No matter the game you play, aside from games where you can move before you actually fight, what are one of the first few things you do?
for me in umvc I stick close, wait for the game to begin and try to get an instant grab or I get an instand overhead with VJoes j.H into a half health slowmo combo… then the real match begins!!
Do you go for grabs? Jump back and turtle+neutral play? Do you rush? I’d like to hear about all types of different start plays for fighters.
As Ryu in SF4, I turtle in the first round usually, throw fireballs to keep the opponent away. Then in second round I start with a tatsu, which most people don’t expect cuz that’s not a common (or safe) move. Its caught a number of people off guard now xD
Play Defensive, try to figure out the other players strategy. Let them make the moving move.
But every once in a while I cut loose and go for the first Hit, try to keep the opponent on his or her toes.
I go all in, aggressive as hell on first round. If I win I’ll have the mental advantage since the guy will most likely play on tilt or in “fuck this shit” mode, I then just proceed to play as safe as possible.
If I lose the round I’ll play safe next round, with small bursts of rushdown here and there 
Honestly it depends on the opponent, but when playing people for the first time I tend to get some space and start zoning unless I know that their character can outzone mine.
I do something different every round.
The very first act - Nothing, always nothing. It’s the smart play in terms of risk vs reward, although I play Sagat and both space control and staying on my feet are invaluable.
Round one fight -
You can’t lose standing still.
EDIT# This is unless I can pick up on a particular player habit then I will counter that.
full screen tatsu
New player tactics
Play lame, usually waiting a little bit to see if my opponent makes a move early. From here i proceed to get the positional advantage by focusing on walking forward. Really depends on the game/matchup though. It depends on what my overall positional goal for the match is.
sonic hurricane as soon as the round says fight.
that’s a polite way to say it!
For Yun:
-Jump forward well placed Hard Dive Kick right away
If i’m playing a shoto like Ken, i usually just back dash then fire a hadoken, i rarely just throw one out straight from the start. ( or risk eating jump forward jump in combo o_O ) sure it’s nice if you get that quick agressive fireball from the start, but i just don’t think it’s worth it… Daigo infiltration cough*
FOOTDIVE :mad:
I usually backdash or do a neutral jump, depending on who I’m up against. Vega’s got the kind of reach to punish jump ins at the start with medium kick or medium punch, and Sagat’s got his neutral medium kick to stop those who dash in or use some special that puts them right there. Oni I usually just crouch for a second and then take a step back.
3S Ryu: HK.Joudan, with variying degrees of sucess.
In the first round, I wait for my opponent to move first while trying to gain an ideal spacing.
If he doesn’t do anything, I start approaching/poking, if he does do something unsafe I can punish it.
Overall I just try to stay neutral in the first few seconds of the game. In the second round, what I do completely depends on how the opponent plays.
I mostly do nothing the first round and simply watch what they do in the beginning.
The 2nd and 3rd rounds are different based on the information i have gathered from the previous round(s). It all depends on my character, their character, if they have meter, what habits they have, are they defensive or agressive players or just yolo, good anti-air game, good reactions, do they often drop punishes and combose etc? First round i’m simply doing nothing in the first few seconds and then i’ll test some basic things.
If I haven’t played them before and I don’t know them I usually play lame as hell and try build some meter while looking for some of their tendencies. Then based on that I adjust my actions for later on.
I wish some KOF MK INJ or any other gamers can come and input I’d love to hear.