Thought I’d start up an official vortex thread, seeing as I just finished up my tutorials for it.
Part 1: [media=youtube]vTJ5srcjWiA&fmt=22"[/media]
Part 2: [media=youtube]wBVVdBu4iEE&fmt=22"[/media]
Akuma 101 Playlist: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=D3A36AD82A61CDFC
“The Vortex” is another name for Akuma/Gouki’s wake-up mixup metagame. While most characters have this as well, Akuma’s is special in that he has a staggering amount of options, and most of them are relatively safe. I think that’s reason enough for it to have its own name, and so did Arturo Sanchez, who is said to have coined the term itself.
Untechable knockdowns are what you’re going to want to use to start up and continue the vortex, as it leaves your opponent in a large guessing game where percentages are not in their favor. The objective is to keep making your enemy guess wrong every time the get up off the ground, and then knocking them down to start it all over again.
I like to break “The Vortex” a.k.a. “Holy Shit, Batman” into three steps: Knockdown, Setup, and Mixup. With these three steps you can rinse and repeat steps 1 to 3 until your opponent can break free of the death vice the vortex has on them (or they’re killed by it). Let’s look at it a little more in-depth.
Step 1: The Knockdown
[details=Spoiler]Step 1: The Untechable Knockdown
A) Sweep
[LIST][]Poke/Counter-poke Sweep
[]Jumping Attack -> Sweep
[]Focus Attack -> Sweep
[]Normal/Cross-up Air Tatsu -> Sweep
[]Fireball -> FADC -> Sweep
[]Bread n’ Butter -> Sweep (character specific)
[]Standing Jab (far) -> Sweep
[/LIST]
B) Throw
[LIST][]Forward Throw
[]Backward Throw
[]Demonflip Throw
[/LIST]
C) Demonflip
[LIST][]Palm
[]Slide
[/LIST]
D)Super/Ultra Combo
[/details]
Step 2: The Setup
[details=Spoiler]Step 2: The Setup
A)Empty/Safe/Fake Jump
These are for getting close on your opponents wake-up, in a relatively safe manner. They set up tons of stuff, and can bait out reversal moves that you wouldn’t be ready for if you did a normal jump-in attack.
[LIST][]Normal
[]Cross-up
[/LIST]
B) Jumping Attacks
I’m lumping in most jumping attacks with the exception of demonflips and tatsu here. These are your run-of-the-mill jumping attacks that hit either in front or behind your opponent. When a normal jump kick becomes a mixup you know you’ve gotten into the mind of your adversary.
[LIST][]Normal Jump Attack
[]Neutral Jump Attack
[]Cross-up Jump Attack
[]Normal/EX Air Fireball (norm/cross-up)
[]Normal/Cross-up Air Tatsu
[/LIST]
C) Demonflip
The advantage of the demonflip is the unpredictable nature of it, since it has multiple options out of it, and three distinct distances to choose from.
[LIST][]Demonflip Throw
[]Demonflip Palm (whiff/connect)
[]Demonflip Divekick (norm/cross-up)
[/LIST]
D) Walk-up
The walk-up allows for virtually any mixup out of it, it’s a very gutsy move and can catch your opponent by surprise.[/details]
Step 3: The Mixup
[details=Spoiler]Step 3: The Mixup
A) Option Select (c.LK/throw tech)
This is a fantastic option select which allows you to simultaneously go in and hit-confirm with a low attack, as well as tech any wake-up throws, or bait a reversal/wake-up move (provided you perform it slightly late).
B) Air Tatsu
The norm/x-up tatsu is the recurring theme in the vortex, allowing you to hit easy sweep knockdowns that work on all characters, and aids in starting as well as continuing the mixup as long as possible.
[LIST][]Sweep
[]Shoryuken (normal/FADC shaku)
[]HK Ground Tatsu (puts you beside your opponent as they wake up)
[]Reset
[/LIST]
C)Ambiguous Jump-ins
These are jumping attacks that barely do/don’t cross-up and can force your opponent to make guesses on which way to block. Sometimes these jumps are so ambiguous that even yourself doesn’t know which way it will hit.
[LIST][]Jumping Short (can be done with MK and HK, but very difficult)
[]Cross-up Air Fireball (ambiguous or fake)
[]Cross-up Demonflip Dive Kick
[/LIST]
D) Throws
There are just as many ways to land throws just like any other normal attack. The idea is to condition your opponents to expect attacks. The Demonflip Throw followed by one forward dash puts you in great position for mixup, and forward throw into two dashes puts you in an even better position. Will elaborate on EHT when I get around to it.
[LIST][]Tick Throw
[]FADC -> Throw
[]Demonflip Throw
[]Backward Throw (weird positioning)
[]Forward Throw (a.k.a. Exploding Heart Technique)
[/LIST]
E) Evasive Maneuvers
These are applicable in almost all instances of the vortex, whenever you feel trouble you can save yourself some health and sneak in one of these moves.
[LIST][]Teleport (avoids everything)
[]Jump back attack
[]Jump Back Air Fireball
[]Backdash (avoids wake-up throws)
[]Demonflip Palm (to whiff and bait reversals)
[/LIST]
F) Gimmicks
Not all of these options fall under the exact definition of gimmicks, but I needed a category for these miscellaneous options in the vortex mixup. Throw these out when intuition tells you it’s a good idea.
[LIST][]Shoryuken (random/hit-cofirmable)
[]Air EX Fireballs (sets up sweep, overhead, or combo)
[]Overhead Chop
[]Kara Demon
[]Tick Demon
[]Basement Demon (didn’t elaborate in video, basically a jump toward/over demon buffered into a whiffed normal)
[]Resets
[/LIST][/details]
BNB To Sweep
[details=Spoiler]BNB to Sweep
Here’s a list of who it does/doesn’t work on:
YES:
Dan
Rose
Sakura
C. Viper
Balrog
Vega
Sagat
Seth
E. Honda
Zangief
Guile
Chun-Li
Dhalsim
Fei Long
Cammy
Akuma
Gouken
NO:
Gen
Abel
Rufus
El Fuerte
M. Bison
Ken
Ryu
Blanka[/details]
Exploding Heart Technique
[details=Spoiler]Exploding Heart Technique (Forward Throw Trick)
This technique involves using a forward throw on your opponent, dashing forward twice as fast as possible, and canceling the second dash into either a MK or HK demonflip. Here are some results versus reversal moves:
MK Demonflip Dive Kick
[LIST][]Sagat: All Tiger Uppercuts stuffed, whiffs over Ultra.
[]Ken: All Shoryukens stuffed.
[] Akuma: Trades with LP/MP SRK, stuffs HP SRK.
[] Ryu: Stuffs LP/MP SRK, trades with HP SRK (beware of ultra/super)
[*] M. Bison: Stuffs Scissor Kick.
[/LIST][/details]
Throw in your own options that maybe I’ve brushed over if you wish, I’ll include them in the thread whenever I can. Hope my video didn’t leave too much lacking, I always worry obsessively about these kind of things.