360s/720s and half circles are impossible to do consistently from a low blocking position, and this is coming from someone who’s been on KB for years.
It is absolutely possible to use a KB competitively, so long as your character doesn’t have any charge (good luck charge partitioning on KB, especially down-up motions)/half circle/360 motions.
There are issues though. DPs are difficult to combo into from a low, and it’s harder to hit confirm supers, since it takes longer to do the motion. For moves that require 3 button presses, you usually have to compromise and set hotkeys for 3P/3K. It’s lame, yes, but there’s no real way around it, besides not doing the moves at all.
A good stick is always better.
You’re being far too skeptical though, SaBrE. Certain characters like Cody in A3 work OK on KB, because they consist entirely of quarter circle motions. The short of it is, if a motion consists of more than 2 keystrokes, it’s going to be an issue if you want to do it while blocking or moving forward. Keyboarders are limited to certain characters if they want to play at higher levels.
The issues you mention seem more dependent on whether or not you have a good keyboard. Especially stuff like 3P/3K which is easy on a keyboard if it can handle that many simultaneous button presses.
Ok, I got home and I tried it. Unfortunately, the ASDF for SPD doesn’t work well for me. Well, it was totally worth the try. It might work for some keyboard users out there.
I am still pretty successful with the standard WASD without an extra button, I may add an extra one once I start meeting better and better players that know how to not get sucked into Hugo.