Practicing fei's neutral game

Hi,

I recently started playing fei as a secondary and have just started going to my local tournaments. I’m trying to improve my footsies and have been practicing online. There are some match ups against certain characters (rufus, elf, seth… etc… shenanigans) that I’m not quite sure how to approach in the neutral game. Should I be playing reactionary and try to react to everything they do? Or rekka pressure with cr.mp, st.hp etc. Sometimes I feel as if I make one mistake in the neutral game and then I get bodied 0_0.

Any advice would be awesome thanks!

I think one of the best things is to watch videos of Fuudo and other good Fei Longs to understand how they approach these matchups.

Its important that you establish that your antiair game is good so your pokes and rekkas are more effective in the neutral game.

In terms of more reactionary or not, many times I feel the best way to play Fei is to be reactionary, especially if you can whiff punish well with rekkas. It really changes how the opponent plays the match. But it also depends on the way your opponent is. Some people will keep jumping at you even after you’ve anti aird them four times in a row. Others will play a very cautious game and you will need to use your pokes and rekka very well.

Interms of making one mistake and getting bodied that’s just how sf4 can be with vortexes. It doesn’t help that Fei’s SRK is 5 frame startup so he’s open to more safe jumps and setups.
When in doubt block and don’t do anything risky on your wakeup, but also know you have mk Chicken wing and ex chicken wing to help you get out of some setups.

El Fuerte:
http://youtu.be/RSdP-jKV4F0?t=3m51s
Notes:
-Starts at 3:51
-Tostada Press is hard to anti air but its very easy to punish on block with rekkas. Block and punish them and you’ll force the El Fuerte player to play a very different game.

Seth:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dDt45CZtug
Notes:
-Focus attack is very helpful here but be careful because the Seth can counter you abusing this with tanden engine.

Rufus
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSeH-FF8Zf8

This helped a lot thanks!

fei long you can play him a couple of ways whiff punishing then you can play an offensive style so it all depends on your style of play i know alot of people that play online they always walk forward & press buttons you don’t have to play smart with fei he has tons of options to get in & keep pressure going he does have a hard time against defensive characters like guile sim & sagat

juicebox made a good video about whiff punishing. In short, here are the key points:

  • stand instead of crouch to shrink your hurtbox. This is safe to do as long as you actively stay outside the opponent’s sweep range
  • whiff punishing is mostly done by prediction rather than reaction. Only use reactions against slow normals like adon’s s.HK
  • stand within a range so that you’ll fully utilize your pokes’ ranges, and that your pokes will just barely hit the opponent’s own poke. This is to minimize trading or getting hit entirely
  • be more agile. You don’t want to become a stationary target for the opponent. But, just be careful not to walk forward too far and too much or else your chances of getting hit increases by a lot
  • only throw normals with a reason. Do you want to pressure, threaten, stop a rushdown, whiff punish, bait, or anti-air? If so, go ahead, but don’t get careless mashing normals in solely hoping for a hit

And, footsies is not limited to whiff punishing. Small tools and strategies like crouching teching, safe jumping, crossups, mixing up, frame-trapping, baiting, anti-crouch teching, and etc. all fall under the footsies category. I recommended watching high-level matches and your own replays to pick up new ideas that you use in your gameplay. Write down notes whenever you see or realize something new. A player with a solid understanding of his/her options will adapt much better to situations