found another piece of footage that portrays my suckage during the Dreamhack Winter 2k9 tournament: [media=youtube]tz91rV_Kffs[/media]
Ouch Zangief 
He seemed to be falling for those Air Knees a fair bit but don’t be too obvious with them, if/when he stops trying to Lariat your jumps start mixing in regular jumping attacks too.
Any blocked Banishing Flat can be punished with s.MP xx HK Dankuu I’m pretty sure, otherwise a simple throw is the easiest thing to do.
He wasn’t abusing s.MP, you should have probably poked a bit more with s.MK and Gadoukens (you were using Gadoukens a bit too far out it seemed).
You didn’t do too badly, I get the feeling you were a bit panicky because of the matchup Got some good taunts in though :tup:
yeah, i get the feeling i would’ve won that one if i had just been a bit sneakier with the knees, he obviously didn’t know the match very well. me on the other hand i was scared as heck! everytime he blocked anything, even from ranges where i would’ve been relativly safe the words “Spinning Pile Driver” and “ULTRA” rang in my head.
Against Zangiefs like that, I usually try to be much more aggressive and offensive. He obviously didn’t know how to poke to keep you out or how to counter the air Knee, so that gives you free range to dictate the pace. Once you knock him down with an air Knee, he’ll go flying quite a ways away, so dash right after him and keep pushing him back until you get him in the corner. Once you do have him in the corner, analyze his tendencies and out mindgame him. 
A neutral jump Knee is a great way to pressure a cornered Zangief, as it’ll beat both a wakeup Lariat and a wakeup SPD. A normal standing Knee beats a wakeup SPD and a wakeup EX Banishing Flat, while trading with the Lariat. Throwing him on his wakeup will beat a wakeup Lariat and any Banishing Flat, but loses to SPD/Ultra, making it the riskiest move to attempt but still something you should do occasionally to keep him honest and try to bait out the SPD/Ultra whiff on other occasions.
The things to be careful of when using the air Knee against Zangief are his c.MP and his headbutt. c.MP when timed well can beat the air Knee, but if you mix in normal jumping attacks on occasion you should catch him napping while crouching for a free combo. If he starts neutral jumping to try to headbutt you, have your jump come up short and then Koryuken him to get your knockdown.
I know I’ve gotten inside a Zangief’s head when rather than doing any of the above on his wakeup, he starts trying to tech throws. It’s the wise thing to do when you’re being mixed up and want a safe out, but it always strikes me as funny anyway.
Yeah. Playing Gief means you have to play a whole different ball game, one that’s a real “David vs. Goliath” scenario.
Space with Gadoukens a bit, then hold off to get him to jump in or EX Greenhand, punish with anti-air Koryuken (or if your AA trades, Koryuken > HK Danku) and s.mp xx HK Danku, respectively. Keep up occasional Dan Knee pressure, and try not to spam air-knee (If the Gief knows how to AA outside of braindead lariat, they can cr.MP for an easy reactionary punishment).
When not doing any of that, s.MK peppered with random light attacks to avoid getting into any rhythm. Keep Ultra in mind for any dumb mistakes.
Don’t try and stand back and build meter, either. You have 1200 HP to work down, and if the Gief plays defensive he can easily win by timeout. :\
Couple of notes on the video:
[LIST]
[]Instead of retreating with a jump-back Dan Knee, use j.RH. If he chases with Greenhand or EX Greenhand, he gets biffed in the face and you can follow up with cr.MK xx EX Danku, cr.MK xx Gadouken or a sweep.
[]I saw you punish Lariat with EX Danku, you should try for cr.MK xx EX Danku or cr.MK xx Gadouken if you’re in range.
[]Whenever you get a Focus Crumple, go for big damage with cr.FP xx HK Danku, Ultra or Super.
[]Constantly throwing random s.MKs alongside Gadoukens and a few grounded Knees will make a Gief wary about approaching. The longer he takes to get you to that inevitable corner means you have more time to bait jump-ins, Greenhands and play footsies.
[]Leave Gief the hell alone on wakeup, though I like to throw in the occasional Aerial/Neutral Jump LK Danku (There’s a sweetspot where it’s safe on block and just out of lariat range), or early dashback to try and bait reversals. If I’m feeling suicidal, I’ll meaty EX Koryuken. If your Geif doesn’t know how to block on wakeup, you should beat out everything provided you don’t meaty too early. I reserve this for the end of the match, simply because they don’t see it coming, and most Geifs tend to go for desperation moves instead of blocking when the chips are down.
[]If you get headbutted, run away to regain stun. I recommend a jumping Taunt, though he can chase with Greenhands for a punish.
[*]Your taunting is top-tier in this matchup, don’t be afraid to use it if the Gief turtles up. Your taunt effectiveness is proportional to how big the crowd is.
[/LIST]
It does seem that you were in panic mode, you went for the quick and easy Krk several times when you could have gone with a punch xx danku combo. I’ll assume you know that those are usually the best option when given the opportunity so I won’t suggest using them, instead I’ll suggest doing some breathing exercises or taking a shot of whiskey before each match :looney:
My win rate against Gief is in the 40% range, and it has actually been going up since I switched from Abel to Dan. I dash quite a bit more than you do, althugh I try to keep from becoming predictable with it. I use the jumping early lk quite a lot, either in his face with a backwards jump, or when he is attempting to cross me up as a means of escape. I use it on jump in sometimes, it is risky but if they’ve gotten to the point that they are blocking my air lk Danku I can often times jump in and get a throw or Krk pretty easily, i use the lk as it comes out quick and can stuff the lariat JUST in case they go for it. Not much block stun so, as I said, it is risky.
I like to spam hp Gado to condition Gief to keep a certain distance or to advance in a certain way then throw in the occasional EX Gado to catch them farther away than they expect. Good for far jump ins too.
I hate to admit it but I run like a bitch when I get a decent health lead against Gief. Run run run until he gets sloppy then I hit and run run run.
I really wouldn’t recommend j.LK on Gief. On hit or block, I think he can SPD you unless you’re really deep. :\
If you are trying to jump away to safety, jumping back with a LK could work, but it doesn’t accomplish much (That may depend on what he’s trying to combo into or land, though).
Yuh. I think I play too many scrubs, I get away with murder sometimes.
As far as jumping away to safety I’m completely hit and run against Zangief, so if a jump back has any potential to net me even 40 damage I’ll usually go for it.
Good way of sneaking those throws in is dashing away then back again (after a back throw is easiest for this) or just empty jumping. Speaking of jumping Dan has some pretty good neautral jump options:
- nj.HP > s.MP xx Dan Knee
- Air Knee (someone mentioned)
- empty jump > throw
- empty jump > c.LK xx EX Dankuu
#3 and 4 are kinda sneaky attacks where they expect you to do a jumping attack of some sort. nj.HP seems to have pretty good priority over hitting below it but is slow as hell so need to get used to the timing on that.
:tup:
You can also do cr.HP instead of s.MP.
True, any special cancelable normal works (that can combo with Knee) but it’s just easier to time with s.MP because it comes out quicker. If they block the nj.HP they might be able to throw you out of c.HP if you haven’t timed it right x_x;;
The timing is a bit more strict but the execution is easier, I’ll occasionally miss the standing mp and do a crouch which won’t combo (getting sloppy in my old age) so I default for the hp as it’ll combo with standing or crouched. And it does some more damage :nunchuck:
Gotta work on my execution, been playing HDR a bit to improve my inputs… but no Dan :sad:
Oh mah Gawd, that second match was painfully close. I was sure Abel was gonna get a chip win in that last round.
He pulled the ol’ j.MK cross-up > s.MP xx Gadouken xx Legendary Taunt xx Shissou Buraiken :tup:
Thanks mate :tup:
I’m amazed both by the gaming skills of Hibiki-san and the framerate of those videos. amazing.
Yeah, is it just me or are his videos slightly sped up? Either way it makes youtube look like a festering pile of dog poop 
Asian internets win out again.
They don’t have bandwidth issues.