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Match-up Discussion MK2 Kitana VS Kung Lao

MKB

Forum General Emeritus
VS


Rules of this discussion:
  • You may contribute anything that will further the interest and understanding of the matchup. This includes strategies, videos, combos, etc.
  • Feel free to answer the default questions posed in the first reply, though you are not required to do so.
  • Please keep the discussion focused on the two characters in question.
 

MKB

Forum General Emeritus
This is another classic contest between two upper mid-tier characters. Depending on who you ask and who is playing, their ranking could be interchanged anywhere from 4-6 (Shang also in the mix.) The actual matchup is somewhere in the 5-5 range, but would lend a slight edge to Kitana when factoring in her IAF.
  • What's the best way to pressure Lao (and vice versa)?
  • How can both characters most effectively land their pop-up starters? (fan lift and hat spin)
  • Is it advisable to ever be in the air against these characters?
 
1) Ask Mortal Jason about Kitana and then have Mike Caldwell respond with Kung Lao. A video between these two would be worth watching several times.
2) See reply to question 1.
3) See reply to question 1 or 2.
 

MKB

Forum General Emeritus
Never ceases to amaze (and amuse) me how many people never read the forum they are responding to.

Thread purged of all off-topic crap.
 

mortal_jason

Kitana's Bodyguard
This is possibly the most even match up in MK2.

Kitana wants to be aggressive, Lao wants to stay far away from her sweep.

With Lao, keep distance and try to force Kitana to jump into a whirlwind spin by mixing up hat throws.
His HK works great as an anti-air also. Against Kitana, you only want to use the teleport when you can see you're not going to be fan raised.
If Kitana gets close, don't be afraid to apply some jab yourself. Lao's sweep sucks range-wise, but it's faster than Kitana's.
Lao owns every character in the air with his jump punch/dive kick combo. Try to catch Kitana with that combo, as she's jumping at you.
Jump at your own risk- Kitana's square wave punch will take Lao down every time (unless he times a jump back punch perfectly).

With Kitana, get in, apply jab, sweep. If your opponent jumps alot, square wave them to death. Anticipate Lao's teleport by buffering forward over and over. When he teleports just hit HP and you'll catch him in a fan raise, and land a 50% combo. Getting Lao backed into a corner is a good thing. 95% of the time, a Lao trapped in the corner is going to teleport, so be ready with the fan raise. Lao can really kill Kitana in the air, but SUJPs work pretty well against him. IAFs aren't terribly effective against Lao, but if he is running away and trying to zone you with hats, trade projectiles with him. Chances are he'll change strategies.

Overall a 5-5 match. There aren't many matches in MK2 that are true 5-5 matches, but this is one of them, and that's why it's also one of the best!
 
Reactions: MKB
This is a fun match, but difficult on both sides.

1. The best way to pressure Lao is to walk forward constantly while you apply pressure with sweeps and IAF fans after the blocked sweeps. Lao pressures Kitana simply by throwing hats and baiting jump ins.

2. Lao's most effective way of landing his spin is to whiff a dive kick in sweep range and do the spin as you land. For some reason, people have a tendency to jump on top of it. You can also buffer into it out of a low toe because most Kitana players will try to sweep you after the low toe. As Jason said, the best way for Kitana to land her fan raise it to buffer it in the opposite direction in anticipation of a teleport. Doing it after a blocked dive kick goes without saying, even though I just did. lol.

3. I think at a high level, this is a fairly grounded match. Lao wins in the air at most ranges, but from full screen Kitana's jp will beat Lao's jp. This is key because alot of high level Lao players love to jump from full screen with that jump punch because they are expecting they're opponent to try to close the distance.

4. LOL.
 

mortal_jason

Kitana's Bodyguard
Never ceases to amaze (and amuse) me how many people never read the forum they are responding to.

Thread purged of all off-topic crap.
wait you mean MK9 wasn't the first Mortal Kombat game ever made?????

(an attempt at some New Years humor)
 
What's the best way to counter Mike Caldwell's double Kung Lao dive kick. I've seen a few others use it, but not many. It's particularly tricky because even if you do block the first dive kick and he doesn't use the second one, he can still get a throw off after landing. How about some help with this? Kitana is the character we're working with here.
 

MKB

Forum General Emeritus
What's the best way to counter Mike Caldwell's double Kung Lao dive kick. I've seen a few others use it, but not many. It's particularly tricky because even if you do block the first dive kick and he doesn't use the second one, he can still get a throw off after landing. How about some help with this?
The double bullet kick is not as hard to perform as you might think. I have played against players who rely on it like summoning and I make it a regular part of my Lao's repertoire. I even pulled it out in Philadelphia at NEC last month against DavidGEM for a key victory.
NEC '13 MK2 footage (skip to 7:20 for what I'm talking about)

When Lao is in the air, unless you have a character such as Kitana/Baraka who can safely punish with a move like fan lift, wave punch, or blade fury, you need to have your trigger finger ready to block, if the block button isn't already pressed. I often keep the button held until his feet have touched the ground just to guard against the double kick. You need to study his frames/animation to know exactly when that happens. Once on the ground, you can either jab your way out, throw, or low toe depending on which character you are using. In this case, Kitana is great for countering an aerial Lao on so many levels. You might even consider just ducking and low toeing if you haven't buffered a fan lift, since the bullet usually misses a ducking player. Or, if that fails, she has the square wave punch too.
 
What's the best way to counter Mike Caldwell's double Kung Lao dive kick. I've seen a few others use it, but not many. It's particularly tricky because even if you do block the first dive kick and he doesn't use the second one, he can still get a throw off after landing. How about some help with this? Kitana is the character we're working with here.
My advice would be to never be stand blocking when Lao jumps in. I always just duck under his jk and uppercut when they land. If you do happen to put yourself in that situation you can immediately go to a down+back crouch block after the jk to avoid getting thrown. As the Lao player I love when people stand block my jks because it allows me to play mind games with the double dive kick. If someone just ducks under all of my jks, then it takes a big part of my strategy away. This will cause me to play lame and just throw hats and bait jump ins.
 

mortal_jason

Kitana's Bodyguard
Just assume a good player will always double kick with Lao. It's not hard to do at all, but yeah you're right I don't see a lot of guys using it.
It amazes me how often I hit opponents with double kicks, even great players! But don't use them all the time, or you become predictable (and will be punished).

With Kitana, just always block Lao's JKs and expect him to double kick. Or if you're really timing things well, fan raise him when he jumps at you in the first place.