If we’re talking about literally “should I try to get perfects?” then this is a pretty silly thread.
If we’re talking about whether you should continue attacking or just turtle up when you have a huge lead, well that’s a very interesting topic!
After listening to a whole bunch of Gootecks’ podcasts where a whole myriad of top players demonstrate the full range of opinions on this matter, I’m pretty sure the best answer is whatever you feel comfortable with. They don’t actually talk about SF2 on there and I’m no expert but I really don’t think it would be any different in ST/SFHD.
That is to say, do whatever makes you feel the most like you’re in control of the match; to some this means proactively finishing off the job by carrying your momentum through, and to others this means backing off and letting your opponent come to you and waiting for him to give you openings. Note also that your gameplay of course doesn’t need to be so black and white at all. You can go with any sort of balance between those two extremes… or you can even simply continue doing whatever got you that huge lead in the first place.
For many top players their answer will vary depending on the character matchup, and sometimes even on who their opponent is. In specific scenarios, one answer may very well be more “right” than the other, but we have to get really particular for that so we can’t accurately discuss that kind of thing in generalities anyway.
Let’s say you’re playing O.Hawk and your opponent is Boxer or Ryu or Guile and has a small amount of life left and you have him in the corner. They have enough life so that a DP won’t chip them and you have them knocked down.
Wouldn’t the smartest move to be the safe jump sequence? If you jump in and they reversal you get chipped for a small amount but you get a free DP or throw and win the round. It’s not playing to get a perfect but it’s playing to win.
Look at the first round of [media=youtube]tDbUqu1kn0k"[/media] between Futachan and YuuVega. YuuVega has his opponent cornered with a sliver of life left. He stomps because even if he trades (which ends up happening) he still wins. And he has enough life left (which if you’re near perfect you’ll have) where a trade won’t result in a DKO.
Well depending on your health situation you might be willing to take risk if you have 100% health and they have 5%. For example with Dictator you might fierce psycho crusher not really caring if they block it and punish you afterwards cause it will put them in extremely dire condition where they have to worry about anything at all hitting them, even another blocked psycho crusher would finish them(Giving you a LOT of control over the match). So one school of thought might be willing to make that trade, while another might think, no I can get the match over without such a high risk move and retain the perfect.
Really like I said, to me a perfect is only satisfying in the company of friends, against a random it means nothing really. Usually when I play online against random I don’t even wear my headset, so getting a perfect is even less personal.
My mind set is, if I can do that to them, they can do it right back to me, so I had better watch my ass. I do my best to not let it change my gameplay.
In this game you should be playing your A # 1 game right down to the end. Screw the perfect and go for the easiest and most assured win, no matter the cost to your lifebar. But that doesn’t mean rush you opponent down recklessly.
This is ST. Get overconfident and 2 errors later you’re dead.
If it’s a player online who’s REALLY pissed me off (d/c or trash talk) then I fight back the urge to perfect. I want it, but usually as soon as the thought crosses my mind I put it to once side.
I often get hit in that split second of reasoning though
There’s actually a LOT of strategy based around taking damage as stupid as this may sound. But hear me out. Here are some great examples.
Balrog Stand Fierce to trade with Guile Sonic Boom. Doing this enough discourages Guile and makes him scared close up, so you can get in better if he throws less Sonic Booms.
Balrog Turn Around Punch vs. Dhalsim Yoga Fire. According to Gharam Wolfe, this is the only reason why he believes the match is even. Balrog can play against Dhalsim well enough while charging TAP that you can actually trade with a fireball to even the score out.
Ryu taking Fierces from Dhalsim. A VERY common strategy for Ryu is to Jab DP even from a screen away against Sim, KNOWING you’ll get hit by Standing Fierces and Standing Forwards. The thing is, you don’t care. You’re only goal is to build a Super Meter. Dhalsim beats Ryu on a normal Fireball vs. Fireball fight. But once Ryu gets a Super, Dhalsim has to worry a bit, and this opens up a lot of opportunities for Ryu.
Zangief vs. Guile Sonic Boom block damage. Whenever I play against Guile as Zangief, I will walk up and block 4 or 5 Sonic Booms in a row, sometimes. It’s all about getting Guile into a rhythm… a rhythm that gets Guile into trouble and you can end up Jumping over one and catching him ill-prepared for the Jump.
These are all perfect examples of when you have to take damage to win. If you try to play for a perfect, you aren’t actually playing to win because you’re playing in a non-optimized fashion.
Agreed. I find myself doing the latter when facing a equally leveled player, being afraid of a reversal getting through the ongoing offense. I back off and wait for a mistake. This often does not work in my favor:
the opponent is aware of his low life and does not risk anymore (no random DP’s eg), actually making me wait for something that wont happen. Disadvantage.
the opponent takes the time to recollect strategy (perhaps finds out that tick throw loops are free ticket to win :))
the oppponent gets the chance to build meter, and if lucky, take away 50% of my life when I flaw.
I main Fei so any defensive is actually asking to be spammed an lose
So I should never back off and remain in their face. Yet, my nature seems to be more calculated in things.
Getting a perfect might be satisfieing to some people, but a win is still a win and I take the win with 1% health or 100%. If I need to trade to win am gonna do it. Better be save than sorry.
Here’s what I always found funny. When I’m playing, I never cared about winning with a perfect. However, it seems when I “AM” about to win with a perfect, my opponent always gets on a rant about “You ain’t getting that perfect”. Funny, cuz that was never my goal to begin with xD
This has always been my experience as well. I’ll frequently trade or take chip damage just before the end, and they’ll say triumphantly “no perfect!” That’s cool and all, but I’m not too concerned with the perfect.
Sadly, and I can only laugh as I type this, that happened to me at least 10 years ago playing a guy in SFA2…and he was using DAN!!! And it happened twice!!! DOUBLE PERFECT!!! :lol:
So, as a result of that moment, I have dedicated my life to getting every perfect that presents itself!
Yes indeed…I’ve had some good moments and some really embarassing ones.
I suppose a better way to ask the question is: when you find you have a huge lead do you change up the tactics that got you that huge lead? I don’t. I find that to be dangerous. I just generally play the same way I did the rest of the round.
I can see how in certain situations it would be prudent to change tactics for the sure win though.
