I’m familar with MA, I am friends with Infected Jester. And I’ve read his position on how bad Zangief supposively is lol
Chun Li
Ryu/E.Ryu
Ken
Rose
Sakura
Zangief
Rolento
Charlie
Sagat
Akuma
Sodom
Adon
Dhalsim
Guy
Bison
Dan
Birdie
Gen
There has been some debate of Ryu vs. E.Ryu between Kris G./Omar and the rest of the country but they both belong in top tier somewhere. E.Ryu loses the ability to do Strong DP as wakeup (as well as Akuma) but he has lots of Custom Tricks to make up for it.
Sirlin thinks that Rose is the weakest of the top tier simply because at high levels she gets AC Reversal’ed the majority of the time and people were learning how to custom through her Low Strong with some consistency.
Chun Li outright beats everyone though. Half the game simply doesn’t work on her and she beats amost everything with low forward. Plus she has a command overhead that does block damage and is bufferable and her Level 1 CC does 50% even if you jump in with it (say vs. Dragon Punch). She lacks nothing in this game. Plus Low Forward XX Fireball is natural AC Reversal against stuff like Ken’s AC (if he AC’s the Low Forward) since she bends back to throw the fireball, hella stuff misses her.
One of the best versions of Zangief ever IMO. Jump in Knee (with Forward) into SPD is near impossible for majority of the cast unless they have meter. Plus you can grab on 1st frame of them getting up, so say vs. Rose who has no reversal aside from meter you can knock her down and grab her if you are in range. Even though down/toward+Roundhouse is the worst way for him to start off customs (yes it’s got distance but a lot of stuff beats it cleanly) his customs do mega damage with Jab green hands.
Rolento has one of the best normals in the game and cannot be blocked on reaction - low fierce. It has to be blocked low in this game and you can play footsies with it rocking fools. His custom is no joke and he has tricks like Kick AC into Custom for some serious damage.
Japan never really played A2, especially as much as america did. A2 is definitely an american game like MvC2, we know wayyyyyyyy more about this game than Japan, easily.
Derek Daniels
omni@shoryuken.com
But didn’t Japan beat us in this game too? Like at the original USA vs Japan series?
Nope, there has never been anything remotely close to usa vs. jpn in a2. the first time valle went to jpn he played a2 and beat everyone up (not sure who he played but I know Daigo didn’t play) and I never heard Gunter talk about how he got beat down and last time I was there I got 37 wins with Guy.
Bas just told me that there was never a big A2 tourney after the Gamest tourney. shrug.
I have no doubt in my mind that Japan would be good at the game if they played it, they just didn’t play it.
Derek Daniels
omni@shoryuken.com
Since everyone on this board thinks that can beat me on every fighting game I don’t care if you say that even your grandmother can beat me with perfect on Alpha 2 
btw: when I’m talking about Deadly CC Zone on Alpha 2 I like to use it more as a anti-pressure weapon, even if Chun Li CC can do bigger damage then Ken or Akuma the Deadly CC Zone works better with the way that I play with them, and as you the Deadly CC Zone is unblockable once the opponent is standing, and that’s all about the range and time when CC is activated that makes the Deadly CC Zone so Deadly (I hope you understand what I’m saying because sometimes it’s hard to explain what I want due my english)
Chun Li is a good character but not just because of her CC, on ground Chun Li is a great pressure character because of weapons that she has like her down MK that has GREAT range and it’s FAST, also Chun Li MK on the air has a great angle and togheter with her speed that’s another plus, since she has more cool weapons I can fear a player that really knows how to use Chun Li because I know how good she can be on good hands but for the way that I play Ken or Akuma take most part of the cake 
Drag: I know about that (Zangief’s df+roundhouse sweep) since 96 and it’s not that good (once I get home I can explain you better)
caliagent#3: I’m not saying that Shotos can’t be beated, I know that characters like Chun Li are hard to beat when played by good A2 players, but the way that I play makes characters like: (Ken or Akuma) great agaisnt defense and pressure players. (that’s why my teir list is like I posted it)
Dude, there are far more cc’s than Valle CC(deadly zone bleh).
Can you explain why Zangief is not good at Alpha 2?
Seeing how my grandma never picked up a fighting game, she can’t beat you 
Did I say he’d perfect you? Nope.
But he would beat you in A2.
A2 Gief is like one of the best versions ever like Omni said(yo what’s up Derek!!). He has SO MANY options on the ground and in the air it’s not even funny. Ken and Chun does well against him because they have solid anti airs and can keep him at bay. Ken can just do standing mk which counters him cleanly. Chun can cr. roundhouse all his jumpins. A smart Gief will just use that as a setup for jump in CC to go through them. There are no 100% safe anti airs. Rolento can also give him a hard match because he has some of the best pokes in the game(cr. fierce). However, he can’t counter Gief’s jumps cleanly a lot of times with the standing strong. It often trades. If they abuse ground pokes like Rolento’s cr. fierce, Gief can bait it out and go for the jump in. You can also CC a whiffed move on reaction. I can’t see a reason why Gief would not be good in A2. His jump in options, insane priority on certain normals, plus CC ability = too good. Very close to top 5.
Everyone knows Chun Li is #1. Ryu, Ken, Rose, Sakura, Gief are probably the best set of characters. I’m not sure about Rose, however. It depends on several factors but mainly if you can/cannot get around the crouching strong. If you can take that weapon away from her, she will have a tough time winning.
japan can’t be that bad at a2, they whored out chun in the national tourney
compare this to mvc2 where they picked dhalsim and evil sakura :eek:
japan got beat down for free from our players. japan does not like a2. they pretty much quit playing the game after the gamest tourney that ohnuki won and declared the game “garbage”. and the gamest tourney took place only a couple months after the game was released iirc. omni, correct me if im wrong…
jae! sup homie! one of these days i will come down and see the carolina guys!
The Japanese generally do not like games that are fast. MVC2 and Alpha2 fit that category, Alpha2 is slightly faster than Super turbo, KOF, Third Strike and all the other fighters Japan generally dominates.
Why did you necro a 10 yr old thread.
10 yrs? WTF. lol