Yeah, Xiaoyu vs Gief is pretty bad. His Lariat beats pretty much everything she has. No jab pressure or Shooting Star. The only thing Xiaoyu really has against him is st.MP, which Gief can punish if he reads the stance cancel, IIRC.
Maybe I haven’t been playing good Giefs but I’ve never felt like the Xiaoyu / Gief matchup was a problem. The health issue is more of a problem than anything else, added to the fact that Gief’s SPD has deceiving range. Those things aside I don’t think it’s that hard.
I’m not exactly sure what you think Xiaoyu has that can give Gief problems? She can’t pressure him because he can Lariat/SPD through her jabs, she can’t jump at him because Lariat is really good, and she only has one footsie button that can be punished if she tries to set up for a followup. How exactly do you get an overhead in against Zangief?
I think the matchup is a pretty big stalemate because of Xiaoyu’s walk speed/backdash, but she’s definitely limited in what she can do while playing Gief a LOT. I switch to Lili whenever I have to fight Zangief.
Speaking of which, I’m still trying to find that teammate for Xiaoyu. I can’t seem to find anyone that really syncs with her and my playstyle.
I have to agree, the only thing I think Xiaoyu has against him is constantly pressuring him high and low because that can go under Lariat. However, this gets predictable and if he uses his SA and his EX piledriver, he is invincible from her jab and it does immense damage.
Look for those character that have a real good natural game, but lack in the damage department (Sagats and Claw come in mind). With them you can relay on their natural game to get the hit, Boost to enter Ling, and breakdance to deal some real good damage. then ling can stay in front for more pressure, or even switch for free.
That more or less how i play it with Jin on front, which is a bit sad since he has really good damage, but still less then boosting to Ling
I run Claw/Xiaoyu but I’ve been thinking about switching Claw out. They compliment each other pretty well except they both get rushed down for free.
i run either lili/nina/ and recently chun first i cant really decide but lili/xiao isnt great and its getting me blown up more than not
Maybe I should go back to Jem on point.
Ehh qctually don’t mind the Xiao/gief fight. Jump lk usually stuffs lariat clean.
I’ll keep my Chun Xiao team since Chun has great pokes that lead to Xiaoyus big damage. Plus,Chun doesn’t have amazing combos either, so it isn’t like I shouldn’t switch to Xiao.
P.S. Chun got a panda costume yesterday. PANDA AND XIAOYU! REUNITED AND IT FEELS SO GOOD!
I’m surprised there isn’t a Panda alt for Kuma, since that was always how it worked in Tekken.
Would you wanna see Panda with that rape face, let alone the farting?
I’m gonna try out team China Girls some more. So far, they seem great for each other. Chun’s got the footsies and fireball and Xiao’s got the damage and mixups.
Yes, one more convert to Team Chinagirls. 
Someone needs to make a theme for them like the Pandora SF and Tekken themes USING TRADITIONAL CHINESE INSTRUMENTS. I’ve always wanted to hear Chun-Li’s theme on Erhu.
If I had any idea how to play any traditional Chinese instruments, I totally would lol.
We got this!
SnakeAes, you get the Erhu
KumaOso, you try your hand at the Ruan
As for me, I’m a Pipa kind of person
But honestly, how do you guys play Chun Li-ng Xiayou? I find that I still have problems with being too aggressive sometimes, and I have problems with Gief and Rufus.
Lol Chun Li-ng Xiaoyu, I like it.
It’s tough. Low health characters who both have to work hard for their wins makes it really hard. Against Gief I don’t have many problems but against Rufus I definitely do. Chun’s df+LK is decent against Rufus’ dive kicks, and sets up some juggle opportunities.
Generally it’s fireball war to build meter, poke string with st.MP chain into cr.HK with Chun, or st.MP xx Legs Tag Cancel into Overhead or wait into low with Xiaoyu. This way, because I don’t start attacking right away (they’re still in blockstun from Chun’s Legs anyway), they assume I’m going to hit high so they stand. Combo into breakdance, and if Chun is low on health I keep Xiao in, if Chun has enough health to come back I’ll bring her back.
I lost in box arena grand finals 2v2 to a gief/jin team using xiaoyu… I think gief is pretty susceptible to alpha counter shenanigans but xiaoyu’s alpha counter is pretty awful. Her backdash shuts down almost all of gief’s options except point blank jab xx green hand OS (or non-point blank jab xx ex green hand).
I finally watched Chris G’s videos during some downtime at work.
I think I finally understand what I’m doing wrong, and that is that I don’t apply nearly enough pressure with Xiaoyu.