I main Ken and i do pretty well but Balrog is just a terrible matchup for me. Idk what to do. It’s bad enough he has those godlike footsies and specials u cant punish online, but then his hitbox is so fucked up i can’t punish anything. Why must a beautiful character like ken lose to this ugly bastard? Naw but seriously, what strats can make this easier for me?
If you are playing a balrog who loves backdashing/focus backdash/ex dash straight or headbut after a knockdown. Always sweep after a jump in normal. It beats all those options and then repeat until they get it through their head that you know how to punish it.
Balrog beats you on the ground so your main goal is to mix him up when you have the chance.
After a kara throw take a extremely tiny step back and jump in HP. This can cross up or hit forward its very difficult for balrog to block and again sweep. It beats all those options i mentioned above.
After a HP shoryu if the balrog quick rises jump in HP to hit forward and ex tatsu to hit back. Same thing as above sweep.
If they don’t quick rise they just lost their charge so go for a ground mix up.
Mix ups are your best friend in this match up.
Thanks bro, ill try it out
When you are jumping in the sweep can be option selected to beat plain back dash, and is you see the focus back dash you can sweep. Because sweep isn’t always safe on block vs balrog
There are also opportunities to focus his slower pokes and dash punches… when fadc-ing through pokes if you aren’t confident with the timing use a c.lp c.mk starter to get a safe combo off.
Throw off his dash punch spacing by moving smart… this can lets you catch a dash punch with c.mk OS something, punish a whiffed punch, punish a unsafely spaced punch.
c.mk can completely dodge a non-ex headbutt
If you have trouble with Balrog’s hitbox “shorten” your combos…they might not be optimal but will hit. ie c.lp c.lp kara srk or c.lp c.mk extatsu.
When you are vortexing him consider the fact that his options can all be safe jumped except his throw ultra 2.