SFIV in Tacoma now!

Omfg those sfiv sticks look amazing.

If anyone wants to go today call me, I got DAATT gas money.

I’ll head down tonight. Around what time are you guys meeting?

Wow there’s a grip of people coming down tonight…I’m not trying to lose either…yall better watch out.

I should be there at 5 tonight

go easy on me /christie

I’m still training, but I have a lot of ridiculous ideas for bison that I want to try out.

Better update that list Mike.

People heading down tonight - Mike (MikeyD), Deezo, Frank, Brent, Trace, Sam, Mike (Femto). :wow:

At least I know if I’m losing I won’t be dropping 20 bucks in 1 hour. I really want to practice charge partitioning. Maybe I should boot up 3S and get some free practice in to learn what its like.

7 heads, that is financially pleasing…

I have to pick up some food so that I don’t have to buy the amazingly expensive and horrible bowling alley food, so I will be there sometime after 6 or so.

they sell beer bye the pitcher there? just curious for when portland makes it up there for thursday =)

Awesome games to everyone tonight. I think this has probably been my favorite time out.

  • Mike, you are the future. Your Ryu is amazing and really fun to watch. Keep it up, because thats the best shoto I have seen so far.
  • Jason, you were doing some crazy stuff. Nice 14 win streak with Blanka. I felt like I was on the verge of beating you all night, but fourteen wins shows that something was really going on there.
  • Mandel, you are solid. I don’t know any other way to put it. Your Boxer is just like a wall of punches, and once I am in the corner, its feels almost impossible to get out.
  • Frank, I noticed your really putting Bisons teleport to good use. I didn’t think it was useful for anything, but I see I was wrong.
  • Nate, glad you made it. I think maybe you should try Abel, since he is a mix of your two best characters, Fei Long and Geif, so he may be worth learning at $1 a game?

I had a lot more fun playing tonight then my previous outing. Working more on pokes and focus attacks really helped me deal with different situations. I felt like playing Claw is still a good choice.

SamSho2 and chicken tacos prevented me from making a fool of myself tonight(showing up) so hopefully the next one.

I should probably look up some Dictator videos in the meantime…

Thanks a lot Brent, it’s an honor hearing you and Mandel tell me that either I “impress” or in this case that I’m the “future.” Best shoto you’ve seen? Ahh man, thanks dude…but I’m sure people would like to say that players on youtube got a stronger Ryu then I have :sad:. Very nice things to hear, and they always bring a smile to my face. I too had a lot of fun tonight. Oh, and on the whole Jason “Blanka 14 wins” I just am happy that I stopped him from getting that 15th!

  • Brent: You seemed like you were really getting ahold of Claw there! Good for you man! Definitely use that range to zone out you’re opponents. Did you figure out a good anti air yet for him? I know you were saying flip kicks weren’t that strong.

  • Frank: Like I told you tonight man, I really like you’re dictator. Real solid, and I think that when you start “leveling” him up, you’re gonna beast with him. You’ve got fairly good fundamentals down, and above all you’re a really patient player. Definitely see a beast growing.

  • Jason: Ugh, that Blanka is ROUGH. You tricked me into trying to grab you off of a tick, and you’d Ultra right after…dirty trick my dude!

  • Nate: You’re so far the best Gief player I’ve played against. You’re very patient, and unlike a lot of giefs in this area, you don’t jump in without thinking about it. Good shit Nate.

  • Trace: Damn dude…Stop beasting Trace. Sagat is tough for my Ryu to get through. You seem to know how to balance aggressiveness and defense very well, and I think that is key for you to win. It just amazes me that you’ve got it down to a fine art so quickly…Great games man.

  • Mandel: I feel as if I try against you so hard Mandel. Chun and Boxer lighting up everyone. I really feel as if my best match today was the one right before I left…my Ryu against you’re Balrog. Every single round we were both at 1 pixel/hit left…Shit was definitely a battle to see. Thanks for the great matches, but more importantly for teaching me Mandel, I appreciate it a lot.

Thanks man I appreciate the encouragement, for me I felt that tonight I wasn’t performing at the level I was when I played before (probably because the overall competition was that fierce, no random scrubs tonight). There are still things that I need to work on, but at the same time I felt I missed a lot of crucial moments due to the sticks I got A LOT of teleports that were meant to be ultras this evening. But I have so much more to learn and have to work on my execution especially post SA.

You guys had a nice mob of people watching that match, it’s a damn shame that that wasn’t recorded because that match was definately on some tournament level.

On a more random highlight of the evening, the random black guy that was playing Gief and went around the world on me, trace, and mandel who was playing el fuerte. You don’t hit me with lariat, do another lariat as soon as i hit the ground then when i get up normally you do EX SPD??? That guy was randomly beasting.

Good shit tonight everyone, hella fun. Mike, thanks for the kind words, you keep getting better too. Very solid Ryu, always a hard fight. Hope to see you down there again soon.

I hope one day I can be a challenge to Brent.:pray:

And as bad as it is, I’m glad that guy didn’t only beat me. Please don’t upload that match.:shake: I was trying to uppercut godammit.

OoOOOooOooOH!!! I cant WAIT to make that place my second home. Im almost paid folks…Cole will be a regular member of the bowling alley arcade as soon as im not broke hahaha. Damn im missing out. Mandel beastin on fools, taking all my fun with rog. Im gonna get there and nothing will be new to u guys, mandel already doing it lol. All good, you guys will get to witness the development of the dopest character in that game…sim. Iv almost got perfected his new style…but its gonna take a lot of work.

Keep on beasting folks. Ill be in the mix by next week.

Cole

Ahh geez. I’m not gonna be looking forward to Sim vs my Ryu matches. I gotta see how you play this guy Cole…from what i’ve seen a lot of japan players using him, he looks pretty mean. It’s gonna be interesting.

Just picture at top level. Sim doing dirty ass Unblockables, linking ultra into super combos, not being able to get cheaped cause of D+PPP, fastest teleport in the game, Teleport cross up shaningans…the character is insantiy. PLUS they simplified his counters, so all i have to think about is B+strong or Slide. If either of those do not work, I teleport LOL

Oh man, i cant WAIT to perfect this mofo!!! =D

Cole

Those were definitely some dope ass matches last night. We should really make this a tradition, everybody brought some heat. I recorded a bunch of matches, so expect that to go online soon. I didn’t get to record as much as I wanted as it’s hard to record and play hahah.

Mickey-Why is it that every match between us that doesn’t get recorded, always end up super epic? And it’s always Balrog vs Ryu hahah. Keep up the good shit man. I feel you about the sticks, after you left I was using Bison/Dictator, and I would land jumping strongs and would keep teleporting instead of ultra =[.

FRANKDATANK!-I thought you were doing good for the most part. You just missed a lot of stuff due to the sticks. Other than that you were still hitting combos, and I like your general strats, so I think you should keep using Bison. That match we had with the double ex headstomps was way too bomb. THAT should’ve been recorded too.

Nate-Definitely surprised to see you using Akuma instead of Abel. Just remember dude, that was like your third time playing the game, you’ll be fine. Although, I will say that out of everybody, you probably had it the worst on the sticks due to your character. Hopefully you get to show up more.

Trace Prewitt-I’m glad you showed up man. Why aren’t you turtling with Sagat?! I probably won’t upload that match between you and the toothless black guy because for some reason the video looks blurry.

Brent-Keep on using Claw man. I think you’re improving with him. I had to resort to corner rape tactics because I hate chasing you down hahah. I tried out Claw after you left, and he feels hella strange to me, so it’s all up to you now hahah.

Jason-Good shit with Blanka, got the biggest streak of the night I think. Real tricky. Here’s hoping GW gets SFIV hahaha.

something interesting

This was taken from the “ino dissects sf4” thread. This is Ino’s thoughts on the tiers. Just thought I’d paste it here to stir up discussion.


Here we go folks. I did have to look up a couple of fighting game terms I didn’t know for this one, but I’m confident in this translation’s accuracy for the most part.

Read and discuss!

begin translation

I’m free today, so here’s my 2nd diary update for the day . . .

Tentative character rankings!

Whether it’s perfect yet is subjective,
but I doubt there are any mistakes.

S: Zangief

He’s different. Perfectly different.

When people say he’s at a disadvantage to Sagat, I think “what the hell?”

It’s one thing to say,
“There’s a bad matchup when I use Zangief”
"All characters have a bad matchup against Zangief"
is more like it.

Without taking into consideration the Zangief players who have a life lead and think “I’ll SPD them one more time”,
I’m really talking just about “the Zangief in my head”,

But those “I will keep attacking with Zangief until they’re dead” people,
While I don’t think that’s the best way to play him, I still think that style is strong enough.

For people who have a different opinion,
Against “Zangief with a life lead holding down back”,
Please clearly show me an attack style that will beat it!

BESIDES a Ryu with a Shinkuu Hadouken or charging up for one.

AA: Sagat

Strong enough, maybe the character for Street Fighter 2 specialists?

That’s what I thought,
but Tiger Knee destroys everything.

If you watch closely it’s almost like a dragon punch,
and you can punish whiffed footsies against some characters,
but that’s not the problem.

The fact that in addition to his natural SF2 effectiveness,
he still has Tiger Knee puts him at this rank.

A: M. Bison (Dictator)

The fact that he can hang with Zangief/Sagat is his strong point.
There’s an overwhelming feeling that he can’t do anything to lower ranked characters,
But if you just play regular footsies (or even if you’re forced to play footsies), he’s strong.

A: Ryu

The speed of fierce Shoryuken is a point of Ryu’s adaptation to SF4.
There’s also the perfect backdash counter, his hurricane kick.

The rest doesn’t need to be said.

A: Rufus

The only character in SF4
who gets a huge return on on throw motions and holding down back.

I can’t say anything flattering about his footsies,
but unlike ST and 3rd Strike,
Attacks that control the screen (like fireballs that don’t disappear)
Don’t exist in SF4, so it doesn’t matter too much.

B: Chun Li

By all rights, she’s below Zangief/Sagat,
but "she will always lose to any Zangief"
Is too strong of an assessment for this spot.

B: Ken

From here on out, Ken’s potential is vast.
Fierce shoryuken and fierce hurricane kick are the bottlenecks.
Bearing Zangief/Sagat in mind,
You can assume that he’s not the 3rd best character.

B: Balrog (boxer)
I thought this when I tried him myself, and he’s definitely strong.
Because his value is dependent on mind games/readability (besides just headbutt),
You can assume this character has his pros and cons.

B: Abel

As I thought, a strong character.
This is a simple way of saying it,
but he feels a lot like 3rd Strike Makoto.

He’s more stylish than Makoto.

B: Blanka

For people who don’t understand, his matches probably looks shitty and boring,
but actually he’s a character that’s easy to understand.

Keeping in mind that he can hold his own against Zangief,
The next time, there’s a good chance he will be higher.

C: Viper

She holds much power,
but as I thought, it seems like she doesn’t fit the game.

Nonetheless, I haven’t used her much myself,
so there’s a chance she may climb up to B rank.

There’s no way she’ll become better than Zangief/Sagat.

C: Fuerte

Depends on your ability to link 18 fierces.

Well . . .
I usually think of it based on me not missing in tournaments,
But I guess this loop is an exception.

That being the case, he goes here.

C: Guile

Even comparing him to the old Guile,
I think he really did become more interesting.

The scariness of letting go of a charge isn’t as bad in SF4,
so I really want more Guiles to focus on that when they play.
But I digress.

D: Honda

His basic stats are high,
but each of his moves are way too bad.

Nonetheless,
in SF4’s gameplay,
You can’t say “this character is weak, therefore they can’t win”,
So I expect character specialists and hard studiers to make an appearance with him.

D: Dhalsim

For people who say he can win against Ryu and Ken,
I have no idea what you’re seeing.

At least now,
There is no Dhalsim that I’ve lost more than 2 games against.
Someone please explain this to me.

With a CVS2 player like Iyo’s skill level,
He might rise a little higher,
but my skill level is lower so he goes here.

F: Vega (claw)

Extremely disadvantaged.

You must be willing to really win with time-ups only.
Or should I say, he’s just that kind of character.

It’s just that he doesn’t have the adequate tools to do even that with,
so that’s basically the reason he gets the lowest rank.

With all the tools,
If you concentrate solely on time-up wins . . .

Maybe.

That’s the idea.

I am completely riddled by Akuma.

Summary below.


S: Zangief
AA: Sagat

A: Dictator, Ryu, Rufus
B: Chun Li (she’s only here because of Zangief), Boxer, Abel, Blanka

C: Viper (for now), El Fuerte, Guile

D: Honda, Dhalsim
(Up to now, haven’t used them at all)

F: Claw (I expect him to stay here)

If I were to write the main idea behind these ranks,

“At my skill level, and the current metagame, this is about right”.

To the people that say
"What?! You’re not changing Claw??",

I don’t expect you to be saying that much longer.

end translation


While I thought Zangief was up there, I’m surprised to see that someone thinks he’s the best in the game. I’m also surprised by Claw being rated the worst. I would’ve figured that Boxer and Blanka would’ve at least been A. I still think things can change so I wonder how different this list will be in about 5,6 months or something.

Gief holds it down for the crown.