I was messing around in training mode earlier tonight and found something kinda silly - a setup that forces cr. mp to hit perfectly meaty, i.e. on its 3rd active frame. It can link into close hp xx ex gt, or close mp more reliably. A couple characters can’t punish it meatied unless they have super (Bison) or super/ultra. The first character I tried it on, Sim, and I find out the combo doesn’t even work on him. Argh. I didn’t get to test it, but it’s possible it also may give a non-crossup, safe vs DPs divekick in the right corner, another holy grail of setups I’ve been looking for.
a couple tricks you can use are jump back LK + throw tech OS, low strong + throw tech OS, and if she jumps but doesn’t go for a low or TK CS, you can AA her with the top of close fierce. if you are cornered and see her jump (but are not knocked down), pull a sim and slide out with df+mk.
mostly his normals and pressuring on wakeup
Far LK is a pretty reliable way of shutting down Ryu’s low forward pokes due to its disjointed hitbox, and you get good frame advantage if you hit his limb (+5 or +6 on counter-hit), or decent frame advantage if he just blocks (+2).
If Ryu knocks you down and starts pressuring with meaty low strongs, things can get pretty tough since it isn’t too hard to time it meaty in a way that will let him block a reversal EX Messiah. He can also meaty in a way that will force reversal EX Messiah to cross over him, and he can get a free f+hp xx shoryuken combo or worse. The answer to this is just try to have good defense and a decent ability to late tech. It sucks because Ryu can frame trap so effectively, just focus on having a strong defense and patiently reset the spacing if you get knocked down.
Can anyone Give me good video’s of fighting Balrog (boxer)? I have tried every, and I mean EVERY match-up idea and still i cannot stand up to ANY good balrog… I keep playing one of the “best” balrogs in Florida and hes… pretty bad lol. I played him at my local tourny yesterday and almost won each and every game, always brung him to game 3 but then locked up. I just need some serious Ideas as to how to fight him,what pokes to use, and what to do against that turtle.
After watching SBO, I noticed some Rufus player was using far HK vs Daigo, and it worked tons of times, it seems that a perfectly timed far.HK will beat cr.mk (makes sense) and you get a free juggle and then U1 if you’re using that.
PD: hey kourck, when are you going to record your new video? let me know so I can send you the ideas and OSs that Ive been practicing, we all need to get Rufus to the next lv
Little something to add for Gen matchup: s.HP stuffs his wall divekicks.
i’m probably going to be recording stuff on thursday/friday. PM me your stuff.
bah, stupid ryu, I cant fight him, eveything he has counters rufus, I mean everything, theres nothing safe you can do vs him, there’s so little you can do in this matchup is not even fun to play
fuck this shitty character who cant fight shotos
PD: yeah im mad
I like to sit back and absorb fireballs till I build ultra 2 against Ryu, then either he will get antsy and come towards you, or you can walk forward and look to see what he does in response (c.foward for example) you can then be prepared to dive kick that. The first few times you dive kick Ryu I would suggest always going for late OST after. Many Ryus want to shut down your dive kick pressure by DPing the first times you do it. After you block and punish a couple of these they will be scared to do it again and you can start using the heavier combos.
yeah I was a bit salty lol
now im more calmed, uh kourck im gonna send you the info in about 3 hours, I gotta go to uni now.
definitely this… after high divekick (e.g. one aimed to beat DP) on block, or low divekick, st. lk (redivekick or attempt to blow up crouch block, where your divekick is deep enough to make the st. lk free), a delayed os tech is gatlyke.
one of my goals vs ryu on random block practice:
Hitconfirm high divekick into low short fierce, or low divekick, st. lk into fierce xx fierce gt, or short into short fierce link if low divekick is blocked but free st lk hits
or
Blockconfirm high divekick into delayed OS tech, or low divekick, st. lk into delayed OS tech
then
Get free delayed OS tech into chained normals. OS tech (low short) xx jab xx short xx far jab on high divekicks. OS tech (low short) xx jab xx far jab on low divekick, st. lk. The cancel notation for the normals is on purpose, you want a tight chain.
this chained normal blockstring which I want/need to integrate more into my game is pretty damn useful. you can hitconfirm into far strong or cr. mk xx ex gt for knockdown/more damage at cost of meter. you can stop at far lp and mixup with several strong options available at that spacing and frame advantage (it’s +4 on block). you can ride it out as a blockstring ending in far strong which leaves you frame neutral, and if you did the blockstring from a high divekick, you get almost half a bar from the chained normals into far strong on block… reward yourself for getting in with getting more dangerous if your opponent won’t give you damage, na mean?
i was playing a fairly thought-provoking boxer the other day on xbl. i took a walk to try to think about how to approach the matchup. the first thing I noticed was that it is vital to shut down the unsafe things rog does, or react to stuff that can be stuffed. by this i pretty much mean his rush punches, which is pretty much the only place he can get solid mixup and pressure from. a generic way of shutting these down is focuses, which is something rufuses (by this I mean myself) rarely use and therefore it probably doesn’t occur to some rufus players that it’s actually useful in this matchup. the problem with this is that balrog can randomly mix up stuff which punishes it. therefore, the first thing i looked for was the safest way to shut down his offense, punishing everything that is punishable, and the best way to do it.
first off, i wanted to shut down balrog doing close up rush punches, since this is pretty much where his biggest reward (knockdown, overhead into ultra). generally, rog will do low jabs into low short or low strong, then cancel into jab straight, jab ground straight (low), or jab swing blow (overhead). the common option is to stay blocking low and react to the overhead and punish. instead take a look at frame data. jab straight is 13f, low is 22, overhead is 31. yikes. what that means is that you can react to the normal the boxer player tends to cancel off of. go from low block, and press back+strong on reaction to the rush punch starting, then resume low block. if he does jab straight, it’s too fast to react to and you just block. if he does the low option, it’s still fast but you can react. the close strong counterhits if you react in time, the low block gives you a free punish (low jab xx ex gt or far strong). the overhead is super slow and you’re practically guaranteed a counterhit strong. after a counterhit strong, you can link into close fierce xx ex gt, or cr. mk xx ex gt if he was kinda far away (this happens more if you counterhit the low option). landing a ch strong, close fierce xx ex gt is a 304 damage punish for one bar, trivial safejump etc etc. 'nuff said.
now to the midscreen range. this is where jab straight can be devastating, since it can be mixed up with TAP or ground smash (torpedo), which armor break if you were trying to focus the jab straight or a jab ground straight. or he can overhead you if you aren’t denying him the use of jab ground straight, which also breaks armor. the two new elements introduced here are jab ground smash and TAP. jab ground smash is unsafe on block (cr. lp xx ex gt is the best practical punish), and TAP looks different enough to react to. if you can react specifically to midrange TAP, jump back divekick, st. lk, st. hp xx hp gt is the best punish. if you can react to midrange dash punches indiscriminately, late throw is the best punish. this will throw overhead and TAP, block jab straight, jab ground straight and jab torpedo, and give you free punishes on the last two.
fullscreen randomness is too trivial to stuff and is beyond the scope of this 
That counter-hit stuff sounds nasty. I’ll need to try that out.
I’m unsure about the mid-range stuff, though. I’m not sure when I should be trying to throw. Also, Balrog can mix-up the strength of his rush punches. Being able to do, say, jab straight that hits with the tip of his glove and then a stronger version that hits deeper makes him even more unpredictable and harder for me to figure out how to deal with it.
Kourck: check your inbox
Here’s your friendly neighbour Dive-man, bringing you more Option Selects, this time vs Rose:
Throw, dash x2, divekick at the peak and OS Ultra 2, what happens if Rose…
- Blocks: Nothing comes out, free mixup
- Backdashes: divekick hits her
- Forward dashes: divekick hits her
- Regular Soul Throw: Divekick beats it
- EX Soul spiral: Whiffs. Rufus goes to the other side and does U2 which catches her
- EX Soul throw: Whiffs. Rufus goes to the other side and does U2 which catches her
- All versions of Super: Whiffs, Rufus gets behind her but nothing comes out = Free combo
- Illusion Spark (U1): Whiffs, Rufus gets behind her but nothing comes out = Free combo
Also U2 is very viable in this fight since it stops her zoning game to an extend.
How to know that you did it right?: If rose can EX soul throw you, you’re doing the divekick too late.
cool stuff!! ill be trying it out
Good blankas give me fits…especially the ST specialist who use him in 4 lol
I find that, vs blanka patience is the key. The matchup is actually in Rufus favor, because of U2 mainly. What are the blankas exactly doing that gives you troubles?
having problems with a boxer that likes to spam jab like crazy and jump back firece like all day idk what to
This advice holds true with any player that does this, not just boxer. But if you do a dive kick and the other player just mashes jab or throw tech to get you off, just immediately follow up your next dive kick with an EX messiah. It will hit counter hit and will force the opponent to stop pressing buttons. Also, if you can predict a jump back fierce, say after a divekick, just pause, wait for the jump back, then ex snake strike.
Against blanka, jab him out of any shenanigans, hops, lp balls, ect. Punish electricity with c.lk EX GT. Always punish his whiffed shit with s.mp hp GT. Don’t do predictable dive kicks that will get you ex upballed. Don’t be afraid to focus attack if the blanka doesn’t have charge.