Brief Intro to Yomi

Reading / Testing your opponent
===============================
One of the greatest skills is being able to read your opponent.
This means watching how your opponent behaves in a variety of situations
and using those observations to predict behavior in the future.
Similarly, you can reduce the number of useful options your opponent has
and then be able to better predict behavior.

"Reading" is known as "yomi" in the fighting game community. (japanese for
"reading") It can be developed, but requires knowing the possibilities of
a situation and careful study of your opponent. It also requires knowing
how to respond to your opponents' tendencies. Knowing what your opponent
will do next is useless if you don't know how to turn it to your advantage.

The good news is that everybody already reads/tests their opponent to some
degree. At the beginner level, it is generally unconscious and passive.
Beginners learn when to attack or guard, when to evade, and so forth but they
don't usually actively test their opponents' reactions. Bringing awareness
to this process can greatly improve your gameplay.

The following are some, but not all, ways to study your opponents and learn
their preferred behavior. It is recommended to pick just 2 or 3 items at a
time and look for how your opponents behave. With practice and experience,
each of these tests can become second nature.

Does your opponent:

defend when hit or continue attacking out of disadvantage?
(moral, abare, or just plain mashing)

prefer standing or crouching guard?

quick rise / tech roll?
(always, never, unpredictably, to a specific side, unsafe, attacks on wakeup)

use rising attacks?
(always, never, unpredictably, mid or low)

abuse 2P?

evade when disadvantaged?
(always, never, to a specific side, randomly)

escape throws?
(high throws, side throws, low throws, ground throws, clinches)

recover from staggers?
(always, never, recovers and guards, evades, or attacks)

hit-confirm unsafe moves?

use strings well?
(delaying moves, mixing finishers)

use special-property moves well?
(reversals, sabakis)

apply wakeup pressure?
(mid v throw, crushes rising attacks)

ETEG?

fuzzy guard?

bait evades?
(circulars, delayed moves)

punish well?
(best move for frame advantage)

go for max damage combos or mixup/oki potential?
(watches stance, uses char-specific combos)

move well?
(cancels failed evades, stands in one spot, backdashes when threatened)

rushdown, turtle, bait and punish, poke and pray?

use walls/stage edges?
(extra damage combos, wall throws, ring outs)

use special stances?
(always/never enters when possible, hit-confirms, predictable followups)

respond well to your special stances?


Once you can reliably read a situation, it is time to learn how to defeat your
opponents' habits. Some habits are easier to defeat than others, of course,
but there is always an answer to every situation. For an easy example, here is
how to defeat someone who consistently attacks out of disadvantage (either
because they're trying to beat throws and slow launchers (abare) or because
they just mash buttons.)

Attacks out of disadvantage
===========================
If your opponent is at a small disadvantage (-2 to -5), use fast moves (elbow)
to interrupt (counterhit) your opponent and grant yourself a larger advantage.

If your opponent is at a large disadvantage (after you block a big move or
counterhit like shown above), use a slower move with greater reward (knee)
to start a combo.

The first advice (using an elbow to counterhit at small advantage) is, in fact,
the basic test to determine if your opponent attacks out of disadvantage. If
you land the CH frequently, your opponent mashes (or is abare if you want to
give them a little credit.) Make 'em pay.



I encourage everyone to add specific "tests" for this list as well as
"responses" and new items/tests. Hopefully, we'll be able to build something
worth adding to the wiki.

 

My first post, here!

I think that you forgot my favorite habit to read, as a Pai player: how does the opponent react to high attacks? Do they stand and block, crouch under, or low-punch? I test this with a couple of PPPK early in the match, and I punish anyone that doesn't low-punch by using throws (standing throws if they stand and guard, low throw if they crouch and guard). This works well for me, because people are afraid of those sweeps!

Advanced players usually won't let me get as far as the kick, though, by countering with a low punch, and that really puts me off of my game and forces me to drop that strategy. I admit that the adjustment is often hard for me to make, which is a number one cause of my losses. I handle block-happy opponents well, but when an opponent can effectively counter-attack Pai (which isn't too hard compared to many characters), I'm in trouble!

I got a little off-topic, though. Learning your opponent's reactions to high attacks can lead to some tricky set-ups.