illwill1979 vs. StrifeBurn

5-0 illwill1979

Pros - Solid block strings. Not bad with reversal srks. Good overall knowledge of Ken's unique tools. Nice shallow jumpins.

Cons - Back to srks, used them too much when not hit confirmed in combos. Work on crossup defense AND post crossup gameplay.

Overall I could tell you were a bit nervous in this match. You seemed timid when it came to your lp lp DP combo. At times you hit confirmed well into an SRK. At other times you would get the first lp to hit, but miss the combo into the 2nd lp causing me to block it, then still follow with the SRK, resulting in some sort of punishment from me. I think that fine tuning this part of your game along with the next thing I will mention should see you increase your wins simply by doing more dmg and negating dmg done against you.

Crossups. I came at you with lk and mk crossups. I pushed early on to see how far I could go with my crossup blockstrings/combos. You would do a pretty decent job of blockin the crossup itself, but the post crossup game seems to be where I got you. I try to mix in tick throws, kara throws and blockstring/combos as much as possible. I'm, not sure if you are aware of option select throw or not, but basically what it is, is when someone jumps in on you, they have 3 options pretty much: go into a blockstring, throw (or tick throw) or do nothing. Option select throw basically gives you the benefit of having 2 commands, so to speak, happen at once. You would hold block like normal (whichever pertinent direction) and as the jump in connects you would hit lp + lk as if you were going to throw or tech. This brings up the following scenarios:

-they continue to blockstring, depending on when you hit lp+lk a quick short will come out or you will throw them.
-they stop and do nothing and you will throw them.
-they try to throw and you tech it.

There is a downside to this though, and it's that if you time the lp+lk part of it incorrectly it could lead to you throwing out a lk which could be punished (srk, TU, etc). You might also end up throwing out a throw that gets overridden by a DP or some such move.

I really liked your shallow jump ins early on. You seem to have found the sweet spot for jump ins as you looked like you were going to cross me up but instead hit in front. This got me several times, but then I caught on. At this point, you should have switched and started doing crossups, making me have to guess which side you'd end up on.

Outside of this, I think you are a great Ken. Ken is usually an uphill battle, so props for choosing to main him (most scrub Kens that liked the zomgwtfbbq fire dp have long since run to other chars, so you know who the serious kens are these days). I really wish that I could have recorded those games so we cold get feedback from other players. I would be more than happy to do some sparring later and record that so we can do some dissecting.

Good games and look forward to watching your Ken grow.

pros: you definitly have a great grasp on the games fundamentals and you play a solid defence that makes overcoming it very difficult. you also seem to have fast reactions not so much for AA's but to other situations that come up. and lastly i think your experience with other characters strengthens your all around game, and you probably dont have very many tough or unknown matchups.

Cons: i think for your skill level you should have been able to beat much much more decisively (as if it wasnt enough already) but i feel you were either feeling me out too much or were not ouputing damage to its fullest extent. I think if you were to specialize a little bit more in one character you could add considerably to your A game. i know ken is your main but i doubt you play him as often as i do which might be a slight weakness.


Your very right about my nerves, normally the lp lp fp srk is quite natural for me but i think i overthink doing it... in the sense that if i see the lp hit, i am automatically hit confirmed and proceed with the combo, so i mentally remind myself to wait that extra milisecond, and when i got too flustered my brain slowed down? lol if that makes sense.

after our match i firmly believe that i have farrrr to much experience against inexperienced players. i do understand option selecting i have just been trained not to do it since most low class who actually utalize tick throws mess up the combo beforehand, which messes up my timing on the OS. so i've adapted to using reversal srk's because they've worked alot for me . however against you, the times where you messed up a combo were so far inbetween that it wasnt paying off at all to go for a dp.

back to your gameplay, im very sure you have the ability to completely blow me out of the water, there was just too many times you hit me with a quick poke or a counterhit and either i had time to block or you would go with the FB. its like we both took opposite approaches to learning ken. you have the ability to zone "properly" with fireballs and to dash in when the timing is right. you get your damage in where it counts and dont make many mistakes...... I spent nearly all of my time drilling kens block strings and combo's and high damage reversals to the point where my execution is rather good (i say this only considering i've had the game but a few months.) but my general skills are far from adequate. this is proof posative in your ability to switch to most other characters and hold your own, wheras i'm not able to play anyone but ken competatively. i also look forward to seeing your ken open up and expand, assuming you plan on sticking with him that is.