Mileena is fun but doesn't have what it takes to win a major, here's why

[Vulcan Hades]

Yo REO, great matches man. Congrats for that well deserved 2nd place. You are an inspiration to all Mileena players out there.

And for people saying he could've done better and dropped tons of opportunities, man every single player that day made mistakes and could've done better. I'm sure REO was nervous as hell in those last matches. And you'd be too if you were in his shoes. I mean he's fighting against his worst possible matchup in EVO grand finals in front of a huge crowd with 55'000 viewers watching all over the world. No matter how focused and good you are at this game you're gonna feel the pressure at some point. And you're going to make mistakes and bad calls. That's human.

@REO: One thing I wanted to know is why you didn't combo after you hit an opponent out of the air with D4. Maybe you just find it too risky and not worth it, but for example you can chain a teleport kick or ball roll after a D4 (anti-air) and that can lead to pretty decent damage. If your D4 whiffs then your special doesn't come out so it's cool. It's only really unsafe if you hit them after they land because then they can punish your special move. Anyway I was just curious to know why you don't combo when you get those anti-air juggle states.

 

[VIDA]

...REO punished MOST blocked, whiffed spins and TPs...

Supposedly Rep gets jailed by the TK, thats why Chris G couldnt really punish it, but PL punished it with his KL quite a bit with that ridiculous spin.

 

[xenogorgeous]

yep, Mileena is well-known for having her very punishable special moves, what, this way, obligate you to use her special moves in very smart way, almost as selecting when/how you should use them ..... doing random Tele Drop or Ball Rolls seems more as a suicide strategy ......

Experient players most will play very defensive against Mileena, baiting her to do TK or Roll Ball, purposely, when in wake up attack , or, after a second projectile thrown in her direction ...... I think Reo did very well, sincerely. Despite some errors, he did not abused from random special moves, he did not spam to the point of exposing his gameplay, so, was PL intense mix up pressure in the end of matches that decided the final result .... PL took advantage of each single spin he landed sucessfully, and put a hell of pressure with his 2,4 string. You can see that majority of rounds that both played, their life bar are more or less the same until certain point in the fight, so, sometimes before a round has finished, the win could go either way, I think overall, some matches were even, very disputed.

 

[shoshinsha]

Anyone who's ever played lots of matches in a row knows that, even though gaming isn't a physical activity in the way most sports are, that there is a distinct fatigue that can set in. A fatigue of thought, visual and auditory processes, reflexes, and so on. And of course, you can probably multiply that by 100 times in the conditions Reo was playing under. The dude came back to beat Chris G, Jop, and even Perfect Legend (the first set) all in a row without a break. Then he had to beat PL again, all without a break. In a situation like that, they really should give the players a 30 minute break or something. I don't know if Reo would've won or lost in those circumstances, but I guarantee you he'd have played the second set better.

 

[VIDA]

Idk bout 30 mins, but yeah a small 5-7 min rest would of been nice. He did have small breaks between 1 or 2 of the sets he won.

 

[ManjoumeThunder]

Mileena is fun, and I think it was shown that she does have potential to win EVO. In the right hands, she's crazy, in there, outa there, and can come up on top. Regardless of how it ended, the Top 8 will have a huge effect on who people use.

 

[xenogorgeous]

Anyone who's ever played lots of matches in a row knows that, even though gaming isn't a physical activity in the way most sports are, that there is a distinct fatigue that can set in. A fatigue of thought, visual and auditory processes, reflexes, and so on. And of course, you can probably multiply that by 100 times in the conditions Reo was playing under. The dude came back to beat Chris G, Jop, and even Perfect Legend (the first set) all in a row without a break. Then he had to beat PL again, all without a break. In a situation like that, they really should give the players a 30 minute break or something. I don't know if Reo would've won or lost in those circumstances, but I guarantee you he'd have played the second set better.

Totally agree, Reo had a tough time having to play against 3 good opponents in a row, before PL ....... it demands a lot of mental effort have to play your best without a considerable time break ..... you can see that even online, after sometime, if you were playing serious and putting effort, you can see it's pretty normal go for some time break, in order to relax the brain from such mental fatigue.

Don't know if this alone could do some influence in the final result for Evo, but, time break is necessary for some stress relief time, specially in such competitive scene we had in MK9 Evo finals ...........

 

[subscorptile]

The dude came back to beat Chris G, Jop, and even Perfect Legend (the first set) all in a row without a break. Then he had to beat PL again, all without a break.

This is what i dont get. Reo won the first set, and lost the second set, and the tournament is over? I dont really understand how these brackets/sets work in tournaments.

In the first set of matches, REO won 3 and PerfectLegend won 1. The commentators were saying something about Reo resetting the sets at that moment? Then, in the second set, PerfectLegend won 3 and REO 0.

At that point didnt both of them each win a set? I had the impression that the tournament wasnt over yet, and yet it ended. Sorry if this sounds like a noobish question, but could someone help me understand?
And congratulations REO on proving Mileena is a sexy, powerful beast in MK9!

 

[cyke_out]

This is what i dont get. Reo won the first set, and lost the second set, and the tournament is over? I dont really understand how these brackets/sets work in tournaments.

In the first set of matches, REO won 3 and PerfectLegend won 1. The commentators were saying something about Reo resetting the sets at that moment? Then, in the second set, PerfectLegend won 3 and REO 0.

At that point didnt both of them each win a set? I had the impression that the tournament wasnt over yet, and yet it ended. Sorry if this sounds like a noobish question, but could someone help me understand?
And congratulations REO on proving Mileena is a sexy, powerful beast in MK9!

It's a double elimination tournamnt. you have to lose 2 sets before getting kicked out. when Reo entered the grand finals he already lost once, so he was in the loser's bracket. PL didn't lose at all through the entire tournament, so he was in winners bracket.

when Reo won the first set, he gave PL his first loss of the night, but you have to lose twice, so they played again to see who would get their second loss.

If PL had one the first set, that would be Reo's 2nd loss and he would be out right away, and there would be no need to play a 2nd set.

 

[TheChad_87]

REO was in the losers bracket and PL was in the winners. This means REO must win 2 sets as opposed to PL, who must win 1.

 

[VIDA]

This is what i dont get. Reo won the first set, and lost the second set, and the tournament is over? I dont really understand how these brackets/sets work in tournaments.

In the first set of matches, REO won 3 and PerfectLegend won 1. The commentators were saying something about Reo resetting the sets at that moment? Then, in the second set, PerfectLegend won 3 and REO 0.

At that point didnt both of them each win a set? I had the impression that the tournament wasnt over yet, and yet it ended. Sorry if this sounds like a noobish question, but could someone help me understand?
And congratulations REO on proving Mileena is a sexy, powerful beast in MK9!

Im not sure how EXACTLY it works, but in tourneys you can lose a set at some point and still be in the tourney, just that you'll be put into something called a loser's bracket. Where you ascended from, where u lost at...etc will determine will determine how you have to get back out of losers. U lose twice in a row, ur out. There's more to it but there's a general outline.

Long story short, REO went into losers b/c of Michelangelo. So, therefore after his first match he had to finish loser's finals onto grand finals. So, anyone coming from losser's finals has to win a best out of 5 set to reset things back to a one set wins all scenario. The competitor from winner's final only needs one best out of 5 set to take it all. Does that explain it a lil bit?

 

[xenogorgeous]

REO was in the losers bracket and PL was in the winners. This means REO must win 2 sets as opposed to PL, who must win 1.

This way, seems pretty fair then ..... and very challenging for whom is coming from losers bracket !!

 

[Shadowclaimer]

Double Elimination

When you lose once you get put in Loser's Bracket, REO won Loser's and got to fight PL in Winners. His first win technically put PL in "losers" bracket for the real finals. Had PL won that first set he wouldn't just won regardless.

 

[shoshinsha]

Yeah, I really like the basic setup of double-elimination tourneys. What I have a problem with is that being in loser's bracket puts you at a double disadvantage in that not only do you have to do twice as much winning, you also wind up far more exhausted than your opponent. I think the first disadvantage (having to win two sets to come back) is perfectly fair and appropriate. The second one of sheer exhaustion isn't, and it makes it tough to definitively say that the better player won. I'd like to see the losers bracket finalist be awarded a "time out" period if he successfully resets the grand finals bracket.

 

[Sultani]

Eh, I don't see the top 8 having that drastic of an impact on who people choose to play. I mean.. Kung Lao, Mileena, Raiden, Johnny Cage, Reptile, Kitana...

Pretty sure people have already figured out that those are good choices. REO not winning kinda can go both ways for someone like me.

Been playing Mileena about 75% mor ethan any other character since The end of June, but now I'm gonig to get to deal with people being like, "pff whatever noob you only has mileena cuz of evo lolol."

Kung Lao winning isn't a shock to anyone really, but I do tihink it would have been really good for the game if he didn't win. Regardless of whether or not you agree that he's imbalanced is besides the point. The point is that he has a reputation for being such even outside of the MK scene. This doesn't help the games image, though it's not like it was severely one sided either.

I wouldn't have said the top plauyer clearly won regardless of who came out on top from the top 8. Flip a coin. Any one of those players is capable of beating any of the others.

 

[variable]

I've been playing mileena since the game came out because she was my favorite way back in mk2 as a youngin. It's been great seeing reactions change as to how capable a character she is and seeing Reo take second (includin a set off of PL's kung lao) was really incredible. I even got a couple friends who aren't into competitive gaming at all cheering with me.

and the sets were damn exciting.


I wasn't watching everything the whole weekend, who did Reo lose to to drop into loser's?

 

[VIDA]

I


I wasn't watching everything the whole weekend, who did Reo lose to to drop into loser's?

Michelangelo, not streamed if I recall correctly

 

[Nameer]

Reo played well but it was fucking match-up game
Kung Lao got eveything
his spin can counter Mileena's teleport kick and roll ball on reaction and the funny thing spin can counter d+4
his low projectile has fucking fast recovery unlike Kabal's low projectile
his ex teleport got the best armor in the game (can counter any ex special armor)
Seriously Kung Lao need another nerf

 

[xenogorgeous]

Reo played very good with Mileena against PL, I think that, if they both have opportunity again in future for fighting more matches in another tourney, and if Reo uses Mileena again, after a lot of training session in order for fixing some things in his strategy, he might be able to do better. But PL showed intense talent for agressive gameplay and adaptability, he is a phenomenal player and opponent in this game, very respect to him.

What KL has to offer to be countered, it's not diferent if you play Mileena or other character : you should check for his spin, windy palm string and 2,4 .... it's very hard to avoid or counter this pack of excellent move set KL has in his "toolbox", but, it's the key to fight him. When someone figure out how could be possible to make KL miss the execution of these moves, so, maybe could be the way to put pressure on KL .......

 

[REPTILE 0009]

Well, if Mileena doesn't have what it takes to win a tournament, then nobody else in the cast does, aside from the top tier characters. Clear sign that something is wrong with MK9 if out of 31 characters, only about 5-7 are actually competitive in a tournaments.

 

[Vulcan Hades]

Well, if Mileena doesn't have what it takes to win a tournament, then nobody else in the cast does, aside from the top tier characters. Clear sign that something is wrong with MK9 if out of 31 characters, only about 5-7 are actually competitive in a tournaments.

Bad design of characters. I keep repeating this since day 1: You can't make a character be great at offense AND great at defense. That's bound to create a too big imbalance.

There's no way to fairly balance the game at this point without making the top 5 work too hard for damage and/or buffing like 2/3 of the cast.

Ideally, this is how I'd like character designs for the next MK games:

1. Great at offense, poor zoning
2. Great at zoning, poor offense
3. Great at countering zoning/offense, some footsies, bad offense/zoning
4. Great footsies, mid-range and anti-airs, some mixups, bad offense/defense
5. Superior mobility and evasion tools, low damaging combos
6. High damaging combos, little mobility and evasion
7. Average at everything.


Characters like Kung Lao, Raiden, Reptile and Kabal are great at everything (rushdown, zoning, mixup, counter and footsies). While characters like Sindel, Shang Tsung, Stryker, Sonya, Johnny Cage, Baraka and Jax are only great at one thing: zoning or rushdown. That's the problem.

We can only hope NRS learns from their mistakes.

 

[Somberness]

Congrats

I can go into way more depth about these chars but just wanted to MAKE IT TO GRAND FINALS AT EVO IN FRONT OF A TON OF PEOPLE

I added something to the quote if people didn't notice.

 

[Cat]

Michelangelo, not streamed if I recall correctly

It was not streamed. I was their live matches were so hyped. It was 2-1 last round. I think someone recorded it though so it might show up on YouTube later. You guys missed a ton of good offstream matches.

 

[Sasuga]

This game has a lot more 6/4's than people want to admit.

That would be at high level play, i guess. From my own level the drop off seems a lot bigger. People who are basically just messing around with KL can give me a really hard time.

 

[Sao87]

Perfect Legend wasn't even playing into his strengths against Mileena. Kung Lao's roll can be hit confirmed into spin which stops air sai's. Perfect Legend did not do this once, he just kept going for unsafe teleports which were never punished! On top of that Kung Lao's low hat pressure was never properly blocked and poked. Reo should have been thinking "I'll block low and attempt to fuzzy guard the overhead if he options it." That way he escapes pressure and if I get hit by overhead who gives a shit because he gets pushed away and is now in a neutral situation.

Of course spin punishes dive kick and a blocked roll, that doesn't make it broken. You guys are acting like Mileena is the only character in this game that should be allowed to be sloppy as hell with immunity to punishment.

People haven't spent time learning the match up so Mileena players get very comfortable using unsafe offense. Almost all of the finals matches at Evo were lost because of match up inexperience. There is to much emphasis on auto-pilot offense and no emphasis on proper defense.