On even footing between a good Balrog & a good Akuma the matchup really isn’t fantastic for Rog, however you have to have a little faith, especially when you have a nostalgic look at PR Rog taking down Tokido in the finals last time, what a joy to watch, that was.
However, I aint PR Rog, and my opponent Akumas are never Tokidos, so the first thing I watch out for is their general skill level - I hazard a guess it takes a good mindset and finesse to play Akuma given the risk/reward of his healthpool and even a scrub Rog like me can see a bad Akuma from miles off.
90% of the Akuma’s I’ve faced over the years are the type who open with bad-habits straight away, watch for them, you NEED to abuse them if they have any.
For example, the Badkuma’s I’ve faced often like to jumpback fireball on a match-start, and some of them have been so bad that they do this every time out of habit, even when I’ve landed the first hit by noticing this habit and opening a round with forward-dash TAP to AA them (Can also lead to Super). Others like trying to abuse Badkuma’s roundhouse a lot - And as annoying as it is given it’s relative safety on block, you have to punish it or space it for a well timed RH or Sweep of your own until they stop spamming it. I’ve had Badkuma’s try that “He jumped a fireball so now I can Raging Demon” tactic, only for them to eat a full-on grounded Raging Buffalo in retaliation.
I could go on all day about the Badkuma’s I’ve faced, but I wager the issue in this thread is regarding better Akumas.
Vortex kills Rog, Rogs wakeup options are so bad that the only logical and strong ‘option’ to cope with it is simply to block, unlike almost any other character who has SOME kind of alternative. Sure, you could risk an EX HB, or try to EX RU or RU away from ambigious or straight up crossup/vortex shinanigans but any good Akuma will love to punish a blocked HB, or simply sweep you during EX RU/RU Recovery with option select sweeps.
The only logical advice to give regarding this problem then is quite simple - Don’t get knocked down… I know, right? Easier said than done, right? Well it’s not easy, we all know that when we say it but you have to do what you can to prevent it at all costs. If it isn’t a sweep, it’s a throw… If it’s not a throw it’s a palm-strike… If it’s not a palm-strike it’s a damn demon-flip grab… If it’s not a flip-grab it’s a darn flip-sweep… And it can be hard to distinguish which from which.
AFAIK all flips can be punished on reaction with jumpback normals, though I’ve often been late with these sometimes and got AA-Palmed during jumpback, meaning I was better off grounded - So I’m unsure if they can all be punished but I assume some if not most can be. You can also walk under them if the Akuma is the type to mix these into block-strings, which can also lead into a standing RH/FP AA, or just the ability to block the followup if you fail to hit him from the otherside.
One thing PR Rog showed tenfold in his match with Tokido is that reacting to teleport with AC Ultra (Raw) was absolutely devastating - So much like the other shotos, this is best done by working the ground fireball game and trying to best to push Akuma to the corner like you would anyone else and leave as few escape options as possible with a watchful eye for teleport - Even a TAP can sometimes be enough to punish it if timed right so it’s activeframes are present when Teleport ends, but I could be wrong in that as I think Akuma can input Raging Demon to bypass it, not sure. All shoto’s can be punished if they try a long-air tatsu escape, again by dash Ultra… Unfortunately both require sick reactions and knowledge of the inputs so I’ve only seen the really good Rog’s ready and capable of doing this every time, scrubs like me can’t.
Normally you’d say the optimal range is just out of sweep range, enough that you can RH Fireball attemps, catch out double round-house but this is hell vs Akuma because if he happens to land just one sweep, you’re in vortex hell again so I tend to take the tanky role and play a lame, safety game, wether it’s in that range or not - Ultimately you have so much more health than Akuma so eating a bit of poke or a combo from him from time to time (Assuming he cant follow it up with vortex hell) may not be a bad thing with Akuma himself simply cannot make as many mistakes as he’s as beefy as a wet paper bag with low health and low stun threshold. If you’re in the driving seat, choose quickly between attempting to mass pressure or laming it even more - If you’re going to pressure, do everything you can do avoid any random SRK’s or mashed SRK’s during blockstrings or other pressure - It is, afterall, a knockdown albeit a techable one and you do not want it to happen. If you’re going to lame him out at full screen, be mindful of jumping fireballs as he can advance on you within a single flip and the pressure options from there are high for him if he either lands it or gets to mount pressure on you if you didn’t somehow knock him out of it.
I really don’t know what else I can say on it - I enjoy the matchup but thats only because a lot of Akumas at my level are manageable through inexperience whereas I get the occasional decent one which always leads to a tense set.
I can’t really give any pro advice, but maybe some comedy videos will lighten the mood. Good luck vs Akuma!
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