• As part of the relaunch of Skullheart, ALL previous threads have been archived. You can find them at the bottom of the forum in the Archives (2021) section. The archives are locked, so please use the new forum sections to create new discussion threads.

Thoughts and Dead Crosses

Lex

Skill pending
Joined
May 29, 2015
Messages
526
Reaction score
304
Points
63
Location
UK
Steam
Lex
PSN
Ilexyellowdog
Ms. Fortune Valentine Double
Hey everyone, so I've been playing Skullgirls for a while (currently just over 300 hours) and I thought making a training thread to consolidate my thoughts and ask for advice would be a good way of improving.
I'd say I'm roughly an intermediate level player, I'm starting to understand and utilise some of the more advanced mechanics but I need to work on a number of aspects of my game.

General Things to Work On:

I'm trying to work on noticing habits while playing and punishing them as well as adapting faster to the more obvious resets. This'll probably come with practice but I should also watch over some of my matches and try and pick out habits.
I should start thinking about character matchups as well as I currently play against most characters with the same general game-plan (that is, no game-plan).
I need to learn how to PBGC properly and remember to alpha counter.
I also rarely do ground throws outside of tick throws and resets so I should do raw throws more to train my opponents to not block low. I also should use cr.LK as Val for my tick throws instead of cr.LP. I need to improve on teching grabs, it always feels like the tech window is near non-existant though. Even when I know the grab is coming and try to tech it I don't :(
I should practice but confirming and staggering my blockstrings to catch pushblockers. I don't do this in training mode cus it's boring but I really should.
Call assists when I want to go on the offense more. I currently mainly call assists (and normally only M Bomber) during blockstrings. This nullifies a big advantage of playing a team (especially a trio) so I'm trying to work on it.
I also have a problem with DP motions outside of combos. I need to practice the motion as if I need to do a DP motion then I usually input it too slow or mess up the input and in PBGCs I mess up the input.

Character Specific:

I need to work on my ground game with Val, I almost always just do air-dash j.MP/HP when I'm up close. Specifically I need to use cr.MP to anti-air, MK/HK with M Bomber/LnL for poking mixed with the occasional HP.
In the air, I need to air-dash less often and use j.MK, I should also use j.LK sometimes as opposed to j.MP. When I use j.MP I need to remember to fast fall with j.HP to catch opponents unaware. I should also be more careful with when I use j.HK against characters with long range air attacks (Parasoul and Eliza especially).
In terms of resets, I need to come up with some mash proof resets. Apart from that, I feel like I know plenty resets and just need to remember to use them and I'm happy with my burst baits.
Also. Counter super. It exists. I should use it.

Again I need to work on my ground game (you'll notice this is will be a recurring theme) but I think it may be a bit better than with Val. I've started poking with HP but still need to remember to use cr.HP in neutral and practice hit confirming into slide. I also always seem to use L gun when the opponent is up close but I'm getting better at using H gun.
In the air I should use j.MK for staying in the air and moving across the screen and using j.LP/LK for air-to-airs. I also need to use j.HK a lot more than I do.
In terms of resets, I don't use many but I'm happy with the ones I use. I need to learn and remember to use burst baits more.

Again, I need to work on my ground game; I should use f.HP to punish assists and poke from long range, cr.HP, DH and Excellabella to anti-air. I also need to use command grabs in neutral, mixups and resets. I should also use tumble run attacks more.
In the air I should use j.MP and j.HK against grounded opponents more (I know, a Bella who doesn't use j.MP/HK all the time? Crazy) and j.LK, j.HK against opponents in the air.
I also need to use sweep and runstops in blockstrings instead of either ending in nothing/cmd grab.
In terms of resets/burst baits, I know a bunch of good ones but need to remember them.

GROUND GAME. Use cr.LK and HP to poke more and should remember how fast her dash is.
In the air I need to use j.LK to poke in the air and j.MP/MK as air-to-airs.
I'm happy with the resets I know but again need to remember more of them (especially the ones that work on Big Band). I also should try and remember some more burst baits.

I don't use her very much and as such I only really use the M Clone reset which I'm fine with. She also has some easy burst baits so I'm fine with the little tech I know.
I should use cr.MP and HP as anti-airs. I also need to remember to use j.LP before j.HK as an air-to-air.

I barely started playing her so I'm still getting used to her. One question though; when I try HP, IAD, j.LK as a burst bait against Band, I always get hit by the burst (it is possible to block it) does this burst bait just not work against him?

Teams:
So my main team up to this point has been Val (H bypass)/Double (M Bomber)/Bella (Excellabella/H Lock 'N Load). I like having Val and Double up front because they have some great synergy. I get two safe DHCs which I can combo from, M Bomber is great for lockdown, approaching the opponent, confirming off of ground pokes like MK and HK and vial load corner mixups. H bypass also should work well for Double when I want to zone though I do lose out on some good fleshstep mixups with cr.MK assist. Val also gives Double a safe DHC that does quite a bit of chip as well and puts her full screen. The part of this team I'm increasingly unsure about is Bella. Excellabella provides a good setplay assist for Val to load two vials and it has some other good situational uses but due to the lack of invincibility it doesn't make for a great AA assist. Devil Horns doesn't hit in front SK it's also not great as an AA assist which is what I feel Val needs in a trio. Lock 'N Load is a good assist for getting but I have Bomber for that and I feel M Bomber's advantages outweigh H Lock 'N Load's. Bella is a great anchor and Lock 'N Load is very good for Double but as Val it often feels like I'm playing a weaker version of Val/Double duo.
So I've been thinking about two alternate teams: Val (cr.MK)/Filia (H Updo)/Double (M Bomber) aka team Duck/Cloud or Val (cr.MK)/Filia (H Updo)/Bella (H Lock 'N Load). I lose my safe DHCs from Val with both teams but I have a good AA assist and rushdown assist on both teams. Updo also gives some nice reset opportunities for Val. I can also use these teams as a template for when I want to use other characters (e.g. if I want to use Ms Fortune then I just swap her with Filia). I need to check to see if Updo allows for midscreen vial load combos.

Welp, that's it for now. I'm hoping to get a video up of a set between me and some person at some point in the future but I'm very lazy so don't get your hopes up haha.
 
Exams are finished so I have been able to play a little bit. Here's a video of a FT15 between me (Val/Filia/Double) and @Ranger (Val/Bella):
Final score was 7:15 in Ranger's favour.
  • For air throw conversion: if OTG is used after super then ADC, j.MK, j.HP, if OTG isn't used then air bypass
  • Counter call with M Bomber
  • Call Double assist in general (I only call her like twice, and that's only when I remember to near the start of a couple rounds)
  • Use Double assist at the end of blockstrings for more pressure
  • Use H Updo (assist and sometimes none assist) to anti-air more
  • Practice converting off of gregor
  • Load vials when possible (e.g. when the opponent's character dies)
  • Remember to use Duck's M Bomber vial load mixups
  • Use Double HP into M Luger more (but use H Luger vs Bella)
  • Use Val and Double j.MK more in neutral, on the few occasions I used it it was very good
  • Use Double j.HK to build a wall and for corner pressure more
  • Use grab as a reset more instead of always going low
  • Stop putting myself into the corner
  • Use Val cr.MP to anti-air
  • Punish assists as Double with HP
  • Convert off of Val j.HK with H Bypass instead of ADC, j.MP
  • Practice Filia air throw conversions
  • Learn Filia restands (I know: HP, j.HK, ADC, j.LK/LP, j.MP, j.HK and HP, j.MK (2), H Airball, ADC, j.MP, j.HK)
  • Feel like I'm playing Filia wrong, I'm playing her like Val. During block pressure, I should just go ham and don't worry so much about hit confirming the mixups, instead doing multiple mixups (e.g. IAD, j.LP, j.LK, land, IAD, j.HK even if the j.LP, j.LK hits)
  • Need to work on Filia resets
  • Learn the timing for HKx2 into M bomber

  • Punish alpha counter USS with super
  • Should have adapted to his tick throws much faster (even when I started teching them, I didn't tech as many as I should have)
  • Ranger caught me trying to ADC in with j.MP with his own ADC, j.MP, especially when LnL was out, I could have beaten/baited this with Updo assist
  • Play more patiently vs Bella as Val and Double (use air dead crosses as Val, use Double's big normals)
  • Don't pushblock his Val since he ended all of his blockstrings unsafely

Thought I might touch on why I rarely call M Bomber even though when I played Val/Double/Bella I used it a bunch. I have my macros set to dash and LP+MK (1st Assist) so it is much easier to remember to call assist when it is just one button rather than two which is why I rarely call my 2nd assist (I originally decided to use these macros when I was playing duo). When I do call my 2nd assist I also often end up getting either a button as well as assist or just a button by itself which is obviously not good. I need to get into the habit of remembering to call my 2nd assist because M bomber is great for Val. I recently tried playing with both macros set to assists but, even though I could eventually get the muscle memory for my combos back, I end up getting a button instead of dash quite often and I'd rather be able to consistently dash (I don't like double tap dashing) and have to deal with occasionally getting a misinput with assists than the other way around and hopefully, with some practice, I'll be able to call assist properly.

In other news, I've decided to run Fortune (H Fiber)/Bella (Copter) as my secondary team. This team does a ton of damage (like most Fortune teams) and copter provides great mixups and pressure. Bella is a pretty great anchor as well and this team gives me an excuse to play both of them as well (plus, it's useful having a duo when I'm up against solos and high damage duos given the frailty of trio).

Anyone know some Filia (air) throw combos and restands?

Any help or advice would, as always, be much appreciated.
 
Last edited:
So I decided to collect all of the tech (combos, resets, burst baits, double snaps, midscreen assist kills, incoming) that I want to eventually learn to utilise with all of my characters. So I created several playlists, one for each character (Valentine, Filia, Double, Ms Fortune and Cerebella) as well as one for Skullgirls general (which currently just has a couple assist corner incoming mixups but I'll add stuff to it later when I see something I want to learn). Thought I might share them here for anyone else who might be interested, for the videos I made, inputs and notes are in the description of each video. If there is any practical tech that you think I should add then feel free to suggest it.

Valentine:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgLPYjs8Xw3HrMJlrpVVM3Cdnkw64XBew
Filia:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgLPYjs8Xw3FHrNA6Lm5RNPNosm3fYjvc
Double:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgLPYjs8Xw3HPQP3lzWKWU-k85B5GrA2X
Ms Fortune:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgLPYjs8Xw3HScKOhkjeTrkc6YlEKmcv2
Cerebella:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgLPYjs8Xw3Ha-jb9R507i9ST_MhmyNIP
Skullgirls General:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgLPYjs8Xw3EPreDxiOJ2iBRJKzD5UiUq

ALSO, if anyone would mind pointing me towards a Filia throw and airthrow combo as well as some restands then that would be much appreciated.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mcpeanuts
Small update, I've started learning how to use headless Fortune. My focus with my MF/CB team will still be head-on Fortune for all of that glorious damage and corner carry, but I want to make sure that if the time arises where I need to use headless, I'm not completely useless. Also, keep in mind that currently most of my headless experience comes from a bunch of mirror matches I played with Trainer Zerus this morning and neither of us are very experienced headless players.

My biggest problem with it right now is remembering to use the head. I forget about it and instead just play like a gimped Fortune currently. I need to remember to try and get it into position near the opponent. I also need to learn the spacing for Nom as I think out of about 24 matches I only landed Nom perhaps twice. I currently don't really know what I should be using sneeze for tbh or El Gato or slide.

These things will likely come with time and practicing match-ups other than the mirror match.

(P.S. still would love some Filia restands :P ).
 
So I took part in Euro Fight 2 yesterday and placed joint 9th. I think I got a bit lucky in who I was paired up with but I had a lot of fun.

First match - Me vs Tortuekiroul:

2nd match - Me vs Zeknife:

3rd match - Me vs Darren20500 [ACE]:

I'll add some match critique later on for the second two matches.
 
Analysis of my 2nd match vs Zeknife:

0:10 - Zeknife starts off with a hard read, correctly seeing that I super jump, double jump which is normally followed up with shuriken tosses by Vals. I don't think that what I did here was necessarily a bad decision (build space, start some keep away) but it is worth noting that I should try to telegraph when I'm going to throw shurikens less. He messes up his conversion so I get away with it here.
0:18 - I try to challenge Parasoul when she's above me. This is obviously not the right thing to do here and I get heavy counterhit. If Zeknife hadn't called BB then it might have been an idea to either anti-air with cr.MP, call Updo or try to land cancel punish it.
0:26 - I guessed that he would go cross up for his incoming and I guessed right. I should have push-blocked Squigly. Absolute guard with the possibility of PBGC would have given Zeknife something to worry about here.
0:32 - Zeknife goes for an airthrow reset but messes it up, allowing me to air dash out but he quickly catches me again with an overhead. I should probably have ended my airdash with j.HK and called M Bomber. This would have left Zeknife in the corner and I could have started pressuring him. Instead, I get knocked full screen by Band
0:48 - I manage to catch Zeknife off guard with an IAD j.MP but don't manage to convert as he is out of range. I should start cancelling the j.MP into j.HK as this will allow me to convert more reliably off of j.MPs and if they block the j.MP then I should fast fall with j.HP to catch attempted push-blocks.
0:54 - I go for another IAD, j.LK after a cr.LK. By this point I should have realised that he isn't getting hit by the overheads and either gone for a crossover j.HK, throw or another low (maybe even an IAD airthrow) in order to mix it up.
1:00 - He's recognised that I always go for IAD after cr.LK and so he hits me with Napalm pillar + Assist but still gets no conversion.
1:07 - I go for a crossover j.HK here, which is good, but Pillar still hits me and Filia dies. This happens quite often so I really need to find an anti-pillar mixup here (and I should be calling M Bomber for pressure).
1:13 - I commit to hitting Big Band assist and end up getting caught. I should have gone into HK and then jumped out of there or used HP to make Parasoul block.
1:17 - Zeknife push-blocks my j.HP, I should start jumping up and airthrowing people when they do this or even cross them under if they are high enough.
1:40 - I get a double snap and panic, instead of inputting LK, HK I get flesh step.
1:57 - I should have tried to go for a cr.HP, slide punish here. Even if the cr.HP whiffed, the slide would have hit and I would have gotten a punish. The game is pretty much over here though anyway.

2:27 - Parasoul is hidden by her tear shots exploding so I don't see her jump and she beats me air-to-air.
2:44 - I don't know what I was thinking here with this alpha counter. I should have just let Val stay in. I don't really get punished that much though, I think Zeknife didn't realise I didn't have a bar to cancel into gregor.
2:54 - I finally open Zeknife up with an IAD but then mess up my reset at 2:58. This was meant to be j.MK (1), ADC, airthrow. I did the air throw too early though.
3:04 - I get punished for a bad IAD, j.HK. I should really be approaching from the ground more, IADing my way in isn't doing me many favours.
3:30 - I get caught with another airthrow. I should practice doing delayed techs to deal with incoming setups like this.
3:46 - I start over-committing to punishing the assist even though Band is right above me and get hit. I should have died here. Instead of continuing to attack the assist, I should have used H Gun or L Bomber to catch the attempted punish.

4:06 - I try to catch Zeknife with a roundstart j.MP since both previous matches he has started with dash jump forward, nothing but he mixes it up with j.HK + Band but gets nothing off of it.
4:13 - I manage to catch Zeknife trying to jump with an AD, j.MP from above. This is when I should be pressing buttons vs Parasoul, when I'm above her.
4:18 - I was trying to go for the j.LK, ADC, j.HP reset but realised I wasn't close enough to the corner to do it so I went for crossover j.LK instead. It hits but I do cr.LK too early and so cr.MK comes out instead, resulting in no followup. I try to jump out but get hit by pillar into combo.
4:26 - I absolute guard Squigly but then don't push-block Parasoul so I eventually get hit. I push-block Parasoul correctly next time though.
4:39 - As soon as I'm out of blockstun I try and IAD, j.MP. This was silly and I get punished for it by a j.HP. Instead I should have been more patient. I get caught trying to do another j.MP at 4:42 as well but Zeknife messes up his combo.
4:50 - I catch Zeknife with an airthrow (I think it is the first one I've done this set, at least the first to hit) and try to go for a crossover but get hit with pillar.
5:06 - Another case where I should have cancelled j.MP into j.HK.
5:08 - I try to IAD in with M Bomber but get hit by Squigly level 3 and die. Double gets caught and dies as well. It would have been better to dash in on the ground but I don't think IAD + M Bomber is necessarily a bad way to approach, I just needed to pay attention to his meter.

I got demolished in this set pretty badly. I clearly need to vary how I approach with Filia as I'm currently being very predictable with constant IADs and following up most blocked cr.LKs with instant overheads. I also need to try and reset Parasoul in the air as much as possible. I'll have to look over my resets to find some for Val and Filia which will do this (I need to improve my Filia resets in general).

I should be more careful about when I choose to approach Parasoul as Val. If she's in the air I should hang back and wait for her to commit or come in from above. I should also be counter calling Brass with M Bomber and using that as a chance to get in. I could also stand to use Updo as an anti-air when Parasoul is trying to pressure me.
 
I had a chance to watch your set against zeknife. Got a few suggestions if you want them. If you don't want them, my bad, sorry for the presumption.

You basically lost because you got hit with Napalm Pillar nine billion times. Most of these are at neutral so you can't fix this just by resetting her in the air. He's usually making it safe by calling an assist at the same time, but there's a few things you could try. Alpha counter to Updo should beat it, since Napalm Pillar can't be super cancelled late in the recovery frames. He's calling a horizontal assist to make it safe (either DnB or Brass) so you could try getting into the space where neither of those things can hit you, something like jump forward to bait it out > double jump backwards, then when you see the Pillar, Bypass xx Scalpels. Finally, when you do block Pillar + Assist he almost always tries to pressure after so that could be a good time to try to reversal.

Couple other things:

-You're really predictable on defense, you almost always downback

-You don't call your assists very often. You could be using Hornet Bomber when your mixup gets blocked to get another chance, but you usually don't. I'm not even sure what your Filia assist is, I don't think I saw it. Probably Updo? If you're going to downback that much you may as well also call Updo and maybe hit them and get a combo.

-Sorta touched on this earlier but you play really safe, you could stand to take more risks. Especially calculated risks like Updo with Filia when you have two bars, if you're wrong and it's blocked, super cancelling and DHCing to Double will usually keep you safe.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Lex
i can give a few more tips when i have time to actually watch it all, but i have a question.
against darren in the first match, you alpha'd to double and she got hit as a result because that move's not invincible. why didn't you PBGC into updo or gregor if you didn't want filia to take anymore chip damage from dynamo? would have been twice as easy, and double wouldn't have lost health. even pushblocking once to get her away completely before doing a CH combo would have been easier.
 
i can give a few more tips when i have time to actually watch it all, but i have a question.
against darren in the first match, you alpha'd to double and she got hit as a result because that move's not invincible. why didn't you PBGC into updo or gregor if you didn't want filia to take anymore chip damage from dynamo? would have been twice as easy, and double wouldn't have lost health. even pushblocking once to get her away completely before doing a CH combo would have been easier.
Yeah, I panicked and basically did the worst thing possible there. In the notes I'm writing on that match I say that I really should have done either wait and get heavy counterhit or PBGC. I think I was worried that I would get chipped out but Darren didn't have enough bar to DHC to Robo and I had enough health that I wasn't in danger of getting chipped out by Bella.

I had a chance to watch your set against zeknife. Got a few suggestions if you want them. If you don't want them, my bad, sorry for the presumption.
Thank you a bunch McPeanuts, any advice is always welcome. I'll try and work on the things you laid out here.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mcpeanuts
Analysis of my 3rd match vs Darren20500[ACE]:
0:09 - I get hit by Devil horns assist here because I tried to challenge it with cr.LP. I wasn't expecting him to be using this assist but even so, I shouldn't be challenging assists before they start up like this, especially when I don't know what they are.
0:42 - I drop the conversion from j.MP but he isn't blocking so I get away with it.
0:44 - I try to do the cr.HP, psych, j.LP, j.LK, j.HP/low/throw reset here but he is too far from the corner. I should only try to do this reset when I know that they are close enough to the corner for it to work.
0:54 - I get hit by his level 3 here. He mashed out of my reset as Val so I should have been more careful and baited this instead of going for the reset.
1:15 - I panic and alpha counter to Double even though I'm not using L Bomber. I could have either let the super run through and punish as it wasn't going to chip me out anyway or I could have PBGC'd a punish. Basically, anything but this.
1:24 - I get hit trying to push-block his LP, cr.HP string. This happens a few times in this set.
1:39 - I give him to much respect and go for the second level of the reset where I do j.HK to try to catch him teching the grab, he blocks it but I luckily catch him with a low. I should always test my opponents to see if they will escape the basic reset before going for the next level of it.
1:45 - He goes for a jumping H Beam while I do L Luger. I should be reacting to these beams with Republican car (especially with 5 bars and DHC to gregor).
2:22 - I wake up with gregor, assuming that he will go for beam super (or just a normal beam) for the chip. I guess wrong but gregor hits cross up so I get a combo which I subsequently drop (is there a universal way to combo off of gregor midscreen without using the OTG? I've only been able to do it on lights and mid-weights).
2:29 - He does a H Beam right in my face at the wrong height. This should have been the game, but I didn't punish and get chipped out.

2:57 - I have a habit of throwing H shuriken and following it up with H Bypass in case it hits. But if it doesn't hit or gets blocked, I'm left dead in the air like here but I don't get punished.
3:17 - I call Filia in the corner while I am the one pressuring him. This was a dumb mistake. I probably meant to call M Bomber but, even so, when I jumped forward I should have been blocking. He gets greedy and tries to go for more damage though and drops his combo.
3:24 - I should have either done cr.MP to catch him on his way down or dashed under him for an easy punish.
3:32 - Since he blocked my reset before, I decide to go for a same side version but he mashes USS and Val dies.
3:46 - De ja vu anyone?
4:05 - I wake up with gregor predicting the beam (which was dumber than before since he didn't even have enough bar to go for the super version) but I guess right but then drop the combo (I should go for the standard, j.HP, ADC, j.LK, j.HK combo here due to it's improved range). Darren drops out and mashes Bella tag (again) and Filia's toe gets caught so she dies.
4:20 - He clearly jumps well before coming anywhere near me and starts pressing buttons, I should have either gone for H Luger here or L Bomber to catch him out of the air.
4:44 - I drop my combo, I input the DP motion before pressing cr.HP, giving me H Luger instead. This happens semi-often and I need to work on not panicking here (I struggle with DPs a bit). He mashes out another 360 and dies though.
4:55 - This is the second time he has done jump forward, j.MP after I've done a blockstring.
5:10 - I should be approaching from the ground. Darren has already shown that he often does his H Beams from too high off the ground and if I jump I am just giving him the opportunity to dash under me for full screen spacing again.
5:13 - I should have at least tried to punish with cr.HP, slide, monster here.
5:15 - I should have anti-aired this with H Luger. And again right after that.

5:49 and 5:56 - More chances to punish bad H Beams missed.
6:11 - A really bad EKG here, I have no idea what I was going for here.
6:21 - I tag the assist here with a cr.LK, this wasn't a good idea with Bella so close to me (especially with her jumping, could have gotten me with a falling j.MP/j.LK, etc). I should have instead called M Bomber and focused on catching Bella.
6:28 - Darren Dynamos out of my reset here. Again, I should be noticing that he likes to tag/super during resets and either reset him in the air or bait it out with jump back + M Bomber.
6:52 - I was expecting the monster to hit him cross up and for him to get caught. Unfortunately, since it is a DHC he is able to block it. I should have then followed it up with some pressure immediately after (if he got hit by monster I would still get a combo so there was no reason not to go for pressure in case he blocked it). A slightly earlier cr.LK would have caught him upbacking and a throw could have made for a good land cancel reset.
7:26 - Darren goes for a tumble run during H Beam and hits me with an overhead. Given that my back is to the corner, eliminating the possibility of Kanchou, I had no reason not to block high. I should also be challenging these tumble runs with sweep.
7:41 - This ties into something which has been getting me hit this entire set (and quite often in the set vs Zeknife), I am pressing buttons when I really should not be. I go for a wake up cr.LK here and even though it works, if Robo had been just a little bit closer I would have gotten stuffed. I need to be patient and wait my turn.

8:58 - I do j.HP, ADC, j.MK (1), j.HP here because I already used my j.MP after scalpels and I know that vs mid-weights (I think) and heavies I should be able to substitute j.MK in here. This causes me to mess up the combo however though he isn't blocking so I catch him again. I should have just gone for the usual j.MP (1), j.HP since it catches people who wait before bursting quite a bit and I could go for an airthrow reset afterwards if they don't burst.
9:03 - I should have noticed the undizzy was full and gone for a throw/burst bait 50/50 here.
9:13 - I mess up the reset and it hits same side instead of cross up. I then get caught afterwards. Because the people I play with so rarely block this reset, I think I'm often, mentally, unprepared for if they do block it.
10:00 - Holy crap look at that range.
10:58 - I thought I could combo off of airthrow with gregor, I was wrong :P

11:30 - I'm not doing much if anything to stop Darren from just jumping in on me with j.MP. I should be using cr.MP or calling Updo in these situations.
13:08 - I get caught mashing but my Republican car doesn't come out :,(
13:22 - I just wanted to get Double out so that she could heal and so that I didn't end up with anchor Val. Republican car does the weird thing where it randomly crosses up on the last hit, giving me a bit of a better position when I DHC to Val.
13:29 - I don't have meter to convert off of the airthrow.
13:37 - I keep IADing into devil horns assist. I should be approaching from the ground vs Darren anyway.

This was a pretty close set, though I panicked quite a lot and ended up losing because of that I think. Most of the time when I was getting hit, it was because I was pushing buttons when I really had no business pushing buttons, causing me to eat a counterhit combo. I should have tried to bait Darren into doing a reversal during pressure and been more careful about IADing while he has devil horns assist. I really need to get better at anti-airing people as well as he was getting those j.MPs as Robo for free (or I could Alpha counter into Filia Updo on block). I also should have been counter calling his Devil horns assist with M Bomber as it does damage to the assist and, since he usually called it and jumped backwards, it would give me some pressure as well. Another thing to remember is to try and use sweeps to break armour, this was especially important here since Darren kept using tumble run alongside H Beam and sweep beats all of his options there (or I could do a normal button that would allow for a followup if I don't think he will do Battle butt).

I need to do some work on converting off of gregor, he got out for free from my combos several times because of this.
 
So here are my matches from Eurofight 4, it was a bit quieter than usual as some of the regular players weren't able to attend but I thought I did pretty well this time. I'll be doing some analysis of these matches across the week.
 
Last edited:
My match analysis of Eurofight 4.
I had played a few matches vs Mandarinen before the tournament and they were all pretty close and it ended up being 2-3 so I'm a bit annoyed I didn't do better here.

1.
0:44 - This was a poor assist call on my part, he was nowhere near Updo range and this was just asking for a happy birthday.
0:56 - I wanted to stop him from getting cat head pressure going so I tried to keep him under pressure. He noticed that I had been approaching mostly with IADs and caught me. I should have been using j.MP as well if I was going to do this as it is faster and would keep him in blockstun longer to waste time if I'm going this route.
1:14 - God I hate Double's aerial hurtboxes
1:30 - I need to work on converting off of high burst baits like this, and if my slide gets blocked I should cancel to cat heads/puddle (preferably Cat heads given the beta changes).

2.
3:41 - This is something I've largely stopped doing, cancelling into drill from a blockstring since it is really negative. I was sure he would up back here since he has been doing that all of the set so far and it's vs Filia and I thought he would be scared of the instant overhead. That's why I committed to the full string. I should have stopped after the MK though
4:51 - I shouldn't be doing j.HK in situations like these. I should be using it to create a wall when the opponent is trying to approach. j.LK would have been better here if anything.
I end this match with 4 bars. I should have at least tried to use cat heads.

3. I swapped teams because Val wasn't getting me anywhere and Filia wasn't doing much better.I normally play Fortune/Bella when I play Fortune but Bella is my worst character and Double has been the one getting work done in the past couple of matches so I went for Fortune/Double.
6:24 - I knew he would do Car -> SBO but just had no way of punishing it, maybe alpha counter H Fiber would have worked? I didn't have the meter for that but still. I mess up my PBGC L Bomber and get caught (also something I need to practice). I should have really gone for an air reset as Fortune so as to not give him the chance to get Double out.
6:34 - I fast fall j.HP as Double here, I think I do this a bit too much, too the point where I cancel almost every j.HP like this.

Most of the times I get hit in this set are me getting punished for doing unsafe things on block, or pressing dumb stuff up close or getting scooped out of the air as Val when I try an approach or getting hit by Squigly's falling normals.
Most of the times I caught Mandarinen are either with punishing him for doing unsafe stuff on block or catching him low.

I need to try and see if I can escape that Double blockstring into DnB (cr.LK, cr.MP, cr.HP, M Gun + DnB). I should be able to punish via PBGC though if I could find a meterless way to at least escape that would be ideal.
I also want to see if there is some way I can punish Car into SBO as this came up multiple times in the match and I just had to hold that.

1.
0:29 - I need to stop doing supers like this, I saw him pressing a button and thought I could catch him with EKG but I had already gotten out of the corner, there was no need for this.
1:12 - I wanted to get Val out somehow, but instead of using scalpels here I should have tagged to Filia, she would have gotten hit by the fireball and I would have had less recovery than normal. Even if Filia didn't get hit by the fireball she would have been pretty safe since Res was in the air at full screen.
1:31 - I swear I input Fenrir here :(

2.
2:16 - I tried to catch him on the way down with a cr.MP but it just got eaten by j.HK. I'm not sure how to handle situations like this.
2:50 - I tried to PBGC EKG here since he had been doing blockstrings into L Shadow but this time he just jumped instead and I whiffed.

3.
4:38 - I should be cancelling these H Bypasses into Scalpels in case they get blocked/whiff.

Overall thoughts: I'm not really calling M Bomber at the right spacing for when I want to go in. I call it outside of its range (sometimes from roughly full screen) whereas I should be calling it at about midscreen to make approaching easier. I also don't really call Updo at all here. Given how much Res is in the air, I really should have been using it to anti-air him and stop his pressure/approach.

1. As Val I should be trying to superjump out of Robo's zoning from fullscreen, which I fail to do here. Once I get to mid range I think I do a decent job of approaching behind M Bomber though.
0:00-0:14 - I try and use shuriken's here to pressure Robo from far away and eat beams for it. I don't think I should try doing this vs Robo as her beams are so much faster than my shurikens. Instead I should just focus on getting in.
0:27 - Darren rarely does any resets as Robo other than air throw resets so I was pretty confident in this super (that said, knowing this I should have teched his air throw reset later on at 0:50).

2. I do a pretty good job of keeping the pressure up as Fortune here. I should have used some of her L Fiber resets though instead of opting for the grounded ones.
1:56 - I think this was meant to be a burst bait but I messed it up. So this would have gotten me a HCH combo had I landed it and I was correct in my read :(
2:08 - I should have used j.HP here for a bit more hitstun since I'm pretty sure that I reacted to his DP with that j.LK.

3.
3:36 - I'm quite happy with this DP, this is what I should be doing to stop Darren from getting in with his j.MP.
3:50 - I finally get my burst bait right! Aannd I drop the combo :(
4:19 and 4:31 - Here I continue my proud tradition of trying to start offence when I really should not be and getting killed for it.
4:40 to 4:44 - Darren is getting away with murder with these assist calls, I'm playing Bella, I should be making that assist bleed!
I really should have lost this round given how many opportunities Darren had after I dropped the happy birthday combo.
5:07 - I'm still not run stopping my blockstrings, I have since improved on this though.

4.
6:15 - I input my cr.LK too early so it doesn't come out and I lose the double snap :( This is just a matter of staying calm.
From here on Darren just gets hit by everything and I win.


As Mcpeanuts pointed out, you can really see how I default to down back here to defend in neutral, even though Darren barely ever uses lows as R.Fortune and almost always approaches with a j.MP.

I like fighting R.Fortune as M.Fortune though, her dash is really good for getting in and once I get in she's pretty much dead.

I still really need to work on punishing assists though, especially when I'm playing Cere "Assist killer" Bella.

Nice to finally beat Darren after being eliminated by him in every single previous Eurofight though.

1.
0:12 - This happens a few times in this set, I tried to PBGC super out of this blockstring and ended up getting caught by the L Shadow. I'm pretty sure that you can just jab out of cr.HP, L Shadow anyway and this also shows I need to work on my PBGC timings (in this case, it doesn't even look like a push blocked).
1:05 - I should have done a full combo into HKx3, Filia tag here to let Val recover some red life. Using this to swap to Filia is something I really need to work on and remember.
1:51 - I should use Gregor to convert off of M Bomber in situations like this where I can't convert otherwise.
1:59 - Another missed PBGC
2:46 - I'm happy with this, I remembered that I have cat heads and that it is great for doing a bunch of chip.

2.
3:58 - I shouldn't really be doing IAD, j.HP here. It is slow and leaves me open to getting air grabbed/anti-aired (as happens here). If I'm going to try and get out of the corner by jumping, I should be doing superjump, air dash, j.MK.
5:43 - I need to start hit confirming my blockstrings as Double. I also should be doing cr.MK instead of cr.MP since it is also a low even if it doesn't allow me to convert from as far away.

3.
6:03 - I spend too much time punishing this assist call. It should have been LPx2, cr.HP, j.HK at most.
6:18 - This head toss was a misinput, I don't have a headless but luckily I burst out of Mojo's combo and can get my head back on.
6:26 - There was no reason for me to be pressing j.HK here as Fukua was nowhere near me.

4.
This goes by pretty quickly and Fortune happens. Not much to say here really.

I get caught by Bella's j.MP a lot here. Trying to anti-air her at times and others just not blocking high.

1.
0:14 - I always seem to think that I can press buttons after blocking beat extend, I need to get into my head that I can't do this (I also often mess up my pushblock timing).
0:25 - Don't. Call. Your. Assist. In. The. CORNER! It wasn't even M Bomber for some lockdown, it was Updo. *facepalm*
0:44 - I should have had a bit more faith in the hit here given that I've gone low into double overhead into low.
0:54 - It would be worth considering doing a falling j.MP here, if he had called his assist then that would have blown it up but he didn't. I could have also done L Airball to escape or just air dashed.
1:10 - I should have known that he would do this given he has a safe DHC and has a large lifelead. I should either have done a reset in the air or comboed into Double.

2.
1:56 - I did dash up throw to catch his previous roundstart of Battle Butt + Beat Extend and it worked. Yay :)
2:29 - Not sure why Bella escaped the reset here, Bella hurtboxes I guess #BellaBoxes.
2:43 - At this point I should be starting to catch on that Ryoga likes to command grab after that LK
3:00 - I'm not sure how to fight PW as Filia. Filia's only multi-hit normal (other than cr.MK obviously) is j.MP and it has really short range unlike PW. I try to anti-air her with HP a few times but I don't think that is a good idea. Would H Updo work if I know she's going to try and do a jump in? Anyway, I get the hit and do Filia stuff and Ryoga gets unlucky for the rest of this match and dies (despite me dropping easy combos).
4:04 - I think I panicked a bit here since I've had times where I mess up this combo and get a knockdown and whiff HK and get punished so I gregor'd here and I could have DHC'd to cat heads for the chip if it was blocked but if Ryoga decided to go for pretty much any reversal here I would have gotten hit and with Double bleeding he could well have brought it back.

3.
So, since I punished his round start last time I was expecting him to do something different to punish a dash up throw but he just backs off (which I'm fine with since that lets me toss crosses). Having said that, I'm not sure why I decided to go in when there was no need to. I could have made him approach me here.
4:25 - I try to push block his LK to stop any command grabs afterwards but time it too late and get back dash, which isn't that bad since I'm Val and here backdash puts me in the air.
4:40 - I'm not very good at converting off of Updos, I should be looking out for it to hit when I call it and be ready to dash forward to confirm off of it.
4:56 - Alright, he's calling Band pretty much as soon as he's able to and I'm letting him get away with it. This is something I need to work on a lot, calling M Bomber here would have punished the assist and let me go in pretty safely.
6:16 - I didn't realise that it was BB coming in, I should have been paying attention to that and done something that would either let me block this timpani or punish it. Instead I do the usual Monster mixup and get bodied.
6:26 - That was meant to be H Gun btw.

4.
6:53 - I go for the dash up throw again but mess it up.
7:05 - This is the second time I've messed up this combo, I should be delaying the AD, j.MP a little bit.
7:10 - I wasn't expecting this Devil Horns so I panicked and didn't do a HCH punish.
7:18 - I realised I didn't have any undizzy (or 2 bypasses) to work with here so I kinda didn't do anything. I think I should have tried to do dash up throw + M Bomber to keep the pressure up.
8:07 - I should have just let gregor play out, it would have gotten me out for only 1 meter and instead this got me hit for no reason and wasted 2 bars.
9:20 - This was dumb. That's all I'm gonna say about it.

I think I should have swapped to my Fortune team here, I prefer fighting PW as Fortune since H Fiber is a multi-hit DP and I get lots of mobility. I didn't do this because it was on stream and Receita wanted to see my Val (that's right, I lost because of you Receita!! I'm joking of course).
Something I want to work on is snapping characters in who are playing a big role in the teams. In this match beat extend was almost always on screen and without that Ryoga's Bella would have been pretty much assistless (I don't think he called PW once) and he wouldn't have a DP assist which was what was causing me problems.
 
Last edited:
So there was another Eurofight and even though I didn't do very well in terms of how far I got, I was happy with how I played. It was played on beta and unfortunately I didn't have replays turned on so no match videos or in depth match analysis this time.

My first match was against Darren (every single Eurofight haha) and I went with my MF/CB team from the get go this time (he stuck with RF/CB). I quickly won the first two games but then he managed to get two in a row vs me before I won the final match. I'm quite confident vs Darren, especially with my MF/CB team.

My second match was against zeknife. I lost this one 3-0. I started off with MF/CB since he normally plays point Parasoul and Fortune beats Parasoul pretty badly and also because I didn't make much progress with my trio last time and I saw Neffross do well vs zeknife when he decided to go duo a couple Eurofights ago. Seeing that I went with my Fortune team though he went Squigly point (SQ/PS/BB was his team I think?) and I made little progress. For the final match I decided to go back to my main team (team Duck) and I did very well. I think I managed to get him down to his last character and I definitely think I could have won at least that match.

My third and final match was vs Muro (PC/BW/BB). I wasn't expecting to do very well since I have very little experience vs Peacock but I did surprisingly well ending up at 3-2 his favour. I think with some more practice vs him I could get it to the point where I do much better vs him.

So yeah, I was happy with how I played even if I didn't get as far in the tournament this time. There are some characters that I really need to work on playing against though:
-Squigly, I'm terrible vs her. I just don't really know how I should be playing against her. She seems to get charges really easily vs me and once she has those charges she becomes really scary and her mixups and resets are really good.
-Peacock, I did a rather long set with a European Peacock (Vatha) after Eurofight and I did pretty well but I'd like some more practice vs some perhaps more skilled Peacocks (no offence to Vatha of course) who use more conventional assists (Vatha used M A-Train when he had Band and Drag n' Bite with Squigly which aren't as difficult to deal with as Brass for instance).
-Robo-Fortune, there aren't many Robos in Europe (Mr Peck and Darren and maybe Sinclair if she is still using Robo) so it is hard to get practice vs her.
-Beowulf, I get to play vs TeePeeGee's Beowulf quite a bit but a bit more variety in the Beowulfs I play would be helpful (especially since TPG doesn't really use Beo's oki).
-Ms Fortune, I think Huffy, Veritas and Woofly are the only Fortunes in Europe apart from me and Woofly doesn't play while I think Huffy has problems with his internet (though it has gotten better apparently so maybe I will be able to play some sets with him). IsaVulpes has also picked Fortune back up as well.
-Fukua, I can't think of anyone in Europe who plays Fukua so I'll probably have to play vs some people on the East Coast of US in order to get any experience (because everyone in America plays Fukua).
-Eliza, again, there aren't many Eliza players in Europe.

That is slightly below half the cast that I feel I really need to work on haha. That isn't to say that I don't need to work on the other match-ups, but for the other characters there are a bunch of players of that character (EVERYONE seems to play Bella lol) or I have enough experience to have an idea of what to do.
 
Last edited:
Well, been a while since I posted here. Since my last post I've dropped Filia and Bella and made my main team Val(H Bypass)/Fortune (H Fiber)/Double (M Bomber). But onto the main point of this post, Revo2017.

So I attended my first offline tournament this weekend and managed to make top 8 in Skullgirls! I won my pool and then went 0-2 in top 8 but I'm still pretty happy with my play, both in tournament and casuals. I'm gonna do some analysis of my on stream matches, including the madness that was my match vs @RexLeRouge but first I'd like to give my thoughts on the tournament overall.

I really enjoyed my time at the tournament, it was great to meet everyone from the EU Discord and play casuals with you all. Special shoutouts to Ravioli for being super welcoming, Sanji for our casuals after the tournament(I will stuff chairperson cr.HP with Val's j.MP one day), Alex for the coaching in said set and being really chill (also, congrats on winning! That grand finals was extremely hype). Thanks to Mr Peck for the pre-tournament advice and delicious cookie and commiserations on coming second, you played really well and came really close to winning countless times. Hopefully next time we play I'll fare a bit better. Shoutouts to Iredium for hanging out with me during GGXrd pools and throughout the tournament, Everice for trying out DBFZ with me and letting us use his laptop as a setup. Thanks to Rex for the crazy match in pools as well as our casuals today where the tags weren't quite so effective ;)

Thanks also to everyone else there who I didn't mention (Vice, BuzzerZero, BigTonney, Bombad, etc).

It was a shame that the tournament ran so far but and that they couldn't provide us with Skullgirls setups on the weekend but the venue was very nice and hopefully I will be able to attend again next year.


So yeah, that was Revo2017, I'll try to put up some analysis of my matches in the next few days along with some more general stuff on how I'm feeling about my team/gameplay. I may also start going over my progress in Guilty Gear Xrd here as well maybe.