I like making reads, i don't like being forced into guessing games, there is a big difference. I like to anticipate and punish things on reaction, and space out my opponents. Situation's like fifty/fifty vortexes, guessing what kind of combo (but this can probably be reacted to at a high level) my opponent is doing, and armor/not armor situations overly simplify the game especially if those situations provide huge dividends. In my opinion it bottlenecks high level play. If i play a character that does most of it's work from a pure guessing situation then how is the game rewarding to high level play???
Making good reads is about establishing tendencies, and reacting and adapting to your opponents playstyle. Not rock/paper scissors. In fact one thing that frustrated me would be that i'd play my friends saberwulf, defend him well and outfootsie him, bait his pokes and punish with low crushes... only to have my combo broken and eat a free mixup and wind up losing . I understood the game would require me to learn manuals and all that... but that stuff isn't interesting or intellectually stimulating... it just undermined the fact i was outplaying my opponent and had a way better neutral game.
I loved the spacing and exchanges in KI but hated the nature of the combo system so i lost interest pretty fast.
I have no idea what you mean by mashing out your fastest poke and pressure... clearly you have never played me in a fighting game because i don't just run around mashing pokes and pressuring people. In fact i just prefer to zone.
At this point you are arguing semantics against killer instinct like everyone else. People rip on Killer Instinct because it has elements EVERY other fighting game has but it has it in the combo system as opposed to limiting it in the neutral game.
"Bait his pokes and punish with low crushes"
So why is baiting pokes a legitimate way to get an upper hand on the opponent and punishing them for the successful bait, but baiting breakers with manual resets and counter breakers not? Because Killer Instinct is just not doing it the traditional fighting game way, that's why. Reads in the neutral game = good, reads in the combo game = scrubby apparently.
Also, the breaking game is certainly not rock paper scissors. if someone is playing "rock paper scissors" and guessing while trying to break me, I won't even bother with a risky counter-breaker. They've already dug their gave by giving them a 33% chance of success and me a 66% chance of pummelling them on lockout. The moment someone starts playing a guessing game in killer instinct, they've lost. Counter breakers aren't to counter-guessing, they are a way to make reads on the opponent's read. You counter-break when you are quite sure they are going to break something because they can react to it. No point in counter breaking someone who is guessing and has already dug themselves their own grave.
But most importantly, high level play is not "bottlenecked" it's just factually inaccurate for you to say that. If Killer Instinct was the super-random guessing game that everyone accused it of being, high level results wouldn't be as consistent as they are. But that's the case. CDjr isn't going to get taken out by some random who gets good guesses on him, he's going to continue to dominate so long as he seems to have the bet understanding of the games. Players like Grimmz are doing well CONSISTENTLY, because their skill is consistently rewarded. If it was a guessing game their performance in tournaments would not be so consistently good against randoms who are not as skilled.
