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Match Footage SonicFox in Neutral

TheIrishFGCguy

Pew pew pew
Erron's 211 string is pretty crazy but even that can't take away from his fundamentals. I was going to list the incredible things he does but honestly the GIFs speak for themselves. Just wow.

Why has nobody tagged perfect legend? Lol doesn't he like to take subtle jabs at SonicFox's skill on twitter?
 

GAV

Resolution through knowledge and resolve.
Sonic Fox is absolutely phenomenal at spacing. There is no one that is better at it than him. He reacts so fast, that I don't think anyone will ever be able to beat him at that aspect of the game.

The only way to beat him is to be that great at something else...

Years ago, my sparring partner taught me sticky hands. He had practiced it for years, but I'm a savant at learning hand movements. In addition, I'm a lot physically stronger than him. These two things, physical strength and learning and applying hand techniques, have always come very easily to me. So, whenever we would spar - he expected to abuse me with these Wing Chun techniques. He would initiate and I would counter putting him on the defensive. This went on for weeks into months. Finally, he realized that this wasn't the way to go. His footwork was superior and he was a much better kicker than I was. So, he would move laterally or retreat and learned to walk me into his attacks.

My point is that you're not going to beat Sonic Fox at spacing. If you aspire to be the best - right now its him. So, where do you go from here?

I don't begrudge Sonic Fox his success. I love watching his matches. They are poetry in motion.
 
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haketh

Noob
I dont think ive seen anyone say SonicFox lacks fundamentals, it is quite clear he is one of the best (or THE best) MK player out there.

However, the fact you need to select a few gif moments to highlight these fundamental pretty much demonstrates MKXs shortfall. The fundamentals that exist simply lead to the corner and most often death. The corner is not too hard to achieve after you apply the fundamentals (into combos), and then the 50/50s or endless pressure begins where 90% of the match ends up.

Every fighting game has the fundamentals you highlighted, but MKX excutes it poorly at a competitive level. Tekken and SF are examples of well designed fighting games. If MK wishes to remain relevant in the competitive scene, it needs to stop changing sequels up so much, and focus on finding a core fighting style foundation, whilst innovating and improving on it for the next games.
Every fighting game does exactly what you just complained about
 
Every fighting game does exactly what you just complained about
Lol, no they dont... Every fighting game has the capability to do that, but it requires a lot more work to initiate a combo from the fundamentals mentioned. For example, in Tekken, the majority of the match consists of spacing and pokes. In MKX, the pokes are either 50/50 starters or endless pressure, where the majority of the match ends up. The 50/50s in Tekken are either knockdowns or small damage. If a character has a low and mid launcher in Tekken, then at least one of the those launchers can be blocked on reaction. The same goes for SF

You cannot deny the fact that MKX spends the majority of the match in the corner + 50/50s.
 

GAV

Resolution through knowledge and resolve.
Those ripping high level MKX play are biased. Don't jump; Hear me out...

MKX works differently than the fighters you learned on. It isn't inferior, just different.

Once you stop looking at MK from your SF or Tekken colored glasses, you will start to see beyond the meta.

Only then, will you be able to dictate the pace - and make the meta what you want it to be.

I firmly believe that even at the game's highest level, only a select few have even started to figure this game out.

If you're thinking MKX is overly-simplistic, you're only seeing the current meta.
 

delbuster

hungry
pressure isn't endless in this game, it's just very deceptive. a very common tactic in anime games such as Blazblue/Guilty Gear/Under night that have a very established ground/normal jump game is to "reset" pressure.

Essentially, the player on offense has 2 choices when they are at some point in an offensive string, let's say ABC. They can chain C into D, which will catch the opponent pressing buttons, but if the opponent blocks, D is - on block to the point where the player cannot safely continue to press their offense. Or, they can instead, reading the opponent will want to block D, choose to dash in and start a different string.

This happens in MKX; DJT does it all the time with Lao, JCage, and others.

It is true that MKX mixups are incredibly strong tho. But there are other aspects to the game, and endless pressure only truly exists if one keeps getting hit; whether it's from those mixups, or doing unsafe escape options and guessing wrong on pressure.

Now, that is the point of Breaker. You gain a decent amount of meter just getting hit, and spending 2 bars and all your stamina (which is a big deal) lets you return the game to neutral; the problem is that you cannot apply a Run offense w/o stamina, so the momentum is still slightly in the opponents favor after a breaker. Some characters can function w/o Run and have long enough combos to regain stamina, but not all.

tl;dr: pressure isn't endless, offense is very strong but it's not exactly braindead, still have to guess/read correctly or die, breaker exists
 
Those ripping high level MKX play are biased. Don't jump; Hear me out...

MKX works differently than the fighters you learned on. It isn't inferior, just different.

Once you stop looking at MK from your SF or Tekken colored glasses, you will start to see beyond the meta.

Only then, will you be able to dictate the pace - and make the meta what you want it to be.

I firmly believe that even at the game's highest level, only a select few have even started to figure this game out.

If you're thinking MKX is overly-simplistic, you're only seeing the current meta.
You're right, but MK suffers from trying out different metas for each new game, which is annoying. MK9 had its flaws, but I think I preferred the way it played, but it just needed major adjustments.
Its a shame.... I sometimes wish I was a SF fan, because it just looks a lot more fair and fun at competitive levels. I just cant get into most of the boring characters in that game :(

Edit: I just want to add that MKX also seems to lack a variety of gameplans, since EVERY player goes for the rushdown option, since its the only good option available.
 

GAV

Resolution through knowledge and resolve.
You're right, but MK suffers from trying out different metas for each new game, which is annoying. MK9 had its flaws, but I think I preferred the way it played, but it just needed major adjustments.

Its a shame.... I sometimes wish I was a SF fan, because it just looks a lot more fair and fun at competitive levels. I just cant get into most of the boring characters in that game :(
SFIV in my opinion took a step back from SF3 and even the HD Remix.
 

Harlequin969

Always press buttons
Watching Sonic play is frustrating because just the knowledge he displays is amazing. Like I'll play and my thoughts tend to be to just get in. The amount of thought he must go through to figure out move to do where, when to do it, when to fake it out, when to armor. Sometimes he does get punished for bad choices, he loves that slide and I think that's the only problem I've ever seen him do, but for the most part his mastery of fundamentals is amazing. I want to get to the point where I can understand just the nuances of the game to that level while actually playing.
 

Lt. Boxy Angelman

I WILL EAT THIS GAME
Play-by-play breakdowns of top level players Madden style...dude, this is legit one of the best analytical ideas I've ever seen put in motion.
Great fucking stuff, man. Bookmarking this so I can study it later.
 

GAV

Resolution through knowledge and resolve.
Play-by-play breakdowns of top level players Madden style...dude, this is legit one of the best analytical ideas I've ever seen put in motion.
Great fucking stuff, man. Bookmarking this so I can study it later.
 

M.D.

Spammer. Crouch walk hater.
I try to run under NJPs all the time and 9/10 times I get hit and bounced on the other side because their character autocorects in the air :(