This might seem silly but this was arguably one of the most impressive things about Infiltration’s play.
Infiltration constantly used Akuma’s forward and back dashes throughout all of his matches in top 8. He did this to set up the perfect spacing for himself at all time. This is an oft overlooked aspect of footsies (which Inf is amazing at). Daigo is often praised for doing the same thing with his Ryu, constantly resetting the exact distance he wants to be at to make his character most effective.
Infiltration is relatively minimalist when it comes to vortex mixups. I’m sure there are people on these forums that know more setups than him. He does, however, abuse all the fundamental aspects of Akuma’s play to their fullest. His footsies/demon punishes (both super and ultra!) are always locked down and make Akuma into a much more consistent character.
On top of that Infiltration is constantly displaying his willingness to blow you up with a DP (even without meter) so you have 1 more tool to worry about. Most Akuma’s aren’t willing to take those big risks because of his low health/stun.
TL;DR: Outside of mixups Infiltration just seems to play every matchup at exactly the right distance at all times, and shows that Akuma can still be played effectively with excellent fundamentals.
after the nerfs this is pretty much the playstyle that most akuma players started gravitating towards.
of course, infiltration was on point and shined hard.
I’ll add some useful info on this topic. Akuma’s walk speed is the fastest along chun and claw, so when moving forward, it’s unnecessary to dash forward (aside for focus dashes ofcourse). However, backwards walking is universaly slower than forward walking. For example akuma’ walkback speed is only as fast or a little slower than ryu’s forward walk speed.
However, since akuma’s focus attack moves him back quite a bit, you can kind of kara backdash out of the focus. This moves him back almost as far as the 3K version of the teleport, but is faster and recovers more quickly.
A VERY useful too to reset the distance and frequently used by high level akumas.
Just backdash out of focus. He’s just saying that the step back part of the focus acts a bit like kara-ing a throw or something - gives the action more reach in the desired direction. In this case, backdashing out of focus goes back a longer distance (about 1.5 times farther) than a plain backdash. Just let the focus go long enough for Akuma to adopt his “charging” stance to get the extra square.
I completely agree, OP. I have long thought that the general community consensus has put far too much emphasis on Akuma’s post-knockdown mix-ups/option-selects… most of my good SF friends have heard that rant more than once, but I’ve mostly learned my lesson about fighting a crusade like that on SRK. And that’s not to say the “vortex” stuff isn’t incredibly powerful, but there’s a lot more to Akuma than landing a sweep or forward throw and doing lame safe jumps. I was thrilled to see Infiltration playing lights-out using all of Akuma’s many many many tools - ultra and super demon, SRK, zoning, air-to-air (I loved his neutral jump roundhouses… so boss), “melee” pressure/counterhits/throw game, ambiguous jump-ins, spacing/baiting, and yes also option selects/safe post-knockdown pressure.
It was a beautiful thing. Can’t wait to re-watch all of his matches soon.
Matches? I didn’t notice opponents on the stream, apart from perhaps Gamerbee. Were you talking about that punching bag labelled Daigo or something?
Seconded on the footsie demon thing, I find playing footsies/zoning much more interesting than the vortex and seeing Infiltration demonstrate the style’s strength at the top level was so, so good.
Basically how komatik explained it. Focus attack first and then backdash. To reach the ultimate distance, discover for yourself how soon after the FA you backdash, but I can say pretty fast after the FA. You only use the backwards moving animation and immediately after cancel it into a backdash. Try it out, it’s great for mobility and tactically for preventing your opponent from easily spacing their attacks.
Ah I get you, I read kara an thought maybe I was missing something. I’ll try it when I get in.
I can definitely appreciate Infiltration’s playstyle, it’s something I’ve been trying to put my own akuma on to. His whole neutral game, footsies, spacing game…everything are just immaculate an when he does run the vortex it makes that much more potent. I definitely want to see more from him, longer sets etc.
Between seeing Infiltration’s performance an checking out my own scene for the first time…I’m intrigued to see whether I can bring in some of that fundamentally strong play he showcases an level up…I do feel like outside of vortexing guys I’m a bit lackluster which shouldn’t be the case when clearly akuma has so much going for him.
Vs Daigo and Gamerbee are the 2 most prevalent. He constantly used dashes vs. Gamerbee to adjust how far he was from Jaguar kick. Same against Daigo, he kept dashing in and out to bait footsies.
The amazing thing about the Daigo match is that MADE Daigo look like a punching bag. He beat Daigo at his own game with superior zoning and footsies. I don’t think Daigo was playing particularly bad, I just don’t think he was expecting Infiltration to punish all of his mistakes so well. On top of that Infiltration plays fearlessly (I really admire this about Eita as well). He never seems to give a hoot about Akuma’s low health and just plays his game the way he wants to.
Tokido is amazing of course but if I had to criticize him its that he almost plays Akuma “too” perfectly. IE he’s always trying to play in a way that minimizes mistakes by taking very little risk and sometimes it gets him in trouble/makes him too conservative.
Of course a big part of this could be the fact that Infiltration plays so many other characters on the roster that he isn’t as reliant on vortex setups. He has shown the ability to play Gouken and Ryu at a very high level so his zoning is clearly on point.
I 100% agree with you man. I’ve been telling people to study his matches. There is so much to learn there. It’s literally gold that is waiting to level you up.
He’s one of the few players that still focus attack and dash through fireball for good punishes. Something more players need to do because I barely see it in high level play. Especially against daigo. He throws way too many not completely safe fireballs that go unpunished.
I see Tokkido doing a lot of FADC punishing online too on YogaFlame’s channel. It’s a really dynamic of letting your opponent know that he is predictable lol.
Lol but tokido gameplays on yf24 are usually against either top japanese players or higher level online players but you don’t really see him landing any of that on top japanese players. Tration on the other hand did it to Daigo.
i think what he meant was that the people playing on the youtube channel are top japanese players or top players (but not fighting other top japanese players). dont be a dick brah.
yea I just just logged back on to delete it because while I was making my breakfast I remember that saying stuff like this online just leads to arguments which lead to nowhere. But I guess I was assuming that he has seen some of the same replays I have. Stupid assumption on my part, but still does not change the fact that I’ve seen Tokido FADC punish both top Japanese players and just regular online warriors alike. I’ve also seen other players do it a tournaments too, but since this is a Akuma thread I thought I’d stay relevant.
I’m still a dick, thanks for pointing it out
Guys relax, this same stuff was said about Daigo when he won evo back to back, unfortunately we are all human and soon Infil will get DOWNLOADED. but till then I love the way he plays Akuma
