The online VF hump

The Online VF Hump​

This is just a collection of thoughts I've had about online play and VF theory. Some of you may be hitting that wall of where to go, and what to do once you've got all the moves down. What should I be working on with my character? I'm going to outline what I use online VF for and why it's a wonderful tool to train yourself.​

Recently I've made a VF friend and we've been playing matches offline. Offline matches can potentially spoil you. There is nothing left to the gray area of frame latency. I am going to outline a few things that can really make you enjoy your online experience and potentially give you guys playing some things to work on. I've lumped every player online into 4 groups. You can argue there are more, but I don't see the point. It's a series of brain speed/hit checking plateaus that most players are not aware of. Hopefully this will help you make better reads as to who you're playing and what you can do to improve.​

Player types:​

1) The Door Knocker: This player is relatively new to the game and has not embraced the idea of the lp or dodge. They simply stand guard and will attack with specials and pokes that don't include lp. Whether it be because they simply don't know about lp or they play by their own set of rules and tend to feel lp is cheap and unworthy in their offensive movelist. I call this player the door knocker, because you can simply p,g,p,g,p,g your way to victory and it resembles someone knocking on a door.​

2) The 2D Fighter: This player has limited option select(OS) and resorts to either Easy throw escape or lp when at a disadvantage. Dodge is never an option, hence why i call them the 2d fighter. They are playing Streetfighter with virtuafighter characters. If they are a 2d fighter, I urge you to work on backdash flowcharts that use low moves or moves that leave you at a + on block. People throw hate mail to me constantly because the backdash sweeps/mixups destroy them and it's only because they are simply Easy throw escaping and or lping. There are other options than these two.​

3) The Blackout Dodger: This player is the 2d fighter with a twist, he might throw a dodge in there. The problem with the blackout dodger is that he does not hit check, string check, or recognize what type of dodge he got. He will attack at the end of his dodge no matter the outcome. This player gets CH after every dodge and half their life taken without any thought process being made by the time the match ends.​

4) The Lowpunch Spammer: We all love him, he gets us in lag more times than we'd like to admit. The devil himself, the one player that has no moral code or brain recognition. Of course this is all sarcasm as in all life, you gotta do what works. If Low punch works, why stop. To stop the Lowpunch spammer, simply use backdash flowcharts in lag, or punish once you've seen the lp blocked. Chances are after a blocked low punch, you'll see another one lol.​

5) The Timid One: This player gives all the meters of stage away for free, backdashing until there is nothing left other than ringout. This playstyle is particularly popular with those that are not comfortable with poking. It's important to read into this, and not allow yourself to dash into potential hazards and layers of offense this player is throwing at you while dashing back and baiting. Stay calm, move forward and consistently punish them for making the wrong selection of move from step back.​

6) The Kata Fighter: Typically popular for their use of only the same moves, this type of fighter usually will gravitate to gimmick style stances and movement, favoring Lei Fei, Jacky, Shun and Aoi. The pattern is the same and it's important to note every character in the lineup has moves to destroy each gimmick these players throw at you. Example, Lei Fei goes into his sabaki backturned stance...."OMG WTF DO I DO?!?!"....kickflip =).​

We are all some variant of these players when learning VF, and at high level you'll even see some of these playstyles used and high level players switching between the styles that work. It's important that we all work on our hitchecking and recognition and online that is exactly what it's good for. In lag you get more time to recognize and hit check what comes out. Whether it be a few extra frames or a screen tearing lag spike that results in you mashing launcher and it hitting lol. In the end the faster you can recognize these playstyles the more success you'll have. Thanks for reading!​

 

The bottom line is you just can't take online seriously. Good write up!

 

hi guys, I am the 2d fighter

 

I think of myself as a pretty well rounded player. But, if I'm frustrated or tired, or simply have Vf brain from too many matches. I turn into the blackout dodger!

 

I'm the blackout dodger. What can I do?

 

Which One are you Really?

 

Sam if you are serious in your inquiry. The best way to fight past the blackout dodges is take some time embracing the dodge. I always try to keep things fresh, do what feels unnatural. In terms of practice. There are two ways to see a dodge.

1). The end of a flow chart
2). Part of a string in which your flow chart expands to other branches of offense.

A dodge should expand your flow and match, reacting to what you dodge is pretty simple. If you get neutral dodge where the opponent does nothing practice just holding the throw escape. Remember the sound of an active dodge, that should trigger your response with a 2p or an elbow category move. Just commenting on what I use.

Another thing we all get caught up in that most don't realize is simple mechanics. Do you look at your opponent when you dodge? Or do you look at your char? This is where the dodge sound really helps you. You want to watch your opponent and listen for the dodge . Hope that helps

 

Forever a Blackout Dodger

 

Its the better option from all the others. My advice to starting players would be to evade less, not more, until you understand how tracking works in this game.

 

pffft a lot of non beginners spam evade and EDC too much, just failed evades and failed cancels all day..

 

I know a couple more:

5) The Loop: This players simply reapeat the same easy guaranteed combo the entire match. Doesn't matter what's happening in the match, the position in the ring or the timer. Always look for the same launcher/crumple/stumble/bound to follow up. It's like play against a bot, with a recorded combo in Free Training.

6) The Scary: After a succesful string/combo, this player retreat, instead of keeping the pressure. Absolutely no Okizeme game in this case.

 

Most of the time I revert to a door knocker until I get someone close to a wall or boundary then I go for the kill. I can be well rounded when I am focused but online I don't care most of the time personally I just play. I don't take online seriously I never did with lag adding frames to things making my tactics fail too much I just go with the flow and if I win I win oh well. Knowing who you are is very important too so you know what you should be focusing on to be a well rounded player.

 

This is a good example of people not comfortable up close. They start back dashing all the way to the other end of the stage. Mostly blazes and Jacky's using gimmic Ss and run movement

 

I've run into everyone of these players, I never really had a problem with the 2P spammers considering I use Goh and I can either 2P+K+G or even block then 6K, because usually they don't try to see if they hit me with it or not so I just CH 6K them and Oh hohoho... 120 damage!

I think I'm closest to the Blackout Dodger... nope, I'm a Blackout Dodge. I never trained myself to see or react to what I dodged, I just assume that I should always have the advantage... which is probably going to be the next thing I'm going to work on. Might work on it tomorrow morning. Set some recordings to see what I dodged and see if I can combo off of what I dodged or just do a P to start pressure.

Now that I think about it, I have a lot to work on... I need to play more, I just wish there more people inviting me to rooms. Or just more people to play in general...

 

Added some new player types thanks for the feedback wizz

 

Lag and latency are the only "hump" one has to deal with online. All those shitty play styles you list would be useless if not for the lag/latency.

 

There is nothing wrong being a type of person as long as you can adapt their style to different people with styles that differ from their own. As of late as 1 example have attempted to naturally dodge instead of block everything and attack from sideturned more just to get used to it if I might have to resort to it sometimes. I don't 2P enough either but I do try to use it more especially I think it might be useful and the other person can't react to it. I was always aware of these things and chose to ignore it most of the time many other players are the same way too they tell me about it when we talk online. These types of playstyles exist offline too so it isn't just an online thing.

Don't be ashamed because you are a certain type that is how you choose to play learn to adapt that style to other people and you will do just fine with it. You are who you are for a good reason learn to love it and cherish it that is all I am saying. There are many advantages to each type too like a door knocker you can't be hit by anything hard because you are always safe most of the time forcing people to evade/ backdash to get any real advantage on you to work with as 1 example.

 

Kata Fighter fits my playing style, mixed with the Loop but once that fails i either become the door knocker and become very defensive.

 

I used to be the Timed One when I did not Like fighting up personal but as you get used to characters the more you play I became a more up close fighter I jsut dcuk too much I don't kno why I like those low punch spammers because of that safe 9p but You'll almost never see me 2p especially twice in a row just feels so dirty.