Props to anyone who takes the time to share their knowledge, and doubly so to you, sir, for such a well thought-through and written guide. I have almost no chance to ever be using this stuff but it was still very interesting to read.
My only issue is that you deem the use of Pink Sean a requirement. I like a lot of Sean’s color schemes, not to mention his 2i set. This is an amazing guide regardless, well done.
A general rule with Sean is that his normals will do one of three things:
[LIST]
[]take 1 frame longer to come out,
[]do 1 frame less hit/blockstun,
[*]or have 1 extra frame of recovery…
[/LIST]
usually not all three, but one of those disadvantages is always in the mix for his animation-identical-to-other-shotos normals…and they do less damage 
Great guide mister Spectre General, and I would advise anyone who wants to learn Sean to watch matchvids where Sean is the player’s main - hard to find, of course, but it’s not as good as looking up “third strike sean” and expecting to find anything but casuals or someone trolling.
SeanP is probably the best Sean player I’ve seen: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheShend#g/search <-- look up SeanP and you’ll see what I mean, he uses the “S’mores” colored Sean, and he relies on pokes, throws, making normals safe with LP Sean Tackle, and a lot of patience. If you look up SeanP straight off YouTube the first thing you’ll see is this video, uploaded by our own UltraDavid from 2004; he’s up against arguably the best Hugo in the world and does a* damn* fine job considering that the old SRK 3s Wiki called Sean Hugo’s only favorable matchup.
Major support to people who dare run the gauntlet that is…“Maining Sean.”
Other Random Stupid Stuff: Don’t forget about linking Hyper Tornado after his cl.MP -> HK target combo! It’s hard and character specific but hilarious! (I can only get it to work on Makoto right now)
Also, you can control his basketball intro animation by holding left or right for a little bit during the “Are you ready? Fight!” … (proof: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOPoP6BSGdw#t=3m13s) You’ll sometimes see it accidentally hit Elena or Necro during a regular match, because they happen to have the right hitboxes/idle animations, but you can maneuver it to hit anybody. When it hits Q, the game kinda sits there for a second like “What the hell was that for?”; No idea if it’s intentional. You also get a tiny bit of meter - a little less than a whiffed standing MP, but it’s something…and if your intention is to piss off your opponent, then this is one way to do it.
He’s actually the Sean player I studied a while back, and doesn’t cl.mp -> s.HK into SA3 only work on makoto? I know, in 2i, it worked on everybody (shoutouts to 2i Sean)
I didn’t test it on everybody, but I tried it on a handful and Makoto was the only responsive one.
Also yeah, 2i Sean was amazing. 2 Hyper Tornado stocks made that super much more useful…and they could have screwed up his frame data while leaving in the slam dunk after the dragon smash! No fair, Capcom.
By the way, I got over-excited: Here’s my very own, created-10-minutes-ago, SFIII:3S: Basketball Header Showcase, so now you can easily learn every Sean matchup…when it comes to throwing basketballs at their heads during the intro, anyway.
infraction for this?
This is quite false. Sean isn’t the worst character in the game by a** lot**. Some would argue he isn’t even the worst in the game. He’s definitely not worse than twelve, Q, or Hugo by a significant margin.
The Hyper Tornado after target combo does only work on Makoto, and it’s very hard to do. Also, thanks for pointing out the thing about the basketball pre-fight, I can’t believe I forgot to mention it! Your video of it is top tier too.
Though there’s a lot of misinformation on this site (there is also a lot of good information too) here’s a tier list: http://wiki.shoryuken.com/Street_Fighter_3:_3rd_Strike#Tier-list
Notice how in every revision Sean is at the bottom? Here’s another one:
http://www.eventhubs.com/guides/2007/dec/18/tiers-character-rankings-street-fighter-3-third-strike/
Now I’m not saying that I agree with this *completely *but notice that Sean has 1 5-5 matchup and none that are postitive at all.
Honest to God, I didn’t report that, but it is pretty hilarious. I wouldn’t have given that an infraction personally since it actually sparked some positive discussion and wasn’t for real for real trolling. You on the other hand, are adding nothing positive to this thread.
your just afraid i will win all your monies.
Twelve - XCOPY, XFLAT and his mobility immediately make him better than Sean IMO.
Q - taunt bonus, better priority of footsies and damage make him better.
Hugo - Footsie game is better by far, and 1 Gigas can turn around a whole fight.
However, none of that knowledge helps new Sean players. So, there’s no point in discussing it further in this thread.
Look at his username, stop quoting him.
SG: I just noticed we have the same gamertag initials, coincidence, I think not.
Anyway, I kinda want any input people have on Sean’s Kara-throw. I really couldn’t find it useful, and all these years of maining Sean I’ve never, ever, used it, but if it has a use I’d love to start. My main problem with it is that it’s far+hp+throw meaning you have to be far enough away for far+hp to come out instead of close+hp, this basically makes it useless since even the kara-throw won’t hit from that distance, unless of course you use it as a sort of footsie and catch someone in active frames, in which case I feel like a parry is a better option from that range. I don’t really want people saying “yeah I use it” I’d rather have somebody tell me, “here’s a setup” because I honestly don’t know any. Also I’ve looked around and I’ve seen some sources say far+hp is his only one, and t+hp is one too, so I tested this, and it’s true, but I still can’t find a use for it.
Twelve - The fact that Sean has practical combos and doesn’t have to base his game on a run and 1 hit strategy makes him better
Q - taunt bonus is pretty negligible vs anyone who knows what they’re doing. Sean’s speed and normals make him better
Hugo - The fact that someone’s brain who functions at 1/10 normal human speed can still parry all of Hugo’s moves on reaction makes Sean better.
Wait, did you just list X COPY as a reason for Twelve being BETTER? Undeniably the worst super in the game? Lol. Why am I even talking to you?
you’re an idiot shut up.
Awesome baby bro I see a lot of thing I didn’t know like about the tornado kick I always. Get thrown right after …do u have any tips against. Urien???
I’ve been playing Sean as my 2nd (to Akuma) almost as much as my main though (maybe 40% of the time) since 2007 when CPS3 emulator came out. Mainly because he is really fun to use and his mixup and lack of combos (rely on normals, mind games, etc) seems to help my game with other characters. I’ve always played Dan in other capcom games so he’s right up my alley.
I mostly approve of most of this and I learned a few things (that j.hp, c.hk, ex tatsu combo is sick stun/damage holy shit), but I think I play him a little differently, maybe I’m wrong?
For starters I like pink, blueberry and oreo Sean, they are all acceptable. Any other color just looks ugly (Kuroda uses black/white Sean among other colors!).
Secondly I like to footsie/dash in (especially when ball is coming) and throw out standing MP just as often as I use other mixups in the same situation. and MP is good for building meter, don’t think you mentioned that. I use standing MP often enough as well. It doesn’t seem that bad.
Third, I don’t know how safe/unsafe these strings are but I love to use them because they are so fun and classy looking.
s.mp, hk, c.mk, lk.tatsu (can use any tatsu to mix it further) kara throw. (if they don’t quick roll you can ball and f.hp). The kara throw with f+hp is good because just like akuma’s it makes you step a little further and sometimes picks up a free parry.
Fourth, I think these are pretty good for mixing in: lp tick roll throw, wakeup roll (rarely), roll under jump in throw (perfect spacing needed obviously), or just rolls in general when far to footsie around or whatever (same application as lk tatsu, lk wheel, lp tackle) And I think roll has better recovery frames so you can do EX DS out of it or whatever.
Fifth, I really like standing MK as a footsie/poke but I hold back when I use it so he kinda steps back and then does it so less forward walking when you didn’t want it.
Anyways I just recorded myself playing vs some ken on supercade (RIP GGPO PC 3s), he wasn’t the best player obviously but just showcases some of the seananigans I like to use. Let me know what you think about it when it’s done uploading to YT and I post it.
Warning - Lower the volume to like 2% and the frame rate is kinda shitty, stupid fucking camtasia…
Thanks for commenting and yeah, I’ll just add my thoughts.
Far standing MP: I did mention that cr.mp is his best move to whiff to build super, reason for this is that it recovers faster than far+mp, but I don’t know which one technically builds more meter, so maybe this is fine for that as well. It is true that Sean’s far+mp is similar to other shoto’s far+mps so it’s not bad, 5 frame start up and decent active frames, I just don’t like it because it’s farily short range, but you have to use the pokes you got. A tip though, I’ve noticed pro players on hit or block with a far+mp will instantly dash forward ~ throw (mixup where appropriate.) Sean’s far+mp is worse than Ken’s frame wise (0 on block,) but this is not only something you can do, but something to look out for Ken and Ryu players doing as well.
That string you mentioned technically stops after the s.mp~hk target combo, but you’re safe at that point. c.mk will often hit here, but if you do it too often it’ll start getting parried. Other than EX Tornado Kick, none of them are safe, but there’s no harm in confirming into it if you have a huge life lead, your opponent doesn’t have super to punish you with, or you’ll kill or stun them. Keep in mind instead of canceling into tornado kick, you could c.mk cancel into wheel kick or sean grab for mixup. Kara throw is uneccesary here because regular throw hits after a tornado kick, and it’s arguably what you should be doing every time just to minimize your risk, but your opponent can still punish before you get a chance to. Also I forgot to mention that in a scenario where you want to cancel a s.lp or cr.lp into lp Sean roll, or Sean grab, you can just negative edge the lp for ease. One of my favorite, completely unsafe things to do is to sean grab up to my opponent while they’re on the ground and hit them with a dragon smash on their wakeup, because nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.
If you used to play back in the day on supercade or GGPO, I probably played you, and you’re probably better than me, lol.
Well I’ve been playing Sean since 3S first drop (admittedly i came late to SF3 after living in Florida, and i was enticed by a second impact machine)
and first off your rules seem to be a little out of order and context (just slightly);
#1 Respect the basketball! not just cuz it’s cool but cuz it’s almost a free mixup so long as they don’t have a good super to counter with… basketball>sweep, basketball>EX.rollkick, and basketball>overheadbutt are all godly and extremely hard to deal with if you never play against Sean… and who does??.. best believe the globetrotter taunt is a cornerstone of Sean when the dice are thrown
#2 Don’t use Sean as an excuse … Sean may be the worst character tier-wise, but that is no reason to go into every match thinking you’re off on the wrong brazilian foot already… DO NOT THINK THAT WAY!.. the fighting game mentality is all about “can i beat this guy in this tournament 2 out of 3 rounds?” and the answer is always always always YES!.. regardless of your character, their character, who you played before or after, or the earth’s axis tilt that given day… start every match with the same attitude… you CAN win even with Sean you just have to make your way to it
#3 Pick [S]pink[/S] Blk+Ylw Sean … lastly Sean is NOT! the Dan of SF3… Dan was created as a joke from paper to pixel… Sean may be bad tier-wise, but he was introduced as an actually serious character addition… Ken’s Sakura if you will, he eventually ends up helping to train Ken’s son… totally orignal moves and style were not a blessing Dan received instead he got bad imitations feel free to pick the Pink outfit if that’s your style but not to imitate Dan for godlike sake … i prefer the brazil, the Blu+Wht, and the Blk+Ylw in fact
i didn’t mean to de-rail you, but i had a few issues with you groundwork… everything else is spot on in here for sure and in addition i’d like to share some of my Sean howto
- Sean’s crossup is useless, but do look into the roll… he’s the only character with one i guess
- s.HP, S.HK, S.MP, and Sean’s overhead headbutt are his most reliable moves, the headbutt is particularly good when compared to other command overheads
- use the canceled version of the Sean tackle to close distance safely… over course this has been mentioned already but really utilize it, i’m a fan of landing a s.HP poke and then short tackle dashing as they reel
- Sean’s HP>HK target combo is perfect after a parry, not to mention it cancels pretty easy for supers and whatnot
- really take into account your matchup when selecting your SA… all of Sean’s SAs can be combo’d similarly so you really should have a SA to work with against particular characters… i choose SA2 (Shoryu-Cannon) for the most part, you get 2 meters to play with and a good pinch super (can also be used after a parry plainly), SA1 (Hadou-Burst) is really good too in terms of meter and combos, it’s also blinding fast and can be used to punish stuff from afar, I use it for Chun, Akuma, the Twins and anyone who likes to whiff normals in my face, and lastly SA3 (Sean Tornado) only has 1 big meter to utilize so you get almost no EX game, but on the upside it can fly through fireballs and is a fantastic mixup… basketball taunt+correctly timed SA3 is basically unblockable
Apart from disagreeing with his choice of color, you do realize that you just repeated what Spectre said, right?
Anyway…
- No crossup is useless. If it’s capable of scoring you damage and not punishable on hit, it’s advisable.
- Sean can be hit out of Sean tackle, so it is by no means safe just because you are canceling it. Your opponent has enough time to cover their block option and react to tech the throw. The only way you are forcing a mixup is if you use Shoryu Cannon after canceling a tackle.
- Options after a parry vary depending on what move you parried by the way. I’m sure you knew that, but I wanted to clear this up for anyone who is new to 3S and may have been misled.
- Basketball, Hyper Tornado can be blocked infinitely.
Roll is only good for gimmicks; a good player will never fall for them if he tries it again.
Sean’s f.HP(headbutt), st.HP(both close and far), and far HK are unsafe on block.
Worth noting though, st.MK beats a lot of low attacks.
It’s MP->HK, and the only way you can combo this into Super(SA3) is against Makoto…and it’s a really really strict link.
SA1 and SA2 combo very differently based on range. SA1 is good because it helps put his far range cancellable pokes to good use. SA2 is for close-range players; you can NOT play it like SA1 because Shoryu Cannon has terrible range to trade off for high-damage. SA3 benefits from not only comboing off of all of Sean’s far cancellable pokes like SA1, he also has a couple more links to add because of the really quick startup(cl.HK->SA3). That “mixup” you mentioned is far from unblockable…