Return of Shaky!: Dustin' off the Rust

[ShakyFingers]

I'm ShakyFingers! I've been around the FGC since SF4 was new(even though I didn't play it until AE dropped, and didn't even upgrade to AE until around the middle of AE2012's life), but only started playing competitively when I picked up BlazBlue Continuum Shift. Back in the day, I could say I wasn't half bad! Placing well at EVO level? Hell no, but I could at least hold my own. After a while, I got sick of how bad SF4's netcode is - and the game itself - so I decided to take a break from playing fighting games online and would only go to training mode, and since then, I haven't played against anyone in a few years in any game. I got back into the swing of things with PSN Skullbats early this January(or very late in December. I don't remember), and finally got off my lazy ass and started playing ranked after that. Random players in ranked aren't a problem, so I usually win. But when you get to the REALLY good players...Then you can really see my problems. I decided out of the blue to make this thread - and I apologize if I put this together poorly, because I did rush it a bit - so I don't have any plans for it right now other than to hopefully just level up my game. That all aside, let's get started!

Biggest Problems:

• Neutral: I flail around until I get a hit. Then I have a passable offence...I think. I never had this issue in other games, and can't seem to figure out what I'm doing wrong, but I don't even have a month of online experience, so that might be a reason why. I also tend to accidentally move Fortune's head into a bad position in neutral so it just gets battered away all day by my opponent, and DP assists/anything like Lock 'n Load wreck me. I can't deal with them very consistently.

• Defence: Resets may as well be a touch of death combo. I can't block very well at all, can't mash to save my life, and when I do reversal, it's always too obvious. The second I get touched, I'm probably done for. PBGC is pretty easy, though.

• Matchups: I didn't actually think about it until @Adeveis mentioned it after our games today(2/12/15). And yet I call myself an above average player...I know the matchups from a viewing standpoint, but from a playing standpoint, not at all. I don't know why.

I would say those two are my biggest problems. Other problems include:

• Fucking up Against Players Better Than Me: The main issue is hit confirming, I think. I don't know how many simple hit confirms I drop when I play against Adeveis or Lawnba, and I'd brain fart and screw up almost every confirm I got in my set against TJ(though my internet did act up and our matches were horribly jumpy off and on, so that could have been a factor). But when it's players around my level/lower than me, I don't have this problem. I mainly think this is due to nerves, because I've had that kind of problem in the past, so it might go away once I get comfortable playing against them like it usually does.

• Fighting Parasoul: I very rarely hate playing against a certain character, but good Parasoul players are getting me there. No idea how to approach her, no idea how to block her, and I get swatted by jump fierce all the time when I Fiber Upper for mobility from where I feel is always a safe enough distance. (EDIT: I'm improving on blocking her. About damn time)

• Peacock: Not playing against her, but playing AS her. Because I got into competitive play with Lambda in Continuum Shift and loved her so much, I REEEEALLY wanna get back into playing heavy zoners, because even though I love every archetype, zoning characters have to be my top favourite...But I can't keep people out very well at all with Peacock, whether they're great or online randoms. I know good patterns for her zoning, but I can't seem to figure out good times to teleport out, or slip past and run away for some space. So she usually doesn't last too long. I think this might just be due to the fact that I haven't played her very much at all against people.

• Implementing More Stuff I've Found: I have a folder of over 70 different recordings I've made so I don't forget resets or setups I found while in training mode...But I usually go for the same couple of resets over and over again and become really predictable.

• Using DP Assists: "I'm gonna block and call Updo!". *gets double snapped*. I usually use French Twist because I have resets with it when using Painwheel, and I play Fortune on point, so I don't get to use Fiber Upper assist too much. When I do, though, it's usually the same outcome as when I use Updo. And I use Cerecopter with Bella. I've only recently started using Updo more often, so I'm really not used to using uppercut assists. So...I could use some improving with them.

And I guess that's pretty much it off the top of my head. My execution is fine, so I don't have any problems with combos unless the screwed up bottom left corner of my D-pad or has anything to say about it, or I'm just not as familiar with a certain character's combos(mainly Parasoul and Val). And I don't have any problems when I reset. When it comes to characters, I play Fortune/Painwheel/Bella(I'll sometimes drop Fortune or Bella for Filia and play Painwheel/Filia and whoever I didn't swap out if I feel like my Fortune or Bella isn't doing anything against the person I'm playing. Very rarely I'll swap Painwheel for Filia), and Peacock/Filia/Bella as my two main teams, but I have combos and resets and a basic idea of how to play the entire cast(aside from their neutral. I can't even neutral). But those two teams are my main focus right now, and might be subject to change when Beowulf arrives because of how hype I am for him. I'm gonna see if I can start recording games I have against people in ranked or from the PSN thread, as well as my Skullbats matches to post here for people to see and yell at me for all the bad things I do, but the quality is gonna be pretty potato level because I don't have a capture card. So if anyone's willing to batter me around a bit, I'd love to play against you sometime so that I can git gud! So if you're up for that, you can message me on here to ask to play/set up a time to play, or add me at ShakeyFingers on PSN and message me when you wanna play a set. I'm usually always up for some games. Because I don't have a life right now, you can usually get a hold of me between 7 AM(US Central time) to whenever I decide to go to sleep. I'll change the time you can contact me if something happens and I won't be available all day anymore, because it's possible it could soon.

EDIT: My hours are all over the place at work, so hell if I know when.

 

[ShakyFingers]

Okay, so after my matches with @Adeveis and talking with him a bit, he said it sounds like I have a bad case of a character crisis, and should think about settling on a team soon, saying if I try to get better with offense and pressure as well as playing patiently and defensive at the same time, it'll just take longer to get more refined. So I've decided I want to go back to my competitive roots, and I'll be going with a Peacock team, so my Fortune/Painwheel/Bella team's going on the backburner for now. But for the Peacock team, I've been reconsidering who I want to back her up. My top choices are:

• Mid: Filia, Fortune or Bella
• Anchor: Bella or Big Band

But I could really run anyone else too. My most competent choices are Filia, Fortune and Bella, because I've spent the most time playing people as them, and...My Big Band isn't the greatest. I have combos and basic resets and parries!...But my neutral is still bad, and my defence is even worse with him being so big and easy to instant overhead. I could also maybe use H Hornet Bomber, M Clone/H Love Dart, maybe a Tear Shot or even Pinon Dash(but I don't think Painwheel has a place in a Peacock team, as much as I love her...But I'm willing to try it out). I'd prefer to have at least Bella or Big Band on the team, because I feel that an armoured assist benefits Peacock the most, so I'd like to have Lock 'n Load or Brass Knuckles to back her up. When it comes to characters, I always want to play the characters I love over how good they are or anything like that, but when it comes to a team game like this, I feel like I can do that, but also should make a team with good synergy throughout. I like playing Bella more than Big Band, so I'm leaning towards her. I don't see any real problems if I choose one over the other, because Lock 'n Load and Brass Knuckles both work fine from what I've seen from good Peacocks. I'm also considering using Peacock/Bella/Band and possibly using fierce LnL and jab Beat Extend. As for Filia or Fortune, I feel like my Fortune is better than my Filia, but I can't find any way to easily confirm off of Fiber Upper assist like I can Updo assist. Of course, I haven't tested this all yet, so I'm just going off the top of my head, but with Fiber Upper, I don't see anything I can get off of it. Off Updo, I can run up and OTG, or charge fierce SoID and then Argus, and then even follow up with whatever I want after that, or another Argus and then even a Gregor if I feel like it. With Fortune, even if I could convert into Argus like that off of Fiber Upper, I wouldn't get that kind of followup potential. I'm also considering just dropping a character and going for a duo. I might try running team McPeanuts or team TJ for a bit. Maybe even Peacock/Double. But as it stands now, I'm thinking of just sticking with Peacock/Filia/Bella. I enjoy that team a lot and I feel like they all work really well together. I'll have to test out all my choices in more matches against a variety of players.

edit: Found a good way to combo off of Fiber Upper, so Peacock/Fortune/Bella very well could work better than I initially thought, though I'd be sacrificing the comboability of Argus into Gregor for what I feel is a character I'm better with than Filia. Either way, if I stick with Filia, I'll at least have Fortune in the reserves if I feel like Filia isn't doing any work.

 

[ShakyFingers]

Had another set with @Adeveis today(3/1/2015). Got rocked. Won 11, lost 41. I experimented around with a couple of teams I was thinking about using, and I really like Peacock, Fukua and Cerebella, but my Fukua didn't do much at all once I lost Peacock. But H Love Dart really helped with my zoning, so I'm gonna think about using that team more. If it doesn't work out, I'll probably stick with Peacock, Bella, Big Band like I have been. I have a helluva time dealing with Brass Knuckles - as well as just Big Band in general - assist, as well as Parasoul's zoning when I'm Peacock. There were a lot of moments where I just got out zoned during the matchup. Probably because my Peacock still isn't that good and Adeveis is just that much better than me, along with Brass Knuckles being the perfect anti Peacock assist. Still don't know the matchups, still die when I get hit. But I had some of the best blocks I've ever had in this set once I got used to Cremation assist, so that's something. I feel like my defence is improving slightly, but that's about it. Still can't tech grabs for shit. I last a bit longer than I usually have at neutral now, though, so maybe I've gotten better there. If any good Peacock players read this - @Swiftfox-Dash, @mcpeanuts, @Skarmand, whoever else that might bother to read this - have any advice to give about dealing with Parasoul with and without Brass Knuckles assist and Big Band as Peacock, lemme know. I could really use it, because right now, it seems like the only option I have against that stuff is to go in, which is the last thing I wanna do as Peacock. It might just be because Parasoul is a big problem character of mine, but it seems like every time I play him, he ends up getting the shield soldier out really easily or gets Brass Knuckles to either hit me or just block the bombs, then he just out zones me and I end up having to tag to Bella because I can't counter zone him, and I don't believe in my Peacock's offence. Or he'll just rush me down after that, and if I get out, the same thing usually happens.

 

[ShakyFingers]

UNiEL only break is over! It feels good coming back to SG. Had another set with @Adeveis. Really long set too, with a beautiful score of 50/7. Give it a guess as to who got the 7...Anyways, unfortunately didn't seem to learn anything during the matches, but he did give me a buncha advice afterward. I really, REALLY need to work on zoning with Peacock, and not just, "I have a bunch of things I can throw! Let's fill the screen with shit!" and spam everything I can because it works against a lot of people, as well as just running away. Also gotta work on my zoning patterns; I throw George's Day Out at really stupid times and almost never when it's supposed to be thrown, I don't hold SoID enough, I don't use enough normals to zone with, I just don't mix it up. I get into a flowchart because I'm really used to it just working well. Apparently my Bella is my best character - here I was thinking she was one of my worst - but he thinks it's probably because of how strong she is as a character, and that even though I know what I'm doing with stuff like resets, I don't always keep him on his toes like a good Bella would. Honestly can't say I disagree. My Big Band's apparently decent too. Blew my mind because when I play him, it always dies the second he comes in, but hey, it's something. But he says once I improve, he thinks I can really be top 16 at tournaments potential, which, even though I feel like I have the potential to be good, I never would've thought THAT good. So I'll need to keep all that mind, and definitely gonna binge watch Peanuts' tutorial until I'm sick of it. And hopefully I can get this damn camera to charge properly so I can record my matches and try to pick it apart with post commentary and post it here, and then have good players maybe give their thoughts.

 

[ShakyFingers]

A lot has happened in the 4 months I haven't posted here. I've gotten better with Peacock and Bella, I went to Combo Breaker and did EXTREMELY well in casuals and went 2/2 in the tournament(but I'm proud of my performance except for when I played McPeanuts), I don't main Big Band anymore, and now I'm in a bit of a character crisis over who I want the mid on my team to be, or if I even want to play a trio.

Since dropping Big Band off my main team, I've been playing Fukua as a replacement. The Fukua/Bella shell is still really good, and M Clone assist makes Peacock that much harder to get in on. I'm pretty...Decent, I guess, with Fukua, but you can still see why Peacock and Bella are my better characters when I play her. M Clone is nice because, like Beat Extend, I can do the safe 50/50 Peanuts does with Peacock.

I like Robo-Fortune a lot; Mine is a pretty annoying assist, and it's nice because I can get a head and get the mine setup in one Peacock/Bella combo, I found stuff that Bella can do thanks to the Mine, I found stuff Peacock can do with it, and it's just nice to have an extra something out there that not only gets in the way, but also breaks armour, because I have a HELL of a time dealing with Brass Knuckles, and I play against that assist a lot.

I've also been considering playing Big Band as my mid instead of anchor. I still love the big dude, but the problem lies in the fact that I don't think I can make him work, or he's holding me back. I'm confident in my anchor Bella making comebacks, but not Big Band. I always tried to get better with him, but for the most part, he seemed to just be there for me to combo off of Dyanmo midscreen. So maybe the answer to my problem isn't dropping Big Band, but just switching him and Bella around.

Parasoul's a possibility. I have good stuff with her and Bella. Again, like Beat Extend, I can do Peanuts' 50/50 with Pillar.

Double's still a possibility...Nothing special to note with her.

Painwheel's another choice. Still, out of all the characters, Painwheel is my favourite, but I never tried her out on a Peacock team much because she never seemed to have a place on one. But when I saw Mr. Peck play her on his team and made it work, I decided that it was worth a shot.

That aside, the biggest problem now is, since Combo Breaker, I haven't felt satisfied with my performance, and it sort of makes playing this game that I love so much feel...Disappointing. I feel like I'm stuck in a rut, and I haven't gotten any better at anything in this game in months. Sometimes I think I've reached my skill ceiling, but I don't think I have. I'm confident that I can improve, and possibly even become a top player. I'm VERY confident in my ability to improve, and I really want to improve. It doesn't help that my already bad internet is making once good connections god awful, and I don't have a way to watch my matches and pick apart WHAT I'm doing wrong. So now, when I play SG, it just puts me in a bad mood. I used to have so much fun playing in the PSN Skullbats tournaments, but now I just get pissed off because my connection sucks or I don't know WHY I'm getting 2nd every tournament, or WHY I get a round or two off Adeveis one tournament, or even beat him, and then get 3/0'd by him the next. I hate not being able to look back to a match and say, "This is why I won" or, "This is why I lost". I just look back and can say that I won or I lost, and don't know why, and it's really frustrating. Now, the only time I know why I win is when I play quick match: There aren't nearly as many serious players in quick match, at least not on PSN. I've been told by a ton of people that I'm a really good player, but...Why? I can't even tell what I do well and what I don't do well.

TL;DR I don't know how to get better anymore, and don't have a way to critique my matches, so I'm kinda stuck.

 

[mcpeanuts]

I like Robo-Fortune a lot; Mine is a pretty annoying assist, and it's nice because I can get a head and get the mine setup in one Peacock/Bella combo, I found stuff that Bella can do thanks to the Mine, I found stuff Peacock can do with it, and it's just nice to have an extra something out there that not only gets in the way, but also breaks armour, because I have a HELL of a time dealing with Brass Knuckles, and I play against that assist a lot.

Brass Knuckles assist is def super annoying for Peacock but I have figured out a few ways to mitigate it. First off obv counter calls, this is even better since you have LnL assist which is the ultimate counter call, that shit hurts assists SO bad. Second off it doesn't reach quite full screen; some of Peacock's moves will kara her into it which sucks but from what I can tell item drops are always safe and H Bomb is usually safe. Something else I like to do is backdash, wait to see what they do, then either do nothing or throw some bombs depending on what they do. You can combine these ideas by doing a sequence like item drop, backdash, wait, maybe throw bombs, drop another item, backdash again, etc.

I've also been considering playing Big Band as my mid instead of anchor. I still love the big dude, but the problem lies in the fact that I don't think I can make him work, or he's holding me back. I'm confident in my anchor Bella making comebacks, but not Big Band. I always tried to get better with him, but for the most part, he seemed to just be there for me to combo off of Dyanmo midscreen. So maybe the answer to my problem isn't dropping Big Band, but just switching him and Bella around.

This can definitely help but I would go even further and say play Big Band on point to get more experience with him. Not as a main team ofc but occasionally playing like Big Band/Bella in long sets can help you work on the character more.

Parasoul's a possibility. I have good stuff with her and Bella. Again, like Beat Extend, I can do Peanuts' 50/50 with Pillar.

I didn't know the reset worked with Pillar, that's wild

Painwheel's another choice. Still, out of all the characters, Painwheel is my favourite, but I never tried her out on a Peacock team much because she never seemed to have a place on one. But when I saw Mr. Peck play her on his team and made it work, I decided that it was worth a shot.

I had tried Peacock and Painwheel together for a while and was never able to make it work, but that was before Big Band came out. That character plus the fact that Peacock can do The Reset using H Pinion may make a team like Peacock/Big Band/Painwheel viable. Peacock/Bella/Painwheel may also work if Pinion Dash assist gives anything to Bella (maybe it lets you convert off Dynamo and stuff? Maybe not with H but if you use the M version? Dunno never tried it).

That aside, the biggest problem now is, since Combo Breaker, I haven't felt satisfied with my performance, and it sort of makes playing this game that I love so much feel...Disappointing. I feel like I'm stuck in a rut, and I haven't gotten any better at anything in this game in months. Sometimes I think I've reached my skill ceiling, but I don't think I have. I'm confident that I can improve, and possibly even become a top player. I'm VERY confident in my ability to improve, and I really want to improve. It doesn't help that my already bad internet is making once good connections god awful, and I don't have a way to watch my matches and pick apart WHAT I'm doing wrong. So now, when I play SG, it just puts me in a bad mood. I used to have so much fun playing in the PSN Skullbats tournaments, but now I just get pissed off because my connection sucks or I don't know WHY I'm getting 2nd every tournament, or WHY I get a round or two off Adeveis one tournament, or even beat him, and then get 3/0'd by him the next. I hate not being able to look back to a match and say, "This is why I won" or, "This is why I lost". I just look back and can say that I won or I lost, and don't know why, and it's really frustrating. Now, the only time I know why I win is when I play quick match: There aren't nearly as many serious players in quick match, at least not on PSN. I've been told by a ton of people that I'm a really good player, but...Why? I can't even tell what I do well and what I don't do well.

TL;DR I don't know how to get better anymore, and don't have a way to critique my matches, so I'm kinda stuck.

fwiw everyone who saw you play at Combo Breaker including myself had the same reaction of like "woah wait who is THIS dude?!" You're def further along as a player than a lot of these dudes, so I wouldn't get discouraged just yet.

You say you don't have a way to watch your matches, but I'm sure there's a way you could set it up. @Elda Taluda used to record his PS3 Skullbats videos on a camcorder. It doesn't have to be amazing quality, it just has to be good enough to be able to go back and watch it again and figure out what you did wrong.

More importantly tho I think is the fact that you're not having fun. If the game feels like a chore then it's gonna be that much more of a struggle to improve. If you don't have fun in the Skullbats then maybe take a few weeks off from it; personally I don't really like playing in online tournaments. Quick Match isn't really great for improving but it can be okay for meeting players; I had a policy for a while where if I lost to someone on Quick Match I'd always send them a friend request. If you meet people who can take games off you, you can try to invite them to a lobby and run a longer set. I find that more fun.

 

[ShakyFingers]

Brass Knuckles assist is def super annoying for Peacock but I have figured out a few ways to mitigate it. First off obv counter calls, this is even better since you have LnL assist which is the ultimate counter call, that shit hurts assists SO bad. Second off it doesn't reach quite full screen; some of Peacock's moves will kara her into it which sucks but from what I can tell item drops are always safe and H Bomb is usually safe. Something else I like to do is backdash, wait to see what they do, then either do nothing or throw some bombs depending on what they do. You can combine these ideas by doing a sequence like item drop, backdash, wait, maybe throw bombs, drop another item, backdash again, etc.

I think my problem is that I do try to take it a bit slower because of Brass assist, but then I end up playing as if they don't have it at all eventually during the match, but I'm not really sure why other than maybe I get too comfortable and think it's too far away to hit me.

This can definitely help but I would go even further and say play Big Band on point to get more experience with him. Not as a main team ofc but occasionally playing like Big Band/Bella in long sets can help you work on the character more.

This is a great idea, and something I need to do somewhere along the line, but the problem is I still think my Peacock isn't very good, despite what I've been told, so I always felt like it'd be more detrimental for me to do that.

I didn't know the reset worked with Pillar, that's wild

That reset can be setup off of all sorts of good assists, actually. Pillar, Updo, Fiber, Lock 'n Load, M Clone, Hurting Hurl, Theonite Beam. Probably others, but those are all assists I've used to set it up.

I had tried Peacock and Painwheel together for a while and was never able to make it work, but that was before Big Band came out. That character plus the fact that Peacock can do The Reset using H Pinion may make a team like Peacock/Big Band/Painwheel viable. Peacock/Bella/Painwheel may also work if Pinion Dash assist gives anything to Bella (maybe it lets you convert off Dynamo and stuff? Maybe not with H but if you use the M version? Dunno never tried it).

Unfortunately, none of Painwheel's really good assists let me convert off of Dyanmo midscreen. The only one that works that I found is M Buer Reaper, and not only might it be character specific(can't be bothered to check right now), but the conversion is a lot harder because you have to go straight into Pummel Horse after Titan Knuckle, and the assist is worthless for Peacock, and I don't like having an assist that doesn't work well with both characters. I thought about it more and don't think it's really a good idea so much as it is a fun one, but it's still worth a shot.

fwiw everyone who saw you play at Combo Breaker including myself had the same reaction of like "woah wait who is THIS dude?!" You're def further along as a player than a lot of these dudes, so I wouldn't get discouraged just yet.

My matches at Combo Breaker were hands down the best I ever played. When Hops told me I was a really good player during my set with NCV, for once, I thought so too. By no means do I think I'm a bad player; that isn't true at all. But I've never thought of myself as good, only slightly above average. The ONLY games I felt like I didn't play well were against you, because I think I just played poorly; Peacock is one of the characters I have the least experience playing against good players(of all the Peacocks I played before Combo Breaker, TJ was the only one that was good, and I played him back in January when I still new and played Taluda's team), and I also psyched myself out a bit because I didn't go into it thinking you were just my next opponent, I went into it thinking, "This is one of the best Peacock players on the fucking planet", so that didn't help going into it.

You say you don't have a way to watch your matches, but I'm sure there's a way you could set it up. @Elda Taluda used to record his PS3 Skullbats videos on a camcorder. It doesn't have to be amazing quality, it just has to be good enough to be able to go back and watch it again and figure out what you did wrong.

I really don't have any way to record my matches. I have a camera, but it won't seem to charge. I have an iPod, but it's nearly full, and can't record for very long. I have a webcam, but the framerate ends up getting so bad that I can't tell what's going on. And my phone can't record. And I can't afford a new camera right now, so I'm kinda shit out of luck right now. Thinking about it, though, maybe I can just keep a pen and paper or my iPod by me while I play and write down noteworthy things that happened and how I did good or bad when it happened instead of just trying to remember what happened to write down later, because I can't seem to do that when focusing on the matches.

More importantly tho I think is the fact that you're not having fun. If the game feels like a chore then it's gonna be that much more of a struggle to improve. If you don't have fun in the Skullbats then maybe take a few weeks off from it; personally I don't really like playing in online tournaments. Quick Match isn't really great for improving but it can be okay for meeting players; I had a policy for a while where if I lost to someone on Quick Match I'd always send them a friend request. If you meet people who can take games off you, you can try to invite them to a lobby and run a longer set. I find that more fun.

That's probably a good idea to take a break from Skullbats, and maybe even Skullgirls for a while. I've personally just given up on finding people in ranked at all anymore. The few times I found anyone that I did lose against, I ended up going even against them when I would find them again in ranked, and they were all really close games which, going back to another problem I had, I would look back to and have no clue why I won or lost. I would've added them - Zidiane, Cloudking and Dagwood most recently - but I just assume the more well known, high level players wouldn't add me or accept the lobby invite for some reason.

I really appreciate all the advice, and I'll definitely keep it in mind. I think I'll play in Skullbats tomorrow, take notes and see how I feel about it. If it's all the same, I'm gonna take a break and give it some time.

 

[Adeveis]

You're better than Onegunclip because you understand that you shouldn't put yourself in a losing situation. You seem to be very wary of your options as well as your opponents options and change your strategy depending on the situation. You're better than Pme, because you know how to be patient. You slow down your button mashing in order to get a good grasp as to what is going on in the match and speed it back up once you've gathered enough information. You're better than 2z, because you have more knowledge about the characters weaknesses and strengths. You know squigly supers don't have hitstop on their own so you can punish in a lot of situations. You're better than Snerd, because you are well versed in the mechanics of the game. you go beyond basic pushblock to get distance. A lot of times you pushblock for the absolute guard.

You're an incredible player and if you had been playing for 3 years like I have, you would definitely be on my level if not surpass. Don't mistake it like there is a huge gap between us though. Whenever I say "shaky dam why you so good" even when I 3/0 you, I'm not mocking you in anyway. Because that 3/0 wasn't easy. You push me to play my absolute best in order to beat you and that is not a bad player in my eyes.

If you need to take a break do so. I took a 3 month break once and every now and again I take a week off. Even pme is taking a break for awhile. Just stop playing for awhile, refresh yourself, recharge, then come back to the grind. If your anything like me, you'll notice you are weaker after your break but you'll also see your ceiling got higher.

 

[Adeveis]

I've also been considering playing Big Band as my mid instead of anchor. I still love the big dude, but the problem lies in the fact that I don't think I can make him work, or he's holding me back. I'm confident in my anchor Bella making comebacks, but not Big Band. I always tried to get better with him, but for the most part, he seemed to just be there for me to combo off of Dyanmo midscreen. So maybe the answer to my problem isn't dropping Big Band, but just switching him and Bella around.

This is definetly something to consider. I've been thinking the exact same thing, and I went through with switching my team order to have BB second and squigly anchor. The thing with Big band imo is that if you are a player who can manage to make BB's strengths out weigh his weaknesses, you can make this character godlike. However, I did not feel I could accomplish that with him as anchor. I've always considered squigly my best character, she makes better use of meter, and ssj > sbo is a hell of a lot safer than sbo > ssj. I went further and picked center stage because this assist pretty much gives Big band everything he wants/needs. It's still all theory at this point, but what I've gathered from playing the team this way is although it's hard to get use to an assist with no hitbox, It weirdly feels more solid. Also, Big band doesn't feel like just an assist anymore.

 

[mcpeanuts]

I went further and picked center stage because this assist pretty much gives Big band everything he wants/needs.

That's interesting. What can you do with this assist as Big Band?

 

[Adeveis]

That's interesting. What can you do with this assist as Big Band?

Biggest issue I had playing Big Band anchor was if my opponent had the life lead, they would just run away and all i could do was walk forward. BB seems like a character that drives on making his opponent afraid to do stuff but from full screen he has no pressure. This was the main reason I decided to experiment with center stage. So far it does exactly what I hoped by keeping the opponent near me but it brought some counter play with my opponent reacting to the assist call by throwing out a move to intercept me after the screen pull. However, Big band has so many ways to stop that and now they are in front of you with no where to go.

• A couple cool things I found was center stage > launch the opponent > jump > grab/hit them. because of the center stage they can't see what's going on up there.
• Another thing is it has made some combos easier. My main midscreen bnb I would end with; c.lp, c.lk, c.mp, s.hk , h a-train. However, on some characters they would be too far away to hit the a-train so i would lose out on dmg. Caio's combo that does over 7k while ending in a sliding knockdown is a little weird to hit on some characters but again center stage makes that easier.
• After killing a character, the whole dash over the dead body and a-train right before the next character comes in is a bit more ambiguous if you center stage before you dash over.
• center stage right before you a-train gives you better oki because you get the option to crossup with j.mk
• You can combo off of SSJ with center stage.
• anytime you get a happy birthday that's a dead character because center stage allows you to double snap from anywhere

 

[ShakyFingers]

I've been trying out a new team of Robo-Fortune/Painwheel/Bella, and I'm really liking it. My assists are H Beam, L Pinion and H LnL. L Pinion is really nice for Robo because:

• It lets me combo off of ground grab meterlessly.
• Reversal st.HP into L Pinion makes for an easy combo, and I think I can make myself safe with it. If not, I can react to it being blocked and probably LnL.

H Beam is great for Painwheel because:

• It's this giant beam that flies across the screen and hits a bunch, so they either have to duck it or jump, and if it hits I can confirm from pretty far distances.
  
• It opens up new combo routes and resets.

And, of course, Lock 'n Load is still Lock 'n Load. It's the best. I played the team against my friend, Deaurcy, for a bit, but we disconnected a few times so I don't know the actual score, but I know I won at least by a few games. I didn't play too hot at the start, but I think I'm slowly figuring out how to play Robo. There's nothing really noteworthy that I learned I need to improve on, other than how to play against Squigly as Painwheel and to stop pushblocking Silver Chord. I gave up waaaaay too many free punishes. Other than those, I played pretty well.

 

[ShakyFingers]

Robo/Painwheel/Bella notes:

• Robo builds meter pretty well while zoning. She's no Peacock, but she's not bad herself in the meter making department. Robo to Painwheel has two safe DHC's: One off of Cannon into Hatred Install, which can't be done safely when in their face, and another off of a blocked normal into Magnet>Hatred Install. L Pinion assist helps for midrange zoning and allows for easy confirms when it hits at neutral, easy setups for high/low/throw and fuzzy resets, an easy combo off of Robo's ground throw, and an easy confirm off of st.HP reversal without putting an assist at risk. LnL helps with zoning, is a good, "Get offa me" assist, and can be used as an obstacle to get in the way of a character's approach/projectiles to get heads safer(which I'm still not sure how to implement into my game plan right now), and is a safer assist to call if reversal st.HP is blocked. Maybe it's better than L Pinion at that, but I feel like my HP armour gets broken so quickly most of the time that the assist wouldn't come out quick enough to activate and I'd get happy birthday'd.

Painwheel/Robo/Bella notes:

• Painwheel with H Beam is annoying. It forces them to block low or jump to avoid the beam, so it's a great tool to add to Painwheel's neutral. It also helps setup resets and gives new combo routes, and is really nice for pressure. Painwheel into Robo has one safe-ish DHC against Peacock, Parasoul, Eliza and Robo/meterless opponents, which is Buer Thresher into Magnet. If you DHC at the perfect time, it's -4. At a distance, it's completely safe against Fenrir Drive, as well as Nightmare Legion at absolute max range, but pretty much every super in the game can punish it(perhaps someone can explain this to me, because I'm doing this at the perfect timing multiple times, and 5-frame jabs won't punish, but multiple supers slower than them do punish. My guess is hitstop). Other than that, you have to use Systemic Circuit Breaker to have a safe DHC, and it works off of all of Painwheel's supers. Painwheel with LnL still works well because during pressure, if they try to do anything, LnL will punch them out of it when I call it, as well as gives combo and reset options.

Bella on Point:

• When Bella's on point - I tend to mash raw tag now and then, so it's inevitable at least once a set - the team still has some nice options. H Beam is still an annoying neutral tool, and helps with Bella's approach. Like Painwheel, it also helps extend combos and gives way to new resets, and I can do risky things like Battle Butt kind of safely with when I do it after I call Beam. L Pinion is nice for reset purposes, and like with Robo, it's nice to throw out at midrange neutral, and is pretty easy to confirm into a full combo up close, or a Titan Knuckle at a distance. On their incoming, if I time it right, I can call the assist and do stand fierce into either Merry-go-Rilla or Excellabella for a mixup, and if they try to take the hit to avoid it, I get a full combo. Bella has a safe DHC to both Painwheel and Robo. Dynamo into Hatred install, if not PBGC'd or Stunt Double'd, is so plus you can safely fly and do a high mixup afterwards against characters without 4-frame reversals, and if my timing is perfect, I can even fly and do a j.LK and it's a true blockstring, so if they don't pushblock/absolute guard, it's a free, completely safe high/low mixup. Dynamo to Magnet, though safe, is minus, so I lose my momentum. Dyanmo to Systemic Circuit Breaker, on the other hand, is really plus. All of these options lead to full combos on hit.

All in all, I really love this team. I haven't had this much fun with a team since I still played Peacock/Bella/Big Band. I don't know if I'll fully switch away from a Peacock team because I've become so attached to playing her, but I can definitely say this can at least be a sub-team. It's not the Peacock/Painwheel/Bella team I wish I could play, but I'm really loving it right now. Big thanks to Adeveis for the help today.

 

[ShakyFingers]

Just finished a set with Adeveis. This is what I learned:

• I jump way too much: I'm way too predictable with my jumps. He would jump up and air grab me a lot. I started wising up to it and teching them at the end, though, so I've finally realized this after all this time that I jump far too much.
• Painwheel Approach: My Painwheel approach is okay, I suppose, but there's something I need to work on. A lot of the time, when I'd get into jump strong range, he would jump with a jab to air-to-air me. I caught onto that and would throw out j.LK and buffer into j.MK to get a full combo somewhere along the line, but didn't do it enough. Not nearly enough to make him scared to air-to-air me, though.
• Buer Reaper + H Beam: At round start, I sometimes like to throw out M Buer because it'll beat any approach they try. I found out that if I do that and call H Beam, I can get a full combo off of it. Also works if I do it with H Buer, which was good to catch any j.HP or j.HK round starts from Peacock. The only thing this loses to is MP Bang.

That's pretty much it. I wish I could have gotten more away from it, but this is better than what I usually remember from matches, which is nothing. Until I figure out Robo, Painwheel/Robo/Bella is a much better order for me right now.

 

[ShakyFingers]

Played @keninblack just now. The connection got too bad because of the storm to keep going past 6 or 7 or so. Didn't win any, but I usually did well until Parasoul went down. Double with H Drill is really rough. Definitely need to figure out what to do about that. My Bella did terribly. Fukua did okay. Probably would've done better with Robo/Painwheel/Bella, but it was fun nonetheless.

Just figured out, even after the super flash, if Parasoul does H Bike into Silent Scope, I can call an assist and do MP Bang. Sniper will hit the assist, and then MP Bang will hit the biker and I can punish with Lenny>Argus for a full combo. That's nice to know. About time I tried to figure out what I could do about that.

 

[mcpeanuts]

Just figured out, even after the super flash, if Parasoul does H Bike into Silent Scope, I can call an assist and do MP Bang. Sniper will hit the assist, and then MP Bang will hit the biker and I can punish with Lenny>Argus for a full combo. That's nice to know. About time I tried to figure out what I could do about that.

Haha wow stealing this, thanks

 

[ShakyFingers]

My character crisis just got worse. I have no idea what team I want to play anymore, especially because I really enjoy everyone in this game. Right now, I'm gonna settle on my Peacock/Big Band/Cerebella team and Painwheel/Robo-Fortune/Bella until I figure everything out. I played a long 4 hour set with Adeveis that was streamed, so I'm gonna try to pick those games apart and post the videos here for everyone to help out. Maybe, like, a half an hour to an hour a video. But I did notice some majour issues I have:

• I've developed a really horrible upback problem, and I call assists way too much in the corner.

Definitely gotta work on that. Nothing really else comes to mind right now though; I'm tired.

 

[Lawnalog]

who streamed it?

 

[ShakyFingers]

who streamed it?

Adeveis did.

 

[Adeveis]

sorry i had to delete. technical difficulties. i'll upload it back when i fix it or just make a new one

 

[ShakyFingers]

Here's a set I had with Adeveis. Didn't play too hot at the beginning, but I got a bit better over the course of the set. Hopefully I won't be too lazy and get to an analysis video with this one soon.

Spoiler

 

[ShakyFingers]

Alright, I played a set with Adeveis. I don't remember the first scores before the disconnects, but we weren't playing our actually teams, so it doesn't matter. The actual FT10 after it with our real teams was 10/7 him. I dunno why or how I got 7 because it felt like I did horribly. Now, what I learned.

• I thought Peacock vs Beowulf was 5/5. I think it's 6/4 Beowulf now, but I still need more experience. Sweep seems to invalidate everything but L Bomb or item drop, because you don't recover quick enough to block with plane or kart, and it seems like you can just react to them with sweep.
• Peacock vs Fortune I still think is 5/5, but absolutely awful the second Fortune makes any sort of contact with her. Everything's so safe against M Bang, whether it low profiles it or recovers in time. It feels as smothering as against Val, but it's a lot easier to avoid Fortune than Val.
• I have so little experience with a majourity of this cast. Most of my knowledge lies against Parasoul, Squigly and Big Band because I've played Adeveis so much. I don't know very much about Fortune because I don't get to play PME as much anymore(if you read this, I'm forcing you to play a buncha games with me when you get better internet). I don't have much Bella experience, but I play her, so I don't really struggle against her when I play against her. I play inconsistently against Eliza, but I'm figuring her out. She doesn't scare me at neutral anymore. I need to abuse the fact that all of her normals are green before the hitboxes come out. Fukua hasn't given me much trouble in my experience, but I haven't played very many really good Fukuas aside from Sage, and I only played him at Combo Breaker. I think I play alright against Robo-Fortune, but I'm not sure what I do about L Beam counter zoning with her. I'll get in training mode about it. I'm inconsistent about playing against Peacock, but I'm somewhat okay with the matchup now. Much better than I was earlier this year. But the rest of the characters, when they're better than me, I really don't know what I'm doing against them right now. I really need more experience with them.
• I can't execute with Big Band the way I want to. When I'm absolutely sure when someone's gonna do something, I try to parry it, because I don't see the point in blocking it when I know what's coming and can change the momentum in my favour. I used to do that fine against most people, but now I mess it up a lot. Maybe I just need to practice it again, but maybe it's just not worth the risk. I started to consider playing Fukua again instead because of this, because I'm better with her and she's the perfect character for me(I love zoners. I love grapplers. Fukua is a zoner with command grabs. She's perfect), but I really don't wanna give up on Big Band. I'm still not sure if he's holding me back or not, but if he is, it might just be because of my mindset with parry.

The big thing I learned from this, I think, is that I just lack experience with a majourity of the cast. I always knew it, but it just now clicked how little I know about playing against Painwheel or Fortune even though I can still play AS them, or Val, or Double, or Beowulf, etc etc. All my experience with most characters have been with quick match players or players that are still not around my level just yet, so it's not a problem. Maybe I should start playing quick match again, because at least then I can get SOME kind of experience against more characters. I got pretty frustrated this set, but I at least know now why it happens all the time: I don't know what to do against most of the cast, so I just get run over really badly sometimes. Just gotta get more experience against the rest of the cast and stop letting online get to me, and hopefully then I won't get so frustrated anymore. Maybe only play sets when I can use my mic in a Skype call, because I noticed I don't get frustrated when I do that. I really need this experience before Combo Breaker, though. All the Skullbats guys think I'm gonna get at least top 16 or top 8, but if I don't learn what I need to against all of these characters before then, I might drown in pools again. We'll see what happens. Five months to Combo Breaker, so I better get grinding.

 

[ShakyFingers]

I forgot I put these on private for some reason. Anyways, here's a first to 10 I had with Adeveis a while back.

Spoiler

And here's a bit of what we were doing beforehand. I wanted to work on my Bella and Big Band neutral, so we played a bunch of games, and then someone randomly asked Adeveis to stream it.

Spoiler

Also, I'll try Bella/Big Band/Peacock for you AFTER Combo Breaker, Peanuts.

 

[ShakyFingers]

Combo Breaker was such an incredible experience, just like last year. I can't wait to go back. It's a damn shame I got sick, because this was the year I convinced myself that I was gonna stop being so shy and talk to everyone as much as I could.

Pool C-2: http://combobreaker.challonge.com/2016_sg_c2

I did VERY well in the tournament. After I got put into losers by LazyDiablos in round 2, I told myself all I wanted was to at least go 3/2. I ended up fighting through losers, eliminating LazyDiablos along the way, to be taken out by Elda Taluda, landing me in 17th place at 7/2...I couldn't believe it. I may have lost in pools again, but the only two I lost to in the tournament were two of the best players in the world. I don't think anyone was more surprised than I was. The score against the set I lost to LazyDiablos was 3/1 him, but all the others were 3/0, including my loss to Elda Taluda. I played my ass off, and I still can't believe I got so far. I'm not a very confident player. I always said I'm only okay, but this tournament has been a majour confidence booster.

Casuals went very well for me as well, though I didn't get to play much.

1: I played Adeveis a bit in the lobby of the venue. Thehadou got a good picture of us on Twitter. I won the set, but I can't remember the score.

2: I played a set with Fenster when we got to Broseidon's room. Again, I don't remember the score, but I won again. It was pretty close, though. He's really good at using Big Band with L Shot, and maybe it's just me, but it's kinda rough to deal with as Peacock.

3: I think I played Adeveis again here, but it might've been after Broseidon. Either way, again, I don't remember the score, but he ended up winning this set. I believe this is the one of the only casual sets I lost, so that's really great!

4: I think I only played a few games with Broseidon. The set was in my favour, but again, no score.

5: I think LazyDiablos was the 5th set I played. The score was 11/7 in his favour the first time. I was extremely surprised that I did as well as I did.

6: I'm pretty sure I played Lazy again later. I don't remember the score, but it wasn't nearly as close as last time. He won the set again.

7: I played ShadeMoneh, but I feel like I might be forgetting some people I played beforehand. The score was around 10/4 or 5 in my favour.

8: Joshb911 asked for a FT20 after top 8. I BELIEVE the score was 20/11 in my favour, but he may have gotten a game or two extra. Either way, it was a really good set and a lotta fun.

9: The last set I had was against Taluda. This was Sunday, so he had already eliminated me in the tournament two days earlier. I was proud of how I did against him in the tournament, but I knew I had what it takes to at least take a game off of him, so that was my goal when I went into this set. It ended a bit short because top 8 started, but it ended with a score of 6/5 in my favour. He had some very nice words for me during and after the set, and it was another great boost of confidence.

That's all I really got to do. I had to spend most of my time resting because I got sick on Saturday, so I didn't get to do a lot on Saturday or Sunday and couldn't play a lot of the people who wanted to play with me, and I couldn't go to the salty suite. I wish I coulda recorded my sets, but I didn't want to bug anyone to record them because then they'd be stuck sitting there the entire time, and I play Peacock, so they'd be there all day.

All in all, I'm extremely proud of my performance both in tournament and in casuals. Unlike last year, I didn't come back home feeling discouraged like last time. Aside from getting sick, everything was positive and I'm still feeling great about it. The only disappointing thing is I gotta go back to netplay, and my internet doesn't like cooperating with me nowadays. This year, 17th. Next year, top 16? Top 8? I have a lot of time to practice and I'm excited to actually play my team more, so I can't wait. I should probably get to my shoutouts tomorrow, because I have a few of those I gotta do...

Edit: I almost forgot. Our first moment in the venue:

Spoiler

https://twitter.com/x/status/735521343169384448

 

[fenster]

Oh hey you do have a thread, cool!

And yeah you did win when we played, but I'm not too happy about it given that's when my stick wasn't working right and the TV lag made me literally unable to do BB combos or do parasoul dashes :P We should definitely hit up next time though and I hope I'll be more ready for tournament next time! I do think next year you should be aiming for top 8 (or Top 3 etc) though cause I believe in you if you stay in there.

 

[ShakyFingers]

Okay, so having rewatched - about 20 times now - my streamed matches from Combo Breaker, if there's anything that I should take away from it, I've found a few things that are worth mentioning.

1 - USE METER!:
A problem I noticed in my matches against Waasiq and Lazy Diablos is the fact that when I had the meter, I sometimes just wouldn't use it. I played pretty much exactly the same as always in all my matches, but against Waasiq, there was a point where I had 3 bars in round one and could have easily killed his Cerebella, but I still went for a reset. This happened against Lazy Diablos as well. In round 1, I could've DHC'd to Big Band level 3 to kill Fortune, but Big Band would've lost a good 60% of his health, so I didn't. This was a horrible idea. In round 2, this happened again, but for a different reason. I used Lenny>Argus at full undizzy in the corner in round 2 because I thought, "Well, I can kill with that really long burst bait I have. I'll get meter back, and if he alpha counters, I can punish it." THERE WAS NO REASON TO DO THAT. I should have just killed with Argus>SSJ and tagged back to Peacock. I'd have been down all my meter, but I'd have time to get an item ready and set up some zoning. So for some reason, my mindset about meter must change a bit when in tournament, and I didn't even notice it until rewatching my matches. I'll make sure this doesn't happen Combo Breaker 2017.

2 - EMPTY JUMPING IS IMPORTANT!:
This is something Adeveis pointed out to me once months before Combo Breaker, and that's the fact that I don't empty jump in enough. When we're close enough to hit each other, typically I'll hit something to either cover myself or to put them in block/hitstun to pressure them. In round 3 against Lazy Diablos, I lost Peacock and Big Band, but I managed to kill Eliza with Bella. While he was cornered, I did a really early button in the air and he Fiber'd me for it. If I had simply empty jumped, I'd have had a full punish. I was a bit far, but at worst, I could've MGR'd him. If I had just done that, I'd have easily been able to kill.

3 - TELEPORT>LNL IS GREAT. STOP DOING IT ALL THE TIME!:
"He does teleports a lot in his zoning patterns when he's confident something is gonna hit, but like, it's so risky because Peacock ends up in and they didn't have to work for that" - Mike Z. If there's one thing I do too much, it's that right there, and Mike Z hit it right on the nose. Because I'm really confident that it'll work, I like to throw it out a lot to see if it'll hit. If it hits, I get a combo, yay, woohoo. If it doesn't, I just escape and go back to zoning. But because I do it so much, it becomes obvious. I mistimed this once against Lazy Diablos in round 3 and lost Peacock for it. That and an accidental assist call in the corner are the key factors to why I lost in that round, I feel. Against Taluda, I tried this again and got cornered for it, and though I managed to escape the corner, I got grabbed right away. If I had just stayed away, I could've kept zoning safely. I had ZERO reason to do this in either situation. This is an easy fix.

4 - JUST BECAUSE YOU LOST A ROUND, DOESN'T MEAN YOU SHOULD CHANGE YOUR STRATEGY!:
In round 1 against Lazy Diablos, I got a very early hit on Fortune and snapped. I know his headless is much weaker than his head on, and it's MUCH less dangerous to get hit by Eliza/Fortune than it is to get hit by Fortune/Eliza. I screwed up a combo that would kill Eliza and he got Fortune back in, and I lost the round. Because of this, I thought, "Well, I lost this round, so I guess that plan didn't work.", and you can see that I thought that when you see that I started doing resets with Peacock instead of snapping Fortune. This makes no sense. I had no reason to deviate from this plan, because if you rewatch the match, you'll see that the plan worked great. I just didn't finish the job. The plan was great. The problem was I just screwed up. I beat myself up about it a bit after I saw that, but now that I've seen this, this isn't something I'm gonna have let happen next year. If I meet Lazy Diablos in tournament again, I'm snapping in Eliza ASAP.

I think that's pretty much it. Other than that, the mistakes I made were pretty basic ones. Those were the really important ones I noticed.

 

[mcpeanuts]

4 - JUST BECAUSE YOU LOST A ROUND, DOESN'T MEAN YOU SHOULD CHANGE YOUR STRATEGY!:
In round 1 against Lazy Diablos, I got a very early hit on Fortune and snapped. I know his headless is much weaker than his head on, and it's MUCH less dangerous to get hit by Eliza/Fortune than it is to get hit by Fortune/Eliza. I screwed up a combo that would kill Eliza and he got Fortune back in, and I lost the round. Because of this, I thought, "Well, I lost this round, so I guess that plan didn't work.", and you can see that I thought that when you see that I started doing resets with Peacock instead of snapping Fortune. This makes no sense. I had no reason to deviate from this plan, because if you rewatch the match, you'll see that the plan worked great. I just didn't finish the job. The plan was great. The problem was I just screwed up. I beat myself up about it a bit after I saw that, but now that I've seen this, this isn't something I'm gonna have let happen next year. If I meet Lazy Diablos in tournament again, I'm snapping in Eliza ASAP.

This is a really good example of something I say a lot but don't have a lot of great examples of, which is "just because you did something and it didn't work doesn't mean it was a bad idea." The corollary being "just because you did something and it worked doesn't mean it was a good idea" which I have an easier time finding examples of.

 

[ShakyFingers]

Here's the first part of the set I had with Noraas. It took over 24 hours to upload, but it's finally done. I'll try to get part 2 up eventually, but it's not going past the pending phase for some reason, so I'll try again tomorrow.

Spoiler

Sorry for the quality. Parasoul help, pleeeeeease.


Edit: I can't upload the second part. Ohhhh welllll.

 

[ShakyFingers]

I played a buncha games with my friend, Ninja. Here are the videos he recorded.

Spoiler

Spoiler

If you see anything I could improve on, lemme know. If you see anything Ninja can improve on, just put an @Ninjapls in your post or send him a message.

 

[ShakyFingers]

So, yesterday, I played a buncha games with Adeveis using a duo of X/Bella because I felt like I have a dependency on Beat Extend, which made me think I HAD to have a DP assist. What I learned is...Nah. I just call Beat Extend way too much when I have it. I did fine without Big Band. Possibly even better without him, which kinda sucks...But I'm not giving up on this character again. Miiiight be time to play him on point some more, though. He's unquestionably my weakest character.

But, after some thinking, what I also realized is that my Double MIGHT already be better than my Peacock, or really close already. Maybe it's because she's just that simple of a character or because I'm that godlike at picking up characters(it's because she's that easy. My Parasoul is still terrible). Even if my Double's not better than my Peacock, it's a LOT less stressful to play her than Peacock, and it felt a lot easier to keep my game going with her than it does with Peacock, ESPECIALLY when dealing with Brass assist, which was a lot less frustrating. It's pretty easy for me to get my game started with Peacock, and I think I've proved that pretty well - kinda? Sorta? - in the videos I'm in, but keeping it going against players my level or higher can be pretty tough, which is frustrating, and I didn't really feel that problem with Double. She's also a lotta fun, and I love playing characters that are fun.

Spoiler: Rambling about Peacock because I don't want this post to get TOO sidetracked

I don't agree with Peacock being as bad(on a team) as some people have been making her out to be in the beta thread, but I don't think she's hot shit like some people wanna think she is either; most people just haven't figured out the matchup somehow. With certain assists, yeah, it can be tough, but even then it's not all that bad, as someone who has been on the opposite end of it plenty of times, with and without Peacock, with all sorts of characters. You have to be really patient, and that's obviously a problem a lot of players have, but all you should REALLY need is one hit. Yeah, that's not gonna be that way all the time; sometimes you mess up and she gets away or she gets a hit somewhere or M Bang hits, but most of the time one touch turns Peacock's life into a complete nightmare. She has horrid defence, and crumbles because of it, and her zoning is all some sort of pattern, so people should know what things to do by now when certain patterns come out. Good teams - like mine, which I think is an easy contender for the best Peacock team - help alleviate her problems, but if you know how Peacock works and how she works with zoning assists, you know you have to take your time, some chip, and sometimes some bombs to the face, she can't run forever, so you're gonna catch her eventually, but I don't see people doing that enough. So maybe it's because of my team and what she does for my team, but I think Peacock was fine as she was, frustrating as it can be to play her sometimes. She does great things for a team, yeah, but if people know what they're doing against this character, it can be a really tough to keep anything going. But everyone struggles against her so much, so they all think she's like SG's Chun/Yun or something when they just don't know how to play against her after four years. She was probably super good at one point, but that point's past. I dunno about her after the patch - the Lenny change seemed reeeeeally good, but I'm too tired to remember it all - but right now, you can get better than Peacock. Not to say she's not unviable, because that's far from the case; I think she can be great, and TJ's proved it getting top 5 for as long as I remember watching him. It's just rough, and looking at all the things people see about this character, all I can see is the most overrated character in this game(or Eliza. Eliza's pretty overrated). Maybe people need to pick her up for a while and play her against people who know the matchup. Maybe then they'll see how rough it can actually be. Sorry for the little rant. It gets a bit tiresome seeing everyone complain that Peacock's bullshit or whatever, and now it's coming up even more.

So, after a lot of consideration, I've been kind of thinking that it might be better for me - looking at it from a tournament standpoint - to main Double instead of Peacock. My go to playstyle is to zone, and Double can do that. Sure, I can't FORCE everyone to come to me in every matchup like I can with Peacock, but I can still control a lotta space and make people come to me in some matchups, AND I can also play offense, AND I don't need an assist to mix people up, and on top of all of this, Double adds so much utility to a team with her DHC options and, because I use Cilia Slide, I get meterless confirms off of diamond drop, combos from further away with L Brass>Cilia Slide and Giant Step>Cilia Slide and hard to blockables. I'm stubborn as mule, so maining her is probably never gonna happen. I love Peacock to death and she's my favourite character, so you'd probably sooner convince me to never play my OTHER favourite characters(Big Band and Bella. How convenient they all work so well together!) ever again than to not main Peacock. But if anything, I think it finally solves my little character crisis for replacing Fukua, who was my sub in for Peacock if she wasn't doing so hot, or if my opponent plays Beo/Brass, because fuuuuuck thaaaaat. I'm still probably gonna keep messing with Parasoul and Robo, because those characters are really fun, but I think Double's the best for me, whether I'm gonna sub her or actually main her. We'll see, though. I'd have to get reeeeeeEEEEAALLY fed up with things to drop Peacock.

Oh, and if you're reading this, Peanuts, I finally tried anchor Peacock out like I said I would. I didn't like it! Sorrrrry.

 

[mcpeanuts]

Oh, and if you're reading this, Peanuts, I finally tried anchor Peacock out like I said I would. I didn't like it! Sorrrrry.

It's fine, I'm glad you at least tried it :)

 

[mcpeanuts]

If you see anything I could improve on, lemme know. If you see anything Ninja can improve on, just put an @Ninjapls in your post or send him a message.

I'm 35 minutes into the first one. I don't have any suggestions but I do have a question. You get a lot of parries with Big Band, and I'm curious how many of those are reads vs how many are tapping forward before you push a normal. Like I'm wondering if you're constantly buffering parry or if you're just a god. Thanks

 

[ShakyFingers]

I'm 35 minutes into the first one. I don't have any suggestions but I do have a question. You get a lot of parries with Big Band, and I'm curious how many of those are reads vs how many are tapping forward before you push a normal. Like I'm wondering if you're constantly buffering parry or if you're just a god. Thanks

Any time I think, "You're gonna do something at me", I input a parry. When I just buffer forward all the time, I find that I can't confirm off of it because I just can't react to it; my reactions are far too inconsistent. But when I KNOW I'm about to parry something, it's really easy. So yeah, it's just off reads. Sometimes I make a bad read, and you see me inch forward and get nothing, but it's still me making a read. It helps that I've been playing Ninja for about a year now, so it helps to know their habits.

 

[gllt]

When/if I borrow my PS3 back, would you like to try playing? Big Band was also my weakest character and I took time to play him on point quite a bit until I felt way more comfortable with him. Him and Double are two of my favorite characters. I think we have some interesting overlap.

I'd like to see how our versions of the characters stand up to each other and what they do differently.

 

[ShakyFingers]

When/if I borrow my PS3 back, would you like to try playing? Big Band was also my weakest character and I took time to play him on point quite a bit until I felt way more comfortable with him. Him and Double are two of my favorite characters. I think we have some interesting overlap.

I'd like to see how our versions of the characters stand up to each other and what they do differently.

Sure, anytime! I'm pretty much always up to play if someone wants to, so just message me sometime. Here, on my Twitter, Discord, doesn't matter. Might be best to message me here, though, because my iPod doesn't like to give me notifications for Twitter and Discord, but I check Skullheart a bunch. I apologize in advance for the connection; my internet doesn't like playing nice all the time.

 

[ShakyFingers]

I won Skullbats yesterday. Not particularly happy with it because I didn't play to my standards, but whatever. It's for fun, and I could be playing worse seeing as I'm not playing the game as much recently. I'm upset that my first recorded documentation of my Double is this poor, though, after talking her up to be around the level of my Peacock already. Everybody's got their off days, I guess, but I dunno if that's really the case this time. I haven't gotten around to finding a better way to record my matches, because I wasn't happy with the way the Parasoul video turned out, so there's only one video of me from Skullbats which was recorded by Adeveis, who has the rest of his Skullbats matches recorded on his channel if you wanna check out how everybody did.

Spoiler

The big thing that annoys me is how many jump forward fierces I did with Double. Jump forward fierce isn't a great idea with this character. You can just dash under and she can't do anything about it, but neutral jump/jump away fierce is great. MAYBE I did it so much because it was mostly against Big Band, and you can get away with it more with him, but I'm pretty sure I did it a bunch against Squigly and Parasoul, too, which is bad. I also have a tendency to never spend meter with this character unless it's to kill, or I just do a really odd car/monster. There are probably plenty of times in my matches where I could spend the bar to get catheads and make the momentum mine, but either I don't want to spend it or I just don't realize I can. I've never had a character that I could just do a super almost any time I want to and make the momentum mine, so it's kinda weird to keep in mind now that I do. Either way, I really enjoy playing this character, so I'm sticking with her. I'm definitely settling on her as my sub in for Peacock. At least for now, cuz beta Robo's looking pretty nice, and my Robo's sorta okay right now. We'll seeeeee.

I'm particularly upset with how my Big Band has regressed, though. It's a shame I can't remember what I was doing so poorly, because it's almost midnight and I've been up WAY too long now, but I'm not happy with how I'm playing him lately. Gotta work on him some more again.

As always, my Bella's still solid when I'm not playing off or falling into patterns too hard or just doing stupid shit, which I've been doing a lot. But when I'm not, I'm still pretty happy with how she's been. She's still the character I'm the most solid with.

That's all I can think of. I'm gonna go melt into my bed now.

 

[Cadenza]

Honestly you played well. The only thing i would recommend is paying attention to sliding knockdown more instead of burst bait at times.

with double you could try more neutral jump j.hp to form a "wall" when the opponent is in the corner. its very rare for people to dash under if you times j.hp real well.
the most points i think with double is that you unintentionally trigger ips too much. which led to adeveis bursting safely.

TL:Dr be more aware when you trigger ips for I.E

a j.lp j.hp, re jump j.lp j.mk j.hk for an a2A conversion will monitor j.lp, j.mk and of course j.hk(which you don't use to convert anyways).

And learn when to just neutral j.hp + assist with double.

 

[ShakyFingers]

Here's a set I had with Adeveis. I haven't watched it yet, but this was a week or two ago, so my internet was still screwed up, so all I really remember was a lot of me bitching about losing inputs. It starts out with him using his new team order and me playing Double, but we switch to what we usually play later in the video. I hate Big Band with L Shot a lot. It's really tough to deal with; it lets him do whatever he wants at any range he wants, and it's hard to keep the L Shot from happening because he's so big and protects Parasoul so much. It's not as smothering with Double as it is with Peacock, but it still sucks because of my inexperience with Double. But at least it feels like Double can actually fight back pretty well, whereas Peacock has to work really hard to get something started, and even harder to keep it going because it's basically one L Shot>Brass away from losing all your progress. I just have to play a bit more aggressively than I want to as Double, or so it seems right now. I think I still hate Beo/Brass more as Peacock, but I can see me hating Big Band/Shot more really soon. I didn't play to my standards, again, but it's kinda whatever right now. I've been wanting to take a break to get into other games anyways, so I can just grind again when I wanna start playing again. But until then, I have KoF 98/2002, ST and Garou to get back into.

Spoiler

 

[ShakyFingers]

My friend Ninja is learning Squigly, so I played a FT5 with him to try to help him out. I'm suuuuuper rusty, and you can see by how many times I screwed up my combos and resets and blockstrings and this and that. My aunt was also on Netflix, so the connection didn't help either of us. Also trying a new assist out with Peacock for the first time ever, because I realized it gives me something I've really wanted with Bella that L Bomb didn't give me in every situation, so I played her anchor this set. I doubt I'm gonna keep playing her there, though. Back to my break!

Spoiler

 

[ShakyFingers]

Here are my matches from Skullbats. Match two against Adeveis was fuck awful unplayable for us, and I was tempted to tell him he didn't have to count that as my win if he didn't want to, but I was just ready to get the tournament over by then; I only played to keep from getting too rusty.

Spoiler: vs. Adeveis

Spoiler: vs. PME

I'm gonna blame losing to PME on the fact that I haven't played in a while and because FUUUUCKING FORTUNE, OH MY GODDDDDD I was so mad. But it's almost certainly because PME's finally figured out how to play against me better/is better than me now, which I hope is the case. Now he needs to work on his terrible Parasoul problem.

Slowly getting the drive to start playing the game more again.