Shiro(Makoto)

It was nice meeting Shiro. I got to practice some of my Japanese with him. I didn't get to ask him much about how I did against him, but here is how it went down.

I don't remember how the games went exactly but I will try best to remember. The sets felt like rock-paper-scissors. At first we both built meter and spaced accordingly. I didn't bother moving back so I wouldn't give him any ground. I always moved forward with my fireballs and stuck out low forward if I saw him dash towards me. I was able to out-space him and zone him out. However, once he got in it was a mix-up I had predicted. Using his towards medium punch, which gives frame advantage on block, he attempted to pressure me with block strings. I caught on immediately and just blocked. Soon after he started to regular throw me. I was able to break those grabs. I figured he can't open me up unless he uses command throw. Before this I had been punishing his dashes with low forward into ex-fireball. He stopped and spaced it out better and was able to command grab me. After I noticed his spacing adjustment, I neutral jumped one of his command grabs and punished him. Now this is where the true yomi(reads) begin. I'm knocked down and he's pressuring me. He backs off and I immediately think he's going for a command grab. I see him dash in and I neutral jump. What do I see? Not a command grab, but a Fukiage. He combo's it into another Fukiage and can either end it in a combo or jumping fierce reset to me into another mix-up.

I was amazed. I was hoping my level of adaptation would be able to keep up with Shiro's, but I was very wrong. The games went on to be just as I mentioned and I lost 1-3. I was playing rock-paper-scissors, but I lost most of the time. Why? It was because his level of reading and adaptation was much faster and stronger than mine. It felt as if I was adapting as fast as I could while Shiro was adapting exponentially.

-Miky