I love this thread because it shows that if you're not a top, recognized player in the community it shows your opinion doesn't matter. Even though I'm not a top player, I watch a lot of matches and I'm not exactly an idiot.
Except it really has NOTHING to do with being a "top, recognized player", your opinion of Kenshi is just extremely ignorant.
Don't come in here saying shit like "Hey guise I totally know what I'm talking about because I watch a lot of matches!" Knowledgeability has to be proven. Credibility has to be earned. Watching a lot of matches means nothing if all you can take away from it is that Kenshi is easy to play. Very few characters are "easy to play" against a skilled opponent. Characters like Raiden, Sub and Ermac can be learned in the span of ten minutes, but you still have to play smart to win with them, so they STILL aren't easy street.
2. Secondly, Altaire, please explain your logic behind me not having any skill. Have you seen me play? No, you haven't, thus your point is what logical people would call "invalid."
I already specified what my basis was, but sure thing. Just to spare you that long, arduous journey up the scroll bar, I'll reiterate: If you were a "good" player, you wouldn't have this ignorant misconception that Kenshi is easy to play. No one with a thorough understanding of the game and how it's played at the highest level would ever come to that sort of conclusion. To be COMPLETELY blunt, it's textbook scrub behavior.
There have been several responses, and nobody has told me which top tier character takes less skill than Kenshi. Why doesn't anyone want to take a crack at that question? You have Kabal, Raiden, Smoke, Kung Lao, and arguably others to choose from. Which one takes less skill to use than Kenshi?
Well, let's see:
- Kabal has an easier time zoning than Kenshi. His execution barrier is the highest in MK9, but by the standards of most other 2D fighters, his execution is child's play. Instant air gas blast? It's the fucking Korean back dash input, and that's just Tekken 101. His execution is demanding by the standards of MK, but rest assured, any top SF player could pick up MK and have Kabal's execution down in minutes. Before you say something really stupid, no, that doesn't mean they would be as good with him as REO is.
- You can learn everything you'd ever need to know about Raiden in ten seconds. Poke with F2 4, counter-poke with back dash B3 1 2, mix up teleport F2 4 and teleport grab. Raiden is all fundamentals. Actually winning with him requires you to have good footsies and really great punish sense, but it's not difficult to play him. The most demanding part of playing Raiden is that you have to be smart about it, and I'd say that's a pretty damn low ceiling for any good player.
- Smoke is far easier to use than Kenshi is, and he's STILL not "EZmode". In fact, you can basically take what I said about Raiden and just add in that Smoke gets easy grab mixup and free D4s (which only lead to more grab mixups). Pressure with 2 1 4 and 3 D1 2, counter-poke with back dash B2 3. Other than that, all you really NEED to know is how and when to lame it out and when to try and trade with the smoke bomb. It doesn't take a whole lot of expertise to play Smoke if you're a fundamentally sound player.
- Lao genuinely requires you to know a lot of shit, from specific setups to ways to make his unsafe tools safer to counter-strats for low hitbox characters. Unfortunately for you, he also has some of the best ground game and the most absolutely foolproof AA in the game. Playing Lao is really as simple as establishing ground dominance so your opponent feels like he has to jump at you to get anything started. I definitely have an easier time using him than I do Kenshi.
Dash blocking in and making several reads in a short period of time is a lot harder than back dashing and pressing a special move. ESPECIALLY when that special move has armor, and ESPECIALLY when those special moves are safe from the majority of options the other person of has (operative word, "majority," read carefully).
Oh, but how is it that you have to make "several reads" as you dash block in, if all your opponent is doing is back dashing and using a special move? What reads would you need to make if that's all they're doing?
I love how you think Kenshi can just spam armor moves liberally as though they don't cost meter, by the way. Bottom line: Kenshi does take skill to play. If you jump a teleflurry or avoid a downslash, he's at huge disadvantage. If you jump a charge, he eats a full combo. If you bait an upslash, you can whiff punish it, often times for big damage (the irony is that Kitana can blow this up better than almost anyone). He has NO wakeup game, so once you're knocked down, all you do is roll away and try to get out of pressure the hard way. If Kenshi was so goddamn easy to use, everyone and their dog would be subbing him to deal with Kitana.
P.S. You can't "press" a special move, they're actually triggered by a sequence of numbers. Do you just have some kind of magic controller with shortcuts to all of your character's specials? Man, you need to tell me where I can get one of those!
