Shrug. To each their own but it feels pretty even to me. I think one of the keys to the MU might be just playing a run-away zoning war until he gets trigger then approach on the ground. St.rh has good range. F. And cr. Fp both have decent range. St.mk has more range than it seems, and it's very fast for a medium that combos in to the damage you get off of it.
Gief stops Akuma's bullshit, so it's a fundamental/footsie kinda thing, or at least that's how I play it. You have to abuse your fireballs while you can and then play a careful spacing game, try to whiff punish and convert in to damage. Stay out of the air and don't try a bunch of mixup demon flip shenanigans, just spacing and patience. If you get a KD prioritize screen position over anything else.. if I land a sweep or something my first thought is always getting away from the corner I'm probably being backed in to.
Shrug, maybe you're right and Gief wins everything (footsies, screen position, etc) vs Akuma but in the neutral when I'm playing patient and not screwing up my spacing I don't feel like I'm in a losing position..
Now, contrary to what I just said, sometimes taking a risk is worth a lot. If you have meter on deck and you have a Gief who likes mashing jab mindlessly, ex dp his ass or walk in, try to bait the jab spam, take a quick step back and fish for a counter hit or CC. It's an in and out game and it's about spacing and respect. Don't forget also that a lot of Giefs damage comes from reads and if he reads wrong, Akuma can turn that in to a shit-ton of damage . Isn't his no meter jump in like 330? I can't remember.. that's essentially a third of Giefs health if you read an SPD.
Again, maybe I'm totally wrong, but I don't think he loses the MU, I think it's pretty even. Both characters have mean shit to do to one another.
A quick edition- patterns and timing are important. I played a game as Rashid vs Gief earlier where I was just getting dumpstered and started bitching that all Gief had to do was mash whatever and it just beat me out. So next set we switched and I just mashed as Gief. And I mean mashed, cause I dunno how to play him. So, funnily enough , things were kinda rough for the other guy the first game or so, then he got his spacing and timing right and started to whiff punish and CC Giefs stuff. I saw the range he was at and how he was timing what I was doing. So we swapped back for the next set and while I still lost (second time playing Rashid ever vs a Gief main and someone who played him quite a bit in s1 as well) it wasn't to.Gief spamming buttons. I was able to make my 'inferior' normals work by just watching for patterns and figureing out timings and such.. and that's rough on Rashid because if you're fishing for a Cr.fp Gief can jump and full combo your ass and his st.rh is -4 now..
Just my opinion.
