Tourney - What to practice?

[dragonflame327]

I'll be deleting this thread at the end of the night, but I'm going off to a tournament around 8 between some coworkers. Prize money for the winner. What should I focus on perfecting in the short amount of time that I have? Blocking, combos? Should I try and get 2 or 3 combos locked into my brain in the next half hour?

[MaDWaK]

make sure your execution is down perfectly. and try to play as many people and learn from your losses as much as you can. I dont play sakura so theres no character specific stuff i know of.

[dragonflame327]

Thanks. I'm off. Wish me luck. If nothing else, it should be a learning experience.

[Ashwilliams]

Let us know how it went!

[dragonflame327]

It went like total shit. The host of said tourney refused to let my play on a controller. I've played on an arcade stick maybe once. Totally didn't win the $20.

Mind you I didn't go for the money, but I couldn't even get a good idea of how I matched up, because I could barely pull off kyaku's and fireballs. I pulled off a Shouoken once, by mistake.
...I think they all knew that if I played on a controller I would've won. My co-workers are all scrubs. >> Well, one of them kind of tried different moves and had a few combos here and there but just...gah. If nothing else, I got a self-esteem boost. I need to play online some more.

[Kros]

To be honest, you gotta get with it and get yourself a stick.

[dragonflame327]

You going to pay for it?

Yes, I want to get a stick, but desire and means are two separate things. I'm an art college student and the $90 I make per week needs to go to food and gas. I don't have any extra money to save up for a stick - when I get one, I figure I might as well go for one of the PS3 Hori tourney sticks.

[halfstrike]

you going to pay for it?

Yes, i want to get a stick, but desire and means are two separate things. I'm an art college student and the $90 i make per week needs to go to food and gas. I don't have any extra money to save up for a stick - when i get one, i figure i might as well go for one of the ps3 hori tourney sticks.

i heard that

[MagnetoManiac]

You going to pay for it?



You going to play Street Fighter?

[dragonflame327]

Short answer, yes.

Long answer:

Just unlocked Gouken, watching 24, and I'm working on some art. I'll probably be playing some more tonight before I sleep. I would like to really get into the scene and show up to tournaments, but I won't have that kind of free time 'til the end of classes an April.

[Xx Desperado]

Alright. well, for next time, if you're going in as Sakura, know that every fight starts with you being absolutely screwed.

Yes, I'm serious.

If you're playing scrubs, they won't know this of course, but you're need to perfect the art of getting in and even more so, you're going to need to master the art of punishing certain attacks. There are plenty of threads in this forum that will teach you both but as a quick sample of what there is to know and do:

Abuse s.hk for poking, after you're in range and punish missed attacks (when close enough) with c.mk or c.hp (for more damage) to an lk tatsu or ex tatsu to spike or heavy SRK. Don't know what any of that is? Practice. Lurk. Practice. Good luck if you go for another tounrey, I wish you even more luck if you're going to become a dedicated Sakura player. Trust me, you're going to need it.

[dragonflame327]

Alright. well, for next time, if you're going in as Sakura, know that every fight starts with you being absolutely screwed.

Abuse s.hk for poking, after you're in range and punish missed attacks (when close enough) with c.mk or c.hp (for more damage) to an lk tatsu or ex tatsu to spike or heavy SRK. Don't know what any of that is? Practice. Lurk. Practice. Good luck if you go for another tounrey, I wish you even more luck if you're going to become a dedicated Sakura player. Trust me, you're going to need it.

Sweet. I love horrible odds. /sarcasm

I actually do know what all of that means, save the "spike". I assume that's the translation of either her ultra or Otoshi.

Hah. I have a lot of luck. I hope my determination will cancel out the need for it. I love Sakura's character, so I'm going to stick with her. I've always liked a challenge.

[Wufei74]

By spike he means, using her EX tatsu and at the end of the combo she spikes them into the air, giving you opportunity to follow up (otoshi for example).

[dragonflame327]

Oh. Thanks. I've never heard that term before, haha. Though I don't really see the purpose of EX Tatsu > H. Shou unless you just want to mix it up a bit. Otoshi does more damage, right?

[Syxx573]

To be honest, you gotta get with it and get yourself a stick.

ehh not really, you can play sak just fine on pad as long as you take advantage of the sf4 notation shortcuts and tournament allowed macros, so doesn't really have any kind of technique that is easier to perform on the joystick.

[cptrugged]

To be honest, you gotta get with it and get yourself a stick.

The problem is that only people who have arcades (whats that??) have ever played fighters using sticks. Sure, sounds great to say "get a stick" when you're in SoCal. But to folks that have been using pads for the last few years, using a stick is just as foreign as some one telling you to play Halo using an NES light gun.