Talking About Ultra Street Fighter IV Part 3

With EVO last weekend, how could I not be playing USF4 like a mad man? I got some uploads and some knowledge to share as well as some a cool Decapre “how to” vid to share from Cross Counter TV. But first lets touch on where my mind is with this game. As some of you may know, I'm not too hardcore into getting really good at Street Fighter. I just have way too many interests and things to do and I can't practice and improve the way someone dedicated would. So why do I play this game then? Why do I try to improve regardless? Well, it's fun as hell, for one, and two, it's competitive. When you're in to something competitive, you just have this urge and push inside you. This keeps me coming back. Pitting your wits and skill against someone else, feeling the harshness of defeat and the greatness of victory, it's the a rush you can't get over. So, lets dive into my latest uploads and see where I'm at now.

Climaxspot is someone I've wanted to upload for awhile. We've played a good amount and I think I've only beaten him once. It usually happens as seen in this vid. Back and forth between rounds but I always get beat in the third. Some times it's by a lot, some times it's really close. I wanted to display his Poison skill because I personally think it's pretty good, at least for someone online. In the first round, I jump into fireballs instead of being patient. Needs work. And then something happens that is a weird habit I need to break. When someone neutral jumps close to me, I expect the attack, but instead of stand blocking, I tend to just hold down back, which makes NO SENSE why I would do that. I think I'm thinking too far a head. Climaxspot likes to use that overhead, usually have 2 crouching jabs, but I get hit by it a lot(talking about other matches as well). My reactions are slow, I either need to block or counter DP. And then at the end of the round, I just do a random DP. Don't know why.

Round 2 starts the same, I jump into fireball(need to be more patient, god damn it) but this round goes better for me...except when there were TWO TIMES I dropped the target combo because I didn't believe I was going to hit with the stand MP. But then I finally get it the third time. I noticed I knocked Poison down a lot in this round and dealt consistent enough damage to dizzy her at the end. But then the dreaded third round comes and I get hit by a focus, AGAIN(this is too typical with me) and then I'm trapped in the corner. Ok, at this point, I'm fucked. I don't know enough with Decapre to escape so a DP got me out, but there were other fights where I couldn't get out. So I'm down big and start going crazy with random jumps and I just get killed. I need to be more patient and calm the fuck down and play smarter. Good games to Climaxspot. He's fun to play against.

This was a fun fight and I learned a lot from this. First thing, I need to punish better. I blocked the target combo and punished with...crouch MK...I can better than that. I was super happy to link dive kick into cr. LP, cr. LP, cr. MK, DP(which I have been practicing on). Also, I do a lot of EX Scrambles on wake up. I think to be less predictable, I should probably not do that so often, even if I feel it works for me. Probably should try to use it more as an escape on wake up instead of trying to deal damage. Death was near for GarKit as he attacked me with scissor hands at the end, I noticed he had 2 bars of meter and that an FADC could have happened, so during the block string, I was just hitting the punch buttons waiting to counter and if he didn't FADC, well, I was going to stop and eveyrthing would have been fine. He FADC'd and I too the first round.

Second round had some oopsies, like an accidental horizontal scramble(I hit LK when I meant to hit MK) but it was soon followed up by a double dash towards the opponent after I landed a DP. I stopped right as soon as he woke up and blocked, which baited a DP and then I punished CORRECTLY with cr. MP into DP. I think I have those jump roundhouses down when I know I can land them, which I think I landed 3 in this match. Got a little to confident and went in when I should have been patient after that. But toward the end, I was knocked down and I remembered that this guy threw me a few times in the first round. I felt it coming and decided to wake up EX Scramble but made sure I did the quake as fast as possible so it would hit while he grabbed. And that's what happened. Good games to GarKit.

After comparing these uploads with my previous ones, I still see VAST improvement I need to make but I see some differences. I'm linking some stuff better and I'm more mobile. Before, it seemed like I just stood around too much. Right now, I need to work on patience and have a better game plan against characters. I downloaded the Official Ultra Street Fighter IV FrameData app to try and get a better understanding of somethings(it's only $2.99, so you should pick it up if you're an SF player). I think with more experience and practice, I could be better, at least, respectable.

I want to close out with this great vid put up by Cross Counter TV which shows some great things about Decapre from pro player EG KBrad. This video helped a lot and answered the great question of how Decapre can get out of the corner(great timing, right?).