Anyone have any tips/tricks/ideas for moving around with Hazama’s drive? I watch match videos and see players get around really nicely without any interruption, but I try to do this online, everyone’s just mashing out attacks and counter hitting me all the time.
Well, are you trying to move around, or are you trying to launch an offensive?
Moving around is much more general and usually doesn’t have the problem of “Oh, I got counter hit” because most moving around isn’t done at a range where most characters can hit you.
If you’re looking for ways to go on the offense, then really, your options are:
D followup into j.A/j.B/j.2C (Not recommended, overall - it’s super easy for a lot of characters to AA this)
C followup (crossup) into j.2C
D followup into nothing into 2A/2B
’Short’ chain (don’t actually make contact with the chain, instead followup to a point in front of your opponent) into…j.B mostly, I think.
6D into B followup into stuff.
And all of those (except the last one, obviously) can be done both from the basic 5D, but also from a low altitude j.D or a higher altitude j.6D or j.4D.
I’m sure there are others too, but my Hazama experience comes from fighting him. Hazama players who know how to move around and control space are much, much harder to beat than players who do 5D > D > j.B over and over.
Zone Them.
It’s hard to explain so I’ll condense it:
When you zone with Hazama, you’re not trying to keep your opponent out, you’re trying to make them “Get in” in the way you want. For example, abusing your 6D will make them think “Haha! I’ll just run at him!” When infact, You’re 100% expecting that, so you counter accordingly. Once your opponent is scared to push buttons, just zip around with 6/5/4DD and harass them.
Simple, really.
I find characters with lots of reach (Jin/Hakumen) difficult to keep out or rather, zone properly. I always get hit by Jin’s underground ice move that pops you in front of him. Likewise, I’ll typically get hit by a massive Hakumen normal trying to zone him. How do you guys deal with Jin? He seems to be insanely popular online.
You should never(Caveat: There’s no such thing as never) be throwing chains at a range where you could be hit by Jin’s 2D. Similarly, you shouldn’t be trying to zone Hakumen from within the range of his normals - even 4C. If you are trying to “zone” from that range, you are doing it wrong. If you are that that range, you want to either be closing the range or disengaging via jumpout/backdash/backwards IAD. You can kindof get away with some stuff in that range against characters with shorter normals, but the area around Jin’s 2D range is exactly where you DON’T want to be as Hazama - you’re too close to use chains effectively, and too far to start your own pressure. You need to look at how you keep ending up at that range and figure out why, because by the time you’ve arrived at that range, you’ve basically already screwed up your zoning. Hazama zoning should be done from near-max chain range.
Jin is actually a really easy matchup for me - I really feel like I need to be thoroughly outplayed by him in order to lose to a Jin player. He doesn’t have any tricky blockstrings, his pokes are average at best, and all his mixup involves jumping unless he’s inside his very short 6A/throw range. The most important thing to be able to do against the average Jin player is to AA them out of their shenanigans when they jump at you, and not try to AA them when they do stuff like jump in Ice Sword. Even just blocking effectively against Jin will usually result in many players getting frustrated and doing something stupid, like letting you block an ice car or DP. You don’t even really have to respect Jin on wakeup unless he has meter for like…yukikaze, because his DPs are slow enough that you can whiff a meaty 2A on his DP invulnerability and still recover in time to block.
Oh, also, you probably don’t want to jump at him in neutral, because jumpback j.C has tons of range and will beat you air to air in the vast majority of cases. It’s safe to jump at him while pressuring though, as long as you’re not so predictable as to give him time to DP you. (And even then, all hitting you with the A/B DP gets him is like 800 damage and a reset to neutral - I don’t think he has any way of comboing off it except in the corner.)