Maybe what I said is just nonsense, since my last sf II was “The new challengers”, until hd remix for ps3 and I’m having a hard time now, so I apologize if it is the case.