Northwest VF (Pacific NW, North America)

So who all from VFDC will be at Preppy's gathering this weekend? I don't post much, but it'd be cool to see some random new people for VF5. I'm looking forward to seeing Mike (Femto) and Yosuke (random names) again and get more games in. Mike, are you playing in the ST tourney this time, too? Your Blanka was fun as hell to fight.

 

I plan on showing up being as i finally have a friday off that falls on a gathering at Zachs.

 

ppffffffffffft LOL! Bwahahaha!

I can't tell you why I think this is that funny. It's... it's...

I still don't know.

 

It is funny, but it's why we love our H-fighter!

I am really looking forward to seeing Yotaku tomorrow!

Anyways... I played some matches with Frank last night and the connection was very very good (outside of maybe 2 or 3 matches of a giant series). On SRK, I posted my comments on his game because I know he'll read it up and it might help him... But I love keeping conversations on VFDC despite all of Seattle staying on SRK... Here's the post:

-----------------
Frank, I had a blast playing against you last night and I'm excited to see how much stronger you're going to be in VF5 as time goes by.

I hope you don't mind me pointing out what I remember from our matches. I am no expert, but I can at least point out what seemed somewhat exploitable against you, when I played you.

GENERAL

I think your game is quite solid. You seem very adjustable, at least when you're really focused (after the first cig break, you were much more solid than before it).

You are able to maximize damage quite well. I keep feeling like you could do even more damage with your Eileen though--that there are stronger combos open to you. But truth be told, you maximize damage better than almost everyone I've played in the Northwest outside of Yosuke. But we could all do WAY BETTER on this.

I probably won't have any idea of your execution skills until Friday. You play really really clean (which is good), but until I play you in person, I won't know how accurate your execution is. If it's really good, there are probably a few things you can do in some situations that would help pad your defense and get you back on offense fast. Adding Evade-Throw-Escape-Guard to your game would make you more solid, if you never botch up the execution and if you only use it as a defensive OPTION (not something you do all the time). More on ETEG later.

ON EVADING (punish the evaders)

You don't punish your opponent (or at least me) enough for evading. This means you are doing lots of linear attacks (which isn't bad in itself), and it also implies that you might not be throwing enough. For your style of play, half-circular attacks would suit you well--but Eileen's repertoire isn't rich in half-circular attacks. If you don't punish your opponent for evading, you open the door to your own missed opportunities and you make ETEG a very, very strong option for them (which skews the guessing game in their favor). Here are some ways to deal with people who evade:

-Throw. Throwing beats evading.

-Full-Circular Attacks like sweep will flat out beat evading. Most of these are low reward though, but you always have Eileen's spinning punch which can lead to a guessing game (funny thing is, you didn't have to guess against me, I always fell for the second punch though I knew I could just duck and 0-frame throw you).

-Half-Circular Attacks are a great option depending on your character. Eileen has a few--and they are moves you already use. You just need to use them in this context--because I was evading you like crazy last night. On the VFDC command list, click on the Esc column to sort the movelist that way and look at which moves are half-circular. Pick the fast ones in most cases. Always ask yourself which direction your opponent tends to evade. Good opponents will make the decision between your character's backside or frontside. MOST PLAYERS mistakingly have a favorite down/up direction. If they have a down/up tendency, you have an advantage in your favor if they like to evade.

NITAKU (throw vs. mid 50/50) SITUATIONS

I was impressed by how well you do adjust to your opponent. At first, you were always being taken down by poke (hit) --> throw, but after the first sig break, you adjusted this for the most part--BUT BETTER YET, you would adjust if I would switch it up to poke (hit) --> mid. It wasn't always there, but it was something you finally fixed in your game after that cig break.

You understand VF's flow very well and you properly adhere to that flow. The most difficult times you had against me is if I could put you in a nitaku situation and really do the 50/50 (mid or throw) bit on you. Your tendency was to do standing block though, so back to the above statement, most of the time I threw you.

There are different approaches you can take to the nitaku situation. In many of the cases last night, it wasn't true nitaku--meaning, blocking low was an option to beat throw for you. However, if much of the time a poke gets a yellow flash on you, it will be true nitaku and you are going to have to go for extra measures against throws (because you won't be able to crouch them).

Some anti-throw options from nitaku (things to do if opponent pokes you with a yellow flash and is going to throw you):

-Throw-Escape will beat throw (learn the character's strong throw options, against Lion you want to escape with b+P+G or f+P+G. Against my Lion, f+P+G will do the trick for a long time because of my bad habits).

-Attack to Beat or Clash the throw. It's a bad habit to attack whenever someone successfully pokes you, because their attack will beat yours. It's a good habit to attack whenever someone pokes you and you know they are capable and likely will throw you. In VF5, you'll have to learn what attacks don't clash. I think Eileen's hopping kick combo launcher doesn't clash because she's up in the air fast enough (before a 12-frame throw would connect with her)--so that is probably a good option. Low attacks work, but probably aren't worth the gamble of eating a counter-hit launcher. Any attack that leaves you back turned won't clash either (and in the case of launchers, might reduce your opponent's potential combo).
JUST REMEMBER THIS ABOUT ATTACKING TO BEAT THROW: factor in the risk vs. reward ratio. If you guess wrong, your opponent might launch you with a mid-launcher. This isn't reason to not attack to beat a throw--just make sure that if you win the situation, the reward justifies the risk (meaning, do something that will do good damage to your opponent). Otherwise, if the situation truly is 50/50 successful guesses between you and your opponent, your opponent wins.
Yosuke will probably laugh because I can preach this, but I don't practice this that much lol (but my Lion uses b,b+K combos for this particular reason).

-ETEG (Evade-Throw-Escape-Guard). Tap down or up to evade --> input a throw escape quickly --> let go of Punch right away while holding Guard. This is the passive/defensive anti-nitaku option. If done correctly, you evade attacks if you evaded in the correct direction, you will beat throws that are escapable by the throw escape input you entered, and you will do the weak sidestep and then block if nothing happens. The weaknesses to this are slightly delayed attacks (which your failed sidestep will eat) and attacks that hit you out of your evade (sweeps, half-circular attacks if you evaded in the wrong direction). I recommend only doing one throw escape, despite being able to do multiple throw escapes in VF. The reason for only doing one throw escape is you will know if you failed the throw escape component and also, it is better to work on one's ability to guess and anticipate than to be stuck doing the same throw escapes over and over without any way to verify that you successfully did the throw escapes.

PRESSURE
Aside from standing high and blocking a lot when in a jam, you seem to handle pressure decently well. I put you on ringout pressure a lot and I thought you mostly played alright in those situations--with one exception. The note I had on anti-evading... that would come in handy a lot when you are fighting someone near the edge of the ring, especially if they are the ones stuck with the pressure.

Another thing I liked about your game was that I didn't feel like you whored out the same rising option off the ground. Guess it's your Tekken experience, but you didn't have the bad habits of always tech rolling or always getting up in a certain way. If you had a tendency, it was to the safer option of getting up manually without a rising attack, which is a very good thing for the most part. Mix it up appropriately and you'll stand up well on your feet to take on the challenges.

In the end...
I had a great time fighting your Eileen and I can see why Yosuke wanted to see us play. I hope this post helps you out (and I hope it doesn't offend you that I write up about your game on a forum like this). I look forward to seeing you get stronger and stronger. I was actually impressed with your game last night.

-Chanchai

One more thing...

There's a guessing game you play with Eileen that isn't much of a guessing game. It's something you can improve on if the "correct sequence" bores you.

It's the game you play when you switch sides with the opponent and Eileen has like a guaranteed PPP or PP,f+P or whatever it is.

In your case, it seems like you get bored with the same three hits so you mix in something like P(G) --> Throw.

The problem is, if you're going that route, you need to make the opponent consider standing up and block. Because all I did was hold down and Guard whenever I was in that sequence in case you would go for P(G) --> Throw.

For opponents who don't know better, I understand how P(G) --> Throw will always work. For other opponents, you need to mix in something like P(G) --> Mid Launcher. Only then will I be threatened enough to stand and block and take the throw.

 

that's why I love using different gamer names! haha

 

Stop helping him;; Our matches are already one sided enough as it is, lol.

 

Oh man I can't believe I wasn't watching this thread, I really
really want to play with you guys.

I'm so sad that I missed both the thanksgiving event and this one. /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/cry.gif

Anyway, I just read your comments about our matches Chanchai and I
would like to thank both you and LA Akira for all the help and just being really cool in general.

 

Quick Word while I'm at Work:

Preppy's gathering was a blast and it was an amazing first time at Preppy's for me. More thanks and details later. I will post the full tournament results within the next 12 hours (maybe 3 hours from now).

Yosuke wins the tournament. Rayblade won everything else and was the convincing #2 player of the night with his Vanessa. AWESOME JOB, RAYBLADE!

So much to post about... no time yet to post it... But the details and full results are coming soon.

-Chanchai

 

Preppy's Poker Night on 12/07 was a blast and I had a great time!

I posted tons of details about the tournament here.

I will write up my thoughts on the whole night eventually, because there was a lot more to the night than the tournament.

For now, here are some videos /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif


<u>Tournament Match Videos</u>

7th Place Matches
Raishinken (Pai) vs. Frankdadank (Eileen) 1 2 3 Preppy's Video (missing first match)
Robert (Wolf) vs. David (Goh) Preppy's Video

Winner's Bracket Semifinals
Yosuke (Pai) vs. @js (Brad) Preppy's Video (3 of 5 matches--Chanchai's mistake while running the tournament)
RaybladeX (Vanessa) vs. Chanchai (Lion) Preppy's Video (3 of 5 matches--Chanchai's mistake while running the tournament)

5th Place Matches
Robert (Wolf) vs. Chanchai (Lion) Preppy's Video
Frankdadank (Eileen) vs. @js (Brad) Preppy's Video

4th Place Match
@js (Brad) vs. Chanchai (Lion) Preppy's Video

Winner's Bracket Final
Yosuke (Akira) vs. RaybladeX (Vanessa) Preppy's Video

3rd Place Match
RaybladeX (Vanessa) vs. Chanchai (Lion) Preppy's Video

GRAND FINALS
Yosuke (Jacky) vs. RaybladeX (Jeffry/Vanessa) Preppy's Video

<u>Gathering Videos (RaybladeX Collection)</u>

Yosuke (Eileen) vs. Chanchai (Lion) 1 2 3

Frankdadank (Eileen) vs. Chanchai (Lion) 1 2 3 4

Frankdadank (Eileen) vs. @js (Brad) 1 2

Frankdadank (Eileen) vs. FatBear (Akira) 1 2

Frankdadank (Eileen) vs. Yosuke (Lau) 1

Yosuke (Pai) vs. @js (Brad) 1 2

Yosuke (Lau) vs. FatBear (Akira) 1 2

-Chanchai

 

So season 3 of Team Seattle's fighting leauge is going to start up on Jan. 4th. With that beign said, what are people's take on adding Virtua Fighter 5 this season? There's a post over at SRK in the northwest section with a poll. By all means post and provide some feedback (cost of entry, what time we should start, who will run the tournaments etc.) oh and don't forget to vote.

 

Everyone here better be at Preppy's on the 4th.

 

this thread has gotten pretty quiet as of late. How's everyone been?

 

Been good... moved about a week and a half ago, and won't have internet again until next week at the earliest. In case anyone wonders why I haven't been on live much, that is.

Hard to come up with much to say here when everyone in the NW posts on SRK;;

 

So, is LIVE still acting weird for people? I'm not sure if it's my connection or LIVE, but I've had REALLY laggy games the last week or so (since I've started playing online).

Also, the updates to the 360 version have me really excited, especially since I've been looking forward to completing a couple of characters in quest mode.

I want to start to play Blaze because he's so tight... any tips Mike?

 

Hey all /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif

I actually was a part of the NorCal crew for awhile, until it just kinda dissipated after several departures. I just moved to Eugene this past weekend, and will be trying to get a crew going out here with my new co-workers. Hopefully when all settles down from the move, I'll be able to make more gatherings up north. Looking forward to getting into the scene up here! /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/laugh.gif

 

Welcome to the NW, WrathX (didn't mean to rhyme there).

Sorry for the month-late response, I haven't been active on the boards lately...

But I do want to startup more VF sessions in March ^_^ So I'll be working on that.

I hope you can come up and play with us, though it is a very long drive/busride/trainride.

The NorCal guys are great, it's too bad the NorCal scene lost a lot of players last year... I might play with David and Jeff in Asia and not in the US if we meet up again... It's weird when I think about it that way.

But Renzo and Keanan are still there and I enjoy playing with them.

We do have some nice VF players in the Portland area, we just need to get them all together again--so that's one of my March Projects.

Anyways, nice to meet you ^_^

-Chanchai

 

He didn't actually get 0 responses... they just all got wiped out by the VFDC server crash, and we didn't bother restoring them.

Good to see you around again, though, Chanchai. Seattle's still alive, despite everyone thinking the game would die the instant Yosuke left (I think everyone who's come up from Portland since December has said that to me word for word, lol).

Hopefully we'll either see you at Preppy's again, or maybe it'll be our turn to make a roadtrip south soon.

 

Just wanted to let all the Portland players know that I'll be playing VF5 at Versis in Gresham on Thursday, from 6pm-9pm.

Hope some others can make it out there.

Also, if you are really wanting to play, but money is an issue, I'll help you with the funds if I have to.

That said, it's only $2 for every 30 minutes and beyond 3 hours it's a day pass (free play beyond 3 hours). We'll also be playing on a 71" screen in a comfortable environment.

Here's the address to Versis:
1356 NW Civic Dr
Gresham, OR 97030

-Chanchai

 

Just wanted to let people know that May 24th there is NW Major's Toureny going down at the University of Washington.

The games included will be

Virtua FIghter 5
ST
MvC2
GGXAC
CvS2
3S


More Details to come!

 

Want to thank Rayblade, Thomas, ajs, Kent, and Anthony for showing up at Versis last Thursday and bringing some excellent VF and Tekken battles!

I had a great time and I'm looking forward to more next time /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif

Ray's game is still evolving and he's mixing up a lot more than he used to. His ability with at least half the roster is great. Keep it up!

Thomas' game is doing well and I expect it to get much stronger after I explained the forced Nitaku situation (P(G) MC and d+P(G) MC being the main examples) to him. I expect him to get stronger when he forces opponents to guess or use ETEG and what not. He also now understands why P(G) --> Throw was so powerful against him in the past.

AJS hasn't played in awhile and at first seemed rusty, but that rust was wearing off fast. During the night he was going back to his Brad and Eileen routines, but in a few more sessions, I expect he'll break routine and really mix things up more.

I enjoyed watching Anthony and Kent playing Tekken. Sadly, my lack of knowledge makes it impossible for me to comment... but I hope Anthony takes up my offer to work on VF and I am really looking forward to more VF sessions with Kent. The guy observes other players quite well!

As for my game, ever since Thailand, I've played with a lot more gambling. Some people think my Lion is a high damage character, though Lion has to gamble a lot for that damage and is generally not a high damage character. Personally, while this gambling style of play is an actual improvement, I intend to find a nice hybrid of safe poking & spacing, and taking good but strong risks for the good damage.

One can win solidly against peers and weaker opponents with solid play... But it does take a forced gamble to take down the player who is stronger than you.

Anyways, I hope we can get the same group (and maybe more even) out this week!

-Chanchai