Monday, March 30, 2009

Positioning and the dreaded "Stand Off"

It's been a really long time since my last post, sorry for the long hiatus.  With the arrival of SF4 on console, I've seemed to have neglected writing.  But I'm back at it, with a post regarding "playing chicken" or what I like to call:  The stand off.

Street Fighter is a game where control of space is vital.  We use our characters tools to take up as much space as safely as possible.  The concept is pretty easy actually, you take up more space, you leave as little room for your opponent to move and advance.  The more heated of situations is when 2 players are looking at each other dead eye to eye.  They idle back and forth, assuming and reading their opponent on what attack they are going to decide to use, and how to counter it.  So much thought is put into these mili-seconds that I don't even know how it's possible sometimes for players to react on a whiff, and punish accordingly.  What I wanted to talk about today however, is not the mid screen distance of being able to idle back and forth, but the distance of 2 - 3 jabs or so...more or less the up close stage.  

The up close range will sometimes break you as a player during matches, yet sometimes make you win in matches.  This range is so intricate because as players, we need to know what our opponent is thinking, what he wants, what he wants to bait, and more importantly the best way to stop it.  The same goes for you as an attacker...knowing your defender.  Does he break throws well?  Does he have a nasty habit of trying to throw a lot or possibly jab you out of a throw?  Does he jump back often?  Maybe he's susceptible to meaties!  Once again to reiterate more, you start to realize that Street Fighter becomes more of a thinking game then a "button pressing" game.  At close range, what normally happens to me (against better players when I use SF4 Ryu), I'll get my knockdown, and do a few jab strings, then end with a c.mk xx hado to push my opponent further away.  I'm starting to realize recently however, that maybe it would be more wise of me to NOT do the c.mk xx hado.  For instance, Ryu has a very hard time getting in on his opponent as is already, what favor am I doing for myself in pushing my opponent further away from me?  All in all, what if the situation looked like this:  Throw, walk back, walk forward at about a crouching strongs distance...crouch block!  Simply put...post up right in my opponents face.  Thus we have upclose "The Stand Off"
 
Now by not doing anything, I realize that I'm not "creating" momentum, however the reason why I thought about this situation was mainly because in SF4, there are so many characters who have viable escapes such as DP, SADC....or ex dash punch giving him armor...now these aren't the BEST escape tools, however the point being that a Ryu player must respect them, because any loss of momentum is bad in any circumstance.  By looking my opponent dead in the eye, I begin to realize exactly how he feels when put in a situation...his options are to poke back, jump away, maybe ever reversal blindly or ultra blindly.  Maybe he likes to back dash, during this situation.  All in all, I haven't really used this yet, however would really like to figure out what it would net me.  If I can read into my opponents habits more often, maybe I can capitalize in an event down the line in our next match.  For instance, if he likes to jump back, I'll decide to shoot off a super/ultra to catch him.  Maybe if he likes to pull a poke in that position I'll pull off a psychic DP if I'm feeling extra frisky :), if he back dashes maybe an ex hado will push him back out and give me some more momentum.  I'm not sure what the possibilities are, however I feel as if it will put my opponent out of his or her comfort zone...and thats ALL I need to begin to win a match!

 - Mickey D'