Thanks for the Rufus update Hav. That vid had some good shit too.
Wow, Akuma really is a fucking asshole. So are 90% of the people who play him, but that’s probably just a coincidence.
What I’ve learned tonight is that if the Akuma is in Chuck Norris mode and endlessly trying to RH you and start his stupid infinite on you, your only options are to run the fuck away (roll, jump, whatever might suit the situation, just keep it mixed or they’ll bait you) or to predict it and EX TT. I can’t see any counter-poke working on what is slowly becoming the best normal in the game in my mind. I thought the RH,jab,RH,jab string was hilarious when I saw it on Sagat. Now that I’ve had it done to me as Abel, fuck that string. Like we aren’t disadvantaged enough already?
The match really is about avoiding any mistakes which will let him get a RH string started, because once it’s going, even if you don’t lose much health, you’re probably within a couple of hits of being stunned by the time he fucks it up and lets you out.
Goes to show, while most of Abel’s matchups are roughly even, when he has a bad one, it’s REALLY bad.
If he’s just trying to RH you to death just counter-poke him with st.lk… it stuffs it clean all the time. Other than that, you’re on your own.
^^
What strider said
Your footsies have to be VERY good to beat Akuma in that match up
well the thing is he doesn’t necessarily need to hit you with a st.RH from scratch. Anything that he can combo into st.Jab can become his jab/RH string. Other than that I agree, but standing and playing footsies at medium range with him is suicidal in my opinion. The best (longest) you’ve got is st.lk. His cr.MK or St.RH have 20% more reach. Your only hope for stuffing a plain RH in that situation is to hit him between kicks.
Well, then you have to be really carefull when he’s close and don’t let him start his string in the first place.
Just block…seriously. If he’s over-extending and being too agressive then you have a better chance of beating him, since he cant make mistakes due to the huge life advantage.
This matchup is terrible, but still winnable, you just have to play VERY careful.
BTW, do you guys know of a consistent way of punishing teleports that doesn’t involve preemptive rolls?? I’ve been messing around with this and i’ve got nothing… That teleport is sooo broken in this matchup.
yeah… maybe armor ex TT is the best counter but shits so hard to execute, an early ex cod helps too. then again ive learned from watchin top players that knowing your rolls is one of the key to win against akuma… and sometimes, when they do demon flip you dash under them and ex TT (the akuma ive seen usually went for a s.rh after a whiffed demon flip (and he’s in mid range where s.rh is usually the best option for him)
lol akuma’s teleports a bitch to deal with…
The only thing I know of that’s doable on reaction to a teleport is Ultra – besides that, I don’t think you have much choice… maaaaybe if you’re quick enough, you can RH roll on reaction, but that’s also assuming he’s teleporting away from you and not through you… My current take is to just assume the teleport is coming out, RH roll, and hurt that mother fucker.
I started baiting RH with rolls and once I was sure he was going to put a meaty RH over the rolled short and hit the ultra. It’s risky as hell, but so’s everything in this match.
but this is TOO risky, since if he blocks, you lose. Ultra is your best damaging tool against him, either in combos or raw. Lets not forget that by just having the threat of an ultra akuma will stop doing shit like air fireballs or ground ones.
If you think he’s gonna RH you at the end of your roll just EX TT him or something… (although rolling that close to him is silly imo)
I want to see video of how AC Revenger handled those good Akumas that hfz was talking about. There probably isn’t any footage, but people should try to get some, heh.
yeah its tough to get footage since they usually play at bigbox and its a bitch to get footage there (but its possible)
Great job on the match up info so far hav! Just gotta add that Abels s.mp stuff’s Chun’s s.hk if you do it early. I’d rather fight Sagat than Chun. 
For real, Chun is such a hard matchup for me. So much work to get close to her, and when you do, she has such good escape options.
I’d rather fight Chun than Akuma
At least once you get a hold of the bitch you can hurt her.
Been playing against Hsien and Fubarduck and St. MP stuffs Akumas HK clean every time, even if it’s a little late.
You should also look at the distance after the first hit of Akuma’s s.hk. Sometimes you can poke a cr.lk, backdash (or focus backdash), or EX TT. I think there was a video of that somewhere. Not really helpful watching the video, so you have to learn this from experience.
Tips against Honda, anyone? I feel like I can’t punish him when he whiffs a butt stomp or headbutt. I know you can CoD some of his headbutts, but after reading some posts there seems to be some confusion as to which headbutt (lp, mp, or hp? EX?)
Only HP can be punished with MP, LP CoD or Ultra on block, reversal timing only. Butt splash whiff I usually F. MK.
you can reversal CoD after hp headbutt, if he whiffs ochio, butt stomp, or headbutt for meter or just randomly ultra it. if he does ex headbutt your ultra will lose. if hes close and whiffs a move, hit him on his recovery of headbutt, if he butt stomps, if you r close enough do cr.fp to AA it.
Yes, but all Akuma has to do to beat your st.MP is walk up to you with his stupid-fast walking speed, watch you whiff it, then hit HK anyway.
Don’t spam this. Also use st.LK to beat HK. Otherwise, blocking is safer.