the more of these threads the better imo because we need to take this SOB down lol. I've found that the number 1 overall thing is to limit your jumping altogether. Jumping at KL is the worst thing you can do unless you have an air projectile capable character like a Kitana or Mileena etc.....even then it's strictly out of a desire to zone and protect yourself from inevitable dive kick shenanigans.

you have to be excessively patient but able to strike big when the opportunity presents itself. Chipping away at KL is nearly a suicide mission because eventually you will in most cases make a mistake and KL can take you right out of your game in any number of ways.

You need to develop effective punishes (combos ranging from the 25%-35% damage rate) and bait out dive kicks that you can block to punish (you have to time the attack precisely when KL is about to land in order to execute a big juggle, if you catch him in the air the damage will be minimal). The only other move to bait out is the spin of course, and good luck with that, because the recover time is little enough that your window is barely a crack to punish him. You have to learn to bait and be ready to pounce on the spin. Hopefully the patch will make this a bit more punishable but those are the areas he is vulnerable if you stay patient.

His teleport is another battle all together. Straight uppercut is your best option and also a good opportunity to bait out a spin. Upon your uppercut counter of his teleport, dash in to give your opponent an idea that you are rushing down for more damage (you might even want to sacrifice yourself early in the match to get in his head that he can spin on wake up everytime)....when you rush him, block on his wake up and hope he throws the spin excessively when this happens, there is your opening...take him down.

As far as the hat throws and Kung's combos, good luck lol.....He is as tricky to read as any character I've ever fought in any fighting game ever. At least when someone good is using him. Keep your distance and lure him into poor spin attempts with fake out rush downs on teleport punishes.

Stay on the ground, dive kick and spin will destroy you if you decide to jump around. Try and bait the dive kick and teleport; dive kick is extremely punishable on block and teleport is easily countered with a quick uppercut.

They WILL spin on wakeup. Bait it and punish with a projectile, or stay close and block it, and try to punish in another way fitting to your character.

If they create distance, they WILL just throw hats; block low and continue to bait teleport/dives. I've learned the hard way that you have to play defensively against him, aggression typically gets you screwed.

Great advice man.

Some more tips are to D1 or D3 when he starts rushing you down, but this is a constant guessing game because a lot of his strings start low or hit mid, so time your poke accordingly. Also, you might want to generally block low, because although he has an overhead ender, his low hat will put you in stagger state and give him a jump in, where as the overhead knocks you back and gives you a chance for a wake up attack/tech roll. (pretty sure this is accurate, at least).

To me Kung Lao's best counter pick is Cyber Sub Zero because you can dash in on a knocked down Lao and do an enhanced parry which grants a free combo. Most Lao's will wake up with spin when they see the dash, but once they catch onto this they'll A. Do nothing/block/poke (which isnt too bad) or B. Enhanced or regular teleport which is a pain in the ass. At least on regular tho you can upper cut.

Another thing you can do is if you're playing as Cyrax, Sub Zero, Scorpion, and maybe even Smoke or Ermac (basically any character that has a special move that grants a free combo) when Lao is knocked damn fake out a dash or a jump in punch and make sure you stop a bit short of him and then net/freeze/spear/whatever. It'll pull him right out of his spin, but be careful with this cuz spin has a TINY bit of range so you'll want to be a little passed sweep distance to not get caught by it and at the same time trick the lao player into thinking you're trying to rush him down. Once again tho this is risky if Lao calls your bluff and teleports or just blocks.

Hope any of this was helpful. Can't wait for his spin move to get nerfed a bit.

Dont fight the character, fight the player.


A concept that took me a long time to grasp do to my obsession with character match ups and tier lists. If you can predict the other guy you win. MK2011 is very balanced. I really do think that everyone is viable now.