So yesterday in Street Fighter V ranked, I lost 400-500 points (1600 to 1100). Even when I went to Casual Matches I was losing. I re-watched my matches and I was able to see some flaws I had, however I’m here to ask some questions in situations I just wasn’t sure what to do. My main is Guile so some things could be Guile specific or just general situations.
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[*] As a zoner sometimes I’m having trouble when to go in vs staying back and not pressing buttons. Sometimes I go too ham and press buttons/jump in at wrong time and get bopped. However sometimes I also get too scared and just block a bunch before getting easily opened up/thrown/comboed. How to find the right balance?
Getting the feel for it usually just takes a lot of playing and the minor adjustments that comes with that. Though remember as Guile crouch blocking is a pretty favourable position for you, and even just simply crouch blocking in front of them can make players nervous.
[*] Sometimes I have trouble figuring out when exactly when to press buttons/jabs during pressure. I know it’s usually safer to block but eventually you’ll have to figure out when to press jab or other buttons to make them a little more scared to press buttons and to prevent them from throwing.
It’s usually safe to press a button when the opponent is negative or if they start to move forward (and so they end up walking right into your buttons). Recognise when an opponent is trying to frame trap you as when you don’t want to press a button. Players will often resort to the same frametrap for a particular character, like Ryu’s going for s.MP > s.MP.
[*] How often should you backdash and/or back jump? I know the general idea of both is to gain space so maybe when you feel like your offense isnt working well and you need a breather or creating space is vital in the matchup?
Move in and out of range as often as you need to. The important thing to note is that you should always try and jockey for a position that is good for you and bad for the opponent. I.e backup so that you are in the perfect position to sonic boom and if they try and jump you will nail them with a flash kick, don’t back up all the way to the end of the screen. In fact backing yourself into the corner is probably the number 1 bad habit I see from new players.
[*] As a charge character is it worth to shimmy outside using for the occasional (tick) throw?
It’s going to be match dependent. Not everyone is susceptible to being shimmied.
[*] How often should wakeup EX Flash Kicks (DPs) be done? Maybe like 1-2 times a set? I think I get too antsy and want to reversal and want to not use it too much. At the same time I want them to respect that I have the option.
The easiest flashkick baits are players that you can sense are being too aggressive on your wakeup. Against more experienced players you should probably flashkick at most once so that they know you are willing to dp on wakeup, and resist the urge to flashkick anymore unless you get a read. Once an experienced player knows you will dp on wakeup, they will try and bait you by blocking, sometimes outside your grab range as well to also throw whiff punish. When this happens you can use c.LP as a less risky option that is also plus on block.
[*] When blocking how do you figure out when it’s “your turn", is it all about matchups and frame data or just really obvious looking unsafe moves?
Some moves will appear really obvious and some won’t. For ones you aren’t sure you can check out the data with something like the FAT app. Or the old fashion way of having the training dummy set to Chuni Li. c.lp on block (as its a 3f jab). Generally speaking heavy normals are almost always negative on block, with exceptions like Bison’s s.HK because screw you.
[*] I like to throw Booms at the close-mid range to whiff punish pokes but sometimes when I throw fireballs at that range they’ll either jump on reaction or at the same time and I get bopped or have to block. Should I limit the amount of close-mid range Booms and focus more on my own normals and anti-airs?
Generally speaking you don’t want to throw fireballs at a range where people can jump punish you. You can do it when you have the opponent so pre-occupied with your footsie game that they wouldn’t even think about the fireball and thus throwing them in a loop, but don’t do it often.
[*] As a charge character doing the walking backwards/forwards footsie thing doesnt seem as effective as if you were a motion character. Is it ever worth doing this as a charge characters? Whats a nice equivalent besides holding down back? (which can be predictable)
**Remember that charge characters have normals that can mask your charge giving you time to buffer the and/or also make you move around the stage as well. I would recommend you watch someone like Nuckledu or Dieminion playing guile in SF4/5. They can make the char look extremely mobile while still throwing out booms. **
[*] I try to anti-air almost every time someone comes whether it’s wish a Flash Kick or normals. However a lot of the time I’ll be too late and get hit. How do I choose when to just block?
If you’re in a position where you’re too slow in seeing the jump, then block. That said you shouldn’t be missing your AA’s though. You should go to training room and make sure you are getting your AAs consistently. If you can AA just fine in training and not in a real match, then it’s probably because you are too busy thinking about the ground game and haven’t thought about the opponent wanting to jump.
[*] As far as purposefully whiffing your own normals at safe ranges… is it a way to get people to make moves or keep them thinking?
People whiff normals as feints or to make their movement appear random. In Guile’s case you can whiff a c.LP when you would normally throw a sonic boom and the opponent might jump on reaction, leaving them open to a flashkick.
[*] As far as purposefully fishing for (Crush) Counter hits. How do you do it correctly? Most Heavy Normals have high startup so it’s hard to gauge when they’ll press a button without them hitting/counter hitting you first. So far, I can only get proper Crush Counters on Meaty Wakeups.
Some characters have an easier time fishing for CCs than others, but everyone can get an easy CC by punishing a DP.
[*] Probably more of a Guile thing, how do you figure out when to actually jump in? It seems like one of the few ways to start a combo/pressure with him outside trying to fish a counter hit through a meaty but at the same time you cant do it too much or else you’ll get predictable when trying to pressure.
Jump when they’re not expecting you to jump. You shouldn’t just jump because you can’t find another way to start combos/pressure. Use Guile’s sonic booms and grounded normals to create pressure and open them up for combos.
[*] I’ve been trying to incorporate neutral jumping more, when’s it good to do that?
If you read the opponent is about to command grab you. Otherwise you generally don’t want to jump around.
[*] * When is it generally good to sweep? Especially with a super unsafe/long one as Guile.
Sweep when they don’t expect it.
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