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

[TrembleGoose]

As a long-time competitive tournament player, counter picking is perfectly fine. It does not equal an instant win. You're gonna run into those ass matchups sooner or later. Either way, you gotta know the matchup, no matter who it is.

As a Noob player on the counter picking subject.....


Fuck Raiden. :throwcomputer:

 

[JkOC]

I main Sektor and think he can fight with any character in the game, so I don't care who the other person picks. When I do play online I see a lot of player who counterpick and choose a character they have no idea how to use. I get a lot of smoke and scorpion in response to Sektor. And most of them have no idea how to use the character they counterpicked with.

 

[RamenO]

Matchups being one sided or advantageous to a certain character aren't some arbitrary thing. Certain characters do have tougher times than others. I don't counter pick, but I do play a handful of characters and will switch off Stryker(my main) if I feel the match is too lopsided(Kung Lao).

 

[Vulcan Hades]

I get a lot of smoke and scorpion in response to Sektor. And most of them have no idea how to use the character they counterpicked with.

lol I hate when they do that. They counter pick me using Kabal but have no clue how to use him. They think they can win by just throwing random ground saws and gast blasts. I find their stupidity insulting.

I've fought so many Smokes and Mileenas online it's not even funny. I think I'm going to start hiding my cursor to avoid repetitive dumb matchups.

 

[HadesWTF]

I don't counter pick. I don't even wait for my op to pick most of the time. However if playing more than once I will often switch off between my two mains, for whoever I feel more comfortable with in the matchup. Raiden for instance, I will usually pick Nightwolf over Kabal. If I'm fighting Cage or Quan Chi I usually go with Big K.

 

[Tim Static]

Of course its fair. Play to win.

 

[Massicus]

My main is sub-zero and he's the only guy who I play but goddamn today was crazy.
This guy was waiting for me to choose so I picked Sub-zero, he picked Kung Loa.
I managed to defeat him but just as I want to finish his 8% with the X-ray he ragequitted.
Then he challenged me again and picked Cyrax.
I just quitted but I'm considering to pick Smoke now everytime I see Cyrax, I dont know what I'm supposed to do against someone who throws bombs, and then applies pressure with nets and teleports into a 56% combo.
I guess the only way to defeat one would be to teleportpunch as soon as I see a bomb/net come out.

 

[Briggs8417]

People think I counter-pick but I only have about five characters that I really like to play that I rotate and it can seem that way sometimes.

 

[Raiman]

well i main raiden and their isn't much they can counter pick for him, usually kung lao or reptile. but its always funny when i pick sub zero and they instantly go for kitanna or noob. its like yes he picked sub now i can spam my fans or shadows all day. then they rage quite when i dash block. but I do get pissed when my sub gets counter picked by kabal. i can't do shit against a good kabal with subz.

 

[Briggs8417]

well i main raiden and their isn't much they can counter pick for him, usually kung lao or reptile. but its always funny when i pick sub zero and they instantly go for kitanna or noob. its like yes he picked sub now i can spam my fans or shadows all day. then they rage quite when i dash block. but I do get pissed when my sub gets counter picked by kabal. i can't do shit against a good kabal with subz.

Yeah I hate that matchup too, I really struggle with Kabal when I play SZ, it seems impossible sometimes.

 

[MKF30]

I just pick invinsible if someone is constantly counterpicking me, if they don't like it..then I'll tell them. Stop waiting for me to pick every time, then and we won't have a problem lol.

Good old invisibility, mystery option You can't counter pick who you don't know they're picking lol so it forces them to pick one of their best people.

 

[GamerBlake90]

Truthfully I don't counter-pick, but as a tourney player I understand the reason for it. Part of winning the game is learning to exploit match-ups. However there is the matter of the Hidden Select feature which lets some players avoid it...

I use multiple characters, so at times when I take my time deciding who to be, they think I'm counter-picking them, which I'm not. Actually I kinda hope they'll pick a character that has an advantage over mine, because it allows me to challenge myself towards improving on the negative match-ups. Like I once told SHORYUKEN, I'm of the belief that match-ups alone don't decide a game, even though they play a role. It isn't the character alone that wins a fight, rather it's the player who uses him/her. An advantage is one thing, but it takes more than that to win a match.

I know there are some who may disagree with this, so feel free to state your thoughts. Nevertheless, my opinion is my own until it changes. Don't get me wrong: I am a player with the "play-to-win" mentality, just that I believe winning stretches beyond more than just using some high-tier characters.

 

[Vulcan Hades]

Completely agree with you.

I've said it before but the best players are always going to be those that actually put effort in to learn and deal with their most terrible matchups. Not those that tier whore or counter pick to avoid/exploit the bad matchups.

Also, I really do believe that any character in the game can move up a few tiers if the player who uses that character puts the effort in. Like for example: let's say Mileena has 4 bad matchups, if a player learns those matchups so well that they eventually become almost 5-5, then suddenly that Mileena player has no bad matchups at all. So my Mileena might be A+, but REO's Mileena is S because he put more effort than I did and learned the Kung Lao and Raiden matchups instead of counter picking like I did.

 

[Poto2222]

I don't counterpick, yet I'm fine with it. Actually, I don't think it is fair or unfair, but laughable. Everytime my opponent waits for me to pick my character, I think "God, he's really going to do this? LOL".
It's just a quiet way of saying that he realized that his main has little to no chance against yours, and that he desperately needs to win the following match or else he'll be doomed in the depths of his misery, travelling on his unending quest to find all the countless minor pieces of his demolished former self.


...or something like that.

 

[RampaginDragon]

I counter pick Ermac only, and I don't have any problem with him I just have more trouble with him than I should. I actually alt Ermac and like it. I just use Reptile against him most of the time. But the only charecters I hate are Kung lao, Mileena, Scorpion.

 

[CaliJokerstyle]

Im basically with gamerblake i like when people counter pick me because i like getting better at bad matchups. The only time i would counter pick is if one of my chars is the counter and i keep losing with my main, plus Sindel has some huge bad matchups so if someone is maining one of her terrible matchups i will pick CSZ or Mileena. Thats offline, online i just dont care cause i don't play my main online anymore and i play just for fun not for anything important.

 

[rev0lver]

I don't counterpick....

yet.

I know some basic stuff (bnb's, aa strategy, etc) with Noob and Sektor, but until I feel I have really mastered Kitana I'm not going to work on countering the matchups of Kabal and Reptile. Counterpicking is an inevitable part of any FG that's not completely 5-5 matchups, so I see no reason to whine about it.

What I do LOVE is fail counterpicking. I've seen many times where the opponent hovers over a certain char, I pick Kitana and they move over to Smoke. It makes people rage when they realize Kitana doesn't just throw fans.

 

[HurlingDervish]

I don't care about counter picking offline. Most people don't bother anyway, they stick to their guns.

but online....

I'm all for playing to win, but theres a line where people just take shit too personally/seriously after losing one match and think their win actually meant something, (not to say they didn't deserve the win), when really I'm just chilling hoping to get some good matches in with a new character. It makes trying out things online tedious until you find a good player who will stick with the bad matchup until you learn, or a chill player who will go random select with you.

 

[Ruuku1012]

I do counter-pick a lot. But I really counter-pick my opponent more so than just his character.

 

[Mr. Rager]

I used to counterpick alot. Still do against most players, because I know everyone.
but with STBs clan thats full of Experts you GOTTA stick with one character.
My advice is to learn two characters with completely different playstyles.
so you have a character against a rusher or a zoner.
if you keep training with one character regardless though youll learn the matchups,
whatever you feel comfortable with
theyll eventually force me to pick a main lol

 

[Reedoms]

I only play Noob so there really isn't anyone I can counter-pick other than Baraka or something.
Only counter-pick that rustles my jimmies is when someone goes to Raiden. That matchup is retarded as hell.
Anything else, I don't care about at all.

 

[SilverKeyMan]

When I used to use several characters equally, I'd usually pick first, then watch as my opponent selects a perfect counter.

"Fucking asshole! Counter picking me! I'd wipe the floor with him if I'd only chosen _________ instead. Goddamn I hate online."

Since then I've actually stopped practicing with other characters, and select ONLY Sub-Zero. I still pick first, but I'm much better with this single character than I was with any of the other characters. Now when I see someone try to counterpick, I just laugh, because chances are if they are changing characters, they're not really that good with ANY of them.

 

[HadesWTF]

When I used to use several characters equally, I'd usually pick first, then watch as my opponent selects a perfect counter.

"Fucking asshole! Counter picking me! I'd wipe the floor with him if I'd only chosen _________ instead. Goddamn I hate online."

Since then I've actually stopped practicing with other characters, and select ONLY Sub-Zero. I still pick first, but I'm much better with this single character than I was with any of the other characters. Now when I see someone try to counterpick, I just laugh, because chances are if they are changing characters, they're not really that good with ANY of them.

Lol If I played Sub I'd just hide my cursor and move around a lot to give the illusion that I was picking someone else then just pick him to throw them off.

 

[Niflheim]

Only when my opponent talks trash and think he's beast cuz he beat me once, I just pull out my pocket Kung Lao. Makes them ragequit everytime. I like to learn my matchups, but it's near impossible with my Great Plain Lag. I only like to counter-pick after I beat the person about five times with my main or sub(CSZ/Kabal).

 

[Pagan]

If you play one of the top 8 there really isn't much people can do as far as counterpicking. The middle bracket is where it becomes more like rock-paper-scissors because of lopsided matchups like No0bs