Starting the round

Just wondering if anyone had a specific way of starting the round most of the time.

I go for a fd.MK I’d say 70% of the time.

Good points - It hits at the right range if opponents are walking towards you. Also if they jump in you find yourself right behind them to connect a close s.HK and it’s 2 hits so it’s hard for them to parry, so you can follow it up already with the re-launch mix-ups or a stun air juggle. I find it relatively safe most of the time.

Bad points - Rarely you get people who dash in but when they do, it hits them, but they get a huge amount of time to do a free combo on you. Luckily some people don’t know they get frame advantage and mess-up with a poke. So knowing the risk of people dashing in is rare, I just go for it most of the time because as long as they don’t dash in, I know it’ll be back to square one or will be in my favor.

Anyone else has similar type of thing they do at the start of the round?

Ibuki <3

I do something different every time I start a round… usually stand my ground and prepare to parry, walk forward or attack. If you do the same thing all the time, you will get parried and countered. Unless it’s guaranteed, I try my hardest not to do one thing for certain situations. For instance, I notice I had moments where I would jump towards an opponent when there was a certain distance between us. I ended up eating more damage because the person caught on to my patterns… and why would you want to give away life like that during a fight?

You can also get DPed out of forward + MK or parried to combo/super (if stocked during Round 2 and beyond). Sure, there’s a chance they won’t be able to punish after forward + MK, but why take a chance if it’s not 100% guaranteed?

The only thing I NEVER do when a match starts is to dash back or jump back… it puts you at a immediate disadvantage because you’re retreating to the corner. The only exception to this rule is fighting Makoto, who can hurt you really bad within sweep range… but even then, I believe you can snuff her game-starting dash-ins by throwing a standing short, standing jab or standing MK.

This is my personal outlook in SF in general, but you never want to run to the corner unless you know for sure that you’ll get out of it quick.

You dont really have to do anything at the start of the round. Just chill and look for opportunities. It really depends on the matchup and what the opponent does. You really should just stand your ground and look for something to block or parry.

Kunai I do a crouching forward MK. Try it, if they jump at you your too low to hit and you recover at the perfect time to land a standing cl.HK.

Obviously if they knew how to counter it (dash forward or walk forward then down parry) I’ll start changing, but until now no1 has countered it. Lack of Ibuki players in the UK (2 if I include someone that visits the arcade once every month) is what I’m taking advantage of, I want them to hurry up and counter it so I can step my game up.