Wednesday Session at John Choi's

We ended up training at John Choi's place on Wednesday before ReveLAtions. I got to play Terry, John Choi, Ricky, and Rom(Yang).

I played Terry to see how he was doing. He has got much better since we last played. I still trolled him most of the time but it was fun to see his improvements. :)

I played John Choi's Ken for a bit. I was able to keep up. I couldn't throw out low forward since his would beat mine. I stayed outside of step kick range to fireball, ex fireball, or sweep it. Occasionally, I was able to buffer crouch strong into fireball or ex fireball. I was successful for most of the part until I got to the corner. From there I had to block a barrage of mix-ups and block strings. It was quite tough to deal with it. However, as soon as I got out of the corner I felt much at ease. I noticed John's block strings intended to push me in the corner. I tried to stand my ground but I would let him in and eat a step kick. I also got to play his Sagat. I attempted to use standing strong into fireball or ex fireball to beat his standing short. I'd beat it sometimes since my low forward loses to his standing short. Other times I would get punished with a fireball or a tiger knee. John was telling me that it is better to use standing jab to fight Sagat in that situation. I agreed with him since using strong leaves me to be punished much easier than jab. Also, the recovery frames are significantly different.

After playing John, I got to play Ricky. It was amazing to play him. His movements with dive kicks, block strings, and frame traps changed in mere seconds. I worked on blocking and teching most of his mix-ups and I did pretty well. Offensively speaking he shut me down. His reactions were very fast. I had done jump back fierce to bait his dive kick. The next time he saw it he baited my jump back fierce and did jumping round house. His pressure was very strong as well. In this match-up I attempted to work on defense and I believe I did well.

Finally, I played Rom. I had studied his match against Tokido in a 3rd strike finals. He played it similarly. I was able to keep up. Yang's tools to deal with fireballs was hard to deal with. Ryu can't do much about the corner pressure as well. I am still learning the match-up though so I'll let you guys know if I notice anything notable. Aside from the standing short I used to beat his dive kicks there was nothing I had noticed at the time.

-Miky

New Layout

I'll be changing the layout on the blog. I know it's really ugly and simple, but I'm more focused on the content than the layout for now. Let me know if you guys have an suggestions. :)

-Miky

This Week - Arcade Edition and Revelations

I can't wait to touch Arcade Edition again. It will be released on console tomorrow. I will be testing some things out. Also, like I mentioned in my last post, Revelations will be this week. I'll keep you guys posted on how we do and what happens throughout our trip there. Keep an eye out on us! :)

-Miky

Round 1 - SSF4 Arcade Edition

My buddy Javier and his brother Luis took me to Los Angeles this weekend. We enjoyed Pink's hotdogs and checked out Hollywood. It was much fun! We also got to go to Round 1 where they had Japanese Vewlix cabinets with Arcade Edition. The whole night I stuck with Ryu testing everything out. He is much more work. My main focus was his low forward. I never knew it was so strong until now. With Ryu's nerfed low forward I now understand how dynamic low forward into fireball was in SF4 and SSF4. I must have confidence in doing just that move. My spacing and fundamentals must be on point as well in order to properly use low forward into fireball effectively in Arcade Edition.

I really enjoyed the matches I played against Combo Jack(Fei Long) and KillerKai aka Eliver(Ryu). They had come by after playing a Marvel tournament. Eliver told me they had placed second. When I first played Jack he killed me 7 straight games. It was frustrating and I was getting really drained from playing him. He was playing very well and outplayed me most of the sets. I was getting exhausted since it was late at night and the day was taking its toll on me. I had almost switched into auto-pilot. I got up and took a break and talked to Eliver. We discussed how Ryu's tools were weaker and how each of us auto-pilot low forward at times since it was such a great tool. I explained to him that now that it's weaker we must be smarter and play much better than before with this tool. He agreed with me.

As we walked back to the cabinets I hopped on. Before I was playing Jack I had focused on zoning him out with just fireballs. I had jumped a lot too and got impatient at times thinking he would not punish me. Now, I thought to myself, I have to use Ryu's bread and butter: low forward into fireball. I was not confident enough to use it in the other sets I had lost, but as soon as I started to do so I began to shut down some of his options. I was able to stay out of the corner much longer than before, build meter for most of the round, and even push him to the corner while applying pressure with footsies and fundamentals. It felt like I put a stand against him by simply doing low forward into fireball. It felt great to know that bread and butter still had it's effects mentally and fundamentally.

In the end I was able to keep up with Jack and it was a great experience. He told me that I adapt very fast. I took the comment lightly since I have been working on adaptation for most of the time I've been playing competitively. It may sound a bit ridiculous but I want to be able to adapt the next round. Of course this may take much longer than I anticipate it to. Thanks again for the games to all at Round 1. See you guys soon! :)

-Miky

Revelations June 10 - 12

I have been training exceptionally hard towards the end of may. It has been very difficult to get a grasp of AE without having touched the game once. However, I am determined to do my best when Revelations comes around. Wish us luck and support us at Revelations! :)

-Miky

Hadocon II - SSF4 Doubles/Singles, MvC3 Singles, and Mario Kart!

Was great to see my buddies in NorCal again.


Hadocon II Results

Top 3 SSFIV Teams - 23 team entrants
1) Brothers (Ricky Ortiz, Filipino Champ)
2) Mr. and Mrs. Smith (Crizzle, Ghostmaker)
3) Bed Intruders (XsK_Samurai, Cynistar)

Top 3 Marvel vs. Capcom 3 - 53 entrants
1) Filipino Champ
2) Honzo Gonzo
3) XsK_Samurai

Top 3 SSFIV Singles - 55 entrants
Hadocon II - Super SFIV Singles - CHALLONGE!
1) EG Ricky Ortiz
2) Vangief
3) Ghostmaker

Top 3 Mortal Kombat - 16 entrants
1) Michael Angelo
2) Bayomar
3) Mike Vodka

Top 3 Super Mario Kart - 18 entrants
1) Vangief
2) Emseakay
3) Chris Z

Top 3 Capcom vs. SNK 2 - 10 entrants
1) Johnny
2) Phillip
3) Lionx



For this tournament I played a solid ground game. I played as smart as I could and controlled life leads in certain situations. When it came down to singles I was lacking a lot of what I was doing during team tournaments. I needed to stay focused since I put a lot of energy into ssf4 teams. By then it was too late.


In singles I lost to Vance and LamerBoi. I got out spaced and out footsied in both matches at times.

We did good but we can do better! :)


-Miky


P.S. I did really bad in Mario Kart! :(

SJBG: Casuals against Filipino Champ

Ryan: "Was that 2?"

Random Guy: "Uhhh one more."

Ryan: "Get the fuck outta here."

*Guy gets up and leaves.*

*Ryan sits down and looks at me.*

Me: "Hey, Ryan."

Ryan: "See that's how you do it! Hate it when they do that..."

:)

Anyway, onto the matches. After studying the Daigo vs Filipino Champ matches over again, I felt more confident playing Ryan. I was able to space better, control a better ground-game, threw fireballs at better times, and counter-poked at better times. I felt like I was understanding the match-up slowly. I still lost like 8-10 straight, but they were all very close rounds (consisting of 1-2 in rounds). Every time I lost a round Ryan shook his head as if he's thinking: good move but I already knew that you were going to do that. The fact that I was able to keep up with him made me want to play even better. Now before all of this, when I would play Ryan I would lose really badly. That being said, I would lose 0-10 the first time I trained against him, and then 1-9 during Hiro's (and we're playing more than 10 games so to speak). So I was completely satisfied with how I was playing, but of course I wanted to beat him and more. Couple of the sets I was able to setup the 50/50 focus, dp's on reaction, and crouching strong into light punch fire ball. I was playing the way I wanted to.

One thing that I'd like to point out is that I tried to play by rounds and not by sets. This means I tried to win rounds and not sets. It wouldn't matter if I won the set 2-1 in rounds or 2-0. Then I wouldn't have trouble with the match-up if that were happening. I was looking for 1-2 and 0-2. It's casuals and I was trying to learn as much as possible. One of the best ways to learn is to keep losing. I wanted to see what I was doing right and what I wasn't doing right (or not doing at all). If I'd lose a round doing something right I wouldn't do it again the next round since I know it's something that will benefit me to win the round. Instead I pushed myself and did other things like trying to sweep Dhalsim's standing fierce. For example, I know I have trouble with sweeping Dhalsim's standing fierce and have the option to crouching strong it, but I don't. Instead I make myself work and try to sweep it. Of course there is a leniency to this method of learning, but you can tweak it however way you want it in order to build your fundamentals and footsies (or whatever you need to work on).

The next time we played was at Hiro's. I played Ryan and he completely changed it up. He was more patient about sticking out his limbs, his fireballs, and his spacing was harder to deal with. So what am I gonna do about it? I'll let you know the next time I play him!

-Miky

P.S. Just kidding... As he plays patient I'll be able to gain more ground. If he knows that he'll try to keep me out and we're back to square one. Anyway, I'll let you guys know how it goes the next time I play Ryan. :)