STRYKIE
Are ya' ready for MK11 kids?!
(Summarized points I previously had in the OP)
- This is not up or downplaying, rather are Smoke's tools misunderstood and only looked at with the resets in mind.
- Too much comparing to Cyrax.
- His fastest normals are apparently slower for other characters with less frames of startup.
- CD Junior hasn't used him since March and never really explained why he dropped him or picked him back up in the first place.
- Lower tier characters have just as significant dirt yet the community acknowledges that they are infact, still low tier.
Discuss.
What I got blown up for:
- This is not up or downplaying, rather are Smoke's tools misunderstood and only looked at with the resets in mind.
- Too much comparing to Cyrax.
- His fastest normals are apparently slower for other characters with less frames of startup.
- CD Junior hasn't used him since March and never really explained why he dropped him or picked him back up in the first place.
- Lower tier characters have just as significant dirt yet the community acknowledges that they are infact, still low tier.
Discuss.
What I got blown up for:
So after the recent influx of everybody's matchup charts, some disturbingly scrubby and hypocritical attitudes has dawned on me, I don't mean to encourage any downplaying, up-playing, or general shit-talking, but the way his best tools are put into perspective really don't add up.
Whenever someone lists Cyrax as a bad matchup for their character, somebody else chimes in and asks why Smoke isn't considered worse since he does more damage.
Let me ask you guys this.
Does Smoke have a command grab to keep you in check if you're just waiting for a blocked combo starter?
Does Smoke have a safe armored 50/50 situation?
Does Smoke make you completely reconsider what wakeup you use or when to break?
Does Smoke get sixteen frames of advantage for sticking his foot in your shin and is still completely neutral if it's blocked with an animation that's relatively indistinguishable from his -9 on block D3?
I've already anticipated what the reaction to this will be:
Smoke's B2, his 15 frame overhead, frames is faster than lightning right?
Not according to Scorpion's "slow", 18 frame non-viable overhead it ain't, but hey, notice a key difference, Scorp's doesn't lead to an easy opportunity for an unblockable relaunch, either that or 1/20th of a second makes a world of difference I guess
And of course, there's his anti-airs, which have great range, recover fast if mistimed, and are easily hit confirmed in great meterless damage, but then, Rain, Scorpion and Ermac all have this going for them too and can't even get into the upper half of the tier list.
Now in all fairness, we can argue that maybe Smoke is just being played incorrectly and he doesn't have the right representation.
But then there was CD Junior, one of this game's most successful players and started out with this very character, but his will to use him quietly disappeared after the OTG Smoke Bomb was patched out, Smoke at this point in time is considered mid-tier at best, and Junior promptly moved on, but as soon as the reset is discovered, BAM!
His drive to be the Smoke of the world, is perhaps, entirely by coincidence, ignited like never before! Riiiiight up until REO threatened to run gauntlet with Johnny Cage every time they meet in tournament, and was last seen using the character after beating REO's Cage by the skin of his teeth, very much visibly emotionally drained by the difficulty of the matchup despite having such a powerful tool at this disposal, in MARCH, and hasn't used the character in tournament since.
This isn't a shot at either player, but rather that REO was still able to cause such an effect with a character he hadn't used in tournament in almost a year at the time.
Oh and er, one last thing, CSZ has resets, automatic top 10 character right there.
Discuss.
Whenever someone lists Cyrax as a bad matchup for their character, somebody else chimes in and asks why Smoke isn't considered worse since he does more damage.
Let me ask you guys this.
Does Smoke have a command grab to keep you in check if you're just waiting for a blocked combo starter?
Does Smoke have a safe armored 50/50 situation?
Does Smoke make you completely reconsider what wakeup you use or when to break?
Does Smoke get sixteen frames of advantage for sticking his foot in your shin and is still completely neutral if it's blocked with an animation that's relatively indistinguishable from his -9 on block D3?
I've already anticipated what the reaction to this will be:
Smoke's B2, his 15 frame overhead, frames is faster than lightning right?
Not according to Scorpion's "slow", 18 frame non-viable overhead it ain't, but hey, notice a key difference, Scorp's doesn't lead to an easy opportunity for an unblockable relaunch, either that or 1/20th of a second makes a world of difference I guess
And of course, there's his anti-airs, which have great range, recover fast if mistimed, and are easily hit confirmed in great meterless damage, but then, Rain, Scorpion and Ermac all have this going for them too and can't even get into the upper half of the tier list.
Now in all fairness, we can argue that maybe Smoke is just being played incorrectly and he doesn't have the right representation.
But then there was CD Junior, one of this game's most successful players and started out with this very character, but his will to use him quietly disappeared after the OTG Smoke Bomb was patched out, Smoke at this point in time is considered mid-tier at best, and Junior promptly moved on, but as soon as the reset is discovered, BAM!
His drive to be the Smoke of the world, is perhaps, entirely by coincidence, ignited like never before! Riiiiight up until REO threatened to run gauntlet with Johnny Cage every time they meet in tournament, and was last seen using the character after beating REO's Cage by the skin of his teeth, very much visibly emotionally drained by the difficulty of the matchup despite having such a powerful tool at this disposal, in MARCH, and hasn't used the character in tournament since.
This isn't a shot at either player, but rather that REO was still able to cause such an effect with a character he hadn't used in tournament in almost a year at the time.
Oh and er, one last thing, CSZ has resets, automatic top 10 character right there.
Discuss.
