Here’s my running critique of the winners final match:
0:22: You don’t need to be toward jumping like this. If you want to toward jump, at least make sure that you’re at a better (ie either closer or farther) range than this; this is probably the worst location you can jump from against Ken.
0:27: Again, this needs to be punished. Even a crouching jab would have been better than nothing.
0:37: For the last little while you’ve had Damdai cornered and scared, but all you do is a random jab headbutt and then a predictive floating fierce, which are not very good options. Where’s the just-out-of-range toward+rh (ie at a range where you won’t hit him unless he does a move)? Where’s the standing jab pressure? Where’s the walk up grab, or the walk up grab fake? Where’s the cr. short xx hands Megaman bs? Etc etc. You have Damdai right where you want him, but you let him off the hook.
0:42: After seeing that fierce whiff, he knows you’re going for hands. I like this jump back rh by Damdai a lot.
1:03: Ohhh man, too bad you didn’t get this fierce grab, fierce grab shenanigans are really good against shotos in the corner.
1:05: Yeah, he’s not Ryu. You have to be a little more wary with your jab pressure because of Ken’s mp and hp dragon punches.
1:07: Definitely do not like this buttslam. Buttslam should be used very sparingly against fbs imo, and this range is not one of the times where it makes sense.
1:10: You didn’t get punished for it, but I don’t like this toward jump at all. This is the same jump range as the one at :22. Damdai could have done a shoryu or a fireball and knocked you back, and in fact I believe his cr. jab probably was a jab version of one of those. I don’t really get the cr. strong after this either, by the way. What was that cr. strong supposed to accomplish?
1:25: You did a better job harassing him than you did at :37. I like the toward+rhs, cr. strongs, and hands, but you could still be doing more. Why was that hands just a jab hands instead of strong or fierce? Why did you try a toward jump at 1:19? Why did you do a jab headbutt at 1:21 considering that you have better anti-fb tricks that don’t knock you back out at that range (ie the cr strong and st rh you use in addition to far standing jab and hands)?
At the end of this sequence you get dragoned out of another headbutt. I don’t like the headbutt, but what I don’t like more is the fact that Damdai thinks he can get away with random shoryu there. My bet is that your earlier inability to punish his random dragon punches played a significant role in his decision to throw this out. Maybe he didn’t actively think about it, but it’s a sign that you didn’t put enough fear into him to affect his decision making.
1:34: I can’t really tell if this jump toward fierce was on reaction to his jump, but if it wasn’t, I don’t like it. Again, you have him where you want him; why would you do something like this that carries with it not only the possibility of getting knocked back out but also, at this point, the possibility of losing the round? I know sometimes you have to take risks, and this one pays off, but you’ve already taken too many risks this round imo.
2:13: I think this has been a very well played round up until this super. There’s no reason to risk this super; you have Damdai cornered, you’re up on life, and you don’t want to risk either of those things going away. I’m sure Damdai was annoyed with himself that he didn’t punish you on block.
2:17: You didn’t need headbutt to punish this dragon punch, just a cr. jab.
2:19: I like this block a lot. I thought for sure you were gonna try jab headbutt or buttslam or jump. You made a good decision.
2:21: Kinda surprised we haven’t seen this yet. This trap is what worries me most about Ken.
2:26: That’s a real nice empty jump and a nice demonstration of what to against that trap.
2:43: Wrong range for that headbutt (although again, not a huge fan of that headbutt in this situation).
4:00: Trying to go lighter on comments here because I’ve already addressed most of the issues I have with what makes you lose this round. You really gave away that 2nd round with random jumps, buttslams, and headbutts.
5:23: You really fell apart in that last round. Way too many jumps and buttslams.
By the way, I forget where I saw it now, but at one or two points Damdai did wakeup shoryu and you blocked and punished, which I thought was real nice. You have to mix up your meaties just like he has to mix up his wakeups.
In almost every round you managed to corner Damdai’s Ken. That’s not easy, so good job. But you really need to work on your corner pressure, because that’s where you’re most dangerous. You also need to work on cutting out the buttslams, toward jumps, and supers. I almost never saw you bulldog, which is pretty remarkable because it’s a major part of Honda’s anti-fb game. There’s nothing wrong with walking up, taking a tick of chip damage from a blocked fireball, and picking your timings and ranges to do something else. Also I agree with everyone else, picking up that Megaman bs would be useful to you as well.
Anyway, I continue to not see an unwinnable matchup here. You took a game and got close to taking a couple more rounds, all while still having significant room for improvement (and by significant I don’t mean that you’re bad, you’re a real good player, just that you could be even better). Good stuff, fun to watch.
