I think the evo results should be a testament that the game doesn't need as many changes as people think. Duckator technically didn't make top 8, was a multi year evo champion and played one of the apparently best teams in the game. Either that or he was just having a bad day.
Duck has been losing to people ever since his style of val got nerfed. It was basically an overnight correlation... The night before vals shuriken got super nerfed... Duck was winning, the next night after her shuriken got nerfed and duck couldnt just outzone every character in a limited fashion with vals ninja star toss. He started losing.
Iirc it was the last duck kumite where it became apparent that duck was going to have a hard time winning evo with his current team. Worldjem almost beat duck and 2 players actually beat him as well as many of the players getting a large amount of wins against him, whereas that wouldnt have really happened before shuriken nerf.
But duck was basically the only high level val that made heavy use of shuriken at neutral game and he did it in a very predictable place... Once he got one of his assists blocked, usually after a blocked or missed updo, he would fireball with val to protect the assist. No good shuriken meant he couldnt protect his assist for free, as good as before and was forced to use bypass xx scalpels to protect his assist (which he previously used mostly after blocked bomber to hit people that went for the bomber punish) which has been nerfed as well. So he cant as easily call his assists with no recourse.
So, in short, ducks style has been nerfed heavily, therefor, duck himself was nerfed heavily and he will stay nerfed until he makes the adjustment.
But many of the things that make val good are still in the game. Her ability to jump backwards, then double jump forward to super jump heights, then airdash at super jump height, then do a j.mk while airdashing and call out an assist like mk bomber, is exceptionally strong because it allows val to aggress from super jump heights with little impunity. This is a pattern that duck makes almost zero use of.
Val isnt to strong to beat. Shes been nerfed multiple times (along with almost every other character, as well) but beating a val that specializes in that pattern isnt easy at all and val has an honest advantage against nearly everyone in the cast, by using that pattern.
She can literally play the game however she wants "regularly" and then pull out the pattern whenever things get dicey for her and she will near get an auto advantage from which to play, nearly everytime, by using that pattern.
Other characters that have double jump and airdash dont have access to this pattern in its current strength because they dont either have a double jump into airdash that moves up as well as forward (Eliza has no double jump and is the only character that has an airdash that moves up and forward besides val and maybe peacock) ( along with a move that moves the other character forward in the air strictly along the horizontal axis (fortune doesnt have a move that moves her forward in the air along the horizontal axis, after she airdashes, nor does her airdash move her upwards) (peacock has a double jump and an airdash that moves her forward and slightly upwards, but has nothing that even comes close to vals j.mk to move her forward along the horizontal axis)
Cerebella cant glide after having double jumped, double cant double jump and then airdash forward j.mk.
Etc etc.
The basic gist being that val can attack from a position of height superiority almost at will, while being able to call asists, where most characters have a hard time just making contact with her sprite much less being able to actually stop the pattern.
The pattern allows val to aggress easily versus any kind of zoning since she just basically goes above it. And it allows val to aggress easily from a defensive position (she can jump backwards and chicken block defensively and then double jump and air dash forward with j.mk to go on the offense, while being able to block the whole time except during the airdash and j.mk which come at very high heights that other characters cant contest, negating most of the risk of the pattern.
If other characters could call assists at superjump height while still being able to move forward, and still able to block on the way down from the j.mk like val can while protecting her landing by calling a bridging assist to cover her vulnerable landing frames. Then it wouldn't be nearly so good.
But as things stand, she can do this at will. While ALSO being able to do all the generally great val things like convert any hit assist from near anywhere on screen, and beating able to bait other peoples assists super easily, and having some of the best airnormals in the game and having the best run speed in the game, and having a backdash that while it gets her in trouble, is also immune from slower low/throw mixups.
Val is nowhere near unbeatable, but she is exceptionally powerful almost for free and definitely at will.
The problem is that most people dont actually use val in this way, yet.
Anywho, I'm already doing my part to "git gud" by switching to fukua point. Fukua is one of the only theory characters that can handle that val pattern by double jumping and doing hp fireball from appropriate ranges, or if that isnt high enough, then fukua can superjump and then double jump and do hp airfireball to hit val in the air, and then protect her own landing via j.hk. Fukua can do this without sacrificing to much screen position. And yet can also go on the offense. So she isnt relegated to a one track pony type of strategy.
