Counter picking, do you do it? Fair or unfair.

[evansgambit]

Man, a lot of you guys are in for a rude awakening if you think it's unfair LOL. Who gives a fuck?? Sure I'll counterpick, but I'll make sure to at least know enough about my bad matchups so I can at least learn some ins and outs.

But guess what guys.... counter picks don't mean shit if you can read your opponent. Sure the character abilities may be disadvantageous for another character but the player can punish your fireball every time you knock them down, or uppercut you every time you do a high 2 after a low 3. If you can't adapt to the little situations like that on the fly, you're done.

Good shit guys.

You're actually missing the point. Counter picking ties in with matchup and tier theory, and has nothing to do with the opponent's abilities. As we would assume optimal play from both sides. Knowing the matchup is a given fact at high levels of play. Counter picking actually has more importance than you think, as some characters have tools that can completely change the game or how you play your game.

Should a baraka, jax or sheeva be able to win tournaments, or make a deep run?

 

[eskuAdradit0]

Online against people I don't know: Hidden cursor, random select. Just like MK2(except for the hidden cursor function. I love it! )
I know I know. I don't really care about losing against lame players, laggers and that sorta stuff. Given the fact I use Tsung a lot, I can relate myself with a good amount of the cast(and growing). Plus, you don't even need to know all the bnbs and stuff to win against most people online.
Online against people I know and offline: If we don't choose at the same time, I'm the first to choose on hidden cursor. Match loser gets to pick another char, just like a regular tourney. Also, 111-111.
This kind of matches are the most fun IMO.

 

[Vulcan Hades]

Counter picking is shooting yourself in the foot imo. It's playing it lazy instead of making an effort to learn your bad matchups. The only reason I would counter pick is if my main had a 2-8 or 3-7 doom matchups that I know I just can't win. In those cases I can understand why one would counter pick. Especially at a tournament where there's big money on the line.

Otherwise, I don't see why I would ever counter pick vs a 4-6.

IMO the best players are always those that learn how to deal with their most terrible matchups.

 

[Sao87]

Unless you are running one of the god tier characters, yes you need to counter pick.

 

[Nick T.]

You're actually missing the point. Counter picking ties in with matchup and tier theory, and has nothing to do with the opponent's abilities. As we would assume optimal play from both sides. Knowing the matchup is a given fact at high levels of play. Counter picking actually has more importance than you think, as some characters have tools that can completely change the game or how you play your game.

Should a baraka, jax or sheeva be able to win tournaments, or make a deep run?

I'm not missing any point. If you counter pick and don't know the matchup, the better player will always win. GTFO with that BS.

 

[Slego]

I only counterpick when someone picks a char that pisses me off for some random reason, like Scorpion. There is nothing inherantly wrong with Scorpion, but since he's 70% of king of the hill matches, I always pick Kabal against him 'cause the matchup is familiar and it irrationally pisses me off when I lose.

 

[Loot]

I like to just pick my character and fight instead of being a fucking troll on the select screen.

Back on topic, counter picking is fine, but you're better learning your characters matchups.

 

[THTB]

I don't counterpick...but that's only because I'm way too lazy to become as effective with a secondary as I am with my main. XD

 

[aj1701]

I love the mind games at the select screen. Sometimes you know someone's beat before they even pick a character. I often just leave my cursor over Sub-Zero and let the game auto pick him for me, just so I make them sweat it out for as long as possible, lol.

I've had people do that, its annoying. I want to play not stare at the select screen!

 

[Killphil]

I like to just pick my character and fight instead of being a fucking troll on the select screen.

Back on topic, counter picking is fine, but you're better learning your characters matchups.

I hear ya. I know who I'm going to pick before my next match even starts. Its so annoying that the person I'm playing about half the time they won't even move the cursor until after I pick my character. They either do that or they just cycle through the characters needlessly.(this gives me the impression that they're indeed wondering "how will this guy do against the character he picked?". One time I got so annoyed with this guy because he just sat after I picked sub I just kept selecting him so it would say "sub. sub. sub. sub. sub". I started alternating between him and lao just for lols (I wanted sub) and he picked a character when I was on lao. I got a chuckle out of that. lol

 

[Scoot Magee]

I don't counterpick...but that's only because I'm way too lazy to become as effective with a secondary as I am with my main. XD

Plus reptile has tools to deal with everyone so we are pretty much counterpicking right off the bat lol.

 

[Vilén]

I honestly don't think that counterpicking should be allowed in tournaments, period. It's not that it's "unfair", I just like the Japanese mentality of "get good or get gone."

That doesn't apply online where everyone sucks, though. If anybody actually does it to me, I'd say about 80% of the time they're even worse with their counterpick than they are with Scorpion.

The only instance in which I counterpick online is if my opponent picks Noob. However, I only do this after the first match if I know it's just going to be too laggy for me to react to Noob's shenanigans.

 

[DOWNLOADED]

I would not counterpick but I think its fair cause I feel way more comfortable with my main since I spent most of the time with him who happens to be Nightwolf and my other mains are Kano and Baraka. Online, I would just go with whoever I want to get better with and just learn the matchup and if I make good reads I will beat my opponent most of the time.

 

[BenGmanUk]

IMO the best players are always those that learn how to deal with their most terrible matchups.

This.

You will never improve if you constantly play matches in your favour, much like playing people less skilled. No-one cares about your W/L ratio.

 

[Sultani]

Please understand that the fact that "counterpicking" is even a thing reveals that the game is not balanced.

You wouldn't see any rock paper scissors based matchups, and "counterpicking" wouldn't even exist (because it wouldn't have to) if the game was balanced better.

I wouldn't say counterpicking is "unfair," I'd just say that it sucks really really badly that the imbalance of the game makes it exist in the first place.

I agree that you'll only get better by practicing against unfavorable matchups, but I disagree that the existance of "favorable" or "unfavorable" matchups is a good thing in the first place. Those two things catalyze counterpicking and necessitate imbalance. You can't have a balanced game across the board if there's even a such thing as favorable or unfavorable matchups.

The fact that this discussion is even here... yea... proof.

Also I lol'd at the 'pick Kung Lao 24/7' comment.

 

[evansgambit]

Please understand that the fact that "counterpicking" is even a thing reveals that the game is not balanced.

You wouldn't see any rock paper scissors based matchups, and "counterpicking" wouldn't even exist (because it wouldn't have to) if the game was balanced better.

I wouldn't say counterpicking is "unfair," I'd just say that it sucks really really badly that the imbalance of the game makes it exist in the first place.

I agree that you'll only get better by practicing against unfavorable matchups, but I disagree that the existance of "favorable" or "unfavorable" matchups is a good thing in the first place. Those two things catalyze counterpicking and necessitate imbalance. You can't have a balanced game across the board if there's even a such thing as favorable or unfavorable matchups.

The fact that this discussion is even here... yea... proof.

Also I lol'd at the 'pick Kung Lao 24/7' comment.

Finally someone with logical reasoning. It comes down to the inherit game mechanics and in ideal circumstances, counterpicking should never exist. Judging from the tally of responses, most of which imply its fair. If you can reach that conclusion after considering game and/or matchup imbalances, fair enough.

Because counter picking is not cheating, there's no right or wrong, its more of an ethics question. Whatever your moral ground is.

 

[Evil_Riu48]

counterpick has nothing to do with a game been balanced or not counter pick is about the matchups between two characters. however i really do not mind when someone is trying to counterpick me but i do love that in mk9 counter pick is not posible since you can pick a character and your opponent will never know who you picked i like to to this to people who just stay there and wait for me to pick just to get them mad lol

 

[yungmoney4418]

I feel like counter picking is alright...but in this game almost every character can beat another if played right...but the thing about it is...if yur opponent is good with that person he counter picked...sometimes it might be worse for them and dey never wished dey counter picked lol

Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

 

[Kwon]

I don't mind being Counter-picked, but myself, i try not to if i can avoid it, since i want to be as good as possible against ANY opponent/character.

Sometimes i do implement some variation in my pickings though, either Sub, Smoke or Rain.

 

[G4S KT]

I fight the entire cast with Smoke without hesitation. That being said, I don't think counter picking is unfair.

 

[Subby]

If they want to counterpick, fine with me. I'll kick their Arse anyway.

 

[Theme]

Online players love to counter pick. It gets annoying. I dont notice it most of the time, because before the match starts, I usually pick a character already. I dont counter pick, nor do I mind that much, but if we're even 50/50 and into our like 10th game, I'd start using hidden, still never counter picking. It just gets annoying and since I am competitive, I take it as aggression. But usually I am confident in my mains, so I dont mind.

 

[Deleted member 5032]

I exclusively use Kano. When the time comes my cursor goes straight to him to choose costume 2. As far as I'm concerned I want my opponent to counter-pick. This means that I will be facing an opponent that I obviously need to be facing because he or she has some sort of advantage over my Kano. To this day I haven't found a specific character who can beat me consistently. I say do me a favor and counter pick away!

 

[chessmaster]

i never counter pick but i like to let my opponent pick first so they dont try to mirror me. thats the one match i hate more than any match.

 

[CY MasterHavik]

Check loves to counter pick.