Here’s the long-delayed recap of Portland VF last week (the week ending 5/19). This recap just covers my side of things, anyways.
Random Select
Went to the PSU Random Select club meeting and that was a great time. I reported on that earlier on 5/17, I think.
Friday Night Fights at the Art-House (because that’s where masterpieces are born)
I actually showed up early for once and things were pretty chill.
After most people had their meals we began with a guided tour through Evo 2006 (we watched the Evo2k6 DVDs). I actually requested to watch some of the Dead or Alive 4 tournament (to the dismay of some fellow fighting game aficianados). I enjoyed watching PerfectLegend and DoAMaster, but wasn’t too crazy about the gameplay of some others–but I don’t know much about DoA4. I have to admit, watching a jaguar or leopard interrupt the footsy game of two serious competitors did bring comic relief to the evening. But watching how players space and orient themselves on the traffic stage at least brings seriousness to the concept of dynamic environments.
We watched the Tekken 5 tournament (Steve seems to be a beast in T5, though I hear it’s not so bad in DR). Also watched just about everything else on Evo2k6 DVD (including Mario Kart DS for a brief bit–some of us had to explain to others what snaking is and what the players were doing). As usual at the Art-House, Capcom games prevail and bring up lots of heated discussion (and smack-talk). Last year’s Portland representatives got to relive what they saw and did at Evo2k6.
On the VF side of things, the following players made great appearances on the PS3: RaybladeX, Chanchai, Andrew, Thomas, ShinRyuJinX, and Hellsap.
Hellsap’s Lion is gaining momentum and playing quite well. He loves the PPd/u+P string, especially during combos which can lead to some beautiful combos when it works. His poking game is getting stronger and stronger and he does mix in throws for good measure. He can be a tough opponent and he mixes a lot of lows in without being too predictable (whereas I can be very predictable with low attacks).
If there was a critique I could give on Hellsap’s developing game, it’s that his balance between pokes and throws isn’t nearly 50/50–it’s actually very lopsided with the pokes and usually linear pokes. This isn’t a bad thing, but I see him struggling with opponents who like to dodge a lot (RaybladeX and myself are very guilty of this). Mixing in throws will help. Another option is to figure out which attacks of Lion’s are semicircular or full-circular and occasionally use those when the situation says it’s fairly safe to use them. But Hellsap’s game is fast developing and his Lion is fairly entertaining to watch. Keep it up!
I didn’t get to play ShinRyuJinX all that much, but I did enjoy watching his Pai give everyone else a hard time with her tricky setups and lack of predictability.
Thomas’ Aoi and Eileen are improving, though it’s not a drastic improvement yet. However, signs are very good because the improvements are more foundational as he gets to know the VF system much much better. Understanding the evade systems better as well as okizeme and getting a better feel for Aoi’s larger arsenal is a very good focus and while it might not lead to drastic results at first, it’s going to be huge in the longrun. You might take more losses for awhile but I think you’ll see the rewards soon enough.
Andrew was playing pretty well, but not being able to have much momentum (we were all playing 1 match rotations last week with one setup) can be rough on Andrew if there’s a long line. While 2 out of 3 matches means a long wait for anyone in line if we don’t have a second setup–I think Andrew is the type of player who plays much stronger in the 2 out of 3 because he really builds momentum and can sort of lock down on his opponent by the second match.
Back to Andrew’s game, it’s developing nicely as little by little he’s doing more guarantees. His poke/throw mixup is getting better. I think his Brad is using better sub-strings and his pressure game is tighter (taking better advantage of whatever little advantage he gets, but finding good moments to delay). The dividends on these along will pay off. He mostly maximizes damage, but once in awhile misses.
I think something Andrew can get better at is baiting whiffs and punishing them. Two parts. Andrew does bait botched attacks with Brad’s sway/ducking game–that is already improving. But I think Andrew could add spacing for baiting into his arsenal. He uses spacing to break some of the tension or to engage combat, but I think he could bait whiffed attacks from his opponents more often. The second part is punishing whiffs. I don’t know Brad too well, but he definitely has the tools to punish whiffed/missed attacks, and I think this is something Andrew could improve on. His Brad (and his Akira) would be a nightmare for me if he improves on this because he could easily bait me to whiff and I have whiffed often on my own against him.
I played well against everyone except RaybladeX on Friday. Actually, I played more or less as well as I could play that night (I had trouble focusing, but I was playing as best I could regardless), and Ray was mopping the floor with me. I’m still upset with myself for not maximizing guarantees or even going decent with them–I let go of a lot of guaranteed damage and it’s such a basic thing. If I ever end up auto-piloting, which I tend to do when I lose focus, I do too many risky attacks and often in various predictable patterns. Ray has also locked down on when I tend to evade, showing me how predictable I am when I use them (if I whiff an attack, 9 times out of 10 I will evade). All credit to RaybladeX for giving me the strongest beatdown I’ve had since going to SoCal. I really have to work on my focus, followup on guaranteed opportunities, and while I should never play on auto-pilot, I should at least be playing safe if I am. I also need to play a much tighter game, I’m losing out a lot against Ray in tight exchanges. He’ll make better use of frame advantages than I do and sometimes it’s 1-2 frames difference, but that’s all one needs to score a big advantage.
RaybladeX was the player of the night for VF5. That he gives everyone hell with a large variety of characters shows that his basics have become very strong. He dodges a lot, but last week it did not feel like it was too much at all–it felt pretty close to just right I thought (we’ll see in the future). His gameplay is much tighter, squeezing out tiny advantages for what they are worth. His defense is getting better and I think it shows his improved focus. Mad props to how he has played the last two weeks, I have a lot to work on and I can easily see it because of our matches.
If I had an idea of what to suggest for RayBladeX to improve… He could do more guaranteed attacks when he blocks certain things. To expand his knowledge of this, there are a couple routes to improve this:
-Go through the frame data. You’re looking for your character’s fastest attacks from standing and from crouching. After that, skim the framedata for other characters and look for any disadvantage on Guard that is -10 or worse (-11/-12 depending on which character you are playing).
-Watch Japanese match videos and look for how they react to blocking certain things. This isn’t as complete as going through framedata, but it’s easier to remember visually.
Another thing Rayblade could improve on is adding the option selects to his game. He might be doing some of it already, I know he has the dexterity to do a good amount. Going back to VF4:Evo’s Challenge Mode can help some of this (especially multiple throw escapes):
-Work on evade-double-throw-escape-guard.
-Start implementing box-step during the spacing games. Simple pattern: backdash --> evade --> crouch dash --> dash (either way) --> evade, etc…
-Successful evades won’t be cancelled by the crouch dash, but failed ones will.
-Plug in throw escapes instantly when you whiff attacks, but don’t have a throw whiff animation afterwards.
-Mix in d+G, n+G fuzzy guard after moves are blocked if your disadvantage is -5 - -2. You can do it at other times if you want as well I guess.
-Mix in the CD, n+G fuzzy guard after moves are blocked if your disadvantage is -6. You can also use the CD-fuzzy-guard method more if you want, but it’s tricky to time in general, when it’s not a -6 situation.
There’s more, but the above options will take awhile to incorporate into your game and they won’t have immediately strong results. At least most of them won’t. Like all things VF, there’s an answer to everything–so none of them are fullproof.
In any case, I had great times at the Art-House.
I look forward to writing the next report when I can talk about a practice session and better yet, a couple days of YOSUKE!
It’s gonna be a Memorial Weekend we won’t forget!!!
-Chanchai
