Hey Espy!


I checked out all of your matches and some others too (lol @ Detroit going with Kratos). Fun games and some nice play too.


Some feedback/criticism (I hope you won't mind):

Of the three characters you played with I definitely liked your Stryker the most. I think you were too jumpy with Kitana and Sonya. One other important thing- THROWS. I don't think I've seen a single throw from you. Try canceling blocked strings or blocked jump-in punch attempts and go for a throw to mix it up and open up your opponent. I do know it's a lot easier for someone who's just watching to say that though, hope you don't mind.

I liked how on some occasions you went for a baton sweep after you knocked the opponent down, that's something I like to do occasionally as well. The move has good reach, so it can catch the opponent by surprise.

Love the "b3, 2 - dash - neutral 4 - roll" combo! I do it too, unfortunately when I'm nervous or panicking I often mess it up and get a sweep instead of a neutral 4. :(

I liked that Stryker X-ray punish of Sheeva's tele-stomp at the start of round 2. That was a nice trick, especially since the opponent had no meter and you won the 1st round so why not do it. Gets you a lovely cca. 30% life lead.


Anyway, I'm happy that I got to see you play! Your sportsmanship (a.k.a. respect points management) is top notch! I hope you don't mind my small criticism.

Only had time to watch a little bit of it, but man what was with all the trolling? Not sure if you guys were just messing around or hate each other lol. That sheeva player pulled off an awesome win at around the 29 minute mark with like zero health, but then proceeded to do the little sore winner victory taunt bullshit and i couldn't help but hate them. Also, the Sheeva teleport stomp has got to be one of the cheapest moves in the game hands down. Not to knock Sheeva players, but from what I've seen they are most effective when just mixing up the teleport stomp over and over with occasional fire balls and armored moves. Very frustrating to play against.

Also, that Mileena player was top notch, I know for sure I wouldn't be able to beat them either. For me Mileena has always been the hardest character to beat. I pretty much accept defeat when i see shes been chosen at the select screen

Will watch more when I can.

Thanks for your feedback Neph, it is appreciated and also thank you for complimenting my Stryker, he's my best guy, so I'm glad to hear some positive feedback and honest criticism.

There were some Sheeva and Sindel matches I played later on in the room, but the stream was over, sadly :/

There's supposed to be a stream coming up tomorrow at 2 PM, I'll pop in there after I get home from school, I will be rocking out Sheeva, Stryker, Rain, and maybe some Sindel

Thanks in relation to the respect points.

I try to be as good of a sport as possible, even if I get frustrated it's not cool to giv salty scores, we all get salty, but it's all in good fun

I dunno man to be honest..lol. I don't troll though, I always put in the no blood code and go on my way. I don't like tea bagging and the other shenanigans, I guess it's apart of their thing as I've seen this happen several times.


lol @ Sheeva's tele stomp, it's frustrasting because of the fact that not only is it unblockable, but she can control where she lands, making it very hard to avoid unless you have someone with good anti-air like Kung Lao, Kitana, or Mileena.


I'm a Sheeva player, the basis for my Sheeva playstyle is much different from most Sheeva players, he's got a very solid Sheeva though.

The thing about Sheeva though is that she's slow, like majorly slow, so people fall back on her armor moves and fireball, Sheeva has good rushdown though.

I'm hoping I can participate in tomorrow's sosaltylive room, If so I'll be showing off my Sheeva, I'm not where I wanna be with her, but I think she's respectable

As for Mileena, she's in my top 5 most annoying characters to fight, she's beatable, but omg is she rage inducing.

Good matches.

And I agree, I hate having to fight Mileena, she's insane. My worst personal matchup for sure, lol.

Good news is that I got to participate again today, I'll update the thread shortly

I did use Jade, Sheeva, Sindel, and Rain this time too. I think I did decent with Rain and Jade, not so hot with Sindel and Sheeva and I did good with Stryker, didn't win any with him, but came close several games.

I've also come to the conclusion that I am just straight up not "good" with Sheeva lol. I've been at it with her since the game came out, I feel like I have not improved since like July with her, it's very frustrating.

First off, I haven't checked out the fights yet, but I'll definitely give them a gander when time presents itself. It's good to see your making and effort with such character variety.


That kinda makes me wonder: what is the game plan of a good Sheeva player? What should a good Sheeva be doing? Should she be taking a defensive angle? An offensive angle? I don't understand this character yet, and it's hard to because I encounter her so seldom online.

(but when I do, she blows me up)

Thanks! I'm not too stellar with anyone, best I've got is Stryker. I'm trying to play as many top notch players as possible to take him from good to great, I've been deliberately picking him to fight his bad match ups with mixed results lol. I think I did good against Raiden...kind of haha.


Sheeva can rush down, but I find her 2,1,2, forward 1 combo a pain to do, I mostly just use her 1,2, back 1 for pressure, it's her fastest string.

She can also surpisingly zone effectively and play defense, her projectile does devastating damage and you have to block it low(you can't just duck it or it will hit you), you have to jump over it, so most of the time she's building meter and chipping you out + it has pushback.

Then if you get in by jumping over her fireballs, she can anti-air grab you.

A fireball can be followed up with a telestomp, it's not guaranteed, but odds are it's going to connect.

Her telestomp is a nightmare when used to its full potential, unblockable and controllable..unless you've got good anti-air it's something to truly fear and then with online, it seems like reacting to it is a pain, there were times during that Rain match I had where I knew they were going to land on me and did the geyser kick but it didn't come out quick enough I guess.


Sheeva I consider to be an armored fort, she has the means to keep the opponent out and scared to turtle, jump, or simply duck. Her moves are very situational though, which bothers me, like her biggest damage off the low grab is contingent on Sheeva getting the opponent to block low

Her speed and awkwardness slightly bothers me, you can see all her mix ups coming a mile away unless she does JIP into forward 1, 2 or forward 1, back 2.

Her command grab having push back makes a ton of strings safe.

My other issue is that most of her combos that have pushback( with the exception of 1,2, back 1) are too slow.

Sheeva is great, but I think I would have to commit myself to playing as just her for a long while to actually master her, I have a good understanding of her as a characters and her combos, but I struggle with so many match ups.

And I've been migrating all over the board, learning new characters, I just picked up Sindel and learning her, she's not garbage like people say she is, especially in the zoning department, her levi cancels are great, and she has highly underrrated rushdown. The only people I haven't taken for a legit spin are Reptile, Raiden, Kung Lao, Skarlet and Sektor and I have no intention of picking Reptile, Raiden, or Kung Lao up, they're such a common sight and very unchallenging to learn from my perspective that I don't really care to do so no offense to anybody who plays them, I mean no disrespect.

I don't hae Freddy and wouldn't learn him, I don't like the character and I don't use people just because they're considered top.

Special note...there's a lot of trolling in this one..with music and tea bagging, I don't know why...lol. I didn't participate in any of it because I don't like that stuff.


Another note, I didn't show up till part 2 and this stream says it has six parts, but only part one and two are Mortal Kombat, the rest is other fighters.


"January 13th "

My matchups aside from the bottom two and the first one, they're in no particular order, just from my memory.

Sheeva v.s. Kitana(Trepound)

Rain v.s. Sheeva (AU_IM_DIGIMON)

Jade v.s, Reptile(Cossner)

Stryker v.s. Kung Lao (Tyreck) I was not on point with anything this match up, I kept dropping my inputs and not applying the pressure correctly, I get extremely frustrated with the Kung Lao/Stryker matchup

Sindel v.s. Jade (AU_IM_DIGIMON)

Stryker v.s. Raiden (Deathmaze) near the end of part 2

Kitana v.s. Nightwolf(Swagtastic Mane)

Stryker v.s. Jax (Emperor infusion) This was at the end of the stream part 2.

I just finished watching your matches from the Jan. 13th session.


Some very entertaining matches in there, especially liked the last match where you played as Stryker against Jax. It was a very close match with some good stuff in it. If you had done a wake-up enh. baton sweep at the end it would have very likely won you the match. But it was pretty close and intense so I can understand it, it happens to everyone. Very fun match.

LOL, what was that silly music and the question mark dude during the Sheeva vs Kitana match?

That match against Kung Lao, too bad those blocked spins went unpunished, it could have been closer.

That Rain (you) vs Sheeva match was funny. In the first round you did a good job by escaping command grabs and punishing them. Then in the second round you got caught by low grabs and it cost you the round. The final round was however decided by Sheeva's tele-stomp. Sheeva's 3 special moves kind of highlighted the match.

Nice win with Kitana against Nightwolf, liked the throw at the end.

In the Sindel (you) vs Jade (Digimon) I liked Digi's use of Jade's armor (glow and overhead) to break through your game. Nice to see those two ladies on the screen at the same time, it doesn't happen very often.

In the Stryker (you) vs Raiden match, you fought very well in the first round, but then in the 2nd round the Raiden player ran away with the win, dat teleport. I'm not sure if I've ever beaten a decent Raiden with Stryker online.



GGS Espy!

I think the links are broken now. Bummer because I wanted to see some high level Sheeva.

Update: I'm committing myself to Sheeva, I've been improving with her by actually truly using her and not using Kitana as a crutch, I've reduced the amount of characters I use.

P.s. @ Nephrite, I will get back to your lovely post later, just finished shovelng the snow, going to have some hot chocolate and go to bed





Darn...I will try to find the updated streams tomorrow when I look for them.

AU_IM_Digimon has a great Sheeva, he actually was serving people up pretty good.

I'm trying to get mine there, but against Trepound, my Sheeva doesn't stand a chance in that one match up in the vid.


I'm finally going to legit commit myself to Sheeva and Rain, my original 3 peeps were supposed to be Stryker, Sheeva, and Rain, my zoner, grappler, and rushdown characters.

I cant watch the streams :( isnt there any other way to watch it? i really wanna see some good sheeva action!!

January 22nd stream is posted below.

"Sosaltylive"



My matches:


Me(Stryker) v.s. DetroitBallin(Kabal) I loved this match up, it was just a huge rush as I don't think this match up is as bad for Stryker as people say.

Stryker v.s Shory 88(Liu Kang) I couldn't get any of my stuff going in this matchup, not to mention how good Shory is lol.


Sheeva v.s. Trepound (Kitana)


Rain v.s. Konqrr(Kitana) This was a very fun match, I choked at the end and got scared lol, Konqrr was a swell sport.

Stryker v.s. Konqrr (Kitana). This was the only one I actualy won, I was able to do a lot of the stuff I like doing, like my cancels.

Sheeva v.s. Trepound (Kitana) Usualy blow out against Trepound, can't do much against him. I tried.







Those have since been removed, the good news is that we did a stream yesterday, and AU_IM_DIGIMON's Sheeva is quite lovely and there's some Rain action from Trepound and myself. I don't recall if there's any Mileena or not, I came and left periodically as I ended up leaving to play Dancock, then I came back about 30 minutes later.

You'll be delighted by Digi's Sheeva, I'm sure :)




I was going to separate quotes, but I suck at it so I'll just address your post in order.

Thanks that Jax fight was my favorite, I had the most fun playing that fight as well

The silly music was trolling, he's been doing that ln his latest streams for whatever reason, if I could hazard to guess it's because of the Sheeva Kitana matchup lol.

The Kung Lao match was essentially my controls not reacting, I kept trying to do 1,2 gun cancel into throw and most of my stuff was not going through. I usually punish spins well, but everything was not coming out right + my disdain and uncomfortableness with the Kung Lao/ Stryker match up. I can't stop shaking my head at the lack of punishment of those spins.

I was salty as shit after that Rain v.s. Sheeva fight lol. It was worse because I kept getting caught up in these moves, I was ready for them too sadly.t I kept trying to geyser kick Sheeva out of her stomps, dunno why they weren't coming out quick enough, my timing must have been off. It was indeed funny though, not gonna lie.

As for the Kitana matchup, that throw was for you Neph, that was my actual thought when I did it ahaha

I was telling Digi he should rock Jade as a third option alongside his Quan and Sheeva, I love his Jade, great defense, pokes, and use of the glow.

I know, I was very frustrated with this loss too, I literally was fuming because of feeling robbed lol. Stryker can deal with Raiden, but it's such a burden, can't zone, can't attack consistently eww....lol.

IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT THE Twitch.tv LINKS:

Sometimes the page (Twitch.tv archived footage) won't open up when you directly click on the hyperlink (this already happened to me in one of my threads). If that's the case you can [for Firefox users] right click on the hyperlink and select the option "Copy Link Location", then go to your web browser's address bar, right click on it and select "Paste and Go".

Alternatively, you can reply to Espio's post and click "Add Original" and from there copy & paste the link location into your web browser's address bar.

... ... ...




LOL! Awesome!


Anyway, I still haven't checked out the Jan. 22nd footage, I'll try to do it tomorrow or the day after. I'm especially looking forward to see those matches against Konqrr. I'll report back when I check it out. Sorry that it's taking me this long.

Thanks Neph and it's a lot of footage to watch, so there is no need to rush + I know everyone's busy with their lives and other things to watch all these hella long videos lol.

Watch whenever you feel like it and don't apologize, it's understandable.

Jan. 22nd:


YOU (Stryker) vs Detroit (Kabal): Couple of punished jump-in attempts decided the 1st round in Detroit's favor (I actually go for jump-ins with Stryker more than average, because it's hard for me to find an opening with him otherwise and get punished too lol). Very close 2nd round, nice use of the d1 poke.


YOU (Stryker) vs Shory_88 (Liu Kang): I'm not sure if I ever played against a good Liu with Stryker. Just thinking about the match-up, it seems like such an uphill battle for Stryker. Liu definitely has better pressure and mix-ups and I'd say that even his zoning is better, or at least equal to Stryker's. I think Liu Kang is actually underrated at the moment. Anyway, not sure what to tell you, it just seems to be like a really hard battle for Stryker.

YOU (Kitana) vs Charlie2417 (Ermac): 2x dropped f2, 1 combo (leads to massive damage) in the 1st round and overall lots of dropped inputs in this one. Lag? Ermac can be tricky for Kitana, I think it's best to either stay outside the TK push range & throw iAF (and at the same time bait the teleport which can then be punished with f2, 1) OR stay close to him so that if he dares going for TK push you can punish after block.

If you're having trouble with doing the most damaging f2, 1 combos with Kitana, you can go for f2, 1 - b2~fan - ground fan - dash - f2~cutter (this one does cca 35% damage and it's pretty safe).

YOU (Stryker) vs Shory_88 (Liu Kang): Interesting (and successful) use of low fireball by Shory, liked the short combo that he ended with the low fireball and then followed it up with f3 which hits overhead and then followed that up with b3, 1, 2 string which hits low first.

YOU (Rain) vs Konqr (Kitana): Good fight, it could have been even closer had those uppercuts after the roundhouse kicks connected. Good fight nonetheless. Btw, when you knock Kitana down you can beat all of her wake-up attacks with d4/d3. She can only escape with square wave but that won't hit you while you're doing d3/d4. And daaamn, Digi's Sheeva was impressive against Konqrr's Kitana in the very next match (Konqrr giving no respect pts, salty maybe?).

YOU (Stryker) vs Trepound (Kitana): Impressive Kitana by Trepound. A bit more ducking to bait fans and go for the roll maybe would have helped, but it's hard to tell as Trepound seems very good. He continued with good play, beating Konqrr's Kitana 2-0.

YOU (Sheeva) vs Shorry_88 (Liu Kang): Well, Shorry's Liu looks really tough to fight against, he did some good mixture of zoning and pressuring (again, using that low fireball nicely). You almost made a comeback in the second round with a nice 30%+ combo and an enh. command grab. I see he blew up Konqrr's & Trepound's Kitana right after lol.

YOU (Stryker) vs Shorry_88 (Sub-Zero): Crazy_Shorry_88 has left the match (Probably the server's fault, I guess.)

YOU (Stryker) vs Konqr (Kitana): Hmm, not sure why Konqrr used a breaker at the end of the 1st round when he had very little life left and you had cca. 50% left, probably a mistake from his part. Great gun cancel into the throw in the 2nd round. He hardly did anything, spent most of the match crouch blocking and doing d1s. No respect points either after the match (again)? A bit disappointing honestly...

YOU (Sheeva) vs Trepound (Kitana): Rather convincing win by Trepound, esp. round 2. This is a hard match for Sheeva anyway.




Well again, some very nice matches, these guys all seem very good so you're doing pretty fine. Even though you lost most of the matches, you still put up a good fight and a bad match here and there happens to everyone. Plus, the characters you play as are considered mid/low tier so that's more props to you. Your sportsmanship was as usual, top notch!

The stationary approach of fighting is what I see the most when playing her online. The hit box on that projectile is the size of Ron Jeremy, so have to either Smoke shake on reaction or tele-punch. If I did use her as a secondary, this is exactly how I'd want to use her. Her rushdown sounds competent, but that's never really been my style anyway. I'd be a bit nervous against characters with long-distance punishes, but on the flip side, it's sounds like she blows up a few play styles as well.



You can control it? I actually didn't know that. I won't lie, the telestomp beats me for free more often than not. In the previous patches, I NEVER had a problem against it. I don't know if the game changed or the players changed, but I have a feeling that I can Akuma teleport the thing if I'm fast enough. That use to work at least.


The armored fort style seems to be an underdog in a game like this. If MK10 has different stamina for different characters, I feel Sheeva's play style will make a lot more sense. She's definitely not bad, and I'm going to have to learn her if I want to beat her.

I know what you mean about situational strategies, and it's hard to train against so many scenarios. That's why I love Smoke. If I get caught in a bad gimmick, I have so many get-out-of-jail cards.


I've got so much love for Sindel. I hope ya never stop using her. I still haven't checked out the footage, but once I get a case of beer, I'm going to sit down and check out your matches as well as Nephrite's.

And I don't blame you for not wanting to learn those three. Truthfully, I feel the element of the unknown goes very far in this game, so using an obscure character can strongly work in your favor (though I have been putting work into Reptile, and he is STUPID fun to play as! )


I was a Freddy fan, but liking the character is not the same wanting to emulate the character. I see Freddy and think, "man, that's a really interesting villain." I have never ever thought "wow, I wish I could be that character." Freddy just isn't cool on that level.