DAY 1: Juicebox AbelGive us a week, and we'll give you the secrets to winning by seven Street Fighter pros. With the help of Street Fighter veteran and SRK advisor John Choi, we've picked the minds of some of the best Street Fighter Pros in the scene.
How does the Secrets to Winning Series work?
Each day for the next seven days, one of these tournament champions and experts will share their tips and secrets, to winning at Street Fighter. Each post is specifically designed to make you a better player and is broken up in three parts: General Tips, Character Specific Tips, and John Choi's Key Takeaway.
DC Hustle, Silent, and Krayzie Bone on this pic ^ :top:
Note: John queried many players for this series, and has chosen articles that offered the most variety in content and character choice. If your favorite player isn't in this first series, they may well be in the next. Pros will also try to respond to your comments, so please be clear and concise when posing your questions.
7 Street Fighter Pros Share their Secrets to Winning
Day 1: Juicebox
Day 2: Vangief
Day 3: Booktooth
Day 4: Justin Wong
Day 5: Shizza
Eric 'Juicebox' Albino hails from Arizona and exploded onto the competitive Street Fighter scene with not just his strong Abel game play but his infectious personality. His special dance where he performs Abel's ultra movements personally has been a real crowd pleaser. Despite his goofy antics, he is a very meticulous thinker and applies his logic to a strong Street Fighter game and happily shares his knowledge with the community. Due to his efforts, he was recently signed to a one year contract with BLGaming.
General tips:
1.Never EVER be satisfied with your progress. Stay hungry. Focus on winning local tournaments if you want to get better. Those matches will give you plenty of feedback on what to improve on, if you're astute and attentive. If you don't have a community, start one! If no one wants to play in your area, then you'll have to make due with online. But you'll have to play offline eventually, so make every effort to go to tournaments and get experience. Best place to start? Regional forums on SRK!
2.Frame data is the key to discovering frame traps for your character. Go to sites such as SRK and find the frame data for your character in Super Street Fighter IV. If you do not understand block and hit advantage, your offensive and defensive abilities will be stunted by misunderstanding.
3.Avoid playing on "auto-pilot" as much as possible. Every action you take in the game should have a strategic reason. Walking forward is for baiting jumps, normal moves, or to threaten with a possible throw. Jumping is for predicting a slow poke from your opponent, or to be unpredictable. Instant Cannon Strike is for catching opponents who try to tech your throws.
Abel specific tips:
1.All of Abel's bad matchups are based around you having below-average normal moves to poke with and being susceptible to throw mix-ups on wakeup. Focus on covering these weaknesses. One way to do so is to avoid footsies altogether. Try lots of random movement at 1/2 screen or farther away, and when your opponent gets complacent, attempt getting in with a jump, roll, or a surprise dash fallowed by F+MK~dash. Another way is to stay at point blank as much as possible. If you can stay there for an extended period of time, your opponent is obviously not good at getting away. That, or you're doing tons of damage! Keep at it until you're forced out! Remember that the best defense is a good offense.
2.Turtle. You'd be surprised how many players defeat themselves just because they couldn't handle waiting 50 seconds for something to happen. Your success with Abel largely depends on your ability to combo after the Forward Kick (F+MK). Learn the 1-frame link into close Hard Punch and perfect it. Then do combos into Change of Direction and Soulless.
3.Abel's Wheel Kick is your trump card. Use it to go over annoying low pokes and cause that last bit of guard damage. But don't be predictable! Use it sparingly and its usefulness will skyrocket.
Choi's Key Takeaway:
Avoiding the 'auto pilot' syndrome is very key. I've met plenty of players over the years that play the game just so they can do certain combos or cool patterns. While this may be fun to do, if your goal is to win, then this impedes your goal. You must train yourself to avoid falling into these predictable patterns. Recording your own matches and watching them can help you identify and break this habit.
As Juicebox mentions, Abel's forward kick into the 1 frame link is absolutely crucial as that is the main way for Abel to do big damage outside of his tornado throw. Learn this combo at all costs!
DAY 2: Vangief
Hailing from San Francisco Bay Area, Vance "Vangief" Wu is another new player that made quite a splash in the scene by defeating Justin Wong and placing top 8 at his very first EVO competition. Opting to use a PlayStation control pad over a fight stick, he is best known for his smart and aggressive Zangief play in which he bulldogs the competition with his fearsome vortex patterns. Many players have fallen victim to his now infamous walking 720 Zangief ultra.
General Tips:
1.Mind games play a huge part in SSF4. The risk and reward factor come into play during mix-up situations, in both offense and defense. Always pay close attention to both you and your opponent's options (health/ultra/super meter) so that you may make decisions accordingly. If you take a risk and go for a dangerous mix-up, make sure it is going to pay off. Go to training mode and learn the most damaging combo/move for a variety of situations/matchups so that you may best capitalize on your opponent's mistakes.
2.Record and watch your own matches to look for bad habits that you may have in general or during certain situations. You may not actually notice them until you watch yourself play.
3.Practice hit confirm combos in training mode, ie: Zangief's crouching short kick x2 --> EX banishing fist, Ryu's crouching jab x 2-3 --> uppercut, by setting the CPU to Random Block. Begin to execute your combo and if your first attack hits, finish the uppercut motion and complete the combo. If the CPU blocks your first attack, throw/SPD. This will help you react appropriately in matches than just throwing things out there and hoping it hits.
Zangief Specific Tips:
1.Combo execution is a must as Zangief to force your opponent to stay grounded so that you can start your mix-up game. Spend plenty of time learning your bread and butter combos in training mode.
2.As Zangief, refrain from jumping forward over too many fireballs. Be patient when closing in on your opponent and mix up your ways of getting around them so you don't become too predictable. Focus-forward/back-dash, neutral jump, and KKK lariat is generally safe from 3/4 screen away. React to fireballs and other openings with EX banishing fist 1/4 to 1/2 screen away. Remember that when in doubt, blocking is a great idea. Don't be afraid to block 1 or even 5 fireballs in a row at close range when looking for openings in your opponent's defense.
3.When knocking your opponent down in the corner, mixing in a normal throw is sometimes better than an SPD on their wake up. If they jump, Zangief will recover from the throw and have time to lariat on their way down. If they tech the throw, Zangief will still be in jab SPD range. Mix-up your attacks and bait your opponents to limit their options in the corner.
4.Hot Tip * Walking 720 * To do a walking 720 ultra, you will need to do the first 360 motion then take a step forward and then complete the 2nd 360 motion. To keep you from jumping during the 1st 360, you’ll need to do something to keep you grounded. This first 360 motion can be buffered in from a variety of moves such as after a deep jump in attack or a short kick. The best way to practice is by using low short kick on an opponent to keep you grounded. So doing this from the left side of the screen, do a low short then buffer in the 360 motion using up, left, down, and right position during the short kick. Then keep holding right and take a step forward then finish the 360 motion by going from right to down, left, up + PPP. The key thing to remember is to do the initial up position as late as possible to get the maximum walk time.
Choi's Key Takeaway:
Many people go to training mode and practice combos on a stationary dummy. But during match play, this will never be the case. Be sure to train a variety of situations by putting the dummy to jump, random block, etc.
Most grappler (Zangief, Hawk, etc) players place too much emphasis on landing the command throw and forget about the normal throw. As Vance mentions, adding in a normal throw to your arsenal gives you additional attack options.
DAY 3: Bucktooth
Campbell "buktooth" Tran is originally a Northern California native who after doing a short stint living in Japan, has settled down in Dallas, Texas. A strong competitor in both Tekken and Street Fighter, he is most well known for his unique Capcom vs. SNK 2 team of N groove Iori, Morrigan, and Hibiki. But he is a jack of all trades in fighting games and is a formidable opponent in obscure fighters such as Fighting Jam, Breaker's Revenge, and Kenichi. He is a very methodical thinker and applies his analytical thought process to his approach on Street Fighter.
General Tips:
1.After every match you play, try to mentally review and identify the critical points of the match, such as:
1.Which situations gave you the most trouble?
2.When did you receive major damage?
3.How was your opponent defending your attacks?
With this information, evaluate whether or not you should do things differently for future matches. (Hint: the answer is almost always yes)
2.Fighting on the ground, extremely simplified: (footsies simplified to rock, paper, and scissor format)
1.Sticking Out Moves beats Walking Forward
2.Walking Forward beats Whiff Punishing
3.Whiff Punishing beats Sticking Out Moves
Of course, there are a million more wrinkles to it than that, but applying these three things will allow you to solve a whole lot of ground-game-based problems in Street Fighter.
The Walking Forward part is a little abstract, and deserves a bit of explanation:A player that is looking to whiff punish something is not going to be pressing buttons; they are going to be either standing still or walking backwards, waiting for you whiff something. Walking forward exploits this by closing the distance and/or pushing the opponent back towards the corner, as they walk backwards to maintain their desired spacing.
Whiff punishing means to put yourself just outside the opponents poke range and wait for the opponent to stick out a move that whiffs and countering with a quick move of your own. An example of this is in a shoto (Ryu, Ken, Akuma) match, one character sticks out a low forward kick that whiffs then the opponent sweeps it with crouching roundhouse kick during the recovery.
Sticking out moves is pretty self explanatory. You anticipate someone to walk into range so you stick out your attack first so that the move is already in hitting frames by the time they walk into range.
3.Blaming losses on execution errors is a dead-end in the learning process. It’s also a sort of cop-out to make yourself feel better: “I would have won if only I had hit that combo.”
It’s a given that any serious player should devote some amount of time ensuring that their commands are clean and consistent. Instead, focus on the things that went wrong leading up to that point in the match.
4.When playing a session of casual matches always have a set of goals in mind. Just trying to win your matches at all costs can often stunt the growth process. Some example goals:
1.Learn a character matchup better
2.Blocking more, not getting counter hit or whiffing throws
3.Practice whiff punishing a certain move
4.Anti air every jump possible
5.Incorporate a new tool you’ve discovered in training mode
Ibuki Specific Tips:
1.Playing as Ibuki, remember to be patient. Play a solid ground game and knockdown opportunities will develop naturally. Avoid doing the following things randomly in a frantic attempt to get your offense started:
1.Neckbreakers
2.Jumps
3.DF+MK slides
4.Command dashes
Instead, try to get into the mindset of earning your knockdowns with solid play, and your Ibuki results
will become much more consistent.
2.Every Ibuki player does way too many DF+MK slides (myself included). In most situations it ends up being disadvantage on hit or unsafe on block. Trying to space max-range slides is unreliable on a moving opponent, as they will often move forward into it (making it unsafe) or walk backwards, causing it to whiff completely.
The most reliable time to use the slide is when an opponent is attempting create the spacing to whiff punish Ibuki’s s.MK or c.MK. They will also typically be walking backwards, not blocking low.
3.Tsumuji (the rekka kicks) are an invaluable part of Ibuki’s ground game. They’re her longest range poke, lead to an untechable knockdown on hit, and inflict a fair amount of chip damage. Proper use of Tsumuji on the ground will force opponents into actions that will earn you the all-important knockdown.
4.The MK version of Tsumuji (without the ender) is even frames on block. Depending on distance between yourself and your opponent afterwards, you can do several things:
1.Counter hit with F+LK (4 frame start up), which then combos into MK Tsumuji for a knockdown. On block, more chip damage is inflicted upon the opponent, which may induce a reaction for you to take advantage of
2.Walk back and allow your opponent to whiff a poke, then use your whiff punisher of choice:
1.c.HK
2.s.MK into Tsumuji/Neckbreaker/Ultra 2
3.F+LK into LK Tsumuji
3.Do the sweep ender of the Tsumuji with delayed timing. This is the most reliable way to counter players spamming strong low jabs (e.g. Boxer and Ryu)
4.Take advantage of your opponent’s hesitation to press buttons to walk in closer and create more pressure
5.Against characters that have easy ways out of the kunai mix-up, like Chun Li and Balrog, set up a safe jump after your knockdowns instead:
1.After neckbreaker, whiff c.MK and normal jump (safe to 5 frame reversals)
2.After MK Tsumuji, whiff s.LK and normal jump (safe to 4 frame reversals)
Choi's Key Takeaway:
Campbell makes an excellent point about lack of execution as a cop out for losses. So many players resort to that excuse then immediately go into training mode to practice the combo they missed over and over thinking that will fix the problem next time. This aspect is minor compared to why you got in that situation in the first place. Focus on analyzing weak areas in strategy rather than just combo execution.
Footsies is a key component of battle but is very difficult to lay out in specific terms. Although highly simplified, Campbell has laid out the 3 pronged fundamentals of footsies nicely. Focus on categorizing your footsie move set into the paper, rock, and scissor categories to help you better understand and improve your ground arsenal.
DAY 4: Justin Wong
Justin Wong is widely considered as the best Marvel vs. Capcom 2 player of all time with an unprecedented six 1st place finishes at EVO. He excels in many fighters and in recent years established a complete dominance in the Street Fighter 4 circuit by taking top honors in nearly all US events. Due to his strong performances, he is one of the first Street Fighter players to turn pro and signed on with various entities such as Empire Arcadia, Evil Controllers, Jinx, and most recently, Evil Geniuses.
General Tips:
1.Becoming the best is a long road so you should never be happy no matter how many tournaments you win. Try to actually have the mindset of “RYU” and keep on travelling to local/major tourneys and sessions around your area. XBL/PSN can get you really far but when you need that ‘nerve pressure’ experience, you need to play offline at local tourneys.
2.Don’t try to base your entire game plan from match videos that you see online. THAT NEVER WORKS. You can take tips here and there from top players but you can never duplicate that person. When you play fighting games, it’s based off reactions, reading your opponents movements, and split second decisions that will decide your fate in battle, not your ability to copy someone.
3.When you want to become better, you should set a target on a specific person. When I was up and coming, my target was Eddie Lee, the East Coast Legend (Editor’s note: Eddie Lee was the dominator of the East Coast scene for a long time before Justin) I was an average player but my goal was to become the best and Eddie Lee was my first target. I used to always get nervous playing against him because he is EDDIE LEE, but this mentality is what most up and coming players have problems with. Many people drop combos on top players that they fight because they get scared and nervous and doubt themselves. The player thinks, “Oh my god I’m going to lose to this top player.” “Why do I have to face him first round?” “Oh my god did I just hit him?” The list goes on and on. Instead, if you fight a top player in tournament, think calmly like this, “This is my chance to see what the skill gap is.”
Rufus Specific Tips:
1.When you play Rufus against someone, your main goal is to abuse the “human habit.” The human habit is when someone does something over and over. For example, if someone does a jump in and lands near you, everyone will usually try to throw. So you can abuse this by doing a low divekick that whiffs which will bait out a throw attempt so you can get a free combo opportunity. This is one of the ways to expose the human habits. Teching a throw anytime the opponent is near is a very common tactic in SF4 so Rufus can easily take advantage of that with his instant dive kick or EX messiah.
2.Don’t abuse EX messiah kick and try to use it sparingly. EX messiah is your main defensive weapon so you want to save it for when it really counts.
3.Rufus has bad footsies in general but you must learn to use his sweep, especially to punish whiffed moves. His sweep is very important as it sets up a perfect opportunity for dive kick pressure which is a main part of his game.
4.A lot of Rufus players do not know about frame traps. Some of the smallest frame trap tricks are very important, especially in matches against defensive characters. For example, if your opponent blocks Rufus’ far standing HK then tries to move or press a button, your crouching jab will win and you can get a free EX galactic tornado. The same goes for after you hit with the down/forward + medium kick or close standing strong.
Choi's Key Takeaway:Most of us aren’t at the point yet where we have to travel far and wide to continue to find better competition, but Justin’s point is still valid for the rest us:
Don’t be that guy that leaves a gaming session patting himself on the back for beating the local champ a game (or even a round! People do this all the time!). Unless you put up a dominating performance for the entire session, you’ve got things to learn from your games.
Taking advantage of what Justin calls the “human habit” is definitely something Rufus excels at. There are several uncomfortable situations in Street Fighter 4 which prompt even the most seasoned veterans to open themselves up with standing throw techs. For example:
•An opponent empty jumping and landing right next to them
•After having a level 1 Focus Attack blocked and dashing forward
•Defending against an attacker who is within throw range, but isn’t actually making you block anything
In all of these instances, it is very common for a person to panic and unconsciously attempt to tech a throw. A well-aware Rufus player can take big advantage of this human habit and capitalize with a big combo starting from an instant, low to the ground dive kick.
In short, everybody panics and mashes given the proper stimuli. Your job as a Rufus player is to create, identify, and capitalize on these situations with dive kicks, EX messiah, and counter hit combos.
DAY 5: Shizza
Shane “Shizza” Cummings is another newcomer with a meteoric rise to the top ranks of the Street Fighter 4 competitive scene. Placing top 8 at the most recent EVO with his patented Chun Li, he earned the right to be one of the proud owners of a limited edition Gold TE stick. Although he opts to use a fight pad over a stick, he still demonstrates top notch execution and is a competitor to be feared.
General Tips
1.Sometimes it's better to sacrifice damage for positioning: An example of this is to refrain from following up Chun's EX lighting legs with an EX spinning bird kick (SBK) in the corner against a character that is hard to get close to (Guile, Dhalsim etc.). You can also use this guideline for getting out of the corner with a back throw instead of a normal punish combo against characters that have really good corner pressure (Rufus, Dudley etc.). Positioning also includes safe jumps, so a lot of times it's best to go for the untechable knockdown instead of the standard and slightly higher damaging option.
A great example of this is the Japanese Akuma player Tokido. He almost always finishes his combos with sweep, even though it does less damage than an uppercut, because he wants to keep the pressure on his opponent and induce a stun. Akuma has many more attacking options after he lands a sweep because he can control the timing of his next setup.
2.Find out how your opponent defends against throws: Once you learn this you can counter them with the appropriate throw bait setup. If your opponent is stand tech'ing, then hit them with a low attack. You can punish whiffed throws with anything as minor as a far range normal to an Ultra. If your opponent is crouch tech'ing (more widely used) then your goal is to hit them with a "frame trap." Find out what your character's best frame trap is.
Here are some examples of what I mean: Sagat – crouching medium punch, Boxer- standing hardkick, Dictator – crouching hard punch. Use your character's frame trap to hit your opponent in the startup frames of their crouch tech'ing normal for a "counter-hit." A counter-hit gives you extra frame advantage and allows to you follow up with combos you wouldn't normally be able to. Check out this (04:48) for one of the most godlike counter-hit setups of all time.
3.Don't give anything away for free: Prior to starting a tournament there's usually a session of casual games. You can choose not to play of course. But if you decide to play casuals against potential tournament opponents, make sure to save your best stuff for actual tournament action. It's not a good idea to use your "super secret omg so sick" setup in casuals. If you run into that person in the tournament, or another player who was spying on you, they'll be much better prepared to defend against it.
4.Be aware of your emotions: Certain lame characters can annoy you with far range zoning. It's important not to get frustrated and attack recklessly, but instead maintaining a methodical approach to your offense. There are also certain moves that can just piss you off when you get hit by them. I've been told that Chun's standing hardkick is one of them. I know that Dhalsim’s standing hardpunch is popular in this category, as well as Seth's jump back hard punch. (Well, Seth's "anything" really). Personally I get annoyed every time I get hit by Guile's backfist. Most players’ first instinct in this situation is to immediately counter attack but good players will expect this and easily counter your attempt. Your subsequent attack will most likely be countered and you'll be even more pissed. You need to remind yourself to keep this impulse in check and not to play into your opponent's hands.
Chun-Li Specific Tips
1.Mix up your jump-in attacks: IMO Chun has the best jump-in mixup in the game. The most common setup is jump-in - hardpunch x 2. So against a good player you'll want to deviate from this pattern since they'll most likely be conditioned to blocking it correctly. Instead of that, try going for one of these options instead: jump hp x 1, empty jump crouching short kick, empty jump throw, and empty jump hazanshu.
2.Start doing reversal hazanshus: To do this correctly, time your hazanshu input immediately after coming out of blockstun when your opponent attacks you. These hazanshus can't be focus attacked because they have armor breaking properties. You might have noticed that Viper players use a similar tactic with her Flame Kick. Here's a in that same video to see how NOT to do this.
3.Be unpredictable with your defense: I think one of the reasons Chun is at the top of the tier charts is because of her high defensive utility value. She has a godlike backdash that's very hard to punish. She has an EX SBK that will counter most of your opponent's attacks. Hazanshus have throw invincibility and can often avoid your opponent’s attacks.
4.Start using the increasingly popular crouching hardpunch canceled to lightning legs (cr.hp xx LL) combo: It isn't necessary to win with this combo, but it's such a good tool to add to your arsenal. Its most important benefit is being able to land a high damage combo without the need for meter or charge. You can do practical punish combos worth about 225 damage every time by ending your cr. hp xx LL combo with a standing hardpunch (2 frame link) or crouching hardkick (1 frame link).
Although the combo does less damage than cr.hp xx mk.sbk and close hard kick (cl.hk) xx EX lightning legs, it has advantages over both of those standard punish combos. The advantage is that the SBK combo requires charge which isn’t always available. The SBK combo also leaves you right next to your opponent at the end so this isn’t a good choice versus T-Hawk or Zangief. It's a good example of why you should sometimes sacrifice damage for positioning. Chun’s close hardkick xx EX LL does 250 damage which is great, but it requires a meter. This isn't too bad of a result for 250 damage, but settling for 25 less damage and a sustained EX bar is the more efficient option IMO. That EX bar is probably more useful for EX SBK or Super.
Now that I've made my case for this combo, I'd also like to mention another one of its cool features: Resets. You have so much frame advantage (+7) that you can put your opponent in different amounts of hitstun and throw off their defensive timing. Of course you're taking a risk in this situation but it can potentially pay off big. There are many possibilities to come from the reset to use your imagination to come up with different options.
Choi's Key Takeaway:
Shizza's tip about controlling your emotions is one aspect that is often overlooked. Yes it is important to train yourself physically so that your hands can execute the moves you want, but don't overlook the mental aspect which greatly influences your performance. Even when things get annoying, learn to stay calm and stick to your guns. A sure way to defeat is to lose control of your emotions.
As opposed to robotically performing the maximum damage combo in every situation, players should quickly take stock of the situation and make a decision on what combo to perform based on a number of factors:
•Are you fighting a keepaway character that is difficult to initiate offense on?
•How much damage do you have to sacrifice to end the combo in a way that allows you to maintain offense?
•Is it worth it to spend extra meter on this combo (either for more damage or for improved set up)
In Street Fighter, the decision making process doesn’t stop at any point in the match, including combos. Don’t be robotic!
Original Post: SRK