Certainly, they are not that common, but they are still clearly bad matchups where the LP GH nerf directly affected Gief’s gameplan (punishing Condor Dive with MP GH is much more space dependant and may hit grounded which means that you’re -6 on Hawk’s face, whereas vs Hakan you cannot punish oil ups reliably anymore). I’m also still yet to hear about which matchup was “a problem” thanks to LP GH being fast and safe on hit.
Now, I don’t really understand why Gief and Hawk were a “big problem” because of LP GH and LP Spire which made them get nerfed in a couple of months after they got nerfed (st.MP’s hurtbox, SPD range which took out some punishes, etc…) in exchange of their best buffs since they got into the game when you have E.Ryu who in exchange of 150 health (some fierces or 2 medium attacks) gets more damage from further ranges with better buttons, a really good wakeup, a divekick, safe pressure that leads to a lot of damage in exchange of meter which he creates quickly, or Yun who gets to play safely creating meter out of nothing with really good mixups, frame traps, and the threat of red focus for 3 meters instead of 4.
But then again it’s year 7 and people still complain about grapplers so meh.
also he doesn’t get huge offensive momentum when he hits guile. other characters have similar problems vs. guile, but they can put him in the blender on any clean hit, bison doesn’t have that going for him.
Kiyotea: Godlike A3 Guy from Japan who is great in SF4 as well, iirc he made top 32 at EVO this year, or somewhere close to it.
Nox: Player from Kuwait who Daigo said was the best Guy back around the AE days, although I haven’t seen or heard from him really since then.
Big Bird: Player from around the Saudi area, always performs well in middle eastern tourneys and got I think 2nd place to Dieminion in the last big tourney in that area. This is the guy who beat Infiltration last week.