Did it have to do with his lack of sticking to one starter? I noticed that MadKOF kept Duo Lon as his starter the whole match, while Bala kept alternating. Reading comments online, a lot of people stated that that was the reason for Bala’s loss. At this level of play, he shouldn’t be doing that. He kept trying to play “matchup characters” instead of actually just sticking to one starter and playing with it.
Was that the case? I mean, it seems like overall, Bala is the better player, since he is versatile with different characters, but MadKOF, on a technical standpoint, had a stronger game than Bala did. MadKOF had his strategy and kept to it. He kept to a team. Bala was unsure of his decisions and kept mixing and matching his team.
I just want to get some clarification on what actually happened and why Bala lost. Was him switching starters the reason he lost? Or was he just outplayed?
In the end, Bala got outplayed. He switched to different characters to try and find a point character that would be more effective vs Mad_KOF’s Duo Lon, but it all ended up being too little too late. There’s nothing wrong with that, especially when you can play so many characters at a high level like Bala can.
I’m pretty sure that Bala kept Shen Woo and Takuma for the entire match. Why? Because he was having success with them vs Mad_KOF. A lot of his losses were pretty close, so he probably wanted a starter that he could really put Mad_KOF in a hole and seal the deal with Shen and Takuma.
During EVO I talked a bit with Frionel while we were waiting in line for food, and he also postulated that Bala might not have been as familiar with the Chin matchup, which could’ve also contributed to his loss.
Bala didn’t lose because he was changing his characters, it’s the other way around really…he started switching a lot because he felt he couldn’t beat him with his mains.
Bala lost because he wasn’t the better player here. Bala is the best player in the US but his level (and beyond) is common in the international kof scene. Bala didn’t have any experience playing against international players of this magnitude and this kind of result would have been very similar if he were to fight any other top player from Japan or Korea.
Lacid defeated Bala kind of convincingly as well. If you’re going to mention Chin as being a gimmick (maybe he was, maybe not), I don’t see much of a gimmick going on with Lacid except maybe Ash.
Edit: Also, MadKof can use many many characters at a high level…possibly even more than Bala. I wouldn’t really rate how good someone is based on how many characters he can use well though. In the end, most top players stick to 1-2 characters in a particular game to maximize their abilities with that character.
A bit of column A and B. I don’t think he knew the Chin matchup. Duo was a pain, but it was Chin that really nailed him the most times. Also, he should’ve stuck to 1 starter as opposed to counter picking. I think he should’ve gone with Clark. Clark can counter Duo’s Rekka into Teleport shenanigans and can get in there.
IMO Bala has a bad habit when he loses to blame it on the characters he chose instead of realizing he got outplayed. He was constantly switching characters after he lost a game. I think he should have stuck with his main team through the thick and thin. Just my 2 cents.
One thing i noticed is that MadKOF in that match has good utility on HD combos but isn’t as reliant on them as Bala, i guess it’s all on skill pure and simple
still i enjoyed this more than Infiltration vs Gamerbee (Evo) and Infiltration vs Daigo (SF 25 grand) but that’s just me since i main KOF.
just a random note…MADKOF pretty much inspired me to pick up KOF and main duolon ever since ive been grinding like crazy :3 but i have to say in this one i believe bala got outplayed ya just cant beat them crazy asians.
If you were there watching it happen BALA got stumped. He was frustrated and it seemed like everything he tried was met with a poor result. He even went with Clark as a fan reaction when the cursor went over the character portrait but it just wasn’t enough. He was visibly frustrated and trying he just came up short. He got out played.