Uh, he won Shadowloo Showdown which was the biggest 2012 tourney up till now, stacked with killers not unlike EVO was now.
I’m pretty sure the Top 8 would have looked different if Banbanban and Michael Tan were at EVO, other than that there were way more killers at EVO than Shadowloo Showdown
We don’t have any hakan’s here so the player’s knowledge about this character might be the cause of why Hakan vs Dhalsim looks so free for Hakan.I don’t think it’s possible for us to give any numbers but it’s true that it looks like a nightmare for Dhalsim.
I made a script that gets the metrics (based on matches from quarter finals until finals, but finals excluded since EVO has not updated the final 8 brackets yet)
United States vs United States: 96-96
United States vs Singapore: 1-0
United States vs Dominican R: 1-1
United States vs China: 2-3
United States vs Canada: 13-10
United States vs Chile: 2-4
United States vs Mexico: 1-1
United States vs France: 1-1
United States vs Japan: 11-48
United States vs unknown: 2-3
United States vs Arabian Emirates: 1-0
United States vs Taiwan: 1-5
United States vs Australia: 1-2
Britain vs Canada: 1-0
Britain vs United States: 6-0
Taiwan vs United States: 5-1
Taiwan vs unknown: 1-0
Taiwan vs Chile: 1-1
Taiwan vs Japan: 2-1
Hong Kong vs Taiwan: 1-0
Hong Kong vs Japan: 1-0
Hong Kong vs United States: 1-0
Hong Kong vs Korea: 1-0
Chile vs United States: 4-2
Chile vs Canada: 1-0
Chile vs Taiwan: 1-1
unknown vs United States: 3-2
unknown vs France: 1-0
unknown vs Korea: 1-0
Korea vs United States: 6-0
Korea vs France: 1-0
Korea vs Canada: 1-0
Korea vs Japan: 2-0
France vs United States: 1-1
Dominican R vs Japan: 1-0
Dominican R vs United States: 1-1
Mexico vs United States: 1-1
Mexico vs Korea: 1-0
Canada vs United States: 10-13
Canada vs India: 1-0
Singapore vs France: 1-0
Singapore vs Canada: 1-0
Australia vs Mexico: 1-0
Australia vs United States: 2-1
Germany vs Japan: 1-1
China vs Japan: 3-0
China vs United States: 3-2
Japan vs United States: 48-11
Japan vs Japan: 9-9
Japan vs unknown: 2-0
Japan vs Canada: 4-0
Japan vs Mexico: 2-0
Japan vs Germany: 1-1
Japan vs France: 1-0
Japan vs Singapore: 1-0
Japan vs Taiwan: 1-2
Japan vs Britain: 1-0
Japan vs Australia: 1-0
see also http://bbr.s23.eatj.com/evoweb2K12/games/index/ for a count of player by country per game
You make the conclusions 
That’s what I was getting from this thread. Anyway, Infiltration has always been one of the best players, yet for whatever reason S.Kill decided to announce that he only now thinks Infiltration is worthy of having a “top 8” title. Okay. I guess if Evo is the only tournament in the entire world that ever matters. Infiltration had been winning countless tournaments all over up until this point. He must have also forgotten the fact that he ended up 3rd at the 2010 Evo.
It’s also kind of stupid at this point to say with any kind of authority that he is definitely “better” than Daigo. Daigo did rather poorly (for Daigo) this year, despite what those with their heads in the sand would tell you. His perfomance all year has been all over the map.
I wanna know how he got so beastly. Korea must have a very strong scene that people don’t talk about. He could play some online matches but that only takes you so far and we’d most definetly see footage of that by now (other than the very ocasional stream appearance).
Roids.
You know how Ghaleon is always trying to put together big exhibitions for his annual Season’s Beatings tournament? I wonder if Infiltration’s domination has caught his eye? I’d love to see him try to put together a exhibition where Infiltration faced off against some of the best players from wherever in a longer set. Personally I’d like to see Ghaleon get Infiltration and Daigo here to do a FT10, I just don’t think it’ll happen. So I’ll take the next best thing and see what a Justin Wong, Ricky Ortiz, or maybe some other top internationals can do against him in a FT3 or something like that.
But if it can’t happen, he’s already confirmed for Canada Cup. Besides that there is the SF 25th Anniversary tournament. The Texas and NY qualifiers are actually coming up pretty soon. He and Laugh may attend those instead of waiting for the Taiwan qualifier which I don’t think will be happening for a couple of months. He was just so dominant at EVO that I want to see if he can keep it up now that everybody’s been exposed(by watching or playing him) to his new strategies and techniques.
I see how Infiltration used the focus dash. It looks like he had it perfected to make sure he recovers first every time. Its amazing every time I see him do it.
Hello everyone,
I saw some earlier posts on Daigo’s mindset and playstyle when it comes to using ‘cheap’ moves or playing to his opponents. I’m in Japan and recently bought his book 勝ち続ける意志力 (The Will to Keep Winning). I’m only part of the way through it but he has mentioned a lot about his mentality when playing and trying to improve at the game.
He does specifically mention a few things discussed in these posts.
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He avoids using overly powerful moves (that some may call ‘cheap’) because they often get overused and become a clutch for a player, stopping honest improvement. If the game is patched, a simple counter discovered, etc., then those players who relied on such moves are then back at square one and someone who has been improving his game mechanics in a more basic way ends up ahead.
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He tries to avoid playing to the player. This also becomes a hindrance on one’s skill level. By simply learning one player’s playstyle and playing to exploit that, while you may win that one match, you have not truly improved your general skill level to beat all players.
Note that this is paraphrased and translated by myself from memory. Also since this is a book about winning mentalities in general, it may be lacking some specific info to fighting games, at least in regards to #2 above. For #1 he explicitly mentioned that he makes a conscience effort to never use such moves (no specific moves mentioned because of the book audience).
The fact that i have complete opposite opinions may explain why i’m a scrub.
Daigo definitely has the right idea, but since EVO 2012 AE top 8 was 2 out of 3, he didn’t have time to really adapt to Infiltration’s play style and incredible “character reads”. Thus Daigo lost convincingly (at least for 2 out of 3).
It’ll be interesting to see how Daigo will respond now that he was clearly beaten by Infiltration who was playing against Daigo and not simply a top level Ryu.
Do you guys think Daigo should switch characters? I mean Ryu is a good character and all but people have so much playing experience against him and knowledge of the character that facing him doesn’t seem to phase people anymore. Also there’s nothing new Ryu can do that catch people off guard cuz Im sure anyone’s seen it. what you guys think ?
The character selection was not the problem for Daigo. It’s just that he became repetitive. Once his BnB [CMK + Hadouken] was taken away by focus and sweeps the guy played timid and was scared from the gates.
Daigo said that bringing hype is most important to a tourny scene. There will be no hype watching top tier mirror matches for the finals.
It’s interesting to know that Daigo avoids playing the player and most likely plays according to the character match up and then adapts from there. But many would agree that Infiltration won for the exact opposite reason. He studied the best players coming into EVO, including Daigo. He learned there tendencies and how to counter it.
Of all his matches that made it on stream, the guy who gave him the hardest time was DRS Chris. Chris is a good player, but he’s known for doing incredibly random stuff. Besides that, he hasn’t made a name for himself, at least no yet. So this was one player that Infiltration knew nothing about and a match where he just played the match up and adapted. Unlike his matches against Daigo, Gamerbee, or Dieminion where he had specific strats prepared just for them.
I went back to the book and decided to translate most of what Daigo wrote on playing the player. Again, note that this from a general book on how to win and keep winning. It seems like his mentality (below) is for during training and not for the finals of a tournament where winning is the only priority. That’s my thought at least.
There is a technique called “player reading” where you recall your opponent’s actions and habits, and then play according to that style. You analyze the specific characteristics and habits of your opponent, and strike against their weak points.
For example, you’re naked (no armor) and just holding a sword. Your opponent has a sword, and is also wearing heavy armor. But there is a definitive weak point with your opponent. Everytime he lifts up his sword, a small gap in his armor is exposed. So at the right moment you should attack him in that spot.
This is a simple example of aiming for one’s achilles’ heel, where here the only difference between the two sides is one is naked and the other is in armor. Habits are not easy to fix when pointed out, so reading the player here gives you a high chance of winning. However, this strategy only works against that one opponent, so the strength you display is extremely personal and limited towards them.
In other words, specializing in reading players results in no self-growth. Of course, in fighting games “player reading” is an indispensable skill. With high level matches, it is no exaggeration to say the direction of the game can go either way, depending on player reading. And that is why most people against players that they have “read” end up trying to win only in that one particular way. Now, even if someone who is relying on “player reading” continues to pick up wins, when asked if they are truly a strong player, the answer is no.
Not attacking the weak points even if you’ve read them, and winning with your own ability is how real strength is honed. If you rely on reading your opponents to beat them and neglect your own skills and knowledge, when you fight another strong player you’re sure to be in for a rough time.
When your opponent changes, you’ll surely realize you’re naked again. At that time, trying to start from scratch and grasp your opponent’s habits is undoubtedly ineffective. Just reading your opponent’s moves and winning may be the ‘coolest’ way to win. If you were able to play anyone, read and then beat them, you’d have no worries and still nobody would have any basis to complain. But this is impossible and just a pipe dream. The reality is you must think you may get cut, and therefore must put on your armor and improve your swordsmanship as much as possible. Doing this and honestly trying to improve yourself is tackling a challenge seriously.
You must not become too indulged in your ability or strong points. Saying ‘I can see my opponents moves so I don’t need to wear armor’ is simple-minded, childish pride. There’s some kind of human connection when it comes to reading people, where no matter how well you can read others, there is always someone who can read you better. I know of a few people in my case.
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For me, I don’t like exploiting my opponent’s weaknesses. There are times when I think “If I just do this I can win.” Even my opponent doesn’t realize it. But instead of taking the easy path to victory, I fight from a different angle. In my opinion, going after their weakness is unrefined / has no taste (not sure on exact translation here).
I even feel that going after weaknesses lowers the quality of the match. Your opponent is someone who makes you improve, so playing that way feels like a waste of a match. I prefer not attacking their weaknesses, and in fact like to challenge their strong points.
In the end, winning on your own merits/ability is number one. I think improvement is of the highest importance. This is something I’m particular about, and I think it’s one of the secrets for staying on top.
Clearly daigo has never played on xbox live
Eventhubs has a bunch of endless matches posted of infil vs poongko on the frontpage. It’s like watching evo top 8 all over again, ridiculous reads, Poongko being used as a training dummy, focus dash through fireballs, crazy demon vortex cross-ups. Poongko never even got the momentum in any of games games they played, even if he won a round here and there (which is also rare).
He’s the best SF4 player I have ever seen so far, no doubt about it.
And in every video you see him driking from a bottle. Coincidence?