I can't beat a good Ken

blanka
#1

My main problems are I am very bad at tech throw and I never know when the Ken player is doing a kara throw or a SRK.And if I predict wrong the SRK gets me.
Another thing is that Blanka’s normal up ball is useless when Ken jumps in.
I think it is his LK and his HP which counter the normal up ball everytime.
Also his LK when he jumps in counters my electricity.
And my problem is everytime when I get hit by a LK or LP I am already in his combo and take a lot of damage.
And when he is close range,he stops all the Blanka’s balls with his forward kick or cr.MK as far as I have seen.
The only way I can escape from his cross ups is an EX up ball because the normal one is useless.
Balls from far always get countered by his cr.MP,so that’s why I try to do short balls and then jump in,but usually jump in always fail because of DP.

I don’t know how to play vs a good Ken mainly because of the things I have mentioned above.
Should I turtle vs good Ken players or should I play more aggresive?
Here are the games vs this Ken player I have played.

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Any suggestions what to do vs a good Ken player?
Thx in advance.

#2

I haven’t played a good Ken in awhile, but this sounds like the peskiest type to play. You have to know your anti-airs wells. Don’t let him jumpin on you! Far jumpins nail with crouching fierce, medium range with crouching strong, close-crossover range, use standing fierce or just dash, hop, ball under. EX vert roll and your super are amazing for antiair also. For his mk poke, I throw out jabs and then hit with beast roll when they connect. I assume you know how to deal with fireballs, and Shout of Earth helps deal with those even more.

After watching your vid, you did well except you gotta throw out jabs into rolls. Or maybe a random crouching fierce. I think you have the random rolls down. Also you gotta be ready for those ex fadc. Jab after, throw after, or electricity after you see one. Just mashing lk+lp together usually works. Against people that like to jab blanka rolls, try a short roll into crouching roundhouse or focus attack. Also IMO, you ex rainboll roll too much, save that meter for ex vertical roll to counter those Ken jumpins or just to get out of the corner. Also try crouching fierce after a blocked close range fireball, when you don’t have charge.

#3

Ty for the tips.
A few things are hard to avoid though:
Such as don’t let him jumping on me because once when I am down on the ground,he jumps and crosses me all the time and when I have no EX meter anymore for an EX up ball,it is hard to escape his cross ups.
Another thing is I usually use Blanka’s cr.MP as anti air a lot,but this Ken rarely jumped in when I was in the range of using this AA punch.
And ye,I have wasted a lot of EX meters for random balls which was bad.
But I will try to take your advices and try it better next time vs this Ken.

#4

ultra two might help with all the cross ups.you played well though

#5

lol

well I’m just starting to watch this, and I’m guessing you’ve just either been unlucky or somehow feel like you can’t beat kens, which is leading you to mess up and not play up to your potential. but like in the first video you could have EASILY had round 2 by doing almost anything else and should have had round 3 but you didn’t punish. I’ll keep watching but so far it’s just a close match and one thing or another would have changed the outcome… He pretty legit outplayed you round 4 but that’s really the only one.

Basically just focus on the things you know you should be doing. EG: Be more aggressive after knockdowns and turtle out if you’ve got the lead and have to.

Second match you started turtling stationary even more when you needed to get out of there. No way you’re going to win that kind of fight against any decent player :stuck_out_tongue:

Overall I’d also say that you aren’t nearly as mobile as you should be and almost rely on balls to move around. Do you use hop at all? :stuck_out_tongue: Lots of sitting there in down-back. As it is you pretty much allow them almost free jump-ins on you.

#6

  1. Step up your footsie game. I understand that you’re afraid of a psychic dp, just don’t be predictable with the pokes. Standing jab block string will get overly aggressive people off your back (has speed, distance and good priority), and you can mindgame to focus attack or dash back for baiting reversals/counters

  2. You have no shenanigans. When people are on the floor, it’s open season on their ass. If you’re afraid of dp, then bait it. If you’re afraid of any single move a character has, bait them to the point where they don’t want to do it any more.

Simple trick: Once they are on the floor, get right next to them. Soon as they get up, dash back. If you time it right, they throw out a dp, and you’re free to punish. If they don’t do anything…no harm, no loss.

  1. Best anti air is neutral jump fierce. Even if they get super lucky and stuff you…they can’t follow up with a combo. The timing is also less critical than a crouching strong/standing fierce.

  2. For gods sake, learn some better combos. Jump in jab, jab, then electricity isn’t going to do shit. And there are certain situations where the electricity isn’t going to hit. Jump in Roundhouse, crouching forward, standing jab, horizontal ball. Jump in Roundhouse, crouching short, standing jab, ball. (this is a good combo to mix up with throw shenanigans, as you can do a throw after the crouching short pretty seamlessly.) Or even crouching short, short, to up ball for more of the shenanigan factor.

#7

hmm i played you i think in ranked match . A blanka mirror matches.You have a great blanka.

#8

LiangHuBBB, all of what Omarius Maximums stated; and don’t ball from more than half screen away unless you are doing an EX on reaction to a fireball. Keep the timing and rhythm unpredictable too. Resist your ‘instincts’ and you should be getting counter hits all day against a ken trying to hit you out of ball.

#9

Ah no not you was it … Was some blanka named lang-lui.Your name look similiar.

#10

I have a hard time with good Kens as well. I found that Blankas normals far outweigh his special moves in that kind of match. Jump up (not in), hp works wonders on overly excited Kens. So does a backdash and crouch hk. Then when they are too afraid to jump in and start spamming fireballs, river run. :slight_smile: I’m not a high level player but this seems to get me much farther in the match than most blank balls/electricity combos do. Gl!!

#11

I think you’re trying to abuse hp balls too much…
he stuffed your horizontal balls with jabs incountable times…
that was way too predictable… Blanka has to be unpredictable or you’ll always lose.

you need to hop more, use more cr.mp, learn no use standing roundhouse as anti air and keep ken at a distance that’s confortable to you, something like half screen away, from which you can punish fireballs with slides, see and react to jump ins with standing roundhouse or vertical balls.

Blanka’s hop is the best move in his arsenal, use it!!! a lot!!! but carefully lol.

#12

i watched the first vid. Let me put it to you like this, how difficult would you find it to beat a ken player if he literally used ZERO normals, advanced only with specials and mashed srk the moment you got near him? Not very hard right? you’re the blanka equivalent.

I think recording so many matches is a waste of time, not because of your skill level, but because you obviously dont take criticism onboard at all. You’re the best example of a flowchart blanka i’ve ever seen, you do nothing-at-ALL but random ball, mash electricity and run away. Now theres a time for each of those things but not when you do it. And the bad thing about blanka, the reason most people hate him, is you can develope a pretty decent technique based around just that which will beat a lot of people, which you have done.

Try playing blanka without using specials ouside of combos AT ALL. there’s already a matchup thread for the purpose getting matchup advice and realyst has the comprehensive one which has some ken info in it too, and i’m only bothering to post in another useless individual matcup thread because i want you to spam the blanka vid thread with vids that actually show improvement for once. Right now you’re shockingly bad… if you record matches where you dont use his specials outside of combos specifically let me know because i would love to see some improvement. You look like a pad player, if so i would pick someone else, because jump lp >lp x elec is not going to cut it if thats the best you can manage on a pad.

Good luck.

pa. in case you missed it, use some damn normals, no specials outside of combos.

#13

C.HP stuffs kens jump ins lol anyways if you were on xbox I would show you a thing or two with blanka your not using normals at all bro… as the mullah said to me blanka needs a stick if you go on my utube page I have a ton of vids showing the usefulness of using stick pressure electricity being one of them… I cant tell when last I have to lost to anyone outside my friendslist on xbox and in person… I used to play like that as well D: but anyways go to the match up thread and watch vids of good blanka players you learn alot…

P.S go into training and learn the purpose of your normals and moves you can punish on block and stuff helps alot trust me

#14

cr.mp is the best anti air against ken, dunno whey you are not using.

Smexy Millz, mind if I add you on live? Want to get more blanka experience with cody.

#15

Yeah Go ahead Il be on 2mo so il play you if im on and theres space on my friendslist I think… Ive played you ages ago in ranked gg’s solid blanka you got there

Ive also started picking cody/ken lol Blanka gets boring after a while lol

#16

You have a damn good Ken yourself BUSH.I played against you numerous times on Original SF4.
You should give Liang a few matches on psn,against your Ken.

#17

in my experience, lk overhead balls and driving ex oh balls(holding back the whole move) do a good job of baiting dp’s. against a ken hp dp it will land you usually in c-HP range which will super cancel, or ready a hop 2 ultra, good kens will mostly only use safer lp dp, which with an ex oh ball i have crossed up in the air, landed lightning super canceled, a lot of back hops from opponent jumpins. as far as going up, let him keep the air, blanka has a good arsenal of ground work. i think your game is totally there, it’s easy to get scared of ken’s dp, but it’s even easier to scare them out of using it with a couple successful baits. i am no pro but this has worked for me.